Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 503 - 486: The Silicon-Based Dwarf

Chapter 503: Chapter 486: The Silicon-Based Dwarf

"It’s quite interesting.

"So, these little figures are aliens? Their appearance is quite unique."

Shen Guang looked at the screen, where he saw life forms that clearly looked very different from Humans. They had translucent exteriors, with especially dense structures in their brain areas, complex in design, resembling highly integrated microchips.

Inside their crystalline bodies flowed blood reminiscent of electric currents and magnetic fields, occasionally emitting bright flashes of light.

As for their muscles and skeletons, they appeared to be made of a different, denser material, possibly metal or some even harder substance.

The environment these beings were in also seemed quite magical.

It didn’t seem to be the surface but rather inside some sort of cave.

However, the cave was illuminated, with various luminescent, colorful stones scattered all around, providing decent lighting for the space.

In such a setting, those groups of silicon-based little folks, or silicon-based creatures, began to move around.

Wei Qicheng timely began to explain the background of the game, taking over the functions usually served by opening CG and background introductions in games.

"Mr. Shen, President Qiu, as you can see, the protagonists of this story are not Humans, but silicon-based life from a distant planet.

"This planet could be considered a small asteroid or a Comet, in any case, it orbits a star in an elliptical trajectory.

"Of course, from a current scientific perspective, it’s nearly impossible for life to arise on comets or asteroids because of their small size; there’s also significant contention over whether silicon-based life could truly exist.

"Additionally, there are theories that silicon-based life could originate in extreme cold or extreme heat; here we’ve set it that the silicon-based life in the game emerged in a temperature range of about -70 to -40 degrees Celsius.

"However, such temperature zones don’t persist indefinitely on this planet, so silicon-based life needs to rapidly modify its life forms and develop relevant technologies to adapt to the swiftly changing natural environment.

"In conclusion, many of the base settings in the game really don’t hold up to scrutiny, but after all, this is a work of science fiction, so let’s not fuss over those scientific principles for now.

"Let’s just suppose it’s a miracle of life in the universe!

"Perhaps a planet broke apart after a collision to form a Comet, and this Comet happened to have pre-existing life on it; or perhaps an extremely advanced alien civilization is conducting some kind of experiment, thus placing specific life forms on this Comet.

"In any case, the Star Plan has begun.

"Mr. Shen, President Qiu, you might have some questions during gameplay, such as about the living environment, the technology tree, the evolutionary tree, and so on. I won’t answer those for now, as they are elements of the puzzle and an integral part of the game content."

Playing the role of the chief executive officer and responsible for the specific operations was Shen Guang, who first tried to select the silicon-based little folks on the screen, but it didn’t respond.

Obviously, the control methods in "Star Plan" were different from those in ordinary RTS games; control couldn’t be as precise down to each civilian unit.

Shen Guang quickly figured out the specific way to play:

"The First Chief Executive Officer" was the only controllable unit in the game, and this first chief executive officer’s body could also be upgraded, even transformed into a structure similar to a single-soldier mech.

It looked larger than the other silicon-based little folks by nature and naturally had access to more resources.

Shen Guang could issue commands to all nearby silicon-based little folks through the first chief executive officer.

In addition, the game had a corresponding operation panel.

Select a building from the operation panel and position its blueprint at a specific location.

Then the silicon-based little folks would start working on their respective tasks and begin construction.

One of the silicon-based little folks transformed directly into the building itself, which was reminiscent of the construction methods of the Insect Race in some games.

The other silicon-based little folks would gather the right materials from nearby and build upon that foundation.

The first building Shen Guang constructed was a mining facility.

There were certain minerals on the map, and early-stage minerals were basically divided into three types: energy, building materials, and survival resources.

As silicon-based beings, they didn’t survive by hunting animals or gathering plants but rather by ingesting specific minerals.

Once the mining facility was completed, Shen Guang started constructing conveyer belts and warehouses to continuously store these minerals.

"Cough cough!

"Mr. Shen, on my side..." Qiu Qinghong tentatively said.

Shen Guang then realized there was another person playing the game and asked, "President Qiu, what’s the situation on your end?"

Qiu Qinghong said, "I can see all of your operations, Mr. Shen.

"But some of the specific data isn’t very clear, such as how much mineral each warehouse has stored right now.

"However, I can set some specific development goals here.

"For instance, the next milestone is ’ten thousand Comet Time.’

"As for the specific dates and the Comet’s orbit, they haven’t been unlocked yet. It seems they require the development of Basic Astronomy to access."

