Swordmanship Veteran's Game Stream Chapter 154
【Read only at hivetoons.org】
From correcting minor in-game bugs or other small balance figures on a small scale, to large-scale updates on a large scale, it referred to all actions of modifying software.
And patch notes were posted at 6 a.m. on the day the patch was applied.
Simply put, they could be viewed as a guide explaining what changes had been made.
Usually, unless a new game mode was released or a large-scale event occurred, most of these patch notes just flowed by unnoticed.
Those who checked and closely watched them every time were in the minority.
Namely, the team coaches who reacted sensitively to changes in the game.
And about the creators who uploaded that information.
However, in this patch, one more faction joined the fray.
It started with a post uploaded during the night after the official account's broadcast ended the day before.
[But what are they going to do about Kael?]
No matter how you look at it, knowing the next pattern is too broken, isn't it?
Think about it, the time to stack 3 vital points is 2 seconds.
The invincibility skill is literally 2 seconds lololololol
Kael's skills were fundamentally focused on the time it took to successfully strike vital points, and they were designed so that the higher the skill level, the higher the performance they could output.
Restating the standard:
Around 20 seconds was considered a decent skill level. Although it was described as "decent," when looking only at those with a minimum level of mastery as the standard, this was actually the absolute bottom.
In other words, while it was decent compared to the overall player base, it was the bottom of the barrel compared to Kael players who had at least a basic level of mastery.
The average time was 15 to 20 seconds.
Ten to 15 seconds was the peak performance that could be extracted from Kael.
At least when facing an opponent of equal skill.
The absolute peak was 8 seconds, but this was a case that could only happen when a Challenger was extremely lucky or when they were playing against a Bronze player.
-Ah, right. There was that.
-People post about Kael pretty often, will it really be applied in the patch?
-But seriously, if 10 seconds is more than enough to make the absolute most out of Kael, 2 seconds is definitely crossing the line lolololol
-A clean 5x increase right there!
-No, but seriously, how on earth did he do that lolol
Surprisingly, the ones who began to show interest and chatter about this topic were not the Kael-pests.
On the contrary, the Kael-pests were...
[Please don't let Kael be in the patch]
Please please please please
The reason was simple. If the patch contained contents about Kael, and if the pattern changed...
-Let us learn it too and reap the benefits!
-Don't patch Kael, don't touch him, just let it slide!
-Hey developers, only Seo-jun is the one enjoying this, so just leave him alone
└Since only that one guy can abuse it anyway, that's exactly why they should touch him
└I don't know about that, I just want to cast Sword of Judgment super fast someday too
└Give up on your vain hopes, you Kael-pest
In any case, they would not even get a chance to taste the sweetness.
Of course, while the general consensus was that he needed to be adjusted, a wide variety of opinions were posted.
[No, but guys, think about it. Will that 2 seconds consistently stay 2 seconds?]
If you look at the opponents when that streamer played Kael, they were Bronzes and unrankeds.
That's why he was able to pull off such an overpowered performance.
If he plays against opponents of similar skill, even if he knows the location of the next vital point, he won't be able to target it easily. Of course, it'll still be crazy strong. But is it really nerf-worthy?
-Lol, first of all, there is no one with the same skill level as Seo-jun though?
└The Demonic Sect Faction is saying this? Are you guys starting to resemble your streamer's personality?
└I will apologize on their behalf. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
└Still, shouldn't it be forbidden to know the patterns in the first place?
└It does seem to compromise fairness.
[Compromising fairness? That is skill too.]
Targeting and nerfing a hero just because one person is outstandingly skilled is a bit much.
The game company has their pride to maintain.
A debate broke out over whether this was indeed correct as well.
Normally, other precedents should have been brought up in this kind of argument.
[Has there really never been a case like this? A history of targeting and nerfing just because one person was too good?]
The conclusion was that it was an unprecedented event.
To be precise, one might have existed.
However, at least in their memory, the game company had never nerfed a hero character because of just one person.
-We don't even know if they'll do it this time, so stop jumping the gun.
-They have nerfed things before because a tiny minority of users were too OP with them. But there's no record of a nerf because of 'just one person.' I wonder what will happen this time.
-What about Wind Sword, the one who said he received lessons?
