Chapter 663: Chapter 630: Plot Arrangement and New Year’s Activities
“Alright, let’s slow down a bit,” Lincoln says, hitting the brakes before more people expose their sexual quirks.
“Your ideas are all good and most of them can be integrated into the game.”
“But, let me first give you a general idea of the game.”
Everyone immediately stops commenting, their anticipation for this game is no less than the players’.
The players anticipate a return to the Tang dynasty, while they anticipate “creating the Tang dynasty”!
Just the thought of it fills them with excitement.
Lincoln ponders for a moment, slowly turning his thoughts from these days into text and sending it piece by piece into the group chat—
[The story of Chang’an will be a chapter-based story.]
[Each chapter will have a different theme, giving players a significantly different gaming experience.
Of course, in the end, all the chapters will connect together to form one main storyline.
As for the content of this main storyline, you can all probably guess—”The An Shi Rebellion”.
This is a natural story node.
But I do not wish to throw the players directly into the chaos, that would undoubtedly be a huge waste of the “glorious Tang” material.
So, the beginning of our game will be the year before the An Shi Rebellion, which is— the 13th year of Tianbao.
At that time, although the Tang Dynasty was already brewing a profound crisis, the life in the eyes of the people was still a life of flowers and oil, prosperity and peace.
I hope that when players enter the game, what they directly experience is this “prosperity”.
The first chapter theme of the game is—
[Lush Scenery]
In this chapter, the quest line itself is not important. What’s important is for players to see the prosperity of Chang’an in full.
Flower appreciation meetings, international conferences, courtesan selections, chicken fights, horse races, kicking jugs, flower boat night drinks….
All you can think of, any non-contradictory festivities, if any, can be woven into the quest line.
Bring on the prosperity!
The ancient scholars saw all of Chang’an’s flowers in a single day, we want our players to see all of Chang’an’s livelihoods in a week!
Oh, by the way, I’ve pulled in some people to create “Divine Capital Luoyang”, so you can consider letting the players go there to have a look.
After all, after this chapter, it will not be easy to see a peaceful Luoyang again.
Once this chapter is over, we will welcome the real chapter about “conflict”, which is the second chapter—
[Twenty-Four Hours of Chang’an]
When I spoke of Chang’an’s livelihoods earlier, I missed a key element that some people might have noticed: The Lantern Festival on Yuanxiao Night.
The reason why it wasn’t mentioned is because this is the key content of the second chapter.
The busiest Lantern Festival, with people rubbing shoulders and feet not even touching the ground in celebration, partying all night long.
However, a group of Turkic “terrorists” secretly infiltrates Chang’an, planning to launch a “terrorist attack” on Chang’an during the Yuanxiao Night.
That’s right, Huo Xing, you can lead a team to make a movie titled “Burning Chang’an”. When players fail a mission, before they reload the gameplay, you can scare them by showing the movie.
The main quest line for this chapter is “counter-terrorism”.
However, in the end of the story, we must bring “Anloshan the barbarian” into the mix.
Anloshan left Chang’an in March of the 13th year of Tianbao, which is just in time to fit into the story.
Lets the players meet Anloshan in advance and perhaps provide an opportunity for the players to get a chance to strike him once.
But don’t get him killed. His main story will be featured in the third chapter—
[Battlefield]
It’s clear here: Tianbao’s 14th year – the eruption of the An Shi Rebellion.
Having developed throughout the previous two chapters, the players’ levels, equipment, and skills should be pretty decent by now. It’s the perfect time to put them to the test on the battlefield.
However, the battlefield is merely a place for players to brawl. The real main storyline can’t be set on the frontlines.
No matter how much the players have levelled up, it would still be tough to turn the tide on the battlefield.
So, as for the main storyline, my current idea is: infiltrating Luoyang to assassinate Anloshan!
As for how it’s going to work and more specific ideas, I’ll organize them and share them with everyone later.
Should the three chapters I’ve laid out so far keep everyone busy for a while?
——In reality, he refrains from sharing further because his ideas for the third chapter are a bit out there, and it’s not quite suitable to disclose at this stage. It might disrupt everyone’s thought process.
With the first two chapters, Lincoln hopes to maintain a relatively pure historical, chivalrous and legendary story style.
As for the third chapter, the wild idea that he derived from the keyword “Yao Fa” (magic), if he revealed it now, would surely lead the employees astray.
After Lincoln shared so much, the employees obviously needed some time to digest everything, hence the group became quiet for a moment.
After waiting for several seconds, Lincoln suddenly had another thought, and hurriedly added:
“Oh, by the way, for this year’s New Year activities, let’s plan a crossover event for our game ‘Chang’an’ and ‘Battlefield’ in advance.”
“We can have a war set in the cold weapon era!”
“Wait, wait, wait!” Fred immediately intervened, “What New Year activity? Why don’t I know about it?”
Looking baffled at his phone, Fred pondered, do I not deserve to know this?
“?” Randall, who had been lurking in the group for the past few days, slowly typed out a question mark.
Obviously, this is the first time he has heard of it.
“Ah? Haven’t I mentioned it before?” Lincoln recalled that a lot of the activity preparations he and Mavis had been working on had not specifically been assigned for the New Year activities to the employees.
This resulted in many people working on the “New Year Activities” for two weeks without being aware of such an event…
So Lincoln explained, “Isn’t this year coming to an end? I’m planning to run a ‘Seven Days Joy of New Year’. Let’s have some fun and celebrate the new year with our players. During this time, all of Cloud Dream’s games will launch various celebratory events.”
“For instance, the ‘Freedom Day’ activity in ‘Assassins’ Alliance’, the intercity car racing grand prix in [Metropolis-Night City-Virtual Xiajing], Gambling God Duel and Mahjong God Fight, Night City Beach Amusement Park updates and so on — yes, if we don’t update the park soon, it’ll be Spring. Might as well include it this time…”
“Wait, wait, wait!” Little Chun, who had been silent as well, chimed in, “Before we talk about anything else, does the event name have to be as cheesy as ‘Seven Days Joy of New Year’?”
Card King, Little Chun, understood that it was aimed at engaging older users who preferred easily comprehensible jargon.
However, ‘Seven Days Joy of New Year’ is undoubtedly an event for all players, with such a cheesy name?
It’s so tacky!
Moreover, when Lincoln was briefing the game plot just now, she had been wanting to complain —
“For such important matters, why are we only learning about them through chat software?!”
“Ah, well…” Lincoln was left at a loss for words.
It might be a bit biased to say “all”.
— At least, the interns were informed face to face.
But if he voiced that out, apart from Randall and Little Chun, the rest of the employees would surely be questioning their existence, so he decided to let it slide…
“Don’t worry about the details; form isn’t important. I’ve said quite a bit, you all must have plenty of thoughts by now, right? I won’t interrupt everyone’s thought process anymore. Good night, everyone.”
After speaking, Lincoln quickly took off, disappearing from the group chat.
No matter how hard they asked, he didn’t bubble up again.
He had to ponder a bit about today’s conversation with the leader of the haters.
It may not necessarily be placed into the “special store”, but it’s definitely worth designing some, whether as an easter egg in Night City or for “Pacific Rim” as “technological reserve”, it’s certainly worth studying.
Or even… put it in the city of Chang’an!
Mechanical Art Sister?
It’s totally feasible to work with!