The Matrix Online Totally Explained

Everything about The Matrix Online totally explained

The Matrix Online (also known as MxO) is a massively multiplayer online game developed by Monolith Productions. It is an official continuation of the The Matrix storyline. The game began closed beta-testing in June 2004 which was then opened for people who pre-ordered the game in November 2004. Warner Bros. and Sega officially released MxO on 22 March 2005 in the United States. It was released in Europe on April 15, 2005.
Ubisoft backed out of an agreement to co-publish the game, not long after canceling plans for another MMORPG. Ubisoft and Warner Bros. stated that this didn't have a negative impact on their relationship. At the time, doubts about the game circled within the industry, based on the lackluster reception of the later two Matrix films and an overcrowded MMORPG market.
On 17 June 2005, Warner Bros. and Sony Online Entertainment, owners of several other online multiplayer game worlds, including EverQuest and Star Wars Galaxies, announced that SOE had picked up the rights from Monolith to operate The Matrix Online. The transition to SOE was completed on 15 August 2005.

Gameplay

All players in the game play the role of a redpill, a human who was formerly trapped inside the Matrix. When a new character is made, the player is given the choice of taking a blue pill that will return them to their former life (quit the game) or a red pill, which will free their minds from the Matrix. Characters who are unaware of the fact that they're in the simulation are often referred to as "bluepills" because they've either taken the blue pill or have not been given the choice yet. People who are aware of the simulation (players) are referred to as "redpills" because they've taken the red pill (or, in very rare cases, when a character has self-substantiated out of the Matrix on their own). Following the choice between the two pills, the player is then taken through a basic tutorial of the game's mechanics, including mission interaction and the combat system. After the tutorial, they're then free to roam the Mega City (the city that the entire Matrix story is set in).

Combat

The Matrix Online is different from most MMOs because of its combat system. Combat is divided into two separate parts: Free-fire and Interlock. Free-fire mode allows for large gun battles to take place, while Interlock is often broken down into bullet-time-affected martial arts moves and close-quarters gunfire.
   There are three main classes in the Matrix Online: Coder, Hacker, and Operative. Coders create a special "simulacrum" that fights for them. Hackers manipulate the code of the Matrix to affect friends and enemies from a distance, either damaging them, downgrading their combat abilities, or healing them and upgrading their powers. Operatives are the common soldiers seen from the movies - Martial Artists, Gunmen, and the new Spy class, which revolves around stealth fighting and knife throwing.
   In free-fire mode, operatives exchange damage with each other. Gunmen and Hackers are well-equipped for this, with their ranged attacks and abilities. Martial Artists must get close to their targets to be effective, and although a Spy's most dangerous abilities are initiated out of Interlock, they also pull their opponents into Interlock. Each attack or ability is used at timed intervals, based on the system of damage per second (D.P.S.). For example, the strongest rifle in the Matrix does 15 damage points per second, and has a fire rate of 3.5 seconds, which, in free-fire, causes the rifle to have a base damage of 52.5, to be altered by the player's own stats. Opposed to such, a Hacker's stronger attack ability such as Logic Barrage 4.0 does 63 D.P.S., but with a short casting timer, does a base damage of only 120-180 damage.
   In Interlock, or Close Combat, two players exchange damage in rounds. Each round lasts exactly four seconds. For each round, the two players' accuracies are pitted against each others' defenses, which are slightly affected by a random "luck" roll. There are three different outcomes to a round: hit-hit, hit-miss, or miss-miss. In hit-miss, one of the players will hit the other while dodging or blocking their attack. In miss-miss, both players will parry each other without doing damage. In hit-hit, one player will damage the other, only to be damaged themselves in a counter attack. When special abilities are used, however, there can be no hit-hit round, although the miss-miss round can still apply.
   When taking or dealing damage, one player's damage influences are pitted against another player's resistance influences of the same damage type (for example a gunman's ballistic damage versus an opponent's ballistic resistance). Higher resistance versus lower damage means that the defending player won't take as much damage.
   When attacking or defending against attacks, one player's accuracy influences are pitted against another's defense influences of the same attack type.
   There is no turn-based combat in the Matrix Online. All combat takes place in "real time", and large scale battles are often decided by the sheer numbers of forces of one side versus others. Amassing a large number of players to control the battlefield is affectionately dubbed "zerging", an allusion to Blizzard's Starcraft and the Zerg race, which uses the power in numbers strategy to win battles.
   Currently, there's no way to effectively use player versus player combat scores as content, although content designed for PvP has been recently added, such as items that drop in the game world and can be picked up that grant powers to the player that lugs them around, hence they're called "luggables".

Classes

The Matrix Online has a unique class system. Players can load abilities they've either purchased or produced (by the Coder class, known ingame as coding) at Hardlines, provided they've enough memory and the abilities that precede the loading one. These abilities can then be switched out at a Hardline at a moment's notice. This leads to a very flexible class system, without players being stuck in one class.
The three main archetypes are Hacker, Coder, and Operative. They are similar to the classes Mage, Crafter, and Fighter in other MMORPGs. These classes then each branch out into sub-classes, with Coder, for example being divided into Programmer (out of battle item and ability maker) and Code Shaper (creates simulacrums to fight with, similarities to a necromancer/summoner in other MMOs).
To elaborate, the game currently has a total of 21 end-game classes with an additional two stubs.

