Chapter 443
Chapter 443: Game Designer’s Dungeon Design – The Young Lady’s Strategy
Murphy watched as the little players discussed the “situation report” on the forum, and he was satisfied with the situation they had analyzed, while also marveling at how the talent in his “talent pool” was growing.
Although it was somewhat unsettling that the “old company commander” voluntarily came to contribute to the development of Transia, given the current backdrop of the approaching Black Plague, Murphy had too many ways to convince himself to accept this “goodwill” with peace of mind.
At least before Maxim, the military commander, had grown up, these old veterans who had marched in another world and were trained entirely in the method of “great power confrontation and conventional warfare” would be absolutely handy to use. What’s even better was that they had guerrilla warfare genes embedded in their bones.
Murphy didn’t even need them to be too dedicated, he just needed to place these professionals at the command nodes of his army to instantly raise his military organization by several orders of magnitude.
Currently, under Murphy’s direction, the faction forces that would participate in the Swamp Battle had each given missions to guide the little players into the swamp. Based on their speed in clearing the outer skeleton army, Murphy and his “development team” had about a week to determine the progression mode for this battle.
To put it simply, it was about the “combat mechanics” of the Team Dungeon instance at Plague Town.
For the battles in the swamp, Murphy did not plan to use the Kadman People’s Army, which was still in training, as supporting forces. These soldiers recruited from armed Blood Servants and civilians still lacked training, and Transia’s locally produced firearms had not been fully equipped. In Murphy’s view, they still needed intensive training.
The Winged Cavalry was even less necessary.
The swamp was not their preferred terrain. With the weight of their entire outfit including person, horse, armor, and weapons, it would be a luxury just to maintain normal speed once they entered the swamp.
Therefore, due to terrain factors, this battle was the players’ “home field” from the start.
In Murphy’s most optimistic estimate, he would only need to provide a batch of supplies and several high-level NPCs for this battle. The remaining warfare could be completely led by the players to check what combat power the players with enhanced talents could unleash when facing these vicious Gnoll warlocks.
Incidentally, this would serve as the final “combat power test” before the arrival of the Black Plague, to determine the players’ positioning in Transia’s armed system and the most suitable responsibilities they would undertake during the Black Plague.
With these thoughts in mind, Murphy strolled out of the Blood Vulture Halls, spread his wings high in the evening darkness, and under the guidance of the Spirit Vulture Revnor, hurried to where the young lady was currently located.
That is, the “Mage Tower” located between the Smuggler’s Woods and Torrent Fort outpost.
For the past few days, the young lady had been stationed here.
On one hand, it was to prevent the Plague Gnolls from entering Transia again through the Smuggler’s Woods, and on the other hand, it was to command from here, directing the Stonemason Guild workers to do some detailed decorations for her mage tower.
Oh, right.
This mage tower had already been named by the young lady as the “Scarlet Devil Mansion,” which was also the name of the spirit energy organization she was building for herself.
Although this name came from the little players’ parody suggestions on the forum, the young lady loved it very much.
Especially after learning the origin of this name, she liked it even more.
To be honest, Murphy also felt that this somewhat extravagant name was quite suitable here, at least much better than his suggestions like “Far East Aurora Magic Society” or “Kamar-Taj Supreme Sorcerer.”
“Why is it still so empty here?”
Murphy’s “super speed” allowed him to quickly reach his destination.
Due to the urgency of time, he had practically rushed over at supersonic speed the whole way, then nimbly climbed through the tower window into the room, only to see the young lady lying in a rocking chair, covered with a blanket, holding a computation bead and looking at something.
Just this posture alone was somewhat similar to Tris’s lazy style. Indeed, the Blood Vulture Clan’s Grand Duchess had successfully influenced a group of people with her slacking attitude.
This truly was a family misfortune.
The place where Femis was staying was honestly quite shabby. Although the Stonemason Guild workers had renovated it a lot these past few days, without carpets, chandeliers, or extravagant luxurious decorations, not even large tables and wooden cabinets, it made this place look completely unlike the dignity a mage tower should have.
It was like a pitiful “beggar’s hut,” and Lady Femis was the little beggar dwelling here.