└He regressed like a dog lololol. He said he wanted to get tutoring again. Oh, wait. Didn't they end up on the same team?
└Lolololol. He'll definitely ask Seo-jun during the tournament. Since he's a true Kael-pest!
[So what about Eric? That one looks insanely OP too.]
-Don't you dare touch Eric... If they nerf Eric, I'm really quitting the game. (Proof photo of 1,000 Eric matches)
└Oh damn. Master? lolololol
└In the higher tiers, this person was probably the only one building up Eric's statistical data lolol, since nobody else plays him.
Thus, throughout the night, The League community was filled with endless discussions regarding this topic and LiOS.
At 6 a.m. the next morning,
a time when only the truest of the true remained,
posts began to pop up rapidly once again.
[Kael appeared in the patch lolol. They finally nerfed him. Still, it probably won't matter to other players.]
[There's no mention of the pattern formula. Just a skill cooldown added. Blessing of Radiance cooldown is 7 seconds.]
[What is the game company thinking?]
[As long as Eric survived, I'm happy ㅠㅠ]
[The patterns might have been changed secretly.]
[But seriously, this is sparking so much controversy in many ways lololololololololololololololololol. From a spectator's perspective, it's fucking hilarious.]
-He really is unrivaled.
-Hurry up and apologize, you fans of his lololol
└I'm sorry for causing trouble again, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
[Have you seen this? (Link)]
[People's reactions are a bit negative?]
[So you didn't change the patterns, right?]
Six in the morning, the point where dawn was ending and morning was breaking.
Unless they were exceptionally diligent, it was a time when most office workers who ordinarily commuted at 9 a.m. were fast asleep.
And at the sound of the messages chiming during that sleeping hour, The League's balance team leader woke up from his sleep.
Balance patches were usually conducted by the headquarters based on tournaments. However, Korea's solo queue also served as a reference point, and above all, because meetings were held between the team leaders of each branch every time, the practical distinction had become meaningless.
Therefore, it was self-evident that the Korean team leader was deeply involved in this balance patch for Kael.
[Senior, they're asking what's up with this ambiguous 7 seconds?]
[They're asking if the game company should be acting like this?]
[And people are also curious about what happened to the patterns! Shouldn't we say something?]
The alarms kept ringing.
After waking up from his sleep while spitting out curses, the team leader waited a moment for his eyes to focus before reading the messages.
"Ugh, this son of a..."
It was a close junior from another department.
[Do you want to die?]
[I'm sorry! Well, have a great day today as well!]
To be honest, because the junior was diligent, the team leader had asked him to read the reactions from the day before and let him know if they were bad. However, he had not told him to make such a fuss.
He slowly checked the community's reactions.
Originally, for those who worked on patches, the most important thing was data.
The second was public opinion.
After all, public opinion was also data representing collective play experiences. Although it was pushed down in priority because the probability of it being the correct answer was not high.
"Just as I thought. This much is fine."
The atmosphere was such that everyone acknowledged the necessity of the nerf itself.
It wasn't as if they had touched the performance of other players either.
However, there were two unresolved points of contention.
What was the meaning behind the 7 seconds, and...
...did they change the patterns? And if not, why hadn't they changed them?
"As for the 7 seconds."
It was a reasonable figure that came out at the end of the meeting. Under the judgment that other players could still reach up to 8 seconds, it was a check mechanism to prevent a player who figured out the patterns from possessing too much overpowered strength.
While about 7 seconds meant the peak performance was higher than Kael's original design, the judgment was that such a level was acceptable.
"And as for the patterns."
In fact, on the first day Seo-jun played Kael, during the emergency meeting that the team leader had convened, the suggestion to adjust the patterns had actually come up first.
The idea was to change the existing generation formula reasonably so that existing users wouldn't lose their touch.
Many team leaders had also agreed that this was the best way to minimize damage to existing users and prevent that player, whose methods remained a mystery, from possessing overpowered strength.
It was certainly rational and fully feasible.
Although changing the formula reasonably would be a bit of a headache, surely they could manage at least that much.
Above all, there was a precedent of changing it.
'The problem lies in what happened during that precedent.'
Because a certain Kael player's data was strange, the team leader at the time had ordered him to look into it.
At that time, although Kael had vital point patterns, additional damage, and secondary effects, quickly attacking vital points was not the main focus.
