http://www.thesecretworld.com/news/game_director_letter_february_2015

Hi guys!
For the past few weeks we’ve been splitting our time between the player experience revamp and Issue #11.

The revamped experience has expanded slightly in scope by improving the tutorials in the beginning and smoothing out the difficulty curve. When we go back and change things, we also find other ways of improving the early game experience.

There is a fairly long laundry list of changes, but I will attempt to summarize most of the important ones here.

Time to Kill/Population changes/Boss Loot
The first and most obvious change is the switch in time to kill monsters pre-Tokyo. We are reducing the amount of time it takes to defeat regular monsters in adventure zones. We looked at the numbers and concluded that at least a part of the trouble some players have with combat early in the game stems from the time needed to kill the general monster population. It also stepped up in difficulty quite quickly, where it increased from 7 seconds to 25 seconds to kill a monster between Kingsmouth and Blue Mountain. (7 seconds is about the time it takes to use a single Builder/Consumer rotation to kill an enemy.)

We’ve also taken a second look at some of the irritating populations in the game (*ahem* Ak’ab) and adjusted them. We’ve streamlined the nightmare population around the mission design so that people aren’t charging from something they can handle into absolute and sudden death (*ahem* Blue Mountain Quarry). In some cases this has meant downgrading the monster populations from Nightmare to the correct difficulty of their zone.

While I am aware that some people will be standing on their porch shaking their fist at me right now and shouting “Damn you for making it easier for the filthy casuals” I would like to point out that we have not touched the difficulty of content outside of the critical game path – dungeons, lairs and Tokyo are all unaffected.

Think of it as turning progression from a staircase into a ramp – they still reach the same height but one of them is less abrupt along the way.

In addition, all of the rare bosses have had a loot revamp and are now guaranteed to drop a rare (blue) piece of gear.

Quests/Rewards/New Tutorials
We’ve taken the opportunity to revamp the quest rewards throughout the game. This means that rewards will be more immediately meaningful to your progression. We’ve replaced some of the early choices in the game with a better mix of items (to avoid people gimping themselves very early by equipping full heal talismans, for example).

The Story mission will now reward players with an appropriate choice of rare weapons, with the full story mission (through Transylvania) culminating in the acquisition of your first epic weapon as well.
The opening tutorial sequences in the training areas of the factions have been upgraded to teach new players to use two weapons. We’ve revamped our tutorial pages with improved explanations as well as added additional tutorials for things that we realized are very important but not clearly explained (wait, I can buy sprint upgrades???)

And we took the time to convert faction missions to use the notification system (so you no longer miss phone calls) and updated the starter decks with more reliable builds.

UI Changes/Achievements
We’ve revamped the Playfield Map interface to improve the communication of connections between locations, dungeon entrances, vendors (and vendors of particular types), Agartha entrances and the ability to filter between them all.

Before launch we wrote a design for a series of achievements call “Unseen Achievements”. These are tied to Sabotage missions and are specifically designed to reward those of you who can complete these missions as intended, by being never seen at all.

Fast Travel System
We’ve now introduced a fast travel system to the game. Players will be able to open their map at any time and teleport to any anima well in a playfield for a fee in PAX cost.

In alignment with this, we’ve removed the ability to choose an Anima Well on using /reset, instead opting to send you to the nearest anima well.

So yeah, we’ve been busy. There’s dozens more changes that I haven’t mentioned here so I recommend that everybody take a good look at the patch notes when we patch this, soon ™.

Issue #11
Of course, we aren’t *just* working on revamping the experience for players throughout the storyline, we are also working on the next part of the storyline.

I’m talking about Issue #11, and it’s pretty exciting. As I mentioned last month we had to look at the scale of the issue and considered how we were going to put it all together.

So Issue #11 will be the finale of the story in Tokyo, wherein you will finally have a chance to learn more about the Orochi Group and the final pieces of the puzzle behind the events that have rocked The Secret World will fall into place.

But in addition, we wanted to convey the sheer size of the Orochi tower. A building like this deserves some attention and the eight different companies that makes up the Orochi tower each deserve their fair share of screen time. But how to do it? We can’t simply force you to visit every floor of the tower on your way to the top.

Instead we chose to draw upon some of our favorite rogue-like mechanics and your progress through the building will be randomized. This means that there are 512 unique ways in which you will experience your journey from the bottom to the top of Orochi tower.

Not to mention the secret floors that lucky people might stumble across.

We are creating group versions of the major boss fights for Issue #11, with additional abilities and loot for those of you who prefer to tackle the content as a team. The earlier planned dungeon will be pushed into a later update.

More details on Issue #11 as it draws closer.

Events
Once the release of the revamp is finalized, we’ll be throwing wide the gates to welcome new players into The Secret World. To that end there are several ongoing initiatives and events that I’d like to mention.

First and foremost, around Valentine's Day, you’ll find a new vendor in London selling all sorts of interesting odds and ends. We can’t promise you love, but you’ll probably be able to approximate the feeling by spending money buying yourself a cute outfit (trust me, your brain won’t know the difference).

We’ll also be hosting a series of initiatives run by our community team. I don’t want to spoil their surprises, so let me just suggest that you keep an eye on the forums in the coming weeks.

Finally there is a community run Cabal Pride event (see thread here). I suggest that anybody who is looking for a cabal or wants to see what sort of madness they get up to should show up and take a look.

Remember, people who play together, stay together!

