The Saintess was actually in the Main World, closely following the entire Descent into Netherworld Village livestream.
Because she needed to interact with the audience during the preview livestream, the Academy Head had enabled a function that allowed her to view the Saviors' live chat.
Perhaps due to the Oath official team's lack of technical expertise, the Saintess could see more than just the official preview livestream.
Below the livestream window, a related recomndations section had popped up. In these slots, the Saintess found the official livestream for Descent into Netherworld Village, as well as Macchiato's and Crimson Night's two major streams.
The viewership of these three livestreams was nowhere near the official Oath preview's millions, hovering around only a hundred thousand or so.
However, the live chat interaction was incredibly lively. Many viewers seed to have all three livestreams open at the sa ti, switching back and forth between perspectives.
The Saintess should not have felt flustered. After all, the official Oath preview room currently had millions of viewers. The gap between the two sides was not even on the sa order of magnitude.
But... the live chats were filled with comnts like:
"Crying Hasumi is just too cute. I feel like I'm falling in love just watching her."
"Is Descent into Netherworld Village really not going to add more gacha characters? Hasumi and Irene are both very cute, but I still want so male characters to join too. Can our guide Carl personally accompany us in-ga?"
"My heart has been stolen by Hasumi. I shall know no joy or sorrow for the rest of my life."
And other similar ssages.
This massive flood of live chat ssages, so excited that they practically sounded like love confessions, made the Saintess feel very uneasy, to the point that she nervously bit her handkerchief.
There were two ways for these gacha characters to prove their worth. The first was to earn "Positive Emotions" from players, which was the power of the Antidote.
The second was to see how many devoted players and fanatic players they had.
Devoted players were easy to collect. At least from the Saintess's experience, as soon as her character art and PV were released, she gained three million devoted players out of thin air.
This was because these devoted players viewed the Saintess from a player's perspective.
Simply because the Saintess was beautiful, her character design was appealing, and her voice was lovely, they beca dedicated fans as if falling in love at first sight.
But fanatics were different. Fanatic-type players had already gone beyond the scope of "playing a ga."
Only after the Saintess spent a long ti with certain players, listened to their inner thoughts, and even went on adventures with them that led to touching stories and small morable monts would those players convert into fanatics.
Simply put, fanatic players no longer viewed these ga characters as virtual figures.
Instead, they truly treated them like family, close friends... and even lovers.
Family ant relatives they had spent a long ti with. Friends ant buddies they had known for years and had a great relationship with.
For players like that, even if the Saintess made an outrageous request, they would likely only consider whether they could do it, rather than whether they were willing to do it.
To date, the Saintess only had about a thousand Fanatic Believer players. Hasumi originally had only about two hundred, but that number was now growing at an extrely rapid pace.
Judging by this growth rate, her position as the most popular character would not remain secure for long!
How could a discarded character beco more popular than the featured heroine? Oath officials, hurry up and do sothing!
The Saintess's Academy Terminal beeped several tis, reminding her that the pre-launch strategy eting for Version 1.2 was about to begin.
Now she could only hope that the Oath officials had so good counterasure...
The ultra-long endurance livestream for Descent into Netherworld Village was still ongoing, though Carl had just switched the perspective to a new batch of playtest players.
Because the ga did not have much heavy plot in its early stages.
Coupled with the fact that it was the type of ga where watching a strear play, then seeing them ss up and embarrass themselves, made you so frustrated that you wanted to rush in and play it yourself.
Long-form endurance livestreams could serve as an excellent promotional tool.
However, Carl's main consciousness was no longer focused on Descent into Netherworld Village.
As a character who had been abandoned by Oath's officials, Carl naturally was not qualified to attend the internal Version 1.2 eting.
But Mio, as the liaison for the partner company, could attend.
While it was impossible to create alternate accounts in Elysium series gas, there were still so "internal accounts" developed for official ga use.
These accounts were shared among employees and were basically developer accounts, used for staff etings within the ga world and for modifying details like maps and gaplay systems.
Mio had been issued one such "internal account," allowing her to participate in this discussion openly as an insider.
With Mio's help, Carl drank a "shapeshifting potion" from the City of Glory, disguised himself as a tiny black sparrow, and hid inside Mio's sleeve to sneak in.
Technically speaking, Carl was still considered an employee of Oath.
Furthermore, Carl had asked the other big boss of Oath, Elysium, and it said there was no problem, so there were no legal disputes.
Among those attending the Version 1.2 pre-launch strategy eting, aside from the gacha characters, there was one figure who particularly surprised Carl.
