The Matrix Online Interview
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Q: The combat system for The Matrix Online seems to be inspired in part by card games like Magic: The Gathering. How did this idea for combat come about?
A: The interlock combat system in MxO was actually inspired by The Matrix trilogy. We wanted to capture the intense feeling of kinetic action that the movies depicted so well. This led to a tightly-animated, visual combat system and a departure from the classic MMORPG combat paradigm. Typically, a character involved in combat swings at his target and receives damage at the same time. For the most part, martial arts exchanges have a clear winner and loser for that exchange of blows.
We needed a way to convey what was going on to the players in Matrix style, and that brought us to the tactic system. In each round of close combat, the two combatant's tactic scores are shown as icons. The winning tactic score destroys the losing combat score, and the resulting exchange occurs. It makes for very visual combat that is both true to its Matrix roots but well suited to internet play.
