The Matrix Online

The Matrix Online
File:Matrixonlinebox.jpg
Developer(s)	Monolith Productions
Publisher(s)	Warner Brothers/Sega
Engine	Lithtech: Discovery
Platform(s)	PC
Release	22 March, 2005 15 April, 2005
Genre(s)	MMORPG
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

The Matrix Online (MxO) is a massively multiplayer online game developed by Monolith Productions. It is set in the fictional universe of The Matrix and continues the story told in The Matrix series. The game began closed beta testing in June 2004, and saw a special closed beta test for pre-orders beginning in November 2004. Warner Bros. and Sega officially released MxO on March 22, 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 did not 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 June 17, 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 are in the simulation are often referred to as "bluepills" because they have 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 have 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 are 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 fight 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 (i.e. a gunman's ballistic damage versus an opponent's ballistic resistance). Higher resistance versus lower damage means that the defending player will not 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 is 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 are called "luggables".

Classes

The Matrix Online has a unique class system. Players can load abilities they have either purchased or produced (by the Coder class, known ingame as coding) at Hardlines, provided they have 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. These are:

Coder

1. Programmer - Crafter

2. Proxy Master - Tank class simulacra

3. Utility Master - Support class simulacra

Hacker

4. Trauma Surgeon - Area healer

5. Force Multiplier - Area upgrader

6. Physician - Single target healer

7. Upgrade Master - Single target upgrader

8. Network Attacker - Single target downgrader

9. Ravenger - Damage over time / Downgrader

10. Ballista - Single target damage

11. Howitzer - Area damage

12. Destroyer - Area downgrader

Operative

13. Master Shadow - Stealth, avoids combat

14. Master Knife Thrower - Ranged combat stealth

15. Assassin - Close combat stealth

16. Kung Fu Grandmaster - Accuracy based close combat

17. Karate Grandmaster - Damage based close combat

18. Aikido Grandmaster - Defense based close combat

19. SMG Specialist - Damage based ranged/close combat

20. Expert Rifleman - Accuracy based ranged combat

21. Duelist - Defense based close combat

Stubs

Stub 1. Sniper - Stealth / long range high damage attacks

Stub 2. Data Miner - Non-combat currency generator / "Luggable" detector

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 organisation, which will increase their standing with their chosen organisation 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.

Machines:

The main motivation for choosing to side with the Machines is that this organisation is seen as the most condusive towards maintaining the status-quo of the Matrix and protecting the lives of those still connected to it. i.e blupills. 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 organisation as the best way to do so.

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 organisation as a whole. However, this organisation has also been chosen by some players as it is the only one out of the three that fights to protect the Exiles who reside within the Matrix.

Sub - Organisations:

Players cannot run missions for these organisations although in storyline terms they are now quite separate from their original "parent" organisation, even receiving their own Live Events:

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

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 organisation 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 organisation):

Usually seen as the more extremist element of the Machine organisation, 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 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.

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 subchapter (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.

- 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 organisation

The Matrix Online uses a system of organisation 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 subchapters are not intended as self-contained units. Rather, they are 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 [1].

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 [2] or even more permanent characters to enhance interaction between players [3], essentially replacing the paid staff of the LET with volunteer players.

Notable Events

The Race For The One

The first major event to occur in The Matrix Online was a "race" between the three organizations to gather Neo's RSI fragments. The organization that collected the most in a week received a defense bonus. Different organizations were the first to collect each of the remains on each server.

Shapers were found that could manipulate the RSI fragments into the shape of Neo's mental projection. Unfortunately some shapers were captured by a fourth party (believed to be the General). Those shapers who were captured, were forced to create super-Agents which each of the organizations then worked together to defeat. Morpheus has also complained that the physical remains of Neo were never returned to Zion from the Machine City (Zero One), yet cryptically, the Machines have said that they did not recycle Neo's remains either.

Red-eyed Agents

The second major event a week later was the appearance of Agents with glowing red eyes. These Agents appeared mysteriously and began attacking all humans, including those allied with the Machines. None of the three major factions claimed to be controlling the red eyed Agents, and some believed they served a new, fourth organization. They also attacked anyone with an RSI code fragment ("contraband fragments") or anyone attempting to defend them.

