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Should organisational benefits be implemented?
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Veteran Hacker

Joined: Aug 15, 2005
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It would make the game a bit more interesting don't you think? I mean as it is, it doesn't matter what organisation you work for, as all you get are slightly different attitudes from operators (Tyndall's honest and dedicated, Gray's typically indifferent but sometimes thankful, and Flood's just smarmy). Everyone is privy to to basically the same information in critical missions, and one way or another all organisations are always working toward the same goal. If there were some kind of incentive to join a particular organisation as opposed to just making all 3 essentially the same, it'd be a lot better. One of the reasons the servers are so overpopulated with Zion isn't because that many people want to "fight the good fight", it's mainly because you start out as one, and when Gray and Flood contact you, they don't actually offer anything that make their respective organisations worth joining.

I joined the Merovingian as soon as I could way back when, and since then I've seen absolutely nothing besides one party just after Morpheus' death that's been exclusive, let alone beneficial to me. It certainly makes a big difference on a pvp server, but generally I'm just attacked because I have a red nametag, as opposed to Zion hating me for aiding in Morpheus' death (well I'd like to think I did SMILEY). As for other organisations, the killcode did essentially nothing.


One thing that's always puzzled me is why agents attack Machinist redpills. Maybe they could be given certain access node locations when they opted to go Machine or something. If it was worked into the story that Gray can't stop these agents (the level 255s) as they are automated, built into the Matrix's core security system, and would attack any redpill or even unauthorised machines themselves if they tried to go there without sufficient access rights, but giving their redpills knowledge would give them a headstart and they'd only have themselves to blame if they got attacked. Not just "Agents attack here" or whatever generic message is given.


I'm trying to think of organisation based perks that would be subtle enough to not make everyone go "*CENSORED* look what they get I'm going *Org name*", but not so subtle as that they're barely noticeable (e.g. cake, which wasn't even exclusive last time!), but it's pretty difficult. Perhaps Merovingian redpills (as they would be of the money/power orientated ilk) can get extra XP and/or info for doing missions (to prevent abuse, you'd have to be a member of the organisation for 30 days or 50 missions, and the increase would happen every 5 or so missions after that), Machines would be immune to player attacks in Archives thanks to an exclusion program (one with a time limit to prevent major camping and abuse), and Zion could escape the Death Effect thanks to their strong will and battle hardened psyches.


Or even more drastically, there could be an irreversible option to permanently join one organisation, and these abilities wouldn't be available until you did. Though in this case I'd want hostile 2 person emotes to be re-enabled, as there's certain Zionites I can't live without slapping SMILEY Probably wouldn't work, but I know I'd like to see some kind of reward for being dedicated to one particular cause, rather than just a different operator.


Any thoughts or ideas on this?






Joined: Aug 24, 2005
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That is a very good idea, i was actualy thinkin along the same lines(exept i didnt have ideas for what the benefits would be :smileyhappySMILEY.But this would be a very major update so if something like that happens it will not be for a very long time.


Jacked Out

Joined: Aug 15, 2005
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I'd love to see something like this... but just like, new districts, new dungeons, pvp objuectives, a larger inventory, more hotbars, and live events, we will never see it. :robotsad:


Jacked Out

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I personally am a Merovingian all the way and I think this would be pretty cool... but, one of the things I tell the new redpills if I see them.... "Go Merovingian... He pays well"

hehehehehehehe


Fansite Operator

Joined: Aug 15, 2005
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BakuraRyou wrote:


Everyone is privy to to basically the same information in critical missions





   Hmm?  I'd like to point out that information on Morpheus' past was split into three in the 1.3 missions.  Zion got information about his early days, the Machines got information about a person that Morpheus thought was the One, and the Merovingian players got information about Morpheus' time in a relaxation construct following the events of the first movie.

 

   I didn't know the flit guns existed until the 2.2 missions, despite the fact that the Machine players were assembling them in the 2.1 missions.

 

   Also, the Zion and Merovingian 3.1 missions involved the Effectuator and the Dire Lupines, while the Machine 3.1 missions had the Colonel, an Exile commando who was linked to a bomb set in the battery towers.  They had to figure out a way to kill him without detonating the bomb and killing who knows how many bluepills.  Plus, the first Machine 3.1 mission involved Cryptos' boxes, while the Zion and Merovingian missions didn't touch on this subject until 3.2.





Joined: Aug 16, 2005
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BakuraRyou wrote:



Or even more drastically, there could be an irreversible option to permanently join one organisation, and these abilities wouldn't be available until you did. Though in this case I'd want hostile 2 person emotes to be re-enabled, as there's certain Zionites I can't live without slapping SMILEY Probably wouldn't work, but I know I'd like to see some kind of reward for being dedicated to one particular cause, rather than just a different operator.


Any thoughts or ideas on this?






Interesting, there does need to be a balance.  An incentive would be a good route to go to get new players to choose an organization other than the current system.  I don't think it would be possible to start a newbie with no organizational affiliation as it is now but, when the time came to choose, having to weight options for instance, org specific equipment.


