Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors

"Actually, whether the fortress of the returnees gets destroyed or not doesn't really matter to us, since we've already got the construction points. Moving bricks again just means earning those points one more time."

"This time we wiped out the remaining three big demons in one go and absorbed so much Demonic Qi, we must be set for a major upgrade."

"That's all part of the game plot. Guy above, you're too immersed!"

"The key is the +1 in resurrection times—this is an epic enhancement! Finally, I have an extra life to go wild with!"

"The new instance is 'Sealing the Wolf in Xuxu'! Can't wait!"

"But what does it mean that the Demon Lord Chi You might come and battle at any time? What does it mean to get us ready? Is he coming or not?"

"It looks like he will probably come..."

"Anyway, as long as the big shots like Chu Ge prepare well and think of counter strategies, we'll just play as we normally do!"

...

With the release of the latest three works, the whole internet was swept up in a craze once more.

Many who didn't get the internal testing qualifications were eagerly waiting!

Unable to enter "Dark Sand" to experience those thrilling battles firsthand, they could only wait for other players to complete the game to experience it in that manner.

Yun Ying had just finished experiencing the video of "Lord Qin's Breakthrough Music" and the "Xuanwu Gate Incident" game at home.

They were released on a video website and a gaming platform respectively, and until now, the views and downloads were skyrocketing.

"Lord Qin's Breakthrough Music" had already reached ten million views in a short time, and judging by the trend, reaching fifty million or even a hundred million views was just a matter of time.

The barrage of comments was dense, overwhelming, and even a lot of international media were re-posting it.

The "Xuanwu Gate Incident" game was similar to the previous "8000 Li of Cloud and Moon," both being like interactive videos.

However, "Xuanwu Gate Incident" was not just about making choices like an interactive video, but it allowed focusing on various minor characters, seeing intricate details of their actions; the whole game was like a vast treasure trove filled with countless subtleties awaiting the players to explore.

Many dedicated scholars or history enthusiasts were frantically replaying it, trying to thoroughly analyze the truth of the Xuanwu Gate Incident, figuring out what the political situation was really like back then.

Yet what concerned Yun Ying more was the "Battle of Hulaoguan" war simulation game.

Thus far, Yun Ying's life had also greatly changed because of the "Dark Sand" game.

He opened a martial arts school with his fame gained from the game, where students streamed in continuously. Now, teaching during the day at the martial arts school and striving in "Dark Sand" at night, he was doing what he loved 24 hours a day.

This might also be an important positive impact of "Dark Sand": freeing many players from mundane and tedious jobs, allowing them to do what they love with a handsome income, completely transforming their lives.

Yun Ying entered the game "Battle of Hulaoguan."

"Wow, this game is so detailed!"

That was Yun Ying's first reaction.

The content of this game was actually not complex. After entering the game, the title screen only had a few simple options.

These were: [Story Mode], [Custom Battlefield], [Combat Mode], [Options], and [Exit Game].

In Story Mode, you experience the entire process of the Battle of Hulaoguan under specific historical conditions.

Players could choose to play as Lord Qin, Wang Shichong, or Dou Jiande in any of three sides, and the ultimate goal of the story mission was to win the battle at Hulaoguan Pass.

Of course, there were different levels of difficulty, which were "Simple", "Medium", "Difficult", and "Realistic", with Realistic being the highest.

The difficulty of winning the game differed among the three factions, but it was hard to say which one was the most difficult.

For Lord Qin, the biggest challenge was not only to win the tough early battles against Wang Shichong, locking him firmly inside Luoyang City, but also to defeat Dou Jiande's army of one hundred thousand with just a few thousand men.

What about Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande? These two factions did have certain numerical advantages, but the problem was, they were facing Lord Qin.

Players recalled the terrible defeats they had suffered at the hands of Lord Qin in trial simulations.

Therefore, playing as any of these three factions was very challenging, and it was difficult to say which was harder.

The story was carefully divided into different phases, decomposing the grand battle into many small modules, facilitating a phased experience from easy to difficult for the players.

"Custom Battlefield" allowed players to utilize existing materials, including different scenes and types of troops, to customize their own battles.

For content creators who enjoyed conducting tactical simulations in games, this mode was simply exhilarating.

Because games that simulated real battlefields like this were rare, and many were old games with less impressive physics engines and graphics quality. This update could be described as an epic enhancement.

Moreover, the materials in "Dark Sand" were basically freely available, so there was no worry about copyright issues when using them in videos.

As for "Combat Mode," it got even more interesting, allowing players to pair up and compete, but currently, it only supported three factions, any more than that was not supported.

What surprised Yun Ying even more was that the game's optimization was incredibly good!

Despite the many soldiers running around on the big battlefield, and calculations seemingly happening everywhere, the CPU and graphics card usage was not high, which was almost unbelievable.

However, considering the various cutting-edge technologies employed by the creators of "Dark Sand," including the realization of consciousness-connected VR technology, a little incredible PC optimization technology was not surprising.

Of course, if there was a drawback, it was that this game, after all, had to conform to the limits of client presentation. It couldn't reach the full realism of "Dark Sand" in the game, such as not being able truly to command via voice. During battles, only keyboard, mouse, or controller could be used for actions like shooting arrows or slashing, and it wasn't possible to precisely control the force exerted.

But in many other aspects, it tried as much as possible to recreate a real battlefield.

For example, the soldiers here were not emotionless robots; they all had their own thoughts and were prone to mutiny or collapse, just like on a real cold weapon battlefield.

It was impossible to expect, like in other strategy games, that soldiers perfectly execute one's tactical commands.

Tactical strategy, morale boosting, and adapting during combat were all extremely important, and any weakness could potentially lead to a battlefield collapse.

Compared to other strategy or combat simulation games, this was of course much more difficult, but "Dark Sand" was initially a game that emphasized realism.

For players of "Dark Sand," who had already experienced real battlefields, the difficulty decreased a bit on PC, and it became a form of daily entertainment. For ordinary players who wanted to experience a real battlefield, this was thrilling.

Finally, there was a game that simulated warfare so realistically!

However, the update disappointed some players because there were no new instances available like Cavalry, Divine Machine, or common trials.

But...

The fortress of the Rebuilders had just been destroyed, so why not take this opportunity to enthusiastically rebuild?

They could also accumulate construction points to buy new equipment like Liang blades, Mo blades, and Ming Guang Armor, and the quality of Liang Dynasty's horses was extremely high. Wouldn't it be great to update all the equipment?

With that, players eagerly awaited the arrival of the new version.