Update 64 Discussion - November 06, 2008

Mhm, and I am pacing myself, and Im not the type to say omg i gots it first

Anyone who knows me good enough knows that Im a farmer, and I love to farm. Ive never played for the events, I always played for the friends and the LESIG, because thats just what I found fun for the game, and even though this is a good farming, it just doesn't cut it for me, so if I wanna sit here and say I don't like it, and its not a reason I'd be jacking in for, then Im gunna sit here and say it, because thats how I feel about it. We all have our own opinions. Some people may like how its going, some may not, I just happen to be in the "not so much" catagory.

Edit: Btw, the veil glasses rock!

ChloeAnn wrote:

Mhm, and I am pacing myself, and Im not the type to say omg i gots it first

Anyone who knows me good enough knows that Im a farmer, and I love to farm. Ive never played for the events, I always played for the friends and the LESIG, because thats just what I found fun for the game, and even though this is a good farming, it just doesn't cut it for me, so if I wanna sit here and say I don't like it, and its not a reason I'd be jacking in for, then Im gunna sit here and say it, because thats how I feel about it. We all have our own opinions. Some people may like how its going, some may not, I just happen to be in the "not so much" catagory.

Edit: Btw, the veil glasses rock!

Quick lesson in life:  Not everyone can be pleased all the time. 

Sucks that people don't all enjoy the effort being placed into keeping things fresh but what can you do?  This should be motivation alone for people to put forth their own effort to enjoy the story they're here to experience.

Garu wrote:

ChloeAnn wrote:

Mhm, and I am pacing myself, and Im not the type to say omg i gots it first

Anyone who knows me good enough knows that Im a farmer, and I love to farm. Ive never played for the events, I always played for the friends and the LESIG, because thats just what I found fun for the game, and even though this is a good farming, it just doesn't cut it for me, so if I wanna sit here and say I don't like it, and its not a reason I'd be jacking in for, then Im gunna sit here and say it, because thats how I feel about it. We all have our own opinions. Some people may like how its going, some may not, I just happen to be in the "not so much" catagory.

Edit: Btw, the veil glasses rock!

Quick lesson in life:  Not everyone can be pleased all the time. 

Sucks that people don't all enjoy the effort being placed into keeping things fresh but what can you do?  This should be motivation alone for people to put forth their own effort to enjoy the story they're here to experience.

And im not putting people down for 'enjoying the experience' or not enjoying it. Its a game, people pay their money, so they play how they wanna play. Some people play for the story, some play for other reasons. I appreciate the effort, and Ive never once put Rarebit down for anything, hes doing a great job and Im sure he always will, its just not for me anymore.

Mathalos wrote:

Why is it that everyone will always find something to complain about, no matter what the situation is?

Trying to say a room smells of roses when to someone else it smells like poop is never going to convince them, no matter how many times you explain it, its opinions which differentiate everyone.

Edit: Oh and I agree with Bay. See you back jacked-in in a month.

I'm not bitching unconstructively. I enjoyed the new cinematic a lot, and think these quests are a step up from the old crits, and some of the filler oh hi it's the Effectuator or Rose trying on clothes events. All I'm saying is that there's nothing to do once this stuff is done, and it'd be nice if the good LESIG hadn't vanished.

I was talking with Mathalos about this, and the majority of the game is players who are level 50 with 60 rep, that didn't care about critical missions or the storyline, and didn't care about events either really unless there was PVP or rewards/items with cool buffs. So to make this stuff soloable for them makes sense, but I hope this isn't the end of team based content like constructs and such, which yield items with high market values. Danielle Wright is technically team-based I guess, but everyone has stacks of Decelerator bits anyway.

Who knows, maybe with less work to do and no minimum timeframe thanks to the lack of weekly missions they'll cut down the length of the patch cycle.

Considering this is the first patch of this nature Rarebit has released I'm sure he will refine his method based on feedback and the patches will hopefully improve.

Think of how much of a grind fest the Bathary Row corrupted Quest is and compare it to Datamining or SSR or the Sati's playground content and you come up with a rather positive outlook. If this is the equivalent of the Corrupted Grind fest (And this patch poops all over that quest), imagine what Rarebits later content will be.

