Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 277 - 286: Obviously Intentional by the Officials!

Chapter 277: Chapter 286: Obviously Intentional by the Officials!

"First, this full-class selection is clearly a hidden gameplay mechanic designed by the officials. But why design classes in the first place? Obviously, to facilitate player learning and transformation!"

"Think about it—if they had opened up all classes, all skills, all talents from the start, players would have definitely been overwhelmed."

"In a typical MMORPG game, by level 10, you’d at most learn just two or three skills, and choose a talent from among the five or six available within three branches. The learning cost is pretty low, and it’s easier for newcomers to get started."

"But if you start with full access to all classes, that means players have to choose from fifteen or sixteen skills, and over twenty initial talents. The learning cost would skyrocket, practically driving new players away from the game."

"The current design is quite good, I’d say. Players follow a class’s progression, play accordingly, and by the time they reach max level, they’d have a thorough understanding of that class’s gameplay while also having adapted to the game’s leveling, dungeons, PVP, and other contents."

"At that point, challenging Nephalor and successfully reaching the third phase is like a big test. Only by passing this test can players unlock this full-class gameplay."

"Then, players won’t feel lost anymore, they won’t be clueless but would instead be able to seriously study the skill and talent combinations between different classes. Only then can they truly experience the thrill."

"Secondly, how is the difficulty design unreasonable? I think it’s quite reasonable!"

"It’s just different from other MMORPGs. But games made by Nitiandang have always been full of innovation. Why should they stick to what other MMORPGs are doing?"

"Even if Instructor Ding’s team has cleared Nephalor without a single piece of raid equipment in a 15-person group, that doesn’t mean they have nothing left to play."

"Lava Mouth is just the first raid of this version, and it has four levels of difficulty. With each increase in difficulty, the stats and mechanics change."

"So what if you clear Nephalor on normal difficulty? It’s just a ticket. Beyond that are the hero, epic, and legendary difficulties of Lava Mouth."

"And after Lava Mouth, there are two more major raids, Snowy Mountain Summit and Burial Grounds."

"That is to say, even when you’ve cleared Nephalor on normal difficulty, you’ve completed less than one-tenth of the raid content."

"Why must the first raid block 90% of players? Why can’t we let everyone who is skilled enough clear this raid, so all players can enjoy the fun of raiding?"

"As for the so-called ’difficulty inversion,’ that’s even more laughable. First off, the low-level five-man dungeon difficulty is high because everyone has lower levels, fewer skills, and isn’t familiar with the mechanics. If anything, the raid difficulty is definitely going to be higher."

"Even after unlocking full-class gameplay, the difficulty of Lava Mouth on normal is just on par with five-man dungeons, or slightly lower at best."

"Moreover, this is a kind of ’bitter before the sweet.’ Once you’re used to the difficulty of a five-man dungeon, then you take on higher-level raids, you can clearly feel your own growth."

"It’s like many high-difficulty action games out there, they all set various obstacles at the beginning. As players progress, it feels increasingly easier, but it’s not that the game is getting easier, it’s that you are getting stronger."

"Additionally, for max level players unlocking all classes, it actually makes it easier to level up alternate characters."

"Previously, high-level players couldn’t assist lower-level ones because of the dungeon’s level scaling mechanics, where high-level players were forcibly scaled down to the maximum level allowed by the dungeon."

"But obviously, the officials did this deliberately. They allow high-level players to retain high-level talents and skills; it’s just the stats that are scaled down, not the mechanics."

"So, if it’s a max-level player with access to all classes, even if their stats are scaled down, their skill and talent synergy remains intact, still allowing them to effectively guide lower-level characters through dungeons. Though it takes more skill and technique than simply steamrolling with level advantage, it requires a specific build designed for guiding low-levels. This also achieves a kind of dynamic balance."

"Besides, there are many details that show this hidden mechanic was intentionally planted by the officials from the very beginning!"

"For example, why didn’t the officials simply add a class restriction from the start to prevent players from learning skills of other classes in any situation? Why leave such a loophole for players to exploit? Why does Nephalor’s targeting use skill-based judgment and not direct class-based judgment? From a programming development perspective, none of this makes sense!"

