Without wasting any time, he directly selected the online battle mode. "Crazy computer? Haha, no matter how powerful it is, it's not some kind of god. At most, it's just a master-level opponent. I've watched plenty of streams before. Isn't RTS basically about managing your units and controlling your heroes?"
Eyden's mouth twitched slightly as he spoke with complete confidence. He had played quite a few RTS games before, and although he couldn't call himself a professional player, he at least considered himself someone who understood the basic rules. After all, when it came to RTS games, wasn't the general gameplay basically the same?
Build a base.
Gather resources.
Construct buildings.
Research technology.
Produce troops.
Then send a massive army toward the enemy's base and crush everything in its path.
At least, that was how he understood it. However, the moment he actually entered the game, his eyes widened. "Why are there so many buildings?"
He stared at the screen in disbelief. "There are so many techs, too?"
On the screen, several workers were already running around his base, constructing one building after another. The various structures, resource requirements, technology trees, unit types, and hero-related mechanics were all displayed in front of him. For a moment, he was completely at a loss. He couldn't even tell what he should build first.
However, he didn't feel embarrassed. After all, this was a problem that almost every ordinary player encountered when playing an unfamiliar RTS game. Most RTS games had similar foundations, and this was precisely why RTS players were so loyal despite the genre having a relatively small overall audience. Once a player became accustomed to a particular RTS game, switching to another one was never as simple as downloading it and playing.
The cost of learning was simply too high. Even if the basic principles were similar, every game had different races, different units, different buildings, different resource systems, different technology trees, different hero mechanics, and different combat rhythms.
Unless the new RTS game was truly outstanding, or had some particularly attractive feature, most players simply wouldn't be willing to spend that much time learning it from scratch.
But Eyden had some previous RTS experience. Therefore, after carefully reading the descriptions, he quickly began to understand the basic structure of the game.
"Build an altar of heroes..." He muttered while looking at the instructions. "Population requires farms. Then there's the barracks. After that, I need to save gold and wood to upgrade technology..."
As he continued reading, his eyes gradually became brighter. "Got it."
His previous experience with RTS games quickly began to take effect, and he gradually understood the roles of the different buildings and units.
However, just as Eyden thought he had finally figured things out, the two teams of computer-controlled enemies had already arrived at his doorstep.
"What the hell?!" Eyden stared at the screen. "This game is too unbalanced, isn't it?!"
An entire group of Orc infantrymen had charged into his base. He quickly clicked on one of the enemy units and opened its attribute panel, then his eyes widened.
"This Orc soldier has 800 HP and more than 20 attack power!" He immediately clicked on one of his own human soldiers. "Meanwhile, my human soldier only has 420 HP and a little more than 10 attack power?"
Eyden's expression became strange. Was this really balanced?
Before he could think too much about it, the battle had already begun. His accumulated soldiers were immediately crushed by the group of Orc infantry.
"Wait, wait, wait!" Eyden hurriedly manipulated his Archmage. "Let's see what happens if I use Blizzard!"
The Archmage raised his staff, preparing to release a Blizzard spell and inflict some damage on the enemy formation. But at that exact moment, a red critical-hit number suddenly appeared.
"?!" Eyden's pupils contracted. A Sword Saint had appeared beside his Archmage at some point, and he didn't even notice when it had approached.
The Sword Saint swung his blade. With one strike, a quarter of the Archmage's health bar disappeared instantly. It was as if the sword had stabbed directly into his soul.
"WHAT?!" Eyden almost jumped from his chair.
Before he could react, the model suddenly trembled. Two mirror images appeared. The Sword Saint and his illusions immediately surrounded the Archmage together with the Orc soldiers.
Eyden's face turned pale. "How are you supposed to play this?! Why is this Sword Saint already level four?! How did the computer level up so quickly?!"
His entire army was annihilated within a short period of time, and the enemy Orc soldiers then stormed directly into his base. One by one, his tiny peasants were chased into the corners of the base, where they were mercilessly beaten by the enormous axes of the Orc warriors.
Eyden stared blankly at the screen. For a moment, his mind was completely empty. Wasn't this computer developing way too quickly? How could the opponent have such a powerful army already?
"However..." After the game ended, he rubbed his chin and began analyzing the situation. "The Orcs should be a race that is extremely strong in the early game."
He could almost tell that much already. After all, no stupid developer would design a race whose early-game units had attributes so much higher than the human race and then simply leave it at that. Unless there was some other weakness.
Well... Microtransaction games didn't count. Those were an entirely different category.
"Damn! The computer actually knows how to harass troops?"
"Open the mine, level up the hero..."
"So that's how you're supposed to play it!"
"Damnit! How did it hide there?!"
After several consecutive games, Eyden was once again thoroughly educated by the computer. However, this time, the reason was mainly that he still hadn't completely understood how Warcraft was supposed to be played.
