f13.net

Anyone in the Beta/Pre-order?

After a friend showed me his stress-test beta Monday night, I decided to check it out.

So far, from what little I've played (got up up to level 5 last night), it reminds me a lot of Neocron, without the PvP. There were moments when I *really* wanted to be able to engage someone else in PvP with the MxO's combat system. It offers ranged fire, close-combat ranged fire, and hand-to-hand close combat -- add in "on the fly" coding buffs and debuffs, and it gets interesting -- but not so much against AI. I'd really like to try it against a live mind. It took a little experimenting to get used to the combat system mechanics, which involve pre-selecting moves and watching the results, making it a game of tactical choices in a kind of real-time turn-based system that feels, to me, more interactive than typical MMO button mashing.

My only gripe so far has been the terrible slippery/sliding running physics. I'm spoiled by the crispness of CoH's movement physics.

The game actually feels very true to license -- especially getting into the Matrix. And seeing other characters do the hyper-jump thing even as low as level 12 tells me that this will not be a SWG take on getting to the fun stuff. I reserve final judgement though until I play it a bit more. So far, it feels right -- though I'm going in with no expectations or hyped prejudices, and maybe that helps.

Anyway -- if you're in, look me up as "Zyxanon" on the Algorithm world.

Wait...I thought MxO had PvP. I'd be willing to try it out if it did.

It may -- that's why I said after *one night's* play it felt like Neocron without the PvP (Neocron is largely PvP from the get go).

I really expect there will be PvP given the 3 main factions. What seems to set this MMO apart in PvP from other games is the ability to completely re-make your character by loading/unloading abilities. This means you're not stuck with one role -- and it also means the person you meet on Day X may not have the same defenses or combat powers loaded if you meet them on Day Y. The possibilities *sound* cool, but I haven't really played it enough to say.

Here are a couple of things, though, that seem cool and consistent with the license:

- jack into a hardline (phone booth) in the matrix and you can teleport instantly to any other hardline you have accessed.
- manipulate matrix 'code' to build a 'proxy' (a.k.a. pet) that serves as a 'bodyguard' for you.
- access a number of different weapons and clothing pretty easily; some clothes are just visual adds, others improve your defense or skills
- all waypoints and interactive objects can be easily viewed -- kinda like having someone outside the matrix tell you "go through the door on the right" or "the safe is behind the painting to your left"
- close combat fights involve a lot of decent moves, from head-butts to throws, over-the-head-from-behind-Trinity-style-kicks and groin kicks, among others.
- traffic on the street stops at traffic lights and actually jams up at times -- ok minor thing, but after CoH's nonexistent city vehicle behavior, it was amusing to see traffic behave the way I'd expect. Cars will not kill you, though -- you automatically dodge/spin out of the way in a wire-fu kinda way.

Side note: real-time out-of-game internet radio station -- radio free zion -- broadcasting music and also commenting on in-game events (I just heard them mention a gathering at club succubus, providing in-game zone name and one DJ even mentioned map coords). The music feels a little 1997-9-ish, but that's cool. I like Chemical Brothers.

Will see if I can get some more info on PvP though.

Edit: Answer is Yes. Guess I'll have to find me some...

From the official FAQ:
Does The Matrix Online have Player vs. Player Combat ?

The Matrix Online includes PvP, for players who choose to play against other players, but there are plenty of computer-controlled characters in the missions to fight against as well. Player vs. player is a particularly intense style of gameplay. However, unlike some games, you needn't play PVP exclusively. You can choose to alternate between fighting other players or taking missions against non-player characters.

Cool enough. The combat system has me intrigued. Glad to see it isn't being wasted away on a PvE only game.

I don't really care if it's the Matrix or not. Urban environments are cool, combat sounds interesting, it has PvP, and it doesn't have elves. I'll at least give it a shot.

edit: Hmm, servers are down....With the exception of "Algorithm". It says "Admins Only". I'm guessing that's a temporary thing?

So far, cool "launcher" I guess. I've yet to see the client. Heh.

Ok, finally got into Algorithm and played a little (to lvl 4).

First impressions:

Pros:

The presentation is top notch. They've put a lot a work into the "little things" that make it all feel consistent with the license.

The interface is excellent as well. Very easy to understand right off the bat.

The graphics, even though I'm on an average system, aren't bad. Call me vain, but this is probably the first point that either kills my interest in a game or encourages me to proceed further. The Matrix has passed this test at least. There's a good variety of character creation options as well, and not all look as ridiculous as the ones in demos and screenshots.

So far, I agree with Sobelius about the combat system. I'm just starting out, so I can't say for sure, but it seems a lot more promising than what most games have offered. I'll hold out on my verdict for now though.

Cons:

Dear God, this is crippling lag! I know it's beta and all, but I'll be pissed if Live is half this bad.

What, aren't you aware of the existence of the Magic Patch that will fix everything before the March 22 launch date?

What's this beta you're talking of? I thought they announced Gold?

Well, everything seems OK, except for the lag.

But then again, I don't think I've ever played one MMO that had stable servers. So it's not much to bitch about. I guess.

It is Gold. In MMOG terms at least.

*insert comparisons to urine and whatnot*

Someone else needs to comment on this game. Where are all the haters at?

All I can say is that my experience so far doesn't really line up with all the negative shit I kept hearing about it.

Is it "Great"? Not at all. But I'm having a hard time believing that any of those people actually played it.

I did notice on their beta forums that alot of people were saying they need to push the release date back.

You suck at hate.

lollercopter.

Disclaimer: I'm a CoH fanboi so a lot of what I consider "good" is the way CoH does things.

I played some in the beta and I wasn't really that impressed. I made it up about lvl 8 going the Soldier route.

The controls felt very loose and sloppy. I could never make my character run in a nice smooth turn. I would jerk around, run straight a little, then all of a sudden turn a lot. Whoever decided on the physics for the standard jump should be shot. Anytime I tried to jump over anything (a railing, garbage in an alleyway, a bench), it would take about 3-4 jumps before I could finally make it over. If characters have the ability to jump in your game, make sure they can jump well and high.

The graphics just felt grainy to me, like they came from 1997 or something. Perhaps that's the Matrix-y look or something but I thought they looked pretty crappy. Buildings would switch from their low res textures to the high res texture way too close to the character. Many times I would run to a building to enter a mission and from a distance I couldn't see a door. Then all over a sudden, a door would appear when it switched textures. Maybe I missed a setting somewhere where you could choose how far away the high res textures would kick in. I did like it when all the textures were doing the Matrix code thing when you logged in. I thought that was pretty impressive. Unfortunately, it seemed that those texture would stay up for way too long.

The large number of costume options made it possible for characters to look vastly different. That's always a plus. I wish they'd do something to the icons to designate if the item was gender-specific. I tried to put on a pair of lady's pants way too many times...

Combat seemed a little boring, especially after playing CoH a lot. I'd get in a fight with one of the 3 fighting styles and if one didn't seem to be working, I'd randomly switch to one of the others. I picked up an ability that would tell me every so often when the bad guy was vulnerable to a certain style. That's great if I was already using that style. If I wasn't, by the time I'd switch, the vulnerability was gone. I had a few special moves (Head Butt, Cheap Shot, Overhand Smash) but I'd always forget to use them. I probably wasn't high enough to get all the really cool moves, but I still think you need to have some animation-candy for the newbs.

I haven't played in a few weeks so maybe things have changed. however I doubt things would have changed enough for me to shell out some money for the game.

You can simply ask "Where are all the haters?" The preposition at the end of the sentence is superfluous and poor grammar.

Back on the topic, where are all the haters? ;)

The Duck of Death, I says.

Agree on the jump ability -- of course, they do have the opposite extreme available -- hyper-jump (my guess is it works something like Superjump in CoH). I mean, I've literally seen someone standing next to me and when they hyper-jump away all I hear is a swoosh and they are gone in a blink.

As to graphics, I'm running an Athlon 64 3200+ with 1GB ram and a 256 GF6800 GT. The high detail city graphics look way better than CoH and it runs smoothly on my box. Now if only MxO had the smooth running movement physics of CoH. Perhaps the server speed issue is what's causing the problem, perhaps its the stress test, or the old beta-board standby: they have debug code running on the servers so of course it's slow! In all the games I've ever played in Beta, what you see is what you get at release. Period.

