Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 350: 345: From Superman to Ordinary People?

Shuihua sold the jackpot from the casino and got a nice addition to her own little stash.

Hao was engrossed in learning car modification skills in the game with videos playing.

Super Tomato temporarily set aside the casino matter, roaming around in Night City, trying to find more interesting content.

As Camille Victoria couldn’t find the Master of Cheating in reality, she began learning cheating skills from “Anti-Gambling Scams” videos online at the viewers’ advice…

As expected, with the help of the [Advanced Extreme Handheld Sports] skill, her hands were incredibly agile. It was absurd how fast she was learning these cheating skills.

The techniques for stealing and hiding cards, dealing two but pretending to have dealt one, all became easy once she understood the principles and steps. Often, just ten or so tries were enough to put these tricks into practice effectively.

But then the problem arose—

These basic cheating tricks that were disclosed couldn’t be used in more advanced casinos.

In any sizable casino, would the gamblers even have the opportunity to deal their own cards?

Professional croupiers have long since become standard in casinos.

Otherwise, where do you think the ad phrase, “Sexy dealers, dealing cards online,” came from?

So these cheating tricks were of no use.

It’s the same for Mahjong. With tons of gamblers watching and cameras everywhere, cheating can’t be hidden.

There might be high-level cheating techniques that can fool everyone and can be used freely in the casino.

But such techniques obviously couldn’t be found online.

In the end, she found out there’s only one trick that can be tried.

This trick sticks to the old adage that “the highest-quality ingredients often only require the most simple cooking techniques.” It’s very simple to practice.

Get a few friends, agree on some signals, and then pretend not to know each other.

When one of them is at the card table, the others act like pedestrians, sneak peeks at other’s cards, and then give signals to the player at the table.

It’s simple, crude, but it seems like it could actually work!

After all, it’s been proven in practice: To save on computing power, Cloud Dream made the NPCs look smart, but their “smartness” has its limits.

The NPCs involved in the main missions or the special characters at specific locations get allocated computing power in advance, and their language and behavior patterns are very diverse.

But many ordinary NPCs only get temporarily allocated computing power when players interact with them, loading more facial expressions, language, behavior, and other modules.

If players don’t interact with them, they’re just pedestrians with one or two sets of fixed behaviors, not much different from the background of the game.

So theoretically, although the gamblers in the casino appear to be very shrewd, they might just be idiots.

“If I can’t beat the casino, can’t I beat you bunch of idiots?” Camille Victoria starts looking for people with full confidence, intending to try it out.

But at this stage, it’s still a bit difficult to find people to cooperate.

The closed beta had few players to start with, and everyone is busy finding content that interests them.

Especially because one player discovered how to trigger a major combat mission.

After this mission was announced, a large number of players hollered to join the fight against the gang members, completely uninterested in other things.

Camille Victoria only got the chance to try cheating in the casino the next day.

This was also the last day of the closed beta.

Shuihua finally took a break and accepted Camille Victoria’s invitation to join the “cheat” squad.

It was also on the last day that players finally got the hang of the new combat system as their level and skills improved.

The first skill to be unlocked was [Combat Sensing].

At first, everyone thought this skill would be a blend of active and passive abilities, like [Assassin Bloodline].

It could be always on to handle sudden attacks, and it could also be actively enabled to provide more reaction time.

But after unlocking the skill, everyone realized—it’s not like that at all!

This is a purely passive skill; the effect is, well, just read from the wording, it’s purely a “special sensing” toward combat.

It gives a distinct sense of danger when targeted and even vaguely senses the upcoming crisis’s direction.

During intense fights, it can make the player aware of better shooting timing and angle.

This hint comes from the neural modulator-demodulator, and it’s hard to describe in words but, it gives a clear sense.

And as the skill level increases the “sensing” will become more accurate and efficient.

But here comes the problem: even if you sense it, can you avoid it?

Don’t make me laugh!

Bullets aren’t that easy to dodge!

In “Assassins’ Alliance”, players can dodge bullets purely because the effect of [Assassin Bloodline] is too powerful. It slows down time from far away while greatly enhancing the player’s physical abilities, allowing the player to instantly respond to the sound of gunfire and dodge bullets.

Even so, it still can’t dodge bullets at close quarters.

Regrettably, [Combat Sensing] only tells you where the bullet is coming from and doesn’t help you dodge it.

Relying on a slightly superior physical ability than an ordinary person, when you’re aimed at by a gun, it’s nearly impossible to dodge the moment the trigger is about to be pulled.

Especially when they won’t stop at just one shot…

One more outrageous point is: the enemies in “Assassins’ Alliance” won’t approach you. Most of the battles maintain a distance for shooting.

But “Speed Chase” is different.

Almost all enemies, as soon as the battle begins, will try every means to get close to you and charge at you.

Even if they’re holding a super powerful automatic rifle that could suppress you from a long range, they still prefer to kill you up close.

With all these factors considered, the combat logic in “Speed Chase” is completely different from “Assassins’ Alliance”.

There’s only one way to win—before you’re killed, kill the opponent first!

If you can shoot first, you must take the initiative.

If you can’t take the initiative, you need to shoot faster, have higher accuracy, or take lesser damage than the opponent.

Especially when you’re facing multiple enemies alone, the battlefield, attack efficiency, target selection, rhythm control, all this demands more of the player.

