The days of being a spiritual mentor in Meiman.

Chapter 4752 The Changes in the Battle Realm (Part 1)

Chapter 4752 The Changes in the Battle Realm (Part 1)

Schiller placed the medical record on Strange's desk. Strange glanced at him, somewhat puzzled, and asked, "You finished writing it so quickly?"

“Of course. When I was with Doctor Strange in the Shi'ar Empire, I had him write it for you.” Schiller shrugged and sat down next to him.

Strange picked up his glasses from the side and put them on, looking at the medical records with a critical eye. But he had to admit that the medical records he wrote himself were indeed of very high quality, with flawless handwriting, and that they cleared all his debts at once, solving his biggest worry.

Strange visibly relaxed, then said, "Thanks to the two of us, Presbyterian Hospital is finally going to build an electronic medical system. From now on, we'll say goodbye to the era of handwritten medical records."

"That's perfect. If it's not handwritten, there's no need to fake the handwriting, and you can just copy and paste."

“Don’t get too excited,” Strange shook his head and said, “It’s common for surgeons to delay writing medical records, but the hospital has already taken notice of our case last time. From now on, I may have to write them myself.”

"There's nothing we can do about it. Your interns are all incredibly busy, haven't you considered hiring a few more?"

“The new hires will be just as busy,” Strange said. “Let’s not talk about that. How’s it going in the main universe?”

“That’s going to be quite a show.” Schiller became excited when he mentioned this. “Didn’t Nick Fury want to do something to the main universe to keep them from going out? Iron Man and Doctor Strange had a fight when they went back, and they destroyed Earth’s magical defense network.”

"Shattered?!" Strange raised his voice. "Completely shattered? What about the Temple?"

“That’s the problem.” Schiller moved a chair to the opposite side of the desk, leaned forward with his hands on the table, and said, “Nick had someone sow discord between the US government in the main universe and the Avengers, causing the New York Sanctum to be shut down by S.H.I.E.L.D., losing a crucial node and resulting in insufficient power supply to the magical defense network, which is why it collapsed so easily.”

Strange frowned and said, "Then Earth is in danger. It could very well become another major event. How could Nick be so reckless?"

"I already said, it was those two who destroyed the magical defense network, it had nothing to do with Nick. While the Temple's legitimacy is being questioned, its operation isn't that easily affected. If Doctor Strange had gone back to repair and adjust it in time, and then fought S.H.I.E.L.D. again, everything should have been fine. Who knew those two would get so caught up in arguing that they ended up fighting in near-Earth orbit. And then..."

Strange sighed deeply: "So what do we do now?"

"What else can we do? Doctor Strange is busy repairing the New York Sanctum and restoring the magical defense network as soon as possible, while the others are guarding Earth to prevent anyone from taking advantage of the situation."

“Someone will inevitably take advantage of the chaos,” Strange said. “So many things are eyeing the Earth covetously; it would be strange if no one invaded.”

"Do you want to go take a look?" Schiller asked. "Although the people in the main universe don't like us much, they're in a crisis now. If we go and help them out, they'll have no choice but to accept it. Besides, the two most difficult ones are the culprits who caused the trouble, and they should have little say in things now. The rest are all pretty mild-mannered. It would be good for you to go and make sure you don't cause any real chaos."

Strange frowned deeply. He clearly wanted to go, but he disliked the people in the main universe. If it were any other universe, the portal would already be open by now.

“You don’t need to worry about Krakoa,” Schiller said. “The mutants are completely settled. The Shiar Empire has finally split up, and the two sides are currently locked in a fierce battle, so they probably can’t spare any attention for Earth. Once we take care of those remnants in the solar system, there’s no threat at all.”

"Are Matt and the others still over there?" Strange asked.

“Of course he is. And Steve too,” Schiller explained. “It’s not good to leave the kids with the mutants all the time, so they’re vacationing on the island with their wives and kids. It’s a pity Peter is too busy to take a break, otherwise he could go on vacation too.”

“Alright, I’ll go check it out.” Strange finally decided, “Anyway, those guys can’t out-argue me. If they dare to say anything, I’ll teach them a lesson.”

"Alright, I'm going to work in the Battle Arena. We still haven't figured out any major events for the upcoming season," Schiller sighed.

As the Battle Realm has been running for longer, eight seasons have passed excluding the test season. Although the various battle passes have generated a considerable amount of revenue, and the goal of exchanging resources and intelligence between the multiverses has been largely achieved, the current problem is a lack of activity. Schiller is even considering running away with the money.

The problem arises because, once everyone is familiar with each other, dungeons themed around major events in their respective universes have essentially disappeared. Superheroes from the multiverse are all interconnected; they can simply shout in the communication channel if needed. While running dungeons grants an extra life, there are limits on the number of participants, and there's a waiting period, which is too late in an emergency. Most people simply shout in the communication channel and then use the portal to the battle realm to get there.

