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Looking to ask some questions

  • Thread starter HCarp0927
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HCarp0927

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So, I've tried the free weekend one-month anniversary special. So far it seems like a fairly interesting game, but I was looking to learn some things before I try taking the full plunge.

And in any case, I would need to wait a few weeks before doing that, anyway, as I'll be out of town for a little while starting Thursday.

If there's anyone who's willing to talk to me about these things, I'd like to learn the following:

I see TSW has no levels or classes, but it has ability points and skill points. If you place one of either, into a category you didn't want to, do you have any recourse, or is it locked there for the life of your character? I don't remember what server I was on at the time, but I asked, "What do I do?" and the response was "go play WoW."

Maybe I should have asked, "Can I do undo the mistake" instead of "What do I do," but I thought getting away from that kind of abusive behavior was the reason I LEFT WoW?

Which brings me to my next question... are decks and min/maxing SP's and AP's going to lead to abusive behavior toward those who dabble in a little of this and a little of that? Especially when it comes to the more difficult areas and encounters?

One more question. I see after the orientation quest and choosing your starting weapon, all three secret societies go to the same area. Is "Zone" mission progression the same for all three societies? And do all three societies share the same general and looking for group channels?

I'll leave it at that for now, I don't want to sound too needy or too unwilling to just explore and see what the game has to offer. I still have to wait til I get back from my pending trip, or else I'll only end up with 21 free days instead of 30 :p
 

Flutter

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To answer your first question, as far as I know you can't undo a SP or AP. You can eventually earn enough points to fill up everything though, although it will get progressively harder to earn points so you should select your abilities and skills carefully if you are going for a specific spec. For me, I just went with what sounded good. I have no real character goal in that respect and am willing to go through the progression should I "accidentally" choose an AP that is not useful to me. Other more hardcore gamers will want to educate themselves on what ability does what. I am working on a guide, but it will take a while for me to get it done as real life is beating me up right now.

I'm not sure I understand your second question, maybe someone with more experience in WOW can help answer.

Lastly, aside from your "intitiation" as I like to call it, (the sequence in the beginning specific to which society/faction you have chosen) everyone plays together. The only time you cannot (or unable to) team up or play with people of another faction is when you are in a PvP zone. You also cannot be in the same Cabal (guild) as another faction. Other than that everyone plays together and can travel and work together in any zone or instance. (again, unless it is a pvp zone)

I'm glad to help when I can, so shout out if you have any more questions. If I can't answer them I'll find someone who can ;)
 
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HCarp0927

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Believe me, you didn't miss that much if you never played WoW, haha.

Basically, the peak endgame experience of WoW (for players who had reached the level cap of the particular expansion pack (WoW has had three so far, and the fourth is due for release in five weeks), was raiding, dungeons that were designed for large groups: forty people in the first raids, and then later designed with two modes, one for ten people and another for twenty-five. As knowledge of how to defeat the tough boss enemies increased, theories arose on exactly how each class had to allot talent points (WoW's equivalent of TSW's SP's), which group of talents to specialize in (a mage might specialize in general arcane, fire, or frost, like a TSW'er might specialize in assault rifle, blades, or hammers), exactly what spells/abilities to use in what order, etc.

And people became increasingly intolerant of someone not being specialized "just so," down to the very last talent point. It would be like a TSW'er refusing to admit a player into a group unless they had EXACTLY 15 SP's in hammers, and EXACTLY 10 SP's in blood magic, and had purchased EXACTLY this ability, that ability and that ability. A single player death resulted in the most horrifically abusive screams and yells through voice-chat software like Ventrillo, people throwing tantrums so intense you'd think they were about to suffer a RL stroke or aneurysm at the keyboard. "Failtards EVERYONE --except-- me, the only one doing a single thing right!" was the mantra of the typical "elitist" raider. People would blithely focus their attacks on the wrong mob (Not the one the tank was focusing on) and then scream that it's the tank's fault if the mob turnd on them and killed them. They would blithely run directly AWAY from the tank and expect the tank to chase them down, even if the tank HAD to keep another mob facing a particular direction so it didn't unleash a heavy-damage AOE right on top of the rest of the party. People would stand right in the middle of enemy AOE attacks and expect the healer to be able to heal through them. And then someone went and created a piece of software that allowed everyone to see who was doing the most DPS-- that person on top would then continually broadcast it to the whole group and belittle those who weren't keeping up.

Suffice to say, "raid drama" in WoW made the average episode of "Real Housewives" look like a tea party among BFF's. It could get ferocious. Especially when the utility feature to randomly group up five people for standard "heroic" (harder than regular) dungeons was introduced and everyone you were grouped with was someone you'd never met in the game before and never expected to see again; to quote a professional wrestling tag-team from the late 1980's/early 1990's, you could be "as nasty as you wanna be."

Behavior like that helped me break a self-destructive cycle of addiction to WoW. If you never played it, you're very fortunate.

I only hope and pray the kind of attitudes that drove so many other people like me, out of WoW, doesn't repeat itself in the latest group of MMO's to rise... SWTOR, Tera, Aion, and of course, TSW.
 

Flutter

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My ex played a lot of WoW. I remember him cursing a lot. Figured I didn't want to play it HAHA

TSW is a little different in that respect. You literally can build and save different builds for different fights. That is, you can train any and all weapons/magic and any and all abilities. Then you can make a build through the UI and literally save it. So I'm not sure the same problems in WOW are going to arise in TSW.
I can tell you that in every game that exists you are going to find douches who have no respect for anyone else. I've run solo in a lot of games and have run into this problem frequently. The solution of course is a guild or cabal so that you always have people to do things with. I like my solo play so I've got to put up with running into the occasional dishrag or 9, but I've found folks posting on the official forums looking for groups and being greeted in a very friendly and welcoming way.
It is worse on weekends where anyone can get in and play for free ;)
 
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HCarp0927

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Excuse the larger font size. My eyes are starting to get picky about making out text.

I see a barbershop and plastic surgery booth are coming out in the 8/28 major game update. Along with a lot more character appearance options. This will allay some of my concerns about character appearance. Still, my primary concern right now is of another nature.

There are posts on the forum accusing FunCom of NEVER fixing known bugs and glitches. The word 'never' can be a little bit of a harsh criticism and often extreme in nature-- a bug might be fixed after someone already unsubbed specifically because of it.

But when enough people make the same claim, any accusation begins to get SOME merit. What's your experience? Have you played previous FunCom games and found them to have a reputation of leaving bugs unfixed nearly indefinitely?
 

Flutter

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To be honest, my experience is that you can't take everything you read on any forums to heart. Most passionate posters post the way they do because they love the game. There are the fistful of posters there to do nothing but antagonize. I've got friends who play Funcom's Age of Conan and love the game and have told me they do run bug fixes.

The last large patch we got for the one month anniversary did contain a load of bug fixes. Here is a link to the update published on August 15th.:
(Sorry I should have made a thread I just haven't had time!)
The Secret World
 
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