The Secret World

[J_C]

how do you know so much about a game that is so obviously shit?

Ive played the game, as i said, most of the monetization does not matter if you play it casually.
It has good story, characters, atmosphere, music, and gameplay while floaty wasnt as bad, and now its slightly better. It definitely isnt a waste of time to go through the story.

This is what gives me hope. I'm not a hardcore MMO player at all, I don't revisit dungeons and don't grind for loot. I just want to play the content once and that's it.

 

[vampiregrave]

This is what gives me hope. I'm not a hardcore MMO player at all, I don't revisit dungeons and don't grind for loot. I just want to play the content once and that's it.

No need to worry then. Take your time and enjoy your playthrough, you won't find anything similar in terms of MMO's.

 

[A horse of course]

I've read some good stuff about the solo content, but I dunno if I cba to replay stuff. I played up to the second area a few years ago (with succubi and stuffies) and I think I stopped playing around the time I reached some giant fairground. How long does it take to finish the first area (with the Drogyr and Cthulhu and shit)?

 

[bozia2012]

This is what gives me hope. I'm not a hardcore MMO player at all, I don't revisit dungeons and don't grind for loot. I just want to play the content once and that's it.

No need to worry then. Take your time and enjoy your playthrough, you won't find anything similar in terms of MMO's.

I have to admit I hate the handholding they've added now. I liked it better in the beginning, when shit was hard and you just could go anywhere and try to solve the mystary.

I hope it goes away in Savage Coast.

PS They will be doubling the AP/SP gain for patrons + some other shit. Watching the stream now.

 

[Lhynn]

Alright, it seems they are cleaning up their act.

• patch next week -- addressing changes, patch 5th July FIRST CONTENT PATCH
• ARG -- 5th July Wednesday, e-mail, code to account, after patch -- summon a revenant, giving it a suffix

-- Of Energy, chance to give extra energy -- Of Havoc, increase critical damage/healing -- Destruction, extra damage close to dying -- Efficiency, reduce cooldown Elite abilities -- Restoration, leech heal max hp -- Alacrity, increase movespeed in combat -- Recovery, increase incoming healing -- Warding, increase Protection while wielded

• Elite Dungeons

-- Activity Finder, Elite -- All Elite Dungeons -- Elite 1: Trinity: tank, heal, 3 dps, level 50 -- Extraordinary Drop, Distillates -- Different weapons in each difficulty -- 10 Difficulties, All available on Patch (Elite 1-10) -- Choose difficulty, not dungeon?

• UPDATES

-- Weapon unlock: unlock both weapon/passive, reduce cost for third weapon

-- Increase base inventory from 25 to 35 RETROACTIVE, will get extra slot -- If already at cap, get extra slots

-- Increase AP/SP at 50

• Dungeons

-- Higher Extraordinary gear drop rate -- Guranteed Extraordinary weapon per day through dungeon mission -- XP rewards for repeat dungeon

-- Reduce cost of Sprint 2 (other sprints) -- No MoF cost to add glyph/signet to item

• Trading

-- Anybody can trade at level 15, Patrons any level

• PATRONAGE UPDATE:

"Not good enough value for Patronage"

-- Increased Mark of Favor per day (25% extra per challenge) -- 20% MoF daily cap -- Double AP/SP gain -- Free teleport from/to zones

• DOWNTIME COMPENSATION

-- 25 AP/SP --10,000 Marks of Favor -- 4000 Anima Shards -- 1 Blue Talisman Fusion Booster (to fuse a blue weapon) -- Must have had an account before downtime -- Soon(tm)

• QUALITY OF LIFE

-- Patch Notes coming this weekend (hopefully), Infernal Vibrations fixed, clothing items fixed

• PLAN MOVING FORWARD

-- "Next three months" roadmap coming soon, next week?

