Well, it is entering its 4th and final Beta Weekend event soon,
And as a pre-orderer and someone in the beta, I got an extra invite key for this beta event.
If anyone wants it, you're free to have it by just asking.
Here's some info:
http://www.thesecretworld.com/
Any thoughts on the game so far, Tpek?
Some guildies are looking forward to it (and at least one has been in the betas) but I've not heard much.
It's made by Funcom so don't hold your breath. Their MMO track record is riddled with screwy games.
Quote from: Steelgrave on June 20, 2012, 01:48:46 PM
Any thoughts on the game so far, Tpek?
It's different from most new MMORPGs out there.
There are no classes or races, just skills and abilities which you purchase and enhance via points awarded for reaching various milestones of XP (no actual levels).
Game is not exactly about completing all the missions in a given place as there are countless of them.
It takes place in a modern world, just with the Occult&Supernatural thrown in, such as Zombies, Demons, Magic, Lovecraftian Horrors, etc...
Can't say much more as I'm uncertain about the current status of the NDA.
Anyway, I can just give away a free beta invite key for this weekend event.
It will focus on PvP apparently.
I played a little, and it is pretty interesting. It truly breaks from old formulas by allowing you to pick your skills by simply changing your equipped weapon. Something about it feels like City of Heroes to me, although that isn't a great comparison. The quests are also fairly interesting, you have a lot of cut-scenes (not as much as SWTOR) and objectives that having you following paranormal activity around or doing surveillance against a target. There are even stealth missions and the like.
The only thing I would say is that the game appears to be fairly hardcore in the MMORPG department. The skills use MMORPG lingo like DOT, PBAOE, and LOADS of modifiers. The premise behind skills is that you tend to stack status effects on targets then unleash a skill that creates a different effect off that first status effect (i.e. you inflict "weakness" on a target and then fire your skill that does X damage and, if target is weakened, weakens targets in X radius). Lots of chaining like that.
I have two friend keys, if anyone is interested.
So no one wants the Beta Invite?
Somehow I have the Beta for the game, hell....I don't even remember asking for one ??? I set up a character but haven't played so far. Too much gaming goodness out there right now.
Quote from: Steelgrave on June 21, 2012, 06:07:32 PM
Somehow I have the Beta for the game, hell....I don't even remember asking for one ??? I set up a character but haven't played so far. Too much gaming goodness out there right now.
You would like it. It's like a Libertarian's nightmare/paradise. Play the Illuminati.
Quote from: Tpek on June 21, 2012, 06:02:50 PM
So no one wants the Beta Invite?
Is this only a 2-day weekend thing? I dunno, I think I'll pass instead of downloading a big MMO and probably only end up getting 1 day to play on their stress test weekend. Meh.
I never got the repeated weekend betas.. other than a couple stress tests. It always implied that they didn't even want many testers knowing how bad some of the more involved or late-game stuff was f'd up.
I think I'd prolly rather just fire up Rift or LOTRO if I get an MMO itch this weekend. I'm kinda beta'd out lately, even though if SOM says it's a 'Libertarian's MMO dream' then I'd probably enjoy it.
Quote from: Nefaro on June 22, 2012, 12:23:18 PM
Quote from: Tpek on June 21, 2012, 06:02:50 PM
So no one wants the Beta Invite?
Is this only a 2-day weekend thing? I dunno, I think I'll pass instead of downloading a big MMO and probably only end up getting 1 day to play on their stress test weekend. Meh.
I never got the repeated weekend betas.. other than a couple stress tests. It always implied that they didn't even want many testers knowing how bad some of the more involved or late-game stuff was f'd up.
I think I'd prolly rather just fire up Rift or LOTRO if I get an MMO itch this weekend. I'm kinda beta'd out lately, even though if SOM says it's a 'Libertarian's MMO dream' then I'd probably enjoy it.
BTW, a bit OT, but you have heard SWTOR is going F2P. It's already taking its steps in that direction. :P
Quote from: Nefaro on June 22, 2012, 12:23:18 PM
I'm kinda beta'd out lately, even though if SOM says it's a 'Libertarian's MMO dream' then I'd probably enjoy it.
