Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
DC Universe Online: Iconic Battle Suits
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
In his latest DC Universe Online column, MMORPG.com's Bill Murphy takes a look at Iconic Battle Suits. These battle suits are coordinated gear sets that give a player the look of one of the super heroes of legend. Bill has a few thoughts on the good and the bad when it comes to Iconic Battle Suits. Read on to see what you think and then let us know on the forums!
Recently the fine folks at SOE’s Austin Studio released a video detailing two of the game’s “Iconic Battle Suits”. As further proof that DCUO is a bit more focused on items and gear than we may be used to in our super-MMOs, the Iconic Battle Suits represent the apex of items and gear in DC Universe Online. For those that haven’t heard about the suits yet, basically they’re sets of items that hold a thematic look of a certain DC Universe character. Those that were revealed in the video were Wonder Woman, Black Adam, Batman and the Joker. Though only the former two were detailed extensively. Let’s take a closer look at this notion of Iconic Battle Suits and ponder a moment what it might mean for DCUO.
Read more DC Universe Online Weekly: Iconic Battle Suits.
)
Comments
after playin the beta for a solid 3 hour all i can say is wow. Great game they just need to finish the voice overs and touch up some glitches but seriously the games really good.
"The other, and possibly less bothersome, side of the coin is that these Battle Suits might cheapen how I feel as a superhero or supervillain. Typically in comics we don’t often have heroes wishing they could live up to their predecessors or trying to dress like them. Something about being awarded a Superman-themed suit makes me feel like my hero will be always trying to impress the Man of Steel when I’d rather be noted as his equal. But really, it’s a video game about superheroes and villains where tons of nano-robots have infested thousands of humans and given them all super powers. Maybe I shouldn’t go thinking too much about all that after all. It’s going to be fun to work with Batman, maybe have the emotionally stunted millionaire Bruce Wayne pass down some cool bat-inspired gear, and at the end of the day if I look a little bit like a rip-off of the Dark Knight… at least I can say I earned the right."
I like the article but this section stands out to me most. As an avid comic fan and writer, I have to disagree here. When a new super hero comes along in comics, some have mentors that they look up to and always try to impress. Trying to live up to say Batman's mantle look at the Bat Family. A lot of comic stories if there was one before them they try to either live up to the legend that preceeded them or surpass the shortcommings that failed them.
"You think this "A" stands for France?" Captain America
I guess I can't say that I'm suprised that this is the route taken, but if they are going to go down this path, I hope there are a lot more suits to choose from or the endgame players are all going to be just like each other.
I know one video shows what appears to be Captain Marvel Iconic gear and this gives me hope that I could potentially choose from more than just 1 of 6 different sets of gear to go after.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
I'm sure we'll be able to customize it to our heart's content
There are at least two Iconic Armorsets for each Mentor, hero and villain side. One set is geared toward and achieved through PvE, and the other geared toward and achieved through PvP.
Wonder Woman's, for example, is Hero "Wonder Woman" PvE whereas Black Adam's is villain "Circe" PvP. You can pick and choose what appearances you want.
All this info obtained via dev comments/interviews and the mentioned video.
There was mention about not having to show the armor you have collected and for everyone to see your orginal costume, but still keep the stats of the armor. Might be for the Iconic sets.
But who knows im just waiting for the game to come out.
ASUS G74sx
i7 quad core
16gb ddr3 ram
3gb ram Nvidia 560M
240GB SSD & 750GB
"Typically in comics we don’t often have heroes wishing they could live up to their predecessors or trying to dress like them."
I guess the writer is forgetting about characters like Superboy, Steel, and Supergirl.
Or the entire Green Lanter Corps lol.
This is totally, completely incorrect.
Typically in comics we don’t often have heroes wishing they could live up to their predecessors or trying to dress like them
Super boy, Super Girl, Robin, Nightwing, pretty much all the lanterns, Wonder Woman has an island of women wishing they could be more like her and they do dress like her, etc. etc. lol. The reality is that it's common lol. But it's Bill lol, so mistakes like this are expected lol.
Though I will say I'm not overly enthused about the whole Iconic Suit thing. But even though I'm not really that enthused about it, I have to say that batman Iconic suit is just friggin bad ass.
Though, I am a bit sad that the techies are getting The Joker instead of Lex's suit. I mean, come on lol. If your going to give the techies Batman for the Hero side, you NEED to give a Lex suit for the Villain side, he's a techie the joker isn't really.
I think the suits are a good idea, only in the fact that they bring you closer to your mentor. I think that there are three logics that are going to be taken when choosing mentors in regards to icon battle suits.
I think it'll be even better when more mentors come together. So far it seems that you'll have very limited choices of mentors based on your type meta, magic, tech, martial etc.
I, of course, don't know whether or not you can still be meta and have Batman as a mentor or be tech and have Super man as a mentor.