• Q & A

-- SEASON TWO INFO NEXT WEEK GET HYPE (all of Tokyo coming soon(tm), NEW DUNGEONS)

-- Naming filter still too aggressive: being cleaned up for characters/cabal

-- Leftover Funcom points converted to Aurum (info soon)

-- Gear/Deck Manager "in the pipeline, important part, cool plans, easier to use" (info soon(tm)

-- PvP currently Shambala because it was most popular mode; they want to do more, everything depends on demand: keep playing, interest, looking to improve: El Dorado, Fusang, Stonehenge

-- Faction Missions still in-game, planned to be released 'later on', rank past 10 -- to go past that do special missions, will be difficult, outfits

-- AH Search: "looking into search strings", more difficult than it seems UPDATE: fixed in internal build yesterday, might be live in upcoming patch

-- Dungeon keys: 10 keys F2P, 18 keys Patron (no current change), "free loot every day", dungeon updates increase value, extra keys cost 500 MoF a pop if you like doing them a lot, sell guaranteed weapons on AH (lot of people don't do dungeons apparently?),

-- Weapon skins: "want to bring them back", customise important (through dressing room?), in the works

-- Some clothing options that transferred over aren't currently visible in the dressing room, many outfits have been split into components, being updated for SWL: soon(tm)

-- German and French voices: "getting back to fully voicing the game"

-- AUX WEAPONS: "can't answer that". They have plans for them soon(tm), not the same as we know them in TSW but definitely bringing them back: on the design board now, because "chainsaws are pretty fucking cool".

Funcom may just salvage this and get a good thing going for them.

 

[vampiregrave]

I'm pleasantly surprised with the changes. Here's a detailed preview from the official SWL website:

Hey everyone!

I’m excited to bring you the update notes for next week’s patch. Update 2.0.1 introduces the Elite Dungeon system. These dungeons will have 10 difficulty levels, simply titled “Elite 1” through “Elite 10”. Each difficulty will increase the challenge of the dungeon as well as the loot that can be gained. We will have more information about the Elite Dungeons early next week!

In addition to Elite Dungeons, we have also implemented many changes aimed at new players; monetization, loot rewards, and the Patron system. We have been reading feedback you have been giving us in game, on reddit, Discord, and across social media. This patch will address problem areas players encounter in game. This is the first of many. The team is committed to delivering an amazing online experience to all of you!

Patron Changes
We are improving Patron Benefits for you! The first major change you will notice is that you will receive double the amount of AP and SP from experience earned. This won’t double AP nor SP from special events, compensation rewards, nor direct purchases. Additionally Marks of Favour Patrons receive from Challenges will be increased by 20%, allowing you to earn up to 12,000 Marks of Favour each day through Challenges. Finally, Patrons can now Teleport for free in addition to being able to Anima Leap for free!

Dungeon Loot Changes
You said you don’t feel rewarded when opening dungeon drops. So, we are changing how loot works! When you are in a story dungeon, crates will now have a greatly increased chance to reward Extraordinary talismans and weapons instead of Distillates. Elite Dungeon crates will reward both a normal piece of loot AND a Distillate! Rare crates now have a significantly increased chance to spawn after a boss is killed. Rare crates and Elite crates both award a Distillate and an Extraordinary item.

Also, dungeons will now award XP at the end of each run. The final mission report has an XP reward to help get you progress towards that next level. We are also introducing a First Dungeon of the Day system that always awards an Extraordinary weapon or talisman.

Feedback Changes
We are also making some changes to the improve the quality of life of our players. We are increasing the base inventory size of all characters from 25 to 35. This is will be retroactive so your inventory will be 10 larger than whatever it was before the patch!

The price for Sprint 2 and for your first weapon unlock will be drastically decreased after the patch. We want a new player to be able to buy Sprint 2 and a new weapon page their first day. We are also merging the purchase of Active and Passive pages for Weapons. You will unlock both of them at the same time (for the price that a single page would have cost). For players that have half of a weapon unlocked you will automatically receive the corresponding Active or Passive page.

