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...
The fault lies with you, Ishmael.
...
Carl's eyelids twitched slightly. He had a sense of déjà vu.
He did not even know if he had eyelids in his sparrow form.
But in all fairness, the current gaplay of Trial of Glory was indeed a bit too safe.
Carl could not say it was not fun, but in a gacha ga like Oath, the best reward any gaplay mode could ultimately offer was Contract Stones.
The Trial of Glory gaplay would likely end up as a daily chore for players, sothing they lost interest in as soon as they collected all the Contract Stone rewards.
Perhaps a few kind-hearted veteran players, bored out of their minds, would be willing to carry newcors through it.
As for the Academy Head's attempt to add PvP elents, Carl reserved judgnt for now, waiting to see what he actually planned to do.
"Boss, no, Academy Head, just say it straight. You like that ga's chanics and want to 'borrow' them."
Toyama's attitude toward the Academy Head was not like that of a subordinate toward a superior. It was more like a long-ti confidant who instantly understood what his boss was thinking.
Oath did have PvP gaplay, even a dedicated arena, but it gave no rewards, only ranking points, and the balance was deliberately nonexistent.
This resulted in very few people actually playing it.
"Combining it with the treasure-hunting gaplay of Descent into Netherworld Village would be great. Trial of Glory is also about players teaming up to explore the map, kill monsters, and earn rewards, isn't it?"
"Let monsters drop so treasures, and scatter more across the map for players to collect."
"Then add PvP elents where multiple teams compete over extraction points on the sa map! Winner takes all! This gaplay experience will definitely be incredibly thrilling," the Academy Head said, getting a little excited himself.
"Hmm..."
In his sparrow form, Carl rubbed his chin with a wing and nodded in approval.
The gaplay the Academy Head described was essentially the standard loot, fight, and extract genre. If only one team were allowed to survive, it would be the popular battle royale style.
If this gaplay were made into a standalone ga, there would certainly be no issue. It might even have a good chance of becoming a huge hit.
Although Carl had already copyrighted the gaplay of Descent into Netherworld Village, and the official Oath team would likely need his authorization to use it at this stage, Carl was still observing everything with a spectator's mindset.
Because Carl still held the view that no matter how fun the gaplay was, once pay-to-win got involved, it would take a devastating blow, even twisting sothing originally fun into a frustrating chore.
So did this Academy Head have the courage to remove all pay-to-win elents from this new gaplay?
The answer, of course, was... impossible.
Toyama was also a highly skilled Ga Planner. After ntally testing the gaplay proposed by the Academy Head, he imdiately suggested.
"If we add PvP elents, we may need to balance each player's strength. At the very least, we should remove the influence of Contract Souls and weapon awakenings, which create a large stat gap between players."
Toyama's suggestion was both reasonable and unreasonable. If gacha characters' Contract Souls were disabled in this mode... the reasonable part was that it would indeed ensure fairness.
But the unreasonable part was...
"What about the players who spent a fortune on character Contract Souls? Toyama! Those are our most valuable paying users!"
"This decision of yours would upset those paying users! If next quarter's financial report looks too ugly, I won't be able to answer to the Board of Directors."
The Academy Head used an extrely stern tone to remind Toyama.
"Then... well... alright. Perhaps we can balance it through the matchmaking system. As for the rewards for players in this mode."
"Since intense PvP elents are being added, the intensity of the matches will definitely increase several tis over."
Toyama knew very well that pure PvE cooperative gaplay and PvP competitive gaplay... were on completely different levels when it ca to how much energy they demanded from players.
"Should the Contract Stone rewards given in this mode be increased a bit?"
As it turned out, Toyama's suggestion was also rejected by the Academy Head.
"In a minor version, the Contract Stone rewards distributed already amount to eighty pulls! That's nearly twelve thousand Contract Stones!"
"Converted to paid value, that's over a thousand! And you want to keep giving players free Contract Stones?"
"Then they won't need to pay for Contract Stones in the future! We're running a ga company! We need to make a profit! We're not a charity!"
