Sugar Shack 42: Molly B: A Force For Good For a Change
Even for an Exile, Molly B. seems odd. In a driving rain she stood alone in a park in the Moriah Projects (745,6,-259) surrounded by politely milling Crossbone Bumboos. In her brown-gold gi, heels, with carefully coiffed corncob-style hair and her complexion, she reminded me of Azyanna from Artificial Intelligence. In a warm, even voice, she explained that the Matrix is big enough for everyone to get along well. She claims to not work with the bristling ego that makes so many Exiles such a pain, and I have to say she is worlds removed from the kleptomaniacs, plutomaniacs, and just plain maniacs I have worked with so much. She’s much closer to Sister Margaret.
1. Saving Blue
An interesting first mission: a self-actualizing bluepill needs to be protected. Then I groaned when I realized it was an escort mish! As I reluctantly stepped into the blue’s apartment, she jumped up from her lonely Chinese takeout and Oprah rerun, and cried, “I’ve seen you before! I knew you were coming to save me! …. You are my savior!” I told her to take her time, that it was the last good meal she would ever have. Other than that I was encouraging, and got her safely to her destination, decommissioning a good number of Exiles along the way. Molly B. was pleased; I could see I had won her trust: “Thanks for taking care of that for me, Sugaree. You’re a keeper.” For sure!
2. The Prelude
“The Matrix is still an enigma to you. I can sense your inner turmoil, even if you deny it.” I am the last person to deny this, and appreciated someone who could sense how I felt. I sighed deeply as I read through the mission description. I am asked to protect someone, who has an important role to play in the future. This reminded me a little of Madame T.’s missions downtown.
For such a pacific mission, this one started out with a bang.
While I was still reading through the mission description, I came under attack! And as I jumped away to heal, I could see a malevolent little red dot following far, far below, waiting for another bite. This did little for my inner turmoil. The escort component of the mission goes well, as long as you take care to kill everything between you and the destination before leading the principal from the building.
Eventually I got her to the destination, and a woman looking a lot like Molly B. took her over for me. I felt puzzled as I left, wondering how in a world where everything begins with choice, one could see the future at all. Molly B.’s warm voice interrupted my reveries: “Your actions shall reap rewards you cannot yet know.” As I start doing my taxes this week, I’ll bear this in mind….
3. No Go Boom
Argon has some characteristically destructive plan which needs Molly B.’s intervention. This mission takes the form of confiscating four detonators disguised as cell phones, each secreted within a different box in one of Argon’s offices. This can be done without killing everyone there, but uncompromising slaughter does make things more convenient. When you are done at this single location, Moll B. sends praise your way: “Your services have saved innocent lives, Sugaree”. And scored some coin and xps along the way!
4. Data Points
“Silver is so obsessed with the perfection of his creations that he often cannot understand the long-range implications of what he is building” So we have to disrupt them.” Escort a scientist associate of Molly’s to plant false data. Getting her there safely takes some serious escorting skill. On the other hand, once you reach Silver’s research site, it turns out that there are no guards and no locks! Go figure! And then when you are done, the scientists elaborately yawns and says she will find her own way out and no further escort is necessary. She didn’t have to say that twice!
5. Grab the Boom
After absconding with Argon’s detonators, now we return to finish the job and steal his explosives! But we are not alone for this mission; the bluepill we escorted earlier has grown into a capable 50th level partner for us (What? Three hours to 50? Someone ccr this scheming sploiter!!)! Interestingly, the building she is in is surrounded not just by the area’s indigenous Crossbones, but by a pair of Furies as well!
She turns out to be a mixed blessing. Twice she pulled me into fight I wanted to avoid. But on the other hand, she did some great buffing for me as well. And the mobs didn’t dare even look at her! Once you have her, all you need to do is get some cardkeys, and then break into Argon’s storage center and kill all his guards. But without injuring the bystanders. Molly B has a team who will move in to do the rest, i.e., actually get the explosives. I left my protégé in the elevator while I did the killing; I did not want to risk her being injured, and I did not want to risk her witnessing me kill any bystanders who got in my way.
Overall, the fifth mission was the most interesting and ambitious of all. The returning bluepill, the varied locations, the back and forth to get the cardkeys, and the merit in thwarting Argon’s plan all made this a pleasure.
Conclusion: Some good writing, and an unusual character. Challenging missions. The physical simplicity of most will appeal to many. And best of all, it’s nice to be doing something good for a change.
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with past mission reviews, and other writings relevant to MxO.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Sugar Shack 43: Richland’s Finest
Sugar Shack 43: Richland’s Finest
Well, with another 14 Contacts whirled behind me, it’s time to wrap up yet another distract. Richland is where we all start life in the red, and many of its clubs and hangouts are seldom alone. Mara, Uriah, Sanguine, Parallaxis…who hasn’t spent many an hour there? And the crispy Blackwoods and the juicy 88s and the saucy Furies…what a place!
Not to its resident Exiles. In fact, in contrast with the rich psychological ecology of the Downtown area, many of the Exiles here are quite bland. Few, in fact, have any agenda outside immediate gratification. Some have great lairs (Thallia and Yttri). The personal relations among some of them (Molly and Argon, Ruth and Silver, Argon/Anti-M/Beryl) are interesting. The writing for some missions is quite good, like the Chessman’s. Nonetheless, the stories of the missions seem shorter and less sophisticated that the downtown ones; this may be due to the lower expected level of the people meant to do them. Probably the plan originally was for players to finish all the Richland missions before venturing to other regions, and the downtown missions would be the last ones to be done. If so, this is yet another case of the players rushing ahead of the game. In my case, the first region I completed was downtown.
So, what can be said about the Exiles of Richland? There are distinctive personalities, to be sure. They have their intense little social circles, and they mostly seem to be very into each other. But mostly they are into themselves, and one of the remarkable aspects of the Richland crowd is that there some committed agents for good among them. I doubt that any of the Downtown crowd could make that claim. So, who stands out?
Most Interesting: Silver. Mr. Meat. The distinctive style, blunt personality, strange lair, and clear agenda for his missions were finely done. The most abrasive but the most interesting of the Richland Exiles, and one of the few to venture to other districts.
Most Bewitching: Thallia. Great lair, weird outfit, great personality, and a devious mind as expressed in her missions. It’s hard not to like the way she thinks.
Most Frustrating: Digger. There is immense promise in the way he talks and in his loot-strewn lair. But his missions were very simple, and he said very little about the previous incarnations of the Matrix. I was immensely unsatisfied when I was done with him.
Most Benevolent: Sister Margaret. Interesting force for good, and surprisingly this imperative gave great variety to her missions. I mean, after a while, you get tired of bursting into an apartment and killing everyone in sight. Well, I do, anyway.
Most Cute: Beryl. Lush, narcissistic personality. You could not help but like her!
Weakest Characters: It’s a tough race to the bottom here: Yttri, Raini, Anti-M, Argon. Molly and Ruth seem interchangeable; I can barely remember how they differ from each other! The Bag Lady similarly seems totally dispensable.
Most So-So: Mercury and the Chessman are kind of in the middle. Interesting personalities, some good thought and writing, yet bland on their missions.
Most Missed Opportunities: There are a lot! Such as:
- Exiles could speak more about their surroundings.
- They could have talked about how they got to be where they are, which mystifies me, given their deficits in the charisma and leadership departments.
- Why The Bag Lady works so hard for the Collector.
- And who is The Collector, anyway?
- Why some of them have clubs and some lurk in apartments they never leave.
- Why Silver chose such a total dump for his datacenter.
- Mercury has a total corporate look for his datacenter and seems located nearby the power grid to boot. Something with this and the MegaCity Department of Energy is crying out to be done.
- What all that other stuff is that belongs to the Digger, and what it represents.
- The Chessman’s pieces never actually seem to move, despite Tyndall’s writing about them.
- What’s the deal with Zia and Lemone having no Exile Contact? Couldn’t there at least have been some Contacts-in-Training?
- Everyone seems to have it in for Silver, yet he seems unaware of this. Is he really so oblivious? Or should he have more payback missions?
I have a feeling that more material was written for their backstories, but logistics prevented the devs from incorporating it all. If only there were some way to get access to more of this.
So, the Richland Exile missions are worth doing for the variety alone. Some of the Exiles here have exceptional personalities and writing, and few have inventive missions. Some left me hungry, but all gave me something to think about.
Well, with another 14 Contacts whirled behind me, it’s time to wrap up yet another distract. Richland is where we all start life in the red, and many of its clubs and hangouts are seldom alone. Mara, Uriah, Sanguine, Parallaxis…who hasn’t spent many an hour there? And the crispy Blackwoods and the juicy 88s and the saucy Furies…what a place!
Not to its resident Exiles. In fact, in contrast with the rich psychological ecology of the Downtown area, many of the Exiles here are quite bland. Few, in fact, have any agenda outside immediate gratification. Some have great lairs (Thallia and Yttri). The personal relations among some of them (Molly and Argon, Ruth and Silver, Argon/Anti-M/Beryl) are interesting. The writing for some missions is quite good, like the Chessman’s. Nonetheless, the stories of the missions seem shorter and less sophisticated that the downtown ones; this may be due to the lower expected level of the people meant to do them. Probably the plan originally was for players to finish all the Richland missions before venturing to other regions, and the downtown missions would be the last ones to be done. If so, this is yet another case of the players rushing ahead of the game. In my case, the first region I completed was downtown.
So, what can be said about the Exiles of Richland? There are distinctive personalities, to be sure. They have their intense little social circles, and they mostly seem to be very into each other. But mostly they are into themselves, and one of the remarkable aspects of the Richland crowd is that there some committed agents for good among them. I doubt that any of the Downtown crowd could make that claim. So, who stands out?
Most Interesting: Silver. Mr. Meat. The distinctive style, blunt personality, strange lair, and clear agenda for his missions were finely done. The most abrasive but the most interesting of the Richland Exiles, and one of the few to venture to other districts.
Most Bewitching: Thallia. Great lair, weird outfit, great personality, and a devious mind as expressed in her missions. It’s hard not to like the way she thinks.
Most Frustrating: Digger. There is immense promise in the way he talks and in his loot-strewn lair. But his missions were very simple, and he said very little about the previous incarnations of the Matrix. I was immensely unsatisfied when I was done with him.
Most Benevolent: Sister Margaret. Interesting force for good, and surprisingly this imperative gave great variety to her missions. I mean, after a while, you get tired of bursting into an apartment and killing everyone in sight. Well, I do, anyway.
Most Cute: Beryl. Lush, narcissistic personality. You could not help but like her!
Weakest Characters: It’s a tough race to the bottom here: Yttri, Raini, Anti-M, Argon. Molly and Ruth seem interchangeable; I can barely remember how they differ from each other! The Bag Lady similarly seems totally dispensable.
Most So-So: Mercury and the Chessman are kind of in the middle. Interesting personalities, some good thought and writing, yet bland on their missions.
Most Missed Opportunities: There are a lot! Such as:
- Exiles could speak more about their surroundings.
- They could have talked about how they got to be where they are, which mystifies me, given their deficits in the charisma and leadership departments.
- Why The Bag Lady works so hard for the Collector.
- And who is The Collector, anyway?
- Why some of them have clubs and some lurk in apartments they never leave.
- Why Silver chose such a total dump for his datacenter.
- Mercury has a total corporate look for his datacenter and seems located nearby the power grid to boot. Something with this and the MegaCity Department of Energy is crying out to be done.
- What all that other stuff is that belongs to the Digger, and what it represents.
- The Chessman’s pieces never actually seem to move, despite Tyndall’s writing about them.
- What’s the deal with Zia and Lemone having no Exile Contact? Couldn’t there at least have been some Contacts-in-Training?
- Everyone seems to have it in for Silver, yet he seems unaware of this. Is he really so oblivious? Or should he have more payback missions?
I have a feeling that more material was written for their backstories, but logistics prevented the devs from incorporating it all. If only there were some way to get access to more of this.
So, the Richland Exile missions are worth doing for the variety alone. Some of the Exiles here have exceptional personalities and writing, and few have inventive missions. Some left me hungry, but all gave me something to think about.
Monday, February 13, 2006
Sugar Shack 41: Silver: Mazy Meatless Menace
Sugar Shack 41: Silver: Mazy Meatless Menace
Naturally, Silver’s appearance matches his name: bright grey hair, a steel-grey shirt under a dark jacket. He has some sort of Borg eyepiece for his right eye. We have seen him before downtown for some of the Pandora’s Box mishes; we all know that he is quite seriously ambitious.
However, you could never tell it from his lair. To meet Silver (1006, -16, -520), you have to navigate your way through one of the labyrinthine dumps of Camon Heights, turning every few steps, sweeping spider webs, stepping over pizza boxes and beer bottles. Look for stained stairs going down, down, down. Eventually you find a sparkly datacenter where he stands right in the center, master of all he surveys.
All Silver’s missions relate to his research. Studying field fluctuations, rare code frags, other people’s inventions, etc. He’s like an evil, aggressive version of Mercury. He has the restless mind of a Benjamin Franklin, but without the personal charm. In fact, Silver never regards you with anything more than relaxed contempt. Suck it up; that’s the price we pay for xps and info: we don’t have to like our clients; we just have to collect from them.
1. Meet the Meat
Like most first mishes, this one is simple, if not exactly easy. Silver is “studying the field density fluctuation of the Matrix and how it is affected by ‘free roaming redpills’ like you”. To measure this, he wants you to pass through an area and kill everything there. Works for me! As an afterthought, he genially sneers, “Even you ought to be able to handle that.” I guess he has been talking to the Weaver.
After our powerful team laid waste to every single Exile there, Silver nodded curtly, ”Passable performance, meat. I suppose I can use you again.” “Curb your enthusiasm,” I said.
2. Software Run
This second mission is actually one of his easiest. You have to run in, insert a virus, and run for your life. “It’s very easy so you should be able to do it,” Silver reassured me, adding, “Oh, and don’t get killed by the guys that run the place.”
As instructed, I ran in, inserted the virus in the computer in the guards ready room (the one right next to the elevator), leaped past the guards over the counter, ran for the elevator, and died one foot from it, five hot slugs in my back. But we got credit for a success, so what’s not to like?
3. For Tat
In this most fascinating mission, Silver needs help in a deal with the cool, bewitching Hypatia from downtown. She wants someone killed, and thought of Silver, who thought of us. In exchange, she’ll help him with some research on some unusual code frags which have appeared recently. The hit is straightforward. The most interesting thing was meeting Hypatia. She complimented us on work well done, and invited us to look her up in Chelsea if we were looking for work.
Silver was characteristic: “At least you didn’t drool on Hypatia’s feet”. I think he is falling in love with me.
4. Mercury Sabotage
Silver hates Mercury as much as Mercury hates him. He thinks that the “lesser inventor” has been scheming to steal his research, and wants to discourage this interest. A nice virus, nicely inserted, does the trick. And for this mish, we just had to run in, pop in a disk, and run for our lives. Our powerful band was able to do this.
5. Just a Peek
But Silver is not done with Mercury yet. Now he tasks us with stealing one of his prototypes. Not that he needs it, mind you, he is simply “curious”. We found the location, we broke in, we killed all the guards, we got the prototype, and we dropped it off with a huffy, impatient aide of Silver’s. While we were running around, Silver barraged us with reflections. About how the Truce is a bad thing. About how scummy humans are. About how unclean he feels to be working with us. I can’t tell you how encouraged I felt, and how much it made me want to please him.
And when it was all over? Silver looked up from approving our timesheets, sighed, and barked: “You know, I’m sick of working with meat; it is more trouble than it is worth. Why don’t you go bother someone else?”
And that was it! He turned away and went to optimize a database or something. Love us and leave us, why don’t you? At least his check cleared.
So Silver’s missions have interesting connections with other Exiles. To me, this is always a good thing. Besides this, there are some noteworthy story components. And the fights were okay. Best of all, there were no escort missions!
These missions were unusually easy. Not because I was so strong, but because I was working with a very strong team. Special thanks go to S3per from Vidar’s Soldiers, and to my brothers and sisters from The Collective: BrightAngel, Cammara, Blackfir3, and Freez, who just hit 50 recently. Way to go!
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with past mission reviews, and other writings relevant to MxO.
Naturally, Silver’s appearance matches his name: bright grey hair, a steel-grey shirt under a dark jacket. He has some sort of Borg eyepiece for his right eye. We have seen him before downtown for some of the Pandora’s Box mishes; we all know that he is quite seriously ambitious.
However, you could never tell it from his lair. To meet Silver (1006, -16, -520), you have to navigate your way through one of the labyrinthine dumps of Camon Heights, turning every few steps, sweeping spider webs, stepping over pizza boxes and beer bottles. Look for stained stairs going down, down, down. Eventually you find a sparkly datacenter where he stands right in the center, master of all he surveys.
All Silver’s missions relate to his research. Studying field fluctuations, rare code frags, other people’s inventions, etc. He’s like an evil, aggressive version of Mercury. He has the restless mind of a Benjamin Franklin, but without the personal charm. In fact, Silver never regards you with anything more than relaxed contempt. Suck it up; that’s the price we pay for xps and info: we don’t have to like our clients; we just have to collect from them.
1. Meet the Meat
Like most first mishes, this one is simple, if not exactly easy. Silver is “studying the field density fluctuation of the Matrix and how it is affected by ‘free roaming redpills’ like you”. To measure this, he wants you to pass through an area and kill everything there. Works for me! As an afterthought, he genially sneers, “Even you ought to be able to handle that.” I guess he has been talking to the Weaver.
After our powerful team laid waste to every single Exile there, Silver nodded curtly, ”Passable performance, meat. I suppose I can use you again.” “Curb your enthusiasm,” I said.
2. Software Run
This second mission is actually one of his easiest. You have to run in, insert a virus, and run for your life. “It’s very easy so you should be able to do it,” Silver reassured me, adding, “Oh, and don’t get killed by the guys that run the place.”
As instructed, I ran in, inserted the virus in the computer in the guards ready room (the one right next to the elevator), leaped past the guards over the counter, ran for the elevator, and died one foot from it, five hot slugs in my back. But we got credit for a success, so what’s not to like?
3. For Tat
In this most fascinating mission, Silver needs help in a deal with the cool, bewitching Hypatia from downtown. She wants someone killed, and thought of Silver, who thought of us. In exchange, she’ll help him with some research on some unusual code frags which have appeared recently. The hit is straightforward. The most interesting thing was meeting Hypatia. She complimented us on work well done, and invited us to look her up in Chelsea if we were looking for work.
Silver was characteristic: “At least you didn’t drool on Hypatia’s feet”. I think he is falling in love with me.
4. Mercury Sabotage
Silver hates Mercury as much as Mercury hates him. He thinks that the “lesser inventor” has been scheming to steal his research, and wants to discourage this interest. A nice virus, nicely inserted, does the trick. And for this mish, we just had to run in, pop in a disk, and run for our lives. Our powerful band was able to do this.