The annoying thing about the clothing is that with all the other filters they provide for inventory, they could have provided one to filter out opposite gender-specific items. Or they could have just let me don a pair of red pumps and let me camp it up. Their clothing options are quite nice and well done.

Coding items feels very license-correct -- I like the way they even used the matrix code symbology to apply to coded fragments, that are then assembled into specific coded constructs like clothing or weapons or abilities. Crafting anything from tools to clothing to abilities using the same coding/crafting components makes this quite true to form for the Matrix-as-a-coded-reality concept.

I would also like to see the speed of combat increased -- but my concern is, at what cost? As it is right now, it gets pretty hectic choosing moves even if the animations are a little slow at times (and not intentionally slow as in bullet-time slow, which is fairly cool when it happens). What bothers me most is that I don't get a good sense of feedback from the system as to whether or how my choices are affecting the outcome. Basically, if I'm much higher level than the opponent I can usually win, if the opponent is much higher level, they tend to win, and if we're close in level then the randomness of the rolls comes into play. I haven't tried getting or using the Consistency ability to see if that makes a difference. There are so many abilities to plug in and try, it's a bit overwhelming, especially since certain abilities can only be used at specific times during combat -- I'm going to try creating hotbutton bars for specific types of combat and see if that helps. I can almost always get a groin kick (cheap shot) in, and head-butt almost always works for me as a finishing move.

As far as movement goes, the thing I finally figured out is that the targeting reticle is separate from movement. For a while I thought they were connected. Once I started ignoring the reticle, I found it easier to use the keyboard for movement and then the reticle for targeting. This was a bit of a pain because I've gotten so used to mouse movement in EQ2 and WoW (though I still use the keyboard for CoH).

The mission system seems to work, though the missions are well written the actual mission events are a little lacking. Maybe I just haven't gotten to the more interesting ones yet?

Still haven't had a chance to do any PvP -- may try that this weekend.

I tried out MxO when it first became available for pre-order people and things back then were horrible. If you think the rubberbanding and jerky movement is bad now you should've seen it back then. The networking code was so bad the game was almost physically unplayable (it was hard to move through doorways and the like). Things have gotten better on the networking side since then but it still feels like you are playing a circa-1993 online game over a dialup modem. Not only does it feel like you are always running into the wind but your character does not stop when you let go of the controls. For me this is especially a problem while turning since the screen doesn't stop moving when I think it should and it gives me a headache and slight motion sickness, and I never get motion sickness in real life or in another other 3D game I've played.

On my ghetto Athlon XP 2000+ and NVIDIA 5900 system the graphics, except for the models, look like crap from a texture quality perspective. They are much worse than what I was able to get in CoH (with a worse framerate in MxO to boot) and look like something from around the Quake 2-era. It sounds like the graphics are better at higher settings but unfortunately I don't see any of that.

The combat looks cool because of the synchronized movements but it feels entirely too slow to me and the "rock-scissor-paper" basic combat move system is just too random and the delay between what you pick and what happens on screen too long for me.

Yes, their networking code leaves a lot to be desired. And running into the wind -- yep, that describes it well. That has got to be server lag -- my ping times show up as consistently low and speedy. CoH has some of the best network code if only from the perspective that a ton of things happen on screen at the same time in large fights and when I'm playing with friends on Teamspeak none of us misses a beat. It feels totally synchronized.



Sounds like they did a poor job for older/lower end systems. The visuals are quite good without being the plasticene-model variety of EQ2.



Totally agree. I've played a bit more now and you hit the nail on the head -- when I wanted combat to be faster what I really want is my response times to be more in sync with my choices rather than a step behind. What I've started doing is anticipating, though not sure that's really working.

I got to duel another player my own level and the fight was quite fun and tense, though he didn't seem to know about combat buffs or defenses he could have used. I fault the tutorial for that -- while I don't mind figuring out stuff like that on my own, he clearly had not picked up on the things like Adrenaline Rush (skill buff) or the damage buff (can't recall name).

There is one issue, though, that is starting to rise above all the others -- the totally fucked up camera system during combat. It tries to be cool and zoom in and out for you and all it does is make me think WTF?

Well I haven't played it yet and I'm uncomfortable hating before I play. I will allow myself to love before I play but not hate.

Awww... you are such a romantic, Riggsy.  That made me misty-eyed.   :-)

Ah well. Their 2 open servers are falling apart under the current load. This is 10 days before release. Not a good sign. Reminding me very much of the troubles that plagued Anarchy Online at release -- launcher problems, lag, zones crashing, character rollbacks. At least the system does send some warning signs and tries to gracefully shut things down. But this is a case that echoes what Haemish and others have said -- you can innovate all you want in an MMO but if you can't connect and play the damn thing all that innovation is worthless.

At least they had time to get some bizarre animations in. If you're ever in, try targeting another player and typing /dogsniff. If the other person agrees, your toon gets to smell their toon's ass. I kid you not.

Otherwise, the most positive thing I can say coming out of playing for about 20 or so hours now, is that they definitely delivered on the license, visually and in many ways even the game interface and mechanics are true to the conventions of the Matrix, such as they are. If they ever add wall running (maybe it's in there at a higher level?), they'll be set from that standpoint. But without solid connections and networking code, the game will gain a reputation as the Matrix Offline.

That's hilarious. But I hope it's used sparingly. I'm so tired of hearing things like Evercrack, & sb.exe, & whatever else kiddies are using today.

Ok, played MxO briefly last night. I enjoyed making my character. I enjoyed the game in general though the graphics felt...cramped. Best way I could describe it. At low res the interface took up to much screen space. At high res the interface was impossible to see without squinting. (But maybe I'm just old. ).

I did the tutorial and one mission. Hand to hand combat was fun. Ranged combat was not. Interacting with objects felt clunky to me though I can't describe why. I think it is because it reminded me of SWG rotary menus.

No lag. No disconnects when I played. (Which was around 10pmish central time.)

What. the. fuck.

They want your credit card for the beta preview weekend?

Homey don't play that.

Age verification and all that. Though I haven't really seen much to require it yet.

I don't care what it verifies. There is no reason for them to have my credit card information, especially my CVV/CVC code. I am not signing up for a subscription, I am helping them test their buggy POS software. The only reason I can see doing this is to limit the number of people willing or able to log on in order to not kill their servers. If their servers can't handle the people DON'T RELEASE THE FUCKING GAME.

I understand. I don't really agree with them but wasn't terribly bothered by it either.

After getting to level 7 I was able to improve some of my abilities a bit more. I even swapped out all of my close combat skills and replaced them with hacker skills to cause damage by infecting NPCs with viruses. Unfortunately, the virus attacks (which are essentially like mage spells -- DD, slow, root, debuff, etc.) don't have  much variety in the visuals department. The colors change. Big deal. Too bad, as well, since the hand-to-hand combat animations are so well done.

Well, even today, with the servers more stable than yesterday, multi-opponent combat gets way too jerky and out of sync. That awful combat camera is really a POS and they should remove it until they can get it right. Let me watch the fight and control the camera myself -- maybe there's an option to turn it off. As it is, I find myself hitting the camera reset button after every move during a fight. Sigh.

I can tell my MMO addict really wants to like this game. It's just different enough to be interesting, especially being able to really create a completely different set of skills just by unloading and reloading what I "know" from my "library". But the game really needs better running/movement physics and better networking performance. My guess is they're going to release as is and try to fix it over the next 6-12 months.

Yes, they still have a lot of technical issues, like the lag and jerky combat, that they really need to fix before its even worth playing.

The downloading abilities things is kinda cool; that way you're picking a different skill set every mission if you want, sort-of like how Guild Wars is doing their abilities thing.  And it has skill trees, which I like.

But the best parts of the game are really just imitations of City of Heroes, and you know, I've already played that, and if I want to enjoy that again, I'll just play City of Heroes.

The only thing that could really save MxO is if they really do all the great "story" things they are talking about, but come on, what are the chances of that?

Bruce

I don't know if they're to be believed, but the Wachowski's said they've always had the intention of an online Matrix game being the sequel after "Revolutions". I doubt that they could pull off anything really interesting here, but it does sound like they've really invested in the idea at least. I'd love to see them try.

It's funny though. The Matrix trilogy started out strong, then ended kind of weak. Most fans probably think that it couldn't have sunk any lower than it already did. That it could only go "up" from here.

But guess again folks! The Wachowski's have chosen the poorest storytelling medium of all -- The MMOG -- to continue where they left off. Even if they conjure up a storyline that would redeem them from their previous efforts, I expect the game itself will get the best of them.

