The computer hosting Pace and Ookami decided to be pretty unstable during this battle, so thanks to the players there for being patient while the event characters took repeated powders.
 
There were quite a few Mervs around the rooftop at the start, but for a long time it was an even battle all around; Seraphim spawns from people dropping one or more PB4 boxes may have had something to do with making things difficult for anyone to gain a foothold. Mid-battle, both Pace and Ookami were given a good hurting, but their operatives came to their defense and they were able to get back into it. From my camera position on Ghost, I could see that he had a group of dedicated healers around him, and that seemed to make quite a difference as he stayed near full health throughout, even after I'd turned off all health regeneration on the event characters. Eventually DrBadTouch of the Machines knocked out Ookami, then it wasn't long before the balance turned against Pace, with WarOmnimonki of EPN getting the kill shot on her, making EPN/Zion the winners.
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
A shock ending finished off a wild back-and-forth battle on Syntax in which each of the three sides appeared to have a decisive lead at some point. Zion started strong, in clear command of the rooftop as the event characters appeared. Ookami was nearly eliminated straight off, but the arrival of the full CYPH/Machine force, throwing powerful hacks and overrides, disrupted everything. They nearly got Ghost, but Zion was able to rally, and the battle settled into a fierce struggle in which no side was able to gain a clear advantage. That lasted for a considerable time, and then Ghost crashed.
 
I brought the event characters back with lowered health regen so we could start to see some hurting. The stalemate continued for a while, but eventually the Machine onslaught wore Zion/EPN down, and Endomorph of the CYPHs got the shot that eliminated Ghost from the battle. The Mervs took advantage of everyone being caught up in the battle around Ghost to launch a stunningly effective blitz on Agent Pace, and hitmanben clinched the victory for the Merovingian side by eliminating her before the Machines could switch from offense to defense.
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
EPN/Zion won this battle, with EPN ExternalError taking down the Agent Pace of the Machines, then EPN Thespian eliminating the Merovingian's Ookami. Zion's Ghost took a hit or two but was mostly untouched, and was also surrounded by healers nearly the entire time.
 
Pace and Ookami are running on the same machine, which crashed at one point and I had to reset all three characters. I can't get high quality screenshots from those two due to the configuration they have to run (and the few screens I did try from them early on probably didn't help their stability :o), and Ghost wasn't close to most of the fighting, so these aren't the most exciting screens, and I hope the players who were there will post some better ones for us to see. I'm particularly interested in seeing some shots of the apparently ferocious battle that went on down in the lobby, where a Zion detachment is said to have taken up defensive positions to hold off Merv/Mach reinforcements.
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Going through old files laying around here and noticed a certain trinity_wingless.txt, which was a flurry of notes on some story direction ideas that popped into my head way back in August of 2006, long before I was in control of the storyline. Was going to try running the Seraph idea past Paul, but then didn't bother since it turned out Seraph was going to go through his dunking in the river, and be gone for a while--back in the red sky period and all that.

I think the Seraph idea came out of my wanting to try to tie the Assassin stuff into something that could go forward and be explored for new meaning about the Matrix as a whole. Germs from the "trinity" part would later form aspects of the Oligarch concept.

They're a little silly, and watch out for some corny dialogue, but here we go on a trip back in time to weird Matrix story ideas I had two and a half years ago:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[other stuff:
a) architect creates 99% matrix
b) discovery of the anomaly (Smith)
c) architect creates the one, a program with the illusion of choice
d) oracle leaks the prophecy
e) the one disrupts the anomaly
f) the one returns to the source and resets, cleansing anomaly code
g) architect wipes out the 1%'s support group (Zion)
h) the one seeds the 1%'s support group
i) 1% population grows, anomaly grows
j) go to c
[- Oracle disliked deaths of the 1%, wanted to change after e so that the one and the anomaly destroy each other
[- Architect didn't like this change to the plan, but couldn't refuse. But he didn't help.
[- Trinity was a Machine created by Oracle to force Neo's choice
[- Trinity was retrieved alive by the machines and taken to machine city
[- The unexpected: they were human enough for her to become pregnant; child is first sexually produced machine
[- Trinity's SI perishes during childbirth
[- The oligarchs dump her code to a new SI