Pylat wrote:

Considering this is the first patch of this nature Rarebit has released I'm sure he will refine his method based on feedback and the patches will hopefully improve.

Think of how much of a grind fest the Bathary Row corrupted Quest is and compare it to Datamining or SSR or the Sati's playground content and you come up with a rather positive outlook. If this is the equivalent of the Corrupted Grind fest (And this patch poops all over that quest), imagine what Rarebits later content will be.

I believe every quest Rarebit has put out he has had a length that he wanted the quest to take in mind. He wanted the Corrupted quest to take as long as it does, same with every other quest he has put out. We need a good variety of content, and that is what he is trying to give us.

Mathalos wrote:

I believe every quest Rarebit has put out he has had a length that he wanted the quest to take in mind. He wanted the Corrupted quest to take as long as it does, same with every other quest he has put out. We need a good variety of content, and that is what he is trying to give us.

Ah, the ol' argument for design.  Of course we could just ask him if he meant it to be a hella grind.

Well, he has a point.

Well... heres my opinion on this.

The missions were cool the first time, and then fighting Wright was pretty cool. But doing a mission, over and over again is just dull and boring. I really don't think that re-running a mission over and over again to get fragments quite makes up for the loss of Live Events (or LESIG for that matter). And the cinematic... well, the story elements are cool... but I wish there could be more done with it. LOTRO has cinematics... and they are pretty cool. Something just feels very missing and off in MxO. I looked forward to the Assorted Dev Screens and then the Live Event post. Even if I couldn't be there, it was cool reading about it and seeing what people said. I've loved MxO for a long time, and been a supporter of Rarebit but honostly... it's boring now -_- It feels like every other boring ole MMO, I enjoyed MxO greatly for the live events and interactions with the Devs and LESIG, it felt much different than anything else I've played. But now, it just feels like I'm playing an even more boring version of SWG or something... except I can't become a Jedi (or a One)... yet. But yeah, thats my story and I'm stickcing to it.

Ebola wrote:

I looked forward to the Assorted Dev Screens and then the Live Event post. Even if I couldn't be there, it was cool reading about it and seeing what people said.

On that point in particular: the Live Event posts were little centralized areas where there was often some really good in-character discussion and debate. People conversed on the story line, speculated where it might go from there; it gave life to the forums in an immersive way that is currently essentially gone.

And, sadly, I'm finding the same is applying to the in-game vibe as well, both personally and from those I've spoken with. Even in this short time since the change, the lack of any live event thus far is taking its toll on immersion, anticipation, and excitement. Although on the other side of the coin, hopefully they'll pick up again soon, even to the stated lesser-degree.

Ebola wrote:

I really don't think that re-running a mission over and over again to get fragments quite makes up for the loss of Live Events (or LESIG for that matter).

Neither are gone. They just aren't going to be sone every night and LESIG aren't going to be playing liaison officers.

shinpseudo wrote:

Ebola wrote:

I looked forward to the Assorted Dev Screens and then the Live Event post. Even if I couldn't be there, it was cool reading about it and seeing what people said.

On that point in particular: the Live Event posts were little centralized areas where there was often some really good in-character discussion and debate. People conversed on the story line, speculated where it might go from there; it gave life to the forums in an immersive way that is currently essentially gone.

I liked the posts themselves, by the LE characters and the assorted dev screens were cool but for every interesting debate that was had in one thread, there'd be a tired and ultimately pointless game of one-up in three more threads about who had the moral highground and, for me at least, that got boring and annoying quick.

Yasamuu wrote:

shinpseudo wrote:

Ebola wrote:

I looked forward to the Assorted Dev Screens and then the Live Event post. Even if I couldn't be there, it was cool reading about it and seeing what people said.

On that point in particular: the Live Event posts were little centralized areas where there was often some really good in-character discussion and debate. People conversed on the story line, speculated where it might go from there; it gave life to the forums in an immersive way that is currently essentially gone.

