Today will be my second go-round with live-blogging...headstart launch day for "The Secret World"!
9:41--Coffee started. Brain comatose.
9:46--Brain still waiting on coffee injenction. Brain thinks "injenction" is an actual word.
9:56--First sip of coffee. Brains cells slowly open their bleary eyes.
10:16:--Second cup obtained, wakefulness rapidly approaching. Time to double-click!
10:17--According to the launcher notes, the "trading house" has been disabled for the headstart "after evaluating the state of the various functions." That sounds slightly ominous.
10:20--Ugh...a guildie informs me that I probably have a gig and a half to patch in. So there will likely be a long gap in the times in this blog.
10:23--1.59 gigs. Blech, that's 3 hours of download time, give or take. Why this couldn't have gotten patched in...oh I don't know...yesterday, I have no clue. This is what I would describe as a Bad Start. Seriously Funcom. Really dumb.
10:39--Final cup of coffee, 128 meg complete.
10:46--Another Funcom = Failcom moment...the appallingly underwhelming character creation options from beta are all we have at launch. Evidently the "more options are coming" wasn't for launch, as was implied, but for, maybe August. Most hilariously stupid of Funcom is the part of the announcement:
"In light of recent discussions about character creation, however, we decided to prioritise and push these features into development a lot sooner"
Seriously, asshats, EVERY SINGLE REVIEW OF THE GAME has talked about how shitty the character creation options are. "Recent discussions"!?
And so we have our first Launch Day Stroke Job. The trading house being down for the headstart? Meh, OK. The 1.6 gig patch. /frown But the character creation fail is a serious fuck-up and then bullshitting to cover your ass. That pisses me off.
11:07--Coffee consumed, full wakefulness achieved (or as close as I get to it). 385 meg downloaded. Fury unabated.
What has me really pissed is the phrase "In light of recent discussions about character creation". The amount of disingenuity in that one sentence is mind-boggling. Seriously, just about every review/article I read in the media commented on the dreadful paucity of character creation options. Dozens of posts on the beta weekend forums did the same. To pretend that it's "recent" is the very worst kind of bullshit PR.
11:24--From the Beta Weekend #2 "known issues" thread on the forums, "Character creation will be improved and expanded for launch, with more customization options added for both appearance and clothing." Once I can get into the game I will be able to more definitively call "bullshit" as BWE 2 was my first stab at the game. And yes...I am hung-up on this issue. Character creation is important to a LOT of people and lying about it during beta and lying more at launch really pisses me off.
11:59--811 meg down. Also down...lunch. OMNOMNOM!
12:25--Weeeee, 1.0GB completed!
12:46--1.18GB
1:13--Antici
To Be Continued...
1:37--Pation! Download completed.
1:42--I sure hope you can escape through the various start-up screens after the first time.
1:49--Character creation complete, and on a positive note, while clothing options were vastly reduced from the last beta (more available for Real Money purchase!) and overall choices still dreadfully limited, at least bald head is now an option and the facial options for markings and tattoos have been implemented.
Wee.
And "Lens" was taken when I tried to reserve the name, so I'm using my second choice reserved name...
I am: Lens "Spongo" Licious (note, the middle "nickname" is the character name, so "Spongo").
2:00--I wonder how long before Fox News has a talking head complaining about the implied oral sex in the Dragon starting intro.
2:20--I have selected my initial skill tree...and it's Hammer Time! I liked the hammer/assault rifle combo in beta so that'll be my starting point.
2:29--I killed a zombie.
2:39--Good news, the game seems to be more polished and less clunky in release than in beta. I'm not sure what, other than an increase in frame rate, is accounting for it. Maybe it's just me, maybe their last build is better, but my overall experience seems to have improved.
3:02--Deed for 25 dead zombies. I am a zombie-killin' mo-cheen. Of course, there's lots more where those came from. Seriously, for a small town, Kingsmouth has a shit-ton of zombies.
3:51--100 dead zombies! I am generally feeling more positive about things than before. It's maybe only a false perception on my part, but things are _feeling_ a bit more polished and responsive. And I suppose that's what matters.
4:18--I have my first elite ability! A hammer-based column attack with a 3 second knockdown. Feeer mie leetness! Y'know...or not, maybe.
