Good stuff to know.  Thanks for the answers, folks. 

Well, currently I'm level 17 and still only getting 1 point.  Is anyone getting more than a 1 point bonus from a signal booster?

As far as the shoes, correct.. they only required level 8 to wear, but the difficulty rating (as far as compiling them goes) is "18".  At the time I had a compile skill of 12, but even being a few points shy I figured that if the signal booster was providing at least a 5-10 point bonus then I had more than enough skill to compile the clothing, but that turned out not to be the case (because, it would seem, the signal booster is only giving a 1 point bonus).

I would love to know if anyone is actually getting more than a 1 point bonus from the satellites.  And, if so, what the location of that dish was, what level they were, etc.

Often, here on the forum, I read comments from posters quoting sizable skillpoint gains when standing next to a satellite dish.  However, I'm only seeing a 1 point increase in my compile, decompile, and repair skills when under the effects of a signal booster.

If I open the status panel to monitor the bonuses tab, I'll see something like this when standing next to a signal booster:

Decompile Skill: [Bonus: +18 points]
>>Decompile Items: [Bonus +17 points]
>>Signal Booster:  [Bonus +18 points]

Move away from the signal booster and it changes to:
   
Decompile Skill: [Bonus: +17 points]
>>Decompile Items: [Bonus +17 points]

Is that really all the bonus a satellite dish gives?  1 point?  I don't think this is a display error either, because back when I was level 12 I attempted to compile a difficulty 18 pair of boots (shoes usable by a level .  With a compile skill of 12 (at the time) and a sizable boost from a satellite dish, you would think this would be a piece of cake.  Instead, I failed both times I tried.

I'm not sure why people keep insisting that Zion doesn't care about appearances, and all things classy and stylish fit only with the realm of the Merovingian faction.  I can't remember a single Zion character in the movies that didn't dress to impress once they jacked into the Matrix.  Any time they were presented with a visual choice they could influence, they always went with the coolest looks they could imagine up.  As these are people no longer in hiding, why would they choose a run down building as their location of choice to gather?

And, frankly, at least half of the visual examples of the Merovingian lifestyle involved underground leather and bondage looks.  Yes, the Merovingian himself had a beautiful chateau, but that's not the environment the Merovingian drones were often seen packed into.  I don't see the Merovingian as the type of fellow who'd be content with allowing his underlings to sport homes that rivaled his own in beauty.  If anyone should be raving in dark basement around a bunch of burning barrels, well..

It's much worse.  I created a new character and attempted to go hunting in Uriah.  In the span of 20 minutes I could only find 3 NPC exiles to kill:  one hidden behind the containers on the warf where you start (where there used to be tons), one near the parking lot area near the second hardline you encounter (where there also used to be tons), and one tucked away in an alley between warehouses.

The new player experience must be horrible right now.  They probably have no idea something is wrong and just quietly leave frustrated and bored.

A friend and I have started characters together and whenever (as a team) one of us does a critical mission, both of us get credit for completing it.  We did all the introductory and seduction missions as a team, and only had to do them once in toal, as completing the mission in the team completed the mission for both of us (and not just the team leader).

Now we're doing Archival Missions.  She bought archival mission 1.1.1 and created a team, and together we did 1.1.1, 1.1.2 and 1.1.3.  At the end of 1.1.3 she was awarded with a chapter completion token.  I however, was not.

I figured this was because I hadn't bought the archival mission ticket myself, and since the item wasn't in my inventory it couldn't advance at the end of each mission.  Lesson learned, I went and bought a 1.1.1 from the vendor and completed the three missions in the series by myself.  Since I had already completed these missions once with my friend, at the end of each mission I received 0 XP and 0 influence.

After that, we both purchased Archival Mission 1.2.1 from the vendor.  Upon completing the 1.2.1 mission (with her as the leader), hers advanced to 1.2.2, where as mine stayed at 1.2.1.  Bleh.  To confirm the results we did the next mission (again with her as the team leader) and hers advanced to 1.2.3, while mine remained at 1.2.1.

