This Is Not a Bug but a Game Feature-Chapter 59: When Will Tianba Manor Be Ready for Handover?
The sales of "Star Emperor" are dismal.
It’s not to the point of being outrageous, but compared to the expected goals and popularity, it seems a bit low.
From early June to the end of June, the early access version of the new game sold a total of 140,000 copies.
This sales figure does not do justice to the current popularity of the game.
The reason for this, as analyzed by Chen Ba, is mainly due to the optimization bug that caused the "black screen crash" issue, which made some players interested but afraid to play.
To eliminate this negative impression, Tianba Studio not only issued an announcement to clarify but also made certain adjustments and optimizations to the game environment.
First, two new characters were introduced: Emperor Ziyang and Kuangsha Venerable.
Then, Chen Ba and Yang Dong, along with others, worked tirelessly to create an "Arcade Entertainment Mode with Extreme Sublimation Disabled".
Afterward, they spared no effort in inviting major streamers, content creators, and gaming media to help with promotion, clarifying the false rumor that "you must have a 3090 to play this game".
Unfortunately, the effect was minimal.
The herd mentality is frightening!
Clearly, with simple graphics settings, even an old 10-series graphics card can play normally. At most, the Extreme Sublimation mode would make the game crash and require a restart.
But as the rumor spread, it became that if you dared play "Star Emperor" without at least a 3080, you weren’t afraid your graphics card would fry?
That’s a rumor!
If you don’t embark on the Path to Immortality and set the graphics to low, there’s no problem at all—just play the game as usual without any impact.
By the way, Chen Ba is considering converting the new arcade mode into a "Ladder Ranking Match," while keeping the Path to Immortality’s "title acquisition" as an entertainment mode.
There’s no choice!
Developing games is about making money. If most players are scared off by this threshold and dare not buy and play, how can we make money?
The ranking system for the Path to Immortality will be moved to the arcade mode, which will become entertainment, just for achieving titles. Extreme Sublimation as a "taboo" method will probably only be seen on the Path to Immortality in the future.
At least not in competitions!
To attract a batch of new players to "Star Emperor" while stabilizing the existing base, Chen Ba decided to hold an online competition.
Players can sign up in the game.
At the designated time, a special competition mode can be unlocked, matching opponents for preliminary matches, and qualifying the top 64 based on wins within an hour.
In the knockout stage, opponents will be drawn by lot, and it will play out as Bo3 to top eight. From quarterfinals onward, the matches will be Bo5...
Even though it’s an online competition, Chen Ba is very attentive, preparing not only a large amount of prize money but also a batch of Star Emperor co-branded graphics cards as rewards.
"Actually, we don’t lack new players for our game!"
Seeing Ba exhaust himself for the future of "Star Emperor", Lu suddenly spoke: "Sales growth is very stable, which shows that we have new players joining every day."
"Exactly!"
"Although most new players specially come to test performance after buying a new graphics card, treating ’Star Emperor’ like 3DMark, there’s one point..."
Zhong Shengwei added: "Our players are very active. Once they get into ’Star Emperor’, they basically keep playing."
Such an unconventional fighting game, showcasing the powerful graphics of the Dream Building 5 engine, won’t fall out of favor even if it’s niche, due to a lack of similar competitive products.
As long as there are people interested in the extreme graphics displayed by "Star Emperor", as long as there’s someone upgrading their graphics card, there will be a continuous influx of new players!
"And one more thing..."
"Isn’t Old Huang going to release a new generation of graphics cards soon? Once the performance is improved, the problems we’re facing will be solved sooner or later." Zhong Shengwei said optimistically.
Currently, the issues faced by the new game are actually simple.
As long as we hold on until the release of the next generation of graphics cards, and players have gradually upgraded their PCs, Extreme Sublimation won’t be so daunting.
"Sounds good, but what if Old Huang decides to be stingy with performance updates?" Chen Ba rolled his eyes.
Moore’s Law is approaching its physical limit, and the past few generations of graphics cards from Old Huang have been iterative like squeezing toothpaste—it’s hard to say there will be a significant performance improvement.
However, we can kept some hope with A cards.
Although A cards generally have weaker applicability compared to N cards, the benefit is strong enough theoretical performance, and "Star Emperor’s" optimization for A cards isn’t inferior to N cards, fully leveraging performance.
"Speaking of which, shouldn’t our adrenaline optimization plan not only be for optimizing ’Star Emperor’?"
Yang Dong mused: "Su seems very interested in our adrenaline optimization plan and has specifically sent someone to inquire about it."
"What’s she trying to do?"
Hearing this, Chen Ba frowned and said: "Does she think that ’Star Emperor’s’ adrenaline optimization can make A cards more usable?"
Impossible.
First, the adrenaline optimization is only for "Star Emperor". Isolated, it probably wouldn’t be as effective.
Secondly, A cards already have their so-called adrenaline drivers. They lack game compatibility, not new adrenaline optimization methods.
"So she asked once and then gave up. I made it very clear that this is a dedicated optimization plan for ’Star Emperor’."
Yang Dong smiled: "The official Dream Building 5 engine has invited us to the upcoming developer conference to share our game development insights with fellow developers."
Chen Ba: "..."
Insights? What insights?
Should I tell everyone we made a super cool game with the Dream Building 5 engine, and due to optimization bugs, a lot of players experienced black screen crashes?
No way!
Rather than sharing insights, it would be more like public humiliation, making many aware of the mishaps that occurred with "Star Emperor".
I won’t go. With that spare time, I might as well work overtime to introduce a few new characters for "Star Emperor".
"By the way, there’s been a constant inquiry in the community about when ’Star Emperor’ will officially release and when Tianba Manor will be ready."
"The official version depends on the situation."
Chen Ba estimated that once he changed the Path to Immortality into an entertainment mode and added the ladder ranking system to the arcade, it should be ready.
As for Tianba Manor...
Just wait!
There are still a ton of issues pending with "Star Emperor", so when can they find time to update "Living Under Someone’s Roof Simulator"?
Anyway, having waited half a year, what’s a few more days?
Of course, you can’t put it that bluntly.
Such a straightforward response would definitely anger the players who bought pre-sale houses in "Living Under Someone’s Roof Simulator", making them feel deceived.
"Then let’s put it another way..."
Scratching his head, Chen Ba pondered for a moment and concluded: "To make up for it, Tianba Real Estate is preparing a surprise-filled house handover ceremony, stay tuned!"
What surprise?
Would a second delay count as a surprise?
