The Secret World

By Osiris
in PC Gaming

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Twiddle

Posted
Posted

A tip if you use Steam, I recommend adding the game to your Steam Library.

Using Steam's Web Browser is much more efficient than the in-game browser. The in-game browser resets every time you close it, where as the Steam one, you just hit Shift+Tab and use it, then Shift+Tab again to close it, making it easier to save your page when doing investigations or just messing around on the web in general.

:D

A PvP match on Stonehenge. I accrued the most Domination points and Score of anyone that played on all three teams, had the highest damage on our team, and healing, and took most brunt shots to the face :p. Yet we still came in last. I have played about 4 matches, and sadly I've noticed Illuminati are really horrible at PvP. Templars seem to be the best, winning 3 of the 4, while Dragons won one. :(

Step up your game Illuminati's!

(The Cabal messages were sent prior to the match, whereas the Dragons won the match shown.)

post-46379-0-26429900-1341881505_thumb.j

Grand Master

spaceelf

Posted
Posted

Man I really like the lore of this game and may it pick it up this weekend. Are there a group of yall on a single server? And did trial codes for friends come with boxed copies?

Some of us are on Grim, but Cabals can be cross-server from what I read. I don't know the details though.

Grand Master

Slane

Posted
Posted

Some of us are on Grim, but Cabals can be cross-server from what I read. I don't know the details though.

TSW is on one server for all regions. Meaning people from Euro, Asia and NA can all play together. There exsists different dimensions. This dimensions are where characters are. Grim is Dimension 6, I want to say Arcadia is Dim3 (F9 or shift+F9 will tell ya what dimension). You can only see people from your Dimension. However is player X is on dimension 1 and you join his party you will be propmted to "meet up" with him. Meaning for the duration of that party you will be on his dimension. You can send mail and tells to others from different Dimensions as well as the AH.. And your nickname/cabal name is unique across all of TSW.

To take it further you have "instances" on each dimension. Meaning Dimension 6 Kingsmouth 1 and Dimension 6 Kingsmouth 2. etc. Argatha/Cities is cross dimension, but local ares is only for your home dimension.

yeah, everything except pvp is cross server I think.

and anyone can get friend codes now I think.

Fights clubs and battlefields are cross dimension. Warzones are almost always just your Home dimension.

State of the game post: http://forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?t=42532

Mentor

Tharp Daddy

Posted
Posted

So after playing for a few days, i can honestly say that i really enjoy this game.

Pros:

1) The lore and story is FANTASTIC. I feel engrossed, and it's the first time i actually care about all the little quests i'm doing.

2) Combat flexibility is awesome. I thought it was bland at first, but as i got more SP and AP to spend, i was able to create synergy between my weapons and it now works beautifully.

3) The atmosphere in the zones is great. Just walking around Kingsmouth, it feels like a lot of love went into the game.

4) There are lots of customization options. My guy started off looking a bit like a goof, but i ran to London and bought him some clothes (of which are there a lot of options).

Cons:

1) Some things feel really clunky. Animation and combat has some clunkyness, but they mentioned in state of the game they are improving upon that.

2) Not much explanation. I have no idea how the pvp works, how one goes about finding/grouping for instances, and some of the various mechanics are poorly explained. Getting into a cabal helps with this, as you can ask your fellow players.

3) Bugs! I've come across quite a few bugs already, and at least 2 people in my smaller-population cabal have run into game breaking bugs in their story missions that the GMs could not fix. There's also bugs with chat that are quite a nuisance.

4) Dragon suck at pvp. We get dominated by the other 2 factions, pretty sure this is a bug of some sort, because we are clearly the best faction and should be winning. :rofl:

All in all, i'm very impressed with this game, and i hope it does well. It has some very innovative concepts, and it's extremely immersive.

Grand Master

spaceelf

Posted
Posted

Most of the chat bugs are fixed and several missions were fixed after the 1.1 patch. But I will say to many people in general claim a mission is bugged when they just can't figure out how to complete it properly.