Alright, I’ve said more than enough this month.

Cheers,
Joel

Play now to enjoy the most revealing update to The Secret World yet!

Venture out of the quarantine zone in Tokyo and continue the main story as you explore new areas, fight new enemies, meet a new cast of characters and uncover old secrets.

Issue #10 offers hours of content, culminating in a hellish mission exploring the nightmarish mind of the man who set off the bomb in Tokyo. This terrible weapon unleashed the rising tide of darkness across the world!

A virulent new strain of the ever evolving Filth is spreading from the Tokyo docks. But new Orochi research is ready to meet this menace. Get your hands on the all new AEGIS shields, which will help defend you from the monsters in Tokyo.

All New Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F8D9t23nV8

Issue #10 Early Access
Issue #10 is available in the Item Shop now for all Members, as they get three days early access. If you become a Member now you will also get early access and you will immediately get $10 worth of Bonus Points (enough to buy Issue #10). Please note that you need to own issue #9: The Black Signal and have access to the Tokyo playfield to play Issue #10.

Collector's Edition
You can also get Issue #10: Nightmares in the Dream Palace Collector's Edition in the Item Shop right now. It contains the full Issue #10 plus the epic Orochi AEGIS Disruptor Curiosity, the unique Japanese formal bow emote and the Dreams of a Geisha outfit!

Read more about Issue #10: Nightmares in the Dream Palace below the Issue cover. At the bottom of the article you can also enjoy the all new Issue #10 comic!

http://www.thesecretworld.com/news/issue_10_nightmares_in_the_dream_palace_is_here

UPDATE 1.10 HOTFIX
http://www.thesecretworld.com/news/update_notes_1.10

The Secret World's second anniversary celebrations have begun!

We invite you all to take part in this special occasion and enjoy a great event, huge bonuses and brand new content.

New Tokyo World Boss!

The Guardians of Gaia event returns, where massive Golems invade all the different areas of the game. This year the event offers some great new loot, rewards and an all new Golem in Tokyo! Take on this enormous and powerful new Tokyo Golem and earn unique rewards!

The anniversary celebrations last for two weeks, from the 3rd of July to the 17th of July, so log in now and take part!

From the 3rd of July and until 11th of July everyone can also enjoy these huge bonuses:

Double Ability Points: Every time you would earn an Ability Point you get one extra! This effect stacks with the Timed AP Boosts you can get in the Item Shop.
Extra Black Bullion: Every time you would earn Black Bullion you get one extra! This bonus also applies when you open Mystery Boxes and Deep Mystery Boxes.
50% more Aureus of Initiation: Every time you earn Aureus of Initiation in Scenarios you earn 50% extra!
50% more White Marks of Venice: Every time you earn White Marks of Venice from PvP you earn 50% extra. In the Fusang Warzone the period between each rewarding of Marks is reduced by 50%.
50% more AEGIS Reaserch XP in Tokyo: Every time you loot defeated enemies in the new Tokyo zone they yield 50% more AEGIS Research for your Weapon Controllers.
Free Membership for Recruiting: For every new player you recruit during this period you get a free month of Membership in addition to the Veteran Points you normally get. (To get this bonus you must send your invite between now and the 11th of July and the recruit must purchase The Secret World within 30 days.) Everyone has been given 10 extra invite keys as bonus, so that the whole community can let their friends take part in this anniversary celebration!

Sidestories: Love & Loathing

An all new mission pack is live! Enjoy the brand new Sidestories: Love & Loathing, which offers five new missions in the city of Tokyo, which was introduced in Issue #9. The pack contains:

Brotherly Loathe (Action) – Inbeda asks the player to help the House-in-Exile withstand the assault of the nine houses and settle a personal vendetta at the same time.
Love & Origami (Investigation) – Gozen and Akashi are arguing about a mysterious note and a book of origami left abandoned at a table in the noodle house. Bring your origami skills – this mission is not for the faint of heart!
Killers on the Road (Action) – Gozen sends the players to thin out the ranks of the demons infecting the streets of Kaidan and beyond…
The Right Round (Action) – Kurt asks the player to discover the location of a missing Orochi team carrying experimental weapons for testing.
The Korinto-kai (Action) – Daimon Kiyota isn’t about to let a little thing like the apocalypse stop him from running his business.

Anyone who completes all five missions in Sidestories: Love & Loathing will receive the Cracked Noh mask and a Deep Mystery Box as rewards! (This Deep Mystery Box can only be gotten once on each account.)

The five new missions are an excellent source for the new Sequins of Sunrise tokens in Tokyo, which you can use to upgrade your AEGIS Weapon Controllers. Doing these missions while the anniversary bonus of 50% more research XP is active, is a great way to improve your AEGIS skill!

Please note that you need to have Issue #9: The Black Signal to be able to purchase Sidestories: Love & Loathing and to do the new missions in Tokyo.

http://www.thesecretworld.com/news/love_loathing_and_a_huge_anniversary_event

http://www.thesecretworld.com/news/game_director_letter_june_2014

Contatti in Game

-DRAGON- Under the Dragon's Tail
Aulyn - Johell - Lizka - Lotina - Maluk - PercivalNelish
-ILLUMINATI- Lato Oscuro del Chaos
Chaser12 - Covertshot - Falluccio - Blis - Yeiri
-TEMPLARI- Order of Chaos
Barbafesto - Kuda - Ratataplan

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