Later, a message from the Oracle indicated that "intruders" angered by the Truce are behind this, and that somehow Neo split himself up into fragments within the Matrix, knowing that they would be needed for the future. However, the only way to put Neo's code back together was with the help of the programs known as the Shapers. Fighting then broke out between the factions for control of the Shapers, leading to the Red Eyed Agents capturing a Shaper in the confusion, which allowed them to create a new breed of red eyed agents: "N30 Ag3nts". Soon Niobe sent a message to players to fight this new menace along with a new wave of agents which bore a strong resemblance to Neo.

Nightfall

The third major event, Nightfall, began with the kidnapping of two important leaders from vampire-like and werewolf-like Exiles gangs (the Blood Drinkers, and the Lupines, respectively). It was soon revealed that Malphas, an important figure in the Blood Drinker community, and his Lupine counterpart, Ookami, had not been kidnapped at all, but were hiding from the Merovingian. Upon returning, they led a revolt of both gangs against the Merovingian's domination of all Exiles, attempting to rally many humans to their cause. However, while Malphas was absent his subordinate, Invalesco, attempted an underhanded power grab against him, promising to turn humans that joined him into immortal 'vampires' with his source code. He was unsuccessful in this attempted coup and upon Malphas' return, Invalesco was hunted down and killed. Amidst this infighting, the Merovingian was able to defeat the uprising and capture Malphas and Ookami. Subjected to torture in the Frenchman's Chateau, they were (for now at least) bent back to his service out of fear, and the attacks ended.

The Hunt for Morpheus

Morpheus stepped up his quest to convince the Machines to return Neo's body. By planting specially coded bombs near locations, redpill Operatives were most likely to frequent (usually hardlines, but later on or near monuments), the bombs would detonate and, while they did no physical damage to the Matrix, spread a virus to any redpills caught in the blast. This virus was designed to reveal the underlying code, showing the bluepills the true nature of the Matrix, causing them to reject it as real. If enough bluepills were forcefully awakened from their pods there was a possibly of the system crashing en masse. All organizations were out to kill him, with Agents patrolled the streets alongside Lupines and Blood Drinkers. Another mysterious group emerged during this time, called Cypherites who could be identified as redpill humans wearing masks. Not only did they sabotage hardlines to trap people in the Matrix, but they also rabidly hunted Morpheus. Players had the option of rushing to defuse the bombs Morpheus had planted in order to protect the truce; or preventing others from doing so, ensuring their detonation.

On the sixth day of this ten-day event, tragedy struck. Morpheus was confronted by a mysterious assassin as he primed one of the his final bomb to detonate in a waste water treatment plant. He fled the initial attack, only for the Assassin to catch up with him and catch him off-guard, the Assassin apparently able to bend the rules of the Matrix as he slipped through a narrow vent in front of him. He was unable to dodge the hail of bullets fired at him by the Assassin and was soon dead.

Niobe met with leaders from the Machine collective, who denied any involvement. She later formed a faction of her own to track down who had sent the Assassin. The hunt for Morpheus' Assassin was on.

Soon, Exiles called Corrupted began to appear throughout the Matrix, attacking players seemingly at random. It was later discovered that these programs were created by the Assassin in his own image using a "corrupted virus", whose bodies were composed of flies, just like his. During the chaos that ensued with the ongoing attacks, Agent Skinner, then liaison to the Machinist redpills, was permanently deleted by the Assassin. Soon after Agent Skinner's deletion, players found documents relating to the Corrupted who had been attacking non stop. Through piecing together the information that was available to them at that time, they learned that killing Morpheus had not been the Assassin's ultimate goal. The Corrupted were designed to destabilize the Matrix upon death, and by releasing them en masse, the Assassin hoped that if enough of them were, killed they would completely destabilise and destroy the Matrix.

The event culminated with much larger versions of the Corrupted, called "Complete Corrupted", who could only be destroyed by special "pesticide" items. All players of all organizations put aside their differences and worked together to defeat these massive programs, which they hoped would restore order to the Matrix.

Even with the destruction of the Corrupted, the Complete Corrupted,the Assassin remained at large.

Following the permanent deletion of Agent Skinner, the Machines activated a new Agent as his replacement: Agent Pace. Agent Pace is a 'new style' of Agent, most notably in two ways. First, she is more emotionally expressive than any of her predecessors. Secondly, it is of note that Agent Pace is the first female Agent, ever to be created. Her general behavior is also markedly different from any of her predecessors. This may be because she was designed to be "more human", even going so far as to smile on occasion, and behaving almost benevolently toward human redpills under her authority. A hidden message from Agent Pace can be found on the official site, in the "Sentinel" fake newspaper page, by finding the hidden link associated with "the Machines"; a picture of her is also there. She seems to have the odd (for an Agent) habit of falling into using Italian words frequently when she is speaking. It is notable that "pace" is Latin for "with peace",. A common interpretation taken to mean that no offence is intended by the speaker.

