The Secret World

Fired this up over the weekend for the first time in around a month or so, and after the absolutely massive update, found myself once again fairly overwhelmed by the mechanics of the game (though mostly in a pleasant way). I'd forgotten just how arcane so much of the information seems to be.

One thing that's bugged me ever since release; it seems like with this game (and ONLY this game) I have this problem where the mouse cursor's displayed location doesn't quite sync up with the actual GUI. I have to click slightly below and right of where I want the click to actually register. Makes navigating through some of their more finicky menus (especially tiny "close window" buttons) somewhat of a nuisance.

Huh. I don't have that problem. Are you using any kind of modified mouse driver?

Only problem I've had is that sometimes finding where to click on an object that I'm trying to "use" in the world is a bit finicky, but they realized that themselves and added the "U" key shortcut.

I used to have this problem when i had the game set to full screen and then alt tabbed. When i came back the coursor was out of alignment. Setting the game to windowed or windowed full made this go away.

Robear wrote:

Huh. I don't have that problem. Are you using any kind of modified mouse driver?

Nope; I'm running a Logitech gaming mouse, but am using stock Windows drivers because after my recent system rebuild I was too lazy to go dig up Logitech's drivers and reinstall them.

ranalin wrote:

I used to have this problem when i had the game set to full screen and then alt tabbed. When i came back the coursor was out of alignment. Setting the game to windowed or windowed full made this go away.

I haven't been alt-tabbing out of the game, but I'm curious if maybe running the game in windowed full might resolve it. I'll have to try that and see.

It's certainly not a game-breaking bug, it's just an annoyance.

Maybe the mouse cursor can be switched from hardware mode to software, or vice versa?

Or maybe it's not the mouse at all...

Interesting interview with Ragnar Tornquist and Joel Bylos over at Eurogamer about The Secret World. They're acknowledging where they are but are sounding pretty positive overall.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...

Joel Bylos talks (at length) about his plans for TSW:
http://www.thesecretworld.com/news/g...

The content in Issue #4 sounds amazing!

Jaedor wrote:

Joel Bylos talks (at length) about his plans for TSW:
http://www.thesecretworld.com/news/g...

The content in Issue #4 sounds amazing!

Reticle combat!

Sounds like some solid plans.

I was downloading the new NVIDIA drivers today and saw this about Secret World...

Adds support for NVIDIA TXAA
NVIDIA TXAA is new film-style anti-aliasing technique designed specifically to reduce temporal aliasing (crawling and flickering in motion) through a combination of hardware AA, custom CG film style AA resolve, and a temporal filter.
The Secret World is the first game to support TXAA. Read about it on GeForce.com.
TXAA is supported on GeForce GTX 600-series Kepler-based GPUs.
Learn more about TXAA on GeForce.com.

Sounds pretty cool.

ranalin wrote:
Jaedor wrote:

Joel Bylos talks (at length) about his plans for TSW:
http://www.thesecretworld.com/news/g...

The content in Issue #4 sounds amazing!

Reticle combat!

Oh interesting, this could actually be something I'd switch on, I've always thought the standard MMO targeting system was a little bit awkward.

If you haven't logged in in the past day or so, the Halloween events are now live. They start with a phone call from Madame Roget and send you back to Solomon Island.

Lots of players back for the event; Kingsmouth was actually crowded again.

There's a multi-player instance associated with the event; "The Cat God". Anyone up for running it this weekend?

In other news, PA ran an interview with former lead designer Martin Bruusgaard talking about what went wrong with the game. He says everyone there was surprised at what happened as all of the feedback they had prior to launch was wildly positive.

He blames the problems on them changing too many things from the standard MMO formula. He says he thinks they should have stayed with the standard class/level system.

Martin Bruusgaard wrote:

I think we probably should’ve gone for something that was maybe a bit more familiar. No classes, no levels, different weapons, and you have the skills. Yes we have quests, but some of the quests are weird, where you look up on the browser to get the solution… it’s all familiar, but with a twist, and I don’t think we should’ve twisted that many things.

This may be a radical thing to say, but I think it would have helped if we actually had levels in the game. I’m sort of ashamed to say it, but I think that might’ve made things feel more familiar when it comes to players tracking their own progression and telling how strong they are, and knowing where to go. I think people got lost because they don’t have this number telling them how strong they are.

It’s a shame to say, but I think it’s very, very few cases where you can sit down and make the game that you really want to do, and it turns out to be a success. Unfortunately I think that in order to be a success in today’s market, you need to make the game a bit more commercial. I think you have to consider what sells. You just have to. Not doing it is a huge risk. Yes, you might get lucky and everything works out great, but I would not do that again.

I'm just afraid this means we'll get nothing but WoW clones from here on out, since everyone seems to think that's the only way to be successful.

As a secondary issue he blames the game's marketing (or lack thereof).

Martin Bruusgaard wrote:

I think we also could’ve done a better job when it comes to marketing and making sure people know there is a game called The Secret World. I think too few people had heard of it, even though again, our numbers seemed like we were tracking really well.

Full article

Yeah, it makes me a little sad, because the reason I like the game so much is largely due to exactly the things they're saying caused it to be less successful. The departures from the theme-park dikuMUD mmo's are the best parts of the game!

I haven't played it as much the last couple months, but I've kept my sub active both so that I can dip my toes in periodically when I get the itch, and because I figure since I want to keep the game active and successful I might as well show my support.

I'm a lifer, so I'm committed. I think it's a great game, though, my opinion has not changed. There's just so much good out this year... It's hard to divide up the time between all these outstanding offerings.

tanstaafl wrote:

In other news, PA ran an interview with former lead designer Martin Bruusgaard talking about what went wrong with the game. He says everyone there was surprised at what happened as all of the feedback they had prior to launch was wildly positive.

