Secret World mmo - goes "buy to play"

[Nadia]

live since 07/03

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_World

http://funcomssecret.com/

info at massively.com
http://massively.joystiq.com/tag/the-secret-world/



subscriber changes FAQ
http://forums.thesecretworld.com/showth ... ost1474106

[Nadia]

GDC09: The veil lifts on The Secret World
http://www.massively.com/2009/04/07/gdc ... ret-world/

First and foremost, TSW will be an action/adventure styled MMO appearing on both the PC and Xbox 360. There is no release date yet, although there are internal milestones that the team is attempting to stick to.

The concept of TSW was officially started in 2002, but was unofficially created by Ragnar in the late '90s. The idea was to take our universe and overlay it on a world of contemporary dark fantasy. A game with urban locations that takes place in today's world with fantastic qualities that include the stuff of legends and myth.

The team has taken all religions, myths, legends, and histories and combined them in a great melting pot to form the main crux of the game's new take on the world. TSW's backstory extends all the way back one hundred million years (yes, that number is totally accurate) and continues all the way to today, where players will find themselves. The story will always put another spin on history -- a "truth" that lies behind all of modern history. Make no mistake, TSW will be all about the story.

Players will not find themselves restricted to just playing in the modern world, however. Portals will let the player slip back and forth through time and space, from events in the past to horrifying looks of the future. These portals will level let players slip into places deep within the world that hides beyond sight -- the world that humanity has ignored and forgotten.

Following in the steps of newer MMOs, TSW will be run on a skill based system. There will be no classes to any character when the game is started or any "levels" on a character that will be used to label them. It is simply up to the player which paths they wish to persue. The game will be offering a wide range of skills, going from close melee combat, to ranged combat, to magical combat, to even investigative and non-combat skills.

One of the big sentences we were given was that the team wants players to play the game from day one, not day 180. The game will not start at the level cap, it will start right from character creation and engage the player. The world will be completely open to the player right at the opening -- certainly areas will be harder, but they will be accessible for anyone who wants to go join their friends.

Also, from the start, TSW will offer the ability to give your characters the customization and design you want to give them. Your appearance will have no impact on your abilities or statistics inside of the game, allowing you to give the image you want to give to other players.

Combat is going to be one of the main focuses of the game. The team wants combat to be fun, reactive, and enjoyable rather than being total button mashing or slow and sluggish. The want players to come home and have fun with the game rather than feel like playing the game is all about grinding work. While we were unable to get a clear look of the combat, we were assured that it would be closer to an action/adventure game's combat system rather than the traditional MMO system.

Combat will not be the only avenue of rewards, however. Puzzles, investigation, and non-combat situations will also reward players who choose to walk those paths. Players will be encouraged to team up, so some players can deal with the monsters and threats while others solve the puzzles and progress the investigation further. The experience is put together so players are intrigued to follow the mysteries of the world, rather than grinding towards an ultimate goal of getting an item or downing a boss. You go and have fun, but you are evolving your character at the same time.

[Nadia]

Eurogamer 3 page preview
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/the-s ... ld-preview

Character customisation is completely free, and allows players to explore paths such as dark magic, voodoo and witchcraft as well as martial arts, ancient weapons and modern firearms. "If you want to be a character that has some magic power and ranged combat, you can use a shotgun and a voodoo doll and you can kick some serious ass using just your fists and your feet; you can do that.

This is not to say that The Secret World will follow the route to solo MMO storytelling taken by Age of Conan's early levels, and Lord of the Rings Online's epic quests: instancing.

"My preference is to have as much of it as open-world, shared spaces as possible.

I don't like instances at all," says Tornquist, surprisingly perhaps for a craftsman of the adventure yarn. "So we're trying to avoid that. There will be some places which are reserved for you or a group of people, but for the most part we're going to make it seamless, open, a lot of people running around - and that does introduce a lot of challenges when it comes to the storytelling aspect. But we have ways of working around that."

[Klast Brell]

That actually sounds interesting to me. The thing that sucks the fun out of it for me is the co launching on the Xbox. Controls and interfaces get so dumbed down when they squeeze them to fit on a game pad. I have a 104 key keyboard counting shift alt and crtl I have 416 keys. I have a mouse with 2 buttons and a scroll wheel. But with a PC/Xbox game I am reduced to using 8 or 10 at most.

[Fallakin Kuvari]

Thats funny, I've used an xbox controller on WoW and had over 36 buttons at my disposal.

[Klast Brell]

Whatever. I still hate it.

[Nadia]

Controls and interfaces get so dumbed down when they squeeze them to fit on a game pad.

depends how they do it

Champions Online, for example, will be using 2 different UIs for PC and Console
http://www.massively.com/2009/03/11/cha ... e-delayed/

In the interview Roper discusses the changes to the game's UI from the original console-friendly model to a more PC-specific variant.

