The Secret World

TheArtOfScience wrote:

There is no "aiming" like a shooter and it works on the push a button and something happens school of mmo thought. However, I've heard that all abilities are able to be used whilst moving and that positioning plays an important part in battles, especially boss fights. This should hopefully make combat seem snappier and more interactive.

You can earn every available skill in the game on one character theoretically. I imagine it'd take a lot of grinding but it is possible. However, at any given time you can only have 7 active and 7 passive skills slotted. This is nice in that it gives you access to a bounty of skills but you don't become overwhelmed with choices.

There is probably going to be the trinity mechanic at play. This is mitigated somewhat by no character classes. It's quite possible to build a tanking build and then learn all of the skills for a DPS build and just choose the build that best suits your current objective or group composition. I also get the impression that the whole "stand here and play HP whack-a-mole" brand of healing will be absent in favor of more dynamic healing abilities but I'm not 100% sure on that.

Well that all sounds pretty good actually, especially the bolded part. I like the Guild Wars school of limited abilities, which makes choosing them the important part, rather than your ability to create macros and hit 70 different hot keys.

I was actually pretty good at that in WoW, but damnit, I never want to have to go to the lengths I went to there just to get my character set up. Ugh... some of my macros did 6 different spells depending on the situation.

Redwing wrote:
TheArtOfScience wrote:

There is no "aiming" like a shooter and it works on the push a button and something happens school of mmo thought. However, I've heard that all abilities are able to be used whilst moving and that positioning plays an important part in battles, especially boss fights. This should hopefully make combat seem snappier and more interactive.

You can earn every available skill in the game on one character theoretically. I imagine it'd take a lot of grinding but it is possible. However, at any given time you can only have 7 active and 7 passive skills slotted. This is nice in that it gives you access to a bounty of skills but you don't become overwhelmed with choices.

There is probably going to be the trinity mechanic at play. This is mitigated somewhat by no character classes. It's quite possible to build a tanking build and then learn all of the skills for a DPS build and just choose the build that best suits your current objective or group composition. I also get the impression that the whole "stand here and play HP whack-a-mole" brand of healing will be absent in favor of more dynamic healing abilities but I'm not 100% sure on that.

Well that all sounds pretty good actually, especially the bolded part. I like the Guild Wars school of limited abilities, which makes choosing them the important part, rather than your ability to create macros and hit 70 different hot keys.

I was actually pretty good at that in WoW, but damnit, I never want to have to go to the lengths I went to there just to get my character set up. Ugh... some of my macros did 6 different spells depending on the situation. :lol:

Concur with all above. Funcom is supposedly implementing a deck system which should allow you to easily switch between builds to reflect solo, groups, and than discriminate even further between tank, DPS, heals etc... Macros are still handy, but you can easily work your chain of 7 with mouse or number keys. You can overwhelm yourself by trying to acquire too many skills from the different ability trees. You are limited to using skills from only two trees at any time because you must have a weapon/focus that enables those skills and you can only equip two (one in each hand). Ex. You can equip skills from assault rifle line and the blood magic line by equipping an assault rifle and a blood magic focus. Also skills can be complimentary to each other so some research into skills that have synergy is worth your time. Personally, I have focused on a single line and love it. Also the crafting mechanic is pretty interesting. Lots of little subtleties throughout the game that adds complexity.

From what I have gleamed, I thought they were saying that passives from one tree can apply to skills from another. Like assault rifle has a passive that procs a heal on crit irregardless of whether you are using an assault rifle, a hammer, or a katana.

The thing I don't know is if you have to "slot" these passives or whether they are always on once you have unlocked them.

Also, the deck system seemed to me more like the ability to follow a theme or archetype. They will help give some direction for those overwhelmed by all the choices as well as sort of an achievement system where once you reach all the requirements for a "deck", you unlock a costume representative of the deck's style. Oh and I will add that the thamaturge (mage with turret skills) looks completely awesome!

fangblackbone wrote:

From what I have gleamed, I thought they were saying that passives from one tree can apply to skills from another. Like assault rifle has a passive that procs a heal on crit irregardless of whether you are using an assault rifle, a hammer, or a katana.

The thing I don't know is if you have to "slot" these passives or whether they are always on once you have unlocked them.

Also, the deck system seemed to me more like the ability to follow a theme or archetype. They will help give some direction for those overwhelmed by all the choices as well as sort of an achievement system where once you reach all the requirements for a "deck", you unlock a costume representative of the deck's style. Oh and I will add that the thamaturge (mage with turret skills) looks completely awesome!

In order for any passive/active to work - it must be slotted. You have 7 active slots and 7 passive slots. The active skills will not work if you dont have the appropriate weapon equipped, I dont think the passives will work without the appropriate focus/weapon equipped either. Almost positive they turn grey when the wep/focus is unequipped. Decks are disabled in beta so I dont really have any hands on insight into that feature.

If slotted passives won't work unless the weapon is equipped or currently active, I will be a sad panda. That takes a whole host of customization and fun away for me. Only for the passives though, I can understand why active skills require the correct weapon type to be equipped.

My understanding is that there are some passives that work with weapons other than the line they are in, like fangblackbone's explanation.

Also, my understanding of the deck system is that there are:
1) Theme decks that give direction on what to take and will unlock the costume for that theme when complete
2) custom decks for switching to your own builds i.e. "My DPS Blade Build", "Tank build for Area X"

I may be a filthy skimmer, but has anyone started an account with the Secret War? http://www.thesecretworld.com/news/t...

It's some sort of Facebook social game marketing build-up thing with some benefits for the final game, and possible access to the beta. I'm just starting an account now.