5. Just a Peek
But Silver is not done with Mercury yet. Now he tasks us with stealing one of his prototypes. Not that he needs it, mind you, he is simply “curious”. We found the location, we broke in, we killed all the guards, we got the prototype, and we dropped it off with a huffy, impatient aide of Silver’s. While we were running around, Silver barraged us with reflections. About how the Truce is a bad thing. About how scummy humans are. About how unclean he feels to be working with us. I can’t tell you how encouraged I felt, and how much it made me want to please him.
And when it was all over? Silver looked up from approving our timesheets, sighed, and barked: “You know, I’m sick of working with meat; it is more trouble than it is worth. Why don’t you go bother someone else?”
And that was it! He turned away and went to optimize a database or something. Love us and leave us, why don’t you? At least his check cleared.
So Silver’s missions have interesting connections with other Exiles. To me, this is always a good thing. Besides this, there are some noteworthy story components. And the fights were okay. Best of all, there were no escort missions!
These missions were unusually easy. Not because I was so strong, but because I was working with a very strong team. Special thanks go to S3per from Vidar’s Soldiers, and to my brothers and sisters from The Collective: BrightAngel, Cammara, Blackfir3, and Freez, who just hit 50 recently. Way to go!
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with past mission reviews, and other writings relevant to MxO.
Sugar Shack 40: Ruth: Not a Total Jerk
Sugar Shack 40: Ruth: Not a Total Jerk
Right there in the middle of the Projects (1007, 04, -1411), Ruth loiters. It’s what she wants, she says. She eschews the “high and mighty crap” that other Exiles like so much. You know, the ones like Silver and the Jeweller, not to mention the Merovingian She prefers to be “down here in the think of the action with the bluepills”. Basically, she likes slumming 365 days a year. You see it in her appearance too, the clinging dark blouse and the baggy dark pants; the shock locks going every which way. Everything about her outfit seems like a casual afterthought. Far from dressing for success, Ruth affects a tough-guy, street-smart image.
To join the Grrls’ Club, you have to “prove yourself to me by rescuing a bluepills from an Exile gang’s threats”.
1. Rescue Blue
A bluepill is being harassed by five bullies, for no obvious reason. They seemed to have camped out in his apartment, perhaps intending it as a base for operations. So I killed two, sat down for some milk and chow mein (bad combination!), and the slew the rest. The bluepill was overjoyed; Ruth less so: “That wasn’t bad, Sugaree. You might have some good moves.”
2. The Viper’s Nest
Strike against Thallia’s network. She is a social "viper" who needs to be “taken down a peg”; she tears down other Exiles to make herself look better to the Merovingian, so Ruth says. And I have to say, this is quite consistent with that I saw of her during her missions. Ruth’s idea is to put a small virus in her network that will throw her social calendar into disarray. This will have her showing up at all the wrong events; the worst kind of hell for her. And the mish is simple enough: run in, insert disk, and run out. “You’re a pretty competent one, Sugaree.” The apparent squalor of Thallia’s office surprised me, especially considering how luxurious her lair is! Perhaps Ruth is not the only one that likes to slum.
3. Gadget Grab
Silver’s been up to some mechanical mischief, and now Ruth wants to know about it. This mission was surprisingly difficult. Four very tough Machine staff awaited me, and my membership card for The Collective did not carry much weight with them. Eventually I killed enough to get a key, and ran past the others to reach my goal. “Sharp moves, Sugaree”, judged Ruth.
4. Poison the Well
Silver has been up to some serious trouble-making, even for an Exile. He has come up with “some sort of prototype decompiler that works on bluepills”. It would permit Silver to take apart bluepills for their raw code. Yes, I agreed, this would not be a good thing. Ruth bids me insert a virus into his network (as usual). But this is not the usual, garden-variety, format-the-hard-drive virus. That would precipitate tape restorations, after all. This virus simply adjusts the data flow imperceptibly so that things do not work correctly. Nice thinking, Ruth! She agrees: “You’ve saved some innocent lives today, Sugaree.” More than “some”, I should think.
5. Both Ends Against the Middle
The last mission was a half-way measure to delay Silver. The next step is to distract him. This is done by exposing his research to Tick Tock, a wily intelligence-oriented Exile from downtown (we did his missions a while back). If they start fighting, this will slow them both down. However, complications arise. Your contact for Tick Tock has been killed, and someone else impersonates him and tries to brewko you. Eventually you put the ersatz ally down, and upload the file and folder, but the identity of the third party is never clear. Who tried to cut in? How did they find out? What was their interest? All is not clear, though I would put my money on Hypatia, who has an unparalleled thirst for knowledge of anything and everything.
Ruth’s missions can all be done in an hour, so they’re perfect for an evening of action that leaves time for hanging out and socializing. When you are working on them you have the feeling that you are making the world a better place for pills of both colors, which is very gratifying. And there are interesting connections between Ruth and other exiles, which is always satisfying. You don’t have the feeling that Ruth exist in dumpy vacuum, as you do with some others, such as the Auditor. Ruth does not have the rich personality that some other Exiles do, but she does have a vision, her missions are satisfying and quite varied.
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with past mission reviews, and other writings relevant to MxO.
Right there in the middle of the Projects (1007, 04, -1411), Ruth loiters. It’s what she wants, she says. She eschews the “high and mighty crap” that other Exiles like so much. You know, the ones like Silver and the Jeweller, not to mention the Merovingian She prefers to be “down here in the think of the action with the bluepills”. Basically, she likes slumming 365 days a year. You see it in her appearance too, the clinging dark blouse and the baggy dark pants; the shock locks going every which way. Everything about her outfit seems like a casual afterthought. Far from dressing for success, Ruth affects a tough-guy, street-smart image.
To join the Grrls’ Club, you have to “prove yourself to me by rescuing a bluepills from an Exile gang’s threats”.
1. Rescue Blue
A bluepill is being harassed by five bullies, for no obvious reason. They seemed to have camped out in his apartment, perhaps intending it as a base for operations. So I killed two, sat down for some milk and chow mein (bad combination!), and the slew the rest. The bluepill was overjoyed; Ruth less so: “That wasn’t bad, Sugaree. You might have some good moves.”
2. The Viper’s Nest
Strike against Thallia’s network. She is a social "viper" who needs to be “taken down a peg”; she tears down other Exiles to make herself look better to the Merovingian, so Ruth says. And I have to say, this is quite consistent with that I saw of her during her missions. Ruth’s idea is to put a small virus in her network that will throw her social calendar into disarray. This will have her showing up at all the wrong events; the worst kind of hell for her. And the mish is simple enough: run in, insert disk, and run out. “You’re a pretty competent one, Sugaree.” The apparent squalor of Thallia’s office surprised me, especially considering how luxurious her lair is! Perhaps Ruth is not the only one that likes to slum.
3. Gadget Grab
Silver’s been up to some mechanical mischief, and now Ruth wants to know about it. This mission was surprisingly difficult. Four very tough Machine staff awaited me, and my membership card for The Collective did not carry much weight with them. Eventually I killed enough to get a key, and ran past the others to reach my goal. “Sharp moves, Sugaree”, judged Ruth.
4. Poison the Well
Silver has been up to some serious trouble-making, even for an Exile. He has come up with “some sort of prototype decompiler that works on bluepills”. It would permit Silver to take apart bluepills for their raw code. Yes, I agreed, this would not be a good thing. Ruth bids me insert a virus into his network (as usual). But this is not the usual, garden-variety, format-the-hard-drive virus. That would precipitate tape restorations, after all. This virus simply adjusts the data flow imperceptibly so that things do not work correctly. Nice thinking, Ruth! She agrees: “You’ve saved some innocent lives today, Sugaree.” More than “some”, I should think.
5. Both Ends Against the Middle
The last mission was a half-way measure to delay Silver. The next step is to distract him. This is done by exposing his research to Tick Tock, a wily intelligence-oriented Exile from downtown (we did his missions a while back). If they start fighting, this will slow them both down. However, complications arise. Your contact for Tick Tock has been killed, and someone else impersonates him and tries to brewko you. Eventually you put the ersatz ally down, and upload the file and folder, but the identity of the third party is never clear. Who tried to cut in? How did they find out? What was their interest? All is not clear, though I would put my money on Hypatia, who has an unparalleled thirst for knowledge of anything and everything.
Ruth’s missions can all be done in an hour, so they’re perfect for an evening of action that leaves time for hanging out and socializing. When you are working on them you have the feeling that you are making the world a better place for pills of both colors, which is very gratifying. And there are interesting connections between Ruth and other exiles, which is always satisfying. You don’t have the feeling that Ruth exist in dumpy vacuum, as you do with some others, such as the Auditor. Ruth does not have the rich personality that some other Exiles do, but she does have a vision, her missions are satisfying and quite varied.
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with past mission reviews, and other writings relevant to MxO.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Sugar Shack 39: What Makes a Clan Great?
MxO is full of things happening. Player events. Wars at Mara. QA mayhem. Clan mergers. The game changes and players change. Some come, and some go. People gin up controversy about trivia and players leave in disgust. Who wants be assaulted every day by the latest charges of exploiting and trashtalk? We need to have clear strategic goals for ourselves if we are not to be distracted by provocations such as this. In the past my clan, The Collective, has let itself be distracted by twits and trivia, to our chagrin. Here are some suggestions we’ve developed to help keep our eyes on the goal.
We need to remember what makes a clan great in this game. We need to look at these and ask ourselves how we are striving for excellence. Responding to baiting from perpetual foes (and I know I have been on rare occasions guilty of indulgence in these areas) will not earn leadership. Other things will. I can think of eight, and talk a little bit about them below. Clan greatness comes from these factors, and yes, I will include PvP. Naturally, this is not to say that every clan needs every one of these to be great. It’s just that if a clan has no more than one or two of these, its days may be numbered.
1. Longevity. We must be around to be acknowledged. We must last and have steady inflow of new blood to replace those who are repulsed by Brewko or burn out or are overcome by life. This seems obvious, but some clans I considered great at one time have fallen by the wayside. A clan must attract new blood by being present ingame and by presenting itself well in the forums and other venues I explore below. Hint: endless trashtalk is a sign of Tourette’s Syndrome, not greatness.
2. PvP. PvP is not necessary to being a great clan, as The Sirens and The Devil’s Advocates have demonstrated. It can, in fact, contribute to being a scummy clan, as RIP and dolts the world over have shown. However, PvP, to contribute to greatness, must show a clan at its best. Otherwise it’s just a bunch of banzai kamikaze wannabees (i.e., zergs) which does not reflect well on a clan. It seems like many of us have made progress in this respect. But we all need more practice, planning, and discipline. And trashtalking your adversaries to bait them into hating you to fight you…enjoy it while you can, ‘cuz when you start middle school, it stops being cool.
3. Diversity. Some clans attract nothing but PvPers and people who want to be feared and hated. I say, let them have the violent and the insecure! A great clan satisfies many types of people. If people as different as Nanohaxial and Seraya have been satisfied in TC, then we have truly been successful because we have a broad base of talents. If we have different types of people, we will attract different types of people, and earn the respect of different types of people. If we are nothing but a PvP clan, we are weaker than we need be. If we are nothing but a role-play clan, we are weaker than we need be.
4. Community Events. Also, Story Events. When a clan organizes community events, as the Sirens and the Kings of Never and Fallen Horizon have done so well, and when others even just participate in them, we show we care about the community and reaching out to others. Others appreciate this. This is one way The Sirens have been so successful, even though they hardly ever PvP, and don’t even obsess very much about levels. Yet they are a great clan. The more community events a clan attends and sponsors, the better off it is. As someone once said, the only thing worse than being seen and talked about is not being seen and talked about.
5. Classiness of Members and Their Posts. Compare posts by various people on the MxO forums. Who’s articulate? Who’s worth reading? People judge clans by their words. What do ours on the forums say about us? Silence is not an option, or someone else’s blather will be all people see. Few people from jerk clans post in the forums. Even fewer post intelligently. My own clan is blessed with some great posters, like Lucen, Sattakan, Garutachi, Melt, and Calliente. Other clans have great posters, like Symmetric, Alicethepattern and Ic3b3rg. Just really impressive. In posts I work to craft a distinct style of speech (except when I’m mad) because it contrasts so much with 3l33tspeak. It helps us to stand out and be different. Stupidfly did this too, of course, but in the opposite direction, “keeping it gangsta”. What this lacked in classiness is compensated for in the next item on the list.
6. Name Recognition. There is no such thing as bad publicity. Well, maybe that’s not completely true, but you can see what I mean.
7. Recognition from the Devs. How many clans have achieved this? Fallen Horizons certainly has! Midnight’s name is hard-wired into the game! Upstream’s alter ego, Downstream, appears in numerous missions. Few others have achieved this. This is one of the most sublime forms of greatness: recognition and affirmation by the gods. I’m not sure how to achieve this, and hope that Midnight can enlighten us.
8. Community Service. Contributing back to the community takes many forms. Think of all the radio stations rocking away out there. The great writeups many people have done on CR 2,0, attributes, and abilities. My neighborhood exile mission reviews. Weaselgrrl’s countless, creative, witty posts. DrippingCheese’s witty posts and sigs. Kings of Never’s great events. These are all examples of giving back. Ages ago, helping new players was a big thing; when we have more new players I hope this returns as well.
Each of us has skills and energy, as do our crews. If we choose to, we can focus them in areas which achieve and demonstrate greatness. If we focus on these areas, others will froth and foam, but in impotent insignificance. If we reduce ourselves and become a one-strength clan like they are, we will lose all pretence to greatness.
Most important for every leader and captain here, we must CHOOSE which strengths to enhance for our clan. We MUST NOT choose by reaction and in effect become what someone else chooses for us. In the case of The Collective, some adversary clans seek to reduce us to PvP rag dolls. But there is much more to us and to our clan than this. We are absolutely stupid if we only become what someone else wants us to be. Everything begins with choice, and leaders must choose the types and routes to greatness which best suit their clans.
I held off for months on making this available outside the clan, since thinking along these lines can give immense strategic advantage over others. But at this point I think we are all better served by numerous strong, great clans, and I share this in that spirit.
We need to remember what makes a clan great in this game. We need to look at these and ask ourselves how we are striving for excellence. Responding to baiting from perpetual foes (and I know I have been on rare occasions guilty of indulgence in these areas) will not earn leadership. Other things will. I can think of eight, and talk a little bit about them below. Clan greatness comes from these factors, and yes, I will include PvP. Naturally, this is not to say that every clan needs every one of these to be great. It’s just that if a clan has no more than one or two of these, its days may be numbered.
1. Longevity. We must be around to be acknowledged. We must last and have steady inflow of new blood to replace those who are repulsed by Brewko or burn out or are overcome by life. This seems obvious, but some clans I considered great at one time have fallen by the wayside. A clan must attract new blood by being present ingame and by presenting itself well in the forums and other venues I explore below. Hint: endless trashtalk is a sign of Tourette’s Syndrome, not greatness.
2. PvP. PvP is not necessary to being a great clan, as The Sirens and The Devil’s Advocates have demonstrated. It can, in fact, contribute to being a scummy clan, as RIP and dolts the world over have shown. However, PvP, to contribute to greatness, must show a clan at its best. Otherwise it’s just a bunch of banzai kamikaze wannabees (i.e., zergs) which does not reflect well on a clan. It seems like many of us have made progress in this respect. But we all need more practice, planning, and discipline. And trashtalking your adversaries to bait them into hating you to fight you…enjoy it while you can, ‘cuz when you start middle school, it stops being cool.
3. Diversity. Some clans attract nothing but PvPers and people who want to be feared and hated. I say, let them have the violent and the insecure! A great clan satisfies many types of people. If people as different as Nanohaxial and Seraya have been satisfied in TC, then we have truly been successful because we have a broad base of talents. If we have different types of people, we will attract different types of people, and earn the respect of different types of people. If we are nothing but a PvP clan, we are weaker than we need be. If we are nothing but a role-play clan, we are weaker than we need be.
4. Community Events. Also, Story Events. When a clan organizes community events, as the Sirens and the Kings of Never and Fallen Horizon have done so well, and when others even just participate in them, we show we care about the community and reaching out to others. Others appreciate this. This is one way The Sirens have been so successful, even though they hardly ever PvP, and don’t even obsess very much about levels. Yet they are a great clan. The more community events a clan attends and sponsors, the better off it is. As someone once said, the only thing worse than being seen and talked about is not being seen and talked about.
5. Classiness of Members and Their Posts. Compare posts by various people on the MxO forums. Who’s articulate? Who’s worth reading? People judge clans by their words. What do ours on the forums say about us? Silence is not an option, or someone else’s blather will be all people see. Few people from jerk clans post in the forums. Even fewer post intelligently. My own clan is blessed with some great posters, like Lucen, Sattakan, Garutachi, Melt, and Calliente. Other clans have great posters, like Symmetric, Alicethepattern and Ic3b3rg. Just really impressive. In posts I work to craft a distinct style of speech (except when I’m mad) because it contrasts so much with 3l33tspeak. It helps us to stand out and be different. Stupidfly did this too, of course, but in the opposite direction, “keeping it gangsta”. What this lacked in classiness is compensated for in the next item on the list.
6. Name Recognition. There is no such thing as bad publicity. Well, maybe that’s not completely true, but you can see what I mean.
7. Recognition from the Devs. How many clans have achieved this? Fallen Horizons certainly has! Midnight’s name is hard-wired into the game! Upstream’s alter ego, Downstream, appears in numerous missions. Few others have achieved this. This is one of the most sublime forms of greatness: recognition and affirmation by the gods. I’m not sure how to achieve this, and hope that Midnight can enlighten us.
8. Community Service. Contributing back to the community takes many forms. Think of all the radio stations rocking away out there. The great writeups many people have done on CR 2,0, attributes, and abilities. My neighborhood exile mission reviews. Weaselgrrl’s countless, creative, witty posts. DrippingCheese’s witty posts and sigs. Kings of Never’s great events. These are all examples of giving back. Ages ago, helping new players was a big thing; when we have more new players I hope this returns as well.
Each of us has skills and energy, as do our crews. If we choose to, we can focus them in areas which achieve and demonstrate greatness. If we focus on these areas, others will froth and foam, but in impotent insignificance. If we reduce ourselves and become a one-strength clan like they are, we will lose all pretence to greatness.
Most important for every leader and captain here, we must CHOOSE which strengths to enhance for our clan. We MUST NOT choose by reaction and in effect become what someone else chooses for us. In the case of The Collective, some adversary clans seek to reduce us to PvP rag dolls. But there is much more to us and to our clan than this. We are absolutely stupid if we only become what someone else wants us to be. Everything begins with choice, and leaders must choose the types and routes to greatness which best suit their clans.
