Dark Days Are Coming - New Funcom Project

[tmp]

I don't think you can upgrade the quality, but i seem to vaguely remember a remark (although not sure where it was stated) that things like using higher quality materials for crafting may result in getting gear with higher stats than using 'intended' quality material would provide, otherwise. I.e. using ql4 weapon kit + normal materials yield ql4 weapon with certain stats, while using the same ql4 weapon kit + better materials ... would give ql4 weapon with higher stats. I haven't tested that though, it takes a while to get enough materials to craft as it is.

[Miasma]

it takes a while to get enough materials to craft as it is

I don't know if it is still the case but on the first weekend the best way to get crafting mats was to go to that bridge leading to the other zone with the helicopter and buy potions from the vendors there.  You can break down the potions into base mats, there is probably a list of what potions break down into which elements somewhere.

[palmer_eldritch]

Uhh, you can? News to me.

I think you're misunderstanding some of the information being presented here.  Or I am.

Spending SP doesn't increase the QL of your weapon, just the QL of the weapon or other gear that you can equip.

Yeah, Falconeer is talking about upgrading the skill your character has in a weapon, which goes from 0 to 10.

This does two things - it gives you a bonus in the weapon's effectiveness (eg it might give you a small chance to do a little bonus damage when you hit) and it also allows you to equip a better weapon. To equip a level two weapon you need at least one skill point, to equip a level three weapon you need at least two skill points (hence, any character can equip any level one weapon because you need zero skill points to do that).

You can also gain skills in talismans, which boost your stats. There are three types of talismans, "head", "major" - you wear three major talismans at once - and "minor". You also wear three minor talismans at once. So boosting your skills in talismans allows you to wear better gear and improve your stats.

As your skills in all these things go up from 0 to 10, the game does kind of have levels as a character in level 10 gear is stronger than a character in level 0 gear. Even so, you're still in puny human vs strong human territory. It's not a level 1 vs a level 60 character in a traditional DIKU, which is a tiny flea vs a giant.

You can't improve the quality level of a weapon - when you get enough skill points to improve your weapon skill you're going to want to get a new weapon to match. But you actually can improve weapons a bit, by adding a glyph or a signet. These are items which basically boost the stats a little. To do this, press "y" to open up your crafting window and then simply drag the weapon and the glyph or signet to the crafting window, and press the assemble button.

[Lantyssa]

Skills had an x/40 indicator.  Is there a limit to how many points you get, and thus you have to choose your upgrade path carefully?

[Falconeer]

Uh, not at all. You can get all the 525 skills in the game and all the QL for all the weapons and Talismans. In fact, they encourage you to do so and it's pretty much the only replayability factor. Interesting aspect is, the more points (AP for Abilities, SP for QLs)  you already have and the higher you get new ones. To put it in usual DIKU terms, the highest your level, the faster you level up.

Also, this is what makes alts absolutely useless except for the three faction story bits.

[Falconeer]

THE BATTLE BEGINS!

On June 22nd at 6pm CET (9am PDT) the massive and final Beta Weekend for The Secret World kicks off, offering a preview of the epic conflict between the three secret societies: the Illuminati, the Dragon and the Templar, and YOU and a buddy are invited to join the fight!

This marks the first public opening of the massive, persistent player vs. player war zone where over two hundred players clash in adrenaline-fueled battles for power and world domination! Stonehenge and Eldorado are also opening up, allowing smaller groups of players to fight for control over the power held within these legendary locations.

In addition to all these exciting, new player vs. player experiences, all content from the previous Beta Weekends will be available. Your character progress from previous Beta Weekends carries over to this event, so you can continue your adventures in Kingsmouth, The Savage Coast, The Polaris and Hell Raised! You can also visit London, New York and Seoul to enjoy the Templar, Illuminati and Dragon starter experiences.

PvP stress test basically. This is going to be fun 

Now, in all honesty, I have to say that threeway battlegrounds are very, very interesting. Too bad _at the moment_ the balance is really off, cause the 3 sided arenas have potential.

[tmp]

As your skills in all these things go up from 0 to 10, the game does kind of have levels as a character in level 10 gear is stronger than a character in level 0 gear. Even so, you're still in puny human vs strong human territory. It's not a level 1 vs a level 60 character in a traditional DIKU, which is a tiny flea vs a giant.

A guy decked in ql 10 gear can have ~10k hp and deal few thousand points worth of damage per second. A character in ql 0 gear will have 1-2k hp and deal ~500 points of damage in that time if they go for dps build, less if they don't. If you pit them against each other it's very much flea vs giant match just the same.

edit: although if you limit the comparison only to the points-bought "levels" then yes, the difference is going to be way smaller.