Gotta say that isn't true from my experience. Second time I did The Hunger it worked fine. Still can't do Taking the Purple cause the attackers never show up (could be on a timer, mind you, but so far no luck.) In the closed beta the Black House mission people are still having problems with never triggered the stuff I needed to advance it. No idea if thats fixed yet.

Still too many broken ones, even if the lions share of things work properly. Considering Something Wicked was fixed though I don't expect them to take too long getting the rest up and running properly.

Grand Master

Slane

Posted
Posted

Gotta say that isn't true from my experience. Second time I did The Hunger it worked fine. Still can't do Taking the Purple cause the attackers never show up (could be on a timer, mind you, but so far no luck.) In the closed beta the Black House mission people are still having problems with never triggered the stuff I needed to advance it. No idea if thats fixed yet.

Still too many broken ones, even if the lions share of things work properly. Considering Something Wicked was fixed though I don't expect them to take too long getting the rest up and running properly.

For Taking the Purple, try to stand on the outer most edge of the circle and backtrack. They may appear like that.

Veteran

Twiddle

Posted
Posted

Gotta say that isn't true from my experience. Second time I did The Hunger it worked fine. Still can't do Taking the Purple cause the attackers never show up (could be on a timer, mind you, but so far no luck.) In the closed beta the Black House mission people are still having problems with never triggered the stuff I needed to advance it. No idea if thats fixed yet.

Still too many broken ones, even if the lions share of things work properly. Considering Something Wicked was fixed though I don't expect them to take too long getting the rest up and running properly.

Yeah, I tried to go back and do Taking the Purple today, and it still doesn't work.

I'm kind of regretting this purchase though. I've made it to Blue Mountain, and I guess I got the wrong impression when I read the sysnopsis of the game, "The game will feature an original setting created by Funcom, with contemporary elements as well as "magic, myths, conspiracies and dark horrors." So far, it has just been another zombie game. It was fun and new, but I have never ever been a fan of the whole "zombie craze," and that is really all this game is. I may not be far enough, however, but I told myself, just keep pushing, and you will be done. But still, the first 20 hours has been nothing but zombies, in the first 3 major zones. I am not sure what is after Blue Mountain, and I don't think I'm personally going to make it any further.

If anyone gets any further, and actually hits some "real world myths" let me know.

(Yes, I understand some of the references in missions, joke about myths and whatnot, but nothing seems to actually be about anything "real world," just simply zombies. Zombieland, The Faculty, etc etc. Is this just a game based on myths from the zombie movies? If so, then I made a really, really bad purchase, considering I don't care for the genre as a whole. When I read the description of the game, I read uncovering the mysteries of things like Stonehenge (which I now know is just a PvP zone) sliding rocks, pyramids, the mayan temples, going back in time to ancient civilizations, etc. I thought it was going to be about those myths. But I haven't seen a trace or tread of any of that.)

Grand Master

spaceelf

Posted
Posted

After Blue Mountain is Egypt from what I know. I really don't know what all is there yet. I'm sure Transylvania is in there somewhere.

Also, there are tons of non zombie elements to the first three zones. (Said more, but spoilerish.) Saying that the undead is all there is is definately overstating things.

Grand Master

Emn1ty

Posted
Posted

I think the best thing about this game is that they have limited the number of quests you can accept and that forces you to concentrate on the ones you have. Each quest is also very well made. So far my favorite quest was probably the The Raven (although I'm not that far in).

Veteran

Twiddle

Posted
Posted

After Blue Mountain is Egypt from what I know. I really don't know what all is there yet. I'm sure Transylvania is in there somewhere.

Also, there are tons of non zombie elements to the first three zones. (Said more, but spoilerish.) Saying that the undead is all there is is definately overstating things.

Zombies go bye bye in egypt. though mummies could be considered the same, but not really, and certinly not how they work in the game

The game is great, and very well done, don't get me wrong.

I just personally dislike "undead" scenarios. As I said, when I bought it I was expecting fighting agencies, conspiracy groups, back in time against different civilizations, etc. Something different. Not only (mostly) undead, and monsters.

