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Hopeful future!!
Xstatic912
Member Posts: 365
This game better not need a lot big sub number to stay open, becuase if it fails or go FTP, i think i know why.. It's a bit too different for the masses (masses meaning a large sub-base), that's why i'm hoping they ddon't need a large sub base to stay open, like SWTOR needs..
See i for one love it, as it makes you think and research real world incidents (investigate missions)... But so far in the beta weekends i see diversion forming... When persons ask for help almost everyone says use the in-game browser and look it up..
Now, i don't mind doing a bit or searching etc, but question is looking up stuff FUN (subjective non the less) enough, or just cool that its implemented in the game.. Seems these dev's want to implement thinking puzzles but can't think of a FUN way to do it.. Also, seems like most in the game need a tutorial on the crafting system..
Lets here the thoughs of person who have played for a good amount of time... THX!!
Comments
Depends on the quest. Some of them encourage a little google research. But most just require you to be aware of your surroundings and pick up on textual clues. I think they are looking for 500k subs to be a smash hit. 200-300k seems realistic and keeps them running and profitable indefinitely.
The crafting is one of the best things about this game but is rarely talked about. You can craft Nightmare quality gear (ie as good as the best drops) but it takes a lot longer to do so than running dungeons. Its probably the most sandboxish aspect of TSW and I'll be experimenting with all kinds of sets to go with various decks.
Im pretty sure there are a few tutorials out there on crafting. Both by fans and devs.
I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means - except by getting off his back.
I, for one, find it very fun to figure these investigations out for myself. I can also confirm that that is what the devs want as well....just can't go into specifics...NDA is a bitch....
I truly think that if you don't want to take the time to solve them yourself and feel that "victory" feeling at the end of it, then this game is most certainly not for you. I would recommend that anyone that sees someone asking a question about the investigation quests should not be answered back. It will ruin the game for them....it's like playing Myst with the cheat book right next to you...no fun at all (trust me, i did that when I was a kid and there was zero fun or sense of accomplishment from it.)
When I say all this I'm not speaking out against those that disagree, I'm speaking FOR the ones that do agree because, for us, this is one of the first MMO's to come out that we're comfortable calling our home for a bit
I agree with the OP, and I'd be amazed if TSW is very successful (i.e. reaches 400-500K subs). It will restore my jaded faith in humanity, but I'm not holding my breath on that one...
The Player Help channel ingame is VERY busy. The usual "How do I..." questions, with a healthy helping of requests for quest hints and quest "how to's". Due to the number of spoilers flying around in chat, I have to keep that tab out of sight.
I loved playing this BWE, and I've just pre-ordered the game. So I'm doing my bit to get that sub number up, lol
I have to be honest here. I see this "the game is too different" being thrown around in TSW's defense but it really is not. It's your standard themepark MMO with a bit more choice as far as skill trees go and a tiny number of investigation quests that may require you to use your brain. Even then the investigation quests are not required to advance the story and can be ignored completely. They don't even give an decent rewards to warrant the waste of time. And if you absolutely must do every single quest, you can always google the solution--the browser is built into the client.
The game is not different, only the setting is. Which, by the way, is TSW's only saving grace. The setting and the stories are interesting. Everything else is sub par at best.
Edit: also, the game is absolutely not finished and will not be finished in 2 weeks left before release. This is another game with great potential that is going to get Funcomed and go F2P with an invasive cash shop in a year or so.
I don't agree that the problem is that the game is too different. I think the unique setting of the game and some of the unique game systems are the strongest selling points for the game and why so many people are interested in it.
I think the issue the game has a somewhat outdated pricing system and a fear that there will not be enough content to justify paying $50+ up front and $15 a month for a sub. If this game was $60 up front with no sub or $20 up front with a sub I think it would easily see a 50% increase in pre-orders.
I have spent a considerable amount of time in the game and have really enjoyed playing it but it just doesn't feel polished enough or complete enough to warrant the price they are asking for it.
You're entitled to your opinion, I disagree though: the setting and theme, the crafting, the no classes and no character based levels thing, the skill synergies, the sabotage missions and investigation missions, the metagame ARG's but also the higher than normal requiring to pay attention to environment and details while questing, all this together adds enough points to make a claim that TSW really is different from the vast majority of WoW styled themepark MMO's.
