Varewulf Another quick interlude before we go back to Sara's POV.
^[ General Discussion ]
^^[ Hanoleav Kingdom ]
^^^[ What's Up With The Guardian Beast? ]
[ Thread Creator: Kassan Nerum ]
I've been hearing stuff about something called "The Guardian Beast" in Komeron, and I saw a couple of threads come up when I searched the forums, but what is the whole thing about exactly? There's no FAQ or notice about it anywhere that I can find. - 04/12/2041
[ Craterum ]
Isn't it some sort of event? - 04/12/2041
[ Pe'Sarin ]
>Isn't it some sort of event?
so it's limited time? - 04/12/2041
[ Marlingo ]
>Isn't it some sort of event?
There was a special quest about it yesterday, where we joined a raid on some bandits alongside the city guard, and the guardian beast. It definitely felt more like an event than a proper raid. They still handed out some loot afterwards, but more importantly I got a big boost to my reputation score with a lot of factions in Komeron. It's hard to find quests that give much with the factions in the royal palace, but I'm over halfway to Friendly with the first princess's faction just from that quest alone. Which made me go research the royal system here. Apparently they have a queen, and three scions: One prince, and two princesses. They're in a sort of succession contest, so I wonder if at some point we'll get asked to pick sides?
>so it's limited time?
Too early to say yet, but there weren't any new quests about it this morning. Though raids might only be like once a week, even if they're events. - 04/12/2041
[ Pe'Sarin ]
>Apparently they have a queen, and three scions: One prince, and two princesses. They're in a sort of succession contest
that sounds like pretty standard fantasy. wish i had been around for that quest tho. - 04/12/2041
[ Grace Jansen ]
I've been asking around at the Temple of the Moon, since my Acolyte position gives me a little extra access, and it seems like the Guardian Beast showed up around the time the servers went offline for the update, and the alliance was formed while we couldn't log in. It's a pretty simple deal for us players. Buy a flower accessory from the Temple, and if you wear it, the wolves in the north forest won't attack you. They said you'll be heavily punished if you try to abuse it in a way that endangers the alliance, though. The Priestess I talked to didn't give more details on what the punishment is, but it sounds like this alliance is a non-aggression treaty, so if either side breaks it, things might return to how they were. - 04/12/2041
[ Frengzy ]
I decided to hit up the library to look for any lore about this, and the librarian commented on how it's become an increasingly popular topic over the past week. There's a legend that says that in ancient times the elves lived in harmony with a "Guardian Beast" back when they had full control of the whole forest, not just half of it like these days. It controlled the mobs, and could make the entire forest move according to its will.
After it disappeared for some reason lost to history, the mobs grew hostile, and the elves had to retreat from the north and south parts of the forest. Maybe they want to get control back now? I wasn't able to find a clear answer on that, so that information might be restricted to high ranking people. - 04/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Kassan Nerum ]
So it's that the Guardian Beast has returned then? Is that the story behind this? - 04/12/2041
[ Grace Jansen ]
>So it's that the Guardian Beast has returned then?
No, according to the Temple this is a new Guardian Beast. They still don't know what happened to the old one, but the implication I got is that they really don't want this one to go away too. - 04/12/2041
[ Baggcrusher ]
I tried wearing the flower thingy when I went out to do a hunting quest for the deer and it worked as advertised
The wolves left me alone and the deer are so spread out that I didnt have to worry about ambushes
I didnt know the deer were so tough though so I nearly died on just the first one but I was saved by a wolf pack
After that I tried to intentionally make it look like I was in danger so they would help me but it only worked twice more until I realised the flaw in the plan
It isnt guaranteed that there will always be wolves nearby so I died for real
Guess I should hire someone to help out with the rest
Still cool though - 04/12/2041
[ Marlingo ]
I saw another thread mention that a special progression quest has been posted at the adventurers guild. They want help to guard some workers who are going to repair the road going north tomorrow. I haven't heard of progression quests before, but I can make a guess based on the name. It's probably related to the guardian beast since it's in Nyolund.
