Chapter 413 The cover-up of the plot mode
?Lilith thought about it carefully and felt that Qin Fengliang’s idea was indeed feasible.
?Of course, there are still many details that need to be improved.
Although a ready-made mechanism has been thought of, to put it bluntly, this mechanism is still very unfriendly to players. If you want to make it as confusing as possible, you must use appropriate plot guidance and appropriate difficulty design to make players accept it as much as possible from the beginning.
??The longer players notice something is wrong, the more negative emotions the game can continue to generate.
?However, Qin Fengliang is definitely not good at designing details like this.
?She is not a professional game designer and can come up with ideas, but it is too much to expect him to complete a complete plan.
Lilith immediately decided to complete the skeleton of the design, which is the design concept draft, and then hand it over to Nitiantian to complete the detailed settings.
Especially in terms of plot, a lot of work still needs to be done.
“Okay, if this new game is successful, I’ll give you a big credit!
“I’m going back to work first. If there is any good news later, I will share it with you as soon as possible!”
Lilith happily disappeared after saying this. Obviously, she wanted to get the concept draft of the game out as soon as possible and then throw it to Nitian to start development!
…
…
Two days later.
At 7 o''clock in the evening, Lilith, Gu Fan, Zhou Yang, and Wei Chengjie were meeting in a small conference room.
Lilith confidently distributed the design concept draft she had written to the three of them.
Although she looked at the three people with suspicion, Lilith had to admit that these three people are currently the only three people in Nitian who have the ability to lead projects.
?Although Lilith also wants to promote a new producer from scratch, the stakes are high and if something goes wrong, it may seriously affect the development progress of the new game, so she still has to think about it in the long term.
?The reason why I called all three people here this time is to infer from their speeches and select the most suitable project producer.
The producer may also be among the three.
?Gu Fan calmly took the design concept draft and browsed it briefly.
Strictly speaking, this is not actually a standard design concept draft, because there is a lot missing.
There is no specific plot, no specific level design, and the name of the game has not even been finalized.
The only parts that are written in more detail are the "dynamic difficulty mechanism" and the "world view plot background setting".
Obviously, this is another Lilith reading comprehension.
At least on the surface, Gu Fan and others must understand the deep meaning behind the "dynamic difficulty mechanism" and "world view background setting", and improve the relevant combat system, plot and level design, and give this game a beautiful sugar coating , which plays a role in confusing players.
As for how to bury the bugs in this game...that is something that can be considered later.
? Wei Chengjie was a little surprised: "It''s actually Cthulhu style? It''s a bit niche.
“Although our company is more comfortable doing Western fantasy style, Cthulhu has never done it.”
?Zhou Yang coughed twice and corrected: "Why haven''t you done it before? "Ascension" is Cthulhu, just a Chinese version of Cthulhu.
“Our company is good at Western fantasy-style art themes, and we have the successful experience of “Ascension”. We should be very confident in producing a standard Cthulhu theme.”
Wei Chengjie suddenly said: "Oh, right."
Cthulhu itself is a niche theme, but in recent years, due to the emergence of various excellent works, its popularity in the country has become higher and higher. Therefore, it is not easy to make a Cthulhu-themed game at this time. It was a big risk.
What’s more, Nitiantian also has successful experience in the game “Ascension”.
So far, many players believe that "Ascension" is the best Chinese Cthulhu game currently made, bar none. In particular, the epilepsy of the two worlds transforming into each other can be said to perfectly demonstrate the spiritual core of the Cthulhu theme.
The only problem is…
??Given that there is already a game called "Ascension", can Nitiantian make some new breakthroughs in this theme?
??It would be a bit embarrassing if you made an orthodox Cthulhu game and adopted a Western fantasy art style that you are better at, but the final effect is not as good as "Ascension".
As for "Ascension", the quality is really excellent, and it is very likely that it cannot be surpassed.
