Greetings Traveler,
Syp has a post up about the new gear grind of Secret World Legends. It got me thinking. First, I am perceiving less and less reason to make the jump from TSW, which itself lost a bit of luster for me years ago. I loved the classless Ability Wheel, even if enterprising individuals found “perfect” builds and the game itself encouraged other builds through the outfit system. I loved the complex, mature story; though the unrelenting grimdark became tiresome. I've said it before, but it would be nice to have a similar underlying system in a different setting. I guess that is the appeal—such as it is—of game systems like GURPS, where the basic mechanics are the same, but many different settings and scenarios can overlay the dice rolls.
But I never got Panoptic Core in TSW. That is probably the result of my SLC with Scooter, not to mention my innate altoholism. Maybe between the experience points on my three characters, I could have gotten all the abilities on the Wheel. As far as I know, I could always go back and finish if I want to. Funcom hasn't actually shut down the original TSW completely; they've just decided to develop the game in a different direction. What if Blizzard had done that on at least a few servers for each expansion of WoW, enabling players to return to those older versions of the game if they prefer?
On the other hand, it's become a habit for me to lose interest in an MMO before ever really reaching endgame. Despite playing MMOs fairly consistently for over a decade, I think its been at least a couple years since Scooter or I have hit max level and the "end of the story." It's been almost a month since either of us logged into WoW, on characters that are nowhere near max-level. Part of that is Real Life intruding on our game time. Just when all of the kids are out of the house (sort of), it seems that both of us are busier than ever with job duties. And more of our time off is spent completely unplugging than jacking in to whatever our favorite matrix is at the moment.
Syp has a post up about the new gear grind of Secret World Legends. It got me thinking. First, I am perceiving less and less reason to make the jump from TSW, which itself lost a bit of luster for me years ago. I loved the classless Ability Wheel, even if enterprising individuals found “perfect” builds and the game itself encouraged other builds through the outfit system. I loved the complex, mature story; though the unrelenting grimdark became tiresome. I've said it before, but it would be nice to have a similar underlying system in a different setting. I guess that is the appeal—such as it is—of game systems like GURPS, where the basic mechanics are the same, but many different settings and scenarios can overlay the dice rolls.
But I never got Panoptic Core in TSW. That is probably the result of my SLC with Scooter, not to mention my innate altoholism. Maybe between the experience points on my three characters, I could have gotten all the abilities on the Wheel. As far as I know, I could always go back and finish if I want to. Funcom hasn't actually shut down the original TSW completely; they've just decided to develop the game in a different direction. What if Blizzard had done that on at least a few servers for each expansion of WoW, enabling players to return to those older versions of the game if they prefer?
On the other hand, it's become a habit for me to lose interest in an MMO before ever really reaching endgame. Despite playing MMOs fairly consistently for over a decade, I think its been at least a couple years since Scooter or I have hit max level and the "end of the story." It's been almost a month since either of us logged into WoW, on characters that are nowhere near max-level. Part of that is Real Life intruding on our game time. Just when all of the kids are out of the house (sort of), it seems that both of us are busier than ever with job duties. And more of our time off is spent completely unplugging than jacking in to whatever our favorite matrix is at the moment.
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Scooter proofreads almost all my articles before I post them, for which I am very grateful. However, any mistakes are mine and mine alone (unless otherwise noted). If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after publication. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.
Scooter proofreads almost all my articles before I post them, for which I am very grateful. However, any mistakes are mine and mine alone (unless otherwise noted). If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after publication. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.
The very existence of Legends annoys me to no end. On paper the changes to combat seemed great, but the execution leaves something to be desired. And locking down aspects of the game behind a paywall that are available in a buy-2-play version is garbage.
ReplyDeleteOh? I hadn't looked very hard at it once I realized it was going to be a reticle-based control scheme. What's behind the pay wall?
DeleteI've made the switch to Legends and so far I've been having fun. Once you get used to the new combat it seems to work OK and you shouldn't have problems when you fight enemies at the same level and powerful if you are slightly over level. I'm also getting to see all he amazing story again, some things I haven't seen since five years ago!
ReplyDeleteFor free players new to SWL, you get your two starter weapons unlocked, but to use the other seven, you need to first buy access to them by unlocking the abilities pages. This is done with in-game currency you earn over time, or skip by paying real money. So whether you see it as a "pay wall" or just play an hour for free to earn enough (for the first unlock) is subjective.
I'd highly recommend that you visit TSW, spend all your bonus points, use up all pax buying everything from Pangaea and then visit the SWL account page to initiate the TSW legacy transfer option. It will snapshot your clothing, pets and mounts at that exact moment (once ever and never again) and let you use it in SWL if you log in with the same account. This option is only available until some time in August and then will disappear forever, so if you ever think you might try SWL in the future, don't miss out on taking all your stuff!
It also copies over grandmaster lifetime status (which is not otherwise available in SWL) and unlocks every weapon for free for any TSW player (lifetime or not), AND giving you two extra character slots for alts (versus only having one slot by default) eliminating those "pay walls" for you.
I've also found having alts to be beneficial in sharing the accountwide aurum currency and buying gear for each other.
Hope to see LoneStarBelle in SWL maybe! I miss you guys.
Thanks for the details. Given the time limit, I may do exactly as you suggest. Despite my misgivings, I always regret not having enough cash earmarked at any given time to pay for a lifetime sub before they were no longer available. I'm sure I've paid Funcom at least that amount on monthly subs.
Delete