[Team Vernia]

So if one of the first of those amazing Investigation thingies features full-fledged morse code nobody knows, the "end game" (note the huge quotation marks) will be basically googleing quest solutions on Gamefaqs, wouldn't it? I think maybe 3% of the users actually will try to solve them by themselves, and I love the idea of actually having to think, but I'm really not sure this is the right way to do it.

End-game isn't investigation missions. It's PvP, nightmare dungeons, raids, gear grinding, deck building, achievements, lore etc...

[Karak]

Omg it's 3:00am. This game is unbelievable, it's the first MMO i've truly enjoyed and get addicted to. I bought it last night based on gaf recs and couldn't be happier. Thanks The story, lore, voice acting (wow), graphics, atmosphere, quests, everything is so good and AAA quality. I'm not a fan of MMOs but The Secret World is different. You guys gotta try it (any prospective buyers reading this). It's so good. How on Earth people can play WoW after a game like this is made is beyond me. Just compare the quality, it's like a generation ahead.

Glad we could turn you on to it! And I told you about the writing and presentation:) It is indeed far beyond almost anything else.

[Vodh]

Aye, don't think they will intentionally make later puzzles much harder. It's hard to balance the difficulty and the doability, and while with the first few puzzles you kind of learn where to look for the clues, your IQ doesn't level up along with your character, so making the puzzles much harder would be kind of pointless.

[Karak]

Kinda bogged down in BM thus far. Most of the quests just aren't very interesting and tend to drag on forever.

I am loving BM myself BUT it is harder and slower. But I adore the first base you find and the CDC area and how it looks. Its a different style but it feels very EDGE. As in this is the edge of the area and the NPC's and such doing excursions and the quests to find them are awesome.

Also Dat Sasquatch!

[Carecrow]

Kinda bogged down in BM thus far. Most of the quests just aren't very interesting and tend to drag on forever.

It really does drag, yes. By far the worst zone. But after that you get one of the most fun zones in the game.

I shortly quit after finishing the Main Story. I enjoyed my short time with it. The last MMO I played was WoW years ago and I have to say this was really great. I just played it as a single player game (... didn't even do any instances!) and even by those standards it was pretty fun.

[Team Vernia]

I shortly quit after finishing the Main Story. I enjoyed my short time with it. The last MMO I played was WoW years ago and I have to say this was really great. I just played it as a single player game (... didn't even do any instances!) and even by those standards it was pretty fun.

You are missing out on the best part of the game. Grouping is really fun and learning how to make awesome builds and get better at the game is the rewarding part. You should really give it a shot as the instances Funcom designed are REALLY good.

[vaelic]

It really does drag, yes. By far the worst zone. But after that you get one of the most fun zones in the game. I shortly quit after finishing the Main Story. I enjoyed my short time with it. The last MMO I played was WoW years ago and I have to say this was really great. I just played it as a single player game (... didn't even do any instances!) and even by those standards it was pretty fun.

No instances? Uh....

[ExReey]

Yeah, the Inferno instance is my favorite area of the game so far. Of any recent MMO, even.

[Bufbaf]

End-game isn't investigation missions. It's PvP, nightmare dungeons, raids, gear grinding, deck building, achievements, lore etc...

Thus the quotation :) I meant, the "end game" of investigation missions, aka the high level ones.

[ExReey]

Anyone knows what's up with the area just south of the Overlook Motel in Savage Coast (the lake with 2 small islands in it)?

I just went looking there for lore, and the mobs are insanely hard there! I mean impossible hard; multipele enemies with 50-70.000 HP's ! Is it supposed to be a high level area or something?

[derFeef]

Anyone knows what's up with the area just south of the Overlook Motel in Savage Coast (the lake with 2 small islands in it)? I just went looking there for lore, and the mobs are insanely hard there! I mean impossible hard; multipele enemies with 50-70.000 HP's ! Is it supposed to be a high level area or something?

That's a Lair. Each zone has Lairs - it's an endgame area. Tough monsters, big bosses, bring a good group.

[Heavy]

Time to start another marathon session! /bump

[Effect]

That's a Lair. Each zone has Lairs - it's an endgame area. Tough monsters, big bosses, bring a good group.

The airport area in Kingsmouth, or at least one of the sections there, is like that as well right? A lot of stuff in that area of the game is now blue and white to me but one section at the airport is still very red. Was curious if there was something different about that location.

[kch]

Having so much fun with this game. It feels so fresh and interesting compared to all the other MMOs I've played and I havn't even gone into any dungeons yet. Really looking forward to trying that out soon as well.
Nearly done with Kingsmouth but I don't want to leave. Loving the zone so much :)
Well done, Funcom.

[ROBOKITTYZILLA]

I tried the PVP battlegrounds, El Dorado and Stonehenge for the first time yesterday. They are both timed maps with a set number of players per team. For El Dorado, I think the limit was around 20 players per team/faction while Stonehenge was 5 per team/faction. For these two PVP maps you can queue as a party or join solo.

