Ask the devs an MXO question

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T0XIC wrote:

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HCFrog wrote:

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Insertion wrote:
Why is it that a month old level 50 player who just got the game should be as good as a level 50 veteran player since day 1?

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Hmm... well one question would be, are they really as good as the veteran? I would think the veteran would have mad skillz to throw around. Maybe with the combat revision this will be more true, as combat seems like it will be a little more nuanced (swapping styles in mid-fight to get different bonuses, etc).

Anyhow though, look at it from the opposite perspective. Say there was something in place that made veteran players better somehow, and you're a new player who's just made it to level 10. You look around you and realize that there are people who, just because they have been here longer, are always going to be better than you and there's nothing you can do to close the gap, even once you hit 50. I personally would quit right there, 'cause what's the point?

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Thats a very good point HCFrog....

So what exactly is your thoughts about the CT buffs on the Assassin mask?

Wouldn't that go along your lines of being unfair?!?!?

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Uhm, I get beat 50% of the time all the time, Assassin Mask buffs or not. The game's rolls are uber random, and while the Mask does seem to give me the upper hand in very tight situations (where I'm about to die), I either never take a hit or never GET a hit in, no matter what I do.

Let's consider the fact that I'm blinded. Blind is a -30 CT ailment. The mask gives me 5 CT.

If you can't beat someone with an Assassin mask, you're not compensating enough. It's all very simple.

Message Edited by ThePigeonKing on 12-18-2005 07:57 PM

Ok I am not sure this was asked or answered yet but are the reworked clothes or at least some of the reworked clothes going to be available on the QA server with the CR2?

If someone would be so kind, my question is,
Would it be difficult to implement a /frags command that would work like /bits?
I'll have to depend on the kindness of the community to ask this, cause I'll prob never catch this thread right after a dev posts.

Thanks

ah good one zavin, lets push for it people!

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ThePigeonKing wrote:

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T0XIC wrote:

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HCFrog wrote:

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Insertion wrote:
Why is it that a month old level 50 player who just got the game should be as good as a level 50 veteran player since day 1?

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Hmm... well one question would be, are they really as good as the veteran? I would think the veteran would have mad skillz to throw around. Maybe with the combat revision this will be more true, as combat seems like it will be a little more nuanced (swapping styles in mid-fight to get different bonuses, etc).

Anyhow though, look at it from the opposite perspective. Say there was something in place that made veteran players better somehow, and you're a new player who's just made it to level 10. You look around you and realize that there are people who, just because they have been here longer, are always going to be better than you and there's nothing you can do to close the gap, even once you hit 50. I personally would quit right there, 'cause what's the point?

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Thats a very good point HCFrog....

So what exactly is your thoughts about the CT buffs on the Assassin mask?

Wouldn't that go along your lines of being unfair?!?!?

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Uhm, I get beat 50% of the time all the time, Assassin Mask buffs or not. The game's rolls are uber random, and while the Mask does seem to give me the upper hand in very tight situations (where I'm about to die), I either never take a hit or never GET a hit in, no matter what I do.

Let's consider the fact that I'm blinded. Blind is a -30 CT ailment. The mask gives me 5 CT.

If you can't beat someone with an Assassin mask, you're not compensating enough. It's all very simple.

Message Edited by ThePigeonKing on 12-18-200507:57 PM

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The Assassin mask gives the one that's wearing it 5pts to Combat Tactics, and when in a battle or duel most of the time they will activate the mask's corrupt thingy which gives the fly virus to enemy's near by which knocks 5 pts of CT off of them so in total that's a 10 pt combat tactic advantage,

Its sad to say but just about everyone that got that mask weren't even good in battles...expect one person which is getting full use of that mask.

And yeah the combat rolls are uber random inless you know what tree to use....I'll just say there's a lot of people on my server that can roll in the 400's and one of those people have this mask. :p

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mock0 wrote:

Will you make the lvl system higher sense alot of people are lvl 5- mor ethen ever now

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Getting in more level 50 content, particularly clothing items, is hopefully going to be something we can set at a high priority after the combat update and anniversary event are all wrapped up. But raising the level cap itself is not something that's on the horizon yet.

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HCFrog wrote:
Okay since that last
question seems to have been answered, I want to clear up a
misconception that rare apparently caused. Maybe he didn't know any
better. But I think WE all know that

biscuits < waffles < pirate biscuits < NINJA WAFFLES !!!

