Jim78UK wrote:

psilody wrote:

1/ First off, yes Rare means that AFTER the 6th, you will not be able to officially get a Yellow or Blue tag. However, until then they are taking requests (wonder how many new last minute Factions are gonna show up...)

2/ And actually, how many chars do you have on yer server? Take yer other two slots and make new chars. Have one recruit the other and you have yer first crew. Then all you have to do is find ONE person to be in your crew. I think you only need two crews to form a faction, or is it three? dunno never tried. Anyway, you dont even neccessarily need your other person to be dedicated. Find a friend who has a spare slot and have them make a char for you to recruit. It can even be temporary until you get far enough along to really recruit.

3/ Im just saying if you are really serious and hop to it, you could probably pull it off...

4/ And if you are wondering, this is exactly how practically everyone in this game has their own Faction. Or they are using dual accounts...

1/ I know what the cuttoff date is.

2/ I have one character on the relevant server. How can I recruit a character on my account, when recruiting requires one character to invite and the other character to accept? To do that I would have to log both characters on at the same time and that is impossible unless you have two accounts and two computers (each with a seperate internet conection), which I don't. And to form a faction you need a minimum of four characters, because you need two crews. Even if I could log two of my characters on at once, there's no chance of forming a faction, because that would need one more character than is possible to make on one server. Or have I missed something really obvious? I would need three dummy characters from at least two friends to start a faction without any "proper" recruits, assuming I can't use my own characters. Can an offline charatcre be invited to join a faction and then accept when the inviter is offline, next time they're on? (A somewhat baffling last sentence, even to me.)

3/ I am serious, but I am neither strong nor developed enough to form and lead my own faction yet. I need to remain a member of my current one for some time to come before I'm able to branch out.

4/ I don't think I understood enough of your reply to be honest.

K.. sorry you are right that its a little more involved. Again you need some friends and a little flexibility.

(2)To recruit yerself to your own crew... Take yer character, find a friend willing to temporarily lend a char. recruit that character, make them FM. Log off. bring in yer second character. have yer new FM recruit them. Yer friend can then leave the crew, and yer two chars will be a crew. This leaves with needing ONE freind, willing to be recurited by your main character, toform the second crew. To form the Faction. You temporarily promote said friend to Captain of that crew. Then log in with your other crew Captain and create the faction. You cna then have your friend re-promote you back to Captain. For this, said freind will in fact have to stay in the crew, at least until you can find someone to be a true crew member.

3) As to this second part, well, I can't help ya there. Depends on your relationship with your present Faction. Given the situation, they may understand and be willing to work with you on creating the faction, but continuing to regard you as, well, if not a member, a really good friend, and be willing to help you get up to level. This is obviously going to be a matter of presective. Some Faction heads would be really pissed to be losing a member and gaining a competing Faction. Other might honestly accept that lots of players feel the creative urge to create a Faction idea, and see it as a way to maintain the strength of the EPN org, making sure that there are a good number of factions for the future.

So yeah, I guess i just mean that, if you are really serious, and have some good, understanding friends,you could probably pull this off. Hope that clarifies my response, and good luck either way

Rarebit wrote:

Guys, take the multicolored quote tree somewhere more appropriate, please, like Matrix Universe.

 

It's been done Rare, sry. You can delete those posts.

NeoExcidious wrote:

"That man can't see past any choice."

Far as I know, the program inserted in Neo's RSI was the antivirus for the inevitable virus strike (Smith). When the RSI exploded, the program was uploaded in the simulation, cleansing the infection.

I don't understand how that could be. Neo was the sixth incarnation of the One, but he was the first to have an opposite, presumably because the previous five never tried detonating an Agent from the inside, thus partially gifting a few pieces of the One code to them. The previous five all followed the path the Architect believed was necessary, having their code disseminated to keep the Matrix running and then re-founding Zion after the destruction by the Machine army. Smith's viral state was far from inevitable, happening only because of what happened between him and Neo. (Which kinda makes Smith the defining factor in why humanity is freer now than at any other time since the inception of the Matrix - without having him to use as a bargaining chip, Neo wouldn't have been able to force Deus ex Machina into the Truce).

