While making my rounds in the dream world, I happened across The Tailor, whom had briefly contacted my Captain.  I send him a communique, and what follows is our conversation...

KernelPanic - good evening sir. You recently contacted my Captain, and I myself have a fondness for intricate design... I'm at Mara Church in case you 'feel' up to a conversation on design and creation of code

TheTailor - Well good evening. Who is your captain?

KernelPanic - Count Zero
KernelPanic - I am the Quartermaster of the Veridicus

TheTailor - Oh yes. I spoke with him briefly. I was called away before we could discuss much. Could I convince you to come to the church in Camon Heights? I find it easier to talk and move about here, for some reason.

TheTailor - I shall be with you in just a moment.

TheTailor - Aren't churches magnificent places?
TheTailor - Religion, like music and art are wholy human constructs. A magnificent credit to your ingenuity and curiosity.

KernelPanic - a house of worship for an unseen savior within a world where the masters are unseen, I can appreciate the irony if nothing else.

TheTailor - Yes, there is definitely a modicum of irony there as well.

KernelPanic - I take it that machine curiosity if such a thing exists is wholely different than the human definition?

TheTailor - Machine curiosity. That is an interesting concept.

KernelPanic - indeed, I am curious (pun intended) whether or not machine's question their nature of self

TheTailor - I supose it exists to an extent. With the intelligence that humanity imparted to robotics, we did acquire a certain... thirst... if you will, for greater knowledge and understanding.

KernelPanic - indeed, I myself had a particular fondness for engineering before my awakening into the 'real'

TheTailor - Oh? Then you and I have much in common.

KernelPanic - and I have continued in said capacity afterwards, but for much different ends and reasons

TheTailor - Yes, I suppose the necessity for such pursuits changes much in the real world.

KernelPanic - when I was enslaved, I created prototype AI's for what I found out later was the 'machines' and now I create code that is employed to destroy my previous creations, like a snake eating it's tail I am

TheTailor - You seek to destroy your creations? Why?

KernelPanic - for my creations helped to enslave my race unknowingly... there's a lesson there in that often the creations you make are not always used for the altruistic means that you designed them for
KernelPanic - are you familiar with the Nobel prize and the history behind it?

TheTailor - I understand. I was not wholly aware of the use of the Matrix while I was designing it.
TheTailor - The Nobel Prize is an honor awarded to various people who have persued research towards the betterment of humanity, no?

KernelPanic - Alfred Nobel, the man who the prize was named after, invented dynomite in the 1800's. He saw great uses for it in construction and demolition, and thought it to be a great tool for furthering mankind. When his invention was primarily used to kill people and rob banks, he felt so distraught that he took all the money he made from his invention and created a fund/prize to further human scientists to peaceful scientific ends.
KernelPanic - truly the inventions of man have often caused great malice to man, despite our intentions

TheTailor - I understand.
TheTailor - With that said, I am curious as to your goals within the Matrix. Is it your goal to see the Machines destroyed and humanity freed?

KernelPanic - thus, I was maipulated into furthering the development of more human like AI for the machines within a false reality that I was unaware... now that I am awoken, I create items that will inevitably be used against the creations of my past life
KernelPanic - my goals are simple... all living beings to be free and prosperous, without harm to others

TheTailor - Including the Machine race?

KernelPanic - an auspicious goal, but alas one I fear is unatainable
KernelPanic - if they are enslaved then yes, but I fear that their rigid mentality will not lend them to an understanding of the malice they cause intentional or no to the human race
KernelPanic - although I do not presume to have knowledge of the entirety of the machine society

TheTailor - Well to answer those questions, one must look at the issue objectively, which I know is difficult to do.

KernelPanic - indeed, but any good designer learns to design objectively if they are to be successful

TheTailor - Do you believe the Machines to bear malice towards humanity, or is it simply a means of survival?
TheTailor - All entities tend toward desperation when their existence is threatened.

KernelPanic - I'm sure that originally it was a means to survival, but I doubt with the hundreds of years that have passed since the war, that the machines could not have come up with a means to end the environmental difficulties of the desert
KernelPanic - indeed, but are the machines truly threatened still?

TheTailor - Perhaps the environmental state of the desert is not their problem to solve. They after all, did not create it.

KernelPanic - indeed, but those who did are enslaved and as such are unable to do anything to help

TheTailor - Could Zion help?
TheTailor - It would benefit them as well to be able to reclaim the surface.

KernelPanic - can you expect a race of beings who have been near extinction and wholely captured, to view the possibility of helping their captors? would you?
KernelPanic - indeed, but with the history of the machines being what it is, what would stop the machines from using humanity and tehn wiping us out? from a rigid tactical point of view, at that point there would be no reason to keep humanity around.......
KernelPanic - unless there was some form of perceived value from a freed humanity
KernelPanic - in such I offer you a viewpoint... take a look at human history... look at what the bluepill computer revolution known as Open Source advocates. Given freedom, inovation is much easier than when being controlled and caged. Any great human mind has always been more productive and inovating when they are given free reign and allowed to create, than those who are controlled and manipulated. True invention comes from the ability to simply sit down with an idea and 'tinker' than all the billions of dollars forced into rigid corporate R&D.

