DCUO PS3 Beta Receives a Hefty Update

Biggest. Patch. Ever. I've been in the PS3 Beta for about a week now, loving every minute of it. There have been a lot of technical issues though, and for those people still not sure about paying the upcoming $15 monthly fee, here is one reason people do pay. Major updates to fan requested issues. Check out the full list of DC Universe Online updates below.

The update is about 3gb to download, so it may take 30 minutes to an hour to download, depending on your connection.




Upcoming Features:

• New loot has been added to Alerts, Raids, and Duos!  Get out there and see what you can find!
• The Screen Scale Option in your Settings should now improve how your menus look.
• Power Trees have been changed and as a result players may find their points reset.
• Until the end of the Beta test, all players are now also granted the Batman Exobyte Data chip at level 5! Just enter your mission journal to complete the mission and claim your prize! Remember, you can only play Batman in live by pre-ordering, so head to dcuniverseonline.com to do just that today!
• Traits, Vendor, Social and Feats menus have been improved in terms of legibility. We continue to work through each and every UI element to address issues with font size and color. Please keep the feedback coming and we will continue to make improvements.
• The Kahndaq Raid has been reworked for a more exciting experience. Gather 7 of your friends and see if you can complete it. With 78.5% more polish, difficulty has been increased and the use of group mechanics has been enhanced.
• Bounty PvP missions are now available. These missions can be received from Bounty and Wanted Posters outside all Nightclubs and Police Stations by players’ level 10 or higher. To complete them you have to defeat five players of the opposing faction, no more than five levels lower than yourself. Every hour a system message will announce which faction has turned in the most bounties in that city and once every 12 hours, a daily city winner will be announced.

Controls:

• Directional Pad and F1-F4 now controls Quick Menu.
• Directional Pad Up/F1 - Actions Menu - Allows player to see Active Combos and Abilities, toggle PVP Flag and change stance.
• Directional Pad Right/F2 - Buffs  - Shows what buffs you are using currently.
• Directional Pad Down/F3 - Canned Chat - Quick Chat system.
• Directional Pad Left/f4 - Emotes – Pre-generated Actions.
• Restored ability to switch hard lock targets by pressing DPad left/right while holding L1.
• Improved response of Acrobatics controls.
• Added ability to cancel channeled powers by jumping or pressing “block.”

Traits:

• All players Trait points have been reset!  Make sure to purchase abilities before attempting to go into combat.  You have been warned!
  
• The required amount of Feat points necessary to earn a Skill Point has been increased.
• The amount of Feat points granted for completing Feats has been increased to 10, 25, 50

 Cash:

•   Normal NPCs now drop less cash.
•  Daily missions now award more cash.
•  Item cash values have been adjusted.
•  Mission cash rewards have been adjusted.
•  Item repair costs have been reduced.

General:

• Moving (or getting moved) more than one meter will now cancel your logout attempt.
• Slightly increased experience awarded for mainline missions.
• Server Status is now available on Character and Server Select Screens. 

Bugs:

• Group members will no longer have secure icons remain overhead.
• Multiple Gender and Shape Changing Bug Fixes:
  • All localized text related to a character will use the gender of that character's unchanged form.  For example, Jane, a female character playing as Batman in a Legends simulation doing a /shake emote will show up in the chat log as "Jane shakes her fist."
  • Shape changes that automatically switch to male or female versions based on the gender of the person being changed will now use the unchanged gender, instead of gender of the current form they are in, so the evil toy shape change on a female character will always be the girl toy form, even if that was used while in a male form (like nature gorilla or wolf forms).
  • The correct, unchanged gender will be used when adding a new style of an item to a character's style list.
  • Female characters reverting out of a male shape change form and not wearing a shirt over a skin type that requires a bra will correctly wear the sports bra.
  • Fixed a bug where male characters not wearing a shirt reverted out of a female shape change form and incorrectly tried to force them to wear a sports bra.  Because of a related bug, this situation used to cause a server crash.
• You can no longer send mail to yourself.