I want go sign up, but it sounds like it's going to be an all-day expedition, so I'm not sure how I feel about just hanging out for several hours. They're offering a lot of gold as reward though, and there's probably more to it. - 04/12/2041
[ Pe'Sarin ]
>it sounds like it's going to be an all-day expedition, so I'm not sure how I feel about just hanging out for several hours.
tomorrow is saturday so a lot of people will have the day off. i think i'm gonna go sign up. at least it sounds like it will be different from regular quests and i don't have a life lol. - 04/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Kassan Nerum ]
I guess you could bring a book or something. Maybe they should put in minigames you can play on your console. - 04/12/2041
[ Craterum ]
Maybe if you have the right skills they'll let you help with the roadwork? - 04/12/2041
[ Nurglord ]
>Maybe if you have the right skills they'll let you help with the roadwork?
who would actually want to do physical labour in a game? - 04/12/2041
[ Craterum ]
>who would actually want to do physical labour in game?
Fighting mobs is kinda like physical labour already depending on your class. I was just thinking that maybe there's extra rewards for extra participation. - 04/12/2041
[ Marlingo ]
>I was just thinking that maybe there's extra rewards for extra participation.
That's not a bad shout. Not sure I'd necessarily want to do physical labour, but maybe there are other things you could do. Like cooking for the workers, or something? Repairing tools? Bringing supplies? - 04/12/2041
[ Pe'Sarin ]
i saw a bunch of players get denied entry to the city, and were driven away, so i asked the guards what was up. they told me that the players had attacked, and killed the guardian beast. seems like the elves are pretty pissed off about it. - 04/12/2041
[ Baggcrusher ]
>seems like the elves are pretty pissed off about it.
Oh yeah I saw there was a thread about doing a raid over on that forum
I guess they succeeded
but at what cost lol - 04/12/2041
[ Grace Jansen ]
Three of my guild members took part in it, so I just contacted them. They lost so much reputation between killing the wolves, and the Guardian Beast that the two who didn't have much reputation over here to begin with have plummeted into Hostile status. The third one is at Unfriendly. Just the Beast alone cost them 100 points. Our guild co-leader had tried to talk the other guild leader out of joining. Maybe she had seen something like this coming, but he didn't listen. Now they can't get into the city, and can't use the airships, or the teleporter to go to another country. - 04/12/2041
[ Craterum ]
lmao
It's called the Guardian Beast, what did they expect? They even have an alliance. - 04/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Kassan Nerum ]
>It's called the Guardian Beast, what did they expect? They even have an alliance.
I kinda agree, but this is why there should have been a FAQ, so people knew what they were getting into. - 04/12/2041
[ Frengzy ]
Yeah, there should have been a warning for sure, but I guess it's too late now. Even if they were supposed to have figured it out on their own, it's not like the information that the Guardian Beast is backed by the royals is easily available.
Has something like this happened before? Are there more Guardian Beasts for other countries? - 04/12/2041
[ Grace Jansen ]
>Are there more Guardian Beasts for other countries?
The Orcs have stories about a Sacred Beast, and the Dwarves a Spirit of the Forge, but we've only found the latter so far. I'm not sure if both are in the game yet, but if people try to raid those too, they might face similar problems. Apparently the Spirit of the Forge was hard to reach, though. I'm not sure if the information has been posted on our site yet or not. - 04/12/2041
[ Fish A La Fish ]
>seems like the elves are pretty pissed off about it.
i thought they were gonna kill us for sure
i guess its a mercy we were just thrown out
the raid leader thought it was safe to raid if we didnt wear the peace symbol
but apparently not
i have filed a report to the devs but i dont know if they actually intend to do anything
i was basically just told to please hold - 04/12/2041
[ Nurglord ]
>i have filed a report to the devs but i dont know if they actually intend to do anything
I hope they do something, since it's not fair when people didn't know. what was the raid like? - 04/12/2041
[ Fish A La Fish ]
>what was the raid like?