I liked the posts themselves, by the LE characters and the assorted dev screens were cool but for every interesting debate that was had in one thread, there'd be a tired and ultimately pointless game of one-up in three more threads about who had the moral highground and, for me at least, that got boring and annoying quick.

Well, at least the story was discussed. I haven't seen very much discussion of the story, and we are still having the one upping and the moral high grounding, except now its about whether or not you like the update. I don't know, maybe I'm  just getting old and not accepting of this Change fad thats sweeping everything. But yeah... it would be better to probably have the quests spread out over time and not all at once. Because after doing them, I don't really have much urge to get the new items. And the PvP on Recursion is a little... lacking. And without events, theres nothing to look forward to do with the other couple of Cypherites on Recursion... so yeah, thats my ramble/rant.

Um.. no offense but what did LESIG on Vector do to begin with? All the good LESIG was on Recursion as far as Cyphs went so I guess its not a huge loss for me The only thing thats sort of a let down is now we wont be involved in the story directly but honestly come on.. between the selective interaction and the fact that half these events were planned and written by fellow subscribers its not like Im holding my breathe anymore.

Give me a few shiny colorful items that cant decay based on someones personal bad day and I think its a step in the right direction.

Yeah, Stanten, Rejex, Exivy, Naidian, Toluca, and Merrit ftw! also RIP Ostrich Land, Viraconrida, Escondido, and... thats all the bestest Recursion liaisons I can think of.

To be honest, I was impressed with the cinematic. I was impressed with the new content. I was impressed that he was going in this direction, leaving LESIG behind and promising us that the new-type of LE will be more centered around the players rather than scripts.

Then I started seeing more and more things suddenly become "irrelevant" by Rarebit. No more story summaries, assuming archivals will be out of the question. Live Events will not nearly be as often as they were. No archive rewards, just quest content and you know the rest. Well, that's fine you know if it's decent content.

But now it's no longer "LESIG takes up all my time." it's now, "Cinematics take up all my time."

Maybe it's too early to say this, but I feel like we took a step backwards considering how much we lost where in-turn we gained a one and a half minute video every 6 weeks.

My case in point,

Rarebit wrote:

Since we're off the daily/weekly schedule and have cinematics to introduce each subchapter, I don't plan on doing written summaries. Feel free to monopolize the job!

Ballak wrote:

To be honest, I was impressed with the cinematic. I was impressed with the new content. I was impressed that he was going in this direction, leaving LESIG behind and promising us that the new-type of LE will be more centered around the players rather than scripts.

Then I started seeing more and more things suddenly become "irrelevant" by Rarebit. No more story summaries, assuming archivals will be out of the question. Live Events will not nearly be as often as they were. No archive rewards, just quest content and you know the rest. Well, that's fine you know if it's decent content.

But now it's no longer "LESIG takes up all my time." it's now, "Cinematics take up all my time."

Maybe it's too early to say this, but I feel like we took a step backwards considering how much we lost where in-turn we gained a one and a half minute video every 6 weeks.

My case in point,

Rarebit wrote:

Since we're off the daily/weekly schedule and have cinematics to introduce each subchapter, I don't plan on doing written summaries. Feel free to monopolize the job!

I just hope our only Dev isn't going completely on the backburner and gets the cinematic and storyline stuff done as fast as he can (with quality of course) and then will still make and have the drive to make events for the game's subscribers. I think if I had the job I'd cut in at least an hour online every day on one of the servs maybe half hour small events or whatever but things to keep the players interested in getting online, and I'm aware that it sometimes feels forced and not very enjoyable for Rare after 5 years (and sometimes I do wonder how long he's going to stick around on the game too - maybe 1-3 years more? before moving on in the industry) that said the game's current state is not only as far as I know SOE's fault but Warner Bros fault. I mean if they wanted a prime product they sure as **** would make the efforts to keep the title in prime light, but they're not, there's then a lot of metaphysic stuff to discuss too with the W- bro's and what they used the title for when it was originally someone elses idea - according to proof - and yes, I spoke to Sophia Stewart a year ago or so and got the story down on what transpired with the Matrix title - maybe this is why Warner isn't giving the title the attention it should have as there's a lawsuit still pending, dunno... all I can say is that there's still a very interested fanbase in the ideas behind The Matrix and it's end times prophecy base and if people pvp or rp or whatever in the simulated Matrix, I still think that they should enjoy themselves until whatever happens happens.

