Thus, this LAN war was quickly organized.
In the game Border, players can use over 20 different maps designed by the official team, each corresponding to different levels in the campaign.
The maps vary in size; small ones might only have three interconnected areas of a few dozen square meters, like several large rooms strung together, supporting 5v5 battles.
Larger ones, like Norton Hills, directly cover an entire hill and feature various covers such as high towers, bunkers, underground passages, and more, making the game much richer.
Such large maps can support 10v10 battles.
Theoretically, they could support 20v20, or 5v5v5v5, but considering network and screen lag issues, the official team implemented certain player limits.
Gravity Studio had actually run countless tests, and the final conclusion was that even the best, top-tier computers could only support about 40 people on screen at most.
Beyond that number, the game became almost unplayable.
40 people was the theoretical limit, already at a very laggy level where almost nothing could be done except moving.
Tests showed that for normal operation and relatively smooth gameplay, the maximum number of people on screen was 30.
So, to accommodate ordinary computers, the official team set the final player count at 10v10.
...
"Come on, Wattby Canyon."
Ross called out to his classmates next door.
Entering the LAN, Noel found that there were already many rooms, with various names written on them:
As agreed, they entered the room named [Either Die, Or Live], with the password 12394.
After entering the room, it quickly filled with 10 people.
Ross and Noel were automatically assigned to the same team, forming a squad with classmates from two neighboring dorm rooms to compete against the other five players.
These internal battles are usually just for fun.
Before, such a heated atmosphere only existed when playing warcraft.
Who would have thought that a single "Border" could bring so many people together?
Everyone stayed in at night, wanting to play game.
Entering the game, they chose the simplest competitive mode, with victory conditions being either one side's total elimination or their base being destroyed.
A group of people began an intense battle.
Wattby Canyon is a medium-sized map among Border's levels, composed of three parts: the central canyon and the hills on both sides.
Each hill has a command camp, and from the top of the valley, one can descend along a slope, where an underground passage allows for flanking the opponent.
The terrain is mirrored, making it fair for both red and blue sides (Corean and Balc).
Weapons can also be purchased at the starting base, and more gold can be earned by killing opponents.
The game features three to four advantageous sniper points, and with the underground passage for flanking, it's also very possible to "meet love around the corner" underground, which heavily tests a team's tactical arrangements, coordination, and individual reaction times.
In addition to completely eliminating the opposing side, an extra victory condition was added:
Destroy the enemy's base.
In each round, one player from each team carries a satchel charge, which can be placed at a designated location in the enemy's base and detonated by pressing a timer button within a certain time.
Therefore, in battle, one must not only send people to attack but also to defend.
The choice of route is also crucial.
All of these were carefully designed and calculated for routes and timings by pokeni America.
Due to the rich tactical variations and the possibility of team splitting, individual and overall team coordination and tactical arrangements become paramount.
The game thus became much more interesting.
At first, everyone didn't quite understand, mostly charging in a group because it was the safest way.
With more people on our side and fewer on the enemy's, we naturally had an advantage.
Large forces either encountered each other or missed each other, and it became a race to see who could plant the bomb faster.
After a few rounds, everyone realized that moving as a group in this game was actually inefficient, and redistributing personnel meant that if the opponent advanced with a large force, a smaller group could be used to intercept, ensuring interference.
The side that wasn't interfered with would win.
Over time, everyone developed more detailed tactical arrangements and variations.
The demand for individual combat ability naturally increased as well.
Both sides fought back and forth, getting very hyped.
Throughout the dormitory corridor, their shouts could be heard at any time.
"Go! Go! Go! Go!"
"Charge! Charge! Charge!"
"I'll go underground, you guys go through the canyon. If you encounter enemies, remember to shout."
"Enemies over here, quickly, quickly!"
"How about we camp the base for a wave?"
"But the base also has A and B sections; we need to figure out which way the opponent is coming from."
...
Noel is now an experienced veteran, having been through many wars.
His teammates are brave warriors; they cooperate with each other to fight against enemies.
After the battle began, Noel and his teammates quickly entered combat mode.
They used terrain and obstacles for cover, constantly moving and repositioning to avoid being detected by enemies.
At the same time, they also used various weapons and equipment to attack enemies.
Before the attack, Noel and his teammates meticulously planned and prepared.
They formulated a detailed plan, understood the enemy's positions and numbers, as well as their weapons and equipment.
They also used terrain and obstacles for cover, minimizing enemy firepower as much as possible.
