Yeah, I know you don't like people coming back to this neck of the woods but this is SOE stuff, so it's allowed

Today we are unveiling our new Free Trial program, which allows anyone to give Pirates of the Burning Sea a try for 14 days without paying us a penny! Tell your friends, loved ones, work colleagues, tennis partners and people you meet at the supermarket!

You can access the key request page by clicking here. You'll be asked to enter your email address, and then a special URL will be sent to you that will allow you to claim your key.

Please note that these keys will only work with new Pirates of the Burning Sea accounts; Station Access accounts and existing Pirates of the Burning Sea accounts are not eligible.

Once the trial period is over, you will need to purchase a copy of the game and choose a subscription plan to continue playing. Any characters you create during the trial period will be carried over once you start subscribing.

As with any new system, there's a chance that there might be a couple of bugs that we've yet to track down and exterminate. If you happen to find one, please let us know by filing a support ticket!

/ Rhaegar

*cough* as someone's not paying attention *cough* (you know I <3 you really!)

The next SOE podcast is now available for download from the SOE podcast site http://www.station.sony.com/podcasts.vm

Hear from Linda "Brasse" Carlson from thebrasse.com, we also would like to re-release our interview with Laralyn McWilliams from the Free Realms team.  We chat about our ION Conference trip and EQII's Update 45.  Jason Ryan's news gives us all of the info from many of the SOE titles unfortunately this Podcast some of the info is a tad out dated...!  Ashlanne loses her gamer card stick to the forums to find out how you can help her get it back

From a side point, some of the stuff in this is really funny. Jason "Pex" Ryan get mildly pissed about a certain MxO character in the outtakes at the end too which made me laugh so hard!

Before you read on, this isn't any form of advert for the game or anything, this is simply me posting information about changes to an SOE game in the right section, you will see at no point do  ask you to come play the game, I'm simply relaying information

I think it's safe to say that FLS has had a tough time of it recently. They had the server merges to bump up populations on the remaining servers and they also had the utter and total failure of the Spanish launch of the game.

That being said, FLS are still going along their path to creating the game they want. They admit that they have potentially released too early, yet as they'd already had so much time in beta they had pretty much no choice. Anyway, there's a number of massive changes coming up with the game, which those who have been a bit 50/50 about the game might want to hear.

Firstly, there's a lot of stuff coming in patch 1.4, which I'll link to in a moment but there's also a lot of stuff coming for 1.5 which will make the game more appealing to those who like PvE and not PvP; most notably the player port governance.

So onto patch 1.4. The main part of this patch is a massive re-balancing of the player abilities and also and introduction of a new pirate career!

The links below are the breakdown of all of this, so feel free to have a read of each at your leisure

1.4 Skill Changes: Overview

1.4 Skill Changes: Naval Officer

1.4 Skill Changes: The Privateer 

1.4 Skill Changes: The Freetrader

1.4 Skill Changes: The Buccaneer (the new pirate career)

1.4 Skill Changes: The Cutthroat

Ok, so with the stuff for 1.4 out of the way, there's a couple more things you might want to read, which include:

PotBS at MMORPG ~ members of the PotBS staff met up with MMORPG.com to talk about the server merges and things still to come in the game: a good overview of all things Pirates currently.

Changes to the Underdog tools ~ these are tools that are given out to the nations who don't win the map, in various scales depending on their position ie the nation who was last in the map standings gets the better underdog tool to help them.

User Content 2.0 ~ this is a change to the user content system which is now finally finished and ready to impliment. For all details on the new system, click the link!

SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT FANFAIRE 2008

AUGUST 14 - 16 LAS VEGAS

THE HILTON

If you want to listen to more details on this, you can download the newest SOE Podcast now by clicking here.

The Fanfaire site is also starting to be updated with details of this years events, click here to visit! Do remember that if you want the earliest news regarding the Fanfaire, this is the site that you need to look at!

There's already a number of events planned, including:

BOOKING DETAILS

Passes will go on sale later this Spring, but you can book your hotel stay now! The Las Vegas Hilton is currently accepting reservations at the discounted Fan Faire rate of just $139 per night (cheapest standard price for the cheapest single room is $145.95). Just call (800) 635-7711 and tell them you're with Sony Online Entertainment, booking code SSOE8. Space is limited - so get your room soon, in case they sell out!

Ooooooh gotcha there didn't I?

No, there's not a link to listen yet, mainly as there seems to be some red tape to get around with this podcast, mainly as it holds the hottest of SOE information, the Fanfaire 2008 details.

It was meant to be released originally on Friday but has been delayed until Ashlanne can get it cleared (mainly as this will be the first source of information for the Fanfaire this year.)

So, I was wondering (as I've read from some on the Station forums) who might be going this year?

Before you scream, "Starting a new thread on a locked topic!!!" please read on.

I've been trying to figure out how the general veteran rewards system works in a number of SOE games, mainly as I play more than one and I do get a number of vet rewards (no, I'm not complaining that we don't get them here, keep reading...)

From what I can tell, the rewards system is based on the time your account is physically active and not your amount of playtime. I say that as this account is a Station Pass one, as primarily I play here and SWG (a bit). Now, when the whole Pirates of the Burning Sea came onto the pass, I was naturally happy, which is why I got involved in the beta and have been playing there ever since, happily paying the same amount regardless.

My question is, is how that system works right though? For example, I never played EQII in my life before I was given the all-in-one box by Ashlanne, yet the first time I go on there I had buckets of vet items. So in that case, it's more rewarding me for being a vet of SOE rather than the game itself. It's a similar thing for SWG, as I haven't played anywhere near the vet reward times on there, yet I have loads of them.

Equally, I'm assuming all of this stuff must be saved on one server or linked together with the games in some way, as otherwise the whole thing of how Station Launcher can tell you if your friends are online on any of SOE's games, regardless of character... the only way I can think of it doing that is through the account. Unless I'm missing something...? I can only assume though that this is going to be one of those "added bonuses" for having a Station Pass

I know this is a bit random but I was reading NT's post about how they'd be implimented here (as it was the last one in the locked thread about the vet rewards going to vanguard) so it got me thinking about the vet system generally. The above is what happens when I think about it but I'm now curious on specifics

Today holds a sad day in the hearts of all.

We can confirm that the Oracle has been struck down by The Intruder; Halborn, when she refused to hand over the devise he required from her.

She was a crazy ol' girl who some hated for who she was and what she knew.