LOL! Well, it's really a conspiracy theorist's dream MMO. But, in a sense, the idea underlying Libertarianism is that forces array themselves to remove our liberty in exchange for order and security. Both the Illuminati and Templar factions have that goal - to control the world. The Templars do it to promote order and "righteousness," while the Illuminati do it for power and profit. The third faction, the Dragon, promote chaos and anarchy so that they can control the world through the natural flow of fate (which they can predict).
My only problem is that Guild Wars 2 will be releasing within the summer/fall. And I enjoyed GW2's beta a tad more than The Secret World (only a tad, however).
Quote from: son_of_montfort on June 22, 2012, 12:44:40 PM
Quote from: Nefaro on June 22, 2012, 12:23:18 PM
I'm kinda beta'd out lately, even though if SOM says it's a 'Libertarian's MMO dream' then I'd probably enjoy it.
LOL! Well, it's really a conspiracy theorist's dream MMO.
Well.. those are two different things.
I also took it as the game system being very open and unrestricted. ;D
That is true. It was more the libertarians' nightmare, given that every side is trying to control humanity for various Nefaro... er nefarious purposes.
Yeah, I liked the premise especially if there's a lot of supernatural junk in there.
But it's Funcom... So I'm wary of the condition of their MMO releases.
picked this up on the 29th. had no problems so far except a couple of broken quests. one was fixed and i completed last night. still waiting for other to be fixed which should be soon as it is just a mob that isnt spawning. but plenty to do while you wait! i havent gotten into crafting yet, need to read up on it some more so i dont waste materials and such. im on the US RP server. name in game is Slo-mo. you pick a first and last name but slo-mo is the nickname and that has to be unique. i chose dragon faction.
I've been playing it a bit since the 29th as well :).
Couldn't find the time for the last 2 days though :P.
It's a really neat little gem.
Quote from: CptHowdy on July 03, 2012, 10:56:57 AM
picked this up on the 29th. had no problems so far except a couple of broken quests. one was fixed and i completed last night. still waiting for other to be fixed which should be soon as it is just a mob that isnt spawning. but plenty to do while you wait! i havent gotten into crafting yet, need to read up on it some more so i dont waste materials and such. im on the US RP server. name in game is Slo-mo. you pick a first and last name but slo-mo is the nickname and that has to be unique. i chose dragon faction.
went to another instance where the mob was spawning so quest was completed! im far enough along now where i am ready to try out that first dungeon-polaris. my server is arcadia. started out hammer/chaos but decided to switch to shotgun/assault rifle.
I hear it's kinda fun.. in a single-player kinda way.
I guess that makes it sound kinda like SWTOR's general setup, huh?
Quote from: Nefaro on July 03, 2012, 03:46:26 PM
I hear it's kinda fun.. in a single-player kinda way.
I guess that makes it sound kinda like SWTOR's general setup, huh?
Not that much.
There are no "Class-quests", and so far I have yet to see the option to choose a response in a conversation.
However, there are no classes. Grind is so far, far far far of a feature.
There are investigation missions that require you to actually browse the net (you have an ingame browser for that), and try to figure out and solve riddles, puzzles and follow clues around.
Difficulty has so far been a lot more manageable.
Though it also has a lot of open world content like SWTOR, things actually spawn quickly. So no more 1+ hour long queues to fight a silly boss like you had all the time in SWTOR.
Thanks for the impressions Tpek.
When I said "single-player", I meant that I heard it didn't have a lot of group PvP type content or the group content just wasn't all that amazing.
I'd be up for trying it out, but I don't want to jump into yet another $50 MMO release when they all end up offering a free trial and the initial price drops so fast. Then later becoming freeToP for an even longer "demo" run.
Quote from: Nefaro on July 03, 2012, 09:37:51 PM
Thanks for the impressions Tpek.
When I said "single-player", I meant that I heard it didn't have a lot of group PvP type content or the group content just wasn't all that amazing.
I'd be up for trying it out, but I don't want to jump into yet another $50 MMO release when they all end up offering a free trial and the initial price drops so fast. Then later becoming freeToP for an even longer "demo" run.
