Just curious if anyone else has tried out TSW yet? I played the beta briefly this past weekend (didn't get to play as much as I would have liked to). My experiences with it have been mixed -- I won't comment too much on the bugs, since this is a beta, except to say that the game needs more work; I'm not sure how much work, though, because apparently, Funcom is running a closed beta at the same time as the open beta, and from what I've heard, the closed beta is using a much newer build (in other words, us lowly peons didn't get to see the latest and greatest version). But I will mention some of the things that I liked about the game, and what makes it unique. 1. Modern/near-future nearly-real world/horror setting -- For example, during the latest beta, you get to see the game's version of London (starting area of the Templars faction), and Kingsmouth, a town in New England. 2. Game is skill-based with No 'classes' or 'levels' -- well, at least, they aren't called 'levels'. As you gain experience, you also gain AP and SP to buy and improve skills. In theory, you can eventually learn all of the different skills, but there are simply so many of them that that could take a very long time. 3. Your skills are kind of like a deck of cards, from which you can select 7 active and 7 passive skills to compose your 'hand'. You can set-up load-outs of equipment/skills that you can switch between as needed (similar in some ways to what Rift does). So, for example, if your group needs a healer, you can switch to a healer build, if they need a tank, switch to tank, and so on. In theory, a player can be prepared to play any needed role in a group. This is reminiscent of what Rift does, so it's not completely new, but it is a variation on that theme. Rift is class-based, so in that game not everyone can do everything, but most people could fill 2 or 3 different roles, at least by mid-game. I suspect the same will be true for TSW. 4. While the game does have a lot of the same-old traditional quests, it also has puzzles and riddles, and so on that actually require some thought to figure out. Of course, eventually, stuff like that ends up with spoilers, but if you enjoy using your brain, you'll simply avoid them. I personally figured out one, puzzle completely on my own (had to die several times to do it, though), and was stumped by two others at various points (though I'm thinking with enough time and exploration I could have progressed a lot further than I had in the short time I worked on them). Most MMOs, you can basically brute-force your way through al or mostl of the game if you are well-enough equipped; but in TSW, I actually had to study the clues, study the map, and try to figure things out. There's a lot of the game that I didn't get to play with/test (crafting, for example). But I'm hoping to try something new whenever the next beta weekend is.
I have been waiting for TSW since 9/9/9, that's when I first heard of it. I hope it is going to be great. The community was great, and the solving of ARGs together was awesome. We tried to find out all there was to find out and we never reached the end, because the game 'lore' is this world's lore and that is pretty darn near infinite, for humans and their lifespan. I say the community was great because due to life and other interests I haven't really been a part of it the last 8 months or so. Way back when we feared the high influx of new people who were interested would change the community beyond recognition. We'll see how that is soon enough. I preordered and never planned on playing the beta so as not to give myself spoilers, but I guess now I changed my mind as I will try to play during the next Beta Weekend, if I can. I have a cabal there but it's still empty. Those who were interested years ago have all vanished (up until now anyay) from the forums. Also, it's a pretty specific cabal... not sure anyone here would be interested. PM me for info if you like.
I never participated in the ARG (I'm not even halfway sure what an ARG is lol, certainly don't know what it stands for, and have only read cryptic articles that have mentioned that acronym but seemed to assume that the reader knew what the heck they were talking about). It sounds too much like what I say when I'm frustrated, so whatever it is, it never sounded appealing.
Oh also, I stay away from Facebook like the plague. If the ARG is that facebook game, I refuse to do that. My impressions and experiences with it have been mostly negative.
Er, okay... how do I go about this... I've played "the beta" and it may or may not be the weekend open betas, which isn't to say I'm part of "the other beta" because I'd be doing something bad if I said I was, but nothing in Kingsmouth is under NDA as far as I know as it's part of the open beta, so here are my thoughts. The combat reminds me a bit of City of Heroes more than anything so if you liked that you'll like it here, and if you hated it you'll probably not like this much. The leveling system is very flexible and fun to use. Right now there are some abilities that are clearly by far and away better than others so there aren't *that* many optimal builds yet in my experience, which I imagine will be fixed sometime shortly after launch. Polaris is *really* awesome and I highly recommend getting in on a run of it on one of these weekends if you can, you should be good to run it with QL2 or 3 gear and you don't need to have completed any missions in particular to do it. Well worth the time. (did I do that right? please don't ban me Funcom) There's very solid evidence that launch is going to be delayed for another two weeks but no official announcement has been made yet, which I feel will be good for the longterm health of the game. EDIT: Never mind. Official announcement has been made.