But like I said, I'd love to see them try. Dynamic content is always fun, even if it doesn't last. And there will always be mission terminals, right?  :|

...

I really, seriously have only one response to that. And I have to add a disclaiemer to it. I know good and well that the person who worked on that animation is not the same guy who worked on the server code. I'm well aware of that. However, that goes salary has to be paid, and paid to the exclusion of adding another server guy. Or adding more time onto the project. So somewhere, I hope there is an executive who is taking a final looksee over the project and seeing the shit fest of ass network code and is pulling his hair out while the server guys tell him they can't keep the servers up under beta load, and I hope in the middle of all that he gets to see someone dogsniff another player's ass. I really do. And I hope said sight sends this executive into a goddamn shit-flinging, tongue-choking, spittle-drenched conniption fit. And the fit ends when the animator, producer and designer who greenlit such a fucking thing into the game are fired.

On a barbecue spit. With an apple in their mouth.

Seriously, there is just no excuse for something so goddamn ridiculous in a game that is laggy and crash-happy. There just isn't.

EDIT: And I have to edit to agree with Shockeye, requiring a fucking Credit Card for a "FREE" Beta preview... fuck you. That's ass. It is beyond stupid. Age verification my ass. This isn't a pr0n site, it's a teen+ rated video game.

Purpose for age verification isn't so that some 10 year old gets exposed to obscene wire-fu.  It's so that when you click the "I agree" button to the privacy policy, it has some semi-legal legitimacy, or someone just comitted fraud. 

Currently in game, missions are available from contacts much as in CoH. Except for contacts you discover hanging out in the street, you can call your main contact right from the start. Until about level 7, you work through the initial missions working for Zion as an awakened "red pill". After that, you are contacted by both a representative of the Merovigian and the Machines. Whichever faction you do missions for earns you positive rating with it and negative with the others.

There's an in-game paper you can read by clicking on the street newspaper vending machines. The paper hints at some story elements.

So far no "mission" has been of the kill x of y variety. There are collectors around town that will give enhanced equipment as a reward for turning in tokens/symbols/objects used by various street gangs, but these are (rightly) not offered as missions -- you're just getting a reward by taking out members of a gang that the collector usually has a grudge against.

You also get the option of setting a mission to easy/medium/hard difficulty. I was able to solo all my missions, with only a few being harder than expected.

One nice side effect of the Matrix Online -- the story becomes about the Matrix again since everything of consequence takes place within it.

There is a new twist as well -- areas called "Archives" that you buy keys to enter. A faction based archvist then teleports you into the archive. Reminds me of battleground teleporters in DAOC. The archives divided by level ranges (e.g. Archive for 15-25 is the lowest, I think). Apparently archives are previous versions of the Matrix that are hostile grounds for all factiosn (pvp areas?) as well as tougher NPC opponents. Supposedly they offer unique rewards as well. I have no idea what they're really like since I didn't buy a key to one.

Again, they need to resolve their server lag issues. I went to log in Sunday afternoon and the system showed one server as "full" but the load was "medium". Looks like they decided to cap population levels lower than they originally expected.

Well I've played a little more now. Only level umm..4ish or so. I Wanted to play around with tradeskills which are called coding in the game but couldn't figure out how to get recipes or anything. Guess I need to find an online manual.

So far I've played it in brief bursts. 10 minutes here, 15 minutes there. It's just not exciting enough to hook me and cause me to play for hours at this point.

Switch-based PvP does not work - too many problems for anyone interested in participating in it. It is next to impossible to implement any achievable goals, like recourse or area control, with such set-up and as a result PvP will never go anywhere.

 Ideally PvP is not restricted, like in SB or pre-Tram UO, but if it needs to be restricted for some reason it should be zone-based restriction with unique PvP-oriented content.

Well I thought I'd give it a whirl, it was free and all...

Combat:
Much maligned from the posts I've read but I enjoyed it.  Even against AI it was interesting, there would be a time that AI would kick my ass but once I started landing hits I could basically combo them out.  The special moves seem too good, I found that using them as often as possible was too effective.

Interface:
Ugh, not a fan, first of all you end up never reading your chat box in 2 days of playing I had two conversations..   I ended up using 3 different methods to get my character to do things like open doors.  Double click, bound f to interact and right click menu I shit you not I used all three and still had trouble getting where I wanted.  

The camera:
Deserves its own goddamn section because it sucks so hard, ctrl + c is supposed to change it but never did shit.  I couldn't find a way to lock the damn thing to save my life and often it would completely miss what was happening.  Not to mention fleeing from a fight always resulted in death as the camera would go haywire and by the time I could reorient myself with what direction I was running from I was back in interlock.

Bullet Time:
Is buggy as hell, I would often hear the sound-effect and it would try to use it but the mob was already dead, then would stand up, then die again.  Hell that happened after 50% of my fights...

Lag:
So much lag, so little patience.  I must have completed but not gotten credit for one mission 6 times due to crashes.  Running was laggy, rubberband lag is the devil and the nice combat was ruined by the fact that every other mob lagged around on death.  Oh not to mention the times you would get stuck in combat mode...

All in all, I would say MxO is not worth touching at release, due to how much power money has in the game I would suggest everyone save themselves $30 not playing the first two months then if it sounds like it has improved (think: 2-5 major patches) buy the game and spend $30 on info.  With that you could twink out your character real nice and burn through content I'd wager.

PvP:
In theory if you leave the megacity its open pvp, this intrigues me but I dunno.

Final thought:
The launcher was my favorite part of the game, I loved the sounds when you type your l/p.

Ideally for 12 year old gankers

The tiny box in the lower right corner of the game window has a popup menu, one of which is Help. It forces you to log in to access a Help page delivered via web pages. A bit of a pain to access but the positive is that if they have a staff member or three keeping up with changes, the Help system should always be up to date.

To get any ability there is a maze to navigate:

1. You load/unload abilities at any Hardline phone booth. Right-click the booth, click Abilities then the Abilities tab. You'll see what's in your library on the left and what you have loaded on the right. Double click to load/unload any ability.

2. To get new abilities, you either buy them from vendors or other players who code them. For starting coders, I recommend using a hardline teleoprt to the Mara hardline. There's a coder vendor nearby. You can buy anything he sells if you can afford it. Make sure to buy the Coder ability. You may want to look at the ability tree beforehand to see which abilities you really need to keep working down the tree. Some abilities are required, others optional.

3. Once the abilities are in your inventory, go back to the Hardline, right-click and select Upload. This puts them permanently into your library and removes them from your inventory.

4. Now you have to figure out what to load. The Abilities section also has a tab that shows the Ability trees. Before you can load any specialized profession, like Coder, you have to have certain prerequisites loaded. Start at Awakened and follow the tree, loading only those abilities required to get you to the Coder branch. You have to watch your memory load -- the number at the bottom of the loaded ability list. At level 4 you might only be able to load 30 points worth of abilities. Some require 1 or 2 memory slots, but the professions, like Coder, require 10. You can usually succeed by loading a narrow set of abilities to specialize in just Coder stuff first, then if you have slots left over add things from other branches as needed.

The only thing that may stop you from going full Coder is that some abilites have to be upgraded to a certain level as a prerequisite to loading the next ability. Load these abilities then use the Upgrade button to spend money to upgrade them as far as your level will allow. (Upgrade button is accessed by clicking on the little blue figure at the bottom of the main UI, then selecting Upgrade. You can upgrade any loaded ability that is upgradeable at any time or place -- you don't need to be at a hard line.)

@Riggswolfe:

I'm sorry that attitude is complete and utter horseshit, and I'm getting tired of having to read people whine using that arguement.

I'd much rather have a 12yr-old jackass kill me because I failed to kill him then have him run around my character spamming voice emotes, or kill-stealing me, or ninja-looting.  Or just spamming general chat with no recourse because his "pvp flag" isn't on.  PvE griefing > PvP griefing.

Now your going to respond with:  "yeah well ganking low levels, non-uber gear, blahblahblah" to which I say.  Its a flaw in the way most mmog's are done that skill only applies if both players have spent equal amounts time doing boring stuff.  That is neither here nor there and is easily one of the more interesting mmog topics of discussion.  The fact of the matter is invoking the kiddie card to disparage open PvP is crap.  

Give me kiddies I can kill over kiddies who I have to find creative ways to avoid or waste effort blocking out of my game experience any day.

