Legends of Worldly Secrets

janitor · June 23, 2017, 9:11pm

So The Secret World is rebooting as Secret World Legends, which is now free to play. I know a number of generally cool people who are going to be hitting this game up and I’ll probably be joining them there.

^ guide on general game overview and things changed from the original game.

who else is up for this?

botagel · June 24, 2017, 5:02pm

The theming on this always seemed pretty interesting, and Free is a good price point.

GRIMglamfire · June 24, 2017, 5:48pm

This is sort of as close as we’ll ever get to a CW-supernatural drama / neil gaiman urban fantasy videogame done correctly. I roleplayed through the original SW as a gay nerd dude who liked expensive shirts who had a stigmatism with a nice roleplaying group of people I would later find out were that mythical group of attractive college kids that are probably playing a Nintendo © Switch © on a rooftop somewhere right now.

janitor · June 24, 2017, 7:37pm

looking pretty good in wine-dx11

BLUE_BLACK_PURPLE · June 25, 2017, 4:50am

I’m going to give this a hot hour to prove itself although I don’t think it’s going to win me over for regular play. I still have FFXIV and BDO on my plate and I haven’t played the latter in months. Never played The Secret World because it looked butt uggo and confusing. But I’m a sucker for free to play online stuff so I can hardly resist.

janitor · June 25, 2017, 6:32am

so far:

i have found several places that instantly crash the game in dx9 mode and force me to load the game in dx11 just to proceed at all because it will simply crash on reloading
i have gotten stuck on geometry, falling infinitely, forcing me to restart the game because i couldn’t even quit from the menu
i have managed to prevent myself from having any active abilities whatsoever until i unequip/reequip (shotgun primary bug! any other weapon could probably work around it…)

i picked shotgun/hammer and most fights so far have boiled down to me running up to enemies and clicking aoe or single shot blast and then moving on, very exciting

digging the foggy rainy atmosphere though, that’s my jam right there

as a game i am profoundly bored so far tho

BLUE_BLACK_PURPLE · June 25, 2017, 12:16pm

I don’t know how something like this gets a release to be quite honest. The graphics look like they’re from 2005 and not even the good kind from that year. Plus, the engine runs like shiat on my PC.

I liked the character the game created for me. It was quite pretty and I didn’t change a thing about it in the end. But hell, does she look like she’s hungry. Why can’t I throw her a sandwich and make her look different? She’s unhealthy looking. Seriously underweight. When I got to the clothes options I tried out the bikini and what I saw just scared me.

The gameplay is whack. It’s all janky and unsatisfying to shoot things. The stutters and freezes don’t help.

The storyline of “you swallowed a bug in your sleep and now zombies are real” is kinda unique, I don’t think I ever heard that one before, but the whole thing is not very gripping. Cryptic yes but gripping no.

One hour review score: janky whack out of ten

Iacus · June 26, 2017, 1:31pm

The old Secret World was free to play since a while back, too.

I decided to try it once. I was put off by the MMO combat and generic monsters I saw in the trailers, but I was actually semi-enjoying the atmosphere in the early moments.

Then the tutorial areas ended and I was pushed into the main hub with all the people in silly hats and flashy auras that reminded me too painfully of why this is an MMO.

Plus, the game itself is MMO boring of course

BLUE_BLACK_PURPLE · June 26, 2017, 4:26pm

Yeah that happens in this game too. Very early. You do a little solo tutorial and then the cutscene is about you being led behind a cordoned off police scene and all of a sudden there’s all these funny looking people there with you. It’s patently silly.

janitor · June 26, 2017, 4:50pm

the post-tutorial cutscene’s different based on what faction you get.

dragon’s, uh, a bit skeevy to say the least.

janitor · June 30, 2017, 2:55am

while you were wasting your time learning the blade, i was mastering dual hammers

ok so i’ve been keeping up on daily content for this ever since I fixed the crashing/weird graphical issues I was having! (if you want to run this in wine let me know so I can bother to dig up the source code patch I did for it)

i like the writing a lot, actually! compared to literally every other mmo i’ve played it’s actually worth paying attention to. the characters are good, the flavor’s fun(BEES!), the story bits are interesting, and the entire first zone pretty much spends the whole time dunking on the illuminati.

the gameplay is kiiiind of not great. It has some good flavor with the weapons. I miss tab targeting. that levels don’t scale for group content kind of sucks. the group content that is there is not very challenging though, so that’s okay. i liked constantly having to move during bosses in the second dungeon, though.

it is a somewhat stealthily hidden holy trinity game. tanks are shotguns, hammers, and chaos magic. healers are blood magic, assault rifles(?!?), and fists. damage is blades, elementalism, dual pistols. you can mix and match but currently I feel a lot limited by being forced to keep a ‘basic’ skill equipped in one of the six slots. it has never really gotten all that hard, though, so maybe it’s just a gamefeel thing to me.

if you play this i don’t recommend coming at it with an mmo grind viewpoint; treat it like a big single player game where you can occasionally team up with people

Raziel · July 1, 2017, 9:00pm

mauve is on point.

anyway, if anyone is even remotely interested in the setting and the world of the game, I do implore to do at least a few investigation missions and the first dungeon mission to see if they dig it or not. investigation missions are these non-combat centric quests that require you to figure things out to solve a mystery, may it be a string of murders or a cryptic vision of a fortune teller. sometimes you even have to seek outside resources, such as Wikipedia, to figure stuff out, but many just ask a bit of attentiveness to the gameworld: the history, people, locations etc.

the combat can be janky, but believe me when I say it feels much more responsive than in the original Secret World.

group content is easy because they haven’t implemented the high level dungeons yet (mainly harder version of the existing ones).

the community is also very friendly and fun, since it seems the game by its subject matter or theme in general invites maturer people.

