New interviews, gamer.no & incgamers

MMO.Maverick

A few new interviews that I encountered, one is in another language but the english translation of it can be found here.

Some interesting quotes from it:

 

Gamer.no: How will the stealth- or sabotage missions be, and how common they are in relation to other missions?



- You do sabotage mission when you need to find information in secret or perform a mission without making a fuss. Therefore we have created mechanics that encourage unorthodox methods of solving problems. There will be security systems that have to be avoided, enemies who are trying to catch you instead of killing you and environment-based dangers. These missions have usually pretty open goals. Instead of saying that the player must use the control Panel, then open the door and then go into the base, the mission just say "go into the base", explains Bylos.



 Maybe a player chooses to climb over the fence. Another might have the password to the control panel, and a third might choose to just blow the door open. Tricky players can even let someone else do the dirty work and then sneak through the open door. The thing is to let players be creative and find solutions they see fit with their own style of play.

 

Gamer.no: Not many massive online games have puzzles. How will the investigation missions really be?



- These quests are not so easy to categorize. Several investigations might be about knowledge, where you have to look for information that provides clues for the next step. Some is more about logic, where you may need to find the right combination of numbers or events. Others need very specific types of skills, such as hacking a computer with complicated commands only a decent hacker knows about, or to translate a riddle written in a language that only 300 people on Earth use, explained Bylos.

 

Interesting to note, in this and another article they mentioned the examples of that it's in a language only a few people on Earth use or that information for Investigation Missions can be found on computers that can be hacked. This is not some ingame stat skill, hacking, they're talking about the Investigation Missions that you're supposed to solve using out-of-game investigating like the ARG's, so those hacking skills are supposed to be real hacking skills that are required. That they mentioned those 2 examples in more interviews very likely means that both those Investigation Missions will be ingame.

 

Gamer.no: You talk about players that may affect the story through choises. How does this work?



- It's just a couple of different branches of the story released at the launch of The Secret World. It is then about unraveling the story – about what events lead us to where we are today. The players' choices and how things develop on the server will affect how the story goes in later updates, answers Scheve.

 

The incgamer article can be found here. Some quotes:

Will players come across a lot of spoken dialogue throughout the game or is it only on key points in missions or the storyline?

Dag Scheve: All dialogue in the game is spoken. If somebody has something to say to you, they say it. That goes for cinematics, yes, but it also goes for running past an NPC in the world, helping escort a wounded NPC or receiving a phone call.

 

How exactly are the missions structured?  There are the three types you describe in this developer diary, stealth, action and investigative, but how much choice will players have in what they select, and by not selecting certain mission types, will that change the path of the players progression at all? Or do they all have to be completed in a linear sequence?

 

Joel Bylos: Unlike most MMO’s we have made the decision to limit a player to only a few missions at a time. A story mission that provides overall direction within a zone, a main mission (action, sabotage, investigation, dungeon) which can be any of the abovementioned types and a side mission which tend to be the missions you collect as you explore.

Each mission has a number of tiers. A tier is a progress marker and reward point. Completing a tier gives a minor reward and saves player progress. Missions can unlock other missions and the majority of missions in the game are repeatable.

 

 How exactly do the story missions sit alongside the standard mission types? Are the story mission something a player will select in their own time to continue on their player progression path or are the intermingled as the player progresses?

Joel Bylos: You will always have your story mission, from the start of the game and onwards. It sits alongside the other mission types and is more of an umbrella type of mission. Progress on the story mission is not always obvious. A story mission goal, for example, could be “Investigate events in Kingsmouth”. As players explore the events through playing the other missions in Kingsmouth, they will unlock further progress on the story mission – but only as they discover pertinent events to the story.

XAleX360

Originally posted by MMO.Maverick

A few new interviews that I encountered, one is in another language but the english translation of it can be found here.

Some interesting quotes from it:

 

Gamer.no: How will the stealth- or sabotage missions be, and how common they are in relation to other missions?



- You do sabotage mission when you need to find information in secret or perform a mission without making a fuss. Therefore we have created mechanics that encourage unorthodox methods of solving problems. There will be security systems that have to be avoided, enemies who are trying to catch you instead of killing you and environment-based dangers. These missions have usually pretty open goals. Instead of saying that the player must use the control Panel, then open the door and then go into the base, the mission just say "go into the base", explains Bylos.



 Maybe a player chooses to climb over the fence. Another might have the password to the control panel, and a third might choose to just blow the door open. Tricky players can even let someone else do the dirty work and then sneak through the open door. The thing is to let players be creative and find solutions they see fit with their own style of play.

 

Gamer.no: Not many massive online games have puzzles. How will the investigation missions really be?



- These quests are not so easy to categorize. Several investigations might be about knowledge, where you have to look for information that provides clues for the next step. Some is more about logic, where you may need to find the right combination of numbers or events. Others need very specific types of skills, such as hacking a computer with complicated commands only a decent hacker knows about, or to translate a riddle written in a language that only 300 people on Earth use, explained Bylos.