 Some people like spicy food and some people like mild food.  Don’t try giving mild food with some hot spice sprinkled on top to people that prefer spicy food, only if you cook it spicy from the beginning can you get it any good. Don’t complain if you go to Mexican food restaurant and order spiciest thing they have and end up not liking it because of that, some people like it that way and you are not one of them.

I like the combat in the game as well -- I get glimpses of how well it *could* work if the client/server sync was spot on instead of the crapfest it currently is.

I never did figure out how to pre-select my first opening move. When you initiate close combat with hand-to-hand, I never knew which type of move it would open up with.

I got up to level 9 before the lag, horrific multi-opponent combat mechanics and general technical issues (area crashes, client crashes, disconnects, physics) made me want to kick their programming staff in their collective beanbags; I managed to get down to 'Code Crafter' on the coder tree and somewhat into 'Martial Arts Initiate' in the combat tree - I swapped my coder abilities into my head in between missions to decompile dropped items and make Good Stuff while swapping the combat stuff in to run the actual missions.

The main coder abilities are 'write code' and 'decompile items'; farther down in the tree, you can also get 'compile items'. Write Code is your basic crafting ability. Decompile Items lets you 'decompile' items, busting them up to try to learn their recipe; if you already know the recipe, you then get 'code bits' (numbered 1-8) out of them. Think 'disenchant' from WoW. You should get these two abilities as high as your level allows; higher level 'write code' significantly reduces the incidence of failure when writing code (which destroys components) or when decompiling (which destroys the item with no reward to you). As a guideline, I had a 12 'reason' attribute and found that I could only reliably craft items with a difficulty 3 or more below my 'write code' ability. Decompiling was generally a crapshoot, although items that were clearly lower level (e.g. Health Pill 1.0 vs. Health Pill 2.0) succeeded more often.

Anyway, once you have your coder abilities plugged, as described above by Sobelius, you need to get a Code Analyzer Tool and a Decompiler. I believe all characters start with a Code Analyzer; if not, you can buy any tools you need from any item vendor for $1000 each. Drag these items into your hotbar.

Okay, now you need raw materials, which are called 'code bits'. They come from two sources - dropped by enemies that you beat up or decompiled from items that you acquire (generally by beating up enemies). You can sometimes buy code bits cheaply from the market. In general, I found everything but 'Code Bit 3' to be very plentiful. To build up my library, I'd take missions and then ransack every mission location - most of them had multiple boxes, desks and safes that could be opened to retrieve a free item. Dekeing these gave me lots of code bits.

Decompiling is simple - open your inventory, click on the item you want to deke, and then click on the button/press the hotkey for your decompiler tool. If you're lucky, you'll learn the pattern for the item and get a trickle of XP. Once you've learned the pattern, subsequent dekes of the same item type will net you 3-6 code bits.

Once you have enough code bits, click on your code analyzer. This brings up the crafting screen. On the left is a list of items you can make, which comes from recipes learned by decompiling in addition to recipes automatically gained by leveling up your 'Write Code' ability. Items are filtered by type and subtype as well as difficulty. Generally, I used my code bits to make higher-level abilities that weren't purchaseable - basically, anything in the Operative or Coder tree not available at the vendors. To do this, you select the item you want to make; on the right hand side, you'll see 4 symbols, indicating which 'fragments' you need to craft the item.

Fragments are basically combinations of basic code bits; if you rightclick on the fragments, you'll be given the option to craft them if you have enough of the requisite code bits; if you lack the code bits for a fragment, it'll be red. I found that by Write Code 6, I could fairly reliably craft most fragments. Once you have all the fragments crafted, you click on the 'write code' button and pray. If you're lucky, the fragments will be combined, you'll get a little xp and the item is placed in your inventory. Yay.

If you lack the pieces for a fragment, you can find out what they are by choosing the 'code fragments' type in the menu, then checking the various submenus.

As a side note, you can 'upload' your code bits and fragments at a hardline so they stop taking up inventory space. You can still use them with 'write code' even if they're not in your inv.

When you write an item (apparel, weapon, etc.), you don't actually get the item; you get a pattern for the item with a set number of charges. The only item I made was the item decompiler tool; I got a pattern with 15 charges. If you have the 'compile items' ability, you can then use an Item Compiler tool to craft these. Patterns, for some reason, must be uploaded into your non-inventory library to be used. Open up your item compiler tool and you'll see a list of all the patterns in your library. You can them attempt to compile them; this uses a charge from the pattern and costs some money. The cost that I found was just slightly less than what I could get for selling the item to the vendor.

That all said, it's a normal recipe-based crafting system with the quirk that you get to craft skills as well as Stuff. After the first few times, it's just as boring as any other MMO crafting system since all you're doing is hunting for raw materials, clicking 'craft' and then sitting on your thumbs while you wait for the system to tell you if you succeeded.

It doesn't really feel like writing code to me; instead it feels more like I'm some kind of futuristic script kiddie copying and pasting sections of working code together in order to achieve some effect. Then again, making it more like writing actual code would be very user-unfriendly when held up against the audience they're aiming for.

Kill-stealing and ninja-looting are non-issues in any properly designed modern MMOG.  And if you consider the ability to thwack (rather than just /ignore) the annoying people to be worth the roving death-squads that WILL form in such a game, well, you're in lonely company.

Ganking is a non-issue in any properly designed modern MMOG. You are ether there to deliver and recive it or you stick to PvP- zones or games. That and there are no "properly designed" MMOG out there - its is ideal that everyone falls short of, some farther from it than others.

Now I'm going to respond with I've seen open PvP. It's not about skill. It's not about challenge. It's about roving gangs of people who are social outcasts that end up destroying the fun factor for anybody but their fellow sociopaths. Sorry if you miss the old UO gank days. Most sane people don't. PvP is fine. Open PvP is nothing but gankville for kiddies. Bite me if you don't like it.

As for the whole "whah whah people can grief in PvE". It happens on such a minor scale as to be barely noticeable. Unlike open pvp which brings out the inner fucktard in all you little pinheads.

Perhaps /dogsniff makes it some obscure pr0n?  Hence the cc check?

LOL. We have our answer. Men literally sniffing after women in the Matrix requires an agecheck.

Riggswolfe have you considered that PvP games might not be for you? UO was poorly implemented PvP game that over time was changed into poorly implemented PvE game. Some people, like me, enjoy sense of danger and challenge of PvP competition and are willing to live with unfortunate consequence of being on receiving end of "roving ganks". Your broad generalizations and name calling like “sociopath” and “social outcast” are laughable at most – gamers are gamers regardless of how they choose to play games. Do you also believe that game violence leads to real life violence?

I prefer the communities/guilds formed under the specter of gank groups to the ub3r raid guilds formed in carebear land.  
I prefer the skill involved in PvP even with target + auto attack combat to the "skill" of PvE encounters...
Why does that make me a kiddie/social outcast/fucktard?

No PvE griefing in well designed modern mmog's?  Lets use WoW as an example:
-monster hording
-chest stealing
-ninja looting
-xp leeching
-farmers
-somebody I healed letting me take their mob + mine and not helping
-rogues dumping aggro w/ vanish

Thats off the top of my head, I can think of several times where somebody did any of these things and I wanted to cut them down but wait! No PvP flag (or in my case, they were alliance).  

  

Well, let's just say I wasn't in line to buy Shadowbane. Hell no. And yes, UO was the one that taught me most of my lessons about open pvp.

PvP in general can be fine. I like it like I like most other things in my games, when and where I want it. Battlegrounds in WoW sound awesome to me. The honor system I have mixed feelings about. (to go back to UO I am not a huge fan of "decay" of abilities/skills/earned points. I am worried that the honor system will be one of those that you go on vacation and lose all your hard earned work. ).

I have no problem with PvP games. I have little problem with PvP Servers. I am a little leery of PvP and PvE mixed on the same servers. WoW may prove to be the one that does it right. In the past though, I've found that PvP leads to more nerfs and other fun little changes than PvE. (for instance, most of the Paladin nerf calls, which btw were all bogus and unfounded, were by PvPers.)

Yes and all those things never happen in open PvP land. Yeah I know "but I can get my testerone kick by killing them. " True. And they can be countered on PvE servers as well usually through brain power. BTW, to my knowledge XP leeching doesn't really happen in WoW with the monster lock feature.

In any case, we're way off topic and deep into derail mode here so there's little further point to this.

