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The zone is all there, and instead of day/night cycle, there's a day version and a night version with reasons to be in either, as well as technically a couple more versions during certain missions.
However, it is all just the missions pertaining to main storyline. Future update or updates will add more, presumably including at least a few action/sabotage missions, an investigation mission, and sidemissions. Maybe even more than that will come, but no news. No info of any lair or fitting dungeon, unlike zones of the past.
It appears this year they'll be continuing to focus their limited development resources towards what we call the story of 'Season 2' of the Secret World. So far, this may include a 2nd zone, one that may be more of a 'real full' one, by the end of the year. Or at least the basis of it.
But basically, yes the story has finally moved forward some, and there are immediate plans to push forward to more story. If the game keeps going, I guess during/after this period, Funcom can put more focus on reinstatement of remaining older content and releases of non-story newer content.
Or TLDR: Africa region storyline instead of being stuck in Tokyo.
Presumably the story will continue, whether that is more New Dawn missions, other missions, or at some point another zone.
Presumably.
So far this year all we've had is a tweak to the newer Occult Defense scenario mode.
They plan to add another zone: The Congo. It will presumably go in the empty portal that was set aside next to the South African portal. Whether this has gotten past the planning stage, and how far, has not been revealed. I wouldn't expect it any time soon.
The South African zone appears to be "finished." I'm rather surprised by that choice, as I don't believe they got enough use out of it for the work invested into creating it. There were clearly more plans for it at some point, judging from the Investigation Mission achievement that had "coming soon" written on it for a long time, only for the whole thing to be deleted later. We never got a single Investigation Mission in South Africa, making it the only such zone like that. Even Venice had a role in several such missions, as well as a seasonal investigation set there in the old version.
This is entirely speculation on my part, but if/when we do get new story material, I think we may see a shift to smaller zones. With the low user cap, they don't really need to be that big anymore to spread people out. The South African missions could have been done in half the space. Then the art department could have used that leftover time to work on another half-zone. I think a series of smaller updates would be more effective in bringing people back to the game periodically. As much as Tokyo is my favorite zone, they should never attempt something on that scale again. What I think they need right now is another Orochi Tower type zone. That provided a lot of content with a small amount of assets. I think Occult Defense and Dark Agartha accomplish some of that, but it would be so much better if it was wrapped in story rather than being an "event." It would feel more like progress.
-Funcom is suffering but not too suffering (in which case it'd rather seek loans/investment to pursue more likely lucrative new projects)
-Funcom isn't doing amazing with new projects (in which case it would instead put its efforts into those new projects)
-There's some boost in outside attention; which is perhaps possible with the supposed upcoming tv-show (which may never happen)
Congo may happen this year but I'm hesitant to say we'll get some announcement that it is coming this Spring.
But in the best case that it does, that's 2019-2020 where I'd imagine the developers could decide to fill out both New Dawn and Congo, now that the hard work is done and there's no guarantee they'll get the greenlight for further (2020+) zones.
SWL is in an awkward place where it has embraced not even just F2P MMORPG design in ways, or even Asian F2P MMORPG design, but mobile F2P Asian MMORPG design... yet Funcom hasn't taken the clue that this only ever works out in a longer run - when it does work out - if there's damn frequent content drops.
These don't need to be big, but I should be coming in after a week or two of not playing and see that there's been fixes, or after a month or two and see there's at least been new missions/modes/tweaks/features/areas (even small), or after a few months and there's something new to catch up on and get back on the rat race to see and have the stats for.
SWL is still lethargic. That said, sure, Dark Agartha and Occult Defense are somethings, and they's not too far apart from each other. They got that grind set up, and I assume more is coming. But the game is instead lacking the meat that draws people in.
How strange to have a 1 yr sub sale, without giving players any idea of what will be released during that coming year.
Speaking of content, I find it debatable that people think TSW/SWL is that interested in providing story. I hope they are (I really do), but I just don't see that evidence when I look at what has been released so far.
The game world (of TSW/SWL) is 7 years old. In that time, the quantity of added story content is rather unimpressive. Correct me if I am wrong but added story content is comprised of two new mini zones, a handful of missions added to old zones (like the Tyler Freeborn mission in BM), and a few faction specific missions, maybe a few seasonal quests(?), right?