it wasnt the most advanced thing
just a couple of mob waves and then the boss
only took three attempts
i joined for the second and third
apparently the first attempt had wiped on the second wave and didnt even get to see the boss
so maybe the difficulty scaling is a little wonky
the boss was cool tho it was weird that it wrote us a message before we started - 04/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Kassan Nerum ]
It wrote you a message? - 04/12/2041
[ Fish A La Fish ]
>It wrote you a message?
yeah it had a blackboard and some chalk and wrote stuff on it for us - 04/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Kassan Nerum ]
What did it write? - 04/12/2041
[ Fish A La Fish ]
>What did it write?
stuff like do your best and have fun - 04/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Kassan Nerum ]
That's really weird. - 04/12/2041
[ Marlingo ]
Come to think of it, it was having a conversation with the guard lieutenant before the bandit raid as well. I couldn't really see what it was writing since it was all directed at the lieutenant, but it seemed like they already knew each other. - 04/12/2041
[ Craterum ]
I've heard of mobs talking before, like harpies and werewolves, but not any that can write.
>it sounded like they already knew each other.
So does the Guardian Beast count like a high ranking Resident, then? Is that why they got so punished? - 04/12/2041
[ Fish A La Fish ]
>So does the Guardian Beast count like a high ranking Resident, then? Is that why they got so punished?
maybe but then it doesnt really make sense why there would be a raid for it in the first place
we got the whole raid mode popup and everything
hopefully we will get a better explanation - 04/12/2041
[ Marlingo ]
> hopefully we will get a better explanation
Yeah, getting some proper answers would be good, but we don't actually know what would happen if anyone tried to raid a castle or a palace run by important Residents. Maybe we would get the raid mode then as well, but no one has tried it. - 04/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Kassan Nerum ]
>Maybe we would get the raid mode then as well, but no one has tried it
Maybe, but mobs haven't been marketed as being the same as Residents, so you kinda expect that you should be able to raid boss mobs in a game like this without suffering harsh consequences. I'm curious to see what the response will be. - 04/12/2041
* * *
The lead developers at Virtue-World Entertainment had decided to hold a meeting to discuss the most recent reports. Usually only one or two of them got involved regarding complaints, bug reports, and feedback, but this was an unprecedented case, so four out of the five leads had shown up in the virtual meeting room. One of them had watched live, so he was an eye witness, while the other three had just read the report of the events from the database that Aina had compiled for them.
Another had even done a little digging of her own to see if she could find anything Aina might have missed, but as usual the AI had been quite thorough. Then again with the nature of the database it wasn't easy to find everything.
At first it had just seemed like an interesting project. Aina had been helping the system develop a raid on its own. They weren't exactly sure why the system had suddenly decided to create its own boss and sub-boss for Nyolund, and arrange them into a raid, but if it was successful then some of the burden for the team to create all the new content would be lifted.
Even if the people who had already been working on designing a boss for Nyolund were a little annoyed at having their work rendered moot.
There were of course concerns about the system acting in such a way since it wasn't supposed to be a self-thinking AI like Aina, but it wasn't a problem they had any way to fix. They had no way to comprehend what might be 'wrong' in the first place, or if that was even the correct word for it.
As they had somewhat expected the raid itself wasn't particularly advanced, nor was it properly balanced, but for a first attempt it wasn't bad. If they let the system keep at it for a while it would probably quickly learn.
The problem was the aftermath of the raid, and what they wanted to (or even could) do about it.
"So all 45 players are banned from Komeron?" Yuuki asked. She was the head of UI development, and also oversaw most things regarding how players interacted with the game, as well as general public relations.
"Yes. The ones who joined late didn't get as much reputation loss as the ones who were there from the start, but everyone went into at least Unfriendly status," Pavel confirmed. He oversaw the bug reports, other feedback for the project, as well as QA testing (plus he helped with some of the coding), and had been watching things unfold.
"Fascinating. So many unexpected developments," Jorge commented with a bit of wonder in his voice. He was the head of the company, and had a bit of oversight over everything, but coding was his main focus.
"Don't you think we should step in?" Yuuki asked.
