This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 119: Alpha 0.61 Version! Major Adjustments to Dungeon Gameplay!

Chapter 119: Chapter 119: Alpha 0.61 Version! Major Adjustments to Dungeon Gameplay!

On their way back from the abandoned department store, the four members of the Bull and Horse Squad felt even the wind blowing in their faces was sweet.

The setting sun was sinking in the west.

When Fang Chang and his companions, dragging a full cart of supplies, appeared at the North Gate of the Outpost Base, the eyes of almost all the players bulged out.

"Damn?!"

"Awesome!!!"

"Did you guys freaking hack the console or what???"

"Game designers, I’m begging you, please nerf them already! If you don’t, these guys are gonna reach the heavens!"

A cart full of spoils of war!

And it was visibly filled with good stuff!

It was just too exaggerated!

Sitting in front of their stall, the Autumn Grass Autumn Leaf sisters were attracted by the commotion and turned to look over. Especially the younger sister, who was curious and stretched her neck trying to see what was in the covered cart.

But just as she was about to stand up, her older sister reached out and pulled her back down.

Autumn Grass shook her head and patted her sister on the head.

"Don’t look around everywhere, it’s impolite."

Autumn Leaf pouted in disappointment and lowered her head.

"Got it."

But she was still curious.

Even though she couldn’t understand what those Blue Jackets were saying or see clearly what was loaded on that cart, she felt like they seemed very excited.

Could it be...

a baby was born?

The players’ faces were filled with envy and jealousy, continuously ranting about how it was so unfair, and many chanted for the game designers.

Hearing someone shout for the designers, Night Ten immediately became restless, knowing that with Ah Guang’s personality, he must be lurking and definitely heard it already!

Without hesitating, he shouted back.

"Nerf my ass! Do you know how hard it was for me down there? Two Crawlers! One in front and one behind! Plus over a hundred Eaters, do you know how hard we fought to get these? Damn it, two of my knives got their blades all bent!"

Watching Night Ten put on airs there, Fang Chang couldn’t help but facepalm.

Old White, on the other hand, didn’t waste words and walked right over, picked up Night Ten by the collar, and led him away like picking up a small chicken.

"Shit! Stop pulling me, I’m not done talking yet!"

"Behave!"

"Yeah, keep it down!"

Wild Wind and Fang Chang together, pulling the cart full of supplies, didn’t stop for a moment as they passed through the North Gate and hurried toward the NPC’s Warehouse.

If these newbies knew that this cart full of supplies was just the tip of the iceberg inside the shelter, who knows what they would think.

As for how abundant the supplies on this cart were?

In one sentence.

The supplies were so abundant that the Warehouse Manager had to seek help from his superior, Old Luka, and facing the contents of the cart, even Old Luka was at a loss, not knowing what to do, forced to report further up to the Manager himself.

"...Sir, I really don’t know how to price these, I can only trouble you to decide for yourself," Luka said, standing in front of Chu Guang with his head bowed, as if he had done something wrong.

Chu Guang, without bothering to respond to him, walked directly to the cart, glancing inside, and his eyebrows jumped fiercely.

Holy crap!

We’re rich!

Turning his head to the four little players with faces full of excitement, Chu Guang nodded in approval.

"You’ve performed beyond my expectations... To be honest, I didn’t expect you to bring back so much."

Seeing the manager’s expression, the four little players were even more excited.

We’ve struck it rich, struck it rich!

Fang Chang lifted his head and puffed out his chest, his face full of respect.

"It is our honor to contribute to the great cause of rebuilding civilization, esteemed Manager!"

Night Ten joined in the conversation.

"That’s right! It is our honor!"

"I’m glad you think so, but clear rewards and punishments are also an important part of rebuilding civilization. The rewards that rightfully belong to you will be calculated clearly," Chu Guang glanced at the covered cart and continued, "It will take some time to tally up these supplies. I will give you an appropriate amount before midnight... including the other resources you discovered in the instance."

