Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 394 - 403 Save and Character Files

Chapter 394: Chapter 403 Save and Character Files

As Zhang Qifeng delved deeper into playing "Heartbeat Dream," more negative news about the game surfaced on the internet.

It must be said that "Heartbeat Dream" was making a major stir. Whenever players thought they had reached the limits of Nitiandang’s antics, the new content would still refresh their perceptions.

In addition to the previous issues, players soon discovered that the game’s use of fake-AI technology was to an insane extent.

Logically, this should not have been the case, as when it comes to the application of fake-AI technology, Nitiandang was the best in the country.

From "Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon" to "City Forsaken by Gods," Nitiandang’s use of fake-AI had reached a peak of perfection, and had even become a core part of the gameplay, also serving as an extremely powerful hidden mechanism.

When players first heard that "Heartbeat Dream" also employed fake-AI technology, many were filled with anticipation.

After all, given the standards demonstrated by Nitiandang before, using this technology to create a dating game should be exciting, right?

Countless girls, almost with real emotions, engaging in a passionate romance with players—that idea was thrilling!

However, after actually playing it, they realized the deeply touching romantic scenes they expected were nowhere to be found; instead, the game took on a sci-fi tone.

The girls in the game were cute and proactive in pursuing relationships, but they didn’t have any particularly brilliant lines or plot developments. Overall, it was just the normal level of other companies using fake-AI to write scripts, nothing special.

In the realm of dating games, it barely passed.

Although continuously engaging with the horror content could unlock a degree of realism in the girls, making their dialogue less sci-fi and including some minor displays of losing favor or getting jealous, it was still just the normal level for a dating game, nothing "out of the ordinary."

What was even more frustrating was that as players continued to delve deeper into the game, they discovered another fatal flaw in the fake-AI technology.

It was self-contradictory!

As players experienced more of the horror content, the horror levels were also gradually upgrading.

Take, for example, Instructor Ding’s first encounter with Alvet, who appeared as a faceless horror monster. As players completed more levels and activated more terrifying scenes, Alvet’s appearance would become even more dreadful.

At first, she was barely classifiable as humanoid, but soon, her body would undergo more grotesque transformations. For instance, a huge serpent’s head, similar to the mythological World Serpent Yemengade, would grow behind her. The heads of the Hellhound Garm would sprout from her shoulders, along with features of the giant wolf Fenrir and the North Sea Giant Demon...

In short, it just kept getting more terrifying!

As the levels progressed, Alvet would continue to deliver her lines, and here’s where the unbearable part occurred: she would utter terrifying lines about chasing the player, mingled with romantic dialogue...

This was indeed very frustrating—not only was it immersion-breaking, but it further exposed the weaknesses of the fake-AI.

Clearly, Nitiandang did not apply fake-AI technology with the same level of seriousness as in their previous games when developing this one.

Moreover, the longer the game ran, the more frequently this AI dialogue confusion occurred.

This clearly indicated a significant problem in the internal logic algorithms of the fake-AI, and Nitiandang’s programmers had not earnestly written the rules or conducted in-depth adjustments.

Many players still harbored some hope: even though the NPC had mutated and was chasing to kill me, when expressing romantic lines, could it be the kind side prevailing? Could approaching her trigger some hidden plot?

Turns out, just as you look back, you’re devoured by the monster, instantly crispy with a flavor of fried chicken.

Originally, having two types of dialogue was a good design, which if integrated with the NPC’s internal struggle and agony, could enhance the depth of the storyline and further increase the player’s immersion, even possibly unfolding some hidden plots.

But after much trial, players discovered none of this!

No matter what lines the NPC said, it did not impact the NPC’s behavior; they still continued to chase and attack the player.

This only increased player dissatisfaction—was imagining Nitiandang’s sophisticated strategies all wishful thinking on our part?

There was nothing, right?

How was this any different from those shoddy game companies that haphazardly throw fake-AI into their games and then just let them run unchecked, leaving everything up to fate?

Of course, there was still a small number of "Nitiandang loyalists" stubbornly making statements like, "Nitiandang definitely has a deeper intent," "Which Nitiandang’s game isn’t used to big backlash when it initially launches?" "Just wait for the turnaround," "No worries, the bugs will kick in," eliciting mockery from the netizens.

...

"File error: ’characters/Sakura.chr’, the file may be missing or damaged."

"Damn, not again!"

Zhang Qifeng angrily hit the desk again.

This error message, he had seen many times before, or rather, every player who played the official version of "Heartbeat Dream" must have seen this prompt, just with different keywords.

For example, Instructor Ding saw "characters/Alvet.chr", which refers to Alvet.

The word Zhang Qifeng saw was Sakura, because his chosen female character was a Neon Girl from the game, classically named "Sakura."

Regardless of the character chosen, this error message was inevitable.

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