During the attack, Noel and his teammates encountered great difficulties.
The enemies moved very stealthily, and they needed to constantly move and reposition to find the correct locations.
At the same time, the enemy's firepower was very fierce, and they needed to remain constantly vigilant to avoid being detected by enemies.
After several rounds of attacks, they finally successfully captured the enemy's base and eliminated the enemies.
...
The victory conditions in different levels are also selectable options; in some levels, both sides need to contend for the central point, and simply driving the opponent out counts as victory.
And in some important general protection battles, both sides must protect their own important NPCs; if an NPC is killed by the opponent, it also results in failure...
In short, different terrains, different levels, different victory conditions...
Make Border a unique game.
Its richness of content was something everyone had never experienced before.
The more they played, the more addicted they became, and the more they found it endlessly enjoyable. Many small maps, through continuous exploration and verification, could even develop more fresh gameplay.
Border is truly an amazing game.
...
Player-versus-player combat is truly a completely different matter from playing the campaign.
AI has its limits, but humans do not.
Or rather, human abilities are constantly honed through the process of competing against enemies.
After playing dozens of rounds, Noel and Ross deeply felt this.
In the previous round, both might have felt they had good control, wondering why the opponent was so bad, but after several rounds of honing, they also discovered that the opponent's combat power was rising linearly.
Ultimately, it came down to individual talent and individual differences.
Noel's hand speed and reaction time were very fast; he always reacted immediately when "meeting love around the corner," first bouncing to dodge and then reacting by shooting.
Basically, whenever it was a face-to-face confrontation, Noel was always the winner.
Only if the enemy spotted him first would Noel fall into a passive state.
In certain terrains advantageous to snipers, Noel was ambushed by the opponent several times.
Although Noel was quick to react, his shooting accuracy wasn't the best. There was an opponent who was very good at long-range single shots or sniping, able to kill you before you could react.
This also caused Noel a lot of pain.
Who am I? Where am I?
Who the hell is hitting me?
Why am I gone without seeing anyone?
The more they played, the more hyped they got.
Moreover, team members rotated several times, and different dorms also organized themselves. It was incredible that over 200 people were playing Border LAN battles in this small student building.
Around 12 AM, everyone started to feel sleepy.
"Going to sleep?" Noel asked Ross, his eyes a bit tired.
"Damn it, one more round."
He had just lost, and Ross died in such a humiliating way, stabbed from behind with a knife; this was simply an insult to him.
Noel said, "Isn't that because you're too reckless? You always want to rush to the front, but aren't you always the first to die?"
"Just one more win and then I'll sleep," Ross said through gritted teeth.
Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to sleep at all.
He was too unwilling.
Noel understood the burning frustration that came after losing.
But...
By the time Noel and Ross realized it, it was already bright outside.
The two looked at each other—
Huh?
Where did yesterday's time go?
...
The game, "Borderland," with its unique charm, allows players to gradually understand the entire game content, including terrain, operation, tactics, and various other aspects, step-by-step from the beginner campaign.
It enables players to become competent warriors after the campaign, with a full understanding of firearms and a certain level of operational ability.
Afterward, it guides players to more exciting real-person battles, further enhancing the game's application scenarios and extending its lifespan.
Coupled with its excellent graphics, high-quality modeling, and more realistic and cool 3D first-person shooting... this game quickly spread.
Just as "Borderland" depicted in its campaign opening CG, the game was like a flame, igniting players' passion, spreading rapidly, and eventually forming a raging inferno that directly scorched half the sky red.
Initially, it was only university students who first came into contact with it, as this group is young and energetic, easily accepts new things, and has less demanding coursework, leaving them with plenty of time. Under these circumstances, they were the first to make Borderland popular.
It then spread to the surrounding populace...
Borderland also became more widely known.
And game battles, initially, were also among university students, mostly small-scale operations between adjacent dormitories. But because pokeni provided the possibility of larger-scale, 10v10 matches, it gradually developed, and the number of enthusiasts grew.
Finally, young people directly opened various threads on the pokeni America official forum—
"[Welcome to the University of California 'Borderland' discussion area! We will hold irregular confrontation competitions under this post. If any alumni who like 'Borderland' are interested, feel free to check it out!]"
"[Stanford alumni, look here! The Stanford 'Borderland' organization has an confrontation post, just to ensure that when you can't find suitable teammates, you'll have a group of partners to play the game with anytime, anywhere!]"
...
Since RTT was not available in pokeni America, most communication happened through forum posts or email.