I guess this is a well put point. What Rare's views are I don't know (I'm assuming giving how many hours he spends on this game that he has a certain amount of emotional comitment to it as well as professional), but I have sometimes wondered just exactly how disappointed SOE would be if so many subscribers withdrew that the game shut down - not terribly I imagine. Like you psil, I think the idea of belonging to one of the more radical groups in the game attracts them. I know this to be true of many level 50's of my aquaintance and I've heard at least three of them say in the past two weeks that they're considering leaving, because they feel two or three years worth of character development and commitment is being p***ed on. I'm not considering leaving, not yet, but I am keeping an open mind on it. I've been hugely enjoying the crits system and I think I'm going to miss it. I hope the new quest system will be as easy to use and understand. I'm somewhat confused on it thus far, but being a bit of a thickie it may just be that I have to take part in it to grok it.

psilody wrote:

Personally, even though I have no personal stake in this change, I have to agree that I think it is highly dubious. This game has a small population, but with a dedicated core of players. I don't know exact numbers, but I think realistically that as many as two-thirds of our players are either Cyphs or EPN. In effect, over a THRID of the games population will not be directly represented in a major element of the game. (At least I take it that these meetings will have some importance. Rare has hinted that the story will be "less-linear", the implication being that our interactions with the LE chars at these meetings may shape the story. The "underground" sub-orgs can not be expected to really drive their agendas thru the officers of the main orgs.) Already, judging by the comments, this is the major confilct area within the proposed changes. I think alienating that many players is a bad idea. It may be mechanically "efficient" but it could be potentially disastrous in terms of game population. I guess we'll see.

psilody wrote:

K.. sorry you are right that its a little more involved. Again you need some friends and a little flexibility.

(2)To recruit yerself to your own crew... Take yer character, find a friend willing to temporarily lend a char. recruit that character, make them FM. Log off. bring in yer second character. have yer new FM recruit them. Yer friend can then leave the crew, and yer two chars will be a crew. This leaves with needing ONE freind, willing to be recurited by your main character, toform the second crew. To form the Faction. You temporarily promote said friend to Captain of that crew. Then log in with your other crew Captain and create the faction. You cna then have your friend re-promote you back to Captain. For this, said freind will in fact have to stay in the crew, at least until you can find someone to be a true crew member.

3) As to this second part, well, I can't help ya there. Depends on your relationship with your present Faction. Given the situation, they may understand and be willing to work with you on creating the faction, but continuing to regard you as, well, if not a member, a really good friend, and be willing to help you get up to level. This is obviously going to be a matter of presective. Some Faction heads would be really pissed to be losing a member and gaining a competing Faction. Other might honestly accept that lots of players feel the creative urge to create a Faction idea, and see it as a way to maintain the strength of the EPN org, making sure that there are a good number of factions for the future.

So yeah, I guess i just mean that, if you are really serious, and have some good, understanding friends,you could probably pull this off. Hope that clarifies my response, and good luck either way

Yah, it clarifies it. I guess though, that even though it's mechanically possible, it's not feasible. It's going to take a few months before I'd be in the position to it and do justice to it, by which time EPN will be deader than sideways ironed flares, tank tops and plastic sandals.

A Note To Rarebit: I hope you understand that my point is never to say "Rarebit is a suck-@$$ *$*$*$*$*$" in a dozen different ways. I know full well what effort you put into this game and I give you credit for that. But as a paying customer I also feel I have the right to voice any concerns I have over proposed developments.

Hm, I was wondering if these org quests could and will involve new interior looking areas? I mean it would be nice to see new rooms and such, recolored floors, walls, new posters, just a general change to the missionareas from the generic areas would be real nice, even visiting Le Vrai? Dare one hope? And also maybe keep some of the missions in the same building? Instead of all the running from one location to another, why not go up one floor and clean out then take the elevator to the next floor? Would give the missions a whole new feel of attacking an org controlled installation. Hope these ideas aren't too outlandish

I like that Idea Syn! The mission could involve clearing the entire building of an Org related group etc. Would be cool to have the stages of a mission all in one building and make it a big thing.

Also I agree with the comment of interiors.

triple-post there, Jim?

I dont know about MxO losing so many subscribers.There will always be people who will play it, till SoE pulls their jacks. The thing is , as you've probably just realized (welcome to the club!), or will shortly, even if that happened they wouldn't really care. So all this MxO's end prophecy discussions are completely and utterly pointless. not to mention they have been repeated over and over again each 2 pages of this ~34 pages thread, and also in the big ole' Producer's Letter a couple months ago. with absolutely no result. 'nuff said?

NeoExcidious wrote:

triple-post there, Jim?