Ninja waffles destroy everything else, there's no two ways about it.

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Excellent ... Frog I think you may find this interesting

http://www.followthewaffle.com/



True enlightenment is but a step away, if you can find the Ninja Waffle.



[EDIT]

Huh, why is my sig not working :-/

Message Edited by [CoZ]LostProphet on 12-19-2005 08:42 AM

[EDIT]

Now it is?! OMG SPOILTS

Message Edited by [CoZ]LostProphet on 12-19-2005 08:45 AM

why isnt there a collector for the zen master stuff yet?   Back when
this tree was accidentally released, a lot of us code it and leveled it
to 50.  Then it was removed from the game and we were told collectors
would be in place where we could trade these abilities in and get our
money back. Will we ever see these collectors?  Or will these abilities
be activated for use later?

why isnt there a collector for the zen master stuff yet?   Back when
this tree was accidentally released, a lot of us code it and leveled it
to 50.  Then it was removed from the game and we were told collectors
would be in place where we could trade these abilities in and get our
money back. Will we ever see these collectors?

when will we not see "Content is currently being updated." on the main website....

On another thread, the question of the "box of valuables" came up.  What are they for?

They are there to sell so you can get info. It has always been like that.

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RainKingX wrote:

On another thread, the question of the "box of valuables" came up.  What are they for?

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   Are those still in the game?  I haven't seen them in ages.

How goes the progress on Citadel Coder and Trojan Horse thingy? I
haven't heard anything about since it's initial conceptual announcement.

Will there ever bee breakable windows in the matrix?



Will we ever be able to throw people off a cliff of a building?



will zen master ever come back?

^ will you ever stop asking Future Reference questions L0L

Hey Plz answer this question lol do you guys have a live events schedule i know that last one you guys got rid of but does do you guys have a schedule and if soo think you can post it here.

If you guys don't have a schedule for live events will you be getting one

Yea i figured that out after i posted but thanks lol

Be prepared, for this is the question that i'm going to try to ask, i've always been curious on this point:



Are the pedestrians just animations or real NPC's? If you get what i mean...

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Dupz wrote:
Rarebit, any comments on the Hacker Style ability? Lots of talk about it going on

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Sounds like it was an interesting day. =P

   I've been curious about this since the LET characters started showing up back in late beta.  I know you guys can assume the identity of movie characters and MxO storyline characters using LET tools.  But I've always wondered, can you assume the identities of other characters, like the neighborhood contacts?

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Othinn1 wrote:

I've been curious about this since the LET characters started showing up back in late beta. I know you guys can assume the identity of movie characters and MxO storyline characters using LET tools. But I've always wondered, can you assume the identities of other characters, like the neighborhood contacts?

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In theory, yes, but there's a little character database magic that has to happen with each account we make for us to get the right names showing over our heads.

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Bayamo wrote:
What org would each dev choose?

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Well, I don't want to answer for the others, but my main character stays org-less and just dances in the street.

I do have an alt who went Zion, but that was just because I wanted to play my own critical missions.

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Bayamo wrote:

Do the devs that play LE characters have any "dibs" on characters, i.e Walrus always gets to play Seraph or something like that?

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Well, Walrus gets to play whoever he wants, but otherwise no, it's open season.

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Erace wrote:

why do people post questions knowing there not the first one so most likely there not gonig to get answered but they do it anyway ?

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I figure they probably didn't bother reading the rules.

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Bayamo wrote:

If there's an extensive character creation engine in which you may take pieces of various models, modify them, and add them together to form new models - then why isn't this available in the live game, which would vastly improve the diversity between RSIs?

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That's a good question. There are a variety of reasons for this, and I don't even know all of them. But here are some (as far as I understand them):



- The system we use for making custom RSIs is pretty raw. It involves two separate tools, one of which takes for-freakin'-ever to load up. They're fairly powerful, since we can pick and choose from any pieces, renderstyles, and textures we want, but it's very easy to make a mistake while doing that, or when fiddling around with the pre-compiled ASCII versions of the character description files to make those little extra tweaks that the tools don't quite allow. It takes a while to learn how to do all of this reliably. Skin tone tinting in particular is incredibly laborious. I've done stuff like stick a large female's right hand on a small male body by accident, and the results from things like that aren't pretty. Now just imagine happens when rascally players start doing even worse things on purpose. Remember what happened to the Architect's second version of the Matrix. 8o



- This system results in new resource files for the custom RSIs. We get these to you in patches. It wouldn't be practical to have players constructing their own custom parts, because they would exist only on your machine, so other players coming in range of your character would have to download your character's new resource files over the internet on the fly. This simply wouldn't work out in actual gameplay; you wouldn't be able to download a new character's resource files quickly enough.



