Don't understand how anybody ends up on spoiler sites while looking up hints for the riddles.

In most cases you search wikipedia or bible-online for the answers. Basically when you don't include tsw, the secret world or the quest name you will never get any spoiler sites in your search results.

But what I disliked were the decoding quests. You have an encrypted text, you figure out the key but you still have to do a lot of work to translate it because you can't copy and paste the encrypted message to open office (for example).

Originally posted by MrSchnuffi

Don't understand how anybody ends up on spoiler sites while looking up hints for the riddles.

In most cases you search wikipedia or bible-online for the answers. Basically when you don't include tsw, the secret world or the quest name you will never get any spoiler sites in your search results.

But what I disliked were the decoding quests. You have an encrypted text, you figure out the key but you still have to do a lot of work to translate it because you can't copy and paste the encrypted message to open office (for example).

As I mentioned, sometimes google's search results are a spoiler site.  No link clicking required.

The investigation missions are some of the best content I've ever played in an MMO, and is a huge draw for me playing the game.  There is often a great degree of satisfaction in figuring out a difficult mission from the clues provided.

I like a lot of other things about the game, but the missions are definitely top shelf.

Like many things in TSW, Investigation missions were a wonderful idea but very poorly implemented in a game design sense.

First problem is simply that they are wildly inconsistent in difficulty; some are mind-numbingly obvious and others fairly hard...making it hard to know when you have missed an important clue or if you are just being dense.

Second problem is that (and yes I know they are working on fixing everything, as always) as of when I was playing they were the most bug-ridden part of the game. Clues didn't always spawn right, work right etc. Depending on settings you couldn't see or read things that you had to etc. Just generally very little thought to playability.

Lastly, whatever token suspension of disbelief and realism the investigations added got lost in the ridiculous 'giant glowing clue signs' everywhere and secret societies/cults hiding their most important documents under every rock, shrub and outhouse in the world.

Investigations are one of the great additions to the genre, and although they have been around forever in other single-player games, they somehow were forgotten in MMOs.  It's strange, but some of the best single player games ever created -- Ultima, Zork, Myst, even Skyrim -- have a puzzle solving element to them; but for whatever reason, developers seem to have concluded that "thinking in MMOs" is something that not enough players want. For myself, it's the chief reason TSW is my main game.  I love the combat as well, but why wouldn't you have mysteries to solve in any MMO?  It certainly makes the game more immersive -- why wouldn't you extend the quest type to fantasy and sci-fi MMOs as well?  Why was the king's son kidnapped?  Who is behind the attacks in the delta quadrant?  Why are people vanishing without a trace?  It would be much more fun to play these storylines without all the pointers on the map.

As to Google, my only request to Funcom is to add an option to the search (they now have a custom home page when you open up the in-game browser) to add -tsw -walkthru -unfair, etc automatically to the default search, so that it screens out the spoiler sites.  When I search, I always add these when I first am researching clues.  Apart from that, I have absolutely no problem with having a browser in the toolkit for hunting down investigations.  It makes complete sense within the game world.

Originally posted by kadepsyson

Originally posted by thark

Originally posted by kadepsyson

Personally I felt a lot of the investigation missions were riddled with failures in game design.

I should not have to use a search engine or external source to figure out how to proceed in the game.

When the clues are Bible passages, they should have that book in the game.  I should not have to struggle because I looked up the correct passage, but had the wrong translation.

If they wanted an "internet" in the game, it should have been a false one with only game-related things in it.  The clues neccessary, as well as "news" related to events in the game.  I don't understand how they can possibly believe telling players to "just google it" is good game design.

Even when I do just need to find a clue from Google, the search results page is often littered with spoilers and walkthroughs.

I want to figure out the puzzles in the game, not just search engine the answers.

 I agree that more of the "clues" could have been added to the game, like interactive objects etc.

But building websites that are fictious just for the purpose of adding to the feeling  that the "Secret World" is for real...

Ohh,,A in game "fake" browser...I cant see how this could even come close to the current system..

I think  the line "just Google it" is rather confusing, because it could mean so much, as evidently as your post right here.

Funcom has done a tremendous job with integrating their game in the real world, by means of "fake webpages" etc

As for the "spoiler links" isnt those rather obvious, you just don't have to click on them, or can't you resist ?