In Korea, it does.  :evil:

I'm beginning to think that Korean gamers are nothing more than Urban legends. Either that or Korea breeds more crazy people per capita than any other country on Earth.

Article from the Seattle Times (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/artsentertainment/2002204865_matrixgame14.html) interviewing the story writer for MxO.

Fine, I'm coming over to PK you.

That's either hopelessly moronic or hopelessly naive.

I'm trying to decide which.

So stereotyping is neither moronic or naive? Could have fooled me.

It's not the first part of the sentence I take the issue with - It's the second.

Oh my God, no wonder there's been no new Concrete stories for a while. Why in God's name would such a talented artist/writer want to attach himself to a sinking albatross like the Matrix franchise?

Oh yeah, because comics pay for shit and Warner Bros. likes tossing money around.

On another note, it seems like Monolith patches MxO every day. Could be because it's beta (though I don't recall seeing a beta patched this often), or that's it's crunch time, but I'd like to see them keep this up.

You know what they've been doing -- pumping Warner Bros. movie ads into the scenery. There are ads for Constantine, Batman Begins, and The Jacket plastered everywhere. Last night in one mission there was even a wall poster in an apartment for The Jacket. A few days ago there were only a few ads on several billboards. Now they seem to be in many more places. I don't mind it -- I just notice that after each patch it seems the advertisements increase.

Ads are the new Smith.

Got a notice in my mail from Sega that European launch is April 8th (http://www.thematrixonline-europe.com/), aka. a forthnight after U.S. release. Plz to be telling us how the launch is over there, so we can be prepared.

/sigh

Hmm...Well, at least it isn't Pizza Hut (not yet, at least).

Just wait until it's that stupid fucking Jazz Rabbit or whatever that things name is.

Well at least the 3 movies I mentioned seem to be relevant to the genre/audience. I enjoy the loopy thought that Constantine is advertised in the Matrix Online -- now we know what the machines did wth Neo's body! They turned it into a residual self image of someone named Keanu Reeves. And since machines programmed him, now we know why he acts in the manner he does...my tiny red pill mind just can't take it anymore!!

So now that the beta is over with, is anyone here going to give it their time? I decided to give it a shot and preordered (don't laugh!). Sure, it had some problems, but it was different enough to interest me. Good enough.

Anyways, I guess I'll be in on the 19th. Not sure which server yet.

I've come dangerously close to considering it.  But I know the lag is going to be shit and I'm not sure I can take getting dc'd 4 times trying to finish a mission.

My plan is to wait 2 months and spend that money when I pick it up (if I still want to) to just buy some info since it is so easy to just twink yourself.

I dunno, I really shouldn't but I might.

I'll get on this weekend since I've had a preorder as well. There have to be some major improvements to the server response time for me to want to play more than just my 3-day pre-release window.

Hell, I'm already playing WoW, EQ2, CoH and the GW beta previews, what's another title?

You should get it. Then you can reserve an uber name!

Me? I'm shooting for Neopheus.

edit:
If I read correctly, preorders get an extra free month -- One month with the preorder key, and another when we have to update our accounts with the retail key. Hell, I can deal with lag when the first 2 months are free.

I've bought almost every MMOG to date. I will not be getting MxO, it's simply coming to the market at a time where I will be able to give it zero attention. This week I'm all about finishing collecting stuff in Phantom Dust. Playing Snowblind for the PC and possibly getting Worms Forts for the Xbox. Next week is the PSP, God of War, Shining Tears, DIgital Devil Saga, and Timesplitters: Futureperfect. The week after that is the PC Version of Cold Fear, GT4 (PSP), Obscure, Red Ninja, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, and Y's for the PSP.

This is what is known as Christmas in the Springtime. And between all that stuff, MxO would be coal in my stocking. I may pick it up after they iron out launch problems and any bugs that are found in the first month.

Do we need an MxO forum? Are enough people playing?

Hrm, I'm going to assume "No". I'm not even sure how long I'll be playing. I didn't get to play much yet, so I'm giving it another chance. If people want to keep track on how the game fleshes out, bumping this thread is probably good enough.

If some of us formed a guild later on, I suppose another forum could help. I wouldn't mind representing this place, but not as "Bat Country". "Function 13" sounds just about right  :wink:

I've bought like three over the last five years.  Tell me, did I really miss much?

I've probably missed more. I just got back into single player gaming heavily in the last 2 years.

I gave the idea of playing some serious consideration...  This game would be really fun if it wasn't so obviously half-trash half-interesting so I could put a crew of people who I've game'd with a ton in the past together.  I like that the max clan size is 12, now if I had just been able to find out if anybody ever had a reason to go to the pvp areas..

I've got to admit that I liked the Cyberpunk feel of the game (forget the whole matrix schlock. I just like the fact that it is Cyberpunk instead of goddamn Elves). I liked the quasi turn-based combat. I liked that you can respec your character at any point.

Am I going to buy it? I don't know because I don't exactly have ton of cycles avaiable for gaming. But it certainly is tempting.

Well, if anything in the future is going to be like the final beta event, I'd say there's plenty reason to PvP (that specific event was open pvp though, and had nothing to do the zones...So that probably doesn't answer your question). It felt like Shadowbane again (the good parts, that is).

So anyways, no, there aren't any points, penalties, or rewards for PvP as of yet (I'm not quite sure what it does for "reputation" though), but like Shadowbane, it's proven to be a great storytelling device. In some ways, even better, because the lore/factions really mean something in MxO.

shut up

tell me it sucks and i should not play, please.  I feel the overpowering urge to waste money and gain more insight into what makes games suck...

MxO:
-I hate leveling
-I like their combat system but I haven't used it enough to be sure that it wont be broken by the players
-I HATE games where there are FotM broken templates (ala SB)
-I like pvp but hate pvp-lite

I know that one of those four things will make me sick of the game within 2 months of playing.  So the question becomes is it worth $65 to play a game for 2 months? 

If I had been more involved in beta and had a west coast PvP centric crew I was joining at launch...  yes it would.  But I dont so it really would be better for everyone if I didn't add another level-based game to my list of failed attempts to enjoy dungeon crawl gameplay.  I enjoyed it once with Diablo1, its never going to happen again.

P.S.  Are you sure the free trial comes with an extra free month?  I wont be able to play on the weekend so it would only net me one extra day, but if I get an extra free month thats the best deal I've heard of w/ mmog's.

Considering most single-player games cost between $40-$50 and give you maybe 2 weeks of gameplay, I'd say you're coming out about even, as long as you can login and the client doesn't crash constantly.

In other words, NO.

It sucks and you shouldn't play.

BUT...All I can say is *ahem*....That was the coolest fucking thing I've ever seen in an MMO (honestly). Heh. And I'm not even that big of a fan of the Matrix.

Cooler than watching Morloch destroy my city in Shadowbane  :|.

If there's one thing that gets me stoked more than anything else in an MMOG, it's story driven gameplay. Live events etc.. I want to see what more they have in store, despite some of the problems I'll face. To hell with "rewards", "faction points", "penalities" and the like. If they make a real effort to make the game story driven (pve and pvp wise), where I really want to "believe" in my faction, then I won't be missing those other features very much (though, I admit, that'd be nice as well).


I'm not sure. I can't find the thread now, but somewhere it's mentioned that there's a "preorder" trial in effect for one month (in case of  shipping delays and the like). After that, the retail key (which one should have by that time) will count as another free month.

I'll pre-order today if you can confirm this 2 free month thing.

One of the mods posted this thread:

Preorder Thread (http://thematrixonlineboards.warnerbros.com/newboards/thread.jspa?threadID=2000052713)


It's not much, but that's all I can find atm. It's not a "free month" per se, as it is a "grace period". You might want to check for more on your own.

edit: The only other thing I can suggest is to order from EB, if anything. You'll get your Preorder key instantly. Supposedly Gamestop and some other stores are causing problems for people.

So you get a free month but I'm sure they've designed it to not overlap with the standerd free month??  Wth does that mean.


*add*
I just dont get it, so you enter your pre-order code and can play from the 19th for 33days before you MUST enter your retail code.  When you enter your retail code will it say:  you played 22 grace period days so you get 8free retail month days?  Or will the smart people get 63 days free?

I'm super down for 63 free days of anything, and this is just the kind of excuse to try the game I need for when I'm bitching about how much I hate it 2 months from now.  But really there has to be more documentation somewhere.

