Min Jingchao paused briefly, then continued: “The game’s setting could take place on an abandoned battlefield in a future world, where players take on the roles of soldiers undergoing special training, needing to win a military exercise.”
“In my conception, the game is divided into two phases.”
“The first phase can be called the exploration phase, or the free-for-all phase.”
“Before entering the game, players can choose their roles: ordinary soldier, squad leader, or battlefield commander, with both primary and backup options.”
“The game defaults to four-person squads with one leader. Players can queue alone or in groups.”
“The system will adjust based on the actual situation of players in the current match. For example, if there aren’t enough primary-choice squad leaders, it will select from backup leaders. If there still aren’t enough, it will choose players with better stats from the ordinary soldiers.”
“After forming squads, the leader designates a landing point on the map, and they begin collecting resources in the vicinity, looking for better weapons, more ammunition, medical supplies, and so on.”
“Whether to engage in combat at this point depends entirely on the player’s personal preference.”
“If players want to fight, they can go to resource-rich strategic locations such as field hospitals, airports, bunkers, etc. These places will lead to early encounters with other players and intense combat.”
“If players don’t want to fight, they can go to places with relatively fewer resources, such as wilderness camps and outposts.”
“In the early stage, if a squad member dies, teammates can revive them at designated points. If the dead member quits the game, new players can be summoned to join.”
“Of course, in the matchmaking interface, players can freely choose whether to join matches already in progress.”
“If an entire squad is wiped out, they’re eliminated from the match.”
“The first phase combat is 100 vs 100, meaning a total of 200 people with 50 squads deployed on the map.”
“To prevent players from hiding and dragging out time, I’ve added a ‘radiation suit battery’ setting. Players must find batteries for their radiation suits to maintain full health. Once the battery is depleted, they will continuously lose health due to radiation until death.”
“When the battlefield is reduced to only 100 players—meaning half the squads have been eliminated—or after the game has progressed to a certain point, it enters the second phase.”
“At this time, the system will comprehensively consider players’ first-phase performance, their distribution at various strategic locations, and other factors to divide the battlefield into two evenly matched sides.”
“Initially, these two sides will inevitably be mixed together. Some squads might naturally find themselves deep in enemy territory, occupying a key bunker, while others might be in the rear of friendly territory, quite safe.”
“At this point, the system-selected commanders can begin directing the battlefield, issuing instructions to all squads.”
“To facilitate player communication, we need to create a very comprehensive signal marking system. Squad leaders and commanders can issue orders directly through the marking system or via voice commands.”
“In this phase, even if players die, they can respawn at camps or hospitals, but it costs resources, such as radiation suit batteries. Map resources are limited, and once consumed, players can no longer respawn. The final victory and scoring are calculated based on the number of strategic locations occupied by each side and points earned from kills and resource collection.”
Sun Xi hesitated before asking: “Won’t the game time be too long this way? Most FPS games use quick modes of a few minutes per round, providing fast and direct emotional stimulation to players. With two phases like this, it definitely can’t be completed in just a few minutes, right?”
Min Jingchao nodded: “Yes, I envision a complete match lasting about 30 minutes, which is actually reasonable—basically similar to the length of a more drawn-out match in GOG.”
“And unlike games like GOG, ‘Bullet Hole 2’ has a filtering mechanism. Not every player will play for the full 30 minutes.”
“The first phase is a screening phase. If players immediately jump into densely populated areas for intense combat, they might kill everyone and have their squad directly occupy a strategic location, or they might be completely wiped out and forced to exit.”
“So, for players who prefer a fast pace, they don’t need to last 30 minutes. For those who prefer a slower pace and gradual scavenging, they can jump to less populated areas in the first phase. As long as they survive the first phase, they can continuously respawn in the second phase and retain their good weapons and resources.”
“Also, if you die in the first phase, that’s it—you exit and immediately start a new match, which doesn’t waste much time. If you survive past the first phase, you can respawn in the second phase with better weapons and equipment, plus the rewards after battle provide sufficient motivation, so players won’t quit midway.”
“As players’ shooting skills improve and they become more familiar with the game mechanics, they can gradually try locations with more intense competition, creating a natural flow in the player population.”
“This mechanism essentially segments different types of players, allowing everyone to find gameplay that suits them within this mode.”
Zhou Muyan and others nodded in agreement. Min Jingchao’s approach seemed quite feasible.
