Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 361 - 370 Mod Review Rejected

Chapter 361: Chapter 370 Mod Review Rejected

Gan Di didn’t pay much attention to the fine print—it was just a matter of auditing, after all!

Generally speaking, mods in the Steam Workshop only need to go through an official audit, and game developers usually don’t interfere with such matters.

After all, the more mods there are, the better. Even if there are some subpar mods, they are quickly downvoted by players, so it doesn’t make sense for game developers to go through the trouble of extensive auditing.

So why did Nitiandang conduct its own audit after the official one?

It certainly wasn’t due to concerns over mods violating laws or regulations.

Perhaps it was because Nitiandang is more dedicated to excellence? Maybe they simply rejected mods of poor quality or those without a clear purpose?

Well, that could be possible.

Gan Di didn’t think too much about it and turned back to finishing the few mods he was working on.

For him, this event came just in time—it was like someone handed him a pillow when he was about to snooze.

How did Nitiandang know I was working on several "Legend of Infinity Fantasy" mods?

Ah, how embarrassing!

Gan Di felt confident about this one because the event had just started, and others who were beginning to create mods now definitely wouldn’t be as quick as he was.

Gan Di’s mods were nearly finished; all he had to do was complete and upload them on schedule, and they would stand out from the crowd, skyrocketing to the front page of the Steam Workshop.

This advantage would likely hold for quite some time.

While there’s no direct reward for having mods featured in the Steam Workshop, the popularity, traffic, and even the ethereal sense of achievement were still desirable.

"Okay, job done!"

After busying himself for another half an hour, Gan Di finished one of the mods.

He named this mod the "Time Stop Optimization Mod." Its main feature was to allow the in-game "Time Stop" ability to scale correctly with upgrades, and it also added many new targets that could be affected by Time Stop.

Originally, the Time Stop ability in "Endless Fantasy Legend" became somewhat awkward in the later stages of the game, as the duration to control monsters greatly decreased, rendering it only usable as a disruption skill, which felt lackluster and boring.

However, after applying this mod, even the most powerful monsters in the game could be frozen for a few seconds after leveling up Time Stop.

Furthermore, there were many things in the game that were immune to Time Stop, such as certain objects in the ruins, or monsters encountered while using Earth Escape.

Having researched the game’s core programming a bit, Gan Di found that with minor adjustments to some attribute values of these items, they could be made susceptible to Time Stop.

So he optimized accordingly, making the Time Stop skill more in line with what players wanted.

In this way, players using Earth Escape only had to activate the Time Stop ability to spot monsters lurking in the soil, making it a more enjoyable gameplay mechanic than the original method, which involved blindly tunneling.

After a final test to ensure that this mod was stable and unlikely to cause serious bugs, Gan Di promptly uploaded it.

So far, there were no other mods in the "Endless Fantasy Legend" Steam Workshop, and filled with confidence, Gan Di felt his "Time Stop Optimization Mod" could take the top spot.

Auditing takes a bit of time, so Gan Di didn’t just wait around; he continued to work on other mods.

There were many different kinds of mods, such as character replacement mods, appearance mods, texture optimization mods, and more.

Among them was one mod that Gan Di had invested his most effort into, named the "Master Mod."

As the name suggests, this was a high-difficulty mod. It not only enhanced the attack power and health of many monsters and gave them many new moves and actions, but what was truly terrifying was that Gan Di had added several new types of monsters.

One of the most formidable monsters created was known as the "Beast Clan War God."

These Beast Clan War Gods mostly rode frightening giant wolves and wielded various weapons such as greatswords, machetes, spears, and bows.

Their way of fighting was diverse; thanks to their wolf mounts, they had excellent mobility. They could also skillfully switch between weapons to attack their enemies—shooting arrows from afar, thrusting with spears, or slashing with blades up close.

And their attributes were quite formidable; if a player was weak, they would typically be killed in one strike.

The Beast Clan War God, this type of monster, was created by Gan Di using some free resources from the official platform; of course, he also used a lot of materials and movement mods from the monsters in Legend of Infinity Fantasy.

Overall, it could be said to be a patchwork monster, mainly created to pose more challenges for players.

Besides the Beast Clan War God, there were also some other monsters in the Master Mod, most of which were based on the originals with some modifications—either a change of color, adjustment of stats, or the grafting and stitching of new attack movements.

Furthermore, in the Master Mod, players’ abilities would also receive a certain enhancement. Although not nearly as much as the monsters, at least players could rely on these new capabilities to better defeat these new monsters.

Gan Di had high hopes and full confidence in this mod.

He even believed that even if players later grew tired of playing Endless Fantasy Legend and didn’t want to play anymore, just by applying the Master Mod, they could potentially extend their playtime by another tens of hours.

...

"Good, another one done!"

Gan Di saved the newly-created mod.

This second mod was named "Li Huanzhen Replacement Mod," which was quite simple in content—it involved replacing the protagonist Li Huanzhen’s model from "Ascension" with the Hero in Endless Fantasy Legend.

The mod itself was not too complicated to produce, but due to inconsistent model details, the actions looked a bit odd after a brute force replacement. Gan Di made some adjustments to make it look normal.

"Let’s upload this mod too, and check how many people have downloaded the previous one...

"Huh??

"Review not passed??"

Gan Di was somewhat baffled because the message that popped up on his backend clearly stated that the previous "Time Stop Optimization Mod" had not passed!

There shouldn’t be any problem, why would it not pass?

Has the official platform gone haywire?

Upon closer inspection, Gan Di saw that the official platform had approved the mod shortly after its upload; the problem occurred with Nitiandang.

It was Nitiandang that had blocked the mod!

And the reason for rejection was astonishingly bewildering: "The mod does not meet the collection standards."

Gan Di felt utterly confused; how did it not meet the standards?

I’m optimizing the game features for you!

Re-upload, appeal!

Gan Di immediately uploaded both the "Time Stop Optimization Mod" and the "Li Huanzhen Replacement Mod" together, and clicked the appeal button on the "Time Stop Optimization Mod," typing in a line.

"This mod contains no violations, please verify and approve!"

The two mods re-entered the review process.

Gan Di went back to working on other mods.

Seeing that the night had grown late, even a night owl like Gan Di was yawning. He thought about waiting to see if the two mods passed the review smoothly, then he would go to sleep.

After all, if he left it until tomorrow, dragging it out overnight would definitely impact the popularity.

However, after toiling for another half hour, two notifications popped up again.

The two mods, still not approved!

Gan Di was absolutely livid: "Outrageous!"