Chapter 87: Perfectly Balanced... Like All Things Should Be. Not.

On the official website of Wasteland Online.

[Announcement]

[

Today, there was a heavy snowfall, and the surface temperature dropped to 0 degrees. The "Winter is Coming" expansion is drawing to a close. An additional 10 closed alpha qualifications will be released to give back to the players who have been waiting for a long time.

]

[

Also, because of the cold weather, please remember to put on more clothes.

]

The current version number was still Alpha 0.4.

The announcement on the official website still did not mention any news about the Alpha 0.5 version, only one announcement about the testing of the weather system.

However, the content discussed by those on the forum was rarely related to the announcement of the development team. Almost all topics were focused on in-game enhancements for Lifestyle Profession players.

Teng Teng: This is outrageous! First, it was 2,000 silver coins, then 5,000 silver coins! Developer, please come out and take care of your NPC! QAQ

Mosquito: I don't care what it is. This is very shady! Unless you give me money as well! My Goblin Industry also needs subsidies! (╯°Д°)╯︵┻━┻

Midnight Pubg: The strength type needs to be enhanced! It is unreasonable that our axe can't cut the crab shell! ┬─┬ノ('-'ノ)

Eye Owe Money: Intelligence-type players protest! Strongly request the weapon store to add drones and floating guns! (╯°Д°)╯︵┻━┻

Makka Pakka: Farm! I want to farm!

Quit Bullshit: "Can anyone show some love for this fisherman? Five hundred contribution points of deduction are too much! QAQ"

Yaya: Hahahahaha, noob! You can even die during fishing, what a total noob!

The players on the official website had a lot of opinions, and everyone wanted to strengthen their genetic sequences.

At the end of the day, what was the most important aspect of a game?

Of course, it was balance!

In reality, the gap between rich and poor could be selectively ignored, but not in the game! After all, everyone was playing the same game... How could there be someone stronger than everyone else?

Something like that was unreasonable... Actually, it was very unreasonable in the eyes of players!

Especially since the outpost was only slightly smaller than the size of two football fields, but a Brick Factory is almost as big as the outpost was equivalent to setting up a separate base.

Even if the player only has control of 20% of it, they will still affect the balance.

In other words, it was only reasonable to nerf their share to below 5%!

Of course, there were also players who were pursuing another level of rationality, such as Escaping Mole, who had been demanding a free trade system.

This guy made a special post to rationally analyze the rationality of this demand.

- In fact, it's not as exaggerated as you think. A good economic cycle system is a must for a game that pursues details. Have you heard of

Albion

? Although it is an MMORPG, the economic system it uses is very good. All equipment in that game is produced by players. Basically, your class is determined by what you wear.

- The design that impressed me most is that the cities in the game are economically independent from each other. Although there are auction houses for trading, they do not actively circulate more currency. Players can buy stores, open workshops, make equipment themselves, or rent stores to other players. The equipment produced can not only be auctioned to players, but also sold to the black market.

- One of the most eye-catching things is the black market. Equipment sold on the black market will be bought by monsters and become trophies for players after they are killed. If no one is selling a specific piece of equipment on the black market, the black market will raise its price to a certain level and entice players to produce.

- Obviously, Wasteland Online is also building a similar economic system, but based on my observations, the economic system of Wasteland Online will be closer to reality. I don't know if you’ve found out, but different NPC bases use different currencies! So, trade between them is mostly through bartering.

- There may be an exchange rate setting in the later period, but this system will be very complicated, even close to complete chaos, making the changes in the economic-related values ??in the game tend to be unpredictable. I don’t know if the server’s CPU can handle it.

- No matter what, it is a good thing to have the courage to innovate, so compliments to the courage of the development team!

Chu Guang finished reading his post, and as always the areas that he needed to take notes he would write them down. Without those notes, how would alpha 0.5 be released?

In just a few minutes after this post was posted, a contrarian appeared.

Lightning_emperor_professor_yang: Hehe, I haven't played the game you mentioned, but my opinion is still the same. It is a failure to allow players to over-involve in what should be done by NPCs! Where there are people, there are trolls, and you will never be able to tell what the bottom line is for the players! If I were the owner of the Brick Factory, I would not sell it to the warehouse and raise the price of the bricks. When that happens, even if you don’t like it, you won’t be able to do anything.

