Issue #2: "Digging Deeper" released September 18th

[Seraphim]

The next content update has been announced!  

AUXILIARY WEAPON #1: THE ROCKET LAUNCHER!

Introducing a brand new weapon, featuring seven brand new abilities, wrapped in a brand new auxiliary wheel!

 

With the addition of a third weapon and eighth ability hot-bar slot, you can now augment your existing decks with the awesome might of the rocket launcher. The rocket launcher that goes 'Boom!'.

 

More details will be revealed very soon -- and this is just the first of many auxiliary weapons to come! We're already working on the next one…and The Secret World should prepare for a real Texas-style massacre. Rrrrrreeeennnennennnennnnn!

 

 
THE MODERN PROMETHEUS!

Inside an abandoned abattoir in the bowels of Brooklyn, the infamous Dr Anton Aldini (Peter Stormare) has set up his paraplastic surgery -- the Modern Prometheus -- and on August 28th, his practice will be open for business.

 

With the Modern Prometheus, we're introducing new heads and new facial features, allowing players to completely alter the way their characters look. The first visit is free, but subsequent nips and tucks will cost PAX. Coupons will also be made available in the item store for those players who are short on in-game cash.

 

 
OCKHAM'S RAZOR!

Unhappy with your hairstyle? With your beard or moustache? Your makeup? At Ockham's Razor in London, you can change them all!

 

Doubling the number of available hairstyles, players can use in-game cash (PAX) or coupons purchased in the item store to alter their 'do, facial hair or makeup.

 

 
NEW MISSIONS!

Mission Pack #2 -- part of August's issue -- adds new investigation missions, the auxiliary weapon mission, and lair action missions to the game:

 

    'Digging Deeper' continues the story that began with The Kingsmouth Code, and sends players back to Pastor Henry Hawthorne at the Kingsmouth Congregational to dig deeper into the town's secret history and Illuminati legacy

    In 'Death and Axes', players learn more about Sophie's close connection with the spirit world. In Transylvania's Besieged Farmlands, the dead are restless, and Sophie is increasingly sensitive to their pain -- causing Cern some concern for her well-being, and sending players on an investigation into the terrible events that have transpired here

    'Strangers from a Strange Land' introduces players to the ancient history of Solomon Island, going back to when the island was visited by Norsemen in their longboats, a thousand years ago. This investigation begins with Red (of Red's Bait & Tackle) and introduces players to a pair of famous talking ravens from Norse mythology...

    In Transylvania, Iele -- the guardian of the Shadowy Forest -- needs the player's help in order to revive her 'Singing Stones' and fight the growing infection that threatens this delicate magical sanctuary

    Acquiring the first auxiliary weapon -- the rocket launcher -- won't be a cakewalk. In the first of a series of exciting auxiliary weapon missions, players will work with the Council of Venice to retrieve a highjacked shipment of rocket launchers. During the course of this mission, players face powerful new Orochi technology, travel to a brand new location, and come face to face with the two-faced Phoenicians

 

And these are just some of the missions that will be made available as part of Mission Pack #2!

 

 
NEW NIGHTMARE MODE DUNGEONS!

Two additional dungeons are receiving Nightmare modes in issue #2: The Facility and Hell Eternal.

 

Further testing the extreme limits of the players' abilities, these new additions bring new challenges and new rewards to The Secret World.

Edit: Changed the date in the title.

[Tyrnan]

That's an...interesting date they picked. They've got balls, I'll give them that

I'm definitely looking forward to the new character options, although FunCom being FunCom I imagine there'll be a few clipping issues with the new hairstyles. But at least I can get rid of my Templar hair! The auxiliary weapons and new missions sound good too and the new NMs should keep us busy for a while at least.

All in all it sounds pretty good. I'm just curious how many people they can hold onto with it given it's going up against the GW2 launch. I imagine a fair number of people will tinker with their character a bit, do the new missions then head back to GW2 until the next one or they get bored. I wonder if they'll have some sort of event like they had for last month to try and get people to stick around a bit longer?

[Lantyssa]

It might be a great time if the GW2 servers end up slammed...

[HaemishM]

Rocket launcher go BOOM.

Heh heh... boom. 

[Surlyboi]

Peter. Fucking. Stormare.