Items:

• PvE battlesuit stats have been adjusted.
• Fixed a bug where a vendor would either not let you repair a damaged item from your inventory or would appear to leave damaged items in the repair list after doing a repair all (though the item would actually be repaired).
• The tokens used to purchase battlesuits are now called “Marks” instead of “Brands.”
• Some items now use different styles.
• Vault gifts now have a small chance to award Vault tickets and Marks of Distinction.
• Fixed purchasable items show as can not be purchased
• Some style names have changed.
• Most precision stat bonuses on items have been reduced.
• Some weapon styles have been replaced.
•  Normal NPC treasure drop rates have been adjusted.
•  Many items and styles have been renamed.
•  Items that are purchased with Influence and Marks now additionally require normal cash.
•  All iconic battlesuits should now have the appropriate origin restrictions.
• The Greco-Roman and New Genesis styles are now available in the Vault.
•  Some race reward emblems did not award the appropriate styles, and now they do.

Alerts:
General:

• Alert bosses now drop new items!
• Normal NPC’s now have a chance to drop unique Blue quality loot items.
• Alert bosses now have victory flags. They’re on a one-day timer.

Area 51:

• Players can return to Area 51 after the bossfight.

Blüdhaven:

• Adjusted Collision boundary and various visual upgrades 

Player City/Safehouses

• Replaced Alan Scott as a iconic armor vendor with Aquaman.
• Swapped Steel and Robin’s locations in the Watchtower Tech Wing
• The Watchtower and Hall of Doom now feature vendor consoles that sell a variety of styles from character creation

   
Missions:

General:

• Robinson Park: The Forum of 12 Caesars kiosk will update mission tasks more consistently.
• Wanted/Bounty missions for the open world Iconic characters will now automatically be granted when they are attacked. The missions will still be available at the Wanted/Bounty poster locations in the appropriate police stations and nightclubs.
• Updated the level 30 introduction to end-game missions.

Apes of Wrath:

• Corrected issues with this mission boss fight.

Beware of the Jokers Bearing Gifts/Playing the Joker’s Game

• Combat and effects tells have been tuned for Harley Quinn.

Blinding Brother Eye:

• Fixed extremely dark lighting issues causing navigation problems for players in this instance.

Bounty: Green Arrow and Black Canary:

• Players will receive the feat for defeating the bosses as soon as both bosses are knocked Out.

Burn Like his Power/Beware my Power:

• Green Lantern and Sinestro NPCs will now make more frequent and varied use of Hard Light attacks

Coed Chomping:

• Mission text now informs player to be in zombie form.

De-Constructed/Sinestro's Sinestro Corps and Green Lantern Corps:

• Enemies will use different animations and speak more frequently to clarify why they are practicing their powers on a rooftop.

Exobyte Extraction:

• Steel will now drop level appropriate loot.

Gorge Yourself:

• Quest text now informs player to be in correct demon form.

Giganta Girl:

• Giganta is making it a bit more obvious when she is planning a powerful attack so pay attention to her tell or she will slam you into the floor.

Gorilla Warfare:

• Players will no longer get overwhelmed by a dense, repopulating wall of Grodd's gorillas.

In Limbo:

• Circe will wait for the demon Etrigan to finish speaking before she contacts villain players.

Lair of the Witch/Goddess in Peril:

• Beastiamorphs are now able to transport all Magical Exobytes.

Rats, A Zombie!:

• Mission text now informs player to be in zombie form.

Raven Unbound:

• Villains will now longer be instructed to defeat demons who are helping Trigon.

Reign of Blood:

• If you fall to Dr. Fate, all objectives will reset and you have to start the fight over.

Reaping Evil:

• Fixed an issue which could have caused Accusers to not spawn plentifully enough.

Riddle Me This:

• The exit hallway is no longer blocked by police. 

Testing 1,2,3:

• Mission text now informs player to be in correct demon form.

The HiVE: Smashed: 

• Task stage now directs players to Flash in the Little Bohemia Police Station.

Tidal Waves:

• Players will now receive due credit when completing mission objectives.

Under a red Sun Lamp:

• Players should not be able to lock themselves out of the final Supergirl fight. 

Vault Ambush!:

• Districts are now set to be the Hall of Doom for the villainous mission and Watchtower for the heroic mission.

