The Other Side of the Looking Glass - 10/21/05

Message Edited by Walrus on 10-21-2005 04:26 PM

Halelujah!!

Message Edited by POwedMxOplayer on 10-21-2005 05:18 PM

Walrus, you rule. I look forward to Halloween in the Matrix.

P.S. Please send The Kings of Never's regards to Andy S. It was awfully cool of him to ask for a private meeting with us, and we're both honored and humbled. Thank you.

Message Edited by Symmetric on 10-21-2005 08:31 PM

Halloween costumes are great and all but I want SUBSTANCE WALRUS
SUBSTANCE! *bleep* Halloween and give us something that is oging to
last more than a week...... give us ship constructs........... give us
a Zion and Machine safe Zone like club Hell........ open up a new
district............. add in melee weapons........
car/motorcycles...........Zen Master/ Trojan................Drunken
Boxing............. New Dungeons.............. a Live Event that
doesn't *bleep*....... There are plenty of more things on the palate
other than Halloween costumes and making it Dark in the Matrix for 24
hours.





/Disappointment

Message Edited by Jove226 on 10-21-2005 05:38 PM

"It’s time for The Matrix Online Halloween Masquerade 2005! This Halloween weekend there will be a little celebration going on in the Mega City and some of your favorite Exiles are coming out to play.

The Trick: Beginning with the patch currently scheduled for Tuesday, October 25, you’ll find Jack-O-Lanterns placed around the city. You can activate them to launch a wave of level-appropriate Exiles to do battle with: Blood-Drinkers, Lupines, Nightmares, and Succubi.

The Treat: These special NPCs will be dropping a treat for those who defeat them—a box that only the people who had the waves spawn on them can open. Inside you’ll find one of a series of Halloween masks that will allow you to change your RSI to that of a Blood-Drinker (Male or Female), Lupine (Male or Female), Nightmare, or Succubus. There is also a rare seventh mask that these Exiles will occasionally drop.

We’ll also be dressing up the hardlines and clubs Halloween-style during the event. Then, for Halloween itself, will give you 24 hours of pure nighttime to celebrate the Masquerade."

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Very cool, Walrus! I'm wondering, was this planned before or after a thread was made about adding in decorations for the holidays? Either way, I am glad the Dev team is adding a little life and some extra content with disguises.

I am also really looking forward to the new Richland in November.

I think this will be really fun. Thank you.

Always nice to see another "The Other Side of the Looking Glass"...



lol, Walrus.. you played the part of Flood nicely.. You may need to
work on telling us to do orders.. Took you atleast 5 minutes to get
everyone to leave the club after the first try :smileytongue:

I was a little dissapointed not seeing one of the wachowskis playing
a role, woulda been real cool to find out afterwards. lol. (...Come to
think about it.. I never hear about them... Think you could persuade
them to use the forums once a month or so? :smileyvery-happy:)



Well, I liked this past event. Felt that LET interaction was lacking, but it was funny to see who was playing who after.



I'm interested in the new npc redesign thing for the slums.. maybe
we'll get some new missions from the contacts! (Any chance on setting
up a reputation with each of them. Because after running a mission from
Anti M. to stop Argon's men... I doubt he would be so keen on hiring me
right off the back.)



Teh Walrus has granted us the knowledge about Halloween weekend,
thus I am very happy. **Male Blooddrinkers** (Maybe club hel will be
open.. hmm..)



Looking forward to next Friday's edition of "The Other Side of the Looking Glass" by Walrus! :smileywink:

This will be the happiest Halloween since I was a kid. And maybe even better. Thanks a lot!

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Insertion wrote:

I was a little dissapointed not seeing one of the wachowskis playing a role, woulda been real cool to find out afterwards. lol. (...Come to think about it.. I never hear about them... Think you could persuade them to use the forums once a month or so? :smileyvery-happy:)

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Glad for some sort of update, we really needed this. Also glad to see the return of Looking Glass.

SWEET!!!  HALLOWEEN!!!  My temporary sig may not be useless after all!  :smileyvery-happy:

Whew, anyway.  I was really hoping for more of a restructuring of the city than this "flow change".  As a player that is nearing level 50, I can go almost anywhere in the city without much difficulty as it is.  An alteration of the way neighbourhood difficulty works is great for new players, but it does nothing for higher levels.  Once the story elements are brought in I guess it might make a difference to all players, but it doesn't sound like that's coming any time soon...