That is all.

[Ingmar]

I approve of the 8th button.

[Surlyboi]

Push buttan, receive

[calapine]

Some new screenshots

Rocket Launcher: 


New Instance in New York:

[Segoris]

I like it, demonic rocket launcher is 

[HaemishM]

OHHHHHHHHHHH YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!     

[calapine]

Very interesting interview with Lead Designer Martin Bruusgaard. Unfortunately it’s in German, so I’ll do a (condensed) translation for you.

Q: How difficult will the new raid be – compared to Nightmare instances?
Bruusgaard: About the same difficulty. But consider it’s much more challenging to coordinate 10 people than merely 5.

Q: Besides the known highlights – what else is new in the next Issue?
B: There are 6 new investigation missions, one of them going to occupy players really for a very long time. We focus on these missions as they are extremely popular. Additionally there is the hairdresser and the cosmetic chirurgery.

Q: Does that mean female players will be able to enhance their bust size?
B: *laughs* Well, yes. But we want to maintain a...uhmm…natural look in the game, it’s supposed to stay realistic.

Q: You mentioned an Event-System before?
B: Who told? This shouldn’t be talked about yet. We are not promising anything, but we are experimenting right now. We think of events that are triggered by players or the big secret societies and have a lasting effect on the world. We definitely do not want our game to remain static.

Q: You said investigations are popular. What issues are the players unhappy with?
B: Well, PvP isn’t developing how we planned it. In Fusang everything is going different than intended. At the moment one facility after the other is captured to tick of quests. There are no real fights.
We want to change that, thus captures will be more difficult and players have to keep a facility for some time to reap benefits. We hope this will lead to players focusing more on defence. Additionally we want to increase the focus on the centre facility, but are still planning on how to do that.
In the long term we want a change PvP to provide XP from fighting rather than missions. Until then will add new missions to give players more objectives in PVP.

Stonehenge will no longer provide points for hiding behind a stone. Some changes will be made to the layout as right now Illumanti have a slight disadvantage.

El Dorado has a nasty bug: the battleground starts much rarer than supposed to. We have identified the error and try to fix it as soon as possible.

Q: Something else – the rocket launcher. Will abilities will be unlocked with SP and AP?
B: Yes, but the weapon will not be able early in the game. Around Transylvania, after a certain mission. At this point the players will have enough AP for solid builds. Basically the rocket launcher and all further auxiliary weapons will be for endgame players, who don’t even know what to do with their AP/SP. Thusly RPG skills will be expensive, around 50 AP per skill.

Q: Isn’t the shop a bit expensive?
B: Well, ok, it’s not cheap. Due to that we will ensure that new outfits keep being available through other means…missions, achievements, and so on.

Q: I never noticed when being awarded new clothing…how do you see that?
B: The same way, it happens to me as well. We are going to change this.

TLDR:

• 10-man raid
• Boobjobs
• Player driven events leading to persistence changes to the world
• Fusang changes: Shift from missions to fight
• Stonehenge changes
• Eldorado not starting due bug – will be fixed.
• Auxiliary weapons: Skill cost around 50 AP each.
• Boobjobs

Please feel free to thank me for providing this service!

[Lantyssa]

Thanks!  Can you link to the original, please?

[calapine]

http://www.buffed.de/The-Secret-World-PC-200536/News/The-Secret-World-Raid-Update-Interview-Bruusgaard-1018890/2/

[Segoris]

Thanks for the translation!

Q: Isn’t the shop a bit expensive?
B: Well, ok, it’s not cheap. Due to that we will ensure that new outfits keep being available through other means…missions, achievements, and so on.

Q: I never noticed when being awarded new clothing…how do you see that?
B: The same way, it happens to me as well. We are going to change this.

I don't like the response to the shop prices question, they really do need to come down on price. Though, providing notification when a new clothing piece is awarded will be good for some.

[calapine]

I don't like the response to the shop prices question, they really do need to come down on price. Though, providing notification when a new clothing piece is awarded will be good for some.

I do agree with you, but think it would cause lots of whining by those who already spent sums in the shop and then feel ripped off by others get their clothing cheaper.
An alternative would be to have regular events with bonus-point giveaways (similar to celebration weekend), which would have a similar effect but be seen as "Free Stuff" and thus received more positively.

