The Secret World - (Possible F2P) Relaunch in Q1 2017 - Games

reposting what I said from another thread: [quote]Combat may look better but it's still a clunky mess. Movement is also still very clunky compared to any other mmo. Targeting sucks in groups, you almost kill one thing and then the other mobs get in front of the reticle. Reticle has to actually be on the mob to attack. No focus target or anything. A lot of skill trees got dumbed down so much that you really only need to use 2-3 of their skills. it's like they tried to make it a console game in that fashion. Dumb resource system. Your character pretty much looks the same throughout the entire game unless you plan on dropping $$$. I hoped TSWL would fix a lot of the issues I had with The Secret World but it made a whole lot of new issues.[/quote] All weapons have some form of resource management. The mechanics are kind of boring.

I remember playing this game back in 2012 when it used to be subscription based. I stop at Blue Mountain (Can't remember the name) and now there's a relaunch and it somewhat pique my intrest. I was in love with the story and quests, it felt unique compared to other mmos at the time but the game felt tedious to me back then. I signed up for the beta, so I'm hoping (if I'm lucky to geta beta key/pass) SWL will rekindle the attention that I once had for this game.

[video=youtube;NfyABlTLGxo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfyABlTLGxo[/video]

So, I've applied for beta, but haven't had a dip into the game yet (would be under NDA even if I had). But based on some of the videos they've let trickle out, here's some thoughts from a guy who was playing the original closed beta's for this [I]waaaay[/I] back at launch half a decade ago: [B]GOOD STUFF:[/B] - New weapon mechanics look good, so far. Haven't seen all of them but they do seem to be headed in the right direction. Less focus on spamming the same two or three attacks over and over with the occasional big attack mixed in. More combat variation will go a long way in this game's favour. - Effects look significantly better. I remember always hating Chaos Magic and Blood Magic seeing as they were, respectively, "Green Lantern" weapon conjuring and big old ugly red blobs. Now, Chaos Magic seems to be more in-line with a trickster style moveset, and Blood Magic actually uses proper sigils and glyphs instead of literally just spraying blood everywhere like the world's most inconsiderate haemorrhage victim. - The new UI and control scheme seems to be an improvement. Vanilla TSW's interface ranged from "barely tolerable" to "literally unusable" depending on what mood I was in, and is what eventually stopped me from coming back to the game after I left during the AEGIS scourge. Now, the UI seems a lot more intuitive and straightforward, as well as being introduced at a much more reasonable pace. Speaking of which... - Tutorial seems to be a much better experience, now. The PCInvasion video (post above mine) showcases the first part of the tutorial, which introduces you to your first weapon, and the basics of combat and questing in a much better way than the Tokyo Flashback did. (Which is still in the game but features later on and introduces you to your second weapon after you've already got to grips with the basics.) This was probably one of the biggest barriers to entry that new players faced, I think. In concept, the Tokyo Flashback is a cool idea, and I'm glad they kept it in. But it was absolute rubbish as a tutorial. - Reworked Agartha/Player system. Being a "Shared World RPG" instead of the classic MMO seems like it will being a lot of good stuff to the table. Less players being on a single server will obviously improve performance, as well as immersion. It was never fun to get a kill-quest for a specific enemy, only to find twenty other people camped outside its spawn point waiting their turn to get the kill. Also, Agartha has gone from "big boring platform with confusing branch system" to "big functional hub-area with easily-accessed portals" A big step up, if you ask me. - Levels! Never thought I'd say this, as I initially admired TSW for it's "class-less, level-less system" but I think in the end it strayed too far from the curve and eventually just doubled back in on itself. Originally, you basically had a "level" based on your gear, which served the same effect as traditional levels while being harder to understand and easier to exploit. Introducing proper in-game levels will, I think, help the game's otherwise slipshod progression feel more natural and will lend some much-needed familiarity to the game. - Reworked skill-trees. The Skill-wheel is gone, and honestly? I'm not sad to see it go. While I did enjoy it at first, eventually, it became tedious to navigate and overwhelming to try and understand or explain for newer players. I tried to introduce my boyfriend to TSW