Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 449 - 432 The battle experience is really unique!

Chapter 449: Chapter 432 The battle experience is really unique!

Since it was just a demo, there were not many minor monsters in the game, just three different types.

In addition to the previously mentioned fashion dolls, there were also housekeeper puppets dressed in gentlemen’s tailcoats, as well as larger beastification monsters.

The housekeeper puppet’s build was roughly similar to that of the fashion doll, only with slightly different attack animations.

The beastification monster, on the other hand, looked like a creature between a bear and a wolf, covered in alternating black and grayish-white fur, with behavior patterns largely different from the puppets, and movements more intuitive.

However, its domineering body and high-impact moves still made it a quite challenging elite monster to deal with.

Qiu Qinghong further delved into the remaining content of the combat system, such as adjusting his puppet modifications, trying other weapons, and testing the functions of the puppet prostheses, like how using a flame enchanted weapon could cause significant damage to beastification monsters.

Plenty of fur means fire weakness, right? That’s practically an unwritten rule in the game.

As for the dolls, using flame attribute attacks had little effect, whereas electric attributes were clearly better.

Qiu Qinghong noticed that the game also had different attack attributes, which when matched against enemies’ resistances, could greatly amplify the effectiveness of the attacks.

For example, fire could cause enemies to burn, which was extremely effective against furry monsters; dolls were weak to electricity; large monsters were susceptible to bleeding; acid could accelerate the erosion of both puppet bodies and cold steel weapons; and explosive attributes might cause some enemies with large thermal weapons to blow their chambers, and so on.

Most of these different attack attributes were derived from the character’s puppet prosthesis, though some were achieved through special items.

Because the game was still in the demo phase, players were given all the items that would normally be acquired throughout the game.

After trying everything, Qiu Qinghong passed the game controller to others for them to experience, with an expression that showed mixed feelings.

"Well... speaking of the quality of the game, it’s certainly without issue.

"But as for the combat experience, how should I put it...

"It’s very much in line with Nitiandang’s unique style, very innovative indeed!"

It must be said that Qiu Qinghong’s comment was high in emotional intelligence.

When it comes to the quality of the game, there’s definitely no issue. Action games require a lot of buildup, but Nitiandang has made several action games before and has had many successes, so there’s certainly no problem with their technical reserves.

But does this combat system get the blood pumping? Not really.

Qiu Qinghong had a sneaking suspicion that Nitiandang clearly knew how to make an action system enjoyable and get players excited, but they intentionally chose not to do so.

It’s like a test paper, not easy to score full marks, but scoring zero is equally difficult.

If you can accurately avoid all the correct answers, it means you really have some skills.

The demo of "Blood of Lies" gave such a combat experience. Nitiandang knew where the fun was for players, but they just kept teasing around the spot of excitement, only scratching the surface, which was frustrating.

Take the GP system in this game, for example. Ideally, GP is a major point of excitement for players, and most games try to minimize the GP start-up time as much as possible.

That’s what "Ascension" did; players just needed to press the defense button when an attack was about to hit to produce a GP effect.

In some other action games, even if GP is feared to be overly powerful and is weakened a bit, there are still some traces to follow.

For instance, adding a not-too-long, relatively fixed start-up time to GP or having GP include a preparation move that allows a window of time to wait during its duration.

Or maybe GP is simple, but the benefit from GP is dialed down.

For example, GP cannot directly cause a boss to stagger, but only depletes the tenacity bar, and only when the tenacity bar is fully depleted does the stagger occur.

But "Blood of Lies" obviously took a completely different approach, not only making each weapon’s GP timing completely different but also giving it a lengthy start-up animation, which obviously increased the cost for players to practice the GP mechanics.

Part destruction was another such example. According to normal game design, providing monsters with destructible parts is enough to give players a satisfying experience.

But providing players with part destruction?

Players are already as fragile as paper; add part destruction on top of that, and it’s likely you’ll end up with a situation where you have a blood bar but are already crippled, with greatly reduced performance. Think from the player’s perspective—how infuriating would that be?

As for the other mechanics in this game, such as the yet-to-be-completed Lying Mechanism in the design plans, Qiu Qinghong also had the feeling there might be more to it.

At first glance, it seemed like an interesting mechanic, possibly giving players more choices, but he also felt that some traps were hidden within, only noticeable when truly hands-on with the game.

By this time, the second employee to test the game had also donned a mask of pain.

"President Wei, isn’t the current difficulty of this game a bit too outrageous?

"Can players really accept it?"

Wei Chengjie was silent for a moment, not knowing how to respond.

Is the difficulty outrageous?

Of course, it is!

As a producer at Nitiandang, did he not know how absurdly difficult this game was?

But they couldn’t adjust the difficulty because it was set by President Li and approved by President Gu; if any adjustments were to be made, they could only be upwards.

With this in mind, he could only cough lightly: "The difficulty is indeed quite challenging, but considering that the difficulty of ’Ascension’ did not cause issues for players, ’Blood of Lies’ should not be a problem either.

"As an action game, we do need to continuously offer new high-difficulty challenges to players! Otherwise, if they complete the game too easily, wouldn’t they feel that their purchase wasn’t worthwhile?

"Besides, the research abilities of players are quite terrifying. What we find insurmountable now might be easily resolved by players with just a bit of study."

Qiu Qinghong was momentarily lost for words, but he could only nod: "Alright President Wei, let’s confirm the workload then..."

Although everyone was a bit dazed by the game’s demo, after all, the whole studio was essentially under the wing of Nitiandang, and they had no say in how the game should be developed.

They could only strictly follow the design plans provided by Nitiandang and complete their own portion of the work.

But hey, whether the game loses or earns money isn’t their concern; if it earns, that’s great, perhaps they could get some bonuses, but if it loses, it doesn’t matter, their income’s secured.