Add to this elements like the ingame browser, the UI/HUD, and the fact that can you can group up with friends and adventure on someone's home server world even if everyone came from a different server, and also be able to chat and have friends lists across servers, and TSW looks to be shaping up as a distinctive addition to the themepark staple, different from most others in that genre.
But, to each their own in the end
Let's be honest. Sabotage missions are normal missions except that they generally do not require a lot of mob killing, unlike other missions. The crafting is very backasswards and not even explained in the game at all. Hell, unless you press "Y" you won't even know that there is crafting.
Not all skills synergize with each other. Also, can you explain to me how "Pump Action," the very first skill you unlock in the shotgun tree, which costs 1AP is virtually the same as the 9AP "Fire and Forget" second tier skill in the shotgun tree? And it's not the only one. There are many abilities in the second wheel that are almost identical to the first, starter abilities.
The UI/HUD is clunky at best. All of the abilities have similar looking icons and at times it's hard to tell one from the other unless you're intimately familiar with them. The consumables all have the same icons and because we cannot assign them to an action bar slot nor assign them to a keybind, at times you have no idea if you're clicking a +HP consumable of +Crit consumable. You can drag the inventory window and stretch it out to the width of your screen but you won't have access to all of the slots. I payed to exand my inventory once and have access to 60 slots but if I stretch the window out, it looks like I have access to a lot more than 60.
As far as grouping with friends, it's a pain in the ass to even group with friends on the same server, because if we're in different instances we have to form a group, zone out and then zone back in. There is no "travel to group leader's instance" option.
Look, the fact is that the game is not finished. A lot of these things that I mentioned get worked out in beta. TSW, it seems, skipped the closed beta and went straight from alpha to open beta, to release in 2 weeks. Right now a lot of the fans are in the honeymoon phase. It's pretty evident with comments like "yea, the combat is not great but I'm OK with it" "the character models and animations are not great but I'm OK with it." People are basically settling because it's a next new MMO. Once the newness factor wears off, the faults are going to become very evident.
Really? I did all 3 of the Kingsmouth investigation missions and got a few Solomon Island tokens and some XP. Not really anything to write home about. If there was some cool looking weapon or clothing, something to show that you actually took the time to figure this out but there isn't. Even the turn-in text is uneventful. It's like "oh, you solved the quest, ok thanks, bye!" This was a super huge BS when it came to the Kingsmouth Code mission. After you finished it there was no closure.
@heartless: I thought it wasn't a discussion whether you liked TSW or features in it, but how TSW is different from standard themepark MMO's, you know, MMO's you dislike can be different from the standard themepark too
Like said, whether you thought TSW or its features are crap or not have nothing to do with whether an MMO is a standard themepark MMO or different from it, so I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree here. To me the things I mentioned warrants enough the claim that TSW is quite different from standard themepark MMO's like WoW, LotrO, SWTOR, Aion etc
edit: I think I'm starting to understand why you use those weird arguments that have little to do with the actual topic: you feel that TSW is unfinished, and not worthy of the praise of some it's getting since you see that as honeymoon bliss. That's why you seem to trash and bash any positive thing that's being said about TSW incl the 'TSW is different from standard themepark genre', because you think any praise given now is too rosy colored and therefore should be nipped in the bud, so that TSW's present flaws will be highlighted more. If so, while I understand that sort of reasoning, I think it's an unjust approach towards the game.
People like different things and can be bothered by different things, and if they aren't bothered by features that you're bothered by, doesn't mean that all of them have rosy colored glasses on or such. Trying to discredit any positive thing that's being stated regarding TSW isn't really the way to go, to illustrate it with example above: the fact that TSW has obvious flaws and lacks obvious polish has little to do with whether it is different from the themepark standard or not, it can be different while still have its flaws.
But it's not different though. It's a standard themepark MMO with a few twists.
For example, compare SWTOR to TSW. Besides the setting and the ability wheel, both games basically follow the same model. Yet, people often refer to SWTOR as a WoW clone but you consider TSW to be different. The game is not even really leveless, as some people claim. The "Quality Level" on gear is basically levels in this game. All through the weekend all I saw was people spamming for "QL3 DPS/healer/tank" for Polaris. And that's just the first instance, I can imagine how much worse it'll get.
Now that I think about it, Quality Levels are basically WoW's Gearscore, only they last through out the whole game to max. Even as your character is leveling, you're not safe from Gearscore as you're required to have certain level of armor to access instances. That's a horrible design for leveling instances.
But yea, to each his own. If you like the game for what it is, have fun.