I held off for months on making this available outside the clan, since thinking along these lines can give immense strategic advantage over others. But at this point I think we are all better served by numerous strong, great clans, and I share this in that spirit.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Sugar Shack 38: Mercury: Tries Harder
Sugar Shack 38: Mercury: Tries Harder
Really, it seems to me that Mercury basically does not want to be found. Master of his datacenter administration room, he waits, secluded in Uriah Industrial park at -50, -14, 271. The room itself is a recluse’s dream, only accessible by long stair walks up and down. When you walk in, you can feel the cold dry air, and hear the monstrous humming behind him and all around you, and feel the load-balancing struggle. I wish there had been one server rack named Recursion, one Syntax, etc. It would have been the perfect touch. Mercury stood there, tense in my presence, with big eyes and bigger hands. I could tell that he would never demean himself to hawk himself on a cold corner downtown like The Newsie or Madame T. He’s not a people person, clearly. For the slightest task involving other people, he needs outside help. He stood in front of me and despite his power and presence, he seemed uncomfortable, like he would rather be juggling cinderblocks or something.
1. Turnabout is Fair Play
This first missions is a fine example of Mercury’s endless anxiety. He bids you steal some files from the obsessive, possessive Silver’s network, and blurts out at the end that he is a better inventor. This mish is fairly straightforward; Mercury’s ingenuity does not extend, it appears, to narrative design…. My partner for this mish, Blackfir3 from The Collective, was so high-powered that by the time I had found my way to the mish site, he had the whole things wrapped up! Whoah!
2. A Prize for Molly B
In this brief mish, you travel to a nearby location to get a package for Mercury from one of Molly B’s guys, and then drop it off. The contents are not disclosed, and nothing else ever seems to happen with this mish. I think the technical term is “filler”, though when I do Molly B’s missions, maybe a connection will emerge.
3. Component Parts
He has a shipment of some parts that needs to be escorted for safety’s sake. He’s buying some stuff from The Collector, and needs to make sure it gets safely to his storehouse. The contact looks like a clone of Mercury, and tells me to get out and stop bothering him as soon as I plucked the items from their cardboard box! What a team! Then I evaded an attack, and dropped off everything with some grateful aides of Mercury. Their boss has been keeping an eye on things, and calls at the end: “Nice work, Sugaree. Not too tough, eh?”
4. Company Secrets
Silver is not one to give up easily, and Mercury needs someone to protect his warehouse. Silver seems to be interested in a prototype, and we need to discourage them. One thug says “I think it just got a little dumber in here” and another chirps, “So, I suppose Mercury sent you to stop us, huh?” I always love these little touches; they show someone brought their imagination to work.
All things considered, fairly easy and fairly entertaining. And it’s all located within the same building at Mercury’s lair, so the commute it great! “That’ll show them,” he says at the end, “Good work, Sugaree.”
5. The Tick Tock Box
Clearly Mercury has come to like me. He got worked up and greeted me as soon as I came in, “Hey, hope you’re doing okay.” The target for today is a technical work commissioned by Tick Tock, which needs to be delivered. Naturally enemy forces are interested as well, and must be wiped out prior to the delivery. This went smoothly enough. The recipient, though, looks at it critically, and seemed puzzled, commenting, “Thanks. Uh, what the hell is this thing? This isn’t a cell phone. Well, never mind. Thanks again.” I have no idea what it is or where this is going, but I like the way these details are worked into the story. Nice work!
Mercury has come to rely on me. He brings his toughest problems to me for solutions. Now, with things quieted down, he takes a deep breath and relaxes. I could tell he liked me, as he started to gush. “Thanks, Sugaree. You have done great. I don’t have any more jobs for now, but if anything comes up, you’ll be the first one I come to.” Unlike all the other dozens of Exiles who have said this over the months, I kind of believed him.
There are good things about these missions. Their convenience. The connections to other Exiles. The brisk battles. Mercury’s personality. The mystery of the item for Tick Tock. On the other hand, the unexplained mission involving Molly B disappointed. Overall, still worth doing.
Many thanks to BlackFir3 from The Collective and Alixander for their help with these missions. Their help and company were most welcome.
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with other reviews and writings relevant to MxO.
Really, it seems to me that Mercury basically does not want to be found. Master of his datacenter administration room, he waits, secluded in Uriah Industrial park at -50, -14, 271. The room itself is a recluse’s dream, only accessible by long stair walks up and down. When you walk in, you can feel the cold dry air, and hear the monstrous humming behind him and all around you, and feel the load-balancing struggle. I wish there had been one server rack named Recursion, one Syntax, etc. It would have been the perfect touch. Mercury stood there, tense in my presence, with big eyes and bigger hands. I could tell that he would never demean himself to hawk himself on a cold corner downtown like The Newsie or Madame T. He’s not a people person, clearly. For the slightest task involving other people, he needs outside help. He stood in front of me and despite his power and presence, he seemed uncomfortable, like he would rather be juggling cinderblocks or something.
1. Turnabout is Fair Play
This first missions is a fine example of Mercury’s endless anxiety. He bids you steal some files from the obsessive, possessive Silver’s network, and blurts out at the end that he is a better inventor. This mish is fairly straightforward; Mercury’s ingenuity does not extend, it appears, to narrative design…. My partner for this mish, Blackfir3 from The Collective, was so high-powered that by the time I had found my way to the mish site, he had the whole things wrapped up! Whoah!
2. A Prize for Molly B
In this brief mish, you travel to a nearby location to get a package for Mercury from one of Molly B’s guys, and then drop it off. The contents are not disclosed, and nothing else ever seems to happen with this mish. I think the technical term is “filler”, though when I do Molly B’s missions, maybe a connection will emerge.
3. Component Parts
He has a shipment of some parts that needs to be escorted for safety’s sake. He’s buying some stuff from The Collector, and needs to make sure it gets safely to his storehouse. The contact looks like a clone of Mercury, and tells me to get out and stop bothering him as soon as I plucked the items from their cardboard box! What a team! Then I evaded an attack, and dropped off everything with some grateful aides of Mercury. Their boss has been keeping an eye on things, and calls at the end: “Nice work, Sugaree. Not too tough, eh?”
4. Company Secrets
Silver is not one to give up easily, and Mercury needs someone to protect his warehouse. Silver seems to be interested in a prototype, and we need to discourage them. One thug says “I think it just got a little dumber in here” and another chirps, “So, I suppose Mercury sent you to stop us, huh?” I always love these little touches; they show someone brought their imagination to work.
All things considered, fairly easy and fairly entertaining. And it’s all located within the same building at Mercury’s lair, so the commute it great! “That’ll show them,” he says at the end, “Good work, Sugaree.”
5. The Tick Tock Box
Clearly Mercury has come to like me. He got worked up and greeted me as soon as I came in, “Hey, hope you’re doing okay.” The target for today is a technical work commissioned by Tick Tock, which needs to be delivered. Naturally enemy forces are interested as well, and must be wiped out prior to the delivery. This went smoothly enough. The recipient, though, looks at it critically, and seemed puzzled, commenting, “Thanks. Uh, what the hell is this thing? This isn’t a cell phone. Well, never mind. Thanks again.” I have no idea what it is or where this is going, but I like the way these details are worked into the story. Nice work!
Mercury has come to rely on me. He brings his toughest problems to me for solutions. Now, with things quieted down, he takes a deep breath and relaxes. I could tell he liked me, as he started to gush. “Thanks, Sugaree. You have done great. I don’t have any more jobs for now, but if anything comes up, you’ll be the first one I come to.” Unlike all the other dozens of Exiles who have said this over the months, I kind of believed him.
There are good things about these missions. Their convenience. The connections to other Exiles. The brisk battles. Mercury’s personality. The mystery of the item for Tick Tock. On the other hand, the unexplained mission involving Molly B disappointed. Overall, still worth doing.
Many thanks to BlackFir3 from The Collective and Alixander for their help with these missions. Their help and company were most welcome.
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with other reviews and writings relevant to MxO.
Sugar Shack 37: The Bag Lady: Not Quite What I Expected
Sugar Shack 37: The Bag Lady: Not Quite What I Expected
This Exile is dressed quite well for a “bag lady”; perhaps the “bag” here is a Prada. She stands unobtrusively in an alley, in Moriah, at 1096, 7, -17, watching the world go by, occasionally glancing down at a copy of “Speed Power” discarded in the pavement. Ambition is not her middle name, I could see; she seemed happy to stand around like this. Soon I found that her preference was missions which served or frustrated others; no agenda of her own ever appeared. How petty! In fact, your average clan leader is far more creative and imaginative that the Bag Lady. But if you’re a new redpill, what you usually want is action, not Aeschylus, and from that point of view her missions are okay.
1. Odd Baubles
We learn that odd data packets have been discovered floating around the Matrix, and the dour Tick Tock from downtown seems to have a lock on them. Well, not for long! The Collector craves these as well, and the Bag Lady dispatches you to serve his interests. This involves a single entry, three fights, two disks, and one mainframe. Simply, really. The Bag Lady purrs at the end, “Oooh, Sugaree, you’re not bad. Very nice”.
2. A Killing Hold
This continues the frag arc. Tick Tock notes the break-in and the missing materials, and has dispatched the redoubtable “Downstream” to look into this. The Collector wants to discourage these inquiries, and the Bag Lady sends you off with, “On your way, Sugaree. There’s killing to be done.” It reminds me of the Weaver, and how she would also have some sarcastic observation, like “When there’s mindless killing to be done, you seem to be the one to call!” But I am sure she did not mean it that way.
This too is straightforward. Break into a single dumpy Richland venue, dispatch a couple of guards, and snuff Downstream. In the end I could sense the Bag Lady’s excitement as she whispered, “Well, Sugaree. You’ve done a good job. Very nice.” I knew she’d give me something special or the next one!
3. Good Garbage
In this most bizarre mission, we finally learn why Bag Lady is the right name for her! She wants me to divert Tick Tock’s garbage to her! OMG, is this what my life has come to? A trash hijacker? *cries*
Anyway, this miracle is accomplished by mainframing a virus to alter the workflow, and redirect the refuse. She is thrilled: “Oooo….very nice, Sugaree. Very nice, indeed.” I could sense her excitement. Maybe she was in bed with the Assassin. Figuratively, of course.
Curiously the immensely entertainment value of this situation is not explored at all. No jokes, no wit, no after-action reports on just what was found in the trash. Talk about missed opportunities!
4. Find a Mole
Back to the frag fracas. A mole has been inserted in Tick Tock’s labs in squalorous Richland, and needs to be extracted for a frag update meeting. (Why does every Exile have such a high-end support mechanism? And how would this look on one’s resume?) To cover the extraction, we need to kill all the guards while the mole protests noisily; after the last one, the clearly impressed agent says, “Okay, now you’re just showing off”. Then it becomes another escort mission. Like most, this is more difficult that you might think. The journey is only about a hundred meters. Two local thugs hung out near the target building nearby though, and a single shot was enough to hole the mole. Back to square one!
5. Grab the Bag
Tick Tock has come across one of the frags, and the Collector wants it. The suite ends as it started, with a blackbag job. Here, however, the defenders are tougher and better organized. This mish, however, has two locations. After killing everyone else, a single Crossbones Bumboo was left guarding the machine with the frag. I was so impressed I spared him. Bag Lady agreed, and gave me credit for a complete mission anyway. Her goodbye spiel sounded like she was talking to me: “Sometimes the tiniest, most insignificant objects can become valuable.” As I started to speak humbly, thinking she must mean me, she went on to say, “I like to find those little objects before anyone else. Thanks for helping me find this, Sugaree.” Oh, right. I sat on a bench near the hardline to think about life.
In summary, the Bag Lady hardly seems to qualify for Exile status at all. She basically does the bidding of the Collector, or works to frustrate Tick Tock. Oddly though, when you do Tick Tock’s missions downtown, he seems completely unaware of her; she seems to cast a shorter shadow than she thinks. And that’s it! She seems to have no agenda, ambition, or purpose of her own. Most of her missions are one-shot, one-location tasks, and are even conveniently clustered. She’s the kind of easy-going Exile suitable for Richland, where redpills are brushing up on new skills, and need a few easy departures from the standard grind. From that point of view, she’s okay. But she’ll never win the Nobel Prize for Missions.
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with other reviews and writings relevant to MxO.
This Exile is dressed quite well for a “bag lady”; perhaps the “bag” here is a Prada. She stands unobtrusively in an alley, in Moriah, at 1096, 7, -17, watching the world go by, occasionally glancing down at a copy of “Speed Power” discarded in the pavement. Ambition is not her middle name, I could see; she seemed happy to stand around like this. Soon I found that her preference was missions which served or frustrated others; no agenda of her own ever appeared. How petty! In fact, your average clan leader is far more creative and imaginative that the Bag Lady. But if you’re a new redpill, what you usually want is action, not Aeschylus, and from that point of view her missions are okay.
1. Odd Baubles
We learn that odd data packets have been discovered floating around the Matrix, and the dour Tick Tock from downtown seems to have a lock on them. Well, not for long! The Collector craves these as well, and the Bag Lady dispatches you to serve his interests. This involves a single entry, three fights, two disks, and one mainframe. Simply, really. The Bag Lady purrs at the end, “Oooh, Sugaree, you’re not bad. Very nice”.
2. A Killing Hold
This continues the frag arc. Tick Tock notes the break-in and the missing materials, and has dispatched the redoubtable “Downstream” to look into this. The Collector wants to discourage these inquiries, and the Bag Lady sends you off with, “On your way, Sugaree. There’s killing to be done.” It reminds me of the Weaver, and how she would also have some sarcastic observation, like “When there’s mindless killing to be done, you seem to be the one to call!” But I am sure she did not mean it that way.
This too is straightforward. Break into a single dumpy Richland venue, dispatch a couple of guards, and snuff Downstream. In the end I could sense the Bag Lady’s excitement as she whispered, “Well, Sugaree. You’ve done a good job. Very nice.” I knew she’d give me something special or the next one!
3. Good Garbage
In this most bizarre mission, we finally learn why Bag Lady is the right name for her! She wants me to divert Tick Tock’s garbage to her! OMG, is this what my life has come to? A trash hijacker? *cries*
Anyway, this miracle is accomplished by mainframing a virus to alter the workflow, and redirect the refuse. She is thrilled: “Oooo….very nice, Sugaree. Very nice, indeed.” I could sense her excitement. Maybe she was in bed with the Assassin. Figuratively, of course.
Curiously the immensely entertainment value of this situation is not explored at all. No jokes, no wit, no after-action reports on just what was found in the trash. Talk about missed opportunities!
4. Find a Mole
Back to the frag fracas. A mole has been inserted in Tick Tock’s labs in squalorous Richland, and needs to be extracted for a frag update meeting. (Why does every Exile have such a high-end support mechanism? And how would this look on one’s resume?) To cover the extraction, we need to kill all the guards while the mole protests noisily; after the last one, the clearly impressed agent says, “Okay, now you’re just showing off”. Then it becomes another escort mission. Like most, this is more difficult that you might think. The journey is only about a hundred meters. Two local thugs hung out near the target building nearby though, and a single shot was enough to hole the mole. Back to square one!
5. Grab the Bag
Tick Tock has come across one of the frags, and the Collector wants it. The suite ends as it started, with a blackbag job. Here, however, the defenders are tougher and better organized. This mish, however, has two locations. After killing everyone else, a single Crossbones Bumboo was left guarding the machine with the frag. I was so impressed I spared him. Bag Lady agreed, and gave me credit for a complete mission anyway. Her goodbye spiel sounded like she was talking to me: “Sometimes the tiniest, most insignificant objects can become valuable.” As I started to speak humbly, thinking she must mean me, she went on to say, “I like to find those little objects before anyone else. Thanks for helping me find this, Sugaree.” Oh, right. I sat on a bench near the hardline to think about life.
In summary, the Bag Lady hardly seems to qualify for Exile status at all. She basically does the bidding of the Collector, or works to frustrate Tick Tock. Oddly though, when you do Tick Tock’s missions downtown, he seems completely unaware of her; she seems to cast a shorter shadow than she thinks. And that’s it! She seems to have no agenda, ambition, or purpose of her own. Most of her missions are one-shot, one-location tasks, and are even conveniently clustered. She’s the kind of easy-going Exile suitable for Richland, where redpills are brushing up on new skills, and need a few easy departures from the standard grind. From that point of view, she’s okay. But she’ll never win the Nobel Prize for Missions.
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with other reviews and writings relevant to MxO.
Friday, January 27, 2006
Sugar Shack 36: Exile Contact Missions: Grisaille: Generic Violence
Sugar Shack 36: Exile Contact Missions: Grisaille: Generic Violence
Grisaille quietly holds a lonely court in a corner of one of MegaCity’s most swinging clubs, The Succubus, at -676, -6, 157. He seems young, confident, and violent, as though he’s trying to prove something. Yet he has little personality, really. He is a dapper cipher: mayhem wrapped in mystery in a suit. Unlike many clubs, Succubus has real personality in décor and theme, with its sultry candles and festive tombstones, and much could have been done with this to give him a backstory, or some motivation. For example:
“Silver once ragged on me, saying I was the most lifeless noob he had ever seen. Well, there is life in lifelessness, and I set out to be as energetically lifeless as possible. That’s why I have the tombstones and the mood candles. They burn forever without going out. That’s me! Have a drink!”
Or
“I saw all the undead and the vampires and the lupines, and stuff, and I wanted something that would attract them in for parties and off-site business meetings. So I went with the succubus theme, the tombstones, the red lights, and the candles and all. It’s way classier than some dump like Parallaxis or Jacob’s Ladder, don’t you think?”
1. Fade Away
Word, it seems, has gotten around (“Ah, so you’re that Sugaree person I’ve been hearing so much about. Well, time to prove your worth”) and he is ready to give me something substantial to do. No simple drop off a package mission here! Like many an Exile, Grisaille has a low boiling point, and the instant you talk to him, he starts blathering about revenge, “take them out, chip chop”. The targets have been tailed from Club Dante to some no-name place, where they are unknowingly waiting for their doom, perhaps planning their IRA contributions for the year. As the dust settles at the end, Grisaille nods approvingly, “Very well done, Sugaree. If you can do that, you can do anything.” Yah! Say it again!
2. A Quiet Conversation
Grisaille needs to have an Exile brought to him for a conversation about some information. As usual, the target is confident in her guards, and as usual her confidence is misplaced. She acquiesces, accompanies you, and soon finds herself in front of one of Grisaille’s agents. Fear dawns across her face. “Don’t fret, love. It’ll be over soon” he reassures her. Grisaille tells me to rest up and come to see him soon. What a guy! If you think that this mission is almost identical to Thallia’s last mission, you would be right.
3. Silent Scream
Nice title! This is perhaps the most ostensibly ambitious mission Grisaille gives you, but also the easiest. No that I am complaining, mind you! The target is Dynamic Network Products, guarded by machine enforcers. All we have to do is drop off a package, get a virus, drop off the virus, and flee. Quite straightforward, and you do not even have to kill everyone there! What’s not to like? The only thing is, what does Grisaille have against DNP? It all seemed quite unmotivated, like someone took a standard mish and threw it in here as filler. Perhaps he is doing this for someone else? As a favor? Because he owes them? Alas, there is no sign that such depth exists in Grisaille.
