You've Really Got This Game Figured Out

Seven o'clock. As the players logged off one after another, the official website gradually grew lively. Twelve hours had passed since Alpha 0.3 went live. Prospective players who had pre-registered but hadn't yet received access, as well as backseat gamers who hadn't even pre-registered at all, were all waiting for first-hand intel on the new version. Chu Guang delivered a meal to little sister Xia Yan, then hummed a little tune as he returned to sit in front of his computer, opening the forum to lurk. The first post he saw was from Scavenger. [Finally confirmed today! The tire factory three kilometers north of the abandoned construction site is a marauder camp! There are roughly 50 to 100 people! I originally wanted to capture a prisoner and bring them back, but they had too many men. Fortunately, they were clearly scared by me too. I slapped the dog biting my arm unconscious and escaped while they were reloading.] [Dammit, that dog almost bit my tail off! The marauders I ran into this time were way more vicious than last time!] Chu Guang: "..." What was written in this post didn't quite match what he had heard half an hour ago. Chu Guang recalled that the guy had claimed he hadn't provoked the marauders, hadn't he? He'd said his injuries were from bumping into a marauder patrol on his way back. Yet going by this post, it sounded as if he had taken the initiative to attack just to take a captive. This kid didn't tell the truth. Chu Guang thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. Whatever, it didn't matter. The earliest posts were usually lacking in substance. As for Scavenger's marauder camp, the bros on the forum had listened to him brag about it for nearly three full days. Yet after staking it out for three days, the result was getting beaten into headlong flight. Everyone in the thread expressed their utter disbelief. Quitting Smoking: [What the hell does 'between 50 and 100' mean? Exactly how many are there! You're worse as a scout than a Teletubby.] Elaina: [I drop my pants and don't even fart, eh, just messing around. (Funny)] Proud Grandpa What Can You Do: [Trash, it's less than a hundred mobs, why the hell are you being such a wuss! Can't you kite them? Kill one at a time, repeat a few times, and won't they all be dead? Bah, what am I even saying, this damn game doesn't even exist!] All Good Names Taken by Dogs: [Work on your footwork! Noob!] Sisi: [You have a special class and can't even beat regular mobs, that's so embarrassing! Better give your spot to me!] Scavenger Lv99: [??? Why don't you fucking show me how to dodge? Fuck! Can you believe even regular mobs do tactical flanking, alternating fire, and unleash attack dogs?!] Quitting Smoking: [I'd love to! Give me your account and I'll show you.] Scavenger Lv99: [I'm your daddy!] The thread completely derailed, turning into the lizard bro debating against a crowd of scholars, looking just like when the feeding Yaya had argued back and forth with the players back then. However, no matter how he described the situation at the time, it couldn't change the fact that the backseat gamers had branded him a noob. Perhaps only when an in-game screenshot or camera feature was released in the future would he be able to clear his name. Chu Guang was well aware of the combat capabilities of those marauders. Their gear might not be great, their physical condition mediocre, and their discipline as abysmal as goblins in a fantasy world, but their talent for urban warfare was practically maxed out. After all, from Year One of the Wasteland Era onward, these people had never stopped fighting. The genes of raiding and pillaging were already ingrained in their blood and marrow, passed down through countless generations. After revisiting the 'eloquent' language in Scavenger's thread, Chu Guang closed the post and continued browsing the forum. Some time had passed since the players logged off, and plenty of quality content had already begun to surface. What surprised Chu Guang the most was that among this quality content, quite a few new faces he hadn't seen before had emerged. For instance, a user named 'Mole on the Run from the Canyon'. Chu Guang checked his profile. He was a newcomer who had joined the game in Alpha 0.2. Judging from his post history, he had found Wasteland OL's official website through a link shared by a friend, drawn by the urban legends circulating in the single-player gaming community. In short, he was another guy with too much free time in the evenings. 《Mole's Express: Hardcore Observations on the New Version! Cloud Players and Noobs Stay Away!》 "Hello everyone, I'm your Big-Nosed Mole. Logging on today, I found the game underwent massive changes. The dev team finally delivered a small slice of the pie they promised, and I just love this new version to death! Hell yeah!" "Conclusion first: I'm heaping absolute praise on this newly designed economy system! Although there are currently only a few simple supply chains, certain details are already enough to reveal the dev team's ambitions! They're truly playing a grand game of chess!" "That said, I won't just flatter them blindly. I'll simply share my discoveries, which might be of some help to you all!" [Currently, the two universally recognized low-barrier, high-return ways to make money in the game are firing cement and hunting. The former offers stable income and can be done solo, but spots must be contested because not many hands are needed each day. The latter has unstable income, requires equipment, and is practically impossible to solo. If you want to follow the hunter path, you'd best form a squad with a Perception-type!] "Firing cement doesn't require much technical skill, so let's focus only on hunter