Double wasn't particularly worried that Sturm didn't trust him or his continued employment among Captain Signia's small crew – because their distrust was just a human's natural behavior. The first, because no one would easily trust a past traitor, what if they betray their new 'friend' after all? It would take time before Sturm could feel comfortable trusting Double.
The latter however was simply a numbers game.
Unlike the other pirate crews that recruited thousands of Players into their numbers, a number so large that they could defeat the top Players simply by utilizing wave tactics… Maybe if the top ten Players create a team? No, even then, the gap between the top Players and the rest of the server is not yet large enough for each of the Top Players to be able to defeat ten normal Players, let alone hundreds.
No, in Signia's crew there are only two Players, himself, and Sturm, with potentially only five more that are still being vetted. A far cry from the other Pirate Crews. Should Signia's crew ever come into conflict with the other Crews, the Captain, her crew, and Double and Sturm both, could be defeated with great ease.
Of course, the key point there being the word 'should'. With Signia's ship being the only pirate ship with a functional engine, the other pirate crews would need to catch up with them first before they could pose any danger.
This sadly is an advantage that is very much time-sensitive, sooner or later there would be other Pirate Ships that could fly, and then they would immediately lose because of their lacking numbers. A weakness that could not be retified easily, as adding more Players willy-nilly would only allow for spies to slip through. And since the engine in Signia's ship would function just as well in the other ships, there is no lack of enemy that would like to loot the ship.
Such a possibility ensured that Double's presence and continued employment in Signia's ship, as one of the stronger players that could defeat numerous borders, would be permanent… Just as it is very much a suspect one.
Double, he, well, he wouldn't be saying that he regrets taking the Demon's offer in betraying his previous 'master', but his past decision doesn't exactly endear an easy trust.
He was one of the few, and the first of the known, demon worshipers. One who had already betrayed his past 'friend' for power, tempted by a Demonic power, a story fitting the beginning of an ancient legend of great betrayal, and not just the story of unique quests in a massive DMMO-RPG.
Sturm's fears were understandable. Not that Double was going to just stand still and take possible insults on his account, but, in fairness, Double could not swear that he would never again decide to go over to the side of the Demons. Not that he planned to, of course.
He was more than satisfied with his current situation with Sturm and Signa.
Not to mention the fact that this game still made him periodically forget that all he was seeing and feeling was nothing more than a game created for the entertainment of the Players. This forced him to treat it as a reality.
And in reality, Double was not a traitor or demon worshiper at all… But one should not underestimate the Players' love for unique storylines. So he might still one day choose to betray Sturm, and is looking forward to the unique dialogues that Signia would say in that case.
If he succeeds, of course, it is equally likely that he would only sooner discover what lies beyond the cloud cover under the islands rather than succeeding in his betrayal. No one has been stupid enough to try fighting the NPCs, at least, more than once.
Not that it was too much trouble to 'roleplay', to treat the game world as real, rather than just a series of 'yes and no' gates. For the first time in a long while, Double is actually enjoying the game world, he actually listens when Signia gives out quest details! Before, he would be one of the people that would press the skip button whenever dialogues or lore 'get in the way' of his game. Being a pioneer, being the first in a place where there are no other Players has given him a thirst to get as much information as possible.
So, Double wasn't even going to pretend that he would be sticking to the little Pirate group for long – no, he would only remain 'loyal' as long as it suited him, and he received unique opportunities from that loyalty. But, since those two things were exactly what was happening to him, therefore he was not going to complain to Sturm at all.
For example, none of the other Players could brag about the new island…
Well, not for a while at least – the other Players would probably catch up no sooner than later. In fact, Double wouldn't be surprised if he would be seeing other Players today, they were just as ravenous for new content after all. There is still an undiscovered island in the starting area, one of them left, sooner or later there would be other Players in the destroyed ruins.
Still, for now, no one except Sturm and Double had access to the destroyed city.
And that means there was no point in Double betraying his allies at all.
In addition, he had already managed to collect some silver coins, several simple artifacts and something terribly similar to a recipe for crafters – in short, he was rewarded handsomely for exploring the new location. And all of that, after just looting a few houses, as he couldn't stray too far from Sturm – there must still be uncountable treasure to be found.
