Chapter 470: 453: Huge Loss<div>
As always, Lincoln’s influence changes the topic of discussion amongizens as soon as his post goes up.
“A twin-wing propeller fighter? Isn’t that something from a hundred years ago?”
“To be a boss, one must pay a heavy price.”
“[Sky yer Gathering], what does it mean? Everyone flying old airnes together? Is it an update for Night City or Paradise?”
“Two new game betas?! Wow! As prolific as a sow!”
Not only were theizens shocked by Lincoln’s live-stream announcement, but Randall and Fred were also quite surprised.<div>
Within two minutes, both of them sent Lincoln a text message.
“Boss, did you make another game by yourself? It can’t be Battlefield, right? We just started working on it this week!”
“?”
The first message was from Fred, politely expressing his confusion.
The second question mark was from Randall, simply expressing his puzzlement.
Lincoln straightforwardly established a group chat with them.
“Don’t worry, neither of the two beta games will include Battlefield.”
“That’s good to know.” Fred breathed a sigh of relief, “But boss, when did you secretly make another game? What’s the theme?”
Lincoln sidestepped the question and went back to his previous statement: “However, the beta of Battlefield will indeede very quickly.”
“We’ve only been working on it for a week!”
“How fast is ‘very fast’? The game framework is just being set up!”
“It will take at least one or two weeks toplete, even at the fastest!”<div>
“We can’t sell a half-finished product, can we?”
Both of them tried to persuade Lincoln to abandon this idea — the hindsight of NetDragon’s “ze 3” was still fresh in their minds!
But this time, Lincoln really nned on selling a half-finished product.
However, instead of continuing the conversation, he asked, “Did you encounter any difficult development tasks this week?”
Randall and Fred thought for a moment.
Map design?
Not pressuring at all since the rich materials and development tools were umted from the previous two games.
Combat system?
Even less so.
Compared to the time-stop feature in “Assassins’ Alliance” and the anticipation of “Speed Chase” which required unique trajectories andbat rhythm, thebat system in “Battlefield” was extremely simple.
All they needed was the “pew pew” sound.
It was just about adding a mechanism to regain health after leavingbat, supplementing with medical bags and saving teammates, which were not difficult to implement.<div>
As for vehiclebat, the development has been quite smooth due to the data and experience umted from the previous two games.
So, music?
ording to Lincoln’s emphasis from the beginning, the production of “Battlefield” focused on two points: [heroic] and [cruel].
Not only was thebat rhythm crucial, but also the background music was of great importance.
But again, Cloud Dream’s umtion was just too plenty.
They always valued theposition of its various teams, including the music team. They never ckened in recruiting talent or building copyright reserves.
Ever since the game style and music theme of “Battlefield” were confirmed, the music team has been incredibly high-yield, even being the fastest department in the entire game development team.
There was no difficulty in this part.
So counting it up, it seemed that the only obstacle was firearms.
Yet even the trouble with firearms wasn’t about difficulty, but rather time-consuming.
Making firearms alone wasn’t challenging, as Cloud Dream had many in reserve.
Just a few days ago, yers found an Easter egg hidden in Night City – the [Firearms Museum].<div>
From ancient times to modern days, all types of firearms were disyed there, showing the entire history of firearms development.
The weapons needed for “Battlefield” were merely copying and pasting age-appropriate firearms from the museum and slightly modifying their appearances.
But such rudimentary copying and pasting was far from enough.
The reason is that “Battlefield” is fundamentally different from “Assassins’ Alliance” and “Speed Chase”, and its core lies in “yer confrontation”.
If the former’s fun is more about “plot experience”, “exploration adventure”, and “open world”.
Then “Battlefield” is purely about “confrontation” and petitiveness”, with victory being the key driving force.
The requirement for “fairness” is much higher than the previous two, and thepetition must be as fair as possible for both sides.
And firearms are the critical factor in bncing.
This determines that the power of firearms in reality cannot be directly replicated.
Otherwise, it is almost inevitable that individual firearms will be the only choice, while arge number of other firearms will be permanently abandoned by yers due to the gap in strength.
To achieve as much fairness as possible, Cloud Dream needs to conduct detailed tests and adjustments on the numerical performance of firearms, even sacrificing a certain degree of authenticity for this purpose.
