Live Event Archive

**Super_Jenius**

I think the critical mission archive was a really good idea and allows new players to experience the story. However, the missions don't give you the whole picture. Live Events were an integral part of the story, especially in the early days. When I think about all the cool stuff that happened, it's a shame that new players can't experience that, or that old players can't do it again. Also, a way to archive Live Events might give the devs more incentive to have them more often. Now, before you call this unfeasible and close the page, hear me out. First of all, I'm only talking about four major events that, in my opinion, were an important part of the Chadwick storyline:

The Race to Find the One
The Hunt for Morpheus
Death of the Destroyer
A Piece of Blue Sky

The question is, how do you archive a live event? I guess you could do something like world spawns or constructs, but I think the best answer is: Pandora's Box. Think about it. A lot of what we need is already in place. Minimal coding (Dracomet) work would be required, meaning it's low risk and Rarebit could do most of the work (great huh, bud?). Here's how I see it working with The Race to Find the One:

You pick up an initial mission from the Archive Vendor. Maybe it requires a Mission 1.1 token, but be sure to give it back so players can move on Chapter 1.2 if they want.
Your controller tells you to meet someone in the mission area. The contact says something like: "Red-eyed agents have been attacking our operatives around the city. We need to find out more about them. They are using PDA's to search for something, but we not sure what they're after. Bring me a dozen of those PDA's and we'll do some more research. We've developed a device to aid you. It emits a carrier signal to the PDA's and should draw the agents to your location. You may get more agents than you bargained for, so bring some backup."
You guessed it. The "device" is Pandora's Box with a different name. Opening the box spawns the agents that drop PDA's. You should be able to do this at any level, so you should be able to open the box in any part of the city and the spawns should scale to player level. Like Pandora's Box, I do think they should require a group of players and be very difficult to complete solo.
Turning in the PDA's yields you another box with agents that drop Neo's RSI frags. All you item collectors can finally get the frags you are missing.
Turning in a complete set of frags gets you a meeting with Morpheus, where he gives you his speech and shows you Neo's RSI.
Next mission sends you to The Mentor (Morpheus), The Creator (The Architect), and The Seductress (Persephone) to hear about their mysterious dreams. You can't very well solve this puzzle in the archive, so maybe the operator can do it, explaining it without too much detail. This leads to a meeting with the Oracle, where she tells you about the Shapers.
You could do a standard escort mission here, where you fight off operatives from the other orgs. It might be more fun to hide the Shapers as collectors around the city, maybe in the same areas as the live event, each one giving a clue as to the next location. After finding them, you meet with the Oracle, where she informs you that the "intruders" got one of the Shapers.
Your operator uploads the final box, which spawns two waves of N30 Agents, followed by a few "Super Lightning Agents". Maybe they drop the second batch of Neo's frags? I forget how it actually happened. In any case, completing the box gets you another meeting with the Oracle where she gives you her final message.
Of course, rewards would be in order for each box you complete.

I may break down the other events later, but you get the general idea. Comments?

**ShiXinFeng**

This is Outstanding! Great visualization, and provides a practical solution to a glaring problem with the archived missions.

I can see it already: teams of players getting together to take out the Assassin. Awesome!

**GypsyJuggler**

Wow.. I really like this idea. Not only is it well considered, written and presented but I think it could actually be done. And that without too much trouble, using tools that are currently available. Wow again, nice job!

Devaude-TGS

Great idea! I like it ... NO I LOVE IT SMILEY

**Namroc**

I wasn't around for the earlier events so it would be awesome if this was introduced.

**RemagDiv**

The only way this could be possible for Rarebit among his other work is if somehow the Earth's rotation was shifted and changed orbit around the sun so our days would be 48 hours long instead of 24 hours.

**Super_Jenius**

Remag_Div wrote:

The only way this could be possible for Rarebit among his other work is if somehow the Earth's rotation was shifted and changed orbit around the sun so our days would be 48 hours long instead of 24 hours.

Of course, time constraints are always an issue. But the guy does get to spend some time on new developments, as evidenced by the recent holiday events. This is just a suggestion on how to spend that time. Yes, it would be quite a bit of work, but not overly burdensome, IMO.

**RemagDiv**

Yah, I was just joking, I think it's a fantastic idea.

**Super_Jenius**

Remag_Div wrote:

Yah, I was just joking, I think it's a fantastic idea.

I sure could use longer days. About 30 hours would do it: 18 awake, 12 asleep. That's what my "internal clock" seems to want anyway. I put in a requisition to God, but so far, he's not budging. SMILEY

Wh1t3Kn1ght

Super_Jenius wrote:

Remag_Div wrote:
Yah, I was just joking, I think it's a fantastic idea.

I sure could use longer days. About 30 hours would do it: 18 awake, 12 asleep. That's what my "internal clock" seems to want anyway. I put in a requisition to God, but so far, he's not budging.

just move to alaska, of course you might have a little more than 18 hours to be awake and 12 to sleep seeing how they have days and nights that go on forever..... or so it seems.

**ShiXinFeng**

Super_Jenius wrote:

Remag_Div wrote:
Yah, I was just joking, I think it's a fantastic idea.

I sure could use longer days. About 30 hours would do it: 18 awake, 12 asleep. That's what my "internal clock" seems to want anyway. I put in a requisition to God, but so far, he's not budging.

lol, you can do that now! You just won't be on the same calendar as everyone else. SMILEY

If the day was extended to 30 hours, I would just stay up 24 at a time. Funny how that works.

WGAnubis1

Over all I like it, though I dont think A Piece of Blue Sky had any real impact on the story. From what I recall, the person responsable for the concert misterously dissapeared. If anything I think it was just a way to explain the Stress test and introduction to the new combat system.

**Super_Jenius**

WGAnubis1 wrote:

Over all I like it, though I dont think A Piece of Blue Sky had any real impact on the story. From what I recall, the person responsable for the concert misterously dissapeared. If anything I think it was just a way to explain the Stress test and introduction to the new combat system.

Agreed on the story. I think they purposely kept it a side story to the main plot, and the concert locations make this one the hardest to fit into the Pandora's Box scheme. Still, it might be fun to collect event items and fight sleepwalkers/security guards, and at least it fits in with the rest of the story.

**Darkangelus**

i think this will add to the gameplay alot

there are no negative effects i can think of.

And it would mean the creative genius of the Devs will be presevered for all to see

**Vallant**

Nice idea, would be very nice to see (This is partly why I'm against critical live events, it's extremely difficult to re-integrate newer people per se IMO, but if your idea was to be implemented I give you props for solving that hassle! ^_^)

n.b- feel free to disagree =p