Min Jingchao paused for a moment and continued. “The background of the game can happen in an abandoned battlefield in the future. Players are playing the role of soldiers who are undergoing special training. They need to win the exercise.”


  “In my mind, games can be split into two stages.

  “The first stage can be called the exploration stage or the stage of chaos.”


  “Players can choose their own identities before entering the game: ordinary soldiers, team captains, battlefield commanders. There are two options: main and backup.”


  “In the game, it’s a team of four. There’s a captain. Players can play solo or choose to play together.”


  “The system will adjust based on the actual situation of the players in the current match. For example, if there are not enough players for the main team leader on the battlefield, then we will screen them from the candidates for the team leader. If it is still not enough, we will choose players with better figures from the ordinary soldiers.”


  “After forming a team, the team leader will choose a location on the map to land. They will start collecting resources nearby to look for better firearms, more bullets, medical supplies, and so on.”


  “Whether we want to fight now depends entirely on the players’ personal preferences.”


  “If players want to fight, they can go to strategic locations with rich resources, such as war hospitals, airports, blockhouses, and so on. Places like that would meet other players very early on, and the battle would be intense.”


  “If the players don’t want to fight, they can go to places where there are relatively few resources, such as camps in the wild and strongholds.”


  “If a team member dies in the early stages, the teammates can go to the designated location to revive him. If the dead team member exits the game, they can summon new players to enter.”


  “Of course, players can freely choose whether to join the match that is already in the middle of the match interface.”


  “If the entire team is wiped out, they will be eliminated from the match.”


  “The first stage of the battle is 100vs100, which is a total of 200 people. 50 teams were sent into the map.”


  “In order to prevent players from hiding and dragging the time, I added a setting for the ‘anti-radiation suit’s battery’. Players must find the battery of the anti-radiation suit to maintain full blood. Once the battery is exhausted, blood will be deducted due to the radiation until death.”


  “They will be eliminated on the spot until there are only 100 people left. That is, half of the teams were eliminated. Or perhaps the game entered the second stage after some time.”


  “At that moment, the system will combine the results of the players in the first stage, the distribution of players in various strategic locations, and other factors. The battlefield will be divided into two evenly matched sides.”


  “In the initial state, both sides must be mixed together. Some teams might be naturally in the depths of the enemy camp and occupy a key fortress. Some teams might be behind their own camp and are very safe.”


  “At that time, the commander selected by the system can start commanding the battlefield and give instructions to all the teams.”


  “In order to facilitate players’ communication, we have to make a very complete signal marking system. Captain and commander can directly give orders through the marking system or shout through the voice chat.”


  “At this stage, players could be revived in the camp or the hospital even if they died. However, they would need to consume resources, such as the batteries of the anti-radiation suit. The resources on the map are limited. They would not be able to revive after they were exhausted. In the end, the winner and score would be calculated based on the number of strategic locations occupied by both sides, the number of kills, and the number of points obtained by collecting resources.”


  After hesitating for a moment, Sun Xi asked, “Wouldn’t that take too long to play the game? Most FPS games would only take a few minutes to play a small game. It would stimulate players’ emotions quickly and directly. If they were divided into two stages like this, they would definitely not be able to finish in a few minutes, right?”


  Min Jingchao nodded. “Yes, I expect the entire game to be about 30 minutes. Actually, this time is not bad. It’s basically similar to the time in GOG’s bladder game.”


  “What’s more, unlike games like GOG, Bullet Hole 2 has a screening mechanism. Not every player will be able to play it for 30 minutes.”


  “The first stage is the screening stage. If players jump to the crowded area to engage in an intense battle right from the start, they might kill everyone and let their own team directly occupy a strategic location. They might also be directly wiped out and forced to exit.”


  “Therefore, for players who like fast-paced games, they don’t need to last until 30 minutes. For players who like to slow down and like to slowly plunder, they can jump to places where there are fewer people in the first stage. As long as they survive the first stage and don’t die, they can continue to revive in the second stage. They can also keep their good weapons, resources, and so on.”


  “What’s more, if he died in the first stage, he would die. If he left, he would immediately start another round. It would not delay anything. If he survived the first stage, he would be able to revive in the second stage. The weapons and equipment he had would be better. In addition, he would be rewarded after the battle. The driving force would be very sufficient. He would not leave halfway.”


  “As players become better at shooting and understand the game mechanism more and more, they can gradually try to choose places with more intense competition so that the players can achieve a natural flow.”


  “This mechanism is equivalent to dividing different types of gamers so that gamers can find suitable gameplay in this mode.”


  Zhou Muyan and the others nodded. Min Jingchao’s idea seemed to work.

