Thoughts on 'DFB'

Thoughts on DFB

I've heard of lot of people complaining that 'DFB', as the 'Death from Below' lowbie trial is advertised on /help, is sucking the life out of the game.

And while I do think that there is massively more to the game than five rooms in the sewer, I think that Death from Below is actually VERY GOOD for the longterm health and longevity of the game.

Why?

First, Death from Below is not a farm. It's a real mission. You have to defeat everything in it. The enemies are not super hard, but they're lowbie enemies. New players cannot simply sit AFK at the door and level up. They have to actually go in and participate.

Because of that, New Players learn to play their characters. One of the chief complaints about power-leveling is that it creates an ocean of level 50s with no idea how to play. Even if they repeat the trial until they're 30 (as I heard one player mention), they have a rock-solid understanding of how to use their 1-10 powers. More often than not, these are the player's core powers anyway.

It also teaches players to communicate with their teams. The two conditional badges don't require a lot of coordination, but they do require at least reading instructions. Players who earn them learn very quickly that they're rewarded for paying attention. They also see the players in their team who refuse to communicate and learn pretty quickly how to deal with them.

The most important aspect of the trial, however, is that it teaches players that the best way to get ahead in the game is to find a team and play rather than to look for an easy AFK farm or an exploit to abuse. Players get good experience and decent rewards for playing in the team setting. They're shown that all they need to do to have a good time is to be willing to play with others.

There are problems, as with any new mechanic. The biggest problem is, however, City of Heroes' longest standing retention issue: Variety. Since there is only one trial, players get sick of doing nothing but wading through the sewers... just like they'd get sick of Yet Another Warehouse, Yet Another Cave, and Yet Another Science Lab. We need about four more trials just like this one, but given different, exciting settings.

Also, it HURTS to see the LFG technology WASTED on just one mission, 1-49. Not only do the new players like the LFG queue, but Dr. Kane's House of Horrors shows that it's viable, at least on moderately populated servers. We need to hook the LFG queue up to the Signature Story Arcs, Cavern of Transcendence trial, and Positron's taskforces as soon as possible.

Good job, Developers, on DFB, but don't rest on your laurels or the new wealth of players will trickle through your fingers!

I love the DFB. However, I'd be more than ok for it to have diminishing rewards per character. 100% first run, 95% second 85% third, 70% fourth, 50% fifth, and stay at 50%.

It's already PLing enough as it is it needs to entice people to get out of it. I can see someone thinking the game is very repetitive and dull if all they run is the thing.

Quite simply, we need a 'team advertisment' channel available to F2P players. /Help should remain for help.

Make a LFG channel.

DFB is very newbie friendly and most likely serving the purpose it was made to serve.

The idea of changing it to reduced rewards etc... is nothing more than that internet control freak behavior some people engage in on the net. Nothing more nothing less.

I agree that the DFB is a pretty good trial. It would be nice if there was a few more of them though, for some variety. And personally I'd also prefer if they capped at some point around level 20.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AmazingMOO Also, it HURTS to see the LFG technology WASTED on just one mission, 1-49. Not only do the new players like the LFG queue, but Dr. Kane's House of Horrors shows that it's viable, at least on moderately populated servers. We need to hook the LFG queue up to the Signature Story Arcs, Cavern of Transcendence trial, and Positron's taskforces as soon as possible.

The problem with the LFG tool is that, yeah there's only the DFB in it. But more seriously, you can't actually do anything while in the queue. They really need to fix it so you can continue to play while you wait.

Lastly, people simply aren't using it. If everyone queues up with a full 8-man group, then no one in the queue will be picked up. If you queue, odds are pretty good that you will end up with the bare minimum of a four-man group (and even then, the wait can be so long than when it finally does pop, half of those players are asleep and don't click ok in time )

I like the LFG tool. I hope they improve it and do more with it. Adding Positron's task forces would be weird, but they should add all the strike forces

I agree with most of what was said in the original post. That said, "variety is the spice of life." To new players, who want to be "super" immediately, the quick xp with the good rewards is very enticing. However, if a new player levels up to 10+ with the DFB (and many are going higher) and then gets bored, they are really left on their own to figure out where to go, and that's the one danger of which we need to be aware. With contacts, when you out-level one, they introduce you to another one, in a zone appropriate for your level range. For a totally new player, the game is huge and overwhelming enough without having to find what they are supposed to do next.

As a disclaimer, I do not think this is a current issue, merely a possibility that should be considered.

I don't understand why the newbie trial lasts all the way to 50. Surely it should cap at 20?