"Interactive environment?"
The graduates were a little surprised. They thought Chen Mo would ask a big question, at least about a game genre, but in the end, he only asked them to design a small system.
Strictly speaking, this' environmental interaction mechanism 'was only an important part of the combat system. Even without the combat system, it was still an important part of the game's mechanics. It didn't take up much of the game's content, and it wasn't difficult to design it. Three hours was no problem at all for a first draft.
However, everyone knew that although the question looked easy, it was just as Chen Mo said, it was very difficult to do it well.
It was a very vague question, ranging from the simplest 'terrain kill' to the more complicated weather system, or the entire combat system. All of these fell under the category of 'interactive environment'.
Moreover, the 'environment' was created by the designer, and could be enriched with different elements. The more complex the environment, the richer the 'interactive environment' would be.
Therefore, this was a question with no upper limit. As long as one was imaginative enough, the system could be infinitely large.
But it wouldn't be good if it was too large, as one had to consider the input and output of the 'interactive environment', the cost-performance ratio, and how well it would fit in with the gameplay. It was possible that one could have a hundred ideas in mind, but only five could be used due to the limitations of the game.
Everyone began to rack their brains to come up with ideas.
…
Qian Kun was waiting at the door when Chen Mo came out of the conference room.
"I see that these graduates are quite calm," said Qian Kun.
Chen Mo laughed, "Yeah, they were handpicked from all over the country after all. How could they be stumped by such a simple question?"
Qian Kun was speechless, "You call this a simple question? Isn't this the 'chemical engine' that you designed for our new project a while ago? I don't see how it's that simple to use the most advanced and top-notch system in the world to design a question for these graduates. "
Chen Mo said, "It's not like I'm asking them to make the entire 'chemical engine', it's just about right."
Qian Kun complained, "It's hard to reach your 'about right' standard as well!"
…
Chen Mo didn't reveal the topic of the new project to the others.
But two weeks ago, Chen Mo had given them a special task: developing a 'chemical engine'.
Everyone was dumbfounded when they first heard this term. What the hell was that? He had heard of physical engines, but what the hell was a chemical engine?
The physics engine meant to give real physical attributes to the objects in the game, such as gravity, hardness, sharpness, and so on. During rotation and collision, the physics engine could calculate the effects of these objects based on their physical attributes.
In other words, the physics engine was equivalent to recreating Newton. In the virtual world, a complete set of perfect physics rules was constructed.
So what is a "chemical engine"?
Chen Mo smiled and explained, "A chemical engine is a physical engine that can produce chemical reactions. This is just a metaphor. It is equivalent to a higher-order manifestation of the physics engine. "
…
The so-called "chemical engine" meant that in the game environment, there were not only physical collisions, friction, and attacks between objects, but also chemical reactions.
Let me give you a simple example: Grass can be burned. After burning, the hot air will rise and produce a stream of air, igniting the surrounding combustibles. If it is fruit or meat, it will be roasted. If it is burned again, it will be scorched or even completely burned …
In the real world, these were all chemical reactions, and were something that everyone was used to.
But there were no chemical rules in the game. Therefore, to achieve this effect in the game, a brand new design was needed, and that was the "chemical engine".
The chemical engine was actually a set of very complicated rules. Through these rules, a highly realistic chemical system could be constructed in the game. This way, by giving objects different chemical attributes, such as flammability, conductibility, and so on, and then throwing them into the chemical engine, they would change according to the environment.
It sounded simple, but there was a lot of content involved in designing it.
According to Chen Mo's design, the entire chemical engine included a large number of complex systems, including all aspects of the rules of the world.
"Climbing system," "Cooking system," "Combat system," "Stealth system," "Equipment system," "Fire system," "Freezing system," "Lightning system," "Wind system," "Weather system," "Temperature system," "Bomb system," "Time stop system," "Magnetic system," "Ice system" …
Each system had its own set of rules.
For example, the climbing system allowed players to climb any wall they wanted, but they were limited by stamina. When players ran out of stamina, they could find a foothold on the mountain to recover stamina. The climbing system was linked to the weather system. When it was raining, the wall would become slippery, and players would slip when climbing, greatly affecting their climbing efficiency.
Another example was the lightning system. There were many lightning elements, such as lightning, and the electrical traps in the ruins. Metal had the ability to conduct electricity, so players would be struck by lightning if they ran on the streets with metal weapons in a thunderstorm. Or if they needed to connect the electrical circuits in the ruins to open the traps, they could use their metal weapons to form a wire, instead of searching for metal objects in the ruins.
Another example was the temperature system. Different regions and different weather conditions would result in different temperatures. Players had a certain temperature tolerance. Anything over this temperature would result in overheating, and anything below this temperature would result in freezing, both of which would result in continuous damage to their health. Players could use various methods to resist the cold, such as lighting a fire, holding a torch, wearing winter clothing, etc.
Moreover, these systems would react with each other, which was the most complicated part.
In other words, in this chemical engine, every action that the players made could possibly cause a series of chain reactions. If the players could predict the outcome of this chain reaction, they could artificially create a "butterfly effect" where they could gently flap their wings in a certain corner and bring disaster to the group of monsters next to them.
As the development of the chemical engine progressed, everyone was more and more amazed at the intricacies of the system. These complex systems were not forcefully kneaded together. Instead, they formed a unified whole, and the slightest movement in one part would affect the entire system.
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