I do think org selection should be in the tutorial however, I don't know how you would blend this into the storyline.




Systemic Anomaly

Joined: Aug 16, 2005
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I must say, I do totally agree, the general status quo of each
organisation (taking the current story arc as an example) follows as:



Zion - Wants to stop Cryptos and the Cypherites

Merov - Made a truce but are working behind their back to stop Cryptos and the Cypherites

Machines - These are the only ones who may be working with them, but
when the time comes you know they'll drop all differences and kick
Cyptos' *CENSORED* as well.



Now I don't know how they'd implement a organisational benefits can be
introduced storyline-wise if there's a pre-written storyline already
set out, but something could be agreed on surely?






Ascendent Logic

Joined: Aug 21, 2005
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No death effect...do you know how insanely powerfull that is for VT/VD? I know every pvper in the game would be switching over to zion lol.

Message Edited by ibewarped on 12-29-2005 03:11 PM
Message edited by sonofthree on 12/29/2005 15:11:20.



Jacked Out

Joined: Aug 28, 2005
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Definitely. I'll take some time to type up my own points of view and ideas and post them later, but you are definitely on the right track. SMILEY


Organisational benefits is something I was campaigning for very early in MXOs release.




Jacked Out

Joined: Nov 12, 2005
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I think this is a fantastic idea.  Maybe intsead of a permanent dedication to organizatio however, there could just be some massive penalty for switching.  Or maybe you could get "Organization Specific Benefits" only after being in the organization for some length of time.  Maybe you if you switched you simply wouldn't be privy to the Organization's benefits that you just switched over to.


 


Just rambling, fantastic idea however.



Perceptive Mind

Joined: Aug 20, 2005
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sure not much diversity in orgs, but then you can always start roleplaying.  Throw in your own agenda along side your org.



Jacked Out

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Great thread BakuraRyou, I always enjoy seeing ideas players come up with for differentiating the orgs. scribbling on mental notepad...





Joined: Aug 16, 2005
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Well there is another way to difference the orgs without unbalancing the game. For instance by making rare or unique clothes look different between orgs. I know that the devs will have to create a lot of new items (because as they said multiple times, the clothing's buffs, look and sex are all stored in a single 'tuple'), but there are not so many unique or rare items (i'm not considering collectors' items - just Pandora's Box items and boss drops.)

Or, whenever changing the look of our RSIs becomes possible, adding a new set of organizational tatoos. That shouldn't have a great impact on lag because:
-the information sent by the server would remain unchanged: suppose that the current set of tatoos are stored in 4 bits (16 possible tatoos): adding 32 more tatoos do not need necessarily need any additional bits to be added to the RSI apparel record, because we already have a field in which the org information for the player is stored (supposed that this informations are also sent every in every packet,as I think).
-the memory cost wouldn't be prohibitive: tatoos can be stored in low res greyscale images wich don't take up so much memory.



Systemic Anomaly

Joined: Aug 16, 2005
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The only organisational benefit I can think off right now, is
the  "Choice and Consequence" event, where, depending on the org
that "won" the event, the votes decided  Neurophytes fate:



Those who chose to kill her received a killcode a few days/a week
later, which was  diluted from the original version and as such
did nothing.



Those who turned her back to Zion gave zion the biggest  benefit
in the game, uber electric bolts that could kill red eyed agents like
no-ones buisness.



Those who turned her into their organisation (be it machines or merovingians) got the above boost, and Zion didn't.



Now in my mind, this was a brilliant scheme, but with the server merge
they don't know what the deal with Neurophyte is, and it's been
admitted she doesn't fit into Chadwicks storyine anyway, so the puzzle
we worked to complete and to gain Neurophyte is all for nought, and
with it the organisationa l benefit is dropped with it.



Now, from my point of veiw, it now seems that the organisational
benefits can only be implemented on the condition that, each time there
is a live event, an organisation or two "loses" (i.e - does not acheive
their aims) but this probably wouldn't happen due to the org imbalances
on different servers, and as such it woukd follow:



Zion would win the majority of the time on Vector, Merovs on Recursion
and X ORG on Syntax (sorry, not up to speed on my Syntax distinctions)
And as such the sytem would be flawed.



So the end result is that if organisational benefits come into play,
they'd have to be much more lowkey than huge storyline benefits. Things
like Agents not hounding Machine operatives, and maybe hounding
Merovingian operatives more, and merov ops could receive some sort of
construct, like the Chateu , the Machines the white room, and Zion the
desert of the real.



I'm throwing abstract ideas around here, nothing definite I would like to see.




Jacked Out

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Well I like the idea of making org "benefits" a little more subtle. All we need on Vector is Zion (which I think is safe to say at 90% of the population now) getting a benefit, like no DE and +5 belief. (I can see the M&M's getting +5 reason and 2 % VR lol) I think the storyline will pull people into different orgs if it is interesting enough. Hopefully that will balance thigns a bit on it's own and more of the M&M players who left will come back. Of course we need to get the story line rolling...
 
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