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The Secret World: Gathering User Questions
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
The team from Funcom has agreed to answer some questions from the MMORPG.com audience about their upcoming MMORPG, The Secret World. Today, we ask for your help in gathering them.
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The Secret World has been generating a lot of buzz ever since it was announced by Funcom, the company behind Anarchy Online and Age of Conan. That buzz increased significantly after this year’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco where the team unveiled their first substantive information about the game and its mechanics.
TSW differs pretty significantly from its nearest Funcom sibling, Age of Conan, offering players an advancement system without levels in a modern “shadow world” type of setting where creatures of darkness are very much a real thing, and secret factions band together to fight them.
Check it out, here.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
Ragner Tornquist, and others, have said that the world of TSW will change after some period of time; and in a way directed by how the players (as a group) have succeeded or failed in their objectives. Will this mean that some servers will be very different after a couple of years, with some servers presenting the evil run amuck; and others with it still contained?
edit:
I wonder if the fact that the Game Director is stuck in Bejing has anything to do wtih Funcom deciding to open the floor for questions:
"RagnarTornquist (tweet)
Stranded in Beijing and outlook bleak for return before 30th unless seats open up. Car pool, anyone?"
~\_/~\_O
Funcom has done the initial hype-building with mysteries and puzzles - intellectually stimulating material. Will the game itself have any sort of mechanics that's supposed to be intellectually engaging and challenging like this, or are we going to have the usual MMO mechanics where the only part you can utilize your intelligence is number-crunching?
Namely, will it be your usual combat, crafting and character customization, or will there be a place for any sort of detective work?
My question has to do with accessability. Having played AoC off and on since launch, I still find I have to tweak the graphics just to get a decent framerate, even after upgrading my video card. Will the graphics engine be such a processor hog or will it be optimized to make use of my video card so I don't have to worry about tweaking the settings just to enjoy the game in any remote way?
"Never met a pack of humans that were any different. Look at the idiots that get elected every couple of years. You really consider those guys more mature than us? The only difference between us and them is, when they gank some noobs and take their stuff, the noobs actually die." - Madimorga
Ahh the DirectX 10 issue. Good point. I would think that this time around they will include the option to turn off the more graphically demanding effects like reflective water, weather, etc. Of course, with the lovecraftian feel to the game they could go the route of games like Silent Hill with the use of fog as an effect and a way to get around limitations of hardware.
Its an interesting conundrum, to market a game to the most people, you must adhere to certain factors of life, including the cost of certain video cards, cpus, etc. With the economy in the US the way it is, as well as other areas, I would hope that Funcom would give a bit of leeway when it comes to system requirements. That said, to add my two cents to the questions pertaining to the game...
With the various demands of quests in games that involve kill x of y or kill x until z drops, what can be done to further remedy this tired system of quests? Can you more specifically give other ways to gain experience in the game other than purely fighting? Since it does take place in modern times, the real point is can you be a pacificist and still "level up" by dealing with information, solving mysteries or by some other convienance like crafting?
BTW, awesome sig.
Direct X-11?
In that it takes place in the modern world I am wondering about the character generator. Seems there are already Europeans and Orientals as in Conan (with Godslayer). Will you be able to do Africans,Indians,Native Americans,Polonesians,'Esquimau'(as Lovecraft called them),etc.? As with Ninjajaucer I would like to see solving mysteries and such 'Miskatonic professor/Sherlock Holmes' type of things.
My question is about teamplay.
How is grouping going to play out? Will the game offfer a good grouping challenge for all of the game or will adding more people to your group just make it easier to complete task that are already able to be done solo?
My question involves character customization.
I've seen a lot of impressive shots and concept drawings of some of the outfits/costumes that are in the game, are you going to be able to customize your own outfits at the start or are they going to be loot drops/crafted 'armor' pieces?
Several questions come to mind but i will stick to these:
1. as this is a "secret world" how will the interaction with the normal world *(in game) be done ?
(will there be missions to hide info and or do you have to be aware of people that are running around in the game that do not know what is going on.)