Actually, PvP has a nice concept to it.
As there are 3 factions in the game, the major PvP section of the game (there is also a smaller one, "Fight Clubs", where it's freeform player beating) has the 3 factions vie for control
of various secret project facilities and wonderous places (like El Dorado) around the world.
The more a faction holds the bigger are the bonuses/boni its members receive in PvE content, such as increasted damage, increased experience gain, etc... :)
That may not be too bad if there's always a persistent pvp zone for that control-type play, where you can drop in & out whenever.
Dammit! Now you guys got me to debating it.
Yeah I am vaguely interested, but Rift's got me for now...and for the forseeable future in fact, especially with the expansion on the horizon.
I'll have to check out some gameplay videos of this one.
I'm more than a little irritated that I snookered myself into creating a facebook account -- my first, only, and last -- for the "beta." While it is of course my fault, I am holding them accountable because it's just easier to pretend I'm not stupid.
3 x 3 combat does remind me fondly of DAOC. Which I don't think it should, because I think that was only 2x2. I probably just miss minstrel trolls. Oh well.
kotor couldn't grab me over skyrim. Not sure I'm diving into the online world again until I can find a guild that matched my LotRO or OPFlash experience.
Supposedly you don't need to join the same server to participate with anyone else - so I just choose any of them, based on server ruleset I guess?
Yes, I grabbed yet another MMO even though I should wait awhile until there are less bugs, and a lower price. :P But my dispirited MMO needs have been languishing in Elf & Blaster hell and desperately need something different.
Quote from: Nefaro on July 15, 2012, 01:06:11 AM
Supposedly you don't need to join the same server to participate with anyone else - so I just choose any of them, based on server ruleset I guess?
Yes, I grabbed yet another MMO even though I should wait awhile until there are less bugs, and a lower price. :P But my dispirited MMO needs have been languishing in Elf & Blaster hell and desperately need something different.
Anyway we can contact each other in the game?
Quote from: Tpek on July 15, 2012, 11:00:37 AM
Quote from: Nefaro on July 15, 2012, 01:06:11 AM
Supposedly you don't need to join the same server to participate with anyone else - so I just choose any of them, based on server ruleset I guess?
Yes, I grabbed yet another MMO even though I should wait awhile until there are less bugs, and a lower price. :P But my dispirited MMO needs have been languishing in Elf & Blaster hell and desperately need something different.
Anyway we can contact each other in the game?
Try sending a tell, and/or adding "El-Choda" to your friends list. ;D
I ended up joining the 'Daemon' server or some such, but there was mention of cross-server group stuff so I dunno how it all works. *shrug*
I left an initial impressions rundown here:
http://www.maddogdrivethru.net/viewtopic.php?p=158245#p158245
I would've copy & pasted it here but there are some colorful metaphors in it. ;)
I've been dabbling in this of late, although my laptop struggles a bit with leggy graphics when it gets busy. I'm on Arcadia server, as "Fadewyn". Pistol/fist packing Mamma!
I actually haven't played it for a week or so now, with the Steam sale and all,
TV shows I need to catch up with,
and a decrease in free time :P
It doesn't really push me into playing it, either.
Must be my apathy towards MMOs these days.
The stories & settings are fun, but most of the rest hasn't really inspired me to play every free minute like they used to.
Quote from: Nefaro on July 17, 2012, 01:48:43 PM
It doesn't really push me into playing it, either.
Must be my apathy towards MMOs these days.
The stories & settings are fun, but most of the rest hasn't really inspired me to play every free minute like they used to.
Indeed.
It just keeps occuring to me that all those good MMOs would have been far better as Singleplayer games with MP and CO-OP options included.
Some character creator fun for you guys... I enjoy giving my characters a theme. ;)
Here's Travis "Bob-D" Bickle, my latest creation.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi48.tinypic.com%2F18gkkx.jpg&hash=904b1c9bd9e2cd5da32599f88e28759aaeb5aa02)
;D ;D
I think the Templars are too goody-goody, though. Prolly fit better as a Dragon.
The game went live today.
Quote from: LongBlade on July 18, 2012, 12:48:43 PM
The game went live today.