some years back, but the garbage UI, paired with the floaty combat and overwhelming skill-wheel killed his interest in the game. I'm hoping we can both go back to it with fresh eyes on the re-release. [B]BAD STUFF:[/B] - Character customisation still looks like shite. Don't get me wrong, it is [I]better[/I] that the original game, and the models and textures seem to have been spruced up a bit, as well as having a few new options for things like hair and clothing... But at the end of the day, it still looks like crap and is far, far too limited. Every character comes out of it looking incredibly bland and generic, and considering Funcom have made better character customisation systems at least twice over, now, there's really no excusing it at this point. In a game so focused on making the player feel "special" and "unique", they really need to step up their game in terms of character creation. This is compounded by the fact that the game is now free-to-play, and cosmetic items will likely account for a large part of their revenue: Nobody will want to buy clothing if their characters are always ugly anyway. - Animations are still utter garbage. Considering they've supposedly "improved" the combat animations, I have to say; I ain't seeing it. I watched a guy playing earlier using a sword, and honestly I'd need to watch it side-by-side with old footage to tell the difference. They may have tightened some of the animations up a bit and made one or two new ones, but it's not enough. It really isn't... Animations still lack any sort of impact or weight, especially melee attacks. It still looks like the character is just sort of waving their weapon around willy-nilly without even making an attempt at actually hitting their enemy. This is especially apparent with larger enemies, where it's super obvious that you're hitting absolutely nothing with your melee attacks. - Factions still feel pointless. Considering the emphasis they put on the factions and the choice you make between them at the start of the game, I always felt that my faction choice... Didn't really matter during my play time. I was Illuminati on my main character, but I was regularly questing alongside people from all the factions without any sense of difference. The only time it ever seemed to matter was during PvP, where it arbitrarily placed you in one of three teams based on what colour you picked at the start. Sure, there were faction clothes and deck uniforms, and even the odd faction-specific mission in the base game, but these were so few, far-between and shallow that they ultimately felt worthless. I never got the sense that I was part of something bigger, just that every now and then I went to this big, empty, lifeless room and traded in some PvP tokens. And I have to say that so far? I ain't seeing anything that changes that. Funcom have acknowledged this, though, and are supposedly working to improve it. But I'll believe it when I see it. - Combat lacks any sort of impact or weight. Perhaps I'm just spoiled by games like Dark-Souls, but if a game released in 2011 by a then-small company can absolutely [I]nail[/I] the combat aspect, you'd expect that a game being remastered [I]5 years after the fact[/I] would at least be able to take some pointers. And yes, I realise comparing two entirely separate development companies is pointless, but the combat in TSW was always a sore-point. It was something we tolerated for the sake of the story, and when we ran out of story? It held even less appeal. AEGIS only made this worse in the Tokyo expansion, but they're apparently reworking that. Still, from what I've seen, combat still needs some major improvements. There are countless games out there which do a better job of it, and the dev team have had 5 years to re-tool the combat system. I'm not seeing what I need to see from it yet, and that makes me uneasy. All-in-all, call me very, [I]very[/I] cautiously optimistic. I'd love nothing more than to dive back into TSW again and for it to be the game it always should have been. Heck, I'm not even bothered about needing to start a new character! But so far, their released footage hasn't filled me with a heap of confidence. Only time will tell...

[t]https://i.gyazo.com/4a75cccdc083b8c64b426b5e5a8137c4.png[/t] I guess we still have time to login. [t]https://i.gyazo.com/ed97e610b265468be4cef4c487b339d3.png[/t] Dling the game right now.

[QUOTE=AhoyMate;52330417]-snip- I guess we still have time to login. -snip- Dling the game right now.[/QUOTE] Same here, I don't know what "Good Standing" means but I'd love to check out the beta, so I'll log in on my old account just in case. [B]EDIT:[/B] Thank god for the "Minimal" download option. To everybody who doesn't have the game anymore but wants to log in, check your account page on Funcom, that should have a DL link if you own it, seeing as the official page is talking about TSW:L now.

