So to sum things up: (in issue 4) (Probably early November)

- New Auxiliary weapon: 'The Chainsaw'  "We’re introducing the second auxiliary weapon – the Chainsaw – to add even further depth to our freeform progression system."

- Reticle Combat - Me am so HAPPY :D "I am also happy to reveal that Issue #4 will be introducing one of the most requested features during Beta: reticule combat." (for all the haters: You will be able to freely switch between traditional targeting and the reticule depending on what you feel is best for you.)

- Albion Theater in London (for all the RP'ers and such) "We are also opening the doors to the Albion Theatre in London where players can put on plays for each other and receive rewards. It may sound like a small thing, but I am excited about the fact that we can provide our role-playing community with more content and that we can make London, which is our primary social hub, an even more interesting place for players to hang out."

- First Raid: "We are reaffirming the strength of the modern-day setting by introducing the first raid set in a devastated New York City where players must battle a towering Eldritch horror in the ruins of Time Square."

- And afcourse.. More investigation missions and such!

Longer term:

- Revised Animations: "We know this was one of the major complaints both in the beta and after release, and we are looking at how we can make player animations feel more fluid and natural. This entails implementing an entirely new animation backend for the Dreamworld engine, which will allow us to make improvement in both ‘The Secret World’ and future Dreamworld projects."

- Improve PVP: "So the team is designing several features which will serve to bring this conflict back to the forefront, and while it is a little early to talk about what they are, I can say that I am really excited about their potential in tying together both PvE and PvP into the overall conflict."

- Puzzle Raids: "Another thing we are working on which I am really excited about is what we internally like to call ‘puzzle raids’. One of the most heralded features of ‘The Secret World’ at launch were the investigation missions that merge adventure-game puzzle-solving based on real-world research and brings it into an MMO setting. ‘Puzzle raids’ are sort of group investigation missions and a throwback to our alternate reality gaming (ARG) roots which ‘The Secret World’ were such an important part of the game prior to launch. "

- New Regions, monsters, mythe's and legends: "The second season will include a wealth of new content, including Tokyo, a major new region that brings with it new monsters, myths and legends to the game."

Time to reactivate my subscription!

Source: http://www.thesecretworld.com/news/game_director_joel_bylos_reveals_his_plans_for_the_secret_world

All of this sounds fantastic. I can't wait.

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- Revised Animations: "We know this was one of the major complaints both in the beta and after release, and we are looking at how we can make player animations feel more fluid and natural. This entails implementing an entirely new animation backend for the Dreamworld engine, which will allow us to make improvement in both ‘The Secret World’ and future Dreamworld projects."

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I don't believe this is every going to happen, they are to far in the red to invest more.

Originally posted by s1fu71

All of this sounds fantastic. I can't wait.

 

Me too! I guess this debunks the haters shouting that each issue brings less content. He he.

Issue 4 seems to be a huge patch!  Cannot wait! :-)

Originally posted by Nitth

 

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- Revised Animations: "We know this was one of the major complaints both in the beta and after release, and we are looking at how we can make player animations feel more fluid and natural. This entails implementing an entirely new animation backend for the Dreamworld engine, which will allow us to make improvement in both ‘The Secret World’ and future Dreamworld projects."

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I don't believe this is every going to happen, they are to far in the red to invest more.

They have a dedicated team working purely on the Dreamworld Engine.

In fact! I wouldn't be suprised if Funcom, at some point in time, is going to offer licesnes for their engine to other development houses!

The dreamworld engine is a very powerful and capable engine.

They can make a huge amount of money with this and infact rebound the financial situation of the company.

It sounds like they're starting to get around to making the game play a lot more like the game seemed like it was going to play before I played in beta. The puzzle raids in particular give me this feeling. I'm hoping the PvP features have something to do with owning or controlling chunks of the world, like the Facebook game (except without all the Facebook lameness).

Originally posted by Nitth

 

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- Revised Animations: "We know this was one of the major complaints both in the beta and after release, and we are looking at how we can make player animations feel more fluid and natural. This entails implementing an entirely new animation backend for the Dreamworld engine, which will allow us to make improvement in both ‘The Secret World’ and future Dreamworld projects."

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I don't believe this is every going to happen, they are to far in the red to invest more.

They've recently announced TSW is in the black, actually.  Sorry to burst your bubble on that.

Originally posted by Pale_Fire

Originally posted by Nitth

 

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- Revised Animations: "We know this was one of the major complaints both in the beta and after release, and we are looking at how we can make player animations feel more fluid and natural. This entails implementing an entirely new animation backend for the Dreamworld engine, which will allow us to make improvement in both ‘The Secret World’ and future Dreamworld projects."