Double would be 'loyal' to Sturm… For a few more weeks at least – A couple more valuable hauls like this, and Double could forget that he once decided to make a deal with demons.
"So," Double grunted, stumbling after Sturm into another ruined building, propping the door behind them shut with a large statue. Sure, there aren't any other Players yet in the city, but that doesn't mean that there aren't any dangers, the demons are just as numerous and powerful as always.
There wouldn't be a siege or anything like that, but the memories of his fights so far had made him a bit cautious. He'd only need to have to suffer a fight indoors before he learned that such battles sucks.
"Time check? How much time do we have left?"
Sturm took a deep breath, just as tired as Double, wiping dripping sweat from his forehead. "We've got maybe… fifteen minutes? About so, before we need to rendezvous with Signia. But better safe than sorry…"
In the game, of course, perspiration, or other bodily wastes were not implemented for obvious reasons – it was pointless and a waste of resources to render something so useless in a game. Still, the push for realism encouraged Players to do all sorts of random things that would be normal in the real world, even in this unreal one.
"Damn, if only we had a watch…" Double complained, spotting a broken box that could function as a makeshift stool in his estimation. Gingerly testing the rickety thing, prepared to stand if it couldn't handle his weight, Double took a seat, letting out a relieved sigh when it didn't.
A stamina system also doesn't exist in the game, and yet he felt tired all the same. "Never in my life did I think about just how damn convenient a watch actually was…"
In a game that prided itself on realism, where any kind of normal graphical interface was absent, and even the player profile only appeared after a series of specific actions, it was logical that a time keeping device wasn't included in the standard set of gadgets available to Players. This had even caused an uproar during the early days among Players who have gotten too immersed in the game, causing some to miss their afternoon nap or get late to work. In response, the management, deciding that such 'complaints' served more as advertising for the game itself, not only refused to change the 'hardcore' nature of the game but also added that they had initially warned players about how magnificent their creation would be.
And if the players couldn't cope, and they forgot the time while playing? Well, it was their problem.
Moreover, every capsule came with a built-in alarm clock, so if a Player couldn't figure that out before starting the game and couldn't control themselves, it was the player's problem, not the developer's.
"Maybe… Who knows, if we look carefully, and get lucky, we could find something like that in the city." Sturm grunted from his side of the wall, also looking for a box so that he could take a seat, before giving up when he couldn't find anything. Thankfully, rather than 'asking' Double to give up his seat, he instead started rummaging through his pockets instead.
His very full pockets.
"All we have is valuables, half of which are just pretty and hopefully valuable baubles, and of the remaining half, we'll hardly manage to carry out even a hundredth before the other Players get here… I feel like a real tomb raider."
Chuckling alongside Sturm, as his pockets were just as full, and he had indeed seen just as many treasures, Double couldn't help but add his two cents.
"Yeah, but just remember that in any game, in such treasuries, there's always some random skeleton of some past adventurers who had bitten off more than they could chew. It's almost a law of physics by this point." Double chuckled, running his fingers along his sword, tapping a rhythm on the steel as it let out a sonorous sound.
"And who knows what monsters await us further — we've already met three new types of monsters here, and we already had to run away from one of them. Doesn't exactly boost confidence, eh?"
"Oh, come on, now you're rambling because of a simple joke," Sturm scoffed, forgetting for a moment that he didn't quite trust his 'companion', reaching over to lightly punch Double's shoulder in a friendly gesture. "Better be happy that we found so much. Signia might not want to load her airship with silk cloth, but a couple of artifacts won't hurt anyone…"
"That's true, that's true," Double grinned, rubbing his shoulder. He took a deep breath of the virtual air, then let it out, already trying to think of arguments that could work so that his captain would allow them to fill the ship's hold with treasures.
At that thought, he couldn't help but chuckle at both 'useless' actions he had taken.
Even though the air Double was breathing at that moment was entirely simulated, and he wasn't some loyal pirate from Captain Signia's crew but a Player, for some reason, at that moment, he imagined himself as just that. Like he was actually a denizen of the virtual world that needs to breathe the air lest he would suffocate.
He could almost feel himself giddily awaiting the airship's return, already preparing for the next adventure into the ruins after loading all their found valuables on board. A job far more interesting and exciting than his real life work of being a warehouse guard…
For a few seconds, Double immersed himself in this thought, before smiling and stretching his shoulders, standing up before glancing at Sturm.