Anan, Commander of the Abyssal Knights.
She still attended the combat eting in the form of that little girl.
"Ms. Anan, thank you for coming. With the Abyssal Knights' assistance, much of the pressure on our monster design for Version 1.2 has been relieved."
The Academy Head's attitude toward this NPC was unexpectedly respectful.
Actually, this also revealed the attitude Oath officials had toward the truly powerful native NPCs of Elysium.
The ga developers of Elysium could not act like conventional ga developers, simply adjusting data and modeling whatever they wanted.
A ga developer could indeed create a monster through modeling, animation design, and stat design, then place it on the map for players to kill. But such a "monster" had no Data Volu to speak of, aning it was not strong enough.
Most of the minor mobs in Version 1.0 of Oath were these kinds of monsters, nothing more than models.
By contrast, bosses like elite monsters and Scourge Aberrations were actual wild monsters or Scourge Aberrations captured by the Holy Nation and the Empire from the world of Elysium.
Then the ga designers would remodel them and modify their animations, stats, and behavior patterns, turning them into bosses with actual strength and proper nurical values.
And the thods to increase the challenge for players in Extre Abyss, besides stacking the Data Volu of two monsters together to boost their stats, included speeding up their animations and attack speeds.
To put it bluntly, it was a matter of Data Volu. Those powerful bosses in Oath were truly dangerous entities with equivalent destructive power in the world of Elysium.
The dark humor of it was that the immortal nature of Scourge Aberrations, the fact that they could resurrect infinitely after being killed, actually saved the ga developers the trouble of constantly catching new monsters for players to slay.
"It is rely our duty. I hope you will fulfill your responsibility to purify the Calamity Virus from them."
As Anan spoke, she glanced at Mio, who trembled all over out of a guilty conscience.
It was only when Carl, in his sparrow form, nuzzled Mio's palm that she managed to calm down.
Anan had clearly noticed Carl's presence but did not expose him.
"Of course. Next, let our Ga Planner, Toyama, introduce the general content of Version 1.2," the Academy Head said, pushing Oath's Ga Planner forward.
This Planner Toyama, like Kuro, looked reliable to Carl at first glance.
He looked young, but had very little hair left. Wearing black-rimd glasses, his expression was weary, yet his eyes were full of passion for the ga.
"Everyone, please follow ."
Toyama raised a hand and, through a teleportation circle, led everyone to a high vantage point on the Bright Plains wilderness map outside the City of Glory.
"The Abyssal Knights helped capture many samples of native monsters and Scourge Aberrations. With their help, we have greatly expanded the variety of wilderness monsters and bosses for Version 1.2."
From inside Mio's sleeve, Carl looked down at the vast array of beasts and birds on the plains below, as well as a group of elite monsters and bosses that looked extrely formidable...
In his sparrow form, Carl was so envious he almost let out a string of chirps.
Because at this stage, Netherworld Village simply did not have that many powerful monsters for players to fight.
Those Netherworld Village residents abandoned by Elysium had long since had their Data Volu stripped away by Elysium.
Initially, the players were ordinary people who could only run around swinging shovels, so the monsters played by the Netherworld Village residents could still feel oppressive.
But once players unlocked more hideout functions and their combat power gradually increased, Carl would face a painful dilemma.
There would be no monsters left for the players to fight!
More accurately, there would be no monsters strong enough to keep up with the players' growing power.
Yet now, looking at Bright Plains, Carl saw minor mobs with Data Volus of two to three thousand everywhere he looked.
Elite monsters jumped straight to seven or eight thousand, so even reaching ten thousand, while formidable boss characters started at seventeen or eighteen thousand Data Volu!
With so many powerful monster assets, how many fun gaplay modes could be made?
Now Carl could truly understand the mindset of an indie ga developer seeing the developnt resources of a AAA studio.
"The main gaplay we're featuring in the next version is Trial of Glory. Multiple players can team up online to kill target monsters on the open map and earn reward points, with various additional in-match enhancent buffs available along the way."
While Toyama was introducing it, a gaplay demonstration appeared behind him.
Carl's assessnt was that it was alright. A very stable major-version event for a gacha ga, with multiplayer and roguelike elents added to increase replayability.
Normally, this gaplay would be enough for a major version of Oath, but perhaps sensing the threat from Descent into Netherworld Village, the Academy Head suddenly asked out of the blue.
"Is there any feasibility in adding PvP elents?"
(To be continued.)
User Comments
0 comments from readers