gameplay!" "A 30-kilogram mutant hyena sold directly to the granary nets 5 silver coins. Taking some time to butcher it yields 12 kilograms of raw meat, instantly worth 40 silver coins. Isn't that amazing?" "Of course, what I'm talking about here is just value! Value! Underline this." "The outpost's granary doesn't accept raw meat; it only takes whole unprocessed prey and directly storable air-dried meat. And just like in other games, NPC shops have a buy-sell price spread. For example, buying a kilogram of air-dried meat costs 5 silver coins, but selling it back only yields 1 silver coin per kilogram. A fivefold price difference—tell me, isn't that outrageous?!" "Turning prey you hunted yourself into air-dried meat to sell to NPCs at least lets you make a bit more, but if you buy raw meat from the NPC shop to smoke it yourself, you might even lose money!" "Then again, it's not that bad. I've seen far more ridiculous things in other games, so this is nothing. Especially in online games, buying something for 1,000 game coins and only being able to sell it for 1 game coin is standard practice. The brilliance of this game's planner lies in using the NPC shop's buy-sell spread to encourage player-to-player trade rather than buying NPC inventory." "Here's a little idea: a hunting team can partner with one or two players to butcher the prey themselves and make air-dried meat and pelts." "Part of the air-dried meat can be sold to players at a lower price than the granary's selling price—cut one kilogram into ten portions, selling for 1 to 9 silver coins depending on you and depending on other players' wallets. If you can't sell it all, no worries; dump the rest to the granary before dark to clear inventory and make another profit." "With this series of moves, though it takes a bit more time, the theoretical income from a single mutant hyena can at least double. Isn't that sweet?" "To extend this further, according to my research, running trade routes is another viable playstyle, though at present it's too difficult to execute and unprofitable. Buying one kilogram of smoked meat from the NPC shop costs 5 silver coins, which could theoretically be traded at Brown Farm for 5 kilograms of grain. Yet transporting the latter back to the outpost makes it worth a mere 5 silver coins! And that's the NPC shop's selling price! The buyback price would be even lower! Whether selling to NPCs or players, it's a massive loss." "Considering the current expansion is titled 'Winter Is Coming,' the dev team's testing focus probably isn't on the trade system anyway. I'm really looking forward to the next version, where the dev team might focus on developing the trade system." "An economy system with only domestic sales and no exports is incomplete. Wouldn't balancing production, imports, and exports through tariffs and commodity prices be far more interesting? Dev team, please consider it! If the server's CPU allows for it!" Chu Guang finished reading the post and gave it a like, but left no comment. The ideas were good, but at the current stage, they didn't mean much. Keyboard economists often fell into the trap of idealism; excessive grand narratives did nothing to solve immediate problems. From the perspective of a game planner and a player, this suggestion to enrich gameplay was indeed solid. However, standing from the perspective of the manager of Shelter 404, it was an entirely different story. To Chu Guang, everything in the shelter—including the players' bodies—belonged to him. Why on earth would he let them take his belongings to trade with his neighbors? Unless they could do a better job than him. Yet that was obviously impossible. Even Chu Guang himself was frequently ostracized and viewed with suspicion by some of the scavengers in Bet Street because of his accent. Furthermore, due to his lack of familiarity with market conditions and local rules, even with his sales experience from his previous life, he had found no room to apply it. This was the wasteland. A dystopian collective made of scum and villains. Compared to rule-abiding bankers or economists, pyramid-scheme scoundrels and swindlers hawking toxic financial derivatives would thrive far better here. Letting players trade freely with these local tycoons—not to mention whether they could bring even one percent of their eloquence to bear—what good would it do even if they did? Better to bring an extra gun. Chu Guang suddenly found himself understanding the Old Leech—oh wait, the Old Mayor—of Bet Street a bit more. That fellow was indeed no good, his greed utterly unrefined, exploiting people merely for hedonistic pleasure with zero long-term planning for Bet Street's future. Yet if the scavengers were truly left to trade with merchants on their own, those poor wretches would only be squeezed even more ruthlessly. It wasn't merely a matter of ignorance. Only people naive to a certain degree would believe that merchants from Boulder City were more benevolent than the rural tycoons of the countryside. It was like comparing a bat to a leech to see which could suck more blood. "Encouraging players to trade with native factions makes no sense. Every bulk transaction involving exports must be conducted under supervision. For instance, organizing fixed caravans, planning routes and traded goods, listing fixed commodity prices, having players serve as guards responsible for transport while NPCs handle the handoffs, splitting returns fifty-fifty or thirty-seventy... That would also cater to less hardcore players and streamline the trading process. "Tariffs, however, are indeed a good idea. I can take note of that! In the future, depending on real needs, I can consider allowing outside NPCs to directly participate in the players' market... on the