All is very hush hush around Funcom's The Secret World. While a good bit of new info surfaced at last month's GDC, there are still more questions than answers regarding the firm's followup to Age of Conan.
That said, occasionally the devs will dangle a tasty morsel, and in a new interview at Game Snafu, Funcom designer Martin Bruusgaard does just that with regard to TSW's death penalty mechanics. "We will not implement a death system that can be exploited as a fast travel system, because dying in The Secret World should be a sign of failure, and not optimization in any way. We don't want to punish the players in a form where they can lose stuff, neither items nor experience, but rather penalize on time," he explains.
Designer Joel Bylos also chimes in with some interesting bits about the game's questing mechanics, chief among them a hint about new sabotage missions. "These missions share a similar gameplay style to the original Deus Ex game -- avoiding security cameras, disabling traps and hacking computers, etc. Generally the traps are dynamic only in the sense that players can disable/enable them in the world. This becomes interesting when other players can accidentally trigger an alarm in the camp you are sneaking through," Bylos says. Check out the full interview at Game Snafu.
Reader Comments (21)
Posted: Apr 5th 2011 8:54PM Skyydragonn said
sounds cool but i can already see the forum threads titled "Nerf alarm griefing!"
Posted: Apr 5th 2011 8:57PM Valentina said
The sabatoge missions sound cool
Posted: Apr 5th 2011 9:11PM Tzigrel said
The first thing that popped into my mind when I read about their hint at the death penalty was, "Looking for SoW for corpse run."
Posted: Apr 5th 2011 9:33PM winterborn said
I dont think this game is going to sell well.
They should have just put the effort and money into making AoC as good as it could be.
They should have just put the effort and money into making AoC as good as it could be.
Posted: Apr 5th 2011 9:49PM cerebrix said
@winterborn ragnar tornquist has never let anyone down with anything hes done at funcom. he did Anarchy Online's lore and story. The longest journey was his game as was Dreamfall and both were freaking awesome.
Ragnar never disappoints. Since this is effectively his game. hes earned the benefit of the doubt.
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Ragnar never disappoints. Since this is effectively his game. hes earned the benefit of the doubt.
Posted: Apr 10th 2011 8:46PM Uniform solidState Messenger said
@cerebrix Dreamfall was not freaking awesome. It was absolutely bizarre. It reaked of King's Quest point-and-click style mysticism combined with a story that was clearly intended to be sequelized.
I'm not much of a fan of The Longest Journey either.
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I'm not much of a fan of The Longest Journey either.
Posted: Apr 5th 2011 10:07PM winterborn said
Well I like the idea of no classes and no levels but to me I dont think the story/world is going to be as popular as say Fantasy or Scify etc.
I never played any of the other games you mentioned so I would not know but we shall see.
I never played any of the other games you mentioned so I would not know but we shall see.
Posted: Apr 6th 2011 4:18AM Sephirah said
@winterborn
TSW is probably the unique MMORPG of "modern horror" genre.
Frankly, I'm quite bored of games in which "staff wielding mages, sneaky leather wearing rogues and warriors with big two handed swords are given the task to kill X boars as training before being sent to kill the big bad dragon"
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TSW is probably the unique MMORPG of "modern horror" genre.
Frankly, I'm quite bored of games in which "staff wielding mages, sneaky leather wearing rogues and warriors with big two handed swords are given the task to kill X boars as training before being sent to kill the big bad dragon"
Posted: Apr 5th 2011 10:20PM Nerves said
Except there are already a gazillion scifi / fantasy titles out there. Hello, untapped market. So who are they fighting for customers against as a horror MMO? ?? Nothing comes to mind. Now how about a fantasy setting? - uh wow, rift, aion, lotro, tera in a bit, vindictus, and a bucketload of others.
As for sci-fi, EA is releasing SWTOR before long, and I bet they don't want to be distributing 2 titles at around the same time that tap the same customer base. Say there are 10x as many fantasy MMO fans - there are 100x more titles for them to choose from. Do the math.
As for sci-fi, EA is releasing SWTOR before long, and I bet they don't want to be distributing 2 titles at around the same time that tap the same customer base. Say there are 10x as many fantasy MMO fans - there are 100x more titles for them to choose from. Do the math.
Posted: Apr 6th 2011 1:07AM Faryon said
"...but rather penalize on time,"
So, did anyone else read this as "We are going for the exact same system as AoC"?
I'm not saying that the AoC system is particularly bad, but I remember being frustrated as hell when I died in certain areas and when I finally made it back from the nearest GY everything had respawned so I had to start all over again..
So, did anyone else read this as "We are going for the exact same system as AoC"?
I'm not saying that the AoC system is particularly bad, but I remember being frustrated as hell when I died in certain areas and when I finally made it back from the nearest GY everything had respawned so I had to start all over again..
Posted: Apr 6th 2011 2:42AM PaperSpeaks said
@Faryon shrug... No detail on the time thing, we could assume running back to the corpse or something of a similar mechanic could be the penalty.
And, with your respawn statement, I think most games have a similar thing, I am not sure how cruel AoC was with it but I'm sure it was manageable.