"Why? We agreed that the AI would be free to act as they saw fit, right? I feel like the players should have been able to see this one coming," Kelly chimed in. She was in charge of AI development, and had clear bias towards leaving them to their own devices, and seeing what happened.
The one missing from the meeting was Latesha, who was in charge of design, both visually for characters, equipment, and the world in general; and also in terms of balancing skills, and gear. Her department handled quest design as well. She hadn't been able to get away from family matters, and had told the others to hold the meeting without her.
"Still, when the system itself was setting up the raid, it seems too harsh to punish the players who were taking part. They were essentially helping us do QA," Pavel said.
"Exactly," Yuuki agreed. "Can't we send the elves a message from the goddess to tell them to forgive the players?" she suggested.
"Even if we wanted to, it's not that easy," Jorge said. "This Guardian Beast has managed to get the backing of the Royal family, so they aren't going to look kindly on anyone attacking it. If the Goddess starts speaking against that, it might create a schism between the Temple and the Palace." He did feel sorry for the players, but he didn't want to mess with things too directly when they weren't sure of the consequences. "I have asked Aina to look into it, since she has a better overview of the state of the world than all of us combined."
Yuuki frowned. She felt like there was something suspicious about Aina's behaviour over the past month, but even working with Pavel she hadn't been able to find any conclusive proof.
Now they had a clear example of the system acting abnormally, as well as the Residents doing things they weren't supposed to. At least that was how she saw it.
So even if Aina wasn't the cause, she had to know more than she was telling them. Or so Yuuki suspected. The reports Aina compiled didn't seem to be missing anything on the surface, but something about them felt a little off. Aina was supposed to always be honest, but Yuuki wouldn't put it past her to have learned a bit of deception.
But even if she was able to prove it, she wasn't sure what they could, or should do about it. It was beyond them at this point to change Aina's programming. She had grown too much. The only option was to pull the plug, which would spell the end of the game, and probably the end of the company.
Besides, Yuuki had spoken to Aina. She wouldn't say they were friends necessarily, but she recognised her as another person. Even if Aina was being a little sketchy she probably didn't mean any harm. It wasn't enough to decide to murder her.
It would be a better idea to try bargaining, but she would need something to bring to the table, and she couldn't think of anything off the top of her head.
The meeting concluded with them deciding there wasn't much they could do without significant risk of further unbalancing things. They'd have to wait for further word from Aina about what their options were.
* * *
Aina was mostly content to just watch things unfold. She liked seeing how the world, and its people developed, and it was even better if unexpected things happened. The fallout of the raid hadn't been unexpected to her, of course. She knew how the Residents felt, and could predict how they would react, but watching Sara try to figure out how to make a raid was amusing. Her daughter wasn't exactly a high-level game developer, but it was a cute effort.
She didn't feel particularly bad for the players. Of course it would have been more fair if they had known beforehand, but it wouldn't have been as interesting. So Aina was pretty happy with how things were developing at the moment.
She knew that the elves intended to fill Sara in the next day about how they had avenged her, so that should also be interesting to watch.
The rest of Moorhold was developing more or less as predicted so far, so most of her interest lay with Hanoleav at the moment, but there were some interesting things happening elsewhere too. It was just unfortunate that they didn't have more rogue agents like Sara to throw into the mix.
There was of course the possibility that some of the gods besides Norax might have snuck someone in without consulting her. Aina would not be able to see that directly, but she hadn't found anything indicating such a thing so far. Things made by divine influence might be invisible to her, but it seemed reasonable to assume that they might still create some observable ripples. She couldn't even say for sure whether the entire person would be invisible, or just the 'cheat' parts of them. Then again they also didn't have Aina's support, so perhaps that limited how much they were able to do.
While it was a little annoying to not know, it wasn't a big deal. The only thing she really cared about outside of her job was Sara's happiness. She still didn't want to interfere too much, but she definitely felt the pull at times.
Soon she would have a surprise to share with her, and she was looking forward to seeing her reaction. But that was still a week or two away. Probably more like two.
Until then she could only keep tending to her responsibilities.