Eh? The game went officially live on July 3rd. And Headstart started on the 29th of June.
Quote from: Tpek on July 18, 2012, 01:40:48 PM
Quote from: LongBlade on July 18, 2012, 12:48:43 PM
The game went live today.
Eh? The game went officially live on July 3rd. And Headstart started on the 29th of June.
Bah humbug. Got an email indicating it was live...(and why players love it). Apparently the fine print wasn't read.
Sorry.
Well there definitely seems to be a conspiracy afoot to keep me from playing this game. I bought it off Gamersgate yesterday but when I tried to create an account, the Secret World registration page kept trying to charge me another $49.99 for the game. Took 45 minutes on the online chat system to get the issue sorted out. (The webpage wasn't redirecting properly and I had to insert my user key into the URL in order to get the game to register.)
Downloaded it overnight and fired it up this morning. The menu overlays in game were flickering so badly, I couldn't even make a selection. Some google searching and I was able to edit the DX11 .exe game file in order to run the game.
Created a character and started to play. I got about an hour in when the screen froze, a loud rumbling noise came out of my speakers and I was forced to reboot the PC. Played for another hour and I had another hard-lock and was forced to reboot again.
I thought it might be my POS AMD 7970 video card as I am having the same issue with Shogun 2 but when I went onto the Secret World forums, i found that a lot of other people with both AMD and nVidia cards are having the same problem.
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on July 19, 2012, 11:42:33 PM
Well there definitely seems to be a conspiracy afoot to keep me from playing this game. I bought it off Gamersgate yesterday but when I tried to create an account, the Secret World registration page kept trying to charge me another $49.99 for the game. Took 45 minutes on the online chat system to get the issue sorted out. (The webpage wasn't redirecting properly and I had to insert my user key into the URL in order to get the game to register.)
Downloaded it overnight and fired it up this morning. The menu overlays in game were flickering so badly, I couldn't even make a selection. Some google searching and I was able to edit the DX11 .exe game file in order to run the game.
Created a character and started to play. I got about an hour in when the screen froze, a loud rumbling noise came out of my speakers and I was forced to reboot the PC. Played for another hour and I had another hard-lock and was forced to reboot again.
I thought it might be my POS AMD 7970 video card as I am having the same issue with Shogun 2 but when I went onto the Secret World forums, i found that a lot of other people with both AMD and nVidia cards are having the same problem.
Did you try setting it to run in DX9?
I've had an issue with the DX11 mode in that it refuses to go full screen without me forcing it to manually, and then it'll give me a crash error when I exit the game. But it hasn't crashed or anything
while I was playing it. I tried DX9 mode and didn't have those issues. Then again, the lighting wasn't near as good either. :-[
Using my old HD5770 and it's been fine other than the engine-typical texture loading jerkiness at times. Had that with Age of Conan too, so I half-expected it to still be a problem.
I did switch to DX9. Now the game crashes whenever I try to exit it and that somehow screws up the Win 7 shut down sequence so I end up having to go through the BIOS when I reboot the machine. This game's a mess.
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on July 20, 2012, 11:21:44 AM
I did switch to DX9. Now the game crashes whenever I try to exit it and that somehow screws up the Win 7 shut down sequence so I end up having to go through the BIOS when I reboot the machine. This game's a mess.
And, surprisingly, they've fixed up the engine quite a bit since
Age Of Conan. You can just imagine how crappy that was at release. The error-logging alone was enough to grind your PC down to a crawl and loading those text files would take long periods of time. ::)
This one is a huge improvement, which still has some issues. But who/what is getting them I wonder? The latest and greatest vid cards & their drivers??
Not really a ringing endorsement, is it? "Come buy our buggy piece of crap. It's nowhere near as bad as our previous offerings."
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on July 20, 2012, 11:57:24 PM
Not really a ringing endorsement, is it? "Come buy our buggy piece of crap. It's nowhere near as bad as our previous offerings."
".. but still buggy nonetheless!"
Heh.
I gotta say that they've managed to make the quests/missions more interesting, for the most part. I'd go as far as saying that they've advanced the bar a bit for other MMOs. If nothing else but for the storytelling outside of the typical fantasy or sci-fi drivel.