Wanted: Solomon Grundy:

• Solomon Grundy will no longer float in the air

Wrath and Desecration:

• Mission text now informs player to be in correct demon form.

Combat:
General:

• All Non Player Characters that use Breakout to escape from Control effects will be resistant to being controlled for a slightly longer amount of time.
• Fixed a bug where certain abilities were affecting characters through geometry. 
• You can no longer toggle your summoned pet between “attack” and “passive” modes by activating the pet ability while the pet is summoned.
• The Might statistic no longer increases Healing abilities.
• Rallying other players can now be interrupted.
• NPCs can now break out of Shape Change.

Roles:
General:

• The amount of power received from weapon attacks has been reduced.
• Out of combat Power regeneration has been increased.
• The amount of bonus power received from KO’ing an enemy has been increased.
• Tuned Supercharge regeneration rates up slightly.
• Weapon Restoration stat boxes have been increased to 15 per point
• Weapon Health stat boxes have been reduced to 15 per point
• You now only need to hold the summon pet button for 1.5 seconds to dismiss your pet, instead of 3 seconds. 

Controller Role:

• Passive power regeneration caused by Controllers in the Controller role has been removed in favor of active power restoration abilities.
• Power Baubles will only appear when fighting low tiered enemies.
• The +20 Vitalization Mastery bonus has been removed from all Controller trees.
• Being in the Controller role grants you a passive +350 Vitalization bonus.
• You now require 5 Vitalization to equal a 1% increase in Power restoration capability.
• Being in the Controller role reduces your personal power regeneration by 25%.
• Wisdom of Solomon now grants +50 Vitalization.

Damage Role:

• Being in the Damage role no longer provides a passive +35% damage bonus. You now receive a damage bonus when you use a super power. The strength of the bonus is dependant on the level of the power used. This bonus lasts as long as your combo continues. When the Hit Counter resets the bonus is lost. No matter what, the bonus always last a minimum of five seconds.

Tank Role:

• The duration of the taunt effect has been increased to 12 seconds to match the duration of the Tank defensive bonuses. 

Powers/Skills
Acrobat:

• Throwing knives should travel faster to match impact.

Brawler:

• Hand Clap is now the ranged primary attack and fires a single projectile
• Brawler ranged primary attack may now be used while running. 

Dual Pistols:

• The Dual Pistols Tree has been adjusted.
• Generally, close or forward advancing attacks are performed with the melee button. Ranged and retreating attacks are performed with the ranged button.
• Lifting Shot, Loft Shot and Sweep Shot are all performed with the melee button, rather then switching between the melee and ranged buttons. Sweep Shot can also be performed immediately following Jump Shot.
• Jump Shot can now be performed following a ranged primary attack by holding the melee button. Jump Shot can also be performed immediately after Slip Shot or Loft Shot.
• Slip Shot is still performed following a ranged primary attack by holding the ranged
• button. Slip Shot can also be performed immediately following Loft Shot.
• Magnum Round can be performed following Jump Shot, Kick, Slip Shot or Sweep Shot by holding the range button. 

Fire:

• Volcanic Calamity should not look black anymore.
• The “On Fire” DoT should no longer interfere with the damage caused by Meteor Strike, Enflame or Inferno.
• Fireball Barrage: Projectiles are now destroyed on collision and travel more quickly.
• Reignition: Supercharge cost reduced.
• Enflame: No longer has a cast time or dependency for its full effect. While Enflamed you are also considered “Immolated” for the purposes of power interactions.
• Flame Cascade: No longer requires Immolation to set enemies on fire.
• Flashpoint: Now causes knockdown instead of pushback.
• Backdraft: Corrected a problem with Backdraft that could cause targets other then the instigator to receive healing.
• Burnout: No longer causes damage but instead applies a small amount of healing when used in addition to its original effect.
• Spontaneous Combustion: Also sets enemies on fire.
• Removed tree pre-requisites for Absorb Heat, Wildfire, Enflame and Meteor Strike
• Re-arranged Ignition tree to allow you to navigate to its Supercharge abilities using a controller.
• Absorb Heat, Detonate, Mass Detonation and Backdraft no longer extinguish flames to help them play more nicely with others in group situations.
• Inferno should be seen by all and working correctly now.
• Fire now receives a 60% increase in Health and 80% increase in healing received after using a super power. 

