Dark Days Are Coming - New Funcom Project

[Riggswolfe]

Coming from TOR I think the character creation is much better than that game but not as good as, say, COH or STO. I like the hairstyles but wish I had more and think their facial hair is actually pretty good unlike the "poofy" beards you got in TOR. Seriously, in Star Wars trimming must be a bad thing!

I have purposefully stayed away from anything past Kingsmouth so what I'd like to hear from the vets out there is this. Is the game content complete past Kingsmouth? I heard somewhere, maybe here, that they had content work going on all zones at the same time to avoid Tortage syndrome.

Also, I think f2p is 1-2 years out. AOC held out that long and it is, still, imo a worse game than TSW.

[Nonentity]

I am genuinely interested in playing this game on launch. How weird.

[Rasix]

I'm still debating it.  I don't necessarily think it's worth a $60 box price.  I do feel it's worth playing. No one has executed a setting in a MMO better than this.

[Falconeer]

Some brand new developer blog getting into the details of the pvp modes and the buffs they provide.

BLOG: PLAYER VS. PLAYER IN THE SECRET WORLD

Hi again, guys!
 
The fourth and final Beta Weekend for The Secret World is soon upon us and during this event you will get to experience the player vs. player gameplay in The Secret World! So I want to take this opportunity to talk a little bit about how we’re doing PvP in The Secret World and what you can expect to see this weekend.
 
The Secret World features a variety of PvP options. Everything from that quick-fix, for when you just want to kick someone's butt for 20 minutes, to the more long term persistent PvP. In this post I'll go over the mechanics of the Fight Club, Battlefields and the Warzones, and how you can lead your secret society to world domination!
 

 
The balance between the secret societies is a fragile one. They have a gentleman's agreement that they are standing united in the battle against the rising tide of darkness, but they are divided in their pursuit for power. In the Battlefields and Warzone, The Council of Venice have allowed the secret societies to really duke it out over who gets to control them. Teams of players will be deployed here, and represent their secret society in the battle for controlling these locations.
 
Controlling any of these locations will provide a very nice buff not only to the winning team, but to the whole of their secret society. The Fight Clubs, Battlefields and Warzone are always a three sided battle, so even though you have an enemy in your sights, make sure to cover your back! The Secret World will launch with Three fight Clubs, two Battlefields, and one Warzone.
 
FIGHT CLUBS

 
Every hub city will have a fight club, which means one in London, one in New York, and one in Seoul.  This is an arena where everything is allowed; No rules! It's the perfect setting for when you want to test your new build, to see if it's viable or not. You can duel your friends, set up 2v2 matches, or 10v10 for that matter. It's all in the hands of the player. If you feel a bit naughty, you could always pay a visit to your rival secret society's Fight Club, and wait for that perfect opportunity to gank your nemesis. However, be prepared for players learning who you are pretty quickly, and the next time they see you, you might be on their kill-on-sight-list. This type of freedom in a game is something I think a lot of players will appreciate, and have lots of fun with.
 
BATTLEFIELDS

 
All across The Secret World, there are ancient relics hidden in legendary locations, and the secret societies are battling over who gets to control them.
 
In Stonehenge, the secret societies have recently learned how to harness the power of this unique structure, and each secret society has deployed a team of five to fight for control. This is a king of the hill type of gameplay, where secret societies get points for having the most players inside the inner ring of Stonehenge. However, you also get points for knocking people out, so the strategy is: Do you and your team spec for digging in and holding the centre, or do you spec for maximum damage and taking out any weak target you come across?
 

 
In Eldorado, the secret societies have recently discovered some ancient Mayan relics, and they have all sent a team of ten to represent them in the battle over who gets to control them. This is a capture the flag type of game, but with a twist! Instead of grabbing the enemy's flag and bringing it to your base, you grab the neutral flags (relics), choose where to defend them, and you hold on to them as long as you can. There are 4 different relics to grab, and each of them can bring different benefits to your team. When a team grabs a relic, they can choose to carry it, or to place it on the ground. If a team chooses to carry their relics, they get the benefit of being more flexible and manoeuvrable. Also, if a relic carrier is killed, it takes some time for the opposing team to pick it up. If the team chooses to place their relics, they get a really nice bonus as long as they stay in the proximity of the relic, and the buff varies depending on what relic they placed. However, the time to grab a placed relic is shorter than picking up one dropped from a defeated enemy.
 
