Chapter 10: This Game is Fucking Awesome!
- Brothers, even if you bury me alive and nail my coffin shut, I will never stop screaming about how awesome this game is! I won’t say much, but if this game doesn’t become popular, I will shit myself while doing a handstand!
Early in the morning, White Horse came online in the Bull and Horse Club. His unexpected outburst caused many lurkers to show themselves.
Quit_smoking: Damn. Is he still alive?
This_lord_is_arrogant_what_can_you_do: Are you joking?
Hold_the_sword_execution: I haven't seen you or the administrators all night, I thought you were arrested for doing something bad. (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
No_one_understands_love: What game? Confused.JPG
After some time, Ample Time also showed up.
- We’re talking about the virtual reality game that Light sent to the group a few days ago...
Quit_smoking: Damn, you guys already played it?! Are you fucking serious right now?! You’re not lying to me, are you?
Ample Time: Why would I lie?
Unfortunately, the helmet didn’t support in-game screenshots or he would’ve uploaded some of them.
Quit_smoking: Then hurry up and tell us what’s going on! What exactly is a fully immersive virtual reality game? Which VR device can you play it on?
Old White: VR? Haha, that kind of screen you wear on your head can’t be compared to Wasteland Online’s game helmet!☺
Quit_smoking: The fuck? Are you saying that Wasteland Online can be played without VR glasses?
Ample Time: You ignorant fool. They use game helmets. Hmm... How do I explain it, have you seen Sword Art Online? It's something like that.
Quit_smoking: Fuck me! No way?!
No_one_understands_love: A head-mounted microwave oven?! Seriously?!
This_lord_is_arrogant_what_can_you_do: Who are you trying to fool? Sword Art Online... I’ve never heard of such an awesome technology!
Hold_the_sword_execution: Yeah, what the hell?
Most people didn't believe anything they were reading. It was just too damn ridiculous. Whenever new technology was introduced, there had to be an introductory period. The process could be brief, but it was a must.
Ample Time understood their feelings. After all, he also experienced what they were feeling. He once thought that the so-called immersive virtual reality game was just a joke made by a troll. However, after experiencing it, it couldn’t be more real.
Ample Time: The device doesn’t let us take pictures. I really can't prove it, but I can say that it is up to you whether you believe me or not. Anyway, after playing it for an entire night, I can give you an outline of it.
Quit_smoking: Nice! Hurry up and tell me all about it!
Ample Time: Group owner, can you please mute the whole group? My typing speed is very slow.
Old White: Okay!
As one of the top two hundred players in the PUBG Asian server and one of the best League of Legends players, Ample Time’s talent for games was known by everyone. When it came to reviewing games, he had the most say.
That dude played games every day, almost as if he didn’t have to work. He didn’t just play online multiplayer games, but he was also on the list of speedrun communities. His accomplishments consisted of many phenomenal masterpieces, and many of the members of the group had even used the strategies he had personally developed. Without a doubt, he was a full-time gaming expert.
Whether or not people believed it was truly a fully immersive virtual online game, or whether he was a player who had obtained the qualification for the closed alpha or not, almost everyone was awaiting his opinion.
- The group has been muted.
- Let's talk about the background of the game first.
- The background is nothing special, it’s a typical post-apocalyptic setting with a wasteland-punk style. The story is set in a fictional world that was destroyed by nuclear war two hundred years ago, and the players are residents of a shelter who are going back to the surface. Right now, us closed alpha players are going to the surface to build outposts as the vanguard force. We haven't officially entered the main storyline yet. We may have to wait for the closed beta or even the open beta to unlock more clues, so I won’t be going into details for now.
- Then there’s the realism of the game! I’m not exaggerating when I say that this game completely annihilates any other games I’ve seen in terms of realism! Even if another fifty years go by, it would still be impossible to surpass anything we’ve seen. It’s like this game is just a wasteland DLC of our world! Whether it’s the light effects or shadow, the way it interacts with our senses is impeccable! There’s no doubt about it. You’ll mistake it for the real world. The immersive experience has undoubtedly reached one hundred percent accuracy. Yes, that's ONE HUNDRED PERCENT! At the very least, I didn't find any obvious bugs or flaws.
- And then there’s the degree of freedom you get. It’s an open world game and you can interact with almost everything you can touch. It’s not just limited to pure object collision, but you also have the ability to change the position of objects by subjective will or even morph their shape and state within the realm of physics.