Gadgets:

• Defibrillator should now have visual effects attached to it
• Stasis Field: Removed the cast time. This now affects a single target in both Control and Damage role but has an enhanced duration while in the Control Role.
• Gadgets Traps and Tricks trees have been modified.
• Cryofoam and Scheme have been retired and are no longer available.
• Battle Plan is now a power regeneration over time buff.
• Defibrillator no longer increases run speed but increases your maximum Power pool by 15%. The Breakout duration was decreased. In the Controller role this ability will instantly restore power to the most drained group member and also increase their Power pool by 15%. The cost has been increased and it now has a negligible cooldown.
• Clown Box no longer debuffs nearby enemies in the Controller role but will instead restore power to the most drained group member. The duration was decreased to six seconds.
• Last Laugh is a new ability in the Tricks tree that restores power when an enemy is KOd.
• Intimidate is a new ability in the Traps tree that causes attacks to reduce the Willpower of enemies and restores power to you over time.  When in Controller Role up to seven other group members have their attacks affected and the most fatigued group member also has power restored.

Hand Blaster

• Hand Blaster will no longer fire an extra effect while punching and running.

Ice:

• Hibernation: Reduced Supercharge cost.
• Glacier Flash: Reduced Power cost.
• Arctic Gust: Increased cost and damage.
• Winter Ward: Now applies a bonus to Defense and Toughness for its duration rather then absorbing a flat amount of damage.  This bonus applies in either Role.
• Resonating Gale: Object and character target limits are now separate and will not count against each other.
• Ice Bash: Will now trigger from using ranged primary attacks in addition to melee primary attacks.
• Bitter Winds: Removed casting time.
• Shatter Restraints: No longer causes damage but applies bonus to Defense and Toughness
• Removed tree pre-requisite for Blizzard, Deep Freeze, Hibernation and Freeze Ray.
• Frostsnipe, Reflection, Ice Boulder and Snow Ball apply their bonus effects when you have two frost effects applied instead of three. 

Iconic Powers:

• Hard Light Shield will now cause an AOE taunt effect when used while in the Tank role.
• Neo Venom Boost will now cause an AOE taunt effect when used while in the Tank role. The cost and damage for this ability has been increased and the amount of Defense granted has been reduced.
• Pheromone Bloom cost and damage has been increased.

Martial Arts:

• Martial Arts ranged special attacks have been revised to make them more intuitive to perform. The full combo is performed by a series of hold ranged button inputs.
• The “Bolo Shuriken” ability has been removed. The “Shuriken Storm” box has been broken out into individual “Shuriken Storm” and “Empowered Shuriken” boxes. 

 Mental:

• Mass Hysteria: Attacks caused by the Illusions now taunt opponents. These attacks cause significantly less damage but the illusions have significantly more health and are status effect immune. The illusions now last for 20 seconds.
• Bolt Barrage projectiles are now destroyed on collision and travel more quickly.
• Thought Bubble: Removed the cast time. This now affects a single target in both Control and Damage role but has an enhanced duration while in the Control Role.
• Telekinesis Ability should fire a beam at the target now.
• Psychic Shock and Whispers of Confidence have been retired and are no longer available.
• Psychic Empowerment has been reworked and now restores power over time.
• Telekinetic Shield has been updated. It now prevents damage, restores power to yourself and the most drained group members.
• Grandeur increases the maximum Power pool for yourself and instantly restores some power to the most drained group mate and increases their Power pool as well.
• Final Fright restores power when enemies are KOd.
• Presence causes attacks to reduce a target’s Willpower restores power to you over time. When in the Controller role up to seven other group members have their attacks affected and the most fatigued group member also has power restored.

Movement Powers:

• The Movement tree resistance boxes are now 1 box for a +10% bonus instead of three boxes for +12%.
• Increased speed of vertical zip line (acrobatics).
• Corrected flight orientation bugs.
• Increased flight “super sonic” speed by 10%.
• Reduced flight turn rate in “super sonic” flight.
• Added “stall penalty” when hitting objects in super sonic flight during races.