Choice and Consequence

The crew of the hovercraft Novalis II had to try to save the life of their crewmate, Neurophyte. This scenario had alternate endings which played out differently on the separate game servers. However, with the later merger of the 9 servers into 3, (see Server List) plot continuity errors occurred. Walrus, an administrator for The Matrix Online, has stated that the storyline will be dropped instead of repairing the inconsistencies evident in the plot line. [4]

Double Cross

With the Cypherites revealed as masked redpills who wished to be plugged back into the Matrix as Cypher once did, they began a string of attacks led by Gemaskeerd and Emmascarado. In the end Emmascarado was killed by the Assassin, which released a "flame virus" attached to his body. Novalis II crewmember, Toorima is revealed as the Cypherite leader, Veil, but not before she is able to kill her crewmate, Vashuo.

Death of the Destroyer

Eventually, a weapon is created by redpill operatives that is able to kill or "delete" the bug-based Assassin, the weapon in question being a special form of Insecticide. Upon the realisation that his inevitable death was fast approaching, the Assassin split himself into multiple, weakened copies, which all spread out across the Mega City, in order to do as much damage as possible, in the hopes of destroying the Matrix before his imminent deletion. As battle raged across the city, the Redpills managed to destroy all but one copy of the Assassin, which was later chased down and destroyed by Niobe and an unnamed operative. In the aftermath, Niobe created her own splinter faction dedicated to the deletion of the Merovingian; whom it was alleged, had originally hired the Assassin and had brought him into the Matrix.

The Enigma of Cryptos

It was reported in the Mega City newspaper, The Sentinel, that soon, boxes would appear around most of the city as part of an "amazement" by a bluepill street magician named Cryptos. There was also a hidden message which had been planted by Zion in the same edition of the newspaper which read that Cryptos was the name of a Zion operative who had disappeared not long ago. Shortly afterward, the boxes, as predicted, started to appear around the Mega City. These boxes would open every few hours with Cryptos inside, who then gave a speech which sounded remarkably similar to Cypherite propaganda, though the Cypherite organisation or its ideals are never directly referenced. Operatives are sent on missions, and in turn, uncovering clues which would suggest Cryptos did have a connection to the Cypherite organisation.

Veil of Cryptos

Veil was broken out of the Zion prison in which she had been held and is officially marked as the Cypherite mission controller. It was also discovered that Cryptos is the Cypherites' overall leader. Having discovered this, The Merovingian made something of a truce with the Cypherites, but secretly worked against them when it suited his purposes. The Cypherites eventually discovered the Merovingian's duplicity and called for an end to their "truce". With Zion still focused with taking down the Merovingian, the General's men are given time and opportunity to create more powerful versions of the holy water, silver bullet, and wooden stake killcode items for killing exiles.

It is also around this time that the Kid (with his second in command and mission controller, Shimada) founded the organisation known as EPN, a then splinter cell of the main Zion organisation, with the ideals of being deeply loyal to Neo's vision of freeing humanity and being violently opposed to all forms of oppression, especially the Cypherites.

A Piece of Blue Sky

An Event which coincided with the 1st year Anniversary of the Matrix Online which took place from May 09 through May 16 2006.

Operatives of each organisation are directed to report any unusual occurrences to their commanding officer or organisation liaison immediately. With increased levels of activity within the Matrix and anticipation growing amongst players all over the World as to what may be in store for MxO's 1st year Anniversary, it is rumored that there are disruptions in the Code.

It is also revealed that within the EPN and Cypherite organisations (who are already seen as extremist groups) there are those willing to go to even further extremes to achieve their goals. With much going on among all organizations, Niobe and The General formulate a plan on how best to attack and kill the Merovingian.

With the appearance of the extremist Cypherites known as "Sleepwalkers" who would attack any and all redpills within the Matrix, the activity within the Matrix increases, many believing that newly sighted concert sites all over the Mega City may be linked with the Sleepwalkers agenda in some way.

