When I write a bug it becomes the core gameplay.

Chapter 414: Blood of Lies

Lilith listened carefully and found that Wei Chengjie's suggestion was very valuable.

There must be all kinds of creatures in the game. If you want to make the entire game's world view smooth and natural, and make it more difficult for players to discover the pitfalls of the lie system and the dynamic difficulty system, then the world view must accommodate all these creatures.

There are three most basic creatures: ancient gods, humans, and puppets.

However, after these three organisms influence and transform each other, it is possible that other organisms will be derived.

For example, the blood of the ancient gods may affect humans and create their own clans, or cause humans to suffer from beast disease and become terrible monsters, or it may affect ordinary wild beasts and turn them into more ferocious monsters.

The life crystals created by human's unclean blood can drive the puppets and give them life. But if the pollution of the puppets by the blood of the ancient gods gradually intensifies and exceeds the critical value, then a weak ancient god will appear and parasitize on the puppet's body, turning it into a new life with a strong outer shell but filthy inner body.

Similarly, humans can also use puppet technology to change their own life forms.

If only arms and legs are missing, they can be replaced with mechanical prosthetic limbs. However, if a large area of ​​the body is damaged in the process, or if humans themselves want to change their fragile life form, then completely new creatures that are neither puppets nor humans may gradually be created.

Some people with ulterior motives may deliberately develop large puppets that look like giant beasts. If such puppets lose control, it will become a terrible disaster.

Not only that, when the puppet absorbs more life crystals, incomprehensible changes will occur.

It may become more and more like a human, to the point where it is hard to tell the real from the fake at first glance; or it may become a terrifying creature that is as cunning as a human, as strong as a puppet, and as indescribable as an ancient god.

In the context of this world view, the game mechanics can indeed be perfectly covered, seamlessly and very confusing.

Lilith is very satisfied with the results of the brainstorming session so far. It is obvious that this brainstorming session has been very effective.

However, there is still a very important issue that has not been resolved, which is the name of this game.

Lilith looked at Gu Fan: "Then, let Mr. Gu decide the name of this game!"

Gu Fan was a little surprised. He had not planned to speak in order to avoid suspicion. After all, in Lilith's eyes, his threat level was probably still off the charts, and the danger of his speech was incomparable to that of the other two.

But unexpectedly, Lilith took the initiative to ask him to decide the name of the game.

But on second thought, naming is indeed the least harmful thing - compared to directly designing the gameplay and plot.

In this case, there is no need for Gu Fan to refuse. If he pretends too much, it will make him seem deliberate.

He thought for a moment, then suggested, "What do you think of Blood of Lies?"

Zhou Yang and Wei Chengjie's eyes lit up: "Blood of Lies? What a good name!"

Obviously, judging from the current core mechanism and world view, "blood" and "lies" are the two most core concepts.

First of all, as a Cthulhu-themed game, almost everything in this game is directly related to blood.

Humans injected the blood of ancient gods into their bodies, became infected with parasites, and their own blood became unclean blood. After death, the unclean blood completely solidified and turned into a crystal of life, becoming the internal power that drives the puppets.

The infectious diseases and beastiality diseases sweeping the human world are also directly manifested in blood.

The blood of the ancient gods is both a gift and a curse, which runs through the whole story.

And "lies" are also the core mechanism of the game.

When humans lie, they may develop clairvoyance and gradually become insane because of looking directly at the ancient gods; when puppets lie, they will become more and more like humans and change their life forms.

And in the plot of the game, countless lies run through the entire story.

Not only do players have to lie constantly for the sake of game content, but the NPCs in the game actually live in lies as well.

Whether it's the researcher who uses the blood of the ancient gods for research, the doctor who uses unclean blood to treat diseases, or the workshop craftsman who deliberately conceals the source of the life crystal and claims that it is a gift from God, they are all using bigger lies to cover up the original lies.

Throughout the entire game process, players are not only constantly telling lies, but also constantly exposing the lies left by their predecessors.

Those predecessors may have gone mad, died, or experienced an end even more horrible than both, but the lies they left behind still spread endlessly, harming those who wanted to save the world later.

When these two words are combined, they have a different connotation.

Why is it "blood of lies" instead of "blood of lies"?

Because the blood lie is so directional, its intention is relatively fixed, it is just "a lie about blood".

But "Blood of Lies" contains much more information.

