7 o'clock.
As gamers gradually logged off, the official website became lively.
It had been 12 hours since the Alpha 0.3 version was released. Whether they were pre-registered gamers who hadn't received their qualifications or cloud gamers who didn't pre-register at all, they were all waiting for firsthand information about the new version.
Light Chu brought some food for Miss Summer and then hummed a tune as he returned to his computer, sitting down and opening the forum to browse.
The first post he saw was from Trash-kun.
"I finally confirmed it today! The tire factory, located three kilometers north of the abandoned construction site, is a raiders' camp! The number of people is estimated to be between 50 and 100! I originally wanted to capture a prisoner, but there were too many of them. Luckily, they were clearly scared of me. I slapped the dog that bit my arm unconscious and escaped while they were reloading."
"Damn, that dog almost bit my tail off! The raiders I encountered this time were much more aggressive than last time!"
Light Chu: "..."
The content of this post was different from what he had heard from Trash-kun half an hour ago.
Light Chu remembered that Trash-kun had said he didn't provoke those raiders on his own. The injuries on his body were from running into a raiders' patrol when he returned.
However, according to the post, it seemed like Trash-kun had taken the initiative to attack in order to capture a prisoner.
This guy wasn't telling the truth.
Light Chu thought for a moment and shook his head.
Forget it, it's not important.
The first posts usually didn't have much substance.
Gamers in the forum had been listening to Trash-kun brag about the raiders' camp for almost three days. And the result of waiting for three days was that he was driven away in embarrassment.
Everyone expressed their disbelief in the comments.
[Quit_smoking]: "What the hell is with the estimated number of 50 to 100? How many are they really? Your reconnaissance skills are worse than a Teletubby."
[Ilaina]: "I took off my pants and didn't fart. Hey, just kidding. (Funny face)"
[Who_dares_challenging_me]: "Trash! You're scared of just under a hundred enemies! Why not lure them one by one? Kill one at a time and repeat until they're all dead? Bah, what am I saying, this damn game doesn't even exist!"
[Good_names_all_taken_by_dogs]: "Learn repositioning! Noob!"
[Cici]: "Even with special professions, you can't handle small enemies. It's so embarrassing! Just let me play!"
[Level_99_trashpicker]: "??? Can you show me how to reposition? Damn! Even small enemies have tactical flanking, alternating shooting, and they even release dogs. Can you believe it?!"
[Quit_smoking]: "I want to see it! Give me your account, and I'll show you."
[Level_99_trashpicker]: "I'm your papa!"
The thread completely went off-topic, turning into a debate between Lizard Bro and the rest of the gamers, reminiscent of the time when Raven_raven and gamers confronted each other.
However, no matter how he described the situation back then, he couldn't change the fact that he was labeled as a noob in the minds of cloud gamers.
Perhaps he would only be able to clear his name when the game introduced a photo-taking feature in the future.
Light Chu was well aware of the combat capabilities of those raiders.
These people might not have strong equipment and their physical abilities might not be great, but their talent for urban combat was almost maxed out.
After all, since the first year of the Wasteland Era, they hadn't stopped fighting. The genes of looting had long been ingrained in their blood and marrow, passed down through countless generations.
After reviewing the beautifully written shitposts by Trash-kun, Light Chu closed it and continued browsing the forum.
It had been a while since the gamers had logged off, and a lot of high-quality content had already emerged.
What surprised Chu Light Chu the most was that among these high-quality content, he came across many new faces he had never seen before.
For example, there was a user named [Canyon_escaping_mole].
Light Chu checked his profile and found out that he was a newcomer who entered the game in the Alpha 0.2 version.
Based on his past posts, it could be inferred that he found the official website of Wasteland OL through a link shared by a friend, due to an urban legend circulating in the single-player gaming community.
In short, he was someone who had a lot of free time at night.
"Hello, everyone! I'm your big-nosed Mole, and after going online today, I found that the game has undergone major changes. The development team has finally delivered a small part of what they promised, and I'm absolutely loving the new version! Woohoo!"
"Let's start with the conclusion: I'm blown away by the new economic system they designed this time! Although there are only a few simple supply chains at the moment, from some details, you can already glimpse the ambition of the development team! They are indeed playing a big game!"
"But I won't flatter them here, I'll just briefly discuss my findings, which might be helpful to you!"
[Currently, there are two recognized low-entry, high-return money-making methods in the game. One is cement production, and the other is hunting. The former provides stable income and can be done solo, but it requires competition because the number of available spots is limited. The latter has unstable income, requires equipment, and is almost impossible to solo. If you want to pursue the path of a hunter, it's best to form a team with perception-based professions!]
"Cement production doesn't require much skill, so I'll only talk about the hunting gameplay here!"