Faced with Murphy’s teasing, the young lady snorted, flipped her wrist to hide the bead she was holding into her sleeve, then stood up from the rocking chair “offered” by the players. She put her hands on her hips and said with full dignity:
“How does a busy person like you have time to come to my place? Besides, this place isn’t finished yet. After the final renovations are complete, I can move all my stuff from the Blood Vulture Halls over here.
At that time, my ‘Scarlet Devil Mansion’ will definitely become the best and greatest mage tower in Transia!”
“On this point, I absolutely believe you. I may doubt the young lady’s power, but I absolutely cannot doubt the young lady’s aesthetic standards.
By the way, we don’t have any mage towers in Transia right now, so as long as your mage tower is built, even if it’s just a shack, it will definitely be the best and greatest mage tower in this land.”
Murphy gave a small compliment along with a bit of sarcasm, then began discussing business under the young lady’s glare, namely regarding the young lady’s combat approach design for Team Dungeon 003.
Murphy was quite qualified to inquire about and guide this matter, after all, the team dungeons he had previously “designed” were quite good.
Whether it was “Advance into Blood Vulture Halls” or “Decisive Battle at Anderma Hills,” they were both perfect examples of cooperation between locals and otherworld warriors, achieving miracles that seemed almost impossible to others through mutual coordination.
Moreover, from both Murphy’s perspective and the players’ perspective, these two team dungeons could be considered masterstrokes in the current game system.
Aside from equipment update factors, the dungeon snapshots of both instances could help new players effectively understand two important events that affected Transia’s direction on this land. The “NPCs” of support nature existing in both dungeons were based on the players who participated in the raids at that time, which gave the veteran players who participated in the dungeon raids more capital to brag about.
This was also an effective way to deepen their connection with Transia.
And if you factor in equipment, the existence of these two team dungeons becomes even more meaningful.
The Clan Guard Set produced by “Advance into Blood Vulture Halls” is still the most value-preserving equipment representative in the current game.
Even though new factions constantly bring out new replacement equipment, this spirit energy armament accumulated from 400 years of the Blood Vulture Clan is synonymous with excellent armament even on a continental level.
Currently, almost every T1 player in the game has a Clan Guard Set to ensure basic combat power, while T0 level players have obtained more powerful armaments through excellent performance in several events. However, these overly powerful armaments are rare in number and unsystematic, and cannot be obtained through normal game means.
Therefore, even though it has been almost three months since the Blood Vulture Halls were taken, Team Dungeon 001 is still in hot demand. Those newbies who have just passed the Black Iron Trial look forward to participating in the weekly “Public Welfare Newbie Dungeon Run” organized by Silver Moon Team/Big Bird Team/Beast Team/Hammer and Sickle Team.
However, there are only so many badges that drop from the BOSS.
The once-per-week speed means that players need to spend time to acquire enough good equipment to establish themselves and make a name for themselves in Transia.
The most troublesome thing is that the Clan Guard Set produced by Team Dungeon 001 has a quantity limit, which can be checked with the Blood Vulture Clan quartermaster.
There are only 444 sets in total.
Now 186 sets have been exchanged, which means that with the large influx of new players now, this set will definitely be exchanged completely and become limited edition before the Black Plague arrives…
Hey!
Did you hear that?
This is going to be a limited edition good item in the future!
Whether for practical combat value or collection significance, shouldn’t warriors who call themselves veteran players have one set each?
And if Team Dungeon 001 represents the qualification to step into the realm of “game expert players,” then Team Dungeon 002 “Decisive Battle at Anderma Hills” represents the player strength of a certain team.
Due to the magical and demanding “three chest” design, Team Dungeon 002 has put forward a demanding challenge for the technical requirements of team members. Defeating the only BOSS Kenport is not very difficult, as there are already complete stealth guides on the forum, but getting all three reward chests within the time limit is just too hard.
So far, only Brother Stick’s Hammer and Sickle Team and Meow King’s Big Bird Team have truly gotten all three chests; even the Girls’ Team hasn’t been able to complete this challenge, which shows how high the difficulty is.
Of course, the main reason why the girls can never get three chests is that they have too few people.
