STATION LAUNCHER

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR EXISTING SUBSCRIBERS USING STATION LAUNCHER

Alright, the exact specifics of the Station Launcher "update" to your files even though you've already got the game is becoming clearer.

It creates new versions of a lot of the existing game files.

If you've done things like me, which are to go and create your own hotkeys and things, you'll need to backup your current options.cfg (and if you use it useropts file) which are found in your main game directory.

More details will come through about things like this as the devs get more feedback, so keep it coming.

For those who don't know what the launcher entails, this is the basic screen you see when you login using your station access username and password:

and with this you can pretty much run anything you want.

Your main games are split between mmo, stratagy and casual.

If you click a game you haven't installed (I've used Planetside as an example), your launcher loads up another screen:

Again, quite clear and obvious to follow.

Anyway, that's the very basic stuff on how that runs. All done through the simple clicks of a mouse for the most part.

SOE have actually done a very fully inclusive help page for this beta, which you can find here.

There's lots of neat features, especially the friends option, where you can keep track of friends you know in all SOE launcher supported games (so pretty much all of them I think) and chat to them outside of the game.

So yeah, give it a bash. I quite like it. It's smooth enough in its running and although there are clearly some things that still need work on, hey it's a beta, so that's expected.

You can download the Station Launcher Beta here.

Get gaming, it gives them money to get fun things in-game

GETTING THE MATRIX ONLINE TRIAL THROUGH STATION LAUNCHER

Oh how long have some of you been waiting for this?

Anyway, what follows is the step-by-step method of getting your friends on The Matrix Online trial by using the Station Launcher.

Step 1

Get them to download the Station Launcher Beta - find it at this location here

Step 2

On the first screen that loads up, click "Create a Free Station Account"

That will load up a pop-up screen that looks like this (I've created dummy information for the sake of this):

You will now be sent back to the first screen on completing this form correctly. (Note - for sake of security, don't have the same station handle as your station username)

Step 3

Login with your new Station Account details. You will then see the following screen load up:

Step 4

Click onto The Matrix Online. You will then have an additional screen pop-up:

Click the "Try!" button.

This pop-up will then close and your main screen looks a little bit different:

The Matrix Online tab is now a darker blue, indicating that your Station username is now registered to use this game.

Step 5

Click on The Matrix Online again, and you'll see this screen come up:

Select the option to download the basic game (note this can take some time depending on connection and will not be the updated version of the game - read the next post in regards to updating your game through the launcher).

FINISHED!

Guess what? Once this is done (including the updates - explained below) all your friend has to do is to log into the Station Launcher with their Station name and password, click The Matrix Online and off they go, exploring the Megacity! Neat huh?

What happens when you launch Mxo through this thing? Does it still do the nifty code logo, or does it just skip to the character selection screen?

UPDATING THE MATRIX ONLINE THROUGH STATION LAUNCHER

Right, now this works differently depending on what you're doing but the essential process works the same.

Firstly, for those updating the game through the trial. Even once you've downloaded the game (see the step-by-step above) you'll still have to update it to the current game version that we all use.

Even if you have an up-to-date version of The Matrix Online as you're already a subscriber, you'll still have to do the update to make Station Launcher recognise that you have a working version of the game.

So, before reading the following you're one of two things:

1. A trial player who's just gone through the step-by-step above

2. An existing player who pays the monthly, tri-monthly, yearly (whatever) subscription

Step 1

Login to Station Launcher

Step 2

Off the main screen click The Matrix Online. You'll be presented with the following screen:

(this says Matrix Online Trial for trial players or just Matrix Online for normal players).

For initial setup (trial once you've completed above step-by-step or existing subscriber using for the first time) select the option that reads, "Have Station Launcher scan my computer for the game"

Step 3

The scan takes approx. 2 minutes and when it's completed you'll be presented with a whole list of possible locations for where this game might be.

Now, don't freak out and start guessing which one it is, scroll down until you find the normal folder location for your game files (a default install has this at C:\Program Files\Monolith Productions\The Matrix Online)

*NOTE* DEFAULT LOCATION FOR DOWNLOADING THE GAME THROUGH STATION LAUNCHER IS C:\Program Files\Sony\The Matrix Online 

*edit* figured out that all the launcher picks up on here are all the major updates that have been done to the game and lists them. Either way, just do what I've said above for this step and it'll work fine.

Step 4

Once you select that folder, the launcher does a full system scan of the game files. It will update them automatically if the game needs it. Now, don't worry if you're installing the Launcher as an existing player, this "update" still takes place. The Launcher simply checks the files are all 100% up-to-date. It won't try to re-install the entire game.

