I think the critical mission archive was a really good idea and allows new players to experience the story. However, the missions don't give you the whole picture. Live Events were an integral part of the story, especially in the early days. When I think about all the cool stuff that happened, it's a shame that new players can't experience that, or that old players can't do it again. Also, a way to archive Live Events might give the devs more incentive to have them more often. Now, before you call this unfeasible and close the page, hear me out. First of all, I'm only talking about four major events that, in my opinion, were an important part of the Chadwick storyline:
The question is, how do you archive a live event? I guess you could do something like world spawns or constructs, but I think the best answer is: Pandora's Box. Think about it. A lot of what we need is already in place. Minimal coding (Dracomet) work would be required, meaning it's low risk and Rarebit could do most of the work (great huh, bud?). Here's how I see it working with The Race to Find the One:
I may break down the other events later, but you get the general idea. Comments?
- The Race to Find the One
- The Hunt for Morpheus
- Death of the Destroyer
- A Piece of Blue Sky
The question is, how do you archive a live event? I guess you could do something like world spawns or constructs, but I think the best answer is: Pandora's Box. Think about it. A lot of what we need is already in place. Minimal coding (Dracomet) work would be required, meaning it's low risk and Rarebit could do most of the work (great huh, bud?). Here's how I see it working with The Race to Find the One:
- You pick up an initial mission from the Archive Vendor. Maybe it requires a Mission 1.1 token, but be sure to give it back so players can move on Chapter 1.2 if they want.
- Your controller tells you to meet someone in the mission area. The contact says something like: "Red-eyed agents have been attacking our operatives around the city. We need to find out more about them. They are using PDA's to search for something, but we not sure what they're after. Bring me a dozen of those PDA's and we'll do some more research. We've developed a device to aid you. It emits a carrier signal to the PDA's and should draw the agents to your location. You may get more agents than you bargained for, so bring some backup."
- You guessed it. The "device" is Pandora's Box with a different name. Opening the box spawns the agents that drop PDA's. You should be able to do this at any level, so you should be able to open the box in any part of the city and the spawns should scale to player level. Like Pandora's Box, I do think they should require a group of players and be very difficult to complete solo.
- Turning in the PDA's yields you another box with agents that drop Neo's RSI frags. All you item collectors can finally get the frags you are missing.
- Turning in a complete set of frags gets you a meeting with Morpheus, where he gives you his speech and shows you Neo's RSI.
- Next mission sends you to The Mentor (Morpheus), The Creator (The Architect), and The Seductress (Persephone) to hear about their mysterious dreams. You can't very well solve this puzzle in the archive, so maybe the operator can do it, explaining it without too much detail. This leads to a meeting with the Oracle, where she tells you about the Shapers.
- You could do a standard escort mission here, where you fight off operatives from the other orgs. It might be more fun to hide the Shapers as collectors around the city, maybe in the same areas as the live event, each one giving a clue as to the next location. After finding them, you meet with the Oracle, where she informs you that the "intruders" got one of the Shapers.
- Your operator uploads the final box, which spawns two waves of N30 Agents, followed by a few "Super Lightning Agents". Maybe they drop the second batch of Neo's frags? I forget how it actually happened. In any case, completing the box gets you another meeting with the Oracle where she gives you her final message.
- Of course, rewards would be in order for each box you complete.
I may break down the other events later, but you get the general idea. Comments?
If the day was extended to 30 hours, I would just stay up 24 at a time. Funny how that works.