This Is Not a Bug but a Game Feature-Chapter 92: Free-Range NPCs
Being out there, the most important thing is to have enough brothers!
Everyone on the Divine Grace Continent is either my brother or my brother’s brother. Mere demons, what do you have to fight me, the Hero?
Believe it or not, I can call a whole train of good brothers to drown you with their spit!
Lu’s report caught Chen Ba’s great attention; he immediately got out of bed and came to the computer without washing his face to check the situation.
Sure enough...
Under certain conditions, NPCs can also recruit NPCs, recruit followers, and even get married and have children.
The so-called "certain conditions," besides the gift-giving mentioned by Lu, there are other triggering methods.
As long as the favorability between two NPCs moves from friendly or neutral to follow, it can be triggered.
For example, recruit two NPC teammates and take them to fight monsters and level up.
During this period, the intimacy between players and NPC teammates will increase, as will the intimacy between the two NPC teammates.
When the intimacy between the two NPC teammates breaks the boundary, choose to kick out one NPC teammate, reduce the player’s favorability with that NPC, and try to recruit again, which will achieve the same effect.
The logic is actually very simple.
NPCs have two sets of favorability: one towards players and one towards other NPCs.
The Hero recruits NPC Zhang San as a teammate; Zhang San follows the Hero’s actions and fights together.
However, NPC Li Si doesn’t meet the conditions to follow the Hero but meets the conditions to follow Zhang San. So when the Hero clicks recruit, the situation "Li Si is not in the team but can fight together with Zhang San" occurs.
"Didn’t expect there would be such a Bug!"
Yang Dong, having just finished a cup of milk tea, walked over and said, "Why didn’t we discover during testing that NPCs can recruit teammates?"
This problem is not easy to solve!
Chen Ba rubbed his temples, finding this matter very troublesome.
It’s similar to the favorability Bug that Lu discovered before, except that the Bug Lu discovered before had its root in the favorability program they wrote themselves.
So it was relatively easy to fix. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎
But this time, the root of the Bug lies in the hidden favorability between NPCs.
This isn’t a part of their code; it’s part of the system’s provided NPC generation program.
To put it bluntly.
The favorability system developed by Tianba Studio only covered the portion between NPCs and players (Heroes).
As for the favorability relationship between NPCs, Tianba Studio didn’t write any code in this area; it was automatically generated by the program...
"Oh no, we’ve been tricked!"
Chen Ba suddenly realized that the favorability abnormal Bug found by Lu was just a cover.
The real troublemaker is here!
Even if the source of the problem was found, Chen Ba had no good way.
After all, the playability of the game "Divine Grace Continent" itself is based on the system’s provided NPC automatic generation program; without this program, it’s nothing but a trash game.
To fix this Bug, they would have to abandon the original NPC generation plan and switch to a wooden dull NPC.
The issue gets resolved when this is changed, but the game "Divine Grace Continent" is ruined...
"No way, need to find another solution!"
It’s definitely not feasible to cut it off completely; the system-made NPC generation program is too awesome. Without these colorful NPCs, the playability of the game directly drops several levels.
Ignoring it won’t work either.
The current Bug has already caused great damage to the gaming environment.
Players, as Heroes, are calling friends and utilizing the mechanism where NPCs can recruit NPCs to gather a bunch of minions to bully demons.
Is this still a Hero?
Those who know call it a Hero; those who don’t might think it’s some kind of bad social dynamic organization! Your Hero going to fight the Demon King, it looks like they’re attacking Ping’an County!
Don’t be too ridiculous!
Moreover, with hundreds of NPCs appearing on the screen, some players are already experiencing "game freeze" situations.
"Illegal teaming is definitely not allowed!"
Chen Ba first characterizes this incident: "Immediately create an emergency patch, prohibiting any situation where combat personnel exceed five people."
This modification can be done.
But when it comes to the fundamental mechanism of NPC being able to recruit NPCs, it’s not easy to modify.
However, Chen Ba has thought of a solution.
Multiplayer team-up is a Bug, but NPCs that can recruit NPCs can be defined as a "hidden mechanism" of the game!
If players ask later, just say this is a hidden gameplay in "Divine Grace Continent." Players won’t complain, and they might even praise them.
"In Divine Grace Continent, everyone is a Hero!"
Chen Ba makes a decision: "Dong, you’ll issue an announcement later saying that we will soon have a blockbuster game update, launching a brand-new idle hang-up gameplay."
"Idle hang-up?"
"Yes!"
Chen Ba has come to terms; since the issue of NPCs recruiting NPCs lies in the system-provided generation program that can’t be cut off.
Then change the perspective, and while not changing the nature of the game, reduce the impact caused by this Bug. Even make this Bug become a special hidden mechanism of the game, coexisting with normal gameplay.
How to coexist?