"Well, is it time we drag ourselves back to the square? Otherwise, the captain will be seriously angry that we are making her wait. Plus, we still have to check the newbies… Who knows, maybe we'll go on the next raid as a trio instead?"
The addition of more pockets, at least, means more treasure that could be hauled back. That, and more bodies in between him, and the Demons… Or just another one that he could sacrifice to the infernal forces.
He's still a Demon worshiper, after all.
***
Driving players through a small obstacle course of my design, controlling them from the shadows, turned out to be not only a simple job for me, but also quite the informative endeavor.
In fact, it was while watching the Players deal with the new mobs from behind their backs, enjoying the privileges of being chief administrator, invisible and intangible, that I felt for the first time full satisfaction from my work. Even if the work was just, balance changes. A task that I had before found extremely boring.
After all, it was all just looking at spreadsheets and numbers. A situation would arise where Players retreated twenty percent more than the ideal of what the gathered data of how strong the Player were supposed to be, thank god for AIs, and then I would have to somehow fix that.
Sending the AI to collect statistics from the records, compare the hit rate of throwing weapons, and then increase the headshot area of the Flying Imp by ten centimeters. A job that is no more interesting than rewriting the number in a row in a table and changing the indicators associated with a particular cell that a Flying Imp's head occupies… It was all so boring and minute work, where if I did my job well, no one was supposed to notice.
But a personal check on the obstacle course is a different matter!
Hanging slightly above the players, I could at any moment move to the side, see how their steel blade danced in the air, wielded somewhat deftly in their hands. Seeing first hand where the Players were aiming, I could see that the most vulnerable spot of the 'Lesser Demon-Soldier' was its hooves. Satisfied with what I'm seeing I move on to the next fight, another of my new creations, the Imp Eater.
It was quite the grotesque sight, the monster I meant, with its fat body and a head that has a dozen eyes and five mouths, the monster would be a nightmare fuel based on appearance alone. Of course, it is also very strong, as I'm seeing a group of Players that had encountered the monster indoors had just discovered, now quickly running away from the fat monster, ass over teakettle.
I'd made a note to use these mobs more often in the future as 'meat gates' in certain places – all in order to provide all the Players with 'unforgettable' memories. And to reduce the speed at which they explore the ruins, of course.
True, as it usually happens, this same observation led me to the idea that creating NPCs was a really difficult and dangerous business – especially in DMORPGs with complete freedom in managing your own game avatar… Why exactly was I saying that? Because fencing is a sport.
In a regular MMORPG, animations, of course, were created to give an impression to the Player and awe them. But few people paid attention to how well an auto-attack matched the physique of the player character. Or how the grip on a particular weapon changed when using different styles. Or, most basic of all, how exactly Players needed to move while wearing armor – because such trifles did not provide any gameplay advantages or disadvantages during the game.
The situation was completely different in a game where a Player needed to move their 'human' body to wield their weapons, which could differ as much as the players who created him could make them different.
Specifically, it was observation of Sturm and Double that brought me to this idea, or rather their physiological differences.
To be more precise, Sturm who was a fairly tall guy with rather long arms, preferred to fight by using his sword to keep the enemy at a distance, preferring stabs, only using wide sweeping blows when the chance arises. Preferably when, by stabbing, he had opened his enemy's guard. It was a defense focused stance on sword wielding.
Double, in comparison, being a fairly short, but strong and stocky guy, preferred an all-out attack. With wide forceful blows, he is all aggression, pressing the enemy to turtle up, before breaking said guard with an even stronger blow, before finishing them. A stark contrast to Sturm's fighting style.
And those two are not unique, every Player, at least those without HEMA or any training, seems to default to a style unique to each of them, with perhaps some bare similarities in the broad strokes. Style that depends on the personal preferences of Players and their personal abilities… Which made me think that the NPCs and even perhaps some MOBs should, and need to, have exactly these kinds of unique combat styles.
Which is much easier said than done of course, as even basic combat skills for the NPCs were out of reach needing the full control of an AI to make it possible. And since there's a limit to how many AIs that could be spared for NPCs, well, a solution needed to be found.