"A mutated hyena weighing 30 kilograms can be sold to the granary for 5 silver coins. If you spend some time butchering it, you can get 12 kilograms of raw meat, instantly worth 40 silver coins. Isn't that amazing?"
"Of course, I'm only talking about value! Value! Emphasizing."
"The granary at the outpost doesn't accept raw meat, only unprocessed game and air-dried meat that can be stored directly. And just like in other games, there is a buy-sell price difference in NPC shops. For example, air-dried meat is bought for 5 silver coins per kilogram, but if you sell it back, you only get 1 silver coin per kilogram. A five-fold price difference, isn't it outrageous?"
"If you process the game you hunted into air-dried meat and sell it to the NPCs, you can earn more. But if you buy raw meat from NPC shops and smoke it yourself, you might even lose money!"
"Actually, it's not that bad. I've seen even more absurd things in other games, so this is nothing. Especially in online games, buying something for 1000 in-game coins and selling it for 1 coin is basic operation. The brilliance of the game design lies in using the price difference in NPC shops to encourage p2p trading instead of buying from NPCs to replenish inventory."
"Here's a little idea: a hunting team can collaborate with one or two gamers to slaughter the hunted animals and make air-dried meat and fur."
"You can sell a portion of the air-dried meat to gamers at a price lower than the granary's, cutting one kilogram into ten portions and selling them for 1-9 silver coins, depending on the buyer and other gamers' wallets. If you can't sell them all, it's not a problem. Just sell them to the granary before nightfall and make an additional profit."
"With this approach, although it may take more time, the theoretical income from hunting a mutated hyena can at least double. Isn't that great?"
"Furthermore, let me extend the discussion a bit. Based on my research, trading is also a gameplay option, although it seems to have a high level of difficulty and is not profitable at the moment. Buying one kilogram of smoked jerky from NPC shops costs 5 silver coins, and if you transport it to Brown's farm, you can exchange it for 5 kilograms of grain (in theory). But if you bring it back to the outpost, it's only worth 5 silver coins! And that's the selling price at the NPC shop! The buyback price would be even lower! Whether you sell it to NPCs or gamers, you'll suffer a loss."
"Considering that the current expansion is called 'Winter is Coming,' I guess the development team's focus is not on the trading system. I'm really looking forward to the next version, hoping the development team will focus more on developing the trading system."
"An economic system without exports and only domestic sales is incomplete. Balancing production and imports and exports through tariffs and prices would be more interesting, wouldn't it? Please consider it, development team, if the server's CPU allows it!"
After reading the post, Light Chu liked it but didn't leave any comments.
The keyboard economists often fall into the trap of idealism, and excessive grand narratives don't help solve the immediate problems.
From the perspective of game design and players, the suggestions for enriching the game's playability are indeed good.
But from the perspective of Light Chu, everything in the sanctuary, including the gamers' avatars, belonged to him. Why would he let them take his things and trade with their neighbors?
Unless they can do it better than him.
But that's clearly impossible.
Even Light Chu himself often faced exclusion and suspicion from some of the scavengers in Bette Street due to his accent. He couldn't even utilize his sales experience from his previous life due to his lack of understanding of the market and rules.
This is the Wasteland.
A dystopian society composed of scums and villains.
Compared to conventional bankers or economists, scammers who engage in illicit trading and deal with shady financial derivatives would fare better.
Allowing gamers to trade with these local wealthy landowners would not only fail to make good use of their eloquence, but even if they succeeded, what difference would it make?
It would be better to bring a gun along.
Suddenly, Light Chu understood the old leech of Bette Street—no, the old mayor.
He wasn't a good person, and his appearance was unsightly. He exploited others purely for pleasure, with no long-term plans for the future of Bette Street.
But if the scavengers themselves go and trade with the merchants, those poor people will only be further oppressed.
This is not just a matter of ignorance.
Only someone naive to a certain extent would think that the merchants from Boulder City would be more compassionate than the wealthy landowners in the distant outskirts.
It's like comparing bats and leeches, which one can suck more blood from you.
"Encouraging gamyers to trade with indigenous factions is pointless. Every large-scale export transaction must be conducted under supervision. For example, forming fixed merchant caravans, planning routes and trade goods, listing commodity prices, gamers serving as escorts responsible for transportation, NPCs responsible for handover, with a fifty-fifty or thirty-seventy split in rewards... This way, we can also take care of gamers who are not as hardcore and simplify the trading process."
"But tariffs are indeed a good idea, that can be noted down! In the future, depending on the needs of reality, it can be considered allowing external NPCs to directly participate in the gamers' market... provided it's barter or using the currency of the sanctuary."
And under supervision.
"Free trading?"
"Hehe."
"When I need you to fight, I will naturally tell you who you can have free trading with."
