Matrix Online: PAX FAQs

Is The Matrix Online only about combat?

No, there's a lot more to The Matrix Online. You're creating a brand-new redpill and trying to help him or her grow into a powerful and respected character. Each organization in the Matrix will offer you missions where you can defeat enemies with stealth or strength. And, of course, all of this advances the storyline of the Matrix.

In addition to mission gameplay, code crafting will let you create clothing, equipment, and abilities while the in-game marketplace will provide a central location to buy and sell from your fellow players.

If you want to explore the world of the Matrix, several different opportunities await you. Discovering new hardlines and access nodes increases your ability to safely move around the Matrix. And if you have the right abilities and equipment, you can discover data nodes hidden in the world that will provide you with valuable information.

Finally, the social features in MxO allow player to form crews and even larger factions. How factions organize themselves is left entirely up to the player, but their impact could have a dramatic effect on how fast the MxO story advances.

If The Matrix Online isn't a fighting game, why are you showing off combat?

The major reason we're showing combat at PAX is so we can let a lot of people have a chance to play. Combat is fairly easy to try, fun to do, and looks cool. You can play with combat for ten minutes and get a good feel for that part of the game.

We also took some time to show the disciplines, abilities, and character creation - all for the first time in public.

How does Bullet Time (tm) work in the game?

Like the movies, Bullet Time is used to create a feeling of drama and tension. Every time you fight someone in The Matrix Online, there's a chance you'll slip into Bullet Time. At first, you'll see it rarely and even at the higher levels it's not an everyday occurrence. Bullet Time is the game's way of rewarding the player who's done something cool in a fight.

When you slip into Bullet Time, you and your opponent see one set of animations. Everyone outside of your fight sees a different set of animations. That way you get the effect of Bullet Time without forcing other players into it at the same time.

Can I still get into beta?

Yes. We're bringing in more people every week. Just sign up at
http://thematrixonline.warnerbros.com/web/beta/signup.jsp.

You showed off PvP combat. Is that a big part of the game?

We still in the process of balancing PvP in The Matrix Online. While it will be part of the game, we won't force people to fight other players. But since we've got three organizations with opposing goals (Machines, Exiles, and Zion), it only makes sense that there will be some conflict between players aligned with the different groups.

How long does it take to swap out ability code?

You can instantly swap out ability code, provided you're able to access a hardline. With the implementation of Disciplines, all you have to load is a single Title ability and all required ability code will be loaded at the same time (if you have the memory available).

Are these the only clothes I have to choose from when I create my character?

You have several options for different articles of clothing at the start, so there's a decent amount of variability. But remember, even Neo was wearing a brown, polyester jacket and loafers when he first jacked in. As you travel through the Matrix, you'll have plenty of opportunities to find, buy, or create cool clothes.

I read that when you craft items you can't control what you make. Is that true?

No. Writing Code is a very deliberate process where players can choose the exact Code Structure they wish to create.

Why is Hyper-Jump an ability? Why doesn't a new character start with it?

Because everybody falls the first time. (Well, almost everybody.)

The graphics look amazing. What's it going to take to run The Matrix Online?

Final system specs haven't been determined yet. The current minimum specs we're working with are:
" 1.4 GHz processor
" 512 MB RAM
" DirectX 9.0 compatible graphics card with a programmable shader (Radeon 8xxx, 9xxx/GeForce 3Ti, 4Ti or better) with 64 MB VRAM
" 56K Internet connection
" 7GB free HDD space

What kind of machines are you running it on, then?

Because we're working on the game, we want our machines to play the game and then some. The basic machine we work on is a 3 GHz Pentium 4 with 1.0 GB RAM and a 128 MB ATI Radeon 9800 video card. You get a pretty amazing view with that kind of setup.

At home I use a 1.7 GHz Athlon with 1.0 GB RAM and a 64 MB video card and the game still runs smooth with slightly lower graphics settings. As time goes on, the team optimizes the code more and it will run more efficiently.

Don't you think that there are just going to be a bunch of Neo wannabes in the game?

Considering the array of character designs, abilities, and clothing items, I don't see why anyone would want to simply be a Neo clone. As we showed in character creation, there are different body types for each gender, dozens of faces and hairstyles, a bunch of tattoos...and the full slate of choices aren't even in yet. We're pretty proud of how unique each character can be and hope players enjoy trying out the options.

Why are you giving out so little information about the game?

Mostly we don't want to promise anything that players aren't going to see on the first day they jack in. We just had a big beta update at the end of August and will have another at the end of September. The changes between what testers were seeing before and after the recent update were huge. However, as that update put us a lot closer to the release product, we're more comfortable showing off the game now. By the end of September we should be able to not only talk about what's in the game, but what you'll see in the first few updates to the game.