The Balance Debate

Official Website: [Occasional heavy snow has fallen today, and surface temperatures have dropped to 0 degrees. The "Winter Is Coming" expansion pack is drawing to a close. An additional 10 closed-beta slots have been specially released as a token of appreciation to the dedicated gamers who have been patiently waiting and checking in on the official website for so long.] [Additionally, the weather is turning cold, so please remember to bundle up.] Today's version number was still Alpha 0.4. The announcement on the official website still made no mention of Alpha 0.5; there was only a notice regarding the testing status of the "weather system." However, what netizens were discussing on the forums today, for once, had absolutely nothing to do with the planning team's announcement. Almost all the topics and gripes centered around the in-game buffs given to production occupation players. Tengteng: "So, so, so, so ridiculous! First two thousand silver, then five thousand silver! Great Lead Designer, get out here and rein in your NPC! QAQ" WC Really Has Mosquitoes: "I don't care, it's rigged! Unless you give me money too! Goblin Industries needs subsidies! (╯°Д°)╯︵┻━┻" Midnight Chicken Slaughter: "Strength-types need a buff! It makes no sense that an axe can't hack through a crab shell! ┬─┬ノ('－'ノ)" Big Eye in Debt: "Intelligence-type players protest! We strongly demand the weapons shop add drones and funnel cannons! (╯°Д°)╯︵┻━┻" Makka Pakka: "Farming! I want to farm!" Stop Bullshitting: "Does nobody care about the anglers? Five hundred contribution points hurts too much! QAQ" Yaya: "Hahahahaha, trash! Dying while fishing, what a noob! {＊≧▽≦}" The players on the official website had massive grievances and were practically arguing up a storm. Thinking about it, it made sense—what was the most important thing in a game? Balance, of course! In reality, one could selectively overlook the wealth gap, but in a game? No way! Everyone grinded just as hard—why should you guys get it so good? Unreasonable. This was completely unreasonable! Especially when the outpost wasn't even the size of two school athletic fields—less than twenty mu when tallied up—while a single brickworks took up fifteen mu! That was equivalent to setting up a whole new sub-base! Even if players only held a 20% controlling stake, it still disrupted the balance. At the very least, keeping it under 5% would be reasonable! Of course, there were also players pursuing reasonableness on another level, like Mole on the Run from the Canyon, who had been clamoring for the development of a "free trade" system. This guy created a dedicated thread and offered a rational analysis of its justification. "Actually, it's not as exaggerated as you think. A sound economic loop is essential for a game that pursues detail. Ever heard of *Albion*? Although it's an MMORPG, its economy system is executed brilliantly. All gear in the game is crafted by players; basically, your class is defined by 'what you wear.' "What impressed me the most was that the in-game cities have independent economies. Although there's an auction house to trade, goods don't actively circulate on their own. Players can purchase storefronts, open workshops, craft gear themselves, or rent them out to players to collect fees. Crafted gear can not only be auctioned off to players, but also sold to the Black Market. "The most eye-catching part is the Black Market: gear sold there is bought by 'monsters' and becomes loot dropped when players kill them. And if nobody sells a particular item, the Black Market raises its price within a certain limit to entice players to craft it. "Wasteland OL is clearly building a similar economy system. But based on my observations, Wasteland OL's economic system will be even closer to reality. Haven't you noticed? Different NPC settlements actually use different currencies! So most trade is done by barter! "Later on, there might even be exchange rate settings. But that kind of system would be extremely complex—bordering on a 'chaotic system'—causing fluctuations in in-game economic figures to become unpredictable. I wonder if the server's CPU can handle it! "Either way, having the courage to innovate is a good thing. Props to the dev team for their bold vision!" Chu Guang actually read the post to the end. As usual, he took notes on parts worth borrowing. With enough notes, wouldn't Alpha 0.5 naturally come together? However, whether the server could handle it was unknown, but within minutes of the thread being posted, a certain contrarian had already swooped in to argue. Lightning King Professor Yang: "Heh, haven't played that game you mentioned, but my view remains the same: letting players meddle too much in things NPCs should be doing is a colossal blunder! Wherever there are people, there is intrigue and politics. You can never guess how low players' bottom