Wait, so were you supposed to do something to get into the beta? I own the original game and have an account and everything but I didn't get an invite.

[QUOTE=simkas;52337378]Wait, so were you supposed to do something to get into the beta? I own the original game and have an account and everything but I didn't get an invite.[/QUOTE] You were supposed to login within 30 days til yesterday evening afaik.

Fuck I can't believe I didn't find out until now that's a load of bullshit.

So far I like it. The new character customizer is sorta bleh though.

So far I'm liking the new combat system. It still needs a little work, but at least this time there's something that can fix instead of a bad system that needed replacing. Starting out with only 2 weapons was kind of a bummer, but if you transfer your old stuff from your old characters you automatically unlock all of them anyway.

Disappointed they didn't improve character customisation at all, still awful as hell. New tutorial was pretty cool though and the combat is somewhat better if not as good as I'd hoped for.

[QUOTE=ISPYUDIE;52398359]Disappointed they didn't improve character customisation at all, still awful as hell. New tutorial was pretty cool though and the combat is somewhat better if not as good as I'd hoped for.[/QUOTE] Why is it awful? There's a decent enough variety of haircuts at the start and then there's quite a lot of good clothing available and the fact that you can mix and match them all is really good. I think the customization is perfectly fine. [editline]25th June 2017[/editline] Also, is the legacy transfer thing supposed to give you all the weapons? Cause I did the transfer and it just gave me all the cosmetic items I had on my previous character.

Also how do you sell stuff on the marketplace? I can't find the option for it.

[QUOTE=simkas;52399476]Why is it awful? There's a decent enough variety of haircuts at the start and then there's quite a lot of good clothing available and the fact that you can mix and match them all is really good. I think the customization is perfectly fine. [/QUOTE] The preset faces available are still the same potato ones as before, I'll admit there's some more clothing now which is something but haircuts are still pretty naff looking too. It's not so much the menu itself but the assets available. Overall the relaunch is a good enough excuse to play through my favourite mmo all over again but I feel like they could've done a lot more with the game.

So I guess the game is now live for real? Anyway, does anyone know how you get weapons that look different? I've gotten guns from random drops a few times but they're always way worse than the stuff I've had since the start and they also always look the same. [editline]26th June 2017[/editline] Also is it just me or does this game's method of you logging out afk people just crashing the game? Second time now I've come back after leaving the game and all I see is a crash reporter.

The new combat feels great, but the new skill system feels so safe and by-the-books. Perks don't synergize anymore, and every skill is the exact same as the other weapons equivalent in the tree (third skill in the top tree for all weapons is always a multi-hit channel, every weapons first aoe skill does the exact same damage, etc). I miss my debilitations/dot build for blood magic. Also, you need to have a monthly subscription for a feature as basic as trading with other players? Fucking really? [QUOTE=simkas;52403371]So I guess the game is now live for real? Anyway, does anyone know how you get weapons that look different? I've gotten guns from random drops a few times but they're always way worse than the stuff I've had since the start and they also always look the same.[/QUOTE] Haven't played long enough to see if they change by the time you reach Egypt, but my guess is different looking weapons are gonna be microtransactions/achievement rewards, otherwise any weapon you find is gonna be trash meant to be fed to yours to keep it up to date.

[QUOTE=Benzine;52403575]The new combat feels great, but the new skill system feels so safe and by-the-books. Perks don't synergize anymore, and every skill is the exact same as the other weapons equivalent in the tree (third skill in the top tree for all weapons is always a multi-hit channel, every weapons first aoe skill does the exact same damage, etc). I miss my debilitations/dot build for blood magic. Also, you need to have a monthly subscription for a feature as basic as trading with other players? Fucking really? Haven't played long enough to see if they change by the time you reach Egypt, but my guess is different looking weapons are gonna be microtransactions/achievement rewards, otherwise any weapon you find is gonna be trash meant to be fed to yours to keep it up to date.[/QUOTE] To be fair, restricting trade to subscribers IS pretty much standard practice for F2P'S nowadays. It may not seem it, but it does wonders to keep a games economy from being ruined due to bots, at least for a while.