So what do you choose? Carrying your relic around, sacrificing the buff, but making it harder for the enemy team to pick up the relic if the carrier dies? Or do you choose to place the relic down and defend it with everything you have, knowing the risk that it's easier for the enemy teams to pick it up? Eldorado is all about combining group synergy, clever tactics and sheer power!
 
Another cool aspect of Eldorado is the map layout. In traditional capture the flag maps, the map is symmetrical, and the teams start on each side of the map. We are pretty fond of breaking the mould on gameplay, so our map is not symmetrical, and the teams start in the centre of the map. The interesting part of this is that you as a team should decide where you want to defend your relics. If your group is running long range builds, you should probably go somewhere high up, so that you can use the height, and line of sight to your advantage. If you have a lot of beefy players on your team, you should probably look for some nice choke points and use sheer force and body collision to your advantage. This type of gameplay is what The Secret World is all about. The freedom is in the players’ hands, and you get to play the way you want to play!
 

 
The Council of Venice will monitor the results in every Battlefield, and reward the players handsomely, and each player will receive tokens they can spend on powerful gear. In addition to that, the secret society with the most wins within the last hour will get a really nice buff to their entire secret society, which gives a boost to their damage output, healing abilities, health and even experience gain!
 
WARZONE

 
The Warzone is a whole different ballgame. It is a persistent PvP zone, which is open 24/7. Here, the secret societies fight over valuable facilities, which generate great power to whoever is controlling them. The Secret World will release with one Warzone; The Fusang Project. In this abandoned Chinese village, built upon ancient grounds, the three secret societies are battling over four facilities. In order to control one of these facilities you have to get through a defence perimeter. If you manage to get inside, you have to battle the defending Anima Guardian, who is sworn to protect the facility from intruders. You can never kill the Guardian, but if you subdue him, you can grab control of the facility, and once you do, the Anima guardian will be loyal to your secret society.
 
This might sound like an easy task, but this place has a lot of challenges. For one, there are hundreds of players in this zone simultaneously. Each secret society has a set amount of players reserved to represent them in battle, so there will never be a situation where one side can flood the zone with players in order to lock the other side out, preventing them from defending themselves. The secret societies also have to consider their own infrastructure for a proper defence or attack. There are several anima wells, which can be used for resurrection, all around the zone. These anima wells can be captured, so if you are planning to attack a certain facility, you should make sure you control some of the nearby anima wells, to make sure you can respawn and get back in the fight quickly.
 

 
One should also remember that there are three different secret societies fighting in these zones. This means that if one side grows too strong, the other two secret societies can join together and push it off the throne. Three sided PvP creates much more interesting PvP scenarios, because the meta game becomes deeper. Do you trust that cabal which just told you they would support you in the upcoming fight? Do you accept their help, but plan to back stab them at the last minute? Will you be one of the mercenaries who don't really have an allegiance, but will fight for any side which pays you? The choice is completely up to the individual player.
 
The rewards for fighting in the Warzone are tokens you get as reward for completing different missions. In addition to that, for each of the four facilities your secret society controls, you get a substantial buff. This buff stacks with the buff from the Battlefields, and when you put all the bonuses together, they become a substantial factor in any game play.
 
So as you can see, we have a variety of PvP options, and something to fit every preference. We hope that our players will find our PvP engaging, challenging, and most of all FUN! I'm looking forward to shooting YOU in the face, in just a couple of weeks ;)
 
Martin Bruusgaard
Lead Designer, The Secret World

PVP has the potential to be lots of fun. Not only the open area is kind of cool, but the three-way battlegrounds are interesting from a tactical perspective. Especially el dorado, really weird. Problem is, of course, balance. I am afraid it will hardly be any fun at launch unless you manage to have an uber (broken) build which will be nerfed anyway later on.

[palmer_eldritch]

Can you make decent looking characters now?

Characters do look better now than they did in the previous weekend beta events.

I've been in the closed beta for some and now that the NDA is over I've put up a film giving my impressions of the game as it is now. It has some footage of character creation at about 27 minutes in, and lots of rambling about the skills system before that http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7ZTXCu4nik .

[WayAbvPar]

Tried to grab the client from an email, but Funcom tells me there is a problem with my email address or account. WTF, I have no idea. May try to muddle through it and check things out this weekend.

[Draegan]

I just tried the character creator again and it's still awful.  The female faces are hilariously bad.

[Lantyssa]

Tried to grab the client from an email, but Funcom tells me there is a problem with my email address or account. WTF, I have no idea. May try to muddle through it and check things out this weekend.