Clearly, the environment on this Comet was vastly different from Earth’s, so the life forms it nurtured followed entirely different rules.

Unable to determine dates by rotation and the alternation of day and night, they had to use silicon-based methods to calculate hours.

Regardless, ten thousand Comet Time seemed to be a rather short-term goal that wasn’t too long in duration.

For this time frame, the supreme leader could set specific development targets.

For example, certain resources’ production might reach XX per hour, some resources’ storage totals might hit XXXX, or the population might reach a specific number, and technological advancement might extend to a certain tech node, among others.

How to set these specifically is not advised in the game; it’s entirely up to the leader themselves to decide.

"Mr. Shen, what do you think would be a suitable number of targets for me to set?" Qiu Qinghong asked with caution.

Shen Guang felt somewhat helpless, "President Qiu, you’re the leader now, you make the call.

"Don’t overthink other factors when playing games, just play seriously and immerse yourself in your role."

"Alright." Since Shen Guang had said this, Qiu Qinghong had nothing more to hesitate about.

He began dragging the progress bars of various data indicators and selected the technologies that needed to be prioritized at this stage.

Despite it being only the early stages of the tech tree, there were surprisingly many directions to choose from.

For example, fuel efficiency and new fuel sources comprised one tech tree;

Various materials made up another tech tree;

Mechanized manufacturing was yet another;

Artificial breeding formed yet another separate tech tree...

These tech trees had certain connections with each other, with some technologies requiring others as prerequisites.

Furthermore, many tech trees had unknown prerequisites, which had to be obtained randomly through the breakthrough of other tech trees.

There was even a tech tree dedicated to the evolution and modification of silicon-based life, making them more tolerant to extreme cold or heat.

This would directly alter the life forms of the silicon-based life.

However, these modifications were one-off and exclusive; for instance, you could modify a silicon-based life form that adapts to minus 70 degrees to withstand temperatures over a thousand degrees or to tolerate several hundreds degrees below zero.

But this modification was irreversible and to revert it would consume a massive amount of resources.

Clearly, Qiu Qinghong did not wish to fuss over these options.

"Okay, then let’s go with that..."

First, Qiu Qinghong set three resource production and storage targets, namely fuel, energy-storing ore, and metals.

The energy-storing ore could be considered the food reserves for these silicon-based life forms.

Then, he selected two significant tech trees to focus on: fuel utilization efficiency and artificial breeding.

The moment Qiu Qinghong hit the confirm button, this information was sent to Shen Guang.

"... these targets are way too high!" Shen Guang was shocked; the figures were astronomical compared to the current reality.

It was hard to imagine the production line smoking from the effort of producing so much!

Qiu Qinghong quickly explained, "It’s okay Mr. Shen, the game doesn’t say we absolutely have to meet the targets, it’s just a goal. We’ll just do our best."

Shen Guang nodded but immediately raised a new question.

"But why did you choose these two technologies?

"Especially this artificial breeding, what’s that about?"

Qiu Qinghong continued to explain, "Mr. Shen, this is my reasoning.

"Since we are on a comet, it means that we spend most of our time in extremely cold conditions, with only a brief period of extreme heat.

"In cold states, we have to think about how these silicon-based life forms can keep from freezing to death.

"While directly modifying life forms is an option, it consumes too many resources, and when the comet approaches the perihelion, we’d have to reverse the modifications, which is overly costly.

"So, the most economical method would definitely be to develop energy and fuel technology.

"When it gets cold, we’ll just burn fuel to keep warm.

"When it gets hot, we’ll think of ways to modify life forms at that time.

"As for artificial breeding, I believe that is a very cost-effective technology too.

"Mr. Shen, if we want to accelerate development and construction, at the end of the day, we need individuals to execute the tasks.

"Have you noticed? Whether it’s laying out a conveyor belt or building a warehouse, it’s actually done by these little silicon-based life figures. If there are not enough of these little figures, the speed of construction will be affected.

"Mechanized manufacturing might seem appealing and fit well with the development direction of silicon-based life forms, but I feel the resources required for this technology are too many at the start, not quite cost-effective.

"The artificial breeding of silicon-based life could achieve the same effect at the beginning, cheaper."

Shen Guang nodded slightly, "Oh, is that so?"

As an administrator, he couldn’t see the specific target-setting interface from the leader’s side, hence he wasn’t able to understand the data thoroughly.

But from a logical standpoint, what Qiu Qinghong was saying seemed sound.

It was somewhat akin to the "production line" and "workhorse laborers" concept of real life.