Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Chapter 1255: Operational Mode and Plot

At this point, there was no design draft. Yu Fei could only think about it.

“In addition, there are two operating systems. One is the standard attack mode, and the other is the simple attack mode.”

“The standard mode is just like common combat games. You can only release the corresponding skills after making a small half circle or a large half. For example, the operation of → + A

“The simple attack mode is for players to be able to play the corresponding combo attack when they mindlessly press the AB button.”

“Considering that there are many moves in combat games, there might be more than twenty or nearly thirty skills including light punch. It’s undoubtedly unrealistic to add fast keys to all these skills.”

“Traditional attack modes can indeed distinguish these movements, but the operation is more difficult. New players cannot play it.”

“Therefore, we will design a combo attack for players. The AI program of the Nag artificial intelligence laboratory will calculate in real time so that players can choose better attacking methods when continuously attacking. For example, when they should be comboing, players will automatically release the combo attack even if they were just foolishly pressing the A and B keys. Super Kill will be directly fixed on a basic key and can be released after pressing.”

“That way, even players who have never played combat games would be able to enjoy the smooth combo.”

At that point, Pei Qian frowned slightly. “Er… wait.”

He felt like something was amiss.

Wasn’t this the same nature as the demon sword in Eternal Reincarnation?

Hardcore gamers would obediently play combo attacks while rookie gamers would blindly press and could also play gorgeous moves and enjoy the visual feast that only top experts could play.

If the movements were more handsome and the special effects were more beautiful, it would be a hack-and-slash game for ordinary players. Wouldn’t the threshold be greatly reduced?

If the difficulty level was not high enough, how could he dissuade some players with terrible skills?

At that thought, Pei Qian said, “I don’t think that’s appropriate.”

“In my opinion, simple moves can be done, but they can only be simplified to a limited extent. For example, simplifying the original “↓↘→↓↘→+A” to “→ to ↓↘→+A” and simplify the original “↓↘→+A” to “↘+A”.

“What’s more, the moves produced using a simple attack mode would be less powerful.”

The simple mode could not be too simple. The demon sword of Eternal Reincarnation was a lesson.

If it was possible, Pei Qian would choose to cancel the simple mode and only use the regular mode.

Players who did not know how to play fighting games would not be able to defeat the boss even if they bought it. They would have to train for half a month!

However, the problem was that since this game was relatively difficult and had a story mode, Pei Qian himself had to complete it…

If there was only a standard mode, it would be difficult for Pei Qian to complete the plot.

Thus, he decided to compromise.

The simple mode could not be too simple. If that was the case, it would be very easy for Pei Qian to pass. Ordinary players would also play very well. The sales would definitely not be low. The simple mode had a certain level of difficulty. It required hard training for a certain period of time to master. It would still have a dissuading effect on players who did not like fighting games. At the same time, it could ensure that Pei Qian could clear it himself.

Pei Qian had played some fighting games when he was young. They were very lousy but it should not be a problem for a combo like “↓↘→+A”.

What’s more, the damage of the simple mode was low. This was to slightly disgust ordinary players. It was to constantly remind them that the ultra kill damage that was produced by the simple mode was short. It made them unhappy.

Yu Fei nodded. “Er… alright, Boss Pei. We’ll change it this way.”

Obviously, he did not have any thoughts on his own. If Boss Pei said that he would change it this way, he would change it. In any case, he did not understand.

“On top of that, I intend to create a complete story for Ghost General 2!”

“The prototype of this story is derived from the background story of the original generals in Ghost General. At the same time, it was integrated with some historical stories from the three kingdoms period and modified these stories.”

“What’s more, these stories can be combined with the skills of generals.”

“Ghost General is just a card game. That’s why its original skills are relatively simple. Each general only has one special skill. However, if it’s to be made into a combat game, there would be at least a dozen or twenty skills. These would have to be redesigned.”

“Take Zhuge Liang for example. According to the description of the general in Ghost General, he is a great inventor, physicist, mechanical engineer and electrical engineer. His research involves many cutting-edge fields such as environmental weapons, aircraft, automobiles, and robots.”

“After researching for a while, I realized that this is precisely the corresponding invention such as borrowing the east wind, Kong Ming Lantern, wooden cows and flowing horses, Zhuge Liang Crossbows, and so on.”

“That’s why I want to add these skills into Zhuge Liang’s moves. For example, his skills can borrow the east wind to summon a large number of guided rockets to wash the ground. He can concentrate on bombarding a certain range. At the same time, he can generate a violent shock wave that will sweep the surrounding area like a gust of wind.”

“Kong Ming Lantern, on the other hand, is a small aircraft. It can lift him up to a certain height. It can also emit dazzling light while avoiding enemy attacks and temporarily dazzling the enemy.”

“What’s more, since he has an automatic carrier, he would definitely not be able to walk on the battlefield. Instead, he would be sitting in without moving, which is something similar to a wheelchair. In the game, it can be packaged as a high-tech hover car. Whether he moves forward or retreats, he would not need Zhuge Liang to do it himself. That would be more in line with his character.”