That was my hope for what may be happening with the LEs as well, a lot less bloated 4 hour long pointless filler events (Hey Rose, I'm looking at you) and more small scale stuff that actually involves players and advances the storyline.  Even if we weren't getting a straight 1 for 1 tradeoff, that sounded good to me.  Heck, if the events were focused enough you could bang off 2 or even 3 in the same time it took to do one of the old ones and wouldn't even have to be tied up with LEs every single night, just do that once or twice a week.

Chances are it's going to be what I feared would happen though.. 3 org meetings a month, one per org, and then an actual LE once in a blue moon.

Vinia wrote:

With the Hampton Jacket I wanted to try something out. It's a bit of an odd com

bination I know but I tried the Sif Open Corset with Mesh with the Hampton jacket and as I guessed you can pretty much see straight through the body at the collar...

It's quite probably something that can't be fixed, texture layers and all that, but because it's such an odd combination it probably wont be much of an issue anyway. Just thought I'd share.

Loved the screenshot and completely understand what you're saying.  I wonder if it might be related to your operating system or videocard.  Very nicely textured screenshot overall, regardless!

New content = [(old critical missions - 2 missions - 2 phases/mission) + (old cinematics - color - audio - quality) + (expected new clothing and items - new area to get it) + (live events/15) + (meetings - live events) + OMGPARTIES!]

I keep coming up negative on this.

Live events, critical missions, liaisons, and whatnot just were not a positive tradeoff for a standalone once-and-done cinematic and 3 short, immediately completable missions and a small pile of items, only some of which were highly desirable.

/shrug

I think the fact that enough people came back when Chapter 8 hit shows that this was meant to be a story driven game, and driving out the story isn't doing it any favors.

Neoteny wrote:

New content = [(old critical missions - 2 missions - 2 phases/mission) + (old cinematics - color - audio - quality) + (expected new clothing and items - new area to get it) + (live events/15) + (meetings - live events) + OMGPARTIES!]

I keep coming up negative on this.

Live events, critical missions, liaisons, and whatnot just were not a positive tradeoff for a standalone once-and-done cinematic and 3 short, immediately completable missions and a small pile of items, only some of which were highly desirable.

/shrug

I think the fact that enough people came back when Chapter 8 hit shows that this was meant to be a story driven game, and driving out the story isn't doing it any favors.

Your instincts are correct.  This has gone from a dynamic, evolving game into a static game.  The one thing that made this game such a unique little gem is gone.  I've stuck with MxO since beta, through high times and low, but for me personally this represents a potentially fatal blow.

Villemar_MxO wrote:

This has gone from a dynamic, evolving game into a static game. 

This is the feeling I have too.  Although, I haven't actually done the missions yet so I'm probably not one to talk.

Shame that, if you've done the Chessman missions to get the Industrial Gloves, it makes Jack's collector item pretty pointless unless your looking for a different look. Although when you consider that the percentages at that level apparently don't really do too much, the only other reason I can think of to get Jack's instead of the Industrial gloves is that they may be a little quicker to get.

Villemar_MxO wrote:

Neoteny wrote:

New content = [(old critical missions - 2 missions - 2 phases/mission) + (old cinematics - color - audio - quality) + (expected new clothing and items - new area to get it) + (live events/15) + (meetings - live events) + OMGPARTIES!]

I keep coming up negative on this.

Live events, critical missions, liaisons, and whatnot just were not a positive tradeoff for a standalone once-and-done cinematic and 3 short, immediately completable missions and a small pile of items, only some of which were highly desirable.

/shrug

I think the fact that enough people came back when Chapter 8 hit shows that this was meant to be a story driven game, and driving out the story isn't doing it any favors.

Your instincts are correct.  This has gone from a dynamic, evolving game into a static game.  The one thing that made this game such a unique little gem is gone.  I've stuck with MxO since beta, through high times and low, but for me personally this represents a potentially fatal blow.