When the Academy Head said this, Carl could feel that he was truly pained from the bottom of his heart.
After all, among the pay-to-win online gas currently on the market, very few actually gave players free gacha resources.
And what about Oath? A minor version gave players over ten thousand free Contract Stones! That was equivalent to the resources for one soft pity!
Generous! It was truly too generous! The Academy Head felt as though he was personally giving money away.
"However, because there is a potential competitor, we can consider allocating a little more Contract Stone rewards to Trial of Glory. At the sa ti, just move so Contract Stone rewards from other modes into the Trial of Glory reward pool."
The Academy Head gritted his teeth and decided to make a small concession after all, offering a suggestion he considered brilliant, followed by so guiding advice.
"There are too many treasure chests in the City of Glory and the wilderness. Cut the number down. Also, reduce the rewards from things like login events and version activities."
"Understood."
At this stage, Toyama could only comply, but he quickly suggested again.
"And we should provide players with so extra rewards besides Contract Stones. At the very least, like that other ga, the items players scavenge should be usable, not just decorations."
This planner had indeed grasped the essence of loot, fight, and extract gas.
That is, scavenged items could include purely decorative pieces, but so had to be usable! They had to provide tangible improvents for the player.
Whether for selling, upgrading hideout materials, or more direct equipnt attachnts and so on.
"Out-of-match stat improvents."
Toyama tentatively made this suggestion, but the Academy Head looked at him with a serious expression.
"A Sacred Relic system is already enough. Stat increases, including those for characters, exclusive weapons, and Contract Souls, are our biggest selling points. We can't give out any more free power!" the Academy Head said.
"Alright, then let's start with costics. The materials players scavenge can be used to unlock and exchange for so skins for gacha characters," Toyama gave his final proposal.
Although the Academy Head also wanted to say that those new outfits for gacha characters were supposed to be sold for money too.
But if this was also rejected, then the things players scavenged would truly be nothing but useless decorations.
So he reluctantly agreed to the proposal, and finally, the Academy Head added another point.
"You don't need to worry about the imbalance issue either. Just do as you said and start with the matchmaking system. Make it so that players with high skill and high investnt are matched with weaker players as much as possible. In short, dynamic balance. You understand, right? Veterans carry rookies, the strong carry the weak."
"Also, haven't players always complained that there isn't much content to play in each version? Make the tasks for obtaining Contract Stones and skins a bit more demanding and difficult. That will keep them busy until the next version."
The Academy Head offered two solutions he considered ingenious.
"Understood... We will make modifications to Trial of Glory in the near future. It should be ready in ti for the synchronized launch in Version 1.2. It's just... wait, authorization?"
When Toyama tried to modify the details related to Trial of Glory, an authorization prompt suddenly popped up.
At that mont, Carl also received an option from Elysium asking whether to grant authorization.
Carl could revoke this authorization at any ti, aning that once he agreed, the lifeline of this event would be in his hands.
But that was not the most critical thing. The key was that, in Carl's eyes, this Academy Head was truly a genius! The sheer confidence behind every bad decision was almost impressive!
How had he managed to cram so many potentially explosive problems into a single gaplay mode all at once?
Pay-to-win imbalance, matchmaking that would torture veteran players, and finally a loot, fight, and extract mode where you could not find anything, could not win a fight, and then probably got ambushed at the extraction point before you could leave.
At this point, what else could Carl do? Naturally, he agreed to the authorization.
"I... why do I feel like there are a ton of problems with this gaplay?" Mio whispered to the sparrow Carl inside her sleeve.
"It's fine. When Version 1.2 launches, if you want to experience it or just get the rewards, I can teach you a way to finish them quickly."
Carl had not originally intended to get involved with the core content of Oath Version 1.2.
But since the official team was acting like this, Carl did not mind helping the players who supported him escape their misery, and then build the beautiful Netherworld Village together.
And so, several days passed, and the highly anticipated Oath Version 1.2, City of Glory, finally went live!
(To be continued.)
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)
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