The Secret World

[Jaesun]

Everything is True

While the visuals were ok, all the TEXT in that trailer have me one gigantic hard on.

 

[Mystary!]

Fucking tease. We're given no new information whatsoever.
Katana silliness aside, I still like this one:

 

[Data4]

Some of the videos I've seen are kinda... meh. There's one where a party of people advance up a street with woods on either side and zombies attacking. Only it had no mood whatsoever. It just seemed bland to me. There's another where Lovecraftian creatures are attacking from a beach, but it still just seemed blah. I dunno, it seems like these demo videos would benefit from being done at night with some fog or something to create a better aesthetic with which to show off the game.

 

[bylam]

Currently working on this, so I suppose I can answer questions people have. Of course, I can only talk about aspects of the game marketing have revealed or I risk getting my ass kicked from many angles.

 

[Zed]

I felt robbed with Age of Conan and swore to boycott all your future titles but I can forgive (but probably not).

Are you still answering 100% to shareholders, i.e. have to release an unfinished game if they demand it?

City settings are great for instanced linear zones, like in Age of Conan. Will they be the same in this title or will you attempt to make an open world?

 

[Mangoose]

Are you actually going to have content in this game, or am I going to have lulls in quests that make me grind for a whole one or two levels? Is the end zone as shitty as Khesh?

 

[bylam]

I felt robbed with Age of Conan and swore to boycott all your future titles but I can forgive (but probably not).

Are you still answering 100% to shareholders, i.e. have to release an unfinished game if they demand it?

City settings are great for instanced linear zones, like in Age of Conan. Will they be the same in this title or will you attempt to make an open world?

Hmmm, yeah what can I say. AoC was a special kettle of fish. I worked my ass off on that game and poured my heart and soul into a lot of it. But it died the death of a thousand cuts - there were so many small decisions which were just...well stupid at the end of the day.
All I can say is that we are trying to avoid many of the mistakes we made on Conan.

The company structure is as any publicly traded company - a board of directors e.t.c. However I think it is safe to say that they are probably more risk averse to early releases since the AoC release.
Honestly, I can't really say I am involved in such high level decisions, so I have no idea how the board feels. I guess if the company reaches a point where it is release or sink...they will probably make the choice to release. But with EA partnering up to publish the game and the new Montreal office being a significant cost reduction on development then I can't see that happening.

TSW is more of an open world than AoC, but with a storyline backbone thread that leads players through content in a linear manner.
But due to the flat system (no levels, classes e.t.c) you can decide to go wherever you like at any point. The challenge differs between monster types and races - but monsters are often regional which means that you can expect the native population of a region to require abilities that you may not have acquired.

Are you actually going to have content in this game, or am I going to have lulls in quests that make me grind for a whole one or two levels? Is the end zone as shitty as Khesh?

Well, as mentioned - no levels. Which means all content is accessible (within reason) at any time. So to run with the Kheshatta example - Kesh was the only 80 zone in Conan at launch. In TSW all zones are available (and missions) both at beginning and endgame. All zones are being developed concurrently so there is not a lack of focus on any areas.

 

[Excidium]

This game has potential.

I like this screenshot:

Voodoo!

City settings are great for instanced linear zones, like in Age of Conan. Will they be the same in this title or will you attempt to make an open world?

I remember reading in a interview with the lead developer where he criticized instanced zones in MMOs and said that they would try to make TSW as open world as possible. But that was like 2 years ago.

 

[Zed]

Was this the video in OP? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x46RJCOD8ro

I haven't got a problem with a linear storyline for a MMORPG. It was actually one of the strengths of AoC I think, and probably one of the reasons why it got such a good early response.

With no levels and classes, how do you play out the archetypes when playing in a group - or are there any? I'm thinking about the classic Tank, Healer and Damage-dealer composition. Or is it like, say, Diablo 2, and you just run away and drink health pots and "rotate" tanking?

What can you tell us about economy? Is the main income from killing monsters, or is crafting/gathering in?

Which group sizes are you focusing on creating content for? 1, 5, 10, 20, 20+? Or does it scale to group size?

 

[Kane]

TSW is more of an open world than AoC, but with a storyline backbone thread that leads players through content in a linear manner.