True, but one reason why I'm maybe not so affected by that change is because I've only been to a dozen LEs in my 3 years here. I've had a great time with them, but I've never been to one of the really great ones (which excluded mass spammage on chat and included only small groups, great RP talk and stuff).

Ah well, doh >_<

Vinia wrote:

Shame that, if you've done the Chessman missions to get the Industrial Gloves, it makes Jack's collector item pretty pointless unless your looking for a different look. Although when you consider that the percentages at that level apparently don't really do too much, the only other reason I can think of to get Jack's instead of the Industrial gloves is that they may be a little quicker to get.

True, that.

GoDGiVeR wrote:

Villemar_MxO wrote:

Neoteny wrote:

New content = [(old critical missions - 2 missions - 2 phases/mission) + (old cinematics - color - audio - quality) + (expected new clothing and items - new area to get it) + (live events/15) + (meetings - live events) + OMGPARTIES!]

I keep coming up negative on this.

Live events, critical missions, liaisons, and whatnot just were not a positive tradeoff for a standalone once-and-done cinematic and 3 short, immediately completable missions and a small pile of items, only some of which were highly desirable.

/shrug

I think the fact that enough people came back when Chapter 8 hit shows that this was meant to be a story driven game, and driving out the story isn't doing it any favors.

Your instincts are correct.  This has gone from a dynamic, evolving game into a static game.  The one thing that made this game such a unique little gem is gone.  I've stuck with MxO since beta, through high times and low, but for me personally this represents a potentially fatal blow.

True, but one reason why I'm maybe not so affected by that change is because I've only been to a dozen LEs in my 3 years here. I've had a great time with them, but I've never been to one of the really great ones (which excluded mass spammage on chat and included only small groups, great RP talk and stuff).

Ah well, doh >_<

Me too, but I'd much prefer if Rare reduced his workload to the point where he could just spontaneously hop on as a LE character when he gets some extra time, not necessarily even scripted or with an agenda.   Instead of feeling obligated to hop on each org each server on a set schedule.   Kinda like how Lith was, IIRC.

GoDGiVeR wrote:

Villemar_MxO wrote:

Neoteny wrote:

New content = [(old critical missions - 2 missions - 2 phases/mission) + (old cinematics - color - audio - quality) + (expected new clothing and items - new area to get it) + (live events/15) + (meetings - live events) + OMGPARTIES!]

I keep coming up negative on this.

Your instincts are correct.  This has gone from a dynamic, evolving game into a static game.  The one thing that made this game such a unique little gem is gone.  I've stuck with MxO since beta, through high times and low, but for me personally this represents a potentially fatal blow.

True, but one reason why I'm maybe not so affected by that change is because I've only been to a dozen LEs in my 3 years here. I've had a great time with them, but I've never been to one of the really great ones (which excluded mass spammage on chat and included only small groups, great RP talk and stuff).

Ah well, doh >_<

While it may be true that not having daily LEs to attend is the loss of story propellant that generally first comes to mind, you have to keep in mind that with this update we also lost weekly storyline updates in the form of critical missions and consistent interaction with our organizations/the storyline via the liaisons.  Plus, even if you couldn't attend many LEs you could always follow along with them, comment on them, RP about them in game, RP about them on the boards, etc. via the Live Event report posts.  The now nearly static storyline isn't just because players don't have daily LEs to attend.

cloudwolf wrote:

Vinia wrote:

Shame that, if you've done the Chessman missions to get the Industrial Gloves, it makes Jack's collector item pretty pointless unless your looking for a different look. Although when you consider that the percentages at that level apparently don't really do too much, the only other reason I can think of to get Jack's instead of the Industrial gloves is that they may be a little quicker to get.

True, that.

Oh, f-- Come on. Are you seriously complaining about this, as well?

cloudwolf wrote:

Vinia wrote:

Shame that, if you've done the Chessman missions to get the Industrial Gloves, it makes Jack's collector item pretty pointless unless your looking for a different look. Although when you consider that the percentages at that level apparently don't really do too much, the only other reason I can think of to get Jack's instead of the Industrial gloves is that they may be a little quicker to get.