4:31--The in-game item store says "Coming Soon" on the greyed-out front page, but I know it's working for some/most people. I don't want to buy anything, but I'd like to browse!
4:47--Time to start dinner aaaaand take a short break.
To Be More Continued...
4:56--Yeah, kinda making dinner and browsing the forums. Two BIG ups for Funcom on a couple of bugs people are seeing.
First, if you didn't double click to pick your server, some people are ending up on the default server. They'll give you a free one-time server move if that happened. Correct Response Funcom!
Second, a number of the life-time subscription people are unhappy with the colors on the snakeskin outfit they got. Seems silly, right, but unhappy is unhappy. So Funcom will be bringing out a lighter, more natural-colored snakeskin outfit in the future and they'll get it in addition to the darker one. Correct Response Funcom!
Congrats to Funcom for getting both of these problems responded to in exactly the right fashion (no snakeskin pun intended).
5:01--Wanted to do a quick check, and guildies and I are on the correct server :-P
5:29--Dinner consumed. Zombie consumption, re-commencing.
6:13--25 missions completed! That's almost one quarter of the way to 100!
6:14--Oooooooo, I can browse the store now. Window-shopping time!
6:16--And it's how you collect your in-game goodies...if the free "purchase" ever actually goes through...
6:18--Browsing and waiting. The bunny slippers are a nice touch.
6:25--Done browsing, still waiting. I can't pick up the other goodies until the first one is delivered. Silly me I got the cosmetic first without thinking and now have to wait for the ones with in-game bonuses :-|
6:44--Still no delivery. Also noting some slow NPC load-ins. Maybe a quick reboot in a minute or two will clean up a bit of cruft.
6:49--Wee, cosmetic for finishing out the "inner wheel" skills for hammer. Evidently us big time sledge-hammer zombie murderers wear a nice pocketed tactical vest. Stylish in green cammo!
6:52--Yep, definitely slowing down. Quick app restart will hopefully fix it.
6:57--Yay! You can escape out of the splash screen stuff after the first run through.
7:05--Town infested with zombies? Hey, I know, I'll go down into the sewer!
7:21--I have named the path all the PC's run down the streets of Kingsmouth, zig-zagging to avoid packs of the undead, as "zombie slalom".
7:32--"Draugnet". Draug are water-based zombies. Clever name. Crappy quest.
7:46--So my cosmetic hasn't arrived, but the store did manage the delivery of my two free pre-order goodies, but one is kind of already deprecated by quest loot. The kitteh is nice though!
8:22--I found, and killed...the Pirate Zombie! Beat that!
8:45--Died for the first time! In my defense, you have to die to advance the quest! Because ghosts can see things living people can't.
9:18--OK, I've finished up most or all of the quests in Kingsmouth proper, leaving the skate park/junkyard/airport and Black Vans (with Men [and Women] In Black) to go. I think that's about it for the first zone, so maybe 85-90% complete.
Think I'll take a break and close with some thoughts on TSW's headstart launch day.
Summary of Headstart Launch Day
331 dead zombies!
Not a perfect launch but a VERY good one. Congrats to Funcom, for the most part they dodged the launch day bullet. Now this is only the headstart, but I expect that to be a good-sized chunk of their user base was partaking having pre-ordered the game.
I'll have to dock them a point for the issues with the store. If people bought a pre-order package with bonus goodies, they need to get those goodies in a timely fashion...say, before they outlevel them. I eventually got two of my three goodies (the two that mattered most for my first character) but I don't figure I'll ever see the last without a support ticket. The store shouldn't eat items, even if they are free.
Any more store problems though, with Real Money being involved, and that's a potentially HUGE problem.
I'll dock them another half-point for the unfulfilled promises of a lot more options for character creation at launch (we got a few) and the trade house not being live yet. I'd dock another half point for the character creation options, but that would be overreacting to a bit of genuinely disingenuous PR spin. I haven't gotten a chance to check out if the bank works or not so far...if not, that's another half-point.
So overall, I have to give very good marks to Funcom on the launch. I can't promise anyone that the game will be to their taste, but the headstart launch merits:
Headstart Launch Day Rating 8.75/10
9:54 I've checked...bank and mail are in-game so that's almost worth another half-point right there. So I'll edit the rating up, say, another quarter point (yes, I'm splitting hairs, but I can't quite give 'em a '9') to 8.75
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