So you know of their fake websites that are strictly for in-game purposes, but then don't see that they could have done more of that?

I am not sure if you are aware, but even things linked in the search results of Google, have text describing them. So when trying to find what an in game clue is referencing, and scrolling through search results, reading a spoiler can often happen right from the Google results.

It's a mediocre system at best.  Feels half-hearted, like they could have gone more towards fake websites, or done it all in game instead of just part.

 

Investigation missions are a great idea, and I would love them, if real world search engines weren't both the required clues and the biggest spoilers.

I hope another company does investigation type quests, but does them well.

In the first months after launch the fake clue sites were in the top results.

The problem is the sheer amount of lazy players going for spoiler sites, causing the spoiler sites to fill the top results now, often the entire first page. /shrug

Originally posted by JeroKane

Originally posted by kadepsyson

Originally posted by thark

Originally posted by kadepsyson

Personally I felt a lot of the investigation missions were riddled with failures in game design.

I should not have to use a search engine or external source to figure out how to proceed in the game.

When the clues are Bible passages, they should have that book in the game.  I should not have to struggle because I looked up the correct passage, but had the wrong translation.

If they wanted an "internet" in the game, it should have been a false one with only game-related things in it.  The clues neccessary, as well as "news" related to events in the game.  I don't understand how they can possibly believe telling players to "just google it" is good game design.

Even when I do just need to find a clue from Google, the search results page is often littered with spoilers and walkthroughs.

I want to figure out the puzzles in the game, not just search engine the answers.

 I agree that more of the "clues" could have been added to the game, like interactive objects etc.

But building websites that are fictious just for the purpose of adding to the feeling  that the "Secret World" is for real...

Ohh,,A in game "fake" browser...I cant see how this could even come close to the current system..

I think  the line "just Google it" is rather confusing, because it could mean so much, as evidently as your post right here.

Funcom has done a tremendous job with integrating their game in the real world, by means of "fake webpages" etc

As for the "spoiler links" isnt those rather obvious, you just don't have to click on them, or can't you resist ?

So you know of their fake websites that are strictly for in-game purposes, but then don't see that they could have done more of that?

I am not sure if you are aware, but even things linked in the search results of Google, have text describing them. So when trying to find what an in game clue is referencing, and scrolling through search results, reading a spoiler can often happen right from the Google results.

It's a mediocre system at best.  Feels half-hearted, like they could have gone more towards fake websites, or done it all in game instead of just part.

 

Investigation missions are a great idea, and I would love them, if real world search engines weren't both the required clues and the biggest spoilers.

I hope another company does investigation type quests, but does them well.

In the first months after launch the fake clue sites were in the top results.

The problem is the sheer amount of lazy players going for spoiler sites, causing the spoiler sites to fill the top results now, often the entire first page. /shrug

Kinda makes you wonder how many kids are pasting wikipedia content verbatim into their term papers without ever actually reading it. ;)

Unless there have been changes, the ingame "browser" is a piece of excrement that doesn't even do basic things people expect of browsers. Even the browser on my old non-smart phone was several factors better.

Originally posted by barasawa

Unless there have been changes, the ingame "browser" is a piece of excrement that doesn't even do basic things people expect of browsers. Even the browser on my old non-smart phone was several factors better.

"Barebones" is probably the best description for the functionality of the browser.  Don't think they are trying to complete with Chrome or anything -- just enough to look something up.  Every additional feature in the browser means a tradeoff in game content, so completely okay with the basics.

Originally posted by Thillian
You can clearly see that it's a spoiler site if you google it -- almost all of the sites have capitalized title saying "QUEST NAME WALKTHROUGH". What is the problem here really? Just avoid it

Ah, you didn't understand.  I meant Google's search results page ITSELF was a spoiler site.  The results it listed often included spoilers right there, without requiring you to go away from the google page.

I would avoid it if the game included everything necessary in the game without external search engines.

Also, I agree with ericbelser about bugs.  Sometimes on these investigation missions, the CORRECT thing you are supposed to enter or do does not function, sometimes punishing your character wtih death instead.  This is horrible as it can throw off players becuase they think the correct answer is the wrong one, and look for a different answer.  Truly a terrible thing when Funcom kills characters for doing investigation missions correctly, by using its bad coding.

