Dark Days Are Coming - New Funcom Project

[Falconeer]

There are enough puzzles that they put a web browser you can pull up in game by pressing B. It defaults to Google.

[Riggswolfe]

There are enough puzzles that they put a web browser you can pull up in game by pressing B. It defaults to Google.

I know. I use it a lot. :)

[Lucas]

Launches on July 3rd; two more beta weekends detailed:

http://www.thesecretworld.com/news/the_secret_world_to_launch_july_3rd_beta_weekend_roadmap_revealed

[Falconeer]

That's very good, although we all know this means there's some rough shit under the hood and 2 weeks won't be nearly enough. Horrible sign, I must say.


EDIT: One good thing I read about dungeons in TSW:

One thing that I noticed right from the start was the conspicuous lack of the groups of trash mobs that have become ubiquitous in modern instance design. Tor informed us that this is a conscious decision on Funcom's part, as the studio wants players to jump right into the action that they came looking for instead of having to wade through time-consuming and ultimately pointless crowds of trash before they even lay eyes on the first boss.

...

Personally, I had a great time in the dungeon. It was challenging without being overbearingly difficult, and I am a huge fan of the team's minimal-trash-mob policy. After all, we don't go into dungeons to fight the same junk we've been leveling on for the past however-many hours; we go for the challenge of bringing down the big-bads and bringing home the tasty loot they drop.

No trash in instances? Yes please. I am not sure how that is going to work out for them in term of giving players the idea that there's enough content, if clearing an instance is a thing you can do too quickly, but I must say there's few things I hate more than trash mobs in MMORPGs.


Also, no "resurrection" skill whatsoever in TSW 

Tor reminded us that the real “mystery” of the dungeon content is figuring out what builds your party needs to be using, and how to fight the bosses and succeed.  You see, there’s no “rez” in TSW.  When you’re knocked down in a boss fight, you’re down until the party either dies completely or manages to win without you.  A barrier goes up around the boss-fight and you have to wait until either of those two criteria is met before rejoining your group from a nearby respawn point.

The reason for not having a rez in TSW is pretty simple: it would become a must-have skill taking up one of your valuable seven active skill-slots, and every party would have rezzes on hand to get them out of a jam.  Instead Funcom wants you to really work together to figure out a good strategy that works for your group.  They want you to check and change your builds when one set-up doesn’t work and then go back in and try again.  The boss fights and the way in which you beat them is the puzzle here.  Being able to just rez when you’re downed would cheapen the fight.

[TripleDES]

I hope this is somewhat of a success, because it'll increase the chances of getting AO2.

[Riggswolfe]

Well they're claiming the delay is for marketing reasons. Whatever that means. Heck, maybe they figure in the extra 2 weeks more Diablo people will be ready for something new. We all know they won't get much done in 2 weeks though they might get a few new animations in or something.

They posted their financial stuff report today and it has some TSW info in it.

http://l3cdn.funcom.com/funcomportal/pdf/investor/2012/funcom_1Q12_report.pdf

This part is interesting in a good way:

Funcom considers the  player  feedback both from
the closed beta events and the open beta events to
be positive. Login numbers among eligible players,
playtime and return visits  are significantly higher
than for Age of Conan. These are positive indicators
of the retention capacity of TSW.

They give the reasons for pushing it back for 2 weeks as market reasons, I'd read it as marketing reasons. I'm not sure what that means unless it is intended to avoid some other launch or as I speculated to give Diablo 3 fervor time to die down.

And from their slideshow version about development they say they're currently focusing on character creation, animations, grouping and combat impacts which I can only guess means making combat have more "weight". I suspect the first 2 are mostly all about their art department. Grouping I don't know, squashing bugs related to the group content? Or to grouping in general?

[Draegan]

I'd give the game a shot if they fix the animations and sounds etc.

[Riggswolfe]

I'd give the game a shot if they fix the animations and sounds etc.

You know, the animations and sounds need work but maybe I'm just not as picky as others. I got so wrapped up in the atmosphere and mood I rarely noticed my character ran while holding a dime clenched between his butt cheeks. Maybe I'm just not as picky about this stuff...

[Flood]

I hope this is somewhat of a success, because it'll increase the chances of getting AO2.

This.

[UnSub]

Looking at that financial report, am I right in seeing that Funcom lost US$16m in 2011 and another US$6m in Q1 2012? And they've got about US$12m in cash left?

TSW (and Fashion World Live, which is their other listed new product in that report) really needs to be successful if I've read that right.

[Ingmar]

Wow, down to 12m cash is a really freaking risky position to be in.

[Modern Angel]

I wasn't kidding when I said everyone there realizes how much is riding on TSW's success. Funcom's a bit of an odd duck, though, in that Norway rewards (and I don't pretend to know all the details, so forgive me) investment in Norwegian companies with big tax breaks in return, so low cash reserves now never tell the full story. Oil money can come streaming in tomorrow.

While this is just my own feeling, I'm more worried about the distribution partnership with EA. I never feel as though EA has the best interests of the people they work with at heart. So far as I know, it's just distribution, but it still makes me nervous. Better than Eidos, I guess.

[Falconeer]

They say somewhere in that document that they are hoping for a steady 500k subscriptions, which at least doesn't sound terribly crazy (although still hard). But is it believable? Would that be enough? We know these companies find plenty of ways to lie to investors AND to themselves.