In El Dorado, you run around the map and collect these "tablets" that help your team accumulate points. Your team (and individual players) can hold multiple tablets, and the more tablets you hold, the faster your team accumulates points. It's kind of like Capture the Flag and Team Fortress except that the capture points are moving targets. As usual, all three factions compete, so there is a constant 3-way battle going on.

Stonehenge plays out like a game of King of the Hill. Your team of 5 players must control the center (Stonehenge), to accumulate points. The other two factions have the same objective so it is a constant battle. Teams can be largely imbalanced if you end up without a healer or have a majority of under geared players. In addition, players with AOE attacks seem to have an advantage.

For both maps, at the end of each match, you are greeted with a completion scoreboard that tracks a large number of statistics with score focused on points rather than kills (like Team Fortress). You can see number of kills, number of deaths, amount of damage dealt, amount of healing given, territory controlled, etc.

I would love to see them add more dynamic elements to the existing gameplay to make PVP more engaging -- thinking along the lines of TF2 here (announcing kill streaks, nemesis system, item drops, player customization, etc.). An in-game leaderboard that ranks different player stats for overall, faction, and cabal, would be nice too.

These two maps along with the persistent PVP in Fusang Projects make for a really good foundation for organized PVP. When you bring up the PVP menu, there certainly seems to be plenty of room to add other "themed" PVP maps to different locations, and I believe I read somewhere that they are currently planning a "PVP Dungeon". I will be looking forward to any additions or improvements they make. This is something that could keep players interested and playing for a long time.

[Heavy]

Having so much fun with this game. It feels so fresh and interesting compared to all the other MMOs I've played and I havn't even gone into any dungeons yet. Really looking forward to trying that out soon as well. Nearly done with Kingsmouth but I don't want to leave. Loving the zone so much :) Well done, Funcom.

Yep I'm doing every quest I can in Kingsmouth and one of the biggest reasons why is they all have lore to them and most of them have cut scenes with incredible voice acting. Seriously this is some of the best voice-acting I've heard in a game, no hyperbole here.

[ROBOKITTYZILLA]

Patch 1.0.3 is coming tomorrow. No details yet but it will probably be a minor update. Hopefully they fix chat and addons.

[derFeef]

Egypt is awesome. So different compared to Solomon Island. New views, new beasties, new story, so good. And holy shit at the Dawning storyline! I rejected the gift, going to be really interesting how and when this plays out

Blue Mountain was stretching my nerves a little bit, it's so far my least favourite zone of the three (lol), but it had great missions as well. Still have to do Darkness War

[Team Vernia]

Egypt is awesome. So different compared to Solomon Island. New views, new beasties, new story, so good. And holy shit at the Dawning storyline! I rejected the gift, going to be really interesting how and when this plays out Blue Mountain was stretching my nerves a little bit, it's so far my least favourite zone of the three (lol), but it had great missions as well. Still have to do Darkness War

Yeah. Blue Mountain is a bit tiresome. I feel like the quest designers of Blue Mountain must have done the quests in City of the Sun God as well. They are all boring kill count quests (not the main storyline quests). Both zones are beautiful, though. I really like the scale of City of the Sun God.

Highlights for me were The Savage Coast and Scorched Desert. Both zones have really original quests and great investigation missions.

[arimanius]

Haven't been able to play in a week. Got a little time today and was completely lost on my quests. Had to break out my notepad and look at past notes. Don't think I've ever had to do in my past games and definitively not a MMORPG. lol

[derFeef]

So good.

[Team Vernia]

So good.

It really is a gorgeous game. Both Age of Conan and The Secret World look miles better than any other MMORPG currently out there or even being developed at this point. I still don't understand why games like SW:TOR come out 3 years after AoC and look half as good. The same goes for Guild Wars 2 which barely looks as good as a current gen console game. There is also The Elder Scrolls Online which will look dated at launch.

[birdcity]

Man, so far quests in The Blue Mountain are laaaaaaaame compared to everything in Kingsmouth and Savage Coast. Lots of go here, kill X amount then go here and kill X amount, then go here and, blah blah blah.

Hopefully it picks up.

[syko de4d]

Man, so far quests in The Blue Mountain are laaaaaaaame compared to everything in Kingsmouth and Savage Coast. Lots of go here, kill X amount then go here and kill X amount, then go here and, blah blah blah. Hopefully it picks up.

don´t miss the quest in a specific van at the Orochi camp, where u need to sneak for a other quest. (investigation mission + group Quest) in Blue Mountain.

[derFeef]

don´t miss the quest in a specific van at the Orochi camp, where u need to sneak for a other quest. (investigation mission + group Quest) in Blue Mountain.

