Hi Guys,
Thanks for your encouraging replies and sharing your expertise and insights with me. As I’ve developed my understanding of what can and cannot be achieved, I see that my original design for a Tron-based MMO is not going to fly given the Jupiter Engine's limited command set and "hardcoded" environments. But having said that, I do have an idea that I think would still be cool (and hard) to try. It involves two maps hosted on two servers; the first is open to all, the second is password protected (see below).
[This mission is divided into two parts, or chapters. I will refer to these parts as Part 1, and Part 2 respectively when necessary. These missions are intended to be played by a group of 4 Players, or less if you want a greater challenge. Part 1 should not have a time limit imposed on it if possible. If a time limit is unavoidable, then set it to whatever the maximum time allowed for a Team Derez Match can be.]
Part 1 Plot:
In the wake of the "Mobile Server Disaster" that ended fCon's ambitions in Tron 2.0, the company reorganized and began pouring resources into the development of its own A.I. program like Ma3a to try and solve the riddle of the correction algorithms for themselves. Unfortunately something went wrong, and the A.I. they developed went rogue and took over the hosting fCon Server. Fortunately, Turing Protocol software had been installed prior to the mishap, and it has successfully quarantined the A.I. in an encrypted core memory partition. But no one knows how long this measure will continue to hold the wily A.I., so fCon executives have appealed to Encom for assistance. Encom CEO, Alan Bradley, with concurrence from his Son, the Deputy VP in charge of Encom’s R&D division, has agreed to dispatch an Emergency Action team into the fCon server to deal with the rogue A.I. You are a member of that elite team.
Part 1 Layout: The server is circular in structure, and consists of three concentric Partitions forming an Outer ring, a Middle ring, and the encrypted Core Memory partition at the center. The Outer and Middle partitions are each further sub-divided into four, walled-off Sectors, each with a single archway at its far end that leads to the next Sector in the sequence (1 thru 8 respectively). These archways are protected by force fields that are bit-activated, and encrypted (Permission locked). The Player's arrive in Sector 1, automatically acquiring the Disc Primitive, and Y-Amp subroutine. To leave the Sector, the Players will need to locate the Archive Bin containing a single copy of Permission 2, and then find (and transfer power to) an activation bit in order to be able to de-activate the force field leading to sector 2. (This task is repeated for each Sector, with the Permission # needed always being the same as the # of the next Sector to be entered). The Player holding the Permission must be protected from being derezzed, since if they die, they take the permission with them! (Each permission is needed only once to get through the archway at the other end of the Sector in which it was found, so different Players can be the “ball carrier” in different Sectors.) Also in each Sector (except the last), the Players must find a passcode fragment imbedded in an email. Each fragment reads: “Encryption Seal fragment #n: ‘X’ – (Keep track of this).”, where
n refers to the correct position of ‘X’ in the passcode, and where ‘X’ represents an ASCII character in the 8-character password needed to join the game server hosting Part 2 of this mission (described below). When any Player acquires an email fragment, an identical message gets sent to all the Players as a triggered event. The order of the fragments is not sequential, thus Players will need to write them down in their correct positions as the game progresses (like in a game of Hangman). Finally, in each Sector, Players will also be able to locate an Archive Bin containing four copies of a single, gold-build subroutine, which will help the Player negotiate the perils of the server more easily (I recommend the following sequence of subroutines: Sector 1 – Profiler; Sector 2 – Primitive Charge; 3 – Support Safeguard; 4 – Power Block; 5 – Sequencer; 6 – Submask; 7 – Ball Launcher; 8 – Truncate).
At the beginning of Sectors 2, 3 & 4, each Player will acquire another type of Primitive to use (Rod, Ball, & Mesh in that order). [I’m not sure how best to ensure that each player gets their new primitives without the potential of being deprived of it by an overzealous teammate who got there first, but if it can be done, then please set it up that way.]
As the Players enter the even-numbered Sectors, they automatically gain enough build points to acquire a Version upgrade, and the Subroutine Menu comes up for them immediately thereafter allowing them to upgrade their Performance Ratings before continuing on.
