From: news.softpedia.com/news/DC-Universe-Online-Ditches-Classes-Introduces-Stances-102082.shtml

DC Universe Online Ditches Classes, Introduces Stances
Could this be a big MMO shift?

By Andrei Dumitrescu, Games Editor

15th of January 2009, 21:45 GMT

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Sony Online Entertainment presented its upcoming PC and PlayStation 3 MMO, DC Universe Online, at the recently concluded Consumer Electronics Show 2009 and there's new stuff about the game that MMO players and fans of the comic book universe will find very interesting.

The big reveal related to the way the super hero MMO will work is that traditional party roles, which have made their way into MMOs coming from the Dungeons & Dragons ( they mean WoW) background, are being abandoned in favor of a new approach based on “stances.” Basically, all characters can adopt an offensive stance, becoming a DPS class, a defensive stance, becoming a tank, or a support stance, which fits neatly into the role played by the healer class. This will give DC Universe Online a new level of flexibility in the creation of groups and parties.

Sony is trying to make sure that players don't spend a lot of time looking for a party, with one preview noting that something akin to the public quest system from Warhammer Online will be implemented, with players fighting together through an instance without being part of the same group.

There will be four main characteristics defining a character in DC Universe Online. The “Super power” characteristic allows the player to choose their offensive power, “power source” generates a weapon to use, “movement modes” allows the player to choose if they want to fly or float into battle and other options are put into a “traits” group.

It's nice to see that the people at Sony Online Entertainment have also thought about those poor souls that don't have the time or the interest to fiddle with a lot of sliders in a character creation screen. Players can also choose to select one super hero from the vast DC Universe line up of heroes, like Superman, Batman, Green Lantern or any other, in order to be “inspired by” his powers and get right into the fight. ENDQUOTE

WOW clone my butt

WOW has rigid classes

SoE FanFaire Panel   (from August 2008)

www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/350/feature/2162

Character Customization

There are no base classes in DCUO. In character customization, players will customize their look, but certain combinations will not be allowed as players may not create a superhero duplicate (no SuparManz running around). Players can choose to hide or display any equipment slot on their character. So if you happen to pick up an uber shoulder item which just clashes horribly with the rest of your outfit, you can hide it.

Apart from the visual setup, a player will customize four stats: Power, Power Source, Movement Mode and Origin.

Character Development, Combat & Gameplay

There is no base class and abilities can be switched out of the macro bar/face buttons.

Players can choose the abilities they wish to level and gear stats will stack on top of them.

This is an action MMOG and every action and reaction will have a cool down period, but players won't be sitting around waiting for their health and power bars to regenerate. They regenerate very quickly, and there will be abilities that are available to buff or replenish these bars.

XP isn't gained by killing mobs. They are gained by completing objectives, and every encounter may have one or more objectives. Each time you complete an objective, you get XP. When the XP bar fills, you gain points to spend on your abilities.

Originally posted by Nadia

WOW clone my butt

 Now you have a pair of asses!

WOW has rigid classes

 SOE games have riga -mortis classes - and this one looks like its going to be DOA.

 

SoE FanFaire Panel   (from August 2008)

www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/350/feature/2162

Character Customization

There are no base classes in DCUO. In character customization, players will customize their look, but certain combinations will not be allowed as players may not create a superhero duplicate (no SuparManz running around). Players can choose to hide or display any equipment slot on their character. So if you happen to pick up an uber shoulder item which just clashes horribly with the rest of your outfit, you can hide it.

Apart from the visual setup, a player will customize four stats: Power, Power Source, Movement Mode and Origin.

 

Character Development, Combat & Gameplay

There is no base class and abilities can be switched out of the macro bar/face buttons.

Players can choose the abilities they wish to level and gear stats will stack on top of them.

This is an action MMOG and every action and reaction will have a cool down period, but players won't be sitting around waiting for their health and power bars to regenerate. They regenerate very quickly, and there will be abilities that are available to buff or replenish these bars.

XP isn't gained by killing mobs. They are gained by completing objectives, and every encounter may have one or more objectives. Each time you complete an objective, you get XP. When the XP bar fills, you gain points to spend on your abilities.

 

 

 

  What they said in August , not what they are saying now. 

  What?  SOE changing their minds?  They just wouldn't be SOE if they didn't !

this changes nothing from august

Stances are what you can use beyond your 4 stats

you are not "locked into" a stance

like you are locked into a class in WOW ...

WoW makes you pick your class at character creation.  DC Universe promises to let players effectively switch their class whenever they feel like it.  And that makes it a WoW-clone?

Your assertion that all SOE games are WoW-clones is absurd.  For starters, there is the obvious anachronism that EverQuest came before WoW, so if one copied the other, it isn't EQ that copied WoW.  Besides, whatever you may think of Infantry and Pirates of the Burning Sea, they most certainly aren't WoW-clones.

Sorry Rodo, can't agree with you on this one... When I look at DCU and the game it's aiming to be, I do NOT see WoW... if I did, I'd be far less interested...