All I know is this, she will be missed.

May you now find peace from those who doubted and laughed at you through all these years.

"Life's too short. That's not a prediction."

I don't think this is something that just happens here on dn1 as I seem to get rather odd loading issues on Station forums too.

It *might* be something with IE as I have tried to get the same thing with firefox but so far nothing...

If you really push the forums too far, you get a fun message:

Now, I'm writing this in an attempt to talk to people sooner rather than later about this that and the other. The reason I want to talk about it is that I'd rather talk to people about it rather than someone a little bit further down the line going off on a rant.

To put that all into english, a few people recently requested that I return to the game to be part of a faction with them. I'm not going to say who, what faction or what org, until I get some answers on things, I'm simply putting that out there right now.

Firstly, this would not be as my character TheUnknownShadow. That character and all my others were deleted when I said I was leaving as my feeling was then that I really didn't want to come back. The joy of the game had gone out of it for me. I felt I'd personally got all I could out of the game, I had all the items, all the abilities and so on.

Secondly, my other characters. I've come under more handles than many people know me as. Some have guessed, some with more accuracy than others on that one, who was behind a few but it's suffice to say regardless of all that in this game I'm a hardcore roleplayer. I take a lot of enjoyment out of it and I also like to see others taking enjoyment from that roleplaying. I know that many players play different characters and that they show them as such on the forums in sigs and openly talk about it (I always remember the person known as MatrixRefugee on the boards as one that springs to mind... in a good way too) yet I've always felt the need for them to be seperate characters, so I never discussed them all in the same sentence. I probably never will. For reasons of not wanting to start drama for one but also because it didn't feel right to me to be discussing different characters all from the same place. It might not to you but to me, in my eyes anyway, it feels like I would have been breaking the whole mystique.

I could have done this one way which would have been to get a new account and scrap this one entirely and I've also discussed with Virrago about how forum name changes work. However, I'm going to say this for now:

The character TheUnknownShadow and everything associated with that character is no-more, however the person behind the character is being persuaded to join up again.

So how do we go about it? Shall we have a big shouting match on here? Shall we actually talk about things in a normal manner or shall this be entirely ignored?

Honestly, I don't mind anymore. I know there's some people who can't resist starting drama, however I'm really hoping to avoid that. Like I said, I'm going to be here for those few people only. I'll be playing a new character and keeping myself to myself for the most part. However if I post on these boards, is there going to be drama every single time I post (potentially this post too ~ apologies to Virrago/Rarebit/MOD's in advance if editing ensues) or can we talk things through?

Anyway, I'll leave this here. As Morpheus said, "...Either way. I leave it up to you."

You know something? I think the overall summary of EQII is that of really pleasant surprise.

To give a bit of background, for those who didn't listen to it I had a question answered by the Love Doctor in podcast number 26. Because of this, I had a big box of things (and I really do mean big box, through Fedex) sent to me here in the UK from the US. I got lots of bits and pieces,  SOE fanfaire t-shirts, EQ Fanfaire New Orleans stuff too (god knows how much of that stuff SOE must have made to still have that) oh oh oh! A flashing bouncy ball (childish I know but it's awesome!) and then within all of that, I got the Everquest II all-in-one box. Off that one box, I got a whole load of things for Everquest II:

• Entitlement: Desert of Flames + In-Game Item: Genie Bottle
• Entitlement: Echoes of Faydwer
• Entitlement: Extra Character Slots (Station Access)
• Entitlement: Kingdom of Sky
• Entitlement: Rise of Kunark
• Entitlement: The Bloodline Chronicles
• Entitlement: The Fallen Dynasty
• Entitlement: The Splitpaw Saga
• In-Game Item: 1 Day Vet Reward
• In-Game Item: 182 Day Vet Reward
• In-Game Item: 30 Day Vet Reward
• In-Game Item: 365 Day Vet Reward
• In-Game Item: 7 Day Vet Reward
• In-Game Item: 90 Day Vet Reward
• In-Game Item: Booster Pack & Frozen Fingers
• In-Game Item: Carnivorous Plant
• In-Game Item: Clockwork Copter
• In-Game Item: Cockatrice House Pet
• In-Game Item: Gazing Orb
• In-Game Item: Mysterious Shard
• In-Game Item: Paintings of EQII
• In-Game Item: Pet Monkey
• In-Game Item: Picture of the Desert of Ro
• In-Game Item: Ring of T'Haen
• In-Game Item: Talking Statues

So, a little overwhelmed by all this stuff, I logged into the game and I was impressed! Do note that I was someone who (on principle) hates that whole elves, dwarfs fantasy sort of thing. I've never like WoW, I didn't like LotR (even though I'm a massive fan of the books and then how the films were done) yet I really did like EQII.

I can see how the game has really been given a lot of love by SOE and I can see why they are proud of the work that is done on it. The graphics are starting to show as a little dated yet that doesn't matter, as the gameplay is simply wonderful. I made myself a little female Fae, who are (for all intensive purposes fairies) yet even with something like that which is so insanely over-the-top fantasy, I played that game for the first time for about 8 hours straight!!!

So now, I'm leaving this here for you all to see and I'll be copying a version of this onto the main Station boards, so I can complain heavily to lovely Ashlanne for getting me hooked on Everquest II.

Seriously, have a try out of it, I was shocked by the fun you can have, perhaps you will too!!

PREPARE TO SET SAIL!!!

OPEN BETA FOR PIRATES OF THE BURNING SEA!!!

The first four days of the Pirates of the Burning Sea open beta will be reserved for our invited beta testers and members of the FilePlanet Founders Club. Open Beta is scheduled to begin worldwide on Friday, December 7th, 2007, at which point FilePlanet subscribers can get in. After that it'll be open for everyone within a week. We'll have a public open beta forum available shortly.

On December 7th, North American players that aren't currently beta testers will need to go to http://www.burningsea.com/page/news....fileplanet.com for download information.

I was thinking this idea over and I was just wondering what you guys would think about creating an MxO calendar...

There would be a contest to make up an image for each month of the year (for example a screeny from Christmas event for December) that you'd all get to vote on and anyone could enter.

I guess it would have to be an image from the game or a created artwork based on something in the game for that month to fit roughly A4 size.

Just wanted to hear your yes/no/ideas on this before I perhaps suggest it to Virrago as something more for us to have. I say I'd have to pitch it to Virrago as we'd be taking legal issues into it etc etc about taking game images and getting them published...

anyway,

/discuss

*edit* you know, mainly as another way for people to see the amazing artwork that's created, and I know a lot of you have skills in editing screenshots from in-game...

