This stays in the Faction.

[Anamodiel]

For those who still play the game, or even still are remotely interested in the game, I have some information for you.

Preface: This information has already been sort of leaked by a close friend of Trucidos who was in LESIG for a brief period of time (but he has since now been booted). While the fact remains that the information has already been posted in the MXO forums for a brief period of time, it is still taboo and is to not be discussed ANYWHERE except in the security of Teamspeak and our forums here until it is officially announced by Walrus in an upcoming Producer's Letter. Rarebit thinks that it will be posted either this week or next week. Either way, this stays in the faction. If anyone finds out that I leaked this to you guys...

Posted on 9/14 on the LESIG Forums by Rarebit:

What follows is a rough and relatively non-sugar-coated version of something I may be posting on the public boards once update 63 has hit Live (that is scheduled for next Thursday). I haven't shown it to anyone else yet... I'll have to show it to Walrus before I post it publicly, but I'm not too worried about being able to bring him around. At the moment you guys are the ones I'm primarily concerned about in relation to this, because not only does this affect you as players, it will have a profound effect on what you do in your capacity as LESIG members.

The short version is that despite the vast amounts of effort that we have all put into pushing the story via live events, and despite the great success of many of these events in their own ways, I am coming to realize--based on what I see in terms of who shows up to events, what their responses are there, what little feedback we get on the forums, how players spend their time in the game, what they say about the game, and where our overall population is going--that events themselves are ultimately unable to make a sufficient impact on enough of our players, and that we need to redirect our energies into methods that will be more fruitful in the long term--and that we'll be able to sustain for the long term.

It's possible that I've only driven myself crazy, and that I'm completely wrong about this, which is also partly why I'm showing it to you guys before I try running it by anyone else.

There are undoubtedly some players--those precious few who follow every day's event, and every week's missions--who will feel what is laid out below as a significant blow, and to those people I don't know that there's anything I can say that will make it better. But I really do think that these changes will, for the great majority of our players, make it much easier and more interesting to follow the story, and to play the game as a whole.

And, as I say at the end, I need a change too. I have been increasingly tired and irritable, and treating people badly--particularly here in LESIG, I'm ashamed to say--for months and months now, and I can't keep doing that.







~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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If feedback is positive, or at least not wholly negative, this far-reaching change to how we do things in MXO could kick in as early as chapter 11.3 (update 64).

Hm, actually, something will have to happen, regardless of whether or not everyone thinks I've gone loco. More and more of late I have felt that our existing format is nearing its limits, and we need a fresh approach to bring the Matrix to our players. I have tried to push the story as far as I have been able using our age-old methods of critical missions and live events, but, although these have helped create a very intricate story, and have been able to involve small groups of players in very individual ways, I think that ultimately these mechanisms are too complicated to have the necessary impact on the player base as a whole, and that we need to move to more direct methods.

This is still only a proposal, and I am flinging it out in order to gauge reaction. You may find it shocking, but please take time to think carefully about what it would mean to you and your fellow players. I will have much more to say about it once the initial dust cloud has subsided.

 

Brace yourselves:

- no more critical missions

- no more daily live events

- existing Cyph/EPN factions keep their tags, but no new Cyph/EPN tags will be given


We continue to update the game every six weeks:

- new (silent & subtitled) hand-drawn cinematic that continues the Matrix story

- Zion(EPN), Machine, Merovingian(Cyph) all-org meeting between players and the story character org leaders:
-- at a date, time (probably ~2:00pm Pacific), and server announced at least two weeks in advance
-- each of the three meetings is on a different server
-- which org meets on which server rotates each update

- new quest that ties directly into the story advancement seen in the cinematic:
-- level 30, 40, 50 reward items for each org
-- org-specific quest rewards, sometimes org-specific goals: you have to be a specific org to get a reward item from an org collector, but you can trade it to a player in a different org later, if you want
-- quests may involve such things as neighborhood-specific missions, outdoor spawns, or opening up a building's floor and populating it with unique NPCs
-- while this new quest content is directly tied into the latest part of the story, it will remain in the game permanently

- all-org party thrown by the Effectuator on one of the three servers, announced at least two weeks in advance


Mission Archives:

- timers on existing chapter FX reward items are extended to five minutes, and re-use timers and activation timers are removed: they still have to be re-activated when their timer runs out, but they can be re-activated immediately

- IS Booster consumable rewarded for completing each set of (5) missions


Forums:

