Chapter 226: The Way of Heaven Above All Living Things

The development of a game requires many steps and cannot be completed overnight.

Among them, stand-alone games are slightly better, at least there are not so many things to consider, and there is no need to worry too much about server-side issues.

Even if the game has bugs, for a stand-alone game, the problem is actually not that big and can be fixed slowly over time.

But online games are different.

Because online games involve multiple people, players and developers have a much lower tolerance for game bugs than stand-alone games.

Because of this, the development cycle of an online game is often not much different from that of a stand-alone game, and it may take one or two years to complete the development. However, if players want to play this game, they may have to wait a long time.

For example.

Two games of the same investment scale, one is a stand-alone game and the other is an online game, are being developed at the same time.

Standalone games may have already started selling, but online games are still in the first test. Standalone games have been updated several times, but sales have stopped increasing, while online games are still in the second test...

When the stand-alone game stops selling and its popularity drops significantly, the developer will offer discounts on the game. At this time, the online game may start the "undeleted test"! Don't think it's an exaggeration.

In fact, this is a very common phenomenon in the gaming industry.

The main reason for this situation is that stand-alone games can first release "semi-finished products" and then slowly update, repair and improve them.

Is there a bug in the game?

It doesn’t matter! Whose stand-alone game doesn’t have bugs? In the early days of game releases, all kinds of bugs can be seen everywhere, such as the most classic "Cyberpunk 2077" and "No Man's Sky". Those who have played them when they were first released know what they were like.

But this does not affect the game's release as planned. At most, the reputation among players will drop slightly, and the game will still be sold as usual.

Can online games do this? The answer is no!

Stand-alone games can be sold as semi-finished products, and even if there are a lot of bugs, it will not affect the normal release of the game.

But if an online game dares to release a half-finished product with a bunch of bugs not fixed during the public beta, then it’s time to die! This sentence does not mean that online games are not allowed to have bugs during the public beta...

But the bugs cannot be too many or too serious. At least, an online game that is about to be publicly tested cannot be treated by the standards of a stand-alone game.

"One test, two tests, three tests..."

Chen Ba explained: "So many rounds of testing, are they really a waste of time? Definitely not. Each round of testing has a purpose."

"Even if the game disappears during testing, will it still be the case?" Huang Qing joked.

"Don't be so embarrassing!"

Chen Ba said speechlessly: "When the game is tested and then it disappears, it is usually because the version number is stuck, which has little to do with the game itself."

For example, DNF mobile game, right?

And why did the internal testing of "Peace Elite", the predecessor of "PUBG Mobile", take so long?

These are all due to the issue of version number, which is why the testing took so long, and the game even disappeared during the testing, or the game was renamed.

“We don’t have a publishing license issue.”

Chen Ba patted his chest and assured: "Based on this, the testing process of "Cultivation Fantasy" should be much simpler and not dragged out for too long."

It would be enough to do one or two tests.

After the second test is completed, it can almost be connected to the public test, and there will be no need to add steps such as the third test, closed test, and internal test without deleting data in between.

“Only two rounds of testing?”

Huang Qing didn't expect that Chen Ba was so bold. He dared to conduct a public beta test of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game after only two rounds of testing? "Two rounds are enough!"

"It's useless to test more. You have to know that the games produced by our Tianba Studio are of perfect quality without any bugs."

Chen Ba said this with a slightly embarrassed expression: "There may be some game features, but believe me, there will definitely be no game bugs."

"I don't believe you..."

Although Huang Qing has only joined Tianba Studio for a short time, he has heard of this magical game studio.

It is impossible to have no bugs.

Any game may be bug-free, but games produced by Tianba Studio will definitely not be without bugs.

There is a saying in Tianba community: when the game made by Tianba brother is bug-free, then you don’t have to play it anymore! Just kidding!

As a studio built on game bugs, players would rather believe that men can have children than believe that Brother Ba’s game has no bugs.

"If you don't believe me, then there's nothing I can do! But two rounds of testing are enough. If we can't find a bug in two rounds, there's no point in continuing testing."