RAWR!!!

There's loads of fun stuff in this one, along with Matrix Online news and stuff!!!!

Oh and there's a special appearance by the love doctor himself. Yummy

Go to the Podcast Site to get the download!

I decided that, considering that I've had god knows how many people ask me this recently, that I'd put up all that I know/been told about Hovercraft Scanline. From searching the boards, I don't notice that anything specific has ever been written all in one place on this so here goes.

Oh and thanks goes to this site I was sent that has been holding the transmissions.

HOVERCRAFT SCANLINE

The basic story here is that a number of operatives who were sick of all the lies being told on all sides during the initial stages of the Truce, stole a ship from Zion and did a runner. For a while after that they were never heard of again, until operatives within the Matrix started hearing from these operatives saying that they were members of Hovercraft Scanline and asking them if they wanted to see the real truth.

Their truth comes in the form of a pirate transmission into the Matrix, through which anyone who's managed to get themselves a Scanline Receiver can view.

As they're always on the run from pretty much everyone, both in the Real and the Matrix, Hovercraft Scanline tries to keep themselves as low key as possible while having a disturbing knack of finding out many dirty little secrets that one might want to keep.

THE SCANLINE CREW

From what I've been told, Scanline has crew members on all "instances" of the Matrix. Each of them run things in their own way while trying to find out information from you and see if you're deserving of a Scanline Receiver. Now, I'm not going to give a list out of their supposed "active operatives" as such, as half the challenge is meant to be finding these guys when they're jacked in.

((a note on this is that the characters are all LESIG members, so they'll be jacking in at mostly US times I'd guess but there are meant to be some EU players in it too))

SCANLINE RECEIVER

Because I've been causing a stir with these little things, people have been asking me specifically what they do. I hope the above has explained that well enough to you. However, to go into more detail, here is the information I've taken physically off the Scanline Receiver.

It's not really loads and loads of the stuff, just some to keep me happy for now.

What I'm aiming for is to transfer over a total of $i 50,000,000 from my dummy player on Vector to me here on Recursion.

I will take anyones offers of a few million up to larger amounts. To better assist this, I'll give over an additional 10% of whatever amount you trade with me, as a small measure of my thanks.

Contact me on Recursion as TheUnknownShadow or leave a message/PM here on the boards.

Thanks!

*edit*

Well, 100mil has been traded today

It's not really loads and loads of the stuff, just some to keep me happy for now.

What I'm aiming for is to transfer over a total of $i 150,000,000 from my dummy player on Vector to me here on Recursion.

I will take anyones offers of a few million up to larger amounts. To better assist this, I'll give over an additional 10% of whatever amount you trade with me, as a small measure of my thanks.

Contact me on Recursion as TheUnknownShadow or leave a message/PM here on the boards.

Thanks!

*edit*

Well, 100mil has been traded today

Ok, I'm leaving this as kind of a bookmark for myself to update people (if they're interested) on any developments and furthering ((is that really a word?)) thoughts on and responses to that.

You can find all the questions and answers of my conversation with Brad Wilcox here, and feel free to ask me (in time) if I've heard anything more back on something there.

So, what can I tell you so far?

Well, as you all know by now Virrago is already going forum crazy getting everything all nice and running for us again. I did send a PM to Virrago which goes into a few of the things it was suggested I talk to him about, so the main thing that is going to be shown is that message and his response (which I had to laugh about, not in a bad way either)

Hi there!

As I wasn't subscribed at the time (due to upteen number of issues) I missed firstly giving you a nice hello and welcome to the most mad crazy obsessed community ever

I was always on good terms with Raijinn, and in the end mainly thanks to my work on the Station Launcher beta stuff. I'm going along a hopeful idea of getting on good terms with you as you're the poor chap that has to get things done around here now, so really best of luck with that!

As you've probably noticed, I've been busy getting a big list of community questions answered by Brad Wilcox (but also with the lovely Sharon putting in her comments about things too!) and it was heavily suggested that I contact you via PM's to discuss a number of the issues that they suggested you'd be able to help with.

So where to start?  (I'll try to split this up into general broad groups to make this easier for me to write and you to reply hehe)

I know that you've started right off with sorting numberous website issues that we have and that's going down a treat as it's been missing love for way too long now.

On a more detailed note, as with any community, there's lots of different bits and pieces that could be used to really help promote this game and show people really what they're missing out on. Brad said that things like a myspace page and also a youtube page could be set up, however it could require a certain level of work between yourself and legal to get that sorted.

The youtube idea could work. In this, the game cinematics could be uploaded to it, along with the original game adverts (they're around somwhere still, I know because I've seen them recently on the boards... I'll go searching). Oh and also player submitted works could be added to this (see below).

The MySpace page could be a lot more in-depth. There could be soundtrack music from the films running, also things like screenshot of the week stuff that could be nabbed from Rarebit's live event stuff but also through player submitted works (see below). Equally, it would be another great place to put up those story summaries that Rarebit writes. Naturally, everything would need to be linked back to our forums here so that people who came across it could easily find out more information.

However, before that starts, there's the legal issues.

Now, it's an obvious point that this game isn't just under SOE's domain. We also have to be eternally aware of Warner Brothers too. So, how to deal with this?

I'm not someone who would know all the exact in's and out's about this but it was clear from Brad and Sharon's input to me that there is regular communication between SOE and WB regarding all sorts of aspects in this game. Storyline being the most obvious thing that needs to be ok-ed but thankfully our excellent Ben Chamberlain and Paul Chadwick are given a lot of "wiggle room" and trust in their direction on this. 

