Dev Q+A Summary

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Cognoscente: How long have you been with the MxO team HCFrog, and what did you do before this?

HCfrog: I joined the team pretty late - about 4 months before the game shipped. I started out just writing missions but my role has expanded to include a lot more game design type things; gotta say Archon is a pretty cool boss when it comes to that
This is by far the coolest job I've ever had - in fact it's my first game job. Previous jobs included writing tax software and helping dissect dead octopi.

ShadowSK: In Dev Journal 01, Archon mentions much needed updates to the in-game Marketplace:

Marketplace

We are also working on some significant improvements to the Marketplace. The Marketplace should be a great tool for players trying to buy and sell items and the current system needs to be re-tooled. Improvements are focused around expanding the design and fixing broken or user-unfriendly issues. Our goal is to implement an overhauled Marketplace before the end of the year.
As you can see, he says the goal is to have it implemented by the end of this year.
So my question is: How are you progressing with the marketplace and what new features can we expect to see?

rarebit: This is a future release question! Abort! Abort!

bonopi: Whats up with the white hallway with doors...did devs use them during beta or is this something that was planned but never used...

rarebit: Whoa, two questions! To answer the first: they are from the movies! =)

Abigor666: Who is your favorite character from the matrix universe and why?
Btw whoever modeled the new veil rsi owns

rarebit: I'm split on that one. For having fun, the Merovingian: the ultimate bon vivant. For getting deep down into the messy guts of the Matrix, the Oracle.
To answer your non-question (see how sneaky he is?), I pieced Veil together from existing parts--if you look close, you'll probably recognize most of them, but maybe in different colors. Tinting skin in our NPC RSI system is a bit of a pain, which is why only her head is exposed. I took some glory shots of her a month or so ago, but then realized my AA had shut off (darn task-switching on my vid card!) so they were all jaggy. Maybe I'll see if Walrus will let me post them anyway.

bonopi: what are the doors used for?

rarebit: There are proposals on the table for doing something with them, but it is unknown if they will work smoothly. Maybe the QA server will help us with that somewhere down the road. No promises, though.

Abigor666: When choosing the name Enmascarado for one of the masked men. Was there any hidden refference to the zorro series or are my theories wrong?

rarebit: No idea, but if that name occurs there, then probably yes. The old LET team came up with the name, as far as I know.

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jeffers: After the storyline which was written by Paul Chadwick for the first year (about 5/6 months left?) has been completed, is he going to carry on writing the story line or is SOE going to be moving away from that? (Might be a hidden agenda type question though)

HCfrog: Paul is still working with us -- I haven't seen all of his ideas, but from talking with him it sounds like he has at least a rough storyline for a LOT more than the first year

Symmetric: Wiill we ever get to meet Anome in-game? He's my hero.

HCfrog: Yeesh, you should be careful what you ask for, Symmetric. And... uh... possibly.

PBlade: Previously it was mentioned about factors stopping the hiring of a new LET. Can you elaborate?

HCfrog: Basically cost. The LET that we had at launch cost an awful lot of money to support. Everybody make 10 of your friends subscribe to MXO!

Megaritz: Are the devs ever going to fix ignore so it works in area chat again? How am I supposed to properly ignore that guy who says stupid stuff, and that other guy who says stupid stuff without ignore working properly?

HCfrog: Good question! I honestly don't know... and I am staying home sick from work today spamming the forums so I can't check Your concern about that one guy has been noted though.

FAOrien: Will we get new clothing and weapons?

HCfrog: Okay: The CR is going to change a LOT of things in the game. For one thing, all of the numbers that affect things are changing... so all of the old enhanced items don't make sense any more. One of our technical designers is going to be changing the buffs on every single enhanced item in the game... which adds up to something like 14,000 items I believe. It might be more, I can't rememeber off the top of my froggy head. But basically, all of the existing stuff is going to act differently.

Another thing that is changing is what contributes to your overall combat roll. I'm not too clear on it, but I believe that clothing and items will become a bit less important, and attributes, fighting styles, and abilities will become more important.

Finally, the whole slums reflow brought to light a big issue with our buffed items. Is there any other game out there where a level 50 character is using an item from a level 5 special quest? Despite the insane number of items we have, there are obviously some gaps in mid-high level items. I personally would like to see the drops stay the way they are, to discourage high level players from camping low level bosses, but then add some better high level loot so those level 50s don't have to be pining away for their noob gear.

bonopi: how is the future of MxO's lag problem?

HCfrog: Future question plus I don't know!!! *gong*

stuporfluous: how feasible are the ideas posted in this thread about system and nonsystem mission trigger item emails?

a few of the specific ideas:
* the system set up to automatically email ppl certain mission trigger items (a la pandora's box items)
* the system set up to track which triggered missions u have already completed
* the system set up to automatically email ppl certain mission trigger items when particular flags have been tripped and to similarly exclude the possibility of other emailing of other mission trigger items (with a mind towards making exquisitely complex neighborhood contact mission subplots)
* er, this doesn't really condense well. other posters on the thread suggested really great ideas too.