4. The Rest Is Silence
Remember the Exile we brought in two missions ago? Well, her value has come and gone, and now it is time for her to return to the Source. I fought my way through her new crop of guards only to be confronted by Grisaille’s sister, Rose! She has taken my target under her protection, it seems, and gives me a message for my employer: he cannot make his problems go away by killing innocents. Then, politely: “I suggest you leave, Sugaree…there is no reason for you to come to harm because of my brother’s actions.” After working with so many psychos and sociopaths recently, it was exquisite to bump into compassion. It must be a bug. Grisaille reassured me, “Not your fault”. Reasonableness must run in their family!
5. The Quiet Place
Like every Exile, Grisaille seems to have an inexhaustible supply of enemies, and now the time has come for the Crow Bars to embrace eternity. They all talked big, and they all went down noisily. I walked out into the smoky Stamos moonlight, carefully putting away my guns, smoothing my coat, thinking what to do next. Drinks? Gossip? Perhaps some blue rezzing? I decided to start with a smoke as I contemplated our unknown future. After the first, best long drag, I took a final call from Grisaille: “Feels good to work out your frustrations, huh?” He’s unflappable!
So, in conclusion, Grisaille’s missions lack any sort of a theme or driving pre-occupation as so many others do, such as the Chef and Lotus. No connection between him and his setting seems evident at all; this is true though, for most Exiles, and may not be held against him. It is merely a generic missed opportunity. On the positive side, the escort mission was not as diabolically difficult as so many others are, and the surprising conclusion of the fourth mission was pleasant. As most people doing missions are looking for action, Grisaille will certainly not disappoint them.
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with other reviews and writings relevant to MxO.
Grisaille quietly holds a lonely court in a corner of one of MegaCity’s most swinging clubs, The Succubus, at -676, -6, 157. He seems young, confident, and violent, as though he’s trying to prove something. Yet he has little personality, really. He is a dapper cipher: mayhem wrapped in mystery in a suit. Unlike many clubs, Succubus has real personality in décor and theme, with its sultry candles and festive tombstones, and much could have been done with this to give him a backstory, or some motivation. For example:
“Silver once ragged on me, saying I was the most lifeless noob he had ever seen. Well, there is life in lifelessness, and I set out to be as energetically lifeless as possible. That’s why I have the tombstones and the mood candles. They burn forever without going out. That’s me! Have a drink!”
Or
“I saw all the undead and the vampires and the lupines, and stuff, and I wanted something that would attract them in for parties and off-site business meetings. So I went with the succubus theme, the tombstones, the red lights, and the candles and all. It’s way classier than some dump like Parallaxis or Jacob’s Ladder, don’t you think?”
1. Fade Away
Word, it seems, has gotten around (“Ah, so you’re that Sugaree person I’ve been hearing so much about. Well, time to prove your worth”) and he is ready to give me something substantial to do. No simple drop off a package mission here! Like many an Exile, Grisaille has a low boiling point, and the instant you talk to him, he starts blathering about revenge, “take them out, chip chop”. The targets have been tailed from Club Dante to some no-name place, where they are unknowingly waiting for their doom, perhaps planning their IRA contributions for the year. As the dust settles at the end, Grisaille nods approvingly, “Very well done, Sugaree. If you can do that, you can do anything.” Yah! Say it again!
2. A Quiet Conversation
Grisaille needs to have an Exile brought to him for a conversation about some information. As usual, the target is confident in her guards, and as usual her confidence is misplaced. She acquiesces, accompanies you, and soon finds herself in front of one of Grisaille’s agents. Fear dawns across her face. “Don’t fret, love. It’ll be over soon” he reassures her. Grisaille tells me to rest up and come to see him soon. What a guy! If you think that this mission is almost identical to Thallia’s last mission, you would be right.
3. Silent Scream
Nice title! This is perhaps the most ostensibly ambitious mission Grisaille gives you, but also the easiest. No that I am complaining, mind you! The target is Dynamic Network Products, guarded by machine enforcers. All we have to do is drop off a package, get a virus, drop off the virus, and flee. Quite straightforward, and you do not even have to kill everyone there! What’s not to like? The only thing is, what does Grisaille have against DNP? It all seemed quite unmotivated, like someone took a standard mish and threw it in here as filler. Perhaps he is doing this for someone else? As a favor? Because he owes them? Alas, there is no sign that such depth exists in Grisaille.
4. The Rest Is Silence
Remember the Exile we brought in two missions ago? Well, her value has come and gone, and now it is time for her to return to the Source. I fought my way through her new crop of guards only to be confronted by Grisaille’s sister, Rose! She has taken my target under her protection, it seems, and gives me a message for my employer: he cannot make his problems go away by killing innocents. Then, politely: “I suggest you leave, Sugaree…there is no reason for you to come to harm because of my brother’s actions.” After working with so many psychos and sociopaths recently, it was exquisite to bump into compassion. It must be a bug. Grisaille reassured me, “Not your fault”. Reasonableness must run in their family!
5. The Quiet Place
Like every Exile, Grisaille seems to have an inexhaustible supply of enemies, and now the time has come for the Crow Bars to embrace eternity. They all talked big, and they all went down noisily. I walked out into the smoky Stamos moonlight, carefully putting away my guns, smoothing my coat, thinking what to do next. Drinks? Gossip? Perhaps some blue rezzing? I decided to start with a smoke as I contemplated our unknown future. After the first, best long drag, I took a final call from Grisaille: “Feels good to work out your frustrations, huh?” He’s unflappable!
So, in conclusion, Grisaille’s missions lack any sort of a theme or driving pre-occupation as so many others do, such as the Chef and Lotus. No connection between him and his setting seems evident at all; this is true though, for most Exiles, and may not be held against him. It is merely a generic missed opportunity. On the positive side, the escort mission was not as diabolically difficult as so many others are, and the surprising conclusion of the fourth mission was pleasant. As most people doing missions are looking for action, Grisaille will certainly not disappoint them.
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with other reviews and writings relevant to MxO.
Sugar Shack 35: Exile Contact Missions: Thallia: Harsh Yet Fun
Sugar Shack 35: Exile Contact Missions: Thallia: Harsh Yet Fun
Thallia impressed me. I first came across her awesome top-floor Magog lair (348, 27, -344) purely by accident one day when I was looking for a mission site, but I lingered to marvel. I couldn’t help it: the lovely bookshelves, the capacious couches, the thick carpeting, the glass end-tables, the towering bamboo, the kitchen, the bedroom…this was a place fit to be a clan’s HQ. Or my home away from home. Back in beta, there was even a splendid fireplace! There are even some hangers-on, in various moods. Presiding over this is the lovely, wicked Thallia, standing in the middle of the living room, a perpetual stern look on her face. She favors a silvery catsuit (the kind no player would want to be seen in) with bulky thick gloves and a dark beret. The appearance is distinctive without being distinguished.
Compared to many Exiles, Thallia is cruel. But she is also subtle, as we will see. Her missions are definitely worth your time, for the insight they give into the crime world and the things they do to each other. Be sure to laugh at her jokes, few though they are; the last thing you want is to fall onto her dark side, which is deep. Her missions generally involve much violence, be sure to bring friends to make the work go faster. As Mr. Po would say, “Many hands make light work”.
1. Calculated Risk
The classic milk-run first mission! Pick up and drop off a package. She speaks with authority and formality: “There should be no complication, but should they arise you will be required to deal with them. Do we have an understanding?”. She was not opening to me at all yet. The initial pick-up is smooth (though Thallia nonetheless intervenes to tell you “Try not to waste any time”); but things become complicated at the drop-off, where your contact lies dead! After you have killed everyone there, Thallia seems positively smug: “Good. I suspected Mercury was moving against me, but this confirms it. Don’t worry about the package, it was only bait. You’ve proven to be very dependable.” I think that’s good news.
2. Applying Pressure
“Ahh, Sugaree, your timing isn’t awful.” With this cryptic greeting, the Mercury arc continues. In order to provoke him to an impetuous early implementation of his plans, she tasks you with attacking two of his labs and wiping out their staff and data. Well, not completely out; she wants you to leave a single survivor at each location, so the word gets back to Mercury. Like a calling card.
This is a straightforward kick-down-the-doors, shoot-up-the-targets mission. But you must be careful not to kill _every_one. Several times when doing this with clanmates, my partners got carried away and forgot this. I had the pleasure of telling Thallia we had screwed up. It was not a happy time. Thallia’s aggressive manipulation delighted me. Before I had left the building, I heard from her: “Perfect. Mercury has already contacted me with threats of retaliation….Sometimes, this is just too easy.”
3. Boiling Point
When Mercury’s forces attack Thallia’s, you move in from behind for a surprise counterattack. “Kill them all. Spare no one,” advises my Operator. Don’t have to say that twice! You slay at two sites, score a data CD which Mercury’s men have been after, and then drop it off. Thallia is clearly impressed. “You’re more useful than you look, Sugaree. I might have some…sensitive work for you in the future.” Along the way we hear this memorable line from Thallia: “Mercury couldn’t scheme his way out of a wet paper bag”. Wow, that was harsh. I’m sure she doesn’t talk that way about me when I’m not around….
4. An Offer They Can’t Refuse
“Sugaree, you haven’t managed to get yourself killed…yet”. That’s Thallia’s way of saying she is delirious to see me. This time, three informants need persuading. The first one is a former employee of Beryl. After I get into her super-locked room with a spare key, she reveals that Beryl has a nasty habit, with one of Argon’s men being her main contact. Hmm... Girl Scout thin mints?
The second one comes off as a tough cookie, to be sure. He swears not to cooperate, and then orders his Sears Rent-A-RSI simulacrum to attack me while he watches and sneers. After I trash it, he changes his tune. We discover that Raini is aware of Beryl’s narcotics habit, and wants the same thing. This only confirmed my low opinion of Raini, who devoted an entire mission to getting drugs.
Alas, the third one dies before you can reach him; someone has taken an interest in Thallia’s interest. This curiosity is not pursued.
5. Digging Deeper
Thallia is endlessly inquisitive, and finally tasks you with capturing an informant to find out more about Beryl and Raini. The target has surrounded herself with lupine mercenaries, and you must fight your way past them to get her, collect any disks she has, and deliver them all. Well, this sounded simple, but I was soon introduced the hard way to an ability called “backfist”. This dished out 4555 (1811 absorbed) damage to me! In one shot! Yow! I don’t know who has this, but I want it!
So, anyway, I finally escorted the reluctant informant past several dozen Blackwoods, who all seemed to be in a good mood, ‘cuz none of them felt like attacking us. What a miracle! As I left the drop-off, I could hear the woman wailing behind me, “Are you just going to leave me here with him? You can’t do that!” Counting my hard-earned cash, I thought, I sure can, honey. Thallia’s last call to me was sheer delight: she cooed, “Oh, this is priceless. Beryl and Raini won’t know what hit them. You performed admirably, Sugaree, I will certainly require your services in the future.” That’s what they all say!
So, what’s memorable about Thallia, you say? First, she has the best lair I have ever seen. It’s worth going there just to hang around and show it off to your clanmates. Besides this, she has strong motivation, and you really feel like you’re working with a personality, not a pudding of spun subroutines (like Raini, for example). I enjoyed exploring the interplay between her and Mercury, Beryl, and Raini. And she is creative in her cruelty. Working with her was far more satisfying than with many, many of the other Exiles.
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with other reviews and writings relevant to MxO.
Thallia impressed me. I first came across her awesome top-floor Magog lair (348, 27, -344) purely by accident one day when I was looking for a mission site, but I lingered to marvel. I couldn’t help it: the lovely bookshelves, the capacious couches, the thick carpeting, the glass end-tables, the towering bamboo, the kitchen, the bedroom…this was a place fit to be a clan’s HQ. Or my home away from home. Back in beta, there was even a splendid fireplace! There are even some hangers-on, in various moods. Presiding over this is the lovely, wicked Thallia, standing in the middle of the living room, a perpetual stern look on her face. She favors a silvery catsuit (the kind no player would want to be seen in) with bulky thick gloves and a dark beret. The appearance is distinctive without being distinguished.
Compared to many Exiles, Thallia is cruel. But she is also subtle, as we will see. Her missions are definitely worth your time, for the insight they give into the crime world and the things they do to each other. Be sure to laugh at her jokes, few though they are; the last thing you want is to fall onto her dark side, which is deep. Her missions generally involve much violence, be sure to bring friends to make the work go faster. As Mr. Po would say, “Many hands make light work”.
1. Calculated Risk
The classic milk-run first mission! Pick up and drop off a package. She speaks with authority and formality: “There should be no complication, but should they arise you will be required to deal with them. Do we have an understanding?”. She was not opening to me at all yet. The initial pick-up is smooth (though Thallia nonetheless intervenes to tell you “Try not to waste any time”); but things become complicated at the drop-off, where your contact lies dead! After you have killed everyone there, Thallia seems positively smug: “Good. I suspected Mercury was moving against me, but this confirms it. Don’t worry about the package, it was only bait. You’ve proven to be very dependable.” I think that’s good news.
2. Applying Pressure
“Ahh, Sugaree, your timing isn’t awful.” With this cryptic greeting, the Mercury arc continues. In order to provoke him to an impetuous early implementation of his plans, she tasks you with attacking two of his labs and wiping out their staff and data. Well, not completely out; she wants you to leave a single survivor at each location, so the word gets back to Mercury. Like a calling card.
This is a straightforward kick-down-the-doors, shoot-up-the-targets mission. But you must be careful not to kill _every_one. Several times when doing this with clanmates, my partners got carried away and forgot this. I had the pleasure of telling Thallia we had screwed up. It was not a happy time. Thallia’s aggressive manipulation delighted me. Before I had left the building, I heard from her: “Perfect. Mercury has already contacted me with threats of retaliation….Sometimes, this is just too easy.”
3. Boiling Point
When Mercury’s forces attack Thallia’s, you move in from behind for a surprise counterattack. “Kill them all. Spare no one,” advises my Operator. Don’t have to say that twice! You slay at two sites, score a data CD which Mercury’s men have been after, and then drop it off. Thallia is clearly impressed. “You’re more useful than you look, Sugaree. I might have some…sensitive work for you in the future.” Along the way we hear this memorable line from Thallia: “Mercury couldn’t scheme his way out of a wet paper bag”. Wow, that was harsh. I’m sure she doesn’t talk that way about me when I’m not around….
4. An Offer They Can’t Refuse
“Sugaree, you haven’t managed to get yourself killed…yet”. That’s Thallia’s way of saying she is delirious to see me. This time, three informants need persuading. The first one is a former employee of Beryl. After I get into her super-locked room with a spare key, she reveals that Beryl has a nasty habit, with one of Argon’s men being her main contact. Hmm... Girl Scout thin mints?
The second one comes off as a tough cookie, to be sure. He swears not to cooperate, and then orders his Sears Rent-A-RSI simulacrum to attack me while he watches and sneers. After I trash it, he changes his tune. We discover that Raini is aware of Beryl’s narcotics habit, and wants the same thing. This only confirmed my low opinion of Raini, who devoted an entire mission to getting drugs.
Alas, the third one dies before you can reach him; someone has taken an interest in Thallia’s interest. This curiosity is not pursued.
5. Digging Deeper
Thallia is endlessly inquisitive, and finally tasks you with capturing an informant to find out more about Beryl and Raini. The target has surrounded herself with lupine mercenaries, and you must fight your way past them to get her, collect any disks she has, and deliver them all. Well, this sounded simple, but I was soon introduced the hard way to an ability called “backfist”. This dished out 4555 (1811 absorbed) damage to me! In one shot! Yow! I don’t know who has this, but I want it!
So, anyway, I finally escorted the reluctant informant past several dozen Blackwoods, who all seemed to be in a good mood, ‘cuz none of them felt like attacking us. What a miracle! As I left the drop-off, I could hear the woman wailing behind me, “Are you just going to leave me here with him? You can’t do that!” Counting my hard-earned cash, I thought, I sure can, honey. Thallia’s last call to me was sheer delight: she cooed, “Oh, this is priceless. Beryl and Raini won’t know what hit them. You performed admirably, Sugaree, I will certainly require your services in the future.” That’s what they all say!
So, what’s memorable about Thallia, you say? First, she has the best lair I have ever seen. It’s worth going there just to hang around and show it off to your clanmates. Besides this, she has strong motivation, and you really feel like you’re working with a personality, not a pudding of spun subroutines (like Raini, for example). I enjoyed exploring the interplay between her and Mercury, Beryl, and Raini. And she is creative in her cruelty. Working with her was far more satisfying than with many, many of the other Exiles.
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with other reviews and writings relevant to MxO.
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Sugar Shack 34: Exile Contact Missions: The Digger: The Matrix Excavated, Not!
Sugar Shack 34: Exile Contact Missions: The Digger: The Matrix Excavated, Not!
For me, the Digger has been something of a Holy Grail. He would never give me a mission on Recursion, and snootily blew me off times without number! My /CCRs and /bugs only seemed to embolden him! But on the QA server, I finally succeeded in approaching him, and entering his brief service. His dig in is Dannah Heights, in the basement of an unusually architected room, at 332,-2,-1008. The basement is amazing! It’s filled with junk: vases, pots, swords, boxes, busts, crates, canvases, statues, furniture, you name it. It looks like he’s been buying out garage sales or the past three iterations of the Matrix! He has a bookish demeanor, though he has a street edge to his voice.
His quest is indeed an evocative one, and he foreshadows the Archaeologist we all know and love from the four Pandora’s Box arcs. He believes in past iterations of the Matrix, and seeks to better understand them. There’s no backstory deeper than this! One might think that the machines would be the best source of information for him, but as an Exile, he cannot comfortably approach them, it appears. So he seeks everything through indirection, requiring your aid. I kind of liked him. But as a person, not as a mission contact.
1. Site of Interest
A nearby building has some areas which he wishes to research, about a previous iteration of the Matrix. The thing is, some inconvenient Exiles are hanging out there; he needs me to persuade them to move. This is surprisingly easy, since the Exiles in question are in two separate locations, and do not team up. However, it felt unfortunate to me that there was no easier way to free up the space for research (and it was a third and fourth floor apartment, so it’s not like he needed to actually, you, _dig_ or anything) some other way than killing everyone there. Surely the local crime lords could have been engaged to persuade them to leave. Or maybe they could have been paid off? Must everything come down to guns?
2. Passing Notes
He wants to pass his research notes on to Hypatia in exchange for access to some of her books. Three elite guards assault you at the drop-off though; they have killed Hypatia’s representative. “Sugaree’s here, just like he said,” one shouts; we are left wondering who “he” is. But the next stop is a successful drop off. The Digger gets his books access, and you get a pat on the back: “Good work, kid. I can keep going with my research, now I’ve got Hypatia’s books.”
