Chapter 336 - 215: The Bizarre Ancestor Tree

Lu’s meaning, Chen Ba understood.

Turn "Ancestor Tree," originally set as a light roguelike, into a full-fledged Roguelike game, where each attempt is a brand new beginning.

It’s just that...

Compared to other non-linear traditional Roguelike games, "Ancestor Tree" will add a stable-trigger, non-random element to the random nature—Ancestor Tree!

What does this mean?

This means that in the roguelike game "Ancestor Tree," every time a character dies, it will leave a permanent mark on the current map or level event—a tree growing on a grave!

So, when players randomly encounter this map or event next time, they will see the traces they left earlier and obtain treasures left by the protagonist’s ancestor before dying.

"This is indeed nice..."

Chen Ba closed his eyes and thought for a while, finding Lu’s suggestion reasonable. For the sake of gameplay, a heavy roguelike would indeed be more fun than the version he initially envisioned.

If he were a player, he would probably like Lu’s modified version as well.

There’s another aspect!

With this game modification, despite intensifying the Roguelike elements, the method to beat the game or the correct way to play hasn’t changed.

Still, generation after generation of "protagonists" blaze the trail, sacrificing themselves to leave hope for future descendants; the game still requires "countless lives" to brute-force through it.

"To be honest..."

After using the leftover half-bucket of water for watering the tree to wash hands, Yang Dong couldn’t help but ask, "I’m actually more curious about one thing, what does this Ancestor Tree look like?"

Ancestor Tree?

With such an impressive name, it shouldn’t look exactly like a normal tree, should it? Isn’t there a bit of distinctiveness?

"A tree that doesn’t bear fruit, but items—doesn’t that stand out?"

Chen Ba rolled his eyes and said, "Besides, Ancestor Tree is a general term; any tree growing in the place where the protagonist’s body decays is called Ancestor Tree, the species of tree isn’t the same..."

This depends on the person.

Every protagonist’s adventure involves different choices, yielding different results, encountering various dangers, and witnessing diverse scenery.

Naturally, the Ancestor Tree grown from them will be different too.

Some might be apple trees, bearing all sorts of game items and recovery medicines instead of apples!

Some might be a tea tree...

Others might even turn into toxic arrowwood, highlighting a "Grandson, dare you come and touch your grandpa?" scenario.

"Is this under player’s control?"

"No!"

Chen Ba shook his head, "The formation of the Ancestor Tree happens post-player death, automatically generated, the process is beyond player control."

"But the various choices players make during their lifetime, including the experience and routes during adventures, determine how this Ancestor Tree will grow, whether it flowers or bears fruit, etc."

"Oh, by the way!"

"Not all Ancestor Trees yield harvests; some ancestors led such miserable lives that at death’s door, there’s nothing left for their descendants, bare trunks and branches, perhaps even leafless..."

This follows the game’s background story.

During actual gameplay, this situation reflects dying too hastily in the last life, failing to progress further, not even acquiring one useful item, leading to such a shabby Ancestor Tree.

The game needs items and skills.

Powerful game items and skills help players defeat numerous monsters, pass through many levels, evade a series of traps, and smoothly reach the endpoint.

But these powerful items are mostly one-time products, usable at most three times.

Skills are slightly better; once learned, they can be used permanently, but skills possess several prominent issues.

The first is cooldown time!

The more powerful a skill, the longer the cooldown; it might only be usable a few times during one game session.

The second is death leading to inevitable forgetting!

This mechanism’s existence gives the Ancestor Tree significance. After all, the Ancestor Tree’s random provision of good stuff eliminates the need to start over.

Regarding the third point, it’s one of the key reasons why skills are less handy than items—that’s adaptability!

Items can be used however desired, but skills cannot be learned randomly; the principle of "the more skills, the better" doesn’t apply in "Ancestor Tree."

Chen Ba plans to design multiple skill development directions for "Ancestor Tree." Between different directions, skills can be learned but will have strong negative effects.

For example, Great Strength Ostrich!

Under this skill, player movement speed decreases but can use weapons to destroy traps along the way. But this "reduced speed" side effect, when shifted to the "higher speed, better evasion" style, becomes the root of all evil.

Hence, skills cannot be learned randomly.

Before learning skills, one must consider how to learn new skills later. Otherwise, it results in a lot of skills learned, but overall strength is greatly discounted, leading to comical incidents.

"This game shouldn’t be big, right?"

"Not big..."

Chen Ba was really tempted to say, given the game description clearly suggests its scale, is it necessary to ask this question?

Could "Ancestor Tree" possibly expand into a AAA game?

It has to be a mini-game!

Of course, this game’s smallness is relative to AAA games. For those several-dollar erotic games, "Ancestor Tree" would definitely be considered a large game.

...

After planting the trees, it was just in time for a meal.

Chen Ba bought two sheep from a farm and organized a roast whole lamb meal for the group. Hence, dozens of people marched to the farmhouse, some washing vegetables, some stir-frying, all busy and having fun.