Wanting to figure this out, I left the team and did the 1.2.1 mission on my own, just as I had done with the 1.1.1 series.  Upon completing 1.2.1, I received a large sum of experience and influence.  I wasn't expecting that at all, as I had completed the mission twice now, and this didn't match up with the 0 XP and 0 influence reward behavior I had seen in the 1.1.1 through 1.1.3 series.

So, now I'm confused.

1) Are we supposed to receive XP and influence every time we repeat the same archival mission?  I was under the impression we weren't, and while it seemed to work that way on one set of missions, it didn't on another.

2) Is it not possible for everyone on a team to advance and gain credit for the completion of an archive mission?  And by "get credit" I mean "receive a mission completion token at the end of the chapter so I can eventually turn in a set for a reward".

I'm extremely disappointed if this isn't the case, because some of those chapters are 17 missions long, and it's just silly (and immersion breaking) to have to repeat the same archive twice, particularly if you're not supposed to get any experience or influence rewards the second time around.  It's almost like you are encouraging people to solo the archival missions, which doesn't make sense since (at least for me) it's more enjoyable to advance through a storyline with a friend.

Am I just doing this wrong?

When I first started playing the game a month or so ago, there was an ample supply of exile NPCs out in the open to fight everywhere I looked.  The respawn rate on them was fairly quick as well (perhaps a bit too quick, although I'm sure that works out better whenever several people are hunting in the same area).

For more than a week now, there has been an extreme lack of outdoor NPC spawns on Recursion.  I'm not sure how widespread it is as I am still limited to the slum areas in my travel, but at this point there are entire neighborhoods that are devoid of MOBs.  There are, for instance, very few Choppers in Uriah, certainly nowhere near the amount that used to be there.  In the past two weeks I've seen one Brick Exile in all of Midian Park, which used to be full of them.

While this makes mission running extremely easy, anyone wanting to do some "outdoor" hunting is going to find the pickings extremely slim.  It also makes it difficult to gather any node access keys for higher level zones.

Is this part of an ongoing event that has been taking place?  An attempt to reduce the load in certain areas?  An unintentional bug?

I really have to disagree with the line of thinking that suggests that since Zion is forced to live in caves in the real world, they don't care at all about appearances in the Matrix.  Every dingy Zion operative that jacks into the Matrix sports an RSI that is sharply and stylishly dressed.  Their new looks are serious upgrades from even their days as a bluepill.  The "if you look good, you feel good" philosophy comes into play here.  It applies to the player as well.. we all probably enjoy our character more when we get them in clothing that "looks cool".  We probably play them better too.

Just because Zion is forced to live in poor conditions in the real world doesn't mean they choose to live that way in the Matrix.  Every time Zion creates a construct, whether it's a training simulation or a functional command and control room, it's always an area that looks technically cool or sports a hint of culture.  I really can't picture Niobe entering one of the existing Zion org areas without saying "someone clean up this dump" in disgust.  Zion has more pride than that.  They are a very proud people, and the Zion org. areas in their current form do not scream "pride".

Let me go post 3921 more times to show exactly how much that line of thinking is worth.

In all seriousness, if you are able to cram the ability into memory, you should keep it running all the time.  Since you can only actively run one or the other, I actually prefer using hyper-dodge over hyper-block because I'm only ever melee-fighting one person at a time, while usually several people are shooting at me in the process.  It would be nice to know how effective either of them works out to be in practice, but without that knowledge hyper-dodge seems like the safer bet.

The complete definition of hyper-dodge that I have is this:

Hyper-dodge is a combat ability that allows you to dodge an attack that would otherwise hit you.  This ability adds a certain amount to your dodge score.  If an attack misses due to the bonus provided by this ability, you pay the Inner Strength cost, and the appropriate Bullet Time animation plays.  Activate this ability to increase your chances to avoid being hit by fee fire attacks.  The bonus to your dodge increases as you improve the ability's level.

Ability Level Cap: 25

10% Proc: Bullet time FX activates

Dodge Ability: +(Ability Level)

Whether that is accurate or not, just watching yourself fighting over time will provide the answers for you.  I know every now and then I see my character do the blur-bullet time maneuver (not to be confused with the "ducking/stepping out of the way of each shot" animation, this one actually looks like the blur effect the agent did in the Matrix when Neo shot at him on the roof where the helicopter was).  I see that blur animation play pretty often on NPC's, but very infrequently on my character.  The few times that I have, I've seen an "IS:##" cost float off from my character (much in the way it does when you're in block mode and regenerating IS every round).  Next time I see it happen I'll check my chat log to see if there are any relevant messages there.