[Spiff]

They say somewhere in that document that they are hoping for a steady 500k subscriptions, which at least doesn't sound terribly crazy (although still hard). But is it believable? Would that be enough? We know these companies find plenty of ways to lie to investors AND to themselves.

Nothing wrong with hoping, but if that's what they need/promised anyone? Might as well pack it up now.
It's basically a self-made IP (although all the Lovecraftian references give it some brand recognition I guess) and it looks like they don't have the money to throw any serious marketing behind it either.
I'd be flabbergasted if they sold a million boxes and that would still mean a 50% retention rate, which is ridiculous.

[UnSub]

I wasn't kidding when I said everyone there realizes how much is riding on TSW's success. Funcom's a bit of an odd duck, though, in that Norway rewards (and I don't pretend to know all the details, so forgive me) investment in Norwegian companies with big tax breaks in return, so low cash reserves now never tell the full story. Oil money can come streaming in tomorrow.

While this is just my own feeling, I'm more worried about the distribution partnership with EA. I never feel as though EA has the best interests of the people they work with at heart. So far as I know, it's just distribution, but it still makes me nervous. Better than Eidos, I guess.

I've got no idea about Norwegian investment rules, but following SWOR and 38 Studios now would be a bad time for a MMO to flop and then go around looking for investors for help.

[TripleDES]

Wow, down to 12m cash is a really freaking risky position to be in.

Yes and no?

No that Slighty Mad Studios is making a MMO, but they apparently think they can make a racing game half from scratch and with licensed content in just 3.25M€. So who knows.

[Modern Angel]

I've got no idea about Norwegian investment rules, but following SWOR and 38 Studios now would be a bad time for a MMO to flop and then go around looking for investors for help.

I guess I'm being unclear. I don't think they need to go looking around. Investors go to them.

[Falconeer]

Combat suddenly improved in the beta. Pre-launch miracle patch. Just sayin'...

[tmp]

Improved animation-wise or in some other ways?

[Riggswolfe]

Combat suddenly improved in the beta. Pre-launch miracle patch. Just sayin'...

I'm trying to figure out if you're being a smart ass based on their prior history. I have some a few videos that make it look like the combat in CB is better than the Beta Weekends. Not to a huge degree but improved.

[Falconeer]

Lots of animations smoothed out (not all), or reworked, and some oomph added all around, both through some UI tricks and redoing of some other things. It's not a revolution, but the improvement is tangible. As people pointed out it needs some tuning still, but the general consesus on the beta boards is really, really positive. Might be Stockholm syndrome, they are stuck with a game they like and any improvement is an epic party, but I tend to agree: cool improvements. They just have to keep up with that now.

[Tyrnan]

Does it feel more like you're actually hitting the mobs now and less like you just wave your arms in their general direction and they fall over?

[Falconeer]

It all works better together. For example, assault rifles animations have been retouched. Pistols, too. Haven't tried shotguns, but it all feels better. Critical hits and "hit numbers" have been improved too, and it all contributes to make it more visceral. I have no idea about magic though, I don't use that stuff. But as I said, no one is really complaining (aside from those whose uber broken build has been nerfed).

Mind, it's not PERFECT! all of a sudden. It's simply, definitely, improved.

[Surlyboi]

Ah, that explains the extra five gigs of shit I suddenly had to download this weekend.

Yup, miracle patch. Now I can't play at all as it crashes to desktop right after I hit "start game" on the patcher.

LoLFuncom. 

[Riggswolfe]

Well, as I can't see the closed beta boards for obvious reasons I hope that it's just you and not a sign of a major fuck up in their new patch. Still, 5 gigs? Damn....

[Falconeer]

There's no major fuckup that I am aware of. They specify in the notes that the patch is more "rough" than normal (sic), so patience it's required since it's beta and all.  But I'd say that Surlyboi is just out of luck, not so many cases like his reported.

Also, about patch size, this is the "gold" patch. The one that will hit the DVD. With all the art assets that were still missing.

[Draegan]

Are there any videos that are decent to watch?

[Falconeer]

That... makes me realize that the changes are "tangible"... but not enough to be noticeable in a video. Take that any way you want.

[Riggswolfe]

Is the closed beta still under NDA? I'd love to ask about this recent patch and if it solved the stuff I see lots of complaining about. Hopefully the next Beta Weekend will have the contents of that new patch.

[tmp]

That... makes me realize that the changes are "tangible"... but not enough to be noticeable in a video. Take that any way you want.

5gb placebo patch

[Draegan]

I might have to look for a beta key to see if there is any difference between what they showed at PAX and now.  Then again, launch is soon anyway right?

[tmp]

IIRC if there's no further delays it's scheduled for launch roughly a month away.

[Falconeer]

Launch is July 3rd. Early access June 29th.

[Ingmar]

Wow, down to 12m cash is a really freaking risky position to be in.

Yes and no?

No that Slighty Mad Studios is making a MMO, but they apparently think they can make a racing game half from scratch and with licensed content in just 3.25M€. So who knows.

Funcom is a publically-traded company, there's not a lot of comparison to be made between them and an indie studio in this sort of thing.

[Daeven]

So. Go or no go? I really like modern horror / conspiracy settings (hell. this game may as well have been ripped out of my setting notes for my current Shadowrun game), but.... But MMO's just piss me off because they are so.... bla.