I agree that more time was needed, so to me, that's good news (I know some people are bound to whine and bitch about the delay, but I see it as a good thing, and it's really not that long as delays go). I absolutely loved combat in CoX -- It's much more dynamic as compared with usual MMO combat, plus I really enjoyed the fact that you could take two characters of the same exact class and primary and secondary skill sets and they could STILL play completely different. I haven't played enough TSW to see what you mean, but to me, that's really good news. (CoX, imho, is one of the most underrated MMOs ever -- It certainly was the most innovative MMO of its time. It's an insult that when other games copy CoX, (everything from its mentoring system to dynamic difficulty scaling to player-made content, to dynamic content, CoX did it before the other games that are taking the credit as being the 'innovators'). Its probably that I did not play long enough last time, but I hadn't heard about Polaris (only did one instance quest, and it was solo-only -- it was the one with all of the search lights and traps and I think I died about a half-dozen times before I was able to complete it == and NONE of those deaths were combat-related). I really concentrated on chaos magic when I played... with a few passives from other skill sets (don't ask me what) and I died a whole lot. So I assume that chaos magic isn't one of the more overpowered skills. /edit BTW, I don't consider the fact that I died a whjole lot learning a game to be a bad thing -- it means that A) I have more to learn, which indicates some depth to me, and B) that it contains some challenges, which is also a good thing.
ARG = Alternate Reality Game, has nothing to do with facebook, I boycotted that as well. It was the trail of breadcrums leading us to sites with new game information. It's all there on the web... it was epic to be apart of some of them. Others I missed as well, of course. They're very time consuming. The best part is that they will continue ingam, really looking forward to it. The idea is to always dig deeper, seek the hidden meaning. Small example (really an example, this is alike how it can be): a certain container ingame has a certain code. There's somewhere on the internet where you can input container codes, if you input it you get the geographical location of the container. Only that location doesn't make sense, it's a line of zeroes and 1's. You translate it. It is a webadres. You go there, you find background info about the bossmonster that's located a bit further along that same container ingame. Stuff like that.
Chaos magic can be ungodly powerful, but its' power comes from the fact that damage procs can trigger other damage procs. You need to get deep into it before you start seeing it work.
I know this is entirely off topic, but *Expletive Deleted* They tricked me all of one time and I have not been back. Anytime I see something is associated with them I immediately discontinue supporting it. I love DoD, but if Facebook were associated with it I would actually stop playing entirely. Facebook is the worst of the Internet combined with all the stupidity that can possibly be shoved into one site. Now please ignore this post and return to the on topic discussion. *Edit* Better?
Refrain yourself from using that kind of imagery. There's a difference between occasional swear words and that. We have no explicit rule on this but keeping it pg-13 in general is a good attitude. I suggest you edit your post.
As I said, it's the imaginery that's the problem. That you **** the ******* words doesn't change much since everybody knows what you're saying. Alternatively, you don't have to ragepost on offtopic subjects you hate.
Rageposting is a hobby. I would be without purpose without such off topic rageposts. I know you are unlikely to realize it, but it really takes a lot of my limited willpower to prevent myself from doing this more often. I have more hatred than most people by a large degree. And the subjects I hate I typically avoid posting about. But as you can see, when someone else brought it up I simply had to say my part. Call it a failure to control myself if you like. That is accurate. I hate certain parts of the Internet all the more because I love the Internet as a whole so very much. Remember my "I hate Steam" thread? I was careful to avoid going too far, yet I still probably did in a few ways. In my view, Gaslamp Games benefits from my rageposts in that they (And yourself) can edit any part you like yet you still get my message and understand the hard lines I draw around myself. I have said it before and I will say it again here. If ever there is a post where I cross a line, feel free to edit it until I get around to rewording it. Or if I *Really* cross the line, feel free to delete my posts entirely. I may not always like it, but I am a guest here. I understand that I cannot always have my say. And even when I can, there are still limits to what I can say and how I can say it. Just for the record, I do greatly appreciate the enormous amount of autonomy that you and others here allocate to my insanity. There are times that *I* think I have crossed the line, yet no-one ever mentioned it. I like the fact that there are no profanity filters. But at times where I use too many profane words, I may sleep for 8-12 hours ignorant of the fact that you kindly asked me to tone it down. In those situations it may be better for you to either edit it to conform as you like, or to entirely delete my post. I grant permission to you and anyone else at Gaslamp Games to do this so long as you are doing what you think is right. That word that starts with the letter "F" is a farming term for sowing a seed. But English is a living language and the word has more use as an expletive than a farming term. I do not think there is a child above the age of five years that is ignorant of the usage of the word, but as I said before, I am a guest here and I will try to honor the rules and keep roughly in line. Censorship is a reasonable thing here because it may help to prevent people deciding against the purchase or participation of the game and modding. But again, my greatest and most common offense here is repeated in this entire post: I am way off topic. Sorry everyone. The game looks good. I am reminded of Fallout. I hear there is a Fallout MMO in the works. Anyone think this will be direct competition to that or a separate genre or sub-genre? Anyone know about pricing and terms for the game when it is final? I see EA is plastering their awful logo on everything, so I can almost guarantee I will not touch this one, but I still like what I see besides Facebook and EA.
