Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 554 - 537: Dual Element Character

Chapter 554: Chapter 537: Dual Element Character

Lilith nodded happily, "Yeah, that’s right!

"The essence is to subtract where one shouldn’t subtract and to add where one shouldn’t add!

"Subtracting with pride, after all, this is a mobile game, we have to consider the feelings of mobile gamers, the operations can’t be too complex.

"Adding with equal justification, this is for the good of the players! Providing more game content! Although players will feel that it’s just a ploy to force them to buy characters.

"Ohoho!"

Lilith and Qin Fengliang were on the same wavelength, wishing they could high-five to celebrate right there and then.

The next issue was clear.

Where should we subtract, and where should we add?

This time Lilith didn’t wait for Qin Fengliang to give her advice, she had already figured it out on her own.

"First of all, we must subtract in the mechanics department!

"Legend of Infinity Fantasy became popular and encountered bizarre bugs for a significant reason; the mechanics were just too complicated.

"Using Water Element to bind a large stone, then blowing it up with a Fire Elemental Bomb, playstyles akin to ultimate skills in other games, have almost become the basic moves for players in Legend of Infinity Fantasy.

"If we keep this system, the old players won’t feel too much negative emotion.

"But if we chop it all off, the intention is too obvious, and it’s not conducive to luring the old players in.

"So just chop it to the ankle! Keep only the most basic elemental abilities, but cut off the various advanced plays.

"When the time comes, we’ll scam with a promotional video, letting players think it’s a complete port. Once they’re in the game, hit them with a curveball!"

Lilith was very satisfied with her conclusion. After a slight pause, she continued, "As for the adding part, naturally it’s the various character skills.

"If the character pool is going to be large and rich, then each character must have unique skills.

"However, these skills will not have any particularly strong mechanics, they must be engineered to be stingy.

"It may be frustrating for the players to see, but they’ll have to engage in the gacha because of the sufficiently strong stats."

Lilith carefully reviewed the abilities of the Earth Wind Water Fire elements.

Earth Element, Earth Tunneling, and wall penetration.

Water Element, adhering to various objects, enlarging objects, combining different items, or controlling water to traverse rivers.

Fire Element, igniting flames, creating Flame Bombs.

Wind Element, grabbing and controlling objects.

Time Element, being able to stop or speed up time.

Of course, there were also some synergistic effects between the elements, such as water extinguishing fire and wind fueling flames, etc.

Besides, there were other attributes in the game, such as Thunder Attribute, but this attribute was not available to players and only served as a special mechanic on the map.

When a player carried metal weapons while walking in the rain, there was a possibility they would be struck by lightning.

Of course, one could also use this to their advantage, utilizing the Wind Attribute’s power in the rain to throw metal weapons into a group of monsters, thereby causing an artificial lightning strike.

Although the initial design was relatively simple, after continuous exploitation by players, it had become somewhat abused,

like Fire Bullets, Flame Mortars, Boomerang Sky Thunder, strong wind stacking thrust, and oversized boomerangs glued together, etc.

It’s just that the underlying mechanics of Endless Fantasy Legend were too powerful. Although they seemed like very simple gameplay elements, when all combined together, they could lead to an endless stream of "scientific achievements."

Since this is what the players loved most, then... chop!

Moves like Fire Bullet were definitely not to be included in the new game.

Abilities like the Earth Tunneling Technique couldn’t be there either.

Simple effects such as water extinguishing fire, metal attracting lightning, and wind enhancing flames, could be kept.

Keeping these would make it easier to better deceive the old players into falling into the trap.

As for the characters in the game, they would not have particularly game-breaking mechanics, but they would have stats.

In this way, players would reluctantly engage in the gacha, but they’d have to do it.

And after pulling the characters?

The official team had already planned to boost the stats of other characters. After a few rounds of inflation, the characters that were initially pulled due to their stats would become common, and that would be another wave of negative emotions on account.

Lilith happily jotted all these details down.

Qin Fengliang realized that he had almost nothing left to do and quickly spoke up, trying to find some sense of presence.

At times like this, saying the wrong thing was better than saying nothing at all.

Did Nitiandang have a Traitor? Of course, there was.

But Lilith just couldn’t point them out.