For those of you that already reached level 50 we are increasing the rate that you gain AP and SP. It was definitely too slow and grindy. In addition we are removing the Mark of Favour cost for attaching glyphs and signets.

We hope you love these changes! Thanks again!

-Scott





Update 2.0.1
PATCH HIGHLIGHTS
Dungeon Highlights

• Introduced phase 1 of the Elite Dungeon System
• Adjusted the loot table for chests in story dungeons to provide a higher chance of receiving an item over a distillate – Rougly a 50/50 split.
• Significantly increased the rate that rare chests will spawn in story dungeons.
• Rare chests in story dungeons will now give both a distillate and an extraordinary item.
• Players will receive a guaranteed extraordinary item for the first dungeon they complete each day.
• Added glyphs to scenario chests.
• Increased the signet drop rate in lair chests.
• Added XP to the repeatable dungeon missions.

General Highlights

• Increased the base inventory size to 35.
• Reduced the cost of Sprint 2 to 2500 Marks of Favour.
• Quickened Anima has been renamed to Sprint Upgrade.
• Unlocking a weapon’s active or passive page will now unlock the other page for free.
• The price of the first weapon unlock has been reduced to 5000 Marks of Favour.
• Increased the rate at which players gain AP and SP at level 50.
• Attaching glyphs and signets no longer costs Marks of Favour.

Patron Highlights

• Patrons will now receive 1 bonus AP whenever they gain an AP through XP.
• Players will now receive 1 bonus SP whenever they gain an SP through XP.
• Patrons now receive 20% more Marks of Favour from Challenges.
• Teleporting no longer requires Anima Shards for Patrons.
• All players can now initiate a trade with any other player as long as they are either a patron, or have reached level 15.

PATCH NOTES
GENERAL

• Players who completed achievements The Buzz, or The Unseen in The Secret World now see these under Eternal Echoes.
• Little Lion, Trippy Wisp, and Loyal Hound may now be deleted or consumed even when the pet is already owned. This addresses an issue where these items got stuck for legacy players who transferred these pets from The Secret World.
• Added Surgical gloves, blue and Surgical gloves, white to the Agartha Achievement Vendor.
• Made all the Achievement Vendor clothing items auto-consume on purchase.
• Added the Snowball toss, Nassir’s Groovy Gun, and Shoes of Synchronicity to the Agartha Achievement Vendor.
• It is no longer possible to meet-up into the Mining Museum Basement.
• Updated a number of Interaction UIs to more accurately represent what the player is doing.
• Adjusted the distribution of rewards for Lair missions.
• Trainers now interrupt themselves when the player picks up the phone
• Fixed an issue that could cause the mouse cursor to disappear during character creation.
• You can now search for weapons on the Auction based on their attachment (Energy, Restoration, etc).
• Changed the visuals on the ability bar so that the potion and gadget icons are clearer.
• Updated the shotgun weapon UI

GAMEPLAY

• Resurrection Joe and Ttsahthat, Lord of Mucus have had their level and power adjusted to intended values.
• The vampire ability Field Transfusion will now Root instead of Stun to allow some counter play.
• Resolved an issue with some fist DoTs overwriting each other.
• Reload animations for shotgun should now always display your shotgun when playing.
• Fixed a case where the Sanguine Wendigo could vaporize before the chase had finished during the mission Rolls Downhill.
• Added a fallback for cases where the Sanguine Wendigo is invulnerable during the final fight of Rolls Downhill.
• Fixed the waypoint to enter the sewers being wrong during Tier 5 of Dawning of an Endless night.
• The mission giver for the Tyler Freeborn chain now properly appears on the main map.
• The Cult Leader now provides mission updates in an area, instead of only to those who hit him during They Never Stop Coming.
• The phone now displays the full conversation for English players during the mission Black Sun, Red Sand.
• Dying to Carter’s Prom Night now provides a helpful reminder about the ward during Carter Unleashed.
• The first pumpkin patch should no longer have invisible wisps during Jack’s Back.
• The same Headlamp is now used for all missions requiring one.
• Fixed a case where it was possible to become stuck after crashing out of the instance for End Game.
• Fixed a case where it was possible to become stuck after crashing out of the instance for Total Eclipse.

