The Secret World

Funcom’s upcoming MMO.

Joel Bylos talks Secret World Issue 7 Details

0
3 weeks ago
by DocHoliday in

I haven’t seen this posted too many other places, so I thought I’d share this out for folks.  Pretty cool interview by the folks over at MMORPG.com with Joel covering all 3 live games Funcom is maintaining.  My gaming time has changed recently and I don’t hop into TSW nearly as much as I’d like, but it is by far one of my favorites and a game I really want to do well.  I know Issue 6 has been a little rough, but it was all sorts of fun and I’m happy to see news about what’s coming down the pipe for TSW.  Check out the full interview below, and below for my thoughts.

Joel had me with just two words – flamethrower and snowmobile Winking smile  I love what TSW is doing with their auxiliary weapons as each really fits well and has its own story and usage.  I still have work to do to actually use any of them, but that’s not the point as I appreciate having something to work towards.  One of the things many have complained about with TSW is the lack of a mount or quick-travel system so I’ll be curious to see how the snowmobile works, will it be like the train in Issue 6, or something that more closely resembles an open mount we’ve seen in other games?  Joel has since confirmed, that it will be mission specific and not an open mount – but it would appear that we’re getting closer to a mount system.  Not too many more specifics with the Issue, but with everything that company has gone through lately I hope something finally starts turning their way.

 

What’s Keeping Me Busy

6
1 month ago
by DocHoliday in , ,

I haven’t been writing all that much, and that’s mainly due to not playing much of anything lately.  But things are coming around and I’m getting settled at my new job and getting into a better routine with our newborn, so I should be getting back into more of a schedule.  But it shouldn’t be a surprise what main games are occupying my time and plans for the future.

I’ve been in and out of LOTRO lately, but more trying to keep things somewhat organized and not doing a whole lot out purely due to time constraints, that are loosening up.  I’ve toyed with the idea of dusting off my Captain but I think there’s still more then enough work to do on my Warden to keep me busy.  She’s not in that bad of a position, but I need to go grab a few virtues to adjust to the whole Agility switch.  I also think I’m going to start playing in the new instances to see what all I can do in there to challenge myself – I’ve heard rumors of Warden’s soloing the new 6-man, so that’s something I’m going to toy with.

Sadly I really haven’t been able to get in much of The Secret World and I’m really looking forward to the new content with Issue 6.  I always enjoy that world once I’m in it, but the concentration requirements have been a bit of an issue for me.  I’m still feeling pretty good about my Blades/Blood build but I think I’m going to probably check out the Assault Rifle and see if I can make a Warden-like build in TSW.  I’m really excited to get further into Translyvania as everyone talks about how much harder that area is and I’m curious to see how that all plays out.

My main play time though has been with Football Manager 2013, mainly because I can run it almost as a background game.  I ended up having a bit of a philosophy shift and started over a new game as my previous one I had cheated just way too much and it really wasn’t much fun due to the lack of a challenge.  And by cheating, I mean re-loading if I don’t get a result I like.  I started again with Everton and have reduced my “cheating” to long-term injuries (over a month) and transfers.  I know the purists will say that I’m not truly playing the game but I really enjoy the player development side of it, and the other option of “starting over” is quite daunting.  I just started my second season on this save and am enjoying it MUCH more then previous games as I pay much more attention to each game.  My first season saw quite a bit of turnover as I really prefer younger players and Everton has a bunch of older (yet still valuable) players.  I ended up selling Jelavic,, Gibson and Heitinga along with a couple others and a ton of loans for a infusion of over 51 million pounds.  I ended up spending that on 3 players initially – striker Ademilson from Brazil, fullback Mattia De Sciglio, and center back Ryan Shawcross as some of my other targets weren’t available or were too expensive in this new patch.  I then went out in January and was able to bring in Clint Dempsey on the last day of the window and Moi Gomez to strengthen my midfield.  My moves and my youngsters really preformed quite well as I was able to reach the finals of the FA Cup (losing to Manchester United) and 3rd in the Premier League.  The biggest disappointment was getting knocked out in the 3rd round of the League cup, but the fans got over that after a bit.

Coming into season 2, I have an amazing wave of youth from our development system so I really don’t have too many holes to fill.  The RNG was very generous with me as I brought in 5 players rated 4 stars (maximum is 5) or higher that should be fun to see how they develop.  I parted with Mirallas, Naismith and Gueye which brought in quite a nice sum of money.  I brought in a couple of youngsters and then on the last day of the window I saw that Michael Bradley was available so I grabbed him to see how he would work paired up with Jack Rodwell (yes, I modded the initial DB to keep him on Everton instead of the crappy move to Manchester City) to control the middle of the field.  My start has been a little rocky with an opening day loss followed by a dull draw, but I did win my 3rd game and am now getting into the teeth of Champions League group play, so it will start to get VERY interesting.

I still enjoy FM13 but I’m really starting to get the itch to get back to my characters stuck in MMO-land and as such I’m sure they’ll get some more attention, which will bring more writing from me as well.