The player submitted works for things like (what they'd become) The Official MxO YouTube and MySpace pages would generally have to work like this (according to Brad):

1. Firstly, you'd have to set up the competition. That would include initial discussion between you, the devs and the community over what they'd like to see. Examples of this would be player submitted content into the game (clothing designs, gun designs, item designs etc), video competitions that could be uploaded onto those sites and showcased here on the forums - like putting a link to download the winner on the top of the boards (the greatest example in recent times is the player-run YouTube MxO Commercial competition) the same logic runs on submitted artwork, as we have a LOT of talented artists in the community who now have upwards of 2 years experience in drawing the matrix online world (even Rarebit does it!)
2. A set of clear legal statements would have to be included so that the player knows what they're getting themselves in for if they submit something. That would include giving it over for SOE to host it online off the server here for the boards and obviously shown through a YouTube & MySpace pages (see how much of good idea they'd be? )
3. As a result, the winner gets their work shown on those sites and also here, as well as getting a reward in-game for their efforts (in the example of the player submitted content, they'd have their item made uniquely just for them to have in the game)

Now, obviously these would come out not so much weekly on some of them, especially if it was a competition for a player submitted content competition, that would have to be something like once every other month (as the devs have enough work to do already) but the player submitted artwork and videos could be done once a month, to which the winner gets a special rare item that could be designed just for the winners of the competition. Their work is openly showcased during that month on the boards (maybe even put it in-game on the billboards...) and then another thread would be setup to leave permanent links to the work.

You should know that this sort of thing can be setup, SWG has a similar system for player submitted works of various types.

*takes a breath* Right that's that big out of the way. The next one that was needed to be suggested was that (as we really don't have a budget for a LET) we really need more open advertising to make players aware who their liaison's are in-game.

Currently, if you play the game, the only thing you'll see is this image that does show you who's where but it's really tucked away in the corner of the UI and is never explained. I can tell you now that I've lost track of the number of times I've had to explain to new players firstly what our liaisons do and then who are they!

Equally, players often get dis-heartened when they don't get any interaction between the liaisons because:

1. They don't know who to contact
2. Even if they do know who to contact they don't know when they will be online in the game
3. Because of this they miss events and other activities in the game

Everyone in the community knows that LESIG is run be players and that it's all over-seen by Rarebit. We know that, as they're just players doing it for free, that they'll never be on all the time. That being said, the players would dearly love to know a little bit more details about when is the best chance to catch their liaison to talk with them.

Here's what was suggested:

1. Firstly, have something on the top of the page, in that boxed off bit, which gives you a direct link to a thread detailing information on the liaisons (Thread titled something like "Contact your Liaison today!"" width="15" height="15" />
2. In that thread, it would need to be stickied and locked to normal players you have a link to that image above and you also give the players advice on how to contact them (like using /tell and email system in-game and contacting the liaisons via PM's on the boards)
3. Then, as I know a lot of them would love this, get the liaisons to create a sort of dossier post that would be uploaded onto that thread by their respective game bosses. By that I mean, group the machine liaisons together, their details posted by Agent Gray, The Merovingian ones with Flood and Zion ones by Tyndall.
4. Each post contains some simple details. In-game handle, server, organisation affiliation, forum handle, small background (just like what you get in-game), an image and (most importantly) BEST TIME TO CONTACT THE LIAISON!!!

Not only would this then become a great resource but it also makes it more clear as to who players need to contact.

This moves me nicely onto the next point about events. 

I know that you're now actively starting to hassle players into contacting you to show what player run events are being done and that's great! I'm talking about the storyline events.

Ok, now what we don't want is to have a mass spamming of events however, at least basic guaranteed details would help.

Again, I know that these events are planned (forthe most part) in advance so what would be another good point would be to do this:

1. Have a link at the top forum page banner thing (you'll have to tell me what the best name for that is btw) which links to a thread labelled "This Weeks Story Events!" (or something to the like)
2. In that thread, have a simple post saying which player group has an event on what day that week. Don't give out any more details just have something like, "11/24: Chapter 9.1 event - Machines - Recursion" they say to the player to contact their liaison for more details and link to the thread created above (see how all of this comes together?)

Ok! There you go, a whole host of issues all under one roof for you to have a look through. If you want to discuss anything in more detail, really don't hesitate to contact me. I'm a really nice guy, just ask Brad and Sharon  I know a lot about this game and I really do have a passion for it and I want to see the best done for all the players (otherwise I'd never bother with something like this).

Anyway, I hope to hear your thoughts on all of this, it's taken me long enough to write it all out

Speak to you soon,

Shadow

PS. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

Wow! that's a lot of stuff to read.. Let's try to keep it to a paragraph in the future as I'm always pressed for time and it wouldn't do you justice to have to skim over your messages like I just did.

Let's just start with what my priorities are right now.  Keep in mind that my position is Community Representative (technically i'm not a manager yet) and all my primary focus will be concentrated on Community building type things. Along with bringing up the communities concerns to the Producer and Design team.

#1 would be the player spotlight / Operative Profile - I'm sure you read my thread about this.

#2 getting a player guide section up and running.

#3 Re-invigorating the Fan Art page ( http://fanart.station.sony.com/?pag...ery&gallery=mxo ) - This is the best way to get player made art on our site but it takes weeks to get an image approved by WB to allow us to host it.

As for you topics, one is covered by the fan art page. The youtube and myspace thing would take months to work out between WB and SOE legal teams. (I do like the idea of youtube ingame movies though)

Anyway... i'm out of time but once I have my 3 priorities up and running smoothly. Then I'll have time to venture into some new things.

/discuss

I'm really sorry Checksum, yet there comes a time when the system calls your number

Some may/may not know that I began life a long time ago on Vector, a VERY long time ago.

However, unfortunately for you, I'm pretty much sticking my time to Recursion playing.

However, luckily for you, I'm going to be selling a lot of the items I'd managed to collect over my long time in the shadows (it's my name afterall... well it's not but that would be telling)

What it below is the list of all the items I have left, you can catch me online tonight with my temp character BabyShadow who's been setup just for this purpose.

SCANLINE RECEIVER -price on request (around 60mil+ :p)

SCANLINE RECEIVER -price on request (around 60mil+ :p)

*edit*

ok, already sold a lot of stuff. I'm out of female items now, just the male clothing (some) and then a few of the rare items still

*edit*

the beta cap was the saddest one to sell... ah well, life moves on

MWHAHAHAHAHA!!!

What can I say, I do love it when a plan comes together

I've recently upgraded to a Station pass and as part of that I've posted on the numerous SOE games that I'll be having a wandering on during my off hours (and when I'm not loving it up on The Matrix Online hehehe)

As I'm wanting to go into the game industry myself, I'm always looking to play more and more games to experience the good (and the bad) things about the game to help me get a better feel over what makes a good game and also what goes into maintaining the game.

So here's where you folks come in. I've put various pleas for help onto the different game boards as that I'm wanting to play on and if you play on it then please do reply on there and help me out!  

I'm making an educated guess that I'm not the only one here who plays this game as well as another through the station pass goodness right?