Apparently the plan now is to release both games with completely different UI models to take advantage of the different platform types

[Klast Brell]

Just got fallout 3. I have come to accept that xbox games are inevitable. I still resent the interface. One thing that really irritates me is the way that the interface on the screen is presented. The games are written so that the interface is easy to use from 10 feet away on a low resolution television. That's important for a console game, but for a PC game it sucks. All the icons etc have to be huge so you can see them from your couch. That means that stuff that could be place in small trays around the edge of the window has to go to a separate screen. In fallout 1 and 2 you could switch weapons by clicking on an icon on the bottom of your screen. In fallout 3 you have to Click through a couple sub screens to get there. And I can't drag the item to a paper doll. while simultaneously looking at how my stats change. To see that I have3 to go up a level and down a different sub screen.

The game is fun. But the interface irritates me.

[Klast Brell]

Controls and interfaces get so dumbed down when they squeeze them to fit on a game pad.

depends how they do it

Champions Online, for example, will be using 2 different UIs for PC and Console
http://www.massively.com/2009/03/11/cha ... e-delayed/

In the interview Roper discusses the changes to the game's UI from the original console-friendly model to a more PC-specific variant.

Apparently the plan now is to release both games with completely different UI models to take advantage of the different platform types

That might make me try the game.

[Ddrak]

In fallout 1 and 2 you could switch weapons by clicking on an icon on the bottom of your screen. In fallout 3 you have to Click through a couple sub screens to get there.

You know you can hotkey the weapons (and any other skill you want), right?

Dd

[Klast Brell]

You can? I'll have to look that up when I get home. Being able to poke one key to do multi click actions would be really nice.

[Ddrak]

From the manual:

In the Inventory Menu, define Hotkeys by holding one of the
1- 8 Keys while simultaneously selecting the weapon, apparel,
or Aid you want in that slot by Left Clicking the desired selection.
Note, you can still change menus with the Hotkeys open,
and the item will be assigned when you Left Click.

While playing, use 1- 8 Keys to select any of your eight
Hotkeyed items.

[Klast Brell]

Thanks for posting that. I couldn't find it anywhere in the manual last night. Granted I didn't look very hard.

[Nadia]

due april 2012
http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/08/16 ... pril-2012/

[Nadia]

http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/09/14 ... aid-sizes/
how many players are actually in groups?
Bylos says five, and raid groups are 10.

[Nadia]

rumored to have no open world pvp
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/t ... 458/page/1

I had the chance to speak with Ragnar 1 on 1, and found that he's a great guy with a vision. The sad thing is, to those pvpers that are looking for open world pvp....your not in his vision. I asked about the fact that we have three factions, so I'm assuming that means we can fight in open world when crossing factions.

The response was, "good question, while the three factions don't like one another, they understand that they need to work together to defeat the forces (npcs) and therefor there is governing body that sets rules amongst the three factions."

He went on to say that there will be battlegrounds type of pvp, but absolutely no world pvp when I spoked to him after the panel.
I even asked about the opportunity for a pvp server where the factions could fight one another and he said it wouldn't even be considered because it doesn't fit the game.

[Nadia]

open beta expected before Christmas
http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/11/03 ... ums-erupt/

[Nadia]

pushed to June 19
http://www.funcom.com/news/the_secret_w ... ne_19_2012

[Nadia]

preview
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game ... tml/page/1

[Nadia]

taking preorders
http://thesecretworld.com/news/pre_orde ... a_weekends

By pre-ordering The Secret World you will also get access to these exclusive rewards:

Guaranteed Early Access to the game, up to four days prior to the game’s official launch
(If you pre-order you get at least one day (24 hours) of early access. Depending on availability you get up to four days. The availability is settled on a first come, first serve basis.)
An exclusive in-game item providing an experience boost to progression
An exclusive in-game t-shirt featuring a unique monster design
A powerful pet (Ferocious Wolf, Egyptian Cat or Loyal Hound) to support the player in combat
A head start on character naming before the game launches

http://www.thesecretworld.com/buy/
Minimum system requirements
Required 512 KBPS or faster Internet Connection DVD-Rom 8X or faster DVD drive**
OS Windows XP (SP 1)/Vista (SP 1)/Windows 7 (SP 1) Video Card nVidia 8800 series 512 VRAM or better/Radeon HD3850 512MB or better
Processor 2.6 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent AMD CPU DirectX DirectX 9.0c Compatible
Memory At least 2GB RAM for Windows XP / 3GB RAM for Windows Vista and Windows 7 *
Hard drive At least 30GB of free space

*2GB RAM for Windows XP / 3GB RAM for Windows Vista and Windows 7
**DVD ROM required for installation only