True, that.

...it's a level 7 item. You outgrow it in like 30 minutes of playing.

1% at that level I think only adds 1 pt anyway, if it even does that.

Yeah but from a design standpoint it's just a little weird.

It's hardly a complaint. More of an observation.

cloudwolf wrote:

Yeah but from a design standpoint it's just a little weird.

It's hardly a complaint. More of an observation.

Oh, I don't want to get started on the design of most of the low-level content in this game. :X

The shades look pretty cool, wish I was high enough level to get them

eval wrote:

cloudwolf wrote:

Yeah but from a design standpoint it's just a little weird.

It's hardly a complaint. More of an observation.

Oh, I don't want to get started on the design of most of the low-level content in this game. :X

Heh, I don't intend on derailing this thread with complaints of how the low level content has been implemented, as cloudwolf noted, it was just an observation. Sorry if that deflates your forum CQ attempt Ballak. 

In fact its a point which I actually followed up on when the IR about them came out. I did say wonder that thread how they compared with jacks in terms of resistances and any melee bonuses. The only thing I would have suggested for them would be to change the thrown resist to viral.

But whats done is done and as you said, the items become useless, if needing them for resistances, after a decent session of gameplay anyway.

I quite like the mix of missions with quests, partly because I don't have a lot of time to play MxO these days so having content tied up in one package seems to work for me.

Best aspect of this update?  RSI masks.  I've had a lot of fun farming these, honestly.  I've gotten re-aquainted with a lot of the neighborhoods and gangs, especially gang bosses that don't drop any keys so you normally wouldn't have any reason to seek them out (on the lower end and the higher end of the spectrum.  Party Boy Floyd, Jack the Hack, Lt. Morales and Capt. Falco ftw!  Also, its a cool factor in PvP, since in the heat of a battle you cant immediately gage your opponents gear and guess at his or her loadout with a mask on.

I am also a big fan of the new Neighborhood Contact mission.    Not so much for the gloves but for the lowbie content and the immersion factor.  I really like the foreshadowing of Sister Margaret, hope she's next! 

As far as the new abandonment of dynamic storyline, I'm not a big fan at all, but that's for another discussion!

   Now if they would just make it so the neighborhood contact missions were replayable, somehow.  It's one of the few examples of content in the game that can't be replayed easily.  Some people haven't done some of those missions for years now.

Othinn1 wrote:

   Now if they would just make it so the neighborhood contact missions were replayable, somehow.  It's one of the few examples of content in the game that can't be replayed easily.  Some people haven't done some of those missions for years now.

Totals.

Lots of good points here, too many to quote em all, so il just add my two sense.

First:The cinematic was pretty cool. Liked the style, and the bit of extra story along multiple fronts.

Second:I lked the new quests, and I like that I can get items out of them. Seriously, 8 new items total was way more than I expected. Yes some of them weren't amazing (waaaa.. my org got pooped on) but come on... if you take the long view this approach will create a LOT more clothing options down the line for all of us.

However....

I agree with the notion of timing the release of the new quest content. Spacing it out brings people back to the game.

And I DIDN'T like having to farm, to get stuff, to get the next mission. In other words, If i didn't get the pen the first time, I have to run the mish over again just to get the second mish. And I had to run the second mish like 7 times before i actually got drops of all four bits i needed to make the trade, to get the item, to get the next mish. I found that a little frustrating. Im fine with farming to trade for items. Farming just to get to the next mish was a nusiance, and I hope next time that gets dropped.

Lastly: I'll echo many others in saying I am missing the LE's. The fact that SOME LE's were just filler doesn't mean that they should be sent to the scrap heap. If LE's needed to be scaled back, I'd have been fine with them being every other day, or even every three days, rather than daily.

Even though I attended very few due to my schedule, the LE's made me feel a part of the game. MxO is more than a game, its an extension of the Matrix World, which is a pretty cool world indeed. Logging in to the forums and seeing yerself in the screenshots and chatbox... it was like being a bit-player in the movies. Even if I couldn't attend, I would often see people from my Faction at them, and after just a year, I know by acquaitance nearly EVERYONE whos there. I LIKED skimming through the LE posts and trying to keep up on the story.