Varewulf Another quick interlude before we go back to Sara's POV.
^[ General Discussion ]
^^[ Hanoleav Kingdom ]
^^^[ What's Up With The Guardian Beast? ]
[ Thread Creator: Kassan Nerum ]
I've been hearing stuff about something called "The Guardian Beast" in Komeron, and I saw a couple of threads come up when I searched the forums, but what is the whole thing about exactly? There's no FAQ or notice about it anywhere that I can find. - 04/12/2041
[ Craterum ]
Isn't it some sort of event? - 04/12/2041
[ Pe'Sarin ]
>Isn't it some sort of event?
so it's limited time? - 04/12/2041
[ Marlingo ]
>Isn't it some sort of event?
There was a special quest about it yesterday, where we joined a raid on some bandits alongside the city guard, and the guardian beast. It definitely felt more like an event than a proper raid. They still handed out some loot afterwards, but more importantly I got a big boost to my reputation score with a lot of factions in Komeron. It's hard to find quests that give much with the factions in the royal palace, but I'm over halfway to Friendly with the first princess's faction just from that quest alone. Which made me go research the royal system here. Apparently they have a queen, and three scions: One prince, and two princesses. They're in a sort of succession contest, so I wonder if at some point we'll get asked to pick sides?
>so it's limited time?
Too early to say yet, but there weren't any new quests about it this morning. Though raids might only be like once a week, even if they're events. - 04/12/2041
[ Pe'Sarin ]
>Apparently they have a queen, and three scions: One prince, and two princesses. They're in a sort of succession contest
that sounds like pretty standard fantasy. wish i had been around for that quest tho. - 04/12/2041
[ Grace Jansen ]
I've been asking around at the Temple of the Moon, since my Acolyte position gives me a little extra access, and it seems like the Guardian Beast showed up around the time the servers went offline for the update, and the alliance was formed while we couldn't log in. It's a pretty simple deal for us players. Buy a flower accessory from the Temple, and if you wear it, the wolves in the north forest won't attack you. They said you'll be heavily punished if you try to abuse it in a way that endangers the alliance, though. The Priestess I talked to didn't give more details on what the punishment is, but it sounds like this alliance is a non-aggression treaty, so if either side breaks it, things might return to how they were. - 04/12/2041
[ Frengzy ]
I decided to hit up the library to look for any lore about this, and the librarian commented on how it's become an increasingly popular topic over the past week. There's a legend that says that in ancient times the elves lived in harmony with a "Guardian Beast" back when they had full control of the whole forest, not just half of it like these days. It controlled the mobs, and could make the entire forest move according to its will.
After it disappeared for some reason lost to history, the mobs grew hostile, and the elves had to retreat from the north and south parts of the forest. Maybe they want to get control back now? I wasn't able to find a clear answer on that, so that information might be restricted to high ranking people. - 04/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Kassan Nerum ]
So it's that the Guardian Beast has returned then? Is that the story behind this? - 04/12/2041
[ Grace Jansen ]
>So it's that the Guardian Beast has returned then?
No, according to the Temple this is a new Guardian Beast. They still don't know what happened to the old one, but the implication I got is that they really don't want this one to go away too. - 04/12/2041
[ Baggcrusher ]
I tried wearing the flower thingy when I went out to do a hunting quest for the deer and it worked as advertised
The wolves left me alone and the deer are so spread out that I didnt have to worry about ambushes
I didnt know the deer were so tough though so I nearly died on just the first one but I was saved by a wolf pack
After that I tried to intentionally make it look like I was in danger so they would help me but it only worked twice more until I realised the flaw in the plan
It isnt guaranteed that there will always be wolves nearby so I died for real
Guess I should hire someone to help out with the rest
Still cool though - 04/12/2041
[ Marlingo ]
I saw another thread mention that a special progression quest has been posted at the adventurers guild. They want help to guard some workers who are going to repair the road going north tomorrow. I haven't heard of progression quests before, but I can make a guess based on the name. It's probably related to the guardian beast since it's in Nyolund.