Oh well, I hope these Jack-O-Lanterns aren't too hard to find, because I want a full set of costumes... I wonder if they are going to be transferable between players... and I hope we get to keep them after Halloween is over. 

Wonder what seventh mask is :smileysurprised:

Can't wait!

The Jack O' lantern stuff sounds fun. I wonder if these are lanterns that will respawn or a limited number only? Here's hoping I get my hands on a nightmare disguise as I love those little guys =)

Woot for interactive and rewarding Halloween content! Any chance of replacing the richworld pedestrians with zombies?

Message Edited by manicvelocity on 10-21-2005 07:50 PM

I think the seventh mask is the Assassin, Merv, Persephone, Twin, or "Feed My Frankenstein" or zombie

I think the seventh mask is the Assassin, Merv, Persephone, Twin, or "Feed My Frankenstein" or zombie

Nice update Walrus!



It was cool to see that you were flood...since I was the first on Vector to see you and greet you



Im looking forward to the decorations and the new Slums.  I would
like to remind you of the Zen Master trade in NPC though, because I
have millions of lost info to get back



Anyways, Im very glad to see that you've taken a more active role and
posted everything up there...and plan on doing it more often.  I
cant wait for the next update!

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Chuui wrote:
The Jack O' lantern stuff sounds fun. I wonder if these are lanterns that will respawn or a limited number only? Here's hoping I get my hands on a nightmare disguise as I love those little guys =)

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Yeah I'd like to know this too. cuz if its only spwans once then  it would seem only one person will be getting the 7th mask.

And I'd like to know if we can use this mask all the time or are they like a one time thing.

Yes! This is the kind of information I was hoping for in the Dev journal, and now we're gonna get this every week?! Thanks Sera...ahem...Walrus. It was awesome to see some of the names of the people working to make the Matrix Online what it is. LESIG? 

Message Edited by AmbrielSyntax on 10-21-2005 11:01 PM

Interesting to read who was involved in perform each of the 'LIVE' characters in the event. So Walrus you weren't a one-man-band! I wonder how different the breakdown is compare to the staff that handled Live Event in WBIE day. Dare to compare!

Well even tho Halloween isn't really celebrated here in Australia (we're not a full US clone yet) the 'event' seem quit interesting.

I truely hope it's been really thought about and fully tested on any test server your QA team have. With plenty of Jack-O-Lanterns spawned around Mega City, I meant alot, more the merrier so we aren't all camping limited spots and ruining everyone else fun. Also hope unlike Pandora's Box enemies aren't able to be Ninja Looted and are like Team/Mission specific or even normal kill loot specific.

Rare 7th Mask ... interesting ... Assassin? But oh I want a Nightmare or Succubus mask.

Will the mask's be available for use forever or just during the Halloween 'event'?

Awesome news Walrus!



Hopefully we will get the same come Christmas time.  Snow and Snowmen anyone?

Message Edited by FAOrien on 10-21-2005 10:22 PM

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fluke72 wrote:

 

I know I might be getting ahead of things, but even though some people won't see this as game content, I like the idea, and hope we'll get something like it for christmas, or any other holiday.  another good thing would be to see the city evolve (snow in the winter, leaves falling off trees during fall, less rain during summer...).

after all, if Megacity is a north american town at the turn of the twentieth century, we'd need those, along with halloween and christmas decorations in the store and in the appartements...I know, lot of work for maybe not so much improvement, but I think it might help with the immersion.  I'm not asking you devs to drop everything else for this, just some sort of side project that could be popping up one day.

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Thanks for the update Walrus.  I think the masks sound cool but
thats another 6-7 inventory spots.  With the pbox items and these
masks inventory space is going to be even tighter than it is now. 
Is there anything you guys are working on to solve this?

Looks like I'll have to eat some cake for room for the new disguises.

This looks to be awsome Walrus, are the disguses going to last or are they just going to be for halloween?

Thanks for the news Walrus!



Quick question if you're able to answer, will there be any hotfixes in the next patch or is it strictly for the Halloween event?

Looks like I'll have to eat some cake for room for the new disguises.

