Over the last couple of days, we have seen some pretty cool clips and snippets of DC Universe Online’s Home Turf update. Due on January 29, Home Turf brings an progressive system for participant housing, new challenges for heroes and villains, and a 1:1 PvP matchmaking system that lets players duke it out within the comfort of their private lairs. Don’t let the concentrate on housing fool you, though; Home Turf introduces a number of recent options which have the potential to change DCUO as you comprehend it.
We sat down with artistic director Jens Andersen for a more in-depth have a look at Home Turf and the many ways in which it deepens and expands upon DC Universe Online’s existing content. Put merely, this latest batch of DLC gives more than simply a place to hang your cape.
Building your lair
Every superhero wants a safe haven, and each villain needs a spot from which to plan his subsequent massive heist. Home Turf affords players the opportunity to build just such a space, but it isn’t fairly so simple as discovering an empty cave and parking your Batmobile inside. Once you first log in after the home Turf replace, you will be offered a quest that begins you alongside the trail to lair ownership. Assuming, of course, that you simply purchase the update or already a Legendary participant; if not, you’ll be able to create a “hideout” in lieu of a lair with among the deeper capabilities stripped out.
Here’s the way it breaks down: The look of every base is set by its theme. At launch, there can be three free themes obtainable to gamers (Dive, Gothic and Deco), together with 4 premium themes for many who need to drop just a few actual-life dimes. Themes borrow from a wide range of hero/villain influences and acquainted DC areas and embody a certain variety of equally themed decorations for you to place round. However, the theme of your lair is greater than easy aesthetics.
Lairs are related to actual in-sport locations, and the addresses obtainable to you depend on the depth of your pockets and the type of theme you have chosen. A sewer theme, for instance, must be entered through a manhole, while a more above-floor-kind of area wants a doorway. You’ll be able to place your lair on any eligible spot in the game world, however totally different addresses will come at totally different costs based on their desirability. Iconic areas like Arkham Asylum will require Marks of Triumph in addition to small piles of pocket change. You possibly can move and re-name your base at any time, so don’t really feel as if you have to find the proper spot on the primary go-spherical.
Sprucing the place up
No base or lair is complete without a few decorations. Your theme gives you entry to a few preliminary gadgets, however all the rest of the stuff you put in your space will must be discovered on this planet. Decorations and accessories will drop randomly as you play, and all are tradable, meaning SOE is actually birthing a secondary furniture-driven marketplace into DCUO. Items are positioned on a one-to-one foundation; you probably have one lamp in your inventory, as an illustration, one lamp is all you can place.
Once you first begin customizing your lair, you may have to stick objects in pre-determined areas generally known as “onerous factors.” While it sounds constrictive in text, hard factors are discovered throughout your lair and will present loads of flexibility for you to decorate as you see fit whereas serving to newer gamers sharpen their interior decorating skills. Hard points have an additional bonus: If you progress your base to a new location, all hard point-positioned gadgets will keep precisely the place they’re. Once you’ve filled a number of arduous points, you’ll drop objects wherever you please.
Decorating your lair is only one tiny facet of Home Turf, nevertheless. More vital is the addition of the Mainframe, a special laptop that runs your lair and provides you a bunch of new sport features. There’s the plain stuff, of course: You can use your mainframe to offer different players or Leagues access to your hideout and permissions to change the format. But the actual enjoyable is available in what your Mainframe does on your gameplay. Using the Mainframe, you may give your character cool abilities like dropping orbital strikes on demand or summoning henchman (or backup, for heroes). You can even recruit yourself an AI-controlled sidekick who ranges up in power generator and appearance, if that’s the case desired.
The talents to which you could have entry and their energy ranges rely on how much vitality your Mainframe will get from your in-base generator. More energy means stronger skills, corresponding to more highly effective orbital strikes or a larger number of henchmen summoned to your facet. Your generator, naturally, has a monthly service charge relying on how much energy you need it to put out. A few of the upgrades you buy by means of your mainframe are everlasting, however others are momentary boosts that last for 29 days (short-term boosts require Marks of Triumph). Hey, even superheroes have to pay the bills.
The final important a part of your base is the Dispenser, which gives you the gadgets you want to use the talents created by your Mainframe. If you want to summon an orbital strike, you will want a radio receiver with which to do it (stored in your utility belt). The identical can be mentioned for henchmen or sidekicks. One cool thing about themes and Dispensers, although: The talents and looks of your henchmen or backup are decided by your base’s theme. When you have a tech lab, you may summon mad scientists. If you reside in an historical battleground, you will get stone guards. When you might have a number of bases, you’ll be able to select the henchmen you need to summon by choosing the appropriate Dispenser item.
Finally, particular hard point areas exist for sure gadgets supplied as rewards for finishing Home Turf’s DLC missions. You possibly can place a broker in your lair, for instance, or a soda machine. More than simply a place to dangle out whereas chatting with associates, your lair is an extremely versatile tool that gives you with every little thing you must run a fledgling criminal empire or shining beacon of hope and justice.
Oh, and sure, you may warp to your base. With a cooldown, after all.
Searching for fights
Home Turf centers on player lairs but in addition brings new content to bear within the type of 4 new open world areas with instanced encounters and new bosses. Heroes will likely be in a position to go to Striker’s Island and Ace Chemicals, where they’re going to take part in numerous each day quests that eventually unlock two new solo situations. The identical goes for villains, who can adventure in Arkham Asylum and Steelworks. For those who have any kind of queries relating to where along with how to use backup diesel generator – blip.fm -, you’ll be able to e-mail us with the page. All areas have a set of story-pushed quests. A new mentor with whom to grasp out.
Additionally, a 1v1 PvP possibility is being added in which you can queue for fights with other gamers at any time when you are feeling like punching one thing that is not an NPC. PvP matches take place in your lair (the computer randomly chooses one of yours or considered one of your opponents), and each round forces you into a brand new spot within your secret hideout. First individual to three victories wins. These fights (and issues like the Mainframe) are only accessible to players with full lairs.
Overall, Home Turf is an enormous enlargement that should dramatically change the way you play DC Universe Online. The brand new features made out there through your lair will open up more interesting methods to fight, quest, and adventure by means of the world, and the PvP matches should show a welcome distraction from mercilessly pummeling dozens of henchman into mud.
Search for Home Turf on January twenty ninth (30th for PS3 EU gamers), priced at $9.99.
Massively’s not large on scored critiques — what use are these to ever-altering MMOs? That’s why we carry you first impressions, previews, hands-on experiences, and even observe-up impressions for nearly each sport we stumble throughout. First impressions depend for a lot, but video games evolve, so why should not our opinions?