Dark Days Are Coming - New Funcom Project

[Ginaz]

I've been playing this weekend and most of the comments here seem to reflect my thoughts so far.  Great setting.  Interesting stories.  Love the skill system.  Combat is...meh.  I don't see this sticking with many people with GW2 and Diablo3 releasing around the same time.

[Falconeer]

I think at the moment this game is worth the box price and about 2 months of subscription, enough to complete the PvE non-raiding content. But then again, I think that for any non-sandbox MMORPG and to give you perspective 2 months is the amount of time I paid a subscription to World of Warcraft.

[Modern Angel]

I logged in today for the first time in a couple weeks and performance was DRASTICALLY improved on my low end rig. So that's really good.

[trias_e]

I pre-ordered based on kingsmouth which may have been a huge mistake.  Actually quit playing the beta weekend just so I don't ruin it all for myself.  Here's to hoping it's not tortage part two.

[Miasma]

I was pleasantly surprised by this weekend, I find the game very cool.  As others have said the combat isn't great but by reading all those long articles it seems like it would get better once you have a few hundred points to spend and can start theorycrafting some powerful builds.

I'll definitely buy it and play for two or three months, I doubt it has any endgame so I'll quit after that, which I'm fine with.

[Falconeer]

Another good graph on how to choose your two weapons.



Does it look like I'm loving the game? I think I am.

[AcidCat]

Well I enjoyed this beta weekend much more than GW2's. Aside from some odd performance issues, like frequent hitching and stuttering, I really dig it. Surprisingly the writing and voice acting is, IMO, much better than any other MMO just by virtue of it being funny and self aware much of the time, and that fitting entirely with the overall presentation. This game is weird and feels different.

[Modern Angel]

Yeah, now that I can actually play the damned thing, I'm really intrigued. It is very atmospheric and the skill system is way cooler than I thought it was going to be. The combat doesn't feel so bad to me.

Performance is still problematic, but it depends on the place. It seems that the longer I stay in a zone, the better it performs. I just kind of hung out in Kingsmouth for awhile and I was actually able to dial up my settings after like thirty minutes. I'm wondering if it's drawing the entire zone in the background or something similar.

[Xuri]

The key to that is likely the shader.cache-files, which are generated/updated as you play and encounter new stuff in the gameworld (in the beta, for the live cllient I'm guessing there will be a pre-generated set of files provided).

[Modern Angel]

Yeah, chatting with my best friend now about it. He said almost verbatim what you said.

[Ghambit]

It was verbatim with AoC as well.   Same ol' Same ol' with this engine, which will run 'better' the higher the settings.
Btw, I didnt get to play this weekend because I simply didn't want to deal with pre-order refunding, etc.  Come to find out I could easily score a free beta key (lot of sites are giving them out).  I am now scrambling to DL 12gigs (for 1 frakkin zone?) in what looks to be a throttled DL to around 750k, and play a few hrs. before the servers shut off.  

[Modern Angel]

Well, THAT'S definitely not the case. I have to turn everything as low as it will go (we're talking sub-Low presets) before I can bump it up after some period of time in a single zone, at which point I can turn it back up a bit. Bear in mind, I have a shit computer now. I really do. Nobody else is really complaining about the performance *too* much that I can see, whereas performance was still a noted, big issue at this point in the timeline leading up to AoC's release.

[Nevermore]

Why would anyone trust another Funcom game after that tortage bait and switch?

[Kageru]

Or put another way is the beta able to see and test all launch content?

[Falconeer]

Modern Angel, are you sure your computer isn't trying to start the DX11 client instead of the DX9 one? There's an option in the patcher, but I think it tries to run the DX11 by default. Performance difference is big, so is overall visual quality. DX9 should run mostly golden on any rig.

Or put another way is the beta able to see and test all launch content?

Not in the Beta Weekend, no. Only Templar faction, only firs circle of skills and only Kingsmouth. The "other" beta has access to everything already.

[Ghambit]

I believe the next beta weekend will give access to the next faction.

I just got done playing for a few hrs but if I had to put my finger on the 'style' of the game, it reminds me a lot of MxO.  Lot of scripting and interesting intrigue and story.  Loads of character weight.   Modern setting.  Actually, only the 2nd AAA MMO to ever do a modern style.
I don't see any real negatives with the combat system other than the animations.  The mechanics themselves are just fine...  it's collision-based (with positioning), has resource mgmt., and synergistic conditions inside of a skilldeck system.   I'm not complainin.  It's like ToR and Spellborn had baby and Conan raised it.

Not sure yet if I want to play this or GW2 though.  I got in on the GW2 beta late and have no opinion of it.  I can fathom a guess that GW2 has superior 'feel' to TSW where the latter trumps the former in style and overall depth.

[Falconeer]

Despite both having threeway PvP, GW2 is built around it while I'm afraid that PvP in secret world is an afterthought, at least when it comes to balance.

