Although there weren't many players, the commotion they caused was surprisingly significant.
Besides the edutainment gimmick of learning through entertainment, what truly made "screeps" famous was a small feature that was initially completely overlooked.
trade.
Whether you're an insider or an outsider.
The reason for this might be a post made by a player on World Wide Web.
[Help!]
[Is anyone planning to release Khodium Bar for Screeps?]
[Urgently seeking 200 Khodium Bar; I can exchange them for tokens, and I'll cover the energy required for transportation.]
[Server: California ]
If you are interested, please call my contact number: xxx...
Accompanying this text was a photo of a stack of Gamenova token redemption cards.
The number of visits ranged from one day to one month. They didn't even rely on portal sites for distribution; the website received a significant amount of traffic solely through word-of-mouth among players.
"Wait a minute? You can play like this?"
The players suddenly realized, "Wow, there's this kind of gameplay?!"
After all, Screeps is not a very simple game.
If you want to make a name for yourself here, you really need some skills.
Following a tutorial can only help you grasp the basic operations at best.
To make your organization stronger and smarter, you must carefully design your scripts.
To put it dramatically, code efficiency is also crucial.
Some people want to implement a function, so they have to write a lot of unnecessary and lengthy documents, and in the end, they may not be as efficient as a master who can write a few lines at a time.
Every action wastes a tick, and over time, the gap between you and the pros becomes enormous.
And don't forget, Screeps is a legitimate RTS game.
If you don't play well, you'll really get crushed by everyone around you. So, a group of highly competitive players, but with slightly less skill, set their sights on the game's trading system.
By simply building a structure called [Terminal] in your own base, you can trade with other players across the entire server.
The items traded can be any resource in the game, and also include... tokens.
This caused quite a stir.
If this was previously a niche hobby, it is now something that is relevant to everyone.
Khodium Bar?
It might sound high-end, but it's nothing special for players who have already built their own factories.
Several basic elements are transported to the laboratory, synthesized, and then sent to the factory for packaging.
The steps are few; once the highly automated system is completed, players can basically just leave it running without any intervention, and the game will generate content on its own.
This gameplay is even more outrageous than idle games like Zork Idle.
Because everything runs on the server, even if you are completely offline, the code you wrote in advance will continue to run.
The only difficulty might be that each room only contains one type of elemental mineral. To obtain the Khodium Compound, it will definitely require traveling to more locations.
For players who are not very skilled, this is indeed not an easy resource to obtain.
However, if even this basic processing cannot be done, then hoping to afford this level of transaction with in-game resources is clearly wishful thinking.
Hello? Yes, it's me. Do you have Khodium?
California, Sacramento.
Benjamin held Donut in one hand, propped the receiver against his shoulder, and gripped the handle with the other.
A Next. cn website builder was running slowly beside me.
The webpage advertising the purchase of Khodium was posted by him.
"Yes, sir, not just Khodium, but also compressed Khodium Bar."
One Khodium Bar can be decompressed into more Khodium, making it a type of compressed resource.
"That's great! California server? How much stock?... Enough! Enough! Log in now?" Benjamin immediately beamed with joy.
Even though he runs a mess, he has a lot of money of his own.
Wouldn't it be much easier to just buy finished products directly from other players?
All you need to do is send the token to the other party's home via the terminal, and you can get the resources you need—it couldn't be easier.
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone before someone hesitantly spoke:
"My CPU is still sufficient for now. Can the token be... used for cash payment?"
"Um?"
Benjamin paused for a moment, then it dawned on him.
It turns out they were after the money.
After all, even the cheapest 24-hour version of a token costs $3.50.
"That's no problem, but I'm in a hurry. Can you make a wire transfer?"
"Uh..." Electronic money transfers are not a widespread thing. Apart from large companies, ordinary people still mainly use checks.
Hearing the hesitation on the other end of the phone, Benjamin knew what was going on.
He sighed helplessly and continued:
"Telephone banking or check? Can you deliver today?"
"A phone call is fine! A phone call is fine!"
Shortly after, Benjamin's phone was dialed again.
The other party had obviously checked their balance and confirmed that the money had arrived.
One hundred dollars!
Benjamin transferred one hundred dollars to him directly!
With Benjamin's lead, "Screeps" took on a completely different image in everyone's eyes.
Mining? The minerals in this game can actually be sold for money! More and more people are starting to share their stories of making extra money from it.
Even those who were more skilled at it embellished the story, making it sound incredibly vivid.
