Old Memories

Fractured Worlds was undoubtedly a high action game. However it wasn't possible to have it completely free reign. Thus players were limited by twenty class choices. Although some similarities were shared among some, each class was unique in its own way. Thus there was often a pretty balanced spread of selection as players experimented on their own.

These classes fulfilled the theme of Fractured Worlds. The story of Fractured Worlds was that an accident occurred and the world split three ways. One side was a modern themed era, filled with weapons and techniques similar to the real world. Another was fantasy, with magic and unreal feats capable only via mana. The third was a science fiction world with technology surpassing reality. These three worlds mingled and fought, giving birth to classes that took up one or two of the themes.

Gunner, the choice of Critical Shot, was a class that touched upon two themes. It used modern gunpowder weapons mostly, but was capable of using some of the science fiction weapons. This class was a decently popular choice among FPS players due to their similarity.

More importantly this account. . . this was Nimin's first account when he joined the game! He too chose Gunner due to his experience playing various tactical shooters. As the memories regarding this account flooded his mind he opened the menu to examine the account's items. Raising his eyebrows he felt quite impressed.

These were top of the line items! For a level 50 at least. High rarity items made the character dazzling. Nimin could recall spending endless nights grinding away at events to gather these items.

"What a waste!!", he couldn't help but comment.

These items were undoubtedly rare. However they were level 50 ones! Level 50 was the max back then, however several years have passed since that point. Now the level cap was 125. These items wouldn't be able to keep up with the meta.

"They're not entirely useless actually. . . the equipment needs a touchup, this skillset really needs a makeover. . .", Nimin took a deep look at what this account had.

Fractured World was originally more of an rpg. Thus every update would make the previous best weapons fall in efficiency. This continued around until the level 80 update. Since the professional stage was developing rapidly, the developers released a new feature to add a new level of depth. Weapons could be edited with rare materials to increase their level and stats. This allowed old rare weapons which were discarded suddenly be useful again.

However this process was very expensive. Materials were risky to obtain, and often times the older weapons lacked unique features that made them worth to develop. The only players who could afford to really tap into this were those with major backing. Such as the professional players.

"These are actually really good. Aren't most of these items unobtainable these days? I could probably sell this whole account for a fortune. Why did I even drop this account again?"

Opening the skills page he paused, "Oh yeah. . . this account bricked."

One particular thing that added the final level of uniqueness to a character was a "unique skill", they could obtain upon reaching the max level. These skills weren't actually unique, but rather were randomly selected from a massive pool of various options. These unique skills could affect anything. Either damaging moves, or passive ones. Often times these skills offered a different way to play the class, and high skilled players would choose to base their build around maximizing this skill's efficiency.

However there were some outliers to this. Some skills were simply too bad to use, and cries from the players to buff them appeared often. However the developers stated that wouldn't happen, but did give an alternative. Each update they would release a poll. The top ten selected skills would be removed from the pool so players didn't have to fear obtaining them.

Of course the next update would have them in another poll to be added to the game again. If the skill failed to be voted back in three times, it would be forever lost. There was a time where accounts with these unobtainable skills became popular to sell. However due to their limited use this hype died down really quickly.

The unique skill Critical Shot had was the top most voted skill to be removed at the first poll. It then was never voted back in after that. This unique skill was named | Quick Swap |.

Quick Swap did exactly as it sounded. It allowed players to switch between weapons faster. This could be used for mix-ups or adding a layer of depth to a build, however it was quickly deemed worthless around the third update.

The third update added a new series of skills called "Masteries". Masteries rewarded builds that specialized in one particular aspect or weapons. This made builds more narrow and focused to fully grasp the bonuses from Masteries. The problem with this is that Masteries forced the user to choose a single weapon type! As the game continued to be updated this point only was further enhanced, and Masteries became a core skill for any build. This made the Quick Swap unique skill very unpopular and it was rapidly voted out.

Viewing the set skills Nimin frowned at his build, "How outdated. So many other options to make this better."

Closing out the menu he leaned backwards and contemplated his choices. Truth be told he hadn't played a Gunner in a long time. Unique Skills could be re-rolled every max level update, which allowed players to regain the skill. He remembered putting aside this account until they raised the level cap, but promptly forgot about it when enjoying another class.

That was right! Nimin's class during his debut as a professional player was not the Gunner! Rather it was a more close ranged class known as the Phaseblade. After making a good build on that account he tossed aside this old account to pour resources into the new one. A good choice in hindsight, for that very account led him through his successful career.

Drumming his fingers against his desk he contemplated his choices. He was out of practice on a Gunner class, but it would take a significant amount of time to build up back to the professional scene. With that time he could readjust. Additionally he could reroll his Unique Skill. . .

"Quick Swap allowed hybrids to be popular for a bit. With the larger amount of skill slots could I properly make a hybrid Gunner? I can't do ultimate skills because they take too many slots. But if I can switch to different guns I could potentially make a proper gun fu build. The amount of inputs that would take is beyond what I. . . can. . .", Nimin's eyes widened as he contemplated it all.

Wasn't he beyond his peak right now? When he was originally 18 he lacked the experience he currently held, but when he obtained the experience he lacked the youthful reflexes he had originally. Yet right now, he had both of that right? With enough practice he could really pull off a gun fu build!

There was two things that appealed to him right now. First of all, he needed to stand out as quickly as possible to be recruited by a professional team to speed his way to the championships. Fully utilizing an unpopular build and being efficient with it was a great way to do this. Additionally, the idea of being one of the few accounts capable of pulling it off was so very enticing.

"I have two years! I can test it for a while! First thing is first, living space!"

Setting aside the game he focused on his current circumstances. Even as he made calls and made deals, he found himself eyeing the Account stick occasionally. Eventually finding a decent place he prepared himself for a move in, while finding something to temporarily rest at, he made other quick arrangements. In just a few hours he managed to spend more money than he had in a long time.

With a bit more time in his hands, Nimin found himself wanting to play. Rapidly extending his time in the room, he logged back into the game. Low leveled accounts were granted free transfers between servers, due to the occasional influx of players during competition highlights. To ensure higher leveled players weren't bullying the lower levels, there would be new servers exclusive to these lower leveled accounts. The highest level a player could transfer with is 50, a more recent raise from the latest update.

"Thank past me for ignoring the account!"

Transferring his data to the newest server he prepped himself to once again delve into this game's vast experience.