The World Is Yours

I must say I was very pleased and surprised when Funcom announced that the Secret World was going to be dropping it's subscription.  It has always bothered me that they had both a subscription and a a full fledged cash shop.  Usually games pick one and go with it.

Now that they have dropped the subscription, TSW is going back on my To-Play list.  I have not checked out any of the new Issues that have been released since launch, so there is plenty for me to do.  I definitely want to check out that rocket launcher, think it would look great on my guy in a suit.

Free2Play, or Buy2Play as people have been calling this, is just the way of the world now.  I still hold 2 subscriptions though:  Warhammer Online and SWTOR.  Sometimes I'll have a 3rd tacked on, like I do for Rift at the moment.  It'll be interesting to see if they can withstand the F2P shift.

Sadly, I could not find a picture from the original Scarface

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The Secret World Dev Tracker

Since the The Secret World forums lacks a dev tracker, I have added the capability to Dev Spy.  Currently, it tracks 5 of the more active developers and I will add more over time as they spring up.  To see the developer posts, just check out the TSW tab.

In addition to developer posts, you can also see the latest TSW youtube video (official), tweets, Reddit posts and live streams (both twitch.tv and own3d.tv).  The tweets and Reddit features are not enabled by default, so you'll need to click on the Customize link at the top of the page in order to see them.

The page updates automatically, so there is no need to refresh.

Dev Spy can be found at:  http://devspy.weritsblog.com/

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Solving Dead Air the Fun Way

One step of the quest Dead Air in The Secret World is to decipher some Morse Code.  Sounds fun, but the audio (and video) go pretty quickly.  I'm sure it can be done, but I was getting pretty frustrated.  I'm not the kind of guy to go looking for spoilers, but I found this idea.

Basically,  you can download an app for your smart phone, which will translate Morse Code through the microphone.  It fits in perfectly with the theme of the game too!

For my Droid I used this one.

It worked great!

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Back

I have returned from my pseudo-vacation. It turned out to be a pretty lame weak, as I was under the weather most of the time.  On the positive side, I did get ample time to catch up on TV and gaming.  I did more of the first though with a lot of time watching Psych Season 1.

SWTOR.  My Trooper is still on Hoth.  Most of my time has been spent on my Jedi Knight doing another project, which I will discuss a bit tomorrow.

TSW.  I'm still in Kingsmouth.  I'm not sure how some people advance so quickly, there is so much to do here.  I currently have 31 AP to spend but am in no rush.  My current skills seem to do the job just fine.

Thrawn Trilogy.  I started to read the Thrawn Trilogy (Star Wars).  I don't know why it has taken me so long to get into the Star Wars Expanded universe, but better late than never right?

Development.  I'm still working away on my latest game idea.  I just do a little piece each day.  Most of my recent work has been on the Auction house.

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Suit Up

One of the things I like about The Secret War is its modern setting.  It's nice to be wearing something familiar, rather than chain-mail and a cod piece.  TSW has a wide array of clothing to choose from, so yesterday I did a little shopping.

I hopped on the Agartha and headed back to London.  There I found the Men's Business Attire vendor and bought myself a suit.  No reason I can't look good while killing the undead. So I got my suit... but a shirt and tie was no where to be found.

It turns out that they are only available in the cash shop.  Sigh.  I'm paying a subscription, and to complete this look I need to give them even more money.  This is the first real disappointment I have had with the game.   Anyway, I decided to try the store out since they had a $5 worth of tokens option.  It worked fine, no issues getting my shirt.

I really don't see myself using the cash shop again though.  One good thing Funcom did is make sure the store contained cosmetic items only.  Now that I have a good look, I don't think I'll need to buy anything else.  If I do want a change of pace, I believe there are faction rewards I can wear instead.

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I think TSW is...

You know, I still don't know what to make of The Secret World.  I played a healthy amount over the weekend and am still undecided.  My Templar (Werit) is still doing work around downtown Kingsmouth.  For a small general area, there is a ton of stuff to do.

I have a load of AP, which I dumped all into Assault Rifles.  I still have 8 or so left to spend, but that will go into the Support category for Assault Rifles.  Thanks to some kind readers on Bio Break, I learned that I could equip more than one weapon with the Assault Rifle.  I had a preconceived notion that it was a 2h weapon.

