Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 265 - 274: How is this Different from the Guide?

Chapter 265: Chapter 274: How is this Different from the Guide?

Having over 120 active players was already a considerable number. Counting the inactive players in the guild, there were already four to five hundred members. This made the guild one of the top ten, or even top five, guilds on the server.

The max number of members for a guild was 999. As for the number of players on a server, "Shadow World" could handle up to 8,000 players online at peak times on a single server. However, servers had a dynamic plane mechanism, allowing data to be shared between different servers.

Among these were various races and factions.

The faction system in "Shadow World" was different from other MMORPGs. Guilds could recruit across factions, so Instructor Ding had added a good number of Humans and Orcs to the guild, despite being in the Demon Faction himself.

The most top-tier guilds on the server had already begun preparing for raid dungeons, and Instructor Ding’s Brotherhood Guild had started its preparations as well.

While the game’s developers had not explicitly stated how many raid dungeons there were, considering most of them required prerequisite quests or attunement tasks, players had quickly figured them out after some exploration.

In the current version with a level cap of 60, "Shadow World" had a total of three raid dungeons: "Lava Mouth", "Snowy Mountain Summit", and "Burial Grounds".

However, players were currently only truly able to challenge "Lava Mouth", since each raid had prerequisite dungeons for groups of five, which indicated the difficulty of the raids.

The five-man dungeon before "Lava Mouth" could be challenged normally; the five-man for "Snowy Mountain Summit" was tough but manageable against regular mobs, with bosses being unbeatable; and "Burial Grounds" five-man was difficult even when fighting regular mobs.

After reaching max level, Instructor Ding had allowed guild members to freely form groups to farm the pre-raid five-man dungeons in "Lava Mouth" to improve their equipment and gather Fire Resistance Gear and materials. He also assessed everyone’s daily attendance and organized fixed raid teams.

With his level maxed, the guild’s first raid team was finally ready to attempt "Lava Mouth".

"Come on, I’ve reached max level, let’s group up for the five-man dungeon and grab some Fire Resistance Gear. We’ll start the Lava Mouth run promptly at 8!"

As a major streamer and guild leader, Instructor Ding certainly received some special treatment in the game.

There were already over twenty hardcore players in the guild who had reached max level two or three days ahead of Instructor Ding, from whom he carefully selected 19 to form the guild’s main raid team.

In "Shadow World", raid dungeons had dynamic difficulty levels, with a minimum of 10 people needed for the challenge, and up to 25, increasing in difficulty for every additional group of 5 people.

Under different dynamic difficulties, a boss’s health and damage would change accordingly, with a larger increase in health than damage. Loot drops would vary but not substantially.

All in all, if you wanted the most loot per person, a 10-person raid was definitely the best option. But a 10-person raid also meant a lower margin for error.

The more people there were, the higher the margin for error, but the loot per person would decrease accordingly.

However, overall, due to the dynamic balancing mechanism, this difference was not too significant.

Instructor Ding’s decision to assemble a 20-person team was clearly made after considering the game’s dynamic difficulty mechanic.

The 19 others in the raid had already completed the preliminary work for the dungeon, had nearly gathered complete Fire Resistance Gear, and were close to being able to smoothly clear the prerequisit dungeon.

At this time, four experienced players led Instructor Ding through the pre-raid dungeon, securing the Fire Resistance Equipment, and naturally, it was time to form the raid group.

"OK, brothers, I declare the first guild activity of Brotherhood Guild begins!

"Everyone can tune into my stream to experience the whole process!

"Brothers, you can group up with me now. Those who have completed the attunement quest, let’s run the dungeon and pull players.

"Requesting a pull, please!"

While organizing the run, Instructor Ding boasted to his streaming audience about what he had learned over the past few days.

"I’ve checked out the progression videos from the largest guild ’Dawn’ these last couple of days. Overall, Lava Mouth as the first raid dungeon is of an acceptable difficulty. They progressed for three days and defeated five bosses, hitting a wall at the sixth.

"I’ve taken a look, and at least the first three bosses have relatively simple mechanics. With a bit of effort today, we should be able to down the first and maybe even get familiar with the second boss’s strategy.

