November 22nd, midnight.
Seventy-two hours after the server was shut down, an announcement appeared on the Dream Company's official website.
The content was as follows.
"Dear players, as you can see, in the finals of the Tournament for the Best S2 that ended at midnight on November 19th, the Anomaly's Invasion in Version 1.10 has come to an end.
Due to the unexpected changes in several World Bosses during the cross-version event, the storyline of the new version of "Ragnarok" was severely affected.
Over the past seventy hours, our technicians and script editors have worked overtime to deal with this incident and have made the necessary adjustments.
"Therefore, we are happy to inform all players that Thriller Paradise's server will reopen on the 1st of December. Then, Thriller Paradise will skip V1.20, Twilight of the Gods, and directly upgrade to V1.50, the final version, Infinite World. Please look forward to it! "
The timing of this announcement was when the patience of the thousands of players and various gaming studios had reached its limit.
Just as the internet and various media outlets started to spread rumors like 'Thriller Paradise's server is about to crash,' and 'Is the Dream Company going to pack up and leave?' In the midst of such rumors, this announcement came out of nowhere, and those who relied on fabricating fake news and writing advertisements to make a living were collectively targeted once again.
Many "media companies" that specialized in this industry had even prepared a series of drafts to smear the Dream Company. Next, they just had to find a few online gaming companies that were interested in talking to them, and then insert the soft advertisements of those companies into the article. This money would be earned. However, with the dropping of the bombshell that was the Dream Company, their efforts for the past two days had been for nothing.
…
On the other hand, it was not hard to imagine the reaction of the players to this news.
In the middle of the night, the discussion on the major forums shifted from the topic of "Tournament of the Best S2" to the new version of "Infinite World".
Even though there was still a week before the server reopened, the players could not wait any longer.
The number of players registered for Thriller Paradise had a huge increase, and so did the sales of the gaming hub.
During this period of time before the official announcement of the new patch, the various' Uncle's Faction 'had also taken action. They all took advantage of this period of time to wantonly spread unfounded rumors, and each of them spoke with certainty and acted as if they were telling the truth.
In conclusion, there were two types of 'Uncle's Gang'. The first type was those who wanted to make their presence known. They were just spreading rumors based on their own imagination.
As for the second type … Naturally, it would be a hired gun. These people were usually more professional than the first group. They were good at writing articles and telling lies. The most common method they used was to cite a series of non-existent details or add a few fake pictures that normal people might not be able to understand to increase the credibility of the news. It could be said that they had put in a lot of effort. Of course, their main purpose was to mix some "information they wanted to convey" into the fake news to promote the sales of certain products.
For example … if you were selling Game Coins on a third-party platform, you should hire someone like that to spread the rumor on the forum and have them hint that 'Game Coins will greatly appreciate in the new version'. Or … if you were selling game peripherals, you could release fake news like 'The new version of Thriller Paradise will support certain models of peripherals, and those who buy them will be given mysterious prizes'.
These kinds of marketing methods were not surprising anymore. Those who fell for it would just treat it as a lesson, and they would remember it next time.
…
Another twenty-four hours passed.
Finally, the Dream Company listed the new patch … on the front page of the official website.
V1.50
[Version Summary]
The War Demon appeared, and the Demon Leader disappeared.
The God of Eternal Life hid his form in the Mirror World.
The Spirit King ascended the throne, and the Zombie God assisted him.
The court changed hands, but the truth remained.
After the Twilight of the Gods, the Four Pillar Gods fell one after another.
Four new forces rose from the ruins of the old dynasty.
Origin, Z Organization, Phantom Church, Detective Club, Blackbeard Pirates, and other superpowers became active in the main universe.
Thriller Paradise welcomed a new era of freedom and limitless possibilities.
[Character Adjustment]
In the new version, the player's level cap would be adjusted to sixty, and the EXP for leveling up above fifty would not increase anymore.
The player's skill bar would be adjusted to fifteen slots, and the three extra slots had to be purchased with Game Coins.
[Mode Adjustment]
The Solo Survival Mode and Team Survival Mode (including Normal Mode and Nightmare Mode) generated in the sleeping server would have a higher chance of triggering a long-running scenario.
The 'AFK-like Judgement' in the Killing Game would be stricter, and the punishment for AFK-like Players would be increased.
[Changes to items, products, and services]
The market space had been completely rebuilt.
After the invasion of the Anomaly, the shop owners and the guard robots had undergone special training, and their power had increased.
All the shops had received a large number of new products, including new equipment, weapons, hairstyles, and apparel.
Thriller Box had added a 'pre-order function'. Players could use Skill Points as collateral to request for an item to be automatically traded after the purchase condition was met.
[Gameplay Adjustment]
The graphics quality of the game had greatly improved.
The title system had added a self-selection function. Whenever there was a title change, the player could choose whether to accept the new title or not after observing the ability of the new title, and they would be given a chance to choose their old title.
Note: After this update, all players will be given a chance to choose their old title, which will be retained for twenty-four hours after the first time the player logs into the game. They will be given a choice between all the titles that they have owned in the past.
…
In the above content, many of the keywords had hyperlinks, and after clicking on them, they would be able to access the related information.
For example, terms like 'War Demon', 'God of Eternal Life', 'Spirit King', 'Origin', and 'Organization Z' could be accessed.
However, none of these NPCs, Anomalies, or organizations had any pictures or information. They were only written records, and the content was mostly basic information that everyone knew. For players who were familiar with the deeper content of the game, this information was meaningless, but for new players, it was useful information.