Hope to hear from you folks,

Shadow

EVERQUEST

EVERQUEST II

STAR WARS GALAXIES

PLANETSIDE

STAR CHAMBER

STARGATE ONLINE

LEGENDS OF NORRATH

PIRATES CSG

Hello!!!

Now that I've finally managed to sort out my account (Station Pass rawr!) you'll be seeing my lovely self once again winding you up as only a beautiful cypherite can

You've probably noticed I've been busy looking at the issues around the game recently and now that I've got that out the way (not exactly but it's a lot less time consuming) I am free to be jacking back into the Matrix!

See ya inside,

Shadow

You see, I have this really bad thing of messing around with different programs, websites etc and because of this I started using the little thing below.

This come up now as part of my signature and it lists all the dated events that I could find currently. They should be free to view publically, and you can also simply submit an event yourself on there and I can confirm it.

You'll also notice that if (and it's a big if as I don't really know as many as some people, yet I know people who do ) I know of an actual story event that's taking place I will put it up on there (naturally keeping details vague as that takes the fun out of the other orgs finding you )

So yeah, I'll leave this to hear your thoughts on this and if you'll find it useful or not.

*edit*

Just a couple of points: 

• have just noticed that you need to have a google account to view this.

• not sure if the times I've got are right on there. I created the calendar in PST time BUT the calendar should automatically change the times to whatever your timezone is when you're viewing it.

• No, I don't know the events weeks in advance. I may know a day or so before, depending on who tells me in the matrix. I know a fair few people on Recursion now who I ask about there but I'm mostly in the dark right now as to the other servers.

• I will add what player events have been dated though off each servers pages, and I'll try my best to keep on top of it (as I like to know what's going on myself )

What I'm simply going to be putting up on here are a list of known bugs that there are in the Launcher.

As I pretty much am just a MxO player (I am playing around with a few trials now!) this will be mostly issues that are found when playing that.

There will also be a few general bugs that I'll include that will/could affect you when playing MxO.

Equally, if you have found something that you think is a bug, but don't want to go through the effort of reporting it on the main station forums (which for many means creating a user on there which can't actually post right away as it is) then post it here and I'll forward it on.

Thanks,

Shadow

KNOWN BUGS/ISSUES WHEN USING STATION LAUNCHER WITH THE MATRIX ONLINE

• Longer loading time when entering the game

This is in part to the station launcher handling your game login information. Currently no ETA on fix.

TRACK THIS BUG ON STATION FORUMS HERE

• Game automatically loads into the game world from the launcher

Again, this issue is in part to the auto-login of the launcher. I'm looking myself to see if there's an option I've missed or something with this but in terms of official word, no ETA on fix.

TRACK THIS BUG ON STATION FORUMS HERE

• Increased lag in-game

Usually only an issue with people with lower amounts of RAM. The launcher currently needs 55Mb when running in background and up to 150Mb when running normally and takes up a larger portion of processor power than, say xfire. This is only a beta release, so this stuff is pretty much no frills right now while they work through known issues.

• Deleted hotbars when using Launcher

This is an known issue when starting the game through the launcher. As a matter of character data safety, the Launcher creates a new character folder for every character you try to load up through it. A quick fix is just to copy the data from your normal character folder, located in your "Profiles" folder of your game directory (default install at  C:\Program Files\Monolith Productions\The Matrix Online\Profiles\ {enter your account name here} \ {enter your character name here} " width="15" height="15" />

• Occasional time-out errors when loading game

Random bug within the launcher with currently no ETA of fix. Shutdown and restart launcher and try again.

TRACK THIS BUG ON STATION FORUMS HERE

UPDATED STATUS:

MasGravy wrote:

If you want, you can setup the Launcher so it dies when the game is launched.  It's under Options|Preferences|Startup/Shutdown|Shutdown Options.

-mas


TheUnknownShadow wrote:

I'm guessing that it could potentially be due to players running on lower RAM machines as the Station Launcher does seem to guzzle that up...?

• Error message "Failure starting LaunchPad core! (144)

Caused by bad download of data for System Launcher install. Launcher will still run but you may get additional errors with certain features (unknown on specifics of this as of yet)

TRACK THIS BUG ON STATION FORUMS HERE

UPDATED STATUS:

This error message indicates that the Launcher is having trouble updating itself.  (we will improve the friendliness of these messages during the beta)

This could be due to firewall issues, or an odd file permission problem with the folder or a file within.

Usually this can be fixed by deleting the "LaunchPad2" folder from within the directory your shortcut points to, and then restarting the shortcut.  The LaunchPad.exe application the shortcut points to is the 'bootstrapper' that loads all the others - so as long as you don't delete it, you should be able to patch the rest automatically.

If there is a network issue, then deleting the folder won't work for you...  The bootstrapper needs to be able to connect to the self-patch machine, which is a TCP connection on port 9700.  If you are behind a restrictive firewall, sometimes these ports get blocked. 

• Launcher comes up with random game locations when selecting "Have the Station Launcher search for the Game files"

This seems to come up with alsorts right now, which I think are pretty much any major file that the game's ever had a use for. The only way to do this right is to select the location that correctly states the game directory (default for MxO  C:\Program Files\Monolith Productions\The Matrix Online\ )

• Launcher crashing/ getting a popup from flash warning  that the script is causing PC to run slowly and asks if I'd like to close it when using Chat

The beta chat thing is one of the most massive issues with this right now. Remember that the bigger list of friends you have, it's trying to figure out specific information about each and every one of them (how are they your friend, what server, what game, what character they're currently playing on etc etc). I'm not sure exactly what's being done to fix this as of yet.

TRACK THIS BUG ON STATION FORUMS HERE

UPDATED STATUS:

MasGravy wrote:

We are aware of this issue and are working on a fix. 
Thanks for the report!

-mas

• Taken from the bugs section on Station forums: Whenever I launch the app, it goes to sys tray and also shows as minimzed on my task bar.  Anytime I click on either it does not come up on my screen at all.  If I right click on sys tray to launch friends or launcher, the button press will show but nothing pops up on my screen, same with minimized version in the task bar at the bottom of my xp machine.

FIX:

delete archive.txt

if you installed with default path it will be here:

C:\Program Files\Sony\Station\Station Launcher\LaunchPad2

you will lose your preferences and it will not remember you but the app will show up in the center of the screen. 