premise that it's barter or using the shelter's currency." And under supervision. "Free trade?" "Heh." "When I need you all to fight, I'll naturally tell you whom you're having 'free trade' with." Besides the guide post from 'Mole on the Run from the Canyon,' there were civil-engineering bros posting threads to exchange house-building techniques, and metallurgy engineering bros discussing how to efficiently smelt steel with limited materials. As some chatted, they tossed links over to Site N and Island A to continue the discussion elsewhere, which unexpectedly brought plenty of new traffic to the website. The urban legend of a 'fully immersive virtual reality online game' showed signs of continuously swelling. Although the vast majority dismissed it as make-believe banter, a small fraction took it seriously and clicked the pre-registration button in a half-joking mood. The number of pre-registrations was steadily growing. What surprised Chu Guang, however, was that Ample Time Ahead—normally the most popular and the one who 'understood him best'—hadn't shared any game insights on the forum this time. The sun must have risen from the west. While Chu Guang was browsing the forum, the Ox and Horse Club group chat was also bustling with activity. Even though Brother Guang hadn't popped in for days, the topics in the chat basically revolved around Wasteland OL. At least that was the case in the mornings. Fleeting White Horse: "Fang Chang, did you see that post on the official site? The one written by Big-Nosed Mole." Gale Force 8: "His name is Mole on the Run from the Canyon." Fleeting White Horse: "Not important!" Fang Chang: "I saw it. The method proposed in that post is somewhat interesting, but not very practical." Fleeting White Horse: "Huh? It looked pretty good to me! Selling a carcass straight to the NPC earns 5 silver coins. If we find someone to handle butchering and air-drying all in one go, the value at least doubles, doesn't it?" Fang Chang: "Heh, theory is just theory. He overlooked the existence of contribution points." Ye Shi: "What do you mean?" Fang Chang: "You can think of citizenship as a Shenzhen residency permit, and contribution points as the points needed to qualify." Gale Force 8: "Brilliant, that's one hell of an analogy..." Fang Chang: "Same concept. Right now, out of all the players, aside from the few of us who upgraded to citizens, only Mosquito doing woodwork and Tengteng making clothes can probably scrape together 2,000 points. In other words, apart from the six of us, everyone else needs to grind contribution points to become a citizen first before worrying about making money." Only after becoming a citizen could one buy land. Even an idiot could see that the earlier you bought, the better the location. Fang Chang: "Once you've thought that through, let's analyze the rest. Out of these six people, who do you think is suited to be a butcher? Do any of you have butchering experience?" Fleeting White Horse: "Uh, that really is a problem." Ye Shi: "Wait, I just want to ask, is butchering that hard?" Gale Force 8: "...Anyone who has ever bought groceries at a supermarket wouldn't ask such a question." Fang Chang: "Ye Shi is still in school, so it's normal that he lacks life experience. As for the method mentioned in that guide post, it's currently unviable. We would need to find another salesman and another butcher. Splitting profits among six people wouldn't necessarily earn us more. "Actually, I did the math long ago; I just didn't bring it up. Once that Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes upgrades to citizen, we could try talking to him about a partnership, though I don't think we should hold out too much hope." Ye Shi: "Why?" Fang Chang: "Are you dumb? Why would he partner with us? Saving up enough to buy a plot of land, opening his own restaurant, and taking on butchering work on the side—isn't that way better?" Fleeting White Horse: "Holy shit! When you put it like that, having some butchering and cooking skills is an absolute goldmine in this game!" Fang Chang: "That's only true for the current stage. Wait a bit, and that might not be the case." Fang Chang: "Our top priority is still leveling up, and then raising our proficiency. In any open-world game, life-skill professions make easy money in the early game, but by the mid-to-late game, the top tier will always belong to those who are truly strong!" Gale Force 8: "Sigh, you've really got this gaming thing figured out... I've never understood why you didn't become a pro gamer." Fang Chang: "There was no opportunity before. As for now, heh, I feel like the opportunity has arrived." Scavenger Lv99: "Big boss! Please take my knees!" WC Really Has Mosquitoes: "Count me in too!" Fang Chang: "Sure thing, haha! We're all in the same group anyway. Let's call our future guild the Ox and Horse Club!" Fleeting White Horse: "*Cough*, maybe change the name?" Ye Shi: "Why change it? It sounds great. (Funny)" Fang Chang: "Doesn't matter whether we change the name or not. But let me say this: Mosquito, your contribution points should almost be enough, but Scavenger has been roaming the wild these past few days, so he's probably still a bit short. Your top priority right now is upgrading to citizen, and once you're citizens, save money! When the time comes, we'll pool our funds and build our house right in front of the respawn point. The first floor can be street-facing storefronts, and the second and third floors will be partitioned into spacious private rooms for each of us. Wouldn't that be sweet?" Fleeting White Horse: "That'll be our guild stronghold! (Excited)" WC Really Has Mosquitoes: "Solid plan, bro!" Scavenger Lv99: "6666!" Quitting Smoking: "Fuck! I want to play so damn badly!!! T.T"