Nature:

• The Nature ability tree has been adjusted.
• Wolf Rush has been retired and is no longer in the game.
• Insect Form may only be used while in the Healing role.
• Primal Wolf Form may only be used while in the Damage role.
• Gorilla Form now requires Supercharge to use and has a limited duration. While in this form your damage is increased by 35% and your healing ability is increased by 60%. Your health and healing received is increased by 25%. You also gain super strength and can lift very heavy objects. You may use both damage and healing super powers in this form.
• Minor Forms has been split out into both Canine Form and Pterosaur Form boxes. Both have been improved.
• In Canine Form you gain access to unique super powers and improved Power regeneration including the ability to move about undetected for short periods of time.
• As a Pterosaur you gain flight and other unique super powers and improved Power regeneration including the ability to dramatically increase the Might of group mates and you.
• Hive Mind and Carnage may be used in any role, now have a power cost but have a decreased cooldown. 

Staff:

• Fixed an incorrect damage scalar for Focused Spin attack that was causing it to deliver too much damage.

PvP:

General:

• The penalty for getting hit with Block Break or Interrupt has been reduced. The maximum duration you can be stunned from either is now two seconds and hitting the buttons for the skill test will free you in under a second. Block Breaks and Interrupts still inflict additional bonus damage as before.
• Interrupt and Block Break stuns now have priority over normal resistible stuns from player abilities. These lesser stuns will no longer take effect while a Block Break or Interrupt stun is applied.
• Player can only heal another player if they both have the same PvP flag.
• PvP Cash is now named Influence

PvP Legends:

• Created a new bracket for Legends: PvP so that players at level 30 will only face other level 30 players, even in Legends: PvP
• The new level 30 Legends: PvP bracket will award both Brands of Legends and Brands of Victory, allowing you to play Legends: PvP to earn Iconic PvP armor.
• Arkham Asylum: All four bosses in the Arkham Asylum PvP map will now be aggressive enough to attack anyone trying to take the Capture point near them but not so much that they will engage you before you see them.
• Arkham Asylum: Fixed a problem with Mr. Freeze's Ice Giant animations.
• Removed Daily bonus from Legends: PvP below level 30.
• PvP at level 30 will now always have a daily bonus map.
• Ace Chemicals: Zombie form abilities in Ace Chemicals will now do less damage.

PvP Events:

• Metropolis: A PvP event is now available in Metropolis. The Sinestro Corps and Green Lanterns have assigned War Coordinators outside the Midtown Nightclub and Police Station that will assign a Daily task to Villains and Heroes that want to help out. Although the task can only be done once a day, you can still participate in the event when ever it's running.

Feats:

• ‘Now You See Me’ is now granted when the player destroys the security system in Metropolis University
• Feat and mission reward emails now have new, improved text..

Investigations:

• Investigations now award uncommon-quality items with stats appropriate to the level of the investigation.

• All investigations, briefs, and collections now have item rewards.

o        Investigations (the green orbs) now award uncommon-quality items with stats, similar to the rewards you receive for the investigation’s related missions.

o        Some high-level briefs (the blue orbs) now award Marks of Triumph and Distinction.

o        Most briefs and all collections (the yellow orbs) now award rare-quality styles.  All of the styles are totally unique – you can’t get them any other way.

Character Creation:

• Personalities are now ordered differently in character creation.
• Fixed a bug in character creation where the player would continue to animate after selecting a movement mode.

   
UI:
General:

• PvP Mark Icons will now display properly.
• Fixed a bug where the combat log was using the wrong names for NPCs.
• Headline UI has had a number of general improvements. 

Chat Channels:

• There are new chat channels for League, Trade, and Versus.
• Many game actions and events are logged to the chat log now.  The Default tab now includes things like acquiring money and items from loot.  There's also a new Combat tab that lists combat events.

