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/A few days ago…/
Dale was currently inside his room, typing on a computer with great focus.
He was currently inside a very modest and simple green room, there was a bed on the corner next to a black and smooth oval pod.
He had a few shelves around the place with things such as books and old ntos, the usual.
Lastly, a white wardrobe was inserted into the wall next to his bed, the place where all of his clothes were.
Dale didn't have a lot of things to show since most of his childhood was… Virtual.
But he did have a rather big collection of plastic toys whose logo nas cannot be so easily pronounced…
"Phew…"
Once he was done, he let out a sigh and read through it all again as he stretched his fingers.
"I never thought writing such a simple plan was so tiring… But this should be enough, there isn't anything else to consider and I went over several possibilities in the past month or so."
'I dug up all of the previous guides and also crossed information with that guy… This should go pretty well.'
"Anymore work and I might just die… Urg…"
He looked towards the wall, reading the electronic calendar that floated next to his PC.
'The ga release is approaching, being just a few days away, and I have to do my best to get ready for it.'
Dale looked at the window as he thought of the past.
"... Ever since that day I started to train madly, all for today…"
"I'll find out what this ga is all about…"
…
/One year ago inside the Beta…/
"HUFF! HUFF!"
In the ruins of a once magnificent modern city layd a modest and simple village.
Vegetation was exuberant, the water was as clear as the skies, and there was even so wildlife around the place to hunt…
"Hum? Oh! Did you bring what I requested?" Asked a man with a smithy apron as he noticed a young man approach from the side
"Yes, here is your bread Mr. Kyt." Replied Dale as he gave the old man a brown cloth sack
"Ah! Thank you, young man! Here's the coin for your trouble…"
[Quest Completed]
[You've received:
1 Zulls of Wood
1% Experience points
]
[DING]
[You have Leveled Up! Current Level 100]
Smiling widely, Dale thanked the man and left in a hurry.
'Finally! Level 100! I want to see what this Level has to offer!'
"Young man, since you're here, could you grab a few pieces of bread?"
Dale looked at the blacksmith and said with a smile:
"No!"
And with that he left running, leaving the surprised blacksmith behind…
It had been a month since the closed Beta of Azimuth went online.
The Beta was located in the tutorial area of Azimuth, and according to the developers, all players would be subjected to it although they could skip the tutorial if they so desired.
The tutorial area was a ruin of an old modern looking city, it was actually the most famous city in their previous ga containing all sorts of Easter eggs and even so ntions of past famous players.
However, they said many tis that this next ga had no connection to the previous gas and it would be its own world, it was the sa as saying they were rebooting the original story.
In the ga, the tutorial area was ant to have the players get used to the chanics and help more casual players hit a playable Level, and this Level is 5.
And it's important to say that during the Beta, this Level cap is removed for testing purposes.
The Beta contained all sorts of miscellaneous quests and objectives to help the players grow, and have them get a sense of how the ga would play out.
But as ti passed, the first complaint ca, and it was about the ti it took to Level up.
It's important to note that a 10K tis XP multiplier was given to all players in order to make things more dynamic.
It took a week for players to reach Level 20 and two weeks for players to reach Level 30… But that was because, in the middle of it, they ran out of things to do. No more quests and no more monsters to slay…
The Beta content had ended.
And no one would remain hunting a single low-class mob for the remainder of 2 weeks right?… Right?
And it was clear that sothing was wrong, they did all of the available quests and hunted every day. How is it possible that with a 10K XP multiplier during an entire week, they only got to Level 20?
But the developers said that most of these missions were low Level and the base amount of XP they gave, even when multiplied, was still low.'
And that was why their Levels wouldn't increase that fast.
Otherwise, no one would play a ga where it took 10000 weeks of grinding to beco Level 20… For obvious reasons.
During the first week of the test, most players stuck with exploration, and Dale was no different, he explored all sorts of places and did all sorts of quests, soon getting a hang of what this ga was going to be.
However, he realized the chanics weren't that different from their previous ga, just way more fleshed out and 'real', they felt really close to reality sohow, despite this being a virtual RPG.
There had always been a tiny difference between them, and for a veteran player like him, he spotted it almost imdiately.
Because of this, he quickly beca more focused on learning the exclusive features rather than exploring.
And even if he was interested in exploring and playing, this was but a heavily limited version of the base ga, and hence, there wasn't much for him to do…
He didn't want to get used to sothing that most likely wouldn't be the final version of the ga.
And he wasn't the only one to do so as he quickly found soone like him…
/Two weeks before Dale hit Level 100/
"What are you doing?" Asked Dale as he looked at a young man doing a strange pose on top of a house
"..."
/BAM!/
Suddenly, a lightning strike hit the young man, sending him falling from the ceiling.
Dale grabbed him and fed him a potion and soon enough, the young man was alive and kicking.
"Phew… Next ti, don't startle that way man, I almost failed there." He replied
"..."
'He has an extre Arican accent… And he seems a bit older than .'
"Did I do sothing wrong? I apologize." He said as he bowed a little
The young man shook his head and said:
"Nah dude, it's fine, besides, I think this is a discovery worth sharing!"
