Producer’s Letter July 12th

Hi Folks,

Just arrived back from the SOE Fan Faire last night and I wanted to post a quick note about the event, where we are at on various fronts and update you on some of the exciting game play additions that are coming in the near future.

Fan Faire is one of the most interesting and unique events I attend every year.  Getting together with all of the fans, hearing about what they like (and don't like) about the game, and being able just to sit down and watch them play and critique the content is very cool.  We had two panels this year with a nice crowd for each.  Jens Andersen did a panel on the future of the game, focusing on Game Update 4 and details of each of the upcoming Fortress of Solitude raid levels.  He showed screen shots of the new environments and explained some of the challenges players would face.  Mark Halash (Tunso) did a panel on the DCUO combat systems, including an interesting examination of how it evolved, some of the ideas that were tried and rejected, and details about the inner workings of the systems now.  Of course it was not all so serious, with a great pool party on Friday night that I will not soon forget (no really...there are some things you cannot un-see).  If you did not get a chance to attend this one please try and come next year.  These are really great events with a lot of information and a chance to meet other players like yourself who are passionate about DCUO.

Fan Faire was also our first chance to talk with the press about our upcoming DLC expansion pack: DCUO Fight for the Light Pack.  We know we have been cagey about Light powers for awhile but we are glad to finally be able to release some details about our first expansion to DCUO.  While we are holding a lot of the nuts and bolts details for San Diego Comic-Con we were able to show some game play footage and talk about the new Light Power Set that we will be offering players later this summer.  Reading some of the forum threads there does seem to be some misunderstanding about the DLC pack and its impact on your regular updates, and ongoing additions/enhancements and fixes to the game.  Just to clarify, this does not impact our game update schedule at all. Like any MMO, we have had a small team working on an expansion, aka downloadable content pack, for some time.  Because we are the first real action MMO on both the PC and PS3 and many of our players are more used to the DLC game expansions that other action games offer we wanted to fully embrace the approach that our players prefer – more game play, more often. Waiting a year and a half for new power sets and other major additions to the core game, that are typically part of MMO expansions, just did not feel right. You can still expect the same timely release of updates and features to the game as part of your game time subscription. These DLC expansions are completely optional and are aimed at folks looking to expand upon the current game in a way that goes beyond what would be contained in a typical update.  We hope this is the best of all worlds, ongoing updates that typically offer a new alert, raid and hard mode or duo type zone along with the premium expansion, or DLC pack content, a few times per year to add another level of opportunity for those who want it.  We want to give our players options, all of which offer great game play on an ongoing basis. 

Update 4 is going through final testing here right now and we hope to release it in the next few weeks. The Fortress I raid is looking great as is the other maps and features.  For those folks who plan on participating in the PC Test Server, you will be able to test a lot of the new content and features for a week or more before release to the Live game. And speaking of the Test Server we have just one issue related to the Shared Bank to resolve before we open it up.  I stare very hard at the guys every morning, throwing in a little stink eye, to let them know how much I want this done. We are on a round-the-clock review of the Test Server code right now.  Expect it to happen with little notice very soon.  We need to post some info about differences between the Test and Live servers so there is no confusion but we plan on opening it the second it is ready.

That's it for now.  I will post updates as soon as I know more info.  See you in game!

Lorin 'DeadMeat' Jameson

Executive Producer, DCUO