I'm on day 23 of my first month playing and I am almost finished with all the story content. Can a 7 year old game claim to be "story driven" when it ends up with such a small amount of story content that it can be played through in less than a month?
...and remember the vast majority of this story content, Maine, Egypt, Transylvania (each with multiple zones, loaded with npc quests, side quests, and the parts of the epic quest) was in the game at launch. If you subtract the original content from my time played then the new content amounts to a week or so of new story content release over 7 years of development.
Technically I haven't played the seasonal content so if there are some story quests during these events then I should add a bit more time to the total, but I think its still safe to conclude that if a 7 year old game has only managed to produce a couple (or even a few) weeks worth of new story content in that time; then the game is definitely NOT story driven.
Grinding quests and instances for gear and achievements occupy far more hours of players game play than the story does. Given the genesis of the MMO genre it's not really surprising that even TSW/SWL's actual focus is grind not story.
Played the game quite a lot since Dec 2018, purchased a 30-days premium ticket last month
Now seeing the history of FC and this game, I'm not sure if there's much incentive to actually make use of a 12-months sub.
Unless one wants to grind same missions over and over just for improving items.
The game seems to be lacking options for "endgame" business that is not locked behind queues and daily dungeon keys.
What they've released (more or less; I'm ignoring the TSW/SWL difference) in 'playable content' is:
-filling out original zones with more quests
-harder modes of original dungeons
-New York raid, other less demanding-to-develop raids
-prominent questlines (4 by now, the 4th came a lot later) regarding the original zones
-Scenarios and their related Venice questline
-Tokyo zone, its relevant 2 dungeons, and now lair (its technically lacking some missions that could totally fill it out, but otherwise its 'done')
-Some auxiliary weapons quests, and well the weapons themselves
-Museum of the Occult trophy room system
-New Dawn zone, though it is still lacking and mainly just has the main storyline
-Agents system, which I'm including because it has character/world stories
-Dark Agartha solo endgame grind
-Holidays, especially annual Samhain and Winter questline updates
-Occult Defense scenario mode, getting adjustments shortly
Putting aside that many of these things 'could have' been in the game, in some form, at launch, if given more time to develop (2013? 2014? instead of 2012) - this is at least enough weight of content that I'd say a full-scale large funded team development could have that done in at least a few years (2014-2016? instead of 2018-2019).
That is to say: the game released early 2010s, has released what we'd have liked to have seen around the mid 2010s, but its instead on the tail of the late 2010s and having to suffer a reboot at that. We're at least 'a few years' behind and we need confidence of a good 2019 before putting money and attention in, but with an annual sub sale and little direction of the future beyond story hints, its hard not to have caution that Funcom is just milking whoever they still got and then abandoning development by the end of the year. They can prove me wrong and do something nice like finishing the main story of the current arc (which means at least one more zone), filling out its content (including New Dawn missions, 1-2 new dungeons, 1 new raid etc), and returning up to all of the old TSW content (especially all old dungeons).
We're really lacking here - not on the crisis level but pace hasn't kept up to demand so its not surprising looking at the Steamcharts numbers. Myself I haven't played in months. I had paid some money during New Dawn's release and played for weeks/months after in enjoyment and appreciation, but then development mostly faffed about so the most I did was infrequent logins (sorry my cabal!) and I only spent money on a deep sale on the New Dawn pack. They'll have me again when they release a non-grind set of content - I don't hate things like Occult Defense and Dark Agartha, but it won't be sticking me around as I have gameplay systems I enjoy more (typically JRPG for example).
or
Do you mean the sniper?
If so, I'd suggest not to going up the direct path to him, since he is a sniper and in position to snipe you from that direction. =)
Circle back and approach from behind by hopping up the rocks to engage him.
All missions in the game are solo-able now, so if one encounters difficulty its good to examine ones tactics and/or build (I am assuming you are properly leveled for that area).
Another option is to pull up the "N" window and select the Anima tab. This will allow you to adjust your power to emphasize Tanking/Healing/DPS. Basically its an option to turn yourself into an unstoppable tank if some mob is giving you a super hard time.