Issue #6 - The Last Train to Cairo

The darkness in Egypt is ancient and its malevolent tendrils work tirelessly to spread their influence across the world. Issue #6; The Last Train to Cairo, will call upon you to contain this dire threat once again.

In this update you will play through a new, deep and revealing story within Egypt. Travel back in time to unearth powerful artifacts which can help you in the future, and see how the wondrous locations of The Scorched Desert looked in ages past.

Enjoy the Issue #6 cover here, and read more details about the upcoming content below.

The cultists and their dark prophet Abdel Daoud are working in the shadows under the influence of their god Aten. The Atenists seek to undermine and weaken the tireless Marya who bravely stand against them. You must come to their aid and free some of their captured warriors.

The enigmatic undead weapons dealer Said can also offer invaluable advice and guidance on how to best work against the cultists. Uncover the ultimate purpose of the Atenists and their prophet to see the true danger they present to the world.

Be sure not miss the climactic end fight on top of the train to Cairo, where you must stop its lethal cargo!

 

In addition to the many missions in the new story line, and their side missions which can be taken to gain powerful rewards, Issue #6; The Last Train to Cairo, also offers the new and unique Whip Auxilliary weapon.

The vicious Whip can be used for great area damage, but also for buffing your team or sneaky crowd control. Use the Whip to encourage your team mates to run faster or snare tricky opponents and pull them towards you.

A new presence will also make itself known in Issue #6. The veil between worlds is tearing from two sides. Both the adventurous players, ever searching for new challenges, and the ominous powers beyond our dimension, ever looking for access to our world, have long been spoiling for a fight.

The most rare and powerful patterns found in Lairs can now be utilized to instigate an epic confrontation with an immense foe. Gather in groups of ten to take on this devastating Raid size adversary in a titanic struggle in a shrouded location somewhere in the South Pacific. The battle is surely a trap, but will you bite with Jaws of Steel?

But that is not all you get in Issue #6; The Last Train to Cairo. A new Veteran and Recruitment system will become available. For each month you are or have been a member you receive points which can buy unique rewards. Every new person recruited also gives you an amount of points equal to a month of Membership.

A completely new ranking system will also be introduced to Player-versus-player combat. You gain PVP experience points and eventually ranks when you or your team kills other players. As you go up in ranks you are awarded with new tokens, which can be used to buy fresh PVP uniforms.

Check out the full size screenshots from the upcoming content in Issue #6 here.

Issue #6; The Last Train to Cairo is scheduled for release in the beginning of March. Members will get two days early access to the new content in Issue #6.

Game Director Letter - January, 2013

Most of you have probably already heard this week’s news. Funcom has announced the creation of one joint, centralized team at our studio in Raleigh, North Carolina, and that team will be working on all of our live games going forward. This is part of the restructuring process that was started in order to create a better foundation for implementing the new company strategy of developing smaller, more focused online games at the same time as we keep our existing games going with both updates and support.

Obviously this means a few changes for all our games. The good thing is that we are now bringing all the developers into the same studio where we have previously only had customer service, billing, quality assurance and our community teams. Allowing all these different people to work together directly with the developers will hopefully be very beneficial for The Secret World as a live game. Having one centralized live team also allow each game to benefit from a shared pool of people with exceptional competence, experience and skill working on MMOs and especially live, operating MMOs.

Not everyone on the current team will join the centralized live team. The developers on The Secret World were given the opportunity to relocate, but it is only to be expected that people are not always willing to relocate. I would ask the community to join me in wishing those team members the very best in their future careers. You have been amazing and I know that you will continue to be amazing. It has been a pleasure and an honor.

How then, does this affect the production and development of The Secret World? In particular, how does it affect the milestones for the development and improvement of the game?

Firstly, some reassurance. With the recent re-launch of the game to a buy-to-play model, we increased overall sales with more than 30% and the activity levels on the servers soared as more people came in – both new and returning players. This success is inspiring and we will continue building on that success going forward by expanding the game regularly and supporting our community.