HCfrog: The feasibility goes down as you get further down the list.
The first point seems pretty feasible.
The second point is doable but would take more work.
The third point, while a cool idea, looks like it might become a prohibitive amount of work as it became more "exquisitely complex".
The fourth point is INSANE

Overall I think it would be a cool use of the email system to further immerse players into the MXO universe.

Stack:: Will gamecards be reissued/reactivated?

HCfrog: Stuff with game cards and whatnot is totally not in our hands. All of the billing issues are always corporate -- so if there are game cards that work for other SOE games, they'll work with ours, and beyond that, I haven't a clue.

DeBarlo: Prior to release there was an article or interview that mentioned crew constructs and hovercrafts. I recall a comment about hovercrafts being upgradable to provide some sort of buff for the entire crew. Has this idea been shelved or is it still a possible future implementation?

HCfrog: This pretty much falls under the future content clause, however I have to stress that even if something has been shelved, it's still always a possible future implementation.

PhanthomZtryker: What's with the glitchy ads?

HCfrog: Do you mean how they have some Z-fighting issues on some video cards? That's a bug. I believe it's being fixed very soon.

[continued]

cloudwol: Are you devs aware of the easily feasible and great outfit shell idea?

HCfrog: Yes, at least I'm aware of it. I think it probably isn't quite as easily feasible as you might hope, though.

Oh and since it's related -- it's true that clothing isn't being completely nerfed. I am not totally in on exactly what the CR is doing, since I'm busy on other things, but my impression is this:

Say you have a fight between two people, they're both Aikido Grandmasters. One of them is really good at the game, loves to PvP all the time, has all their points in perception, but is naked. The other one has all the uber clothes on, but just got all of their Aikido stuff, and in fact leveled to 50 using Data Miner, and all their points are in Reason.

With the existing combat system, I suspect it would be more of an even fight, because clothing can really add a lot to your rolls, plus add a ton of health regen, IS regen, etc. Actually if the second person was that much of a noob, they'd probably lose no matter what. But you see where I'm going - the clothes really matter a lot.

In the new system, I think it's going to be a lot different. Primarily the attributes are going to affect a lot more. It won't be any more "put all your points into perception if you're MA", but the person with a good MA attribute build will have a big advantage over a person with a good, say, hacker build. So probably no matter what the second person wears, the first person will now have a bigger advantage.

Of course when it comes down to two people who both have a good MA build and both really know how to fight, the clothing might still be the deciding factor.

And keep in mind, all of this is coming from someone who's not entirely in the loop, just my impression from hearing about it

DeBarlo:  Funny you should bring up data miner. I was just thinking data mining needs a revamp. It's a feature that not many players use. What about adding occassional code bit drops from mining or even acquiring storyline documents (while mining the floating feast you pick up on an important email)?

HCfrog: I would love to revamp data miner. That's all I have to say about that.

PhanthomZtryker: Can we get confirmaton if we are going to have a holiday event?

HCfrog: Please see leading, hint-laden post by Walrus.

CooliceT: how would i get a job like yours? 

HCfrog: Are you referring to this thread?

If so... I think there are a lot of cool ideas.

Some of them, like the thing about having rep with certain contacts or factions of contacts, would be kind of tricky. In addition to that, it would be against the original design of the neighborhood contacts. The design was always from the beginning, that your work with the Orgs would affect rep, while the neighborhood contacts were bonus material and anyone could play through all of it, regardless of what the story implications are. And quite frankly, I like that... the more neighborhood contact missions you play, the less assassination missions you grind

I really like the idea of breadcrumbing people around the city to the different contacts. When I get a chance, I'm going to see if I can make an item that adds a waypoint on your map.

Also, I don't know that anybody mentioned this, but if each of the neighborhood contacts gave out a unique buffed item at the end, maybe we could fill in the item gaps, as well as provide an extra incentive to play the neighborhood missions.

To make a long story short (too late!) I think using email in ways to promote the story, and to spread content more, is a very good thing.

And tell me if I read the wrong thread

umm.. one word, brilliant! i didnt want to have to read that whole thread , thanks

TY

Excellent summation, appreciate it!

I'll try and keep in track with the questions as the thread grows - see if we can stop people having to read through 500+posts :smileyvery-happy:

Oh my thank you so much

I agree, more cowbell with bring back that matrixy feeling that's been lost along the way.

Nice thread makes it easier to navigate all the questians

CloudWolf: Nope frog, i was referring to this thread...

http://mxoboards.station.sony.com/matrix/board/message?board.id=general&message.id=44299

i have made a quick run down of all the good ideas on the last page i do believe...

WHY OH WHY CANT WE AT LEAST HAVE AN OUTBOX?!

HCfrog: Okay, so I finally read the correct email thread. I gotta echo Walrus -- some great ideas in there, but our schedulis jam packed. And thanks Walrus for the screenshot!

Oh and V for Vendetta is sooooooo O/T... so... there was a question about redoing or otherwise revisiting old critical mission content. We're not supposed to address future content... but... next patch isn't so far into the future... uh... okay someone ask another question.