Grand Master

mattmatik

Posted
Posted

The game is great, and very well done, don't get me wrong.

I just personally dislike "undead" scenarios. As I said, when I bought it I was expecting fighting agencies, conspiracy groups, back in time against different civilizations, etc. Something different. Not only (mostly) undead, and monsters.

I thought that was how it would be as well. But I keep watching playthrough videos and read reviews and haven't come across anything like that. I was hoping to see a conspiracy about JFK or something similar to that.

Grand Master

Emn1ty

Posted
Posted

The game is great, and very well done, don't get me wrong.

I just personally dislike "undead" scenarios. As I said, when I bought it I was expecting fighting agencies, conspiracy groups, back in time against different civilizations, etc. Something different. Not only (mostly) undead, and monsters.

My friend had a quest where, as an Illum he needed to "deal with" a group of cult fanatics because they refused to be bought out. So that content is in the game, you just have to find it. And exploration in the game rewards you a lot with side quests that are very non-traditional (such as The Raven, or the suicide note quest).

Grand Master

spaceelf

Posted
Posted

The game is great, and very well done, don't get me wrong.

I just personally dislike "undead" scenarios. As I said, when I bought it I was expecting fighting agencies, conspiracy groups, back in time against different civilizations, etc. Something different. Not only (mostly) undead, and monsters.

Honestly I agree with you. I expected a better beginning area. But it is very well done for what it is....just a little generic.

I haven't been past it yet so can't speak for the rest, and I'd love to hear what they're bringing out in the content expansions (though I probably won't be finished with the initial bunch yet hah!)

Grand Master

Slane

Posted
Posted

So the deck I'm building for pistol dps, I need a few more abilites to complete the deck. Two in fact, and I did the AP required to finish it off, currently sitting at 76 for one passive and 147 for an active and passive. Grand total of 223AP needed to finish my first deck. Then i gotta start on a tanking one (which I already have the inner wheel of hammers done).

Veteran

Twiddle

Posted
Posted

My friend had a quest where, as an Illum he needed to "deal with" a group of cult fanatics because they refused to be bought out. So that content is in the game, you just have to find it. And exploration in the game rewards you a lot with side quests that are very non-traditional (such as The Raven, or the suicide note quest).

I'm talking about the overall theme of the game. I've done all of those missions, and while they don't directly deal with the undead, it is nevertheless, monsters of some sort. Only one quest I actually had that didn't require monsters, was sneaking into the airport, and then I didn't have to kill a soul, just grab some info.

The content is in the game, but very, very scarce, and it isn't what it was advertised as. I left Kingsmouth 100% complete as far as I know, so I explored all it had to offer. I can't say the same about Savage Coast, cause I was in a hurry to get out of there, hoping for new scenery, and I got to Blue Mountain, the same exact scenery. I know how the game works, I've experienced a lot of it (up until the aforementioned point). It is just the content, it's not for me, the undead, mummies, monsters. I wanted real, real world things, people, mischief, myths. Not the undead. And I read the synopsis, is said exactly that, so I guess I took it completely, and utterly the wrong way when I bought this game on a whim.

As I said, it is a great game, and I see it doing well, it is just not advertised well, and it is definitely not, what it seems when you read the advertisements for it.

Now, the investigation missions. Those are awesome. I really wanted more of those, but alas, those are few and far between. Those were the only time I felt engrossed in mystery and conspiracy.

Grand Master

spaceelf

Posted
Posted

http://www.shacknews...update-detailed

Issue #1 will bring seven new missions in various corners of the world, some based on poking around and others more violent. You'll get to find out what a bestselling author was up to on Solomon Island, poke around the Innsmouth Academy, uncover a strange Soviet genetics project, and have other strange and wonderful jollies.

http://www.thesecret..._2012_unleashed has more details. (pic might be nsfw but not due to sexual content anyvey)

