It's been hard to find a nice compiled information guide mainly comparing to other MMO's and I know some hate that but one never gets a sense of anything if nothing is compared to it.

If I'm sold I would like to buy the lifetime package. I love Funcom and Have played AO since beta. (Even have my beta disc somewhere and my trial disc too haha) But I will not just run out and buy something I have no clue about.

I did watch about an hour of a livestream. Nice storyline the end of the world theme. Cool mobs and abilities and I get that part.

What I don't get is more of a scale sense of the world. I was such an idiot I did not even try the several beta weekend emails I got. I will admit I was an ass.


So lets do it 50 questions:

1) How big is the world?

2) How much depth is in the world, caves, multiple levels, sewers, that kind of thing that hey it might be say this size but offers you about 10 times more detail and content vs say a game that's one big open desert.

3) Is there PVP?

4) If there is PVP is there battleground, world pvp, any mechanics or something unique from most game?

5) what the hecks the cell phone thing at the top of the screen (bars)

6) Is there achievements and statistics and challenges and that type of side content?

7) What kind of end game content is there. I here there is more then most but no one has told me anything more on it.

8) What kind of end game content is there besides a number what is a list of things you can actually do?

9) Is there crafting?

10) How fun is crafting can it be its own game like say in AO, Neocron and some other favs of mine where crafting is actually not just silly crappy items that everyone can do but actually skill and chance?

11) What is the max level?

12) How fast would you say it take the first 100 games to hit this max level so not including the insane 24/7 hardcore but just the avg geek.

13) This game is month;y based right and if I get the $200 version I will never have to pay a month but I might have to buy new content when it comes out?

14) I noticed in the live stream 7 ability's on the bar. Is there a lot of ability's in the game?

15) Can ability's lets say be upgraded or enhanced in anyway?

16) Is there talents or skill points like Anarchy Online I guess you would compare it to?

17) Is the item system pretty much like most MMORPG's with rares and epics and such where there is always something that would probably be an upgrade?

18) Is items all level capped or is there actually tweaking and QL of items like in Anarchy Online rather then levels it goes by certain stat you need?

19) So if there is abilities, talents, skills whatever you said above can you reset them all? Are they limited or capped?

20) Is there dungeons in the game?

21) If there is dungeons in the game how many is there and what is their depth?

22) Is there any kind of raids and I might as well combined this one how many?

23) is there rare mobs and do they drop anything special and or do they have special timers and features and etc?

24) Is there any world bosses?

25) Do the classes all have passive healing skills and if not what ones do?

26) What would you consider the best solo class right now for us loners?

27) What is there to do besides missions and kill mobs? There any kind of mini games or fun features that take you outside of just the normal grind on mobs and missions?

28) Is there an auction house and how well is it?

29) Is there a guild/clan system and how complex is it or is it just a basic system?

30) How is the quest interface / map system. Does it give you everything you need to know like the modern games or does it hide a lot making you have to read or research on missions?

31) Is there any major populated cities? From the background of this forum you see New York? It looks open and cool but I assume that does not exist in any scale like that in this game and its just ruins?

32) How many character slots are there in total?

33) What kind of things are in the item mall? Besides cosmetics is there things some would dislike and is there anything there to benefit players like slots, bag space and etc?

34) Is there bags or unlocks for inventory sizes?

35) What is the max party size?

36) What is the instancing like per zone? I hear there is instancing on high populated areas. Also is there a way to see how many instances and change them?

37) Can you gain all your abilities? I hear its like its own mini game where you can 100% it all.

38) Talking about abilities again there is 7 active and 7 passive I hear? What are some examples of neat passives?

39) Is there character classes or can one character be all you need forever? If so what is the point of character slots?

40) Is there storage or banks of some sort?

41) How improved is the engine? I hear dreamworld engine had some issues in the past with really crappy pathing?

42) How is grouping when it comes to EXP? Does it get cut in half? That usually kills grouping for me.

43) Is there any special deals outside this site if I want the $200 package? I hear you can get special items and such and GRR being a collector that hurts hehe.

44) is there any kind of PVP points or armors or pvp skills that kind of stuff?

45) What are some cool things lets say from Anarchy Online that I might remember in TSW?

46) I saw a remote control plain but it was cinematic in the streamers video. There any fun toys that you can actually take control maybe fly and scout around with?

47) Is there any potions or heals or consumable abilities and are they counted as one the 7 slots?

48) Is there daily's?

49) Is there collectable pets?

50) is there any kind of mounts or speed buffs that are more then say 25%?

51) Anything you want to try hype me up and tell me more things that might excitement that I might have missed then please go ahead

I've only played once in open beta but I believe I can answer a few:

9) Yes, althought I haven't participated in it yet

11) Levels don't exist in TSW. You get experience to get AP which you use to unlock skills and SP for expertise in weapons. I guess the max level would be when you unlock every single skill in the game though.

12) VERY LONG

14) Yes, you can select 7 skills and 7 passive skills per weapon and can carry up to 2 weapons, so you can have 14 skills and 14 passives  on you at a time. There are tons of skills.