Thete were some people outraged at that game upthread :)

Mixolyde wrote:

I may be a filthy skimmer, but has anyone started an account with the Secret War? http://www.thesecretworld.com/news/t...

It's some sort of Facebook social game marketing build-up thing with some benefits for the final game, and possible access to the beta. I'm just starting an account now.

karmajay wrote:

Thete were some people outraged at that game upthread :)

Mixolyde wrote:

I may be a filthy skimmer, but has anyone started an account with the Secret War? http://www.thesecretworld.com/news/t...

It's some sort of Facebook social game marketing build-up thing with some benefits for the final game, and possible access to the beta. I'm just starting an account now.

Well I joined the dragons. Not much to do as part of the "game" except spam your friends. Oh well.

Mixolyde wrote:
karmajay wrote:

Thete were some people outraged at that game upthread :)

Mixolyde wrote:

I may be a filthy skimmer, but has anyone started an account with the Secret War? http://www.thesecretworld.com/news/t...

It's some sort of Facebook social game marketing build-up thing with some benefits for the final game, and possible access to the beta. I'm just starting an account now.

Well I joined the dragons. Not much to do as part of the "game" except spam your friends. Oh well.

Ya you get a 'turn' every few hours. Everything else requires doing way more on Facebook than i like.

BTW: Go Dragons!

Mixolyde wrote:

I may be a filthy skimmer, but has anyone started an account with the Secret War? http://www.thesecretworld.com/news/t...

It's some sort of Facebook social game marketing build-up thing with some benefits for the final game, and possible access to the beta. I'm just starting an account now.

I signed up and maxed out the rank in 2 days. Granted I got banned from sending friend invites for 7 days... Pretty easy to get the points without spamming friends, just invite strangers. The dragons have a few groups that if you join you can invite all the members and get a couple hundred agents easy.

I'm tempted to make 2 other facebook accounts and get the other faction stuff too.

Ya people need to keep an eye on their email today...

Is this people who have participated in the facebook game (which I have not) or some of the lucky ones facebook challenged and still managed to get in?

fangblackbone wrote:

Is this people who have participated in the facebook game (which I have not) or some of the lucky ones facebook challenged and still managed to get in?

I was in the second wave for AoC so if i was getting in now it would make sense and not related to facebook.

TAoS check your PM

New wave of beta invites going out.

fangblackbone wrote:

Is this people who have participated in the facebook game (which I have not) or some of the lucky ones facebook challenged and still managed to get in?

I think they are just ramping up the beta invites to put some stress on the servers as the game approaches launch.

folks, while alluding to or hinting that you got in may be wrong too, but outright stating your in the beta goes against the NDA.

Its not that i think folks here will turn us in, but i know that Funcom has devs who come to our site...

Is June 1st the launch date? Wow time flies.

I want to pre-order this but I am not sure because I will be 2 weeks into the throes of a d3 addiction.

ranalin wrote:

folks, while alluding to or hinting that you got in may be wrong too, but outright stating your in the beta goes against the NDA.

Its not that i think folks here will turn us in, but i know that Funcom has devs who come to our site...

Your conspiracy theories fit right in with the game.

Your conspiracy theories fit right in with the game.

I had heard that those devs from funcom on this site had been "taken care off".

I've not played the FB thing (I do not book face.) But, I did pre-order, which gets you into beta weekends.

Those devs were sent on a research weekend to a peaceful fishing village in New England in hopes of improving their productivity .... nothing has been heard of them since

Last I heard launch is June 14.

And I think preorders are supposed to be able to access the beta starting May 11.

tanstaafl wrote:

Last I heard launch is June 14.

And I think preorders are supposed to be able to access the beta starting May 11.

I think they're having open beta weekends... at least this weekend it will be open.

The release date is June 19.

ranalin wrote:

folks, while alluding to or hinting that you got in may be wrong too, but outright stating your in the beta goes against the NDA.

Actually, I just re-read the NDA, and I believe you're wrong. There's no language about whether you may or may not disclose the fact that you are participating in the beta. Details of *any* sort about the game itself are right out, as is providing access to your account to someone else. But revealing that you're in the beta is not explicitly in violation. (Of course, Funcom's lawyers may disagree and hold that it falls under the "and everything else" clause.)

So, anyway, yeah. CYA and all that, but I'm not going to stress about it.

Hey GWJers, i just got a beta invite code but Real Life is being way too demanding for me to tempt things with installing a new game at the moment. If anybody wants it, just drop me a PM.

Claimed. Enjoy the run

Hypatian wrote:
ranalin wrote:

folks, while alluding to or hinting that you got in may be wrong too, but outright stating your in the beta goes against the NDA.

Actually, I just re-read the NDA, and I believe you're wrong. There's no language about whether you may or may not disclose the fact that you are participating in the beta. Details of *any* sort about the game itself are right out, as is providing access to your account to someone else. But revealing that you're in the beta is not explicitly in violation. (Of course, Funcom's lawyers may disagree and hold that it falls under the "and everything else" clause.)

So, anyway, yeah. CYA and all that, but I'm not going to stress about it.

Well you're wrong... read your PM

Based on new information, I am quite possibly wrong--and Funcom needs to be more consistent in the way they provide the NDA to people. Either that or they've loosened the NDA in some places in preparation for the beta weekends, but not in other places. Either way, that's a mess. (And yeah, I might get booted from the beta for continuing to talk about this. I won't be super sad if that happens.

If you do want very much to be in the closed beta, don't do what I've done. I'm just not going to go back and edit all of my posts at this point. :p