Now I feel sidelined, and like everyone I know here has been sidelined. If the loss of REGULAR LE's is an exchange for getting a cinematic, then, I'm sorry Rare, we can do without a cinematic.

HOWEVER, if the exchange for the LE's is that yer up in yer cubby cranking on our first expansion pack, then I'm all for it.

At this point, I just wish I knew where we all stand. I even feel like this is all a nice spin on us losing Rare, at least as a FULL-TIME dev. I hope this is not so...

psilody wrote:

Lastly: I'll echo many others in saying I am missing the LE's. The fact that SOME LE's were just filler doesn't mean that they should be sent to the scrap heap. If LE's needed to be scaled back, I'd have been fine with them being every other day, or even every three days, rather than daily.

Even though I attended very few due to my schedule, the LE's made me feel a part of the game. MxO is more than a game, its an extension of the Matrix World, which is a pretty cool world indeed. Logging in to the forums and seeing yerself in the screenshots and chatbox... it was like being a bit-player in the movies. Even if I couldn't attend, I would often see people from my Faction at them, and after just a year, I know by acquaitance nearly EVERYONE whos there. I LIKED skimming through the LE posts and trying to keep up on the story.

Very good post, Psilody, and I agree with pretty much all of it.

My issues (which, yes, I've stated before but haven't actually changed since the first details of this update were released) remain based around the following two points:

1.)  Doors being closed to new players.  I know we don't get many of them these days, but the changes do nothing to attract new players or make the new player experience better.  In fact, by virtually locking the new content away from new players, this update actually makes the game less appealing.  The changes include a lot of make work content for vets (having to level their old rep based alts to get the new missions, making multi server alts more important, etc.), much of which the vets aren't happy withto begin with, but nothing positive for the new or low level player.  I've said it before, and I'll probably say it again, but if you come into the game today you either have to burn your way to level 30 and skim over all of the content you out level along the way or you take your time but are left doing stuff and half experiencing story from years ago.  As a low level player in the old system you could get crits fairly early on, not to mention being part of LEs, interacting with your liaison and following along/responding to LE posts here on DN1.

2.) Static storyline.  We have rarely experienced a storyline we could actually impact and alter the direction of, but at least the story we had was always kept moving forward.   Via the combination of cinematics, weekly critical missions, daily live events, live event report/recap posts, liaison org interaction, etc. the story was kept moving forward and the story was always the focus.  If players wanted, they could get as deep into the story as they chose.  Now we have one storyline update, with included cinematic, every 6 weeks.  That's it.  Sure the org meetings may have a taste of storyline, but with no new missions, LEs, etc. it will be little more than a drop in the ocean.  There is pretty much nothing to do for 6 weeks once a player has done the 2 hours worth of "critical quest content" and the week or two of farming if they want all the items.  Even if we don't get weekly crit style time released content and/or full on daily LEs back, we need something to keep the storyline from being static for 6 weeks at a time.  This new way of doing things also drastically reduces the content that can be packed into 6 weeks of storyline time.  If you are setting 6 weeks of story to be crammed into, at most, 2 hours of content, you are going to lose a lot of story detail and nuance (or you're going to drag things out forever over multiple 6 week spans).

Also, I have some question as to the current critical quest system going into the future.  If all orgs collect basically the same trade in items and are thus going to be subject to the same spawns at basically the same times, how different can the critical quests really be other than the text in between?  Sure, the old crits were rarely mindblowing in their differences between orgs but just by playing through the arcs one can quickly see that the missions were actually quite different.

I can understand wanting to change the format of the crits, but having all the content at the beginning of each update with the combination of the cinematic and the quest leads to a lack of anticipation there used to be present for the crit the following week. Surely there must be a way to split the content, yet maintain the ablility for each org to have access to the storyline, as what Rarebit indicated was one reason for this change to begin with.