Although this dungeon has become “flexible mode” after forming the dungeon snapshot, no longer requiring 140 people to participate, with a minimum of 7 people able to enter the challenge, the Girls’ Team has “streamlined” to the point where it’s difficult to even gather seven people.
They had difficulty waiting until Old Huo’s “Four Golden Flowers” completed the Black Iron Trial last week, finally managed to gather enough people to try it once, but due to poor coordination, they only got Lord Murphy’s reward chest in the end.
This one-chest poor performance was really not good to show off on the forum.
Being able to get three chests in Team Dungeon 002 is undoubtedly the best proof of T0 player team strength in the current game. Now when Brother Stick and Meow King recruit people, they both use this banner to show off their team’s prowess.
Moreover, compared to Team Dungeon 001 producing good equipment, Team Dungeon 002 produces the best weapons in the current version.
Calculating based on perfect three chests, one dungeon run can get 4 “Pioneer Badges,” and with these unique badges, you can go to Lady Tris to custom order three weapons: “Frostfang,” “Ranger,” and “Night Howl.”
These are high-level spirit energy weapons modeled after Murphy’s, Kudel’s, and Femis’s weapons, corresponding to melee, defender and DPS, and spirit mage respectively. Not only are their attributes super powerful, but they also look quite impressive.
Although they are replicas, their attributes are not unacceptably far from the originals.
But corresponding to the excellent attributes and impressive appearance, these replica weapons are quite expensive.
Each weapon requires 10 Pioneer Badges to order, meaning even with perfect three chests every time, it takes three weeks to get one weapon, and because of the damn 100% realism restriction, Lady Tris can’t infinitely refresh these weapons.
After placing an order, you need to wait a week to pick up the goods. Despite such complicated procedures, there is already a batch of true high-level players who have obtained these weapons, and basically every day you can see these guys showing off on the streets of Crimson Citadel wearing their weapons.
And now there are rumors saying that if you get perfect three chests, there’s a certain probability of getting design drawings for three rare weapons from the BOSS: “Flail: Biter,” “Bone Shield: Clan Heart,” and “Fist Blade: Wolf Fang.”
These are all personal weapons of the great warlord Kenport, not only are their attributes powerful, but they also have Gnoll voodoo formulae enhancement, making them no less impressive compared to the chest weapons.
This rumor couldn’t be verified on the forum for a while before, until curious people repeatedly questioned Brother Alpha, and Brother Alpha, annoyed by the questions, finally spoke the truth, answering that these three items are indeed in the “drop list.”
However, the drop rate is very low, appearing as “easter egg” weapons like “Soul-Reaping Scythe.”
This made things even more exciting.
After the “Rat King Doomsday” five-person dungeon, Team Dungeon 002 has also become another destination for many lucky players to test their fortune.
All in all, Murphy the dog designer is currently very satisfied with his design of the two team dungeons. From player feedback, apart from complaints about difficulty issues, no one has much criticism about the background stories and combat modes of these two team dungeons.
So he continued this approach to complete the background and style design of Team Dungeon 003 “Land of Rotting Corpses.”
As for what the specific combat mode of this dungeon would be like, this was not a problem Murphy needed to consider.
Because the “combat design” of the new team dungeon was the young lady’s work.
Femis was very unhappy with Murphy’s arrangements when attacking Kenport before, and she took on this work at that time. Additionally, the Plague Clan they’re attacking this time specializes in spirit energy, which is currently still Murphy’s weakness.
The Lord obviously understood the truth of not randomly commenting on things he doesn’t understand to avoid being laughed at, so he very confidently handed this matter over to the young lady.
The latter was truly a Spirit Master in the Blood Vulture Clan second only to Tris, and she must already have had an accurate approach on how to break down Plague Town’s spirit energy defense.
As Murphy expected, when he asked about this question, the young lady grabbed a rolled-up scroll from her spirit bag and opened it before Murphy’s eyes.
It was the specific terrain around Plague Town, and the young lady had already marked it with markers of different colors. Murphy noticed that there were three different colors surrounding this town.
