Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 484 - 467: Difficulty Level Bug?

Chapter 484: Chapter 467: Difficulty Level Bug?

"Hold on, is there really no hidden mechanism, or have I just not discovered it yet?"

If it were a game from any other company, Zhuge Jun would have definitely cried foul and abandoned this meaningless challenge, then casually left a negative review on the official platform.

But this is a game by Nitiandang.

As is well known, every one of Nitiandang’s previous games almost always had special hidden mechanisms, and those designs that seemed irrational at first glance all turned out to have deeper meanings.

Therefore, Zhuge Jun decided to give it another chance.

He patiently searched, thinking maybe there really was some undiscovered hidden mechanism.

Nitiandang definitely had gotten better at concealing them.

For the initial releases, the hidden mechanisms were uncovered by players just a day or two after the game’s release. For the latest games, however, the time it took players to find hidden mechanisms was getting longer and longer, from a week to two weeks, and in some cases, nearly a month.

But this made finding the hidden mechanisms even more satisfying.

Zhuge Jun began to reason seriously: Assuming "Blood of Lies" did have a special hidden mechanism, and this particular mechanism could precisely solve the current irrational design of the Divine Ending, where would it most likely be hidden?

"The answer might be... is there some simple method in the game to maintain Dynamic Difficulty and greatly increase GP success rates?"

After deducing this, Zhuge Jun reached such a conclusion.

His reasoning was not complicated, because looking at the conditions required for the Divine Ending, the most difficult were indeed Dynamic Difficulty and GP success rates.

No matter how other mechanisms changed, as long as these two remained, the Divine Ending would not be accessible for the average player.

Conversely, if ordinary players could also achieve these two points more easily, then the remaining conditions, whether choosing specific lie options or enduring a boss for one minute without "killing," wouldn’t be too difficult.

But then again, both seem quite unlikely.

Because Dynamic Difficulty and GP judgment frames are part of the game’s core mechanics, and to date, players have not discovered any way to actively adjust them.

Would the official leave a backdoor here?

From a game design perspective, no.

But based on the consistent patterns of Nitiandang, it didn’t seem completely impossible.

"Forget it, I’ll study it first!"

At this time, players who were more confident in their own skills had already begun trying to achieve the Divine Ending using Wang’s methods next door.

But Zhuge Jun felt that sharpening the axe would not delay the work of cutting wood; wasn’t this the case with every one of Nitiandang’s previous games? Finding the hidden mechanism before playing always provided the best gaming experience.

"Perhaps I should first test if there is anything wrong with this Dynamic Difficulty System?"

Faced with a choice, Zhuge Jun decided to try the Dynamic Difficulty first.

Because comparatively, achieving a high GP success rate was easier, as long as players only GP certain specific actions.

Dodging every attack move of a boss was quite difficult, and Zhuge Jun couldn’t do it yet. But if he only GP’d certain moves, then the difficulty wasn’t that high, and it could also weaken the boss.

Therefore, the priority was to tackle the Dynamic Difficulty issue.

Zhuge Jun began trying with his second playthrough account, having temporarily set aside the aim of achieving the Divine Ending, simply playing normally while paying close attention to the dynamic difficulty point changes displayed on the plugin.

This plugin displayed data based on the game’s internal metrics, and the specific numbers were divided into two parts.

One was difficulty rank, the other was difficulty points.

These terms were directly lifted from the game’s code, so they adopted the code’s terminology.

Zhuge Jun conducted some simple experiments and quickly determined the range of these two values.

The difficulty rank ranged from level 1 to level 6, with the default starting difficulty rank set at level 3.

Inside each Dynamic Difficulty level were up to 5000 dynamic difficulty points.

In simple terms, when a player enters the game for the first time or respawns from a checkpoint, the default difficulty is: difficulty rank 3, difficulty points 0.

When a player performs flawlessly in the game or passes certain checkpoints in an unbeatable state, points are deducted from the difficulty points.

And the amount deducted varies depending on the player’s actions.

For example, if a player parkours from one gas lamp to another without taking damage, the game deducts 500 difficulty points; if a player defeats a boss without taking damage, the game deducts 1000 difficulty points.

Additionally, killing minor enemies and picking up items without taking damage and similar behaviors also deduct varying amounts of dynamic difficulty points.

Assuming 500 points are deducted, the new difficulty would be: difficulty rank 2, difficulty points 4500.

Since each difficulty level’s maximum is 5000 points, reaching 5000 automatically advances to the next difficulty rank, so when the points are at 0, a deduction will lower the Dynamic Difficulty rank.

Adding points works similarly.

When a player takes damage or dies, points are added.

And whether adding or subtracting points, there was a limit to the Dynamic Difficulty range.

The lowest score is difficulty rank 1 (0 points), and the highest score is difficulty rank 6 (5000 points).