In addition to the strategy post by [Canyon_escaping_mole] and the thread started by Civil dogs discussing house-building techniques, there were also discussions among metallurgical engineering students on how to efficiently smelt steel using limited materials.
Some people, in the midst of their conversations, even threw links to NicoNico and AcFun, moving the discussions to another place, unexpectedly bringing a considerable amount of new traffic to those websites.
There are growing signs of the urban legend about a "fully immersive virtual reality online game." Although the majority of people consider it a concept born out of idle talk, there are also a small number of people who take it seriously, clicking on the reservation button with half-joking curiosity.
The number of reservations is steadily increasing.
What surprised Light Chu the most, however, was that Tomorrow, who was usually the most popular and "understood himself the most," didn't share any of his gaming experiences on the forum this time.
It's like the sun rising from the west.
While Light Chu was browsing the forum, the Shachuko group was also lively.
Although Light Bro hadn't spoken in the group for the past few days, the topics in the group were mainly centered around Wasteland OL.
At least in the morning.
[White]: "Tomorrow, have you seen the post on the official website? The one written by the big-nosed mole."
[Hurricane]: "He's called [Canyon_escaping_mole]"
[White]: "That's not important!"
[Tomorrow]: "I've seen it. The methods mentioned in that post are interesting, but not significant."
[White]: "Ah? I think it's alright! Selling a game directly to an NPC earns you 5 silver coins. Find someone to slaughter and air-dry in a row, and its value will at least double."
[Tomorrow]: "Hehe, theory is theory, but he overlooks the existence of contribution points."
[Nighten]: "What do you mean?"
[Tomorrow]: "You can understand citizenship as having a permanent residence in Shenzhen. Contribution points are like accumulated household registration points."
[Hurricane]: "Damn, your analogy is a bit... interesting."
[Tomorrow]: "It's the same idea. Among all the gamers right now, except for a few of us who have upgraded to citizens, Mosquito who does woodworking and Vine_vine who makes clothes might barely gather 2,000 points. In other words, except for these six people, everyone else needs to grind contributions and become citizens before they can make money."
You need to become a citizen to buy land.
Even fools can see that the earlier you start buying land, the better the location.
[Tomorrow]: "Once we've thought through this issue, we can analyze the others. Who among these six people do you think is more suitable to be a butcher? Do any of you have experience in slaughtering?"
[White]: "Uh, that's indeed a problem."
[Nighten]: "No, I just want to ask, is slaughtering difficult?"
[Hurricane]: "...Anyone who has bought food at the supermarket wouldn't ask such a question."
[Tomorrow]: "Nighten is still in school, so it's normal for him to lack life experience. Just regarding the method mentioned in the strategy post, it doesn't seem feasible at the moment. We need to find another salesperson and a butcher. Dividing the profits among six people might not necessarily earn us more."
"To be honest, I've already calculated this, but I just didn't mention it. When that Tomato becomes a citizen, we can try talking to him about cooperation, although I don't have high hopes."
[Nighten]: "Why?"
[Tomorrow]: "You fool, why would he cooperate with us? He can save up enough money to buy land and open a restaurant himself. Isn't it great to take over the slaughter business as well?"
[White]: "Damn! The way you put it, if you have skills in slaughtering and cooking! You can make a killing in this game!"
[Tomorrow]: "I can only say that it's the case for now, but it may not be the same in the future."
[Tomorrow]: "Our top priority is still leveling up and then increasing proficiency. In any open-world game, life skills are relatively easy to make money from in the early stages, but in the mid to late stages, the first tier always belongs to the true powerhouses!"
[Hurricane]: "Ah, you really understand games... I've been wondering why you didn't become a professional gamer."
[Hurricane]: "I didn't have the opportunity before. Well, now, hehe, I feel like the opportunity has come."
[Level_99_trashpicker]: "Boss! Please accept my knees!"
[WC_really_has_mosquitoes]: "Take me too!"
[Tomorrow]: "Sure, haha! Since we're all in the same group, let's call our guild the Shachuko Club!"
[White]: "Ahem, should we change the name?"
[Nighten]: "Why change? This name sounds so good. (Humorous)"
[Tomorrow]: "Whether we change the name or not doesn't matter. But let me say this, Mosquito, your contributions should be almost enough, but Trash-kun has been grinding mobs these days, so he's probably a little short. Right now, your top priority is to become citizens, then save money! We'll form a team and build our base, with the house directly in front of the respawn point. The ground floor will be a street-side shop, and the second and third floors will have partitioned rooms, one person per room. Isn't it beautiful?"
[White]: "That will be our guild's stronghold in the future! (Excited)"
[Mosquito]: "Boss is awesome!"
[Trash-kun]: "6666!"
[Quit_smoking]: "Damn! I really want to play!!! T.T"