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However, if you need to access the NAND Flash card or CMOS battery, then eight more screws (four on each side) need to be removed in order to take off the rear panel with the 120mm fan, and then the motherboard can be lifted off and removed from the SATA connector PCB. There's also no risk of threading the screw holes, because the four that hold the shell in place are metal on metal, while the screws that hold the rear panel on do screw into plastic. Either way, like last time when I reviewed the F4-425 plus, I was just happier to see larger screws being used. Overall, it follows some great improvements in build quality from the 2024 series and earlier. Setup BIOS The F4-425 Pro includes an Aptio BIOS from American Megatrends [1, 2], and you can setup pretty much everything here including the boot order, which is locked to the UEFI OS, however above that choice you can enable or disable booting to the USB bootloader so this would still allow you to switch to a USB stick with an alternative bootloader and boot from it, or disable it to instead always start from the first disk with an OS installed on it. Initial Setup Setup is roughly the same as the F4-425 Plus, along with the new TOS 7 setup dialogs, so there will be no surprises here. Upon connecting to the LAN and booting up, the F4-425 Pro can be reached by navigating to http://tnas.local. If that doesn't work, you can use the local address assigned via DHCP, which you can find using the TNAS PC desktop application, which is essentially a TerraMaster NAS finder. The setup process is pretty straightforward, through a wizard, and in full below: TOS 7 Initialization As you can see, TOS 7 received a new coat of paint, and the initialization requires fewer interactions. Happily, TOS no longer decides to throw all disks into the same Storage Pool; 2.5-inch HDDs are allocated into Storage Pool 1. This is because two of the HDDs are allocated to hold system files. Previously (with TOS 5 and 6), if you pre-installed HDDs and SSDs, they were all placed into Storage Pool 1, even if you did not select the SSDs for inclusion during the onboarding. TOS 7 Setup On first boot, there is a tutorial and some steps to take to harden the TNAS (or not), which includes an immediate update from TOS 7.0.0616 to 7.0.0706, of which the changelog screenshot is also included in the above gallery. It must be noted that the Security Advisor still contains (in my opinion) a pretty major bug in that if you enable SPC and then do the required rebooting, the Security Advisor still says that SPC is disabled. TerraMaster provided the following statement about it: It is disappointing that TOS 7 has been in beta since December, and this OOBE issue is still there. Shutdown option has moved Instead of a Taskbar option to manage the NAS, all of these options have been moved to the Control Panel, initially I did not see it and my contact had to show me how to power off the F4-425 Pro. To logout, reboot or power off you can find those controls at the top right of the Control Panel. It is also possible to power off through the TNAS mobile app beta. Storage setup Above, you can see the steps I took to create the Storage Pools and Volumes. I made a second Storage Pool using TRAID on two 4TB MP44Q SSDs (which, in this instance, is similar to RAID 5), and finally, I added the 250GB 970 Evo Plus drive as Hyper Cache on Storage Pool 1 in Balanced mode. Registering If you decide not to lock down the F4-425 Pro in Security Isolation Mode (blocking all external connections), then you could set up a TNAS device ID through the Remote Access setting in the Control Panel (which must be unique). This works in combination with an online TerraMaster account. TOS 7 TNAS Online Creating a TerraMaster account and linking the device online activates the warranty when you provide proof of purchase and the serial number, but it also gives you access through the TNAS mobile app, which allows you to complete certain operationsб including powering off and restarting the NAS remotely. A TNAS mobile update is required to gain access through TOS 7, and this is provided on the TerraMaster website, as it is not yet on Google Play. The app is evolving all the time and has made leaps and bounds since I first started reviewing TerraMaster devices almost three years ago. It is not quite there yet if you are comparing the likes of Synology, which, sadly, a lot of users online do all the time. OpenClaw setup One of the main selling points of the new F4-425 Pro is the inclusion of OpenClaw, with TerraMaster claiming that it is "powered by the world's first AI-native TOS 7 OS, supporting local-first smart workflows and independent data control." However, I immediately ran into problems trying to enable OpenClaw. After waiting 20 minutes at the "Enabling" message of the OpenClaw app following installation, I decided to do some searching online and discovered that it couldn't complete the installation process due to SPC being enabled, which is something TOS 7 immediately