Chu Guang had used drones to observe them earlier and had even collected recordings of their in-Game chats, so he knew exactly what they had been doing there.

The four players did not doubt how the Manager knew, after all, isn’t it normal for an NPC to know the whereabouts of players?

Not strange at all!

This guy could even kick people offline.

However, when they heard the Manager use the term "instance" to describe the shelter they had found under the department store, excitement flashed across their faces.

Instance!

Sure enough, the one they had cleared was a hidden instance!

Although the Game instances were one-time only...

Fang Chang’s face showed utmost respect.

"We are not in a hurry; we will follow your arrangements!"

They left the cart next to the warehouse.

Fang Chang and his group carried Elena to the corpse room, then took the elevator back to the safe haven, preparing to log off and get out of bed.

Chu Guang delegated the task of tallying the spoils to Xiao Qi and then instructed Luka to post a task to recruit some Strength Type and Body Constitution System players to drag the supplies found under the department store back.

"...The map has been updated in your VM. If you can’t find the way, open auto-navigation."

"Remember, once you’re there, take everything that can be moved back with you!"

"Don’t leave even a single screw behind!"

After delegating these tasks, Chu Guang stood on the elevator and returned to the safe haven, where he opened his computer to start drafting the Alpha 0.61 version update announcement.

That’s right, the version number was not 0.7, but 0.61.

This update was merely a supplement to version 0.6.

As for the reason for the sudden update?

It wasn’t solely because of the "income settlement" issue of the Cow and Horse Squad’s instance. A large part of it was due to a little problem that had arisen with Brother Mole’s convoy.

First, let’s talk about the Cow and Horse Squad.

The battle at the abandoned department store could be said to have been brilliantly fought.

Without much concern from Chu Guang, they had annihilated the Variants in the underground garage and dragged back a full cart of supplies.

And these supplies were very high-quality industrial raw materials!

Especially those chromium ingots and tungsten ingots, they packed a great quantity into the cart, which looked to be at least over a thousand pounds. If one wanted to buy these materials currently, they could only be imported from Red River Town, and they weren’t cheap.

As for precious metals like gold and silver, they are excellent conductors with exceptional performance necessary for making precision instruments.

Not to mention the non-metallic consumables and chemicals; they were all valuable commodities.

Now the key issue was, how to calculate the profits?

If handed over to the NPC warehouse, his little players would definitely suffer a loss, as there were many items without corresponding orders and would only be recycled as trash.

If they wanted to maximize profits, they could only slowly sell them at the Frontline Base North entrance market, but in doing so, it would probably take until next month to sell everything.

After all, there were only a handful of lifestyle players who could use these materials.

The most reasonable solution was for Chu Guang to set a price himself, in the form of a reward settlement, and buy all the supplies produced by the instance.

It would be as if wholesaling bulk commodities.

Actually, this was manageable, as giving money to the players was just a matter of moving silver coins from one pocket to another for Chu Guang.

Now, with the bank, even the step of moving pockets was unnecessary.

The income settlement was a minor issue.

What the Alpha 0.61 version really needed to tackle were the imbalances in instance gameplay and the problems that had arisen in the distribution mechanism!

The problem didn’t occur with the Cow and Horse Team, but over at Brother Mole’s "Greenhouse Ruins," it was actually quite serious.

’Wasteland OL’ instances differ from traditional MMORPGs; strictly speaking, they cannot even be considered "instances."

First of all, once an instance in ’Wasteland OL’ has been cleared, it does not refresh.

Second, the number and difficulty of monsters do not increase with the progress of the strategy; in many cases, they decrease as the strategy progresses.

This may conform to the logic of reality, but it does not conform to the logic of games.

After all, orthodox RPG games allow players time to level up, placing the most difficult boss at the end of the stage.

However, in ’Wasteland OL’, the hardest bone to chew might well be the first line of defense. Once the first line is breached, the rest is just reaping the rewards.

This mechanism means that the later stages of the instance become easier, so players who pioneer the instance find it thankless, throwing their lives and equipment into it without necessarily gaining any benefit.