By the way, I enjoyed seeing some win-win barter here. Usually Exiles kill everything in their way to get what they want (i.e., the first mission). I liked seeing someone a little more creative.
3. Safer Ground
Take his most valuable artifact, a statue, to The Collector to protect it from the avaricious Argon. I received a note from my Operator about a fight with some of Argon’s men, but it never actually happened. Not that I am complaining mind you. The suspicious soul in me wondered if this was a ploy meant to flush out the Digger’s best stuff to bring it to the Collector… I mean, it happened in a Sherlock Holmes story once. Overall, a quite simple, straightforward mission. Not like The Maltese Falcon, Indiana Jones or Gods, Graves, and Scholars at all! Perhaps more simple than such a key item might have been warranted.
4. Plug the Leak
You might think that the Digger is too arcane, and too ivory-towerish to have an organization. But you would be wrong. He does, and it comes complete with turncoats, one of whom you “snuff” in this mission. This was the one who set me up in the last mish, so it was personal. As a story this mish was leak. Basically, I traveled to a location to kill someone and his guards. There was no sense of why this person had betrayed, or what his goals, rewards, and motivation were. As I was fighting his last guard, he could have been going on about how he was going to get revenge finally, etc. Much more could have been done with this. It took a disk from him to an associate of the Digger’s and I was done. After I gave them to her, she kept asking if I had them. Curiously, the disk to be taken for safekeeping went to a building right next to his hangout!
5. A Collector’s Collection
Word of mouth rules! The Digger has mentioned me to Sirius, who wants to meet me personally before giving me an assignment. This involves rescuing one of Sirius’ people who has been taken by the Sculptress, whose interest in these guys can be imagined. Very tough fight here with no less than eight enemies (!) who attack you en masse. “Nice job, kid. Sirius was really impressed with your work”. The Digger himself, though, seemed to have run out of assignments for me.
In conclusion, these missions were disappointing. His speech style is a watered down version of the Jeweler. And oddly enough, only one or two of his missions has anything at all to do with his avocation: research into the past. All the others are the standard killing traitors, dropping off stuff, and rescuing people. For someone so preoccupied with the past, it is surprising how little time the Digger actually seems to spend on it. The dialog is very so-so. He makes no mention of his vast material wealth, which surprises since it means so much to him. Not only that, he says basically nothing about his research findings, which is immensely out of character; most people in his position talk to the hired help all day! In the end, this fascinating character is left undeveloped and unutilized. After traveling to a different world to meet him, I had expected more.
Many thanks to my clansister Illyria1 from The Collective, who helped me with these on the QA server. They would not have been nearly as good without her company.
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with other reviews and writings relevant to MxO.
For me, the Digger has been something of a Holy Grail. He would never give me a mission on Recursion, and snootily blew me off times without number! My /CCRs and /bugs only seemed to embolden him! But on the QA server, I finally succeeded in approaching him, and entering his brief service. His dig in is Dannah Heights, in the basement of an unusually architected room, at 332,-2,-1008. The basement is amazing! It’s filled with junk: vases, pots, swords, boxes, busts, crates, canvases, statues, furniture, you name it. It looks like he’s been buying out garage sales or the past three iterations of the Matrix! He has a bookish demeanor, though he has a street edge to his voice.
His quest is indeed an evocative one, and he foreshadows the Archaeologist we all know and love from the four Pandora’s Box arcs. He believes in past iterations of the Matrix, and seeks to better understand them. There’s no backstory deeper than this! One might think that the machines would be the best source of information for him, but as an Exile, he cannot comfortably approach them, it appears. So he seeks everything through indirection, requiring your aid. I kind of liked him. But as a person, not as a mission contact.
1. Site of Interest
A nearby building has some areas which he wishes to research, about a previous iteration of the Matrix. The thing is, some inconvenient Exiles are hanging out there; he needs me to persuade them to move. This is surprisingly easy, since the Exiles in question are in two separate locations, and do not team up. However, it felt unfortunate to me that there was no easier way to free up the space for research (and it was a third and fourth floor apartment, so it’s not like he needed to actually, you, _dig_ or anything) some other way than killing everyone there. Surely the local crime lords could have been engaged to persuade them to leave. Or maybe they could have been paid off? Must everything come down to guns?
2. Passing Notes
He wants to pass his research notes on to Hypatia in exchange for access to some of her books. Three elite guards assault you at the drop-off though; they have killed Hypatia’s representative. “Sugaree’s here, just like he said,” one shouts; we are left wondering who “he” is. But the next stop is a successful drop off. The Digger gets his books access, and you get a pat on the back: “Good work, kid. I can keep going with my research, now I’ve got Hypatia’s books.”
By the way, I enjoyed seeing some win-win barter here. Usually Exiles kill everything in their way to get what they want (i.e., the first mission). I liked seeing someone a little more creative.
3. Safer Ground
Take his most valuable artifact, a statue, to The Collector to protect it from the avaricious Argon. I received a note from my Operator about a fight with some of Argon’s men, but it never actually happened. Not that I am complaining mind you. The suspicious soul in me wondered if this was a ploy meant to flush out the Digger’s best stuff to bring it to the Collector… I mean, it happened in a Sherlock Holmes story once. Overall, a quite simple, straightforward mission. Not like The Maltese Falcon, Indiana Jones or Gods, Graves, and Scholars at all! Perhaps more simple than such a key item might have been warranted.
4. Plug the Leak
You might think that the Digger is too arcane, and too ivory-towerish to have an organization. But you would be wrong. He does, and it comes complete with turncoats, one of whom you “snuff” in this mission. This was the one who set me up in the last mish, so it was personal. As a story this mish was leak. Basically, I traveled to a location to kill someone and his guards. There was no sense of why this person had betrayed, or what his goals, rewards, and motivation were. As I was fighting his last guard, he could have been going on about how he was going to get revenge finally, etc. Much more could have been done with this. It took a disk from him to an associate of the Digger’s and I was done. After I gave them to her, she kept asking if I had them. Curiously, the disk to be taken for safekeeping went to a building right next to his hangout!
5. A Collector’s Collection
Word of mouth rules! The Digger has mentioned me to Sirius, who wants to meet me personally before giving me an assignment. This involves rescuing one of Sirius’ people who has been taken by the Sculptress, whose interest in these guys can be imagined. Very tough fight here with no less than eight enemies (!) who attack you en masse. “Nice job, kid. Sirius was really impressed with your work”. The Digger himself, though, seemed to have run out of assignments for me.
In conclusion, these missions were disappointing. His speech style is a watered down version of the Jeweler. And oddly enough, only one or two of his missions has anything at all to do with his avocation: research into the past. All the others are the standard killing traitors, dropping off stuff, and rescuing people. For someone so preoccupied with the past, it is surprising how little time the Digger actually seems to spend on it. The dialog is very so-so. He makes no mention of his vast material wealth, which surprises since it means so much to him. Not only that, he says basically nothing about his research findings, which is immensely out of character; most people in his position talk to the hired help all day! In the end, this fascinating character is left undeveloped and unutilized. After traveling to a different world to meet him, I had expected more.
Many thanks to my clansister Illyria1 from The Collective, who helped me with these on the QA server. They would not have been nearly as good without her company.
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with other reviews and writings relevant to MxO.
Monday, January 23, 2006
Sugar Shack 33: Exile Contact Missions: Raini: Enfant Terrible
Sugar Shack 33: Exile Contact Missions: Raini: Enfant Terrible
Raini is a sedate, evil lass, standing off to the side in Jacob’s Ladder in Apollyon (637, 9, -1684), scene of dozens of swinging parties. No fool, she stands where she can see the customers coming in. She cultivates a Bohemian appearance, with the dark shades, the black skirt…and the fishnets! Everything about her shouts artiste! Before starting her mishes, I checked out the bar and had a couple of drinks, thinking about past good times, before everyone was a data-miner and everyone had been brewkoed. Here’s to Alfie and good friends gone MIA.
Raini’s mishes are shallow and violent. That being said, many people will find them entertaining, especially at lower levels when you are looking to score xps, loot, and a reputation, not a revelation. They are action-oriented, not story-oriented; not everyone will be disappointed by this.
First, though, something occurred to me while doing these. How come we can never call these Exiles up? How come they appear in our phone books, but we always have to traipse back to them to get the next mish? Did someone forget something with this?
1. Careful What You Wish For
“Recover high jacked data.” Is this an editing blemish? Or does this refer to a high-capacity jack-in mechanism? Does it foreshadow the role of drugs in these missions? Who can tell… In any case, the basic idea here is simple. Retrieve data from a lost courier, and complete the delivery. On Hard setting, there is a single site with three powerful foes and about as many computers to check. The file you need has “Thallia” in the name; I was not sure if this data had been stolen from Thallia, and her folks or a third party were interested in it, or, Thallia was behind the theft. Of course, knowing these guys, it could have played either way. But Raini’s only comment is she looks forward to enjoying the data. I guess. Your Operator seems detached from this mission as well, observing at one point, “I’ve always wanted to play Blood Tycoon 3. But that’s not what we came here for I guess.” You think?
2. Wetwork
To get some hot information from another Exile (a “nobody”), you need to kill two groups of Exiles. Those who relish 24x7 PvP will relish this mish. The Exiles make the mistake that so many do: they do not work as teams. They are scattered in their locations, and you can defeat them piecemeal. The second group took refuge in the home of two bluepills, killing one of them in the process. There seems to be no way to kill them without collateral-damaging the other bluepill, at least with AOEs. A howitzer build might have had better luck. Alas, doing good, or minimizing doing bad, is not incorporated in mission goals.
Some interesting points: one Exile shouts “Game over, man!” as he engages you; this brief homage to Aliens was a nice touch! Raini notes halfway through “Wow, you were brutal in there. Nice”, and gushes at the end, “Oh, man, that was awesome, thanks Sugaree”. I started to feel like I was talking to a child.
3. The Next Big Thing
Running her own businesses is not enough for Raini, it seems. She wants something more, something that is supposed to be “the ultimate extreme”. And she wants you to get it from a “cat” named Arkansas. Oh, hip, man! Like, this is starting to sound like an old 60s comedy routine, as when Arkansas peers at you and says, “Hey…hey, man. You’re looking for the stuff for Raini? I got it right here. Take it when you’re ready. If you think she can handle it…heh…” The delivery was mercifully brief: a 60-yard sprint to the building next door. I can see why Raini wanted a woman of my talents for this! There is a single wrinkle near the end of this surprisingly sedate mission. And then Raini dangles the offer of an invitation to one of her “private” parties if I keep up the good work. As if!
4. Always When You Are Not Watching
Later when I visited her for the next mish, she seemed considerably the worse for wear. Some goods had been stolen from her, and she was way fretful. “Dammit! Some gang of WORTHLESS Exiles thinks that they can steal from me! From ME!”. The dreary dirge of revenge and payback was about to start like a cheap jukebox….
You trip takes you first to the crime scene. Mostly ceremonial swords remain, with a few rifles, some weapons cages, a few bodies, and two survivors. One mourns; the other insists on coming with you (though he seems totally useless in a fight). Ironically, the thieves have chosen to hide their loot across the street from Jacob’s Ladder! What were they thinking? In the event, by the time you and your sidekick reach the thieves, the loot has been fenced across the city, and nothing remains but some hard-hearted revenge. A few polite yawns later and it was done.
5. Adrenaline Junkie
“I’m in a bind, and I _know_ you don’t want to see cute little me in a bind, do ya?” Yes, that’s how it starts. The powerful Exile, apparently an arms trafficker, now needs another fix, and wants you to score for her. Is this what they are coming to? Maybe Zion and the Machines hardly need to lift a finger against the Exiles; they just have to wait for the drugs to run out! Anyway, getting back, I was sent to visit one of Argon’s minions for a fix. He, however, is out of the business and won’t deal. This necessitates a visit to one of Beryl’s safehouses. Fortunately, you do not need to kill all of Beryl’s guards to get the drugs, which is a pleasant change. Just ignore them, take a few hits, make the grab and run. Raini talks big at the end, about how if you’re not living on the edge (by stealing your drugs, presumably), then you’re not living. That was good for a laugh. I had a couple of drinks, put them on her tab, and left Apollyon.
So, Raini is a pretentious, self-absorbed twit who thinks nothing of sacrificing others for her own perverse whims. But her bar is okay. She should go far in MegaCity, and I’ll bet that one day she gives the Merovingian a good run for his money. So, do her missions, and make sure you stay on her good side, which is not very spacious, especially if she thinks you might have drugs.
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with other reviews and writings relevant to MxO.
Raini is a sedate, evil lass, standing off to the side in Jacob’s Ladder in Apollyon (637, 9, -1684), scene of dozens of swinging parties. No fool, she stands where she can see the customers coming in. She cultivates a Bohemian appearance, with the dark shades, the black skirt…and the fishnets! Everything about her shouts artiste! Before starting her mishes, I checked out the bar and had a couple of drinks, thinking about past good times, before everyone was a data-miner and everyone had been brewkoed. Here’s to Alfie and good friends gone MIA.
Raini’s mishes are shallow and violent. That being said, many people will find them entertaining, especially at lower levels when you are looking to score xps, loot, and a reputation, not a revelation. They are action-oriented, not story-oriented; not everyone will be disappointed by this.
First, though, something occurred to me while doing these. How come we can never call these Exiles up? How come they appear in our phone books, but we always have to traipse back to them to get the next mish? Did someone forget something with this?
1. Careful What You Wish For
“Recover high jacked data.” Is this an editing blemish? Or does this refer to a high-capacity jack-in mechanism? Does it foreshadow the role of drugs in these missions? Who can tell… In any case, the basic idea here is simple. Retrieve data from a lost courier, and complete the delivery. On Hard setting, there is a single site with three powerful foes and about as many computers to check. The file you need has “Thallia” in the name; I was not sure if this data had been stolen from Thallia, and her folks or a third party were interested in it, or, Thallia was behind the theft. Of course, knowing these guys, it could have played either way. But Raini’s only comment is she looks forward to enjoying the data. I guess. Your Operator seems detached from this mission as well, observing at one point, “I’ve always wanted to play Blood Tycoon 3. But that’s not what we came here for I guess.” You think?
2. Wetwork
To get some hot information from another Exile (a “nobody”), you need to kill two groups of Exiles. Those who relish 24x7 PvP will relish this mish. The Exiles make the mistake that so many do: they do not work as teams. They are scattered in their locations, and you can defeat them piecemeal. The second group took refuge in the home of two bluepills, killing one of them in the process. There seems to be no way to kill them without collateral-damaging the other bluepill, at least with AOEs. A howitzer build might have had better luck. Alas, doing good, or minimizing doing bad, is not incorporated in mission goals.
Some interesting points: one Exile shouts “Game over, man!” as he engages you; this brief homage to Aliens was a nice touch! Raini notes halfway through “Wow, you were brutal in there. Nice”, and gushes at the end, “Oh, man, that was awesome, thanks Sugaree”. I started to feel like I was talking to a child.
3. The Next Big Thing
Running her own businesses is not enough for Raini, it seems. She wants something more, something that is supposed to be “the ultimate extreme”. And she wants you to get it from a “cat” named Arkansas. Oh, hip, man! Like, this is starting to sound like an old 60s comedy routine, as when Arkansas peers at you and says, “Hey…hey, man. You’re looking for the stuff for Raini? I got it right here. Take it when you’re ready. If you think she can handle it…heh…” The delivery was mercifully brief: a 60-yard sprint to the building next door. I can see why Raini wanted a woman of my talents for this! There is a single wrinkle near the end of this surprisingly sedate mission. And then Raini dangles the offer of an invitation to one of her “private” parties if I keep up the good work. As if!
4. Always When You Are Not Watching
Later when I visited her for the next mish, she seemed considerably the worse for wear. Some goods had been stolen from her, and she was way fretful. “Dammit! Some gang of WORTHLESS Exiles thinks that they can steal from me! From ME!”. The dreary dirge of revenge and payback was about to start like a cheap jukebox….
You trip takes you first to the crime scene. Mostly ceremonial swords remain, with a few rifles, some weapons cages, a few bodies, and two survivors. One mourns; the other insists on coming with you (though he seems totally useless in a fight). Ironically, the thieves have chosen to hide their loot across the street from Jacob’s Ladder! What were they thinking? In the event, by the time you and your sidekick reach the thieves, the loot has been fenced across the city, and nothing remains but some hard-hearted revenge. A few polite yawns later and it was done.
5. Adrenaline Junkie
“I’m in a bind, and I _know_ you don’t want to see cute little me in a bind, do ya?” Yes, that’s how it starts. The powerful Exile, apparently an arms trafficker, now needs another fix, and wants you to score for her. Is this what they are coming to? Maybe Zion and the Machines hardly need to lift a finger against the Exiles; they just have to wait for the drugs to run out! Anyway, getting back, I was sent to visit one of Argon’s minions for a fix. He, however, is out of the business and won’t deal. This necessitates a visit to one of Beryl’s safehouses. Fortunately, you do not need to kill all of Beryl’s guards to get the drugs, which is a pleasant change. Just ignore them, take a few hits, make the grab and run. Raini talks big at the end, about how if you’re not living on the edge (by stealing your drugs, presumably), then you’re not living. That was good for a laugh. I had a couple of drinks, put them on her tab, and left Apollyon.
So, Raini is a pretentious, self-absorbed twit who thinks nothing of sacrificing others for her own perverse whims. But her bar is okay. She should go far in MegaCity, and I’ll bet that one day she gives the Merovingian a good run for his money. So, do her missions, and make sure you stay on her good side, which is not very spacious, especially if she thinks you might have drugs.
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with other reviews and writings relevant to MxO.
Sugar Shack 32: Exile Contact Missions: Yttri
Sugar Shack 32: Exile Contact Missions: Yttri
Everything about Yttri shouts “I am special!”. The loopy braids, the white pantsuit outfit and halter. The bare feet! Her plush Achan lair at 606, 27, -39 (penthouse seems more appropriate for this one) is laid out in a very tasteful, balanced manner, with lots and lots of plants and decorative columns. Copies of “The Form of Art” and “Recipes” were placed here and there. And incredibly, an Exile with a bathroom! With two bathtubs! I stopped to wash my hands, and discovered that the mirror did not work, alas. Every time I set out on a mish for her, I thought of the irony: a barefooted aesthete with unimaginably refined musical tastes, surrounded on the rude streets by posturing swarms of “Madonnas” and “Janets”. No wonder she hired me; it must make her cry to set foot outside her door!
1. Code or Coda
Anyway, Yttri elaborates on a theme I first noticed with Lotus: that music can be a powerful behavior modifier. And she likes to steal things. In this standard break-and-enter, Yttri wants the only existing copy of a new, marvelous composition. The standard enemies opposed me, and were dealt with in the standard manner. Two ways to get it, find the combination in a desk for the safe, or hack a computer to disable the safe. To be on the “safe” side, I did both. Why the manuscript had to be purloined was unclear, since documentary materials have been clandestinely captured by cameras for almost a hundred years. Maybe she was also sending someone a message? Maybe she collects artifacts, like the Digger or Hypatia? We do not know. Walked in past a fidgety Bell Madonna, little knowing how soon I would be feeling fidgety myself, in the next mission.