- I know what you are thinking. It’s like Minecraft or The Forest, right? But it is completely different. It is a sandbox-type game in the truest sense, not just building blocks of pixels and textures! Just that alone is enough to pique the interest of players who like those games.
- The most important part comes after! Whether it’s a player or a monster, there is no HP bar or MP bar. There isn’t a visible attribute panel either; at least not in the alpha stage. Currently, the initial attributes of different players are varied, like how some players are physically stronger while others have higher perception or agility… There might even be hidden attributes that we haven’t come into contact with yet. I’m guessing that after the closed alpha version, there should be a class and weapon system, allowing players to develop their own gameplay based on their attributes.
- Next are NPCs. At the current stage of closed alpha testing, there are only two NPCs in the game, one of which is the administrator 'Dawn', and the other is his robot assistant, Little Seven! What we know for sure is that both NPCs have a high degree of intelligence and can communicate and interact with the players normally. I’m guessing there should be a hidden favorability setting, but this is just my personal theory, and it’s one I haven't confirmed yet.
- I’m only concerned about the pain setting in the game. Even though it’s a 100% realistic game, it’s not good to make it too real, especially because I’m afraid of getting hurt. Fortunately, the design of this game is very humane. Although the sensation of pain exists, there seems to be a protection threshold. For example, trying to cut my arm with a stone didn’t produce any pain, but it hurt a bit when I pinched myself. I think the game probably has some kind of protection mechanism so that excessive pain can’t be detected by our nerves. Of course, it may also be our body’s function to protect itself. It's like how we can feel pain in a dream, but it won’t ever exceed our body’s tolerance.
- I think the game devs should give more freedom to players, and allow for things like letting players adjust their own pain levels. Personally, I’m very satisfied with the current immersion and pain shielding, but there are going to be players who would like to adjust the levels themselves.☺
- As for respawning, I haven't tried it yet, but I heard that dying will cause you to lose a set number of contribution points and the cooldown is as long as three days. Contribution points are actually easy to get, you can earn them by completing tasks, but the penalty time is too long. I don't want to try it at the moment, but if you’re curious, you can try it out yourself. Maybe you’ll unlock a different method of gameplay.
- Finally, I want to roast the devs a little bit. Why are the characters all men?! Who wants to see themselves as a man all the time?! I’m strongly requesting that the game allows players to set their own gender!
As Ample Time eloquently wrote his one to two thousand words essay, more and more people in the group came online, including their dear game administrator.
Chu Guang had been looking at the medical examination reports scanned by the nurturing cabins, and he wasn’t paying attention to new messages in the group. When he logged into the messaging app, he was surprised to see that Ample Time had actually written as much as he had. Then again, it seemed as though he had a good amount to say, even taking into account things Chu Guang hadn’t thought about.
- The group has been unmuted.
Messages blew up the chatroom the next instant.
- Awsome!
- If this game is really this great, then I will buy ten copies!
- I don’t believe it.
- I don't believe it +1! Unless you give me eligibility for the closed alpha!
Although there were still many group members who didn't believe that such a great game existed, at least a dozen people changed their minds about it. Chu Guang knew this because he could see the numbers rising on the backend of the official website, and when Ample Time had been sending the summary, the applications jumped from 11 to 25.
Light: I was working earlier and I didn't pay attention to the group. What Ample Time said is basically correct, so I will just add a little more.
Quit_smoking: Damn! Brother Light!
- The group has been muted.
- Light is now a group administrator
Huh? I’m an administrator now?
Chu Guang was a little surprised, but he didn’t care too much as he continued typing.
- First of all, it’s about player characters and attributes. Like Ample Time said, the game does have character attributes and level settings, and each player’s initial talent is different. This can be viewed when you wake up in the nurturing cabin, or on the official website.
- The death penalty is not just a cooldown of three days and the deduction of contribution points. Players will also lose some of the progress made before they save the game. In order to save, you need to lie in the nurturing cabin to be scanned and undergo somatic cell sampling, which takes about 1 to 2 hours. This process will happen automatically after the player goes offline.
- We expect to install a faster attribute query mechanism before the closed beta stage so that players can check their character’s real-time status, and enrich the overall gaming experience.
- As for customizing the character’s appearance and gender, I'm sorry, but this won’t be possible. Just like how reincarnation can't be predetermined, the body in-game is created with pre-loaded DNA. If you are not satisfied with the appearance of the character, you can consider cosmetic surgery or even prosthetic transformation. This feature will be added to the game later.
