18 Chapter 18: Nature's pilgrimage

Right now I'm sitting in Natasha's house along with the rest of the team to discuss how we will proceed in future. As the class system got updated, the planar transfer system also went up. This PTS was not in our original consideration; but as all the living world planets which are designated are under the control of the same government in Chaos, it was a system the natives developed to allow them to go from one planet to another. We made use of Order to turn that technology into the official portal for Chaos in the general territories. The dead world similarly has their own system as well. However, a cost of 20S is required to go from one planet to another, which the cost increasing if the planet distance increases. Only high officials of the government and similar facilities are allowed for the tax exemption.

"Say Stacy, how do you think the new class system will progress? The entire thing we thought is now scrapped."

Lock was frowning, the initial class system was made under our suggestion. The original vision of the classes of Chaos was to give more unpredictability and opportunity to players and keep them from feeling bored and finding META builds. In the past century, we have observed many games losing their popularity due to players going after certain META classes and as long as someone gets full grasp on how it works; very few people could actually counter him. This made many players give up playing because they realized that by no way can they beat him without spending too much time playing the class they do not want to play as.

Pay to win was also another aspect of this. When full immersion VR came out, the first MMO to adopt it was very successful. The entire gaming community started playing that despite the cost to buy it being quite outrageous. But that game died after 17 years of operation. META was a reason for that. Another reason being pay to win. In that game, many actual in-game items needed to be bought by using real money; with no way to get them using in-game money.

In actuality, the importance of spending time in that game was minimized and most of the actual useful stuff were sold at the cash shop. Even then players kept playing it.

After that came the game class balance. In simple words, broken. They gave a generalized class attribute to normal players; but to gain additional attribute, you need to buy an item from cash shop. Again pay to win also comes here. Then there was an RNG system in it. Two people buying the same item; one might get 30 points, while other got 0. Yes, there was a chance for the item to fail.

The RNG system of that game was not just harsh, it was downright designed so that players will have to spend 500$ to guarantee that what they want will actually happen; with a 40% failure rate. Not to mention that the later expansions were just made to pit players to fight against each other for only a title. The way for players to actually make money from that game was very low, as designed by that company and the community went to be extremely toxic. Superior players harassing new or lower stage players most of the time and so on.

The situation went so bad that the game turned into a blackhole which only sucks in money, even the employees of the company were getting minimum salary and many quit due to that. Later due to some incidents where influential players went to some other players houses to harm them, the government had to interfere and this game as forced to shut down. Although, a lot more damage was done by then.

The video game industry also suffered due to their actions, people stopped playing multiplayer games for a long while fearing that their opponent might come to their home. Parents forbid their children from playing any games and the gaming enthusiastic people also decreased. It took almost three decades and many laws and regulations as well as several government agenda to get people back to trust the industry. From then on each game was certified and overseered by the Online Activity & Networking Department of EHF.

We took various precautions while Chaos player systems were designed to make sure that we will be able to maintain player curiosity towards this game while keeping the environment as fair as possible. However due to this recent change that the dev team was forced to make was due to EHF itself. We are getting the feeling that these top officials was the game to be simplified; as to why, that is still unknown. Recently inside EHF someone also proposed to take the game into their own control and make developers stop playing. This made us feel cautious that the government wants full control over everything, which can be very dangerous. Chaos in itself is not just a game; it is an entire creation almost fully replicated and as players are connecting with their own consciousness with it, there are ways to threaten people with it.

I think the company will take precautions against greedy power hungry people but we want to have a higher ground than them. Which is why today we are here. Initially we wanted to be active in our own areas while gaining achievements to keep the company at a good enough position while enjoying the game. Now however, this will not be enough. We joined today to discuss the future so that we can gain more resources than what those from the government can get; After all, Chaos is our home ground and we won't let them take advantage of us.

"The combination of classes will definitely give rise to different builds, but even then META will rise. Thankfully our inner skill system will allow some diversity."

"I think we can tweak the class system a little bit to make it more interesting."

"How? What kind of tweak are you talking about?"