Mhm.

That would be a problem indeed... However, it would only happen in the future.

Lightning_emperor_professor_yang might have forgotten that once he accepted the hidden mission, it meant giving up 80% of the control to the NPC.

It’s fine if he manages it well, but if he wants to drive up prices through having a monopoly... Did he think the NPC would just sit there and do nothing about it?

There were far more options in the game than in reality.

However, it wasn’t as though Lightning_emperor_professor_yang’s comment was completely off. It could serve as a reminder for Chu Guang. He could trust the players' abilities, but he could never overestimate what they were willing to do. Of course, there was no way he could give up restricting them with rules.

Even if he increased the shareholding ratio of players in the future, he would not let it exceed 50%.

At the same time, a warning limit for hoarding inventory had to be set.

Once the inventory reaches the warning limit, the balance mechanism would be automatically triggered.

Hehe... Stop working? Limited production? Learning from those people who threw away shipments of tea into the docks to drive up prices?

Heh, if my warehouse orders don’t drop, I dare you to stop production! I’ll just lower your shares in the factory and give you fewer hidden tasks!

𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

There would always be a way to restrict those players.

Lightning_emperor_professor_yang didn't know that his theory had caused a certain NPC to write two more lines in his small notebook, but normal people probably would not have thought that the NPC in the game would be able to visit the official website forum.

At this time, the people from the Bull and Horse Squad emerged and counterattacked those shitposts on the forum.

Ample Time: Ahem, I want to clarify the question raised by Professor Yang. First of all, you can't treat the group of players as a whole. Just like

Pubg

, there are people who cheat, but there are also people who insist on maintaining the game environment. We can’t control others, but we Bull and Horse Squad still have morals and will not do things like driving up prices for nothing. So please rest assured.

- In addition, we are actually part-time workers. 80% of the shares in the Brick Factory are collectively owned by the shelter, and we only have 20%. To be honest, this is somewhat like a hot potato. The effort made is not proportional to the income, which is not as great as you think it is."

He originally didn't want to clarify anything, but seeing the discussion on the official website becoming intense, for fear that the developers would reach out and interfere with the game and directly cut off the proceeds of making bricks, he decided to say something.

20% of the shares were already low enough, but if developers cut the prices of bricks again, they would not be able to make any profit.

In short, he had to pretend to be as miserable as possible!

Escaping Mole: Enough of that! Give it to me if you don't want it!

Ample Time: Ahem, no.

Lightning_emperor_professor_yang: Hehe, you think I would believe you just because you said so? What’s wrong with 20% of the shares, it is still players operated, right? My opinion is still the same. You can never underestimate a player’s lack of morals. Someone will always think of a way to take advantage of the loopholes!

- For example, I can deliberately lose a part of the inventory, saying that they are failed products when actually, I sold those products to players through third-party players at a rate lower than the market price. In this way, it not only bypasses the NPC warehouse, but also bypasses the restrictions set! You know what I mean, right? Even if you look like you’re losing money, you can still line your pockets!

Chu Guang was shocked when he saw this post.

Mother fucker!

Did he get a masters degree to become a white-collar criminal?

Mosquito: Good god, this guy is definitely a criminal in real life.

Tomato Eggs: I think he is more dangerous than Mosquito!

Mosquito: ? What does it have to do with me?

Irene: Brother, you have just exposed yourself.

Ample Time: Short-sighted, so short-sighted! Do you think only you are smart? If you are that smart, then think about it again. Why do you think I won't do this and why would I specially make a post here to declare that I won't do it?

Night Ten: Will you come to our factory to move bricks after the closed test is over? I will make you the workshop director.

Old White: Hahahaha, you can wait for the open beta. I think you will have a chance in the open beta.

Light:(clapping hands emojis)

Teng Teng: Dev, dev, dev!

Lightning_emperor_professor_yang: ...Uh, it's all theoretical, don't take it seriously, I was just saying it, ahem.

This_lord_is_arrogant_what_can_you_do: LOL, like I would believe all of you are saying. A bunch of shills.