16) Skill points, yes

19) I don't believe you can reset them currently

20) Yes

25) Fists, blood magic both have healing abilities

32) 3

37) Yes, but I like I said it will take insanely long

38) Attacks critically hitting 100% every few attacks

39) You can use one characther forever, the slots are for trying other faction's story

48) Most of the quests allow you to complete them again after around 24 hours

I don't mean to damage your hype, but I personally didn't enjoy TSW as much as I thought I would. My expectations were too high. Left after a few quests in the first (Zombie) area.

19) there is no need to reset skills, because from what I was told over time you can get every skill on the wheel, it then comes down to what 2 types of combat styles you wish to use.

So on a side note, there is no need to ever reroll, (one character fits all)

To answer several of your questions there, there are no levels. There are, however gear QL (Quality level). Basically there are two types of progressions, vertical and horizontal. Vertical progression is what you'd normally see on a game with levels, in TSW is done with item QL. You start the game with QL0 gear, max (at the moment) is QL10. The gear you have equipped determines your "level" in a way, if all your gear is QL2, then you are QL2, if all your gear is QL3, you are QL3, if your gear is a mix of QL2 and QL3, then you're about the middle of it.

Then comes horizontal progression, by aquiring new skills. You can 2 weapon equipped at all times, each weapon is usually good at one thing (they're all good at DPS one way or the other, some are also good at healing or tanking or both). You can buy skills for any weapon, there are over 500 of them available, but you need to choose 7 passive and 7 active to have equipped at any time, so you'd have to pick a set of weapons and skills that work well with each other and gear that complements it (for example, you might have all QL10 gear, but if your weapons and skills are DPS and you have healing gear equipped, you'd be gimped). You get XP from kills and quests, after a certain amount of XP you get points to buy skills, earlier ones are one point each, as you progress in each tree they get more expensive.

There is crafting, basically crafting involves dissasembling gear you no longer use to get component materials, then you have a window where you craft by setting up patterns. If you put your materials in that window in the shape of a sword, for example, you craft a sword. By dissasembling items you get the materials for that QL, but adding several lower level materials you can make higher level ones.

Part of the fun of TSW is finding things out yourself.  If you catch my drift.

Ok, I gave general info on last post, I'll see what I can answer:

1) How big is the world?  - 8 zones (3 on solomon island, 2 on egypt, 3 on transylvania) + 3 hubs + agartha (to travel between them)

2) How much depth is in the world, caves, multiple levels, sewers, that kind of thing that hey it might be say this size but offers you about 10 times more detail and content vs say a game that's one big open desert. - The zones I've seen are very detailed and varied, but there aren't multiple levels and the like. You do get into sewers and caves, but they're solo instances used for some quests and only available during that quest.

3) Is there PVP? - Yep

4) If there is PVP is there battleground, world pvp, any mechanics or something unique from most game? - Battlegrounds mainly and Fuzang, basically a persistent battleground of 75 vs 75 vs 75 that depending on your side's performance you get buffs in game. Also there's a fight club where you can enter and fight FFA.

5) what the hecks the cell phone thing at the top of the screen (bars) - No idea yet

6) Is there achievements and statistics and challenges and that type of side content? - There are achievements (like kill 50 zombies, kill 100 zombies, thing like that), and also lore bits you can pick up.

7) What kind of end game content is there. I here there is more then most but no one has told me anything more on it. - There are several end game dungeons, but honestly don't know much about this yet

8) What kind of end game content is there besides a number what is a list of things you can actually do? - Improve your character is one, getting all the skills, try different weapon combinations.

9) Is there crafting? - yep, see previous post.

10) How fun is crafting can it be its own game like say in AO, Neocron and some other favs of mine where crafting is actually not just silly crappy items that everyone can do but actually skill and chance? - Crafting is fun, but very different from what I've seen in other games.

11) What is the max level? - No levels, but QL of gear. Max QL at the moment is 10.

12) How fast would you say it take the first 100 games to hit this max level so not including the insane 24/7 hardcore but just the avg geek. - no idea.

13) This game is month;y based right and if I get the $200 version I will never have to pay a month but I might have to buy new content when it comes out? - We don't know. They've said they have 7 years of content planned, but whether it'll be free or paid for lifetimers we have no idea yet.

14) I noticed in the live stream 7 ability's on the bar. Is there a lot of ability's in the game? - over 500 abilities, but you can only have 7 active and 7 passive at any time.

15) Can ability's lets say be upgraded or enhanced in anyway? - No, but you get more specialized abilities as you go deeper into the tree.

16) Is there talents or skill points like Anarchy Online I guess you would compare it to? - There are skill points, but not like AO. Basically the way it works is that you put points on the skills and it affects the gear you can use. If you want to use a QL3 blade, for example, you'd need to have blades updated to 3.

17) Is the item system pretty much like most MMORPG's with rares and epics and such where there is always something that would probably be an upgrade? - Seems so so far.