We still have a strong, veteran team of designers and artists working on the game and working towards regular content updates. The move to North Carolina will cause some "development turbulence" - people will be moving and getting adjusted to new circumstances and thus you can expect things to slow down during this period, but our plan is still to deliver regular DLC and updates for The Secret World.

So, on that note, let’s have a look at what’s coming up next in Issue #6 which we are aiming to launch end of February.

The Issue #6 DLC, primarily set in Egypt, sees the player working with the Marya against the cultists of Abdel Daoud. The player learns the location of a prison, where Maryan captives are taken and tortured by the Atenists. Infiltrating the prison reveals information to the player about an Atenist plot to cause a second event on the scale of Tokyo. The player must race against time (and through time) to prevent the event from occurring!

Issue #6 will also see the return of the characters Said, Nassir and Zhara, as well as the villainous Abdel Daoud. Through the events of the issue, players will also gain access to the newest Auxiliary weapon, the whip. More details on the whip and its abilities as the DLC gets closer to launch.

Players will also see new features in Issue #6, including improved Cabal management functionality. New functionality will include things like Cabal logs, custom ranks and permissions, notes and a cabal news feed. We see this as the first step in improving the cabal system in The Secret World and we will continue to listen to our community and make improvements based upon their feedback.

PvP will also see some new updates in Issue #6 including a revamped matchmaking system and PvP ranks. More details will be available in a developer blog in the coming weeks.

As I mentioned in a forum post, we have always been looking at ways to improve the value of the subscription for our players. One of these initiatives is the Veteran Reward System. As players spend time with The Secret World, they gain veteran points, which can then be spent at in-game store to purchase both cosmetic and convenience items. Here is a list of some of the veteran rewards that you can expect to see:

• Automatic Item Repair Consumables
• Portable Combat Dummy with Feedback
• Veteran Outfits
• Veteran Pets
• Veteran Titles
• Mission Cooldown Removal Consumables
• Portable Bank/Tradepost/Mail Consumables
• ... and many more to come.

The first iteration of the Veteran System should be available in Issue #6.

In addition to the Veteran System, we are also going to sweeten the deal for members and Grandmaster account holders by allowing them 48 hour early access to the DLC content.

As you can see, the plans for The Secret World are as ambitious as ever. The development of the game continues to be a priority and there is plenty of story left to come!

Sincerely,
Joel Bylos
Game Director
Funcom

Shop Changes and the Veteran System

"Hi guys,

I am back from my recent trip to Montreal with some exciting news regarding the shop and the Veteran System. More information regarding the restructuring process at Funcom will be in my next Game Director Letter, which should be out some time this week. But this is the less formal place for me to talk a little bit about some upcoming shop changes and the Veteran System.

Shop Changes
Later today, we will be rolling out account-wide unlocks for pets in the store. We will expand this system to clothing as we move forward, but consider this the first step towards that. I would like people to report any bugs with the system.

You will be able to pay 25% more on top of the base cost of any pet to unlock it for all characters on an account. If you have purchased the pet on any other character before, you will only be charged the cost difference at the time of purchase (25% of the sale price) to unlock it across accounts.
Once the pet has been unlocked it can be claimed from the Delivered Items screen.

Veteran System
Still nailing down the final details of the system, but it will essentially work as an alternate currency which can be used to purchase veteran system items in the store.
Every month of subscription earns you Veteran Points.
Purchasing a subscription period provides you the veteran points for the period immediately (so a 6 month subscription purchase will provide 6 months of points).

Grand Master players will be awarded Veteran Points on the same day that they receive bonus points each month.

