Dark Days Are Coming - New Funcom Project

[Ghambit]

There's a nekkit girl in neon lights and that's about it.  Or is that FoM?  I forgot.   

[brellium]

It did, but it made my ass look huge.

It was just your fat Atrox ass in a tutu that did that.

[PalmTrees]

New, somewhat long, dev blog about character development, combat, crafting, etc.
http://thesecretworld.com/news/blog_lead_designer_martin_bruusgaard_explains_character_development

They're claiming to have a flatter power curve than most games, but mobs still have green/yellow/red cons. Not sure how well that'll synch up with their open skills progression.

[Surlyboi]

New, somewhat long, dev blog about character development, combat, crafting, etc.
http://thesecretworld.com/news/blog_lead_designer_martin_bruusgaard_explains_character_development

They're claiming to have a flatter power curve than most games, but mobs still have green/yellow/red cons. Not sure how well that'll synch up with their open skills progression.

Well, if it's anything like SWG, before they started fucking with the skills, it should work pretty well. The more accomplished you are with certain skills/weapons the mobs will con differently.

[tmp]

I like how they carefully avoid eye contact with the pink elephant in the middle of the room, when they talk how the easiest way to learn patterns for items you can make is to disassemble stuff you have. In a game which has "tab to web browser and google stuff to put the info together" as part of gameplay, no less.

[Furiously]

I like how they carefully avoid eye contact with the pink elephant in the middle of the room, when they talk how the easiest way to learn patterns for items you can make is to disassemble stuff you have. In a game which has "tab to web browser and google stuff to put the info together" as part of gameplay, no less.

Perhaps you are the elephant in the middle of the room. I mean its your choice to look up crafting combos on the web or to figure them out.

[tmp]

Choice, yes. "figuring it out on your own at the expense of items you'd otherwise vendor" being the easiest route? No.

[Kitsune]

Wow, they actually released a video of the new AO engine.  Which is worlds apart from it actually being finished and ready to launch, I know, but still more than I'd honestly expected from them after years of promises and no proof.

[blackwulf]

You can pre-order it now.  They have all kinds of digital options.  The grandmaster pack makes me want to buy the lifetime sub, but I just don't feel confident enough in the success of this game to drop 200 bones. http://www.thesecretworld.com/buy/

[Falconeer]

Release date June 19th?!
Was that a known fact?!

Anyway: preordered. Funcom always gets my vote. I don't care about bugs as much as I care about thinking outside the box, even if only a little.

[Mrbloodworth]

[blackwulf]

Release date June 19th?!
Was that a known fact?!

Anyway: preordered. Funcom always gets my vote. I don't care about bugs as much as I care about thinking outside the box, even if only a little.

That's a good point, Falconeer.  I think I'll preorder too.  I want to support a company that isn't trying to make a WOW clone.

[Ghambit]

I'll be pre-ordering for this reason:

By pre-ordering you can join all the Beta Week-ends going most weekends from May 11th until launch. Your character progress will be saved from one event to the next!

And then I'll likely cancel unless intrigued.   

[palmer_eldritch]

I pre-ordered too but bloody hell, those "packs" of in-game items they are selling are a bit cheeky. £50 ($80) for 30 days of game time, an extra character slot, one additional name reservation, some experience potions, a full set of starter equipment and a 10% discount (in in-game currency) on cosmetic items inside the game. There are a lot of things there, but it's all on top of £40 for the actual game itself. And the only reason you need an extra character slot is that the game only gives you three slots by default.

I guess the lifetime sub (for £160 - that's $250) might make sense if you're already certain you're going to play for years.

I don't think I even want to know how much Britishers and other Euros are being screwed on the pricing.

[Tyrnan]

It's €250 for a lifetime for us too (€199.99 + €49.99). I can't quite wrap my head around the Master Pack pricing either. Assuming a €15 per month sub fee and given the €10 they're valuing both the char slot and the name change at, that means they consider a 10% in-game discount, 10 exp potions and 7 talismans to be worth €25? At that price those talismans had better be damn good.

[Dren]

I keep hearing about AO... I'm vaguely tempted to down-load it and explore the mechanics. Does it have anything to offer to an MMO-mechanics tourist?

If you are into MMO's you might as well try it while it is still available.  AO comes up from time to time in general discussions on the genre, so it is an opportunity to know a bit more.