I also learned about Decks and figured Soldier would be a good goal to work towards as I learned the system.  It also looks like it provides a nice clothing reward once you complete it.  Crafting has been a bit tedious so far, but I am just learning about it.  Splitting stacks and placing them so they form a shape is not really doing it for me.

My time over the last day or so has been spent on the Kingsmouth Code investigation quest.  It has been challenging, mainly due to being trained by countless games that came before not to think.  As my mind bends toward the TSW way of doing things, it started to get a little easier.  I still needed to use Google for one step though, and the Help channel.

Tip:  Use their website.  http://www.kingsmouth.com/

You know what is starting to get old?  Walking around town and aggro-ing zombies.  Just leave me alone, you can't kill me.  I'll admit it, I've died just so I can rez closer to where I want to go.

I've also noticed, at least at the stage of the game where I am, that the whole Faction element is absent.  Right now it feels like just a label and does not add any flavor to the gameplay.  Maybe that will change as I progress through the main quest, we'll see.

It is certainly an interesting game.  I still don't know if I will play beyond my first 30 days.

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The Plan

Early access for The Secret World begins today!  The launch of a new MMO is a fun time, despite all of the likely issues.  I have not exactly been fawning all over TSW, but it should be an interesting game.  So here is my plan.

Faction.  I will be rolling a Templar.  The Illuminati is nice and all, but I'm in the mood for some righteous fury.

Dimension.  A dimension is TSW's version of a shard, but it is not a server.  It's basically a big instance of the game world which allows you to change on the fly.  So I have not really given it any thought.  I'll probably just roll on a PvE dimension.

Cabal.  This is their version of a guild.  I have no plans on joining one at the moment.  I'm not sure  I will stick with TSW, so I am not comfortable putting down any roots.

Weapon of Choice.  Just like in beta, I will be going with an Assault Rifle.  No particular reason except that it is a machine gun and feeds into my Commando fantasy.

PvP.  I might be checking out the PvP areas.  I am pretty sure they have a Bolster mechanic which helps us slow advancers at least compete.

That about covers my thoughts going into The Secret World.  This weekend will be a busy one for me, so I'm not sure how much time I'll actually get to play.  Probably better off that way as we know how these launches can go.

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The Secret World Impressions

After a mini-vacation, I'm back to my normal routine.  It seems that while I was gone, The Secret World NDA came down.  For the past few months, I have been a part of the closed beta.  That's not to say I know much about the game.  There has just been too many other games to play that I never really had too much time for TSW.

I do have some thoughts on what I saw though...

[+] Setting.  The TSW setting is what really keeps me interested in the game.  It's nice to see some modern locales and equipment.  The subject matter is also (mostly) new.  The folks at Funcom have definitely made a world that I want to play in.

[-] Enemies.  I did not get very far into the game, but all I really fought against were zombies.  I hate zombies as enemies, they are just so boring.  'Grrrr, I want to eat you' is not a very interesting motive.  They are just over done.  I'm sure there will be 'smarter zombies' later on in the game.

[+] Skills.  TSW eschews the standard leveling system for a skill wheel.  It is pretty big and reminds me of a pie.  You can go down whichever slice you want, which adds the appearance of freedom.  I chose Assault Rifles, because it gives you a machine gun!  Finally, a machine gun in a MMO.

[-] Skills.  It could be I have a poor understanding of the Skill Pie, as I did not make it very deep.  But it actually felt pretty limiting.  A good amount of the skills are either tied to a particular weapon type or the 'builder' for that weapon type.  So I can't just choose any skill from Pistols and another from Blood Magic, because the latter has a requirement.

Not all skills have these requirements, but it seemed like a lot did at least at the base skills.  Sure, you can switch weapons/equipment but I was hoping to make a custom build without item swapping.  We'll see how it goes though.

[+] PvP.  It's 3 factions and takes place in large zones.  The zones themselves were mostly empty with capturable objectives/spawn points.  There is a main objective with a boss to defeat.  Winning side gets a global buff. Standard stuff.

[-] PvP.  There were 3 zones for PvP when I tested the game.  That means it might be very easy for players to actually avoid fighting each other and just play ring-around-the-objective.  I never saw more than a couple enemies, so I could not get a feel for how large scale combat will actually work.

I'll play the game for my free month.  If it grabs me I'll subscribe.  If it doesn't, I will not.

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