Chapter 382

“Well, that was worth it.” He said aloud as he finished up. At least, he hoped it had been worth it. Part of the Skirmish menu he’d noticed, and one he’d realized about the Fields of Battle after his dungeon wars with BLANK, was that he could modify the terrain using BP. Unlike building structures, the cost was a blanket cost, with the effects being instantaneous, as long as the Fields of Battle were empty.

Obviously, such a thing hadn’t been a priority for James during Dungeon Wars, considering he’d dumped a lot of BP into his Core Cannon. But, for this skirmish, James decided to take advantage of the feature, in order to better prepare his side for his special brands of mobs. After all, he wasn’t quite sure how some of them would factor in, nor was he certain how special…er…features from his dungeon would carry over into the skirmish. Mainly, the ships from his fourth floor.

However, he was willing to bet the game would allow players to summon their ships, in a similar manner that the game had let those five players from the Dragon Dungeon summon their Tiamat God to crush Rue. And if the players were going to have access to their ships, James figured they needed water to fight from. Because as much as DCO was wacky and weird, he had a feeling the ships out of water wouldn’t be nearly as effective.

With this in mind, he’d instantly gone to work utilizing the terrain modification for the fields of battle. As mentioned, he could modify any portion of his half of the fields of battle. The cost, ranged on what types of modifications he planned to do. If, for instance, he wanted to just removed some trees, it was 1 BP to modify 1000x1000 feet worth of land, utilizing a tool extremely similar to ones in city building games such as Sim City 3000.

If he wanted to adjust the land height, adding in hills, or valleys and the likes, or maybe small bodies of water such as streams and rivers, it was 5 BP per 1000x1000 feet. What James opted for though, was the most expensive option. At 100 BP, he was able to apply a preset type of terrain to 1,000x1000 feet of territory. Wasteful, maybe. But James put more trust in his players than anything else, and he figured giving them full access to their tools, was better than just burning through BP on things such as wooden walls, cannons, trebuchets, and such.

Besides, those would have all taken actual time to create, and with only an hour before the scrimmage would start, he would have been limited to anything under 60 BP if he wanted it ready for adventurers. Sure, cannons cost 5 BP and trebuchets cost 20, but that still wasn’t all that great. Besides, James figured ship mounted cannons and arsenals would trump the siege weapons any day of the week.

So, as the hour ticked away, and he neared the start of the first ever Dungeon Skirmish, James looked down, grinning at his handiwork. He’d utilized all of his BP to create a vast ocean in the middle portion of his fields of battle, with mountains lining either side. The mountains, he figured, could provide long range opportunities for his players, as well as such things as his painguins. The ocean, of course, gave his players the free range to utilize their ships to their full advantage.

Size wise, it didn’t encompass all of his portion of the fields of battle, considering that was rather expansive. However, each 100 BP spent for the advanced preset option, was equal roughly 23 acres, according to a quick internet search. As such, his ocean expanses, which he’d spent 400 of his BP on, spanned nearly 100 acres of area. On either side, he had close to 50 acres of mountain ranges.

The other benefit of the creation tool was it allowed him to draw his dimensions. Meaning, these weren’t square acres, but instead land that equated to that coverage, in whatever gerrymandered dimensions James could think of.

This way, James had actually adjusted it so the closer players were to the spawn point and the Warmonger station, the ocean was narrower. It acted more as a cove or inlet, where players would be able to summon their ships and launch them. From there, it widened outwards, giving them a vast expanse of watery battlegrounds from which to wage war. It also served to provide a decent obstacle for the enemy players, considering they would have to traverse water to reach James’s players.

Still, while it gave James’s players extremely powerful defensive capabilities, he knew it would be up to them to fully utilize it. After all, depending on how aggressive the enemy forces were, they may have to bring the battle to their side of the fields of battle. Doing so, would strip them of their ship advantages, and makes James’s hard work pointless. But it was still a worthy risk to take, and a good use of BP, in his opinion.

Not only that, it was an experiment, because James wanted to see if such a tactic would actually work. Worst case scenario…the game didn’t’ let his players summon their ships, and this was pointless. If that happened, they still had the mountain ranges, and the ability to summon mobs from his fourth floor. Even if they couldn’t use the ocean, they could still summon such things as Davy Jones and the ghost ships, and, who knew, perhaps even trigger a good ol Megalodonie for good measure.

Judging by the players that had been signed up for his first ever skirmish, he had a feeling that last point was more of a when, rather than an if. The players signed up for the skirmish knew his dungeon the best out of all his players and had experienced many of the different special events his dungeon had to offer. Depending on the summon costs of mobs, James had a feeling the Megalodonie, as well as things such as the Perfect Cognivore, were going to be heavily abused. Which, James was totally fine with. Especially since, as the time ticked down, James knew the players from both the Candy Dungeon, and Dragon Dungeon, would be likely to utilize their own special features and unique tricks.

But James had no issue with that. In fact, with just a few minutes to go, James couldn’t help but feel excitement flowing through him. His first Dungeon War, while fun, had been filled with stress and worry. The Skirmish, on the other hand, was just going to be pure excitement. There was nothing at stake. There was nothing to worry about. The skirmish was just going to be a fun filled, crazy 6 hours, with no downside if his side lost.

Though, James’s pride as a gamer, and his position as the top dungeon, meant he was going to do everything in his power to win. And he knew his players, whom he’d come to admire, even as he slaughtered them on a daily basis, would do the same.