I did it a few years ago and even paid for one month (10 bucks I think.)  I lost interest going into my 6th week though.  The instances start to get repetitive much in the same way of early CoH.  Same maps, same mobs, etc.  I became obvious that the grind would be weighty too.  I'd still say it is worth a dl and a few days of messing with it.

[Falconeer]

So with my preorder I am entitled one name reservation, it states so everywhere. Too bad when I go to reserve my name it says I have 0 reservations left, but I can buy additional ones for 9.99€ each 

[tmp]

from the wording on the page it doesn't seem to be mandatory, though? Just a retailer option.

[Lantyssa]

Shit, this is going to be a sub-game?  I thought they were doing f2p.

[schild]

Pre-order program and price structuring is fucking retarded.

Ignoring this thing completely. Fuck the lot of them.

[tmp]

Shit, this is going to be a sub-game?  I thought they were doing f2p.

Well, the most expensive option includes "lifetime Premium Subscription" which suggests that there's possibly going to be a non-Premium subscription at some point. Whatever that involves.

Still... Funcom

[Ghambit]

Is this pre-order paid in full no refunds?  I don't remember pre-ordering from Origin before.  How good are they with that stuff?

[Falconeer]

Origin got my money in full at the time of preorder with Mass Effect 3, and the same did Funcom today with TSW. No idea about refunds though.

[SnakeCharmer]

Do not pre-order this.

You have been warned.

[HaemishM]

 

[Rasix]

This is a really early money grab for something most of us know little of use about.   From Funcom.

Fool me thrice..

Yah, I think I'll wait.

[luckton]

Seriously, I can be pretty fanboyish at times, but good god, their previous two MMOs may still be running, but they're not exactly blockbusters.  AO put them in debt for a long time before turning enough of a profit for them to let it run on it's own power.  Same for AoC.  Both benefited somewhat greatly for going F2P and introducing cash shops.  Both probably would not still be here if not for their offline single-player successes able to bring in bonus cash, to which I refer to The Longest Journey as one of my top 10 all-timers.

Now they want us to get all psyched up about their third MMO trying to cut a path into a new 'modern-day variant' sub-genre of MMO culture. 

I tell you what; when Ragnar comes out and says something along the lines of "Ok, we'll admit it.  We fucked up AO and didn't do that much better than AoC.  OUR BAD.  That said, here's what we've done to try and prevent what failed us before from happening again.  Please give us at least one more chance to entertain you."  THEN I will preorder/buy their game and give it a shot.  Till then, Funcom can go pound sand.

[Shatter]

This is a really early money grab for something most of us know little of use about.   From Funcom.

Fool me thrice..

Yah, I think I'll wait.

This, Make sure you order your poop game now suckahs!

[Evildrider]

Fuck, I usually jump all over a new mmo that I think has something I will like... but Funcom.. FUNCOM!   

I need someone with an to give me some insider info.

[Kageru]

In an ethical world the NDA would drop at the same time they start taking pre-orders.

The degree of optimism required to pre-order games always impresses me, doubly so for this title.

[UnSub]

Because I'm petty: despite having signed up very early to TSW boards, getting a code from one of the puzzles they ran (said code doesn't seem to be for anything) and having not got into beta, I'm going to wait until a long time post launch to get this game. Which is a shame, because for a long time it was the only MMO that seemed interesting to me.

[Ghambit]

Origin got my money in full at the time of preorder with Mass Effect 3, and the same did Funcom today with TSW. No idea about refunds though.

Can pre-order through GS and just cancel before release.
http://www.gamestop.com/pc/games/the-secret-world/99263

I'm sure they'll take your $5 at the store as well.  Gotta be worth $5 right?  right?   

[Falconeer]

To clarify, while aware of all the issues, technical and whatnot, with AO and AoC, I loved both and played the hell out of them. It's only natural that I go for their third attempt.

[Modern Angel]

AO put them in debt for a long time before turning enough of a profit for them to let it run on it's own power.  Same for AoC.  Both benefited somewhat greatly for going F2P and introducing cash shops.  Both probably would not still be here if not for their offline single-player successes able to bring in bonus cash, to which I refer to The Longest Journey as one of my top 10 all-timers.

You have no clue (NO CLUE) what you're babbling about. It has nothing to do with your feelings on the games or subjective stuff like that. But you are so far off base with this that it has to be called out.

[HaemishM]

In an ethical world the NDA would drop at the same time they start taking pre-orders.

The degree of optimism required to pre-order games always impresses me, doubly so for this title.

I would very much like to talk about the game, but 

I will say that I ain't pre-ordering, but my wife is.