I felt so smart solving that, it was like an IQ test :) (took me at least an hour, lol)

[Team Vernia]

Man, so far quests in The Blue Mountain are laaaaaaaame compared to everything in Kingsmouth and Savage Coast. Lots of go here, kill X amount then go here and kill X amount, then go here and, blah blah blah. Hopefully it picks up.

Push on through. It's worth it.

[StickSoldier]

How's the population on this game? I'm really wanting to play it, and while I love Funcom, there other MMOs never were too populated which kinda bummed me out.

[Vlodril]

Egypt is awesome. So different compared to Solomon Island. New views, new beasties, new story, so good. And holy shit at the Dawning storyline! I rejected the gift, going to be really interesting how and when this plays out Blue Mountain was stretching my nerves a little bit, it's so far my least favourite zone of the three (lol), but it had great missions as well. Still have to do Darkness War

I was coming here to post the exact same thing. Blue mountain burned me out a bit but Egypt is a breath of fresh air. Very good looking as well and fantastic quests.

[birdcity]

Push on through. It's worth it.

Oh I fully intend to push through. I love this game, just seems an incredibly noticeable drop in quest quality.

[birdcity]

So the weapon casting kit...I'm assuming it works as I suspect which is you can make, say, one hammer look like another hammer you already have that is cooler looking?

So say I have the Soul Crusher and want my upgraded hammer with better stats to look like the Soul Crusher, I can use that kit to do that? And if so, can I do that indefinitely? By that I mean, can I basically keep using the kits when I get upgrades to keep making new hammers look like one I really like the look of?

[Team Vernia]

How's the population on this game? I'm really wanting to play it, and while I love Funcom, there other MMOs never were too populated which kinda bummed me out.

Game just came out. It's full of people. Single server tech too, so even with population drops the game should feel populated.

[Whoompthereitis]

Not a huge MMO guy for the most part. I dabble here and there, but usually don't stick with 'em beyond 20 hours or so.

I watched the Giant Bomb QL and decided to buy this one. Looks cool. It's patching as I type this.

Any tips in regard to starting class, skills etc.? I'll probably solo it for the most part, just enjoy the story and lore. I kinda liked the look of the pistols that Jeff was using in the GB quick look...

Thanks!

[btgorman]

Re: pistols. Its a good choice. I started out pistols and really prefer it, but don't forget other weapons too. Pistol can't tank or heal, but supports. U can get drone to hinder, while mobs are hindered they can't turn around, hint hint. Also there are drones to cleanse, buff healing power 30%, etc. As far as damage, I would say the business, shootout, and big forty five are your main tools. One pistol resource is all u need for those finishers, so alternate them.


That's just how I play anyway. Play what feels right to you.

[Whoompthereitis]

Holy shit, I've been trying to make my character for an hour now! Every 'nickname' I pick is either taken, or unacceptable due to 'inappropriate words'. But I haven't even used any inappropriate words. This is fucking annoying...

[ExReey]

Not a huge MMO guy for the most part. I dabble here and there, but usually don't stick with 'em beyond 20 hours or so. I watched the Giant Bomb QL and decided to buy this one. Looks cool. It's patching as I type this. Any tips in regard to starting class, skills etc.? I'll probably solo it for the most part, just enjoy the story and lore. I kinda liked the look of the pistols that Jeff was using in the GB quick look... Thanks!

You can get some inspiration here: http://yokaiblog.wikidot.com/guides:faction-decks

Holy shit, I've been trying to make my character for an hour now! Every 'nickname' I pick is either taken, or unacceptable due to 'inappropriate words'. But I haven't even used any inappropriate words. This is fucking annoying...

Remember that only the nickname has to be unique, the other names can be whatever you want.

[Madouu]

Franklin Manor quests as well as CDC and Orochi camp ones were pretty good. Oh and old joe's missions ! The story around the mine is cool too.

But I do like Kingsmouth and SC better too, BM is less interesting to explore I would say ...

edit : oh and you guys in Egypt would you mind telling me if you ever find a working instance for the last legion t.t

[kurahador]

New update is up.

Update Notes 1.0.3 The Voracious Wendigo has stopped eating ambrosia and should now be killable again. The Gathering - Tugomir cel Mare and his 3 accompanying adds are less difficult to kill, because they don't aggro all at once. Players are no longer able to take off their clothing through UI mods. Custom UIs should now work again. The Sprint ability should no longer stop working in some instances. Items should no longer on rare occasions become unusable after being spawned. Fixed a server memory leak.

Wait...that's it??

[Tworak]

I keep hoping they fix the kill dudes in pvp quest. it's kind of a pain as a healer.

x[

[Heavy]

New update is up. Wait...that's it??

I think it was just a patch for minor fixes. The big updates will be end of month, first one being July 31st.

[derFeef]

I think it was just a patch for minor fixes. The big updates will be end of month, first one being July 31st.