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And, with your respawn statement, I think most games have a similar thing, I am not sure how cruel AoC was with it but I'm sure it was manageable.
Posted: Apr 6th 2011 2:38AM Lateris said
Isn't this game due in 2012?
Posted: Apr 6th 2011 4:29AM meanieme said
Wouldn't go near another Funcom game if they were giving it away.
Posted: Apr 6th 2011 5:19AM Snichy said
Been cautiously excited about this game for ages and just hope it lives up to expectations. Regardless of the gameplay, MMOs these days need to release with LOTS of content and in a finished state (like Rift) so I just hope they take all the time they need regardless of other titles being released as they already have a stigma attached to them with Funcom being on the box, they don't need any more negative feedback by giving the haters ammunition by releasing an unfinished product.
Please, don't screw this up!
Please, don't screw this up!
Posted: Apr 6th 2011 7:00AM Apakal said
I've been really excited about this game. However, this is not exactly what I want to hear. I'm a pretty casual player, and time is definitely my most valuable commodity. I don't want to have it wasted trying to do interesting things in the game.
They've mentioned they're going to have serious puzzles that require like outside research or something crazy like that (I'm admittedly fuzzy on the details). Just let those puzzles dictate the difficulty. It shouldn't be a problem if they're actually as deep as they supposedly say they are.
They've mentioned they're going to have serious puzzles that require like outside research or something crazy like that (I'm admittedly fuzzy on the details). Just let those puzzles dictate the difficulty. It shouldn't be a problem if they're actually as deep as they supposedly say they are.
Posted: Apr 6th 2011 9:58AM Thorqemada said
Yeah time is a precious resource these days when all the dutys of real life come first but failure needs punishment.
I am curious to see how they realize it, maybe your soul has to work its way back into your body in a nice minigame if you want it quick or you can choose to wait until someone reanimates you with specific powers, tools...
Spy missions sound cool.
I am curious to see how they realize it, maybe your soul has to work its way back into your body in a nice minigame if you want it quick or you can choose to wait until someone reanimates you with specific powers, tools...
Spy missions sound cool.
Posted: Apr 6th 2011 1:39PM Draccan said
""We will not implement a death system that can be exploited as a fast travel system, because dying in The Secret World should be a sign of failure, and not optimization in any way. We don't want to punish the players in a form where they can lose stuff, neither items nor experience, but rather penalize on time," he explains."
I for one am disappointed about this! I prefer a hybrid solution with limited partial loot, decay on items, insurance, and something on experience akin to COH.
Let me be clear, I don't believe in really harsh penalties, but rather some smaller effects that will affect you if you die many times over and over. But time is no penalty and would just make me bored!
Too many mmos release without real penalties. I wouldn't have thought TSW would be one of them! *sigh*
Just losing time is annoying and IRL it is my most precious commodity and won't feel immersive at all!
I for one am disappointed about this! I prefer a hybrid solution with limited partial loot, decay on items, insurance, and something on experience akin to COH.
Let me be clear, I don't believe in really harsh penalties, but rather some smaller effects that will affect you if you die many times over and over. But time is no penalty and would just make me bored!
Too many mmos release without real penalties. I wouldn't have thought TSW would be one of them! *sigh*
Just losing time is annoying and IRL it is my most precious commodity and won't feel immersive at all!
Posted: Apr 6th 2011 2:44PM Space Cobra said
@Draccan
This what I was thinking, too, but I took away from that some indications that they may be more inclinced to do "hardcore PvP" gaming and leave the PvE players behind. Like many, I can get into PvPing, but I don't care for too harsh a penalty or time sink. If they are going for that, they are going to get less players subbing up for the long-haul.
It seems like they are unclear exactly what SHOULD be implemented in terms of death penalties. They look like they haven't decided anything concrete. They probably could be well-served if they looked at current sub numbers of AoC and other similar MMOs with such (near) penaltes and then looked at other MMOs. Others with lite penalties clearly have larger sub-retentions. And really, I don't think even hardcore PvPers will enjoy it in practice, although many seem to say they enjoy it in theory/on paper.
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This what I was thinking, too, but I took away from that some indications that they may be more inclinced to do "hardcore PvP" gaming and leave the PvE players behind. Like many, I can get into PvPing, but I don't care for too harsh a penalty or time sink. If they are going for that, they are going to get less players subbing up for the long-haul.
It seems like they are unclear exactly what SHOULD be implemented in terms of death penalties. They look like they haven't decided anything concrete. They probably could be well-served if they looked at current sub numbers of AoC and other similar MMOs with such (near) penaltes and then looked at other MMOs. Others with lite penalties clearly have larger sub-retentions. And really, I don't think even hardcore PvPers will enjoy it in practice, although many seem to say they enjoy it in theory/on paper.
Posted: Apr 6th 2011 3:55PM n3verendR said
Am I the only reason that doesn't doubt they will deliver on what they are promising (as niche and specialized as it may be) but whose only real issue with what we have seen thus far is polish? I am afraid this game will release with fantastic content, but a severe lacking in the way of fluidity of movement. Everything just seems like mechanical and uniform, but heck... this IS Alpha phase. I'm probably just stressin' about nothing.
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