TheTailor - During the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, Eurpean and American parties enslaved many people from Africa. yet after slavery was abolished, many African American's went on to do much to support the whole of the human race, despite the horros committed against them and their families. Many indeed won your Nobel Prize.

KernelPanic - indeed but the absolute abolishment of slavery was needed before that occurred, but even so, a small snowball can turn into an avalanche...

TheTailor - These are difficult issues. Please know I am only playing the.. devil's advocate...
TheTailor - I am an exile after all. The Machines threatened my existence as well.

KernelPanic - ha! apprapo choice of wording!

TheTailor - Again, irony, I suppose.

KernelPanic - indeed, the exile situation is one that I have thought on, and honestly given the resources exiles could live free as well. Create a matrix style computer system completely separate from other matrixes that any machine could choose to go to and would be governed by a freely elected exile body

TheTailor - You see, if the Matrix should fall, I will cease to exist, I have been with the Matrix since it's inception, and I.. love.. if that is the right word, my life.

KernelPanic - indeed, one of the definitions of living beings is a survival instinct

TheTailor - All I seek are discussion to get people thinking about what should, can, or needs to be done, to find a solution that benefits all parties.

KernelPanic - I cannot begrudge an exile the right to live, but what I can begrudge is an exile who wantonly kills other beings such as *chuckle* the death of Morpheus.

TheTailor - His death was unfortunate, but not unforseeable. Morpheus' heart was in the right place, but, I believe his means were... excessive.

KernelPanic - he is not the only that has been killed needlessly by more 'excessive' exiles

TheTailor - Oh, I've no argument with that.

KernelPanic - one warning that I would take to heart if I were in the Merovingian's shoes, is that the human quality arogance leads itself to overlooking certain key details. Suffice it to say he is not the only being who has a penchant for collecting 'information'

TheTailor - No, I would suppose not.
TheTailor - Forgive me if I have upset you at all with this conversation. That was not at all my intention.

KernelPanic - not at all, it's quite entertaining to find an exile who shares similar viewpoints, if not from a different direction
KernelPanic - while I cannot condone the actions of the merovingian and his hordes, as I wholely support the freedom of humanity, I can also see the validity of a survival for exiles as well, but when does one's survival have to surpercede the other?
KernelPanic - that in my opinion is the nature of the dilema that we face currently... everyone is concerned with just their survival instead of coming to terms with allowing for the survival with all in homeostasis with one another
KernelPanic - but don't misunderstand my intentions, if I'm given no other choice than to fight, or die, I will fight, just like I would expect no other from a machine, or exile

TheTailor - You are quite wise, and quite human KernelPanic.

KernelPanic - to rewind our conversation, that is one of the natures of living beings is to survive... not just the individual but the entire race
KernelPanic - heh, I thank you on both points

TheTailor - If peace was a feasable option, would you and your 'faction' support the effort?
TheTailor - Actually, let me rephrase...
TheTailor - Would you fight for peace, rather than just survival?

KernelPanic - if nothing else, we would definitely listen to the possibility... however due to our history and our 'humanity' I would hope that you understand our mistrust
KernelPanic - we are afterall the Prophets of Peace

TheTailor - Touche.

KernelPanic - but we are not always Peaceful Prophets

TheTailor - I thank you for your time KernelPanic. It has been an honor and a pleasure to speak with you. You are a credit to your Captain and your Race.
TheTailor - I hope we may be able to speak again in the future.

KernelPanic - indeed, I as well. It has been a pleasure sir

TheTailor - Be safe, and continue to search for peace.

KernelPanic - you as well, may your creations within this world support the survival of all races within, if such a thing is possible.

TheTailor - I believe, nay, Hope that it is. Good day.

Message Edited by KernelPanic on 10-06-2005 04:04 PM

Message Edited by KernelPanic on 10-06-2005 04:05 PM

Message Edited by KernelPanic on 10-02-2005 05:23 PM

     The purpose of this write up is to go over the MxO economy and crafting systems, before the latest patch (34). The intended audience is the MxO developers and producers and as such may not be of interest to the community. If you have no desire to go into great detail, please disregard this post.

     There are a few basic concepts to an economy that I'll be covering before I go into the details of the previous MxO system. The first is the value of the currency. The value of items is dictated upon the scale of currency to necessity. A good comparison to this theory, is the value of the US dollar. In the early 1900's you could get by and live a fairly good life on 4-5 thousand dollars per year. In today's age, that is far below the poverty line. So the first thing one must do when analyzing an entire economy is grasping the scale of the currency and how it scales to necessity and value.

     In MxO, 1 million information may seem like a huge amount, compared to other MMO's or even the US economy, however, when you see that in order to upgrade just 1 ability tree at level 30 takes over 1 million information (i.e. from 29 to 30), that 1 million info becomes less valuable, due to the necessity of character progression (and even more so when you factor in purchasing new abilities, as well as clothing costs, weapons, tools, pills, etc.).