Originally posted by kadepsyson

Originally posted by Thillian
You can clearly see that it's a spoiler site if you google it -- almost all of the sites have capitalized title saying "QUEST NAME WALKTHROUGH". What is the problem here really? Just avoid it

Ah, you didn't understand.  I meant Google's search results page ITSELF was a spoiler site.  The results it listed often included spoilers right there, without requiring you to go away from the google page.

I would avoid it if the game included everything necessary in the game without external search engines.

Also, I agree with ericbelser about bugs.  Sometimes on these investigation missions, the CORRECT thing you are supposed to enter or do does not function, sometimes punishing your character wtih death instead.  This is horrible as it can throw off players becuase they think the correct answer is the wrong one, and look for a different answer.  Truly a terrible thing when Funcom kills characters for doing investigation missions correctly, by using its bad coding.

Example please?  Never been killed on an investigation unless I actually missed a clue  or got something wrong -- blame yourself before blaming Funcom for these.  Example: on Digging Deeper there is a poison trap.  Nowhere can you die unless you actually get the clues wrong.

Type in -tsw -unfair in your search if you don't want to see spoiler sites appear in the results.  And don't type in the name of the mission -- type in the actual thing you are looking for.  So typing in Digging Deeper tier 4 is not the way to search on clues.  Instead, type in the name of the composer, or morse code, or whatever the clue is in the mission.  Sheez -- it's as if MMO players have never had to think before...

Originally posted by Ortwig

Originally posted by kadepsyson

Originally posted by Thillian
You can clearly see that it's a spoiler site if you google it -- almost all of the sites have capitalized title saying "QUEST NAME WALKTHROUGH". What is the problem here really? Just avoid it

Ah, you didn't understand.  I meant Google's search results page ITSELF was a spoiler site.  The results it listed often included spoilers right there, without requiring you to go away from the google page.

I would avoid it if the game included everything necessary in the game without external search engines.

Also, I agree with ericbelser about bugs.  Sometimes on these investigation missions, the CORRECT thing you are supposed to enter or do does not function, sometimes punishing your character wtih death instead.  This is horrible as it can throw off players becuase they think the correct answer is the wrong one, and look for a different answer.  Truly a terrible thing when Funcom kills characters for doing investigation missions correctly, by using its bad coding.

Example please?  Never been killed on an investigation unless I actually missed a clue  or got something wrong -- blame yourself before blaming Funcom for these.  Example: on Digging Deeper there is a poison trap.  Nowhere can you die unless you actually get the clues wrong.

Type in -tsw -unfair in your search if you don't want to see spoiler sites appear in the results.  And don't type in the name of the mission -- type in the actual thing you are looking for.  So typing in Digging Deeper tier 4 is not the way to search on clues.  Instead, type in the name of the composer, or morse code, or whatever the clue is in the mission.  Sheez -- it's as if MMO players have never had to think before...

I'm not the only one who has mentioned buggy clues.  Also, typing in the same clue repeatedly, as in the exact same thing multiple times in a row, twice resulted in death, and the third time worked.  This was after I knew the clue was correct.  I was actually testing to see if it truly was a horrible buggy Funcom mess that was doing it, and yep, it was.

So yeah, sometimes the game thinks you get the clues wrong, even when you do it right.

Also I find the prospect of having to alter search results to get clues to a puzzle in a game laughable, compared to say, just having all the clues in the game.

Originally posted by kadepsyson

Originally posted by Ortwig

Originally posted by kadepsyson

Originally posted by Thillian
You can clearly see that it's a spoiler site if you google it -- almost all of the sites have capitalized title saying "QUEST NAME WALKTHROUGH". What is the problem here really? Just avoid it

Ah, you didn't understand.  I meant Google's search results page ITSELF was a spoiler site.  The results it listed often included spoilers right there, without requiring you to go away from the google page.

I would avoid it if the game included everything necessary in the game without external search engines.

