Ok, so, we have reached the conclusion of the first part of the story, and what is definitely clear is that all the pace and energy for which The Matrix used to be associated with has certainly remained!
Herein I shall see if I can answer some questions that have been bubbling around.
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That set-up was a bit harsh, wasn't it?
It was taxing but not THAT harsh. What it was was uneven- threats were far greater in some places than others. For the Philo path, it was simply a matter of getting people where all the action was, i.e. in the Extinct Exhibit room. For the Combat Path, it was about indetifying the Vam,ps as a threat, and moving people into places as appropriate.
The reason it all seemed so hard is... uh, because this bit totally failed. Slightly oddly, the Philo path placed only one player in the main room, and three in a room where almost nothing happened at all.
Combat Path seemed to assume the people in the cars were Mooks- strange, because there were very few of them and they were described in contrast to the crowds of people moving in, very much more clearly Mooks- but worse than that they got an awful case of target fixation. Everyone just moved in on the closest target, which left some of you basically tapping you heels in a two-on-one fight that did not need to be so in your favour, whilst others of you were left totally outnumbered in a hopeless fight. Combat Path especially as to do better than that! If you can't fight smart in Combat you're going to lose the whole deal!
The Vamps were easily beatable by any one of you, even those not set to fight hard targets (your Gunners, incidentally, have all gone lightly armed, which led to a surfeit of ammo. You may want to think about more efficient ways to apply yourtself for a little flexibility; Ares was in all sorts of trouble there). Now, true, the renegerating thing was to be a surprise, but even so the correct thing to do was to quickly move ONE person out of each the two-on-one situations and move them to where theyt were needed- at the Plaza, or in front of the Museum. Waiting until the fiughts were done was far too late. I tried to hint heavily at this being a requirement with Marduk running around desperately trying to co-ordinate; finally someone did call in but it was the wrong person- San had to sit tight and wait for others.
How to kill the Vamps?
1. Fire
2. A long enough drop would take them out for as long as you needed. Unfortunately, those at the Apartment exit never even got up high because they did not seek out their foe, getting ambushed instead, whilst Mors and Hawk bioth abandoned the high ground)
3. ENOUGH damage from a single blow whilst they were down would have done it. Not just dealing lots of little bits, but a single huge hit that would have performed the decapitation you wanted. No good with knuves, but worth a shot with Jade Emperor.
It was intended that at least half the Vamps would indeed be destroyed before the Agents showed, and the others could be kept down long enough to make exiting not a problem. Of course, it did not work out that way.
Some of you seemed really happy that you could bring two-on-one against your foe. In fact, I warned Stefan about this very early on. You seemed oblivious to the extreme plight of, say, Fire. If you think that the Combat Path is always going to be in such a luxurious situation, I think you made the wrong choice! Combats are challenging, this is the point.
Neither side made much use of the lead-in period before thr fight started, which was there specifically to let you move around in response to the situation. Philo path lost out there. Mind you,m their situation was made a lot worde by Heph attacking the Werewolf- in character, but tactically fatal in the situation. The Werewolf (one was always going to fight Dallas) was not going to fight characters until they went for the key; there were enough Mooks to worry about. Enough Mooks for four people, in fact, but even with Azrael dropping in, there were only two, and then only one more in the corridor outside, which was a great place to put people for quick movement anywhere.
This situation was definitely a full-on combat-a-thon, as I described beforehand, the most violent fight done yet. So yes, it was testing, but certain decisions made it much more so than intended.
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Ok, let's move on from that, and be a bit forward thinking.
Some general details about this Assignment
As written, it was only in the Museum. The split into the outside world also was precipitated by the large number of players. This also allowed Lana to not have to play through the same thing twice, which would not work well. She also refrained from giving advice like, for example, hiding a sniper on top of the mammoth, a trick pulled when this game was played off-line, for which she has our thanks.
The addition of the outside escape route also led to the addition of the Vamps; generally hard but basically throw-away enemies taken from the computer game, to give the Combat Path a puzzle to think about; foes they could easily outfight, if they made the effort, but could not kill. In the computer game Niobe and Ghost seem to psychically sense that stakes are the way to go. Odd. We'll give that the action game excuse; the assumption made in a game like this is not so easy. They are not exploding in sunlight, and you have no reason to think wood will work any more than garlic, and that's even if you clock they are Vampires at all, which would be more of a nickname than something you took seriously, lacking being clued-in by the Oracle. There may well be a time when you have all this info, but not yet.
The outside area also allowed for two more Agents to arrive, one for each escape route, to act as a timer for you. It also allowed for advanced warning of the arrival of the SWAT teams and the Doctor.
Originally I planned for the Shez to take the Museum and the Percy the outside, but I had forgotten the vibe of what was going on in the Museum before the fight started which as some of you clocked, might have some relevance. Not actually IMPORTANT relevance, more just background framing. It worked better this way because the Philo Path didn't have to concern themselves with destroying anyone (impossible anyway)- simply doing well enough to get out with the key. It was the Combat Path who had to really 'win'.
The setting in the Natural History Museum is more than just a neat place for a fight. It has various resonances, one of which is immediate- all the talk of extinction and ancient death refers to natural life cycles and changes. These natural changes are in contrast to the artificial world around you, and more directly contrast with the completely unnatural activity of your main enemis there. Vampires who, though they could die, broke all normal rules about how that should work. Werewolves that refused to be hurt at all. And then the Hunter, who died and came back to life again. Death in the Museum was portrayed as normal and natural; these Exiles are having none of it. What does that make them?