On the final day of the event, the concert began, and many operatives' fears of the concert sites' connection to the "Sleepwalkers" were realised. A message blasts out from the speakers, threatening all redpills who could hear, telling them to prepare for reinsertion. Moments later, hoards of Sleepwalker members rush the concert sites, attacking the redpills gathered in the parks. With the attendees distracted, the huge concert lights shone an eerie blue light, which began to destabilise the code of the Matrix all around. At the same time, "Security Officers" of a redpill nature appeared to fight off those redpills who attempted to turn off the lights, and also to re-activate those lights which had been turned off, at every available opportunity. Even with the situation as dire and desperate as this, the redpills managed to defeat the Sleepwalkers and re-route the power of the lights back into the Sleepwalker forces, re-inserting their bodies but leaving the rest of the redpills unharmed.

With the enemies defeated, organizational leaders appeared to congratulate their operatives, and the partying could begin.

Grabbing the General's Stolen Items

With a firm alliance in place between Zion and the General, the General offered Zion two items which he had previously stolen from the Machines (Zion being unaware as to how he acquired them at the time) under the guise of "cheat codes." Anome, a Zion operative working under Niobe's command, grabbed one of the keys to the suitcases which held the "cheat codes" while it was in mid-air. The General having thrown it to Niobe, with the expectation of her catching it. In their "Critical Missions" (seeMissions and organisations),Zion operatives were tasked with recovering the key. Operatives of the Machines and the Merovingian were also working towards recovering the key to the briefcase; the Machines' reasoning being to be to prevent anyone using the "Cheat Codes"; the Merovingian's being to use them for is own purposes.

On the Vector instance, Zion managed to grab the package from a messenger, later handing it over to Niobe's possession. At the same time, Machine operatives commenced a "First Strike" operation against the General by capturing his heliport in Morrell - in the Downtown section of Mega City.

Saving Captain Niobe

Niobe tested out the chemical vials in the package while inside the Bishop Imports building located in the International district of Mega City, only to be betrayed by Anome. Every Zion operative that attended this particular meeting was killed in the resulting gunfight. Niobe was trapped in a special construct (An environment created from and within the Matrix but existing outside of its controls, rules and boundaries) created by the "Cheat Code" vial she dropped during the gunfight. With Ghost playing the role of negotiator, Zion was forced to create a temporary alliance with the Merovingian in order to locate Niobe. At the same time, the Machines continued to assess the effects of the chemicals ingested by Anome's operatives.

On the Recursion instance, the efforts given by players during the critical missions helped Ghost lead a successful rescue operation of Niobe. Meanwhile, the General abruptly exited the Matrix, hinting at a future return.

Anome's Unlimit

After Anome's betrayal of Niobe, he and his large group of followers, named by Anome himself as "Unlimit", began to alter the code in the cheat codes in order to increase their potency with the hope of becoming super-powerful beings within the Matrix. Hopefully with powers similar to those of the Assassin. At first, they began to terrorise the bluepill population, later opting to attempt to gain control over Mega City's vast commercial empire. As resistance against the "Unllimit"'s activities increased, Anome concluded that the only way to ensure his group's and his personal safety would be to wipe out the entire redpill population. However, an officer under his command betrayed him by spreading information about his childhood experiences with his mother, prompting the Agents to concoct a trap, by disguising one of their own as Anome's mother and distracting him so they could delete his RSI with a kill-code (a specially designed piece of coding able to erase an RSI from the Matrix permanently, as well as kill its "host" in the Real world).

It was discovered that a side-effect of ingesting the "Cheat Codes" was that the person who consumed it would no longer be able to jack-out or exit the Matrix. Anome having been killed by the trap, and the cheat codes secured, the rest of Anome's lieutenants were defeated and the Unlimit that didn't drink the cheat codes began to die out.

The Merovingian, however, succeeded in capturing one of the lieutenants, Beirn, by using Beirn's crush on Persephone, (the Merovingian's wife) as a means to encourage him to voluntarily enter into the ranks of the Merovingian, where he was subjected to numerous tests and eventually used to resurrect the Twins.

Morpheus' Return?

Soon after Morpheus' death, an operative reported having received a transmission from him. However, many denied the assertion, and it was soon forgotten.

After Unlimit's defeat, however, more and more transmissions began appearing around the Megacity, seemingly from Morpheus, and E Pluribus Neo were among the first who decided to investigate. Using modified Code Bombs knows as CPDs or Code Pulse Devices, they managed to acquire the origins of the transmissions. Once operatives arrived at these locations to investiaget further, they were stunned to see what appeared to be Morpheus himself (actually, it was a simulacrum taking on the appearance of Morpheus), appearing briefly to give warnings about the Machines true intent and Neo's true fate.

