Possible Story Ideas

[Neoteny]

As I mentioned before, the Machines are in an interesting new situation where they are working very closely with human operatives who would have the freedom to analyze and eliminate any supposed control routines in their programs which would keep them from initiating hostilities with the Oligarchs. This is something they didn't previously have available to them, and due to the nature of the relationship, they never "wanted" to bring it up, but since it's out there, and since the Oligarchs are, to some extent, overstepping their boundaries, I don't see it as out of character for the Machines to go that route or, at the very least, to outfit the hovercraft of their operatives to be strong enough to combat the Oligarchs and have them fight the fight for them.

I'm hesitant to go any direction where the Oligarchs are 100% blocked from the Matrix, though. Mostly because this is the only way we have to see them and really interract with them. I think we could really do a lot more with them if we had a way to strip down their power, but leave them alive - then we have much more mortal Oligarchs scouring the Matrix trying to regain their power. It gives them a goal, a reason to be there, and makes them visible to the players.

Rare stated in his notes that the machines are "frustrated" with the Oligarchs and the lopsided relationship they have shared with them, especially at this point where they seem to be overstepping boundaries and making themselves aware to redpills. I don't think it's too far of a stretch for the Machines to finally say enough's enough and get that reprogramming from their operatives.

I just don't see any believable rationale for the BIP to use itself to weaken/destroy/remove the Oligarchs. It'd be convenient if it did, but I don't see the rationale. That's not to say that we couldn't do something with the Oligarchs to provoke the BIP, such as have them demand, and retrieve the programming of the One from the Machines and begin abusing it.

The other thing I can think of that would make the Oligarchs "go away," but still remain a possibility would be if they were to get their hands on the BIP. At this point, the BIP isn't really all that important a tool to us in writing the story, and if the Oligarchs get it, they seem likeliest to go their own way and get out of the Matrix and the non-zoned parts of the Real, effectively writing them out and writing out the BIP. That may even be the simplest solution out there.

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Oh, and Barloke, they had their own area of the surface designated as a No-Fly Zone where they had their kingdoms. I think it's presumed that heavy countermeasures were employed against anything that really stepped across that line, blasting it out of existence before it could realize anything, which kind of explains how they weren't stumbled upon before.

I don't know how extensive the term "kingdoms" is, though. I always envisioned it as each with their own plot of land to build sand castles on.