[tmp]

Skills had an x/40 indicator.  Is there a limit to how many points you get, and thus you have to choose your upgrade path carefully?

I think it's only indicator how many points you can accumulate before you have to spend some, and even that is possibly broken at the moment (as saw someone mention recently they had more) Not sure why they'd have such sort of soft cap in there, like Falconeer says there's no limit to what upgrades you can get overall.

[palmer_eldritch]

As your skills in all these things go up from 0 to 10, the game does kind of have levels as a character in level 10 gear is stronger than a character in level 0 gear. Even so, you're still in puny human vs strong human territory. It's not a level 1 vs a level 60 character in a traditional DIKU, which is a tiny flea vs a giant.

A guy decked in ql 10 gear can have ~10k hp and deal few thousand points worth of damage per second. A character in ql 0 gear will have 1-2k hp and deal ~500 points of damage in that time if they go for dps build, less if they don't. If you pit them against each other it's very much flea vs giant match just the same.

edit: although if you limit the comparison only to the points-bought "levels" then yes, the difference is going to be way smaller.

There is a big difference between a maxed character and a proper noob but it's to a different degree to a traditional MMO.

A character in green (basic) level 10 gear and an all-round buiild (a mix of defensive and DPS items) might have about 5,500 hp. If a character in level 0 gear, which means what they were given at character creation, is doing 500dps then they could theoretically kill them in 11 seconds or so. I don't actually know what the DPS output is but they could certainly hurt them a little if they got a chance to use a couple of skills.

That's not to say that a proper noob would have any chance against a maxed out character in a fight and I'm not suggesting they would, but it's a different situation to a level 1 vs a level 60 in a standard diku where the noob would literally be unable to do anything to the level 60.

[Falconeer]

Yes, this is in line with what they did in Conan where a bunch of level 20s could kill a geared level 80. The lack of real open PVP in Secret World makes this feature less interesting, but I guess it will make for some random fun in Fusang (permanent, open PvP zone like Ilum in SWTOR) where packs of lower QL noobs might still have a chance outnumbering more advanced chars.

[Ingmar]

I doubt that will matter, as the only time there will ever be a higher supply of noobs than of 'max level' people is in the first couple months of game release.

[palmer_eldritch]

I was really just trying to give a feel for what gear level means in the game, in PvE as much as anything.

[tmp]

If a character in level 0 gear, which means what they were given at character creation, is doing 500dps then they could theoretically kill them in 11 seconds or so. I don't actually know what the DPS output is but they could certainly hurt them a little if they got a chance to use a couple of skills.

I suspect that output may be way lower on this kind of character -- e.g. i have a character with ql 4 weapon and ql 2-3 gear, and attacking some mobs intended for ql 5 players i can sometimes get nothing but 'glancing hits' through entire fight, which halves my damage if not more. A result of not having high enough hit rating, i'm guessing. As such, i wouldn't be surprised if characters with few QLs of defense rating advantage were able to evade/mitigate damage to extent not different from what the diku games tend to allow.

And the argument of playing field eventually getting level certainly applies, but then it also applies to the dikus. So... just not really that much of difference in the end, i guess.

[palmer_eldritch]

Ok.

In the interests of just trying to explain how this game works, for people who haven't played it, let me put it this way - you can take your guy with level 10 (max level) gear into the easiest dungeon in the game, which is in the first zone (Kingsmouth), and the mobs can kill you.

[Tyrnan]

Well I doubt these will be needed as they seem to be throwing out keys willy-nilly, but I now have five keys for this coming weekend if anyone still needs one. Just drop me a PM.

[Falconeer]

Seems like we reached the f13 interest cap (at about 8 people) with this. No one even messaged me for my spare closed beta invite.

[luckton]

Seems like we reached the f13 interest cap (at about 8 people) with this. No one even messaged me for my spare closed beta invite.

Why waste my time playing a broken beta now when it'll be F2P in six months and (God willing) patched up by then?   

[Tyrnan]

Seems like we reached the f13 interest cap (at about 8 people) with this. No one even messaged me for my spare closed beta invite.

It was for closed beta? Shit, I'll take it if no one else wants it!

[Surlyboi]

Two people hit me up for mine, but then one got in on his own, maybe a few others did too.

[luckton]

Two people hit me up for mine, but then one got in on his own, maybe a few others did too.

Yeah, it looks like they're inviting everyone at this point...just got an email with two keys for me.

[Sky]

I would be the one that got the email after I pm'd SB. I've been on the mailing list since they opened it, wondered when they'd get around to it.

It's not my mmo time of year, so I'm not in the mode to play them really, and coming off GW2 BWE2, it probably won't show well. I like the idea of the lovecraftian feel, since I do have that whole Lovecraft being my favorite author thing, but I have a feeling they're not making this mmo for me.