When the difficulty rank reaches the maximum, no matter what the player does or how many times they die, the difficulty rank will no longer increase.

Between difficulty 1 and difficulty 6, the difference is still quite significant.

At the lowest difficulty, the boss’s health is significantly reduced, its attack power is lowered, its desire to attack is also low, and the moves it executes are just simple moves repeated.

Conversely, at the highest difficulty, not only does the boss have high health and attack, but its desire to attack is like a mad dog, and its moves will develop into various combos.

This is why those speedrunners and expert players find it boring when they play.

Another point to pay special attention to is that although it seems like low difficulty only has dynamic difficulty levels 1 and 2, and high difficulty has dynamic difficulty levels 3, 4, 5, and 6, in reality, it is extremely difficult for players to achieve dynamic difficulty level 1.

Because maintaining no damage is very difficult, and it’s very easy to take damage or miss items for any reason, so in most cases, ordinary players struggle near dynamic difficulty level 3 no matter how hard they try.

They’ve exhausted all energies just to keep the difficulty level normal, let alone trying to lower it easily.

"Damn, this is really hard!

"It looks like this scoring system is very tight, there seems to be no loopholes, oh no, no hidden mechanisms."

After pushing through a segment of the gameplay, Zhuge Jun felt somewhat deflated.

Because he had no leads at all.

The score control was very tight, there were even decimals after the score, made with exceptional precision.

All the nuanced actions added or subtracted different scores, and some monsters’ throws even continued to add scores, it depended on when the player breaks free, then the score adding would stop.

It seemed that to keep the game at dynamic difficulty level 1 for 70% of the time, you’d still have to play without taking damage.

No progress at all.

"Forget it, let’s go fight an old friend."

Zhuge Jun took a look, and he had arrived at the familiar workshop area again, where he could fight the Beastification Furnace Craftsman in the second run.

This one was also known as a newbie killer—it absolutely didn’t fit the stereotype of "more fur, less fire." Once ignited by flames, its entire body fur would become enchanted, burning players so fiercely.

That’s why many "enthusiastic big brothers" liked to troll online with the phrase "Melter Craftsman weak fire," completely fooling the newbies.

Zhuge Jun was also prepared to suffer.

He glanced at his current dynamic difficulty level, which was level 6 (3999.34 points). This score was already quite high, and another thousand points or so would max it out.

Mainly because during his earlier testing, he had deliberately taken various skills from different monsters to observe the changes in difficulty points. Before he knew it, his score had shot up.

Zhuge Jun wasn’t too concerned; after all, if he died once, the dynamic difficulty level would go back to level 3’s zero points.

He was about to experience the crazed boss of the highest difficulty.

However, as soon as the fight started, Zhuge Jun instinctively felt that something was off.

Why does this boss have so little health? Why are its moves so simple?

This seemed a lot easier than the first time he encountered it, right?

Zhuge Jun was utterly baffled. He had braced himself for a beating.

At this difficulty level, the boss was definitely supposed to unleash various stylish combos on him mercilessly. Even though he had fought it in the first run, he had long forgotten the specific moves and feel of the fight by now—resuffering was inevitable.

Yet, the battle was much easier than Zhuge Jun had imagined.

Even after three minutes, when the boss collapsed with a thud, Zhuge Jun was still somewhat in disbelief.

That’s it?

It’s dead?

Wasn’t this way too easy compared to the first run?

Is it because the second run is supposed to be a breezy playthrough? No, that can’t be right; "Blood of Lies" doesn’t have this kind of rule!

Based on his previous experience, the difficulty in the second run didn’t decrease; if anything, it increased slightly. So why was the difficulty of the Melter Craftsman so much lower than in the first run?

Zhuge Jun was puzzled. He quickly took out his phone and searched for the keywords "Blood of Lies, second run, Melter Craftsman" on a video website.

However, according to these videos, there were no signs of weakening for the Melter Craftsman in the second run; it remained as tricky as in the first run, even causing many players who just entered the second run to stumble.

Especially during the second phase when it catches on fire all over, it could even make some veteran players buckle.

"Feels like... the difficulty isn’t right?"

Zhuge Jun also watched some videos of speedrun experts, but seldom were they so smooth.

Because if you directly fight from being revived at the lamp, the default difficulty is level 3. To bring down the difficulty during battle, you would need to continue dealing damage to the boss or execute successful guard breaks without taking any damage yourself, which is difficult.

Those real speedrun experts would lower the difficulty to 1 before entering the boss room by killing minor monsters or through other means.

Only under those circumstances would the fight be similar to the one Zhuge Jun had just experienced.

"Could it be I accidentally ran into some kind of bug that turned the highest difficulty into the lowest difficulty?

"What exactly did I do to cause it?"

Zhuge Jun hurried to seriously consider his series of actions before, trying hard to replicate them.

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