OR

Better yet, I can pre-order but return it and still play w/ my pre-order code for 33 days free costing me $0

/shrug

Could be, but it seems to be a non issue with the people on those boards. I haven't found anything that would suggest it'd overlap so far. Sounds like too much trouble as well.

Sheit. I'll even preorder it. This is dumb business.

"What the hell", says I.

I's entered my CC and boughts the game from that there EBGames and nowers I have my purty key thingy.

Hell, I spend more money going out to dinner with my gf than for buying MxO and getting to play for a month.

So, c-ya online this weekend, I'll be Viin most likely.

Of course, one would hope you actually enjoy spending the time with your girlfriend. MxO has no such guarantee.  :evil:

True, but at least with MxO I can just log off and watch TV. If I'm having a less than enjoyable time with my girlfriend she expects us to "discuss" the issue. :roll:

So Vin, did it give you any extra documentation on how the hell this free grace-period month works?  Esp in conjunction with returning the game and the free month that is prob linked to the cd-key or retail key in said box you pre-ordered?

Not specifically; the text on the order page said something like:


And my actual box is suppose to ship on the 22nd. So I would _guess_ that I get to use the preorder key for up to a month and then when I input my retail key (which, I suppose they really want you to put in right when you get it - maybe you don't get the super jump bonus if you don't) I'll get another month, but it doesn't specifically say.

-shrug- Either way, it won't be less than a free month right? Though I bet you could wait up to 30 days (geez, it took forever for my order from EB to get here) and then get another 30 days, but I can't say for sure.

Oh, on the website they consider the preorder key a beta key, so that's why I'm leaning towards the 30 + 30 setup.

I'm thinking of playing on Algorithm or XOR. Preorder launch is 3:00AM EST on the 19th. Not sure about the name I'll be using yet.

One irritating thing about character creation is that the name you choose has to be unique across ALL servers (something to do with your handle functioning as an AIM screen name --- Your handle will be _blank_@thematrixonline.com through AIM). I'll be lucky if I can get any one of the names that I have in mind.

One char per server also, but the skill system is flexible enough that there's no need for multiple chars per server.

THAT explains why it was so hard to get a some of the more "common" names. I didn't realize it was across all servers.

My characters in Beta were Zyxanon and SQLquery. I'll probably go with SQLquery again assuming someone else doesn't nab it.

Also, while I enjoyed some aspects of the game, I really do not think this game is ready for prime time. My release expectations are way low -- but the ability to plug in any combo of skills you want means I don't feel the time spent is useless -- I got a taste of this in the Beta when I wanted to try out Hacking. I was able to move right into it once I could afford the abilities, rather than having to roll a totally new character.

If the .f13 crowd picks a server, I'll look to play on it.

Ok I'm totally pre-ordering because I will suffer for my art...

playing games like this will only increase my knowledge of the things that should be avoided by good games.  Also with absolutely no expectation I might enjoy myself for a good 2 months.  Esp if its free.

Somebody post a server on saturday, I wont be playing till sunday or monday evening.

Also since I enjoy Radiofreezion's hyjinx it might be a good idea to play where their dj's are playing unless they intend to spread over all servers?

I'm confused.

What's this about the game being free?

Do you still have to buy a box? Or just drop 10 bucks on a preorder and play with the beta client for a month?

I'm confused.

I like free stuff, but I can't afford to buy the box if I want to get my PSP next week.

I'm sure that'll be the same across all servers. Algorithm will most likely be the most populated server though, so you can't really go wrong there.

Or, maybe you can. Some may find that "most populated server" is a bad thing. I don't. I kind of want to play there, but if anyone has another preference, I don't mind.

Our new theory is you can pre-order and play for 30-33days...   if you do pick up the box it may be possible to play for another free 30 days making it $50 for 60-63days of playtime which is schway.



More population = better.
a) More people to fight
b) More people to fight
c) More people to group with
d) Its a mmog, wtf is the point if you want to be alone, more people = more massive feeling.

Bigger is better.

Oh and no matter what this game is going to crash all over the goddamn place if the beta was any indication so I dont think server pop will matter.

True, but they do lock servers when they are "full" -- I really hate that.

No, you have to buy the box. It's just that if you preorder, you can use a downloadable client to get in 3 days early (like City of Heroes did). Thing is, people can keep playing after the 3 days are up, in case their shipment (with the retail CD key) hasn't showed up in time. The grace period is one month. After that, you must enter a retail cd key to keep playing (which will then activate the standard free month deal common to all mmog's). At least this is what is assumed.

Heh. Complicated? The reason why they're doing this, I guess, is because Cryptic screwed up with their own "early access if you preorder deal". Many people were locked out of City of Heroes because their shipments didn't arrive in time for the offical launch date. They couldn't reactivate their accounts until the boxes showed up.

Giving away an extra "free month" out of the deal is probably not their intent, but just something they have no workaround for.

So, if I go to EBgames this weekend and preorder, I can start playing immeadiately and for 30days free?

Ok. So in normal speak.

Pay $5 for the preorder.

After using the key, go cancel the preorder, put it on something good.

Keep playing MxO for a month.

Stop playing at the end of the month or go buy the retail version.

Sounds to me like stupid. I like it.

Well shit, I'll go do that tonight, will be a nice change from catassing WoW all day.

Just make sure they give you a preorder cd key. Heh, you might have to shake someone down. I'd preorder over the internet, if you're going to do it at all. That way you'll be sure to get the cd-key in email.

Returning over the internet is too hard. You do this at EBGames where the employees truly don't give a shit.

As do I. I may just cancel early as well. I dunno.

Sounds to me like they thought of the CoH situation at the last minute, didn't want to repeat the mistake, but found it too complicated to have the "grace period" substitute for the standard free month trial. So they said "Fuck it" and now we get two months.

edit:


Hmm..Looks like I have my own "complication" to deal with.

See, I never planned on buying the retail. But with the pre-order I can get a front-row seat to a trainwreck.

That's what we in Maryland call, the shizzle.

Oh, it isn't all horrible. It's just horrible in one vital aspect (maybe that is, in fact, a "trainwreck"?). I'm pretty sure most people here will like the skill and mission systems at least. And like I said earlier, the presentation is really good. The interface I like (some don't). Combat is different, but kind of hit and miss. Could be faster at least. Crafting is crafting. Live events are the shit.

It's the fucking lag that will ruin it (I hope the best for these guys. I really do. Because the rest of the game isn't all that bad).


Nice  :lol:

Hi,

Hate to dissapoint you guys but the pre order key does not give you 30 days grace period plus a free month.  Here is the post on the Matrix Online forums that explains it:

http://thematrixonlineboards.warnerbros.com/newboards/thread.jspa?threadID=2000053308&tstart=0


I thought it might be nice to create an account here just to warn you fine folks.       :-D

Seriously, though,  been lurking here since the site opened, and at Waterthread before that....finally got around to registering.

Thanks for posting.

Nobody shoot! I was mislead. I never said I was "sure" either  :-D.

EDIT: Heh, now there's a "petition to increase grace period" thread:

http://thematrixonlineboards.warnerbros.com/newboards/thread.jspa?threadID=2000053606&tstart=0

Theory: Why the "sudden" decision to change this? Someone lurking at f13 maybe?  :wink:

Well, shit.

Hmmm. Play through the 23rd, eh? So, I play until the evening the PSP comes out. Consider me sold on the grace period idea. Would've liked a month though.

edit: oops..deleted, thought my post was repetitive. Here, I'll put the link back:

http://www.petitiononline.com/mxocd111/petition.html

Sorry, I'm making this thread a mess, aren't I?

Don't really think it's going to help.

Edit: I bet if I posted my avatar they'd take us seriously.

That kid looks a lot like this kid who lives next door to me. I felt compelled to ask if I could borrow his Matrix DVD's tonight...Luckily, he wasn't home.

edit: It was bound to happen. How can one have a game launch fuckup and not have some tard calling out for a class action lawsuit?

http://thematrixonlineboards.warnerbros.com/newboards/thread.jspa?threadID=2000053635&tstart=0

Wow. Those boards are filled with people who might possibly drool more than the WoW fans. I've never seen such a large gathering of idiots. Amazing.

And Monolith should really outlaw those fucking signatures. Ugh.

I was about to say the same thing about the avatar's here...