Let the NPC teammates go free-range, let them recruit partners to fight demons themselves, let them forge equipment and collect materials themselves...
Commonly known as idle development!
Since the NPCs are so intelligent, let’s give them some freedom. As player heroes, we just need to take care of ourselves.
"Will that work?"
Lu was a bit hesitant. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Ba, he just thought that NPCs might not be that smart. Letting them go free might just mean giving up, right?
"Don’t worry, trust me!"
Chen Ba actually wasn’t too sure himself. After all, he had never seen NPCs in any game so intelligent that, under the premise of being set free by heroes, they could still fend for themselves.
But Divine Grace Continent is different.
The NPC auto-generation program created by the Iron Fool System really surprised him too much.
These NPCs are all too smart! Just because other game NPCs can’t do something doesn’t mean the NPCs in Divine Grace Continent can’t.
After all, before this...
NPCs have also committed notorious acts like robbing players and even engaging in marriage fraud for wedding gifts.
It’s hard to say, after completely freeing these NPCs and letting them act on their own, what this game will turn into.
...
Two days later.
Sharp-eyed players saw Divine Grace Continent’s update announcement on the Tianba Community and game homepage.
The update announcement was lengthy.
In the announcement, Tianba Studio stated that the abnormal team size is a game bug, and they have released a critical patch to fix it, so that teams of hundreds or even thousands won’t occur again.
However, NPCs following other NPCs is not a game bug, but a unique hidden mechanism in Divine Grace Continent...
In response to this hidden mechanism, Tianba Studio worked painstakingly to release the latest version of the game, bringing players a super cool new gameplay.
NPCs can be set free!
In the new version, players can recruit NPC teammates into their team and there are two development routes.
The first is still the same as before; heroes keep their teammates close, leveling them up, gathering materials to craft gear, nurturing them as if raising a child.
The second option is free action. In this mode, the hero’s NPC teammates won’t always follow them but will run around independently.
What these NPCs will do in free action mode, no one knows...
The sole benefit for heroes is that when needed, they can summon the NPC teammate back. This way, when tackling story bosses or powerful monsters, the team won’t be understaffed.
"Free NPCs?"
After reading the update announcement, Qian Xin entered the game and indeed found a new "Free Action" mode toggle option in the menu bar of his four NPC teammates.
What use is this?
Glancing at his four teammates’ attributes, levels, and equipment, Qian Xin decided to try it out and enabled free action for "Clark."
Clark was the weak link in the team.
Qian Xin hadn’t invested much in training him, nor did he have extra equipment to give him.
Although Clark was already level 41, he was still using basic 10-15 level common gear.
This kind of teammate is just to make up the numbers.
He turned Clark into a Light Mage, having him occasionally cast buffs or status on other teammates. There were no expectations for Clark to deal damage or tank, so setting him free was fine.
Once free action mode was activated, Clark indeed changed.
Even when Qian Xin took his remaining three teammates out to fight monsters, Clark didn’t follow; he ran off alone to a town, doing who knows what.
Qian Xin didn’t bother about him.
Tianba Studio itself said that NPC behavior logic is unpredictable once free action mode is activated and is not influenced by players.
Let him do whatever he wants, as long as he doesn’t wander into the wilderness alone and then die...
After half an hour of gathering materials, Qian Xin crafted an Epic Gloves for his Fire Mage. Unexpectedly, this time he was lucky; the gloves came with a +16% fire element damage bonus.
This is quite a rare item!
Fire Mage is currently the hottest class due to its high area damage, making it great for clearing trash mobs and farming materials and gold coins.
Therefore, equipment with fire damage bonus is always in high demand; getting one can make many envy you.
"Great, Fire Mage is now fully geared."
Looking at his Fire Mage fully equipped in epic gear, Qian Xin nodded contentedly, considering to perhaps start nurturing the healer in a few days.
Once the healer is nurtured, it’s almost enough to tackle the Beastman Empire’s main storyline, then frenzy level up in preparation for the Demon King raid.
By the way, where’s Clark?
After not seeing Clark for half an hour, Qian Xin was curious about what he was up to, so he used team recall to summon him back.
When Clark returned, a glance at his equipment bar left Qian Xin shocked.
Wow!
Wasn’t he wearing all basic gear half an hour ago? Where did he get a Legendary Ring?
Attempting to remove the gear resulted in a system alert: "Free action NPC equipment cannot be changed."
"What’s going on?"
Seeing that he couldn’t remove Clark’s gear for his Fire Mage’s use, Qian Xin was puzzling over it when he suddenly saw Clark, the NPC teammate he had set free, holding the hand of another NPC lady.
And above that NPC lady’s head was a line of text:
"Countess Hera"
Qian Xin: "..."
What does this mean? In just half an hour, did this guy hook up with the countess and get gifted a legendary ring?
He’s a hero, why hasn’t he encountered such good fortune?
