Chapter 947: Righteous Sect, Evil Sect
Qian Kun raised his hand and asked, "So, boss, is the overall game flow similar to *Wulin Heroes*?"
Chen Mo nodded. "Yes, but the pace is greatly accelerated. The game is roughly divided into three stages: First, the early stage, where you leave home, complete sect missions, explore the wild, and improve your strength. Second, the mid stage, where you consolidate sect resources, compete for the position of Martial Arts Alliance Leader within the righteous sects, or compete for the position of Martial Arts Overlord within the evil sects, preparing for the final battle. Third, the final stage, where the righteous and evil sides clash, ultimately deciding the Martial Arts Alliance Leader or the Martial Arts Overlord."
Qian Kun frowned slightly. "But I still feel the righteous side is stronger. The righteous Martial Arts Alliance Leader can command nine sects, while the evil side only has three. The gap is too large to balance with NPCs. After all, once players acquire high-level martial arts, most NPC grunts are just cannon fodder."
Chen Mo nodded. "True, but you're overlooking one thing: the righteous and evil sects have different behavioral patterns."
"Specifically, the righteous sects cannot wipe out other sects, but the evil sects can. In the early game, all righteous sects have their own problems and can only defend. Even after their problems are solved, righteous sects cannot attack other righteous sects. Even if a player wants to attack, the sect leader and NPCs won't agree. If a player insists, they might even be expelled from the sect."
"But the evil sects are different. In the early game, the evil sects are at full strength and can attack the righteous sects. If they successfully wipe out a sect, they can plunder a large amount of martial arts and resources, rapidly expanding their power."
"In other words, during the early and mid game, the righteous and evil sides are in a tug-of-war: the righteous must find ways to defend against evil attacks and recover their strength, while the evil side must do everything possible to exploit the righteous' weakened state and gain more benefits. The scheming between the two sides in the early and mid game will directly affect the power balance in the final battle."
Su Jinyu asked, "Um, boss, I have a question. Since this is a zero-sum game, if I'm a righteous player and there's a much stronger righteous player on my side, what should I do?"
Chen Mo said, "You have three options: First, seek out adventures, explore the wild, and improve your strength to surpass him. Second, use poison or even collude with the demon cult to secretly kill him. Of course, doing so would be equivalent to betrayal, and you might risk being expelled from the sect. Third, obediently follow him and let him become the Martial Arts Alliance Leader."
Su Jinyu: "Huh? What's the point of following him?"
Chen Mo smiled and explained, "This game is zero-sum, but that doesn't mean you have to fight for first place every round. It's like a battle royale; under normal circumstances, you might only win once every two or three days. In this game, getting the Martial Arts Alliance Leader once every two or three days is already pretty good."
"So, if you can't become the Martial Arts Alliance Leader, is there no difference between second place and last place? Of course not. We'll rank players based on the order they die and give them rewards accordingly. When you can't deal with a certain righteous player, you can follow him for now, lie low, and find a way to backstab him later."
Su Jinyu thought for a moment. "Then, could it happen that 24 players join, 6 evil players die immediately, and the remaining 17 righteous players all just follow one big shot and cheer him on?"
Chen Mo chuckled. "Theoretically, it's possible, but the probability is very low. First, we'll have a balance mechanism between factions. If all evil players die, righteous players who rebel can immediately gain the favor of the evil side and directly acquire some high-level martial arts. Second, players are competitive. Why would they just sit back and let you become the Martial Arts Alliance Leader without doing anything? Openly or secretly, some players will definitely band together to take you down. Additionally, if multiple righteous players survive at the end, aside from the Martial Arts Alliance Leader, the remaining players will be ranked based on a comprehensive score (including their combat power, items, etc.). If you just slack off and cheer the whole time, your final ranking reward will be pretty much the same as if you had died immediately upon landing."
"So, the rules of this game are relatively fixed, but how it actually develops is unpredictable because each player has their own ideas. Trusting others too much might get you sold out while you're still counting the money. Of course, as designers, we're happy to see players scheming against each other."
Qian Kun asked, "Then... what about the game's monetization model?"
Chen Mo: "Same as *PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds*: pay-to-play. The in-game currency earned can be used to open loot boxes for special cosmetic items. These items can be traded for real money, and we take a cut of the transaction tax. Of course, to prevent special cosmetics from revealing players' positions, all NPCs and players will randomly receive special appearances upon entering the game, similar to how *League of Legends* gives skins to robots."
"Understood." Qian Kun nodded. "One last question: *Jianghu*'s mechanics are much more complex than *PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds*. How do you solve the learning curve for players? Also, will this game be unfriendly to less skilled players?"
Chen Mo explained, "Simple: matchmaking. Like *PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds*, each round will rate players based on their performance and group those with similar ratings together. Additionally, to accommodate less skilled players, the game will include a combat assistance system."
"To put it simply, if two players have the same base stats, the one with better mechanics wins. It's like gunplay in *PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds*—if your mechanics are bad, you need to practice, otherwise you deserve to be in the low ranks. Beyond that, if you acquire special martial arts, it can compensate for your lack of skill to some extent."
"For example, if you obtain a top-tier internal skill like the *Yijin Jing* and train it up, your health bar will be much thicker than others, making it hard for basic fist or palm techniques to harm you. Or if you get a top-tier movement skill like *Xiaoyao You*, you'll have a high dodge attribute, and the system will automatically execute dodge actions for you, making it hard for others to hit you. If you get a top-tier sword technique like the *Taiji Sword Technique*, even if your swing is off, the system will automatically correct it, similar to a soft aimbot."
Qian Kun was shocked. "Doesn't that mean if a player gets a bunch of ultimate martial arts, they can just steamroll everyone?"
Chen Mo shook his head. "Not exactly. The martial arts world is a low-magic world. Even if you have a full set of ultimate martial arts, you might not be immune to poison, and you might not be able to defeat a siege of ten top experts. Even a slightly weaker expert ambushing you could take you out. It's like *Dark Souls*—you can hurt others badly, but they can hurt you badly too. Remember, while you're busy looking for adventures, others aren't idle. It's hard for players to create a huge gap between each other, so steamrolling is almost impossible."
"Even if, hypothetically, you were so amazing that you got all the top-tier martial arts, then you absolutely should be able to beat everyone else. That's no different from a pro player stomping noobs in *League of Legends* or *PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds*."