The General's Attack

As the aftermath of the Unlimit incident waned, Zion - Machine tensions began to resurface and after an extended hiatus, the General and his Commandos suddenly appeared, this time to kidnap Sati, Sati. With Sati being in his care, Seraph attempted to prevent her kidnap, only to be knocked from one of General's helicopters are great height, into the Aqueduct which runs primarily between Mega City's Richland and Westview districts.

Afterwards, the General's Commandos began attacking all three Organizations freely.

Meanwhile, the Agents assembled all the Cheat Codes they had been able to confiscate (see Storyline Rumours and Speculation) and disposed of them by dumping them into same Aqueduct which Seraph had fallen into, with the hope of allowing them to dispense harmlessly.

The Return of Seraph

Seraph made an unexpected return, his form altered greatly by the cheat code-polluted Aqueduct he had earlier feallen into, not limited to golden code dripping from his eyes . With his new, unique insight into and understanding of, much of the code of the Matrix, Seraph began targeting and apparently assaulting innocent redpills and bluepills at random. It was established that each victim suffered from a loss of memory, the length of time having been forgotten, varying between victims. He eventually performs a similar attack on Cryptos, after which Cryptos claims to have seen more clearly then ever, his true cause and purpose becoming apparent to him. This apparent joy is interruptd though when Cryptos begins to "malfunction" and shout out warnings of an "error".

It was discovered that the Machines had, since the Truce, been using an ability to over-write thoughts and minds (an ability they discovered was possible after Agent Smith's use) and place programs of their own writing in their place. They hoped that by exhibiting a degree of control over peoples' thoughts and actions, they could better control and thus, maintain the stability of, the Matrix.

The Machines' plan is nulled, however, with Seraph's permanent return when Zion performs scans on all of their redpill operatives for any indication that they have been "overwritten". It is discovered that a large percentage of Zion's operatives have been "overwritten" by the Machines.

The Cypherites, feeling betrayed by the Machines (and with their "leader" Cryptos still recuperating) turned to their Mission Controller, Veil for support. It is around this time that accusations were made of the Cypherites enjoying a new found love for violence, feelings which may have been stirred by Veil's new found authority in Cryptos' absence and the anger she felt at the betrayel.

Retaliation against the General

Seraph, using his new powers, discovered he can detect the General's new Elite Commandos, normally "cloaked" against normal scans within the Matrix, and began assisting Zion to find and rescue Sati.

The Machines found the General's base in The Real, code-named "Stalingrad", and launched an assault against it with their own army of Sentinels, only to encounter very strong resistance. To counter the delay, Agents began tracking down and eliminating the General's systems of communication within the Matrix and disrupted his movements. Frustrated, the General was pleasantly surprised by the Merovingian's offer of alliance, under the condition that he help manufacture a kill code for the Oracle.

The Fall of the General/The Oracle's Assassination

The Machines finally defeated the General's Sentinel guard in Stalingrad (Machine code-word for the General's forces' main point of entry into the Matrix), at the same time cutting off all of his modes of communication and transportation. With no steady source of reinforcements, the General was forced to deviate from his still continuing offensice actions.

Seraph aided Zion in its effort of tracking down and rescuing Sati. Once she was freed from the General's men, Seraph returned to the Oracle and protected her as she moved from her usual apartment in the Richland district of Mega City to a safer location, having had word that she may be a target for assassination.

The Merovingian completed the construction of the kill code intended for the Oracle, using Agent Pace as a practice target to ensure its lethal capabilities. Agent Pace was severely wounded in the attack, but repaired quickly and returned to active duty with a much colder and calculating personality, more similar to the standard stereotype of an Agent as had ever before been observed. The Merovingian, however, was quickly side-tracked by the General's position as he lost base after base, Commando after Commando at the hands of Zion and Machine opreratives. With the aid of theTrainman, who had earlier assisted the Merovingian with the transportation of the kill code, the Merovingian began shuttling the Commandos into constructs.

Finally, the General's only remaining base of operations is found and eliminated, with the General barely escaping. Surprisingly, he rejected being transported to the Merovingian's construct, stating that he had "unfinished business."

Meanwhile, the transmissions (hpreviously thought of as having been made by Morpheus) are discovered to be originating from somewhere inside the Matrix, rather than Morpheus' hovercraft in The Real as was originally suspected. With many high-ranking officials in Zion convinced the Morpheus signal was a fake, the signal became stronger.