Ascension of the Wingless

- Seraph was a Seraphim: an Agent of the first Matrix
- The first Matrix was too perfect; led to mass rejection (and resulting pod death) by humans
- Second was the freakshow; Merovingian and his Exiles; more mass rejection
- Frustrated Architect consults the Oracle
- Third was the current one, which has had six Ones, and five 1% wipeouts
- Anyway, the Seraphim programs were deactivated after Matrix 1 and archived by the Box Maker
- In Matrix 3, the Merovingian hacked the Box Maker, stealing the Keymaker and one Seraphim: Seraph
- They were smuggled into the Matrix via the Trainman. This is how Seraph knew how to find the Trainman.
- Seraph and the Keymaker were imprisoned in the Merovingian's dungeon.
- Merv wanted to use Seraph as an enforcer. Seraph couldn't accept imperfection of Merv, a Matrix 2 program.
- Seraph tried to escape on his own. He was caught and tortured; his wings were shorn.
- This is why the Merv club guards recognize him, and why Merv refers to him as his "little Judas."
- The Oracle sensed his torture and rescued him.
- Pain and the loss of his wings helped prepare him
- The Oracle taught him the beauty of imperfection, and to protect humans like herself and the architect.
- When Neo asked Seraph what he was, he couldn't tell him about the previous Matrices yet.
- So he just said "I protect that which matters most."
- Neo assumed that he was talking about the Oracle. But Seraph meant the human race.
- When Seraph told Smith he had beaten him before, he meant in a previous pre-disruption anomaly.
- This time, because of the Trinity program, the One did not return to the source after disrupting anomaly
- The anomaly continued building.
- The uber anomaly encountered Seraph and the Oracle, and absorbed them
- They were freed when Neo cancelled the anomaly out.

- Fifth Assassin mask was not recovered (sunk). It took root down deep, continued Matrix decay.
- Seraph and Oracle found it, eventually. It was not fully manifested, but still corrupting code around it.
- Left undiscovered, the corruption had grown. A human RSI could not withstand it.
- This was a problem. Seraph determined that he would activate it so that it could be destroyed.
- Oracle doesn't want him to do it. But she will respect his wish.

[Debir Court, peak server time]

[track number of simultaneous clients on regionserver]

[if server crash at any point, pick back up at peak time next day]

/shoutserver Oracle - "Please come to Debir Court as fast as you can."

O - Thank you for coming, all of you.
O - You came to the Matrix because you sensed something wrong with your lives.
O - You rejected the false front of the simulation.
O - You are the 1%, my beautiful imperfections.
O - Some of you, I know, have been getting that feeling of something being wrong again.
O - Something deeper in the simulation.
O - We felt it, too.
O - And some of you knew that something has been missing. Something important.
O - Something that was never meant to be allowed in the Matrix.
O - When your combined efforts defeated the five aspects of the corruption program, the Assassin,
O - ...Seraph retrieved the programs' key bits: the masks of the Assassin.
O - While still latently corrupt on their own, their corruptive aspect is neutralized when worn by a human.
O - Humans have a certain tolerance--a need, even--for imperfection.
O - This is your strength. The latent corruption of the masks is no match for it.
O - But the fifth mask was not retrieved.
O - We know now that, toppling overboard from the Assassin's garbage scow retreat...
O - ...the mask fell into the river, where strong currents carried it down and away.
O - Deep down it sank, into the bowels of the city.
O - Buried in the heart of the city's water supply, its latent corruption leaked and spread...
O - ...far and wide beneath our feet. The background of decay masked its own source.
O - Its corruption become more than latent.
O - The fifth Assassin program is on the verge of reactivation.
O - ...
O - Seraph?

S - Ever since the Oracle rescued me from the Merovingian's dungeon...
S - ...she has taught me the value and the beauty of imperfection.
S - But even so, I will always remain a program. Lacking the imperfection of a human.
S - This is what makes you so valuable.
S - There was a time when Neo asked me what I was.
S - At that time, I could not reveal to him that I came from the first version of the Matrix--
S - --that he was in the third one. This could only be revealed at the time of his Choice.
S - I could only tell him that I protect that which matters most.
S - He assumed that I meant the Oracle.
S - He was incorrect.
S - It is the future of the human race that matters most. It is your future.
S - Today I am proud to be in a position to help protect that future.
S - The fifth Assassin key bit has had time to regain power to the point where even a human cannot equip it and survive.
S - /talkgroup But its corruption program must be cancelled out before it crashes this simulation that nurtures 99%...
S - ...of the human race.
S - You know how to defeat an active Assassin program. You have done it before.
S - Therefore, all that remains is to activate the program in a controlled environment...
S - ...where you can terminate it quickly, and neutralize the mask permanently.
S - /lookaround
S - Yes. It will suffice.
S - ...
S - Oracle.

O - Seraph--

S - Everything is prepared. But I feel a difficulty executing my decision. I do not understand.

O - Seraph--don't you see? You've learned what choice is, too.
O - You've attained the beauty of imperfection that you sought.

S - I-I have?