18) Is items all level capped or is there actually tweaking and QL of items like in Anarchy Online rather then levels it goes by certain stat you need? - Yep. See answer 16

19) So if there is abilities, talents, skills whatever you said above can you reset them all? Are they limited or capped? - Sort of, see answer 16.

20) Is there dungeons in the game? - Yep, each area has at least one dungeon.

21) If there is dungeons in the game how many is there and what is their depth? - 8 total dungeons at launch with different difficulty levels each

22) Is there any kind of raids and I might as well combined this one how many? - None that I know of right now.

23) is there rare mobs and do they drop anything special and or do they have special timers and features and etc? - Not that I know of. Special mobs seem to be just quest related.

24) Is there any world bosses? - Yep, but they're quest related.

25) Do the classes all have passive healing skills and if not what ones do? - There are no classes, but some weapons do get healing skills, like assault rifles, fist weapons and blood magic.

26) What would you consider the best solo class right now for us loners? - Templar.. :) ... No classes, all of them seem to be good at least on early levels.. :)

27) What is there to do besides missions and kill mobs? There any kind of mini games or fun features that take you outside of just the normal grind on mobs and missions? - Mostly that, and PvP and crafting. Quests are VERY well done, though.

28) Is there an auction house and how well is it? - There's a trading post, haven't tried it yet.

29) Is there a guild/clan system and how complex is it or is it just a basic system? - Yep. It's not very complex right now, but it works.

30) How is the quest interface / map system. Does it give you everything you need to know like the modern games or does it hide a lot making you have to read or research on missions? - Some missions give you everything you need to know, however there are others where you REALLY need to think it over. There's even an in-game browser because you're supposed to find some answers by googling them.

31) Is there any major populated cities? From the background of this forum you see New York? It looks open and cool but I assume that does not exist in any scale like that in this game and its just ruins? - New York, London and Seoul. They mostly work as hubs, though, to send you on missions or buy things like clothes.

32) How many character slots are there in total? - 3, one for each faction. You don't really need more, since any character could eventually learn every single skill in the game.

33) What kind of things are in the item mall? Besides cosmetics is there things some would dislike and is there anything there to benefit players like slots, bag space and etc? - So far only cosmetics.

34) Is there bags or unlocks for inventory sizes? - Inventory size is one of the biggest I've seen on an MMO. You get 50 slots by default, and can buy extra bags just by clicking on an icon (no need to go to a vendor or craft them).

35) What is the max party size? - 5 players

36) What is the instancing like per zone? I hear there is instancing on high populated areas. Also is there a way to see how many instances and change them? - There is instancing, but don't think you can see how many or on which one you are. When you group you get in the same instance than your group members.

37) Can you gain all your abilities? I hear its like its own mini game where you can 100% it all. - Yep.

38) Talking about abilities again there is 7 active and 7 passive I hear? What are some examples of neat passives? - Don't remember offhand

39) Is there character classes or can one character be all you need forever? If so what is the point of character slots? - No character classes, one character can be anything. You get 3 slots because the story missions are different depending on which group you're playing.

40) Is there storage or banks of some sort? - I think there is a bank in the trader, not sure, though.

41) How improved is the engine? I hear dreamworld engine had some issues in the past with really crappy pathing? - Works very smoothly for me so far (but on DX9, DX11 is too slow). My computer is a nvidia 560, core2duo CPU and 4 gigs of RAM.

42) How is grouping when it comes to EXP? Does it get cut in half? That usually kills grouping for me. - Haven't tried it but I heard it's more efficient to group when it comes to XP.

43) Is there any special deals outside this site if I want the $200 package? I hear you can get special items and such and GRR being a collector that hurts hehe. - yes: http://docholidaymmo.com/2012/04/03/pre-order-options-for-the-secret-world/ scroll down to "upgrade packs".

44) is there any kind of PVP points or armors or pvp skills that kind of stuff? - None that I know so far. You get a "PvP look" that's basically an uniform when you go to PvP, but it's just for looks.

45) What are some cool things lets say from Anarchy Online that I might remember in TSW? - Can't say, didn't play AO for too long.

46) I saw a remote control plain but it was cinematic in the streamers video. There any fun toys that you can actually take control maybe fly and scout around with? - There's a remote control plane, but you don't control it. It's part of a quest, you basically sent it and it does its thing.

47) Is there any potions or heals or consumable abilities and are they counted as one the 7 slots? - There are pots and consumables, but you can't put them on your bar. You can have an inventory bag open to use as a sort of bar and put them there, though.

48) Is there daily's? - Most quests are dailies, you can repeat them after a cooldown period. The investigation, sabotage and story ones are one time only.

49) Is there collectable pets? - Yep, but all the ones I've seen are on the cash shop, not sure if there will be other means to get them.

50) is there any kind of mounts or speed buffs that are more then say 25%? - No mounts, just an off combat speed buff (sprint). Not sure what % faster it is, though.

51) Anything you want to try hype me up and tell me more things that might excitement that I might have missed then please go ahead - it's GOOOOOOOOD... :)