The designers looked at the design proposal along with Min Jingchao’s explanation, their expressions varied.

Clearly, this design was quite revolutionary for traditional FPS games.

And it wasn’t the kind of revolution that came from a sudden brainstorm, but rather an improvement to FPS gameplay that Min Jingchao had developed after accumulating extensive experience with game balance and mechanism innovation at GOG.

Would this gameplay actually be more enjoyable than traditional bomb defusal or shooting modes?

That wasn’t certain.

Classic modes are called classic precisely because their appeal might gradually diminish but can never be considered outdated.

At the very least, for the next few years, the classic modes of FPS games would still attract a large number of players.

But “Bullet Hole 2’s” mission wasn’t to surpass but to forge a different path.

As Min Jingchao had mentioned earlier, Mr. Pei had hinted quite clearly that continuing down the path of classic modes would inevitably clash with games like “Sea Fortress” and “Counter-Terrorism Plan.” As a latecomer, “Bullet Hole 2” had no established player base, which put it at a disadvantage.

Therefore, choosing this new type of combat mode essentially provided FPS players with an alternative gaming experience, creating differentiated competition with other FPS games.

From this perspective, “Bullet Hole 2” didn’t need to surpass “Sea Fortress” and “Counter-Terrorism Plan”; it just needed to excel in this niche area and generate stable profits to fully achieve its purpose.

Some designers marveled at Min Jingchao’s creative ideas, finding this proposal bold and revolutionary, while others harbored doubts.

Could a new gameplay style with such high originality actually work?

Influenced by Zhou Muyan, Hellfire Studio developed games primarily for profit and risk avoidance, generally preferring safer approaches.

Before developing a game, it was best to find a prototype from successful games, which would remove doubts about the development process.

Otherwise, if the project failed, research and development funds of several million or even tens of millions would be wasted—a loss that ordinary game companies couldn’t bear.

But looking at Zhou Muyan, who hadn’t raised any objections, they remained silent as well.

Zhou Muyan was, of course, inwardly nervous.

Because the entire process from “Bullet Hole 2’s” proposal to development seemed unreliable at every turn!

Initially, Mr. Pei had just offered a few simple opinions in a meeting, then Min Jingchao unleashed a flight of fancy in design, and the game prototype emerged.

A successful game prototype? Market research? Feasibility studies?

None of these existed!

This completely contradicted Zhou Muyan’s previous development process habits.

But he couldn’t say much, given Mr. Pei’s formidable reputation and Min Jingchao being Mr. Pei’s highly capable designer with GOG’s successful experience as a foundation—none of which he could question.

Moreover, the proposal seemed relatively perfect in theory, and Min Jingchao had considered all aspects of potential problems, so it wasn’t particularly risky.

Sun Xi raised her hand and said: “I noticed that the design proposal also mentioned some special character mechanisms, such as professional class settings.”

“This professional class system seems different from what I understand.”

“I initially thought they were combat classes, but they’re actually closer to life professions.”

“Is there any special consideration for this approach?”

The so-called combat classes directly influence combat abilities.

Like traditional warrior, assassin, and mage settings, different classes have different combat styles—some run faster, some have higher ranged damage.

For “Bullet Hole 2,” Sun Xi understood classes to be professions that would affect combat ability.

For example, snipers would deal more damage with sniper rifles while having certain stealth and anti-reconnaissance effects; assault troops might mainly use submachine guns with quick movement skills; heavy armor troops would move slower but have stronger firepower, and so on.

In games with modern warfare backgrounds, it’s difficult to differentiate classes, but in futuristic battlefields, it poses no problem.

All these abilities could easily be explained through high technology.

In Sun Xi’s view, since they had already implemented these mechanisms for the large map, and Min Jingchao was a GOG designer, wouldn’t it be normal to give players some special skills?

But the professions written in Min Jingchao’s design proposal were more oriented toward life professions—ones that don’t directly affect combat ability.

For instance, the doctor profession would revive people faster and more easily obtain medical supplies when scavenging and opening crates. Medical supplies scattered on the map would be highlighted for them, they could carry more medical items, and they could modify these supplies over time to provide greater healing or other beneficial effects.

Engineers would have the ability to repair outpost machinery, use resources to enhance the killing power of some outpost weapons, and repair outpost walls.

The only class somewhat related to combat ability was the machine gunner, who could reload faster and shoot more accurately when operating heavy machine guns at outposts. But even this enhancement was very limited, and to utilize this ability, one first had to occupy an outpost and man the fixed machine gun.

Additionally, there were various limiting factors such as blind spots in the field of view and limited ammunition.

Some abilities that could have been made into classes weren’t included in the professions but instead became items or regular skills, such as anti-reconnaissance.