At times like this, staying silent and showing a clear lack of enthusiasm could easily make her own suspicions of being the traitor significantly increase.

"President Li, I have a small suggestion about the elements and characters in the game."

Lilith looked at her, "Hmm, go ahead."

Qin Fengliang quickly wrote down several elements on a piece of paper.

"President Li, I think it’s necessary to add some elements.

"For example, Thunder and Metal are already present in ’Legend of Infinity Fantasy’, just not available to players.

"Now that we make them available, players will definitely be extremely expectant. When they find that the gameplay is even less than before, this huge discrepancy can generate a lot of negative emotions."

Lilith nodded, "Hmm? You have a point!

"If that’s the case, the new game actually has seven elements now: Earth, Wind, Water, Fire, Metal, Thunder, and Time.

"Let’s join the fun and add Wood from the traditional Earth, Wood, Water, Fire, Metal grouping, and let’s throw in Ice too!

"Now we have nine elements.

"Looks like we’ve indeed doubled the previous five elements; it’s very misleading!"

Qin Fengliang continued, "President Li, I have another suggestion. I think we should allow each character in the game to possess two different attributes.

"One attribute is inherent, directly related to their character design, plot, and special abilities; while the other attribute can be chosen by the player.

"The two attributes could complement each other."

Lilith paused, "Hmm? Why?"

Qin Fengliang explained, "Because this actually makes it easier for us to be lazy!

"Consider this, President Li, according to conventional thinking, it’s simpler to have each character associated with a single element.

"But the problem is, if we have to create a lot of characters, it becomes troublesome.

"Like if we need to create dozens of different characters, and there are about a dozen characters for the same attribute.

"If they all have the same attribute, wouldn’t that be difficult? It’s easy to fall into a situation where everything feels the same.

"After all, if everyone is Fire, or everyone is Thunder, the attributes are the same; we can only differentiate them through their skills.

"However, designing unique and powerful mechanics is much easier than distinguishing through skills.

"On the other hand, if we give each character a second attribute, then 9 times 9, fundamentally speaking, we have 81 different combination options.

"Even if there are 9 characters with the same primary attribute, their recognizability could be maximized by varying the secondary attributes.

"When the difference in attributes shows, we don’t need to make huge changes to the mechanics.

"It turns out to be more cost-effective.

"Moreover, in this way, we can start hyping from the beginning, claiming that we have nearly a hundred characters with distinct attributes. Players will definitely think, Wow, that’s amazing!

"But when they get into the game, they find out the mechanics of these characters are pretty much the same, or even just copy and paste, with only the secondary elements being different.

"Once the players realize there are only one or two characters that are actually useful, this feeling of discrepancy arises, and doesn’t that bring about negative emotions?"

Lilith thought about it, "Hmm? That does make sense!"

Qin Fengliang’s method was in line with the basic principle of generating negative emotions: creating psychological gaps.

Lilith could also consider only working with a single element. What if the characters are homogenized? Homogenization could still generate negative emotions among players.

However, if the characters were all one element, they would have to develop more mechanics, which might lead to various unforeseen problems; and without added mechanics, the same element plus similar mechanics would become monotonous, and most importantly, it wouldn’t be marketable in the early promotion.

You couldn’t promote characters as being all the same, could you?

And without promotion, players wouldn’t have high expectations and might even predict homogenization in advance. Then when they actually played, the generation of negative emotions was diminished.

In fact, some players might not care about character homogenization; they might even consider it a good thing.

Wasn’t this giving them a reason not to draw characters?

In a gacha game where players weren’t interested in drawing characters, how could you harvest negative emotions?

So, adding a secondary element seemed to be the better option.

With this approach, we could start the grand hype before the game’s official launch: calling it a "revolution in character design", boasting "81 completely different character attributes", or "dual elements + a new mechanic".

In any case, these claims were totally viable, not false advertising; the official stance wouldn’t be heavy-handed about it.

But when players’ expectations were set so high and then they entered the game to find it’s not the case at all.

And because they’re unsure which characters are important, many players would be compelled to draw for a variety of different elemental characters.

The inevitable fate of these characters would be to serve as warehouse managers, and this would be another wave of negative emotions.