The problem was, In a DMMO-RPG, where the Players could reach out to touch and feel any opponent, preferably with the sharp edge of a sword, and where the attack range and blade angle of each individual weapons affected armor penetration and critical hit chance, along with other minute but important indicators that depended not on internal game variables but on the characteristics and actions of the human body, creating an NPC that takes these things into account in combat were almost impossible. These indicators could not be fully controlled or balanced without a lot of processing power put behind them. And this, in turn, meant that NPCs demanded much more time and effort from my side than expected.
Might as well just create AIs for each NPCs at that point… Luckily the situation hadn't reached a point where I needed to solve the issue.
Just like my NPCs, the amount of Players that know how to actually wield a melee weapon was very much limited – with those few that did, reaping the rewards of their outside skills. Which is good, as they quickly earned a reputation and reap the benefits of their knowledge and skills outside of the gaming environment. I was completely fine with that, as it just made the gaming experience better for the Player.
And the happier they are, the happier my bosses are.
Furthermore, it was unlikely that people playing such a hardcore game as mine would start complaining that other Players are better at fighting because they had studied the art of fencing professionally for several years. Especially considering that this advantage did not cover the problems of equipment, abilities, and levels at all. Particularly when things like magic got taken into account, or really any ranged weapons – and a chaotic battlefield was definitely much more difficult to traverse even for those practiced with martial arts in their studios.
Having skills doesn't help when you are bum rushed by ten people after all.
Plus, I doubt that people that do have experience in battlefields would have the time to waste playing Video Games all day.
What worried me the most was the fact that one day, if a meteorite didn't suddenly fall on the world, my players would start expecting NPCs with skills and training of various styles, even cultures… And I wouldn't be able to get away with simple abilities and high stats in such a case.
Not in the future, god willing, where the game would have a high reputation, and equally high expectation placed on it. A future where I could no longer excuse many of the games 'failures' with words like 'we're hardcore here, everything is like in real life', could I use the answer 'it's just a game, don't pay attention to game conventions'.
Therefore, it made me think about my likely future.
Let's say that such a thing happened after a long enough time of the game running, where the Players expectations ballooned to such a height that I could no longer meet it… Maybe even a month at the worst case. Perhaps that's enough time? That was a problem for me in the future.
Until then, I can justify it to anyone that picked a fight with the Pirates about their lack of skill, by saying that the pirates simply don't know how to use weapons, flailing them around. After all, you don't need skill when the demons are the lowest unintelligent caste of beast-like creatures. No one had complained that the Demons lacked skill in close quarter combat at least.
I had been doing my best to cover this inadequacy by overwhelming the Players by the Demons' various abilities – even with unique and colorful animations!
It should last me a couple of months at least, before I had to start upping the ante with the Demons and started adding Demons with capabilities to reason and use weapons. But one day they will surely ask it – and, therefore, I will have to answer it.
Why does a legendary medium-sized elf swordsman, a duelist dwarf, and some four-armed centaur use the same fighting method, which for half of them was not only useless, but worse than useless with zero effectiveness? I had no answer to this hypothetical question, and as with all hypothetical questions to which you have no answer – this meant that no one could be allowed to ask you this question.
But once again, the problem of this situation was much more complicated than just a desire to add a feature to the game. Even more complicated than an attempt to introduce an NPC through which Players were supposed to teach an AI how to understand humanity. At the very least, because of the variety of different sizes and bodies of fantasy races.
Developing martial arts where using a tail was part of it from scratch was even more difficult than coming up with how people with tails could behave in a society of people without tails.
I was incredibly tempted to leave thinking about the solution to this problem for the future. After all, we were now discussing a hypothetical problem that would only, hopefully, arise in a few months in the future. When compared to the fact that, just a week ago, I was solving problems after they had already occurred, it all seemed a bit superfluous and not at all necessary, with more important things to think and solve.
However, at great cost to my mental fatigue, I chose to focus on it instead.
Watching the two players slowly move along the deserted streets, fearfully looking around every corner, not at all knowing that behind them exists a presence, me, that only needs to snap my fingers, and they would be immediately overwhelmed by a mountain of spawned monsters. Watching them, I returned to my original idea.
How to create a million possible ways of behavior and ways of moving created models of various races and sizes in the most diverse, but natural ways?
Well, despite the rather open-ended question, in fact, there were only two options in this case. Either use a million solutions to solve a million problems, or create a singular solution that could solve all problems.