DRESSING ROOM

• A number of texture and seam issues with various pieces of clothing have been fixed.
• A number of T-shirts that had their graphics being cut off have been fixed.
• Fixed an issue where some versions of the Sick kicks sneakers were not visible in the Dressing Room.
• Fixed an issue where some Cat ears headsets were not visible in the Dressing Room.
• Fixed an issue where the Icy claws were not visible in the Dressing Room for players who transferred them from The Secret World.
• Fixed an issue where some Military berets were not visible in the Dressing Room.
• Fixed an issue where the Extra Life t-shirt was using the wrong mesh for male characters.
• Extra Life t-shirt, blue should now have the correct thumbnail for each gender.
• Secret Podcast t-shirt should now have the correct thumbnail for each gender.
• Initiate Jacket, Dragon should now have the correct thumbnail for each gender.
• The Army combat cap, filthy is now visible in the Dressing Room.
• Fixed an issue where the Kimono, blue with grey was not working properly for Illuminati characters.
• The Unity Core (Templar) outfit is now properly restricted to Templar characters.
• Leather Wristwraps are now listed in the Hands category.
• Tube bras are now visible in the Dressing Room.
• Added Pinstripe suit pants and color variants to the dressing room.
• Combat headset should now appear in the correct clothing category.
• Lace cameo chokers should now appear in the correct clothing category for female Dragon characters.
• Drop earrings should now appear in the correct clothing category for female Dragon characters.
• Open leather jackets should now be viewable in the Dressing Room.
• Fiery Nightmare mask should now be visible in the Dressing Room.
• Unicorn’s Visage should now be visible in the Dressing Room.
• Creepy Equine mask should now be visible in the Dressing Room.
• Creepy Zebra mask should now be visible in the Dressing Room.
• Machine Helmet should now be visible in the Dressing Room.
• Surgical Gloves should now be visible in the Dressing Room.

 

[Delterius]

I got into Secret World Legends expecting very little. All I wanted was to scratch that urban fantasy itch I got since I first played Bloodlines. In fact, all I thought I'd find in SWL could be described as 'Bloodlines without any of the good parts and semi decent Action combat in place of the bad ones'. And for the most part I was right. However, the pleasant surprise came up with the Investigative Quests. There's actual exploration to be had. Actual puzzle solving. Its mindblowing. If this was a single player franchise, it'd be setting trends instead of chasing them. As it stands there's a lot of bread a butter to go through before you get to the good parts but at least those are worth it.

I'm also digging the setting, which was also a surprise. I love how jaded and nonchalant everyone is about fantasy, magic and even plotline conventions everywhere you go. You'd think that the priest of a town besieged by the undead would crow a bit bout fire and brimstone. Instead he pretty much says 'I googled it, we're pretty much the only ones fucked. Its not the Apocalypse, man'.

 

[Kem0sabe]

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

welcome to three pages ago.

 

[Fedora Master]

So I've been goofing around in the first zone. It's still the same game essentially but everything is faster now, which is nice. Individual clothing items cost between 5000 and 20.000 MoF though so you can expect to run around in the same outfit for a long time.

 

[Lhynn]

So I've been goofing around in the first zone. It's still the same game essentially but everything is faster now, which is nice. Individual clothing items cost between 5000 and 20.000 MoF though so you can expect to run around in the same outfit for a long time.

If you played tsw you can just import your old clothing with the legacy transfer thing.

 

[MicoSelva]

I bought The Secret World a couple of years ago (after watching Ross Scot's review), but never got around to playing it.
I did start Legends over the weekend, though. The beginning is pretty promising, the setting got me hooked right away.
How much single player story-driven content would you estimate to be in the game?

 

[thesheeep]

How much single player story-driven content would you estimate to be in the game?