Anywho, so I've played MxO for a total of .02 hours so far. The installer was funny, showing me images that I assumed were suppose to get me excited about the game but instead just made me say "wtf" as they zipped by at Mach 5.3. Good thing I wasn't expecting a free preview.

Then, after it installed and patched I get this linux login prompt. Wtf! (again). I thought I was playing a game? Did my boss slip me some kind of program that I'm suppose to think is a game but is really me just doing my normal work? Wow. She's slick. It even SSH's me to some super secret server somewhere, the SSSSS.

And after all that it won't even let me login. -sigh- Guess I'll have call the helpdesk for my login and password.. how can they expect you to remember your password when they make you change it every 45 days? Bastards.

....

I don't care what server we plan on, someone just make the decision for me so I don't have to fret.

It's spittle. And he's biting his bottom lip to keep himself from crying about the Fairyland servers being down.

Beta's over man. You can't log in until the 19th (that is, if you preordered).

I know, I was just kidding. But I couldn't resist trying to login just in case one of those dopey programmers forgot to lock people out and had anyone who logged in get GodMode powers. Ah well. I'll try again tomorrow.

Gotcha.

Anyways, how about the Algorithm server? At least I know that one works (relatively speaking, that is). Any objections?

I'm fine with that, though I suppose we might run into problems trying to get everyone else on F13 on that server if they lock it for being full and everyone and their brother wants on that server.. But we could always move to another server if need be.

Oh hey, that one global name thingy, does that include other servers? Ie: can I have a Viin on server A and a Viin on server B or is it locked out even though it's my name?

Nope. Viin on one server only. You can make characters on other servers, but they have to use different names.

You may be right about Algorithm getting locked. How about XOR then?

edit: Btw, the server names, at least so far, are Algorithm, Subroutine, XOR, Parser, and Boolean.

------------------------------

Also, we'd have to decide on alignment eventually. Zion, Machine, or Merovingian.

I'd prefer Merovingian myself.

Zion, well....I suspect too many fanboi's will side with Zion. Nuff said.

Machines are boring.

You guys are getting me excited about this.

Someone post something shitty about it, quick!

Wake me when they create /dev/null, Segmentation Fault, BSOD, Stack Overflow, NOP, Divide by Zero, NAN or NP Complete.

The Agents are comming! kill -9 fucker! kill -9 RIGHT FUCKING NOW!

I so need to get this dumb assed game. Hmm. stackTrace? CoreDump? NullPointer? The possibilities for names are endless.

Not Boolean.


You wont be able to actually finish a mission due to lag outs.


Go online petitions, has one of these ever fucking accomplished anything?


my head hurts...  love that saint patrick

So some of you guys are actually buying this game? I had to admit I have considered it just for the hell of it but I feel dirty for doing so. That and I'd have to drop WoW or COH to do it and I love WoW and feel like COH deserves money just for how hard they work.

I think one of them got Family Guy back on the air. Or was that DVD sales?

Maybe it got Firefly put out on DVD...

Shit, I don't know but one of them did something. I remember a press release about it at tvshowsondvd.com.

I wanted to like WoW, but that style of game is just played out imo. I can't bring myself play another EQ clone, no matter how polished it is. I could say the same for CoH, but the Superhero thing redeems it a bit. I'll stay subscribed probably, and slowly level my characters there.

I'll sub to MxO for a month or two at least. I know it isn't "great", but it is different. I've got money (and time) to waste. I doubt I'll stay subbed, but it's good enough to mess around with at least.

TripleDES, ElGamAl, VoidPointer, StackPointer, FramePointer, Pipeline, Malloc, Alloc, JumpAndSet, JumpReturn, Struct, Union, Assembler, Fwrite, Fread, Enum, SegFault, BSWAP, IRET, LOOPZ, fflush etc..., etc..., etc...

I would rather punish myself with new games that I know have a forcasted 95% chance of suck then punish myself playing the same old boring shit because its the best looking/tasting/smelling same old boring shit on the market.

or

I agree with Stray.

@Schild:
It must have been firefly, because family guy definately got picked back up due to dvd sales that were apparently very high.

Pipeline, Malloc, Loop (as opposed to "LOOPZ"), and Flush are pretty good actually :wink:

DVD Sales. Online petitions really are the equivalent of massive virtual circle jerks.

Like GDC Rant Sessions. HAR-HAR.

LOOPZ is IA32 ASM for LOOP while Zero (really fucking common conditional), its writing to the metal man!  It's actually kinda cool in that it would seem like the name of an asshole but a few people would actually 'get it'.  Only use it as a char name if your really elitest and don't mind being snubbed a lot.

Or you could do LOOPE if you were like a Mexicano hacker toon.

So whats the server choice???

Oh and anyone figure out the good way to get xp?  Preferably one that doesn't involve running up and down so many f'ing staircases.

They changed the server names, I think.


How about Method?

Scratch that. That'll be first on the list. My vote is for Linenoise.

EDIT: Here's a definition of "hostile" servers.

Ooo it sounds like Enumerator is the way to go. More blood!  :evil:

I'll make a toon there at least. I'm not going to try to convince anyone else to go, but if they want to, I'm down with that.

By the description set out there, it sounds more in tune with the storyline/movies.

Btw, I was wrong about the preorder launch times.

It will be 12:00 P.M. Noon PST
 
1:00 P.M. MST
2:00 P.M. CST
3:00 P.M. EST

etc...

Hmm. Ifdef perhaps then. Or sprintf. Or perhaps Iterator of Enumerator.  GODDAMN IT! THIS GAME IS TO GEEK FOR WORDS.

Must resist urge to pickup preorder at lunch..must...resist....

I'll be making Viin on Linenoise but I'll also have a char on Enumerator as well. So hopefully see you guys there! :)

Resist!

Fight with me brotha!

See you all on Linenoise.

I will post my character name once I've secured it.

Lol, I was in the second they opened, and I couldn't get one name on my list. Wtf?  :cry:

edit: Hrm...I'll be in character creation all freakin' day. I've gone through a long list of names (like 30) and they're all taken. It's not like they were all common words either (At least not any I'd expect to be gone within 2 minutes):

Stray
Typo
Rev
Nox
Spire
Axiom
Jammer
etc..

I guess I'll be "xXx-Zegisirdvian-xXx" or something.  :roll:

Btw, you sure you don't want to go to Enumerator, Sobellius?  :-D

I'll create a toon there.

Name on Linenoise is Blackpill Almost level 5.

If this test already started, I guess I won't be playing. I've no time.

/sigh

No wonder. I just read that they kept every name used in beta reserved. That's fucking retarded.

Maybe I'll think of something, maybe I won't. I just spent 2 hours trying to brainstorm a game handle, but I've lost patience for now.

Alrighty, I'm:

 Viin on Linenoise
 AntiAlias on Enumerator

I'll probably play AntiAlias the most, at least intially.

Also, I have these names reserved if anyone wants one: IOFailure, Dereferenced, and Interlaced

NullPointer was taken already. :( Everytime I try to get a name on Method it crashes, grr. IfThenElse and DoWhile seem to be free but I can't get it 'cause Method crashes me.

So, those of you playing. How is it going so far? What do you think of the live game?

Just in case you missed what I mentioned a couple pages back, names have to be unique across ALL servers, not just one. So if someone has "JoeBlow" on Enumerator or Linenoise, you'll never get it on Method.

Also, if you want to keep things "IfThenElse" or "DoWhile" (or whatever), just reserve them on another server. When you know the server you originally wanted to put them isn't crashing, just delete them where they are, and then put them on the new server.

To top it off, all names that have been used in Beta for the past year or so have been reserved. I just don't see the point in that, as I'm sure many of those were just throwaway accounts.

---------------------

Anyways, I'm Origen on Enumerator. Not sure if I'm keeping it or not.

I haven't played at all until today, so I certainly don't know everything that I probably should :P

I took me a bit to figure out how to get new abilities (have to use a hardline/phonebooth to change what abilities you have in memory) so now I'm level 4 with 5-6 more abilities to use. I went through levels 2 and 3 with the noobie abilities but it worked ok.

Combat: eh, sorta of interesting the way they have it set up, but like someone else said, it's kinda slow. I also don't like it because I can never tell when I'm going to die so I can't take a health pill to prevent death.. meaning, I have like 1/4th health left which has lasted me 30 secs already so I figured I have at least 10 more seconds before I die, so now is a good time to take a pill .. but the persons move kills me and you don't know you are dead until after the move is completely finished. Not a huge deal, just need to get use to it.