The existence of [Gunfighting Technique] is meant to increase the lower limit of the player’s performance in these areas as much as possible.

Provide players with better hints for dodging and attacking, more efficient dodging movements, more accurate target selection, and quicker adjustments to firing actions.

With hints from [Combat Sensing] plus the assistance of dodge and assault from [Gunfighting Technique], players could at least rest assured they won’t be battered into submission by intense fights.

Even everyone can experience the joy of single-handedly defeating five enemies at once.

And if you can better utilize the environment, you can even take on ten, or even a hundred enemies at once!

Of course, carrying out such maneuvers is challenging.

That’s because it’s no longer just casual gameplay, it’s players challenging their own ability limits.

Of course, as always, the dynamic difficulty adjustment option still exists.

Turn on this option, and as long as you die enough times, all the enemies will turn into fools!

The changes to the combat system, which touch upon the game’s core mechanics, naturally ignited veracious debate within the player circle.

Controversy was inevitable.

A lot of players felt a bit annoyed about having the sensation of transforming from Superman into an ordinary person.

With no “Time Stop” available, bullets couldn’t turn corners anymore, and just a few small monsters could potentially wipe you out.

Even if not dead, you’re likely to get shot.

And once you’re shot, you would have to fight carrying the negative condition, which makes the battles even more challenging.

Even after the fight, it takes several minutes for the negative status to fade.

This has led to players who are accustomed to the combat in “Assassins’ Alliance” to feel a bit annoyed.

However, these criticisms usually come from players who failed to participate in the closed beta test or didn’t manage to unlock [Combat Sensing] and [Gunfighting Technique] during the test.

Players who truly experienced immersive gameplay in the new combat system were generally excited about the changes.

More realistic, more intense, shooting from ultra-close range, or even close quarters combat, a mix of gun fights and unarmed combat, there’s hand-to-hand combat in a gunfight, and shooting in a brawl!

This complex and diverse fighting mode, in which no means is spared to take out the enemy, is incredibly thrilling and exhilarating, and it gets the adrenaline pumping!

You might even subconsciously think that this is what real combat is like!

A large majority of players who have experienced the “one against many” challenge, immediately shut down the dynamic difficulty adjustment without a second thought.

They are up for the challenge at the highest difficulty!

Because, in this mode, the sense of achievement from winning a battle is extremely intense.

However, players who can participate in the closed beta are just too few compared to the total player base.

And the number of players who are hell-bent on leveling up to successfully unlock [Combat Sensing] and [Gunfighting Technique] is even fewer.

As a result, countless players watching live streams see the combat scenes looking like this—

“Enemies spotted!”

“The enemy is charging in!”

“Oh no, I’ve been shot!”

“Ah, I’m dead!”

Well, without the main missions available, players blindly navigate through the game and can easily encounter enemies stronger than themselves.

The battles become realistic and intense.

That’s why audiences watching these battles without full context, are often left feeling unsatisfied with the combat system.

When the closed beta test came to an end at the weekend, and all the test players began to fill out surveys, the majority of the feedback expressed dissatisfaction with the combat system.

But after Lincoln asked Mavis for help to compile all players’ feedback, and compare it with what they actually experienced, they quickly located the problem.

So, Lincoln decided to put this issue on hold for now.

It’s not that he’s ignoring the feedback from players, it’s just the players’ viewpoints under the circumstances were severely distorted.

He’ll consider further strengthening the skill effects after the game officially launches, and a larger number of players get hands-on experience with the combat system.

Another issue that a lot of players mentioned was that the randomness was a bit too extreme.

One player even illustrated a tragedy that happened to him:

He accepted a task to assassinate a dealer selling illegal drugs. When he was still over a hundred meters away from his target, he witnessed a robbery taking place.

Without a second thought, he pulled out his gun to stop the crime.

But then the robber, as well as the victim, both stopped and pulled out their guns, aiming at him!

The next moment, the [Combat Sensing] warning went off!

Having been through such situations before, he didn’t hesitate to take the initiative and fire his gun!

The gunshot sound resonated and further spread the impact.

People in street-side windows, pedestrians from the other side of the road, and even a begging wanderer all turned their heads towards him.

Then, there were the gangsters, street racers…

Finally, his actual assassination target, the head of the smuggling ring, came rushing out with around ten of his cronies…

“I’m not saying that this mechanism is bad, I’m just suggesting: can we limit it a bit, so it doesn’t trigger a chain reaction? It’s just too overwhelming!”

“Hmm, I’ll consider it,” Lincoln nodded, planning to discuss whether to strengthen the limitations with the team when he got to work.

Yes, the mechanism players are experiencing, is actually already the limited version.

When Lincoln first created this system, Fred, just by firing a shot in the street, triggered a rapid spread of impact.

Players impacting NPCs and NPCs impacting more NPCs.

Just like a chain reaction, the impact quickly spread out in ripples.

In the end, the whole city was in uproar – gunfights, car crashes, robberies, riots, killings, bombings, fires…

If it hadn’t been for Lincoln calling a halt, all the NPCs in the city might have ended up annihilated by their own actions!

The scene was terribly grim!

The entire development team was left pale-faced.

Lincoln was also a bit taken aback, and immediately began researching on a limitation mechanism…

Now, what the players are getting to play, compared to the original version, it’s been cut down to the bone.