Step 5

That's essentially it. Once it's completed, you'll get this screen:

When you click launch, the game goes through a quick-lauch system and jumps straight to your normal character selection screen, select who you want to play as and off you go!

What happens when you launch Mxo through this thing? Does it still do the nifty code logo, or does it just skip to the character selection screen?

kou_urake wrote:

What happens when you launch Mxo through this thing? Does it still do the nifty code logo, or does it just skip to the character selection screen?

See the above post, as that covers all game updates and the game launch itself.

I'll adjust that slightly now I see what you're asking.

You'll still get "The Matrix Online" green code logo appear and also the usual launcher that we're all used to opens. The difference is that the Station Launcher skips the username and password section of this and runs automatically (and smoothly too) right into your character selection.

Oh yeah, this is nothing ego-based at all, but this need to be totally stickied!

I'm going to be creating linked posts to this thread on different areas of dn1 highlighting different aspects of this thread, mainly the trial option (as I can see that loads of people have been begging for this for so long now on these boards)

I hope they release other GUI for it because the one they have now is horrible looking.

Probably not, the colour scheme here is based on the standard Station look that matches all the main Station websites and tools (like account information etc)

Speaking of which, you can access all your account details through this Launcher too!

A NOTE ON YOUR CHARACTERS WHEN USING STATION LAUNCHER BETA

Oh my, this confused me when I just tried this.

Ok, so there's a couple of changes to how the game physically loads up and runs.

The Launcher creates a new folder with new data for every character that you try to load up through it

By that, when you go into the game for the first time using the Station Launcher, you'll find that the game auto-loads into the game proper and not the loading area (still playing around to see where the settings are for this) and it also bumps you into Creston (that might be random, again, still working on that). You'll also find yourself suddenly lacking in all your carefully made hotbars too.

This is purely done for the sake of the Launcher, as it's effectively ensuring all your character data is nice and safe (this is still a beta afterall).

What you need to do is go into your game directory.

Click Profiles. You'll see here listed all the normal things (any /savelo you have done and also one folder per account that you have). You'll also notice a new folder, created in the same place as your account folders, which has the name of the character you just told the game to load while having System Launcher running. This is the folder that the Launcher creates.

It's a completely blank slate, just like you would be starting a new character from scratch.

Now, don't worry, your normal files for this character will still exist within the normal folder of the account that the character is under. So, to simply get all your hotbars, pblips etc etc, simply copy & paste all the files from your normal character file into this new one.

Once I've figured out a few more features, I'll post a summary up here

MEMORY USAGE WITH THE BETA LAUNCHER

Always a favourite with people this one.

One thing to notice about this Launcher is that it's not 100% designed for your pleasure right now, with it still being in the beta stages.

If you're running it on stand-by mode (hidden away on your toolbar) it will use 55Mb, however, if you're running it full pelt, with the friends window open too, it uses a shockingly impressive 120Mb.

Compare this to a fully operational version of xfire, which runs at ~5Mb.

By the way, when you log into the "Friends" thing for offline chat, it will show all of the MXO characters on your account as online. If you don't want them showing, toggle the thingy in the upper right corner of the Friends window to "Invisible."

EDIT: However, it will default back to "Visible" each time you log in. =P

Wow, thats pretty nifty. Thanks for the heads up.

And Whoa! it totally imports your in game friend list, holy ---- that pretty d4amn cool.

Ok, a few more pointers on here.

Guess what folks? This Launcher imports your in-game friends list, neat huh? Well, maybe not right now.

It imports your friends list of every single character you have on that account you're logged in with. If 2 characters on that account have some same friends, then you'll find it listing your friend for each time they come up on a list. It's basically repeating the name of your friend, but under your different character names. Clear? Good.

Moving on, once you've added someone, the "online" "offline" doesn't work exactly the same as other chat programs. Lets say, for example, you added me. Now, if you added me using my Launcher friends name (shadow_mxo) what the launcher then does from now on is track me for you regardless of what game and character I'm playing on.

Now, I don't play on any other game (yet) however, lets just say I had a character called Bob on SWG and a character called Dave on EQII. I could log off mxo and go onto SWG and it will still show you that I'm online, just now playing a character called Bob on SWG.

I'm not sure what of these features will still remain come end of beta, yet it needs to be made clear for now.