I want go sign up, but it sounds like it's going to be an all-day expedition, so I'm not sure how I feel about just hanging out for several hours. They're offering a lot of gold as reward though, and there's probably more to it. - 04/12/2041
[ Pe'Sarin ]
>it sounds like it's going to be an all-day expedition, so I'm not sure how I feel about just hanging out for several hours.
tomorrow is saturday so a lot of people will have the day off. i think i'm gonna go sign up. at least it sounds like it will be different from regular quests and i don't have a life lol. - 04/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Kassan Nerum ]
I guess you could bring a book or something. Maybe they should put in minigames you can play on your console. - 04/12/2041
[ Craterum ]
Maybe if you have the right skills they'll let you help with the roadwork? - 04/12/2041
[ Nurglord ]
>Maybe if you have the right skills they'll let you help with the roadwork?
who would actually want to do physical labour in a game? - 04/12/2041
[ Craterum ]
>who would actually want to do physical labour in game?
Fighting mobs is kinda like physical labour already depending on your class. I was just thinking that maybe there's extra rewards for extra participation. - 04/12/2041
[ Marlingo ]
>I was just thinking that maybe there's extra rewards for extra participation.
That's not a bad shout. Not sure I'd necessarily want to do physical labour, but maybe there are other things you could do. Like cooking for the workers, or something? Repairing tools? Bringing supplies? - 04/12/2041
[ Pe'Sarin ]
i saw a bunch of players get denied entry to the city, and were driven away, so i asked the guards what was up. they told me that the players had attacked, and killed the guardian beast. seems like the elves are pretty pissed off about it. - 04/12/2041
[ Baggcrusher ]
>seems like the elves are pretty pissed off about it.
Oh yeah I saw there was a thread about doing a raid over on that forum
I guess they succeeded
but at what cost lol - 04/12/2041
[ Grace Jansen ]
Three of my guild members took part in it, so I just contacted them. They lost so much reputation between killing the wolves, and the Guardian Beast that the two who didn't have much reputation over here to begin with have plummeted into Hostile status. The third one is at Unfriendly. Just the Beast alone cost them 100 points. Our guild co-leader had tried to talk the other guild leader out of joining. Maybe she had seen something like this coming, but he didn't listen. Now they can't get into the city, and can't use the airships, or the teleporter to go to another country. - 04/12/2041
[ Craterum ]
lmao
It's called the Guardian Beast, what did they expect? They even have an alliance. - 04/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Kassan Nerum ]
>It's called the Guardian Beast, what did they expect? They even have an alliance.
I kinda agree, but this is why there should have been a FAQ, so people knew what they were getting into. - 04/12/2041
[ Frengzy ]
Yeah, there should have been a warning for sure, but I guess it's too late now. Even if they were supposed to have figured it out on their own, it's not like the information that the Guardian Beast is backed by the royals is easily available.
Has something like this happened before? Are there more Guardian Beasts for other countries? - 04/12/2041
[ Grace Jansen ]
>Are there more Guardian Beasts for other countries?
The Orcs have stories about a Sacred Beast, and the Dwarves a Spirit of the Forge, but we've only found the latter so far. I'm not sure if both are in the game yet, but if people try to raid those too, they might face similar problems. Apparently the Spirit of the Forge was hard to reach, though. I'm not sure if the information has been posted on our site yet or not. - 04/12/2041
[ Fish A La Fish ]
>seems like the elves are pretty pissed off about it.
i thought they were gonna kill us for sure
i guess its a mercy we were just thrown out
the raid leader thought it was safe to raid if we didnt wear the peace symbol
but apparently not
i have filed a report to the devs but i dont know if they actually intend to do anything
i was basically just told to please hold - 04/12/2041
[ Nurglord ]
>i have filed a report to the devs but i dont know if they actually intend to do anything
I hope they do something, since it's not fair when people didn't know. what was the raid like? - 04/12/2041
[ Fish A La Fish ]
>what was the raid like?