(this is of course assuming there is a "normal" world around )
2. Will there be headquarters of all the factions and or the subfactions ( guilds ?) in the game ?
3. As this is in a world that is akin to this one can we get missions over a PDA or cellphone ?
(would be cool to get sub objectives as you are doing the missions )
4. will there be a division in skill ( talents, powers ?) as stealth skills ( those that are not that odd like a gun ) and verry visible skills (fireball ) ?
As i said i have a ton more but these will do to start with as there will be others that would like to ask some questions.
"Believe nothing.
No matter where you read it,
Or who said it,
Even if I have said it,
Unless it agrees with your own reason
And your own common sense"
- The Buddha, from Dhammapada
What is with the symbol underneath enemies in the trailer. I thought this game was based on twitch combat and aim instead of tabbing?
Ever think of including a survival/horde mode a la Gears of War 2? I think it could work for this kind of game.
will there be massive same map,instance,phaze,jita, watchemacallit!
like silkroad or aika massive on the same map.
or will it be a casual mmo ! a la wow or guild wars ,small giga instanced game!
second :if this game is indead a mmo ?will it be global non-ipblocked!
or will each contry have their own silly ipblocked version to make sure no player interact with other player like we can do in silkroad or to a lesser extent perfect world!
My question would be how does RT think that a Game Director who has never made an MMO, and is better known for adventure games is adapting to having to cope with players and all our eccentricities. Many MMO players don't really care, when pushed, for story, if it interferes with our gameplay and getting our rewards. How is he planning to balance the story elements (which I am sure will be cool, I loved TLJ) with actually having the good repeatable content that is required of an MMO.
How will his storytelling adapt? How do you tell a story that thousands (and he hopes hundreds of thousands) of players all play through?
My only question would be, why are they ignoring the previous round of questions (which are unanswered to this day).
*click picture for linky to the previous thread*
will it blend ?
Question: After the game releases will funcom continue with the real world websites that are hidden around the internet? Such as the Kingsmouth site?
On the economy: three questions.
Will there be traditional central "auction house" and mailbox system offered that will span all three cabals?
If it will not have a central AH, will there be a way to sell stuff to the opposing cabal?
Will the auction house have the ability to place a bid to buy something that's not currently offered, so someone can come and hit that bid and sell it to you?
Thanks
I'm guessing that since Ragnar is a premiere master of adventure game storytelling (besides...he's actually said in interviews that the game will include this), that there will be many different types of quests including solving puzzles, riddles, and yes..."detective work."
One of the really good things about having Ragnar Tournquist at the helm here, in my opinion anyway, is that he isn't an "MMO developer" perse. Most of his creative genius is seen in action adventure games and adventure games that have supremely well done immersive environments, complex NPC roles, and plenty of detective-ish puzzle solving and mind bending stuff. I seriously DOUBT he would be able to stay true to his own creative leanings without including those sorts of things in his game.
That being said, however, he's also talked about character customization in interviews and it sounds like there will be a lot of FREEDOM in this area. There is a short glance at combat in a preview video you can find online too, and combat looks sort of like Fallen Earth to me. It didn't APPEAR to be auto attack centric, that is, but rather more active. Crafting...I haven't heard him talk about (that I can recall) but I sure hope it also has an integral part.
EDIT: DOH....lol....I just realized we're supposed to be ASKING questions here! Okay...color me stupid and poor me some more coffee please!
My QUESTION would be:
1) Will there be any type of player housing? If you expect me to make a "home" in your game world and play often....I want a "home" there to live in. For me, lack of any type of player housing, instanced even (doesn't matter)....comes very close to being a game breaker for me. I don't care about whether it's a tiny urban one bedroom apartment or what...just give me a place to "go" that my character can call "home."