To an ordinary player, RTS games could easily look like this:
Build a few houses.
Upgrade your technology.
Produce a huge number of soldiers.
Once the army was large enough, left-click and drag a giant selection box around everyone.
Then charge.
At the end, either you GG... Or I GG.
That was enough for a normal computer opponent.
But the computer AI used in the online battle test of Warcraft was clearly not the same thing. If players didn't want to slowly clear the campaign before entering online battles, they could directly challenge the computer to unlock the online battle mode.
However, they still needed to have at least a basic understanding of RTS games. And more importantly, they needed to understand the gameplay of Warcraft itself.
At the same time, in the ladder matchmaking system of Warcraft, John had also added a massive amount of data detection.
A series of data points would be analyzed based on a player's performance in the campaign mode and simple mode, as well as the player's completion level, familiarity with different units, hero usage, combat performance, and various other factors. A hidden score would then be assigned to the player's account.
The purpose was simple. When players entered online battles, the system would try its best to ensure that the opponents they encountered were roughly at their own level.
If you were an ordinary player, you would generally encounter ordinary players.
If you were a master, you would generally encounter masters.
The same principle was used for competitive elements in games such as Yu-Gi-Oh! and other PixelPioneers titles.
Of course, unlocking the crazy computer difficulty required to enter online battles wasn't actually that difficult. Although John himself couldn't play Warcraft very well, according to the design he had assigned to Koch, players only needed to understand the basic gameplay of Warcraft and learn how to operate properly during battles.
For example, wounded soldiers shouldn't simply be left to die. They could be pulled away from the battlefield and preserved so that they could continue fighting later.
Heroes could quickly kill neutral monsters to level up.
Players could expand their resource base and open a second mine.
Even without understanding complicated strategies or advanced combinations, players could still win by simply understanding the basic interactions between their units. After all, this was only the threshold computer designed to unlock online battle mode.
At first, Eyden had been abused by the computer for several consecutive games because he didn't understand the game. But once he figured out how Warcraft actually worked, his performance improved at an astonishing speed. The next game, he defeated the computer. Then another. And another.
Finally, he successfully obtained the qualification to enter online battles.
"This game is actually pretty simple." Eyden looked at the achievement notification that appeared after clearing the challenge, and a satisfied smile immediately appeared on his face.
He had initially thought that the game was ridiculously difficult. But after understanding the basic rules, he realized that the difficulty was mainly caused by unfamiliarity. Once he understood the game's rhythm, everything suddenly became much clearer.
At that moment, the phone beside him suddenly vibrated, and his friend was calling him to play their usual game. "Coming."
Eyden decisively exited Warcraft, then he returned to the desktop and opened his favorite RTS game. However, the moment the familiar game window appeared on the screen, he suddenly froze. He stared at the familiar interface.
The familiar models.
The familiar map.
The familiar units.
Something suddenly felt... Wrong.
He couldn't quite explain what it was, but he could feel it. After all, it was easy to go from frugal to extravagant, but difficult to go from extravagant back to frugal.
After experiencing a game like Warcraft, which had such an astonishing level of visual quality, presentation, and overall polish, suddenly turning around and looking at his old game made him feel extremely uncomfortable.
The rough modeling.
The obvious jagged edges on the map.
The slightly stiff feeling of the units when they moved.
The somewhat outdated UI interface.
The lack of excellent voice feedback.
These were all things he had completely ignored in the past.
Previously, he had never cared much about such details. As long as the game was fun, that was enough.
But after experiencing Warcraft, all those details that he had once overlooked suddenly became impossible to ignore. It was as if someone had suddenly adjusted the clarity of his eyes. Once he had seen something better, returning to what he had been accustomed to suddenly felt strange.
Of course, he knew that a game's quality couldn't simply be defined by its graphics. There were plenty of independent games with rough visuals that were incredibly fun. There were even pixel-art games that looked extremely simple but could still provide an unforgettable experience. Gameplay was always the most important thing, as a beautiful game that wasn't fun was still a bad game.
But the problem was... Warcraft was actually really fun! That was the most troublesome part. Although Eyden hadn't completed the entire game, he had already experienced enough of it to understand why the game had such an attractive feeling.
The gameplay was satisfying.
The units felt responsive.
The battles had depth.
The heroes were interesting.
Even the process of gradually expanding his base and developing his army gave him an indescribable sense of accomplishment.
Listening to several of his friends chatting excitedly through the voice channel, he remained silent for a while. He looked at the game in front of him, then he looked back at Warcraft.
After a moment of hesitation, he finally spoke into the voice channel. "Bro..."
The conversation on the other side gradually quieted down, and Eyden cleared his throat. "How about we try the new RTS game, Warcraft?"
He paused for a moment before adding honestly: "I've played it for a while. And... It actually feels pretty fun."