After all this commotion, when the news reached the ears of other casual gamers who had never even played "Screeps," the game seemed like a gold mine overflowing with cash.
And so a bunch of leeks, armed with sickles, marched into this land in a grand procession.
Holy crap, you can make money playing games!
But as soon as they entered, everyone was stunned.
Making a beginner's tutorial takes a week and you might not even understand it, let alone progressing to level seven to unlock factory-related technologies.
Want to sell low-level raw resources?
Sorry, but others already have mature production systems.
Unless you can occupy a strategically advantageous geographical location and control several key mineral resources.
But if someone actually dared to do that, the moment the newbie protection disappeared, they would likely be trampled to the ground by other forces. Even if you're lucky enough to find some loot, you still need the skill to hold onto it.
What if my skills are average, but I want to develop quickly?
The answer... seems to have been presented to us from the very beginning.
So what if I spend money on in-game purchases? Do I really have to go and practice my skills?
Sam, facing the latest financial report from Screeps, fell silent.
In less than a month, this thing transformed from a money-losing proposition into a profitable business that stopped the losses.
"The costs have been fully covered. After deducting this month's and next month's operating expenses, what's left is pure profit."
Looking at the soaring online user count line on the chart in front of him, Sam felt a chill run down his spine.
Given the current situation, the online players are clearly no longer just the original group of geeks.
It seems that people from all sides have already gotten involved.
Meanwhile, Lin Lixin... was, of course, working with Gerald in the hardware department on NPC handheld consoles.
Many of the designs in "screeps" gave him a good inspiration.
Faced with this interesting new handheld console, Lin Lixin discovered that its potential seemed to far exceed his initial expectations.
"Look, didn't we incorporate an 'assembly' design into 'Screeps'?"
Lin Lixin and Gerald gestured to each other, explaining their famous opening remarks.
In Screeps, the player's creep unit is a completely customizable unit.
The functions and attributes a device possesses depend entirely on the "body parts" it is equipped with.
If this system could also be used on NPC handheld consoles, it might actually be quite interesting.
"You mean modularization?"
The concept Lin Lixin proposed wasn't difficult to understand, Gerald grasped it immediately.
However, his brows furrowed slightly.
"That doesn't fit the NPC's positioning. Modular design makes it difficult to achieve compactness, and cost control will also be a major problem." Gerald's usual work involves these assemblies, and he knows very well that this is just a seemingly sweet trap.
Modularization means disassembling a complete game console into individual components and assembling them in a customized manner according to the player's needs.
For example, different versions of the controller module can be designed for different layouts, allowing players to choose the one that suits them best.
Even soldered memory chips can be modified into pluggable interfaces to customize memory modules of different specifications.
It sounds exciting, but it's definitely not suitable as a flagship product.
If it's just a technology verification platform for showing off skills, that's one thing.
NPC is going to take over the NovaPocket banner.
With hundreds of millions of units on its signboard, we can't let it get smashed like this.
"Huh? Oh, you misunderstood me."
Lin Lixin scratched his head, then realized that Gerald seemed to have misunderstood what he was trying to say.
"I mean, design a more flexible and user-friendly GPIO interface for NPCs, allowing developers to create various external add-ins from open source."
NPC, as its name suggests, is a compact device. It uses an Athena processor and has optimized away a large number of coprocessors.
While this makes it far superior globally in terms of architectural simplicity and efficiency, it also brings a very serious problem.
That's a functional deficiency.
Many things require Athena to actively simulate them.
In the past, if there was an additional need, they could simply solder a reinforcement chip directly onto the board.
"An open-source API? I see..."
Gerald then nodded in understanding.
Lin Lixin rummaged through the parts box and casually pulled out an optical sensor.
"Look, for example, this thing, we can package it into a separate module."
"For example, we could develop a companion game for it, with the protagonist being the Son of the Sun. The stronger the sunlight, the stronger the protagonist in the game will become."
"For example, you could create a clock that allows the day/night cycle in the game to respond in real time."
"Or perhaps a gravity sensor, etc..." The more Gerald listened, the more surprised he became.
He then realized that he seemed to have misunderstood again.
After hearing Lin Lixin's explanation, he thought it was like before, where things like image enhancement chips and audio enhancement chips were packaged as peripherals and installed through an interface.
Now, upon hearing it, he suddenly understood.
This wasn't a design to enhance performance; Lin Lixin was truly considering the gameplay itself!
It's about enabling real-world interaction between game consoles and reality!