Some organizers simply kept rooms open 24 hours a day, waiting for people on the same local area network to join. As soon as a room was full, a match could start.
However, having an organization could make the efficiency of starting matches even higher.
This model also rapidly expanded, with different levels and rooms being opened in various schools every day, and the number of participants in the game growing steadily.
From Norton Hill all the way to Larry Swamp...
There are only so many game levels, but each battle will offer a novel experience due to different people and different opponents.
In addition, pokeni also specifically opened up corresponding mod creation, allowing players to build their own levels and maps through the mod tools in Borderland, thereby forming new game modes.
This greatly enriched the gameplay, stimulated players' creativity, and made "Borderland" popular in major universities in a short period, becoming the favorite game for young people in pokeni America, and even men under 50.
The entire months of August and September can be called Borderland Month; players in Europe and America were all crazy about it.
...
The posts on the pokeni America forum were also exceptionally popular, with many discussions about tactics.
Many also shared their game experiences from the previous day, and there were many comments about Borderland and how its arrival changed their lives.
In short, Borderland alone set the Europe and America region ablaze.
"This game, Borderland, is terrifying. Ever since my boyfriend bought this game, he barely spends time with me anymore.
At first, I thought he had changed his mind and found someone new.
But it wasn't until I rushed into his dorm that I discovered this guy was actually lying to me about working on his thesis project, just to play the game.
Sisters, isn't that infuriating?"
"My boyfriend is even worse! Not only does he not spend time with me, but he always complains that I'm bothering him while he's playing the game.
I don't really understand why gun-shooting games are so appealing.
Anyway, I can't play them."
"I can't play this game either, but please don't misunderstand, I'm not a girl, and I'm not jealous of my boyfriend playing the game.
I just simply get 3D motion sickness.
This game is actually quite attractive to me, after all, all my friends around me are playing it. If I'm the only one not playing, I feel a bit isolated.
But I really can't overcome the physiological nausea.
As long as I play Borderland for more than 10 minutes, I feel a headache and nausea, wanting to vomit.
I wonder if anyone else has the same situation as me.
I really want to be part of the group, but my body doesn't support it, and I'm very upset too."
"Me too, me too! I really can't play it at all. Even standing behind my classmates watching them play Borderland makes me feel like throwing up.
The camera movement is too dizzying.
I really can't stand it."
"You are not alone, because I also have symptoms of 3D motion sickness. It's strange to say, I never felt dizzy playing other pokeni 3D games before, like "the witcher 2," "princess mononoke," or anything like that, but I do when playing Borderland.
It's very strange."
"It might be because Borderland is an FPS game and requires constant camera movement. In "the witcher 2," the camera is fixed, so you definitely won't get dizzy, and in areas where the camera changes, pokeni has already set it up, so it's actually very comfortable.
As for "princess mononoke," if you constantly move the right joystick back and forth to rotate the camera, you'll also get dizzy.
This has nothing to do with the game; it's just related to how frequently the camera moves."
"..."
"I don't get 3D motion sickness, but what I find particularly unfair is why the Borderland effects are so good when other people's machines use Nvidia graphics cards.
Mine looks like a pile of mosaics; from the outside, it's completely two different games."
"Me too. If I hadn't seen the Nvidia effects, it would have been fine. After so many years, who hasn't played mosaic games?
Even as a mosaic game, Borderland is still a very good shooting game.
However, once I compare it to the effects of others using Nvidia graphics cards, I realize—
I've been playing the game with reading glasses on all this time.
The real Borderland is actually like this.
Instantly, I feel like my graphics card is so low-end."
"pokeni is completely leaving no room for other graphics card manufacturers to survive! Even using the latest Voodoo graphics card, its performance and computing power are a notch below Nvidia."
"Isn't that right? Voodoo graphics cards aren't specifically designed to support 3D graphics; they only achieve graphical effects through 3D computation.
Whereas Nvidia's GPU is independent and specifically designed for 3D graphics effects.
Moreover, pokeni developed on this basis; no matter what, you have to admit that Borderland is different after using Nvidia."
"Borderland is simply a graphics card killer; no other graphics card can run it except Nvidia."
"Hahahahaha, isn't this too real? Borderland with Nvidia GeForce and Borderland without GeForce are completely two different games."
"So now, to test the performance of a graphics card, just run the Borderland game.
I see many computer sales clerks use 'Borderland' to demonstrate effects to customers."
...
After some fermentation and spread, pokeni's game happily earned the title of [Graphics Card Killer].
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