2) And I too would like a sure answer on types of questing, puzzles, riddles, brain bending detective types of adventures within the game, etc. I would like to see something outside of the usual "kill ten rats" crap we've all had to deal with for years now. Most anything different here, in regard to quests, will probably be really welcomed and fresh.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
What kind of a rig are you going to need to run it? Will it support Windows Xp or is it going to need Vista Or Windows 7?. Asking becouse Aoc raised the bar for graphics in an mmorpg and in turn a lot of people couldn't play it on there systems at time of release. From the blurb about the game the graphics are going to be prity special. Not expecting full system requirements at this stage in a development but a little heads up would be apreciated.
How many months, and or years, will we need to wait after the game releases, before it is considered no longer a beta product.
It could be argued that AoC took a year after release before it was considered a playable game. Even now it's still a solo player game with online aspects.
Will TSW follow the same model? Released with little actually finished. Use the player base to , in effect, pay to beta for another year before the game is consider worth a "real" release.
Will the box and hype sites offer numerous abilites that will NOT exist in game?
How much on the box will actually be in the game at launch? 6 months after launch? 1 year after launch?
Never violate a woman, nor harm a child. Do not lie, cheat or steal. These things are for lesser men. Protect the weak against the evil strong. And never allow thoughts of gain to lead you into the pursuit of evil. Never back away from an enemy. Either fight or surrender. It is not enough to say I will not be evil. Evil must be fought wherever it is found.The Iron Code"
Not being a fan of heavily instanced, single-player shoe-box games like Star Trek Online, Tørnquist assured that the game can also be played in single-player mode, so if we choose to play it single-player as opposed to coop, are we still hit with a monthly multi-player fee?
Question: A game without levels sounds refreshing. But just like a level 10 player can't make much of a contribution to a level 30 boss fight in the average game, how will a less developed player in your levelless system be able to contribute to harder encounters? And if they can't contribute, what will encourage other players to group with them other than personal relationships?
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
My question is this, what makes your game different from the rest of the already flooded MMO market? Keep in mind saying the "settings" doesn't count. I'm talking about gameplay and features. What makes this game stick out from the vast oceans of crap already out there? Is this going to be like playing a reskinned version of AoC? Sorry if my question sounds bitter but the MMO community in general has been thrown a lot of crap and / or half finished games over the past few years and really the only games trying to break the mold in which most MMO's are associated to are Mortal Online and Darkfall.
From what you've shown us I see nothing new, only reskinned. The MMO developers need to start taking risks... we don't need so many copies of virtually the same few games. We need a AAA developer to make a game like Darkfall, seriously guys there are a lot of people who want a GOOD sandbox PvP game, Darkfall is the best on the market for pvp even with it's major flaws.... and it's pathetic only indie companies are trying different styles of MMO. I'm not saying Darkfall does anything new, what it does do is use a different set of values.
Oh and for the love of god have the balls to create your own lore and world so you're not limmited by a writers vision.
Full Sail University - Game Design
Being in a multi game guild that has alot of variety of players,
1.) can a guild have any faction in it? or will in game guilds have to be same faction.
2.)Also can differing factions still team up?
3.) Word is there will be other factions besides the big three and they are hinted at being opposing factions, will these opposing/evil factions be playable at start or a later release date?
As I am a passionate roleplayer I`d like to know if there any Plans to build and support a roleplaying community. Having things like a RP-Server simply isn`t enough as I have often seen.
And to which degree will the characters (and clothes, and weapons etc.) be customizable? And will there be rather "useless" things like different sets of clothes for nothing more than optical reasons?
Will there be vehicles/mounts? If yes to which dergee will it affect gameplay (e.g. troop transporters for an entire group)
Is a pet-system planned?
Will there be an extensive crafting system? Or will it end up in doing thousands of junk-pieces to get to the highest level in order to have the chance to creatte something usefull?(Fallen Earth`s crafting system was quite nice I think)
It was saied that the players will affect the world itself. Does that mean that things like the economy would be player driven too?
Will TSW be a free word where I can see people everywhere or do I have to live in an instanced cage? I would devinetly love to see a free world to live in and meet friendss etc.
And most important, are there allready thoughts about how to motivate the playerbase for a long time?
That would be everything I can think of that I hadn`t allready read here.
Will there be Vampires? If so can Player Characters be infected and perhaps spread said infection >;)