- Starting from the next phase of testing, players can set their own preferences for each of five attributes, strength, agility, constitution, perception, and intelligence, on the application page through a survey questionnaire.
- If you choose strength, you have a higher probability of obtaining the strength system talent and the initial character will have a higher physical strength score. If you have no preference, you can choose a balanced type instead.
- As for gender… The gender of the character and the player’s gender are the same, and players can’t change it as they wish. This is mainly due to safety considerations. Differences in physiological structures can lead to coordination problems, and at the same time, the resulting risk of gender cognition disorder and public opinion is also something we don’t want to deal with.
Actually, Chu Guang wasn’t the person to make those decisions. It was the way the system was set up. It seemed to address a very complicated technical problem. Chu Guang didn't understand the principle behind it, and he only knew that the matter had already been decided.
Ample Time: No! Please don’t. I am already an adult, I can sign a risk awareness contract!! Q.Q
- Administrator Ample Time has been muted by the group owner for 10 minutes.
Old White: Don't interrupt!
Gale: Yes, yes.
Night Ten: Please shut up first.
Chu Guang was deeply amused, but didn't stop as he continued to type.
- The above are the results of a discussion during our meeting that just happened. In addition, during the next phase of testing, we will be adding a favorability system.
Night Ten: Favorability?! What do you mean? Can we have sex with NPCs?!
- Administrator Night Ten has been muted by the group owner for 10 minutes.
My goodness. Old White was really crazy, muting people without saying a word.
Actually it saved Chu Guang a lot of time. Eventually, he continued: “Don't think about sex all day long. Favorability refers to the NPC's evaluation of the player. The main premise is that the player's behavior will affect the NPC's view of them. When your favorability is high enough, not only can you gain some extra rewards from some key NPCs, but you may even trigger hidden tasks and unlock hidden class routes!"
Hidden tasks!
Hidden classes!
Even though they were just several simple words, the eyes of the four closed alpha players widened in shock. A powerful flame ignited in their hearts.
Damn! We know the setting is just to encourage us to be bootlickers, but… We love it!
So what if we have to be bootlickers in the game? As long as we aren’t bootlickers in real life, nothing matters!
We’re just kissing the asses of NPCs and artificial intelligence, and we would even be rewarded for it!
Not too shabby!
Chu Guang fell into his thoughts for some time, but there was nothing else he had to add. The shelter was just too damn poor at the moment. He had nothing to give them, and he could only give players empty promises.
- Do you have any questions you’d like to ask? Or some suggestions?
Chu Guang wanted to know if the players themselves had any better ideas after their experience.
He was a very open-minded person. If the conditions of the system allowed for it, he would consider adopting their idea. If conditions didn’t permit it, he could still make empty promises and tell them he would add them in the future.
Gale: Yes! What exactly are those contribution points? Are they currency? Or is it similar to experience points?
Sure enough… The question came…
Chu Guang thought for a while before responding: "The game's economic system is still being designed. Our goal is to create a completely realistic economic system from production to circulation, so that both professional players and combat players can fully immerse and enjoy themselves. As for contribution points… You can take them as a special currency just for the testing phase, which is mostly for evaluating the current mission system.
- In addition to buying respawn coins, our planning team is also considering introducing some special rewards that can only be redeemed through contribution points, as a gift to closed alpha players."
There was no doubt about it. Everything he just said was bullshit. They were basically empty promises, and Chu Guang hadn’t even decided on the reward. After all, it would depend completely on what rewards he obtained from the system.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, the players saw a completely different meaning.
Rewards that could only be redeemed with contribution points?!
That meant… Closed alpha limited rewards!
The four players who were accepted into the closed alpha phase were smiling from ear to ear, and the players who had just applied on the website but hadn’t yet been confirmed for alpha testing became even more eager to try it.
As for those who didn’t believe in the “completely immersive virtual reality game,” they obviously wouldn’t change their minds just because of what he said.
Ultimately It didn’t matter, just as long as some people believed his nonsense, he would be good to go.
- It's getting late. I worked a night shift, so I had to go to sleep. By the way, Ample Time, your guide is well written; why don’t you post it on the official website? Now that the forum is open, you can register an account and post it. I’ll get the forum mod to pin the post when they see it.
Obviously, Chu Guang was the mod he was talking about. He was the only employee in the company he pulled out of his ass! He was both an NPC and the game dev, and he was even the administrator when the players arrived. Of course the task of moderating anything on the website fell to him.
- OK! I'm going now!
