Ba’s decision to give Lu a raise was unanimously supported by everyone at the studio. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

After all, this bug was too critical.

After receiving praise and the promise of a raise, Lu immediately demonstrated to everyone how the bug occurred and the logic behind it.

Simply put.

In the game "Divine Grace Continent," the unique affinity system is key for players to recruit NPC companions.

Different NPCs have different initial affinity levels towards players.

The monsters in the game weren’t designed this way and don’t develop affinities. Whenever players encounter monsters, it triggers combat...

But after triggering combat, they can choose to "escape"!

Since NPCs generally have uniqueness, the escape mechanism is designed to protect players, allowing them to escape and preserve their strength when facing an impending wipeout, to return stronger.

The escape mechanism is fine.

The problem arises when players choose to escape. After leaving combat, monsters will remain in a "hatred detachment" state for about 10 seconds.

In other words:

When a hero, along with a team, attempts to defeat a monster but finds it insurmountable, they choose to escape to save their life. The monster won’t immediately pull the hero back into combat.

This also gives players some reaction time. Otherwise, right after escaping, if the monster’s hatred hasn’t detached and combat begins again, how can one escape?

"The issue is in this 10-second hatred detachment time!"

Lu explained: "During these 10 seconds, a detached monster temporarily uses the neutral affinity template at the foundational logic level."

To summarize in two sentences:

Under normal circumstances, monsters don’t use the NPC template; they have their own set of behavior logic.

But when the hero escapes, in the 10 seconds after combat ends and the monster’s hatred detaches, for convenience, it temporarily uses the NPC neutral template at the foundational level.

During this 10-second window, the monster is no different from a normal "neutral NPC."

Therefore, in this period, the hero can use gifts to increase the monster’s affinity. Ten seconds not enough? Then continue the cycle: fight, escape, repeat...

Once the affinity reaches the "Follow" level, after another escape, the monster will appear in the "recruitable" list and won’t trigger combat anymore.

This sounds like a complicated bug, which under normal circumstances, players wouldn’t trigger.

But Chen Ba doesn’t dare to underestimate the persistence of players. As long as this bug exists, players are bound to trigger it and use it to overcome the Demon King.

No matter how small the chance, he doesn’t dare to take the risk.

Hence, this bug must be fixed to avoid everyone neglecting their hero role and running off to conquer the Demon King after the game’s release.

"Fixing this bug requires replacing the foundational logic code. Simply put, after a monster’s hatred detaches, it shouldn’t continue using the NPC neutral template anymore."

Lu chuckled bitterly: "It’s time-consuming, and writing a separate piece of code for it isn’t worth it. So my proposed solution is to add a few lines of code to lock the upper limit of the monster’s affinity."

This is also to save effort.

Rewriting the base is troublesome, and it’s unnecessary. After all, there are many solutions to this issue.

The simplest solution is just to lock the upper limit of the monster character class’s affinity.

This way, even if the monster uses the NPC template during the hatred detachment, it won’t be a normal NPC, and the affinity won’t increase.

"No, no, no, it must be rewritten!"

Chen Ba shook his head, indicating that Lu’s solution was unreliable, and insisted that rewriting the foundational code was the only way to ensure peace of mind.

Better safe than sorry!

Having a newfound hidden threat in the new game, not eradicating it completely and choosing to overlook it, he worries new bugs might arise.

If rewriting is necessary, so be it!

Even though it would waste some time and isn’t of significant meaning, at least it would prevent the bug from morphing and resurfacing.

"Alright, have it your way!"

Since Ba insisted on rewriting the code, Lu had no objections. After all, Ba was the one paying the salary, so whatever he says goes!

Under Chen Ba’s instructions, Lu and Zhong Shengwei began working on fixing the bug.

As for other bugs...

Chen Ba glanced at them. As described by Lu, they weren’t severe, mostly common minor issues that could be easily fixed with small changes.

"Our new game is great!"

"Better than any previous game, I guarantee the new game will surprise everyone after its release..."

Even before the early access version was released, the game had already resolved deeply hidden malicious bugs, which made Chen Ba quite proud.

In response to numerous player inquiries about the new game in the Tianba Game Community, he even described the new game as "flawless."

This surprised everyone?

How much did Ba drink to speak such nonsense?

Did he already forget how names like Cow Herding Simulator, House Flipping Simulator, and The Great Emperor of Graphics Cards came about?

"Before every new game release, Ba tends to speak more boldly, everyone just bear with it..."

"Bold claims during development, silent playtests, nonsensical speech during actual release, that’s Ba in a nutshell."

"Ba, what new bug are you bringing us?"

"A bunch of haters, what did my dear pigeon do to you? Just a few bugs in the game, if you’re so tough, why don’t you stop playing..."

Not convinced, huh?

Seeing the mockery from the player community, Chen Ba’s face turned dark in anger.

He admitted that the previous few games by Tianba Studio had this or that problem, causing them to stray from their original design intent.

But that was due to his own negligence!

If he hadn’t been so careless and pinpointed issues during testing, those previous games wouldn’t have ended up like that.

Believe it or not!

Once "Divine Grace Continent" officially releases, players should change their preconceived notions about him and Tianba Studio.

"Oh, right, Ba!"

Seeing Chen Ba chatting enthusiastically with others in the player community, Zhong Shengwei couldn’t help but ask: "Everyone’s very concerned about our new game’s pricing. What do you think?"

"About the game’s pricing..."

Chen Ba frowned, lost in thought.

This issue, he hadn’t seriously thought about yet. Game pricing involves too many factors to consider, it’s not about setting whatever price one wants.

The previous games from the studio were priced at 18, 25, and 50 units in their final versions!

The scale of the new game suggests its price won’t be too low, but ultimately, it’s not a major game, so it shouldn’t reach three-digit pricing.

80-90 units would be too expensive!

Setting such a high price would surely reduce the number of buyers, as many players have their own standards and won’t buy if they find it unjustifiable.

40-50 units would be too cheap!

After all, "Divine Grace Continent" was crafted with great dedication, and Chen Ba admitted he invested more effort into this game than in "Star Emperor."

"68 units!"

After some contemplation and considering the pricing of similar games, Chen Ba finally decided: "Early access version 57 units, full version 68 units, the deluxe version with DLC will be discussed later."