 

Interesting to note, in this and another article they mentioned the examples of that it's in a language only a few people on Earth use or that information for Investigation Missions can be found on computers that can be hacked. This is not some ingame stat skill, hacking, they're talking about the Investigation Missions that you're supposed to solve using out-of-game investigating like the ARG's, so those hacking skills are supposed to be real hacking skills that are required. That they mentioned those 2 examples in more interviews very likely means that both those Investigation Missions will be ingame.

 

Gamer.no: You talk about players that may affect the story through choises. How does this work?



- It's just a couple of different branches of the story released at the launch of The Secret World. It is then about unraveling the story – about what events lead us to where we are today. The players' choices and how things develop on the server will affect how the story goes in later updates, answers Scheve.

 

The incgamer article can be found here. Some quotes:

Will players come across a lot of spoken dialogue throughout the game or is it only on key points in missions or the storyline?

Dag Scheve: All dialogue in the game is spoken. If somebody has something to say to you, they say it. That goes for cinematics, yes, but it also goes for running past an NPC in the world, helping escort a wounded NPC or receiving a phone call.

 

How exactly are the missions structured?  There are the three types you describe in this developer diary, stealth, action and investigative, but how much choice will players have in what they select, and by not selecting certain mission types, will that change the path of the players progression at all? Or do they all have to be completed in a linear sequence?

 

Joel Bylos: Unlike most MMO’s we have made the decision to limit a player to only a few missions at a time. A story mission that provides overall direction within a zone, a main mission (action, sabotage, investigation, dungeon) which can be any of the abovementioned types and a side mission which tend to be the missions you collect as you explore.

Each mission has a number of tiers. A tier is a progress marker and reward point. Completing a tier gives a minor reward and saves player progress. Missions can unlock other missions and the majority of missions in the game are repeatable.

 

 How exactly do the story missions sit alongside the standard mission types? Are the story mission something a player will select in their own time to continue on their player progression path or are the intermingled as the player progresses?

Joel Bylos: You will always have your story mission, from the start of the game and onwards. It sits alongside the other mission types and is more of an umbrella type of mission. Progress on the story mission is not always obvious. A story mission goal, for example, could be “Investigate events in Kingsmouth”. As players explore the events through playing the other missions in Kingsmouth, they will unlock further progress on the story mission – but only as they discover pertinent events to the story.

 

Very nice, the game becomes more interesting each time we hear about it.

ProfRed

You know I haven't thought much about this, but I really love the concept of only have a few missions at a time.  I have grown to dread going to new areas in MMO's and some single player RPG's because i'm so burnt out on running around and gathering up all of the quests, then having 19 things to do, and then working to do them and dig out whatever story I can before realizing they are all fluff besides one or two.

I think it will be pretty cool to have a few objectives running throughout the game that build off each other. 

The voice acting though is a big undertaking.  I hope it isn't like AoC where it is content rich early, and then barren the second half of the game.  I hope it is 100% thought out and full of npc dialogue from start to finish.

XAleX360

Supposedly, the game is fully voiced.

Fourplay

Videogames are active, not passive entertainment.

Fully Voiced dialogue in games is inevitable for the industry.

I guess you may still find only strict text lore in low budget games. if you dislike VO.....

Kien

[quote]Others need very specific types of skills, such as hacking a computer with complicated commands only a decent hacker knows about, or to translate a riddle written in a language that only 300 people on Earth use, explained Bylos.[/quote]

 

Good puzzles are difficult to create, especially when the puzzle is just one small element in the game. But, the kind of puzzles they're proposing are just plain silly. Why create a puzzle which only a miniscule percentage of gamers will be able to solve? Why force people to Alt-Tab out of the game and run a Google search for the answer?

rpgalon

Originally posted by Kien

[quote]Others need very specific types of skills, such as hacking a computer with complicated commands only a decent hacker knows about, or to translate a riddle written in a language that only 300 people on Earth use, explained Bylos.[/quote]

 

Good puzzles are difficult to create, especially when the puzzle is just one small element in the game. But, the kind of puzzles they're proposing are just plain silly. Why create a puzzle which only a miniscule percentage of gamers will be able to solve? Why force people to Alt-Tab out of the game and run a Google search for the answer?

you don't know what they are aiming for, yes if the hard puzzles are just a bit near the ARGs they allready released, no one would be able to solve alone... but what happened was that the whole community on the foruns worked together to figure it out... I was not able to help much, but just keeping up with the community and seeing the puzzles being cracked was a blast.

but they allready stated that not every investigation mission is hardcore.  

AmazingAvery

If you guys have twitter it is good to follow Joel for some updates now and then

joelbylos  

 

 

"All skills are available after a few hours of play." does not mean "the player *owns* all the skills after a few hours of play". 

 

Thanks for the update Mav

XAleX360

Will there be some E3 announcements from Funcom, pertaining TSW?

Yuui

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Originally posted by XAleX360
Will there be some E3 announcements from Funcom, pertaining TSW?

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Quoting official message from twitter accounts of people who know:
"Funcom will not be presenting The Secret World at E3 this week, but come August we will be at GamesCom and PAX in full force!"

No FC at E3,
TSW at Gamescom
TSW at PAX(possibly the reveal of the whole agharta pvp system)