2. Free Music
One thing leads to another, after savoring the work of this composer, Yttri craves more. Not only that, she wants to free his mind. This entails grabbing him and escorting him to a Zionist base for the Pill. And naturally, everyone for a kilometer around wants to frustrate this. For example, as I waited inside with the composer, two 51-level elite guards outside kept firing at me _through_ the door, and shrugged off my repeated devastation fields and code nukes. So, after one failure, I went out through the back door, obliterating every Bell from here to kingdom come, and got the composer safely to Zion. What memories it brought back, of other escort missions from hell!
3. An Instrumental
Yttri seemed quite serious about this; the air hissed with tension as she explained in a low, menacing voice. An instrument of hers has been stolen, and “I am charging you with its return. Do not fail me in this”. It reminded me of Hypatia’s first mission, where she wants you to retrieve a lent book. Unlike your sponsor, the target is no wilting aesthete, and within ten harrowing seconds I was on death’s door. I was tempted to buy a ukulele from a street vendor and say “Oh, he decompiled it and recompiled it, and this is how it came out”, but I persisted. It turns out that the malefactor has the instrument on his person, so it’s more likely to be a kazoo than a Stradivarius!
4. Blood Music
Remember the Coroner? The creepy guy from downtown? With the spooky experiments? Well, he’s back, and in possession of a street performer with some information about blood drinkers which Yttri wants. I paused before busting in, thinking of past missions, and many deaths, mostly mine. They were still unsettling. I came across a virus and on a whim put it into the station’s mainframe; the staff took a dim view of this. At the end I staggered to a phone booth and uploaded, and this is what I got: “The data is very interesting…very interesting indeed. Thank you.” Big deal!
The Bells were much in evidence here; several times I passed two Bell Madonnas standing mournfully over a fallen third.
5. Beat the Matrix
The freed composer has made a composition for Yttri, and now some of Tick Tock’s men have taken an interest in it and are searching for it. For someone with Tick Tock’s quiet obsessions, this seems out of character; maybe I don’t know him as well as I think. The task itself was simple: kill three foes and open one safe. At the end Yttri murmurs about how the works of a master are beautiful to behold and she is looking forward to examining this one. The thing is, composers seldom venture into hardware construction, so it’s hard to imagine how Yttri’s guy ever came up with this scheme. Especially for a metronome!
Initially interesting, this suite does not have the thematic depth of similar ones such as Lotus’s. Most of the missions are one-stop fights; three opponents, physically separated, are the rule, permitting easy divide-and-conquer. For missions set largely in Achan, mainly accessible to low-level adventurers, this is okay. The second mission is the most challenging, as escort missions usually are. The connections with the Coroner and Tick Tock add interest. The ubiquitous, vulgar Bells were festive, moody touches.
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with other reviews and writings relevant to MxO.
Everything about Yttri shouts “I am special!”. The loopy braids, the white pantsuit outfit and halter. The bare feet! Her plush Achan lair at 606, 27, -39 (penthouse seems more appropriate for this one) is laid out in a very tasteful, balanced manner, with lots and lots of plants and decorative columns. Copies of “The Form of Art” and “Recipes” were placed here and there. And incredibly, an Exile with a bathroom! With two bathtubs! I stopped to wash my hands, and discovered that the mirror did not work, alas. Every time I set out on a mish for her, I thought of the irony: a barefooted aesthete with unimaginably refined musical tastes, surrounded on the rude streets by posturing swarms of “Madonnas” and “Janets”. No wonder she hired me; it must make her cry to set foot outside her door!
1. Code or Coda
Anyway, Yttri elaborates on a theme I first noticed with Lotus: that music can be a powerful behavior modifier. And she likes to steal things. In this standard break-and-enter, Yttri wants the only existing copy of a new, marvelous composition. The standard enemies opposed me, and were dealt with in the standard manner. Two ways to get it, find the combination in a desk for the safe, or hack a computer to disable the safe. To be on the “safe” side, I did both. Why the manuscript had to be purloined was unclear, since documentary materials have been clandestinely captured by cameras for almost a hundred years. Maybe she was also sending someone a message? Maybe she collects artifacts, like the Digger or Hypatia? We do not know. Walked in past a fidgety Bell Madonna, little knowing how soon I would be feeling fidgety myself, in the next mission.
2. Free Music
One thing leads to another, after savoring the work of this composer, Yttri craves more. Not only that, she wants to free his mind. This entails grabbing him and escorting him to a Zionist base for the Pill. And naturally, everyone for a kilometer around wants to frustrate this. For example, as I waited inside with the composer, two 51-level elite guards outside kept firing at me _through_ the door, and shrugged off my repeated devastation fields and code nukes. So, after one failure, I went out through the back door, obliterating every Bell from here to kingdom come, and got the composer safely to Zion. What memories it brought back, of other escort missions from hell!
3. An Instrumental
Yttri seemed quite serious about this; the air hissed with tension as she explained in a low, menacing voice. An instrument of hers has been stolen, and “I am charging you with its return. Do not fail me in this”. It reminded me of Hypatia’s first mission, where she wants you to retrieve a lent book. Unlike your sponsor, the target is no wilting aesthete, and within ten harrowing seconds I was on death’s door. I was tempted to buy a ukulele from a street vendor and say “Oh, he decompiled it and recompiled it, and this is how it came out”, but I persisted. It turns out that the malefactor has the instrument on his person, so it’s more likely to be a kazoo than a Stradivarius!
4. Blood Music
Remember the Coroner? The creepy guy from downtown? With the spooky experiments? Well, he’s back, and in possession of a street performer with some information about blood drinkers which Yttri wants. I paused before busting in, thinking of past missions, and many deaths, mostly mine. They were still unsettling. I came across a virus and on a whim put it into the station’s mainframe; the staff took a dim view of this. At the end I staggered to a phone booth and uploaded, and this is what I got: “The data is very interesting…very interesting indeed. Thank you.” Big deal!
The Bells were much in evidence here; several times I passed two Bell Madonnas standing mournfully over a fallen third.
5. Beat the Matrix
The freed composer has made a composition for Yttri, and now some of Tick Tock’s men have taken an interest in it and are searching for it. For someone with Tick Tock’s quiet obsessions, this seems out of character; maybe I don’t know him as well as I think. The task itself was simple: kill three foes and open one safe. At the end Yttri murmurs about how the works of a master are beautiful to behold and she is looking forward to examining this one. The thing is, composers seldom venture into hardware construction, so it’s hard to imagine how Yttri’s guy ever came up with this scheme. Especially for a metronome!
Initially interesting, this suite does not have the thematic depth of similar ones such as Lotus’s. Most of the missions are one-stop fights; three opponents, physically separated, are the rule, permitting easy divide-and-conquer. For missions set largely in Achan, mainly accessible to low-level adventurers, this is okay. The second mission is the most challenging, as escort missions usually are. The connections with the Coroner and Tick Tock add interest. The ubiquitous, vulgar Bells were festive, moody touches.
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with other reviews and writings relevant to MxO.
Sugar Shack 31: Exile Contact Missions: Mr. Po and The Inner Light
Sugar Shack 31: Exile Contact Missions: Mr. Po and The Inner Light
Our sage stands on a quiet street corner in Kowloon (226, -4, 424), in dark robes, like Kwang Kai-chang from Kung Fu, baldheaded and bare-footed. His missions are some of the most absorbing I have ever run, due to the wisdom he dispenses, and the stories they tell. Most of the Exiles live their coded lives impervious to the life and deaths of the redpill population. That is, they fight us or they ignore us. Few do business with us or understand us, as Mr. Po does. He understands the cravings of the human heart as few do. This is indeed a classic suite of missions which absolutely no one should miss.
1. Shadow Play
“An inquisitive mouse finds many morsels the further afield he looks. I am an old and hungry mouse. Go to these addresses and search their computers for tasty bits.”
So starts this most exceptional mission. It has three parts, each building on the one preceding, which open your eyes to many a heart lost in the Matrix. Do them soon!
Part 1. You casually peruse three computers in an Exiles service agency. You discover a distraught redpill in tears as he tries to decide whether or not to return to his old life to visit the woman he left behind. Go, I told him, she would want you to. I glanced at the computer screen and saw her on a bed with a scrapbook of news stories about a missing man and the police search for him. As I stood there, feeling for her and for him, the Exile, a superb salesman, sidled up to me and said in a soft voice “Are you sure there isn’t someone you’d like to see? Mother? Father? A child perhaps? A lost lover?” I thought of my parents and family, and how I had left them with no warning. What had I been thinking, to do this to them? He asked me again, and I quickly left. No, actually I fled.
The next two computers there had more information about this. But nothing dramatic. Mr. Po’s take on this surprised me: “Nothing so lightens the heart as when a fool awakens from his folly. Still, more must be revealed. Continue your search”. Oddly enough, continuing my search took me right back to Mr. Po’s building.
Part 2. There I found a Machines office where they have been monitoring these services, apparently trying to run sweeps for indications of regret in the population. This leads my sponsor to intone “That which is hidden can never know the light. That which lives in the light will never know peace. The search continues.” Yes, Master.
Part 3. I met a kindred spirit. In an abandoned redpill extraction center, Captain Wasat and an aide maintain a lonely vigil. Reading his journals shows the bitterness he feels about his daughter, left unrecruited in the pods. Another computer shows records of multiple remittances from him to the Exile agency in Part 1. I tried hacking his computer to actually get the files (brashly, while he was standing next to me) and though I succeeded, he did nothing and I found nothing. I could tell he did not care what anyone did. I left him as I found him, waiting for some unknown release.
I felt shaken by all this, and left Kowloon to seek the reassurance of my clan. As I stood at the hardline, I heard Mr. Po intone “Wisdom lights the path and Strength walks it”. Perhaps this means the Cypherites know of these services…or run them…
2. Incubation
We plunge from the sublime in Mish 1 to the profane in Mish 2, an insufferable escort mish which took multiple tries to get right. I started to worry as soon as I heard Mr. Po’s suggestive directions: “One rabbit alone is a meal for an observant hawk. Many rabbits keep the hawk sated and still there are more rabbits. Retrieve the rabbit at this address”. I felt my ears growing.
As soon as you contact the bluepill in question, you are attacked. As soon as you leave the elevator, you are attacked. As soon as you leave the building, you are attacked. As you pass within a lightyear of any mob on the way to the destination, you are attacked. A single stray shot or ricochet or harsh word instantly kills the bluepill, and you get to start over. Any questions?
I tried leaving the bluepill in the elevator while I cleaned out the lobby. Then leaving her in the lobby while I cleared the way to the destination. By the time I had reached the destination and killed the mobs, the ones back at the starting point had regenerated. I tried tucking her in buildings along the way while I re-cleaned the route, and mobs inside the building killed her. Finally I gave up in disgust, and asked some friends to help me. This worked beautifully, and soon I was reading Mr. Po’s words, “The path to enlightenment begins with a single step. The purpose of the rabbit will become clear to you in time.” And perhaps his observation about a multitude of rabbits was a hint about the right way to approach this perverse mission.
3. Isolation
“A lone bird in a nest of vipers is surely dead. A broken nest offers an opportunity for escape.”
So begins this very well-constructed and very ingenious story. It starts out simple: rescue a redpill and return him to Zion. But when you do, they try to kill him! It turns out that there’s some “misunderstanding” and one Zionist captain holds this guy responsible for the death of his wife. So, his bridges burned with Zion, he decides to join Mr. Po’s organization, and you drop him off with some of Mr. Po’s operatives. They are not surprised at all. Somehow, they observe, things always seem to work out just right for Mr. Po and his plans. I was pondering this as Mr. Po paid us all off and observed, “opportunity is made, not found”. What wise words they are.
4. Leaders of Men
“As a diseased finger must be struck off, so must a toxin be rid from the body.”
After the intricacies of the earlier missions, now Mr. Po eases up. A traitor must be brewkoed, and that’s it. The first location is empty, but the second one yields the principal. The traitor is disgruntled because Mr. Po keeps him on such a tight leash; he cannot stray more than a short distance from a hardware tether. It was hard to blame him, but I fulfilled my mission nonetheless. After all, as Mr. Po reminds me at the end, “pain is a part of life”. Mr. Po, it seems, moonlights as a CSR….
5. New Dawn Fades
“A lamb has gone astray and a good shepherd knows to bring it back to the flock”
A Zionist operative wants to switch, and we must assist him. First I helped him get to a hardline (a vastly easier escort mish that #2, by the way). Then we help him in the Desert of the Real. This involved “that which all men fear”, which turned out not to be, umm, what I thought it would be. I purloined a virus (neat test tube graphic), uploaded it to incapacitate the defector’s old hovercraft crew, watched them fall like leaves, and left. Note: do not engage the Zionists; just go straight to the computer and upload the virus. This permitted another hovercraft to dock with them and take aboard the defector. Who knows what else they might have felt like doing? Operetta has been involved in this in some capacity; she seems to be at odds with Mr. Po.
At the end of this fascinating mission, Mr. Po nods at you and says with quiet strength, “Just so. We are whole”. And that is the end. How ironic that at this instant my connection with him broke, and forever after when I asked him for a mish, he blandly said he had no more work for me.
These missions have great emotional resonance, and I thoroughly enjoyed them. I love their backstories. They reminded me of being human, and of the life I had left behind when I took the red pill (accidentally in my case). I absolutely recommend them. But bring lots and lots of friends for the second one.
Special thanks go to Warboy from the MegaCity Police Department, and Sattakan, Brightangel, Calliente, and Roukan from The Collective for helping me with these. I doubt that I would ever have finished the second mission without them. And I enjoyed all of them much more with such great company. Mad props to them all!
This mission review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with previous reviews and other writings relevant to MxO.
Our sage stands on a quiet street corner in Kowloon (226, -4, 424), in dark robes, like Kwang Kai-chang from Kung Fu, baldheaded and bare-footed. His missions are some of the most absorbing I have ever run, due to the wisdom he dispenses, and the stories they tell. Most of the Exiles live their coded lives impervious to the life and deaths of the redpill population. That is, they fight us or they ignore us. Few do business with us or understand us, as Mr. Po does. He understands the cravings of the human heart as few do. This is indeed a classic suite of missions which absolutely no one should miss.
1. Shadow Play
“An inquisitive mouse finds many morsels the further afield he looks. I am an old and hungry mouse. Go to these addresses and search their computers for tasty bits.”
So starts this most exceptional mission. It has three parts, each building on the one preceding, which open your eyes to many a heart lost in the Matrix. Do them soon!
Part 1. You casually peruse three computers in an Exiles service agency. You discover a distraught redpill in tears as he tries to decide whether or not to return to his old life to visit the woman he left behind. Go, I told him, she would want you to. I glanced at the computer screen and saw her on a bed with a scrapbook of news stories about a missing man and the police search for him. As I stood there, feeling for her and for him, the Exile, a superb salesman, sidled up to me and said in a soft voice “Are you sure there isn’t someone you’d like to see? Mother? Father? A child perhaps? A lost lover?” I thought of my parents and family, and how I had left them with no warning. What had I been thinking, to do this to them? He asked me again, and I quickly left. No, actually I fled.
The next two computers there had more information about this. But nothing dramatic. Mr. Po’s take on this surprised me: “Nothing so lightens the heart as when a fool awakens from his folly. Still, more must be revealed. Continue your search”. Oddly enough, continuing my search took me right back to Mr. Po’s building.
Part 2. There I found a Machines office where they have been monitoring these services, apparently trying to run sweeps for indications of regret in the population. This leads my sponsor to intone “That which is hidden can never know the light. That which lives in the light will never know peace. The search continues.” Yes, Master.
Part 3. I met a kindred spirit. In an abandoned redpill extraction center, Captain Wasat and an aide maintain a lonely vigil. Reading his journals shows the bitterness he feels about his daughter, left unrecruited in the pods. Another computer shows records of multiple remittances from him to the Exile agency in Part 1. I tried hacking his computer to actually get the files (brashly, while he was standing next to me) and though I succeeded, he did nothing and I found nothing. I could tell he did not care what anyone did. I left him as I found him, waiting for some unknown release.
I felt shaken by all this, and left Kowloon to seek the reassurance of my clan. As I stood at the hardline, I heard Mr. Po intone “Wisdom lights the path and Strength walks it”. Perhaps this means the Cypherites know of these services…or run them…
2. Incubation
We plunge from the sublime in Mish 1 to the profane in Mish 2, an insufferable escort mish which took multiple tries to get right. I started to worry as soon as I heard Mr. Po’s suggestive directions: “One rabbit alone is a meal for an observant hawk. Many rabbits keep the hawk sated and still there are more rabbits. Retrieve the rabbit at this address”. I felt my ears growing.
As soon as you contact the bluepill in question, you are attacked. As soon as you leave the elevator, you are attacked. As soon as you leave the building, you are attacked. As you pass within a lightyear of any mob on the way to the destination, you are attacked. A single stray shot or ricochet or harsh word instantly kills the bluepill, and you get to start over. Any questions?
I tried leaving the bluepill in the elevator while I cleaned out the lobby. Then leaving her in the lobby while I cleared the way to the destination. By the time I had reached the destination and killed the mobs, the ones back at the starting point had regenerated. I tried tucking her in buildings along the way while I re-cleaned the route, and mobs inside the building killed her. Finally I gave up in disgust, and asked some friends to help me. This worked beautifully, and soon I was reading Mr. Po’s words, “The path to enlightenment begins with a single step. The purpose of the rabbit will become clear to you in time.” And perhaps his observation about a multitude of rabbits was a hint about the right way to approach this perverse mission.
3. Isolation
“A lone bird in a nest of vipers is surely dead. A broken nest offers an opportunity for escape.”
So begins this very well-constructed and very ingenious story. It starts out simple: rescue a redpill and return him to Zion. But when you do, they try to kill him! It turns out that there’s some “misunderstanding” and one Zionist captain holds this guy responsible for the death of his wife. So, his bridges burned with Zion, he decides to join Mr. Po’s organization, and you drop him off with some of Mr. Po’s operatives. They are not surprised at all. Somehow, they observe, things always seem to work out just right for Mr. Po and his plans. I was pondering this as Mr. Po paid us all off and observed, “opportunity is made, not found”. What wise words they are.
4. Leaders of Men
“As a diseased finger must be struck off, so must a toxin be rid from the body.”
After the intricacies of the earlier missions, now Mr. Po eases up. A traitor must be brewkoed, and that’s it. The first location is empty, but the second one yields the principal. The traitor is disgruntled because Mr. Po keeps him on such a tight leash; he cannot stray more than a short distance from a hardware tether. It was hard to blame him, but I fulfilled my mission nonetheless. After all, as Mr. Po reminds me at the end, “pain is a part of life”. Mr. Po, it seems, moonlights as a CSR….