He blames the problems on them changing too many things from the standard MMO formula. He says he thinks they should have stayed with the standard class/level system.

Martin Bruusgaard wrote:

I think we probably should’ve gone for something that was maybe a bit more familiar. No classes, no levels, different weapons, and you have the skills. Yes we have quests, but some of the quests are weird, where you look up on the browser to get the solution… it’s all familiar, but with a twist, and I don’t think we should’ve twisted that many things.

This may be a radical thing to say, but I think it would have helped if we actually had levels in the game. I’m sort of ashamed to say it, but I think that might’ve made things feel more familiar when it comes to players tracking their own progression and telling how strong they are, and knowing where to go. I think people got lost because they don’t have this number telling them how strong they are.

It’s a shame to say, but I think it’s very, very few cases where you can sit down and make the game that you really want to do, and it turns out to be a success. Unfortunately I think that in order to be a success in today’s market, you need to make the game a bit more commercial. I think you have to consider what sells. You just have to. Not doing it is a huge risk. Yes, you might get lucky and everything works out great, but I would not do that again.

I'm just afraid this means we'll get nothing but WoW clones from here on out, since everyone seems to think that's the only way to be successful.

As a secondary issue he blames the game's marketing (or lack thereof).

Martin Bruusgaard wrote:

I think we also could’ve done a better job when it comes to marketing and making sure people know there is a game called The Secret World. I think too few people had heard of it, even though again, our numbers seemed like we were tracking really well.

Full article

Disagree with his entire outlook.. the issue isnt the game and its mechanics.. its the fact that its subscription based. I think designing an MMOG these days from the ground up around a subscription fee is a sure sign that your game is likely to "fail". You need a thriving community to support an MMOG.. and what better way to limit that right from the bat? Make sure that people have to pay a monthly fee.

Robear wrote:

I'm a lifer, so I'm committed. I think it's a great game, though, my opinion has not changed. There's just so much good out this year... It's hard to divide up the time between all these outstanding offerings.

Yup. 2012 is another banner year for gaming.

$22.50 USD on Steam for the next few days.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/uKshe.jpg)

Looks like the Illuminate headquarters may be in trouble.

Yeah, I think we're going to have to bail out the eye...

That is really uncanny.

IMAGE(http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/7073/exqrv.jpg)

Tannhauser wrote:

Looks like the Illuminate headquarters may be in trouble. :)

Wow, that is crazy! Though I am sure the shield at the entrance will hold

Just... wow.

Some very exciting changes in store for patch 1.4.

I am most excited about the pvp changes. Right now Fusang is a joke and this should go a long way towards helping to breath new life into pvp.

The change to escalation is a long time in coming and should really help with build diversity though there is the usual nerf debate on the forums.

Overall I am more excited for 1.4 than any other post-launch patch.

In other news I'm about maxed out on Skill points so I hope they release a new aux weapon with 1.4 or I'm going to start wasting skill points once I hit cap. I'm close to 60% done with the wheel but I only have two of the rocket launcher abilities so I am still quite a ways from maxing that out.

I think I may have sighted another goodjer yesterday but it might have been my imagination. Is anyone still actually playing this game?

Over on the official forums one of the devs joked that they were going to flood the Illuminati headquarters for Issue 4 but backed off thinking that New England players may not find it that funny.

TheArtOfScience wrote:

I think I may have sighted another goodjer yesterday but it might have been my imagination. Is anyone still actually playing this game?

I'm still playing, quite heavily. Not as far along as you are though; I'm not close to maxing out on skill points and actually haven't finished the main questline yet (I'm still in the Shadowy Forest). Here's my chronicle.

Doing pretty well though there are still a handful of level 10 quests that can kick my ass. I still in for the long haul though.

ETA: And there is a new aux weapon coming out with Issue 4; the chainsaw.

Sorry to keep spamming the thread, but Dead End Thrills is currently doing The Secret World

IMAGE(http://barbarella.deadendthrills.com/imagestore/thesecretworld/1024/wallofcthulhu.jpg)

IMAGE(http://barbarella.deadendthrills.com/imagestore/thesecretworld/1024/otherpeoplesproperty.jpg)

IMAGE(http://barbarella.deadendthrills.com/imagestore/thesecretworld/1024/subdomain.jpg)

tanstaafl wrote:
TheArtOfScience wrote:

I think I may have sighted another goodjer yesterday but it might have been my imagination. Is anyone still actually playing this game?

I'm still playing, quite heavily. Not as far along as you are though; I'm not close to maxing out on skill points and actually haven't finished the main questline yet (I'm still in the Shadowy Forest). Here's my chronicle.

Doing pretty well though there are still a handful of level 10 quests that can kick my ass. I still in for the long haul though.

ETA: And there is a new aux weapon coming out with Issue 4; the chainsaw.

Shadowy Forest is my favorite zone for questing in. I've found the AP to time investment there is the best out of all zones I've done. I prefer signet farming in Beseiged Farmlands though.

My character is Shalalm "Taos" Baskur so if you ever want some help with nightmare quests just let me know. I'm not an uber player or anything and I don't really do dungeons much though I'd like to change that. Right now I am mostly questing and pvping. My gear is all blue with a few purples from pvp and I'm slowly grinding out purple pvp gear over time. I play mostly for the atmosphere and I'm in no rush to be uber McUberson.

Here is my chronicle: http://chronicle.thesecretworld.com/character/Taos

I play off and on but have never managed to get into the gwj templar cabal due to not crossing paths at the right time.

Tannhauser wrote:

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/uKshe.jpg)

Looks like the Illuminate headquarters may be in trouble. :)

Wow. Didn't realize how well they had scouted their locations. Here's the same angle in-game...

IMAGE(http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/47/thesecretworld201211011.jpg)