I am pimping this because it’s great to have more people enjoying it, and I really hope they have enough success that they can start implementing the Season 2 of the storyline that they never were able to get to with the original Secret World.

janitor · July 9, 2017, 6:17am

even on low graphics settings(i am not picky about graphics but gimme that frame rate) and glitchy linux lighting, the game’s art direction shines.

janitor · July 31, 2017, 5:12am

so, I’ve reached the end of all main story content in the game, going at a leisurely slow pace with a friend and taking in all the aesthetic. Still some side stories left but I’ve been taking my time.

time to write up my impressions on the game that i have been playing instead of working on things because i hate summer and have been a living ball of stress

THE GOOD

The story content is ranges from average to really, bafflingly good for a videogame. I’m honestly impressed. In the original game the base storyline must have been boring but they merged a fair bit of post-release content into it and it’s so good, all of it is much better produced than I was expecting for an MMO. Or even many single player games, really.
The writing in particular keeps me playing because there it feels like the authors are actually well-read and not just repeating Videogame Tropes all day every day. The majority of the quest NPCs are memorable and interesting!
Enjoying the Investigation missions which actually require you to figure out what the game is asking of you, instead of just “kill X mobs.” Some clever ones in there.
The revamped combat mechanics are actually fun, surprisingly. I’ve had to mix up my build quite a few times, and for different situations.
The free to play aspects really aren’t that bad if you’re not in a hurry to get to The End Right Now. And why would you be, really?
The multiplayer dungeons are all surprisingly memorable and they all at least try to have interesting twists on the mechanics. No Tam Tara Deepcrofts here.
There’s a gear manager! It can swap builds! It actually works! More or less!

THE BAD

It’s… still an MMO. Don’t expect arcade game combat here, and it can get really tedious at times. There’s no frames or hitstun to memorize, just a lot of kiting mobs around and not standing in circles.
The content before the Endgame Content is all pretty much trivially easy, and then there is a cliff wall you run into between that and the real shit where everything ramps up ten-fold, instantly.
Some of the investigation missions boil down to ‘Yeah just have Google Translate open in a tab k thanks’ and I’m not sure what they were thinking would be interesting about that.
It’s free to play, and it’s pretty clearly targeting whales. The endgame grind is formidable and there is a very clear wall where players who don’t pay are going to be held back from. (And I’m totally okay with this because I could not care less about Endgame Raiding.)
There is not much incentive to play with other players and, perhaps worse, there is no scaling of stats.

THE WHY EVEN IS THIS

UI bugs everywhere. I especially love dragging an item to an open inventory slot and having it ask me if I really wanted to just delete the item.
No really, why is changing the current chat channel so hard, really.
I picked up a Miner’s Helmet with Headlamp in a story mission. It is permanently in my inventory and cannot be used. This is, apparently, a common problem.
The install is 45GB, apparently because compression is not a thing they know how to do.
God this game runs like ass sometimes.
Particularly in Agartha, the hub world you get sent to more than you’d like.

It’s been relaunched on Steam apparently. If people actually want to play I can lay out some general ways to not shoot yourself in the foot.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/215280

janitor · August 17, 2017, 5:26am

Today, they added the long-awaited Tokyo zone.

In the game’s storyline, Tokyo is Ground Zero of whatever fucked up shit has befallen the world and there was a big lead-up to it when it went on Steam.

On a side note I love The Dragon’s nonsensical mission debrief reports. They’re one of the factions you can choose and they are the least sensible of the bunch.

So after a short detour into a plot of intrigue and betrayal, we get find ourselves on the way to Tokyo! Specifically, a fictional part named Kaidan, which people pronounce Kyden, for whatever reason. Probably because they don’t understand how Japanese works.

The writing here for Kaidan is 怪談, which essentially means ghost story. Hell if I know what this is.

There’s a bit of a storyline thing happening in Kaidan Train Station, which has been thoroughly and completely destroyed by strange beings from beyond human comprehension. Here we have Akaiito Line (Red Thread Line) and Kairo Line (Circuit Line). Very original naming convention going on here.

What happens in there is Mega-Spoilers so I won’t bother screencapping any of it.

Finally, it’s time to enter Kaidan!

This loading screen took me two minutes.

Check out that sweet terrible generic Asian chop suey font they’re using to tell you that it’s loading Kaidan. It’s so bad.

And here’s Kaidan! Well, what’s left of it. Please steer clear of the horrible abominations lurking the streets.

The Linux lighting bug has still not been resolved yet.

