This Is Not a Bug but a Game Feature-Chapter 105 - 99: Why Is No One Rescuing the Princess? (Part 2)
He originally thought that this was at least a game community, and the discussion topics wouldn’t be too far-fetched.
Little did he know...
The players of "Divine Grace Continent" seemed different from what he imagined.
In the "Animation Online" section, no one seriously discussed the game at all. Everyone was talking about animation production, video editing, the synthesis of voice and sound tracks, and script writing.
"Huh?"
Guo Mo stubbornly glanced at the section introduction: Welcome to "Animation Online," where "Divine Grace Continent" players exchange ideas. Please check the pinned post for content guidelines and rules...
Didn’t take the wrong turn!
Isn’t this the player exchange community for "Divine Grace Continent"? Why does it look like a forum for animation professionals?
Upon closer inspection, there seemed to be quite a few foreigners active in here, speaking Japanese, English, French, mixed with various professional terminology that made his head spin.
The posts’ content was diverse.
But the theme was consistent; they were all inquiries or answers on how to use the "Divine Grace Continent" software to create exclusive Divine Grace animations.
"Software?"
Seeing people in this forum habitually refer to "Divine Grace Continent" as software rather than a game, Guo Mo was a bit irritated.
How could they speak so carelessly?
"Divine Grace Continent" is clearly an amazing RPG turn-based adventure game, how does it become an animation production software?
To correct this mistake and cleanse the forum’s unhealthy atmosphere, Guo Mo thought for a moment and finally clicked to post, typing a line with his keyboard.
"Have you forgotten your identity, forgotten the King’s instructions, forgotten the princess by Daming Lake, forgotten the mission you bear?"
Hurry up and rescue the princess!
These people are simply unworthy of the title "Hero." After leaving the Royal Palace through the main entrance, they immediately forget about rescuing the princess.
Are you doing right by the King? He has given a hefty reward of 10 Gold Coins!
...
"Princess?"
"Oh right! Without him saying it, I almost forgot, ’Divine Grace Continent’ is an adventure game of Heroes fighting Demon Kings."
Chen Ba also saw Guo Mo’s post and suddenly realized: "It’s been so long, haven’t anyone cleared the game by defeating the Demon King yet?"
"There are some..."
Zhong Shengwei coughed, his expression slightly awkward, "As of now, about eight thousand players have achieved the clearance achievement."
"Is the clearance rate not even 1%?"
Chen Ba widened his eyes, somewhat surprised, "So low? What are the heroes doing, why don’t they rescue the princess?"
"Who would rescue the princess?"
"The serious heroes are either watching animation or making animation, the task of rescuing the princess probably has long been forgotten."
Zhong Shengwei said with a helpless wry smile, "Ba, you haven’t noticed that even the ’Divine Grace Continent’ player exchange forum has become an animation professional forum?"
"I know that..."
Chen Ba nodded.
He was a frequent internet surfer, and surely had paid some attention to his game’s official forum.
The "Divine Grace Continent" community initially did seriously discuss the game.
But ever since the discovery of the "Divine Grace Animation Player" and "Divine Grace Animation Production" features, the community’s tone changed.
Either people were sharing and recommending Divine Grace animations they found appealing, or they posted advice on animation production related queries.
Divine Grace animation is a new thing.
To understand this new thing, the official forum is a good channel.
So, as more and more outsiders interested in "Divine Grace Animation" flooded in, the "Divine Grace Continent" official player community has practically become a platform for technical sharing and communication.
Here, many animation professionals are active, and from their exchanges, one can not only learn some knowledge related to animation production but also understand and grasp the latest industry news and information.
Game?
Who is even talking about games here!
If talking about anything, it would be which recent new Divine Grace animations were released, how were their performances and reputations? Is the professional version of "Divine Grace Continent" worth getting?
How should a novice use "Divine Grace Continent" to make an animation like "Jen’s Adventure"?
Only when the discussion was heated might there suddenly emerge an untimely voice among the crowd: "Uh... just bought ’Divine Grace Continent,’ can someone advise on team composition?"
Is this trend good or bad?
Chen Ba didn’t know, anyway he was only responsible for setting fires, as to whom the fire would burn once ignited, that wasn’t his concern.
He is merely a game developer; at most, he has quite a few side businesses, and that’s it.
As his primary job, game development and updates are the core business of Tianba Studio, and that’s the work Chen Ba is engaged in right now.
"This Hero is too Steady" doesn’t need him to worry about, if it weren’t for the voice acting and editing not keeping up, it could be done in a few days.
However, the release of new characters for "Star Emperor" made him a bit troubled...
As a multiplayer fighting game, "Star Emperor" has gone through several rounds of updates, with the number of characters increasing from the initial 6 to 14.
Truth be told, too few characters won’t do, but having too many isn’t good either.
Because for fighting games like this, the more characters there are, the more complex and difficult the balance work becomes, involving increasingly bloated systems.
New characters definitely need to be released.
It’s been five months without new characters, and the players have gone through Chen Ba’s genealogy chart; if this dragging continues, the consequences are unimaginable.
But as the number of characters increases, the debate over Ban/Pick is becoming increasingly serious.
Players unanimously request the introduction of a Ban/Pick mechanism in "Star Emperor"’s ranked mode, allowing players to ban some characters.
Inside the studio, many also support this plan.
Because introducing Ban/Pick mechanism can greatly reduce "game balance" workload. Some characters with obvious restraint relationships can simply be banned by players.
For example.
"Star Emperor" greatly restrains the newly released Celestial Beetle Venerable. That’s simple, if you want to play Celestial Beetle Venerable, just ban Star Emperor.
This way, next time when new characters are released, it’s only necessary to consider overall balance; there’s no need to worry about restraint relationships between characters.
Restraint is restraint!
At worst, I’ll just ban it, what can you do if you restrain again? Unless a character has too many natural enemies and ban slots are insufficient, otherwise, it’s not a big problem.
"League of Legends" has over a hundred heroes, including those with obvious restraint relationships, in solo, just ban the natural enemy and it’s settled.
"But with 15 characters, according to your suggestion of giving each person two ban slots and picking one, the selectable space is very small."
Chen Ba doesn’t object to the Ban/Pick mechanism, his objection is about the number of ban slots.
Players and the studio internally tend to favor two ban slots per person, completely solving the issue of "natural enemies."
But Chen Ba thinks at present "Star Emperor"’s character count is still too low. Both sides banning four characters in one go, picking one, leaves only ten to choose from.
The choice space isn’t very large!
Some players perhaps don’t have many specialized characters, maybe just two or three. If they’re all banned, they’d feel targeted.
"Well, who else but themselves for not practicing characters?"
Yang Dong thinks, since ranked games are introducing Ban/Pick mechanism, it largely tests players’ "comprehensiveness."
If there are few characters handy, banned ones lead to no play, don’t blame the mechanism for being too harsh—blame yourself for practicing too few characters usually.
Everyone has the same ban slots, why do others not worry about this problem, while you alone worry?
Moreover!
Even in games like "League of Legends," with ten ban slots combined for red and blue sides, a large number of "expert players" still thrive.
So the issue isn’t as serious as Chen Ba imagines.
Having all skilled characters banned is a small probability event; most likely the opponent doesn’t know you, doesn’t know your specialty characters, just bans two based on personal preference and restraint relationships.
If it’s really so coincidental, and you are recognized, and all your skilled characters are banned, then losing isn’t really unjust.
After all, the opponent prepared better, having specialized tactics, while you prepared nothing, unwilling to spend time practicing characters—who can you blame for losing?