- The component system used for normal character RSIs allows you to mix and match clothing pieces together whenever you want, like when your character puts on a new jacket, but retains their old pants. Can't do that at all with a custom RSI.

Message Edited by Rarebit on 12-20-2005 07:48 PM

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Archange1 wrote:

why dont we have zen master collectors yet?

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I don't know. That's Archon's bag, and I don't question the mighty Archon.

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FAOrien wrote:
What do you think about the bank idea I posted?

The Bank Idea

Message Edited by FAOrien on 12-21-2005 01:44 AM

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Haha! You're trying to get me to disqualify your post by editing it! But I saw it before you edited it, so nyah! And then I did all the hard work and found the linky myself.

Anyway, it sounds like something that would be really useful for all you packrats. I would say, though, that having to go to an actual bank might be a little inconvenient, 'cause I don't know if there are really all that many of them throughout the whole city.

But if it was in a real bank, then every time you use it, it should make a big "KA-CHING!" sound. That would be cool.

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ShadowSK wrote:
What's the best part about designing missions?

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Writing the dialog can be a lot of fun, depending on which character it is. It's also pretty satisfying when we manage to come up with something that players won't have seen before, and that we think they'll get a kick out of.

Ooh but come to that, the best part is when we see quotes, screenshots and summaries of them posted on the forums, 'cause then we know that someone is actually enjoying the stuff we worked on.

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Warboy090 wrote:
Is this the little "tool" your talking about rarebit?



**EDIT**
thats what makes your RSI look like the characters?

Message Edited by Warboy090 on 12-21-2005 02:53 AM

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You people and your edits! You're really trying me here, aren't you? What would civilization come to if everyone was always breaking rules shamelessly like this? Oh, the humanity!

Anyway yeah, that's a disguise tool, and they make you disguised. The live event story characters have special disguise tools that give them their unique RSI.

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Warboy090 wrote:
Rarebit, do we need to break out the "google" ?

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Wh-at? The forum didn't break? But we went over 1000 posts... Dang. Maybe we'll have to shoot for 10,000.

Anyway, I wouldn't suggest googling for Rarebit. You don't want to see some of those pictures. People do bad things with broiled cheese sometimes.

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Chuui wrote:
Hypothetical question time! If you could revamp the standard mission system, what would you do to it?

(It's hypothetical so none of that future release gong stuff!)

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I would make it able to spawn off instanced areas (accessed through white hallways, maybe!), and able to spawn stuff outdoors, not just indoors.

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Chuui wrote:
able to spawn stuff outdoors

Now that's something I'd love. I guess the current set up makes spawning anything more than 1 or 2 attackers outside impossible without using Pandora box mechanics?

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Hey! You must run missions a lot of something.

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Chuui wrote:
Yes I do =) I've run perhaps over 10,000 now. In fact, if I were to PM you some ideas, would you mind (I realise of course they stand a very low chance of ever going anywhere)?

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Eh, you should probably just post ideas in the Missions and Storyline forum, we read that one. (And then I can disavow having read it if the law comes for me later!)

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{SoG}Esky wrote:
Is there any word on when DN1 will be fully updated? With the side nav-menu and all its sublinks pointing to stuff, or is this going to get the "stamp o' future release?"



Thanks

Probably been asked already...sorry if that's the case =/

Message Edited by {SoG}Esky on 12-21-2005 03:02 AM

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I think it was asked, and I said something like web site design stuff is handled by SOE's group, not the MXO dev team, so we don't really know. But you edited your post, so that disqualifies your question! =[

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QforQ wrote:
You said that you werent that busy as of late(you and frog actually) and thats why you've been able to post and stuff....So with everyone busy with the CU 2.0, does everyone envy you right about now? haha

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Nahhh... They probably think I'm kinda weird for spending perfectly good vacation time playing on the forums.

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FAOrien wrote:
Are there new districts planned?

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Planned... as in, the future. I don't think I can talk about the future. That's where old age comes from.