On June 11, it was revealed that the General was behind the false Morpheus broadcasts by constructing a Morpheus Simulacrum. When confronted by Zion operatives, it was extremely hesitant to reply and spoke with a lack of direction and confidence. The General appeared to terminate what he deemed his failure, but the Morpheus Simulacrum fought back and defeated the General, the General furiously taking of and leaving the simulacrum to come with its existence; that as a copy of the original Morpheus.

With the General's temporary disappearance, the Merovingian again focused his efforts on assassinating the Oracle by planting a redpill mole within Zion's security detail, as well as recovering the Keymaker's chain from a prominent Exile known as the Landlord, at the Mahath Tower wreckage site in Lamar in the Downtown district of Mega City. Unfortunately for the Merovingian, the attempt to assassinate the Oracle had been leaked to Zion due to a communications error. In turn, the majority of Zion operatives focused on investigating the leak and eventually captured the mole, although they did not recover the kill code. The Merovingian then went to the General with a request for aid in the form of the General's "Elite Commandos".

The Effectuator handed out Elite Commando disguises among the Merovingian ranks as a means of confusing the Zion security detail between the real Commandos and those operatives simply wearng a disguise. Before the assassination was able to carried out, the Machines were able to make use of a special surveillance system which could identify whether those seen as an Elite Commando were wearing a disguise; rendering the disguises as useless.

A single Commando was dispatched to assassinate the Oracle and moved quickly to close in on the Oracle before she could detect his presence. Again, however, the Merovingian's plans were foiled by the presence of Michael "Kid" Popper. As the Commando fired the single shot which would herald the Oracle's permanent deletion, the Kid jumped into the path of the bullet, preventing it from hitting the Oracle;(As of yet, the Kid has not reported any adverse reactions to absorbing the kill code meant for the Oracle). Frustrated, the Merovingian saw it only fitting that he take control of both the General and his men, in exchange for their inability to carry out the assination on the Oracle by activating override routines secretly implanted in both, during the transfers.

The End of the Truce

With help from the Cypherites, the Machines discovered that Zion had been moving heavy pieces of machinery to a large cavern and so dispatched a Cypherite reconnaissance hovercraft in order to investigate further. It was discovered that the cave was filled with stationary EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse)devices, at the bottom of which, was a shaft which descended through another EMP field. Above the cavern lie impenetrable layers of the earth's natural strata. At the bottom of the shaft is the location of a new city built to house and protect those humans freed from the Matrixfor - New Zion.

It was later found that construction of New Zion had begun when Captain Niobe was held in Anome's construct, and that Zion had been constantly adding to its defenses since.

Upon the discovery of New Zion, the Architect informed Agent Gray that "No further awakenings are to be allowed.", effectively calling an end to the Truce between Zion and the Machines and renewing precious hosilities.

Zionite operatives who now venture outside of the Richland district of Mega City are now attacked by patrolling Agents. However, Agents continue to attack those players who have not gained proper acces for each area in each district via Access Cards and Access Nodes, regardless of affiliation.

The Intruder

The most current event to date is the Chapter 9 Intruder Arc, where an unknown entity that only goes by the name "Intruder" (takes the shape of a wireframe man with spontaneous code leaking from his frame) at this point has made many recent appearances in the Matrix. This "Intruder" at first may seem weak to normal attacks and even more vulnerable to viral attacks, the Intruder has been shown in a recent Vector-Hostile event the ability to spawn Decelerator spawns that take the shape of a large floating ball of code that constantly uses a debuff ability. The Intruder also can "take it up a notch" where he inflict 1-hit K.O.'s regardless of your level, therefore decimating redpill operatives. Programs are simply futile against the Intruder has he can "over-ride" the programs with an Accelerator or Decelerator program, allowing the program to only do as it wills.

The Intruder's intentions at this point are ultimately unknown as the large menace seems to have been accustomed to a rash attitude for a while now. Players speculate he is another being from The Real, revealed in Merovingian archive missions, that Machine sentinel patrols are becoming increasingly more active around Zero One.

Server list

During the transition of the game from Monolith to SOE (Sony Online Entertainment) in August of 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

External links

• Data Node One The game's official website with news, purchasing information, screenshots and official forums.
• Data Node One Forums The official MxO forums.
• Data Node One Links Page A list of recognised fansites.
• The Matrix Online at IMDb