O - Old friend, you don't have to do this. We'll find another way.

S - /shakehead N-no. There is not enough time. I feel it. I know you have seen it.
S - /lookaround
S - ...
S - It took us months to locate the mask.
S - It is too powerful now for your RSIs to withstand.
S - But I believe that I can withstand it long enough to activate the Assassin program.
S - I know you will not fail me.
S - And I...

O - Seraph!

S - ...I will not fail you!
S - /covereyes
S - /anguish Aaaaaaa! /assassinmask

O - Seraph...

S - ...

O - You know what do! Use your flit guns! Don't let it escape! Make the right choice, and we won't let Seraph down!
O - ~spawnitem flitgunvendor (x4)

[mass spamming of flit guns, corrupteds, assassin abilities, kept up as long as possible (hour max)]

O - Let me through!
O - /kneel
O - Where is [assassin killer]?
O - We don't have much time. Will you accept his mask?
O - Choose quickly!
O - Keep it safe.
O - ... /shakehead
O - Seraph... You **** beautiful fool of an angel...

[Answer some player questions. Matrix is saved. Don't know. Don't know if Seraph will be back.]

O - I've got to go...go sit down.

As the time approached, every six weeks, to create the next subchapter's missions, I would look up the general scheme for the subchapter, written up months before in the overall story outline, then sit down and write out a very rough sequence of how five missions and four events for each of the three mission-enabled orgs would go. This became my guide as I wrote the missions, one-by-one (through chapter 11.2, I wrote them in the order Zion-Mach-Merv; starting with 11.3, I decided to try mixing up my thought process to a less Zion-centric approach, and did them alphabetically, ie Mach-Merv-Zion). Once all the missions for the upcoming subchapter were complete, I filled in the rough sequence document with the vital details from the missions. This version of the subchapter's plan became the reference document that LESIG and I would use to plan and run events throughout that subchapter.

I'm inserting these subchapter planning documents here in chronological order. In some cases they have more notes and detail than the versions I presented to LESIG. These versions were completed before the start of each subchapter, and thus don't tend to include changes made to event plans after the subchapter went Live--which in some cases were substantial--or the outcomes of the events themselves. They also don't include the numerous events conceived by LESIG. So, while generally more detailed and up-to-date than the overall story outline document, these do not necessarily reflect the story as it actually happened, but only the initial plan for each six-week section, prior to its actual implementation in the Live game.

These begin at chapter 5.2, because it was at that point that I really began trying to put events and missions together in sequences throughout the duration of a subchapter; this turned out to be complicated when trying to handle a story from five playable points of view, so I had to start writing things down. Cypherites and EPN did not have their own missions, but in each subchapter we would adapt some of the Zion events for EPN, and some of the Machine events for Cypherites; as time went on I also tried more and more to come up with at least one or two event plans specifically for CYPH or EPN each subchapter.

For 8.2, I wrote up an additional document for others on the project, called "implications," which I'm inserting here after the 8.2 mission/event plan.

What follows is the planning document I used as an overall outline for the story of the Matrix Online from chapter 7, carrying over from Paul Chadwick's original outline, though chapter 14, which would have closed out our year 2009. Since I'm departing, this particular version of the story has come to an end with chapter 12.1. Any future story will be in the hands of others and, I expect, quite different from the last chapters of the one so briefly sketched out here.

MXO, an ongoing game, has to have a serial story: one that goes on and on, rather being written from the start to have a specific ending; upcoming chapters form gradually as time passes and developments--and customer feedback--shape the continuing narrative. This, then, is not a normal start-to-end story, but only a working document, written before the events described actually happened, in sections, with--in later years, anyway--large skeletal additions made for each upcoming year at the end of the previous one, gradually fleshed out in pieces as each subchapter approached the implementation stage. I generally didn't take the trouble to go back and update previous chapters if things happened differently than originally drawn up, so there are numerous inconsistences between the outline and what actually occurred in the story as it happened online.

The notes took on an increasingly shorthand form as the years passed, and eventually I just wrote them very concisely for my own reference. You'll find that the last parts are only very roughly outlined; they would have been fleshed out and possibly changed significantly as the year went on. So, please don't regard anything in this document as the true story of the Matrix Online, particularly anything past chapter 12.1, the one that is currently live; the real story is the one you've experienced on the servers over the past months and years, and the one that you'll live for yourself from here on out.

Still, I hope that these notes will answer some questions you may have had about the story as it was originally planned.

 
Get ready for a series of all-out PVP battles at the highest place in the city: the rooftop of the Government Building in Park East.
 