It can refer to the fact that humans are born to lie, that human blood is the blood of lies, and that after the puppets obtained human blood, they also learned to lie;

It can also refer to the fact that the unholy blood created by researchers using the blood of the ancient gods is also the blood of lies, because these people falsely claim that blood therapy can cure all diseases, and deliberately conceal the more serious beast disease and madness it may cause;

Of course, it can also be understood as a broader concept, used to refer to all content related to lies and blood in the game, giving players rich room for imagination.

Even Lilith couldn't help but nod frequently: "Well, it's indeed a good name!"

Giving the game a loud and nice name is also a good thing for Lilith.

After all, if you want to collect negative emotions, you have to lure in as many players as possible. Early promotion is very important, and a good name is also important.

"So, Mr. Gu, do you have anything to add about the other mechanisms of the game?" Lilith continued to ask.

It can be seen that Lilith seemed to have changed her mind. Originally, she didn't want Gu Fan to speak, but after hearing this name, Lilith felt that Gu Fan's suggestions were indeed indispensable, so she decided to let him add a few more words.

Of course, Lilith would still be extremely cautious and only adopt the parts she thought were useful.

Gu Fan pondered for a moment and said, "Shouldn't the battle system of this game be planned a little bit?
“If the world view and game mechanics are designed accordingly, but the combat system is not particularly innovative, it will probably not match well.

“You still have to do the whole play.

"What's more, the combat system is the core of adjusting the player experience. After all, this is an action game."

Lilith nodded after listening to it: "Yes, indeed, that makes sense!"

In order to cover up the lie system, a rich world view was created. In order to match this world view and further cover up the lie system, it is best to create a special combat system.

Otherwise, it is possible that it will be quickly exposed by players.

A good combat system, once it reacts chemically with the lie system, can create more negative emotions for players.

So, this really needs to be considered carefully.

But how to do it specifically?

Lilith spoke first: "We must not use the combat mechanism of "Ascension" this time. We in the Against the Heaven game must have pursuits and constantly break through ourselves!" Obviously, she was seriously hurt by the combat mechanism of "Ascension".

The core combat mechanism of "Ascension" can be simply described in two words: flicking knife.

At the beginning, Lilith didn't understand the trick of this mechanism and was beaten all over by the monsters in the game. She thought it was some kind of extremely powerful and difficult mechanism, and she made the decision happily.

When players first started playing, they were indeed not used to it.

But players quickly found the rules of this mechanism. In short, you can chase the knife after a perfect bounce, and you have to defend after being perfectly bounced.

After the players mastered the rhythm, this combat system not only stopped generating negative emotions, but also had the opposite effect, greatly increasing the positive emotions that players gained from the battle.

Every failure makes one wiser. This time, Lilith said that this combat system must not be used again, otherwise she would be digging her own grave.

Unexpectedly, Gu Fan also agreed with this point. He nodded and said, "Indeed, the combat mechanism of "Ascension" is designed for "Ascension". "Blood of Lies" has a unique world view, and the combat mechanism must naturally be adjusted accordingly.

“I think the combat mechanism of Blood of Lies should be centered around one point: encouraging offense!

“On the one hand, encouraging aggression can make players take higher risks and generate more negative emotions; on the other hand, encouraging aggression is also more in line with the game’s world view and background settings.

"Players holding up shields and spears to stab bosses in a nasty way is absolutely not allowed to happen."

Lilith thought for a moment and said, "Encourage attack? Doesn't Ascension also encourage attack?"

Gu Fan shook his head: "Of course not.

“The core of Ascension’s combat system is ‘attack-defense conversion’. It does not simply encourage offense or defense. Players who attack blindly will inevitably get beaten, and those who defend blindly will not be able to cause damage to the enemy. Therefore, you must do the right thing at the right time.”

Lilith nodded slowly: "Well, it sounds reasonable."

Obviously, she also couldn't accept the player's shield poke.

In most action games, especially adventure games with a western fantasy background, "shield poke" is a very stupid and brainless way of playing.

As the name suggests, it means finding the shield with the highest damage reduction rate in the game, raising it up, and then using some longer weapons that can be used while holding up the shield to attack.

Emphasize the idea of ​​"you fight yours and I fight mine", making the battle "full of interactivity".

Using this method, even a clumsy player can defeat the boss relatively easily.