Abigor666: I know attribute revamp hacks are classified as singletons at this time if the players that decided to save theirs for the revamp don’t use it before the new one is sent out will it not stack for us?

HCfrog: I don't think it will; however, I think there are plans to make revamp hacks a little more readily available on the test server, so we can get better coverage of how the new attributes work.

Bonopi: whats the spy tree going to be used for in combat in  CU 2.0

HCfrog: Good question. I really don't know, but I want to open the thread up for more questions. I'm home sick again or I would pop over and ask Archon about this -- I know that we talked about this, with no multi-on-one IL, what does a spy do? But I don't know how it's being resolved.

I can assure you though, everybody here would like spies to be a little better, i.e. make it a tree that you could level all the way from 2 and have fun even if you aren't teaming with other people.

Bonopi: what are your thoughts on the dye fragments for clothing...

HCfrog: It would be really cool. And, pretty unfeasible given the system we have. Basically, in order to be able to dye stuff, say, 16 different colors, we would have to expand the size of the clothing database by 16 and make 16 copies of every single item in there, which our database just wouldn't support. I also really like the idea someone else had for stripping the buffs from a piece of clothing and putting it on another one, but that wouldn't be doable for the same reason.

I do have an idea to alleviate the cookie cutter level 50's however, but I'll post more about that on a separate thread sometime in the near future

Zimb: What do you think about this?

I know your schedule is packed, just wondering if it's feasible in the future.

HCfrog: Looks like an interesting idea and you obviously put a lot of thought and time into it. I have to say, though, I personally have the same reservations as some of the people who replied. The orgs in the game are an integral part of the storyline and the fiction of the Matrix. There would be no way to have critical missions for those new orgs. And the system you've presented for player-created standard missions is a pretty cool and novel idea, but I think it would be way more intense to implement than you might suspect.

Bonopi: why hasn't the website been updated since SOE took over?

HCfrog:  I don't know, we (the devs) have very little to do with the website. My personal belief is that the website is powered by squirrels on a treadmill, and someone forgot to oil a gear somewhere, or something of a similarly advanced technical nature.

Stuporflous: in general, what's the best way to submit these totally awesome ideas everyone gets about how mxo could be better? (ie is posting on the general boards better than submitting some kind of email or /feedback or vice-versa) (apart from sneakily posting them in question form on this thread of course)

HCfrog: I think the best way is probably posting ideas on the general boards. That way the rest of the community can look at the idea and comment on it, get everyone thinking, and maybe the idea could be refined before we ever get a chance to look at it. Sending an email or /feedback or something, it's so closed off from the community; people might be sending 100 different versions of the same thing and not know it.

Anyhow though, even before I got this dev account, I did a lot of reading on these forums and there are some great ideas you guys come up with.

Tseng: any chance of making the fly virus imunity work against the assasin mask's coruption pulse?

HCfrog: Hmmm, very interesting question! That's a good one... I suppose yes, there is a chance.

Roukan: Wrong copy paste... In the QA are you guys gonna add more buffs for attributes?

HCfrog: There might be buffs added later on, but when the QA server first comes out, there won't be any new buffs. The team is working like... things that work really hard, just to get it up and going for you guys.

Stuporflous:since the matrix started, has there been any secret content that v few ppl have found? ie stuff devs have stuck in and most ppl still don't know about? i ask mainly because i love secret content that v few ppl find. even more if i'm one of the few!

HCfrog: Hmmm... well I'm sure you've been in the secret DT club since the matrix started, has there been any secret content that v few ppl have found? ie stuff devs have stuck in and most ppl still don't know about? i ask mainly because i love secret content that v few ppl find. even more if i'm one of the few! by now... do you think there's any more stuff like that hidden around the Matrix? Actually I'm not sure, there might be some new puzzles in the game already that people haven't noticed yet...

Bonopi:  are you guys planning on introducing anything to support player events more?
eg. like submitting events to have characters make appearences with?

HCfrog: Well I think we'd like to use the LESIG to support player events more, that's for sure. A lot of things are up in the air about what we're going to implement. If only there were some sort of team formed by players, to support player events... like a... a Player Event Squad! Or something... nah

But seriously, it is super cool when you guys do something like the PET or the Devil's Advocates event calendar for Recursion. I've got both of those pages bookmarked at work

Debarlo: Will there be any sort of revamp of the Archives? They've pretty much lost their purpose and most people tend to fight over Mara Central instead, but if perhaps there was some sort of important artifact there for players to battle over that was significant to the Matrix (and the storyline) it would lead players back there. Heck, put some secrets in there, too.

HCfrog: Good question, but that's really a future content thing. However there is something I would like to know. Anybody who can give me feedback on this, please PM me to keep this thread uncluttered

Exactly how hard are the Archive bosses? How many people does it take to bring them down? Please PM me your answers.

00zero: are ya'll going to be adding any more neighborhood contact mission sets any time soon?

HCfrog: Future content question! *gong*

Message Edited by cloudwol on 12-17-200501:33 AM

Message Edited by cloudwol on 12-17-2005 01:33 AM

Excellent thread. Thank you for compiling all the questions and answers.