At the start there’s a small optional sidequest to track a mobile phone! And when you find it…

The Japanese is basically right, but what’s up with that translation? So far when the game has needed to translate something for you, whether from Korean or Romanian or whathaveyou, it’s been in clear English. Here? What? C’mon nobody texts like that here.

This actually bugs me more than anything else about this corny faux-Japanese locale.

Here’s some bushido. They wield katanas and assault rifles here.

I spent a good minute laughing at this one.

I especially liked the katakana dashes being horizontal instead of vertical.

Let’s go to bathhouse JIGOKU NO YU. (Translator’s note: Jigoku no Yu means Hell’s Water)

I’m using a katana because that’s just what you do when you’re in Japan. Have to act like a local, y’know.

What a friendly sounding place!

I like the cool demon dude in the baths, he’s cool.

After beating up some more demons I got a sweet banner on my back. Ready to lead the oni for battle!

This zone is maximally cheesy. I may put up more if I can stop laughing.

Don’t get me started on the samurai diner bar.

janitor · December 7, 2017, 3:01am

okay so some other SB-ites are interested in the game!

here’s a hastily written BEGINNER’S GUIDE

At the start of the game you have to choose a faction! You are locked into this. It affects:

The intro and intermission missions between zones.
The color of your weapon cap gear.(mostly lame so who cares)
The mission text for all missions.

So pick the one you like the aesthetic of most!

Illuminati - Blue - New York - Corporate maximalism, demands results at any cost. Doesn’t sweat the small stuff much, as it is defined as ‘someone else’s problem.’
Templars - Red - London - Traditionalists, occult-military complex. Dignified, but liable to burn the whole house down to get at some demons inside.
Dragon - Green - Seoul - Determinism’s end goal, trying to figure out what strings to pluck for what end results.

Classes! There are a bunch of starting classes which give you two free weapons out of a pool of nine. All weapons do basically the same damage but in different ways and different secondary benefits.

HEAL

Fist - Melee attacks, ranged heals. Actually CLAW WEAPON. Builds a meter to go into a form with free skill usage for a few seconds.
Blood - Long ranged attacks, ranged heals/barriers. The more you use it, the more damage you take and the more resistant to healing you become.
Assault Rifle - Long ranged attacks, ranged leech healing. Actually Grenade Launcher, every attack has a chance of loading a grenade which you must use or it blows up in your face for 15% damage. Can’t heal without an enemy target.

TANK

Hammer - Melee attacks. Builds a meter when you attack or are attacked that empowers one attack. Basically essential for real tanking. Defense is hard barriers and self-healing.
Shotgun - Mid-range attacks. All attacks have bonus effects, but have to reload every six attacks. Defense is damage mitigation/reduction.
Chaos - Melee attacks; Silly Kicks. Attacks build a meter which heals you and fills up to do random other bonus effects. AOE pulling skill. Defense is self-healing primarily.

DPS-ONLY (don’t main one of these please)

Blade - Melee attacks. Attacks build a meter which powerup your attacks for a set period, which you will need to refresh. Powerful self-healing.
Elemental - Long ranged attacks. Attacks build a heat meter which causes you to do more damage, but locks your attacks if too high. (Absolutely not recommended.)
Pistols - Mid ranged attacks. Attacks randomly proc more damage. Uses lots of passives to squeeze in more damage.

recommendations:
Heal - Fist/Blood, AR/Blood
Tank - Hammer/Shotgun, Hammer/Chaos.
DPS - just pick one of the above so you don’t hate yourself please

Hammer/Blade is kind of legit too.

AR is the current fad weapon so it kind of costs more than any other weapon on the market right now.

General tips on how not to screw yourself early game:

Daily challenge log (Shift+J) rewards Marks of Favor. This is your core progression currency. Just doing the first set gets you 6000 MoF. Doing two sets (not recommended) gets you 10000.
The first sprint upgrade (Shift+P) is 2500 MoF. Buy it ASAP.
The starting equipment is all junk. You will get free upgrades the firt time you get an item to 20, so buy equipment off the market with MoF. H key to open, switch to Talismans, search for Radiant. They’re cheap, usually 200~400 mof, don’t skimp here!
You can also search for ‘Superior’ class equipment which will be a bit pricier but give you a huge bump early game.
The F2Pness of the game will not bother you until Endgame, if you get that far. This means you probably won’t even notice until 2/3rds of the way through the game.
You can unlock more weapons. The first unlock is 5000 MoF, but the one after that will be 30,000, then 50,000, and so on. It rises pretty rapidly, but you’ll want to do it eventually. Recommend healers do all three heal sets, and tanks do all three tank sets. DPS can just do whatever they feel like, but note that heal sets don’t give accuracy.
The honeycomb lore/legend items give XP scaled to your level. You can hold off on picking them up if you want, but they are fun to read so don’t bother.

There is a global chat channel friends and I use! Join it if you feel like talking.

/chat join ephemera

The command line has tab completion so you can just do like /# and then tab to fill out the rest. If you tab with no text it lets you set the default chat channel.

feel free to poke me on discord for other hot tips or anything i may have forgotten