Movement: crappy. I have a headache from running up stairs with these slightly jerky slightly sluggish controls. I also get annoyed with the camera, since it does it's own thing sometimes and I *always* have to adjust the camera in order to loot something I just killed. Even though AntiAlias is a female, she runs like she has a stick up her ass.

Abilities: Some of the abilities are interesting, but really just Matrix flavors of everything we've seen before. Programing yourself a bot is really charm an animal or conjure a spirit to protect you. HyperJump is useless, at least I've never been able to do anything with it other than go straight up. Virus software are DoTs and can 'infect" other nearby enemies.

Graphics: not too bad, if it weren't for the jerky camera. The matrix view of all the objects after you jack is in pretty cool. Character customization is alright but their randomizer sucks.

Levelling: Levelling is actually pretty fast. It took me 2 hours of goofing around to get to level 4, and would have gone faster if I had done more missions.

Missions: crappy. The waypoint system blows. The missions themselves are easy, but I have no idea why they can't tell you what room the guy is in instead of having to search a whole freakin' house (where, for some reason, all the freakin' doors are closed). The waypoints also sometimes just disappear and leave you wondering what's next then you go all the way up to the top floor and it shows you a waypoint on the 2 second floor that you passed already.

I've not really had any problems with lag, at least not yet.

Anywho, we'll see how it goes for a month. Not too exciting so far.

Characters:
Linenoise - Nullreference
Enumerator - Emergent

Linenoise: Blackpill

Enumerator: Delta88


Live game plays just like Beta. The lower pop server, Linenoise, was smoother overall though. Enumerator is already under medium load and showing the same rubber banding that was present in Beta.

/canceled retail order

I'll be in preorder till the 25th. Maybe I'll change my mind from now to then. It's just hard to trust a company that can't even get the simplest of things right (this applies to a number of things).

What the fuck is wrong with you people? Why not pour some salt in your eyes since you seem to enjoy pain.

Did you nitwits think that somehow, magically, the servers were going to be all of a sudden stable just because they are now releasing? Did you think that they were going to throw the no-lag switch and everything would suddenly be better because now you're in the "preorder" group?

Hmmm. Nothing I read in any of the posts I've seen in this thread up to here indicated anyone expected things to be any different. I recall posting that "what you see in Beta is what you'll see in release". So far, holding true. I'll play the preorder anyway. It's a break from WoW and CoH and EQ2.

The name reservation thing is odd -- they should have wiped all Beta names.

I've got 2 characters up to level 5 today (playing a total of maybe 3-4 hours). The lower levels are a breeze even with the crappy servers/lag. Am set to ally with one of the 3 main factions soon on Linenoise -- not sure which yet.

The lag is only half the problem. There are crashes, minor login problems, and mission bugs as well  :-) And I know I keep saying this, but I don't like whole idea of reserving beta names. It's hard to trust them when they make retarded decisions like that.

Anyways, I still kind of like the game itself, but my patience has worn thin...For tonight at least.

On Enu, name is Elsix...

My firewall/router fucking hates this game...  I get the margin server crash damn near every 30min heh.

Anyways, I'll put those four names on friendslist.

Eh...I changed my name. Sorry. I'm using the new one to troll their boards with (Can't find a better use of the game for the time being. Heh).

Hmm...I guess things are going too bad for them (yet). New servers poppin' up:

Heuristic (Hostile)
Input
Output
Array
Process
Protocol
Recursion

14 servers total so far.

Is their character moving service working? Maybe I should move off Enumerator - laggy!

I have heard people bitching the server's are west coast... I get no lag but still having issues due to router.  Here was their support's latest gem:

"James, There is an available driver update for your video card. I will be forwarding this issue for further investigation. Please attach your updated DxDiag.txt file if this problem remains. Nvidia http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp"

Hrm, we both know I'm having problems w/ my network vrs your netcode..  You make me run dxdiag and then tell me to update my videocard drivers (which are using some cutty drivers intentionally).

Lol, here's a new one:

What's a 455?

l33tspeak for "Ass". I guess  :roll:

Ugh.

Clearly a case of har$%^ment.

Haha.  That is just asinine!

This has got to be one of the most quiet MMO releases.  Even nothing on the Vault boards - so what gives (good, bad, people don't care)?   Also wondering how many are playing (peak populations and # of servers)?

From all I've heard, it's because the game isn't great (no robot neoagent jesus), it's laggy as fuck, and there aren't a lot of people playing it to really evangelize it anywhere. Hell, the best this community could manage was a collective /meh over it, without even enough energy to bemoan the shitty netcode beyond "it's laggy."

Did I summarize well enough?

Sounds good to me.

I wanted to check it out but f13 never ran that beta contest, and I learned my lesson with the EQ2 preorder. I never preorder. Last one I did before EQ2 was Fable and that "game" made me cry. And I simply don't have the money to waste on checking it out. Ah well. There's always WoW, eh? I'll just wear black shades and a latex trenchcoat while playing it, I guess.

The game still has potential. It's not complete crap. But yeah, you guys were wise to wait a while.

What I hate:
-the margin server.  My router hates the fucking thing, they fight and I get disconnected every 20-35min on the dot (took notes last night).
-the sync-ness of it.  Seriously bullet-time isn't that cool but its there and its annoying how I dont see it most of the time.  Oh and dont get me started on dead mobs getting one more round of combat off and generally wasting my time..
-Stairs.  So much time spent going up and down stairs, what the fuck...  oh and elevators, I get that it is an easy way to create a reason for so many damn instances for missions but damn kinda tired of the elevator buttons, each building type should have different buttons or something.

What I might like:
-the game, for 2 months at least, if it worked.

-PvP w/ interlock, the mechanics of the game have the potential of making for quite interesting pvp tactics, can't comment yet though.

-Interlock itself.  Its new and semi-nifty for now I'm mildly amused.

When you preorder, do you sign the receipt with blood or something? Go to EB, preorder, and then return the preorder and keep the goodies and move the $5 onto another game. I've had cycling preorders for the past 3 years or some shit.

Welp I'm done with it.

The good:
-Interlock combat + many paths + relatively complex stat effects + all abilities avail = could be damn interesting GvG at high lvl's.
-On a top notch system I bet the game is damn immpressive to look at, and if you have enough ram and interlock combat stays in sync it prob looks pretty damn amazing.
-The more games that dont have elves the better
-So many character options (there are like 8 shades of purple alone for each clothing type)
-They might not have been bullshitting about the storyline stuff, tonight on my server (enumerator) Agent Gray showed up in game and met with a bunch of the machinist factions which led to a bunch of speculation and shit talking at the main hangout area (mara central).
-RadioFreeZion, makes the community more fun, I like player-run game radio stations very much (they will suck when they sell out, which they will I'm fairly sure)

The bad:
-You prob need 1gb+ DDR ram to enjoy the game (at least it woke me up to taking advantage of current ram prices +2gb of 3500 are looking good to me right now).
-A potential flaw of interlock is the person who hits first can often just go on an unbreakable (or seemingly at lower lvl's w/ less buffs and abilities) combo's and just destroy their opponent, hopefully that gets more complex and interesting as you get better gear and more stat bonus'
-Each weapon type seems to only have one option per level, obviously not as much time was spent on ranged as melee
-Hacker/Patcher ect are just spells with another name, it really is stupid looking and doesnt fit well, just a crutch to include healer, pet class, nuker to a game...
-the story of the matrix is pretty dumb when you think about it, or its brilliant and I should actually watch the 3rd movie and read some of the backround  :roll: none of the factions make much sense to me at all except zion which are just humanist crazy religious psychos...

I'm quitting why?
-Even w/ my computer set up as a DMZ I get dropped every 30min regularly, and shutting down my network for a game is not an option, games should be designed to not quadfuck themselves because people use firewalls/routers..
-I need more RAM
-I still have a tiny sliver of a sliver that FaceOfMankind will pull thru and fix: interface/combatsystem/items/mission reviews and come out smelling like roses... OF DEATH
-There's always another beta of the next big thing...  Each game I whittle down what works and what doesn't in mmog's and refine what I think are aspects to look for and what to avoid.  Oh and bitching them is often more fun then playing them.

This MxO section wasn't really needed. Want to just move the thread back to "PC/Console Gaming"?

Yah, feel free to axe this forum.. I'm returning my unopened MxO box today.

Maybe I'll finally pick up Pirates! or something.