lines can sink! If I were the director of that brickworks, I wouldn't sell to the NPC warehouse. I'd hike up the price of bricks—take it or leave it!" Hmm. That was indeed an issue, but it could only ever happen in future versions, never the current one. This armchair gamer had probably forgotten that accepting a hidden quest meant surrendering 80% of the control to the "NPC." Running it properly was fine, but if you wanted to drive up prices and create artificial scarcity? Just see if the NPC didn't crush you. There were far more methods available in a game than in reality. However, this little player's thought process served as a wake-up call for Chu Guang. He could trust the players' capabilities, but he could never overestimate their moral bottom line, let alone give up using rules to rein them in. Even if he increased the players' shareholding ratio in the future, he would never let them exceed 50%. At the same time, he needed to establish a forced liquidation margin call threshold for inventory. Once inventory reached the liquidation threshold, an automatic balancing mechanism would trigger. Even if you clutched the bricks in your hands and refused to sell, you'd still be forced to dump half at a bone-crushing discount. What, you want to halt work? Restrict production? Pull a Boston Tea Party and dump bricks into the river? Heh. As long as orders from the NPC warehouse didn't stop, just try halting production. A [Time-Limited Quest] with the penalty of reducing your equity—care to see if you'll take it? There would always be ways to deal with such petty trickery. Professor Yang had no idea that his theories had prompted a certain NPC to jot down two extra lines in his little notebook. But then again, no normal person would ever imagine that an in-game NPC could browse the official forums. At this point, the members of the Cow and Horse Squad showed up. Fang Chang: "Ahem, allow me to clarify the issues raised by Professor Yang. First of all, you can't treat the player base as a single monolith. Just like in battle royales, some people cheat, while others uphold a fair gaming environment, right? I can't speak for others, but our Cow and Horse Squad still has integrity. We won't engage in things like jacking up in-game prices—not now, and not in the future. Everyone, rest easy. "Besides, we're actually just wage laborers. Eighty percent of the brickworks' shares belong to the shelter collective; we only have twenty percent. Honestly, it's a bit like a hot potato—the return on our effort isn't proportional to the income. It's not as great as you think." He hadn't really wanted to clarify, but seeing how heated the discussion on the forums was getting, he feared the game designers might step in and nerf the profits from brickmaking directly. A 20% stake was low enough already; if brickmaking yields took another hit, they'd be left eating dirt. In short: play the victim card first! Mole on the Run from the Canyon: "That's enough out of you! Give it to me! If you don't want it, let me do it! (going crazy)" Fang Chang: "Ahem." Lightning King Professor Yang: "Heh, you say you won't, so you won't? And what of a 20% stake? In practice, players are still running it, right? I'll stand by my words: you can never underestimate a player's moral bottom line; someone will always find a loophole! "For instance, I could deliberately write off part of the inventory as production failures, but secretly divert the stock behind everyone's back, selling it in bulk to players in need through third-party intermediaries at below-market prices! That way, not only do I bypass the NPC's warehouse, but I also dodge the restrictions of the corporate account! You catch my drift? Even if the books show a loss, the player still rakes in steady money! And it's cash straight into their own pocket! (smug)" Chu Guang was stunned reading this post. *Holy shit.* *This bro has truly mastered the penal code!* WC Really Has Mosquitoes: "Good grief, in real life that's a firing squad to start." Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes: "Looks even more criminal than Mosquito! (grinning)" WC Really Has Mosquitoes: "? What does that have to do with me?" Elaina: "Bro, you just outed yourself as a werewolf. (funny)" Fang Chang: "Vision, man, vision! You think you're the only clever one? The only one who could think of that? If you're so smart, think a little harder about why I didn't do that and instead came here to post a statement promising I wouldn't. (side-eye)" Ye Shi: "When the closed beta drops, wanna come haul bricks at our plant? I'll appoint you workshop director. (funny)" Lao Bai: "Hahahahaha, let's make it open beta! I think open beta should work." Guang: "(applause)" Tengteng: "Great Lead Designer!" Lightning King Professor Yang: "...Uh, it's all theoretical, don't take it seriously, I was just talking off the top of my head, ahem. (sweating