This Is Not a Bug but a Game Feature-Chapter 57: Playing the Fool to Outsmart the Strong
Honestly speaking.
It’s normal for a new game in the Early Access phase to have issues or bugs; in fact, if there are no issues at all, that might be the biggest issue.
Players are mentally prepared for it too.
But encountering optimization bugs like those in "Star Emperor" really makes everyone struggle to hold it together...
Tianba Studio immediately released an announcement, presenting a solution to the "black screen crash" issue, which is simply to lower the game’s graphics quality.
Chen Ba originally thought that after a painful lesson, players should remember and dare not easily try extreme graphics settings again.
Initially, this was the case...
But once most players adjusted their graphics quality to simple or standard, a new problem emerged.
Extreme Sublimation mode is too intense!
Even on simple graphics settings, ordinary mid-to-low-end graphics cards can barely withstand ten moves.
If the video memory is less than 8G, it might not even survive ten moves before the video memory overloads.
Thus, the gaming environment entered a strange atmosphere, similar to the "Dark Forest" suspicion chain in a sci-fi novel. You don’t know what graphics card the opponent has, nor do you know how many moves they can withstand in Extreme Sublimation mode...
If you can’t figure out the opponent’s computer setup, the best choice is not to enable Extreme Sublimation. Anyway, the frame rate and graphics quality are the same, purely relying on technical skill to determine victory.
But what if the opponent thinks your setup isn’t as good as theirs, and your graphics card is probably trash?
The result is obvious!
If you know that the opponent’s computer setup, especially the graphics card, is poor, then why bother with technical play? Just enable Extreme Sublimation and crush them with raw power.
Kid, can you handle my punch with 24G video memory?
Thus, the current gaming environment is quite peculiar, especially the intrigues on the Path to Immortality — it’s simply spectacular!
Lu also decided to give it a try.
At the beginning of the game, both sides feigned weakness, struck a gentleman’s agreement, and subtly hinted that their computer setup isn’t great, agreeing not to enable Extreme Sublimation, only comparing skills.
OK!
It sounds quite tempting...
But this is just a mutual probing stage before the match begins. If you agree too readily or if you’re genuinely weak instead of pretending, the so-called gentleman’s agreement can be torn apart instantly.
Besides!
There are some peculiar players like Fu who love to "pretend to be weak to devour the strong," starting off by asking you to go easy, emphasizing that they are easy to bully, tricking you into striking first.
Do you really think they are weak?
As soon as you dare to flip, breaking the gentleman’s agreement, they’ll immediately stop pretending, releasing a wrath from a 3090 graphics card that you simply can’t withstand.
"Wow! I’m so miserable..."
Lu was in agony; the first match, he adhered to the gentleman’s agreement and only compared skills, only to be brutally beaten. In the second match, he decided to drop the facade, showing the opponent what it means to disrespect the Great Emperor.
Then he got utterly destroyed by a wild 3090 player, and his computer is still black screened!
"Why would you even go and play Path to Immortality..." Zhong Shengwei twitched his mouth and said, "Is Path to Immortality even something humans can play now? It’s full of demons and monsters; using my own computer, my win rate is only 58%!"
It’s too abstract.
The players on the Early Access version, combined across three major platforms, only number over eighty thousand, yet from among them, so many 3090 supreme warriors emerged.
"I think I might know the answer."
Yang Dong, who was eavesdropping on the conversation, opened a browser and said, "Look at this..."
Lu and Zhong Shengwei immediately leaned over, and even Chen Ba, who was peeling an orange nearby, cast a curious glance.
This is the hot post on the Graphics Card Forum.
The content of the post was simple; a forum member was crushed repeatedly by various supreme players on Path to Immortality, emotionally shattered to the point of an uncertain future, so he came to the Graphics Card Forum to vent.
The forum members are warm-hearted; seeing some people wreak havoc on the world with their powerful graphics cards, their sense of justice erupted, promising to help their fellow member regain face.
Lately, those on Path to Immortality who "pretend to be weak to devour the strong" are the righteous heroes from the Graphics Card Forum.
Each time they successfully turn the tables by pretending to be weak, they would run to the "Star Emperor Forum" to post threads documenting their achievements.
As for the newly established Star Emperor Forum, it was colonized by the Graphics Card Forum from the day it was created.
Chen Ba: "..."
Clearly the orange is sweet, but he’s eating it bitterly, his tongue numb from the bitterness. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮
What a situation is this?
He made Extreme Sublimation mode with the intention of caring for weak players, giving them a chance for a comeback. But now, Extreme Sublimation has instead become exclusive to the strong.
Weak players enabling Extreme Sublimation, in the eyes of opponents, it’s like they’re suiciding.
Fu, using Extreme Sublimation, every one kills a player on the Path to Immortality, pushing horizontally with no rivals, the gaming experience is maximized with spending!
What spending?
Spending on hardware is spending too!
Saying this made Chen Ba quite irritated; the in-game purchases they designed for "Star Emperor," such as the Stone Workshop cutting Source Stones mechanic, have not seen many users recharging to experience it.
Using the words of a Cowherding Sect player from the forum: Why spend on this? Do I have money to burn or what? I’d rather buy a new graphics card directly; wouldn’t that be a better experience?
He makes a valid point.
Because it’s valid, even Chen Ba can’t argue against it, making him feel aggrieved and uncomfortable.
Every player who has played the Early Access version of "Star Emperor" says this game is too pay-to-win; without spending, the experience is poor.
But here’s the issue...
You guys spend, but we haven’t received any money!
Beyond the 50 yuan pre-order price of the Early Access version, Tianba Studio hasn’t earned a penny more, all the money goes to the graphics card profiteers.
They then rampantly rant on various gaming forums and communities, saying "Star Emperor" forces spending, claiming it leaves no room for ordinary players, and that Tianba Studio deserves to die...
"Such injustice!"
"It’s one thing to curse that our game is trash, after all, it’s true, but I didn’t expect people to curse us for forcing spending."
Chen Ba threw the orange peel on the ground hard, gritting his teeth, saying, "And those graphics card profiteers, marketing under the banner of our game, they are just shameless!"
"Exactly!"
Yang Dong was also furious: "What lousy graphics cards dare to market ’Star Emperor’ as smooth and stress-free, isn’t that just lying?"
Does game smoothness have anything to do with your graphics card? Isn’t it because Tianba Studio’s optimization is energizing?
They dare to market stress-free smooth play?
It’s laughable!
These profiteers blatantly lie and blindly promote the performance of low stock 20 series graphics cards to computer newbies.
"Star Emperor" became the best advertisement for these profiteers.
Look here!
With such amazing graphics quality and still running at 60 fps stably, isn’t my graphics card awesome?
Newbies don’t understand the nuances here.
Although they haven’t played "Star Emperor," don’t know what the game is, but the graphics quality is certainly impressive, and the framerate is indeed stable at 60 fps.
Alright, alright, I’ll buy this card!
Relying on the actual graphics demo of "Star Emperor" and the energizing optimization at 60 fps, these profiteers deceived quite a few computer newbies, pocketing ill-gotten gains to their fill.