Here is a preliminary list of veteran items which will be available:

• Auto repair consumables - automatically repairs all gear when consumed
• Combat Dummy (faction flavoured) which can be summoned anywhere and used to get accurate DPS reports. We will create a healing version if we can script it.
• Veteran outfits/titles/pets
• Portable Bank/AH/Mail consumables and permanent item
• Secondary conduit/ region teleport
• Mission Cooldown reduction consumable"

'End Of Days Contest' Reward Changes

The "End of Days" event and contest ended today. We hope you enjoyed saving the world and thank everyone who participated.

In the announcement of the contest, we mentioned that the top 1000 players will receive the unique title "Hero of Ages" and the top 100 players in addition receive the exclusive "Hatchling" pet.

During the course of the contest however we noticed that some players were able to exploit the mechanics and reach impossible amounts of points which in terms altered the rankings to unrealistic results. This of course is not what we had in mind with this contest so we today decided to change the way we give out rewards for the event:

Everyone who participated in the "End of Days" event receives both the title as well as the pet today. You can get your rewards over the claim window.

End of Days Event Contest

 

 

Are you a Hero of Ages? Do you deserve to be remembered for all time as the one who stood against all the gods of destruction and defied fate? Prove it!

We're announcing the unique End of Days competition! Those who do the most to stem the rising tide of darkness during the event, the true leaders throughout the apocalypse, will be rewarded!

To learn more about the End of Days event, be sure to read its Developer Blog here!

The Rules

The event will run from the 21^st of December until January 7^th. (Unless the game servers are destroyed by rampaging zombies before that time.) The players who earn the most points throughout the event, across all dimensions, will receive rewards shortly thereafter.

• Using a Mayan Remains gives one point. (These remains are loot during the event.)
• Participating in a PvP match in El Dorado gives three points.
• Killing Bolon Yokte' K'uh gives ten points. Killing him while he is strengthened gives another ten points.
• Killing any of the three Harbingers of Nameless Days gives ten points.

You will be able to view your progress in the competition in Chronicle (updated every 24 hours).

The Rewards

The top 1000 players will receive a unique title, Hero of Ages, so their contribution to the world may be remembered for all time.

The top 100 players will also receive the exclusive Hatchling pet, a young ak'ab flown straight from the abyss to your side! This may be your only chance to ever own one of these soulless chittering creatures!

TSW Dev Journals: Joel Bylos’ Game Director’s Letter

"I'm sitting in the dark, covered in a blanket, writing this by the fitful flickering of LCD. I fear that the end grows near, my friends, and the human race will walk the slow spiral into darkness. December 21^st is soon upon us and mankind is heading toward its inevitable doom. It’s quite depressing.

Let's get the big one out of the way first - we recently made the subscription fee for The Secret World optional. We moved the game to a buy-to-play model which allows new users full access to the game for the price of a client fee. You can read up on all of the changes here.

One of the great strengths with The Secret World is our ambitious post-launch update plan. So far we’ve released five strong updates, called Issues, chock full of content, storylines, features and improvements. Having something new to play around with, something that keeps the game fresh and alive is important for us and we remain fully committed to releasing regular Issues. As part of the move away from required subscription, there will be some components of these issues that are free, while the other components will be paid DLC content. Though it will most likely differ from update to update, content such as new storylines and new locations will usually be part of the paid DLC.

But what do these kind of changes mean for the development of the game going forward?"

 Read the full letter on MMORPG.com here.

Issue #5, The Vanishing of Tyler Freeborn

The newest update to The Secret World, Issue #5, has just gone live. Log in now to check out some of the awesome stuff awaiting you, such as a new Auxiliary Weapon – the Quantum Brace, fresh missions and a brand new and revealing story arc.

But that is not all you get with Issue #5. On the 21^st of December all Hell breaks loose both in the real world and the virtual. The apocalypse is coming just as the Mayans predicted. In The Secret World this will take the form of an End of Days event filled with new monsters and challenges.

The Event will run from the 21^st and will last until The Secret World’s servers are destroyed by rampaging zombies or until a new dawn rises on the world once again. A competition will be running during the event, and the players who do the most to stem this tide of darkness will get unique rewards.

