Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 594 - 577: Night Parade of Hundred Demons

Chapter 594: Chapter 577: Night Parade of Hundred Demons

Although Zhuge Jun’s video was short, merely showcasing the Glacier General’s battle scenes without much detailed introduction, players who watched the video grasped his intended message instantly.

No need to persuade players, but the actual effect was better than verbal persuasion.

Why were players angry before?

Because whether they drew Li Huanzhen or Zhao Siyuan, the experience in Thunder Country was very unpleasant.

This mismatch made them quite frustrated.

It’s true that Cold Frost and Lei Tu were also playable, but they were old characters available since the beta testing phase, and players had already played with them. Bringing them out again at this point felt somewhat boring.

But Zhuge Jun keenly captured another key character: Glacier General!

Unlike Lei Tu and Cold Frost, he appeared later in the UP pool and many players drew him.

At that time, many players regretted drawing Glacier General because they didn’t draw Xing Ying from the concurrent UP pool, who was later confirmed to be extremely effective against Earth Element’s shield, significantly affecting the players’ experience in Earth Country.

Those who drew Glacier General didn’t use him much in Earth Country and awkwardly stored him away.

With Xing Ying turning things around in Earth Country, what about Glacier General?

It turned out, players didn’t have to wait too long.

Isn’t Thunder Country just the right place now? The era of Glacier General had arrived!

Players hurriedly dug out Glacier General from their storage, wreaking havoc everywhere.

Playing this character, unlike Cold Frost and Lei Tu, felt somewhat fresh as he was a relatively new character.

The gameplay experience and stats were also very good.

Not only that, players who had drawn Li Huanzhen and Zhao Siyuan were also less angry.

Because of the Glacier General incident, it validated Zhuge Jun’s previous view: don’t worry about the current strength, because temporarily weak characters will eventually have their chance to shine!

Isn’t Glacier General a perfect example?

Originally, players felt that both options in the UP pool were wrong.

But now it seems that both options were actually right!

Take the previous card pool for instance, whether drawing Xing Ying or Glacier General, players could enjoy playing in either Earth Country or Thunder Country.

What exactly Water Country was like was still unclear, but as long as Water Country had many Water Element monsters, Glacier General could still enjoy playing.

In this case, Li Huanzhen and Zhao Siyuan didn’t need to be anxious.

Because in the latter half of Thunder Country, or some future countries, they could still enjoy playing.

This is what is called "delayed gratification."

Everyone knows that "delayed gratification" is a method more conducive to enhancing long-term experience. When one gets used to delayed gratification in life, they can often set more long-term goals and plans, making life’s experiences better.

But to cultivate "delayed gratification," there is a prerequisite: "promises made must be fulfilled promptly."

Just like many parents, having read some marketing materials, want to cultivate their children’s ability to delay gratification, always saying, "If you don’t eat snacks now, you can eat double the amount tomorrow," but then fail to fulfill the promise the next day.

This kind of behavior not only fails to cultivate the ability of delayed gratification in children but rather backfires, making children only care about immediate benefits.

Because children will know that delayed gratification probably means dissatisfaction, long-term benefits are just pie in the sky, while only immediate benefits are real.

The same is true for games.

When a game wants to encourage players to delay gratification, the most important thing is to promptly fulfill its promises.

"Adjusting character strengths, allowing old characters to have a second spring," essentially is a form of delayed gratification.

Many games fail to gain players’ trust precisely because they say one thing and do another, never enhancing old characters.

Then players will certainly only focus on immediate benefits, caring only about a character’s strength when it just launches.

Nitiandang is different, saying it fulfills its promises right away. Wasn’t Glacier General not popular before, and now hasn’t he turned the tables?

Seeing the current situation of Glacier General, and then looking at Li Huanzhen and Zhao Siyuan in their hands, players naturally were no longer anxious.

They would be willing to believe that in some future version, these two characters are definitely going to rise, holding in their hands a stock with potential.

Patient waiting, there will always be enjoyable days.

Thus, the negative emotions players had from not being able to enjoy playing these two characters were also diluted.

Lilith’s face turned dark.

Clearly, this was not her intention; more precisely, it was a shortsighted plan!

Actually, for this version of Thunder Country, the plan was already to let Water Country monsters intrude and then defeat the players who drew Li Huanzhen and Zhao Siyuan.