MOBA games are popular precisely because they offer different kinds of enjoyment in the early, middle, and late stages of the game.
In the early game, players engage in solo lane matchups, establishing initial advantages through individual skill. In the mid-game, they roam and support, helping the team gain momentum. In the late game, they either contest resources or look for opportunities to make a comeback from desperate situations to secure victory.
Moreover, in such games, since players’ levels and equipment continuously improve, providing a sense of growth similar to MMORPGs, players won’t easily give up the sunk cost of twenty-plus minutes in the mid-to-late game unless the situation is completely one-sided. As long as they’ve gathered enough equipment to put up a fight, they’ll look for opportunities to turn the tide.
The large map mechanism that Min Jingchao designed for “Bullet Hole 2” clearly borrowed some ideas from MOBA games. On one hand, it screened and segmented player groups through game mechanics, allowing different types of players to experience different pleasures. On the other hand, it ensured sufficient enjoyment in the late game through these mechanics.
Min Jingchao continued: “However, although theoretically this large map mechanism’s design considers the experiences of different players, in actual operation, unexpected situations may arise.”
“For example, the matchmaking mechanism might fail to properly balance both sides after initial screening due to insufficient data, or imperfections in the game mechanisms might cause different phases to progress too quickly or too slowly, affecting players’ actual game experience.”
“For this problem, there’s no particularly good solution except gradual adjustment.”
“But during the adjustment process, we might lose players.”
This point was also easy to understand—for a game mechanism to function perfectly, it needs substantial data support.
For instance, the reason MOBA games like GOG provide an excellent experience is that data like how many minions spawn per minute, how much experience is gained, how much money is earned, attributes of jungle monsters, and so on have all undergone meticulous and complex modifications and calibrations to reach their current state.
If a problem occurs in one link, such as players leveling up too quickly, the entire rhythm of the game would be disrupted, causing serious chain reactions and potentially completely disrupting the original concept.
Having worked on GOG’s balance for so long, Min Jingchao was certainly clear about this point.
And it was impossible to completely avoid these problems from the start; they could only be continuously adjusted based on player feedback and collected data during the game.
Zhou Muyan said: “This is actually manageable. At worst, after the game is developed, we can conduct several tests and adjust before officially launching.”
“After all, other games also need extensive testing before their official release.”
Min Jingchao nodded and said: “Testing is one approach, but I’ve thought of another solution.”
“That is to utilize the existing large map to create several new game mechanisms.”
“By splitting and simplifying the original mechanism, we ensure that even if the classic large map mechanism encounters problems initially and affects player experience, they still have other modes to play.”
“Mr. Pei previously cut many modes, which we definitely won’t make. Compared to ‘Sea Fortress,’ we’re only keeping the most basic shooting mode.”
“I’ve thought about it and planned three modes.”
“The first is a pure shooting mode. Players can select any small area on the large map, continuously respawn with their favorite guns by default, shoot on sight, and score based on kills.”
“Since we’re drawing from the large map anyway, we can slightly modify the map for use, dividing the large map into many small ones. This not only meets our needs but also guides players to familiarize themselves with the large map’s terrain.”
“After playing this mode extensively, players will naturally know their way around when they enter the large map.”
“The second mode retains only the first phase, though some details need adjustment.”
“Since the first phase involves fighting as squads without needing to balance strength—the last one standing wins—but without the second-phase confrontation, having so many players left on the large map obviously makes no sense. We need to accelerate player deaths and exits, so I’m considering adding a ‘Mechanical Legion Invasion’ mechanism.”
“Simply put, after the game progresses to a certain point, mechanical legions will continuously spawn from around the map, with gradually increasing attributes.”
“Players have two choices. One is to run deeper into the map, naturally encountering other players and triggering combat. The other is to scavenge resources, seize advantageous terrain and strategic locations, and face these mechanical legions head-on.”
“If you don’t want to fight other players, you can occupy a bunker and farm mechanical legions, which has a similar effect to ‘Sea Fortress’s’ zombie mode.”
“The former is an ‘escape’ gameplay style, while the latter is a ‘defense’ style, depending on the player’s current location and personal gaming habits.”
“The third gameplay style is the classic mode I just introduced.”
“Different gameplay styles can bring players different pleasures during the game and complement each other.”
“This way, ‘Bullet Hole 2’ can provide players with a rich and distinctive gaming experience!”