The game featured two different anti-reconnaissance methods: optical camouflage effects and anti-radar effects. The former allowed players to blend with the environment, making them difficult for other players to spot with the naked eye, while the latter made them disappear from radar detection.

Players could only choose one of these detection effects and had to switch based on the situation. For example, large outposts all had radar coverage, so optical camouflage would be better in wild areas not covered by radar.

Of course, to prevent optical camouflage from being everywhere, these resources would be limited, and players could also have countermeasures like “small portable radar.”

This ability could have been developed into a “ghost” class, but Min Jingchao didn’t do that. Instead, he made it a universal item that anyone could use after finding it, though with certain quantity and time limitations.

Min Jingchao said: “My consideration in this regard is… although combat classes seem to offer more differentiation and richer gameplay, they can easily have the opposite effect in FPS games.”

“That is, they appear to enrich gameplay but actually make it more uniform.”

“Balancing combat classes in FPS games is very difficult and even conflicts with the core of FPS games.”

“An FPS game is necessarily one where I can instantly kill you, and you can instantly kill me—that’s the premise. If we try to balance it like a MOBA game, we’d have to make ranged classes deal minimal damage to melee classes, which is obviously inappropriate.”

In MOBA games, many marksmen clearly holding guns still need to attack tank heroes and assassins many times to kill them.

This is because marksmen inherently have longer range, and if their damage were also high, team fights might degenerate into mindless “protect the marksman” strategies, with the outcome determined by which side’s marksman deals more damage.

To ensure game balance, a circular counter-relationship must be formed, placing some restrictions on marksmen’s damage output.

But FPS games can’t work this way, or their most basic enjoyment would be lost.

To preserve the core gameplay of FPS games while adding combat classes, balancing becomes extremely difficult.

Min Jingchao explained: “Let me give a more straightforward example. Suppose an FPS game has several different types: tank class with slow movement, high defense, and more bullets; assault class with fast movement; sniper class with certain stealth effects and high ranged damage; and healer class that can heal teammates.”

“Then I ask you, which class should a beginner choose?”

Sun Xi thought for a moment: “Tank class or healer class, I suppose?”

Min Jingchao shook his head: “If you choose tank class, you’ll find yourself becoming a living target. Skilled players using the assault class would be flying around everywhere, and you couldn’t catch them. Then they’d unleash a damage combo, and your tank would be instantly downed. If you choose healer class, you’d find yourself timidly following teammates the whole time, but any enemy could cut you down easily.”

“The healer would ask, ‘Why didn’t you protect me?’ Others might think, ‘This healer is so weak, why do they keep dying?'”

“At this point, you might think, ‘The assault class is so powerful, I’ll play that too.’ But here’s the problem: though you’d certainly be stronger than before, when facing other skilled players also using the assault class, you’d still be cannon fodder.”

Sun Xi questioned: “But wait, if the assault class is that strong, then the game is unbalanced and should be nerfed, right?”

Min Jingchao countered: “Then what do you think would be an appropriate level of nerfing?”

“The assault class is designed for mobile displacement—in the hands of skilled players, they kill invisibly. If you reduce their damage to be insignificant, skilled players would simply switch to tanks or snipers, and the game might become dominated by those classes instead.”

“MOBA games can have different classes because they can create circular counter-relationships. Players can accept ranged characters dealing minimal damage to melee characters.”

“But in FPS games, where everyone has guns, making ranged attacks insignificant against melee would directly undermine the enjoyment of FPS games.”

“However, while preserving this enjoyment, FPS games are inherently ‘you instantly kill me, I instantly kill you’ games. The assault class naturally has a huge advantage—you either nerf it into uselessness so no one plays it, or no matter how you nerf it, it remains unbeatable in the hands of skilled players.”

“Beginners fall into a vicious cycle: don’t play assault class and get destroyed by experts, play assault class and still get destroyed by experts.”

“Except for those truly skilled players capable of flashy operations, the gaming experience for all other players would be compromised.”

“The joy of FPS games lies in quick kills and equally quick deaths. Even beginners can kill skilled players through ambush tactics. As long as the rank gap isn’t too large, players will always have some fighting chance.”

“Therefore, these special mechanisms must be restrained. Movement abilities, whether teleportation, acceleration, or sliding—the less provided, the better. The more such abilities are given, the wider the gap between players becomes, and the worse the experience for beginners.”

“The distinction in life professions is clearly to allow players to divide tasks during the second phase of battle. Some are responsible for operating guns and defending points, others for scavenging medical supplies and saving people, and others for repairing machinery.”

“To quickly restore an occupied outpost to operation, coordination between players of different professions is needed, and commanders must allocate personnel properly.”

“Regardless of profession, the gap in combat won’t be too large. This maximally ensures the gaming experience for beginners, preventing frequent situations where elite players single-handedly kill dozens in one match.”