Each Sector has its share of Resource Hogs, ICP’s and other system defenders that become progressively tougher, better, and/or more numerous the farther along the Player’s get. Players can also meet friendly programs who can give hints on where to look for things they need to find in that Sector. Each Sector needs to have enough structures in it that the process of locating everything needed will take time, making the use of friendly program information a useful time saver.
In the final Sector (8), the Player’s need to defeat the Corrupted Kernel Assistant (and his thugs) to acquire Permission 1 from his core-dump, which is used to activate the bit socket next to the Encryption Seal leading into the Core Memory partition. Once activated, every Player will receive the final message containing the final character of the passcode in the same format as the earlier messages.
Players then log off of that server, and log on to the password protected server hosting Part 2 of this mission using the passcode they collected in Part 1.
Part 2 Plot:
Having opened the Encryption Seal of the Core Memory Partition, the Player’s must confront and defeat the rogue A.I. before it realizes that its quarantine has been lifted, and can escape its confinement here. [This game should have its play time set at 35 minutes – 5 min. for pre-game prep, and 30 to accomplish the mission. If the game ends before the A.I. is defeated, it has realized that it can escape, and chooses to exercise that option rather than continue to oppose the Players.]
Part 2 Layout: The Core partition is a three-tiered tower of large cylindrical rooms. Movement from one room to the next is accomplished by de-activating the force field protecting the vertical Data Stream connecting them together. It goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) that the location of these Data Streams are to be found at the opposite end of the room from which it was entered. Within these large cylinder rooms are a number of smaller structures that each have multiple floors/rooms (though on a smaller scale), and the objects that the Player’s will need to acquire before being able to move up to the next level should be found towards the top/back of these smaller structures. [If this description seems vague, it is intentional, as I do not want to dictate too strictly how it ought to look – let the Map designers’ use their creativity to produce the particulars of each level’s layout. The main point is that it should be physically challenging for 4 Players to locate the object’s needed, and fend off the attacks of the system defenders, all within an approximate timeframe of 10 minutes or so per level.]
At the start of the Map, each player will receive enough build points to allow for four Version upgrades (the same number they received during Part 1 of the mission.) They will also begin the game with all of the primitives and gold-build subroutines they had access to in Part 1. [If these can be automatically given at the start of the game, that would be great, but if not, then there will need to be a series of Archive Bins near the starting point so they can go and retrieve them before commencing.]
As in Part 1, each exit is protected by an encrypted, bit-activated force field. The difference this time is that there are four Permissions to be found on each of the first two levels in the Core, only one of which will de-activate the field (the rest are Red Herrings). Players will still need to locate the bit that de-activates the force field, and there will be two Archive Bins per level that contain four copies of a gold-build subroutine (My picks: Level 1 – Triangulate & Corrode; Level 2 –

& Megahurtz).
The third level of the Core is the Private Chamber of the Rogue A.I., “M3An1”. [If it is possible, I would love to see Ma3a’s TRON-induced, User Terminator Avatar used for this.] The space is wide open, and it’s a duel to the death (or until M3An1 realizes that it is free to leave.) M3An1 has full subroutine armor (or the NPC equivalent), unlimited energy, 4000 Health, and attacks with Prankster Bit, and Energy Claw. It will also summon two Seekers (one at a time) to aid it in fighting the Players. If the Players succeed in defeating the A.I. within the allotted time, they should receive a long-winded accolade that extols the magnitude of their accomplishment and the gratefulness of their employers for saving the world from such a dire predicament, yada, yada, yada… (I’ll figure something out for this.)
OK, so there you have it. Let me know if anything I’ve said can’t be done. As a final thought, I’d imagine that once these maps are created, if it is done right, it wouldn’t be all that hard to change up the passcode, or reshuffle the locations of the Archive Bins or subroutine options once in a while, extending its playability a bit more. Have a very Merry Christmas, fellas.
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