“Of course, Zhuge Liang definitely cannot really fight with him in close combat. Ordinary attacks should be completed through the huge mechanical arm floating in front of him.”

“On the other hand, the trojan horse can summon a mechanical army, and the Zhuge repeating crossbow can summon heavy machine guns to wash the ground.”

“In order to allow players to better accept these skills, I also consider gradually unlocking these skills according to the stages.”

“For example, in the stage of the Red Cliff Battle, players would control Zhuge Liang to use the Eastern Wind skill. Players would have to stand on the seven star platform, which is the guided attack on the Missile launch base. They would only be able to use the skill to wash the ground and clear the stage.”

“Before that, players would not be able to release this skill. They would only be able to use fire attacks, which is a simple skill like a burning bomb. Players would be able to familiarize themselves with the heroes’ main skills by fighting like that.”

“At the same time, we can integrate the plot into the stages and make the entire game richer.”

Yu Fei became more and more excited as he spoke. Obviously, he had enjoyed the process of smoothing out the plot of Ghost General over the past few days.

The more he thought about it, the more he was amazed by Boss Ma who wrote the plot for Ghost General.

How did they think of this? They’re too talented!

If he looked at the requirement document now, he might think that the document was rubbish. There was no reference picture. It was just a few simple descriptions. What’s more, it was written quite casually and unreliable.

However, it was precisely because such a requirement document that not only did it perfectly fit the style of Ghost General, making it stand out amongst the originally rampant mobile card games of the three kingdoms, it was still effective three years later!

Yu Fei was going to make Ghost General 2 now. He had to design many skills for these generals. This should have been a huge job and a very brain-consuming task. However, now, as long as he followed the hero’s background and combined it with the information in the three kingdoms history and novels, he would immediately be able to think of many suitable and interesting plots!

Could Boss Ma have predicted that such a day would come when he wrote the requirement document?

However, at that time, Tengda was still a small company without much money. The previous game was still The Lonely Desert Road. Who would have thought that many years later, they would change Ghost General to such a complicated game?

If Boss Ma had predicted this in advance, it could only mean that he had strong confidence in Boss Pei, Tengda, and himself.

It would be even scarier if Boss Ma did not predict this. That meant that Boss Ma had only casually designed it and thought of all the content logically.

In short, there was only one word for it: awesome!

What about Boss Pei, who arranged for Boss Ma to write the requirement document for Ghost General and then decided to change Ghost General to a combat game many years later?

Tsk… He could not overthink.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that Boss Pei was too unfathomable.

Pei Qian fell silent after listening to Yu Fei’s long speech.

Yu Fei was indeed high in the plot from his elated state. He had completely let himself go.

That was normal. Yu Fei was an online novel author after all. It was natural for him to be interested in the plot.

However, the key problem was… why did it sound more reliable after hearing what Yu Fei said?

Zhuge Liang’s skill sounded quite interesting…

Pei Qian had wanted to persuade Yu Fei, but on further thought, his idea seemed invulnerable.

What reason could Pei Qian use to make Yu Fei give up on this setting?

After all, Pei Qian had been the one to decide on Ghost General 2 back then. In the end, Yu Fei had only used the ready-made settings in Ghost General. There shouldn’t be any problems, right?

What’s more, Pei Qian told Yu Fei to focus on the plot and stage design mainly to distract him so that he would not think about the combat system of this game.

If he told Yu Fei now not to make the plot so complicated and change it day and night, the key would be that Yu Fei had turned his attention to the combat system. Wouldn’t that be more dangerous?

Pei Qian thought about it for a long time and felt that he had to choose the lesser of two evils. In order to make the combat part slightly worse, he could only allow Yu Fei to think more about the plot.

What’s more, Old Ma was the one who had written the plot in the first place. Back then, he had written the plot in fragments. Ghost General had only succeeded because of Ruan Guangjian’s artistic style.

He should not be able to achieve much now even if he were to fight to the death with the plot. At the very least, it should not be enough to make a niche combat game that required techniques to become popular and make a huge profit.

Making such a complicated plot meant making some animations for real-time calculations. The interactive characters, dubbing, and so on were all part of the workload.

That meant that he had to spend more money. At the same time, the difficulty of making profits would increase.

If they were to follow the prescribed order and create a regular combat game, the investment would not be huge. They might be able to recoup their costs and make a small profit just by relying on the die-hard fans of the combat game and the veteran Faithful gamers of Ghost General.

However, what if there was a huge plot and checkpoint for combat games? The investment would skyrocket, but there were only so many die-hard fans of combat games and old gamers of Ghost General.

If the cost increased but the sales volume did not increase, it would not make money.

Pei Qian pondered for a moment and said, “Alright, there’s not much problem on the whole. Let’s follow this route first.”

“If you encounter any problems, feel free to ask me.”