Text/Tiaotiao

Maybe some people still remember "The Legend of Jin Yong Heroes 2" and "The Legend of Jin Yong Heroes 3". They are not stand-alone games developed by Heluo Studio, but two flash games that look very simple. The developers are half-hearted gods. vinegar.

I've forgotten about them for a long time.

It wasn't until a few days ago that I accidentally entered a martial arts game forum called "Iron Blood Danxin" while surfing the Internet, and those memories came back to me like cirrocumulus clouds – in this forum, there were people who had been arguing about these two games. Flash games that have been around for nearly 10 years have been updated, modded, and even made into mobile versions.

From the perspective of traditional RPG development, this is actually quite strange. The productions of both Golden 2 and Golden 3 are relatively crude. Most of the characters' portraits of the former are taken from "Dragon" and "The Legend of Martial Arts", while the latter's real-life portraits are directly taken from domestic martial arts dramas. The flow and size of the game are not large (Gold 2 is only over 20 MB), and the battles are turn-based battles with a progress bar and nothing new. Various reset versions and self-made MMods have not made any improvements to the game's graphics and combat.

Character avatars from Jin Yong's Legend of Heroes 3

Mod This is already 2020. Mainstream martial arts games have already used real-time action combat, interactive open worlds, and ray tracing. Even so, they cannot fully satisfy domestic players. In Tieba, there are still people who are still waiting for half a bottle of magic vinegar to make "The Legend of Jin Yong Heroes 4" – a sequel to the Flash game.

But if you think about it differently, this is not so strange.

We can divide the evolution of domestic martial arts games into two paths: one is the normal RPG path. With the advancement of manufacturers' technical capabilities, the game gradually changes from turn-based combat with rough graphics to real-time action combat with 3A graphics. Finally, Fantasy series and Fallout series have evolved in this way. However, there is another path for martial arts games, a unique path inherited from text MUD games. The clues of this path can be seen from other popular games on the Iron Blood Danxin Forum: "People in Jianghu", which adds a large number of events and NPCs. Action Logic's "Jin Yong's Legend of Heroes" Mod; "My Knights", a "retro strategy" martial arts game on the mobile platform, in which players can compete to rob NPCs of equipment…

They follow the example of "Xia Ke Xing", the first online game that appeared in China in 1996. They do not set (or rarely set) a clear main plot. NPCs are "free to act" according to the rules at all times, and the whole world will follow. Changes: The protagonist played by the player is not written by the developer from his origin, qualifications, character, and achievements, but is created and selected by the player himself. To put it simply, these games are MUD games at their core.

MUDs are often referred to as "literal MUDs". The game basically only uses text to describe everything – the environment around the player, what happened to the character, what a certain knife looks like, and the player also has to enter text commands to perform various operations.

This is the map for the MUD game:

If players want to move on the map, they have to manually enter words such as south and north to indicate direction. If you want to communicate with the NPC in the location, you need to enter a grammatical phrase such as "ask npc command" in the input box.

“ask fu bo out of the village”

It is conceivable that most martial arts players love MUDs, but don't really want to play them. MUD games are too troublesome to operate: Generally, moving in a game requires only one operation (mouse or direction keys), but MUD requires two (input direction, press enter). Just for the most basic operation of movement, there are two times the amount of operations.If you want to interact smoothly with NPCs, it requires several times or even more than ten times the amount of operations. You also have to switch between Chinese and English and always remember the grammar.

However, MUD games pointed out a path beyond "developing technical capabilities" for later martial arts games. Martial arts players and developers have discovered that it is not only graphics that can bring a sense of immersion. The human brain is the most perfect graphics card. Exquisite text combined with rich degrees of freedom can also sink the hearts of martial arts enthusiasts.

Before the arrival of smart phones, a large number of text WAP mobile web games appeared in the domestic market. They simplified the operation of MUD games and turned instructions into various operation options. The master of them was the later "Idle Jianghu". There is a graphical interface, simple character avatars, and items, scenes, and character interactions are still MUD-style text descriptions.

As the name suggests, the core gameplay of "Idle Jianghu" is to idle. The idle gameplay is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it solves the problem of "the development speed of MUD games cannot keep up with the consumption speed of players" and makes the game more playable. On the other hand, it dissuades some players who are not interested in hanging up, and also makes the game more playable. It has lost some of the rhythm of martial arts games and is more like a development game.

Later games tried to solve this problem. We have previously introduced a martial arts MUD game "I'm from Jianghu" that is logged into Steam. It combines placement gameplay with construction and management elements, so that various buildings that can produce resources when idle have production. When the production is used up, you must go to other places. Cities must buy land to continue production. During the placement period, players can send disciples down the mountain to explore the map and study where to buy land. This parallel model is a good solution.

There are also games that remove the placement element entirely. Like the "My Knight" mentioned above, it pays more attention to the interaction between people in the arena. There is no construction element, and you don't need to hang up to practice. Instead, you can fight, take medicine, and consult NPCs. This mobile game uses another way to solve the long-term gaming experience of players: mode.