"So, have confidence, everyone. Don’t be intimidated by the difficulty. Let’s get it done!"

Although "Shadow World" was a new game without readily available guides or add-ons, the expertise of veteran players in progression could not be underestimated. They quickly figured out numerous boss strategies and generously shared them online.

The high difficulty of "Shadow World" may have deterred many players, but those who remained were truly hardcore, each one more masochistic than the last, elite players all.

Soon, the Brotherhood Guild’s main raider team set off in high spirits!

They traveled to the city closest to Lava Mouth, then used the flight point to fly near the camping ground by Lava Mouth, finally mounting up and heading towards the entrance.

The whole process, coordinated and bearing the unified guild name, gave off a special epic feel indeed.

Passing through the dungeon entrance, clearing the fearsome flame Dragonkin minions, the group quickly arrived at the first boss’s room.

Instructor Ding even remembered to keep the atmosphere lively.

"Gee, are these dungeon minions all there is? Nothing much!

"Guys, remember the early days of the first MMORPG expeditions, when the mere entrance minions could wipe out a raid for a week!"

The veteran players knew that what Instructor Ding was saying was indeed true. Back then, the raid wipes were sometimes due to the attribute gap, and sometimes simply because of game mechanics.

For example, one mechanic was that a group of minions had to be killed simultaneously, because if the time between their deaths was too great, the ones that died first would revive.

Players back then were unaware of this mechanic, and it took them a whole week just to fail at getting past that group of minions. Such events were quite common twenty years ago.

Compared to that, the raid difficulty in "Shadow World" isn’t really that outlandish.

Upon reaching the first boss’s room, Instructor Ding couldn’t wait to show off his understanding.

"Alright, according to the pioneering video from ’Dawn’ guild, this first boss is a DPS checker, but overall, not particularly tough.

"In the storyline, it’s a kind dragon that has been corrupted and imprisoned, and we must kill it as quickly as possible. If it’s not dead within four minutes, it will enter Berserk State and cause a raid wipe.

"During the fight, minions will spawn inside the room, and after killing the minions, an Energy Field will appear. Stepping into the Energy Field will significantly boost one’s DPS, so everyone will have to move accordingly..."

Instructor Ding began to explain non-stop.

However, while explaining, someone timidly asked in the voice chat, "Wait, Instructor, are you sure this is a dragon? Doesn’t this look like a human?

"Or is it going to turn into a dragon after we start fighting?"

Instructor Ding paused, and when he looked up towards the higher part of the boss’s room, he indeed saw not a Giant Dragon but what looked like an ordinary human NPC standing there.

"Eh? That doesn’t seem right?"

Instructor Ding nearly thought his memory had gone awry. He minimized the game and reopened the pioneering video he’d watched before.

There’s no mistake!

In the pioneering video of the ’Dawn’ guild within the vast space of the first boss’s room, a massive Giant Dragon was sprawling, occupying one-third of the entire room.

Moreover, this dragon was not something that transformed mid-way; it was that huge from the beginning.

Instructor Ding was puzzled and switched to another guild’s pioneering video.

It was the same!

There was a Giant Dragon in the room, not a humanoid NPC.

Instructor Ding wanted to check more, but the game had only started not long ago, and considering the leveling speed of most players, there weren’t many guilds capable of pioneering raids and uploading videos of it, so there was no way to further verify.

He searched online for any related news but couldn’t find any explanation.

Clearly, it seemed no other guild had encountered a similar situation, or if they had, they hadn’t posted it online yet.

Instructor Ding was somewhat speechless. What to do now?

They were all set and ready, yet the plan couldn’t keep up with the changes. Even if they wanted to prepare now, it was simply too late.

"Oh, well, let’s just start fighting! Pull the boss!"

At Instructor Ding’s command, the leading main tank stepped forward to talk to the NPC.

"Hehehe, excellent, another group of wretches who’ve strayed into the abyss. Then, let the game begin!"

With a commanding line, the NPC vanished in a teleportation, and massive mobs of minions surged out from both sides of the hall at once.

Instructor Ding was shocked. This was completely different from what the guide said!