I have a pretty decent system.  But to give you an example of how wacky this performance problem can be, tonight I logged in, and after the code effect faded away and I was left standing around at a vacant hardline, I could immediately tell the framerate was chugging.  I did a /netstats and saw that I was running at 13 FPS.  Looking briefly around, I didn't see anything going on, so I exited the game, went back to desktop, waited a few seconds and then logged right back in to the same location.

This time it seemed smooth.  I did /netstats again and my FPS was at 35.  It hovered between 25 and 35 for the rest of the evening except towards the end of my session when it dipped down to 20 FPS at a crowded hardline.  But, a performance hit at that point is expected.

I was under the impression that Hyperdodge not only cost IS to activate, but also whenever an attack missed you due to the bonus the buff provided, it drained a bit more inner-strength.  Several times now I've seen the telltale motion blur animation play on my character followed immediately by "IS:10" floating off and watching my IS bar drain slightly. 

Evade Combat works the same way.. you pay an initial IS cost for activating it, and then every time it does it's job you're charged a bit more IS.

I've seen the exact same problem.  The game seems to run very smoothly, but eventually performance starts to degrade sharply.  I suspect there are some memory leaks at work here.  Sometimes I can go for over an hour without seeing a performance drop, and other times it happens within minutes after logging in.  I've noticed just opening my minimap can reduce my framerate by 5 FPS, but not always, which makes it rather odd.

Just wanted to say I got some nice outfit pieces I had been looking for, and I'm really glad Tsusai took the time to make a visual catalog.  I would love to see more people doing this.  Personally, I'm not familiar enough with the various pieces of clothing to match the names to the looks and stats.  Seeing that catalog made it incredibly easy for me to pick what I wanted and place an order.  If you're a crafter looking to drum up some extra business, I highly recommend going this route.

I don't mind the video adds, although I feel they'd make more sense in a more modern city district than the slums.  The only thing that really bothers me is the range of the audio.  Some of the mission buildings are near video billboards and I hear that short AM/PM advertisement looping fairly loudly the entire time I'm inside the building attempting to complete a mission.  That just shouldn't be happening.  It makes it hard to focus on the mission and completely breaks my immersion, preventing me from enjoying the game.

The guide could be right describing how each fragment is created from which bits. Nevertheless, under the current coding model, there's no use on such information.

Even though you can't create items without already knowing the recipe, each recipe consists of certain combinations of code bits, right?  Are the ones listed in the guide not valid at all anymore?  For instance, to craft the "Combat Insight" ability, you need (according to the guide) the following bits 1 + 2, 6 + 7, 1 + 3, and 1 + 8. 

Bits 1 + 2 create common variable fragment c09, Bits 6 + 7 create common variable fragment c23, bits 1 + 3 create class routine: ability, and bits 1 + 8 create function subroutines: operative ability.

According to the guide and the game (after checking with the code writing tool), that all seems to match up.  I guess I'm wondering if the buff abilities of certain items (namely clothing) changed when CR2.0 came out, which would make the strategy guide listings inaccurate.  I know I'm having trouble finding clothing with buffs in the guide that match some of the ones I see in the game (the name of the outfit is there, just the buffs don't seem to match up, unless I'm reading the guide wrong).  This is mainly why I was hoping to find a more up-to-date list.  There are also, of course, new abilities that were added since the guide was printed as well.

Can anyone recommend a site that lists the various "recipes" for various items?  I have the Matrix Online strategy guide, and towards the end of the book it shows the bit code requirements to make various fragments, subroutines, items, etc.  But, I guess some of the items have been changed since this book was written (i.e. buffs on clothing).  Is there a more up-to-date listing available?

Darn it, no edit function.

I forgot to mention that I would be happy to provide the needed code bits if that would help (is there a "recipe" guide out there anywhere?).  I know lower level items are probably not high on anyone's list of things to use code bits for.

