Funcom's Joel Bylos has revealed his vision for The Secret World going forward. In the letter, Bylos reveals the mission statement of the development team taking into account player input and much more. It's an ambitious plan for one of the more unusual MMOs on the scene today.

First and foremost I need to provide our players with good, solid content updates on a regular basis, just as we have released three substantial updates since launch. I also need to do everything in my power to convince thousands of gamers out there who still have not played ‘The Secret World’  that this is a universe worth immersing yourself in. It is a crowded market out there and we have a lot of competition, so I know that we will need to make improvements but also expand on the game’s unique strengths to make it stand out even more clearly.

Read more on The Secret World's site.

Also, don't forget MMORPG.com's exclusive reveal this Friday:

This Friday at 4pm EDT, The Secret World's Game Director Joel Bylos will be joined by Lead Coder Øystein Eftevaag and Art Producer Davide Tabacco.  The trio will be livestreaming exclusively on MMORPG.com's Twitch Channel. The topic? A brand new, never before seen combat feature.  Be sure to tune in at 4pm EDT (1pm PDT) to see one of the biggest changes coming to The Secret World.  

Join us this Friday on the MMORPG.com stream channel!

wow this was a shocker: 

"I am also happy to reveal that Issue #4 will be introducing one of the most requested features during Beta: reticule combat."

Aren't there ground targeted skills in TSW? Seems like your combat should either be aim-based ala Tera or target based like most other mmos. Not sure if this is a great idea.

Other than that I think they don't plan on going f2p anytime soon, since there outlook seems very driven to go with what they have. Im sure many love that, but its not great news for me :(

Originally posted by Nitth
look at that, Funcom and mmorpg.com "plugging each other" :)

lol ya, unfortunately what they are talking about changes with the pass of mmos so both GW2 and TSW won't be top dogs for long. And they also cite metacritic user scores.....

Originally posted by ShakyMo
While I think its a good move for the game, how is reticle combat something brand new to mmos?

Cough planetside
Cough darkfall

Annnnnnd

Cough Aoc rangers

When did Joel or Funcom say that reticles are something new to the genre? They are simply just listening to the communities requests and good ideas.

Originally posted by ShakyMo
While I think its a good move for the game, how is reticle combat something brand new to mmos?

Cough planetside
Cough darkfall

Annnnnnd

Cough Aoc rangers

There is a HUGE difference from how planetside and darkfall work. TSW isn't in first person and I doubt that the implementation they will go for will be in first person, it will probably be like Tera. If you look at Tera it was done from the ground up with reticle aiming in mind and that sets up skills and enemy AI differently than regular targeting mechanics.

"I also need to do everything in my power to convince thousands of gamers out there who still have not played ‘The Secret World’ that this is a universe worth immersing yourself in."

No, you actually need to convince us that Funcom is no longer a company only capable of making mediocre games that never live up to their potential...and so far, you havent because TSO is still really really...average...and what you are doing to AoC smacks of a company not capable of listening to the players and what they actually LIKE.

Originally posted by ShakyMo
While I think its a good move for the game, how is reticle combat something brand new to mmos?

Cough planetside
Cough darkfall

Annnnnnd

Cough Aoc rangers

::Cough::

Where did he say it was something brand new to MMOs?  It's something that many players want, adds flexibility to the way the game can be played, and fits the genre.

It's usually best to read what's actually written, instead of projecting things that aren't there.

/ ::Cough::

Overall, this is a very informative update.  Reticule combat, new aux weapon, info on the New York raid, info on "puzzle raids", details about animations, thoughts on increasing the faction conflict, the Albion.

So far, I've been impressed with their progress on this game.  It's one of the best themeparks out there.

I'm really excited to see a go-getter spirit from the dev team after what happened to Funcom. It speaks to their character, and I'm excited to see everything TSW will offer ^_^

Originally posted by Kuppa

Originally posted by ShakyMo
While I think its a good move for the game, how is reticle combat something brand new to mmos?

Cough planetside
Cough darkfall

Annnnnnd

Cough Aoc rangers

There is a HUGE difference from how planetside and darkfall work. TSW isn't in first person and I doubt that the implementation they will go for will be in first person, it will probably be like Tera. If you look at Tera it was done from the ground up with reticle aiming in mind and that sets up skills and enemy AI differently than regular targeting mechanics.

TSW's combat is very positional and encourages you to constantly move around and dodge (special) attacks.

So this game is actually very suitable for reticle combat. I won't use it myself as I am more like a tradional kind of guy (lol) when it comes to MMO's, but I know it will work really well.

Originally posted by Hobbes92

I'm really excited to see a go-getter spirit from the dev team after what happened to Funcom. It speaks to their character, and I'm excited to see everything TSW will offer ^_^

That's one thing you have to give Funcom props for! They really stick to their games and never give up. No matter what.

Unlike companies like NCSoft and EA, that shut down games left and right.

Originally posted by ShakyMo
It would be easier to retrofit cursor targeting into tsw (or gw2) style combat than wow style combat as the game has semi action combat anyway.

I agree, this won't be a big change for those of us that use melee weapons primarily.  It actually won't be any difference for me as I don't have to use tab to target and don't use it in TSW especially...occasionally I'll use tab in GW2.

Interesting developement, I thought people would be more happy about target type aiming.

Originally posted by JeroKane

Originally posted by Kuppa

Originally posted by ShakyMo
While I think its a good move for the game, how is reticle combat something brand new to mmos?

Cough planetside
Cough darkfall

Annnnnnd

Cough Aoc rangers

There is a HUGE difference from how planetside and darkfall work. TSW isn't in first person and I doubt that the implementation they will go for will be in first person, it will probably be like Tera. If you look at Tera it was done from the ground up with reticle aiming in mind and that sets up skills and enemy AI differently than regular targeting mechanics.

TSW's combat is very positional and encourages you to constantly move around and dodge (special) attacks.

So this game is actually very suitable for reticle combat. I won't use it myself as I am more like a tradional kind of guy (lol) when it comes to MMO's, but I know it will work really well.

So is GW2 but that doesn't mean a reticle will suit it(there is a youtube video about this). Take for example ground targeted skills, I don't remember right now if TSW had them. But with a reticle you would need some serious rework to get those to work. Look at Tera they have skills that are applied to targets that you just aim at which is also very specific to aim based combat. The AI also needs to behave differently in order to take full advantage of aim vs targeting mechanincs. Its not just as simple as turn on reticle combat and expect it to be good.

Im not saying it can't be done but I don't see how they will have a well implemented version of it that would take full advantage of it instead of just let the users aim with their mouse...

Originally posted by rdrakken

"I also need to do everything in my power to convince thousands of gamers out there who still have not played ‘The Secret World’ that this is a universe worth immersing yourself in."

No, you actually need to convince us that Funcom is no longer a company only capable of making mediocre games that never live up to their potential...and so far, you havent because TSO is still really really...average...and what you are doing to AoC smacks of a company not capable of listening to the players and what they actually LIKE.

And so you actually like what mmo?

OMG Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are going to use ARGs!!
/happydance