Same. Although I doubt it, I really hope these "masks" are decompilable. The Blood drinker/lupine ones don't sound very impressive unless they differ from the existing ones (which I have a feeling that only the opposite gender ones will) so thinking about it, it's actually 4 new disguises that we can be sure to get, and one extra which we probably won't get. I still like the idea though, and I'm looking forward to it.

There is a male Lupine and a female Blooddrinker, but i dont think
there is a Male Blooddrinker and a female Lupine.  As far as
decorating the HL's and clubs that is a major plus for the people that
are having the Halloween parties.  I hope they are considering
making it snow in Mega City when winter and Christmas time rolls around.

All i can say is just "WOW THIS IS JUST AWESOM" its nice to see that something is going on afterall

I, for one, could not be more happy about this Through The Looking Glass. Reading through it, one notices not one, now two, but three important trends
that almost make the actual specific content unimportant. The
developers are very clearly getting a handle of the pulse of the boards
and responding to said pulse, as indicated by the (rather detailed)
implementation of Halloween, the choice to supply dates for near-term
upcoming content (Richland revamp), and the commitment to a weekly
presentation of TTLG.



Some people upthread have complained that this reading lacks
'substance'. I would disagree; no matter what semi-ambigious complaints
about 'content' are made, they'll get nowhere if the design team is
unwilling or unable to implement them. We know now that they're able to
(this being SOE), and more importantly we know they're willing as
they've begun listening to the needs and wants of the community. Smart,
devs, and very well played.



I also think the recognition of helpful and interesting threads is a wonderful, and overlooked, addition in this entry.



The reclamation of MXO continues. Walrus, thanks a million and have a good week!



Best,

Ides

Message Edited by IdesofMarch(S) on 10-22-2005 02:35 AM

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Yeah, I would think the Wachowski's would
at least have RSI's in-game secretly. It's too bad the Brothers aren't
more directly involved with the game. It would be very cool to find out
you were chatting and fighting alongside a Wachowski in an event. Archived image unavailable: 16x16_smiley-very-happy.html

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I've
read from several sources that they (at least at first) played the game
themselves, and I would guess that they're still playing it all the
time (it's not like they can't afford the monthly fee :smileywink:).
They also said they like to keep their identities anonymous, so yes,
it's entirely possible you've fought next to Larry or Andy in one of
the live events. It's also entirely possible that you've strip danced
in front of one of them, which you should probably keep in mind the
next time that idea comes across your mind.

I think I had
something insightful to say about the actual topic at hand, but I can't
remember. I likewise would very much like to know if these masks will
be keepable and useable after Halloween is over. I'd also like to see
some snow come December. I noticed some leaves on the ground this
afternoon, but for all I know, they could've been there five months
ago, so... anyway. It's three in the morning, Walrus, the devs, et al.
are all really awesome, and I'm going to bed now.

EDIT: Ah, I remember now what I was going to say:

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Also
hope unlike Pandora's Box enemies aren't able to be Ninja Looted and
are like Team/Mission specific or even normal kill loot specific.

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Behold:

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These
special NPCs will be dropping a treat for those who defeat them—a box
that only the people who had the waves spawn on them can open.

---

 Sounds like it will be player specific, or team specific at the most.

Message Edited by Stack on 10-22-2005 03:14 AM

Some very good stuff there. Now that PB has been implemented I think
we'll see more of this kind of thing happening. They now have  a
system in place for creating singleton items, NPC swarms and all that
malarky. I'm inteested far more in the trends of the piece, as someone
earlier said, thatn teh specifics in this case.



And on that note, we can see that there is no longer a dedicated LE
team. The fact LEs currently consist of art directors and quality
assurance people doesn't bode particularly well to me.  No
disrespect though,you guys did a great job.

forgive me for saying lets fix buggs first then have fun like sound
loop hyper jump and new trees like data miner *CENSORED* is that get rid and
give us something better lol sounds good but its a show to cover up the
buggs running everywhere an when will they un cap the level almost
everyone is 50 lets move forward please :smileymad:

While Halloween isn´t for us german that important, i think this will be very cool. A nice change in Megacity.

Can´t wait to see how HLs and Clubs are decorated.





dave

Thank you Walrus and Devs! Great stuff

On second thoughts:



I want one of these as the seventh disguise

Thank you Walrus!