Quit_smoking: "Light, you are my father! Please, give me a chance. T.T"

Closing the post, Chu Guang checked the website and found that the number of applications had risen from eight hundred and eighty eight, to nine hundred and ninety six.

Although his way of filtering was a bit inefficient, the advantage was that it could screen out a large number of non-target groups.

What was a non-target group?

That Lightning Professor guy belonged to that kind of group. At least, not the target group in the alpha stage.

He seemed like the guy to think about how to abuse bugs in the game all the time. How could he do that to games people used to much effort in developing?!

Can’t he just move bricks obediently?!

I've already agreed not to delete the data after testing is over, why do you want to waste such an opportunity?

"I have to find a way to open floor B2...There are still so many players waiting to go online and do some manual labor... Well... I don't know how many nurturing cabins there are on floor B2.”

Actually, there was still a problem. There were less than a hundred players at the moment, but the elevator was getting a little strained. When... Or if the number of players broke through the ten thousand mark in the future, what was he supposed to do?!

On the off chance it broke through the one million, or ten million mark...

Of course, Chu Guang felt that the designer of this shelter should have considered those issues before. For example, there might be exits that could reach the ground directly on other floors.

After all, there was no reason for such a large facility to have only one exit to the outside world, and if the Parallel World Communication Technology was completed in the shelter, the first administrator should’ve left him the technology to make nurturing cabins.

When a large number of players could be sent from the shelter to the surface, it would naturally be near the end of their so-called closed alpha test.

When he could get rid of the space limitations of the shelter and mass-produce players on the surface, the open beta would naturally come.

"Xia Yan!"

Hearing Chu Guang suddenly calling her name, the Weapon Shop Owner who was trying to memorize the lines Chu Guang gave her raised her head and looked at Chu Guang in confusion. "What?"

"Do you know how to contact the slave merchant?"

Hearing the words slave merchant, her face turned pale instantly, her hands clenched tightly around the notebook, her body shrinking in fear. "You... What do you want to do?"

"...?"

Chu Guang knew that she probably thought too much, and he was able to draw a list of what she was possibly thinking.

Gee, annoying.

He hated guessing the most.

Seeing that Chu Guang didn't speak, Xia Yan's expression quickly went through several quick changes. The misunderstanding was getting deeper and deeper, and the roots of her teeth began to tremble.

"I, I, I, If I didn't do a good job, you can tell me, I will definitely improve! Don't, don't sell me... Please."

"... What are you talking about? Why do I want to sell you?" Chu Guang rolled his eyes and urged, "I plan to buy some slaves. I just want to know if you are familiar with anyone who does this kind of business. Hurry up and tell me."

Sure enough... She was still too free. If she had more to do, she wouldn’t be able to think about random stuff like that.

Generally speaking, when people heard that their company was going to lay off employees, those who were afraid were those who slacked off the most. If they didn’t slack off, what was there to worry about?

Mhm?

Although Chu Guang's answer sounded very fishy, he didn’t seem like he was going to sell her away.

Xia Yan breathed a sigh of relief, and her tense shoulders also relaxed.

Slowly sticking back to the wall, she raised her eyebrows and glanced at Chu Guang. She eventually muttered to herself, "I, I don’t know any merchants under that line of business. Do you think I am someone who can afford slaves?"

"Tsk, haven't you sold any slaves before?"

"Who do you think I am? I am a serious mercenary, not a marauder, alright?!" Xia Yan argued with a red face.

Chu Guang shrugged, not commenting any further.

Was there a big difference between a mercenary and a marauder?

Even merchants would occasionally become marauders, let alone a mercenaries who used to make a living by killing. However, it was very boring to ask about the past, and it was not important to him.

"I really don't know anyone!"

"Oh, that's really a shame. I was hoping I could buy some labor to help my guys lighten their burden."

Xia Yan glanced at him, tactically frightened. She hunched her shoulders and said nothing.

Didn’t he call them residents or something when he referred to those blue coats who spoke in a strange language? He’s actually calling them like they’re his underlings now!

Maybe... He might call them his servants in the future! This evil man is just too terrible!

This guy must have been a demon in his last life! ... No, in this life as well!