Age of Legends

Chapter 248 War Strategy
Zhang Chen received quite a few Christmas gifts on Saturday, but most of them were greeting cards. This trend probably stems from the influence of American movies and Japanese comics; everyone grew up watching these, so naturally, this atmosphere formed at school. The surrounding stationery stores also contributed to this trend.

Whenever Zhang Chen saw the booming sales of greeting cards during holidays, he wondered if he could design some greeting cards to make money as a side hustle to earn gold coins. In reality, it was difficult. Greeting cards at this time had probably reached their peak, and from Zhang Chen's perspective in the future, he couldn't come up with anything new.

These greeting cards were exquisitely designed, reflecting an era where handwritten letters were the norm, a time when words were considered an intimate connection. In later generations, information could be conveyed via WeChat or QQ, unlike now, where pen pals exist. The pursuit of quality in sending heartfelt greeting cards was also higher, with many designers working in the publishing industry. Many of these cards were aesthetically pleasing, incorporating various copper coins, embossing techniques, and even fragrances. This period likely represented the pinnacle of this art form, a level of sophistication that even Zhang Chen, a reborn individual, couldn't surpass.

Wang Shuowei also received some greeting cards, but Zhang Chen received the most. He had only exchanged a few words with Zhang Chen in class, but Zhang Chen had patted him on the shoulder and handed him a greeting card.

That's something from a bygone era.

Some people who are usually loud and have explosive tempers become gentle in their words when writing greeting cards.

Some were quite blunt, saying things like, "Your girl is really pretty!" This was referring to Shen Nuoyi, which annoyed Zhang Chen a bit. However, considering that these young people writing greeting cards were just naive and inexperienced, and that various Hong Kong and Taiwanese slang terms were rampant, Zhang Chen didn't take it to heart.

Zhuang Yanyue didn't give a gift. During the long break, Zhang Chen and Wang Shuowei went to the convenience store to buy something and ran into Zhuang Yanyue coming out. She was holding a bar of chocolates, the kind that looks like a grid and can be broken into pieces.

While Zhang Chen was waiting outside for Wang Shuowei to buy water, Zhuang Yanyue came over with chocolate and asked, "Do you want some?"

"No need..." Zhang Chen didn't like chocolate because it was sticky, and was about to refuse when Zhuang Yanyue broke the whole piece in half and handed it to him.

"Take it," she said. "I can't finish it anyway."

This drew gasps of surprise from many people nearby. Zhuang Yanyue giving something to a boy was bound to attract attention and jeers from passersby.

Zhang Chen had no choice. After taking it, she left.

Zhang Chen, however, was holding half a chocolate bar and had no choice but to break it apart to eat. Wang Shuowei, carrying water, came out of the convenience store, saw the chocolate in Zhang Chen's hand, and snatched half of it. "Hey, I was squeezing and squeezing in there, and you bought the chocolate first!"

“No, someone else gave it to me,” Zhang Chen said.

"Girls? Sending chocolates! You're quite the lucky one!" Wang Shuowei teased.

“Zhuang Yanyue,” Zhang Chen said.

"Oh my god... you're practically having a woman on one arm and a woman on the other!" Zhuang Yanyue and Wang Shuowei understood and made a sarcastic remark.

"What nonsense are you talking about?"

Wang Shuowei popped the small cube into his mouth. "Hey, it tastes pretty good. I like this kind that's not too sweet. It's high-end stuff! Do they sell this kind of high-end stuff at the convenience store...? I've never seen it before...?"

Zhang Chen looked at the chocolate in his hand and realized that this kind of chocolate would never be found in a cheap convenience store catering to students. He thought to himself that this woman was really full of tricks.

……

Christmas Day was a Sunday, and Zhang Chen and Wang Shuowei went out to meet with Jing Qinming and the others to discuss the game planners.