For general games, providing players with routines such as shield stamping can ensure their experience is at a minimum, allowing even the most inexperienced players to pass the game. But for Lilith, this routine will greatly reduce the negative emotions that players can generate, and of course it is not allowed.

Just encourage offense, but how should we encourage it?

Zhou Yang said: "If we talk about encouraging offense, the first thing that comes to my mind is the blood-sucking mechanism.

“If we break it down, there are three different situations.

"The first is to suck blood indiscriminately until it's full.

"The second is that after absorbing enough blood, you can also generate a special blood shield for yourself based on the excessive blood sucked. When the shield exists, it can resist some damage.

"The third type is that after getting hurt, the health bar will not disappear immediately, but will become virtual health and continue to decay. The blood sucking when the player attacks can only restore the virtual health.

“In general, the third method has better balance and experience.”

Wei Chengjie thought for a moment and said, "I think we can also use GP to handle this.

“Add invincibility frames or even bounce frames to the player’s specific attack actions. When the player fights with the boss, the collision of the two attack actions may trigger an invincibility frame or even a bounce frame, allowing the player to gain benefits.

"Or there could be other auxiliary actions, such as puppet prosthetics with dedicated action buttons, which can also produce GP effects if used properly."

The more Lilith listened, the more she felt something was wrong: "Hey, hey, wait a minute!
"You guys are both bloodsucking and GP-sucking. Isn't this making the players happy?"

There is no doubt that if these two designs are combined, it does look a bit like a cool game.

There are various damage reduction items in the game. If the player wears heavy armor, uses damage reduction items, and then fights the boss mindlessly, not only can the player recover the HP, but the player may also trigger an invincibility frame by just guessing correctly, causing the boss to be ejected and stiff...

It does encourage aggression, but it is completely contrary to the original purpose of creating negative emotions!

Gu Fan coughed twice and said, "Boss Li, this is actually very easy to handle.

“First, we need to strictly limit the damage reduction items in the game.

“There can be no shields, and even if there are, they are toys with a very low damage reduction rate; there can be no heavy armor, and there can be no props that greatly reduce damage.

"If a player wants to fight a boss, then no matter what props he uses, what clothes he wears, or what weapons he holds, the final result is that he will be killed instantly by the boss. There is no doubt about that.

“Secondly, both the Void Health and GP mechanisms can exist, but we can use specific restrictions to give players a feeling that ‘they look strong but are actually difficult to use’.”

Lilith was a little confused: "It looks very powerful, but it's actually hard to use?"

Gu Fan nodded: "Yes, bloodsucking and GP, it sounds very powerful, and this is exactly your first reaction when you heard it, President Li.

"But if this mechanism is off by even a tiny bit, it can lead to huge errors.

“Take GP for example.

“If we set the player’s GP action to instantly raise their hands, then this will be an extremely powerful skill. With just a little practice, the player can make the boss suffer.

“If we add a little bit of pre-swing to the hand, then it will become the bouncing knife in Ascension. Although it takes some time to get used to, once you learn it, you can basically parry without any brains.

“But what if we continue to add more pre-swings before raising the hand? For example, we set the invincibility frame and effectiveness frame of GP to the middle of a certain action.

"Then this GP will have extremely strict conditions. Only a very small number of backboard masters can use it perfectly. For most players, it is a daydream to rely on luck to GP the opponent's attack action. They can only take the beating.

"The same goes for bloodsucking. We can't just make it a bloodsucking device, but we should make it a 'trap'.

"From the plot point of view, unclean blood is the source of madness. Why can you suck blood by killing monsters? Because when you kill monsters, unclean blood will spurt out of the monsters' bodies, and this blood can heal human injuries and provide power for puppets.

"If we follow this premise, then inhaling unclean blood obviously cannot be without cost.

"First, when other people's blood enters your body through wounds, it will inevitably accumulate the player's madness value, making the player's movements slow, deformed, or even directly causing a small stiffness. Although it is only a trivial change in details, it will also greatly affect the player's feel.

“Secondly, bloodsucking will draw unclean blood into your body, speeding up your transformation into a beast, improving your clairvoyance to see dangerous creatures, and you may also be hunted down by certain hunter NPCs.

"Then we can combine it with the concept of 'empty blood' and turn blood sucking into a trap, so that players will be confused about whether they should use such powerful functions as blood sucking and GP?"

(End of this chapter)