This leaves only original content dungeons. Despite the involvement of so many designers, the number of dungeons released is still too small. Conversely, to recoup players' in-game currency, the battle pass is becoming increasingly expensive. Although it offers a lot of freebies, it still causes widespread player dissatisfaction, with many unwilling to buy it.

Especially after the open beta, each season has a theme, and this theme must match the unique gameplay. For example, the theme of the first season was "First Encounter," which included a special lobby for greeting each other and a dueling arena for two unique players. All of these were designed to help the superheroes get to know each other.

The theme of Season 2 is "Building." In addition to an open terrain modification mode, the store sells more building materials and furniture packs, and introduces the "LEGO City" dungeon gameplay, allowing players to freely create their favorite cities in LEGO Gotham or LEGO New York, and even use them as blueprints for real-world city redevelopment. This is intended to promote unity among players and prepare for stabilizing the real-world situation.

The first two seasons were beginner seasons, but the intensity increased starting from the third season. The theme of the third season was "Earth". The previous Battle Realm - New Earth was reintroduced, incorporating gameplay elements of simulated real-world warfare. This allowed many superheroes without modern warfare experience to indulge their military fantasies, while also teaching them how to fight on a large battlefield.

Seasons four and five focused on deeper interaction between players and puzzle-solving. Most of these were puzzle-solving instances that restricted players' identities and abilities. This allowed them to set aside the superheroes' superpowers and gain a deeper understanding of each other's personalities and behavioral logic. It was essentially during this season that the Batmen united.

Seasons six and seven are the dueling seasons, focusing on superhero battles. They feature various arenas and player-versus-player dungeons. The multiverse war also takes place during these two seasons.

Now, in Season 8, which Schiller is willing to call the "Dark Season," the game essentially involves constantly increasing the difficulty of the challenges, pushing the superheroes to their physical and mental limits. While this design aims to provide the superheroes with a training ground, the main reason is that if the difficulty isn't increased, they'll truly speedrun through the challenges.

Arkham Batman wasn't a launch player. He already had a considerable number of dungeons completed when he joined. Yet, he managed to clear six or seven dungeons in a single night and still be able to return to his presidency during the day. Combat dungeons were utterly ineffective against him, and story-driven puzzle dungeons could only be endured for a short while. Furthermore, in later player-versus-player dungeons, he terrorized the multiverse.

Players like that, unless you provide several challenging dungeons that push their physical and mental limits to their limits, will quit in no time. While it's not necessary for them to play, if they give a bad review to the Batman community, Batman will definitely think queuing for dungeons is a waste of time. If everyone quits, the game is basically over.

Schiller faced a dilemma that game developers worldwide encounter. If the game is too easy, hardcore players will find it lacking in challenge, easily completing it without attracting hardcore players or extending playtime, leading to a feeling that the game lacks content. However, if the game is too difficult, most casual players will complain, experiencing excessive frustration, causing a large number of low- to mid-level players to quit, resulting in the same outcome.

Games that continue operating for a long time are more prone to failing due to balance issues. Fortunately, the game has accumulated a large number of regular dungeons, giving newcomers something to play. But if things continue like this, once players have exhausted the previous content and start challenging the new season, they'll find that most of the dungeons require them to be either Batman or Superman, sometimes even demanding Batman's intelligence and Superman's physical strength. It's simply not a game for humans. Negative reviews will definitely increase.

Moreover, Season 9, also a Dark Season, is starting in a week. The entire design team is racking their brains, still without a unique gameplay element. If they can't come up with something soon, even working overtime won't be enough to implement it.

Schiller returned to the Battle Realm office, sat down at his desk, and began to sigh. Owen peeked out from the desk next to him: "...Have you figured it out yet?"

Schiller shook his head and said, "I need to go back and look through my memory bank. I remember someone has offered quite a few suggestions before; maybe they'll come in handy."

Then he closed his eyes to rest at his desk and actually went back to reviewing his memories. Since almost everyone knew he was the designer and administrator, they received a lot of suggestions, especially from Batman. He thought the Fighting World model was quite good and didn't want the game to fail. Because Fighting World didn't accept cash investment, Batman could only offer suggestions based on his wisdom. Many of these suggestions were very practical, and the game did indeed improve after the improvements. For example, the terrain editing function and the improvements to various chat functions.

Schiller focused on revisiting memories related to Batman. However, precisely because Batman's suggestions were so useful, almost all of them were implemented, and Schiller was clearly a pragmatic person, he didn't offer any advice on major plans or creative ideas.

Schiller recalled the escape room game he had participated in before. He vaguely remembered someone making a suggestion back then. So he went back and found that they had mentioned adding the feature of allowing players to design their own escape rooms.

While that's what they've said, it's really just empty talk. The release date is undetermined, so it's basically like creating a new folder. Whether this feature will actually be implemented, and to what extent, is still completely unknown.

That's a good idea, though. Instead of making a game, why not create a game platform, let others make and release their own games, and they can profit from the difference as middlemen? After all, the creativity of these few administrators and designers can't compare to the countless players across the multiverse.

"I've got an idea!" Schiller shouted after waking up, and all the administrators gathered around.