After nearly 3 years, "Dyson Sphere Project", which topped the global sales list of Steam for one hour, will implement a large-scale free update on the 15th of this month - Rise of the Black Mist.
For this moment, veteran players of Project Dyson Sphere have been waiting a little longer. As early as January 2021, when its early access version was put on Steam, Yuzu Cat Games said that it would do battles, space stations and other content in the future. Therefore, when they announced in September last year that they would launch a new version of Rise of the Black Mist and implement a combat system for the game, many players were already looking forward to it.
Official Rise of the Black Mist Trailer**.
The highest amount of a single ** exceeds 700,000.
Player review from September last year.
Grape Jun originally thought that this update was just a follow-up chapter on the basis of the original game content, in other words, a lot of content. But after participating in the early trial on December 10th, I realized that I guessed wrong: the grapefruit cat game is a knife to the entire experience of "Dyson Ball Project" - from the moment the game is opened, the player's gameplay ideas and rhythm already need to be changed with the new content of the version.
The content of the trial does not represent the final quality of the update version when it is launched on the 15th of this month, and is for reference only, please read it as appropriate).
This time, the player's control of Icarus will no longer be the only self-aware machine in the game. The good news is that players aren't alone anymore;The bad news is that the other side doesn't have good intentions towards the player.
When the player lands on a new planet, the system will inform the player that the planet is also inhabited by a mutant mech known as the Black Mist.
Not only does Black Mist have its own base on the planet's ground, but it also has larger nests in space. As the player's facilities become more advanced and the power consumption increases, the Black Mist will think that the player's threat to them is gradually increasing, and will launch waves of attacks against the player.
The Black Mist Lair does not feel a threat to the player until the construction of a facility that affects space, but as long as a power station is built on the ground, the threat of the Black Mist Ground Base will continue to grow, and the growth rate will be proportional to the power consumption of the player's facility.
In addition, each time the player engages the forces of the Black Mist, the threat level will increase rapidly, and the experience points of the Black Mist will increase (the Black Mist base and lair will be upgraded). Each time the threat reaches 100%, the Black Mist will launch a wave of attacks on the player. They will constantly tear down the facilities they have built in an attempt to zero out the player's technological level.
Players can resist and counterattack the black fog by developing and upgrading their own ** system.
Game tech tree and upgrade system.
Added content related to Defense.
Specifically, players have three means of defending against counterattacks:
First, the player can control Icarus and destroy enemy forces with the machine's built-in laser cannon.
Of course, this only applies if the number of enemy robots is low in the early stage - as time goes on, the number of robots sent out by the Black Mist will increase in each wave.
When a large number of robots begin to split up and dismantle homes, players will need to consider a second, more advanced method of defense: setting up a turret near the facility.
The attack effect of some turrets.
And to ** the power of the black fog on the planet's ground, players also need to develop a third means of counterattack: drones. Only with them can the ground base of the Black Mist be completely destroyed.
Players don't need to operate, stand near the base, the drone will automatically fight, after the Black Mist base is destroyed, the player needs to fill the pit under the base as soon as possible, or build facilities on the pit, otherwise the Black Mist base will be reborn.
In the face of the attack launched by the Black Mist Space Forces, players also need to defend through these three ways. But there are two differences, firstly, the Black Mist Space Lair has more firepower, so players need to build more advanced anti-air defense counterattack facilities, as well as frigates and destroyers that can go to space with Icarus;
The Black Mist Space Lair attacks on the ground.
Players can construct planetary shield generators to protect facilities.
Frigates, destroyers engage the Black Mist Space Lair.
Secondly, the player currently has no access to the Black Mist - a destroyed Space Black Mist Lair will turn into a wandering coordinate, which will respawn after a certain period of time. In other words, in this version of Black Mist Rising, players cannot destroy the Black Mist once and for all.
However, the existence of black fog is not all bad for players. In the new version, there are six raw materials that must be obtained by fighting the forces of the Black Mist, which players can use to build more advanced facilities;In addition, players can obtain metadata by destroying the Black Mist forces, and the metadata can help players quickly level up the tech tree.
After the trial, the biggest impression of Grape Jun is: this game has become more exciting, but also more difficult.
The director of publishing at Gamera Games (the publisher of Project Dyson Ball) later joked with me that the 90-minute offline trial looked like a computer exam. I think his description is quite apt - if you check the official Weibo of the Dyson Ball Project production team, you will find that many players who participated in the offline trial have the same pose: touch their chin with their hands.
When Grape Jun tried the game, he unconsciously put on this pose, because he felt that his brain was indeed a little down. The old brother who sat next to me even sighed during the game: "This is too difficult." ”
Indeed, under the influence of the black fog, the entire gameplay rhythm and planning of Project Dyson Sphere has changed, and there is no way to play the game the way you normally would:
For example, in the previous version, players only need to care about urban construction and production line planning, even if the production efficiency is a little low, resulting in a decrease in the speed of technology upgrades, it is not a big problem;But now, in the process of the player's growth and development, the black fog will attack and demolish the facilities in waves, causing the player to need to consume resources to rebuild, which in turn means that the player has to race against the black fog, and the rhythm has become tense.
After the building is demolished (white), if the player has enough resources at hand, the bot will automatically rebuild the demolished facility (green) immediately, without the player having to re-read the strip.
However, if there are not enough resources, it is not possible to rebuild immediately, so it is important to protect the production line.
For example, in the past, players could set up facilities everywhere, but they were the only ones on the planet anywayBut now, if you want to maintain your own resources, you may need to keep the facilities as close as possible so that the batteries can be placed more conveniently.
You can clearly feel that the entire gameplay of the game (location, the order of upgrading technologies, etc.) has been affected, and it can be said that it has become more hardcore and complex.
But for Project Dyson Ball, I personally don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.
First, they gave the player a choice, rather than forcing them to accept the new mechanicWhen starting a new game, players can choose to turn Black Fog on or off;With Black Mist enabled, you can also further adjust the parameters of Black Mist (growth speed, attack desire, etc.). On the default difficulty, the harassment caused by the black fog is basically within the acceptable range of most players.
The official answer of the production team is intercepted.
Secondly, if you think about the players who like "Dyson Sphere Project", Grape Jun feels that they are not playing the game for "simplicity and relaxation", but rather they may be expecting this hardcore, complex experience.
However, after nearly 3 years of research and development, is it necessary to give out this kind of large-scale update that gives the game a makeover for free?
From a business point of view, it is not necessary. We all know that Project Dyson Sphere has achieved a lot of commercial success when it was released in Early AccessAnd, although it was early access, the game's playability had been recognized by the market at that time, and its urban construction content was quite complete and large - not many people in Grape's Steam friend list have been able to clear the current version of Project Dyson Sphere.
In this case, even if Yuzu Cat Game shakes off its hands and directly initiates a project to make a new product, it is not incomprehensible. After all, as a stand-alone game, the experience that "Dyson Sphere Project" brings to players is already complete;Its hardcore gameplay is more selective for players, and after the big sale in 2021, the commercial benefits brought to the team by relying on the sales of the game base may be relatively limited.
On the other hand, what they are doing now is actually more like fulfilling the promise they made to the players.
So, Rise of the Black Mist won't be the final moment for Project Dyson Sphere to move from Early Access to the full version. Producer Zhou Xun also said in the official ** that this update is only a part of the game's combat system, focusing on defense, and next year the Yuzu cat game will launch space station content, bringing the battle to space, allowing players to face the more dangerous black fog nest ......
Is it necessary to "generate electricity with love" to this point?Perhaps, in their opinion, "doing what they say" is necessary in itself.