DC Universe Online: Countdown to ‘Free to Play’ Week 3 (Stats, Menus & Updates)

Welcome back to the last in our series of articles counting down to DCUO going “free to play”. The more astute amongst you will have noticed that the big launch came on the 1st November, only narrowly missing their estimate of “late October” by a mere 24 hours, unlike my countdown which is now woefully late.

The free client is now available on the PlayStation Store, but before you start downloading, make sure you have plenty of space. The game size itself is around 17gb but will need around 25gb free while it installs- the initial download is around 120mb, then the rest is downloaded from within the game. The good news is you can quit and resume at any point, but prepare to leave your PS3 downloading overnight for a day or two.

So my first two articles looked at what you really need to know when creating your character, plus an overview of how your character will develop and progress as you play.

Now the game is in your hands, I thought I’d just go over some of the details that are easily missed, or are not explained particularly well within the game. We’ll finish off with a quick look at how SOE have enhanced and expanded the game since launch, to hopefully give you an idea of what we can expect in the future.

Stats
As you earn, or buy, pieces of armour, weapons, trinkets (etc), each come with various stats that can enhance different aspects of your character. Different items will have different impacts depending on how you prefer to play – do you enjoy PVP? Do you prefer to use powers or weapons? Use our quick guide below to help work out which stats are best for you.

(1) Stats related to your character:
* Health – your HP – basically how much damage you can take before you are knocked out. A no-brainier here, more is better.
* Defence – PVE* damage protection – the way it is applied, though, you need a lot to make any noticeable difference, so probably not worth bothering about until much much later in the game.

(2) Your Weapons:
* Damage per Second (for your weapon attacks) – how much damage you can do. Per second. Obviously.
* Precision – increases your DPS by 1 for every 10 Precision, so if you have a 60 DPS axe, and also have 100 precision, your damage will actually be increased to 70 DPS. Definitely worth working on if you plan n using your weapons a great deal.

(3) Your Powers:
* Power – how much power you have for your special abilities (recharges over time and with weapon attacks)
* Might – how much damage your powers do (rises by 1% every 4 Might)
* Vitalisation – How quickly you gain power back
* Restoration – how much healing your healing powers/effects can give out (rises 1% every 4 Restoration)

(4) PVP-Specific Stats:
* Toughness – PVP* damage protection (same as defence but for PVP only) – again, you need a lot to make a difference.
*Dominance – how much you can damage a “controlled” player before they break free.

* remember from week 1, PVE is you vs “the environment” (the missions), whereas PVP is “player versus player”. So depending on your play style, you need to decide which set of stats are more important to you, as items of armour generally favour one over the other.

Quick Menus

Easily missed, there is quite a bit of functionality mapped to the d-pad for quick access.

Up – Quick Menu
– Group Loot (if available) – if valuable loot drops and you are in a group, you can vote to “need” it, to “greed” it, or “pass”. Computer will do dice rolls to decide between needers first, then greeders. In group games, make sure you agree on loot rules beforehand or you could be branded a ninja looter!
– switch role, e.g. from Damage to Tank
– take screenshot (saved straight to your XMB)
– turn your PVP flag on or off
– turn Duel mode on or off
– list of your current combos and powers

Left – Social
This gives the the option to list every player who:-
– is Nearby
– is Friends with you
– is in your League
– is in your Group
(etc)

Then by clicking on anyone in the list you can
– set their voice volume
– add as a friend
– invite to your group
– add to your ignore list
– Duel with them
– Inspect them (check out their level, armour etc
– tell – send text chat message to them

Down – canned chat (preset text phrases) and emotes (poses, dances, actions). Think PlayStation Home.

Right – reserved for “push to talk” voice comms

Tapping Start will bring up the main menu, with L2 and R2 to move along it, but a recent addition is the radial quick-menu. Hold Start to call it up, push the left stick to the option you want, and release Start. Much quicker the repeated L2/R2 action once you get used to it.

A quick jab of the Select button will bring up text chat, but here are some of the commands that the game just presumes you will magically have picked up, probably by osmosis. If you want to say your memory, pressing square will cycle through many of the commands.

/tell (name) or /t (name) – speak directly to one character – no-one else will see it
/say or /s – whatever you then type will be ‘heard’ by everyone nearby
/shout – like say but louder! Everyone in the region will hear!
/group or /g or /party or /p – speak to people in your group
/league or /l – speak to people in your league

Oh and when using /tell, if the character your are speaking to has a space in their name, use speech marks, like
/tell “Cool Dude” Hey, you’re a cool dude
There are others, so for a full list of commands, check the official forums here