Feats:

•  Feats UI is now more memory efficient and should no longer lag the XMB
• Feats UI text is now more legible and will marquee if needed
• Feats UI has snazzy new button state

Inventory:

• The inventory now has improved art. 
• Fixed a bug where the paper doll would stop updating properly after awhile.
• Inventory items now correctly align to the mouse when dragged

Leagues:

• Added Disband League Confirmation Dialog Window.
• Changed 'League Invitation' dialog window text to something more appropriate

Map:

• The Map panels top left corner has been improved.
• Map UI has new higher res art, larger text, and is a "mini" map no longer!
• When x icon show in minimap, the world map will show mission icon at the same location.
• When overly area show in minimap, the world map will show it at the same location.

Renown:

•   Renown UI now has a localized gamepad legend.
•  Renown UI has messaging (localized) when the player has not earned any faction points.

Social:

• Social UI will no longer crash upon opening 'who' dropdown
• Social UI will display more accurate player interaction options
• Social UI friend list displays online status
• Social UI player ignore options now function
• Chat window text no longer clears upon maximize/minimize
•   Fixed broken player interaction functionality in Social UI
• Fixed broken league functionality in Social UI
• Social UI controller usability polish.
• Fixed a bug where getting a group invite while zoning or logging in would prevent the dialog window from going away

Style:

•  Remade Style UI in high res with color picker included!

Trade:

• The Trade UI now has hi resolution art in place.   

Vaults:

• Made a number of improvements to this UI.

Vendor:

• Fixed a bug where item textures were in low resolution when previewing them from a vendor.

 Visuals

• Most significantly sized NPCs can now pick up objects single-handedly
• Wonder Womans facial animations in the communicator have been improved. 
• Chemo and Minions have better looking and optimized effects
• Fixed a bug where NPCs that were knocked out while in the air would sometimes get stuck in their falling animation.
• Fixed a bug that caused emblems to "double up" on characters.
• Fixed a bug where logging in with broken gear would remove your appearance for that slot.
• Fixed a bug where some shape changes would use other character's colors instead of your own.
• The throwing stars should move faster now.
• The impact from the speedsters “speed drain” ability should look larger now.
• Shuriken should not stay in players hand while throwing.
• Fixed a bug where wings of one type would use the animations of a different type after a shape change.
• When slight adjustment to one handed weaponized throw anims to prevent certain objects from colliding with player/npc's head.
• Final animations for Black Adam and Ambush Bug communicator messages have been added.
• Fixed a bug where your weapon appearance would sometimes revert to your old appearance when you logged back in.

Audio:

• Voiceovers will no longer pan wildly when you are near Target NPC’s.
• Voiceovers in The Watchtower and Hall of Doom should be updated to fix messaging problems.
• The voiceover for Ambush Bug should now properly describe the forthcoming mechanic.
• Final voiceovers for Deathstroke, Dr. Sivana, Fire, Toyman, Jeremiah Arkham, Male Sinestro Corps non-iconics, Male Arkham doctor, Female Arkham doctor, Deceptyre, and Felix Faust are now in the game.
• Final voiceover added for Zoom, various female intercom/announcers, Blood Demon females, Trigon Demon females, Ace Cyborg Boss, Red Tornado Bot, and Brine Hulk
• Added final voiceover for the Ace Security Guard, Stryker’s Island Security Guard, LexCorp and SL Forces in the Hive Alert, Arkham Guard, STAR Labs Forces, Ultra-Humanite, Kahndaqi Soldier, Toyman Robot, and Green Lantern Ring Computer, Sinestro, Mr. Freeze, Ace Chemicals PA System, Lantern Constructs, Echo, Mutant.
• Added final voiceover for for Batcave Security Robot, Statue, Brainiac Bosses, Oolong Robot, Ice Box, Commissioner Gordon, Captain Boomerang, Huntress, John Stewart, Riddler, Mirror Master, Jack Ryder, Orchidmen, Joker Goon Male, Joker Goon Female, Police SCU Male, Atlantean Slave Male, Shadowmen Villain Male, Sinestro Male, Soulless Superhero, Civilian Female Black Adam content, Cadmus Female Area 51 content, Mutant Oolong, Scientist Female Oolong content, Advertisement Male, Advertisement Female, Shadowmen Female, OMAC, Ambush Bug, Black Adam, Brother Eye, Arkillo, Hush, Lois Lane, Queen Bee Hive Alert, Veronica Cale, Lana Lang, Maggie Sawyer