You are aware that it ain't really a MMORPG then?

 

[Excidium]

Never heard of a main quest?

It's a MMO as long as it's an open, persistent world shared by thousands of players.

 

[bylam]

With no levels and classes, how do you play out the archetypes when playing in a group - or are there any? I'm thinking about the classic Tank, Healer and Damage-dealer composition. Or is it like, say, Diablo 2, and you just run away and drink health pots and "rotate" tanking?

So the idea is that players purchase skills (powers, abilities - pick your poison). These come in two very specific types: Actives - which are clickables that cause an effect (shoot a weapon, cast a spell, apply a buff e.t.c.) and Passives - which, as the name suggests, passively affect the player at all times.

The player can have have as many skills as they wish, BUT they can only have equipped 7 actives and 7 passives at any given time.

Examples - A tank build (deck, whatever) can be made by equipping passives that modify hp, increase damage mitigation e.t.c. and actives which help hold aggro and give the player additional uptime.
The skills are designed so that using passives that do these things will come with other disadvantages such as decreased damage output, less ability to deal with Crowd Control e.t.c.
The analogy we toss around at the office is like a Collectible Card Game. You might own every Magic card there is to own, but if you don't make intelligent deck building choices you'll still get beaten by the guy who owns a basic deck.

So yes, that said it is completely possible to build the "trinity". And certainly certain parts of the content will have effect requirements, such as bringing someone who can soak up a lot of damage.

What can you tell us about economy? Is the main income from killing monsters, or is crafting/gathering in?

Crafting is in, but until marketing talk about it, I really can't.

Which group sizes are you focusing on creating content for? 1, 5, 10, 20, 20+? Or does it scale to group size?

I'm not sure they have announced group size. But we are making solo content and group content (both outdoor and instances).

 

[bylam]

You are aware that it ain't really a MMORPG then?

I'm not really sure how you can draw that conclusion. Doesn't that really depend on the context, the presentation and the purpose of the story? I mean, even EvE has story missions.

 

[Zed]

So the longevity is partly based on getting these abilities I assume. Character development is essentially acquiring skills and getting gear?

As I understand it, your PvP allegiance is determined by these 3 factions, so it's a Faction vs Faction vs Faction game á la DaoC?

Thanks for answering questions by the way.

 

[bylam]

So the longevity is partly based on getting these abilities I assume. Character development is essentially acquiring skills and getting gear?

As I understand it, your PvP allegiance is determined by these 3 factions, so it's a Faction vs Faction vs Faction game á la DaoC?

Thanks for answering questions by the way.

Yes and yes to the questions. However, the factions are allowed to work together in PvE and against each other in PvP. The world space is "shared" for the factions, and each faction have their own motivations for being in an area.

And it is no worries answering questions.

 

[Mangoose]

So what are the skills like? Active/passive abilities that you have to earn a la Guild Wars, or more quantitative skills you can level and easily purchase a la UO?

And since there are no levels (and it sounds like the former earnable GW skills) I guess monster difficulty or character "strength" depends on what skills you have?

 

[Data4]

Could you elaborate a bit on the nature of the open world? I played AoC for a bit but quit due to the disparity between Tortage and the rest of the game world in terms of detail, but primarily because I hate instanced zones. When I first read that TSW was being made with the same engine as AoC, I pretty much wrote it off as a series of loading screens with quests in between.

 

[Mangoose]

Could you elaborate a bit on the nature of the open world? I played AoC for a bit but quit due to the disparity between Tortage and the rest of the game world in terms of detail, but primarily because I hate instanced zones. When I first read that TSW was being made with the same engine as AoC, I pretty much wrote it off as a series of loading screens with quests in between.

Eh? But Tortage was much more instanced than post-20 (besides after they divided the population by instancing the zone). Do you mean open world as opposed to zoned world with area transitions?

 

[bylam]

So what are the skills like? Active/passive abilities that you have to earn a la Guild Wars, or more quantitative skills you can level and easily purchase a la UO?

And since there are no levels (and it sounds like the former earnable GW skills) I guess monster difficulty or character "strength" depends on what skills you have?