5. New Dawn Fades
“A lamb has gone astray and a good shepherd knows to bring it back to the flock”
A Zionist operative wants to switch, and we must assist him. First I helped him get to a hardline (a vastly easier escort mish that #2, by the way). Then we help him in the Desert of the Real. This involved “that which all men fear”, which turned out not to be, umm, what I thought it would be. I purloined a virus (neat test tube graphic), uploaded it to incapacitate the defector’s old hovercraft crew, watched them fall like leaves, and left. Note: do not engage the Zionists; just go straight to the computer and upload the virus. This permitted another hovercraft to dock with them and take aboard the defector. Who knows what else they might have felt like doing? Operetta has been involved in this in some capacity; she seems to be at odds with Mr. Po.
At the end of this fascinating mission, Mr. Po nods at you and says with quiet strength, “Just so. We are whole”. And that is the end. How ironic that at this instant my connection with him broke, and forever after when I asked him for a mish, he blandly said he had no more work for me.
These missions have great emotional resonance, and I thoroughly enjoyed them. I love their backstories. They reminded me of being human, and of the life I had left behind when I took the red pill (accidentally in my case). I absolutely recommend them. But bring lots and lots of friends for the second one.
Special thanks go to Warboy from the MegaCity Police Department, and Sattakan, Brightangel, Calliente, and Roukan from The Collective for helping me with these. I doubt that I would ever have finished the second mission without them. And I enjoyed all of them much more with such great company. Mad props to them all!
This mission review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with previous reviews and other writings relevant to MxO.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Sugar Shack 30: Exile Contact Missions: Downtown in Review
Sugar Shack 30: Exile Contact Missions: Downtown in Review
Over on QA, Zurish from The Collective has been mowing down people in duels like he’s Agent Smith! (We may rename him The Lawnmower Man.) Alas, I haven’t had a chance to try his tricks yet since QA and I are seldom on at the same time. So, while waiting for QA to bounce back, I thought I’d look back over the downtown missions. First, though, some more thoughts on what constitutes a good mish, with reference to the downtown Exile crowd. (A more in-depth discussion of this takes place in Sugar Shack 18, from December 10 last year.)
Key Incredients:
1. Personality. The Weaver’s constant hectoring and complaining was fun! Madame T.’s engaging plays on words delighted me. The Chef’s irrepressible speculations about the culinary arts were great. You remember talking to them long after the missions are done. This needs only wit, which maybe explains why not all had it.
2. Good Story. The Chef’s search for perfect ingredients, the Bartender’s efforts to please the Merovingian, Tick Tock’s desire to penetrate Mr. Black’s organization. These are the hallmarks of a good mish suite. A good mish suite usually, but not always, comes from a well-developed personality.
3. Counter-intuitive Strategy. The Jeweler’s escort mission is the best example of this. There are few examples of this, understandably so. Bribes and bluffs and threats are too little used, usually the hard way is the only way.
4. Unexpected Encounters. Meeting Silver and the Chessman was cool. Delivering a gift to Beryl was fabulous! As a Machinist, running into Persephone was phenomenal.
5. A Sense of the Life of the Community. Sammy’s missions were pretty simple. However, seeing the effort to stop gang wars, and the efforts by the Hellions to undermine it, was cool.
6. Physical Settings. Nothing much was done with this that I noticed, except the cool (but almost identical) offices of the Jeweler and Nicky G.
With that in mind, here are my thoughts on the most memorable missions from downtown. All are worth doing, and all represent the content we say we crave, but you’re just nuts to miss the ones below.
Best Missions: The Jeweler (exceptionally challenging mission, and great personality!) and the Bartender (meeting Persephone and being called attractive!) and the Sculptress (fabulous artspeak and a gift at the end!) and the Chef (wonderful dialogue and everything goes awry, and surprisingly, no cake!).
Best Personality: The Chef, the Weaver, Madame T., the Jeweler, Hypatia. You remember how they talk, and what they seek long after the mishes are done.
Most Unsettling: The Coroner, by far. His experiments, and his requiring the sacrifice of the living, unsettled me. And the epic beta encounter from his first mish is something I will never forget! Nicky G., too, once you realize how cold and evil she is she is. The same goes for the Newsie.
Personal Fave: Hypatia. Like her, I love books, and I felt so close to her while doing her bidding that I wish she had another five. I even felt bad later when I was required to act against her for other Exiles. Plus, she looks like me. The Sculptress is a very close second.
Biggest Mysteries:
1. Madame T.: How did a redpill ever get so far? What was her secret? What is her story?
2. The Auditor: Just who’s trying to use memory leaks to being down the Matrix, anyway? This could be well-used to foreshadow future storyline events. We can only hope.
3. Mr. Black: What’s with his family, and why is it soooo dysfunctional?
4. Pepper: How did such an inveterate screw-up ever become an Exile with her own organization? And why on earth would anyone follow her?
5. Nicky G.: What is it with her and the Blue Book?
6. Clubs: Why do so many Exiles associate themselves with clubs and bars? And why do almost none of their missions ever reflect this?
Biggest Wish: I would like to see more backstory. It could be revealed in conversation, in stuff from the Operator, in offhand comments from miscellaneous NPCs. Especially, when I have to get books and pages and documents and letters, I would like to be able to skim them and get some sense of their highlights and key points. I want this soooo much. We see it in the documents from the Pandora’s Box missions; I would like to see it everywhere possible.
Final Thought: Exiles need not be enraging to be engaging. Sister Margaret from Mara is the perfect example of someone who assigns difficult mishes, yet you have a good feeling about them when you’re done: you help people, bring them together, etc. Good missions involving good deeds are very possible. Sammy’s and Lotus’s come close; it would be nice to see some more.
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with other reviews and writings relevant to MxO.
Over on QA, Zurish from The Collective has been mowing down people in duels like he’s Agent Smith! (We may rename him The Lawnmower Man.) Alas, I haven’t had a chance to try his tricks yet since QA and I are seldom on at the same time. So, while waiting for QA to bounce back, I thought I’d look back over the downtown missions. First, though, some more thoughts on what constitutes a good mish, with reference to the downtown Exile crowd. (A more in-depth discussion of this takes place in Sugar Shack 18, from December 10 last year.)
Key Incredients:
1. Personality. The Weaver’s constant hectoring and complaining was fun! Madame T.’s engaging plays on words delighted me. The Chef’s irrepressible speculations about the culinary arts were great. You remember talking to them long after the missions are done. This needs only wit, which maybe explains why not all had it.
2. Good Story. The Chef’s search for perfect ingredients, the Bartender’s efforts to please the Merovingian, Tick Tock’s desire to penetrate Mr. Black’s organization. These are the hallmarks of a good mish suite. A good mish suite usually, but not always, comes from a well-developed personality.
3. Counter-intuitive Strategy. The Jeweler’s escort mission is the best example of this. There are few examples of this, understandably so. Bribes and bluffs and threats are too little used, usually the hard way is the only way.
4. Unexpected Encounters. Meeting Silver and the Chessman was cool. Delivering a gift to Beryl was fabulous! As a Machinist, running into Persephone was phenomenal.
5. A Sense of the Life of the Community. Sammy’s missions were pretty simple. However, seeing the effort to stop gang wars, and the efforts by the Hellions to undermine it, was cool.
6. Physical Settings. Nothing much was done with this that I noticed, except the cool (but almost identical) offices of the Jeweler and Nicky G.
With that in mind, here are my thoughts on the most memorable missions from downtown. All are worth doing, and all represent the content we say we crave, but you’re just nuts to miss the ones below.
Best Missions: The Jeweler (exceptionally challenging mission, and great personality!) and the Bartender (meeting Persephone and being called attractive!) and the Sculptress (fabulous artspeak and a gift at the end!) and the Chef (wonderful dialogue and everything goes awry, and surprisingly, no cake!).
Best Personality: The Chef, the Weaver, Madame T., the Jeweler, Hypatia. You remember how they talk, and what they seek long after the mishes are done.
Most Unsettling: The Coroner, by far. His experiments, and his requiring the sacrifice of the living, unsettled me. And the epic beta encounter from his first mish is something I will never forget! Nicky G., too, once you realize how cold and evil she is she is. The same goes for the Newsie.
Personal Fave: Hypatia. Like her, I love books, and I felt so close to her while doing her bidding that I wish she had another five. I even felt bad later when I was required to act against her for other Exiles. Plus, she looks like me. The Sculptress is a very close second.
Biggest Mysteries:
1. Madame T.: How did a redpill ever get so far? What was her secret? What is her story?
2. The Auditor: Just who’s trying to use memory leaks to being down the Matrix, anyway? This could be well-used to foreshadow future storyline events. We can only hope.
3. Mr. Black: What’s with his family, and why is it soooo dysfunctional?
4. Pepper: How did such an inveterate screw-up ever become an Exile with her own organization? And why on earth would anyone follow her?
5. Nicky G.: What is it with her and the Blue Book?
6. Clubs: Why do so many Exiles associate themselves with clubs and bars? And why do almost none of their missions ever reflect this?
Biggest Wish: I would like to see more backstory. It could be revealed in conversation, in stuff from the Operator, in offhand comments from miscellaneous NPCs. Especially, when I have to get books and pages and documents and letters, I would like to be able to skim them and get some sense of their highlights and key points. I want this soooo much. We see it in the documents from the Pandora’s Box missions; I would like to see it everywhere possible.
Final Thought: Exiles need not be enraging to be engaging. Sister Margaret from Mara is the perfect example of someone who assigns difficult mishes, yet you have a good feeling about them when you’re done: you help people, bring them together, etc. Good missions involving good deeds are very possible. Sammy’s and Lotus’s come close; it would be nice to see some more.
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with other reviews and writings relevant to MxO.
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Sugar Shack 29: Exile Contact Missions: The Newsie: Someone with Moxie!
Sugar Shack 29: Exile Contact Missions: The Newsie: Someone with Moxie!
Just finding the mission contact Nicky G. was no small matter, necessitating wandering through the upper, very non-intuitive reaches of Club Paradise. What a pleasure to find The Newsie so easily! He waits for you right by a newsstand in Park East, at -517, 13, 134. He seemed to be freezing, standing there in a sleeveless T-shirt in a snowstorm! He has intent dark eyes and the newspaper boy’s hat pushed forward. And while he looks like a kid, he runs his own news organization, as we soon (in the first mish) see. He thinks big, and he thinks violent. Data-Miners need not apply!
1. Scoop
A competitor has some files, and he wants me to steal them. (I went to college for this?) My operator said I should be able to sneak in and out, and this strategy worked fine until I ran into my first guard. That is to say, it didn’t work at all. One bluepill stopped to tell me I had pretty eyes, and as I stopped to screenshot this, I died. Apparently this was a strategy for distraction, and it worked. The next time I was able to run in, dodge bullets, avoid combat, and filch the file. The current owner of the information was a noisy, picky jerk, like the news editor in Spiderman, blowing up when someone forgets to put cream in his coffee.
In the end you drop off the file at the Newsie’s editorial offices where his folks are thrilled, as is their boss, who exclaims, “Nice job, Sugaree! Come see me later…I can use someone with moxie like you!”
2. Unhealthy Competition
After confessing that he has taken a shine to you, he wants you to kill a rival, Prior. It’s a curious lapse of professionalism, to say the least! It seems someone has been cutting into his regular sales. When I arrive at the heavily defended site, one lieutenant flunky crows about “you are so dead” until I smoked the guards. Then he begs you not to hurt him, and takes you right to Prior. Then he blurts out to Prior “I’m sorry. Sugaree made me do it! I was just so scared!”. His boss was not impressed. Of course when the fighting is over, he is nowhere to be seen. Nice details!
3. Home Delivery
Like most newspapers, the Newsie’s has specialized editions for different target readers. One such special edition goes to Dame White, who enjoys reading its news “that’s not, ah, generally available”. The Newsie likes her, calling her “a real classy broad”, and bidding you to make haste with her newspaper: “Move fast and she might even give you a nice big tip!”. Oh, the irony! Here I am, a ship’s Captain and a member of my clan’s Council, and I am reduced to delivering newspapers! But I am never one to turn down a chance for face time with a major Exile, so off I went!
It turns out that the Hellions are making a major move against Dame White. And amidst all this chaos, the Newsie still wants the paper delivered! I felt like Kevin Costner in The Postman! However, I took the liberty of saving Dame White first, scoring big points with her. I know she’ll be really nice to me when I get to her during the Pandora’s Box mishes.
4. To The Source
The Newsie is a curious amalgam of professionalism and fanaticism. After going the extra mile in the last mish to please a customer, now he is asking us to not just kill a competitor, but kill a _source_ for a rival newspaper! Where will this end? Burning the forests his competitors use for wood pulp? Shooting his rival’s customers? Blowing up the trucks his competitors use to ship newspapers?
In fact, this mish is surprisingly easy, which is a letdown. Just talk to enough people until one gives you something, and instantly your mission objectives tell you who to kill. Kind of a disappointment. This was basically a mystery, and it wasn’t very difficult. In fact, this was the easiest Newsie mish by far!
5. If It Bleeds, It Leads
If there’s not enough news, you just have to make your own. And killing bluepills doesn’t get headlines, whereas killing powerful programs does. You can see where this leads… Two very tough fights here, and it’s hard to get emotionally involved in this mere killing for attention. By the third murder you’re asked to commit, wiping out White Security (!), word has gotten out and you have to adjust your plans. Just look at the mission map for their areas when you arrive! The irony is that he stands on a corner surrounded by White Security, and now he wants to waste them all! The Newsie realizes his plan is not viable for the long term, and bids you farewell. At the end he did send me an enhanced suit jacket as a going away present, which was nice. But his unconscionable callousness left a bad taste in my mouth.
My two last downtown exiles were Nicky G. and the Newsie. And I have to say they were two of a kind. Both conscience-less, both supremely self-centered, and both monomaniacal. Fortunately they saw me as an asset, ‘cuz they would have slain me without a second thought. Their mishes are so-so on the scale of interest, and their personalities are their most memorable and most disturbing features. A final thought: more backstory would have been appreciated: who his competitors are, who his other special readers are, what the non-public news is for Dame White, how he handles the dynamics of e-news, etc. Some tie-in with The Sentinel seems so no-brainer here; I was shocked that nothing about it turned up. Nor was there any tie-in with another downtown Exile, the Network.
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with other reviews and writings relevant to MxO.
Just finding the mission contact Nicky G. was no small matter, necessitating wandering through the upper, very non-intuitive reaches of Club Paradise. What a pleasure to find The Newsie so easily! He waits for you right by a newsstand in Park East, at -517, 13, 134. He seemed to be freezing, standing there in a sleeveless T-shirt in a snowstorm! He has intent dark eyes and the newspaper boy’s hat pushed forward. And while he looks like a kid, he runs his own news organization, as we soon (in the first mish) see. He thinks big, and he thinks violent. Data-Miners need not apply!
1. Scoop
A competitor has some files, and he wants me to steal them. (I went to college for this?) My operator said I should be able to sneak in and out, and this strategy worked fine until I ran into my first guard. That is to say, it didn’t work at all. One bluepill stopped to tell me I had pretty eyes, and as I stopped to screenshot this, I died. Apparently this was a strategy for distraction, and it worked. The next time I was able to run in, dodge bullets, avoid combat, and filch the file. The current owner of the information was a noisy, picky jerk, like the news editor in Spiderman, blowing up when someone forgets to put cream in his coffee.
In the end you drop off the file at the Newsie’s editorial offices where his folks are thrilled, as is their boss, who exclaims, “Nice job, Sugaree! Come see me later…I can use someone with moxie like you!”
2. Unhealthy Competition
After confessing that he has taken a shine to you, he wants you to kill a rival, Prior. It’s a curious lapse of professionalism, to say the least! It seems someone has been cutting into his regular sales. When I arrive at the heavily defended site, one lieutenant flunky crows about “you are so dead” until I smoked the guards. Then he begs you not to hurt him, and takes you right to Prior. Then he blurts out to Prior “I’m sorry. Sugaree made me do it! I was just so scared!”. His boss was not impressed. Of course when the fighting is over, he is nowhere to be seen. Nice details!
3. Home Delivery
Like most newspapers, the Newsie’s has specialized editions for different target readers. One such special edition goes to Dame White, who enjoys reading its news “that’s not, ah, generally available”. The Newsie likes her, calling her “a real classy broad”, and bidding you to make haste with her newspaper: “Move fast and she might even give you a nice big tip!”. Oh, the irony! Here I am, a ship’s Captain and a member of my clan’s Council, and I am reduced to delivering newspapers! But I am never one to turn down a chance for face time with a major Exile, so off I went!
It turns out that the Hellions are making a major move against Dame White. And amidst all this chaos, the Newsie still wants the paper delivered! I felt like Kevin Costner in The Postman! However, I took the liberty of saving Dame White first, scoring big points with her. I know she’ll be really nice to me when I get to her during the Pandora’s Box mishes.
4. To The Source
The Newsie is a curious amalgam of professionalism and fanaticism. After going the extra mile in the last mish to please a customer, now he is asking us to not just kill a competitor, but kill a _source_ for a rival newspaper! Where will this end? Burning the forests his competitors use for wood pulp? Shooting his rival’s customers? Blowing up the trucks his competitors use to ship newspapers?
In fact, this mish is surprisingly easy, which is a letdown. Just talk to enough people until one gives you something, and instantly your mission objectives tell you who to kill. Kind of a disappointment. This was basically a mystery, and it wasn’t very difficult. In fact, this was the easiest Newsie mish by far!
5. If It Bleeds, It Leads
If there’s not enough news, you just have to make your own. And killing bluepills doesn’t get headlines, whereas killing powerful programs does. You can see where this leads… Two very tough fights here, and it’s hard to get emotionally involved in this mere killing for attention. By the third murder you’re asked to commit, wiping out White Security (!), word has gotten out and you have to adjust your plans. Just look at the mission map for their areas when you arrive! The irony is that he stands on a corner surrounded by White Security, and now he wants to waste them all! The Newsie realizes his plan is not viable for the long term, and bids you farewell. At the end he did send me an enhanced suit jacket as a going away present, which was nice. But his unconscionable callousness left a bad taste in my mouth.
My two last downtown exiles were Nicky G. and the Newsie. And I have to say they were two of a kind. Both conscience-less, both supremely self-centered, and both monomaniacal. Fortunately they saw me as an asset, ‘cuz they would have slain me without a second thought. Their mishes are so-so on the scale of interest, and their personalities are their most memorable and most disturbing features. A final thought: more backstory would have been appreciated: who his competitors are, who his other special readers are, what the non-public news is for Dame White, how he handles the dynamics of e-news, etc. Some tie-in with The Sentinel seems so no-brainer here; I was shocked that nothing about it turned up. Nor was there any tie-in with another downtown Exile, the Network.