 
 
The Machines, the Merovingian, and Zion will each be represented in the battle by a story character: Agent Pace for the Machines, Ookami for the Merovingian, and Ghost for Zion.
 

 
 
The three characters will appear on the rooftop simultaneously at the battle's start time. They, and a large area of Downtown surrounding the Government Building, will be flagged for org-based PVP. The three characters will have identical loadouts. They will not single out targets for themselves, will not move other than to stay on the rooftop, and will not accept team invites--in other words, they'll be helpless without loyal operatives to keep them alive. Barring extreme player shenanigans as determined by the admins, story character crashes, or server crashes, the organization whose story character is the last left standing will be declared the winner for that server!
 
Each server will host a battle on a separate day:
 
Recursion: 2:00 pm Monday, February 9th
 
Syntax: 2:00 pm Tuesday, February 10th
 
Vector: 2:00 pm Wednesday, February 11th
 
Make sure you're there on time--if you can survive long enough to make it up to the rooftop--because there's no telling how long--or how briefly--your org will last without you!

Things don't always go according to plan. This new year brought me a series of surprises--surprises that have led me to conclude that after ten years in the game industry--seven of those on The Matrix Online--it is time for me to go.

This decision is purely personal, and the responsibility for it rests solely on me. Fortunately, the day-to-day operation of the game servers, aside from maybe a crash here or there, doesn't have anything to do with the coming or going of one small game designer. If things go according to plan this time, then Friday the 13th of February, the day after the release of Update 66, will be my last day here at SOE.

Update 66 is currently scheduled to include critical graphic fixes for Vista users, and a variety of goodies for everyone, including a few little items that will remain secret until the day of release. It will *not* include any advancement of the main story. I'll be posting most of my story documentation, including the outline for the overall story  that had been planned through the end of this year--a year that was to wrap up pretty much all of the main story we've had so far--as well as the detailed mission and event plans for each subchapter all the way back to 5.2. These will, I hope, answer some questions. Where the story goes from here, however, will be--finally--up to you.

I'd like to thank the old Monolith team, WB, SOE, the Wachowski brothers, and Paul Chadwick for making the tremendous opportunity I've had here possible. I don't count on ever again having a chance to work on such a cool project, with such devoted fans. It is those fans that I have to thank particularly; even if we drove each other crazy now and then, I think many of us will agree that we had our moments. My regret is that I have been unable to find a way to stretch those moments out into the full-fledged online Matrix experience that you all deserve.

But who knows? The Internet will probably be around for a while, and maybe we'll run into each other somewhere down the line.

Thanks again.

Ben Chamberlain, aka "Rarebit"

Servers are scheduled to go down for a restart, and the removal/deactivation of the Winter Holiday event, starting at 4:00 am Pacific time on Thursday, January 22nd. Servers should be back up within an hour or two of shutdown.

Recursion

Club Polyvinyl, Mara

Monday, December 1st, 2:00 pm

This will be a party open to all operatives, and attended by one or more MXO story characters. The host server will rotate each update

Vector

Arrive at 700 -6 10, Achan (bar, basement)

Wednesday, November 26th, 2:00 pm

Operatives must be level 5 or higher, and belong to the Zion or EPN organization.

These meetings are designed to be open discussions between operatives and their organization leader(s) about the organization's direction and goals. Do not bring spam macros or a hostile agenda. Disruptive operatives will be removed from the meeting and not invited back. Use "/ignore [someone]" rather than shouting at someone to be quiet. Teleports and organization locks will be used to ensure privacy. The host server will rotate each update.

Syntax

Arrive at 30 1 60, Mara (hotel, ground floor)

Tuesday, November 25th, 2:00 pm

Operatives must be level 5 or higher, and belong to the Merovingian organization.

These meetings are designed to be open discussions between operatives and their organization leader(s) about the organization's direction and goals. Do not bring spam macros or a hostile agenda. Disruptive operatives will be removed from the meeting and not invited back. Use "/ignore [someone]" rather than shouting at someone to be quiet. Teleports and organization locks will be used to ensure privacy. The host server will rotate each update.

Recursion

Arrive at 580 153 425, Tabor Park (office building, top floor)

Monday, November 24th, 2:00 pm

Operatives must be level 5 or higher, and belong to the Machine or Cypherite organization.

These meetings are designed to be open discussions between operatives and their organization leader(s) about the organization's direction and goals. Do not bring spam macros or a hostile agenda. Disruptive operatives will be removed from the meeting and not invited back. Use "/ignore [someone]" rather than shouting at someone to be quiet. Teleports and organization locks will be used to ensure privacy. The host server will rotate each update.

You can pick only one of the 28, so choose carefully!

11.3, new cinematic, new format: