Monday 9 December 2019

夢.十夜 (4) Bear's talk

某日,樓上咖啡廳。

不知不覺間我養成了去那家咖啡廳的集慣。沒錯,就是曾經跟乙女遊戲合作、讓我巧遇卡羅那家咖啡廳。古典優雅的風格讓人有種跳脫於樓下喧鬧都市的感覺,加上店員的咖啡手藝意外的好,使我禁不住對着菜單一個個點下去,最終成為這邊的常客。

我問店長,有這種手藝何不開一家文青風格的咖啡廳,這樣生意應該會比較好吧?

店長說,這家咖啡廳是她從某本在異世界開咖啡廳的小說裡獲得的靈感,雖然不打算被大貨車送去異世界但還是希望擁有一家古典風格的咖啡廳。

在異世界開的古典咖啡廳...該不會是某偵探兼咖啡師(barista)跟女高中生的組合吧?

在我面前的是看上去平平無奇的黑咖啡。隱約的果香味與咖啡的香氣形成絕妙的平衡,再加上旁邊淋上即製暖果醬的厚切熱香餅,可說是冬天的暖胃必選。

桌子的另一邊也放了一客甜點:新鮮出爐的窩夫配上石板街雪糕。看上去雖然簡單,但是要在冰火二重天中取得味道的平衡也毫不容易。多出來的一客甜品並非因為我想一次過嘗個夠,美食鑑定家那種甚麼都點一遍但都只嘗一口的事我才不會做。

坐在我對面多的是一位文學少女。個子偏小反而讓人覺得可愛,甚至會有想要餵食的沖動。當然如過你玩過逆戰幻想並與她交過手的話就知道,她的手腕跟她的可愛的外表並沒有直接關係。

她是我們群裡面的交易之鬼,熊熊。

活動裡分數獎的角色卡,一方面是活動的加分卡(當然效果沒有新卡池裡面的強),一方面可以補完活動裡的劇情,因此是許多玩家追求的珍品。這些卡的價值會隨活動進行,更多人拿到手而下降。一邊刷活動一邊將角色卡賣出去成為了無課玩家的難題。在有限的社交平台上找買家不是不行,但是這些用戶幾乎每個都是精打細算的小氣鬼,情願等到活動結束後再收來留念。遊戲裡面的留言版只會保留最前面的15條留言,想找買家只能逐個洗版。一個人拿到這張獎勵卡時往往也意味著其他用類似打法的玩也拿到手或者即將拿到手,市場上的供應一瞬間就會衝了上去。如何在這張卡上榨取最大的價值,是逆戰幻想交易廚的難題。

然而這些對熊熊來說彷彿都不是問題。她總能找到不知哪來的收藏家並將卡片快速出手,即使減掉回扣後群友所賺還是比市價高。她也樂於接下群友們的請求,相對地大家會慷慨地邀請她參與一些沒那麼肝的活動,比如上次的競技場活動。

到底她是怎樣讓她的顧客明知道卡片價格會快速下滑的情況下掏出大把金錢把卡片買下來呢?熊熊的說法是掌握對方的需求和心理,可是遊戲內的留言版並不利於進行連串談判,而且在遊戲內討價還價的話勢必有第三方出來截糊。她是怎樣進行買賣至今還是一個謎。

除了交易之鬼以外她還有一個名號,那就是「神抽之手」。

逆戰幻想卡池裡的稀有卡機率是惡名昭著的低。曾經有玩家一口氣投下八千美元抽不出六星活動卡而向客服投訴而得到「請加油」的回覆。沒有保底、沒有天井。六星的出貨率只有千分之二左右。正因為出貨率是如此的低,新卡一旦淪為普通卡就幾乎不可能再被抽出來了。所以每一次推出新池都有不少說「再抽剁手」的玩家忍不住下去抽卡,每一次都能聽到某某玩家抽到家破人亡,或者某某玩家因為抽卡打擊太大而退坑--到下個活動為止。

難以出貨的問題似乎不曾在熊熊身上發生。對她來說抽出六星活動卡似乎只是五十還是一百美元的問題。當她抽出六星活動卡又懶得刷活動時她就會借給群友用,在活動後再把卡片清出去--當然也能賣得一個好價錢。

交易之鬼、神抽之手。集兩大能力的她沒興趣補完劇情,也不打算瘋狂刷活動。那麼她玩這個手遊還有甚麼目標呢?

一些「夢幻珍品」,她是如此說道。

手遊開服初期排名獎的門檻相當嚴格。部分的活動只有前五名或者前十名才能獲得六星排名獎。也就是說這些卡片的流通數量頂多是五到十張,這個數字只會隨玩家退坑或者被封禁而減少--一些玩家就喜歡以這些夢幻角色作為陪葬品,將其放在自己頁面上然後退坑。剩下還在活躍玩家手上的卡片肯定也會被珍而重之不會輕易脫手。

這些卡片第二個保值的原因是,這些卡片很強。逆戰幻想的戰力通漲比起其他手遊相對緩慢,這些前期獎勵卡本來就很強,即使過了大半年還能維持其高端戰力。再說這些角色的技能都與其他常用角色比起來略有不同,往往能打出意料之外的連鎖反應。比如說一部分獎勵卡的技能都是「速攻」,可以保證先攻和減少冷卻時間。一般的平民隊都十分依賴先手開buff把戰鬥拖進自己的節奏,也就是說用上「速攻」的話很有機會把對手打個措手不及。

這些卡片更值錢的地方是,遊戲開服初期為了增加人氣而找來了大手繪師繪製卡片,又特別請了劇本家來為她們編寫故事。單從藝術性來看這些卡的價值也是無可比擬的。

又萌又強又珍貴的角色,還有比這更值錢的卡片嗎?

夢幻卡片之中最珍貴的應該是「月下劍士」(Fencer of the Moon, )戴安娜(Diana)。這是遊戲開服以來第二個活動的排名獎,限量五張。在高樓頂凜然站著的少女,身上淺藍色的輕裳令她與月光融為一體,只有她的劍例外--與她交過手的人,才能領教其鋒芒。

看到她的高人氣官方便順勢將她推成主角,不但遊戲的圖標(icon)變成了她,官方後面也推出了一堆與她相關的角色將她的故事補完。她本人的分身(alt)卡片也出了三張,不過最初這張「月下劍士」受追捧的程度還是無可取代。當初發出去的五張,一張成了陪葬品、一張隨作弊玩家帳號被禁而消失。剩下有兩張分別在最強兩個公會的會長手上,還有一張不知去向。有人曾向兩位會長開出八萬美金的價格而被一口拒絕,身為會長他們根本不在意這些錢。目前看來要從他們手上拿到戴安娜實在難如登天,要打破這個有價無市的局面就只有第三張重現江湖這個可能性了--但是根本沒人知道第三張在哪。當初在活動拿到這張戴安娜的玩家本來就少在留言版說話,所以也沒法追縱到是誰把她買走了。按他的說法他賣給了一個中間人,而那個中間人的帳號明顯是為了匿名交易而創造出來的。就算是擁有強大交易人脈的熊熊對第三張戴安娜的去向毫無頭緒。

當然所謂的夢幻珍品遠不限於戴安娜。早期的排名獎、一些出貨極少的分數獎甚至是早期限定卡池的限定卡都在大家追求的範圍內。熊熊對角色戰力沒有特殊要求,但她都喜歡收集同個繪師筆下的角色,當中就包括了繪製戴安娜的繪師。聽說繪師本人也是逆戰幻想的玩家,甚至聽說向她展示她筆下稀有卡片的話可以換到他的親筆簽名,不過這都是後話了。

*

「所以,你是到底怎樣識破在群裡裝成新人的我?我應該沒有提過上次的活動才對。」

「我看人很準的,」熊熊那清澈的眼睛直射了過來,我沒多想就接受了她的說法:「那種從數字為根底去理解遊戲的習慣,不是每個人都有的喔。應該說,只有你一個會這樣說話吧。」

『刷了27次同一個關卡終於把這張4星刷滿等了!』
『這個活動對手的等級是怎樣成長的?』
『每天肝12小時才拿到這張4星,累死我……』

被完全看穿了。雖然內容都是新手才會留意的東西,但這樣說話的人大概不會有很多個。看來下次不但要裝萌新還要裝成沒上進心的萌新呢。

「好吧我輸了。」我舉起雙手苦笑道:「如果可以,我也想跟你一起在遊戲裡做商人呢,可惜每次看到新活動我就忍不住衝下去。要是有一天我從火線上退下來你一定要教我宰人的要訣喔。」熊熊露出招牌營業笑容把小一塊窩夫放進口中,沒有回答。我繼續問道:「對了,我聽說你在尋找夢幻卡片。你現在帳號裡有現成的可以給我看看嗎?」

她爽快地掏出手機道:「小紅的話給你看當然沒問題,就算把卡片借給你補完圖鑑也可以喔。」因為是開服初期的卡片,裡面所描述的世界觀似乎都是較為孤僻和根源的部分。我目前收集到的很多都來自活動卡,其附帶的劇情多半是圍繞一個地方或者一個節日的故事。總有一天隨著我收集更多卡片我會激發起補完這部分的好奇心吧?不過現在大概還不是時候。我忍下劇透自己的衝動拒絕了這個建議,接過了熊熊的手機開始觀看。

「炎龍神」密奈娃(Minerva),開服第四個活動排名獎,限量十張。
「冰槍士」蒂璐(Tanelle),聖誕限定卡池,據說流通量不到五十張。
「白之聖樹」奧莉希亞(Algeria),爬塔十周目獎品,限量十五張。

即使是熊熊也只有三張夢幻卡片,但這三張已經足以讓她成為知名的夢幻卡片收藏家之一。而且這三張的繪師正正都是繪製「月下劍士」那一位。也就是說,如果她有心收集其他夢幻卡片的話,收藏四張甚至更多應該不是問題吧?

「沒有啦,我收到這三張真的是碰巧。」熊熊再一次看穿我心中疑問並回答道:「因為這個繪師比較有名,在玩家之間人氣也高嘛。本來就有一堆人衝著她畫的卡片而去,打出來收藏也好、轉賣也好,這些卡片的下落反而比較好追縱。」比起能不能買下來,卡片是否還有流通的可能性更重要。繪師會一直製作新角色,玩家也有機會見異思遷。持有者還沒退坑的話,收下來可能只是價錢或時間的問題,但是卡片消失了的話就永遠找不回來了。

「小紅也對夢幻卡片有興趣嗎?」

「我……應該是繪師廚和劇情廚吧?幾位繪師的畫風都很討喜,劇情將世界觀補完這一點也很棒。不過我現在收藏的卡實在太少了,實在沒辦法確定自己的取向呢。現階段還是將自己的御用隊型打造出來比較重要吧?」

在PVP的世界裡,由於不同角色之間微妙的化學反應,要打造一個順手的隊型需要反覆的測試和微調。因此很多人都傾向用單一隊伍作為主要隊伍,輔以幾支對付特殊隊型的備用隊伍。當然,一般玩家之間流行的隊伍也是有的,用那種隊型就能免去自己測試的麻煩,但相對地這些隊型都比較僵化(rigid),玩家私心插一隻角色進去的話隊伍威力就可能差很遠。

我上次競技場用的其實是Alex借給我的隊伍。那一隊是他在自己搭出愛隊以前用的流行隊型,威力是不錯,就是角色外形不夠誘人。我當時需要的隊伍其實也不用特別強,只要打贏同樣在刷勝場數的群友就夠了,這種一般的隊伍正好可以派上用場。單論我自己擁有的卡片的話,我甚至連拼砌出像樣隊伍的卡片組合也沒有,何況我對PVP系統的連動理解也不太夠,距離自己從頭拼一隊出來還遠著呢。

「想盡快拼出自己一隊的話,你的機會來了喔。」熊熊的聲音變得低沉而沙啞,不排除是雪糕吃太多:「下個月……就是大家等了好久的攻城戰活動。」

攻城戰,與十年前武林同萌傳的大型更新「幸福攻城計劃」無關,但它們的本質是一樣的。

攻城戰就是公會戰。

個人活動排名再高都有肝力和抽活動卡的運氣因素在裡面,在玩家之間並無最強玩家一說。公會戰則不同,單循環打出來的排名是大家都認可的。

攻城戰是以九人為小隊的即時PVP活動。活動只有短短的七天,但其實是每天打五場一共三十五場的無間地獄。玩家可以自由組隊,但一般來說都是公會(遊戲內沒有官方的公會功能,所以公會其實是玩家之間的群體)派出九人,剩下的成員則作為後勤支援。由於公會一般都無力支援兩隊,再加上多數玩家無力承受這種每五小時一戰連打三十五場的安排,每一支前列隊伍實際上都代表了一個公會,攻城戰被當成公會戰也就理所當然了。

攻城戰之慘烈我曾在群裡聽其他前輩提到過,想也知道我不可能投入這種疲勞轟炸的活動裡去。其他活動我好歹可以自己選擇肝的時間,打攻城戰的話除了會睡眠不足以外所有現實生活都會打亂了不是嗎!

「我……嗯……感覺自己的隊伍還是沒組好,大概只能拖後腿吧?」

「像上一次那樣我們借一隊給你就好了吧?」

「還有……每天五場真的太累了……再好玩的活動也沒充足睡眠來得重要吧?」

「不用太在意一天打五場的規則,其實很多公會都會依照自己的時區放棄一場。我們應該也是差不多的打法吧,一天四場的話就不用擔心睡不夠了。」

攻城戰是類似單循環的賽制,但因為參賽隊伍遠超35隊,讓所有隊伍互打一場是不可能也沒意思的。最好的匹配方法是匹配強度相近的隊伍,而遊戲的匹配機制也確實是這樣。

比較有趣的是如果每天默認放棄一場的話,匹配機制就有了操作空間。在最理想的情況下在放棄的場次對上必敗的對手,這樣就能以一天四戰的打法取得一天五戰應有的戰績。不過實際的操作還是一個謎--當勝率相近的隊伍都已經對過一次後,系統會幫你匹配勝率更高還是更低的隊伍似乎是隨機的。另一方面,對戰強度的曲線其實相當穩定:一開始往上,在你碰到天花板(打不贏的對手或者把所有頂級隊伍打完)以後就會逐級下降。要在每天的其中一場遇到特別強的對手似乎也不太容易。

「你讓我打……我也沒有太多建議啊,感覺順其自然就好了。反正一天四場的話是拿不到最高檔(top tier)甚至第二檔(second tier)的獎勵的,大家輕鬆打就好了吧。群裡能打的人隨便撿都能組一隊,應該輪不到我吧?」

「攻城戰期間Alex都在外地公幹喔。我們群裡也有些在不同時區的人,這樣互相代打的話一天打三場甚至兩場也不行嗎?」

「嘛……」

熊熊把最後一塊窩夫清掉用認真的表情追問道:「然後……如果我送你收一套現成的PVP隊伍呢?不一定要是平民隊,主題由你來指定。在合理範圍內我都可以幫你收過來。不打算以繪師和畫風為主題的也可以考慮一些不需太多操作的隊型,這樣你就可以把時間花在觀察戰場了吧?」

我本來想大聲斥責這個不勞而獲的提議(offer)的……可是它實在太香了。自定主題的現成強力隊伍,算一算用買的大概要一千美金以上吧?這已經接近一般活動最高獎勵的潛在回報了,何況一些較為少見的角色想收也收不來,只有熊熊有這個底氣可以說幫我收卡。

唯一要懷疑的是,熊熊的動機為何?先假定她作為群友不會坑我好了,這樣白送我一堆卡真的好嗎?就算我湊不出完整一隊,東拼一下西補一下總能像上次那樣運用策略拿到不錯成果的,應該沒有完整收一隊的逼切性吧?熊熊肯定也是知道這一點的……所以對她來說,這是一筆划算的投資?

她彷彿知道我的想法一般繼續說道:「不如我先問你一個問題……為甚麼稀有卡片的初始價格會這麼高呢?」

的確這是一個很重要的問題。以收藏的角度出發,明知道一星期後價錢會掉一半的話不可能急著出手吧?要炒的人也不會在高位入手,收來打活動的玩家更不會買一張超過活動回報的卡片。

「唯一的可能性……就是不理性的交易。」

「沒錯呢。不過與其說交易不理性,不如說我們與買家對金錢的價值理解有所不同。」對方很有錢,應該是這個意思吧。

「容許自由交易的遊戲系統,營運商應該賺得沒那麼多才對。到底是甚麼人在支撐這個遊戲呢?--要說的話就是在逆戰幻想這個遊戲之上的遊戲。」

因為開放交易,所以吸引了一大批無課但是肯肝的「工人階級」,有了他們的產出這個市場才有穩定的供求。在這之上就有了「土豪階級」--只要有錢,要組隊非常方便而不需要經過痛苦的抽卡過程。公會則是不同玩家尋求交流平台的自然產物。以公會會單位一起玩遊戲,以公會為單位彼此競爭。

「攻城戰……就是他們展示成果的地方。動員所有人支援九個帳號在七天的生死戰殺出重圍,成為大家認可的最強公會。這樣說的話,你大概猜得到為何我們希望你參與這次攻城戰了吧……?」

「即使我們做了點混淆視聽的功夫,上次的競技場活動你還是太出色了。出色得你被盯上了喔。」一把熟悉的磁性聲性從後響起。

是卡羅。

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不知為何,我在長途巴士、火車或者飛機時寫得特別快。不論是打字速度或是構思的精確度都比我安座家中寫字來得好。

是沒有網絡的原因嗎?很難說--巴士中途還是有不錯的網絡的。就算是飛機上也有免費的20MB流量供我看完一場球賽的文字直播。要說的話應該就是坐長途運輸工具時那種對環境的不舒適,包括輕微暈車、空氣的不流通和對時間的焦灼感讓我不自覺地高度集中在眼前的工作上吧。

最近都在看退隊流和誤解流輕小說,當中最有趣的應該要數嘆息的亡靈想要引退吧?我是很想寫出那種不同人物互動的小喜劇效果,不過在這邊以我回憶為藍本的話大多數有趣的事情還真是以一對一的對話裡產生的。順道一提,我真的很喜歡日文那種在旁邊加小字註釋(footnote)的玩法,有時某些英文單字更能表達自己心中的想法呢。

不管怎樣,2019也快要結束了,我也達成自己的目標在2020來臨以前將這一篇推出來。對我來說把它寫出來其實很簡單,但剛出來的文章只是30分的雜碎。文筆生疏的弊處,就是你要花幾倍時間將30分的文章修成60分。要我打分的話這篇應該是50或者55分吧?除了人物的互動外,遊戲的邏輯其實還有不完美的地方,但是無辦法:在現實世界的參照遊戲裡也還有我想破頭也沒法解釋的缺口。將其一律打為不理性雖然很(lame),卻也可能是最接近真相的說法了。

要在2019前再推一章出來有點難,不過我還有一兩次長途飛機的額度(quota)可以用。泡著在旅館的私人溫泉裡,看著外面草津群山的雪景,說不定我會靈光一閃呢?

嗯嗯,我也希望這種事情會發生。如果在溫泉巧遇螃蟹公就更好了。

在此先預祝大家聖誕快樂,雖然我已經聽一個月的聖誕歌了。我們下回見。

Tuesday 26 November 2019

26/11/19 - P12, Pokemon劍盾

經過兩星期的廝殺後,12強順利落幕。留給種花球迷的遺憾大概只有吳昇峰那一球、還有那個威力一去不回的大王而已。

這隊種花隊投手實力堅強,牢牢地壓住了日本以外所有強隊。每一位投手,包括先發和後援,也包括那些沒機會上場的,都值得一些掌聲。野手這次守備滴水不漏(好吧漏了一滴),幾次關鍵的全壘打讓局勢倒向種花一方,同樣值得讚賞。後勤更不用多說,幾乎每個隊員都對情蒐給予好評,支援工作也十分到位,連紅中也說要讚他們一下。

短期賽裡面教練的調度重要性不下於任何一位關鍵球員,這次12強我們再次看出紅中團隊的功駕。小組賽採取主動進攻的戰略,在對上韓國以前幾乎看不到點球戰術。當主播於台韓戰反復強調種花的進取打法時,兩次成功的觸擊都為球隊帶來了寶貴的分數,而其後收打和打帶跑也成功過若干次。比較可惜的是幾次挑戰都是較明顯的出局,就算用了挑戰也無力扭轉戰況。這方面比較大的鍋應該是三壘指吧,LM迷肯定知道三壘的紅綠燈從來都是壞的……

比較大的爭議大概集中在投手調度上。對我來說,先發上去投個100-110球從來都不是問題,只要他的球速、控球和壓制力還在,讓先發續投是理所當然的。張奕兩場的第六局都投得十分優異,第二場甚至在第六局投出149,就算他在日職沒投過這個球數,在第六局證明了自己可以的他為何不能投第七局?至於吳昇峰,七局前三位打者對上他並沒有佔到上風,唯一的安打也是偏弱的正中滾球,對上前面已吞2K的打者為何不能投下去?真的要說,換投的點應該在六局結束之時。不過由沒投手即時狀態的鄉民來分析大概都是結果論。如果七局上香腸爆炸了的話是不是要說油罐車不意外?

後援方面,穩定先發讓後援局數大減,有投手淪為觀光組也是無可厚非的--還是你說,你希望見到先發早早退場換來後援夜夜秀?主力中繼陳陳陳連線中的香腸和肥刀都在職棒中習慣二連投(但三連投不行),紅中當然深知這一點;陳冠宇在羅德也是資深投手,中間穿插上愛將曾41(可是他這次表現真的棒),每場吃下2-3局真的不夠嗎?要記住,選夠投手是為了在絕大部分情況下都夠投手用,而不是在先發穩定吃長局數下剛好夠投手用。

所以種花隊不用妄自菲薄,他們絕對不是甚麼弱旅;當然也不要自視過高--贏泡菜隊是個很好的開始。我們從這一世代開始要一直打敗他們,包括南韓、包括日本、當然也包括美國。職棒的增隊是個起點,但絕不是終點。職棒需要你我更大的支持,希望樂天也能好好延續LM苦心經營的過去,將這支球隊帶到一個新的高度。

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來說點別的事。寵物小精靈--我絕對不會用寶可夢這個無視粵語發音的譯名--劍盾,在11月15日發售。

偷跑劣評如潮。

圖鑑大砍、招式大砍。人型以外一切造型大砍、戰鬥場景大砍。野生道路大砍、城市內容大砍。洞穴深度大砍、劇情深度大砍。彩蛋大砍、二周目內容大砍、單機高階對戰內容大砍。音樂缺失、延遲嚴重、死機BUG。

一切為了提升遊戲的品質?

在這個資訊透明的年代再沒有靠名聲就能大賣的遊戲。大作要賣得更多就只能吸收輕玩家。低入手門檻、速食內容、將資源投入可以製造meme的內容。Pokemon GO就是這一種遊戲--其遊戲性建基於與現實的交互性,與人際網絡互動,而不是遊戲本身。LGPE打蛇隨棍上,復刻初代本身的簡單機制吸引輕玩家和懷舊玩家,最終也取得不俗的成績。

到了劍盾這個主線作品,同樣策略還會成功嗎?

上星期各家評家開獎,IGN的9.3與metacritic上玩家的3分形成極大反差。從IGN底下的留言就能看出輕玩家跟核心玩家的評價完全兩極化。輕玩家讚嘆其野心、其流程簡化、其可愛風格(和換裝play);核心玩家則批評這些以外的所有東西。

很多人指責核心玩家只會挑全國圖鑑的問題一直說嘴,這主要是因為偷跑前大家能看到的負面消息其實只有這個。在IGN開獎前一天不就有一串完整的劍盾缺點了嗎?當中建模、劇情等紕漏都是客觀上的過失,老粉真的只會挑小問題嗎?GF社在程式優化上表現不佳早已有跡可尋,這次據說錯誤使用NAND導致整部遊戲機報銷,真的是不能避免的事情嗎?(還真有這個可能,老任和GF至今還沒有對這事作出修正和說明。)

開售後一周銷量開出來是600萬,為NS史上最速。但再高的銷量也沒法掩飾玩家的內部分裂。從來都沒有一個遊戲/IP在拋棄核心粉絲後還能茁壯成長下去的,Fallout如是、數碼暴龍也是。還記得數碼暴龍4代與前作割裂的世界觀嗎?當時就引發了新舊觀眾之間的爭吵,當然在品質上佳的設定和那個騙小孩騙了十幾年的掃條碼暴龍機加持下4代依舊交出了亮麗的成績。然後呢?5代6代?對一般人來說,對數碼暴龍的記憶大概直接從4跳到tri.了吧。

我想說的是,當這些吸引輕玩家的表面設計逐漸疲軟,在將來成為標準配備而沒法吸引玩家進來嘗鮮時,丟失核心玩家的這個系列還有甚麼可以維持這種巔峰銷量?誠然,寵物小精靈在不同媒介(遊戲、動畫、漫畫、TCG、實體)都有更強更穩固的根基,但這不代表這個招牌不會有衰敗的一天。

從黑白開始的種種小問題到了劍盾已經成了一個警號。如果GF不再下決心花大錢解決以編程品質和美工為首的硬性問題,而是強行繼續一年一作的話,不滿的可能就不只有老粉了。

Friday 18 October 2019

2019年TS點評:運氣與實力的結合

Source: CPBLTV

三連霸,嗯。

這是成為王朝最後的門檻,正如車路士拿了歐冠才被承認為豪門一樣。除了三連霸以外Lamigo的實績已經多到滿出來:六年五冠(總冠軍)、三年八冠(含季冠)、連霸MVP;強打養成、第七輪玄學、輸出大王、今年隊伍OPS+130;行銷領頭羊、猿風加油、連續周六破萬人次。

即使這三年冠軍拿到手軟,即使G5早早領先十幾分,即使勝利的滋味已經淡到不行,但三連霸就是三連霸。三連霸還是值得大吹特吹,現在或將來都是。

這是個橫跨十年的王朝,不單是一代球員的功勞也不是紅中的功勞,是整個團隊長時間奮鬥的功勞。在Lamigo落幕之時我們必須感謝所有人的付出。

我當年進坑的時候Lamigo的隊型跟我的運動建隊哲學非常接近:防守優先、1比0主義、管理層強力支持教練的競技安排。當年的土投還沒那麼爛,當年Lamigo還有Mejia--現在他們的防守力早就丟了,不過當你追隨一個隊伍時,你不會因為它的風格跟你當初所迷上的不同而離棄它,畢竟現在猛打流也挺好的,打爪爪20:3更是爽得不行。

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簡單來說一下我對本次TS的感想好了。

五場比賽有三場半都是比賽前段先發大爆炸而早早為比賽定調。我們要想的是為何投手會大爆炸?

投手大爆的原因有三種:一是運氣奇差、二是守備不佳、三是投(捕)狀況/策略欠佳。去年TS打爆瑞安就是運氣不佳的一例:好幾球都是剛好越過內野頭頂,或者剛好車布邊打成二安。瑞安一開始還投得不錯,但後期已經難掩洩氣的表情,最後被打爆只是順水推舟而已。

來看看這次TS的幾次大爆炸:

G2:尼克斯季中中四日後沒法從疲態中恢復,本場60號引導模式單一以致尼克斯沒法有效取得出局數,再加上陳晨威中外的破守備造成了一局的大屠殺。CF的人選在強攻隊型下沒有太多選擇,倒是配球策略後面經指點後有所改善。

G3:福利熊固有的一局病發作,可算是運氣不佳,除去這局邊他的表現其實不錯。可惜短期賽每次犯錯都有機會造成遺憾。

G4:兩位先發都沒有像G2/G3那樣徹底炸開,不過也只不過是多掙扎了一下而已。投手不夠用的情況下只能一直偷,一直偷意味著被打下場前一定是以失血結束。這種局面就是比偷不成的失血比較大。

LM一直偷:偷boyo的第3局、偷黃子鵬的第2局、偷王41的第2局。每次投都會出事,每次失個一兩分才換別人上來收拾殘局。

爪爪還沒偷,他們的的好萌就被打成炸猛了。這其實是大家對爪爪教練團的大疑問之一。為何要滿壘放一個對LM極易被炸的投手上來?即便要換人,可以換中繼上來收掉這局再放赫猛上來嗎?赫猛也不負眾望,1.1局被炸2.5發,一下子將爪爪打進萬劫不復的境地。

G5:紐維拉狀態極差,控球東歪西倒,投進去也是肉包。這是大家對爪爪教練團的第二個質疑:讓一個119球投手中四日是否太冒險了?或者換個問法,讓一個即將中四日的投手119球是否太冒險了?G1打到第八局還落後兩分,這樣燃燒值得嗎?紐維拉可以穩定中四日,也有能力投110-120球。但你讓他120球再中四日,還是在總冠軍賽上。這個調度真的有詳細想過嗎?

要回答這些問題就需要兩隊的投手名單

從這裡我們不難發現爪爪除了先發外,其他人幾乎沒有負擔三局以上長中繼的能力。這就注定了先發一旦崩盤,牛棚就只能全體燃燒。

他們唯一的長中繼是赫猛,但他對上LM的往績實在太差了。結果論來看,他那發滿貫砲和後面的1.5發HR讓教練不敢真的讓他長中繼,結果就是幾位沒上過的投手全數上陣,而且結果都沒好到那裡去。

在G5以前,他們在沒有退路的情況下面臨投手崩盤的危險:他們的先發投完120球後中四日,他們的牛棚沒有長中繼,扣除G4炸開的投手牛棚能撐三四局就不錯了。有人提過廖乙忠在G5可能也要待命救援,雖然我認為在贏TS的前提下因為沒退路而提前起用下戰先發是飲鳩止渴,但看過他們的投手陣容後還真有點道理。

綜觀而言,爪爪的調度有有瑕疵。但他們的投手名單注定了他們調度的彈性不足,也沒法承受太多的差錯。前面G1 G4兩次錯誤的決定將G5的活路徹底鎖死,加上鄭凱文突然開始還債,剩下只是輸幾分的問題而已。

當然,Lamigo的投手群也是穩定發揮。

火牛陣在G1已經發出警報。收到訊號的教練團立刻回歸信任值系統的老套路:領先時勝利組全場,狀況一有變就換人。在G5開始以前,黃子鵬、王41已經上過三場;boyo與香腸則在G4吃下超量局數;張明翔和吳承哲則被丟到不被信任組。還好他們有一個沒投過的洪聖欽在,對核炸的抗性高那麼一點點。

撇除G5不算,Lamigo的投手甚至比爪爪的更不穩,更會堆壘包。幸運的是他們在關鍵時刻換人後都守下來了。兩次滿壘雙殺,G4五下和七下守住領先讓爪爪一鼓作氣、再而衰、三而竭。天知道上面幾次進攻機會被打穿一次會發生甚麼事。萬一嚇到紅中換投,然後新投手上來又放火呢?到時說不定哭的就是Lamigo一方了。

Lamigo一方雖然火牛陣是事實,但我在賽前的擔心主要是連四位先發都數不出來而要冒風險去147特攻。幸好在比數領先下LM有餘裕讓多猛先發,加上G2實際上翁承擔了先發等級的局數,這邊其實可以承受被打爆的能力比爪超出了很多。洪最後也沒有機會上來長中繼:G5的七八局誰來投都行,不過全員參與還是很重要的。只要不要像明星G7無安打擋住妹妹那種特殊狀況,讓休息充足的投手上來吃垃圾局數當然沒問題。

不過話說回來,李九下真的是盡情飆……洲際痛苦槍測到的155可以有多快?

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Lamigo在打擊上靠G4 5拉開爪爪一大截,但其實在G4以前爪爪3/4/5的三圍是壓過LM一頭的。G4 5只能算Lamigo打開停不了下來,並沒法證明他們打線比對面高一檔次。

守備上爪爪被記下來的失誤是有點多而且頗為致命(G1),但Lamigo為了火力極大化放陳晨威上CF也付出了代價,幾次貼牆的長打本可以由正規中外野手收下來的。

投手方面上面已經說了。大家各有各的問題,但運氣沒站在爪爪一邊。一些細節迅速變成大問題,最終從根本上將他們擊倒。

所以球員和教練說爪爪比以前更難纏不是沒道理的。大比分不能證明過程的艱辛,也不能抹去雙方的付出和努力。LM的強勢可以延續下去不消多說,爪爪明年繼續養好投手的話也會有一番作為。

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種花吱棒30年就在這裡落幕了,但這不是棒球季的終結。我們前面還有台灣甲子園,還有12強……不知道日本人看到大王回去狂打會有甚麼感想,唉。

P.S. 多說兩句。G5開始前投手的狀況有點15年G6前的樣子。隊上有幾位長中繼等級,可是沒有先發。正如當年雙洋將先發一樣,我認為G5也是尼+洪(翁)雙先發的安排。不過尼克斯歪歪倒倒也吃了6局,倒省去了這個麻煩。所以我們也沒機會再看一次那個傳頌萬世的跨欄……

Wednesday 2 October 2019

On Three Houses (2): Serious gameplay




Maddening accomplished, with NG of course. It took me about 100 hours, and the file shows 85 hours. That means I spent 15 hours retrying the courses. I took a very conservative approach both on the battlefield and in the academy exhausting all resources every step. I know I can go a lot faster but I didn't want to because I do not want to take the risk of retrying the whole game when I get stuck.

This, is my thought about the game from the perspective of maddening playthrough, the true difficulty for Fire Emblem fans.

- Story and plots - 

I chose Golden Deer this time as my final route for the game. It really is a "true end" to me -- not only that the story is complete, informative and less painful, the final fight is also a grand one -- that is the only final stage where you do not fight layer by layer but as a whole. You are also pressurized by the frontline enemies at turn one. The collaboration among the distant artillery units are terrifying. The boss is tiny yet hard to deal with. Not to mention the opera styled BGM -- everything is perfectly set to be the final fight.

After playing all four routes the overall plot is pretty clear. Crimson flower route need some further refine on its own, which will probably happen in update 3. The other routes are pretty complete.

Some may look for further information about the distant past...I hoped for the same but you know, these kind of supplement information is never enough. Perhaps they will publish a fanbook in the future?

- Team and formation - 

Due to limited resources I only recruited Doro, Sylvain, Mercedes and Ingrid this run. Doro became my dancer, Sylvain is a free recruit as well as a powerful axe wyvern (although everyone went to shoot arrows anyway), and Ingrid should be a dexterous falcon knight...except that her strength growth is horribly low in my run that she never became more than a chipping unit. Mercedes for her fortify, of course.

With the 4 recruits that completes my team of 12+1 for the final fight, where I usually drop Leonie because her dexterity never get to the point where she can steadily kill. For most battles in front where you can only use 10 units, the 3 lowest leveled units will follow the healers as adjuncts and absorb exp points from them.

I tried to exhaust the healing capabilities a bit. Marianne, Lys, Doro, Mercedes and even Lorenz and Byleth are overleveled due to constant healing. That also left the rest of the units enough opponents to kill. At the end, the mages are around level 60+, Lorenz and Byleth are around level 55, and the physical units are about the recommended level (42-44).

- Tactics - 

Everyone use bows and curved shots. Fliers may use close range weapons but really they just utilize curved bows and the canto ability to hit back and forth. In maddening you cannot really afford to go deep into the danger radius because everything doubles you, even with weapon breaker disadvantage.

But what hurts the most (other than Lys bomber) is the two 5-range units: Ignatz and Lorenz. Ignatz's hit+20 inherited skill allow us to build him in a super offensive way so that he can crit at will while still having a reliable accuracy even against assassins. Lorenz meanwhile, can fire up to 40-50 spells 5 grids away. This is perfect when you want to take down a particular unit in the opponent formation that will trigger the rest. 5 range attack also penetrates most walls so that allows you to do lots of unintended attacks.

In the Shamblala map, my team got stuck in the left-bottom corner when the 3 or 4 titans were trying to go through the gates. I stopped them by placing Raphael (but he still get critted twice for 15x2 at a crit rate of 15%) and ingrid up front, but these two are not good enough to handle 400 HP+ titans. What I did is to use curved shots to break a barrier on the titans, then Ignatz-Doro combo will produce 200+ damage on their own, every turn.

I did the same for Lorenz and even Marianne (as a holy knight), but Marianne is more like a magical tank - she easily take doubles with the white magic that heals upon damaging the opponent.

Lys and Byleth, can of course kill enemies at will, but I tend not to use them unless it's necessary. I enjoyed defeating the opponent without using these two too much. Although I defeated almost every non-generic characters by Lys (except for Nemesis), including Death Knights of course.

- Difficulty -

Maddening is for those who carve for a challenge -- the sentence accurately described the difficulty of maddening. It is challenging. It requires you to think and execute carefully every step, as well as hoping for reasonable luck in order to proceed.

Regardless of your endgame plans, the gameplay is similar for everyone at least in the first 6 chapters where you only have 1 battle points and very limited activity points. These chapters are really tricky and every reinforcement will catch you off guard.

I started to get frustrated on the second encounter with death knight. I used to finish the stage nice and slow but we have a 25 turn restriction this time. That forces you do be aggressive against opponents that are far stronger than you. Mages on avo floor is really a pain when your entire team missed hitting them. But this stage is also the time when Ignatz started to shine. His 4-range shots accurately clears the DK room and prevents the bloodleash.

After that everything changed because I know have 2 battle points. I started taking bandits after bandits, and finally I can clear the main quests in an easier way.

But not the reunion at dawn.

I didn't train Byleth seriously before time-skip, so that stage took me forever even with enough speed...It's Claude's gambit saved me, but I would be more pleased if he didn't take me out to do the battle with just 2 units.

In general, the exp mod forces you to really focus on units that barely forms a team. Further exp penalty causes most physical units to be of level similar to the recommened one, and at that level, fighting is really challenging due to hit rate and speed. It's more painful in the beginning because opponents having no specific classes means they are better than you all-roundedly. Later in the game the enemies are diversified meaning that you can kill them with proper tactics.

The two extra skills - pass and poison strike are good additionals to the difficulty. They require some extra thoughts to deal with in a reasonable way. Pass forces you to create compact formation retaining a correct distance from the opponent. It is less of a threat late in the game because you can utilize gambits and fliers to avoid having a solid frontline, so being able to pass do not create any harm. Poison strike on the other hand is still a threat late in the game, because that means you cannot tank infinitely many units by a single armor unit anymore. You will need to be careful when placing your tank by such.

- Mechanics in higher difficulty -

Looking back on what I said after playing normal and hard, it's time to review whether these comments hold anymore in maddening.

1) Weapon triangle: weapon breaker skills is essentially a weak weapon triangle, so weak to the point that does not affect your choice of weapons. Think about how you deal with those endgame physical units:

Sword - thieves and assassins. Due to their pass skills, you are forced to hold your line and kill them using multiple units. Lance units with swordbreaker may increase the accuracy a bit, but at close range mage and archers would work better.

Lance - well, where are all the cavalry units?

Axe - those are simply free kills. With enough dexterity most units are capable of dealing with them.

With everyone using their bows more than any other close range weapons, the discrepancies among the three weapons are weaker than ever.

2) Class meta: The class meta shifted further to distant attackers since you get doubled for every close combat, and dexterous units does not create enough damage (like my poor Ingrid). Ineffective classes remains ineffective, except for mage knights equipped with extra range tools. But for the rest like war master and dark mages...we just can't afford to choose those.

3) Maddening+: so...what should we expect in the fourth difficulty? There is no further news about this difficulty yet. Something looks like that appears in the fourth DLC but it's a side quest. Stat boosts on the enemy as well as the exp penalty is already harsh enough so that it's hard to expect further modification on this part.

Instead, changes should be made on the finest details -- so that players would optimizes themselves to the finest as well. These may include:
- a different AI that takes a mixed strategy between being stationary and aggressive, cares more on formation and harder to be baited
- restriction to physic and fortify uses
- reduce level cap to 50

After playing all 4 routes, I believe 50 is sufficient for everyone. We can modify the exp curve - lift the penalty below the recommended level and increase the penalty above the recommended level. By removing the unpenalized exp gain from dance and healing, the game become less grindy -- we can do less auxiliary battles and fish less (although Flayn would be sad), but you can utilize a team up to a certain level in the main quest without much effort. And that "certain level" is the intended strength of the team in which the developer wants you to clear the stage with.

But well, I am not going to do the highest difficulty if it ever comes out, with New Game. And not even New Game+, because it has taken too much time from me. I would rather play harvest moon in October. If I come back for Three Houses again, it is probably for Sauna, new stories and new characters...

- Elements missed -

I may not write anything further about the game (because it would have to be something related to the plots, but I am not ready to sort out the whole story. So I would like to conclude my review with a list of traditional FE elements that is missed in three houses:

- weapon triangle, of course.
- fixed but more diversified grow path
- advanced class with less movement restriction
- more talk options and ability to talk/recruit enemies
- villages and villagers
- pair up and rescue options
- ...

I know some of them does not fir into this game, but still I am hoping for something similar in the next franchise.

Friday 30 August 2019

Thoughts on Fire Emblem Three Houses (1): core mechanics

I decided to use this picture so as not to post any endgame spoilers. But it seems like this picture is also kind of a spoiler...


Three Houses for FEH fans, of course. Clearly FEH gives great attention as well as financial support to the development of the game. Before even going into the game you can tell that the game is a sincere one. I had no choice but to start playing since July 26 and as a result I almost abandoned FEH, stopped daily bonus streak in neopets...but that's totally worth it. I am satisfied with the game, the first mainline FE franchise I played since the three GBA-era games.

I finished 3 of the 4 routes and that takes me 145 hours -- 60 for the first route, 30 for the second route (that branched from the first halfway through), and 55 for the third route (via new game+). The first route is done in normal casual and that is really, really easy in FE standard. The third route done in hard classic is more of the expected normal difficulty, and is very fun to play.

Fire Emblem has evolved from a pure RPG-battle game into a game with huge amount of character interaction in various forms -- support system, academy, gifts and tea party and so on. The ~20 main quests should take a good FE player no more than 15 hours of gameplay, but the extra auxillary battles and the school exploration time takes a large portion of gameplay as well. If you skip everything and purely focus on numeric battles one can possibly finish the game in 25 hours, but that would be a huge waste because everything is well-designed to enrich the world of Three Houses.

And because of the vast amount of material that I can talk about the game I want to be kind of selective: I want to compare what I used to (old FE, FEH) and Three Houses since this is not covered in mainstream reviews (which is for everyone). Somewhere in the future I may also write something general about the game: plots, arts, characters and so on.

But before discussing any game mechanism, I want to stress that the importance of a certain mechanism is not absolute -- it depends on the difficulty of the game. The easier the game is, the larger flexibility players are given to not optimize things. In higher difficulties some mechanism may become crucial or even become the meta because if you do not do a certain action the rest of the game would be much more difficult. One example is having the glass cannon Lysithea in the game -- her unique set of black magic plus monster-effective white magic is such a nuke weapon in the game.

Similar argument simply applies to FEH as well. In arena we care about merges because it's the one or two points difference that determines the winner. I do not believe that -- I always believe that wise movements are more important except that characters with higher stats actually yield a higher score. Another example is the Legendary Hero Battles: in lower difficulty you can bring in your favourite team but for abyssal difficulty you have to either bring a well discussed meta team, an extremely specifically designed team on walkthrough, or something really spectacular to pass the stage. The over-inflated stats and skills leave basically no space for someone to experiment with.

The term flexibility sometimes does not only apply to strategical flexibility, but also flexibility in terms of space. The maps in three houses are in general very big comparing to the past. Not only that allows greater leniency for players to give commands, but that also lowers the difficulty quite a lot. (Think about the 2x3 hidden rooms in the final fights in blazing blade!) That accounts partially to why three houses is easy in FE standard.

But enough talking. Let's start with mechanism that are changed in three houses.

- Weapon triangle and class system -

The removal of the triangle is certainly a big change -- it lowers the complexity of matchup consideration so that the game is more accessible to new gamers. And of course, it allows characters to yield their favourite weapons, which is cool after all.

But for hardcore FE players, decision making became straightforward and less interesting because of the changes. The most significant change is that, the choice of weapon is now heavily dependent on the choice of the moving type.

Unlike 2-steps class system in the past, there are now 5 steps: "class-less" (commoner and noble), beginner (lv 5), intermediate (lv 10), advanced (lv 20) and master (lv 30). Since master classes the highest stat growth bonuses we shall assume characters are trained for at least one master class.

But that's where the problem is: the choice of weapon is then heavily relying on the moving type.

With the removal of the weapon triangle the melee weapons became more or less the same. We train a particular kind of melee weapon just because it suits the career path that we planned.

Just think about how we characterize the three weapons:

Sword: high crit, speed, pegasus or mortal servant
Lance: balanced, knight and fliers
Axe: high atk, armored or wyvern

But...without the triangle but with the master class restrictions, specializing in the right weapon seemed to be more important than what they are actually good at, because that is not going to make a great difference.

The only consideration is crit rate because the crit rate for swordmasters and snipers are terribly high so I have a tendency to push everyone to use sword, and those who are not compatible with sword will go into the lance path -- fliers or knights. And for axe? We don't need warriors and war masters thank you. There are a few characters that go well with armored knights, but they ended up using lances anyway because they received knight training anyway...

On the melee side weapons can be freely used given the proficiency rank, but this is another story on the magic side. There are only a few classes who can use magic even if units already learned such magic -- this is so weird. Are there anything stopping them from casting magic while wearing as a non-magician?

With such restriction naturally magicians really focus on magic and melee units should not bother about magic at all. Unfortunately master classes force you to do a mixed training. Just...why? Such requirement raises the difficulty of breeding a unit into master class and that seemed to contradict with the overall idea to make the game more accessible, or are they treat master classes as something not to be reached by new players? It's already hard enough to train a magical unit into holy/dark knight, but it's even harder to train a sword unit into mortal servant because their magic are of limited use even at the later stage. 8/8 fire plus 4/4 thoron means you can only train your reason rank 12 times before you have to go back to melee weapons.

I should also mention that the anima-holy-dark triangle is also gone. Given that dark and anima are merged into reason class anyway the removal is not very surprising. It's not even impactful because it is much less often that we have magical duels in three houses anyway. Just a small observation to put here.

- Non-infantry units -

There are three non-infantry movement types: armored, fliers and cavalries. There aren't many master classes available:

Cavalry: Bow/holy/dark knight, (great knight)
Armored: Great knight
Flier: Pegasus, Wyvern

Despite the the lack of magical classes for fliers, these master classes are quite strong and provides great tactical flexibility. Fliers (both pegasus and wyvern) are already the best classes around. The three ranged cavalry classes, in particular bow knights, are really good at producing damages without getting hit. Great knights meanwhile, well, are really strong in close combat.

In three houses we can no longer rescue other units but cavalry and flier units can now unmount to mock as infantry units, but that provides little or no tactical variety after all.

In practice we almost never unmount fliers because fliers receive no movement penalties, but at the same time they do not receive tile bonuses which is alright -- they can avoid lethal damages by canto skill anyway.

Calvary movement is seriously affected by desert and forest tiles. Most main battles happened in cities so that cavalries are not affected anyway. There are desert and forest based maps for auxiliary battles but since these are of lower difficulty it won't cause much problem especially with the help of divine pulses.

Perhaps the only reason for me to unmount is to cooperate with auto-battle, where cavalry and flier units often advance too far ahead and get defeated. By unmounting them we can make sure units are moving at a similar pace, so that they can fight effectively as a pack.

If they are to develop more on auto-battle strategies, they should really add another option where units advance and attack in a way they are still united. This is even less aggressive than 'focus' but still an attacking one.

- Divine Pulse and difficulty-

That's of course a quality of life improvement - it saves you from resetting the game that you already spent 45 minutes just ruined by an unexpected crit or AI movement beyond the static danger area. It allows players to experiment to slightly more aggressive tactics without having to push towards the limit bit by bit.

We all know from FEH that auto battle is unreliable at times, this is even more of a problem in three houses due to the difference in range of movement. Even with the 'focus' auto battle option, we often found our cavalry healer rushing onto the front line...and pathetically defeated. With divine pulse we can always go back and manually fix the decision made by these headless units then proceed to auto battle again. That compresses the time required for auxiliary battles to just a few minutes.

We have so many distinctive features for players to explore in the game, and spending time repeating the same fight is not the most interesting one -- going through battles at maximum speed really hurts your thumb (the second most tedious thing in the game, next to fishing). So allowing players to skip that part of the game is not bad after all. The game alone is already a 200+ hours masterpiece already -- we don't need something excessive to buff the time needed to clear the game further.

Some say that three houses is easier just because of divine pulse, but this is not entirely true. We can easily list a few difference between three houses and the old FE games showing that the game was made easier:

- extra auxiliary battles to grind the levels
- fewer opponent with a `commander' level stat, in particular those generic commander enemies
- fewer forced time constraints
- flexible mount/unmount option
- charges for physics and fortify resets every battle
- less compact maps
- ineffective level cap
- higher weapons easily accessible at unlimited quantity
- legendary weapons made in mass, and the crests...

Level cap is perhaps one of the biggest concern in the past. You have to breed your characters properly before level 40 (20+20) so that the stat growth will not go to waste.

In three houses the level cap is 99...which is totally out of my surprise. When I completed my first lap with Ed (which is the shortest route), I was expecting the level cap to be 40...but no. I was allowed to keep leveling. When I then proceed to Dimitri route I was expecting the level cap to be 50, but that's again not the case.

Level cap is playing a vital role in FE because it prevents overpowered units by pouring most resources onto one or a few units. It forces you to think about growth rate and skill combos, which is the deepest FE theory in some sense. Without the level cap one may just tank everything by creating an over-leveled unit, and this is not interesting.

But well, since we admitted that their normal is actually the `FE easy' and their hard is `FE hard', shall we expect a more cruel ruleset in Maddening(lunatic+)? There is no need to give distant counter to every unit and make disgusting skill combos like FEH legendary hero battles...just cap the level at 40 and I am sure players will be crying at later stages.

*

At the end I should again stress that comments on the mechanism might change vastly against different difficulties. I look forward to the updates for lunatic and maddening difficulties, so that I can complete Claude route as well, before Harvest Moon comes out...

Wednesday 14 August 2019

Yoshi's crafted world: not for 100% run players


 

A late review on the Yoshi's crafted world as one of the iconic Nintendo game made for switch. I am so obsessed with Yoshi's island 1 and 2 so is no way that I would miss that.

First, why Yoshi and what's my expectation?

Yoshi became popular due to the great success of the Super Mario World so it gets a spinoff game that is also a 2D platformer but with some twist.

Yoshi's island encourages exploration by introducing non-linear stages and collectibles - flowers and red coins. Exploration can be done by either Yoshi itself or the eggs. Yoshi has a slightly more Jiggling physics comparing with Mario who is designed to run. This is the core mechanics of the Yoshi series.

Yoshi's Island is heavily praised for its vast variety of enemy (and enemy physics). The enemy showroom in Yoshi's island is such a fantastic idea especially when you can interact with them.

As for someone who loved Yoshi's islands, I am expecting a sequel that preserves the standing-out designs from the past while entertaining modern players at the same time. So, am I satisfied of the game?

Well, yes and no.

From the artistic point of view this is another success -- from wool to cardboard based Yoshi you can clearly feel the Nintendo style behind. Every single stage is unique in its enemy and even game mechanism. By advancing in the stage you gradually understand how things work and solve the incoming puzzles.

This is however, not a strictly positive comment. Just as IGN said, "but it's a bummer that even the best ideas are rarely ever revisited later". Since every stage is unique on its own, that means we are not going to see integrated stages featuring multiple mechanics. I can understand the situation in a sense that the themes of even neighboring stages differ too much to be integrated, but this should not be a hard thing to amend.

The integration of multiple mechanism is one of my favourite in Yoshi's island -- we have 3 ordinary stages, then 1 castle (x-4 and x-8) stage where we have mechanics from the last 3 stages but also something new. The castle itself is already fun with the maze design, and even more interesting with these integration. And that brings us to the next point.

Game stages are largely linear. This is of course not a rare thing  among 2D platformers, but Yoshi's crated world is particularly linear  due to the flippable design. By such we have an obvious direction to clear the stage, and also a clear hint to collect hidden items -- just look for the opposite direction.

While individual stages are too linear, the stage sequence is non-linear. One may somehow divide the game into 5 worlds, where you have access to world 2, 3 and 4 simultaneously. But that also means world 2, 3 and 4 are of similar difficulty -- which are all far too easy. Even world 5 is unbelievably easy. But then you suddenly get 3 unforgiving extra stages -- the big difficulty gap is kind of annoying. Why would you introduce instant death rules in the extra stages while the players are not well-equipped for them by clearing the game? If you look at extra stages in Yoshi's island the first 5 extra stages are a bit harder than their respective main boss stage (x-8), while 6-E is pure hell. With proper difficulty progression from x-1 to x-8 in each world, the corresponding extra stage gives a reasonable challenge for those who mastered the previous contents. But in Yoshi's crafted world we only get thse after clearing the whole game, and they are notoriously hard comparing to the rest.

Finishing the 3 extra stages is just the easiest part for those who aim to collect all flowers...I say the easiest not because it's technically the easiest, but this is kind of a new content that you are happy to clear it.

And there are contents that you are not happy to clear.

Flip-side. Oh yes, flip side. Great artistic concept but has a down side on gameplay, Finding puppies is a nice idea (and the pups are fun to play with), but this is technically easy throughout (especially with the sound turned on) hence less attractive for experienced players.

Then you have the find items quest...which is the worse thing in the game. Extremely boring and forces you to play the stage multiple times and wasting so much time looking at every corner. I appreciate the game art, but it is not necessary for me to check every detail. Right? You cannot even access to those quest before clearing the stage, and you can only do one quest at a time, meaning that you have to play stages multiple times even if you managed to find all quest items on the first run. Staged are played like at least 4-5 times in order for one to find all items, and this is pure redundant.

Boss stages...very fun bosses, but I would rather have a complete boss stage, or just a themed castle before the boss. Boss fight is of moderate difficulty but the boss challenges are really hard. That brings us back to the point where the difficulty gap is huge. Of course this is less of a problm because players shoud have already cleared the game for at least once. The time limit gives zero-tolerance to any error that delays the cycle, but it makes the battles a lot more interesting. To meet the time requirement you need to push back even further, so that you have rooms for minor mistakes when you misses some other parts of the challenge.

Costumes. I take it as a quality of life improvement from the 30 seconds count where you do not need to restart the whole stage after making mistakes. Most super rare costumes are very cool -- that's a plus for the game. My favourite is the raven one, probably because raven appeared Yoshi's island too. (Yoshi's island 5-8 is one of the best stages ever made...)

One last thing that I must say -- most score-based stages is uniquely fun, EXCEPT for one, the go-go Yoshi. While being cute and fun, that thing is surprisingly hard to control precisely (I found using the left d-pad gives more accurate control), and the score requirement is damn high -- and that is in the middle of world 1! It also comes back to haunt you in the Kamek boss -- pretty sure many of you failed to clear the stage within time limit just because you missed a single punch in the final Kamek form...

To conclude, Yoshi's crafted world is an amazing game who gives great art and good first-time experience. But it lacks the design to serve experienced players properly. Even worse it frustrates completionists in many way.

Verdict: 7.1/10
Game time: 20 hours for any%, 40-60 hours for 100%

Thursday 25 July 2019

MSN minesweeper revisited (in 2019)

I have expressed numerous time my love on the MSN minesweeper...and now it is back online. It is a pity the mienfield was down without any support...but hopefully this is going to last longer.

So here this is a question related to the grid efficiency in MSN minesweeper.

$\begin{matrix}
\square & \square & B_1 & B_2 & B_3 & \square & \square\\
\cdots & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & \cdots \\
\cdots & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & \cdots
\end{matrix}$

Suppose that you have a line of 1s along a long enough edge (basically you do not get any information from the two endpoints of the edge), then at any of the 1s, the chance of a mine appearing on a random grid should be 1/3...or is it?

Assume that the universal distribution is uniform. I.e. that is an equal chance of getting any of the $C^n_r$ many combinations (ignoring the corner rule since it is less relevant). Similarly without further hints, if we have n remaining unrevealed grids and r remaining mines, then the number of possible combinations is again $C^n_r$.

Out of the formula there is one single variable that varies with actual config - the number of remaining mines depends on the length of the edge modulo 3. Let $r_i$ be the remaining mines count after revealing the row given the configuration $B_i$. Then

$P(B_i) = \frac{C^n_{r_i}}{\sum C^n _{r_k}}$

If the number of mines to be revealed is independent of the configuration then we can conclude that the chance are equal. Otherwise we can compare the binomial terms:

$C^n_{r+1} = C^n_r \frac{n-r-1}{r+1}$

The usual ratio between grids and mines is 5:1 -- but that varies greatly depending on the given situation. In particular there are loads of 1s and 0s in our example, which boosts the ratio greatly. At the ratio of 2:1 the increase of mines would not increase the likelihood of the evisceration, but of course such ratio is unrealistic in a minesweeper setup, so we can say that the configuration that the configuration that leads to less mines on the row, is more likely.

One may raise the question: shouldn't the equilibrium happens at 3:1 instead of 2:1, from a likelihood perspective? We can visualize the likelihood approach by the following problem.

In a box there are $n$ balls, in which $r\approx n/x$ are white, and the rest are black. (i.e., the ratio between balls and white balls is $x:1$). Suppose we draw $\alpha$ balls out of it and we want to compare the chance of having $\beta \approx \alpha /3$ or $\beta +1$ white balls in the draw. If we want the chance between the two events to be comparable:

$\frac{C^{n-\alpha}_{r-\beta}C^{\alpha}_{\beta}}{C^{n-\alpha}_{r-\beta-1}C^{\alpha}_{\beta +1}} = \frac{(n-\alpha-(r-\beta))(\beta +1)}{(r-\beta)(\alpha -\beta-1)} \approx \frac{1}{2} \frac{n-\alpha - (r-\beta)}{r-\beta} = 1$

That gives $n-\alpha \approx 3(r-\beta)$, or $n \approx 3r$.

In our problem however, the term $C^{\alpha}_{\beta}$ does not exist, because we do not take the full combination within the balls drawn. In other words, we do not allow orders like

BBBWWWWWW
BBWWBWWWW
BWWWWWWBB...

The three only allowed scenarios are

BWWBWWBWW
WBWWBWWBW
WWBWWBWWB

Once we fixed that in our formula, similar calculations yield $n\approx 2r$, instead of $3r$.

*

Of course there is no such 'infinite edge' in minesweeper. The endpoints is definitely giving extra information unless it looks like the following:

$\begin{matrix}
\square & \square & \square & \square & \square & \square & \square & \square & \square\\
\square & 1 & 1 & 1 & \cdots & 1 & 1 & 1 & \square\\
\square & 1 & 0 & 0 & \cdots & 0 & 0 & 1 & \square\\
\square & 1 & 0 & 0 & \cdots & 0 & 0 & 1 & \square\\
\square & \vdots & \vdots & \vdots & \vdots & \vdots & \vdots & \vdots & \square
\end{matrix}$

Any extra information would impose extra difficulty on these kind of analyses, but I am here to give some primary idea on what's happening.

To give an application, consider the following example. I said on my twitter that red made a bad move:


The reason behind is simple. There is only [something between 1/4 and 1/2] chance that the grid contains a mine. On the other hand if it does not the opponent gets a free flag immediately with everything else remains the same.

But...is it possible to calculate the exact chance? Yes, and this is not hard at all: this is a 16x16 board with 51 mines. The shown area is the only revealed portion. To calculate the probability we list the few only scenarios then the chance follows by the binomial coefficients.

Tuesday 23 July 2019

Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Rokkr Sieges

Back to something casual...Fire Emblem. Surely quite a lot happened since last time I wrote about FE and now it is a good time to talk about that again, since Three Houses is coming soon.

Well what should I expect? Unfortunately it's very hard for me to make a fair comment because I have not played the main franchise since the GBA era, a time where skills did not exist and information was sacrce because you didn't know Japanese back in the days...But FEH players should beware of the vast difference between playing FEH and the main franchise.

In FEH the key word is competitiveness. We keep facing stronger and stronger metas and we need to use the same team to work around it (unless you spend heavily). When you use more or less the same team against the opponent, what brings you victories is either the tiny bit of stat difference, or a well-desgined tactic which after all tricks the AI.

In the main franchise it is a totally different story. You are not really fighting in the fair setup -- instead of a 4v4 battle you are doing a 15v50 battle in a well designed stage where you are expected to solve the puzzle bit by bit. Restrictions are kind of loosened but you often ended up putting soft restirctions on yourself: units can be "killed" without failing the stage, but you want to unlock all stories. Time limit is less of a problem but you want to get all secret items and recruit hidden characters...the flexibility is much higher but the difficulty can be no less than what we have met in FEH. The most important bit is, you need to know how to work with a complete army, instread of your precious 4 units.

But yeah I can't wait further for the game. And I am going for Edgelord. Based on the official tease and FEH unit intro she's gotta have an interesting story behind.

*

Back to FEH we now have two more game modes which I also want to talk about.

- Alligence battle -

Interesting concept, but competitiveness forces the highest difficulty and hence very tense and allows very limited unit choices. It's also very luck based when you are not using a DC/CC based team, then you will have to play multiple times to get a high enough score.

But the reward is kind of reasonable - taking 900 as the threshold, the effort required to climb above 900 is hard but not very rewarding, while scoring a 860 is of moderate difficulty. I believe a large portion of the players are settled to the casually playing state on this mode.

- Rokkr Siege -

The opposite of the alligence battle. Fun, promotes casual play and allows huge flexibility. The three difficulty means you can score quite a lot without getting into trouble, and the score cap means you do not need to strike for the optimal. For sure the reward is not the most attractive but 10k feather is still 10k feather and I will take it.

In the discord channel we have seen many different setups, but today I want to talk about my setup.

Three features about the dynamax (taking a lesson from the shitty pokemon sword&shield -- that's another story for another day) boss:
1) Swaps upon special proc
2) AOE damage upon special proc
3) Always counterattack creating non-zero damage

If you are taking lower difficulties, damage is not a problem and you can deploy simple means of recovery to overcome the damage like recover 3, or breath of life. In advanced however, you will either need to stop special from processing, or use a strong means of healing, like using a staff or heal based moves.

Swapping means your defense tiles will then be occupied by the boss, or that the boss will escape from your lineup. In lower difficulty, it is hard to hit the score cap just because the multiplier is too low, so stragety that adapts swapping is essential if we want to hit the score cap, especially if we are fighting cavalries.

With that being said, to tackle lower difficulties steadily you would like to:
- mobility to tackle swapping
- minimum healing power

And to tackle the advanced difficulty you would like to:
- much stronger healing
- ability to take down generic enemies
- not necessary to keep a full team to the end; in fact it would be easier to finish the battle within 5 or 6 turns with some units defeated

Some like to use tank units with guard and healing special to lock down the boss, but without enough merging it is hard to hit the score cap. Don't forget that special fighter and guard are both premium skills and quite costly to inherit (if you do not use to do that).

Another problem with guard is the 70% HP requirement which is hard to maintain during enemy phase. My brave sword guard DC Ayra strategy failed miserably -- not to mention that such build is so impractical in PVP battles.

So with my newly merged +10 Catria, I had an idea. A lesson taken from my Cherche.

The setup is basically dancer + flying healer (witchy hand) + 2 fliers

Dancer - Partial tank, need to tank attacks with triangle disadvantage

Olivia in my case
A - Atk/Def Bond 3
B - Wings of Mercy 3
C - Hone Atk 4 [flexible C-skill or depends on your flier performance]
S - Atk/Def Bond 3

L!Azura is of course a perfect choice for fliers, but she cannot tank physical attacks and you may not have enough Iote shields.

Flying healer - putting guard effect on enemy

HS!Sakura [with H!Mia inherited]
A - Iote shield [use something else if you have it on the S-slot]
B - Live to serve 3
C - Hone fliers [spur buffs are also preferred, since the units may move around]
S - Breath of life 3

Fliers - to block boss on one quadrant and DPS
Units depends on the color of enemy but they should be brave based with galeforce. Without galeforce we can steadily hit the cap in 5 turns. It is suggested to bring at least one galeforce flier. If you do not have galeforce, sol is a temporary solution.

Standard builds:
Weapon - Brave weapon [or amiti / whitewing weapons]
Special - Galeforce / Sol
A - Iote shield / Swift sparrow / Death blow / Life and death
B - Seal atk / seal def
C - Ward fliers
S - Iote shield / defensive based seals



We start by blocking the boss on one of the quadrant - attacking is of second priority because we have enough time. It is important to keep the right formation to keep things predictable.
(1): Cherche to destory the wall
(2): Sakura to attack so as to reset the special cooldown
(3): Catria attacks [quad attack due to whitewing effect] 3 times [galeforce + dancing]


If we are fighting close attack bosses then it's not going to move but otherwise the boss may move by a grid, then we have to reform. We first move the unit to facilitate Sakura - remember that when you are using Brave weapons, a second attack would trigger boss' special so we must use Sakura before the second attack.

Here Sonya moved up a grid.
(1): Cherche moved up and attack [galeforce activated so that she looks active again]
(2): Sakura goes up to attack
(3): Catria and Olivia go up accordingly

It is important to deal with other generic enemies. That's the advantage of using galeforce -- we wait until they approach the fliers and attack, within the attack range the two fliers can kill the enemy then going back to the original position without further dancing. The dancer is also expected to be capable to kill most non-armor enemy by floating around.

It is relatively easy to lock the boss using this strategy, unless it's cavalry distant boss -- then we will need to carefully corner her.


The theoretical limit is 6.5 mil points. I somehow used 2 crests in the first round, so this is a pretty good score. It's definitely not a very rewarding act, yet this is a fun mode to play.

*

Oh and the Three Houses banner is out. Bitybroken by Chrom I spent 400 orbs to get Edgelord and Byleth. Now I am not prepared for Ayra revival...

Monday 22 July 2019

夢.十夜 (3) The Arena

做了一個這樣的夢。

喧鬧的購物街的樓上,除了有一堆樓上書店還有一堆樓上咖啡廳。當然還有樓上鞋店、樓上髮型屋等等。沒辦法,這都是租金太貴的錯。

如果問我外出要到哪裡喝咖啡的話,這家樓上咖啡廳大概怎樣也排不上榜。偏偏這天咖啡廳地下入口的全彩LED屏幕正好打著與某乙女向手機GAL合作的廣告。為了確認那一閃而過的廣告,我站了在門口決定等廣告第二次出來。不過似乎是買廣告的預算不夠,我等了超過一分鐘它才再次冒出來--不過這個廣告還是成功把我拉進了咖啡廳。

咖啡廳的合作其實蠻有誠意了:牆壁四周掛滿了遊戲的海報,門口放了男主(們)的看版,木制的餐桌與裝潢也切合遊戲的仿英倫風格。

餐牌上的飲品當然也冠上不同的角色名字,本來的簡單的選咖啡變成了選攻略對象(?)頓時變難了許多。這時候--

「美麗動人的小姐,很榮幸可以再次見到您。今天需要我來介紹嗎?」一把熟悉的聲音從後傳來。我扭頭向後望,遊戲「愛麗絲與魔法之國」的男主雷伊就在身後。

眼前的雷伊頂著一頭淺黑及眼短髮、身穿藍黑色的華麗軍裝,綠寶石般的瞳孔一但對上就沒法移開,戴著漆黑手套的修長手指慣性地向我的下巴伸過來。

昨晚與他在森林裡尋找走失小貓觸發了劇情,一回到家就被輕輕按到牆上,二人之間的距離越拉越近,鼻尖都能嗅到彼此的氣息--

「抱歉……你能不能被我俘獲?」

腦補出來的聲音與現實重疊,我下意識的向後退了一下。眼前的少年擺出了一個跟遊戲CG裡一模一樣的驚訝表情,害我當場腦袋一片空白,過了好一會我回過神來紅著臉移開視線。少年還是維持那個驚訝的表情:「咦,不認得我嗎?」

我努力地在腦海中尋找長得差不多的人。長得這麼帥的黑髮少年……沒有。

拿掉黑髮這個條件的話……

「!!」

我掩住嘴阻止了自己尖叫,當然在這個咖啡廳尖叫頂多會被當成對著王子殿下發情就是了。「你、你是……卡、卡羅……」

少年從「驚訝」CG改回了「微笑」CG,兩個表情都跟遊戲裡一模一樣,真是敬業得可怕。「沒想到你自己上門來找我,本來活動開打我都想找小雨把你釣出來了呢。」

沒錯,自上次迷迷糊糊地進了法式甜點店,又迷迷糊糊地掉進了逆戰幻想這個大坑,已經過了一個月。

這一個月的登入獎勵,我一天都沒有錯過。

登入獎勵除了有可用來衝活動的道具以外,一個月登入30天還會送正常版的小紅帽。當然萬聖節早就過去,除去驚悚氣息的小紅帽化身人畜無害的農村少女展示出她可愛的一面。據說這次是官方第一次釋出活動限定卡與登入獎勵這種菜市場卡的聯動,萬聖小紅帽的叫價立馬飆高。當然我並沒有把她放出去,只是默默地天天登入等待小紅帽的來臨。

然後我就完美地掉坑了。從解每日任務開始,慢慢變成推主線劇情,之後乾脆定時上線清體力。在完全沒有其他助力下掉坑,以致我都不太好意思找Alex他們,畢竟這樣就掉坑太丟臉了。

「聽說你這個月一直在玩喔,上次活動也衝進7000位了,每天不玩個八小時基本上摸不到這個排名吧?」少年依舊「微笑」著,慢慢把臉湊過來:「我想,應該不會只為了拿到登入獎勵就這麼拼吧?」比起少年的問句,我開始感受到後面「愛麗絲」們兇狠的目光……應該是在想一會到底怎樣才能拿到這樣的殺必死吧。嗯,一定是這樣沒錯。

「我才沒有玩……喂你湊太近了啦!」我連忙抗議道:「玩這麼一個月甚麼鳥蛋六星都沒有抽到,我都快要放棄了……這種超弱玩家還是找來打活動只會拖後腿吧?還有你……過來是打工的還是來泡妹的?你看後面的太太們都快要暴動了哦。」

「嘛,我是特約過來cosplay的。這種事情我又不管,誰叫我長得這麼帥呢。」少年還是掛著「微笑」表情,他的帥氣笑容自信到要溢出來了:「與其看到我跟你玩會吃醋,不如說愛麗絲們下次光臨也有機會這樣互動呢……好啦,在我去應付其他太太們之前,可以請你點些甚麼嗎?今天點這幾個特調飲品的話可以抽遊戲精品回去喔。」他忽然湊到我耳邊說話,射我身上的殺氣變得更重了:「Alex他們又想找你一起打活動,在群組裡沒看到你回應只好讓我來問你了。今晚八點以後可以回來這邊等我嗎?正好這裡附近有家不錯的餐廳值得一試喔。」

「好、好啦!我叫點東西就是了!別來煩我,你去處理其他客人啦!我要這個!」我隨手拿起菜單一指,剛好是「雷伊小貓屋熱朱古力」。

「好哦~來一杯雷伊熱朱古力~」他居然直接對廚房喊了起來。等等只有拉麵屋才會這樣叫吧?!?

熱朱古力上的小貓拉花很可愛,不過熱朱古力本身並不是用即溶沖劑這點更令人意外。絲綢般順滑的口感中帶着柑橘系的芳香再加一點辣椒的野性,讓人完全沒法想像出自這種平凡咖啡廳之手。

*

也許是這杯熱朱古力被施下了神奇的魔法,又或者只是以前經常流連的舊書店和精品店已經全部倒掉,百無聊賴的我在機廳刷了十道jubeat後終於還是回到咖啡廳等他下班。

卡羅還是一副雷伊的樣子,只不過上衣換成了雷伊版黑色皮外套。這樣的裝扮作為雷伊毫無違和感,在路人眼中也只是新潮打扮的美少年而已。遠處看到他就在揮手了:「沒想到你真的回來等我呢。唔~讓我猜一下你肯回來等我的原因吧。是想享受獨佔雷伊的時間?被新餐廳釣到了?還是,想跟只認識了一個月多一點,只見過兩次的卡羅吃飯?」

「都錯了,」對對對,我就是想看你的CG「警訝」表情。我禁不住揚起的嘴角應道:「我打jubeat打到手痛,剛好發現時間差不多才回來等你的。」

「至少你真的回來等我,這樣我就不用在西餐廳裡獨自用餐啊。我們先走過去吧?再晚一點的話可能沒有位子了哦。」

本來以為是甚麼大商場的高級餐廳,其實從購物街轉兩個街角就到了。這家餐廳開了在一樓,入口被外面的露天攤檔擋著,顯眼程度可能比我剛才去的樓上咖啡廳還要低。而且叫歐陸菜大概就不單是意大利菜或者法國菜,又不能加點紫薯之類的潮物制造噱頭,想吸引人大概只能實力取勝了吧?

*

餐廳沒有像他所說的再晚一點就沒位子,但也坐滿了六七成,以這種地段來說已經不錯了。餐廳的裝潢倒是不錯,石壁牆紙、復古水晶燈跟木製餐桌都頗具歐洲風味。

「別小看這裡生意一般,做出來的菜品可是十分正宗,只是跟一堆廉價快餐排在一起身價被拉低不少。」他很快點了幾道菜又把菜單還了回去:「先試試這幾個吧。不夠的話等下加點或者下去掃小吃就好了。」

卡羅隔著燭光望著我,這個「微笑」CG感覺又與之前所見的不同:「下個活動快要開始了,這個活動正好是適合半新手的類型。不過這個活動起步很重要呢,所以他們就派我來跟你說一下,順便增進一下感情嘛。」

「誰要跟你增進感情……」「我說是作為同一陣線的玩家情誼啦。當然你另有所指也可以……」

按他的介紹下一個活動是所謂競技場活動,主要分為PVE[Player vs Environment]跟PVP[Player vs Player]兩項排名。PVE那邊沒甚麼好說的,就是刷固定的關卡打固定的對手組合。拼的是玩家能課多少抽活動角色,拼玩家能吃多少水,拼玩家能肝多少小時。

PVP這邊比較有趣。所有人都是固定每十分鐘可以挑戰一次,對手全是PVP排名附近的玩家。匹配相近玩家的用意就是將玩家按本身的硬實力進行排名,底子不夠強的玩家早期衝上去也只會因為不敵上級玩家而漸漸滑落,而老手玩家再怎樣休閒打也可以慢慢爬上去。

固定挑戰次數的設定將所有向上爬的階梯鎖死,剩下的就只有課金一條路而已。硬實力的排行榜聽上去很美好,其實對玩家一點吸引力都沒有。大家早就把PVP活動當成變相給土豪送紅利的活動,按自己的步調隨便刷一下拿到基本獎勵就好。

說到這裡,卡羅點的前菜就端上來了。「白蘆荀在亞洲真的很少人會用喔。雖然不是時令季節,不過他們做出來的白蘆荀既能保持口感,又可以充分讓湯汁的味道滲進去,我每次來都忍不住會點呢。」他把眼前的白蘆薈佐煙三文魚推了過來。我也爽快地夾進嘴裡一口吃下。這道前菜真的做得不錯,軟綿綿的煙三文魚與裡面清淡的蘆筍形成強烈對比,三文魚的鮮味沒有像預期般蓋過蘆荀,反而將蘆荀特有的香味表現出來。看著我欲罷不能的樣子卡羅笑道:「有一種做法是用火腿包著進焗爐,不過我覺得這個變種更好入口就是了。」

在主菜還沒上來之前我趕緊接續遊戲活動的話題:「所以輕度玩家根本不會去碰這個活動囉?」

「基本上是這樣。不過有一群非重課玩家會在PVP從頭衝到尾然後互相匹配以避免被土豪隊屠殺。這個方法雖然不一定成功,但也算是不課金的最優解了。不過要跟上他們的話從一開始就要全力打,晚了的就會被他們拉開沒辦法抱大腿了。他們基本上都要24小時待命,只要失手個一兩次就掉下去了。實際上能待到最後的人都是少之又少,這就是所謂的『次元之壁』喔。」

「既然如此,我們自己製造可以互抱大腿的區間就好了嗎?」

「誒?」

「把我們公會的人聚集起來,讓大家的分數保持在同一個區間裡。每次大家要互刷時才把防守隊換成弱隊,這樣就不難刷勝場數了。分數區間最好比次元之壁低一截,這樣可以減低被頂尖玩家發現的風險。不過這樣勝場數可能不夠拿最高的排名賞呢,這方面可能要用過去的分數線去預測一下。不過這個活動不能回體也不耗時間,分數線相當穩定呢。要估算分數線的話大概在活動前半就能有個底了。」

對啊。既然是匹配制,那只要一直打到比自己弱的對手就好了吧?

明明一個人刷上去就會變得強敵環伺、孤立無援,幾個人一起上的話就變成送分模式了。這就是組隊的力量。

奇怪的是,同樣模式的活動已經跑了四次,能突破單兵思維的人只有少女一人……至少在少年的認知是這樣。

卡羅陷入了沉默,我則津津有味地把剩下的食物一掃而空。烤蘆荀好吃,三文魚好吃。少年盤中的炖牛肉好吃,配上德國名物麵疙瘩(Spätzle)更棒。果然不是只有啤酒和豬手才算德國料理啊,我不禁感嘆道。

把主菜清空後甜點就被端上來了。那是源自奧地利的沙河蛋糕。香滑的巧克力糖霜包覆著裡面綿密口感的巧克力蛋糕。為了迎合現代低糖的潮流,實力的巧克力內餡被拿掉了三分之一,改成了帶有杏子與蘭姆酒香氣的巧克力海綿蛋糕。蛋糕旁邊輕飄飄的鮮奶油與厚實的蛋糕形成鮮明的對比,還是嫌太甜的話還有傳統的餐後黑咖啡和小曲奇。

別忘了,德國可是甜點大國啊。

誘人的甜品加上咖啡的香氣終於成功把少年的思緒拉回來。他動手舀起一小塊蛋糕放進口裡面,壓下臉上忍不住浮現出的半個陶醉表情道:「嗯……聽上去應該可行呢。活動後天就要開始了,你要找多少人幫忙?需要活動卡支援嗎?」

「嗯……不清楚呢,視乎匹配到自己人的難度吧。如果是我們公會出人的話四五個人試試看?那邊應該也有人想刷活動的吧,人太多的話自然掉隊就好了呢。」

「好,我現在就叫他們。」卡羅放下半塊曲奇浮在上面的熱咖啡,然後拿出手機放在餐桌上。晚飯過後的群組裡相當熱鬧,大家都在討論接下來的活動。裡面有我已經認識的Alex、阿飛跟小雨,更多的是我從沒聽過的玩家。

卡羅按下了慣用的打招呼表情,看上去就像是從漫畫截出來的那種。其他群員也很配合地打著招呼。他緊接著把我吃了一半的蛋糕拉到中間拍了一張蛋糕合照。

卡羅:「@亞歷克斯,下次網聚就來這邊好了。是難得真正的歐陸菜餐廳呢。」
亞歷克斯:「@卡羅真過份,又帶新的女友去到處吃了?」

他似乎早就知道Alex的反應,從臉紅的我手上接過手機並打開逆戰幻想,然後將帳戶和蛋糕的合照傳上群組裡。

卡羅:「是小紅哦。」
天天下小雨:「哇小紅!」
飛:「小紅!」
亞歷克斯:「看錯你了卡羅,居然背著我們泡走小紅。」
Lampbear:「是新人玩家嗎?快點拉進群裡吧(゚∀゚)」是沒看過的玩家呢,先叫她熊熊好了。
卡羅:「先別吵(o´・ω・`)σ)Д`) 小紅對接下來的活動有點想法,需要四五個人來幫忙。有誰打算要衝這個活動的嗎?」
一個叫Sora的玩家立刻發了兩張圖片:「是這次的活動獎勵喔。」

第一張是粉紅色長髮的少女。身穿暗紅色風衣配上短裙和吊帶襪,蹲下來拔槍的姿勢當然是給玩家的殺必死。雖然有個詞語叫「粉切黑」,不過粉髮少女的傲嬌氣息已經快要滿出來了。再加上官方所設定的職業「搜查官」這根本就是色違夏娜嘛!

Sora:「這張要PVP前一百才能拿到喔,相當的不容易呢。」
卡羅:「這可未必,有小紅在我們說不定有機會呢!」
阿歷克斯:「小紅要衝PVP?」
卡羅:「不是小紅要衝,是小紅要帶我們衝(ゝ∀・)b這邊需要四五個人,有興趣的快來報名喔。」

在又萌又強的獎勵卡面前要招人參與當然不難,對於見過小紅一次的三人組更是如此。
天天下小雨:「我來!」
飛:「這張卡我要定了!」
亞歷克斯:「我也來吧,剛好人在歐洲可以幫忙輪流刷喔。」
Sora:「好像很有趣的樣子,我也來幫忙吧。」
小熊:「那我也參一腳好了(〃∀〃)」

正在輸入的人數越來越多,少年眼明手快地打了一條分隔線:「以上~加上我就是這次出擊成員名單了。其他人有意刷活動的話也請加油喔~」

少年把手機收起來把剩下小半的蛋糕吞掉,想喝點東西抵消口中甜膩的感覺卻發現咖啡已經喝光了。他皺了下眉頭後再次回復CG式「微笑」表情道:「今天就先這樣吧,活動的話明天再安排好了。」他忽然話鋒一轉,表情也變成「自信笑容」:「大小姐您對這一頓飯應該還算滿意吧?要出去轉彎買杯珍珠奶茶繼續掃小吃,還是要我把妳送.回.家?」

第三次見面就要送回家?門都沒有。「啊……我想起今天跳舞機又有新曲了,我想先去解一下……」我隨口編出一個借口轉身便走。

少年一把抓住我向後擺的手。我向後望那一瞬間,卡羅與雷伊的帥臉再次重疊;大街上的人群忽然全數凍結,又大又圓的月亮變得近在近在咫尺,他身後甚至有櫻花瓣緩緩飄落--

「都那麼晚了,一個女生去機廳還是很危險的。讓我陪你去吧。」

結果我真的讓他跟來機廳了。可惜的是,打跳舞機算是劇烈運動,吃飽後進行劇烈運動永遠是個錯誤。我連熱身用的譜面也打得東歪西倒,沒打兩道腿就已經不聽話了。打其他音遊也因為太累而沒法集中精神。這一趟除了吸了一堆二手煙外甚麼收獲都沒有。

*

第二天我向他們講解了一下衝排名的要點。其實只是要挑的對手從不認識的人變成認識的人而已,剩下要做的事根本跟正常刷活動沒有分別。我們從每天刷17小時開始,視乎排名狀況調整時數或者讓Alex幫忙在我們睡覺的時候幫刷一下。

活動的過程比我們預計中還要順利。「次元之壁」據說在60位上下,所以我們決定把刷排名都以80名為目標,最終都排90左右。似乎因為戰鬥有少許隨機性的緣故,同級玩家間的戰鬥先手方的勝率其實只有75%左右。換句話說,我們每天打17小時全勝已經壓過大部分沒打滿24小時的玩家了。甚至到活動後期我們還要每天放個幾場把排名壓下去。

我們團隊裡唯一進PVE榜是熊熊。她的免費一抽居然出了六星活動卡--那張在地下市場都快叫到400美元一隻了。憑著這張活動卡她也在PVE榜上挺進了前一百拿到另一張六星排名獎勵。不過她大方地把卡片放給群友們傳閱順便補完圖鑑和劇情。聽說熊熊的「神抽之右手」已是常規操作,不知道我有沒有辦法也能學會這個技能呢?

為期九天的活動順利結束。維修過後我不急及待地打開禮物箱接收我玩這遊戲以來第一張六星排名獎勵。卡片上的簡介是這樣的:

「搜查官」戴娜
她是審判官,亦是行刑者。
子彈只為那些
死不悔改的罪犯落下--
「案件,處理完畢。」

卡片背後的只是角色專屬劇情的舖墊,劇情內容大概就是她追捕一名罪犯的故事,裡面還有其他可收藏角色登場。不過可能因為我手上的角色太少,對於其他角色還沒有甚麼感覺就是了。

至於卡羅,活動後我已經好一段時間沒看到他了。

有幾次我回到了那家跟乙女GAL合作的咖啡廳,那邊還有其他cosplay成遊戲男角的店員,不過始終沒有他的身影。咖啡廳的店長表示他是遊戲營運方派來的,然後又帶點嫉妒地暗示我也不是第一個向他詢問卡羅的人。

可惡……裝成雷伊的卡羅殺傷力實在太猛了。

我在遊戲內向小雨拿到進群的邀請,然後裝成新人混了進去。群裡面的玩家就跟那天晚上卡羅上線一樣熱情。大概是因為剛打完活動,大家都自發地避免提到遊戲而只談日常。這幾天他也沒有在群裡說話,裝成新人的我也不方便直接呼喚他。

這樣的僵局(?)持續了好幾天,直到我裝新人的惡作劇被識破。

我沒有想到的是,第一個揭穿我的居然是熊熊,而不見卡羅或者見過面的三人組。

*

某漆黑的房間裡,一位肥宅坐在電腦前一邊打著手遊一邊進行視像通訊。

「按照計劃,我們團隊的人也順利進到前一百名裡面。我們三個的排名是86、89和90名。門檻比上次高了不少。」

「嗯,很正常,這遊戲還在高速發展期吧。」

「六星排名那張我們叫價250瓶水還沒賣出去。不過市場上的賣家不多,這張卡又萌又好用,我覺得賣出去是遲早的事。」

遊戲裡當然不能直接進行金錢交易,可以回復體力刷活動的藥水成為了實質的貨幣。玩家可以課金買水,價錢大約就是每瓶一美金;當然也有玩家在地下渠道套現手上的藥水,價格比官方定價稍低一些。

「沒關係,這張賣不出給兄弟們掛在首頁也可以,錢我補貼就好了。」

「比較有趣的是,我們似乎注意到有其他成功刷勝場數的玩家。」

「嗯?」肥宅第一次停下手遊操作望向屏幕。

Skype的另一端是一位銀髮少女,寬鬆的T恤並沒法掩飾她玲瓏有致的身材。似乎是料到對面會對這個消息感興趣一般,她微微一笑,放慢將接下來的情報道出:「我們在匹配不到自己人時打過不少其他附近的玩家,其中有兩次對到送分的防守配置。」

銀髮少女操作滑鼠,向肥宅發送了兩張截圖:「兩次的對手分別是排83的Rainmi0031跟87的aoisora2。這兩張圖分別是Rainmi0031平時的防守配置跟那次的送分配置。嗯……正常的配置很硬,可以肯定送分配置是刻意換的。唯一不能確定的是,送分配置的角色全部出自同一個畫師,單憑這個配置我們沒法排除玩家只想曬卡的可能性。」

「那你有調查過這兩個玩家的背景嗎?」

「有,」少女笑得更燦爛了:「他們才剛在遊戲內的留言版互打招呼呢。」

----

這篇其實早就想好了,不過拖到五月才動筆。第二章完稿的時候逆戰幻想其實還活得好好的,但它終於在今年二月倒了。不過倒下的原因跟台版<<戰鬥女子學園>>一樣是「正服倒掉所以不再予以支援」,雖然很可惜但也能感受到這種古早手遊確實已經嚴重跟現代玩家脫節了。

這個遊戲模式聽上去有點荒謬……其實從逆戰幻想本身到現存的手遊都還有在用。當然,硬性時間限制會稍為放鬆一下,這樣才好吸金--上述模式被詬病之處與少女的謀略,都是在硬性時間限制存在的前提下出現的,不是嗎?

順道一說,飛機上碼字的效率真不錯,兩小時寫三千字根本易如反掌。不過寫了兩小時後電腦沒電就很痛苦了……

在第二章的尾聲我說過我希望下一章在2018年寫出來,很遺憾這個目標失敗了。我在這裡再說一遍好了,希望下一章的完成時間也是2019,而不是2020。

Friday 10 May 2019

09/05/2019 : European Football

真的很久沒有寫過真正意義上的日記了,今天怎樣也要寫幾句留念一下。

一小時前我車打了一場難看至極的比賽後終究氣走了法蘭克福。能進決賽很好,不過看到某十號可能是史丹福橋最後一踢就有點心痛。七年前那個殺不死的男人同樣在安聯打入最後一球,然後某十號就來了。

如果他在我車終老,大概就能上Shed Wall了吧?

前兩天的歐冠同樣精彩,將歐冠歐霸打成足總聯賽盃作為英超迷真的爽到不行。不過我比較希望利物浦贏,熱刺就安心繼續無冠吧。

不過現在身在法蘭克福的我完全不敢慶祝呢。上星期人在倫敦我車遠征法蘭克福,等我回到德國時第二回合卻又回倫敦打了。沒有機會朝聖是蠻可惜的,希望日後怎也要找機會看一次,而且最好是歐冠淘汰賽。

而不是這種鳥蛋歐霸。

Tuesday 7 May 2019

夢.十夜 (X3) MMORPG

做了這樣一個夢。

二零零四年,台北,某網吧--當然,你叫網咖也可以。

這是台式網游的黃金年代。人們不顧性命地肝著那三次方成長的經驗值曲線,只要能打到更強更炫的裝、找到更軟更萌的婆,那一切都是值得的。

當然他們不知道他們有些婆以後還要去當兵就是了。

外面電腦一字排開,雖然不都是頂配的電腦,不過要讓玩家打大型PVP時不會卡住倒也綽綽有餘。低廉的價格正好吸引了大量高中生大學生,不過店家根本不太在乎顧客是誰:只要長期在這邊玩下來,他們花在小吃飲料上的錢比起電腦的按時收費多了不少,更別提那些窮酸高中生時不時就打開工作管理員干擾店方的計時程式,攤下來出租電腦的利潤可以扯平電費租金就不錯了。。

以黑色為主調的裝潢下空氣中飄著淡淡的油炸香氣跟二手煙味道。玩家左手抓著炸雞腿塞到口中,右手不停地替自動攻擊中的角色補血和放技能,口中唸唸有詞地責怪著隊友下次害他要獨力坦到一分鐘的下線間隔結束為止。在這個空間裡,每個人都以差不多的姿態專心在自己眼前的遊戲上。誰也沒有注意到一個身穿淺藍色連衣裙的黑髮少女就這樣穿過人群,走到了網咖的深處。

她輕輕地在一扇掛有閒人勿進牌子的門上敲了兩下。裡面很快回了一聲「進來」,少女應聲推門而入。

裡面的格調與外面截然不同,與其說是網咖不如說是辦公室:房中央的由十字隔板劃分出四個工作空間,四位疑似大學生就分坐四個角落裡各自刷著眼前的網遊。房間的一端放置了咖啡機和薯片餅乾等零食,另一端則放了一長型辦公桌,在那邊也坐了一位白髮少年--是白髮美少年才對。帥氣的白髮後面扎了個薄薄的單馬尾,邪魅般的紅色瞳孔正凝視著少女,自信的微笑彷彿就是知道她正好要來造訪似的。

「以為是網咖見面,來到我這個私人空間一定很意外吧,我的婆--不對,我應該稱呼你小紅才對?」

「呃……你就是殺殘無情?」

「嘿嘿,沒想到你公和遊戲裡長得一樣帥吧。話說回來,這套情侶睡衣紙娃娃用起來怎樣啊?」

--棒極了。

營運不知道腦袋少了條筋還是怎樣,本應為純觀賞用的紙娃娃居然被賦予了能力加成,而且是很過份那種。托這套裝的福,這幾天少女與少年跑了不少副本。好幾隻本來要整團老半天才磨死的王居然被他們三五個人在十五分鐘內就收拾了。然後因為出團最低要求人數對半砍的關係,公會的副本團也活躍了起來,現在也有招收外人的餘裕了。

「嗯~還算可以加減用啦。推王的確有變快,不過練等速度還是差不多。月卡好像還有五六天就完了,不知道能不能在這之前先升到120等呢。好想快點開新劇情啊……」

「月卡這點小事我幫你付就好啦。你看我都請人來幫刷道具了,月卡這點小事實在不足掛齒呢。」

少年所說的刷道具來自剛過去的七夕活動,也是少女出現在這裡的主因。

這個活動本身是很單純的收集物品抽禮物的類型,奇的的是成本與回報之間出現了不少的落差。玩家要收集的物品基實就是一般怪物平時的掉落。平時根本沒人會特意收集,原因有三個:一、這些物品都在15等附近的地圖能打到,平時根本不難打而且誰都能打到;二、玩家練等要靠這些掉落去填補吃水的成本,這些物品掉下來就是注定要被賣的;三、營運方很少放出這種大眾同樂的活動,估計大家也沒有意識到平時要多存這種一般物品。畢竟一般掉落的物品種類千千萬,玩家能存放的物品種類卻是十分有限。活動開始之時也真有玩家把這些掉落拿去賣,但價格也只是NPC回收價的十倍,也就是幾百塊一個而已。買一套抽獎所需物品也只用八十萬左右。抽出來大概有5%有機會出情侶睡衣套裝的不同部分,湊滿整套則可以觸發buff效果--同一時間,情侶睡衣套裝的開價已經飆到接近五億以上。這代表中間一定有甚麼因素讓差價與期望值不符。

還好這年是二零零四而不是一九九六年或者二零一七年,資訊雖然不再是口耳相傳的傳說時代,但也不是隨意流通的資訊爆炸年代。加上二零零四年也是個武俠online百花齊放的年代,剛出來的這個古龍同萌傳有幾千個活躍玩家就不錯了。在遊戲裡收集資訊的成本並不低,不過這剛好是少年所不用擔心的。

把耍廢的大學生請來在邊玩邊記錄,將市場價格大致摸定後開始制定對策。活動要求玩家將每一種指定材料集齊才能換獎品,紙娃娃的特殊buff也要求玩家收滿一整套睡衣部件才能發動。反過來說,只要將其中一種原料掐住,產品的供應就會被卡死。更要命換獎品所需掉落物品的量都一樣,所以掐死任何一種原料都可以產生一樣的效果。所以在少女的建議下他們將其中一種原料收起來,然後把其中一種紙娃娃部件收起來,這樣完整版睡衣的數量就四兩撥千斤地被壓制住了。

十四天的七夕活動。前期壟斷原料,在相關地圖搶怪同時在市場偷偷將沒擋下的物品收回去。為了掩人耳目他們還會製造出新手不明就裡地掃光所有活動物品的假象以掩人耳目。反正原料嘛成本比起任何一件紙娃娃部件都低,就算多收一點也不會痛。活動中期改為收集紙娃娃部件,同樣也混入其他沒要掐死部件的買單--這樣做不但是為了掩人耳目,更重要的是做出不同部件掉落率有落差的印象。

收集一兩種部件,再不惜血本拋出另外一兩種部件--你以為這樣成本會因此而暴增嗎?他們才沒那麼笨。根據短板理論,全套紙娃娃裝的供應取決於掉率最低的部件。大家發現市場上各種部件的供求不一時活動已經剩下三天了。考慮到相關的交易活動在七夕活動完結後迅速枯竭時想重新收一套將難上加難,大家迅速動起來瘋搶所有活動相關的物品:各種原料、各種紙娃娃部件、當然還有完整的睡衣套裝。他並沒有將單一部件的所有存貨拋出去,留下來的一半剛好可以組成套裝出售。數量不多的套裝眨眼被掃光,心急的散戶玩家甚至連供應過剩的紙娃娃部件也搶下來。

活動後期少年賺到的虛擬金幣是前面操縱市場成本的三倍,唯一虧的是請大學生來代刷的實體金錢成本。看成將實體金錢換虛擬貨幣來說還是小虧一點,不過對於少年來說能下大手筆玩翻整個伺服器取得少女的歡心的話花這點小錢根本物超所值。

「不過我沒想到整個計劃居然如此順利呢。整個伺服器有三個大型市集,靠近原料來源的地圖還有兩個小市集,我們四個人根本沒法全方位進行監控。」

「嘛~跟我預料的一樣,只要間中去進貨就行了。太常去的話除了會被別人認出來以外,其他玩家透過交易將價格訊息傳遞出去的效果也會打折扣呢。」一說到整個計劃的細節我就會莫名地興奮起來,畢竟以前自己想再多也沒法執行。保持匿名與否其實不太重要,在有限的時間內大手進出頂多就被當成活動的投機炒家,但將人力空出來轉到地圖上打怪收集原料才是重點。畢竟地圖就放在那邊,當地圖過度擁擠時玩家只能搶到自己身邊一定半徑內重生的小怪,這點跟玩家等級高低無關:等級30的來是一刀一隻,等級100的來也是一刀一隻。所以對高階玩家來說,在意識到套裝的價值前來這種單一無聊但回報極低的新人地圖刷怪是划不來的。少年的團隊因而撿了個大便宜,四個人刷單一地圖就能吃下接近三到四成的理論產出,這樣市場操作起來才能事半功倍。

聽起來怪誕至極的計劃,在那個二零零四的時空下就是行得通。那是一段人們還在摸索遊戲原理的時空:巴哈上可以看到一籮筐的門派選擇問題,有一狗票公會的糾團刷副本的宣傳,卻很少看到關於交易的帖子。人們對數值和虛擬物品的價值計算還處於十分稚嫩的階段:數字加越多越好,越高級的怪掉的寶越好,越花俏的裝越好,除此以外一切價值隨市場決定,但決定價格的可能是口耳相傳一個月前一筆隨性的交易。沒有人會質疑這個價格的來源,正如沒有人會質疑自己買的裝備到底是否真的那麼強一樣。

若玩家從二零一九的時空回想過去,那大概是一個天真的遊戲世界。
當然也有人會說,未徹底被優化的遊戲世界是一個浪漫的遊戲世界。
對於少女來說,那比較像是錢從天上掉下來的世界。

作為網咖擁有者的少年怎可能不知道眼前的少女有多特別。跟朋友進來玩的女高中生並不少,但那都是跟朋友打打怪殺殺時間,跟公要點好裝順便增進感情的為多。靠自己打上去的女生十個可能只有一個,但了解遊戲本身的一百個裡面可能一個都沒有。

她可是給出了一個鉅細無遺的數錢計劃,詳細到少年不需要問她各種情景的應對方法--因為那都已經在她當初的估計之內了。與其說是少年按計劃壟斷套裝讓他送給少女的神裝更顯身價是可以取悅少女,倒不如說按少女腦內的想法去實現野望才是少女快樂的原因。

少年並沒有想過在網遊裡弄出甚麼名堂,畢竟數真錢比起數假錢好玩多了。不過這次的成功讓他腦海裡閃過一個大膽的計劃:自古以來,頂尖的遊戲公會都是「以武立國」:聚集最好的高手,刷最好的副本,收最好的裝備,佔據最好的資源;只有堅強的實力才可以促成這一個循環。

少年一閃而過的念頭是,如果有一個以商立國的公會的話--

沒最強的高手?高薪挖回來就好,照三餐發薪水打公會戰還有花紅。
沒最好的裝備?沒關係我們幫你收回來,下次打回來的寶物分公會一分就好。
刷不動副本?沒聽過一句話叫「神裝在手,天下我有」嗎?

萬物皆有價,買不到非賣品只是價錢不夠高而已。壟斷武力只是獲取資源的手段,壟斷資源本身卻可以得到整個世界。

「妳知道嗎?我帶妳進來這個公會,妳卻為我在遊戲裡開啟了一個新的世界。能遇見妳實在太好了。」

少女報以一個害羞的微笑:「是嗎?那太好了呢,我有時總覺得整天在打怪實在有點沉悶,享受一下開放世界裡跟NPC的互動細節,或者跟玩家日常互動一下都比機械式砍怪有趣多了呢。」

「更重要的是遇見妳以後,我有了個更大膽的想法--」少年突然上前抓住她的雙手,深邃的漆黑瞳孔直直地注視著少女的可愛臉龐。

「我可以把這個理解成告白嗎?這個還恕人家拒絕哦,我們雖然在遊戲裡認識了一段時間,但在現實還是第一次見面呢。」

「不,那是再之後的事情,」毫不退縮的少年認真對她道:「我心裡有一個遊戲裡的大計劃--」

「商會」,這是少年第一次向少女提出建議(propose)。

好歹少年也有一點經商概念,看過少女的操作以後他勉強把腦海裡的拼圖一塊塊地拼出來。當然,行商最重要的是現金流,也是少年想法中最欠缺的一環。

「這個想法很有趣,不過如果做出來只是一個燒錢換取爽度的計劃的話那就沒有意思了。所以無論如何請以自負盈虧為目標出發喔。」

「嗯……其實不少裝備也用實體貨幣賣出就是了。像被我們炒起來的全套睡衣用虛擬金幣根本收不到,同時實體貨幣的賣價也快沖到三四千塊了。如果多一些這種活動的話我們真的有機會倒賣回本呢。」

「神裝多了不就沒意義了嗎?營運看到大家這次的反應,相信短期內再推這種活動會很謹慎吧。然後套裝一套三四千的話賣光也不夠你付這四位的工資呢。」少女望向仍在打副本的大學生們,正如與其中一個聽到我們提起而轉頭看過來的某大學生。他笑道:「小紅啊~我們好歹是公會要員,阿殘免費讓我們在這邊打已經很不錯了啦。有好玩的事情當然要一起玩,工資這種東西夠用就好了啦。」

居然是來做功德的,少女心裡嘀咕:「好吧,既然你們這樣說……雖然要燒多少錢取決於營運推甚麼活動出來,不過試一下也無妨啦,反正某人喜歡燒錢……」少女心裡順道發出友情提示,要取悅別人不一定要投其所好,有時直接按感覺進攻也可以啊……

「萬事屋」,是最終他們得出的結論。

在遊戲裡終究沒辦法長期壟斷一項資源,沒法壟斷資源就沒法建立商會。退一步以更綜合的萬事屋形式發展可以部分滿足少年的想法同時也保留了以戰養戰的優點,有了少年請來的幫手,在招收更多新人前也有足夠人力應付需求。

*

翌年,遊戲憑划時代的2.5D技術橫掃該年本地遊戲獎項,人氣一時無兩。大規模攻城戰更是將遊戲熱潮推到頂點:成功佔領城市的公會可以調整稅率甚至調整部分NPC位置,這使攻城掠地成為了每個大型公會的終極目標。

遊戲裡一共有三座大城。長安和成都接近副本入口,城市長期由兩大好戰公會把持著;比較有趣的是坐擁最大市集的洛陽,其統治者背後是個神龍見首不見尾的低調公會--平時副本沒怎樣刷,攻城戰倒是拿著各種稀有神裝把各路英雄打得不要不要的。

在這個神祕公會連莊城管一個月後,大家開始出動肉搜這個公會的成員試圖找出他們平時在幹嘛,得出的結果更是耐入尋味:平時他們都是少數人輪流刷普通怪物練功,其他人不是在市集開攤就在跑任務。後來又有流傳一個傳說,只要進行等價交換,不論是多困難的請求他們都使命必達:從帶隊陪練到組隊打王,從收集活動用品到收公收婆……大家異口同聲地表示價錢公道又有求必應。洛陽直接成了這個公會的後花園--本來就夠大的市集在超低稅率的吸引下變得更大了;回收垃圾NPC的回收價格突然漲了五倍,他們不知道的是這些垃圾直接進了公會的口袋裡;本來是居民NPC的房子開始有公會成員長駐成為了洽淡專區,可以哈拉也可以談生意,有時候比大街上還要熱鬧--

這個公會也不免俗地用了兩個UTF符號,叫「*殘楓♭」。

會長殺殘無情和副會長落楓飄紅用當年的話來說,一個是楊過、一個是小龍女。當然後世有一對更適合的形容詞,那就是某黑色二刀流和某長髮女劍士……

三年後代理商與營運方不和,營運方被要求將營運權交還。在交接過程中,伺服器的數據莫名地大量消失,不少公會整個消失,從會員列表到公會寶庫整個存在性被抹消掉那種消失。

不消說遊戲活躍玩家數立刻出現斷崖式暴跌。對少年與少女來說,「*殘楓♭」被抹掉也代表著他們在遊戲裡的傳說也就到此為止了。

但那不代表少年與少女之間故事的終結。

他們的羈絆從古龍同萌傳Online開始,從那邊一直持續下去--

---

前兩天在facebook看到以前公會成員生日,從祝她一句生日快樂開始一聊下去就停不下來,沒想到她還記得我,也沒想到她在line上跟其他公會成員偶而也會聯絡。

一隻靠IP的武俠Online營運了十四年因為授權到期而被逼改名實在令人痛心。雖然我已經是一年上線幾次的雲玩家,但我仍然希望(現)營運方可以遵守自己的諾言,再戰一個十四年。

令和元年五月五日

倫敦

Friday 26 April 2019

音遊運動科學化

某天深夜十二點,新宿東口Taito Station。

明明與音遊高手雲集的秋葉原只有三站(或者九站)之隔。明明位於世上最繁忙車站的最大出口的旁邊。明明下面的唐吉訶德和夾娃娃樓層都擠滿了人。明明DDR就放在走廊盡頭的正中間。明明旁邊的中二台(Chunithm)人滿為患,人多到要排兩道才到自己。

但是那台DDR居然從白天到黑夜都沒人玩。

而且這也不是A20的原故。在K社50週年記念曲放出來之時整整放了三天都沒人刷激(Expert)難度的分數,機台一的分數是難看的72萬分。

當然也不是價格的緣故。除了秋葉原,日本太概沒別的地方敢收200元一道。同樣也不是機台週遭環境的緣故,機台左右都放了隔音版隔開了左邊的Dancerush台和右邊的Gitadora台,旁邊也有DDR專用的大風扇。

這個機台人氣莫名低落的原因已不可考,其中一個合理推斷可能是來新宿的都是死現充們沒空去玩宅宅遊戲,潮到出水的中二台是個例外。

此時,一對死現充正霸著DDR玩得不亦樂乎。

身穿白色小背心配牛仔熱褲的少女正倚著扶手休息,旁邊身穿「天衣無縫」T恤的少年則坐在腳台上大口灌飲料。屏幕上顯示下一首的選曲是……Paranoia Revolution,左邊是激18而右邊則是踊14。

趁選曲倒數還有三十秒,少年向她抱怨道:「我說啊……今天已經是你第三次打這首了,拜託別刷卡路里好嗎。」

「才不是刷熱量呢。今天是絕好調,連Blew my mind和Over the period都隨手過了,這樣不試一下這首鬼19實在說不過去,所以我現在只是要熟悉一下BPM 180抓一下腳感而已啦。」

……才怪。古典音樂界快到不得了的BPM 180在音遊界是最標準的速度,隨手一抓就是一大堆:隅田川夏恋歌、夜騎、Healing D Vision、西班牙雪舞等等,想抓BPM 180的感覺才不用刷同一首,何況是18/19兩個譜面思路完全相反的Paranoia Revolution。

「倒是你,一直刷14要到甚麼時候?這首剛好夠到你目標的平均45卡路里,可這樣你就沒法練上去了喔。一道裡頂多打一首15 16,好調時勉強摸一下17這樣就滿足了嗎?有人在你旁邊一直17起跳時一下就吧你比下去了喔。」

雖然是日本但也不是遍地找到連打三四道17也毫無感覺的人好嗎?!?可少年心裡說不,嘴上卻很誠實:「好啦好啦大小姐。下一首我再刷16好嗎?Pararoia Revolution 18真的太難我打不動啊。」

「哼哼,終於下決心了呢。不過這邊快關門了,明天一早吃完すごい煮干ラーメン凪就來加練吧,正好早上一堆音遊減價。」

屏幕上的選曲計時即將倒數完畢,少女眼明手快一把按下綠色確認鍵,少年想站起來攔住卻還是晚了一步:「我還沒取消Shuffle啊啊---」

---------------

DDR、太鼓這種講求體能的音遊,用運動科學的方法去探討也是理所當然的。其中棒球跟音遊尤其接近。

玩實況野球就知道投手的兩大指標:體能和控球剛好對應音遊的體能和精準度。面對超過一定層級的打者時為了解決對方而用盡全力會令控球變差(一般來說),就正如音遊用力打長串有時就沒法兼顧準確率一樣。

棒球一局以三個出局數為單位,街機一道三首則代表你的教練是十分保護投手(反觀樂天某位一局被炸七分還沒被換下去)只投三個人次就可以下去。當然街機畢竟是遊戲,你可以調節一開始「對手」的強度,寓遊戲於熱身而不用像職棒一樣熱好才上場,還要擔心熱過頭沒力打的問題。

既然是運動科學當然有測量表現的方法,音遊打出來的分數毫無疑問跟投手防禦率一樣是最直觀的數據。檢視ERA同時局數和對面打者的質素也是要點之一,畢竟每次上來只能投十球或者只能殺自殺棒的投手沒多大用處。那到底怎樣將棒球的這兩項數據對應到DDR上呢?

答案是:去量熱量消耗。

DDR機台會告訴你每一首歌能消耗多少卡路里,在體重設定固定的前提下這個數字只和你的選曲和成績有關。到底顯示的熱量消耗準確與否還有待查證,但在比例上正確的話我們便可以將他看為一個歌曲強度指標。

以下是我過去一年超過100次出巡,大概800道打下來的數據。直軸的數字是將熱量消耗透過線性轉換(熱量-等級的關係在12-18級的範圍內約為線性,太簡單的話這個對換並不具意義)化成等級,雖然不太科學但得出的數字與實際的打圖等級分佈還算吻合。



藍線:每次練習時每首平均熱量消耗
紅線:藍線移動平均
黃線:用總熱量消耗修正後去除友誼性質的較易選曲後的平均消耗值

用棒球去理解的話,紅線就是平均面對打者的強度(WAR平均值?),黃線就是把無關重要的對決去掉(正如三振開球打者不會費力,在音遊機台打一些遠在你水準之下的譜面也不會耗到體力),加上投手長局數的加成而得出的數字,不再具物理意義而只是一個比較用的數據。

所以這張圖要怎樣理解呢?按照圖表我的表現可以分為三個階段:

第一個階段(03/18-06/18):每次都刷個十二三道,但打的都是12 13 14之流,絲毫沒有訓練的感覺。這是因為當時我集精力在解Rinon's Adventure,當然不能打太難。

第二個階段(07/18-12/18):平均消耗拉高到一定水平,修正數值卻大幅下降。這是因為我開始採用一道裡面三首難度漸進的模式(比如依次打14 16 17級的譜面),在摸到大量高等譜面的同時因為體能不夠也玩了大量權當休憩的簡單譜面,修正數值便因此被拉了下去。

第三個階段(03/19-):撇除沒認真打的一二月,從這裡開始我一直嘗試連續遊玩高強度的譜面,以七道一千卡為目標。在這個模式下體能快速地跟上,我用以前三分之二道數消耗比以前還多的熱量,這樣兩項數據直接拉上去也很正常。

DDR的熱量消耗統計我個人覺得蠻準確的,除了一點,那就是逆足組合並不會算在熱量消耗裡面。誠然有沒有逆足箭頭數還是一樣多,不過有了逆足玩家不扭腰也要快速在兩隻腳之間轉換,說不會特別累也是騙人的。女武神(Valkyrie Dimension)18後半段譜面極複雜,但結算下來的熱量消耗還不如直來直往的Go for the Top。這樣有心刷熱量消耗的話可能讓自己的技能樹點歪--所以隨心打就好,太在意數據的話它就會失準了。



姑且不論這數據有多科學,在每次出巡的總熱量消耗大致固定下每首消耗穩定向上代表的是必然進步。就在前幾天我居然在最後一道打出一個18set而且三首都是高分記錄。再這樣下去穩定摸19真的,不再是個夢了。