So are those caches that you have to buy keys for supposed to be rare drops? Cause I just went around killing some low level enemies to get the bonus challenge done and I got like 4 of them over the spawn of a few minutes.

For anyone who might still care, they're actually going to add new story stuff, a new chapter called "Dawn of the Morninglight": [url]https://www.secretworldlegends.com/2018/03/13/dawn-of-the-morninglight/[/url] [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz69_6DuHRc[/media] Edit: oh any they had also released an "Agent Network" system not too long ago ( its a "send mercenaries to do quests very X hours to get rewards" kind of system). [url]https://www.secretworldlegends.com/2018/02/26/agent-network/[/url]

I timed that other post very poorl , but I imagine that there's at least one person in fp who was still hoping to see where the story would go next? Some screenshots https://www.secretworldlegends.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2018/03/SWL_DawnOfTheMorninglight_2.jpg https://www.secretworldlegends.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2018/03/SWL_DawnOfTheMorninglight_5.jpg https://www.secretworldlegends.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2018/03/SWL_DawnOfTheMorninglight_3.jpg

I hate no idea this went F2P. Been meaning to get into it for a while so I'm downloading it now. Probably go with Illuminati.

The update came out yesterday. It's actually pretty good. More annoying but not too hard "get to the end of this level without hitting any traps" achievements, and some new bosses and monster types that aren't too annoying to fight. They also got most of the VAs back for this, which is nice.

the 1st year aniversary event for SWL started today: Celebrating Secret World Legends' Anniversary https://www.secretworldlegends.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2018/06/Anniversarylogo.png https://www.secretworldlegends.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2018/06/BeeDoggo.png

Been thinking about getting back into this after being away for a little over a year, a new area and the anniversary event sound like a good reason to install it again I assume there have been some big changes since I was last on, so any thing you can link me to get back up to speed

I'm not a pro so I can't give you any deep explainations but, from the original: -All the quests and contents from dlcs got merged into the game and unified into a part of the story. Some stuff was streamlined or made easier (for example, orochi tower isn't an endless random dungeon, now its a series of fixed floors you have to clear to finish the kaidan story). -They reworked the combat system. Now its more action based, and fights go much faster (no more spending minutes just trying to kill a regular roaming mob). -The skills wheel got changed to a much simpler skill tree. You start by picking pre crafted classes now, though you can still unlock the use of other weapons and skill later. -Gear has three power levels along with the quality. And there is no crafting anymore, now you just empower gear by using other gear to make it lvl up (gear of the same type give more level). -Agartha got changed into an player hub with a big area with the shops and portals to the different areas. -Since the game is free to play now, they sell "Aurum" as their cash currency. You can also pay for a "premium" susbscription, but I can't remember exactly what it gives since I don't use it.

New Missions Looks like you’re moving on up, agent. Faction Ranking missions are now available – are you up to the challenge? Once you’re Level 50, are finished with at least the entirely of the Tokyo storyline, and have an Item Power of at least 250, a new series of tasks become available, allowing you to increase your standing within your Faction! As they say, nothing of value comes for free: You have to show some backbone and commitment – you have to prove yourself! In addition to Faction Ranking missions, those agents infiltrating New Dawn in South Africa may access one new Sabotage mission titled “Public Enemy Number One”. Who’s been keeping an eye on you within the compound? We suppose you’ll want an answer. If you’ve completed “Things That Go Bump in the Night”, return to your quarters and look for a little somethin’ someone left for you. With the inclusion of this mission, the meta-achievement “Land of the Dawn”, along with its fashionable reward, may now be obtained. https://www.secretworldlegends.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2018/08/Outfit-1-127x300.png Oh my.