The lack of live events is the change which concerns me the most. True, some had no new storyline content, per say, and perhaps the game can do without them, but, on the other hand, it is quite obvious that the current state of affairs is unacceptable to those that have stuck by MXO through all these years.. For most of us, anyway, the Matrix storyline is what attracted us to this game to begin with, along with the chance to interact with the characters, and truly feel that we were indeed part of the story itself. Unfortunately, the planned org meetings are not enough to make up for the feeling of actual participation in the storyline unfolding that had gone with prior live events.

I think most of us agree that MXO has needed change to a certain extent for some time, but I do believe that the time has already come for a reassessment of the changes as they presently stand, and that consideration for the possible implementation of some of what has been discussed in this thread is acknowledged and acted upon.

Has anyone else noticed Logic Bomb 2 acting oddly since the change?

Cadsuane wrote:

Has anyone else noticed Logic Bomb 2 acting oddly since the change?

I have not. What's it doing?

I have noticed something odd with Logic Bomb 2, yes.

In interlock, when you use Nuke and Bomb back to back, the new timers say Bomb only has a re-use of 2 seconds. Therefore, it's available to be used immediately after Nuke goes through. However, if you activate it right after a successful Nuke roll, Bomb will turn solid red as if it hit, then either blink, blink, blink, to infinity, or do nothing. Out of many tests, I never was able to get the new re-use timers to work in interlock. Ability activation breaks in interlock if you try to activate Bomb faster than the old timer.

Bayamos wrote:

I have noticed something odd with Logic Bomb 2, yes.

In interlock, when you use Nuke and Bomb back to back, the new timers say Bomb only has a re-use of 2 seconds. Therefore, it's available to be used immediately after Nuke goes through. However, if you activate it right after a successful Nuke roll, Bomb will turn solid red as if it hit, then either blink, blink, blink, to infinity, or do nothing. Out of many tests, I never was able to get the new re-use timers to work in interlock. Ability activation breaks in interlock if you try to activate Bomb faster than the old timer.

This is consistent with my observations.

When is Update 65?  I'm guessing Thursday Dec. 11th.

Villemar_MxO wrote:

When is Update 65?  I'm guessing Thursday Dec. 11th.

Hmm... looking at it, 6 weeks is the 18th Dec I think, however I think that's a little late to start the winter stuff so perhaps the winter holiday event will go live on the 11th and the update on the 18th? Although, if we're lucky and have been good girls and boys this year they could both go live on the 11th...

Cadsuane wrote:

Bayamos wrote:

I have noticed something odd with Logic Bomb 2, yes.

In interlock, when you use Nuke and Bomb back to back, the new timers say Bomb only has a re-use of 2 seconds. Therefore, it's available to be used immediately after Nuke goes through. However, if you activate it right after a successful Nuke roll, Bomb will turn solid red as if it hit, then either blink, blink, blink, to infinity, or do nothing. Out of many tests, I never was able to get the new re-use timers to work in interlock. Ability activation breaks in interlock if you try to activate Bomb faster than the old timer.

This is consistent with my observations.

Aye.  Same for me as well.

sugaree wrote:

Loved the screenshot and completely understand what you're saying.  I wonder if it might be related to your operating system or videocard.  Very nicely textured screenshot overall, regardless!

I see this post everytime I click on this thread (last post button never works, dodgy forums) and gets me wondering if it is an issue with my system or video card, but then occasionally I see screenshots posted from other people who show the same type of see-throughiness, for lack of a better word. Take this screenshot by Cads for example...

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k...nshot_7lite.jpg

[Ok, anyone else have a problem linking text to anything in Firefox? It's doesn't like the link box on mine and it's bloody annoying]

The shades are layered on top of the firewalled silver skin, normally you'd see the eyes (unless the shades were opaqe) but in this you can see right through the head. This leads me to believe its not a personal system or video card issue but has something to do with the game's texture layers and certain combinations, specifically I believe, regarding those items which have a degree of translucency.

As I said before though, it's not much of an issue and most likely one that can't be fixed without fiddling about with some deep code or something. Once again it's just a simple observation and one that we're all living with.