I have been thinking since yesterday to add some unpredictability in the so predictable system. Otherwise it will be hard for normal people to compete with players who have real life combat experience.

"Most damage we can deal is by using skills. Without those, even if you are an army's special forces operative, you cannot use a knife to kill others as you do in reality. My suggestion is that all the class mentors are to be affiliated to a certain group. Let's call for a hierarchy; from olden times, the people who established that group taught some people. Those among that group that passed the criteria became mentors and started teaching another group. The requirement to become a mentor is to create your own skill set and master it.

This way, when a player goes to a mentor to get his class; he will become that mentor's disciple. Other than the general skill and routine of that class, he will strive to inherit the set created and mastered by his master. This way although each player won't gain a different skill set; there will still be a good amount of division."

"You know how hard it will be to implement this in the living world?"

"We won't have to redesign this. Just have Order decide about the mentors and tell them about this. This entire mentor system was a prologue to the school system either way. Just have the mentors be the external PR or something for the sect and later in the future, players will join the sect from which their masters are from. We won't have to incentivize them with some other way when this feature comes."

"Let's forward this suggestion to the dev team then, if they can make this happen then it won't just be one single feature which will be included anyway."

"All right! Then who will team up with whom after we go back in Chaos? We won't be able to do much being separated like this anyway."

Luna chimed in. She's actually looking forward to playing together with all of us. I had a distribution in mind which I told them. Not to mention no one had any dissatisfaction with it, two of us were even glad and very happy. We all smirked at them causing them to start blushing.

"All right! Lunch is ready! Let's go and I'll have you all enjoy my homemade cooking."

"You don't say, we are quite hungry already from the smell of your cooking."

The food was indeed delicious, Natasha is a well known food specialist and she actively participates in food related research activities as long as it doesn't conflict with her work in Serenity.

Later in the evening, logging back in Chaos I saw a notice about the class system being updated which will be a continuation of another upcoming feature and understood that my suggestion was accepted. Introducing sects is a part of the upcoming chapter that will begin once players reach level 10. The game then will truly open for players and they will insert themselves in the world conflict. I checked on the twins and found them online.

[Chat:

"Both of you are free now?"

"We are just trying to get some missions done while waiting for you. When are we going to get our classes?"

"Come back home when you guys are done. Due to the family we are in, we won't have to search for mentors. The family has a full package for us. Talk to uncle first when you come back."

"All right, We will be there soon."]

I went to talk to father. Once we reach level 5, the elder of the family will assess how strong our inner skill is and will give us the quest which will lead us to get our classes. As I told father about my progress; he checked my inner skill and was surprised to see the foreign element, the blood element to get incorporated with the skill. However, being an element not suitable for human beings to use, it gives me resistance towards it rather than any skill.

"You see son, not many people from our clan can learn this skill efficiently due to the constant need to battle to develop the skill. In many areas of the galaxy, it's so peaceful that those who use this skill will gain strength at a lower speed than others. You may have been involved into a greater disturbance but it made you stronger. Now it is time for you to take the mantle of our family.

Our family is very special among all the others. We can feel the voice of nature and call forth its power by our words. However, we are not the only family to do so. There are many other clans in this vast steller field that can use the same, however our methods differ. They chose methods that are not easy to pass down, although the immediate effect is much higher. We follow the path of stability which make us stronger than others in the long run. We also gained acute understanding of nature and can enlighten others and teach them much better than others about nature and its miracles. Which is the reason we are called the family of masters.

You will gain the first occupation on the road of greatness to learn about nature and teach others in the future. However, in order to do that; you will require a special item which you will have to craft by yourself. Only the crafting facility will be given by the family. The procedure and materials all differ from people to people and only when you start the road to pilgrimage of nature will nature let you know about it."

[Personal quest: Nature's pilgrimage

To gain acceptance from nature you must brave through its trials and prove yourself worthy. Only then can you take up the mantle of your predecessors and learn the significance of your surname.

Objective: Step 1: Head to the ancestral ground and pay homage to all who have deceased.

Reward: Nature's acknowledgement]