As for the "level cap increase", most of the players had expected it. In fact, ninety-nine percent of the players thought that after level 50, the leveling experience would continue to increase to nine digits. Therefore, when they saw the sentence 'the leveling experience ratio will no longer increase', they were rather surprised.
Other than that, there was another change that was predicted by many, and that was the expansion of the skill bar.
Indeed, based on the current development of the game, twelve skill bars were no longer enough to satisfy the needs of the high-end players, so the expansion was reasonable. With regards to the price … Just like the expansion of the inventory, this kind of advantage that could be bought with 'money' was definitely not cheap. With this change, the Dream Company could earn a lot of money.
Then, there was a new service introduced in this patch — the 'pre-order function' for the Thriller Box.
To put it simply, this function was created for players who had their eyes on a piece of equipment that was about to expire but did not have enough Skill Points to buy it.
For example, a player had his eyes on a piece of equipment that required 1,000 Skill Points, but he only had 500 Skill Points, so he was unable to buy it. Furthermore, the item would be deleted in less than a day, so he might not have enough time to accumulate 500 Skill Points in the remaining day.
Then, he could use the 'pre-order function' to pay a deposit that was equivalent to forty percent of the total price of the item. In other words, he would have 400 Skill Points to have the system extend the time limit of the item.
Of course, if the item was bought by someone else before the time limit was up, then there was nothing the system could do about it. After all, the deposit would be refunded.
If the item was not bought by anyone within the time limit, then … as an item that had been pre-purchased, it would not be deleted immediately. The system would place it in a specific "pre-purchase area" and wait for the "pre-purchasers" to collect the full amount of money. At that time, only players who had paid the pre-purchase deposit for the item would be able to search for the item.
Then, within the next seventy-two hours, as long as one of the pre-order purchasers had accumulated enough Skill Points to pay the full price, the transaction would be automatically completed. When the transaction was completed, the system would send an email to the other players who had paid the deposit, saying that 'the item that you have pre-ordered has been purchased by someone else.' Then, the Skill Points and the email would be refunded.
However, if all the pre-order players failed to gather enough money within the seventy-two hours, then the item would be deleted, and every pre-order player would be charged a late fee of five percent of the item's price.
That was the general setting of the pre-order function.
Over the past few months, when the Dream Company was collecting players' opinions, they had received quite a number of them. Many players said that when they found a piece of equipment that they wanted inside the Thriller Box, they were just short of a few Skill Points and could not afford it. When they returned from the scenario with enough Skill Points, the item had already been bought or deleted due to the time limit. That kind of experience was undeniably depressing.
Even though the Dream Company was very domineering in many aspects, they were more than happy to fix problems like this that could improve the gaming experience and had room for improvement.
Therefore, using this update, they came up with this new function. This kind of small service modification that had little to do with the scenario was not handled by Woody but by the gaming company's technical department.
In the future, when the players came across an item that they wanted but were still short of Skill Points, they could pre-order it. That way, they would not have to wait for the whole scenario to be completed. After all, as long as they paid the deposit, they would be able to enjoy the service of 'automatic trading once they had enough Skill Points'.
Then, the last thing that needed to be mentioned was … the adjustment to the 'title system'.
Actually, there was not much change to this system. The new titles that the players would receive were still decided by the system. However, this time, the players had the freedom to choose whether or not to accept the new title. Furthermore … whenever the title changed, they could choose any title that they had received in the past and change it to the previous one. This gave the players a chance to 'change', and it would greatly affect the PVP in the future.
Obviously, this change was made based on user feedback.
Many players had asked the customer service to take back the old titles that had been replaced because the new titles were not as useful as the old ones.
These kind of players … most of them once had a title ability that they were very good at, and their skills and equipment were matched with that ability as the core. In the end … one day, the title suddenly changed, and their character's combat ability dropped by a whole level.
In such a situation, they could only admit that they were unlucky because the title could not be changed back, and it was not changed according to their will.
Now, this problem had been solved.
…
23rd November, 2 am.
The Dream Company seemed to have a way to pull people's attention back when it was about to move away. Even on this day when the server was closed … it was no exception.
One day after the release of the new patch, the Dream Company released two more announcements on the official website.
The first one had nothing to do with most of the players. "Starting from 3 pm today, part of Thriller Paradise's server will be opened, and the trial operation of the new version will begin. Then, all players who have the 'forty-eight hours to experience the new version' will be able to log into the game. "
There were only 250 players who had the 'qualification' in the whole server, and they were the top fifty teams in the S2 preliminaries. Therefore … this announcement had nothing to do with most of the players.
Other than that, the details of the announcement stated that during the limited time period, the game would only open the queue for Solo Survival Mode and Free Exploration Mode.
This was expected. Only so few players could log into the game. If it was a Team Mode or a Killing Game, when it came to Solo Mode … one would either run into familiar faces or be unable to find a teammate or opponent for a long time.
Also, this event had a deadline. At 9 pm on 29th November, the server would shut down again. Those who had not used up the forty-eight hours by then would have wasted it.
The second announcement was, "Crazy Thoughts will be officially open on 25th November."
Regarding this announcement, the reaction of the players was not that bad … but the people in the gaming industry were caught off guard.
No one expected … this card game that had been out of stock for so long and was developed by the Dream Company would suddenly be released when the new version of Thriller Paradise was about to be released.
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