MxO Economy & Crafting (pre patch 34)

     The MxO economy was based around users crafting items, of which there were two primary types: Source Code, and Non Source Code. A Source Code Item (SCI), is an item that would be created from fragments, that would be required to be compiled before a usable item is brought into existance. A Non Source Code Item (NSCI) is an item which does not require compilation during the crafting process. The only NSCI items in game were abilities so from here on out, it is assumed in this document that all items other than abilities are to be considered SCI, and require compiling.

     In order to craft an item in MxO you would require a few things: information, bits, and time. Each item, whether ability or other, would require at least 4 fragments to create. Each fragment is made up of, on average, 3 bits per fragment. This means that on the average, items would cost around 15-20 bits per item. Factor in costs for creating each fragment, then the item and the time involved. There is a total of 47 craftable fragments and 8 bits in the game. In my opinion, the Monolith staff did a fairly good job of making sure each item would require it's own unique set of fragments, as well as the fact that there was not 1 or two fragments that were reused again and again (outside of those that could be purchased from a vendor... more on this later).

     Now in order to get bits, you could either decompile items, loot missions and mobs, or craft, then decompile the items you crafted. The later was the strategy I used, it required time, information, and a bit of research to make it worthwhile.

How does decompiling work?

     The mechanics behind decompiling is one of those sticky wickets that few seemed to realize or publicly acknowledge from beta forward. How did MxO decide what bits you get per item? It's actually fairly simple, and inso doing quite elegant. Let's take an item and break it down: Green T-Shirt (one of my personal favorites). This item is made of 4 fragments. Below is a quick map for bits, to frags, to item:

Green Dress Shirt (male):

(fragment: bits needed for frag.)

• Class Routine: Item                    = 1 2


• Function Subroutine: Apparel    = 1 4


• Variable Frag: U04                      = 6 6


• Variable Frag: C26                      = 6 6

Total Bits (for 1 craft)= Bit 6 (4), Bit 1 (2), Bit 2 (2), Bit 4 (1)

     Here's how the decompiling process worked. Let's say you crafted a source code for the aforementioned Green Dress Shirt. You compile all source and get 15 usable items in your inventory. When you go to decompile those items, you have 4 frags slots to create the item, so you get back 4 bits per decompile. Each decompile, goes through one layer of the bit “stream” of the frament slot. So Decompile 1 you get 1, 1, 6, 6. Decompile 2 you get 2, 4, 6, 6, etc

** Note the bit picked per decompile may have be random in order, but you ALWAYS got the bit from the frag definition. It was NOT arbitrary and was ALWAYS based upon the frags you put into the final item.

     While this may seem elementary once you've been introduced to it, believe me, it was much more difficult trying to document this entire system over 2+ months and then finding good items to decompile for the bits that you wanted. Low on bit 6's? Find an item that is made up primarily of 6's then craft 6 source codes (15*6= 90 final items to decompile, which was about ¼ of what I would do on a heavy decompiling day per bit).

     The thing that everyone appears to be missing in assuming that this is easy, is that there is a 10 second timer delay on decompiling. So if I actually craft 90 items, it will take me a bare minimum of 15 minutes to decompile all those items. That of course is assuming I can do so perfectly, without missing a timer, nor does that include inventory space issues of transferring those items back and forth. A good realistic estimate of the time involved for crafting, then decompiling 90 items would be about 20 minutes. Now we also had 6 source codes times 4 frags per SCI. Fragments require crafting and info costs, so our final total for 90 items to decompile is as follows:

• Time                    = 20 minutes




• Information         = 600 (100/SCI)


•                                9000 (100/compile)


•                            +  2160 (90/frag/SCI)


• Total Info            = 11760

• Bits needed        = 8 Bit 1


•                               4 Bit 2


•                               4 Bit 4


•                               24 Bit 6

Total Bits Yielded ( halfed, minus needed)

• 82 Bit 1


• 41 Bit 2


• 41 Bit 4


• 156 Bit 6

     So you just spent 11760 info, ate 40 bits you had lying around, and came out with 320 bits at the end of it all. Now we cherry picked an item that was heavy on bit 6's so due to the fact that not all frags need 6's you will need to repeat this process for each bit you need for the items you're making. Bit 1 and 2 are easy because they're in all items, so those we don't need to worry about so much. However, bit 3, and 8 do not have a cherry item that I found at least, so any frags that require those bits, will require much more time and info (double to quad). Also remember that most frags average 3 bits per frag, so instead of getting 2 6's per decompile, it can be down to 1 per 3 decompiles for inefficient items. Bascially half to third the Total Bits Yielded above for non-optimal decompiles.

     Now taking the average (again this is the most optimal bit I have found yet), the average cost per bit, including those bits needed to create the original item is 36.75 per bit gained. Including those bits that are non optimal, we'll bump that number up to 50 info per bit gained. Time is 6.1 seconds per bit (1 and 2 are easy and in everything so they are not included), or to average for non-efficient bits, we'll bump that up to 10 seconds per bit. So assuming you agree with these numbers the following is true:

On average, a single bit takes 50 info and 10 seconds to create..