Missions and organizations

After an initial set of introductory missions, players can join one of three organizations working in the Matrix, each with a different set of goals, beliefs and methods: Zion, the Machines, and the Merovingian.
In order to receive increasingly critical and sensitive missions, players are expected to run missions for their chosen organization, which will increase their standing with their chosen organization but will also lower it with the other two. Zion: Zion is the last remaining human city on Earth, hidden deep underground and is concerned chiefly with protecting its citizens from the Machines who see those who have "awakened" as a threat to those still connected to the Matrix. Those who choose to work for Zion usually enlist in the Zion Military and see this as the best way to protect the ideals of freedom. The Zions main base revolves around Mara Central. Machines: The main motivation for choosing to side with the Machines is that this organization is seen as the most conducive towards maintaining the status-quo of the Matrix and protecting the lives of those still connected to it, for example, bluepills. However, there are also those who feel that the only way to improve relations between man and machine is to work with them as closely as possible and see joining this organization as the best way to do so. The Machines main base revolves around Marian North. Merovingian: Those who work for the Merovingian are in a unique position in that they need not concern themselves with the traditional hostilities between Zion and the Machines, preferring instead to act only when the situation would proves advantageous for themselves or the organization as a whole. However, this organization has also been chosen by some players as it's the only one out of the three that fights to protect the Exiles who reside within the Matrix. Sub-organizations: Players can't run missions for these organizations although in storyline terms they're now quite separate from their original "parent" organization, even receiving their own Live Events:

EPN - E Pluribus Neo (Zion as parent organization):

Members of EPN are devoted to what they deem "Neo's legacy". This mostly involves giving all human beings the opportunity to question the true nature of their "reality", the Matrix and to have the choice of the red or blue pill. Very much against the Machines, and Cypherites in particular, there are some more fundamentalist schools of thought within this organization who believe that the only solution to humanity's problems is to free the entire human population from the Matrix. They are led by The Kid with his old friend, Shimada - who also acts as their mission controller.

Cypherites (Machines as parent organization):
Usually seen as the more extremist element of the Machine organization, Cypherites follow in the footsteps of Cypher, wanting to be reinserted into the Matrix as bluepills so that they may be blissfully unaware of the true nature of the Matrix as a computer program. They are currently led by Zion traitor, Veil, as a direct result of their former leader, Cryptos, being revealed as a Machine Program inhabiting a redpill's body.

The continuing story

Another of The Matrix Online's defining and differentiating aspects is its inclusion and emphasis on what is called "The Continuing Story". This is to say the game itself is the official continuation of the universe, story and characters established in The Matrix series of fictional works including the Trilogy, the Animatrix, and the series of officially written and produced comics.
This continuation is written collaboratively between the award winning comic book writer Paul Chadwick and MxO lead game designer, Ben "Rarebit" Chamberlain. It has also seen verification and input from "Matrix" creators, The Wachowski Brothers, through until the end of the upcoming Chapter 9.
As of March 21, 2008, a Producer Letter by Daniel "Walrus" Myers has recently announced that Paul Chadwick is leaving The Matrix Online for other projects and that the storytelling format would change by utilizing the neglected in-game newspaper The Sentinel, with the Live Events Special Interest Group working on the paper while removing the cinematics.

Progression of the storyline

The story progresses in real time, with a planned schedule in effect that includes the following:
- One new graphic novel style cinematic released at the start of each new sub-chapter (currently every six weeks).
   - Three new critical missions (one for each of the game's three main organizations) each week.
   - Daily live events (excluding weekends) which include three planned critical events and two randomly chosen events each week. However due to there being no European server the timings for the Live Events is only set up for Americans to access easily (such as 1800 - 2100 PDT or 0300 - 0600 GMT approximately). So for all intents and purposes most people not in America won't have access to the Live events.
   - Forum featured live event recaps of said events for those unable to attend. Generally posted the day following their occurrence; they usually feature a review of events by the main character from the series who was involved with the event along with a collection of screenshots taken by a game developer during the event. Chapter organization The Matrix Online uses a system of organization in order to keep track of its most notable developments in a manner akin to that of software versioning to keep track of its chronological progression. Each "Critical" mission and development is given its own unique tag within this system.
   For example: Chapter 1, Sub-chapter 2, Week 3 would be represented as "Chapter 1.2.3".
   It has been stated by MxO developer Rarebit, that this numbering system is meant purely for chronological measuring and game design (for the various rewards associated with completing past critical missions in a system called The Mission Archive). The chapters and sub-chapters are not intended as self-contained units. Rather, they're each equally relevant to the unfolding of the story as a whole.

LESIG program

The LESIG (Live Event Special Interest Group) was originally devised under Monolith's operation of the game and was intended to function as nothing more than a feedback group, giving the developers a clearer understanding of how players were reacting to the large scale Live Events the team were producing.
However, when The Matrix Online transitioned to Sony Online Entertainment the program under went a radical change in direction as part of similar changes to the other story telling devices, most importantly, the scale and frequency of live events following the departure of a dedicated Live Events Team.
The group were given the new task of playing minor supporting roles during future live events or even more permanent characters to enhance interaction between players, essentially replacing the paid staff of the LET with volunteer players.

Server list

During the transition of the game from Monolith Productions to Sony Online Entertainment in August 2005, 9 of the existing servers were merged into 3.

Syntax; is a non hostile server, composed of players from the original Linenoise, Proxy, and Output servers.

Recursion; is a non hostile server, composed of players from the original Method, Regression, and Iterator servers.

Vector; is the only Hostile server. Unlike the other servers where PVP is optional, players are permanently flagged for PVP (player vs player) from the level of 16 and upwards. Vector is composed of players from the original Enumerator, Heuristic, and Input servers.Further Information

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