Lilith cleared her throat and said seriously: "Have you finished reading the concept draft? In short, the two basic settings in the concept draft, including the "dynamic difficulty mechanism" and the "lying mechanism", must be carefully considered and strictly followed. of!
“Under the premise of these two mechanisms, you can speak freely, expand your thinking, and improve this game.
“Now is the time for brainstorming. Each of you will share your thoughts on this game and its general design ideas.”
?Lilith''s eyes were dimly shining, scanning the crowd like a searchlight.
Obviously, she has once again put aside the failure of "Heartbeat Dreamland" and put 120% of her expectations into developing this new game.
It is said to be a brainstorming, but in fact it is also an attempt to catch a mole.
Lilith wants to use this method to see through the intentions of the three people as much as possible. At the same time, she can also find a more suitable development model for this game and determine the best producer candidate.
Gu Fan, Zhou Yang and Wei Chengjie looked at each other and knew each other well.
?However, as highly professional actors, of course they will not have any unnecessary communication and will just act out the script according to their own ideas.
Zhou Yang spoke first: "Mr. Li, strictly speaking, this lying system should be considered part of the dynamic difficulty system, right?
“Players can actively adjust the dynamic difficulty by lying.
“It’s just that after the lies are exposed, they will come back even harder.
“I think this mechanism must be covered up by the plot mode, otherwise it will be just a choice between two questions, not complex enough, and players will quickly figure it out.
“We have to add some other rewards to make the system more confusing.”
?Lilith raised her eyebrows. She did not expect that one of the insiders she suspected would come up with such constructive suggestions.
Indeed it is!
When Qin Fengliang proposed this system before, he did not realize this. The lying system is a two-choice system, that is, there must be one truth and one falsehood. If it is not necessary, do not add entities, and there is no need to set more than two options, as it does not make much sense.
??But choosing one or the other also leads to the fact that the lying system is not confusing enough for players.
?If the player is a little smarter, he will soon realize that there is no benefit to telling the truth, there is no way to make the battle less difficult, and there is no way to get additional rewards. Although lying has benefits on the surface, it may be exposed, and the game difficulty will change back after being exposed.
So players will quickly understand that this is a scam.
So at this time, it is necessary to introduce another reward variable.
Let telling the truth also have some other benefits. The more types of rewards there are, the more content players need to weigh and consider, which can greatly delay their progress in discovering Nitian''s true intentions.
“What about other rewards?” Lilith asked.
Zhou Yang thought for a while: "As an action game, there are only two types of truly useful rewards. One is linked to combat power, and the other is linked to plot.
“Let’s talk about the plot first.
"An intuitive setting is that if you tell too many lies, you will no longer trust the NPC, and the possibility of being questioned and exposed will increase. On the contrary, if you tell the truth too much, the trust of the NPC should be improved, so at some key nodes lies will be more effective.
“At the same time, this kind of game must have multiple endings, so “a certain number of truths” should be a necessary condition for a good ending.
“As for the rewards related to combat power, I thought of some of the characteristics affected by lying in the concept draft.
“Dolls are not good at lying by nature. They have higher defense, thicker blood, and quicker ways to repair or restore blood. As they lie more, they will become more like humans, with lower defense and less blood.
“And if humans lie too much, there will be a side effect, which is the improvement of spiritual vision.
“In the Cthulhu setting, spiritual vision is the inner eye. In layman’s terms, it means that you can see dirty things like ancient gods.
“In similar themes, there is a saying such as ‘whatever is said must be known’, so lying will improve spiritual vision and see dirty things, which is a reasonable setting.
“Then if the players tell the truth, they can lower their spiritual vision, which is itself a reward measure. After all, the world looks more normal and there are not so many scary monsters, which is equivalent to reducing the difficulty of the game in disguise.
“In general, I think players should not be allowed to choose to lie or tell the truth without thinking, but should be judged based on multiple factors.