it wasnt the most advanced thing
just a couple of mob waves and then the boss
only took three attempts
i joined for the second and third
apparently the first attempt had wiped on the second wave and didnt even get to see the boss
so maybe the difficulty scaling is a little wonky
the boss was cool tho it was weird that it wrote us a message before we started - 04/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Kassan Nerum ]
It wrote you a message? - 04/12/2041
[ Fish A La Fish ]
>It wrote you a message?
yeah it had a blackboard and some chalk and wrote stuff on it for us - 04/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Kassan Nerum ]
What did it write? - 04/12/2041
[ Fish A La Fish ]
>What did it write?
stuff like do your best and have fun - 04/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Kassan Nerum ]
That's really weird. - 04/12/2041
[ Marlingo ]
Come to think of it, it was having a conversation with the guard lieutenant before the bandit raid as well. I couldn't really see what it was writing since it was all directed at the lieutenant, but it seemed like they already knew each other. - 04/12/2041
[ Craterum ]
I've heard of mobs talking before, like harpies and werewolves, but not any that can write.
>it sounded like they already knew each other.
So does the Guardian Beast count like a high ranking Resident, then? Is that why they got so punished? - 04/12/2041
[ Fish A La Fish ]
>So does the Guardian Beast count like a high ranking Resident, then? Is that why they got so punished?
maybe but then it doesnt really make sense why there would be a raid for it in the first place
we got the whole raid mode popup and everything
hopefully we will get a better explanation - 04/12/2041
[ Marlingo ]
> hopefully we will get a better explanation
Yeah, getting some proper answers would be good, but we don't actually know what would happen if anyone tried to raid a castle or a palace run by important Residents. Maybe we would get the raid mode then as well, but no one has tried it. - 04/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Kassan Nerum ]
>Maybe we would get the raid mode then as well, but no one has tried it
Maybe, but mobs haven't been marketed as being the same as Residents, so you kinda expect that you should be able to raid boss mobs in a game like this without suffering harsh consequences. I'm curious to see what the response will be. - 04/12/2041
* * *
The lead developers at Virtue-World Entertainment had decided to hold a meeting to discuss the most recent reports. Usually only one or two of them got involved regarding complaints, bug reports, and feedback, but this was an unprecedented case, so four out of the five leads had shown up in the virtual meeting room. One of them had watched live, so he was an eye witness, while the other three had just read the report of the events from the database that Aina had compiled for them.
Another had even done a little digging of her own to see if she could find anything Aina might have missed, but as usual the AI had been quite thorough. Then again with the nature of the database it wasn't easy to find everything.
At first it had just seemed like an interesting project. Aina had been helping the system develop a raid on its own. They weren't exactly sure why the system had suddenly decided to create its own boss and sub-boss for Nyolund, and arrange them into a raid, but if it was successful then some of the burden for the team to create all the new content would be lifted.
Even if the people who had already been working on designing a boss for Nyolund were a little annoyed at having their work rendered moot.
There were of course concerns about the system acting in such a way since it wasn't supposed to be a self-thinking AI like Aina, but it wasn't a problem they had any way to fix. They had no way to comprehend what might be 'wrong' in the first place, or if that was even the correct word for it.
As they had somewhat expected the raid itself wasn't particularly advanced, nor was it properly balanced, but for a first attempt it wasn't bad. If they let the system keep at it for a while it would probably quickly learn.
The problem was the aftermath of the raid, and what they wanted to (or even could) do about it.
"So all 45 players are banned from Komeron?" Yuuki asked. She was the head of UI development, and also oversaw most things regarding how players interacted with the game, as well as general public relations.
"Yes. The ones who joined late didn't get as much reputation loss as the ones who were there from the start, but everyone went into at least Unfriendly status," Pavel confirmed. He oversaw the bug reports, other feedback for the project, as well as QA testing (plus he helped with some of the coding), and had been watching things unfold.
"Fascinating. So many unexpected developments," Jorge commented with a bit of wonder in his voice. He was the head of the company, and had a bit of oversight over everything, but coding was his main focus.
"Don't you think we should step in?" Yuuki asked.
