## Incoming Transmission...
## Walrus // Zion Control
I love the smell of burning chrome in the morning.
Welcome to another day in the Matrix. This afternoon, many of you will be experiencing The Matrix Online for the first time. Please take a moment to review the information available both here and on the beta website before playing today—you’ll be glad you did.
http://thematrixonline.warnerbros.com/web/beta.jspStill Pushing The System
With this latest round of testers, we continue to push our systems even harder. We’re sure to see more server crashes and other load-generated bugs, which is exactly what we’re looking for. (Well, we’d rather not see them, but we prefer to find them now.) Every time we find an issue we have an opportunity to make fixes and optimizations that improve the performance of the game. By the time we have final hardware in place, the code should be running pretty lean and mean.
As always, keep providing bug reports via the /ccr command or ? button while in game and at
http://support.warnerbros.com from outside. Every bit of information counts.
No Patches This Week
As we prepare for the big update on November 10, we’re adding the most recent fixes and changes to that patch. Unless we come across something that requires attention now, the next patch you’ll see will be next week.
QA Update
We’ve got some repeatable crash bugs in the current version of the QA Test server code. Since these are known issues that require fixing to make the game playable, we’ll keep the server down until a working patch is ready. Hopefully we’ll have it available sometime later this week.
Welcome To Gangland
The ops team came by to tell me that they’re increasing gang density in beta. That means you’re going to run into more groups of Exiles while wandering around the City.
Keep in mind that we’re still working on balancing NPCs, so what you run into might be more of a challenge than you’re used to. Also remember that a single NPC that’s normally not a challenge for you becomes much tougher when he’s got buddies.
More Dead-Region Tweaks Coming
We’ll be adding some features to the dead region avoidance code we added. One part is a pop-up that warns you when you run into the boundary of a dead region. We’ll also add some FX to make these collisions a bit more noticeable.
More On Next Week’s Drop
I have to say that one of the joys of working here at Monolith is being able to muck around on the development server and see what the team’s up to. Just wait until you see the revamped UI—it’s purdy.
Among other things, the crew and faction system will be available for external testing for the first time next week. You’ll access it from a new button on the right side of your screen. In it are controls for creating a crew, naming a faction, inviting players into your crew—everything you need. Keep in mind you’ll have to build up a reputation with one of the Organizations before they’ll trust you with your own crew.
For those of you who’ve been around for big updates before, you’ll remember how stunning the changes are from each previous version. You’re not going to be disappointed with this one, either. We’ll be posting full details on the patch on Monday, November 8.
The PvP Cometh
I have just confirmed that there will be three forms of PvP available in the next major update. We’ll reveal the first version in the next newsletter which is slated to go out by the end of the week. If you haven’t signed up for the newsletter yet, make sure you do soon!
http://thematrixonline.warnerbros.com/web/index.jspOn Tuesday, November 9, we’ll be announcing the other two forms of PvP in a special email that will go out to both registered beta testers and folks who’ve signed up for the newsletter.
Tutorial Tweaking
Right now we’re working on bug fixes for the current Tutorial to allow players to complete it successfully. Maybe we can even get your operator to stop bugging you to get your butt in gear.
Between the usability testing and your feedback, we have a ton of input on what Tutorial content needs added or improved. It’s going to take a bit of time to finish that up and it’s a top priority for the team. Keep the feedback coming!
That’s All For Now
We’ve got major information coming out in the next week that I hope you’re all looking forward to. (I know I’m looking forward to revealing it.) In the meantime, I’ll continue talking about what’s going on with The Matrix Online beta test each weekday.
See you on the other side of the Looking Glass.
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