  In fact, the reason why MOBA games were so popular was that there were different types of joy in the first, middle, and later stages of the game.

  In the early stages of the solo battle, they would establish a preliminary advantage through their own skills; in the mid-stages, they would wander around to support and help the entire team open the situation; in the later stages, they would fight for resources or find an opportunity to turn the tables in a desperate situation and win.

  What’s more, in such games, players’ levels and equipment were constantly increasing. It was similar to MMORPG growth. Therefore, in the mid to late stages, unless the situation was completely one-sided, players would not easily give up the sinking cost of the first twenty minutes as long as their equipment was mixed and they had the strength to fight. They would think of ways to turn the tables.

  The huge map mechanism that Min Jingchao designed for Bullet Hole 2 had obviously referenced some of the ideas in MOBA games. On one hand, it was screening players through the game mechanism and segregating the players so that different types of players could experience different fun. On the other hand, it was ensuring that there would be enough fun in the later stages through the game mechanism.

  Min Jingchao continued, “However, theoretically speaking, the design of this huge map mechanism takes into account the experience of different players. However, there might be some unexpected situations when it is actually operating.”


  “For example, the matching mechanism did not balance the strength of both parties after the initial screening because of insufficient data. Or perhaps it was because the mechanism in the game was not perfect, causing the progress at different stages to be too fast or too slow, affecting the players’ actual game experience.”


  “Actually, I don’t have a good solution to this problem. I can only adjust it slowly.”


  “However, during the adjustment process, it might cause players to lose out.”


  This was actually very easy to understand. A game mechanism needed a lot of data to operate perfectly.

  For example, for MOBA games like GOG, the reason why its experience was outstanding was because of the number of soldiers it killed every minute, the amount of experience it gained, the amount of money it earned, the stats of the wild monsters, and so on. All of these data had been carefully and complicatedly modified and adjusted to become what it was today.

  Once something went wrong in a certain segment, such as if the player leveled up too quickly, the rhythm of the entire game would be ruined. A serious chain reaction would be produced, even completely disrupting the initial concept.

  Min Jingchao had been working on the balancing for GOG for so long. Of course, he knew this very well.

  What’s more, it was unlikely that he could completely avoid these problems from the beginning. He could only constantly adjust according to the players’ feedback and collected data in the game.

  Zhou Muyan said, “That’s actually not bad. At the very most, we’ll run a few tests after the game is developed. We’ll only go online after making adjustments.”


  “In any case, other games have to be tested for a long time before they are officially released.”


  Min Jingchao nodded and said, “There’s one way to test it, but I’ve thought of another way.”


  “It’s to make use of the existing big map and open a few new game mechanisms.”


  “Split and simplify the existing mechanisms. That would ensure that even if the classic mechanism of the big map met with some problems in the beginning and affected players’ experience, they would have other modes to play.”


  “Boss Pei had cut off many modes previously so we definitely won’t do it. Compared to Ocean Stronghold, we only kept the most basic gun point mode.”


  “I thought about it and came up with three models.”


  “The first is a pure sudden attack mode. Choose a small area on the big map and players can continue to revive. They can tacitly hold their favorite gun and fight anyone they see. Finally, they can calculate based on the number of heads.”


  “In any case, we will collect materials from the big map. The map can be used after some slight modifications. Divide the big map into many small maps. Not only can it satisfy our needs, but it can also guide players to familiarize themselves with the topographic features of the big map.”


  “Players play in this mode many times. They will naturally know the way on the big map.”


  “The second is to only retain the model for one stage. It just requires some adjustments to the details.”


  “That’s because teams will fight in the first stage. There’s basically no need to balance out their strength. In any case, the one standing at the end will be the winner.”


  “However, since there is no longer a second stage battle, it is obviously meaningless to have so many players left on the big map. I want to speed up the death and withdrawal of players. Therefore, I’m considering adding a mechanism for ‘mechanical army invasion’.”


  “In layman’s terms, after a certain period of time, the mechanical army would continuously refresh from the surroundings of the map, and its stats would gradually increase.”


  “Players have two choices. One is to run into the map. That way, they will naturally encounter other players and fight. The other is to plunder resources and seize advantageous terrain and strategic locations to fight these mechanical armies.”


  “If you don’t want to fight with gamers, you can just stand in a fortress and farm a mechanical army. It’s similar to the zombie mode in Ocean Stronghold.”


  “The former is the gameplay of ‘escape’ while the latter is the gameplay of ‘perseverance’. That depends on the location of the players at that time and their personal gaming habits.”


  “The third way is the classic gameplay that I just introduced.”


  “Different gameplay can bring different enjoyment to players during the game process and complement each other.”


  “That way, Bullet Hole 2 would be able to give players a rich and unique gaming experience!”