face)" Proud Grandpa What Can You Do: "Lmao, acting like it's real. Keep pretending, let's see how long you can keep up the act. (picking nose)" Quitting Smoking: "Father! Please, grant me a chance! T.T" Closing the thread, Chu Guang browsed the official site and noticed the pre-registration count had risen from 888 to 996. Although this passive recruitment strategy had lower efficiency, its advantage was filtering out a large portion of the non-target audience. What was a non-target audience? People like Professor Yang who slipped through the cracks—at least, they weren't the target demographic for the closed-beta phase. Scheming every day about how to exploit cheats and pit their wits against the game designers using bugs—did they have any respect for the creators who worked so hard to build the game? Couldn't they just honestly haul bricks for the NPC? He'd already promised no character wipes, letting them be Tier 1 or Tier 0 pioneers! "I need to find a way to open up B2... There are still so many little players waiting to log in and haul bricks." He wondered how many incubation pods were on B2. However, another issue remained: with fewer than a hundred players currently, the elevator's transport capacity was already strained. What would happen once players numbered in the thousands or tens of thousands? What about millions, or even tens of millions? Of course, Chu Guang felt that the shelter's designers must have accounted for such issues, such as having exits on other floors that led directly to the surface. After all, for such a massive shelter facility, there was no reason to have only a single exit to the outside world. Moreover, if the "technology to connect to parallel worlds" was achieved inside this shelter, the first-generation manager should have left behind the technology to manufacture these incubation pods. Once they could deploy "players" to the surface in bulk from the shelter, it would naturally be time for the closed beta. And once they broke free from the spatial constraints of the shelter itself and could mass-produce "players" on the surface, the open beta would naturally arrive. "Xia Yan." Hearing Chu Guang suddenly call her name, the weapons shop proprietress, who had been sitting in the corner memorizing her manuals until her head spun, froze and looked up at him blankly. "What?" "Do you know how to contact a slave trader?" Upon hearing the words "slave trader," the girl's face instantly went pale. Clenching the notebook tightly in both hands, she seemed to shrink into herself. "Wh-what do you want?" "...?" Although he knew she was probably overthinking, Chu Guang could draw an entire decision tree of the wild possibilities running through her imagination. Tsk, annoying. He hated guessing the most. Seeing Chu Guang remain silent, Xia Yan's face shifted from pale to red, then to a greenish hue as the misunderstanding deepened. Her teeth chattered as she spoke. "I-I-I... If there's something I haven't done right, tell me, I'll definitely fix it. D-don't... please don't sell me... I beg you." "...What kind of nonsense are you babbling? Don't you still have one good leg? Why would I sell you?" Chu Guang rolled his eyes and urged, "I'm planning to buy some labor. I'm asking if you know anyone in that line of business. Yes or no, give me a straight answer, hurry up." This girl was definitely too idle. Generally speaking, when hearing rumors of corporate layoffs, the one who panicked the most was always the one slacking off the most. If you weren't slacking off, what were you afraid of? Huh? Although she felt something was off about Chu Guang's response, at least he wasn't going to sell her. Xia Yan breathed a sigh of relief, and her tense shoulders relaxed. Slowly leaning back against the wall, she raised her eyebrows to peek at Chu Guang and mumbled, "H-how would I know that kind of merchant? Do I look like someone who can afford slaves?" "Tsk. You guys never sold any?" "What kind of person do you take me for? I'm a legitimate mercenary, not a marauder," Xia Yan argued, her face flushed red. Chu Guang shrugged, offering no comment. Was there really that big a difference between mercenaries and marauders? Even merchants occasionally moonlighted as marauders, let alone mercenaries who made their living by the gun. But interrogating her past was rather pointless, and besides, it didn't matter to him. "I really haven't!!" "Oh, what a shame. I was hoping to buy some labor to lighten the burden on my subjects." Xia Yan glanced at him, strategically seized by dread, and drew her shoulders in without a word. She remembered that last time, this guy still referred to those silent bluecoats as "residents." Now, he had already upgraded to "subjects." Next time, would it turn directly into "servants"? Simply terrifying... This guy had to have been a demon in his past life! No, he was one in this life!