Create horror games that scare players around the world

Chapter 43 Player Roles and Factions

Now that the map and gameplay have been finalized, what role do players play in this world?

Ding Yi began to think.

First of all, the face-shaping system is a must, there is no doubt about that.

Then, the game must be centered around the player, highlighting their identity as the protagonist.

Even if this is a multiplayer survival game, it is important to make players aware of their existence in the game world.

In the original Before, the player played an ordinary survivor. Although there was nothing wrong with it, it was too common and too popular, and there was nothing new.

Therefore, in the game designed by Ding Yi, players cannot be ordinary people like survivors. Being too popular will make players lack a sense of immersion.

You have to have an identity that makes people think you are great when they hear about it.

"How about a special forces soldier?"

Ding Yi thought about it carefully and decided to give up.

With this identity, the player’s starting point is too high.

He wanted to retain the skill system of "7 Days to Die", especially several firearms skills.

He hopes that players will continuously improve their proficiency in firearms in the game so as to become stronger and more powerful.

If you set yourself up as a special forces soldier from the beginning, then the player will subconsciously think that your shooting ability should be maxed out and you shouldn't improve your firearm proficiency. So in order to avoid this situation, forget about the military identity.

Apart from this, what other identity would be better?

While Ding Yi was thinking, his eyes couldn't help but look at "Dying Light" and "7 Days to Die" on the computer, and his mind also recalled the roles played by the players in these two games.

In "Dying Light", the player plays the role of a highly skilled agent. Because he is very strong, he becomes a superman after maxing out his skills.

But in "7 Days to Die", the player plays the role of an unlucky guy who is in debt and thrown into the wilderness.

I had nothing at the beginning, and I achieved my dream entirely with my own hands.

However, after the skills are maxed out, they are also quite powerful, equivalent to the level of a soldier king.

Although there is a huge gap between the identities of these two games, in terms of sense of immersion, "7 Days to Die" is definitely better than "Extinction".

After all, in Extinction, the player plays a person named Clan, and the anonymous person played by 7 Days to Die is actually himself.

Therefore, in terms of sense of immersion, he has to consider forms such as 7 Days to Die.

After thinking about it, Ding Yi suddenly had an idea.

He thought of an identity that was very suitable for the player, and at the same time, this identity happened to come from the game Extinction.

That's 'Rover'.

Wanderer, also known as drifter.

From "Dying Light 2", it is the identity and occupation of the protagonist Aiden.

In the game world view, Wanderers are warriors who dare to walk in the wild.

They transport goods and deliver information to various cities.

In layman's terms, it's like delivering express in the end times.

But don’t underestimate this doomsday courier.

In this world full of zombies, communications between cities are blocked, civilization and technology are regressing, and everyone is in danger of losing their lives and unable to take care of themselves.

It was all thanks to the wanderers who crossed mountains and rivers and delivered information from the outside world between cities, which strengthened communication and connections between the world and brought hope to the survivors.

They did things that ordinary people could not do or dared to do. It is not an exaggeration to call them a suicide squad.

Therefore, this is a profession that everyone respects and reveres.

A character like this who is willing to sacrifice his life for justice will naturally be played by the player.

As it happens, Wanderers is an organization. Every Wanderer can be a player.

Ding Yi quickly wrote the settings in the document.

He designed this with reference to reality.

Players play games just for fun.

The most intuitive and exciting point is the difference in identity between you and the NPC.

If you are the protagonist, you should have a prominent identity, such as in The Elder Scrolls 5.

Although you start out as a prisoner on the brink of death, you are actually a one in a million powerful Dragonborn.

You can freely choose a nice and domineering name, and you can also freely choose your favorite birth race, even if you don’t want to be a human.

You can even be a handsome man or a beautiful woman, short, ugly and poor, or a rich woman.

Everything about you is created by yourself, so you are both a player and a Dragonborn, and you are playing yourself, with a full sense of immersion.

This is unlike other games.

He has the identity of a demon hunter, but he plays the role of a person named Geralt instead of himself.

So, this is what Ding Yi has to do. Although this game does not have a race setting, players cannot choose not to be a human.

But you can give yourself a wanderer identity that NPCs will respect, thereby widening the gap between yourself and the NPCs and enjoying their admiration and praise.

Try your best to make players feel their own presence in the game, rather than the presence of the protagonist they control.

In short, the player's status in the game cannot be low.

After determining the player's identity, Ding Yi began to design the game background.

Now, the game's main stage has chosen the slums of Harlan City as the player's first map. In order to distinguish it from the original game, the timeline has to be advanced or delayed.

He thought about it carefully and realized that since all the players had become wanderers, it meant that the world had collapsed long ago.

In this case, let's just keep it in the same timeline as Extinction 2.

“The story of The Day Before takes place 1 years after the end of The End of Time 20, which is the period of The End of Time 2.”

Boss Ding immediately started typing and wrote the settings on the document.

"The general background is finalized. Next, we need to set up the power structure."

Power is a new attempt by Ding Yi.

The dark zone PVP gameplay has been confirmed before, but this gameplay is unreasonable in terms of the plot.

After all, players fighting for resources in the Dark Zone is actually equivalent to the Wanderers killing each other.

This does not fit in with the Wanderer's setting of maintaining connections with the world.

Therefore, if you want players to PVP in the dark zone as a wanderer, a new setting is needed.

——Faction war gameplay.

20 years later, the government of Harran is gone. As time goes by, various local forces will naturally gather together. This is inevitable.

Players can freely choose to join a faction, obtain faction uniforms, upgrade faction levels, and obtain various faction rewards.

After entering the dark zone, players must wear faction uniforms to PVP, which is equivalent to another form of "opening red".

When players meet people of the same power, they can help each other.

If you encounter hostile forces, just fight them.

This way of playing was inspired by Ding Yi's reference to the Alliance and the Horde in World of Warcraft.

It also refers to the Wulin Alliance and Hun Tian Sect in "Blade & Soul".

Only different camps can allow players who are all wanderers to fight each other, and the plot can make sense.

Ding Yi thought for a moment, stroking his chin and spoke softly.

"However, there can't be too many forces in the game, otherwise it will be too chaotic and the players will be too scattered. If four or five forces fight in a dark zone, it will be the same as a guild war."

"For now, let's just set up the two largest forces for players to join, and the rest of the smaller forces will be used as the background of the game."

"As for the names of these two hostile forces?"

"The tower forces in the original game are definitely not good. They are too weak and difficult to develop. The villain Les forces are also not good. They are just a group of bandits and it is difficult for them to become powerful. Besides, players probably don't want to be looters."

"We need forces like the Brotherhood and the Knights Templar that are neither decent nor villainous, but just have different positions..."

Ding Yi looked at the document and thought about it. Then he raised his brows and typed in the names of two forces.

The military forces that overthrew the incompetent government.

The Huoying forces attempted to restore the government.

(End of this chapter)