[Segoris]

I don't know how much anger there would be over lower prices - even by those who may feel ripped off. Sure, some of the self-entitled people would probably try to comment and get free stuff, but most probably wouldn't have issue as in the long run it's better for everyone. Example - I know that I don't feel ripped off having bought the game at full price and then missing out on the $25 deal at Amazon, just like I don't feel ripped off when I buy anything when it's brand new and the price drops at a later time. I don't even remember anyone complaining when the game went to the $25 price on Amazon and normally the official forums would be exploding with tears and rage if it was such an issue.

I like the idea of regular celebration weekends with free points, but I'd question if that would help bring in more revenue to funcom if everyone is trained to just wait for free point weekends instead of actually giving money to FC (example - Steam. Save for some titles I don't think a lot of PC gamers buy full price when they know they can wait for the Steam sales).

[Lantyssa]

http://www.buffed.de/The-Secret-World-PC-200536/News/The-Secret-World-Raid-Update-Interview-Bruusgaard-1018890/2/

Danke.

[Tyrnan]

Issue 2 has been pushed back until September 11th.

As you may know, this week has been a challenging one for everyone at Funcom. We initiated a process of reducing costs after the launch of The Secret World and this has naturally affected the production schedule as we work on readjusting the team and our internal development processes. As such, we have had to give ourselves a little more time to wrap up Issue #2 and the new release date for this update is September 11th, 2012.

We appreciate your understanding and we apologize for the inconvenience. We are definitely eager to get this update out the door so that you guys can finally get your hands on that awesome rocket launcher! We will also continue to push out regular content like announced before. This small delay is merely due to the re-organization and assessment of processes that has been initiated. We are working hard to get back on track as soon as possible.

Sad to hear but at least now I don't have to choose between GW2 and new TSW content.

[Ard]

Yeah, this does make me a bit sad, and worried about this game, but at the same point, we pretty much did tap out the content other than the broken NM dungeons at the very top.

[Segoris]

 

[Wildebeest]

It's back on sale for $25 at http://www.impulsedriven.com/tsw until Monday.

[Segoris]

Delayed until the 12th, so 1 more day

[Ghambit]

Good, I need to save AP for the new auxiliary wheel.

[calapine]

Delayed until the 13th, so 1 more day

Please note: due to an issue found last night, that could have lead to a severe exploit, we decided to postpone the "Issue #2 - Digging Deeper" update to tomorrow, 13th of September.

 We sill still have the announced downtime today for maintenance though.

[Tyrnan]

Delayed again...

"Issue #2 - Digging Deeper" will be coming next week

As mentioned yesterday, there was an issue found that could have led to a severe exploit that we want to fix before "Issue #2 - Digging Deeper" is deployed to the live servers. Unfortunately, it will take us some more time to make sure the issue is removed and the new version has been thoroughly tested.

We will keep on working over the weekend to fix the remaining issue and make sure that the final version will be ready for the live servers next week. As soon as all the details are available, we will announce the downtime for the update over the usual channels early next week.

We are as eager to get “Issue #2” to the live servers as much as you guys probably are. But we need to make sure that the version is ready and doesn’t contain any severe issues before it’s deployed to the Live servers. We apologize for the delay and thank you for your patience and understanding.

[Amaron]

I just saw the video for this on RPS.  That 8th button is very compelling.  It really blows that all these things are coming out in such a small window.

[Ghambit]

Patch tomorrow

[John Difool]

Took a few days off to re-energize as I was feeling a little burnt out on the game but I'm looking forward to the new issue and finishing up the Elite dungeons I need to progress to NM. Hopefully the new issue will bring some other players back as well

[Ghambit]

Patch notes are up.
Some good stuff in there.  My dps should actually go up significantly now.   

[Miasma]

Patch notes are up.
Some good stuff in there.  My dps should actually go up significantly now.   

Hate - having to enter a retarded birthdate just to see the patch notes.

[calapine]

Hate - having to enter a retarded birthdate just to see the patch notes.

Now, now. That's complaining on a very high level.

I hope people are still playing, had a few days of forced pc-out time but now ready to go all instancing again!