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The Secret World: Large Scale PvP Detailed
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
The good folks at Ten Ton Hammer have a new interview coming out of Gamescom. The interview is with Ragnar Tørnquist and features a fairly in depth preview of the warzones, or PvP play, in The Secret World. It's a terrific read!
TTH : In the presentation, Lead Designer Martin Bruusgard used the word 'persistent' to describe Warzones.
RT : They are not instanced and they are always active. On each server, that warzone is persistent and possibly filled up. As for how many we have, we’ve announced the one we have here – it's a city in China. We don’t have a name for it just yet, and we’re not ready to reveal how many there are in the final product just yet.
You’ll also be gaining ranks within your secret society via missions in PvE and PvP. Your relationship to your faction and your war against the other factions’ secret societies will be the focal point of the game to some players. Each society will have its own story. You will go to some of the same locations, and see what even seems like the exact same story—but different results and things will happen. You’ll have to see it to believe it. The full story can only be gleaned from talking to those of other factions who have seen the events unfold from another angle.
Read more at Ten Ton Hammer.
Comments
"They are not instanced and they are always active"
See, was that so hard?
Hopefully more developers smarten up and ditch the instanced pvp that's been plaguing mmos recently.
i first want to see: funcom made us all believe we'll have big sieges with 300+ players in AoC as well :P
i doubt their engine can even handle this today with a few cpu/gpu generations in between ^^ funcom may prove me wrong but i don't trust them :P
The funcom engine has improved tons since AOC launched, this does not mean that their sieges will run smoothly or that it will offer the needed strenght to host these open warzones.
However judging TSW on how AOC performed at launch is a big mistake, they even have a whole team now who does nothing but work on this engine.
I am glad they are offering 3 factions with RvR zones, its something that alot of other developers could take a hint from.
Open world pvp tends to be zerg vs zerg. I'm not sure if thats really viable pvp or should I say atleast enjoyable pvp.
It feels strange to have large scale pvp in a game about secret societies. It should be mostly about small team fights in the back alleys imo.
I think the phrase that best sums up my feelings is: cautiously optimistic.
sure but i for one won't hype me up for any FC game beforehand again
AoC was just too much of a mess to forget, i was told afterwars AO was no different so why believe it will work now ? :P
TSW beta will tell i guess...no hype for me so far.
They were saying there would be dozens of players, and that the zones could be 'full', so I don't know that it's 'large scale' in the way a lot of people think of it. We're talking combat that would fall under the radar for most governments, especially if there are no innocent bystanders.
I like the back alleys thing though, especially if you can have PvP missions where two teams are trying to recover some relic or recruit some powerful new person who just appeared on the scene.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Aoc is prob one of the worst optimized games out there and they had so much time to fix this...
i upgraded recently and EVEN whit this new rig the performance is the same as on my old pc ... i won't play this game untill i can test it ...
they still have the instanced battlegrounds!
So a few dozen is large scale? I understand in the context of a world of secret societies it would be "larger" scale than most PvP... but just reeks of buzzword marketing. I wouldn't play for "large scale" pvp anyways, but advertising it... bleh.
"They essentially want to say 'Correlation proves Causation' when it's just not true." - Sovrath
Until you send me a pic of your background processes and dxdiag report, I won't believe you a word. AoC looks the best and runs on my computer even slightly better than other games like Lotro, VG, Fallen Earth, EQ2. AoC on my PC all options maxed, DX10 FPS is above 60+ in every zone.
REALITY CHECK
A few dozen is MASSIVE! lol.
Next up: Solo PVP.
j/k
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
Interesting ending statement in the TTH article:
'Remember that we are making this first and foremost for our role-players. When the story and the respective events are ready to show off, we are going to blow your minds.'
I also found a short but interesting recent article regarding TSW at the Gameinformer site (see here).
Here's what the article says about darkness and use of lighting:
" Today at Gamescom I got to witness a demo of one of the game's darker missions, and it definitely succeeded in standing out from the MMO pack.
The "Into the Darkness" mission takes place in a New York City car park, where an Illuminati agent enters to discover what happened to a fellow agent who went missing at this location. The Illuminati is ordered by her superior to check a nearby camera. On the camera she discovers a Templar in the building, immediately raising alarm. These two factions do not get along well, so the player character readies her weapons.
The lights have mysteriously gone out in the parking garage, so in order to delve deeper, the Illuminati agent grabs a headlamp. This section shows off one of the more impressive parts of Secret World: its real-time lighting effects. As the character turns and explores the pitch-black darkness of the garage, light spills out of the lamp in an incredibly realistic fashion.
The lighting (or lack thereof) also helps add plenty of tension to the situation. After exploring in silence for a few moments, a zombie creature lurches out of the shadows and attacks the player. She pulls out a pistol and shoots him down quickly.
After a few more encounters, the lamp goes out. In order to progress, the Illuminati agent digs through a nearby car and discovers some road flares. These actually work as a limited resource, so the player must strategically choose when and where to deploy a flare. The flares will also attract some creatures, so in some cases it could be better to try to sneak through the shadows rather than creating patches of light.
