Matrix Online

[sinij]

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.

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.

[Hoax]

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.

[Riggswolfe]

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.

Ideally for 12 year old gankers

[Sobelius]

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.

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.)

[Hoax]

@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.

[sinij]

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.

Ideally for 12 year old gankers

 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.

[Sobelius]

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.

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.

[Yoru]

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.

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.

[WindupAtheist]

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.

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.

[sinij]

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.

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.

[Riggswolfe]

@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.

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.

[MrHat]

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.

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

[Riggswolfe]

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.

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.

[sinij]

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?

[Hoax]

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).  

  

[Riggswolfe]

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?

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.)

[Riggswolfe]

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).  

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.

[HaemishM]

Do you also believe that game violence leads to real life violence?

In Korea, it does. 

[Riggswolfe]

Do you also believe that game violence leads to real life violence?

In Korea, it does. 

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.

[Sobelius]

Article from the Seattle Times interviewing the story writer for MxO.

[sinij]

Do you also believe that game violence leads to real life violence?

In Korea, it does. 

Fine, I'm coming over to PK you.

[Ironwood]

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.

That's either hopelessly moronic or hopelessly naive.

I'm trying to decide which.

[stray]

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

[Ironwood]

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.

[HaemishM]

Article from the Seattle Times interviewing the story writer for MxO.

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.

[stray]

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.

[Sobelius]

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.

[AOFanboi]

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, aka. a forthnight after U.S. release. Plz to be telling us how the launch is over there, so we can be prepared.

[stray]

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.

/sigh

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

[schild]

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.

[Sobelius]

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!!

[stray]

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.

[Hoax]

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.

[Sobelius]

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?

[stray]

I've come dangerously close to considering it.

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

Me? I'm shooting for Neopheus.

edit:

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.

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.