[Kael is a sustained damage dealer, so why is this guy's burst damage so high!]
[I will check it out!]
However, even so, quickly targeting vital points was capable of pulling off high enough performance, which was why it caught their attention.
[Crazy... Is he reading the patterns?]
[They must have been leaked!]
[Is that really the case?]
[Once we find out who the external leaker is, I won't let them off easily!]
They immediately adjusted the formula.
[He's reading them again! Again!]
[Damn it. In that case, Assistant Manager Kim will be excluded from the next modification work.]
They carried out an operation to find the leaker by excluding team members one by one.
[He has started reading them again!]
[At this point, isn't he a bug user?]
[No. We must find that leaker no matter what.]
Sometimes they made minor adjustments...
[After the game started, he slashed the enemy a few times, smirked, and started predicting the patterns again! He's definitely grinning at us!]
[Is it really a bug?]
...and sometimes they overhauled it entirely, but...
[This time, he only started predicting them after a game had passed! The accuracy is 100%!]
[Are you having fun?]
[No, but in the first place, is it even possible to predict this just by knowing the formula?]
[I don't know either.]
[Still, there must obviously be something! I will see this through to the end with that bastard.]
After changing it a few more times like that,
[Damn it, who is it!]
[You adjusted it all by yourself this time, Team Leader.]
In the end, the team leader at the time was horrified and rolled it back to the initial values.
Fortunately, it was fine because it did not result in an extreme amount of overpowered strength.
In any case, since that player was the only one who perceived the changes, they had even proceeded with a stealth patch.
However, the team leader ended up writing a disciplinary report, and that user disappeared.
Thus, the existence of that user was forgotten, and Kael was reworked.
'But that person has returned?'
Although he could not see the user's personal information, he was certain.
In any case, there was only one reason why he had not touched the patterns.
'Because it would be useless to change it anyway.'
He earnestly prayed that the number of heroes he had to adjust in such a bizarre manner wouldn't increase in the future.
"Hyung, are you okay?"
Having finished his morning workout and stepped down from the ring, Lee Dong-soo took off his gloves and sat next to Seo-jun.
"You know, Kael. If they changed the pattern formula with a stealth patch or something, isn't that totally too much? It's basically no different from the game company sniping you, Hyung! No, why are you so calm about this!"
"Is that so? Who cares."
"What? No, I mean, they might do something like skill cooldowns for the sake of balance, but if they touched the patterns, you should seriously just sue them. In the first place, being able to do it faster if you are skilled is the identity of the character, so it makes no sense to touch it just because someone is too good at it!"
Seo-jun was about to wave his hand at Lee Dong-soo, who was getting angry on his behalf, when he suddenly became curious and asked a question.
"Hmm. Is the employee turnover rate high at that company?"
"Probably not? Since Surface is the largest shareholder, it's practically a subsidiary, and they have good welfare and treatment... But wait, why are you asking about the turnover rate?"
"Then they probably didn't touch it."
After meeting Wind Sword, Seo-jun had been certain.
That someone who knew him definitely remained there.
Since he had only quietly played games, even if they knew him, it didn't really mean anything, but he still had a unique experience with the developer in the past.
The nerf itself was reasonable.
It wasn't as if he hadn't anticipated it either, so he understood.
'Besides, what can they even do by changing the patterns?'
'In the past, every time I logged into the game, the patterns changed, so it was fun putting the puzzle together.'
He sincerely hoped that the excellent developer who had provided him with such mini-games had not resigned.
"No, aren't you even frustrated! You could have guaranteed forcing out one of their ban cards!"
"I'm not frustrated. By the way, what have you been up to lately?"
Seo-jun changed the subject, and Lee Dong-soo brightened up.
"Oh? Hehehe. Are you finally saying those words?"
What is he even saying?
Seo-jun stared at Lee Dong-soo as if looking at a strange guy.
"As expected, you need my help, right? My results have improved so much lately thanks to you, Hyung-nim, so if you want some of my free time... Yes, I will specially coach you. The Lee Dong-soo of Freefall! What kind of relationship do we have..."
"No, that's not it. I just asked because you looked really free lately."
"You even bragged two days ago about solving a 40,000-piece puzzle. I was just wondering when on earth you actually practice."