Obviously, Elder Fang Chang must have thought of this beforehand and didn’t make a big deal out of it on the forum after finding good items, a group of them silently making a fortune.

It was only when they were stuck that he looked for a Body Constitution system passerby on the forum. During the actual discussions, he sneakily went for a private chat, and not until the instance was cleared did many players become aware of its existence.

They ate the fish from head to tail, so naturally, there was no issue with unfair distribution of profits or other players picking off their rewards.

But over at the "Greenhouse Ruins," the situation was completely different.

Since the instance was discovered, the number of players who went in has doubled, almost turning into a battle royale!

Chu Guang couldn’t believe it unless he had seen it through drones and VM maps; nearly fifty or more players had squeezed into the already cramped first floor of the greenhouse!

And fatally, these later players hardly contributed to the fight, just busied themselves with harvesting Devil Moth’s Cocoons and running off with a few.

If the players in front bleeding and sweating had no complaints, that would be a real surprise!

According to the posts on the forum, Chu Guang gradually realized that there was a serious "BUG" present in the current instance play mechanics.

Under the current game mechanics, first, the value of intelligence could not be reflected; second, the players who pioneered the instance became the fools, either making a silent fortune or those who slipped in later for leftovers.

Is this fair?

Not in the least!

If this continues into the beta phase, who would be so foolish to share their strategies?

As the embodiment of justice, Chu Guang would, of course, not stand idly by.

Fairness is the second principle, second only to the server environment. Since there’s a BUG in the existing play mechanics, adjustments must be made!

[Alpha 0.61 Version Update: Instance Rule Adjustments!]

After typing a line of headline, Chu Guang continues to edit the detailed adjustments in the document.

First comes the definition.

Including Alien nests, hidden resource points, shelter ruins, and other special facilities, as long as the search value is more than 100 Silver, and there is a certain threat level, they will be marked as "instances" on the map.

The profits of smaller instances are immediately settled after clearance; larger instances may be divided into smaller ones, with profits calculated in stages according to the progress of the strategy.

In principle, players need to obtain "Exploration Rights" before entering an instance.

At any one time, a player may only possess Exploration Rights for one instance, which will also be authorized to only one player.

The authorized player can organize a team to explore the instance. Other players who enter an authorized instance illegally will be considered an infringement of Exploration Rights and fined according to the situation, with compensation provided to the infringed player.

With the time of uploading map data on VM as standard, the first discoverer of an instance will automatically obtain the priority Exploration Rights after the clues are uploaded and assessed.

"One instance simply doesn’t need so many players rushing in. All cramming into a single instance is both inefficient and prone to chaos. It’s better to disperse and explore more instances."

"Protecting the rights of the discoverers of ’high-value resource points’ can also encourage players to discover more goods."

"Hmm, not only need to limit the number of authorizations but also set a time limit... to weed out those who occupy a spot without acting."

Chu Guang continues to edit the document.

Depending on the type of instance, the authorization term for priority exploration rights is between three to seven days!

During this period, the discoverer of the instance and their teammates can prioritize exploring the instance or trade the priority Exploration Rights to other players.

However, note that the transfer does not trigger a re-timer, in other words, the transferee may only enjoy the remaining time of the rights.

If, unfortunately, the player still has not cleared the instance by the end of the priority exploration period, the Exploration Rights will be removed.

At the same time, the Outpost Base will reassess the difficulty of the instance based on available intelligence, set a guaranteed clearance reward, and then hold a public auction for the right to explore the instance.

Half of the auction proceeds will be used to compensate the player who lost the priority Exploration Rights, and the other half will go to the Outpost Base.

This can also be considered compensation for the pioneer players.

After all, every bullet fired is money, having no compensation at all would be too pitiful.

Of course, pioneering players who lose their priority exploration rights are also able to participate in the auction, if they think it is worth continuing to invest in this dungeon.

