Chapter 164: Faster Workflow

"Because Civilization is essentially a snowballing game." 

Ethan said with a slight smile, taking the initiative to explain it to Sam. 

Game balancing had always been one of the most complicated parts of any game. Whether the numbers and stats were designed properly directly affected the gameplay of a strategy game. 

"Contrary to what you understand, Queen Seondeok is actually a simple yet highly effective leader." 

"Look at this Seowon. For other civilizations, a Campus needs to be adjacent to mountains to receive science adjacency bonuses." 

"Finding a Campus site surrounded by four mountain tiles, an almost ideal Science layout is exceptionally rare. But finding a hill to place a Seowon on is much easier, and the adjacent Mines can provide even more Science." 

Sam listened with a somewhat bewildered expression. He had played the little hexagonal-planning optimization game Ethan had made earlier, so he more or less understood what he meant. 

"So, Korea's district planning would be easier?" 

"No, wait. That's not the point. You've almost led me off track. We still haven't solved the issue of the bonuses being so small." 

"Even if it's completely surrounded by mines, that's only an extra 6 science points. What can you even do with that?" 

Ethan chuckled. Only people who had played this type of game could understand just how crucial those precious few science points in the early game really were. 

"Didn't I already tell you? It's a snowballing game." 

"Higher Science means we can unlock the next tier of technologies faster, which means we can have a stronger national power base to support expansion, and as we expand, every one of our cities can easily obtain nearly the maximum Campus bonuses." 

It was difficult to describe the numerical growth in games like this using simple addition and subtraction. 

With various multipliers and systems stacking on top of one another, even a game like Fire Emblem, whose stat panel was simplified to a high degree, couldn't afford to ignore a difference of +1 or -1. 

"Don't forget the multiplicative modifiers." 

Ethan directly threw out the key concept behind this whole system of stacking numerical bonuses. 

"Multiplicative modifiers?" 

"Yes, percentage bonuses." 

Ethan nodded. He rummaged through a pile of spreadsheets and eventually found a stack of documents labeled "Policy Cards." 

"Imagine we have an ability like this." 

"Any Campus that has at least a +3 adjacency bonus grants that city a 50% science bonus." 

As he spoke, he flipped to a page labeled "Rationalism." 

Sam looked at what was written there and did a quick calculation in his head, his expression changing to one of astonishment. 

"It grows exponentially!" 

This was a chain reaction of numerical growth and stat inflation. 

Just as Ethan had said, increasingly high Science meant more advanced units, which in turn allowed them to capture or establish more cities and build more Campuses. 

Early-game development almost directly determined the direction of the entire war. Whoever gained the advantage early could sustain it as their numbers rapidly snowballed, allowing them to widen the gap even further. 

Looking at it this way, that seemingly modest +4 for Korea was actually terrifying. It was a civilization that could achieve an absurdly powerful combination of farming and scientific development. 

"Don't forget that the Campus itself can also have more upgraded buildings constructed around it." 

Ethan's words caught Sam off guard, leaving him a little stunned. Sam even found himself having the strange thought: Isn't a +4 bonus way too strong? 

And this was only a highly simplified numerical model. During an actual game, there would definitely be far more multiplicative modifiers than this. 

On top of that, the combined effects of other game mechanics, Policy Cards, and numerous additional factors would further compound the overall outcome. 

"I get it now... This is insane." 1

Sam muttered to himself. When he looked back at Sid and Will, who were still discussing Byzantium's design, he suddenly felt like he could understand what they were arguing about. 

"Every Holy City that converts to the religion grants +3 Combat Strength to all units." 

At first glance, Byzantium's bonus appeared to be nothing more than straightforward linear addition. But in an actual game, it definitely wouldn't be that simple. The reason was simple: combat wasn't merely a matter of comparing numbers. 

The side with higher Combat Strength would take less damage when fighting and deal more damage to its opponent. 

Back and forth, this also compounded into a multiplying advantage. 

"If you then stacked Crusade's +10 Combat Strength with another +4 Combat Strength bonus from a Policy Card..." 

A single ancient-era Byzantine unit could potentially stack enough Combat Strength to approach or even surpass that of a classical-era unit. 

Running through the idea this simply in his mind made everything suddenly click and Sam suddenly shuddered. 

When he looked again at the "+3 Combat Strength" that had been erased and rewritten countless times on the whiteboard, his expression changed completely. 

So that's why. No wonder they kept adjusting the numbers one or two points at a time. This wasn't being modest at all. 

They were fucking scared, so this was pure caution; they were taking absolutely no chances. 

Give a character even a little too much, and it could turn into an overpowered monstrosity that made the game boring. 

"Wait, doesn't this make Byzantium feel even more overpowered?" 

"True, it really does that. But it's fun." 

Sam twitched the corner of his mouth, suddenly realizing that he probably needed to be more careful about getting involved in this. 

Sam's expression tightened slightly, suddenly realizing that he should probably be very cautious about jumping into this. 1

If they somehow managed to get a ridiculously awful character approved and actually added them to the game, the players would absolutely tear them apart. 

He looked around at the others in the room and suddenly realized there was something wrong. 

"Hold on, even Carmack is here, so what about the actual game development? You're not all going to work as designers, are you?" 

Game development required people from various roles to work closely and coordinate with one another; no one could succeed as a one-man army. 

If someone handled the design and planning, there still had to be someone responsible for actually implementing those ideas. Otherwise, all of this would remain nothing more than fantasies written down on paper. 

Based on Sam's understanding, the office should have been divided into two groups. Those with stronger technical backgrounds, such as Carmack and Will, should have focused on implementing the technical aspects, while design-oriented talents like Sid and Kojima should have concentrated on the design side. 

Having everyone tied up in the same place seemed like an inefficient use of manpower. 

"Development? We finished that ages ago." 

Carmack, who had been sitting quietly beside Ethan, perked up at Sam's question. A smug grin spread across his face as he leaned back in his chair, looking like he couldn't wait to show off what he knew. 

"Huh?" 

"This is a new data driven development model Ethan proposed. What we're doing right now is filling out design spreadsheets and gameplay data tables." 

"Huh??" 

"We enter the data into a spreadsheet, and the game's data pipeline automatically imports and recognizes it." 

"Huh???" 4

The more Sam listened, the more bewildered he became as he'd never heard of a development model like this before. 

"Well, put simply, we've split the development department into two teams: programmers and designers, so they're no longer working as one big unit." 

Seeing that Sam was completely confused, Ethan patiently explained it to him. 

As the scale of games gradually increased and development processes became more formalized, a more modern development framework had naturally become necessary. 

"We designed a data-driven system into the game. It reads the data created during the design phase and uses it to configure the corresponding game content, so designers don't have to keep modifying hard-coded values and recompiling the game every time they make an adjustment." 4

----------------------- 

Guys do leave your comments and reviews, also more extra chapters if we reach 700 stones. 

And if you want some extra chapters, be sure to check out my Patron page, it's 30 chapters ahead of webnovel and the chapters are also long so you can check it out. 

p at reon . com / NovaScribe 

(Just remove all spaces and then search)