More Guild Wars than UO style.
Content difficulty in general is determined by gear requirement and build specificity. (And gear can be very build specific as well).
An easy mob could be beaten by spamming general attacks.
A medium mob might require that player bring a specific damage type or effect, like fire.
A difficult mob might require that the player build can handle both effects on the mob and also manipulating the effects that the mob places on them.
A dungeon boss might require a team to synergize their builds for particular effect types.

In other words as players collect abilities and become more versatile, they are able to overcome greater challenges.

Could you elaborate a bit on the nature of the open world? I played AoC for a bit but quit due to the disparity between Tortage and the rest of the game world in terms of detail, but primarily because I hate instanced zones. When I first read that TSW was being made with the same engine as AoC, I pretty much wrote it off as a series of loading screens with quests in between.

I define Open World as no hard content blockers. You can go anywhere in the game (once past the tutorial).

There are still zones with loading screens between (due to improved engine performance loading will be much faster) and still once a zone reaches a player cap it will be duplicated with a new instance of the zone.

I don't know how much of Conan you played past 20 but think about comparable zone sizes to Khopshef Province or Wild Lands. Tortage is not a good baseline for comparison because it was developed as a single player game, then shoehorned into being more and more multiplayer compatible over time. Hence small instances and constant loading to accommodate single player mechanics.

 

[Zed]

system reqs should be around AoC then, i.e. if I could play that with no problems then I should be able to play this?

any beta ETA?

 

[bylam]

system reqs should be around AoC then, i.e. if I could play that with no problems then I should be able to play this?

any beta ETA?

I think it will actually run slightly better than AoC. The render engine has had a lot of optimization and there is more to come.

Closed Beta was announced at GDC to start sometime in April. No idea what the roadmap for that is.

 

[Zed]

I understand if you want to stay anonymous, but what type of stuff do you do at Funcom? Artist, coder, designer?

 

[Data4]

Could you elaborate a bit on the nature of the open world? I played AoC for a bit but quit due to the disparity between Tortage and the rest of the game world in terms of detail, but primarily because I hate instanced zones. When I first read that TSW was being made with the same engine as AoC, I pretty much wrote it off as a series of loading screens with quests in between.

Eh? But Tortage was much more instanced than post-20 (besides after they divided the population by instancing the zone). Do you mean open world as opposed to zoned world with area transitions?

Tortage played out like an okayish singleplayer game, which I know was by design. I just got used to the voice acting and it seemed the quests were more interesting there. Once I got out to Stygia, it just went into generic MMO mode for me. I'm not one of those who demand games to be fully voiced, but when it went from that to the occasional voice over in the world at large, it was jarring. Quests devolved into the standard "kill X of this, bring me Y of that" variety. Crafting blew chunks, and then to top it off, the instancing made the game seem too confined.

Granted, there have been a lot of changes since I last played, and they added the Khitai area, plus enhanced Tarantia, but I haven't really had the desire to revisit the game.

Tortage is not a good baseline for comparison because it was developed as a single player game, then shoehorned into being more and more multiplayer compatible over time. Hence small instances and constant loading to accommodate single player mechanics.

Right, and I got that. I really enjoyed the first time I went through Tortage, and I knew that it was designed like it was for a reason. It's just that after 20 levels of well done quests with the voice acting and all, it set up high expectations for the world at large. Once you found out it wasn't like that all the way through, it felt like a bait and switch. This is just my opinion, of course. I know people who swear by the game. Good on them, I suppose. It just wasn't my cup of tea.

 

[Shannow]

Will the combat be twitch/combo based like in AoC?
Will enemies spawn right on your ass like in AoC?

 

[bylam]

Will the combat be twitch/combo based like in AoC?
Will enemies spawn right on your ass like in AoC?

Not twitch/combo based, no. Movement is important (2/3rds of skills are range based) but it is more about applying effects and exploiting them.

Spawns are always timer or trigger based. I guess the answer to the question is yes, if you hang around on the exact spot where you just killed something it will spawn on your ass after a time.

If you are talking about how the death penalty in Conan forced you to replay the same camp over and over because a death meant that all enemies had respawned by the time you got back...we are approaching this with better awareness in TSW:

I am a content designer, by the way. Also a writer.