With release #8, the Venice Agenda, two important innovations will soon be introduced in The Secret World: the scenarios and the augmentation system. On the official page, the developer Funcom expressed enthusiasm about the status of the update.
The customization options in The Secret World are already very versatile; these will be further intensified with the augmentation system, and according to Funcom, its development is also already very advanced. Players will be able to take the next step towards uniqueness with their powers.
With the new system, players will soon receive four previously non-existent ability trees in the interface, each representing one of the following main groups: damage, support, healing, and survivability. Each of them consists of ten augmentations, which in turn are divided into 5 different quality or rarity levels.
To activate the augmentations, they need to be added to your active powers on your bar – each power indicates the color and thus the group that the respective power can complement. An example: The power “Suppressing Fire” of the assault rifle is a pure damage power, and therefore can only equip the damage group.
How do I actually get these items?
Completely new tactical possibilities are supposed to arise in several areas of the game, both in PvP and PvE – with the nice side effect that you can once again put a stamp on your character. But one step at a time.
Where do I actually find the so-called augmentations? You will receive these as loot during the game, specifically in the scenarios, which, as mentioned above, also represent a central feature in release #8. In the scenarios available in different difficulty levels, you will have to face dangerous monsters.
In any case, you will be rewarded with augmentations for successfully defeating a boss. The are in their raw state, aside from exceptions, but are not yet ready for use. To gain their benefits, specific runes and resources must first be used in the processing.
Improved powers open up new possibilities
Of course, these are not just trivialities, as this effort will grant you bonuses for your powers. For example, you can increase your damage, achieve improved block values, or strengthen team healing. The developer has also hinted that some of the scenarios will be tough and thus may almost require these enhancements. It will also be interesting to see what kind of dynamics this will create in PvP battles.
I always find it quite exciting in role-playing games to be able to customize my character to a high degree. Sure, it can be overwhelming at first, but in my opinion, it often turns out to be a benefit in the end.
More information can of course be found at the source, which also mentions other requirements for using augmentations.
Source: News article on The Secret World website