You have to request a password reset.  It may take a bit to reach you.  Anyone who hasn't touched their account in a while will get that.

[WayAbvPar]

Tried to grab the client from an email, but Funcom tells me there is a problem with my email address or account. WTF, I have no idea. May try to muddle through it and check things out this weekend.

You have to request a password reset.  It may take a bit to reach you.  Anyone who hasn't touched their account in a while will get that.

Apparently it is being sent to an email address I haven't used in literally 10 years. They want a bunch of documentation to retrieve it, which wouldn't even help since I have moved about 4 times since I last used that account. Tried in vain to get through to the email provider, but someone else has taken over service in my area and I can't even get through their fucking phone tree to even explain my problem.

So I said fuck it and created a new account. Also told Funcom they were morons for requiring documentation for an account that is dormant for as little as 90 days (that is fucking ridiculous). I am now <account name deleted> as far as FunCom is concerned. RIP, wayabvpar.

[tmp]

I just tried the character creator again and it's still awful.  The female faces are hilariously bad.

Ehh, the hairstyles are rather weak for the most part, but it's not hard to make decent faces at all.



it's especially nice they have base heads for different ethnicities instead of "just take caucasian head and paint it brown/yellow" standard common everywhere else.

[Numtini]

Apparently it is being sent to an email address I haven't used in literally 10 years.

Both my accounts are locked and it's been 12 hours and still no email for reset. It's just annoying.

[Sky]

it's especially nice they have base heads for different ethnicities instead of "just take caucasian head and paint it brown/yellow" standard common everywhere else.

TOR had that, too, and had a lot of great customization. But hey, loltorsux and whatnot.

[Falconeer]

I don't know what's wrong with character creation, folks. Palmer's video shows it pretty well (starting at minute 28:00) and why it could be better I think it's fairly decent. Men are more generally realistic and attractive then women for some reason, but seriously I see nothing wrong with this. I mean, look at the guy at 30:30. Ample clothing selection too. Questionable style, but still, lots of choices.

[tmp]

TOR had that, too, and had a lot of great customization. But hey, loltorsux and whatnot.

You may be right; between the selection of other species, the whole thing happening in another galaxy far away and TOR models having their custom stylization thing going, i can't say i ever took serious note of their meshes resembling any specific Earth ethnic groups.

fake edit: i've made a guy with epicanthic fold so yeah, there was at least some of that.

[Dark_MadMax]

So I been playing this some more

- PvE wise game is great. Quests are interesting beyond first zone albeit its a pity investigation type quests disappeared.  Nevertheless Its a very fun game to explore
- pvp is still bad. I mean it has its moments , but really  I dont see  it holding people attention for long .Its fun to try builds vs other people (though currently it means run one of the few broken builds and hope your gear is better than your opponents)

I really could recommend to play it trough  once . Its  original setting with quality content. Kinda similar to Fallen Earth (except better). Long term  though.... Well by that time GW2 would be out

[palmer_eldritch]

[PalmTrees]

From what I remember of the weekend test, female heads 4 and 6 could produce something acceptable. The rest took the ugly express to Uncanny Valley.

[Tyrnan]

So I been playing this some more

- PvE wise game is great. Quests are interesting beyond first zone albeit its a pity investigation type quests disappeared.<snip>

The investigation missions after Kingsmouth are just disabled until launch to avoid spoilers.

[Draegan]

From what I remember of the weekend test, female heads 4 and 6 could produce something acceptable. The rest took the ugly express to Uncanny Valley.

I thought they all did, but I'll give it another look tonight.

[palmer_eldritch]

I think the current client is different to the one used in the last weekend test.

It's certainly still possible to make some very ugly women but there's a few hotties hidden away if you get the sliders right.

[Draegan]

Meh.

[Amaron]

Whats the deal with closed beta test vs this open test weekend?  Is there a reason to switch my client to the open beta weekend?

[Falconeer]

I would say no. Unless you have friends in the open beta and want to play with them, you are better served with the closed beta, so ignore the open.

[Falconeer]

So, what do you think of my character? Still horrible? I mean, I am sure you don't like her but I wouldn't say the character creation tool is crappy at all.



Also, here's a few screenshots of Kingsmouth, the first area, that I took while strolling around. They don't do the light engine any justice, but I think they are kind of cool.

[Draegan]

That female face isn't that bad actually.