[Phred]

I've probably put almost 10 hours into this game through the various betas and never have I been given any indication that the QL on a weapon can be leveled or raised. They really do a pisspoor job of explaining that sort of thing in game.

Well, the very first weapon you receive is one with white name and text "quality level: 0" in the tooltip. Then practically first quest you do when you arrive to Kingsmouth gives you a weapon reward with green name and "quality level: 1" in the tooltip, along with attribute increase also pointed out in the tooltip. Same for pretty much all other quests which grant you various items as rewards, as well as the items which drop from the killed mobs.

I really don't think the game is being any more cryptic about its gear quality mechanics than any diku out there.

Iirc the quality raising happens in the skill menu and wasn't there until this past weekend's BWE except for weapon skills.
Was pretty hard to miss if you continued on from previous characters from other weekends as the first rewards you'd get were mostly unwearable. I think I even found one in my backpack after logging in that had been dumped there from this recent change.

[Falconeer]

For what it's worth it, the NDA has been lifted for Closed Beta too. Gates open (and screenshots incoming)  

The Secret World Closed Beta NDA Has Been Lifted

For quite some time now, thousands of volunteers have helped us test the game in the Closed Beta. Their feedback has helped us iron out issues, stress the systems and improve important aspects of the technology, the gameplay and the content. Their input has allowed us to make a better game and their contribution to the development of The Secret World has been crucial.

As of today, Closed Beta testers are no longer bound by the non-disclosure agreement. This means that testers may now speak freely about their experiences in the current and future versions of the Closed Beta. Sharing of screenshots and gameplay videos of the current and future versions of the Closed Beta is also allowed.

Please note that the non-disclosure agreement is still in place for any previous versions of the Closed Beta that has existed prior to June 21st. Please also note that any posts on the Closed Beta forum may not be shared with anyone outside of that forum, such as comments from both testers and developers. This includes previous, current and future posts on that forum. (  )

We want to again thank all the Closed Beta testers for their tremendous support and effort to help us prepare the game for launch! It would certainly not have been possible without you.

See you soon ... in The Secret World.

Best regards,
Funcom

Mind, launch is in 6 days.

[RhyssaFireheart]

Launch is in 6 days?  No wonder I got an email with two keys for an open beta this weekend.  I may check it out, if nothing else. 

[Draegan]

Can you make non-mongoloid people yet in the character creator?  How is the character creator worse than AOCs?

[luckton]

lol, NDA still in effect for anything BEFORE today 

F2P by November, December at the latest.

[Miasma]

Why do you say six days?  I thought the headstart was three days so even with that it would make it two weekends from now.

[Falconeer]

Oh, my bad it's only the 21st today. Anyway, early access starts June 29th, so it's 8 days from now, not 6.

Luckton, why are you so obsessed with the free to play date? Of course it will go free to play, and of course this won't be a commercial success, and OF COURSE THEY KNOW IT (which doesn't mean they knew it one year ago). You said it a few times already in this thread. What's the deal? Are you playing Lakov_sanite - the RPG?

[palmer_eldritch]

At first I genuinely believed Luckton was a gimmick account or someone's attempt to infiltrate the Bat Country Eve corp, but he's kept it up for 3,000 posts now so 

[Falconeer]

Just to clarify, I have nothing against luckton. We even played together in the Blood Bowl League and I can testify that he's a nice guy (not that he or anyone else needs any vouching let alone my vouching. Just saying this to imply that I am not trying to give you a hard time, man).

But seriously? One each day?

Why waste my time playing a broken beta now when it'll be F2P in six months and (God willing) patched up by then?  

lol, NDA still in effect for anything BEFORE today  

F2P by November, December at the latest.

When you post in threads of games you are not fond of, I am sure you could be a little more constructive. Or at least change the theme of your mocks from time to time.

[luckton]

You are correct.  I apologize for my bad posting.

[Furiously]

Can you make decent looking characters now?

[Falconeer]

Seriously, that's a matter of personal preferences. My beef is with hair, they are disappointing. Aside from that, I think character creation is OK. Also yes it got improved at some point in the beta and they keep saying the one that will be on at launch will have even more option, but it's not up for testing yet.

[Rasix]

I didn't have much of a problem creating decent looking characters.  Yes, most of the hair options for females and males are dumb.  You end up seeing a lot of similar looking heads.

The funniest thing I saw happened at I think my second day playing where I ran into someone with the exact same character appearance. Everything was exactly the same, they even managed to pick the same outfit and glasses.

[palmer_eldritch]

You are correct.  I apologize for my bad posting.

Me too.

On a different topic, I still have a closed beta invite if anyone wants it.