After the dungeon is cleared, Outpost Base will evaluate the dungeon’s profits based on the specific situation and provide a reasonable valuation.

Players can decide whether to settle the dungeon’s profits with the preset minimum guarantee reward or according to the valuation price given by NPCs.

If no choice is made, the default is to take the higher of the two values.

At the same time, after the dungeon is cleared, the exploration rights automatically expire.

Players can then search for another dungeon to tackle, and Outpost Base will also re-plan the cleared plots, regions, and facilities.

Players can put forward reasonable suggestions.

But whether they are adopted depends on the judgment of the relevant NPCs.

As for the dungeons explored before version 0.61, the priority exploration rights are automatically removed, and they go directly into the auction process for reassignment of exploration rights.

According to the rule of first come, first served, "Edge Shoveling," who was the first to mark the dungeon entrance with a VM and successfully brought back the map data to the shelter, will probably become the biggest winner of this version update.

Although he lost the priority exploration rights, according to the auction rules, he will receive 50% of the exploration rights auction earnings as compensation.

As for whether he splits it with "Makabazi," who dived with him into OB, that’s between the two of them.

...

When Chu Guang uploaded the Alpha 0.61 version update announcement to the official website, it was exactly six thirty in the morning in the real world.

This time was also when the official website was bustling with activity.

Without any surprise.

Almost the instant the 0.61 version update announcement appeared on the homepage of the official website, the Forum immediately exploded with topics.

Ah Wei: "Throne! (｀∀´)Ψ"

Xiao Xiaosha Chong: "!!! Big news! The version number has changed to 0.61!"

Mole Old Brother Escaping the Canyon: "The officials finally noticed the issues with the dungeon mechanics. If they didn’t manage this, it would really be impossible to lead the team anymore! T.T"

Gnome King Riches: "Feeling sorry for Brother Mole, he’s about to be driven crazy by the newcomers hitching rides. (Funny)"

Meat Mountain Big Steamed Bun: "Wait, does the announcement mean that from now on, only one car team is allowed in a dungeon at the same time?"

Ah Wei: "What?! Ah Wei can no longer freeload?! !!!∑(ﾟДﾟノ)ノ"

Si Si: "Ah Wei, please stop, don’t be so boldly righteous."

Scrambled Tomato with Eggs: "Damn, one dungeon tied to one person? When there are more people later on, can the servers handle it?"

Little Nonsense Cutting Bullshit: "I think this is unreasonable! Another auction! Mosquito will definitely blindly bid!"

WC Has A Mosquito: "Damn! Do I look like that kind of person? Even if I bid, I wouldn’t just sit on it without care!"

Little Nonsense Cutting Bullshit: "Have you ever been to the front line?!"

WC Has A Mosquito: "How have I not? Although I didn’t go in person, my equipment did!"

Little Nonsense Cutting Bullshit: "Cut the crap! The monsters you’ve blasted to death are fewer than the fish you haven’t killed!"

Teng Teng: "Alright alright, stop arguing guys, when can my spinning machine be finished? The kids are about to cry. QAQ"

Toilet Going Yar: "Don’t cry, Teng Teng! It’s almost ready, just a few parts left! There, the workbench is ready, and we have the rubber for the pistons, I’ll get it done for you within three days!"

Mole Old Brother Escaping the Canyon: "Speaking of which, does anyone know about Elder Brother Fang Chang’s dungeon profits? Why haven’t I seen them show off?"

Elena: "(Funny)"

Night Ten: "(Funny)"

Old White: "... Speaking of which, when does the auction for the ’Greenhouse Ruins’ dungeon exploration right start? (Sideways glance)"

Wild Wind: "Exciting. (Funny)"

Mole Old Brother Setting Up Traps: "Wait!! What are you guys trying to do? (Shocked)"

Fang Chang: "Cough, Brother Mole... sorry man."

Mole Old Brother Setting Up Traps: "Good brother, give me a chance! I was freaking about to break through! ∑(っ°Д°;)っ"

Fang Chang: "Definitely next time!"

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