The mission comes to a climax with a boss encounter against a giant zombie creature known as the Devourer. This pink-skinned monstrosity crawls through a narrow section of the car park on four legs, looking like something straight out of Resident Evil.
Sadly, I'm not allowed to see what happens after the boss encounter, but Funcom promises that this mission is playable from the perspective of each of the game's factions -- the Templar, the Illuminati, and the Dragon. Depending on which side you play, you'll have a very different mission that offers new information and a different spin on the events that happen. "
And about faction pvp and territory control:
" I got to watch one huge battle in which Dragon forces attempted to win a temple from Illuminati control. The Dragon had to first win control of several anima wells in order to gain anima charges to destroy the gates of the temple. Once inside, they had to contend both with a large contingent of Illuminati as well as a powerful NPC guardian -- in this case a giant robot. Players will be encouraged to take part in these battles for control of persistent territories, because the faction that controls them will gain faction-wide bonuses. "
As for the persistent PvP areas, I can only encourage it, it sounds like DAoC to me especially with the faction wide bonuses that you could obtain. I wonder about performance though. I read in other statements that there could be over hundred people fighting in such an area, but certainly when servers are heavily populated, situations can arise that there are easily a hell of a lot more than hundred players in such a zone. How will performance hold up against that, especially with the high level graphics that TSW will have? I know how it was in Aion and AoC that used highly detailed character models, so it's certainly a point of concern.
But for the rest, I can't wait for TSW to arrive.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
exactly
I like more pvp that feels like war rather than battlegrounds that feels more like sports. But I understand battlegrounds perfectly well considering "fair game" with even teams and so on. Too bad usually games with battlegrounds does not have any real and meaningful open world war-zones with rewards and stuff.
I think I am starting to lose the hype about TSW. They're taking so long to launch the game and there is GW2, Tera, Diablo2, Archage.
Even with the engine update AoC seiges are still Fubar. I'm sure TSW will be more optimised as they have more experience but they need to do more than optimising as the only display of mass PvP (ie AoC seiges) I've seen from them is the worst attempt I've experienced. They are literally unplayable and have been for a very long time.
They are not taking an y longer than TOR or GW2, and don't get me started on Diablo 3...I've been waiting for that longer than anything. I can't say your wrongt, if this is how yoyu perceive it, but factually, TSW was announced after TOR and GW2, so we have been waiting LESS time for TSW than the others.
@ MMO.Maverick, you should read this article, it is far more complete: http://www.dealspwn.com/secret-world-preview-secret-anymore-74519, it have a full description of a warzone fight and a better description of the dynamic lighting in the game.
here is a part of the article where they talked about the light system.
".....It was at this point that we were given a demonstration of the dynamic lighting used in The Secret World, something that had previously not been implemented in an MMO. Using a headlamp being worn on the player’s head, a light was illuminating the dark areas of the level wherever the player was pointing. It was a feature that looked very responsive and very impressive in live play.
However, it we were then told that it was not always be the best option to use this gadget, as some monsters will be attracted to the light and attack the player, sometimes from over a fair distance. The same thing would happen should a mob see the player while they are standing in a spotlight, allowing for an interesting dilemma for players; use the light and prepare for some fights, or forgo the lighting option and risk bumping into enemies in the dark. Flare guns are also available at certain points, which can be manually aimed at a desired location to light up an area or even lure in an enemy for the kill. We were told that such mechanics using dynamic light would also translate into PvP, allowing players to apply some serious tactical thought to prevail against their foes.
As the level progressed we were shown several moments of combat against various enemies, leading up to a section where the lights slowly turned on to reveal a large looking beast that soon charged towards the player. It’s worth pointing out that for the sake of time the developers were using an overpowered character, and as such managed to one-shot the fiend, but regardless of the anti-climactic ending the combat was looking very slick, the ranged weapons providing some great visuals to the action going on.
The mission ended soon after with the discovery of a bunch of corpses and an ominous message written in blood. The player was then swarmed by enemies before the screen faded to black. The important thing to take from it all was how story focused the entire sequence was, from the audible backup over the comms, to the atmospheric set pieces that were placed along the way. It was clear that a lot of work had been put into creating an entertaining experience for the player, and with the addition of puzzles (which weren’t shown during the session) it will be interesting to see how full groups of players tackle the missions......"
EDIT: "We were told that such mechanics using dynamic light would also translate into PvP"
OMG, can't wait to try this in PvP!!
Looks like this is becoming more of a PvP game then PvE. I'm strickly PvE so if I cant turn PvP off somehow, then I'll pass on this game.
lol, it is just that they are revealing the PvP stuff now, but whatever.
Yeah funcom talks alot of garbage..the big hundreads of players siedge in aoc are only 30 and the server goes down, well they want to sell so they have to lie....people forget easy so they will get away with all these lies once again.
But what will you do and say if everything they talk about is ingame and working? Will you admit it and realise that nothing stays the same, good or bad, or will you ignore it and keep repeating the same mantra of 'Funcom is evil and everything they say is a lie'? How flexible of mind will/can you be?
@rpgalon: thanks, I hadn't seen that one yet.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."