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with other reviews and writings relevant to MxO.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Sugar Shack 28: Exile Contact Missions: Nicky G.: Sociopath
Sugar Shack 28: Exile Contact Missions: Nicky G.: Sociopath
For me, just finding Nicky G. seemed like the first mish in itself. Her last reported location, outside Club Paradise Hampton Green, was occupied by a Holiday Helper, so after loading up on cake for The Collective, I sauntered on in to look for her. Much rummaging turned her up on an upper floor above the Club Paradise, at -76, 275, -213 (take the elevator to the 31st floor). Red from her tinted hair to her pumps, she stands waiting to greet you as you walk in. Her office recalls the Jeweler’s almost exactly: the same kind of crowded bookcase, the sumptuous couch, the classy Ikea-style end-tables, and the moody lighting. Even the broken ceiling fan was the same!! The only real difference was the absence of a “Free Zion” poster; perhaps she did not feel she had to make a statement. She made up for this with a painting of dogs playing poker. Maybe that was her statement. After the racket from the Zionist party downstairs, the quiet was a pleasure.
Nicky G. is cagey, her eyes opaque. She assigns missions, but says little about why they matter. With the Jeweler (the comparison is inevitable) I always knew what he wanted and why. In contrast, there seems to be no “why” with Nicky, no drive, no purpose. Her goals were inarticulate, perhaps even to her. Her mayhem seems pointless.
1. Paper Trail (or was that “Paper Trial”?)
“There’s a piece of paper I need very much. It’s a page from a book.” Well, I thought, it doesn’t get much more trivial than this. I sighed and took it anyway. And was I surprised. Reader, I died, and not just once. However, a few Devastation Fields later I was in and had the document. Oddly, I noticed Agents and Blood Drunks on the same force, which I do not think I had noticed before. Overall, a simple mish with a single object at a single location, leaving me wishing there had been more depth: some sense of what was on the page, why it had been separated from the book, who had written it, why Nicky wanted it, etc.
2. Blue Book
Nicky craves a book owned by Mr. Black (this sounds like Hypatia!). First break into an office to sabotage a security feed going to Mr. Black. While looking for Nicky, I happened to interrupt a Zionist party with the FinkGothics and their hangers-on. Sorry, guys! It was for a good cause! Anyway, the first step is to disable Mr. Black’s security feeds with a virus. Then get the book. Finally, I took it to a specialist to vet its authenticity. The volume seems to be quite the hot potato; your operator says to get rid of it before it is traced to you. The expert wants you to leave before you are traced to him. It’s quite a paranoid world that the subdued, intense Nicky G. inhabits.
3. Betray an Exile Code Dealer
The book I stole was exactly what she wanted, but it needs a signature manipulator to unlock it (damn DRM!). Naturally, the Exile who has it (and who first sold the book to Mr. Black) expects a great deal for it. But Nicky has “an alternate plan. Kill him and take it”. The course of this mission is predictable. The interest, part from Nicky’s disturbing callousness, comes from the Exile and his colleagues, one of whom cries out “He was my brother!”. Things went kind of downhill after that.
But Nicky felt upbeat about everything. “Very very good, Sugaree. You might be one of my most effective freelancers.” As if there were any doubt!
4. Leaves
This seems inevitable: Nicky has reached out to supreme bibliophile Hypatia, who’s agreed to give her a few pages missing from the Blue Book. Someone failed to keep a secret, though, and the meeting location is jam-packed with Mr. Black’s folks. Of course they didn’t accept my story about selling Girl Scout cookies and tried to kill me. Hypatia, being no dummy, blew off the meeting. Total accomplishment: zero.
5. Bound for Success
Since last time, Hypatia’s got cold feet, and now we have to steal from her. After killing everyone in the first office, you discover the pages are not there! The second location is more fruitful, and then you simply drop them off with a cut-out. As I got in the elevator, feeling bad about crossing Hypatia, I got a call from Nicky: “You truly are amazing, Sugaree. I think I’m going to curl up with that book for a nice, long read. I’m afraid I won’t have any more work for you for the time being.” And that was it. The falling snow outside felt soothing and cleansing; I stood in it catching snowflakes on my tongue.
In the past I have done a lot of things for a lot of Exiles that I’m not especially proud of. But Nicky seems to me to be the first sociopath I have worked with. She wanted an Exile killed because she didn’t feel like paying him. A couple of dozen Exiles and guards die because she wanted a nice book to read. And rather than cajole Hypatia, she directed me to steal from her. All for a good read! What, haven’t the Exiles access to the Gutenberg Project? The irony in her casual cruelty is that any book could simply be photocopied or snap-lifted with a cell phone camera. Why the death? Why the theft? More on her backstory and the background of the book/pages would have been a superb pleasure.
Her repugnant character aside, she’s pleasant enough to interact with, as long as she doesn’t think you have something she wants. In addition, there’s a pleasant progression to the missions, from a few torn pages to entire texts to a few pages. And it’s cool to see the interaction between her and other Exiles. Also, the mishes avoided being too simple, as some of Sammy’s were. But maybe I’m just partial to bibliophiles. Or sociopaths.
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with other reviews and writings relevant to MxO.
For me, just finding Nicky G. seemed like the first mish in itself. Her last reported location, outside Club Paradise Hampton Green, was occupied by a Holiday Helper, so after loading up on cake for The Collective, I sauntered on in to look for her. Much rummaging turned her up on an upper floor above the Club Paradise, at -76, 275, -213 (take the elevator to the 31st floor). Red from her tinted hair to her pumps, she stands waiting to greet you as you walk in. Her office recalls the Jeweler’s almost exactly: the same kind of crowded bookcase, the sumptuous couch, the classy Ikea-style end-tables, and the moody lighting. Even the broken ceiling fan was the same!! The only real difference was the absence of a “Free Zion” poster; perhaps she did not feel she had to make a statement. She made up for this with a painting of dogs playing poker. Maybe that was her statement. After the racket from the Zionist party downstairs, the quiet was a pleasure.
Nicky G. is cagey, her eyes opaque. She assigns missions, but says little about why they matter. With the Jeweler (the comparison is inevitable) I always knew what he wanted and why. In contrast, there seems to be no “why” with Nicky, no drive, no purpose. Her goals were inarticulate, perhaps even to her. Her mayhem seems pointless.
1. Paper Trail (or was that “Paper Trial”?)
“There’s a piece of paper I need very much. It’s a page from a book.” Well, I thought, it doesn’t get much more trivial than this. I sighed and took it anyway. And was I surprised. Reader, I died, and not just once. However, a few Devastation Fields later I was in and had the document. Oddly, I noticed Agents and Blood Drunks on the same force, which I do not think I had noticed before. Overall, a simple mish with a single object at a single location, leaving me wishing there had been more depth: some sense of what was on the page, why it had been separated from the book, who had written it, why Nicky wanted it, etc.
2. Blue Book
Nicky craves a book owned by Mr. Black (this sounds like Hypatia!). First break into an office to sabotage a security feed going to Mr. Black. While looking for Nicky, I happened to interrupt a Zionist party with the FinkGothics and their hangers-on. Sorry, guys! It was for a good cause! Anyway, the first step is to disable Mr. Black’s security feeds with a virus. Then get the book. Finally, I took it to a specialist to vet its authenticity. The volume seems to be quite the hot potato; your operator says to get rid of it before it is traced to you. The expert wants you to leave before you are traced to him. It’s quite a paranoid world that the subdued, intense Nicky G. inhabits.
3. Betray an Exile Code Dealer
The book I stole was exactly what she wanted, but it needs a signature manipulator to unlock it (damn DRM!). Naturally, the Exile who has it (and who first sold the book to Mr. Black) expects a great deal for it. But Nicky has “an alternate plan. Kill him and take it”. The course of this mission is predictable. The interest, part from Nicky’s disturbing callousness, comes from the Exile and his colleagues, one of whom cries out “He was my brother!”. Things went kind of downhill after that.
But Nicky felt upbeat about everything. “Very very good, Sugaree. You might be one of my most effective freelancers.” As if there were any doubt!
4. Leaves
This seems inevitable: Nicky has reached out to supreme bibliophile Hypatia, who’s agreed to give her a few pages missing from the Blue Book. Someone failed to keep a secret, though, and the meeting location is jam-packed with Mr. Black’s folks. Of course they didn’t accept my story about selling Girl Scout cookies and tried to kill me. Hypatia, being no dummy, blew off the meeting. Total accomplishment: zero.
5. Bound for Success
Since last time, Hypatia’s got cold feet, and now we have to steal from her. After killing everyone in the first office, you discover the pages are not there! The second location is more fruitful, and then you simply drop them off with a cut-out. As I got in the elevator, feeling bad about crossing Hypatia, I got a call from Nicky: “You truly are amazing, Sugaree. I think I’m going to curl up with that book for a nice, long read. I’m afraid I won’t have any more work for you for the time being.” And that was it. The falling snow outside felt soothing and cleansing; I stood in it catching snowflakes on my tongue.
In the past I have done a lot of things for a lot of Exiles that I’m not especially proud of. But Nicky seems to me to be the first sociopath I have worked with. She wanted an Exile killed because she didn’t feel like paying him. A couple of dozen Exiles and guards die because she wanted a nice book to read. And rather than cajole Hypatia, she directed me to steal from her. All for a good read! What, haven’t the Exiles access to the Gutenberg Project? The irony in her casual cruelty is that any book could simply be photocopied or snap-lifted with a cell phone camera. Why the death? Why the theft? More on her backstory and the background of the book/pages would have been a superb pleasure.
Her repugnant character aside, she’s pleasant enough to interact with, as long as she doesn’t think you have something she wants. In addition, there’s a pleasant progression to the missions, from a few torn pages to entire texts to a few pages. And it’s cool to see the interaction between her and other Exiles. Also, the mishes avoided being too simple, as some of Sammy’s were. But maybe I’m just partial to bibliophiles. Or sociopaths.
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with other reviews and writings relevant to MxO.
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Sugar Shack 27: Exile Contact Missions: Sammy Wein: Nothing Ever Goes Just Right
Sugar Shack 27: Exile Contact Missions: Sammy Wein: Nothing Ever Goes Just Right
For an Exile at the nexus of several vicious gang rivalries, Sammy Wein seems quite serene. In fact, with his harshly-cut white hair and piercing dark eyes, he looks more like Andy Warhol or David Bowie, standing across from the entrance of Club Vault (Lamar at 249, 7, -61), raptly contemplating its shapely holiday assistant. He seems to work by himself. He does not have labs, he does not have swarms of assistants, all he has is manipulative ingenuity. His goal is to bring warring groups together, apparently in the belief that peace is good for business.
All his missions are simple and straightforward, but a couple of things make them stand out. First, they’re so straightforward! I mean, they have their wrinkles, but they are easily doable in a couple of hours. No swarms of bads, no out-of-the-blue attacks during escorts, etc. They felt like a breath of fresh air. Second, unlike so many Exiles, Sammy does not seem to just be in this for himself. In fact, most of his missions are related to brokering peace among street gangs. After working with Exiles obsessed with baking and booking, brokering was a pleasant change, believe me.
1. Odd Jobs
His consigliore tells him I’m good and he needs a package delivered. Someone tries to cut in and hijack the delivery. Does this sound familiar, or what? Well, it turns out this is a test. I pass it and he says to come back for some real work. In case I had not noticed, my operator tells me he is still a very dangerous program. Thanks, but isn’t this the kind of thing you should hear _before_ taking on an assignment? The Operator seemed quiescent and passive for these mission suite; maybe he was off playing Second Life or something.
2. Cleaning House
The “real work”. Almost half a dozen street gangs have been at each other’s throats, and Sammy wants to put an end to it. As a preparatory step to arranging a meeting, he needs you to check out a site for the talkfest. Alas! It turns out a sixth gang, the Bookwyrms, is there waiting to cause trouble. Kill three of them and you’re done! For a mission on Hard setting, I was surprised that so few were thrown at me, and that they waited separately in different rooms for me to defeat them piecemeal. Maybe this was the Classics Illustrated version of the Bookwyrms?
3. The Exchange
The Suits are holding a White Security gang member hostage, and the White Security folks have a disk they stole from the Suits. Sammy tasks you with arranging the exchange. I’ll admit I have extreme nerves about anything resembling an escort mission. Happily, though, the White Security hostage is dead, and you don’t need to escort him anywhere! Just kill everyone, take back the disk, and drop it off with one of Sammy’s folks.
There were many neat touches about this one. I spoke with the White Security folks, and one looked at me and answered “Nice shoes”, and then burst out laughing! (Nice foreshadowing, as we see at the end.) Sammy’s cut-out at the end shakes his head commenting about these stupid squabbling gangs. I love touches like this.
4. Keep the Peace
Someone once said that the best way to achieve peace is to kill all the bad people, and that’s exactly what you do here. First the Shades and then the Assassins. When I arrived at the third site, spattered with blood and smelling like a wicked hacker, the third group decided to be more accommodating. Sammy approvingly observes at the end:
“They fear you, Sugaree. That’s the most valuable asset you can have in business.” I purred in satisfaction.
5. Shell Game
Now the five-way negotiation is all set to begin! Three gang representatives are already waiting impatiently, and you need to escort two more to the confab. Strangely, this two-part escort mish is trouble-free! I kept expecting attacks from mobs, from lobby guards, from bystanders, from spontaneously-generating attackers, and from UFOs. But nothing happened. Until I got everyone together, that is. Then you discover that not everyone wants peace as much as Sammy does. Maybe they just don’t fear him enough…
Again, there were many nice touches: the comments of the principals, the way they stood tapping their feet and crossing their arms when you weren’t doing anything. And the escorts helped me in some fights, which was a welcome surprise! Oddly, though, in the final fight, they became wallflowers, standing around like they were waiting for Godot or something.
And so, in the end, peace was not achieved. The lovely downtown streets were safe for strife. The same gangs which hated each other were free to continue their pointless wars, just like at Mara. The only loser was Sammy lost cred with them by failing to enforce his peace, but he did not reveal his disappointment. Instead, he bravely spoke to me about taking a break from peacemaking, and who can blame him? But all was not lost; he gave me a super pair of indigo buffed pumps, as a parting gift. Maybe he was thinking of the long and winding road I have yet to travel.
It’s only recently occurred to me how some Exiles just never get things right. The Chef comes to mind as the best example of course. But like him, Sammy fails and is left gazing vacantly at the Club Vault, waiting with worried eyes for someone to come out and bring him a solution to his woes. I liked his style and I liked his shoes.
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with other reviews and writings relevant to MxO.
For an Exile at the nexus of several vicious gang rivalries, Sammy Wein seems quite serene. In fact, with his harshly-cut white hair and piercing dark eyes, he looks more like Andy Warhol or David Bowie, standing across from the entrance of Club Vault (Lamar at 249, 7, -61), raptly contemplating its shapely holiday assistant. He seems to work by himself. He does not have labs, he does not have swarms of assistants, all he has is manipulative ingenuity. His goal is to bring warring groups together, apparently in the belief that peace is good for business.
All his missions are simple and straightforward, but a couple of things make them stand out. First, they’re so straightforward! I mean, they have their wrinkles, but they are easily doable in a couple of hours. No swarms of bads, no out-of-the-blue attacks during escorts, etc. They felt like a breath of fresh air. Second, unlike so many Exiles, Sammy does not seem to just be in this for himself. In fact, most of his missions are related to brokering peace among street gangs. After working with Exiles obsessed with baking and booking, brokering was a pleasant change, believe me.
1. Odd Jobs
His consigliore tells him I’m good and he needs a package delivered. Someone tries to cut in and hijack the delivery. Does this sound familiar, or what? Well, it turns out this is a test. I pass it and he says to come back for some real work. In case I had not noticed, my operator tells me he is still a very dangerous program. Thanks, but isn’t this the kind of thing you should hear _before_ taking on an assignment? The Operator seemed quiescent and passive for these mission suite; maybe he was off playing Second Life or something.
2. Cleaning House
The “real work”. Almost half a dozen street gangs have been at each other’s throats, and Sammy wants to put an end to it. As a preparatory step to arranging a meeting, he needs you to check out a site for the talkfest. Alas! It turns out a sixth gang, the Bookwyrms, is there waiting to cause trouble. Kill three of them and you’re done! For a mission on Hard setting, I was surprised that so few were thrown at me, and that they waited separately in different rooms for me to defeat them piecemeal. Maybe this was the Classics Illustrated version of the Bookwyrms?
3. The Exchange
The Suits are holding a White Security gang member hostage, and the White Security folks have a disk they stole from the Suits. Sammy tasks you with arranging the exchange. I’ll admit I have extreme nerves about anything resembling an escort mission. Happily, though, the White Security hostage is dead, and you don’t need to escort him anywhere! Just kill everyone, take back the disk, and drop it off with one of Sammy’s folks.
There were many neat touches about this one. I spoke with the White Security folks, and one looked at me and answered “Nice shoes”, and then burst out laughing! (Nice foreshadowing, as we see at the end.) Sammy’s cut-out at the end shakes his head commenting about these stupid squabbling gangs. I love touches like this.
4. Keep the Peace
Someone once said that the best way to achieve peace is to kill all the bad people, and that’s exactly what you do here. First the Shades and then the Assassins. When I arrived at the third site, spattered with blood and smelling like a wicked hacker, the third group decided to be more accommodating. Sammy approvingly observes at the end:
“They fear you, Sugaree. That’s the most valuable asset you can have in business.” I purred in satisfaction.
5. Shell Game
Now the five-way negotiation is all set to begin! Three gang representatives are already waiting impatiently, and you need to escort two more to the confab. Strangely, this two-part escort mish is trouble-free! I kept expecting attacks from mobs, from lobby guards, from bystanders, from spontaneously-generating attackers, and from UFOs. But nothing happened. Until I got everyone together, that is. Then you discover that not everyone wants peace as much as Sammy does. Maybe they just don’t fear him enough…
Again, there were many nice touches: the comments of the principals, the way they stood tapping their feet and crossing their arms when you weren’t doing anything. And the escorts helped me in some fights, which was a welcome surprise! Oddly, though, in the final fight, they became wallflowers, standing around like they were waiting for Godot or something.
And so, in the end, peace was not achieved. The lovely downtown streets were safe for strife. The same gangs which hated each other were free to continue their pointless wars, just like at Mara. The only loser was Sammy lost cred with them by failing to enforce his peace, but he did not reveal his disappointment. Instead, he bravely spoke to me about taking a break from peacemaking, and who can blame him? But all was not lost; he gave me a super pair of indigo buffed pumps, as a parting gift. Maybe he was thinking of the long and winding road I have yet to travel.
It’s only recently occurred to me how some Exiles just never get things right. The Chef comes to mind as the best example of course. But like him, Sammy fails and is left gazing vacantly at the Club Vault, waiting with worried eyes for someone to come out and bring him a solution to his woes. I liked his style and I liked his shoes.
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with other reviews and writings relevant to MxO.
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