They were all in response to seprate posts.

Any word if the New Approach is kicking in tomorrow?

Sigma

SigmaTheta wrote:

Any word if the New Approach is kicking in tomorrow?

Sigma

Pretty sure the patch goes out tommorrow, so I assume so.

EDIT: REMEMBER TO PUT THE TEXTURES IN THE PATCH RAREBIT

Yeah, and the patch notes should be posted some time today.  Then we'll know for sure.

im Really looking forward to t ommorw i wanna see how these new changes work out.

Synapse777 wrote:

Hm, I was wondering if these org quests could and will involve new interior looking areas? I mean it would be nice to see new rooms and such, recolored floors, walls, new posters, just a general change to the missionareas from the generic areas would be real nice, even visiting Le Vrai? Dare one hope? And also maybe keep some of the missions in the same building? Instead of all the running from one location to another, why not go up one floor and clean out then take the elevator to the next floor? Would give the missions a whole new feel of attacking an org controlled installation. Hope these ideas aren't too outlandish

Well, they're not, except the "new rooms" one oddly enough.  Adding new rooms would require a repackaging of the entire district because there are a set number of building designs.  If you change a design, you have to make everyone re-download the entire map.

Rarebit old chap, this post is directed personally to you. I hope you read it. A reply to it would make me ecstatic, but I guess you get a lot of messages. Okay, it’s been a good few days since the changes were implemented and I’ve put in a good few gaming hours with the new system. Here are my observations…

1/ I was happy about the new FX timers, as I collect them from the archives and was chuffed to learn my devices would be drastically extended. I did however foresee this change making the perps people had fought tooth and nail for, virtually worthless. Having tried them out though, I think Rarebit, that you may have pitched it just about right. Five minutes isn’t too long to class as spam and a 30 second recharge time is placed just well enough to prevent spamming from any but the most determined. I think I’m going to be happy to eat my own words on this particular subject.

2/ (a)The new critical mission system is something I… not exactly loathe… but dislike intensely. Playing a game like this is all about suspension of disbelief, perhaps more so than usual, considering this is the Matrix we’re talking about. Why would all three org reps hang out within twenty feet of each other? Why would it be necessary to do the same mission about six or seven times in order to gain some items? I understand people sitting on their arses in Richland was a problem, but many mission have had specific locations (usually Westview I think, although there would’ve been nothing to stop it being in Downtown) and I think it would’ve been relatively easy to force people to move around the city as desired without taking the crit delivery away from the three regular controllers. I also understand that people simply not being bothered to do crit missions was a difficulty, so you had to have some sort of incentive system to make them do it. The reaction earlier in this thread to the mention of IS regen boosters (most people said they couldn’t be bothered to use them) was an obvious clue that the current situation wasn’t working, but I find the new solution very annoying, as getting said reward requires repeated completion of the same mission in the plot (not to mention that rewards are not level specific, they’re fixed and thus out of my reach for the near future – I presume this is meant to be an incentive to reach level 50?). At least with the arcs you could jump around as desired. Which leads me to…

(b)Why on earth is the archiving system being discarded? Without it, it will be impossible to do off-org crit missions unless you’re one of those people with enough time on their hands to have generated three level 50 characters. Also, the idea of having crit missions existing for all time as current ones is a ruiner of the aforementioned “suspension of disbelief” because we now have a timeline that defies any knowledge of quantum physics. That means we can’t have any plot specific environmental effects, such as when the General kidnapped Sati and the Matrix weather went all to buggery.

3/ The much vaunted cinematics return...  I am the first to admit that I have zero talent as an artist and almost zero when it comes to art appreciation, so people may consider my views on this less relevant than those of others. However, here are my views for what they're worth...

These are what we gave up the other stuff for?!?!?! I find them hard to look at, and I often find myself not even having a clue which characters are which, or even who the heck they are, because it looks like a detailess black and white splodge on my screen. Given that there's no voiceovers to help distinguish between people either, it makes it doubly hard. An absoloute pile of the festering "proverbial" in other words. I could quite happily live without these if we got some of the old features back. I know you can do better than this Rarebit.

4/ To finish off my feedback sandwich, a positive note. Mainly positive for me, as my main is in EPN (still smarting from that particular shutdown though). What a plotline! Shimada getting murdered by Veil is somewhat… motivating, shall we say? Death to the Cyphs! (Well the ones that exist already, seeing as their faction numbers can’t increase now.)