Also, I agree with ericbelser about bugs.  Sometimes on these investigation missions, the CORRECT thing you are supposed to enter or do does not function, sometimes punishing your character wtih death instead.  This is horrible as it can throw off players becuase they think the correct answer is the wrong one, and look for a different answer.  Truly a terrible thing when Funcom kills characters for doing investigation missions correctly, by using its bad coding.

Example please?  Never been killed on an investigation unless I actually missed a clue  or got something wrong -- blame yourself before blaming Funcom for these.  Example: on Digging Deeper there is a poison trap.  Nowhere can you die unless you actually get the clues wrong.

Type in -tsw -unfair in your search if you don't want to see spoiler sites appear in the results.  And don't type in the name of the mission -- type in the actual thing you are looking for.  So typing in Digging Deeper tier 4 is not the way to search on clues.  Instead, type in the name of the composer, or morse code, or whatever the clue is in the mission.  Sheez -- it's as if MMO players have never had to think before...

I'm not the only one who has mentioned buggy clues.  Also, typing in the same clue repeatedly, as in the exact same thing multiple times in a row, twice resulted in death, and the third time worked.  This was after I knew the clue was correct.  I was actually testing to see if it truly was a horrible buggy Funcom mess that was doing it, and yep, it was.

So yeah, sometimes the game thinks you get the clues wrong, even when you do it right.

Also I find the prospect of having to alter search results to get clues to a puzzle in a game laughable, compared to say, just having all the clues in the game.

I'm calling B.S. until you name the mission.

Originally posted by Ortwig

I'm calling B.S. until you name the mission.

What, all of the buggy missions?

Why don't you use your in game browser to search for that ;)

It is funny though, to find that unfair.co website list some missions as buggy as well.

Originally posted by kadepsyson

Originally posted by Ortwig

I'm calling B.S. until you name the mission.

What, all of the buggy missions?

Why don't you use your in game browser to search for that ;)

It is funny though, to find that unfair.co website list some missions as buggy as well.

lol, you're sitting here telling us all about the investigation mission that killed you, and you can't even name it.  Did you actually play the game? 

Originally posted by Ortwig

Originally posted by kadepsyson

Originally posted by Ortwig

I'm calling B.S. until you name the mission.

What, all of the buggy missions?

Why don't you use your in game browser to search for that ;)

It is funny though, to find that unfair.co website list some missions as buggy as well.

lol, you're sitting here telling us all about the investigation mission that killed you, and you can't even name it.  Did you actually play the game?

Yeah, I did.  There was one that killed me, another with just buggy implementation of clicking the objects, and even non-investigation missions have many bugs.

I mean I don't keep track of the names of missions with bugs that made it a terrible experience just so I can post about them months later.

I'm trying to find specific mission names for you, but it's hard to sift through the pages of results of massive lists of bugs in the game and find the specific ones I mean.

I do think its funny how me not knowing every mission in an MMO would mean that I was making up having issues with it, when others have confirmed it as well.  Oh well, fanboys, what can ya do.

Originally posted by Ortwig

Now transferring you to the troll list...

So I'm a troll because I mentioned bugs with missions in a game where even the popular walkthrough site mentions the missions having bugs?

Neither of us are trolls; I am not an idiot.

Originally posted by kadepsyson

Originally posted by Ortwig

Originally posted by kadepsyson

Originally posted by Ortwig

I'm calling B.S. until you name the mission.

What, all of the buggy missions?

Why don't you use your in game browser to search for that ;)

It is funny though, to find that unfair.co website list some missions as buggy as well.

lol, you're sitting here telling us all about the investigation mission that killed you, and you can't even name it.  Did you actually play the game?

Yeah, I did.  There was one that killed me, another with just buggy implementation of clicking the objects, and even non-investigation missions have many bugs.

I mean I don't keep track of the names of missions with bugs that made it a terrible experience just so I can post about them months later.

I'm trying to find specific mission names for you, but it's hard to sift through the pages of results of massive lists of bugs in the game and find the specific ones I mean.

 

I do think its funny how me not knowing every mission in an MMO would mean that I was making up having issues with it, when others have confirmed it as well.  Oh well, fanboys, what can ya do.

I'll accept that there's a bug, but there are plenty of haters as well as fanboys out there talking about bugs who played for 2 hours back in beta.  So, you'll pardon me if I ask for a few specifics about your sweeping generalizations.