Jup, that's why it is 1.03 an not 1.1 which is on the test servers.
Still no chat subscription fix as it seems, though.

*heads back to bed with a bucket* I feel so bad...

[vaelic]

1.03 patch notes

UPDATE NOTES 1.0.3

The Voracious Wendigo has stopped eating ambrosia and should now be killable again.
The Gathering - Tugomir cel Mare and his 3 accompanying adds are less difficult to kill, because they don't aggro all at once.
Players are no longer able to take off their clothing through UI mods.
Custom UIs should now work again.
The Sprint ability should no longer stop working in some instances.
Items should no longer on rare occasions become unusable after being spawned.
Fixed a server memory leak.

[derFeef]

Another dev cast this Friday, no Ragnar though :(

This Friday, July 27th, Lead Designer Joel Bylos, Lead Writer Dag Scheve, and Audio Director Simon Poole will host an exclusive live stream of The Secret World. The stream will start at 15:00 GMT (5pm CEST / 11am EDT / 8am PDT) and will be hosted on TheSecretWorld channel on Twitch.TV. During the event, your developer hosts will play select parts of ‘The Secret World’ and answer your questions. See you there!

Simon Poole!

[Team Vernia]

Another dev cast this Friday, no Ragnar though :( Simon Poole!

Wonder if they'll show off one of the new quests. Would be cool if they announced the NYC raid then too.

[dubq]

I started playing this late last week. I'm sporting a Templar on the Leviathan RP server. Look up mach7 (dps pistols) if you want to group. :)

Also can anyone point me to where I can actually buy healing items? I've only had them in drops so far.

[birdcity]

That chainsaw quest in the Blue Mountain is so bad haha. Took me like 10 tries to beat it because of the jank.

Other than that quest and the aforementioned boring ones, I think I've moved past the filler in the area and got sucked into playing for about five hours last night, including the investigation mission at the Orachi base.

I felt bad as I had to google a couple of the answers. Math isn't my strong suit but I did my best and was able to figure most of the answers out. Looking forward to playing The Darkness War, as I hear it's awesome. I haven't come across it yet though.

[derFeef]

I started playing this late last week. I'm sporting a Templar on the Leviathan RP server. Look up mach7 (dps pistols) if you want to group. :) Also can anyone point me to where I can actually buy healing items? I've only had them in drops so far.

You can't buy them directly, but you can buy consumale kits at the Venice vendors and then craft them. I have linked a guide in the OP, it's fairly easy. I always have some consumable kits with me.

Also there is a Taco vendor in London, they regenerate health outside of combat.

edit: typos... sorry.

[ROBOKITTYZILLA]

That chainsaw quest in the Blue Mountain is so bad haha. Took me like 10 tries to beat it because of the jank. Other than that quest and the aforementioned boring ones, I think I've moved past the filler in the area and got sucked into playing for about five hours last night, including the investigation mission at the Orachi base. I felt bad as I had to google a couple of the answers. Math isn't my strong suit but I did my best and was able to figure most of the answers out. Looking forward to playing The Darkness War, as I hear it's awesome. I haven't come across it yet though.

I think the biggest annoyance with the chainsaw quest was fumbling around with all the inventory items in the heat of battle, and if you spam the chainsaw too fast it doesn't always give you the kill credit. Also, I was disappointed with the animation and feedback of the weapon. It wasn't satisfying at all. I felt like I was using a baseball bat instead of a chainsaw.

I hope the upcoming auxillary weapons are more like actual weapons with abilities and not like the chainsaw and flamethrower or I will be pretty disappointed.

Blue Mountain definitely drags in some places and is probably my least favorite on Solomon Island, but there is still some great content there. I loved "The Haunting", the CDC missions, the Orochi missions, Old Joseph's quests, and the mine excursions. The story missions were excellent too.

I still need to do Darkness War which is purportedly one of the best instances in the game. I hate the idea of using a PUG but there is never enough GAF on when I'm available. :/

For the Orochi mission you can do the command line hacking and all you have to do is keep pressing "1". Personally, I did the math route because I really enjoyed coming up with the solutions but I did look up a hint for the last sequence on one of the terminals.

[dubq]

You can't buy them directly, but you can buy consumale kits and the Venice vendors and then craft them. I have linked a guide in the OP, it's fairly easy. I always have some consumable kits with me. Alo there is a Taco vendor in London, they regenerate health outside of combat.

Thanks for the info man!!!

Is there a GAF Cabal out there?

[derFeef]

Doing Darkness War would be awesome. Also a general GAF meetup needs to happen, at the Wabanaki camp ;D I guess Saturday may be the best day?

Thanks for the info man!!! Is there a GAF Cabal out there?

I can invite you later today to the Templar cabal, or Indigoo, or someone ;)

[dubq]

Awesome!! Thanks!! :D