recommends to be enabled on first boot. SPC for NAS (TOS 7) is basically the same principle as UAC in Windows; it blocks executables from being launched by non-Super Users. After reaching out to my contact about these issues, I received the following response: Anyway, this only became clear when I closed the OpenClaw app screen and clicked on the OpenClaw icon in the taskbar; that is when I saw the message about disabling SPC. I think, due to the fact that this is a requirement, this should be a prompt during the installation process, not when closing the App Market and then trying to launch OpenClaw. There's also no 'Getting started' guide for people like me who have never used OpenClaw. I tried to add an LLM and discovered the tutorial led nowhere. That's when I started looking around the official TerraMaster forums, and I found a guide that helpfully explains that you won't get anywhere with OpenClaw unless you have a paid plan, which is disappointing because I imagined there would be an option to use a local LLM as I do in SubtitleEdit with Whisper-XXL. In addition, with the marketing imagery on the official site, it says that the OpenClaw feature is "all processed 100% locally for absolute privacy." which led me to believe that I could install a local LLM, not one that required paid tokens. In any case, TerraMaster does not provide guidance for this new feature, which was also a selling point of the F4-425 Pro! My contact also provided clarification about the above points I raised with TerraMaster Since it is not in the scope of the review to add paid services, I'll leave that to the people who are more qualified with OpenClaw. F4-425 Pro Surveillance App TOS also comes with a Surveillance app, which is not installed by default; it can be found in the App Market recommended section. In addition, after installing, it doesn't drop a shortcut on the Desktop or top taskbar, but you can "Send to Desktop" from the App Market listing for the app for a quick way to open it. Adding my Reolink POE doorbell camera was painless. TerraMaster doesn't appear to have a repository of preconfigured cameras; instead, the camera must be added using ONVIF or RTSP. No mobile Surveillance app TerraMaster still doesn't have a dedicated Surveillance app, although from searching online, Surveillance can be used and managed through the TNAS mobile app. I tried this with the updated TNAS mobile app beta in combination with TOS 7 and got a message that Surveillance was "Only accessible through web browser," so I reckon this must be limited to the stable versions of TOS 6 and the mobile app. More quirks In addition, whenever I minimized the Live View window in the browser Surveillance app, the feed appeared to switch to the Low-bandwidth stream, and there was no way to get the High-quality stream back. To get the High-quality stream back, I had to close Live View and then reopen it. Benchmarking A pretty cool feature of the TOS 7 is that it allows you to install directly to the NVMe M.2 SSD. In order to do that, you would have to leave out any HDDs during initialization, and even then, the system partitions are always written to two HDDs when they are eventually added. With three NVMe slots, this also gives an interesting scenario where you could build a TRAID storage Pool for installing all your apps and Docker on, and keep the third for SSD cache on the HDD pool. Limitless options! SATA PCIe 3.0 X1 A CrystalDiskMark test on a mapped network drive from within a Windows 11 25H2 PC (image above) connected over a 5 GbE hub was well within acceptable ranges. Although the read result on SATA was a little less than with the F4-425 Plus, for some reason, while writes were generally better. SATA PCIe 3.0 X1 I also ran the NAS Performance tester, which tests the link speed performance. As you can see, it pretty much maxes out the 5GbE connection. Of course, you can also opt to bond the two 5 GbE connections for a bit more umph, but I didn't do that. TOS 7, which, as of testing, is still in Beta, comes with an App Center that has a bunch of handy programs you can install right off the bat, such as Emby, Plex, Docker, as well as in-house Backup and Surveillance solutions. As you can imagine, any media streaming services you would want to host off the F4-425 Pro will work great, thanks to the Intel Core N350 CPU and its 16 GB of DDR5 memory. Accessing from mobile is only possible if Security Isolation Mode is disabled, which can put your NAS at risk from external sources, so there was no way to access it from the TNAS Mobile app. It's also quiet. I had this sat next to my computer on my work desk for the past week, and I did wonder if the noise I was accustomed to with NAS devices would annoy me, but all I could hear was a soft whirring of the rear fan (which was a little annoying) when the disks were not actively copying or reading data. Conclusion So what have I learned? Unfortunately, this release raises a few important questions and concerns that I feel haven't been adequately addressed. What I didn't like Our variant