The idea that Vampires contain cannibalised code is based on the idea that Vampires in the Matrix cannot draw power from it, and instead have to take it from living patterns they find within, making them actually Vampires. This is entirely assumption but I thought it works well.
The Werewolves were in fact Cain and Abel, the guardians of the Keymaker in Reloaded, and yes, they were trading a key. It's not quite that simple but the reference is relevant. From that, you should be able to work out why their invulnerability is built into the system. Ariadne mentioned that there MUST be a counter-code; there is, it is silver, but there is no way for you to know that.
Ok, I shall post this lot now, then answer some other questions.
So... us against the Merovingian?
Nah.
The Mero may well figure in these games, and is a very important personality, especially with Exiles so his input into things is inevitable, but to put you directly against him is to make this more the film's plot than our own. A lot of the things there were nothing to do with the Merovingian so look more at them.
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Talking of which, how many factions were there?
See if you can work it out. It's not quite as straightforward as it seems. The situation was actually not very complex, but inevitably seems a lot more complex when you are standing in the middle of it, not seeing all from the view of God.
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Why trade the key for the box, does that not leave both useless?
This question answered just in case.
The box was secured by a yale lock. They key is an old iron affair, like might be used in an old church. The two are not related and have independant value.
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Why did the other Werewolf leave? If he is invulnerable, why fear the Agent?
Not fear as such, but once the Agents are on-scene, it's stopped being fun, which is what the Werewolf wanted. They don't want to make too much trouble in front of the Agents, lest the System start seeing them as more direct enemies; as it is, the System concentrates on you guys instead.
More to the point, he was there to do a job- swap the key for the box. Well, the key was gone, and he had the box, so he'd pretty much got what he wanted, so leaving when he could seemed sensible.
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He's not a very conceptual Hunter if he doesn't have silver bullets ready for the Werewolves, is he?
A point alluded to by Berserkler. It is entirely possible the Hunter could have been tooled up to kill the Werewolves. But The Hunter is a very direct, straight-to-the-point being. He was not there to kill, but to get the key. He killed if something was in his way. Shooting the key out of the Werewolf's hand worked just as well as killing it.
Killing them would actually have been far worse for The Hunter. As it is, as outlined above, the Mero will be happy with the outcome. He lost grunts but he doesn't care. He lost some Vamps, but he'll blame that on you guys. But losing one of his prized Werewolves would have been the equivalent of nuclear war. Why invite the extra hassle?
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Why did The Hunter free Heph?
Actually probably the easiest thing to work out; not that mysterious at all, if you look at it from his point of view. He was being practical about his objectives.
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What is in the Box?
That would be telling
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Fine, what does the key unlock?
Yeah, that one is REALLY going to bug you.
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You said this story is not a sequel to the last, so why are more of Melitus' goons running around?
That was raised as a possiblity, not a certainty, and as noted, Melitus was the type to want important stuff, which could put his grunts there without actually making him directly relevant to the story any more than the Mero is.
But I will re-iterate no, this is not a direct sequel and it is a different enemy from Melitus. I did say there might be the odd reference, though.
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Is The Hunter the new enemy?
No. He's important but he's more like the Xiao Emo; there to bother you guys in a combat sense. Main Enemy wise, you will be bouncing off something different, and it is a bit early for that.
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Is the Hunter intelligent? Could it understand us? It didn't seem to interact like the other bad guys
Obviously I don't want to give too much away, but I'd trust Ariadne about the intelligence, and Sirin can tell you that it has no mouth.
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Is it a Mummy?
Could be. See if it thematically fits.
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Isn't the Doctor a bit bloody dangerous? Even Neo would like that power! Why don't Agents just do that?
Looks so, doesn't it?
Agents would if they could so it must be more complex than that.
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Well, any other questions, ask away, and you might even get an answer.
I had assumed the vampires not dying in sunlight was more due to the fact that the meeting was supposed to be at 6pm and if we're going by being 3 months after the first movie, it would be sometime in December...and it's dark out by 6pm in December, heh.
And apparently I'd forgotten about the box itself because for some reason I'd thought it was simply a case the key was in.
And hiding a sniper on top of the mammoth was awesome and I was so tempted to suggest it here but didn't...and refused to give any info otherwise...I also was very tempted to from the start yell at the people inside for how they had everyone split up. Learn the hard way, guys 😛
This overall was a huge mess and went completely disastrous more than once and we really need to figure things out better in the future.
Yeah, you did, hehe.
About the Hunter freeing Heph - I'm thinking that not only did he want the key, but he also wanted to make sure the Werewolves didn't get it and that if he wasn't going to be able to manage one of those, he'd rather go for the other...and we'd be easier to kill than the Werewolves would be.
The Hunter is just weird all around and I think it is more personal with him for some reason. Like it wants the key simply for itself to use and no one else of course I maybe wrong but if it was hired to do the job with so many people there I would expect it to have had more back up placed with it.
Plus why would a hole bunch of Exiles want the key to begin with they wouldn't want it to get deeper into the Matrix because they're whole existence is keeping away from the Big Picture?