That said, the threeway Battlegrounds/Warzones plus the permanent PvP open zone, with conquerable spawn points and factories which give faction-wide bonuses, seem to be a lot of fun. Three is really the key, and it's great to see that every single new MMORPG finally got it. Except SWTOR 

[tmp]

but if I had to put my finger on the 'style' of the game, it reminds me a lot of MxO.

Funnily enough this last video posted in the thread made me wish the game paired its current mechanics with the MxO combat animations.

[TripleDES]

So, is it fun?

[Falconeer]

If you don't expect a snappy fast paced combat a la WoW-Rift-Swtor, yes it's a lot of fun. No one knows for how long yet.

If combat pace and flow is very important to you, and you have expectations in that sense, then you won't see anything else (and there's a lot) so no it's not fun at all.

[Modern Angel]

Modern Angel, are you sure your computer isn't trying to start the DX11 client instead of the DX9 one?

Pretty sure but I'll double check. I'm running Vista, anyway, so it can try all it wants and I think it would snap back to DX9.

[palmer_eldritch]

The DX11 version of the game does look good though. I can play DX9 with everything up to max or DX11 with some of the settings turned down a bit, but the DX11 one still looks better. It's hard to put my finger on exactly why - I think it's the lighting effects. Something as simple as running through a forest and reaching an area where there's a gap in the tree cover and the sun breaks through looks fantastic.

[Mrbloodworth]

Deputy Andy though, I wanna hear more of his fucked up history...

[Falconeer]

That's not the right Deputy Andy.

[Miasma]

I don't quite understand how the next beta weekends work.  I know the other factions get unlocked but those are just short prologue zones then, as I understand it, each faction uses kingsmouth as the starting zone anyways.  Since skills are the same across factions, there is no special reason to reroll or anything.

I noticed a lot of the later quests were locked for the beta, if those don't get unlocked next weekend there won't be much reason to play.

[Ghambit]

If you don't expect a snappy fast paced combat a la WoW-Rift-Swtor, yes it's a lot of fun. No one knows for how long yet.

If combat pace and flow is very important to you, and you have expectations in that sense, then you won't see anything else (and there's a lot) so no it's not fun at all.

Thing is, this combat system cant support a faster pace.  And flow in TSW is dependent on deck and situation (so basically you can't really ever get into one).
There's just way too much onscreen info. for it to be any faster than it is (you have to juggle resources, ranges/CoA, and conditions)... or all those fancy mechanics go out the window.

As for "flow."  FC doesnt design games with it since AoC.  They prefer dynamic combat (in most classes), so to be most efficient you must be most adaptable I guess.  There will indeed be decks people can 'zone out' on though eh?

but if I had to put my finger on the 'style' of the game, it reminds me a lot of MxO.

Funnily enough this last video posted in the thread made me wish the game paired its current mechanics with the MxO combat animations.

Indeed.  Cthulhu-matrix.  

[Surlyboi]

Not in the Beta Weekend, no. Only Templar faction, only firs circle of skills and only Kingsmouth. The "other" beta has access to everything already.

The "other" beta *had* access. Now I'm locked out like the weekenders.

[Modern Angel]

That's weird because I'm not. Hrm

[Falconeer]

It's not a bad idea though. The temptation to play the game and chew through the content before launch is big. That might impact their sales.

[palmer_eldritch]

For those who haven't tried the game yet and want to, Funcom have announced details of the second beta weekend, which seems to be rather like the first one, and published details of sites offering keys. http://www.thesecretworld.com/news/the_secret_world_beta_weekend_2_kingsmouth_calling_part_two Don't blame me if those sites are simply trying to scrape your e-mail addresses or hijack your Twitter account, which they probably are.

[Miasma]

So still in Kingsmouth but not even a different faction?  Not impressed.

[Kageru]

It's sounding like it might launch content light, and the longevity of its content and the effort of producing more at sufficient quality is its weak-point.

It sounds like it's basically trying the SWTOR path of story and ambience with a much much smaller budget.

[HaemishM]

Just as a point of reference, Kingsmouth itself has an absolute SHITTON of content. I think I played somewhere in the neighborhood of 6-8 hours and I don't think I even consumed half the content there. Granted, MMO nerds are notorious devourers of content, but I think with the number of areas they are looking at for release, there's probably enough to keep most MMO OCD twats filled for the first month without trouble.

[Draegan]

For someone who rages hard against MMOs all the time, you just spent 8 hours in TSW.  Hand in your nerdrage card please.

[HaemishM]

Heh, that's the problem. There's not a lot of rage to be had, because the game isn't TERRIBLE. It's not great, it certainly doesn't feel all that innovative mechanically, the voiceacting is cheesy. I WANT to like this game, because the setting is tremendous and it's got the "feel" for that setting down, creepiness and all. The combat is just boring. I played it so long because I really wanted to like it.