More than in some actual single player games.

 

[J_C]

I bought The Secret World a couple of years ago (after watching Ross Scot's review), but never got around to playing it.
I did start Legends over the weekend, though. The beginning is pretty promising, the setting got me hooked right away.
How much single player story-driven content would you estimate to be in the game?

What I played of the original Secret World, I might say that with the exception of party dungeons and PvP, everything is tailored for single player. So 80-85% of the game, more than a hundred hour.

 

[Night Goat]

So, item upgrading. Let me get this straight. If I've been upgrading the pistol I got at the beginning of the game, and I decide to switch to a new pistol, I need to throw hundreds of items into upgrading it to get it to where my last pistol was? This is the dumbest shit I've ever seen.

 

[Lhynn]

So, item upgrading. Let me get this straight. If I've been upgrading the pistol I got at the beginning of the game, and I decide to switch to a new pistol, I need to throw hundreds of items into upgrading it to get it to where my last pistol was? This is the dumbest shit I've ever seen.

Sort of? you still need to fuse 2 green level 20 pistols into one blue level 20 pistol, so its not like you are losing anything from leveling up a weapon and then swiching to another.
Am at level 48 and now im starting to see some 3 star gear, so i have to level it, and i get to fuse me old gear to it to get even more powerful stuff.
The core idea in this is that no loot is trash, and that no matter what you get, you are always building towards something.

Itemization on itself is fairly good, gear is divided in quality, level, tier and type. And you can mix and match it for a variety of situations.

 

[vampiregrave]

Funcom updated the game's roadmap, including information about new content:

LATE 2017 / EARLY 2018
DARK AGARTHA, AGENT SYSTEM AND CONTINUE MAIN STORY

Explore the dark corners of Agartha and meet some of its oldest residents. Push forward against dangerous enemies and collect great rewards.

Now that you’ve been going up through the ranks of your faction, it is time to get yourself a team of rookie agents and send them on adventures of their own.

As a results of the events that ended at the top of the Orochi Tower, continue the main story mission and follow up on a lead which will send you on your way to a brand new continent.

 

[J_C]

There are some really cool shit on this roadmap. I hope the game will do decently enough and Funcom can realise this.

 

[Zombra]

Nope! No new content coming for this game ever! Codex naysayers have pronounced it!

 

[Deflowerer]

Well, I'd be on the side of caution a bit. After all, this year they are just reimplementing content from TSW. I'm pretty sure the new content, especially the promised new continent, will depend a lot on the state of the playerbase and revenue stream at the end of the year.

 

[Kem0sabe]

What new content? It's re-releases till 2018, and by then if the money isn't there they will delay season 2, has they have done till now.

Trusting funcom to keep to a schedule...

 

[Mortmal]

I bought The Secret World a couple of years ago (after watching Ross Scot's review), but never got around to playing it.
I did start Legends over the weekend, though. The beginning is pretty promising, the setting got me hooked right away.
How much single player story-driven content would you estimate to be in the game?

Easily an hundred hours yes, for an hardcore player, in the original TSW.The good thing is i dont remember any of it being stupid wow like fedex quests, everything had lore .

 

[Lhynn]

Side quests were what was considered fedex quests, and they were just a vehicle to facilitate exploration and made going from one npc to the next feel more organic.

 

[Night Goat]

I don't know if I can keep going. I'm in Blue Mountain, which is where I stopped in the old version, and for the same reason: the combat is really, really bad. Even after the redesign. Use your elite, spam your primary weapon's skill until you're out of energy, spam your secondary weapon's skill while it recharges, repeat every fight ad nauseum. It's a shame because there's a lot to like about the game, but the combat is unbelievably bad.

 

[Fedora Master]

Combat is meh as fuck but I manage okay by just switching it up every now and again by changing skills. I'm doing Elementalism/Katanas and switch between throwing fireballs and teleporting behind u with my sword. The grind quests on Solomon Island aren't THAT bad.