But the problem is, the elemental reaction system of "Endless Fantasy Legend 2" is too vast and too complex, and the counteracting effects between elements are far greater than ordinary numerical differences.

Players could indeed get too many characters.

Always able to find the best solution from previous characters!

Looking at these two UP pools separately, Lilith’s arrangement had no problems.

Glacier General’s stats were higher than Xing Ying’s, tempting players to draw Glacier General, then strengthen Xing Ying through map mechanisms, creating negative emotions among players;

Li Huanzhen and Zhao Siyuan both play Earth Element characters, ventured into Thunder Country for a thrilling three days, followed by enemy chaos in Water Country, yet still managed to evoke negative emotions from players.

But what if players bring out Glacier General to battle Water Element enemies? What then?

There’s simply no dealing with it.

In this elemental reaction mechanism, players will always find the optimal counter.

All future upgrade pools follow suit; even if they can target characters from this upgrade period within two to three months, what happens when countered enemies unexpectedly appear?

Aren’t they thrilled again?

Lilith’s brain is somewhat overloaded; she hadn’t fully grasped this before, resulting in these oversights.

Further realizing that in subsequent versions of Endless Fantasy Legend 2, similar oversights abound and such situations may be endlessly replayed.

Yet, what’s more disheartening is that despite recognizing these oversights, no solutions come to mind.

It’s a systemic contradiction inherent to the elemental reaction system decided at the beginning.

Why did we even decide on this elemental reaction system?

Emmm... that’s a long story.

"Gu Fan! What do we do now!!" Lilith was almost frantic.

Gu Fan looked completely confused: "I have no idea!

"President Li, you decided on all the game mechanics; Gan Di is the chief planner, I just sell the books.

"Look, the physical books are doing quite well, aren’t they? I’ve done my best in the area I’m responsible for."

Lilith looked at Gu Fan irritably, yet felt powerless.

She always felt trapped regarding how to use Gu Fan.

If she let Gu Fan take on more responsibilities, she’d then feel like he might be a Traitor, unworthy of trust;

If she lets Gu Fan handle less, the areas he manages tend to be the last problematic, yet issues elsewhere aren’t reduced.

Considering the current situation, the state of physical books, particularly after the Earth Country’s side story, is indeed very promising; negative sentiments are rapidly increasing.

By rights, this should be attributed to Gu Fan.

Yet, Lilith still feels somewhat annoyed at him...

"Fine, if this issue can’t be resolved, let’s move on.

"After all, this game still generates more negative than positive emotions.

"When Thunder Country’s later version and new side missions launch, the gathered negative emotions should offset previous losses.

"Hmph, we still have aces up our sleeves!"

Lilith reluctantly accepted this fact.

The main storyline in Thunder Country is also progressing normally.

Players switch to ice and thunder attributes to defeat these Water Element monsters, significantly enhancing the game experience.

As for Li Huanzhen and Zhao Siyuan?

They could still be used for previous explorations in Fire Country or Earth Country, not that they are unplayable.

In Thunder Country, the front half of the storyline quickly concludes, this round opened up more than half of Thunder Country’s content, mainly to help resist the invasion from Water Country.

As for when the follow-up stories in Thunder Country will start, when Thunder Cloud Volcano will be explored, or when to venture to Water Country, remains unknown.

Two weeks later, this Chapter’s main storyline temporarily concludes and the side missions begin.

Seeing just one side mission listed, Hou Ji feels uneasy again.

"Why is there only one side mission again?

"This mission isn’t going to be breeding again, is it?

"No way, no way, Nitiandang surely isn’t that absurd.

"The previous task allowed breeding, which, after some reflection, seemed acceptable given that Earth Country’s setting involves four Cave Heaven Blessed Lands and seventy-seven spirits, which is somewhat reasonable.

"Surely Thunder Country can’t have another seventy-seven spirits, right? It wouldn’t fit the world setting."

With trepidation, Hou Ji starts the task.

The first few steps are relatively simple, the patterns similar—either by chance encounters or rescuing people, he discovers a severe situation, thus embarking on a long journey to save the world...

Hou Ji didn’t think too much, just watching casually.

After completing two steps, he suddenly stopped.

At that moment, the task list updated, and the name of the mission changed.

While still unclear about the specifics of the task, just seeing the mission’s name made Hou Ji nearly black out.

Because the name of this mission is: Night Parade of Hundred Demons!

"Good grief, this time it’s not seventy-seven spirits, but a hundred spirits, right??"