As Rarebit nicely points out, there are a lot of chat options for which characters you have visible and private and alsorts, so have a look on those settings and set it to how you'd like it.

Ill be downloadin this when i get back from college " width="15" height="15" />

Hmm i wonder would it be possible to create a custom GUI for this as even though it looks nice i still prefer the "feel" of MxO's launcher and it would be nice to be able to create a GUI similar to it.

Hmmm... much like SWG's custom version of the current SoE launcher.

Could the possibility for custom GUI's also be a way for players to download different GUI's for different Organisations? Stretching a little further, player made GUI's?

A couple of notes here folks, firstly the new station launcher shouldn't have been available but since it is let me say that it is in the BETA stage. They want feedback, like the broken bits, functionality that doesnt seem to makes sense for the "overall" product, not just for MxO, though MxO specific stuff is useful also.

I dont think they have a method as of yet for the general public to send in feedback so save it up for when they do.

Feedback should be constructive in nature and be worded politely because "it sucks" isnt going to get anyone's attention.

They are looking for well thought out and verbalized comments.

Using it now, i have to say it is really good, apart from the bit where it loads all your friends and crashes, (i had over 1000+ friend, it adds every alts you ever made and there friends)

A couple of notes here folks, firstly the new station launcher shouldn't have been available but since it is let me say that it is in the BETA stage. They want feedback, like the broken bits, functionality that doesnt seem to makes sense for the "overall" product, not just for MxO, though MxO specific stuff is useful also.

I dont think they have a method as of yet for the general public to send in feedback so save it up for when they do.

Feedback should be constructive in nature and be worded politely because "it sucks" isnt going to get anyone's attention.

They are looking for well thought out and verbalized comments.

Bug feedback is currently being handled through the Station forums (an to a slightly lesser extent emails). There's a whole section on there specifically for the Station Launcher and it's bugs. I'm currently compiling a nice list of bugs specific to mxo to post up on there.

(Note in that respects: You're meant to have a station pass to post on there, yet the email feedback works too)

I seem to have managed to bug my launcher into complete non-compliance, as in it's simply not loading up the main screen, which is a laugh.

DETAILS ON THE TRIAL FOR MATRIX ONLINE

I've compiled this from the general discussion thread as it does have questions concerning the functionality of the Launcher in relation to the trial. My responses to the questions are in a nice red colour, Enjoy!

TheUnknownShadow wrote:

Havocide wrote:

TheUnknownShadow wrote:

Havocide wrote:

Awesomeness.

Question though, if this thing is a perma trial. Do they still get HJB and Mobius code?

Yes they do. I've done a full run-through of this with a friend of mine.

He didn't have the game or a station account.

I decided to go through my own walkthrough, just in-case I felt the need to add, adjust something.

Basically, the game downloads and updates to current version in about 5 hours.

This is a full game version as far as I can see from the downloaded files on his computer. The Launcher determines if you're a subscriber or a Trial user afterall.

Player gets Hyper-jump beta on the basic 14-day trial and mobius code once they subscribe to the game proper.

Awesome. Won't need buddy keys much longer then.

Think we can issue them till the real thing lauches once beta ends. Since we don't wanna give our new players a bad launcher do we now ">

Edit: And just thinking about it, people will still need to buy the game for the game code if they choose to play after the trial right?

Nope  They have all the game files already downloaded. All that happens is that when they subscribe (I think, yet I can't give a 100% on this just yet) the Launcher simply changes your account status on the game from "Trial User" to "Subscriber" and poof, off you go with playing and paying your subscription.

TheUnknownShadow wrote:

Croesus wrote:

TheUnknownShadow wrote:

Oh yes.

It's that time.

The one you've been begging for.

The one where you had almost got to such a point of dispair that you wanted to find out where Raijinn lives so you could go throw eggs at his car.

Read this post here fully, as it explains in glorious detail (if I do say so myself) on how to get your friends playing on the Matrix Online Trial whenever you want!!!

HUZZAH FOR STATION LAUNCHER!!!

Feel free to discuss the wonder that is the first ever perma-trial for MxO right here.

(NOTE: SOE staff apparently do accept offers for you having their babies for finally getting this sorted!)

Seeing as you seem to be a bit of an authority on the new launcher, do you know when it will be out proper? I would use it but the memory it takes up at the moment in Beta, plus the new character folder etc... is something that I really don't want to be doing at the moment...

Honestly, I don't think there's a 100% fixed time on this coming out proper, depends on how quickly that they can get all the bugs sorted out (of which there's a fair old number building up already). Personally, thankyou for thinking I'm an authority on the subject, it's just that I simply had free time last night to have a look at a lot of this.