 

The Secret World Update 1.5.5 Patch Notes

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3 months ago
by DocHoliday in

Like many of TSW’s updates, this one came and went pretty quickly without too much fanfare.  However, this not only brought some fun social items but quite a few other changes and tweaks.  I’m not sure I’ve figured out TSW’s numbering schemes but this to me seems pretty big for a tertiary update.  Full patch notes can be found here, but here are some snippits:

  • Valentine’s Day items
    • I like that not only can you send traditional Valentines, but also warnings
  • Quite a few changes to the Albion theatre
    • I need to find more time to spend there, really curious to see what others are doing
    • Anyone have any good YouTube channels for this?
  • Ranged weapon resources should build more reliably
  • Tweaks and changes to pretty much every weapon type
  • Crafting changes to make dis-assembly more uniform

I’m sure there are other things in there that folks might find important, but those were the big ones for me.

Here’s hoping we get news on Issue 6 here soon!

 

The Secret World January Game Director Letter

2
3 months ago
by DocHoliday in

Joel Bylos put out another Game Director Letter today and there’s a good mix of the good and bad, but one thing I love about Joel (and the whole TSW team) is that they’re not shy about admitting what’s going on.

He starts off with describing what’s going on with corporate Funcom and how it relates to The Secret World.  I really appreciate this transparency into not only what’s going on but how it has impacted the TSW team specifically.  Essentially Funcom has decided that it wants a single studio for all of its live games based in North Carolina.  This means that many of the teams supporting TSW, AoC, and others will either have to move or find other jobs.  I’m sure there will be some turnover with all of the teams but it sounds like the core of the team will continue on the game.  However, once again this is another corporate shift that will cause issues and delays in how TSW roles out content.  Hopefully this is just a small near term hurdle that they team can power through.  They’ve been through bigger and worse hurdles, so I am confident that the team will push through.

I know many will (and already have) indicate that this is a sign that TSW is in trouble and will shut down.  It is still quite early for that kind of talk since this move is just part of the restructuring that they announced back in December BEFORE TSW made its business shift.  This move is a corporate decision and has nothing to do with TSW specifically, granted it will have an impact but it isn’t a move based on the performance of any specific game.

I don’t like talking about this kind of stuff and I’ll admit it really bugs me when people jump to poor conclusions based on at best incomplete information or at worst inaccurate or stale information.  I prefer to keep things on what we actually know and what the studios are actually releasing as opposed to rumor-mongering.

On to more fun stuff, what about Issue 6 you say?  The bad news is that we are still a month out for when we’ll see it as it is slated for late February.  With all the corporate restructuring this doesn’t surprise me, but still I was hoping for an earlier release date.  I’ve loved the existing Egypt story, so the updates there and the inclusion of an “Indiana Jones” theme is great.  I’ll be curious how the Whip works as an auxiliary weapon, especially from a graphical perspective.

In addition to the new story stuff, there are also some VERY cool system changes coming too.  I love that they’re showing love to the Cabal system, and not just the standard things (logs, custom ranks, notes) but also adding a Cabal news feed which sounds quite intriguing.  Also key is that this is just the “first step” on improving the system in response to community response.  I’m consistently impressed with how well this team is able incorporate what other games have done with their community feedback and roll it into the game.

PvP is also getting some updates, but we’ll have to wait for the upcoming Developer blog to learn more about what’s planning.  I haven’t done too much out there, but I’d really like for this system to do well in TSW as I think it could be a huge factor in overall game enjoyment.

Finally, Joel confirmed that the Veteran rewards will first appear with Issue 6 and that it will be a system they consistently add to and improve.  Personally I’m most excited about the repair consumable, the portable vendors, and of course the new cosmetics and pets.

Overall I think this is a positive letter from Joel and once they get through this corporate mess, I’m confident they’ll continue to pump out quality content.

 

The Secret World Announces Store Changes and Veteran Rewards

2
4 months ago
by DocHoliday in

Joel Bylos, the Secret World Game Director, has been out of pocket for a bit since he was head down with the team over in Montreal.  His first post clears up a couple of items that had been kicking around, and so far from the initial glance I like them.

First up, he talks about the changes to the store and this relates to new pets and the ability to make those pets account bound as opposed to character bound.  This doesn’t apply to me (I’m only playing one character now) but this is a nice and welcome change.  Essentially if you pay 100 points (I’m making up that number) for a character bound pet, you would pay 125 points (25% premium) to make that same pet account bound.  You’ll also see in the store an option to unlock a previously purchased pet for the 25% difference.  I really wish other games would take this approach and hopefully they’ll expand this idea to cosmetic items as well

In addition, they had announced the whole concept of a veterans reward system when they made the business model change and are now starting to flesh out the details.  It is still a work in progress but essentially there will be a new set of currency that will be available for GM pack owners (lifers) and subscribers as well.  Each month you’d get an allotment of these points in addition to your allotment of TSW points for DLC and the like.  I don’t expect there to be any way to convert from one currency to the other, but that would nice too Smile  This is another nice perk and the items they’re talking about are things that I would love to use and aren’t anything game-breaking (IMO).  Some examples are:

  • repair consumables – these would be awesome for cases where you don’t want to pop back to town, a bit more painful on some missions then others now with the increased death penalty
  • Bank/AH/Mail cosumables to bring these items to you
  • Faction flavored Combat dummies
  • Veteran outfits, titles, and pets
  • secondary conduit or region teleport
  • mission cooldown reduction consumable

Certainly this system will all hinge on how many points we get on a monthly basis and how much the items cost but I can think of cases when all of those items would certainly be helpful but not overly powerful that they hinder gameplay for those that don’t have them.

I’m also excited to see what all Joel has up his sleeve for his next “State of the Game” post slated for later this week.

I’d be curious to hear what others think of his post, especially those who aren’t subscribers or lifers.

 
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