FAQ's relating to bugs/issues

• No options to switch Languages

Ardensmere (SOE dev) wrote:

Open Beta for Station Launcher is English only (and US English at that).  Localization/translation is currently being worked on, to be completed before the close of Open Beta.

• Is there a possibility of custom skins?

Ardensmere wrote:

I completely agree, and you can bet we're gonna build that in sometime in the future! -- it's on our "list".

" width="15" height="15">

• How do you login to multiple accounts with Station Launcher?

Hammerfel (SOE dev) wrote:

We'd like to be able to do this, but it's just not feasible in a reasonable fashion. If you want to "dual-box" on a single PC, you will need to exit launcher after you log in your first account, and then log in the 2nd. Being a dual-boxer myself, we did add it the account name drop down and "save password" to make switching between accounts a LOT faster.

• Access to in-game faction/guild (etc) chat options through the Station Launcher?

Hammerfel wrote:

Yes, this is on the "Phase 2" list for Launcher and one of my favorite ideas. Access to Guild Chat (and other chat channels where possible) from Launcher will be killer. I have no ETA, though, sorry.

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!)

This thread I'm about to link to, is one I started as a discussion about Station Launcher Beta that's available to everyone now.

However, for no reason apart from I could, I ended up going through some important things on there that relate to the Matrix Online. Mainly:

• Basic overview of features - including link to the full Beta information guide and download link for the Launcher
• The New Matrix Online Trial - need I say more?
• Game Updates - including running MxO for the first time through the Launcher

A must read if I do say so myself!

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

No doubt this is going to start a bit of an argument yet I want to ask it as I'm getting close to 50.

I've noticed in game that people are often running around with different names attached to them (Kung fu GM, Karate GM, Aikido GM) yet this doesn't really show all that's going on in truth.

There's lots of different combinations that you can use (I'm at lvl 47 now and I'm using a kung fu - karate mix) which give lots of different effects to your accuracy, damage and defense.

I was reading through that other thread here about the differences between the 3 MA styles, yet has there ever been what you'd class as "A perfect loadout"? Now, that's a bit of an o.t.t thing to say but I've been thinking about switching over to aikido once I hit 50, as I like the idea of the defense that you can get with that, yet would it then be better to mix that with Kung fu for more accuracy or karate for more damage?

Then there's the clothing too.

I've currently got a list of clothes I'm trying to get my hands on, on top of the clothes I've managed to collect already.

So I guess my overall question is this:

What's the best combination of loadout and clothing you've managed to work on and why does that work for you?

(note: I don't want you to go into specifics on every single ability you have and every item of clothing, just some key points about why you went with the loadout and clothes you have and why you like it. Does that make sense?) 

Heya everyone!

Calling all you budding apparel makers!

I'm getting close to lvl 50 now (lvl 47 woo!) and I'm wanting to sort out my clothing collection for when I hit 50.
I've got a lot of melee clothing and other bits and pieces already, and now I'm after getting some more to get some specific sets of clothes set up.

What I've done is split these up into the defense that they're strongest in, as that's what a lot of the clothing is.

Now, in terms of paying for all of this stuff, I'll discuss with people on an individual basis. I'll go for just handing over $info, giving you bits and frags, whatever's best. Simply contact me in-game, I'm on a lot of the time during the day in GMT-time. If you miss me, you can send me an email in-game or leave a comment here/PM me and I'll get back to you ASAP

So read on and I hope you can help me!!! 

Love,

Shadow x

--------------------------------------------------
BALLISTIC DEFENSE CLOTHES

Enhanced Eggplant Yoshi Dragon-Pattern Short Coat Highcollar
Melee Damage Resistance (33pts)
Ballistic Defense Bonus (3%)
Thrown Resistance (33pts)
Viral Resistance (33pts)
Min Character Level at 50

Enhanced Green N'Wing Sunglasses
Ballistic Damage Resistance (30pts)
Melee Damage Resistance (30pts)
Movement Speed Bonus (2%)
Ballistic Defense Bonus (1%)
Blind Duration Bonus (2%)
Thrown Resistance (30pts)
Min Character Level at 46

Enhanced Face Mask
Ballistic Damage Resistance (29pts)
Determination Bonus (2%)
Ballistic Defense Bonus (2%)
Thrown Resistance (29pts)
Viral Resistance (29pts)
Min Character Level at 44

Enhanced Point Reinforced Gauntlets
Melee Damage Resistance (32pts)
Ballistic Defense Bonus (2%)
Decompile Skill (2pts)
Thrown Resistance (32pts)
Viral Resistance (32pts)
Min Character Level at 49

Enhanced Saddle Brown Grapp Skirt
Ballistic Damage Resistance (27pts)
Ballistic Defense Bonus (3%)
Thrown Resistance (27pts)
Viral Resistance (27pts)
Min Character Level at 41

Enhanced Magenta and Light Slate Gray Dada Short Boots
Ballistic Damage Resistance (30pts)
Melee Damage Resistance (30pts)
Ballistic Defense Bonus (3%)
Viral Resistance (30pts)
Min Character Level at 46


-------------------------------------------------------------
MELEE DEFENSE CLOTHES

Enhanced Magenta N'Wing Sunglasses
Ballistic Damage Resistance (32pts)
Determination Bonus (2%)
Melee Defense Bonus (2%)
Thrown Resistance (32pts)
Viral Resistance (32pts)
Min Character Level at 48

Enhanced Ninja Mask
Ballistic Damage Resistance (32pts)
Invis Movement Speed Bonus (2%)
Melee Damage Resistance (32pts)
Melee Defense Bonus (1%)
Heal Damage Bonus (2%)
Viral Resistance (32pts)
Min Character Level at 49

Enhanced Black Ebony Flared Trench Flipcollar
Ballistic Damage Resistance (30pts)
Melee Damage Resistance (30pts)
Viral Resistance Bonus (2%)
Melee Defense Bonus (2%)
Thrown Resistance (30pts)
Min Character Level at 45

Enhanced Point Reinforced Gauntlets
Ballistic Damage Resistance (32pts)
Stun Duration Bonus (2%)
Enrage Duration Bonus (2%)
Melee Damage Resistance (32pts)
Melee Defense Bonus (1%)
Thrown Resistance (32pts)
Min Character Level at 49

Enhanced Burly Wood Pearl Fash Skirt
Ballistic Damage Resistance (32pts)
Enrage Duration Bonus (1%)
Melee Damage Resistance (32pts)
Tool Crafting (2pts)
Melee Defense Bonus (2%)
Thrown Resistance (32pts)
Min Character Level at 48

