Friday, 20 March 2009 13:01

Games Fusion talks to Lead Designer Toby Ragaini about Monolith's & Warner Bros. forth coming MMOG, The Matrix Online.

Q. Can you tell us a little bit about the game and what you are aiming to achieve with this title?

A. The Matrix Online (MxO) is a massively multi-player role playing game that takes place immediately following Matrix Revolutions. In the game, you are a newly awoken red pill who has just been rescued from the body pods.

One of the main goals of MxO is allow players an opportunity to participate in the ongoing saga of the Matrix. The creators of the movies, the Wachowski Brothers, have created a story that will unfold in periodic episodes. It is our intent to allow players a chance to interact in a changing world where they can help shape the outcome.

To this end, individual players must choose who they wish to support.

The humans of Zion have been granted the opportunity to free people in the pods, provided they are ready to leave. But if too many people leave the pods, the Machines risk a power crisis; something that they may be forced to prevent. Added to this tense situation is the Merovingian; an Exiled program who wishes to preserve the Matrix for his own selfish reasons and will attempt to exert control wherever possible.

Players being powerful operatives in the Matrix will be recruited by each of the main sides. Perhaps they choose to remain loyal to Zion and attempt to free the rest of humanity. The machines, however, can make a compelling case that humans have historically been very untrustworthy. And of course, the Merovingian will remind you that in the Matrix, you can live like a god among men.

Q. What is the main storyline of the game and at what degree will the storyline fit in with the Matrix movies?

A. Essentially, you can think of MxO as the fourth Matrix movie. Neo has apparently sacrificed himself in order to secure a truce between man and machine. But it�s a very delicate situation.

In many ways, the Matrix is similar to the Cold War. The all-out fighting has stopped, but none of the sides trust each other. Some may even occasionally attempt to test the bounds of the truce.

The theme of the story for the first year is Peace, and the things people do to wreck it.

Q. Can you tell us something about the physics of the game engine? What unique characteristics will it have and at what degree will the player be able to interact with the environment?

A. We had to solve a lot of challenging problems in order to create a dense, seamless modern city. In MxO, you can Hyper-Jump from rooftop to rooftop while traffic rushes underneath you. From the rooftop, you can enter a building, run down the stairs, look out a window at the city, and come out into an alley, all without encountering a single load-zone.

Q. There must be a lot of anticipation surrounding a game which is based on a popular movie franchise. How hard is it to deliver a game which manages to please a majority of its audience, particularly the Matrix fan base?

A. We identified what we thought were four key goals in meeting the expectations of Matrix fans. The first was creating a rich, urban environment. The second was capturing the trademark Matrix sense of fashion and style. Thirdly, we had to depict the smooth, choreographed wire-fu combat. And finally, we had to wrap all of this up in a story that was so compelling that people would want to stick around to find out what happens next.

Meeting these goals was challenging, but I believe that fans will be pleased with what they find.

Q. How have you adapted the in-game effects to closely depict those of the effects seen in the Matrix movies, specifically the bullet-time effects?

A. We worked directly with the film studio and their special effects house in order to insure that the Matrix visual and sound effects are as true to the movies as possible.

Bullet time was of course something that we simply had to accommodate. The problem was that we couldn�t slow down the whole game world, simply because one person was in bullet time.

The solution was to slightly speed up the character�s animations that were being played on the client, and then dramatically slow them down for bullet time. By speeding up and then slowing down, the individual player can experience bullet time, without other people having their game interrupted.

Q. There will be many combat moves available to players in the game. What animation technologies have you had to use to incorporate human-like movements into the game?

A. To depict the fluid, choreographed Wire-Fu combat the Matrix movies made famous, we had to develop a technology we call Interlock. Interlock is a system of tightly coupled animations that can depict individual hits for each punch, kick, and grab, all over normal modem internet connections.

Interlock allows us to depict combat that looks more like a fighting game than an MMORPG. When you grab your opponent, twist his arm, and throw him onto the concrete, you begin to appreciate the differences between Interlock and the more stilted �I hit, you hit� combat typical of other MMO�s.

Q. What element of cooperation will be in the game? Will players be able to help each other fight battles and how will this work?

A. Team play is a big part of any good MMO and The Matrix Online is no exception. Teams can be created and may include up to eight players. While you are part of a team, you all work together to complete missions and defeat opponents.

Depending on which abilities you character is loaded up with, certain strategies will become clear with an effective team. Martial Artists are great close-up fighter who can lock down opponents while Hackers call down viruses on the opposition, or upgrade programs to aid their team mates.

Spies can use stealth abilities to manoeuvre behind their opponents and deliver crippling sneak attacks, while Gunners stay alert for opportunities to pick off stragglers.

Q. The Matrix Online game is said to continue with the saga of the Matrix movie trilogy, but just how will you be achieving this? More specifically will the game cater for fans of the genre?

A. We�ve been working directly with the Wachowski brothers to continue the story where Matrix Revolutions leaves off. Players can participate in the story by completing missions that move the story arcs along. In addition, there will be regular cinematic updates that depict unfolding events in the Matrix.

But, like the Matrix movies, not everything is what it seems on the surface. NPC don�t always know the full story. Some may even lie to you. Its up to players to discover and root out what the real truth is, and even then, not everyone will agree. Just like there are multiple theories on what the Matrix really is, there will be an equal number of theories concerning the future and direction of the Matrix Online story.

Q. What engine is being used for Matrix Online? And what benefits will the technology deliver to the game?

A. The Lithtech engine is not being used. The technology behind The Matrix Online was developed internally at Monolith in order to meet the specific demands of an MMO game. There are five major components, each of which fulfill a specific need. A content tool pipeline allows artist and world designers to create content quickly and efficiently. A 3D graphics engine depicts the seamless world with dynamic loading. Networking software efficiently routes packets, while databases securely store character and account information. Finally, dynamically load balancing server clusters intelligently distribute server load across multiple processors.

Q. The Matrix Online level(s) will obviously have to be big enough to cater for thousands of online players. How will you be managing the environment to ensure that players do not get lost in the game and always have something new to encounter?

A. The various districts of the MegaCity are huge, but we�ve included a couple features to help keep players oriented. First, a compass depicts not only you facing, but also the direction and distance to your mission objective. Second, a map of the area allows you to easily navigate the neighbourhoods.

As you explore, you may find certain areas are off limits. If you enter them, a nearby pedestrian will morph into an agent and give chase. If you make it out, you�re fine, but don�t get caught. Just like the movie, when you see an Agent, you run!

If you can keep your distance from the Agents, you may find a device called an access node. This innocuous looking utility box is actually hackable. If you activate it, you can trick the agents into believing that you have legitimate access to that game space, and they�ll leave you alone in that area of the world.

As you find more access nodes, you increase the area of the game world you can safely explore, allowing to penetrate more deeply into the Matrix.

Q. Where do you see the future of MMOG�s heading?

A. I think there has been a trend to treat story in MMO�s as an unnecessary or unachievable feature. I�m hoping that as players become familiar with MxO, they�ll begin to appreciate that story and MMO�s do have a place together.

Thank you for taking the time to do this interview with Games Fusion. We wish you the best of success for the games release.