I don't BELIEVE that there will actually be a Fallout MMO in the near future. But I could be wrong. I know that officially, an Elder Scrolls MMO has been announced, but I'm really skeptical that it will retain anything but the lore of the original, and even that they may play fast and loose with (least that's my impression from what I've heard. This may change as development progresses). I like MMOs for entirely different reasons that I like single-player rpgs. In single-player rpgs, particularly in the Fallout and Elder Scrolls franchise, I play because I feel like I'm part of a living world, that I can explore and discover new things in. MMOs, imho, tend to be more about the community. One thing I mentioned in a thread elsewhere regarding the prospects for the ES MMO was that in Skyrim, I may have to listen to guards talking about the akavirii warriors with there 'Curved Swwoahrds! Curved... Swwoahrds!' and about getting an arrow in their knees, and so on. But at least, I don't have to listen to racial epithets, REAL beggars for gold, and discussions about who'd win in a fight between Chuck Norris and Captain America. That said, communities vary a lot and to me, a game's community is nearly as important as the game itself. Back on topic, I'm hoping that TSW will have a good community. Realistically, I'm hoping that other games that I won't mention, continue to attract the types of gamers that I do not enjoy sharing a server with. I wish TSW's older, yet less mature relations continue in their success because the better that they do, the better TSW's community is likely to be, imho. Everyone, including the trolls, and beggars and spammers and racists, gay-bashers, and antisemites deserve a place of their own.... FAR FAR away from where ever I choose to make my own home.
The Secret World tends to remind me allot more of Hellgate than Fallout, to be honest. Though that said I loved Hellgate so may be worth looking into it further. Though I'm guessing in the case of The Secret World, the premis is that it is no longer a 'secret' anymore, as I cant realy see it working as a MMO. Not sure why they went with the subscription model (much the same one Hellgate used too, with the monthly/lifetime), it may be a bad choice given the amount of subscriptionless and free to play games making their way into the market.
I think the only real similarity between TSW and Hellgate is that Hellgate is horror as well. Hellgate is kind of post-apocalyptic, while TSW is pre-apocalyptic. Hellgate is more of a multiplayer action rpg like Diablo, while TSW is more of an adventure/MMO hybrid. At least that's my take on it. I didn't play Hellgate into the end-game, but what I saw didn't even feel like an MMO to me. But I agree that TSW is really not that much like Fallout. I don't think there's any other game that's that similar to TSW, but the closest might be CoH, simply because of its modern to semi-futuristic setting, a mixture of urban and non-urban landscapes. To give you some perspective, during the open beta, I journeyed to Kingsmouth which feels like a modern, authentic New England town (well, except that it's overrun with Zombies and evil cultists). There's a definite Lovecraftian vibe to it.
Or perhaps mid-apocalyptic. I won't lie, TSW is very much a "typical MMO" at its' heart. It does most of those things you expect paid MMOs to do. It just does enough new and interesting things on top of that to please me, who hates, HATES the standard MMO formula. As for EA, EA only helped market this game, nothing more. Funcom is handling its' development completely. If you're one of those that will never forgive them for AoC, though, that might be even worse.
Yea, hellgate is definatly of the action RPG style, though not so much post apocalyptic as currently in the apocalypse (if you consider the apocalypse being more that just one turning point in the timeline and an ongoing event). As to the playing of it thats good to know as I am only getting the style and partial feel from gameplay videos and descriptions (which tend to focus more on the combat side of things too). Im concerned about the replay ability of it (a big factor for MMO's) given the ability to change skills and focus at any time there seems little reason to have more than a single character in the game, simply changing the character's style as you want, though having a lack of levels may make that a non-issue too.
I loved Hellgate London. It had all the appeal of most loot sifter games, (Like Diablo and the rest.) and it was an FPS with RPG elements. (Well, it was sometimes a FPS, other times it was a TPS.) There was a mod made for it that made it a hundred times better, but it is all but impossible to find now days since the maker seemingly ceased to exist and the site that he posted his mod to also seemed to go poof. A Ixquick search found this: http://www.hellgateaus.net/ I may have to give the new version a try. You need the old version for the new version to work. I am seeding it here: https://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7115751/Hellgate__London_Revival_Mod_Pack_1.5b.1 Before anyone asks, this is perfectly legitimate. Just because TPB is involved as the site of the torrent, that does not mean the contents are illicit. /sigh Disregard. I cannot get the files needed to patch the game up to the correct version. I will keep checking and see what I can find. And I will make a new thread for it when I have a proper and working way to do this.
Thats fine the Helgate: Global (its free to play) unfortunatly didnt quite give the same feel as Hellgate: London with the older washed out looking textures, but it may be worth a try if you like Hellgate. I tried it and it felt off (being used to the higher textures) and coupled with the lag didnt hold interest enough for me and my friends. Unfortunatly a downside of it not ever having LAN, beign that multi-player isnt much of an option outside of Hellgate: Global.