Catch the new preview video of Issue #5, narrated by Game Director Joel Bylos, to get a sneak peek at what is awaiting you in this update and the coming End of Days event.

See the video here.

Read on to learn more detailed information about each feature below the Issue cover.

End of Days Event!

On the 21^st of December the dead will rise and the Harbingers will come. The End of Days is here and you must all fight for your survival or perish beneath the weight of rotting corpses.

The Oxford archeologists in the Scorched Desert and the Morninglight have important tasks for you. Slay the newly risen Mayan zombies, the roaming Harbingers and the god of the nine Underworlds and be rewarded with special loot and prizes.

Read more about the event in its developer blog here.







New Auxiliary Weapon

Warp time and space itself with the powerful Quantum Brace. Help out Moose and Edgar in Kingsmouth with their experiments and build the new Auxiliary Weapon yourself through trial and error. Each attack of the Quantum Brace exists in two states – hit successfully with one and the icon on your action bar will change and reveal a follow up attack. The Quantum Brace is great for doing damage to both single targets and groups, but can also be an especially handy tool for healers.







The Vanishing of Tyler Freeborn

The blogger and resident of Solomon Island, Tyler Freeborn, has been doing his own investigating into the rising darkness and is especially interested in what lies behind the ominous fog which is surrounding the island.

Follow in his footsteps and uncover another crucial piece of the puzzle that is The Secret World. This new story arc contains several missions and ends with a revealing climax no one should miss.








And much much more…

Contact Tanis to experience a new sabotage mission in the Scorched Desert. Get to the bottom of what the Phoenicians are up to and what the undead weapons dealer Said has to do with it all. Or you can head over to the Shadowy Forest and speak with Alina. She offers a new Investigation mission, where you help her break free of her Morninglight past. But that is not all; Issue #5 also makes all Investigation missions repeatable and includes the handy improvement of letting you bind hotkeys to inventory items for easy use in battle.

The Secret World is now Buy-to-Play!

As of right now subscription is optional for The Secret World.

This means that after buying the game you can play all of the heralded story-line and all content available right now without a paying a monthly fee.

With four major updates released, which introduce much new content such as a Raid in New York, Auxiliary Weapons and many new missions, the game is better than ever.

Buy the game before December the 31^st and all the content in Issue #5, which will be released shortly, will also be included and you will receive the Initiate Pack, which includes strong starter weapons, a Blood Raven pet and extra social clothing.

So click here to BUY The Secret World for just $30 / €30 / £24.99 OR Purchase TSW through Steam.

Read on to get more information about these changes to The Secret World, or check out our FAQ on the official forums.

New Membership Available

For those who want to get the most out of their Secret World experience we have an optional Membership available. Being a monthly subscriber, for the same cost as before, now gives great benefits. For being a member you get the following:

• Time Accelerator (Clickable item which increases experience gain for defeating monsters by 100% for 1 hour, 16 hour cool-down – only usable by Members and Grand Masters)
• $10 worth of Bonus Points (given out every month)
• Item-of-the-month gift (given out every month)
• 10% discount to everything in the in-game store

The Grandmaster pack includes all these benefits and gets an additional 10% discount to everything in the in-game store, for a total bonus of 20%. So being a Grandmaster is better than ever!

Through the month of December we have a special offer where we give 30% off on the first purchase on the 3, 6 and 12 month Membership plans.

New Store Items

We have just launched some very nice new items through the Item Store. These are made to save time for those so inclined.

Ability Points Potion – This potion will double the Ability Points you receive for the duration of its effect.

Run Speed Upgrade – It is now possible to directly purchase the run speed increases (identical to those which can be purchased through your Secret Society).

In addition there will be lots of new social items such as clothing and pets continuously added to the store, so check if frequently if you wish to stay abreast with what is new.