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Inthebackground wrote:
What do you think about the whole question of the Matrix and the Laws of Thermodynamics

see here for more detail

http://mxoboards.station.sony.com/matrix/board/message?board.id=universe&message.id=2127

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I think that's an excellent point. Not that any of us designers would ever have thought about why someone may be keeping humans around in pods. No, no, we leave that kind of thing to people who are good at maths and stuff.

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Megaritz wrote:
Why animals? Walrus, Penguin, Rarebit, HCFrog, Archon(blue glowing protoss creature)...

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Bah! Rarebit is not an animal! Rarebit is broiled cheese on toast! *shakes cheese tentacle*

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QforQ wrote:

Can you take a picture of yourself, walrus, archon, frog, and the others wearing the party hats and confetti going off? (Note, Picture must be one made in real life, in seattle, and real)

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No-oooo... *backs slowly away*



There was a funny picture of me (those WB web guys are quite the practical jokers) on the old old WB Matrix site with the white background, but I'm sure nobody cached that or anything.



EDIT: Post #1000! Woo-hoo! You all got pwn3d! /giggle

Message Edited by Rarebit on 12-21-2005 12:25 AM

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Abigor666 wrote:
Can you make the suburbia district which is populated by lvl 65 soccer moms lvl 70 little league dads and instead of subways have a car pool?

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I don't know about that. All the soccer moms I've known have been higher level than the little league dads. So it could be tough.

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Abigor666 wrote:
Who wrote the new critical missions?

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Let's see, I think I did the Zion ones, and Frog did the Merovingian ones, and we fought over the Machine missions (Frog used Ninja Waffles, but I was able to counter with Buttered Toast), and ended up alternating them.

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QforQ wrote:
For people interested in the gaming industry or more specific, your kind of job, what do you suggest people do education wise(besides having a good portfolio)?

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That's a little hard to say, as my "game designer" title is pretty generic. I had a liberal arts education, which helped with communication and writing skills, which are really important to this job. Aside from that, I'm not too sure. I know, or have heard of, game design schools, but I think if I were hiring somebody for this kind of role, I'd prefer to see that they had a B.A. from some accredited liberal arts college or university rather than a "Game Design" certificate from some kind of specialist school.

Not that you need a college degree to get a job as a game designer, but it helps, especially if you're going for that right off the bat. Mine didn't help me so much as far as my resume went, because I got hired on in the trenches of QA at Monolith, and didn't figure out how to shift over to the design side of things there until I'd spent two years as a QA tester and three as a QA lead.

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Dissever wrote:

Has the storyline about dire lupines and the Effectuator gone cold? I was looking forward to following that up.

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Well, not exactly. They're still around. But the focus shifts, especially when you're dealing with the Merovingian, who has so many interesting characters in his organization. Also, Paul likes to have a lot of irons in the fire, and switches among them to keep people on their toes.

Message Edited by Rarebit on 12-21-2005 03:04 AM

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KivoOnline wrote:

I am a little concerned about something that was mentioned in Archon's post. It said that there were 8 styles: Self Defense, Viral, Karate, Aikido, Kung Fu, Hand Guns, Rifles, and SMGs. While this would at first sound great I am worried about the Hacker "balance."
A Kung Fu Grandmaster would rely on Kung Fu Tactics, correct? Now, if that Kung Fu guy branched into Karate, their Karate moves would be based on their Karate tactics alone, not on the cumulative Kung Fu and Karate Tactics. However, the same does not apply for Hacker. There is only one style for them, Viral. I think that hackers will have the same imbalance because they can still score so high. If I am wrong about this please correct me.
I propose two options. One, get rid of Viral tactics and turn it into network hacker, selective phage, and pathologist tactics. This would balance it out with the Martial Arts and Gunman trees. Or, you could get rid of the Kung Fu, Karate, etc. and replace those with Martial Arts Tactics and Gunman Tactics.
What do you think of my ideas and am I correct about this imbalance?

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I think it's a little early yet to say there's an imbalance. Those combat guys are changing up a lot of stuff, and if anything I would expect that hacker will come out of this more balanced, rather than less. But we'll all be waiting to see how it turns out once it hits QA and t3h PVP pwnage commences!

I know this is sort of a future release thing...but what plans are there to imrove archives for high levels?

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KivoOnline wrote:
I know this is sort of a future release thing...but what plans are there to imrove archives for high levels?

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Plans...that I can't tell you about because they happen in that time to come, of which talking about is verboten!