Here is your WoW clone:

http://www.freerealms.com/

even that game is more innovative than WOW

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Realms

Unlike typical MMOs, combat is completely optional and the focus, instead, is spread across a variety of gameplay mechanics – exploration, combat, building, housing, pet-raising, mini-games and social networking – to ensure its appeal to both boys and girls alike.

Players will be able to choose from classes such as adventurer, ninja, mailman, medic, blacksmith, miner, warrior, archer, treasure hunter, wizard, and switch on the fly without creating a new character.

heh, that free realms actually looks pretty fun.

Ugh .. sounds horrible. Everyone can do everything, that is horrible. I would never play that. I like being a different class filling a different role in the group. I don't care to play a game where everyone can be everything.

Originally posted by DeaconX

Sorry Rodo, can't agree with you on this one... When I look at DCU and the game it's aiming to be, I do NOT see WoW... if I did, I'd be far less interested...

  That's ok DX , The Base class are Paladin , Hunter, Cleric are to Superman , Batman and Wonder Woman (like). It really appears the same Dummy-down that SOE did with the NGE  of SWG . I am sure one of the reason was to make it PS3 and PC easy for players to use ----Just like WoW.

 I would love to have the sliders to customize my avatar - this is going to be land of 1000 Batman Wantabee.

Because a hunter in WoW who decides he wants to be a party's main healer will do just fine at it?  Right. 

yep

Blizzard invented the mmo terminology for

Tank tm

DPS tm

Healer tm

anything you saw in Everquest or other earlier games was only in your imagination!

doesnt matter that in DCUO,

you can pick whatever role (stance) you like as the situation needs it

DCUO means once a tank, always a tank

(sarcasm)

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Originally posted by JestorRodo

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Originally posted by DeaconX

Sorry Rodo, can't agree with you on this one... When I look at DCU and the game it's aiming to be, I do NOT see WoW... if I did, I'd be far less interested...

---

 
  That's ok DX , The Base class are Paladin , Hunter, Cleric are to Superman , Batman and Wonder Woman (like). It really appears the same Dummy-down that SOE did with the NGE  of SWG . I am sure one of the reason was to make it PS3 and PC easy for players to use ----Just like WoW.
 
 I would love to have the sliders to customize my avatar - this is going to be land of 1000 Batman Wantabee.
 
 
 

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Well I am sure that power choices will have a lot to do with how effective you are at certain roles, maybe even enough to pigeonhole you into one of the typical archetypes. PnP games have had these for years, because no matter what you do you will end up falling into one catagory or another, maybe you'll be a hybrid, but that's still something that's covered by traditional archetypes.

As for the sliders, I hope what they meant was that there will be plenty of them for those of us who want unique appearances, but for those who just want to jump in and be Green Flashlight #261 they have a simple way of doing it.

If anyone says "Game xyz is going to fail because its like WOW" I am going to yell.

See: www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/219607

Originally posted by Elikal

If anyone says "Game xyz is going to fail because its like WOW" I am going to yell.

See: My Post!  Its Much better then yours!

  Permission granted - Commerce Yelling! 

Originally posted by JestorRodo

 

 I would love to have the sliders to customize my avatar - this is going to be land of 1000 Batman Wantabee.

you will the DC universe hero selector will be for those who just want to jump in game. anyone else will be able to customize thier character to the fullest.

at least thats how i read it .. I can't wait for this game to be honest.

I just hope there is good raid content which SOE is known for.

Originally posted by JestorRodo

Originally posted by DeaconX

Sorry Rodo, can't agree with you on this one... When I look at DCU and the game it's aiming to be, I do NOT see WoW... if I did, I'd be far less interested...

 

  That's ok DX , The Base class are Paladin , Hunter, Cleric are to Superman , Batman and Wonder Woman (like). It really appears the same Dummy-down that SOE did with the NGE  of SWG . I am sure one of the reason was to make it PS3 and PC easy for players to use ----Just like WoW.

 

 I would love to have the sliders to customize my avatar - this is going to be land of 1000 Batman Wantabee.

 

 

 

Just like when CoH hit, you're going to see a lot of unoriginal copycat wannabe lame characters sure, but I think the character customization in the game will be quite good - I'd go as far as to say rivaling CoH.  Why? Because anything less would be incredibly foolish on the developers' behalf.

The whole stance thing is a good idea.

BUT how many times has a MMO dev team taken what should have been a game defining feature and screwed it all to hell....

So although this article has me interested more in DC than before,i stay realistic on just how bad the current dev teams are, and what that means for good ideas that they touch.....

Originally posted by Nadia

XP isn't gained by killing mobs. They are gained by completing objectives, and every encounter may have one or more objectives. Each time you complete an objective, you get XP. When the XP bar fills, you gain points to spend on your abilities.

That could actually be a bad thing.  They did this early on in SWG's horrible NGE, only the legacy quests would give you XP.  After you leveled a character up, if you decided to create an alt character, you had to go through the same exact boring quests all over again to level that character up.

Hopefully SOE will catch on to this and add alternate forms of gaining XP, but knowing SOE it will likely take a year after launch before they catch on.