- increased discussion of Matrix story direction with players; with the story coming in cinematics rather than critical missions, we can be much more flexible and open about story developments

- one player from each server elected to maintain official role-player list for that server:
-- lists forum handles (and main per handle, if the name differs) per org (Machine(Cyph), Merovingian, Zion(EPN))
-- nobody is allowed to be on more than one server's list
-- the people in the list are those those who post in the thread asking to be added; asking to be added signifies that the person feels themselves ready and willing to play along with official story characters to continue the Matrix story, if they meet the story characters in the game; this does not mean "hardcore RP" is required, just a willingness and interest to interact with the story characters in a supportive and constructive fashion


Events:

- will occur when and where needed by the story

- story characters will often prefer to seek out those characters registered in the official role-player forum lists, if they can find them jacked-in


LESIG:

- can continue to create and run dev-assisted side stories, write the Sentinel, and so forth

- can continue to play existing liaison characters, but interacting with those characters is no longer a (near) requisite for players to meet Matrix story characters

 

Why?

- existing mission/event format is too complicated for many veteran players to follow easily, not to mention new players

- existing mission/event format does not appear to be sustainable, both in terms of dev time, and size of the game's player base; a change is required to get us to something we feel we can maintain more or less indefinitely

- daily live events take up a disproportionate amount of game dev time for the small number of players they are able to reach, whereas cinematics, quests, and pre-announced gatherings can reach pretty much everyone

- replayable quest content can now relate directly to the Matrix' story

- critical missions and daily live events limit the Matrix' plot to game mechanics; moving it back into cinematics will remove most of the current limitations on where the story can take us

- general player feedback suggests dwindling interest in the existing format

- Rarebit needs a change, too

[NoCry]

erm. am sure something intelligent will follow but for the moment, erm.

[Strod]

Well, I think this change wil be a good one. Sure there are alot of bad things in this change.

However, this may bring some new life into the Matrix Online.

I'm for it in the hope of making the game better.

I will be very sad that hard work and maintaining multiple storylines will now be null and relationships made with LESIG no longer important.

Perhaps this is a change needed to give the game a better direction. Lord knows, the current one is far to .. Vague.

[Manic Velocity]

It was... inevitable.

This change doesn't seem like it's meant to bring anything new and interesting to the game, which is what the game needs.  This change seems more like a means to endure.  This format will obviously be easier for Rarebit to maintain, and it's much more practical considering the current size of the active player base.  Whether it will breathe new life into MxO, I doubt it.

[Anonymous]

It wont breathe shit but more dust through the Mega City. Like Manic said they NEED NEW content! Districts, hideouts, lvls, mobs, guild housing/constructs where our coders can "code the damn thing" and can code things in snazzing it up. Maybe a new class or two.

Personally I think he wants to get rid of all these things he mentioned to speed up the storyline towards the end so he can move onto his next best thing (i.e. playing with himself).

/end rant

[Sared]

I love the Matrix.

I love the people I know through The Matrix.

I don't love the game.

[Tecknik]

Eh.

[Lits]

/engage lifesupport


I agree with Sared

[Anamodiel]

Haha, I was just made aware of this:





It seems The Collective like to leak LESIG schedules. This was also the same person who, apparently, leaked all of this to Trucidos.

-_-

[Tecknik]

You seem surprised, Ana...

[Strod]

Wow. Spy work much?

The funny thing is, his brother was the one who got him in trouble.

Lol, did anyone else notice Demonhax was there then all of a sudden gone? hehe.

[Subb]

This game will get better when Neo shits pigs.


You heard it.


That is all.

[Anamodiel]

This is going Live tomorrow. I would suggest you guys stay away from the MXO forums (if you still go to them) if you don't want to deal with people complaining/flaming/crying/etc.

I'm going to be scared to jack in tomorrow.

[Tbone]

It's gonna be like our economy! Yikes!

[Manic Velocity]

This is going Live tomorrow. I would suggest you guys stay away from the MXO forums (if you still go to them) if you don't want to deal with people complaining/flaming/crying/etc.

I'm going to be scared to jack in tomorrow.

Actually, I probably won't get a scrap of work done at the office tomorrow.  I'll be too busy watching the forums erupt.  

On second thought, I think most people will have seen this coming.  The vets at the very least should by now be accustomed to disappointment.  It's quite possible this announcement will be met with a big yawn.