But I'm certain more options will become available down the road.
Okay, let me rephrase... in many non-DC comics you don't have heroes dressing like one another. I suppose when I look at it from a DC point of view, you're all quite right. It does seem canonical.
Touche.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
My Review Manifesto
Follow me on Twitter if you dare.
@dnarris
Origins have been detached from mentors. You pick from the Big 3 and their nemeses, depending on who you want your character to follow. They most likely will give you meta/tech/magic rewards, but would you really expect Bat's to give you a magic item? :P
Well, that's good to know.
Sure, maybe he confiscated something from Raz Al Gul or something like that.
Ah, you never know what could happen. I sure am looking foward to this game.
Inevitably there will be people who want to 'be' Batman or 'Superman' or 'KillerCroc' etc but it would be inappropriate to allow one player that priveledge so this is a nice compromise and a worthy addition given the familiarity of the title. Likewise although people moan that Villains need to be free of being lackeys...this is only true of a tiny percentage of major league villains...for the most part Villains need to gang up on the good guys so these themed suits makes a lot of sense on the red side of the coin and may even work into the mythology in a long term manner.
Ultimately its an additional choice for the player and there will be many like myself who are more intersted in being someone different so I dont see many of the potential negatives being realised.
Overall the key here is that the design is really working to deliver the benefits of the IP and even some of the more routine restrictions are being given some thought to allow the best of both worlds.
agree.
I also agree with some of your concerns. One of the main reasons I had so much fun for so long in CoX was that I actually read player's bios. The ones that did lite role play were so much fun and turned what might have been sorta standard kill this boss missions into stories. I feel like relying too much on pre-ordained IP, we might limit eachother in our creativity. I can just hear the "*slurp* that's not cannon" "yes, it is! in issue # 456, supes...blah blah blah" /Astoria logs
"Never met a pack of humans that were any different. Look at the idiots that get elected every couple of years. You really consider those guys more mature than us? The only difference between us and them is, when they gank some noobs and take their stuff, the noobs actually die." - Madimorga
Mmm no Joker uses Tech when it suits him but it's usually in a Carnival, Circus, or Clownlike way
Like he could definitely have someone in a Tech suit and could easily see him say something to the effect of it's extra arms to make quick balloon animals out of your guts
I don't know lol, I don't think your going to be able to convince me that the Joker is a better choice than Lex lol. Yes I know the joker falls into the tech side, but he just fails compared to Lex :P.
The Joker is more bombs from what I can tell. He had me attach bombs to cops and watch them blow up. Was some what comical.
not a jab, but you should do a tad more reading,as there is an Outfit system (similar to lotros) where you can "Wear one Thing" and keep the "Stats" of another. so not that bad tbh. I think its a nostalgic approch to the comic book fan,honestly I would love to aquire a Green Lantern/Hal Jorden/Guy Garden outfit that would be Nifty {grins}. Comic book fans Collect..Comic books,This in one sense could be looked at very similar.
I am well aware of the appearance setting, but thanks anyway. What I was getting at was that I would like to see more than just 6 options for endgame players; whether it be appearance or stats.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
Well, they have definitely said they plan on putting more mentors in the game and thus more suits to earn.
They've also said they plan to release new content every month, and that's the big reason they decided to go subscription over free to play.
Whether or not new mentors will be around by the time you've level capped a character and got your first suit, no idea.
I find it very unlikely.
Whether or not new mentors will be around by the time you've level capped a character and got through all the mentors.
I find that to be pretty darn likely, by the sound of it.
One of the biggest developer flaws I've seen in any MMO is not being able to keep quickly advancing players happy in release. One can hope they put an interesting endgame that is repeatable and rewarding in at launch.
I hear ya on that
For the "The Potentially Bad" section. I take it you did not listen to the video. You earn points in everything you do in the game. Then you go to the iconic vender, i.e. Wonder Woman, Black Adam, Batman, Joker, etc etc, and spend those points to buy the armor. It is not the "dungeon grind for parts" as every other MMO.
And yes, they have many more Iconics shown, that were kind of shown in the other video. Hawkman, Flash, were kind of pointed out from the video put out for the Character Creation preview. You watch that and they even show Superman with a guy and a girl, and both shown in 3 different styles of Iconic.
When you get into beta just go to either the Watch Tower or Hall of Doom, explore, you will see the High end Iconics in like cases next to the character who's armor it is. You will see many others have Iconics, and they stated thats not all, possible for many others to be released in future.
Also, as for the look likes, few others stated on that... but also Star Wars, the Padiwan usually designed their lightsaber hilts similar to their Masters. It's a respect thing for your Master/Mentor to fashion things after them.
Yeah, I agree.. It really is awesome.
The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting." - Sun Tzu, Art of War