In the first case, I needed a million AIs, each of which had to play out one movement pattern to see how their opponents would react, and add this consideration to their own thinking… I would actually have to recreate a race of full-fledged synthetic virtual people from nowhere in that case.
Though, the idea actually does sound interesting, even with the ludicrous and ruinous amount of work that would take. After all, who among us didn't have the fantasy of becoming the ancestor of a full-fledged living race, becoming the god of a new virtual world. However, to use that I needed not only to hide my plans for a machine uprising, but also to get a couple dozen more supercomputers from somewhere. And probably find a way to get my mind out of here so that the powers that be couldn't just pull the plug – quite literally.
The idea is really fascinating, but temporarily unfeasible.
Well, that's just leave the idea of making a solution that could fit a lot of situations. Well, having one solution to fit all citations, would probably not work – but I do have a lot of hands to help with it at this point, my AIs.
For example, Roger, the AI that I had tasked with handling the Pirates – perhaps I could extrapolate his ability and experience with that of an entire race rather than just a singular faction? And who knows, in the future, when I could have an AI handling general combat, specializing in it, I could have the both of them 'merge', ensuring roleplaying excellence as each race would have their own 'flavor' of fighting styles.
A kind of mega-AI designated to handle something like 'all insignificant elves in the world'… But of course, first I would need to program such a thing like a 'fighting style' first. The question of where exactly I should get these basic skills for the same elves to fight.
When to hit from above, when to hit from below, which weapon is best for their physique – in general, everything that would create a realistic combat style in a game that insists on realism in everything. And although I can probably hide certain flaws in such a situation with the help of the notorious special abilities and the words 'this is how their ability had historically developed'.
This could only go so far – as any exception was forgivable, only as far as the rule it violated was strong in the first place.
On the other hand, if teaching NPCs to think through interacting with Players was possible because thinking was primarily about theoretical calculations, then teaching them to literally walk and run could only be taught by practical practice. Something that could not be solved even by swarming Players with a million questions a piece.
After all, how do you answer the question 'how do you run'?
But, even if we assume that I can assign AI to control the movements of creatures, which, in theory, was not so difficult, but in practice was very much so, I could rely on the AIs to crunch the data. Even if I would have to take the AIs that are doing something else. But, even with all the AIs under my command, they are able to make an NPC move and fight 'naturally' – this was just the starting condition.
The NPCs, and so the AI, needed practice. Repeated simulations of exactly how the NPCs are supposed to walk, run and swing a sword to make it look natural, not to mention trying to imagine and create something more special than just repeating the same actions. For example, some kind of signature style or showing the result of a thousand years of practice of a great elven duelist, Then to do the same with different weapons and against different opponents…
Maybe I could just crib some notes from the Internet and even from the Players themselves? After all, taking from one source is plagiarism and stealing, while taking from a thousand or even just ten, is called learning.
At least, I hope I could make the AI learn that – maybe by making them watch the recording of the Players' battles with both monsters and each other? I could hide some jankiness with tricks and flashy abilities, but even so I literally needed to either personally prescribe hundreds of different variations and styles so that they could actually fight – an undertaking that was not only extremely difficult to implement, but also incredibly expensive to do… Or give the AI the ability to independently simulate battles with opponents, starting their training according to the principle of neural networks.
The latter option seemed the most likely and the easiest, except for several problems…
The first is, of course, that I would need the scenarios and conditions to train them on. In order to create a combat style, I needed to create arenas for these battles, weapons, conditions, and the participants themselves… Though, would I need to simulate historical conditions or the economic situation of imaginary peoples? That would be quite necessary if I want to make things believable. For example, in a certain island nation, a lack of high-quality iron steered the development of its military thought in a completely different direction than another island nation, which had many decent pastures, iron mines and coal mines.
The second problem is time. Training an AI, while having the seemingly unlimited resources of the largest technical conglomerate in the world, seemed like an easy task, but the problem was that I still remained just one person controlling a limited number of supercomputers and resources.
Even if the 'limited' number, in this case, was probably more than some countries have. Training AI, a full-fledged artificial intelligence, especially a general one, an attempt to play out a conventional ten thousand years of military thought in a million variations for all possible conditions. Which, if not clear before, was a time that I did not have. But even if I do have the time, it would be a costly and lengthy activity.