Ample Time, who had been unmuted, said before he left and went to copy his post from the chat history. The group owner unmuted the group, and messages in the group chat burst like water out of a broken dam.
Chu Guang saw that many people had sent him friend requests.
Some of them wanted to buy an entry into the closed alpha, and some of them wanted to ask him for additional information about the game. Some even inquired about methods of making a game themselves.
He couldn’t answer them all and he used the simplest solution to deal with it. He went offline without answering a single one.
Looking at the physical examination reports in front of him, Chu Guang suddenly thought of something and asked, "Little Seven?"
"What's wrong, master?"
"From what you said... Since players can use the nurturing cabins, can I also use the clones in them?"
"Emmm... I don't know?"
"What do you mean you don’t know?!"
"Because I’m your assistant, you know pretty much all the information I know. There is no record of you using the nurturing cabin… Maybe the last administrator didn’t design the nurturing cabins to be used by you…"
Chu Guang wanted to ask the reason behind it, but quickly fell silent. After all, the reason wasn’t hard to guess. Assuming that the shelter could withstand a strategic nuclear strike, there would be no other means to forcibly invade it.
Even if he ran into an accident, all the system had to do was to become dormant again and wait for the next administrator’s arrival.
Seeing as Chu Guang was no longer speaking, Little Seven asked in a confused voice, "Master?"
"Huh? Nevermind."
After coming to his senses, Chu Guang continued to look at the medical examination report on the computer screen. Perhaps it was so that the players would easily understand the information it contained, or maybe the first administrator was up to mischief, the data for more than one hundred twenty complex physical functions were re-aggregated and summarized into five concise numbers: strength, agility, constitution, perception, and intelligence.
Strength represented the strength of muscle tissues one had, and even the sturdiness of their bones. It represented the player's basic weight, melee damage they could do, and how far they could throw a weapon.
Agility corresponded to the reflex nerve, which correlated with the player's reaction speed, movement coordination abilities, and things related to movement. To be concise, players with higher agility were more capable in battle and had an easier time dodging attacks.
Constitution corresponded to the player's vitality and resilience, which was reflected in their recovery speed after losing health, resistance to some abnormal states, their general immunity, and so forth.
Intelligence was not the same as IQ or logical thinking ability. It mainly affected the character's learning abilities and the speed of mental recovery, while also affecting the player’s compatibility with neural access devices. Specifically, a character with high intelligence could operate more neural access devices at the same time.
Perception stood for one’s intuition and insight. Characters with higher perception were more sensitive to crisis intuition, and were more likely to find hidden clues and traps. It was also the most mysterious attribute!
The baseline value of each attribute was 5, which floated within a range of ±2 depending on their genetic sequence and physical condition. Although he did not have his own nurturing cabin, Chu Guang found spare medical equipment on floor B1 of the shelter. As he guessed, he also had a special genetic sequence that could be detected and scanned by the medical examination equipment. It was a shame there was no relevant information about his genetic sequence in the database, as it seemed to exist outside of the ‘plan’.
To explain in game terms, he was a path game publishers had never planned for. It also meant that no one would know what would happen if he continued down the road and where it would lead.
Chu Guang felt a little uneasy after his discovery, but more than that, he felt excited. Maybe adventure was etched into his bones, he wanted to walk down a unique path of his own rather than following some step-by-step guide that someone else planned for him.
Based on the results of his physical examination and the attribute conversion formula left by the first administrator, Chu Guang made his own attribute panel. Using it as a blueprint, he also made a copy for the four closed alpha players.
[ID: Chu Guang]
[Genetic Sequence: Administrator]
[Level: LV.5]
[Attributes]
[Strength: 8]
[Agility: 6]
[Constitution: 6]
[Perception: 7]
[Intelligence: 6]
He was basically one level stronger than the players.
Does level 5 mean that the development progress of my genetic sequence is at 5%?
It seemed as though the effort he spent over the past five months didn’t go to waste. The development progress of the other four closed alpha players was 0%, but it wasn’t exactly 0%.
Old White had strength type genetic sequence, and through the frequent use of brute force while cutting trees, his development progress had increased by 0.3% in one day.
The other three alpha players only increased it by about 0.1%. If he continued to cut trees for the next two days, Old White might become the first player to break through and advance to Level 1.
Chu Guang made up his mind.
Guess I’ll have to get them to do more work… After all, it’s for their own good…
Blip's ThoughtsPlayers with IGN in Wasteland Online = Referred to as their IGN
Players with no IGN in Wasteland Online = Referred to as their online chatgroup name with '_'
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