He raised his eyebrows, then heard the young lady say to him:
“Those Gnoll warlocks are very cunning. The small town they now occupy was the old camp established by Boris’s vanguard army in the swamp during the Second Black Plague. This place considered the possibility of being besieged when it was established, so it chose terrain on high ground in the swamp.
This makes it easy to defend and difficult to attack.
Moreover, it happens to block the road to the eastern forbidden area of the swamp, which means we now only have three possible attack directions.”
Femis leaned on her Night Howl Staff, which was taller than her, and explained:
“The most troublesome thing is that the warlock tower in Plague Town happens to occupy one of the three spirit energy nodes within the range of the Foul Swamp, which means that once that tower raises its defense, it can receive continuous spirit energy replenishment from within the swamp range.
Based on its scale, the spirit energy defense line it can raise won’t be more fragile than ordinary city walls, which makes it difficult for us to break through in a short time.
However, the good news is that I’ve been studying that tower these past few days, and I found that it was built too early. During the Second Black Plague, human spirit energy theory was still very basic, so this warlock tower’s defense system has major flaws.
Simply put, the spirit energy limit it can call upon is still within my processing range. It only needs one precise spirit energy counter to make that mage tower’s defense formula temporarily overload.
But each overload can only last at most 6 hours.”
Femis tapped her staff on the ground, making a light sound. Under the dancing crimson light at the top of the staff, she lifted her head and said to Murphy:
“I’ve seen many warriors complaining on the forum about how difficult it is to distribute loot after each battle. Even dividing equally leaves those who contributed more unsatisfied. Therefore, I decided to use this opportunity to give those players a chance to prove themselves.
Each time I complete the defense counter against Plague Town’s mage tower, I will allow one warrior guild to attempt to attack Plague Town. If they cannot end the battle within six hours, they must withdraw and hand it over to the next guild!
The condition for achieving this operation is that the warriors must clear the skeleton army defense line around the town, so I’ve set up three attack directions for them.
Not only can this avoid the problem of attack not being able to proceed smoothly due to battlefield width, but also each attack direction faces different types of enemies.
Using your approach, we can perfectly create three different ‘preparatory mini-dungeons,’ and after the outer defenses on all three defense lines are broken, then make the conquest of Plague Town the core content of the Land of Rotting Corpses.
Through players’ repeated attempts to consume the Plague Gnolls’ core strength, finally weakening them to a certain limit, then some lucky guild will complete the killing of Flesh Render.
I learned a new term on the forum, we need to create a ‘dungeon cluster’!
A healthy internal competition that allows warriors to attempt in guild units rather than all going in together! A highly flexible attempt, as long as it’s within my capabilities, I will provide them with whatever support they need.
If they are willing to spend time helping us occupy the other two spirit energy nodes in the swamp range, Tris and I can provide them with different power state enhancements.
This is my strategic and design approach.”
She looked at Murphy and asked:
“What do you think?”
“Every time you perform at crucial moments, you make me feel shocked.”
Murphy clicked his tongue in amazement and said:
“You are truly a genius in this area, my dear Feifei. It seems the chief position of the development team will have to be given to you to sit in. Ah, I’m old, can’t keep up with the times anymore, the future belongs to young people like you.”
“Be serious, Murphy.”
The young lady rolled her eyes and said:
“I’m just collecting their flights of fancy from the forum tavern, but honestly, this work is quite interesting. I never thought a battle could have so many different options.
But this is also a plan that can only work for immortal otherworld heroes, after all, our warriors don’t have the privilege to use lives to try difficulties and break solutions like they do.
They were born for war!
Our duty as ‘guides’ is to ensure that each of their sacrifices has meaning and value. Our relationship reminds me of the ‘Valhalla’ in Caesar barbarian legends, we are the Valkyries of the berserkers, while the players are immortal heroes who sacrifice and are called back to reality countless times in battle.
I now probably know where your confidence in victory for the Black Plague war comes from, Murphy.
As long as those Gnolls cannot defeat us in one go, as long as they cannot kill us all, we can always come back! Yes, as long as Transia keeps persisting, as long as Transia never gives up, those Gnolls will never be able to trample this land.
Now I’m also full of confidence like you, Murphy.
I believe that we can definitely create miracles hand in hand with the otherworlders.”