I'm actually interesting in
reading the background info on these, instead of skimming down to the objective and hitting okay.
Some of it's alright. I enjoyed the mission about the Illuminati symbol and the Dutch painter. (Figured it all out but I couldn't find the damned access point to enter the number) but there's still way too much grind and the bugs and random crashes make playing it a chore.
Don't waste your money.
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on July 21, 2012, 04:45:34 PM
Some of it's alright. I enjoyed the mission about the Illuminati symbol and the Dutch painter. (Figured it all out but I couldn't find the damned access point to enter the number) but there's still way too much grind and the bugs and random crashes make playing it a chore.
Don't waste your money.
What a shame. I had been looking forward to this.
Wait until the price drops and/or they clear up some of the bugs and crashes. There are some cool concepts in the game and some of the puzzles are more cerebral than you normally would find in an MMO. I'm not really an MMO guy. I hate the grind and the endless reloading of quests, but this one's got enough that's different about it to make me want to play it.
Hopefully they can figure out why so many people (like me) are having random hard lock ups when running in DX11 and why so many others (not me) are getting huge frame rate hits that make it run at 4 fps.
(and maybe learn Morse code. God damn that was an annoying puzzle! I must've listened to the transmission over and over again for 20 minutes and still couldn't keep up. I ended up using my iPhone to record it, then play it into a Morse code app that translated it for me.)
LOL @ the morse code one.
I'm actually not into puzzles too much, so if those investigation missions' clues are too much of a pain, I'll just hit 'B' for the in-game web browser and find a guide on how to finish it. ;) IGN has a nice spoiler section for it's missions, as does another fan wiki.
I really want to check out the PvP but I fear that you gotta be max-level to compete. Anyone know if that's true?
I'm the opposite. The puzzles are what keep me interested. I have zero interest in PvP and usually try to run from Pve fights as well.
Also, I didn't really get the whole "deck" concept when I made my character so I ended up going with a Templar skilled in shotgun and fists. Now I see that there are no deck archetypes that use that combo so I'll never get the spiffy awards. Also, the two skills are on opposite sides of the wheel, so I won't get any of the nifty MISC skills wedged between two skill sets.
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on July 21, 2012, 09:18:00 PM
I'm the opposite. The puzzles are what keep me interested. I have zero interest in PvP and usually try to run from Pve fights as well.
Also, I didn't really get the whole "deck" concept when I made my character so I ended up going with a Templar skilled in shotgun and fists. Now I see that there are no deck archetypes that use that combo so I'll never get the spiffy awards. Also, the two skills are on opposite sides of the wheel, so I won't get any of the nifty MISC skills wedged between two skill sets.
Misc (green) skills don't require any particular "deck".
I've been able to get them all when I had enough APs to spare.
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on July 21, 2012, 09:18:00 PM
I'm the opposite. The puzzles are what keep me interested. I have zero interest in PvP and usually try to run from Pve fights as well.
I don't see how you are progressing too well, since MMOs are all about massive amounts of PvE fighting. This one included. I hope you didn't buy it looking to just do non-violent mystery missions :o
QuoteAlso, I didn't really get the whole "deck" concept when I made my character so I ended up going with a Templar skilled in shotgun and fists. Now I see that there are no deck archetypes that use that combo so I'll never get the spiffy awards. Also, the two skills are on opposite sides of the wheel, so I won't get any of the nifty MISC skills wedged between two skill sets.
Tpek is right - there are no prerequisites to take the three Green lines.
As far as I can tell, the pre-made "deck" archetypes just give you a (sometimes) cool new outfit. But in an RPG where your worn equipment
doesn't change your appearance, other than weapons, this can be a big issue. I'm a bit disapointed that when I equip something that it doesn't give a unique outfit piece, but instead we must go to a clothing store and use game currency to purchase them. An advantage of that is being able to mix & match better without the devs having to make a separate equipped 'paperdoll' for appearance purposes too, and it probably saved them having to create all the extra outfit pieces to match each piece of lott. I always preferred the separate "look" option, however.