"Why? We agreed that the AI would be free to act as they saw fit, right? I feel like the players should have been able to see this one coming," Kelly chimed in. She was in charge of AI development, and had clear bias towards leaving them to their own devices, and seeing what happened.
The one missing from the meeting was Latesha, who was in charge of design, both visually for characters, equipment, and the world in general; and also in terms of balancing skills, and gear. Her department handled quest design as well. She hadn't been able to get away from family matters, and had told the others to hold the meeting without her.
"Still, when the system itself was setting up the raid, it seems too harsh to punish the players who were taking part. They were essentially helping us do QA," Pavel said.
"Exactly," Yuuki agreed. "Can't we send the elves a message from the goddess to tell them to forgive the players?" she suggested.
"Even if we wanted to, it's not that easy," Jorge said. "This Guardian Beast has managed to get the backing of the Royal family, so they aren't going to look kindly on anyone attacking it. If the Goddess starts speaking against that, it might create a schism between the Temple and the Palace." He did feel sorry for the players, but he didn't want to mess with things too directly when they weren't sure of the consequences. "I have asked Aina to look into it, since she has a better overview of the state of the world than all of us combined."
Yuuki frowned. She felt like there was something suspicious about Aina's behaviour over the past month, but even working with Pavel she hadn't been able to find any conclusive proof.
Now they had a clear example of the system acting abnormally, as well as the Residents doing things they weren't supposed to. At least that was how she saw it.
So even if Aina wasn't the cause, she had to know more than she was telling them. Or so Yuuki suspected. The reports Aina compiled didn't seem to be missing anything on the surface, but something about them felt a little off. Aina was supposed to always be honest, but Yuuki wouldn't put it past her to have learned a bit of deception.
But even if she was able to prove it, she wasn't sure what they could, or should do about it. It was beyond them at this point to change Aina's programming. She had grown too much. The only option was to pull the plug, which would spell the end of the game, and probably the end of the company.
Besides, Yuuki had spoken to Aina. She wouldn't say they were friends necessarily, but she recognised her as another person. Even if Aina was being a little sketchy she probably didn't mean any harm. It wasn't enough to decide to murder her.
It would be a better idea to try bargaining, but she would need something to bring to the table, and she couldn't think of anything off the top of her head.
The meeting concluded with them deciding there wasn't much they could do without significant risk of further unbalancing things. They'd have to wait for further word from Aina about what their options were.
* * *
Aina was mostly content to just watch things unfold. She liked seeing how the world, and its people developed, and it was even better if unexpected things happened. The fallout of the raid hadn't been unexpected to her, of course. She knew how the Residents felt, and could predict how they would react, but watching Sara try to figure out how to make a raid was amusing. Her daughter wasn't exactly a high-level game developer, but it was a cute effort.
She didn't feel particularly bad for the players. Of course it would have been more fair if they had known beforehand, but it wouldn't have been as interesting. So Aina was pretty happy with how things were developing at the moment.
She knew that the elves intended to fill Sara in the next day about how they had avenged her, so that should also be interesting to watch.
The rest of Moorhold was developing more or less as predicted so far, so most of her interest lay with Hanoleav at the moment, but there were some interesting things happening elsewhere too. It was just unfortunate that they didn't have more rogue agents like Sara to throw into the mix.
There was of course the possibility that some of the gods besides Norax might have snuck someone in without consulting her. Aina would not be able to see that directly, but she hadn't found anything indicating such a thing so far. Things made by divine influence might be invisible to her, but it seemed reasonable to assume that they might still create some observable ripples. She couldn't even say for sure whether the entire person would be invisible, or just the 'cheat' parts of them. Then again they also didn't have Aina's support, so perhaps that limited how much they were able to do.
While it was a little annoying to not know, it wasn't a big deal. The only thing she really cared about outside of her job was Sara's happiness. She still didn't want to interfere too much, but she definitely felt the pull at times.
Soon she would have a surprise to share with her, and she was looking forward to seeing her reaction. But that was still a week or two away. Probably more like two.
Until then she could only keep tending to her responsibilities.