shipped with TOS 7 beta, and it's advised not to use it in a production environment. I feel that's a bit limiting on an $800 device. The mobile app is also still in beta and does not support some of the first-party apps, like Surveillance, and it still has quite a few bugs. I am a bit confused about the OpenClaw marketing along with the F4-425 Pro. I feel like that if it's going to be a main selling point, then offer official guidance on how to get started with it. TerraMaster recommends enabling SPC, but then markets the NAS for use with OpenClaw, which requires disabling SPC to be able to use it, opening up genuine security concerns for the NAS; and that's before you get into the security concerns of OpenClaw itself. Of course, the above issues won't be a problem if you decide to install something else on it, or even go back to the stable TOS 6. I wish TerraMaster had just given TOS 7 as opt-in rather than shipping with it. TOS 7 has been available as a preview since December 2025 (so well before my last TerraMaster review), and according to a thread on Reddit where a user shared a screenshot from the TerraMaster Facebook page, it is scheduled to launch today, June 23, but there's nothing about that in the TerraMaster news blog. My contact confirmed over email that TOS 7 exits beta today. The rubber feet also deserve a mention as they continue to be a problem, with them coming unstuck the moment you shift the F4-425 Pro anywhere on your desk. What I liked What it comes down to, though, aside from what I already mentioned, you are still getting a quality, affordable device here, so recommending it will depend on the individual's use case. If you're just looking for a relatively small NAS device to manage virtual machines on, backup your files, and take care of your home theater streaming, then it is a great device that will certainly futureproof you for some time. It provides good performance, takes up little space, and is, on the whole, very quiet. Four bays afford proper redundancy using TRAID or RAID 5, and you can even expand on storage capacity by adding the 2-bay D5, or 4-bay D8 Hybrid DAS over a USB 3.2 (10Gbps) link. Considering the 2024 releases were more about power, with the likes of an Intel Core i5-1235U high-end laptop CPU under the hood, I asked my contact last time if we could expect more of the same in higher-end models and was told: It makes a lot of sense to use Intel's N350 chip inside a NAS; it is more than capable of doing what the F4-425 Pro is intended for, media streaming and backup. The only downside is still the clear lack of community and even staff support on the official forums. In the past, I have had topics go unanswered for days, or there would be generic-type "we've noted this and passed it onto our developer team" type responses. Along with the other things I mentioned, it all ends up costing it a couple of points. If you are comfortable with the command line, Docker, and setting up TrueNAS or Unraid, you'll be fine. You can do great things with this hardware. In TOS, the apps are a bit lacking, and things don't always work as expected.\ AI NAS?! What has become clear to me this year is that we are going to start seeing all kinds of "AI NAS" come to market, and while that might be good for us consumers, be diligent and research these claims. Although the F4-425 Pro technically comes with AI, it is really using a cloud service that is externally sourced off-device through the third party OpenClaw app. My colleague did review a newcomer to the NAS space earlier this year, and it includes a local AI assistant inside the Zettlab D4 NAS, and they do not even use AI in the product name, check out Chris' review here. Where to buy and a discount coupon However, it does not change the fact that this is truly a great entry-level home media-class NAS that you can buy right now. TerraMaster is having a 20% off launch discount, plus you can also still apply our unique 10% off coupon on checkout, which only works on the official website. So here is a breakdown of the pricing that is only valid on the official TerraMaster website. TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = $575.99 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = $503.99 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = £525.59 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = £460.79 Use NEOWIN coupon code during checkout for 10% discount Over on Amazon US and UK, the F4-425 Pro also gets a 20% launch discount, but here, the above 10% coupon cannot be applied. TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) for $639.99 at Amazon US (was $799.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) for $559.99 at Amazon US (was $699.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) for £583.99 at Amazon UK (was £729.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) for £511.99 at Amazon UK (was £639.99) As an Amazon Associate, when you purchase through links on our site, we earn from qualifying purchases.

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