Enhanced Black Avero Open Heels
Melee Damage Resistance (32pts)
Melee Defense Bonus (3%)
Thrown Resistance (32pts)
Viral Resistance (32pts)
Min Character Level at 49

---------------------------------------------------------------
THROWN DEFENSE CLOTHES

Enhanced Magenta N'Wing Sunglasses
Ballistic Damage Resistance (32pts)
Thrown Defense Bonus (2%)
Tool Crafting (2pts)
Thrown Resistance (32pts)
Viral Resistance (32pts)
Min Character Level at 48

Enhanced Ninja Mask
Ballistic Damage Resistance (32pts)
Melee Damage Resistance (32pts)
Thrown Defense Bonus (2%)
Ability Crafting (2pts)
Viral Resistance (32pts)
Min Character Level at 48

Enhanced Brown Yoshi Dragon-Pattern Short Coat Highcollar
Thrown Resistance Bonus (1%)
Melee Damage Resistance (32pts)
Thrown Defense Bonus (2%)
Powerless Duration Bonus (2%)
Thrown Resistance (32pts)
Viral Resistance (32pts)
Min Character Level at 48

Enhanced Geoman Gauntlets
Melee Damage Resistance (27pts)
Thrown Defense Bonus (3%)
Thrown Resistance (27pts)
Viral Resistance (27pts)
Min Character Level at 41

Enhanced Black and Silver Dada Short Boots
Ballistic Damage Resistance (33pts)
Thrown Resistance Bonus (1%)
Melee Damage Resistance (33pts)
Thrown Defense Bonus (2%)
Melee Resistance Bonus (2%)
Viral Resistance (33pts)
Min Character Level at 50


----------------------------------------------------------
VIRAL DEFENSE CLOTHES

Enhanced Magenta N'Wing Sunglasses
Ballistic Damage Resistance (31pts)
Viral Defense Bonus (2%)
Movement Speed Bonus (2%)
Thrown Resistance (31pts)
Viral Resistance (31pts)
Min Character Level at 47

Enhanced Face Mask
Ballistic Damage Resistance (30pts)
Viral Defense Bonus (2%)
Melee Damage Resistance (30pts)
Ballistic Resistance Bonus (2%)
Viral Resistance (30pts)
Min Character Level at 46

Enhanced Violet Ebony Flared Trench
Viral Defense Bonus (2%)
Melee Damage Resistance (30pts)
Ballistic Resistance Bonus (2%)
Viral Resistance (30pts)
Thrown Resistance (30pts)
Upgrade Crafting (1pts)
Min Character Level at 45

Enhanced Geoman Gauntlets
Ballistic Damage Resistance (26pts)
Viral Defense Bonus (2%)
Sneak Movement Speed Bonus (1%)
Debuff Area Radius Bonus (1%)
Thrown Resistance (26pts)
Viral Resistance (26pts)
Min Character Level at 39

Enhanced Ivory Pearl Fash Skirt
Ballistic Damage Resistance (33pts)
Viral Defense Bonus (3%)
Melee Damage Resistance (33pts)
Viral Resistance (33pts)
Min Character Level at 50

Enhanced Black Avero Open Heels
Viral Defense Bonus (1%)
Melee Damage Resistance (32pts)
Melee Accuracy Bonus (2%)
Repair Skill (2%)
Thrown Resistance (32pts)
Viral Resistance (32pts)
Min Character Level at 49

Hey again!

I swear, this is kicking up so many little problems it's silly.

So, I haven't changed ANYTHING to my computer. I last jacked in 2 days ago and everything worked fine.

Today when I come to try it out, I get this message pop up in a window:

Patch System Error (result code -47)

URL open failed. Patch servers down or internet connection problem.

Now, my internet is working, otherwise I couldn't post this. That being said, I'm at university, so it maybe that they're blocking my connection to mxo somehow...

For the sake of when I take this up with them, is there information available about what ports and things this game needs open for it to work?

Thanks

Hello!

I've just noticed on one of my little wanderings in downtown that, according to the collector Binary, that he accepts 01 soldier parts for an amount of $info and (awesomeness for me) experience.

I was just wondering has anyone go any accurate information on how much exp you get on those (it says you need to trade 20 parts for a box of parts, then the box for the exp) parts/boxes you need per level?

I remember joining just as the same thing in Uriah became available (yay for me at the start!) which was a great thing for me to get going on levelling.

I'm now level 44, yet with all this fun stuff being brought into the game I want to be able to be at a level to use it (all the cool stuffs is lvl 50 ) and also be able to farm easier (all things like the pandora's boxes, the wasteland quests and things!)

So can anyone give me information on how good this is for exp and also will anyone be able to take some time out to help me farm these if it is?

I'll be popping back on here to look every so often, yet I'm going to be logged in for most of the evening.

My name's TheUnknownShadow (gasp!)

Thanks for any help you can give lil me in advance!

Hello,

So I've been playing other games and now mxo for a while now and recently upgraded my pc. By that, it has a new dual processor, new RAM to match, new motherboard for that matter, new graphics card too, new power supply, you get the idea though right? My old motherboard burned out on me so I decided to upgrade everything seeing as it was going to be opened up and gutted anyway.

Now, with all of that being said, I seem to be getting issues recently in mxo where I get MASSIVE levels of lag and seemingly nothing's causing it. It happens if I'm indoors or outdoors in-game and I equally seem to get it regardless of when I'm in or out of combat.

Below is my required information:

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 9/22/2007, 21:51:39
       Machine name: YOUR-MARVM4JNJY
   Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254)
           Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
       System Model: System Product Name
               BIOS: BIOS Date: 12/07/06 14:50:05 Ver: 08.00.12
          Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+,  MMX,  3DNow (2 CPUs), ~2.0GHz
             Memory: 1024MB RAM
          Page File: 614MB used, 1751MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
    DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
     DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.2180 32bit Unicode

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
  DirectX Files Tab: No problems found.
      Display Tab 1: No problems found.
        Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
          Music Tab: No problems found.
          Input Tab: No problems found.
        Network Tab: No problems found.