This is Chen Ba’s personal experience.

He had thought about testing it to death before, but the job of testing for bugs cannot be done by brute force. Instead, it requires a little bit of luck.

Sometimes, after testing for a long time, nothing is found, but big problems are exposed as soon as players start playing.

Who can be blamed for this?

Do you blame them for not being careful enough during the test? Bullshit! It's obviously because their brains are not flexible enough to simulate the players' strange and bizarre thinking circuits.

Two rounds of testing.

The first round is an internal test, which is not open to the public and is only conducted within Tianba Studio.

The second round is a public test, in which a group of players are invited to enter the game by issuing activation codes to test the stability and playability of the game.

After making the corresponding arrangements, the next thing to do is to make a semi-finished game for the upcoming first round of internal testing.

The development process is quite impressive.

Although it was the first time to make a large-scale fairy-tale MMO game, the development team led by Chen Ba was battle-hardened after all, and their experience in game development was quite mature and sophisticated.

Perhaps the only difficulty is that the game’s core “merit” system requires the help of the Tiehanhan system to realize some of its functions.

There is no way! To put it bluntly, the merit system is actually a hidden three-level currency system.

The whole system seems not complicated, even quite simple and crude. However, there is a tricky problem in the specific development process.

How to determine the acquisition of merit? "In the game background, the practitioner played by the player can obtain merit rewards issued by the heaven by slaying demons or doing good deeds."

Chen Ba introduced: "The problem now is that the Way of Heaven is a relatively general concept, and there is no clear standard for judging merit."

To put it bluntly, there is no specific quantitative standard for the distribution and deduction of merits, and the degree of freedom in judgment is relatively high.

"Why not just come up with a set of values ​​and apply them in?"

Xiao Lu was puzzled, thinking, what's so difficult about this? Just set a fixed numerical framework for this merit system, and then calculate merit according to this numerical framework.

How simple it is!

For example, slaying demons and eliminating evil…

As long as in the game, a basic merit value is constant according to the demon's strength level, and then it is plugged into the formula to calculate the amount of merit obtained by the player.

This is also a common practice in other games, using formulas to calculate values.

"no!"

"I understand what you said, but you overlooked one point, which is the interference of other factors in this calculation formula, and the selfless fairness of the Heavenly Dao in distributing merit."

Or slaying demons and eliminating evil, Chen Ba gave an example of a situation that might be encountered in reality.

A demon in the Jindan period caused trouble to one side and killed 10 people. He had a certain amount of karma.

Although the other Jindan-stage demon also harmed the people, it was doing so to protect its own cave. Humans took the initiative to break into its territory in order to capture its original body and its cubs.

If the player kills these two demons, will Heaven give the same amount of merit? "There is another situation..."

Liu Jinfu, who participated in the discussion, gave an example: "They are all Jindan-stage demons, but their combat power may be different, and the difficulty for players to eliminate them is also different."

A demon has a powerful magic weapon, or particularly powerful secret technique, so the threat level is relatively high!

However, the cultivation level of this demon remains unchanged, its combat power is just a little higher. Will the merit gained after destroying it change?

"Forehead……"

Xiao Lu scratched his head and said, "Then add a few new variables to include these situations!"

There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!

"After adding it, these situations have been resolved, but can you guarantee that there will be no new accidents?"

Chen Ba asked in return: "Do we have to add a new calculation variable to this merit calculation formula for every special situation in the game?"

This is too complicated.

Moreover, this is only a temporary solution and does not address the root cause. Often, when a special situation occurs in the game, it is necessary to update and add a variable to change the original merit calculation formula.

Chen Ba believed that it would be better to make the merit calculation system a subtraction system instead of constantly adding.

"Subtraction?"

"That's right! There's no need to make it so complicated, nor do you need to perform tedious calculations. There's no need to use any formulas or add any so-called variables..."

Chen Ba explained: "We can completely eliminate these complicated and trivial things and leave the discretion of merit to the way of heaven."