Updates Since Launch

A steady flow of new content and deeper game systems have been introduced to The Secret World since launch, and much much more will follow in the future. Issue #5, The Vanishing of Tyler Freeborn, is just days away from release.

Issue #1: Unleashed was the first update to The Secret World. It introduced a full mission pack, adding content to all the game’s major regions. Several Nightmare dungeon modes were also unlocked, giving veteran dungeon crawlers even more brutal tests to their skills.

Issue #2: The second update, Digging Deeper, gave players the very first Auxiliary Weapon – the Rocket Launcher. The Issue included several new missions and Nightmare dungeons, in addition a barbershop and plastic surgery gave the players many new options for changing their looks.

Issue #3: In The Cat God The Secret World had its first seasonal event with Halloween, and players got a completely new storyline with an epic fight in Stonehenge. Furthermore new missions were made available, and the dangerous Lairs got a big boost.

Issue#4: Our biggest update yet was Big Trouble in the Big Apple. It added a new raid in New York, a second Auxiliary Weapon – the Chainsaw, the Albion Theatre in London, new missions and Lair content, and a big PvP enhancement for the Fusang Warzone.

New Content for the Future

Periodically we will release packs of DLC (Downloadable Content). These updates, called Issues in The Secret World, contain new content, such as more Auxiliary Weapons, new missions and story arcs. These packs are fully optional and can be purchased normally or for the Bonus Points that are included in the optional Membership, as well as with the Grandmaster Lifetime service.

The first DLC will start selling in January 2013, and is the main storyline of issue #5. This will sell for $5, however this content is already fully unlocked for anyone who has a full game account registered before the end of December 2012.

Regular patches with free content and updates and enhancements to the core game will still continue.

Age of Conan F2P starts today

Funcom is inviting both new and old players to check out a good portion of its Hyborian content on the house, and the company will also be unveiling its cash shop (complete with a new "temptress" pet that helps the title live up to its mature rating).

Unchained also marks the release of new content in the form of the Forgotten City and The Breach solo instances. As we told you last month, these new dungeons scale to your level and offer an experience designed to relieve the monotony of the well-traveled Noble District villas. Stick with Massively all weekend as we bring you the latest AoC: Unchained news and impressions, and don't forget to check out the Unchained launch trailer after the break.

[Update]: Funcom has also posted its traditional monthly dev update, which focuses on all of the new content coming soon to AoC (and there is a lot of it). In addition to the two dungeons debuting today with Unchained, players can look forward to the long-awaited House of Crom dungeon (no, really!), new tier four raids, the Savage Coast of Turan stuff, and of course, Blood and Glory.

[Update 2]: AoC 2.6, and F2P, is in fact going live today -- June 30th -- and the game launcher is currently down for patching. Funcom's Glen "Famine" Swan confirms as much on the official forums, and we'll link the patch notes as soon as they're available.

Age of Conan switching to F2P

Being a fan of Funcom games, I would like to give this a whirl this summer.

Free and Premium Content Overview


What are the differences between the free and the Premium offering?

Please consult the chart below for the main differences between the free to play option and the Premium subscribers option.

How do the character slots work after the hybrid model launches?

Free players can only make two characters by default, while Premium players get eight character slots. Returning customers get to keep the number of character slots they already had.

How many character slots can I have in total?

All accounts have a maximum limit of 18 slots.
Each account type starts with a basic number of slots (2 for free players, 8 for premium players). Any slots purchased in addition to this base will be added no matter what subscription type you currently use.

What happens if I go from Premium to free?

After downgrading from Premium to free, any characters in the slots beyond the two default ones can not be played, unless enough additional slots have been purchased from the item shop to compensate. Your characters will be there, but any beyond your two slots will be unplayable. You get to pick which characters will be your included slots once you downgrade to free.

What character classes are available to free players?

The following four classes are available for all players of ‘Age of Conan: Unrated’.