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I don't believe this is every going to happen, they are to far in the red to invest more.

They've recently announced TSW is in the black, actually.  Sorry to burst your bubble on that.

+1

Originally posted by Mechanism
From a purely practical perspective why would someone want to use reticle combat and risk added inaccuracy when they've already got what amounts to an aimbot?

There are actually a lot of people that like it. I won't use it much myself. But the game already lends itself for recticle combat.

Actually, it will probably make combat more fluid, due to the constant moving arond when fighting, as the reticle keeps your aim centered. Much less fuss then with the tradional aim we have now holding down the right mouse button all the time.

So who knows..... maybe I actually will start using it more and more. lol.

I said it before several times, and I meant it.  If they bring in more social / RP features, as well as WORLD faction PvP (opt-in of course) or alternatively world PvP zones with great incentives for people to go there, I'll start up my subscription again.

The Nov update is still not enough to motivate me to do that. 

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Originally posted by Pale_Fire

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Originally posted by Nitth  

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- Revised Animations: "We know this was one of the major complaints both in the beta and after release, and we are looking at how we can make player animations feel more fluid and natural. This entails implementing an entirely new animation backend for the Dreamworld engine, which will allow us to make improvement in both ‘The Secret World’ and future Dreamworld projects."

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  I don't believe this is every going to happen, they are to far in the red to invest more.

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They've recently announced TSW is in the black, actually.  Sorry to burst your bubble on that.

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They may improve how the graphics engine handles animation transitions but I highly doubt they will re-do old animations or create new animations. That would be far too expensive.

Originally posted by Xiaoki

 

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Originally posted by Pale_Fire

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Originally posted by Nitth  

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- Revised Animations: "We know this was one of the major complaints both in the beta and after release, and we are looking at how we can make player animations feel more fluid and natural. This entails implementing an entirely new animation backend for the Dreamworld engine, which will allow us to make improvement in both ‘The Secret World’ and future Dreamworld projects."

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  I don't believe this is every going to happen, they are to far in the red to invest more.

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They've recently announced TSW is in the black, actually.  Sorry to burst your bubble on that.

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After firing half the staff.

 

 

And so has pretty much every Game studio the past years. Even more.

SOE had three rounds of lay offs over the last years and closed down several studios. They only have a fraction of the employees left of what they once had.

NCSoft has laid off many too the past years and closed down several studios here in the West, with Paragon studios becoming the most recent victim!

And then we don't even talk about companies like Activision (Blizzard) and EA who have laid off thousands the last couple years.

The Global Economic crisis is still in full swing and far from over. It pretty much affects every segment of the global market.

Originally posted by Xiaoki

 

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Originally posted by Pale_Fire

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Originally posted by Nitth  

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- Revised Animations: "We know this was one of the major complaints both in the beta and after release, and we are looking at how we can make player animations feel more fluid and natural. This entails implementing an entirely new animation backend for the Dreamworld engine, which will allow us to make improvement in both ‘The Secret World’ and future Dreamworld projects."

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  I don't believe this is every going to happen, they are to far in the red to invest more.

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They've recently announced TSW is in the black, actually.  Sorry to burst your bubble on that.

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After firing half the staff.

 

They may improve how the graphics engine handles animation transitions but I highly doubt they will re-do old animations or create new animations. That would be far too expensive.

The didn't "Fire'...they laid off and they've actually hired a handful back...I believe one dev actually went to work on Anarchy Online....also Funcom. 

Originally posted by Mechanism
From a purely practical perspective why would someone want to use reticle combat and risk added inaccuracy when they've already got what amounts to an aimbot?

In fact why even bother with a reticle in an mmorpg? If I want reticle combat i'll go play an FPS. Personally I'd like to see less combat focus and more investigation focus.

Originally posted by Thenextbigthing

Originally posted by Mechanism
From a purely practical perspective why would someone want to use reticle combat and risk added inaccuracy when they've already got what amounts to an aimbot?

 

 

In fact why even bother with a reticle in an mmorpg? If I want reticle combat i'll go play an FPS. Personally I'd like to see less combat focus and more investigation focus.

Because everyone on these forums seem to rave about aim based combat, why I don't know.  The overwhelming majority seem to bitch about anything remotely tab target based.

Not sure it's possible for them to put more focus on investigation missions.  It does appear that the rumors of more player driven content is not going to happen anytime soon, though.