TSW crafting is almost exactly like crafting in Minecraft... i kid you not. and this is what an above poster called "one of the best things" .. that should tell you a lot.
Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
Lao-Tze
@heartless: Shrug. I think you haven't really grasped a number of TSW features yet, I mean I could make the same kinda statement of GW2 being not really different and being a standard themepark at its core if you want to put it that extreme, because it does have (character based) levels, classes, armor based stats, a huge number of the same generic quests only delivered a bit differently, typically lame themepark crafting, a whole lot of instancing and so on and so on.
Of course there are similarities if you want to find them with other themepark MMO's, for GW2 as well as TSW. But each also has its own distinctions, more than other themepark MMO's have that are far, far closer to the standard.
I could only rehash what I've already said, that classless, levelless, a lot of mission types, Minecraft inspired crafting, statless clothes, skill synergies etc etc aren't seen like that in other themepark MMO's of which most are WoW based. But I've already said that, so if you refuse to acknowledge that, well, to each their own, I wish you luck and fun with GW2, no biggie
The fact is that the game is not really classless(decks) and it's not really levelless (Quality Levels). The missions, despite their types are the same kill, click, deliver and the investigation missions, albeit great, can be counted on one hand. This is a themepark game, through and through. It has a very facinating lore and setting but otherwise it's not that much different than any other WoW clone out there.
Also, let's stay on topic with TSW and not bring in other games. Whether or not GW2 is a themepark is absolutely irrelevent to TSW.
All I gotta say is, " Thank you " Because you ead my mind :P
Very well said, I couldn't have said it any better! I agree with your points but there is ONE thing I find weird, maybe you guys can help me out here, it's a technical issue really.
I have a desktop with a 8150 chip, 12 gigs of ram a gtx580 super overclocked 3 gigs Vram, windows 7 64, and every driver is updated, now, when I run the secret world on direct x11 the game crashes and I get a video driver crash because of the client ( this has never happened to me before ) now here's the real kicker, my laptop is a MSI GT70 ONC 16 gigs of ram,GTX670m dedicated video card windows 7 64 core i7 3rd gen, so I go to start TSW on my laptop and I am greeted by a messgae stating that my video card driver is out of date, I realize this because nvidia hasn't made any updates for my laptop card yet , so I proceed to play the game on ultra and what do you know LOL The game runs flawlessly on ultra and I was getting average of 38-60 FPS weird? I think maybe that they didn't optimize the game client to accomodate the newer more powerful desktop video cards that exceed 1024mb, my question is this ,
have you guys had this similar issue?
sorry to ramble but I really wanna play TSW on my desktop when it launches :P
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No it is very relevant because if you can make comparisons so can others. But hey atleast Funcom didn't design TSW for mass consumption or with an aim to beat WOW, i doubt same can be said for GW2.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngaudiosi/2012/04/23/arenanet-founder-mike-obrien-will-be-satisfied-when-guild-wars-2-is-the-most-successful-mmo-period/
“We’re in it to win it this time,” said O’Brien. “We were number two to World of Warcraft with Guild Wars, now we want to beat them. We’ll be satisfied when the Guild Wars 2 is the most successful MMO.
under options, try turning Tessellation off
Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
Lao-Tze
Really? That old quote? cmon....that was obviously said to grab attention. It doesnt mean he wants GW2 to be a better wow, he means he wants it to be a better MMO and still appeal to alot of people.
The Secret World and GW2 are both steps in the right direction for MMO's as far as I'm concerned. You may be able to technically classify them as themeparks, but they still have alot more openness and player choice than many recent mmos.
MMOs Played: FFXI,Age of Conan, Aion, Rift, SWTOR, TERA, TSW, GW2
Playing:None
Waiting For: Wildstar, The Repopulation, Archeage, TESO, Warhammer 40K:EC, EQN
I never said he wants to make GW2 a better WOW but beat WOW in sales and numbers which can be only done if you aim for mass consumption. Those are the words right out of the mouth of head honcho. I will take his word over yours anyday
I have to say, I am enjoying the quests quite a bit in this game (when they work). The investigative nature is definitely refreshing, and having them require a bit of thought is a nice touch.