"So, I believe this was pre-designed by Nitiandang as part of the game experience! Don’t believe me? We’ll just wait and see if Nitiandang will fix the bug and whether they will roll back or not!"

It has to be said, the Mechanism faction’s arguments were clearly more convincing.

Especially their points on "raid difficulty" resonated with many players.

If it were like other MMORPGs, raiding would definitely be much harder than leveling, and it would surely hold back the majority of players. It’s common for the initial exploration of a raid to take weeks.

But is that really the right approach?

In traditional MMORPGs, the threshold for raiding is very high, not only requiring gatherings of twenty to forty people, but also demanding daily attendance as punctual as clocking in for a job. If you can’t make it, you have to ask for leave in advance.

Out of 100 max-level players, perhaps 30 being able to experience the joy of raiding would be considered good, or even fewer.

What about the remaining 70 people?

All they could do after logging in was to mine, gather herbs, level up alternates, farm gold, and then wait to be a substitute to enter a raid just to get a glance at the boss.

But Shadow World’s approach seemed very generous, supporting teams of at least 10 players, and after unlocking all classes, even a small guild or team formed by new players could beat more than half of the bosses in Lava Mouth rather easily in the first week.

If they stably continued for two or three weeks and upgraded their equipment, then clearing the normal Lava Mouth would be no problem at all.

That is to say, out of 100 max level players, as long as they were willing, 80 or even 90 of them could enjoy the fun of raiding.

Isn’t this more in line with the expectations of players nowadays?

Players discovered that in terms of difficulty, Shadow World actually achieved a kind of bizarre balance.

Although the difficulty of each phase wasn’t quite what everyone expected, when players looked back after the full class gameplay was activated, they found that the difficulty design seemed... quite alright?

Of course, the bug faction didn’t concede so easily and continued to insist.

As for whether this is a bug or a mechanism, it can only be confirmed by the official decision.

If the officials urgently took the servers offline for a fix and even rolled back to revoke Instructor Ding’s team’s first kill achievement, then without a doubt, it would be a bug.

But if the officials stayed silent or even released an article confirming that this was an intended gameplay mechanic, then naturally, it would be a mechanism.

All players were anxiously searching for Nephalor to unlock all classes while waiting for Nitiandang’s response.

...

One day passed.

Two days passed.

Three days passed!

On Nitiandang’s end, there was complete silence, with no response whatsoever!

During this time, almost all the main guild teams had reached Nephalor. Even with two or three bosses blocking the way, after three days of the entire team’s hard work, they had already been defeated.

Thus, players with all classes unlocked began to spread and become even more numerous!

Guild teams, looking to strengthen their forces, would certainly help their active new members unlock classes as soon as possible. Although they wouldn’t unlock all classes, they prioritized unlocking the second class that offered the most significant enhancement to their current role.

Some teams on the server also saw the business opportunity and started offering "professional team paid class unlocks" services.

These teams would deliberately choose a raid progress that started with Nephalor and then advertise in the world channel. They charged a fee for every class they unlocked for a newcomer, with clear pricing and honesty promised.

This even became a unique industry chain, causing the in-game gold to circulate.

And those players who had unlocked all classes didn’t lose interest in the game, they found it even more interesting!

They spent a lot of time in the game each day, not raiding or farming gold, but simply doing research!

They constantly reset their points to study the skills and talents of other classes, experimenting with different skill and talent combinations to discover what kind of marvelous reactions would occur.

Each reset cost 20 Gold Coins, which increased the consumption of gold and maintained a reasonable level of its value on the server, preventing severe inflation. This also gave players who farmed gold more motivation.

This "rational combination of skills" was also referred to by players, in terms from other games, as "BD."

The so-called BD could be translated as "Build" or "Setup," meaning a specific playstyle template created through specific skill and talent combinations.

On the forums, players continuously shared their newly researched BDs and showed the direct effects of these BDs through various data.

The popularity of Shadow World soared to new heights, and a large number of players who had quit the game returned!

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