So, it sounds like the condition of an item when you decompile it has no bearing on the quality of the blueprint that is placed in your list of "recipes", nor does it affect any copies of that item you make in the future. 

Can a crafted item be decompiled just like a regular drop (i.e. you'll get code bits from it or learn how to craft it if you don't have the blueprint yet)?

Does repairing an item that still has purity always restore it to full stability?  Or is the amount or repair random?

This is a low level item, but I was wondering if anyone can make an "Armored Black Yoshi Triga Trench"?  That stats on it are "Melee Damage Resistance (6pts)" and "Ballistic Damage Resistance (6pts)". 

If you're willing to make this item, please let me know who to contact in the game (and what time would be best to contact you).

Thanks!

I have two questions, both regarding crafting/decompiling and item stability.

1) When you decompile an item and successfully add its recipe to your crafting list, does the condition (stability) of the item influence your blueprint at all?

For instance, let's say I find a nice coat that isn't in my crafting list.  I decompile the coat and learn how to make it.  However, the stability of the coat at the time I decompiled it was very poor (the big dot was red, or worse, half a red dot).  If I craft new copies of this coat, will all the new versions start off with the same poor stability?

2) My understanding is that when an item loses all stability, it "breaks" and becomes unusable at that point.  Does the item still exist in your inventory once this happens, or does it disappear completely?  If it does still exist in your inventory once all the stability and purity has been removed, can it be decompiled at that point and turned into bits (or added to your recipe list, assuming you don't have that item in your list yet)?

Up until now I've been searching every floor of every building I go into for a mission.  On most floors the elevator doors won't even open, but there are always a few floors that have small areas you can search around in (in addition to the floor where your mission takes place).  I think the only interesting thing I've found on any of these floors so far was when one of them had a door that opened up to a brick wall directly behind it (which I found amusing since it reminded me of the deja vu incident in the original Matrix film).  I've never found any items hidden on these other floors, however.

As my missions are starting to include buildings with 18+ floors, I have to ask.. has anyone ever found any reason to check the other floors in a mission building?  Or am I wasting my time on this?

Thanks a lot for the help.

Do missions scale in difficulty as you add more members to your team (i.e. more enemy NPCs are spawned within the mission)?  Or is adjusting the mission to "hard" and increasing the NPCs level the only way to make a mission more difficult?

I was wondering if grouping with another player had any effect on missions.  Here are some example scenarios:

Example 1:  You group with another player, and together you complete a mission of his that you yourself have not even picked up yet.  Will you:

1) ..get the end $information, experience and faction rewards for completing the mission?
2) ..be unable to take that mission from a contact for yourself while solo at a later date, because it has now been flagged as being completed by you?

Example 2:  You and another player have the same mission in your mission journal, albeit at different locations.  You then form a group.  In this case, will you be able to complete the mission for both of you by going to either location?  Or do you have to go to both locations to complete the mission for both members of the team (at which point you're essentially completing the same mission twice).

Example 3:  You and another player group together and one of you picks up a mission from a contact.  Does the mission get inserted into the mission log of both players? 

When you refer to loading them all at the same time, I assume you're talking about "memory" (which increases slowly in size as your character progresses in levels) and the memory footprint of each program.  That part I'm aware of and understand.

I was talking about "code storage", which apparently is a virtual inventory where your code bits for crafting (as well as your abilities) are stored.  Going by the details in the thread I linked below, there are 448 active abilities and approximately 520 slots in code storage.  If more abilities are added, it sounds like it's possible to reach a point where you'll no longer have room to learn additional skills.  It also sounds like it's difficult to have a serious crafting career if most of your code storage space is tied up with abilities.

http://forums.station.sony.com/mxo/..._id=34700005063

Does a level 1 ability take up any more space than a level 20 ability?

A Discipline is a set of related Abilities. All Disciplines start off with Awakened, and from there branch off into the three primary specializations of Operative, Hacker or Coder. These three primary branches break into approximately 100 separate Disciplines. The skill-tree organization of the Disciplines makes it easy for Redpills to specialize. It is not possible for a single person to master all Disciplines, and some degree of specialization will be required, if you ever wish to attain the most potent Abilities within the Matrix.