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Funcom overhauling Fusang PvP in The Secret World's Issue #4 update
The days of zerging Fusang missions for AP, SP, and black marks are numbered, according to Funcom's latest dev blog. The Secret World's senior PvP designer explains some significant changes heading our way in the game's Issue #4: Big Trouble in the Big Apple update. "[The] new reward scheme incentivizes conflict a lot more, since now you have to actually hold on to your objectives in order to gain rewards," writes Rasmus "Bjorndal" Harr. "This also means that zerging is discouraged, since you ideally need to have players spread out in several groups to be able to quickly react to events." Players will no longer receive black marks for completing Fusang PvP missions, and Funcom is also adding PvP vendors to the zone that sell upgrades for the turrets and custodians that guard each facility. Furthermore, the devs are implementing an underdog mission to assist undermanned factions as well as cross-dimensional Fusang battlegroups. That's not all, either, as Harr has plenty to say about matchmaking and currency changes. Read all about it at the official TSW website.
Funcom addressing PvP issues in The Secret World
The Secret World's PvP fanbase knows that right now Fusang is more like a merry-go-round than a battleground, with groups just circling around capping facilities and anima wells. Funcom has noted this as well as other issues and has released an overall plan for improving high-level PvP. Among the changes are plans to give incentives for defending facilities and for staying in the Fusang PvP zone longer. The Eldorado and Stonehenge battlegrounds will also see some tweaks, including incentives for increased participation and a reduction in the size of the center "score circle" so players cannot gain points while hiding behind the perimeter stones. Additionally, players saving up for PvP talisman upgrade kits might soon get more for their tokens as the prices will most likely drop.
Chaos Theory: The Secret World's one-month checkup
Huh, has it been a month already? Time flies when you're having fun, I guess, and yep, I'm still having quite a bit of it in The Secret World. Yesterday brought us the big 1.1 patch, the one patch to rule them all (thus far), and the first post-launch content drop. Funcom has famously promised updates like this on a monthly basis, and as first starts go, this was a good'un. We got seven new story missions (five of which were the meaty investigation variety), all of them chock-full of interesting stuff to do and interesting cutscenes to ogle. All of that said, the one-month mark is also when subscription MMOs find out whether they've got staying power or whether they're going to bleed, and if Funcom wants The Secret World to fall into the former category, it's still got a bit of work to do.
The Daily Grind: How do you like your MMO PvP?
So The Secret World's Fusang Projects PvP zone is a rollicking good time. And this is coming from someone who generally thinks of MMO PvP as ill-considered (at best). Why is it fun? I can't really put my finger on that. It's an absolutely huge zone, and beautifully rendered. It also supports hundreds of simultaneous players, and for the first week of the game at least, it's lived up to its constantly populated billing. It's pretty much a zerg, though, unless you happen to be in Ventrilo with a well-coordinated group. And therein lies today's breakfast topic. Assuming you partake of MMO PvP, do you do it in a small group or are you part of the hive mind? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Final Secret World beta weekend features new PvP zone
It's almost time for anxious fans to sink their teeth into The Secret World. First, though, tire-kickers will get one last opportunity to test sample the game for free courtesy of its final beta weekend. The festivities kick off at noon eastern this Friday, June 22nd, and the party doesn't stop until the wee hours of June 25th. All of The Secret World's content from the previous beta weekends will be playable, so if you've yet to brave dungeons like Polaris and Hell Raised or zones like the Savage Coast, chop chop. New this time around is a persistent PvP warzone called Fusang Projects, where 200 players will duke it out for bragging rights and factional supremacy. The Secret World officially launches on July 3rd, and Massively has your back with plenty of news, guides, and opinion on the beta thus far. [Source: Funcom press release]