The fact that it guzzles memory like a Hummer guzzles petrol in slow traffic is an issue with it, but not the most major of them (shockingly)

Like I said in the other post on this thread, this is a BETA release, things like the character folder creation are simply a precaution in-case the launcher decides it suddenly doesn't like your character files. It will only delete the new one and not your existing one.

Will this make the original launcher for MxO obsolete? I really have no interest whatsoever in this new launcher and since I'm really not interested in downloading other SOE games, I really don't foresee any use for it. However, I don't want to be strong-armed into downloading/using something I really don't need.

Well, I honestly can't say for when the final version is made available, however, right now in the beta stage of this works like so:

1. You login on the Station Launcher with your station username and password

2. You select The Matrix Online from the list of mmo's

3. You accept or decline the EULA at this point within the Station Launcher

4. The Station launcher does a quick game file scan - large button stating "Scanning"

5. You get the "LAUNCH GAME" button appear in replace of the above "Scanning" once that's completed.

6. Now, at this point, the Station Launcher goes into the background (you get a cute little icon on your toolbar in the bottom right, showing it's still there - important to be aware of this as this carries on down this list)

7. Your normal mxo launcher activates in exactly the same way as if you'd clicked your shortcut on your desktop. By that I mean:

- "The Matrix Online" flashes up (along with the VROOOOM sound as cloudwolf puts it)

- The green "trickle code" starts up, revealing your normal launcher screen.

8. However, rather than doing the normal sequence of text loadup, telling you to enter your username, password and agreeing to the EULA/TOS whatever, this has all been handled by the Station Launcher already, along with a game file quick scan.

9. The MxO launcher is effectively put into a fast forward by the Station Launcher, which handles all those normal responses for you, and all that is left for you to do is to select your character from your normal list, exactly the same as ever and off you go into the game.

FEEDBACK

Eep! Big writing!

If you find a bug, issue or just a general "what the hell just happened" when using the Launcher, then report it. You can also suggest improvements/alterations to any existing feature within the Launcher too.

There's a feedback overview site that details the specifics on where everything is going for this. Remember that this is a beta release and they need your feedback to iron out all the problems.

By the way, when you log into the "Friends" thing for offline chat, it will show all of the MXO characters on your account as online. If you don't want them showing, toggle the thingy in the upper right corner of the Friends window to "Invisible."

EDIT: However, it will default back to "Visible" each time you log in. =P

Rarebit wrote:

By the way, when you log into the "Friends" thing for offline chat, it will show all of the MXO characters on your account as online. If you don't want them showing, toggle the thingy in the upper right corner of the Friends window to "Invisible."

EDIT: However, it will default back to "Visible" each time you log in. =P

Okay, 9mmfu helped me figure out how to do this. There's actually a proper options menu for it. Silly moi.

1) Run Station Launcher.
***THE NEXT STEP *WILL* SHOW ALL YOUR CHARACTERS logging in at once.***
2) Click the "Friends" button. The first time you do this you may have to enter a new Station handle.
***ALL CHARACTERS ON YOUR ACCOUNT ARE NOW SHOWN AS LOGGING IN IN-GAME SIMULTANEOUSLY.***
3) Click the "Options" menu in the Friends window.
4) Select Options > Preferences.
5) In the Preferences window, select Friends Network > Privacy.
6) Uncheck the "Visible" boxes for "Future Characters," and then any characters you don't want showing on your account--or just uncheck the "MXO > All Characters" box to hide them all.
7) You may also want to set "When I connect, set status to" to "Invisible" in the "Friends Network" preferences panel.

My Bayamos station account has a character history of 106 alts... I freeze every time I try to log in. Heh.

Bayamo wrote:

My Bayamos station account has a character history of 106 alts... I freeze every time I try to log in. Heh.

Hehe mine crashed a few times trying to load all my "alts" that dont exist anymore

Kybutra wrote:

Bayamo wrote:

My Bayamos station account has a character history of 106 alts... I freeze every time I try to log in. Heh.

Hehe mine crashed a few times trying to load all my "alts" that dont exist anymore

I may be totally wrong, but in your MxO folder you can see all the previous characters you've made. If you deleted those would that cut out those alts that don't exist?

I don't think it loads from your PC. I tried the Planetside trial once a while back, uninstalled, and had some characters on this account there; those were picked up and added to the list too. Seems to be retrieved from some central SOE "master list."