--------------------
DirectX Debug Levels
--------------------
Direct3D:    0/4 (n/a)
DirectDraw:  0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (n/a)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (n/a)
DirectPlay:  0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow:  0/6 (retail)

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
        Card name: Radeon Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series
     Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
        Chip type: RADEON X600 SE (0x5B62)
         DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
       Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_5B62&SUBSYS_0F021002&REV_00
   Display Memory: 128.0 MB
     Current Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)
          Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
  Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200
      Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll
   Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6715 (English)
      DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
 Driver Date/Size: 7/28/2007 04:30:45, 269312 bytes
      WHQL Logo'd: n/a
  WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
              VDD: n/a
         Mini VDD: ati2mtag.sys
    Mini VDD Date: 7/28/2007 04:30:27, 2371584 bytes
Device Identifier: {D7B71EE2-1822-11CF-8969-082FA1C2CB35}
        Vendor ID: 0x1002
        Device ID: 0x5B62
        SubSys ID: 0x0F021002
      Revision ID: 0x0000
      Revision ID: 0x0000
      Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_C ModeMPEG2_D ModeWMV8_B ModeWMV8_A ModeWMV9_B ModeWMV9_A
 Deinterlace Caps: {6E8329FF-B642-418B-BCF0-BCB6591E255F}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,1) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
                   {335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch
                   {552C0DAD-CCBC-420B-83C8-74943CF9F1A6}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,2) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
                   {6E8329FF-B642-418B-BCF0-BCB6591E255F}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,1) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
                   {335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch
         Registry: OK
     DDraw Status: Enabled
       D3D Status: Enabled
       AGP Status: Enabled
DDraw Test Result: Not run
 D3D7 Test Result: Not run
 D3D8 Test Result: Not run
 D3D9 Test Result: Not run

-------------
Sound Devices
-------------
            Description: Realtek HD Audio output
 Default Sound Playback: Yes
 Default Voice Playback: Yes
            Hardware ID: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0883&SUBSYS_1043C603&REV_1000
        Manufacturer ID: 1
             Product ID: 100
                   Type: WDM
            Driver Name: RtkHDAud.sys
         Driver Version: 5.10.0000.5324 (English)
      Driver Attributes: Final Retail
            WHQL Logo'd: n/a
          Date and Size: 11/15/2006 07:34:40, 4225920 bytes
            Other Files:
        Driver Provider: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
         HW Accel Level: Full
              Cap Flags: 0x0
    Min/Max Sample Rate: 0, 0
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 0, 0
 Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 0, 0
              HW Memory: 0
       Voice Management: No
 EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: Yes, Yes
   I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: Yes, Yes
Sensaura(tm) ZoomFX(tm): No
               Registry: OK
      Sound Test Result: Not run

---------------------
Sound Capture Devices
---------------------
            Description: Logitech Microphone (Messenger)
  Default Sound Capture: Yes
  Default Voice Capture: Yes
            Driver Name: usbaudio.sys
         Driver Version: 5.01.2600.2180 (English)
      Driver Attributes: Final Retail
          Date and Size: 8/4/2004 07:07:55, 59264 bytes
              Cap Flags: 0x0
           Format Flags: 0x0

            Description: Realtek HD Audio Input
  Default Sound Capture: No
  Default Voice Capture: No
            Driver Name: RtkHDAud.sys
         Driver Version: 5.10.0000.5324 (English)
      Driver Attributes: Final Retail
          Date and Size: 11/15/2006 07:34:40, 4225920 bytes
              Cap Flags: 0x0
           Format Flags: 0x0

-----------
DirectMusic
-----------
        DLS Path: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\drivers\GM.DLS
     DLS Version: 1.00.0016.0002
    Acceleration: n/a
           Ports: Microsoft Synthesizer, Software (Not Kernel Mode), Output, DLS, Internal, Default Port
                  Microsoft MIDI Mapper [Emulated], Hardware (Not Kernel Mode), Output, No DLS, Internal
                  Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth [Emulated], Hardware (Not Kernel Mode), Output, No DLS, Internal
        Registry: OK
     Test Result: Not run

-------------------
DirectInput Devices
-------------------
      Device Name: Mouse
         Attached: 1
    Controller ID: n/a
Vendor/Product ID: n/a
        FF Driver: n/a

      Device Name: Keyboard
         Attached: 1
    Controller ID: n/a
Vendor/Product ID: n/a
        FF Driver: n/a

      Device Name: Microsot Optical Mouse with Tilt Wheel
         Attached: 1
    Controller ID: 0x0
Vendor/Product ID: 0x045E, 0x00D1
        FF Driver: n/a

Poll w/ Interrupt: No
         Registry: OK

-----------
USB Devices
-----------
+ USB Root Hub
| Vendor/Product ID: 0x1106, 0x3038
| Matching Device ID: usb\root_hub
| Service: usbhub
| Driver: usbhub.sys, 8/4/2004 07:08:42, 57600 bytes
| Driver: usbd.sys, 8/29/2002 13:00:00, 4736 bytes
|
+-+ USB Human Interface Device
| | Vendor/Product ID: 0x045E, 0x00D1
| | Location: Microsoft Optical Mouse with Tilt Wheel
| | Matching Device ID: usb\class_03&subclass_01
| | Service: HidUsb
| | Driver: hidclass.sys, 8/4/2004 07:08:19, 36224 bytes
| | Driver: hidparse.sys, 8/4/2004 07:08:16, 24960 bytes
| | Driver: hid.dll, 8/4/2004 08:56:42, 20992 bytes
| | Driver: hidusb.sys, 8/17/2001 14:02:20, 9600 bytes
| |
| +-+ HID-compliant consumer control device
| | | Vendor/Product ID: 0x045E, 0x00D1
| | | Matching Device ID: hid_device_up:000c_u:0001
| | | Driver: hidserv.dll, 8/4/2004 08:56:42, 21504 bytes
| | |
| +-+ Microsoft USB Comfort Optical Mouse 3000 (IntelliPoint)
| | | Vendor/Product ID: 0x045E, 0x00D1
| | | Matching Device ID: hid\vid_045e&pid_00d1&col02
| | | Upper Filters: Point32
| | | Service: mouhid
| | | Driver: mouhid.sys, 8/17/2001 13:48:00, 12160 bytes
| | | Driver: mouclass.sys, 8/4/2004 07:58:32, 23040 bytes
| | | Driver: point32.sys, 3/15/2005 10:45:20, 20352 bytes
| | | Driver: ipcoin5.dll, 3/15/2005 10:45:20, 94208 bytes

How come this is still closed?

I know that the servers apparently were all down this morning while I was asleep but erm what's with Recursion still being closed?

Shadow