He started to share with Dale how he tried to copy sothing from the previous ga, an ancient ritual he saw in a quest that was done right at that very house…
And it worked!... Kind of.
"It seems so events from the previous ga still work! But at the sa ti, they don't… More research is required!" Said the young man excitedly as he paced back and forth
"Oh yeah! I didn't ask your na? Mine's Jelly Donuts without Sugar…" He said seriously
"..."
'What a long ass na…'
"I'm Kindred Flamingo…"
"BWAHAHAHA! What a terrible na!"
Dale got embarrassed and said:
"Yours is fucking worse!"
And like that, a beautiful friendship ford.
…
/Ti passed…/
For the next week, the two tested many useless things as they played together until Dale found a glitch.
"You did what?" Asked Jelly Donuts
"Look, I'll repeat myself once, there is a bugged questline. If you do things right, it resets every ti and you don't have to wait for the 24/h cooldown."
Jelly was astounded.
"Tell how."
"Know the blacksmith? The one near the river… Yeah, that guy."
"You select his bread quest where he asks you to fetch so bread and then you go to the bakery nearby where the owner will ask you to fetch his kid that went out to play again in exchange for free bread."
"Are you talking about those linked quests?"
"Yup…"
"You find the kid near the river and you help him gather 8 smooth stones for him to play with."
"If you select 8 high-quality stones the kid will give you a bonus reward and that is what bugs the questline."
"Once you go back to the bakery with or without the kid, it doesn't really matter, you'll be told that the kid ran away once again, and once you go back to the blacksmith to get your reward… He will just ask for more bread, and it repeats. In a single run, you can complete 3 quests at once and even get a few coins."
"It took 2 minutes to do these quests after I perfected my run a few tis, but I am sure we can cut it in half… We still have 2 weeks, how about we bet on who reaches the highest level?" Asked Dale with a smile
"No."
But he was surprisingly refused by Jelly.
"I'll stay here testing my things, if you wish to grind those Levels, just do it man, in exchange tell about the Class changes if there are any."
"Oh yeah, the Class changes… I forgot about that since we aren't level 20 yet."
Azimuth has a simple yet super complex Class system.
You can choose from 3 basic Classes:
Villager.
Fallen Noble.
Outcast.
Each Class has its strong and weak points, but overall, they are supposed to represent the trinity of RPGs…
The warriors, mages, and archers.
What makes this ga diverse is how many possibilities you have access to… Every Class can evolve into sothing, you think it definitely exists.
The problem is getting to it, but that is sothing else altogether.
Depending on your actions and luck, you can find yourself with the opportunity to change or evolve your Class into sothing else, perhaps even Unique.
From a villager to a soldier and from that to a knight.
Or even from a villager to a wanderer, and from that to a rcenary.
Every Class can lead to different outcos and they even intersect, aning that even if you select a villager, you can still follow the path of magic, its just a tad harder considering the lore and initial attributes you are given…
And yes, Lore is sothing important in this ga according to what the players found out during the Beta.
Lore is history, and you as a player is actively trying to build your own character's tale.
And that is how the ga becos diverse… The longer you play it the harder it is for soone to have the sa playstyle as you, but it also becos easier for soone with a broken build to appear…
Followed by soone that counters it and so on.
The hard thing is finding an ultimate Class for all purposes, and even if you try your best to at least defend yourself against your natural nesis, sothing else could always pop up.
The developers themselves often talked about the many hidden Classes still in the ga…
Classes also have ranks, divided into what the ga calls 'The Star System'.
The lowest rank Classes and items are 0-Star while the better they are, the more stars they get… Although this isn't always precise as Dale and the other players found out.
How you play your Class and how effective you are with it… That is what makes a Class strong, although it's true that higher Stars tend to be more consistent in the way they are oftentis stronger.
In this Beta, all Classes were limited to 0-Star at most, but thanks to this, players were forced to test more play styles instead of becoming used to a single strong one.
This was one of the major issues raised by the players, how would balancing work in a ga where the possibilities are endless?
It was already complicated with the previous ga chanics, now this ga aims to do sothing even wider, they were afraid the developers were overshooting this ti…
Even if they already did a good job in balancing them, it is bound that soone will luck out or think outside the box, fusing those Skills into sothing that will break the ga in ways they couldn't predict, be it PVP or PVE.
This had been shown ti and ti again in many other RPGs and MMOs…
And to be honest, there will always be that person who will break the ga in so strange way just for the sake of it…
But the developers said that they had plans for it and that it was alright, so everyone just shut up.
There was no point in arguing with them now, they could only believe in them for now.
"S… I guess I'll just grind and see how much further I can push my Level." Dale said as he turned around and waved
'I'm not that good with finding secrets like Jelly, so I'll leave him be.'
Jelly smiled and waved as he said:
"I'll stay here and test sothing else… I'll call you in 10 minutes with either good or bad news."
'I'll be either alive or dead by then…'
With a smile, Dale and Jelly made an agreent to share information and in the blink of an eye, 2 weeks passed…
…
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Notes
Sorry, but I won't post any images for Jelly right now.
This is because Jelly's character in-ga is different from his actual character he'll use when the ga launches.
When a proper description of his appearance is added, that is when I'll post an image of him.
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