[Falconeer]

One thing I wanted to say since before the NDA dropped: this game has the best storytelling ever seen in any MMORPG so far, which is not such a great achievement but still deserves to be said. The intros are stellar, regardless of what faction you pick. The Illuminati Pac Man blabber is fantastic, the Templar puppeteer is really inspired and the Dragon butterfly guy (and girl) are... well... so damn cool. All the NPCs you meet are quite awesome and memorable from a "pulp" perspective. The cinematics put SWTOR stuff to shame if you ask me.

So many flaws in this game, but the first 15 minutes got the game instant-cult (for a MMORPG) status in my book. If you have any way to access the beta weekend and you haven't really bothered at al so far, I suggest you do it just to run the first 15 minutes of all the three factions.


PROTIP: As much as it's cool to see the environments for what they are, I strongly suggest to go the Settings menu as soon as you first log into the game and under User Interface --> Nametags enable "Vicinity Players nametags", "Vicinity NPC Nametags", and "Show Healthbars: enemies". This will help even in the metro introduction, which is quite messy without it and makes the combat feel clunkier than it already is.

PROTIP 2: Hit X. It's the Sprint ability. Permanent until you get in a fight. Then you have to hit X again.

[RhyssaFireheart]

I don't know what you guys are going on about - I see nothing wrong with any of those female faces. 

Those screencaps are nice, thanks, Falconeer.  My question is if the shadows continue to look crappy or is that just me?  I haven't seen a game yet that gets shadows right and I usually just turn them off from the start.

Since I'm not reading pages and pages of stuff - are guilds/clans/groups/whatever limited to society members or are they ARAC (ASAC?)?  Just wondering if you are limited to the society you choose for your character or can you associate with other societies in a guild.

I definitely think I'll be checking out the open beta this weekend.  I'll have to see what society Safe Haven is going for though, if we're limited on selection like that. 

[Falconeer]

If you ask me the shadows are really nice in this game if your comp can run them smoothly enough in DX11. Sure, the bigger ones look a bit jaggy if you stop to take a look, but overall they are pretty awesome. As I said, the lighting in this game is really, really good (look at the second screenshot, the long shadow of the power lines...) and responsible for a good amount of the overall atmosphere.

As far as I know, you can only create a "guild" (Cabals here, but you can choose between 20 different "government types", where the only difference is the rank names/titles. But it's cool, it goes from Commune, to Troupe, to Plato's Republic and many more) with people belonging to your same faction. So no cross faction Cabals/Guilds (if that is what you asked. I don't really know what ARAC/ASAC mean).

[WayAbvPar]

Lots of stuff to like so far, but the combat is fucking terrible. TERRIBLE. Boring, unresponsive, repetitive, and just bad.

[RhyssaFireheart]

Eh, the shadows never look right to me because they are too harsh all the time.  They look like they are created by a very strong, harsh light instead of just normal shadows.  I can try and see how they look though.

For the cabals, that's what I figured.  Now to see what SH wants to play as and check that out.  

ARAC = All Races, All Classes (it's a Shadowbane term), I just took out races and put in societies to get ASAC instead.  Don't mind me.

[Falconeer]

The worst, unexcusable part about the combat is the turning speed. It doesn't follow the mouse, or your hand, properly and that makes it all feel just... wrong. They are aware of it, I remember a Dev acknowledging a complain about it more than a month ago. But still they didn't touch it. I have no idea why they don't understand how important that little change would be (unless they fixed it, and it's modifiable now but I don't know how).

Shame on me for forgetting about that Shadowbane bit.

[palmer_eldritch]

Probably worth noting that you're only going to see those close up views in the character creator anyway. Here's another one I made - looks ok to me. This is about as close as you can zoom in in-game.



There is a way of fixing turning speed by the way, although I can't remember how. I know that's not very helpful sorry:)

[Amaron]

Lots of stuff to like so far, but the combat is fucking terrible. TERRIBLE. Boring, unresponsive, repetitive, and just bad.

I'm not sure what the deal is with the combat.   As I was going through the starter part with the shotgun I could only decide that it was downright awful.   Then when I tried to pick my first weapon they all felt awful.    Finally playing with blade though I got some abilities that made it much more tolerable.

It's still not great but I get the feeling the game is shooting itself in the foot with a lot of the early abilities.

[Falconeer]

See, if anything I am having lots of fun creating emo girls. They don't look bad at all.
Also, contrarily to what Palmer was saying, you see your face in all the cutscenes which are a lot. So it's totally worth it creating a face you like.

[palmer_eldritch]

It's true, I forgot about the cutscenes.



I do like the heads, in case that wasn't clear. I thought my red-head up above was a real beauty.