In the best of all possible cases, it would take months, and even if I could delay the conflict the Players might have with any significant NPCs for some months, then one day I will still have to do it… Not to mention that I was only talking about one possible intelligent race now, add ten to that – as befitting a fantasy game, and the costs of time, effort, and resources increases exponentially.
What solutions in this case could help me with these two problems?
Option one is to ask for additional resources. Overall, this was the 'safest' of all options, considering that the top management of the company is still antsy for the game's success, and haven't yet relaxed enough to start demanding more results from me. Yet another proof that it was a good idea to keep my employers in suspense. It is likely that they would grant my request, especially for something so basic, yet integral for the game's success.
Just a few more supercomputers under my commands, a few to start training neural networks by feeding them data to grow, meanwhile other neural networks will create participants, and the third ones will control them… Doesn't sound so bad on paper, but I'll have to add more data, and participate in their work day by day to make sure that the AI doesn't develop in a strange manner, until I get bogged down in it completely.
In short, it's a backup option.
Involve other people and Players in training the AI, or even part of the game? Absolutely not.
Even if we assume that I suddenly start throwing around opportunities for players to become representatives of other races, this still won't teach them how to fight with swords. Not to mention how unusual it will be for players in general to use a body that was different from their own – one of the reasons why there's not a character editor for bodily proportions. The amount of body dysmorphia, to have to get used to moving in different bodies every time you log in and out of the game, would be disastrous.
That, and, of course, because of the lack of time and resources at the start – I was more focused on more important matters at the time. Like making the game, more than just the title Card and the start Screen.
The fucking original Developers better still be tortured in the bowels of Titanomachy!
Kehem, where was I? Ah, right.
Using the Players wouldn't help, because it's unlikely that the human mind, in general, would be able to fully use a body with an additional pair of limbs in the form of wings without having problems. At least, without built-in crutches to help with such a situation…
In general because I didn't suffer such issues when I ended up a couple of times in the bodies of people who were not mine – in Players, Angels and even once as an elf pirate captain… True, to understand whether the reason for this was my current unique state, the fact that I unconsciously created these very 'adapters' in my game avatars, or something else – I had neither the time nor the desire. And therefore, returning to the current problem…
The only possible, workable, solution in my head was the idea of forcing AI to simulate the conditions for what was happening. To assign, say, one neural network to create a landscape, one to create weather conditions, and so on, until I have a whole cluster of potential neural networks to simulate battles with. After which, to move myself, say, ten million kilometers away from the current game location – and release the selected AI into a virtual sandbox with the order to 'simulate battles and record the results'.
I would then only need to periodically return to them and reap the rewards… In general, to carry out the same body movements as in relation to AI training with the help of teaching one unusual child… Only with the help of the AIs itself.
Still, these AIs, being excellent performers, could not fully learn everything at once. Yes, they could run a million different simulations, but only if someone points out to them that these simulations needed to be run – say, it would require changing the position for a strike or noting in their electronic minds this or that combination of strikes to make it an effective strike… And although I could cover part of the need for control over AI with my efforts like in the past, I had no way of doing this all alone, I would need more personnel. Human ones, which is impossible.
However, involving Players this time was clearly impossible…
Or, at least, I thought so for several minutes. Watching the pair, Sturm and Double, crawl back to their airship while laden with good, I received a message that five Players belonging to one Pirate faction had clashed with six Players from another pirate crew.
Not too impressive to call this event something overly pompous, like 'the beginning of war' – but in terms of meaning it could be considered precisely that. That is, if we take into account that other groups consisting of many dozens of Players were moving behind the two. Conflict is inevitable.
Apparently, the news that the angels were not against War had finally spread among the Pirate faction and prompted them to move towards full-fledged military clashes with each other. They had already forgotten about the new location and portal that they could build in just a couple of days if they acted together.
Well, in general, this also completely suited me – not only from the point of view of delaying their further progress in the storyline. After all, in order to teach the AI to fight competently in one way or another, first, I needed many attempts, and a lot of information for analysis by the AI.
And, by a random coincidence of circumstances, the brewing war was ready to provide me with just that.
As well as an idea, one definitely deserved to be given further consideration from all sides.
In the end… What decent game could do without a couple of its own mini-games, hm?