However, I wouldn't say that this alone is what's creating a fracture in the community. While some of the quests are quite clever, the game overall is actually pretty simple, once you get down to it. And here is where (i think) the problem lies:
The game's design seems to contradict itself. There are some really cool mechanics in TSW, but many of them seem at odds with one another. Going on the questing example you talk about, they design the quests to give you hints, but rarely tell you exactly what needs to be done (the main quests, not the kill / collect quests). Which is great, except they also add an ingame browser to allow people to look things up and basically 'cheat' ingame. They then make it a bannable offense to answer questions about what to do in quests in general chat.
Most of the quests seem like they were designed around a single-player game, then shoved into a multiplayer world & expected to behave the same way. It just doesn't. Add in the fact that a lot of quests are still bugged / broken, and it almost forces people to ask for the answers if they get stuck. In a lot of cases it's just too hard to tell whether or not something is intentional, a glitch, or whether you are doing it wrong.
For example, I took a quest to find some security cameras around town and collect them. I went over to the gas station and couldn't find the first camera at first. I then looked up. Finding out how to get over to it, I then tried clicking on it to collect it. Nothing happened. I asked around, to see if I was doing something wrong and the general response was something along the lines of 'check the roof dumbass', assuming that I wasn't just up there clicking on the thing. Turns out the quest was glitched. I went back later, and was able to complete it. Still not sure as to why it wouldn't work the first time.
A second quest had me trying to learn about a woman who had burned down in a house. I had to uncover a number of different things, and for the most part it seemed fairly straight forward. However, at the end of the quest I was supposed to find one last item, and I just couldn't find it. I looked at the clue, didn't seem to help much. Finally, I gave up and asked in general chat. Surprise surprise, I was in the right spot, the quest was just bugged.
- Now, I know it's beta, and these things are to be expected. I really do hope they iron out all of these issues, as it adds too much uncertaintly to the mystery of the game. I know I don't like to spend a lot of time figuring out a quest, only to learn that I had wasted my time trying to do the impossible (complete a broken / bugged quest).
As for the game needing a lot of subs to survive.. I would think not. The majority of this game's content really does play out like a single player game. It's also gear based, so most of the earlier quests u can go back & faceroll once you get better gear. I have no idea how many of the zones this will stay true with, though. The only content that really seemed to demand a healthy population for are dungeons & pvp. We'll have to wait till the last BWE to see how the PvP is, but based on the combat so far, I'm guessing that the dungeons will be drawing more of the attention of players. As long as they don't fracture the game into too many shards, I think it will have enough people to get through the content for the first few months.
LOL I did!
still nothing,I even lowered some of my graphics, still nothing.
I can run BF3 Ultra res to 1924-1080 and that game runs great at 60-70 FPS np, I'm sure its a issue with their client not recognizing higher end video cards that have more then 1024 MB then inturn causes a crash, heck I even lowered my settings to medium then low LOL!
The single player feel of the game is a nice aspect in that, a majority of people end up playing MMO's by themselves anyways until there is a need/reason to group with other people. So technically, why shouldn't a game go off of a strong point of feeling like you are immersed into the story as an individual without having to rely on other people to do all the thinking and work for you. It also supports the MMO style where you can play with friends, new or old or even just random people on the same quest with you. You can discuss the hints together, or what needs to be done etc.
If the game has you stumped, Good! that just means you are a normal human being capable of making decisions and are doing fine. People everywhere are complaining so much about the quests being too hard or in depth. I for one commend it and it is probably the most interesting fact about this game, and the fact that I can do it with others and friends all alike.
I literally spent an hour doing the investigation mission from Madem Roget, she gives you the visions of stuff she's hearing as a psychic, and tries to lead you to the spots on the map where she speaks of. I couldn't have been happier and well rewarded after finishing the quest, even after spending an hour doing it. It was the best hour spent in any game I've played thus far.
Along the lines of you claiming the quests just being bugged or glitchy. In retrospect, I haven't come across 1 quest that was bugged, and I completed every single Kingsmouth quest possible. The camera that you needed to collect on the roof... not bugged, you were most likely just out of grabbing range of it, which it tells you in the chat box, "you are out of range to do that".
In regards to your closing paragraph, let me ask you. What game isn't gear based? Every MMO I've ever played revolved around gear, stats and skills that you obtain through questing and the like to progress. Of course you'll be able to go back and easily kill stuff that you should have already had to do in the first place to get ahead to begin with. I don't see how you can see this as a problem because it is in every game.
maybe I missed something but following a little tag that floated around omn my screen giving me the distance to the quest objective did not seem really different. But then I only messed with it for a few hours, game was just not "fun" in my opinion
I miss DAoC