● Barbarian
● Demonologist
● Guardian
● Priest of Mitra

The following classes are only available to Premium subscribers:

● Assassin
● Bear Shaman
● Conqueror
● Dark Templar
● Herald of Xotli
● Necromancer
● Ranger
● Tempest of Set

How much of the game can I actually play for free?

All outdoor playfields in Aquilonia, Cimmeria, and Stygia are available to all players.

How do I get access to the expansion content?

Access to the Khitai content is available via an 'expansion pass' - granting access to all of the expansion areas and dungeons. Anyone who already bought the expansion has this enabled automatically. Subscribers who have not purchased the expansion before do not have access to this unless they buy the 'expansion pass'.

Will we be able to play through all of the dungeon content?

Some of the instanced dungeon content will be completely free, and other will be accessed through new passes or expansion purchases.

Free dungeons:

● Tortage Underhalls (solo)
● Acheronian Ruins (solo)
● Bubshur House (solo)
● Abandoned Smuggler Tunnels (solo)
● The Maze (solo)
● Spider Caverns (solo)
● Border Ranges (solo)
● Outflow Tunnels (solo)
● Ice Cave (solo)
● Cannibal Cave (solo)
● Catacombs (group)
● Toirdealbach’s Tomb (group)
● Prison Colony (group)
● Scorpion Cave (group)
● Caravan Raider Camp (group)
● Atzel’s Fortress (group)
● Onyx Chambers (group)

Premium dungeons:
Access to Premium dungeons will work in several ways. Some access passes are a once off purchase, some allow access for a set duration, and some are linked to expansion content.

● Pyramid of the Ancients (solo) –permanent-only purchase
● Treasury of the Ancients (solo) –permanent-only purchase
● Villa Camillus, Amiel, Verde, Paetus, Lentulus (solo) –permanent-only purchase
● Slaughterhouse Cellar (solo)
● Attilius Mansion (solo) – permanent-only purchase
● Black Castle (group) – permanent-only purchase
● The Cradle of Decay (group) – permanent-only purchase
● Sanctum of the Burning Souls (group) – permanent-only purchase
● The Cistern (group) – permanent-only purchase
● Main System (group) – permanent-only purchase
● Ampitheater of Karutonia (group) – permanent-only purchase
● Halls of Eternal Frost (group)
● Imirian Ravine, Oasis of Zaara, Frost Swamp (group ACG)
● Xibaluku (group)
● Crow’s Nest (group)
● Iron Tower (group)
● Khitai Dungeons - accessed through Rise of the Godslayer expansion purchase

Can a free player take part in all the raids?

Free players may access the beginnings of raids and the raid equipment ladder, but they can’t complete tier 1 without switching to Premium access or purchasing entry to more raids, which will be available in the item store.

Free raids:

● Kylikki’s Crypt
● Yakhmar’s Cave

Premium raids:

● Vistrix's Lair
● Black Ring Citadel (all wings)
● Thoth-Amon’s Stronghold
● All raids in Khitai

Can a free player take part in Sieges?

Free players may purchase time-limited passes to the zones related to sieges (Bori and Borderlands), while subscribers may participate in as many sieges as they like, whenever they like.

How much personal bank space does a free player get?

Free players get access to half of the bank slots that are available to Premium players. In the future, further bank and/or inventory slots will be available for purchase.

Do free players earn Guild Renown?

All players may contribute Valor, Glory, and Artistry to their guilds, regardless of their subscription status.

Do free players gain Alternative Advancement (AA) points?

Free players may not earn AA points, even if they are level 80. These are only available to Premium subscribers. Free players can however purchase items to enable AA point gain in the item shop.

Are there limits to which Mount Training can be done on a free account?

Free players may only ride the horses which require the Basic Riding skill by default. Premium players retain all their mount abilities and may learn to ride swift horses, armored horses, mammoths, rhinos, tigers and wolves as usual.

Read more with a FAQ here.