To put it simply, players complete various events in "My Knight" and achieve various achievements to increase achievement points. The achievement points can unlock the protagonist's initial talents at the beginning of the game, similar to the game's technology tree. The Jianghu sects that players can join are also gradually unlocked. After interacting with people from each sect in the game and building a good relationship, you can join the corresponding sect in the next game. This type of multi-game gameplay, coupled with more than a dozen different endings, makes the game extremely playable.

From simple placement to parallel placement and exploration, to multiple rounds, this is just a part of the step-by-step exploration and trial and error of martial arts games taking the MUD path. In terms of combat, MUD retro martial arts games also have an evolution process.

The battles in the first mobile WAP games were very simple. I call them "turn-based battles over coffee": there was no positioning, no attack range, or even attack speed, just a simple sequence of strikes, you punch me. , if I punch you, it’s like two people sitting on opposite sides of a table drinking coffee and punching each other with their fists.

"Idle Jianghu" is a little more sophisticated in the combat, with attack animations and moves, but it is still a turn-based system where you punch me and drink coffee. "I Come from Jianghu" goes a step further and creates a serious turn-based battle with an entire battle screen and the ability to select targets.

In "My Knight", the combat system is more complete and has become a turn-based chess game. The enemy and we move on the grid map. Each martial arts also has its own different attack range. For example, a stick can sweep a piece, and a sword can Attacks enemies randomly within range. This kind of battle also makes Qinggong more meaningful. It is not only numerical changes such as increased dodge and attack speed, but also can be reflected in strategic positional movements.

In fact, speaking of these "progresses" seriously, there is a sense of dislocation of the times. The evolution of turn-based combat is something orthodox martial arts RPGs did many years ago. But in a MUD-style martial arts RPG, each system often affects the whole body. If you have to fight with chess and chess, can the large map exploration be as simple as before? Do the scenes and items also need to be matched together? Otherwise, it will be easy to have a sense of disharmony like "the outside is black with white characters, and the battle is red flowers and green leaves", which will greatly affect the substitution.

The scenes, items, and battles are all very complete. What’s the difference between a MUD-style retro martial arts RPG and an orthodox RPG?

There are still differences. Take "My Knight" as an example. This game's large map scenes, items, battle drawings and animations are all well done. It is much ahead of the mainstream MUD martial arts, and it also has supporting comics.

But this does not affect the MUD core of the game. The NPCs in "My Knight" will also do their own things over time, which is the so-called world evolution. The degree of freedom for players to interact with NPCs is also quite high. Each sect also has different interaction options. For example, the beggars who are ordered to beg for food can beg forcibly, and the red knife sect who does all evil can force a duel with others. If they succeed, they can directly let them The defeated NPC exits and plunders all his items.

The relationship between NPCs in the game and between NPCs and players is governed by favorability. If the favorability level is enough, all NPCs can be invited to join the team – this kind of equal treatment is an important standard for MUD games.

There is also a wonderful design in "My Knight": the card drawing method is added to the game. However, the card drawing in this game does not involve any payment elements, but is a loot drop mechanism. Players who often play RPG games know that in most RPG games, defeating an enemy does not allow you to obtain all the items on him – although the enemy slashed you with a green sword in the last second, when he dies, you will often It also dropped a Qingfeng sword. But in "My Knight", the enemy defeated by the player will only drop what he has on him – provided that you have to draw it out.

Specifically, every time an opponent is defeated in a competition, the player can draw a card. The card pool is all the martial arts secrets on the opponent plus props and equipment. The higher the quality of the item, the harder it is to draw (it can be understood as Good things are hidden deep). This design is not only more realistic than random drops, but also has the excitement of a gacha game – drawing a shiny dark gold prop among a dozen rags is like drawing an SSR in a gacha game, and there is no need to spend krypton at all. gold.

Is "My Knight" the end of MUD-style martial arts? Obviously impossible.

Due to the addition of a large number of vertical paintings and animations, "My Knight" will inevitably be weaker in updates than games that do not require so much art. Can the improvement of art make up for this cost? It also depends on the developer’s subsequent update frequency and weight.

And if "My Knight" is recognized by players, does it mean that even martial arts players who like MUD-type games will be interested in the completion of the game – including art, combat and various modern gameplay designs? What about the increasing demand?

In September 2018, "Taiwu Scroll" was launched, which once made many players think that "MUD-style martial arts world simulators are the future of martial arts games." But two years have passed, and there is no second MUD-style martial arts replica that has the success of "Taiwu Scroll". To a certain extent, this is because Taiwu chose a "skeleton-building" game production method. The basic idea is "if the system is done well, everything else will emerge on its own." But this relies too much on the right time, place and people to spread the word, and latecomers will not be so lucky.

Nowadays, how far can MUD-style martial arts games go? Which one is more important, technical strength or the free core of MUD? These questions are still left to be answered by future martial arts developers, but at least we know that besides the bright road to hit 3A martial arts games, there is a remote but not rugged path that is spreading forward.