“First of all, we need to look at the current state of the game’s dynamic difficulty;
“Secondly, it depends on whether players are willing to choose a game process that is quick but has few rewards, or is cumbersome but has many rewards;
“Finally, it depends on the player’s attitude towards the plot and NPC branches in the game.
“Combining these factors to create a chaotic system can further increase the confusion of the system, allowing players to endure the discomfort and continue playing.”
Lilith nodded frequently: "Well, that makes sense!"
After Zhou Yang’s modifications, the confusion has indeed improved a lot.
When a player decides to lie, he has many issues to consider:
First of all, players need to consider changes in difficulty. If the player''s difficulty is too high at this time, he can lie to temporarily reduce the difficulty; or, the player can also "earn interest" by telling the truth, making it harder for him to be exposed when he lies in the future.
?But you can’t lie all the time, because once a certain critical value is exceeded and the spiritual vision is too high, it will bring about a series of uncontrollable negative effects.
Secondly, whether you lie or not lie, you can directly skip certain processes in the game.
?For example, in some levels, if you tell the truth, you can only enter through the front door, but if you lie, you can go through the side door; conversely, in other levels, if you lie, you can push the map normally, but if you tell the truth, you will be directly arrested and thrown into jail.
If players follow the normal process, they will need to fight a lot, but some useful rewards may also appear during the process.
Whether you want to skip it or not must also be taken into consideration.
Finally, there is the plot. There will be various NPC branches in the game, and the players’ truth or lies will determine their fate to some extent.
?For example, a good NPC, if the player deliberately lies and points the wrong way, he may die in that place.
? Players need to judge whether this NPC is a good person and whether they agree with it in their heart. At the same time, they must also consider whether there will be more good rewards in subsequent branches if they retain this NPC. If there is no reward later, it would be better to kill him right away and get his clothes and weapons.
?The combination of these intricate factors, if designed well, is enough to overload the player''s brain.
Because there are too many factors for rewards, players need to think carefully every time they make a decision and cannot see the optimal solution at a glance.
And after they make their own decisions, their tolerance can be greatly improved.
?In this way, even if the game becomes more difficult, or there are consequences that are difficult to accept, players will feel that the main responsibility lies with themselves. Who made the wrong choice?
This way, they are more likely to persist.
??Wei Chengjie said: “But in this way, the plot design of the game will be more difficult.”
Obviously, the plot is like an express delivery box. The more things you need to mail, the larger the packaging box will naturally be.
Just to satisfy the two original mechanisms, the plot does not need to be too complicated. But if Zhou Yang''s requirements are to be met, the plot must become more ambitious.
?Lilith looked at Wei Chengjie: "So, what do you think about the plot?"
Wei Chengjie thought for a while: “I don’t think much at the moment, but if I want to connect all the current contents together, I must at least think of a reasonable explanation for many existences in the game.
“For example, in this world, ancient gods, humans, dolls, and beast-turned-living corpses can exist at the same time, and it is possible for them to transform into each other. This requires some rationality from the plot.
“That’s what I think. The background of the story could be a large-scale god-becoming experiment, which is human research on ancient divine creatures.
“Dolls, living corpses, human lycanthropy diseases, etc., are essentially by-products of this experiment to become a god.
"Human beings have injected the blood of ancient gods into their bodies, and human blood will gradually turn into unclean blood. The so-called unclean blood is blood that will gradually solidify and no longer flow. In this blood, there are Unclean creatures will gradually erode human life and affect human consciousness like parasites.
"After a human dies, the blood will solidify and form crystals. Because there is the power of the ancient gods in this crystal, it will carry human memories and life essence. Therefore, although it is a dangerous resource, it can also be used directly. use.
“When humans use this special crystal as a source of power, driven dolls are produced.
“By continuously absorbing crystals, the doll can gradually improve its humanity and make itself more and more like a human being.
"Of course, the reverse is also true. Human beings can transform their bodies and change their way of thinking, becoming more and more like dolls, but it will be more complicated and cumbersome than transforming dolls into humans. ”
(End of this chapter)