A week later, after Jing Qinming and his team had a detailed discussion with Zhang Chen, they used their spare time to make some plans, which they wrote down in a small notebook. The group found a small bar, a shop that sold milk tea, smoothies, fruit tea, and other drinks. The environment was so-so, but it had small square tables under the shade of trees, where the sunlight shone down, creating a sense of tranquility and beauty.

Then, in this setting, everyone ordered a drink, and Zhang Chen spread out Jing Qinming and the others' handwritten notes on the square table. Looking at the outlined plans on them, he felt a special kind of emotion.

"This is a plan designed based on our previous ideas. If it's a web game, we'll create something like Romance of the Three Kingdoms, turning it into something that everyone can play together online! Besides, this is originally our ancient story, and Koei Tecmo does the best job in the game field."

Zhang Chen nodded, looking at the plans in Jing Qinming and the others' notes. He couldn't help but admire how different the students from USTC were. Moreover, the three of them were also seasoned gamers, and their strategy plans were quite impressive.

"Starting from the period of Dong Zhuo's tyranny in 189 AD, as the official setting, we can create various scenarios, such as the Warlord Era, the Battle of Guandu, and the Battle of Red Cliffs. The interface will still be based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms style, which is easy for strategy players to get started with. Almost no strategy player doesn't play Romance of the Three Kingdoms."

Zhang Chen saw that Jing Qinming's handwritten notes even included diagrams showing the various settings and approvals for the domestic and military interfaces. This is what is later called UI design. It was proposed in the 1990s and was originally called the discipline of human-computer interaction, but it remained relatively unknown until the popularization of the Internet after 2000, when it became a truly valued art. Later, consumers placed great importance on it.

Now, however, many websites have rather awkward UI designs, yet they still become popular. But in Zhang Chen's view, they are full of flaws. It's just that people in this era have limited experience, so they often can't break out of their comfort zones. But once there are better and clearer design experiences, two different websites will definitely give people two different feelings.

If Zhang Chen wants to make web-based games, then he needs to place this aspect in a very important position.

Just like QQ, Pony Ma's UI design has always been cutting-edge. Zhang Chen also proposed in the internal group that in order to improve the user experience, the client should preload data so that the server only needs to transmit a small amount of data, which can keep QQ running smoothly and reduce the pressure on the server side.

Pony Ma immediately adopted the suggestion, and the internal feedback was quite positive. Zhang Chen's suggestions now tend to receive high priority and feedback within Tencent, which is excellent. At least in the future, Zhang Chen can reverse the bad impression QQ had in his previous life regarding some copied games. After all, there's no need to save on R&D costs and create a messy ecosystem, only to end up with negative publicity – it's not worth it.

"At the beginning, players set their own lord and join this chaotic world of warring heroes. The design allows you to have a famous general at the start, but you have to earn the famous generals later on. You can also create your own generals to learn from the design of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. However, created generals cannot be compared to famous generals."

"As the game progresses, collecting famous generals will definitely become the focus... That's the original reason why everyone plays Three Kingdoms games! Everyone wants famous generals to serve them!"

Zhang Chen and their handwritten letters.

These three individuals were found to be quite talented, having already outlined the entire framework of the game.

First, there's the scenario design. After creating the player character, they become a powerful figure in a chaotic world, trying to carve out their own territory. They begin recruiting generals, visiting famous scholars, collecting equipment, and reorganizing their army.

Then there's the core gameplay design, which is further divided into sandbox strategy, namely the resource system. It revolves around the four dimensions of data: food (represented by population growth), iron ore (represented by weapon forging), wood (represented by city construction), and copper coins (represented by recruitment and military equipment).

Then there are the city-building internal affairs gameplay, war gameplay, and diplomacy and national war system.

In this simple water bar, amidst the dappled shadows of the trees and the round tables, and surrounded by the numerous handwritten letters of the people before me.

Zhang Chen seemed to have already envisioned a game of vying for supremacy in a chaotic world slowly unfolding within their imagination.

This feeling is captivating.

(End of this chapter)