The Heavenly Dao in the game is actually the core code of the merit system.

No formula or calculation is needed. Just give the Way of Heaven a certain degree of discretion and let it make reasonable judgments based on actual conditions.

Xiao Lu's proposal is actually to use legal provisions to stipulate how much merit XX behavior should obtain and how XX situation should be judged. In other words, it is to add more and more legal provisions.

Chen Ba's proposal abolished the thick and long legal provisions and instead established a special position of "judge", allowing the judge to freely determine how much merit should be given based on the actual circumstances of the case.

Both solutions can be used.

However, in the actual implementation process, the actual experience of the game. Xiao Lu's solution will appear cumbersome and complicated, and it has been adding.

Therefore, the most suitable solution for the game is to set up a "Judge of Heaven" and give it a certain degree of discretion.

certainly!

After all, the way of heaven in the game is a "dead thing", so there is a certain degree of freedom, but not complete freedom.

On the premise that there are precedents to follow, Tiandao will calculate the amount of merit a player has earned based on a basic formula.

In some special cases, or when the situation is more complicated, it is necessary for Heaven itself to make a judgment as to whether to give 10 merit points or 100 merit points.

“Is this troublesome?”

After understanding what Brother Ba meant, Xiao Lu frowned and said, "Although your plan is very feasible, how do we implement the Heavenly Dao and Merit Penalty System?"

Ideas are ideas.

When making games, everyone may have some cool ideas of one kind or another. These ideas are very interesting, but whether they can be turned into a finished product is another matter.

Discussion is meaningful only when the ideas can be turned into finished products and become practical.

If you can make a great game just by talking nonsense, there would be no such phrase as "You can do it if you can ".

Xiao Lu agreed with Brother Ba's idea.

Subtraction is indeed more reasonable and more practical than addition. But the key to subtraction is to ensure the autonomy of the merit system.

This is hard to do…

He thought about it and realized that at least he couldn't create a "heavenly way" with the discretion to judge whether the player's behavior met the standards for merit distribution.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of it."

Since Chen Ba dared to express this idea, it proved that he already had a corresponding solution.

He can't do it, and Xiao Lu can't do it either...

Isn't there the Iron Fool System? With the Iron Fool System's awesomeness, simulating a "fair and selfless" heaven in the game is just a piece of cake.

Seriously.

This Heavenly Way is actually considered half AI. The reason why it is considered half is mainly because "Heavenly Way" requires absolute fairness and selflessness.

To put it bluntly, it's a rigid procedure.

In the game, the Heavenly Dao is a supreme monitoring program that judges the sins and merits of all living beings. In theory, this program does not belong to the category of AI, because it is more ruthless and rigid than AI.

When players enter the game "Xiuzhen Fantasy", every move they make will be monitored by "Heavenly Dao".

Sort of like an anti-cheat program?

That's about it! Anyway, that's the idea. By monitoring the player's behavior, the merit system is judged and corresponding rewards are issued.

This "Heavenly Way" is powerful!

The "Heavenly Way" created by the Tiehanhan system is so pervasive that it is even more exaggerated than the game GM to some extent.

As the old saying goes: There is a god above your head!

Sorry, in the game "Xiuzhen Fantasy", "God" really exists. God is a monitoring program that is above all living beings.

"Isn't that very private?"

Xiao Lu complained: "Being watched all the time like this makes me feel so stressed when playing games!"

"Being watched?"

When Chen Ba heard this, he immediately laughed.

"Being stared at and making you feel uncomfortable requires that you are a human! But is Tiandao a human? It's not, it's not even an AI, it's just a program!"

From this perspective, Xiao Lu’s concern that players lack a sense of privacy and feel uncomfortable when being stared at does not exist.

Because this Tiandao is, in theory, just a small program hanging in the background of the game.

This is a dead thing, a program...

Players don’t need to understand the way of heaven, they just need to know that this is the same as when you start the League of Legends client and the wegame running in the background.

(End of this chapter)