Jin continued to monitor the various groups going through the Nian Event. Many of them appeared to be like the Pandawans, stuck with their current side questline, which turned out to be more challenging than they had expected.
Some of the Pandaren groups had decided to ignore the side quest line upon seeing some non-spoiler reviews telling them it was optional, so they had searched for the Nian to fight against it. It was not incredibly hard to find the Boss, yet the battle was overwhelming because it was meant to be handled after doing the side quests to weaken it.
Once defeated, those groups diligently started the side quests and they would have discovered that if they were to come back, the Nian Boss would wait for them in the same state before their defeat. This meant that its hit points did not recover and thus allow them to wear it down bit by bit if they chose the brute route again even though it would cost them.
Thanks to the System filtering the forum posts for special updates, Jin saw that less than an hour ago people started to spread this information in the spoiler sections of the forums.
However, even they were unaware that once a dungeon would be completed by a group, it could be replayed without having to do the side quest lines. Jin had added a mini New Game+ mode that placed one-shot equipment that would directly modify the Nian’s health as if they had completed the dungeon at least once. It would allow them to fight Nian as if the side quests were done.
Redoing the side quest lines was also possible and came with its own set of perks. Completing the side quest line again would deal double the damage to the Boss Nian before the final showdown against it.
Not only that, but both normal and Shadow Panda Medals could also be earned from the side quests, increasing the replayability of the quest lines… at least in theory. Only time would tell how many would choose that option as his customers so far have agreed that the side quests were quite standard in terms of storytelling.
Jin himself would admit that most of what he has placed was rather routine stuff such as rescuing the villagers or collecting x amount of items. Yet, none of them really complained too much since the fights to get those were equally tough as fighting against the Nian itself. Not to mention the ones possessing the right equipment like Xia Mao’s dragon-slaying scimitar immensely enjoyed the feeling of being overpowered when fighting the right monsters.
In the meantime, there was one group which eventually caught Jin’s eyes. It was neither the Elder Pandaren team nor the Pandawans wandering into the cave, but actually a relatively new group of cultivators who had decided to do things a little different from the rest of the parties, pushing the limits of Jin’s dungeon instance’s AIs and NPCs to the next level in terms of reaction.
After completing a few side quests, they had understood that they could receive more of these firecrackers which Nian was vulnerable to. Only thing was that the group were attempting to steal the firecrackers from the villagers without completing any extra side quests, in order to increase their chances against the Nian and to possibly claim the first clear.
When the System flagged them up as potential deviants, Jin started to listen in on the conversations between the group members. Their plan was to build a large firecracker bomb with the firecrackers they stole and use against Nian.
In case they get caught by the villagers, which they highly doubted since the AIs on NPCs appeared to be dumb, they planned to escape and just lure Nian to the village instead. That way, the group could still try and devise the firecracker bomb amidst the chaos to defeat Nian.
“Huh, the way of doing things is certainly outside the box. Still, I don’t think I want to reward such behaviour that much.” Jin thought. He felt dissatisfied with the way they wanted to exploit his NPCs.
“System could penalise them by turning down the helpfulness of that particular group’s NPC’s AI or make them intervene.” The System suggested as it would merely need to tweak some parameters for their mercenaries in that particular dungeon instance.
“Possible… But then people might get the wrong idea about the Panda Mercenaries experiencing bugs. We should still have that NPC punishment system active, right?” Jin questioned as he recalled using Captain Hei as the protector of NPCs in a rare few cases when cultivators abused his NPCs by turning them into punching bags in some previous instances.
“Yes, but it is currently outdated. System recommends User to use the opportunity to revamp the NPC punishment system if you wish to use it on that group.” The System replied while activating the NPC punishment protocol onto Jin’s console.
“Fine, let’s continue to use Captain Hei though. I remember one of the ‘hidden rules’ in that forum section had an addendum not to anger Hei in particular even though he is a reasonably friendly NPC. Perhaps we should use that opportunity to elevate him in rank, and turn him into a sort of Guardian God for the NPCs whenever anyone tries anything such as killing the innocents.” Jin suggested as he tweaked Captain Hei’s stats even further, making him a force to reckon.
“I will let them have the glory of using their unorthodox method and broadcast it to the other Pandarens. Let’s also highlight their record on Pandaflix for the next week at least. This is, after all, what we are pursuing, a limitless degree freedom in completing the Dungeon Instance. If this group manages to steal the firecrackers without hurting any NPCs, I will allow them to proceed with their plan. But if they kill any villagers NPCs, then we shall release the fury of the panda.” Jin stated as he started to create an Iron Hulk suit for Captain Hei, just like the dungeon supplier had used in the Giant World in case for high grade cultivators.
In fact, he placed even more weapons and defence resistance into Captain Hei to show off that if you do bad things in the dungeon instances, you would be punished appropriately for it. Once such a video/stream had been broadcast, everyone would know that there would be consequences for killing the NPCs.
However, as Jin creates the all-new almighty NPC, he was contemplating whether he should create a time limit in eradicating any evildoers and ultimately give them a chance for such deviant Pandarens to escape imminent death should they survive the wrath of Captain Hei.
“That could be a possible solution since some Pandarens could accidentally kill the NPCs during a fight, or unknowingly use them as a body shield. However, the code injected within the NPC punishment system will detect that as an anomaly and chase after them. If a time limit were to be placed and they could survive the newly made Captain Hei, it should be worthy of commendation.” The System suggested.
“Then we shall do that for now. I will update the code when I have the time. Please put up a reminder for me to adjust them, or else the victims in those accidents might cry foul. At least, this shows that we condone the use of such deviant methods while not limiting the creativity of the Pandarens.” Jin nodded and quickly implemented the new Captain Hei.
Now it was just a matter of time to see if the group would succeed or trigger the newly implemented feature.