—Of course, the basic intuitive logic must still be followed.<div>
Thinking of this ss, Randall and Fred suddenly understood Lincoln’s idea a bit—
“Boss, you mean to let yers participate and adjust the weapons ording to yers’ feedback?”
Isn’t this letting yers help with work? Fred thought.
“Damage value, range and rate, terrain points, item effects, even the toughness of a steel wire… ” Lincoln added, “Many content needs a lot of adjustments.”
“A long-termpetitive-themed game requires demanding attention to detail.”
“To achieve as much perfection as possible, we have two choices. First, take a whole year to make detailed adjustments and testing. Second, let yers participate in advance, making fine adjustments ording to massive match data and yer feedback while developing. The downside is that it will be moreborious, and the time will be greatly shortened.”
—Isn’t this still making yers work? Fred blinked, wisely not saying it out loud.
Lincoln continued with his n: “This is called [Early ess Version], yers first purchase the game’s early ess and obtain priority experience rights, they can enter the game first.”
“However, the game is not finished and may encounter some unsatisfactory ces, as well as frequent updates and changes. The initial game experience may not be perfect… Considering this factor, there will be some price concessions for the Early ess version.”
“Well, we need a nice way to put it. What do you think of the phrase: [Participate in the development process of the game]?”
Help test the game and have to pay first?
Randall also hesitated, then said with some uncertainty: “Is this… letting yers work for a fee?”<div>
“Ah?” Lincoln, who was talking enthusiastically, was suddenly choked by Randall’s suddenint, and his following words were stuck in his throat.
After hesitating for a while, he still stubbornly said: “How can you say that! ying a new game six months in advance! What a great thing! They should thank us!”
“That’s it, let’s hang up for now, and talk tomorrow when youe to work!”
Not giving them more time to ask questions, Lincoln hung up the voice call quickly.
This is clearly to allow yers to y the game earlier, not only earlier but also cheaper. How did they make it sound like I’m taking advantage of the yers?
Does it make sense?!
Besides, it’s not really selling yers a half-finished game!
For the whole week, Lincoln will devote as much time as possible to game production, and Mavis will also join in to provide assistance.
Lincoln also ns to make targeted adjustments to the game production method:
Take out two groups of people, specifically to make two single-yer campaigns, and act as tutorial levels.
Then divide four groups of people to create and refine battle maps full time, each group making one map, totaling four battlefields.
Then divide two groups to make firearms and two to make vehicles.
Finally, a core talent group will take care of a centralized coordination to ensure that all work is on the right track, and will not end up with a bunch of puzzles that cannot be put together.
—In fact, with the watchful eyes of veterans like Randall and Fred, and Lincoln frequently watching the progress of the game development, this kind of thing is almost impossible to happen.
ording to this n, when the “Battlefield” Early ess Version is released and yers log in, they will see a basicallyplete game.
There will still be limited content to y—only four fields to choose from and not enough firearm options.
At most, there will be some extremely minor unfairness due to map selection and difficulty regarding the two sides’ attacking and defending.
But this will not seriously affect the yers’ battle enjoyment.
Furthermore, as time goes by, the number of firearms and campaign maps will continue to increase, even single-yer campaigns and numerical bnce will continue to be added and perfected.
In this way, yers will have new content to y each week, and Lincoln will even have a bunch of creative gamey constantly emerging, waiting to be developed for yers to enjoy.
By the time the game is perfected and officially released, the “National Warfare” system will beunched simultaneously, thuspleting the game.
Moreover, with more match data and yer feedback, the game’s official release date wille sooner.
yers can y the game earlier, and the development team canplete the game development more quickly, all while making their lives easier.
The only loser is himself, as the Early ess version will give yers extra discounts, Lincoln is bound to earn less money.
Considering the yers’ enthusiasm for Cloud Dream’s new game, willing to purchase the Early ess version, the proportion of yers is certainly exaggerated, even exceeding 80% or 90% of intended yers.
ording to Lincoln’s n, the original price was still fixed at 500 dors, making the Early ess 150 dors cheaper, which equated to a huge 30% discount for the game!
It’s a huge loss!