Incgamers对奇迹时代3首席设计师Lennart Sas的采访

消息来源：http://www.incgamers.com/，全文由Edwin_Yang翻译，若有翻译问题请回复。

Many of you may have never heard of Age of Wonders and it`s been a while since we heard the franchise name being mentioned. Age of Wonders was perhaps seen as a niche series but what it did achieve was a loyal fan base of followers who became hooked on the strategy/RPG. A few weeks ago Triumph Studios announced the next game in the series and we caught up with Triumph`s lead designer Lennart Sas to find out more about the third game.

你们很多人可能还未听说过《奇迹时代》的大名。在长久的沉寂后，这个系列再次进入了我们的视野。很多人可能觉得《奇迹时代》系列只是用来捞钱的，但你无法否认它的确造就了一大帮策略/RPG游戏的死忠。一周前Triumph Studios公布了这款游戏的续作，现在就让我们来采访下Triumph的首席设计师，Lennart Sas。

• What made you decide to develop Age of Wonders III now ?
• 是什么使你决定开始开发《奇迹时代3》的呢？


• The planets aligned favorably for AoW3 with digital distribution taking off. Also during the 7 year break in which we developed Overlord, our longing to return to the Age of Wonders steadily increased, gathering many new ideas.
• 数字版游戏的发展，为《奇迹时代3》 创造了天时地利。而且在过去长达7年的《霸王》的制作中，我们产生了诸多的灵感，重拾《奇迹时代》的愿望也愈加强烈。


• If you had to pick your favourite thing from Age of Wonders 2, Shadow Magic and Age of Wonders III what would they be and why?
• 要是你必须从《奇迹时代2》《暗影魔法》《奇迹时代3》挑个你最喜欢的方面，那你会选什么？为什么呢？


• Aw, now that`s a mean question. My favorite thing from AoWII was the overall improved strategic gameplay core and for Shadow Magic the arrival of the random map generator, which greatly increased replay and made the unknown a factor for all players in multiplayer games.
• 哎，你问这问题是在坑我呢！ 《奇迹时代2》里我最喜欢的是游戏全新的策略模式。《暗影魔法》 加入了随机地图生成器，极大的增加了可玩性和多人游戏的乐趣。
• For AoWIII I think I`ll choose the new battle system. The new classes are great, but it`s the battles that make everything come together. We can do a lot more today with presentation, so the battles feel more intense and alive, and the new rules like flanking and engagement give a lot more tactical depth, even with simple fights.
• 至于《奇迹时代3》嘛，我可能会选择战斗系统。新种族让人眼前一亮，但战斗才是重头戏。现在游戏的表现力越来越好，战斗也更加激烈真实。像“夹击”“遭遇战”这样的新的战斗规则也让游戏更具有策略性。


• Did you think of using Kickstarter for Age of Wonders 3, what are your thoughts about using it for AoW series?
• 你考虑过通过Kickstarter（是个集资平台）来开发《奇迹时代3》吗？你对此的想法是怎样的？


• Kickstarter has proven to be very a successful tool for resurrecting classic PC games series, so I think Age of Wonders would have had a decent chance of succeeding. However, we started the project before Kickstarter took off for games and found a great investment partner in Markus Persson.
• 事实证明Kickstarter是个十分有效的挽救经典PC游戏的工具，所以我想《奇迹时代》成功的机会也相当不错。然而，在Kickstart涉足游戏领域前我们就开始着手开发这个项目了。幸运的是我们在Markus Persson找到了投资人。


• Any new features for the editor that fans will love?
• 编辑器有没有什么新功能然粉丝眼前一亮呢？


• The editor will feature lots of content for players to build maps with. Players are now able to Customize the appearance of heroes and leaders. Details on Modding will come later, I think there is potential there to bring it a lot further than was possible with AoW:SM
• 编辑器的功能将会十分强大。玩家现在可以自定英雄和领主的外貌。至于能对游戏进行MOD的功能，还要迟些才能出现。不过我想新作可MOD的潜力会远胜于《奇迹时代2：暗影魔法》。


• Was that Merlin in your announcement trailer? Will be characters from previous series be returning?
• 原告片里面的那货（估计是就说：I have lived for 2000 years的那人）是梅林吗？前作中出现的人物会在新作中出现吗？


• You are right, that guy in the announcement trailer is a grizzled Merlin. Although a long time has passed since the events of Shadow Magic, some characters will reappear. For example Queen Julia of the Wood Elves has married a Dark Elf. Their union caused these hostile elven factions to bury the hatchet and created the High Elves. Julia`s daughter Sundren, is the protagonist of one of the two story campaigns.
• 你说对了，预告片里的那人确实是须发花白的梅林。尽管《暗影魔法》发生的故事已经年代久远，但有些人物仍然会回归。比如木精灵的茱莉亚女王，她现在已经和一个暗精灵喜结连理了。两个不同种的精灵也因此冰释前嫌，高等精灵由此而诞生。茱莉亚的女儿桑登，也是其中一个战役故事的主角。


• This was one feature fans and myself love so much was how you catered for all parties. In addition to online modes, will LAN, Hotseat and PBEM (Play-by-email) will be included and could you elaborate on any decisions made with these features?
• 我和众粉丝都十分喜爱游戏为不同玩家所提供的联机功能。除了在线模式外，LAN，热座，PBEM（通过Email游戏）等联机方式也会包括其中吗？另外你能说明下于这些功能相关的决策吗？


• These modes will be all back. AoW3 has been designed as a multiplayer game from the get go. The modes are pretty much unchanged, except we`ll make it easier for players to connect to each other.
• 这些模式都会有的。《奇迹时代3》 从一开始就定位为一个多人游戏。游戏模式基本上没有什么改变，而且联机模式更简单易用了。


• What has your team overcome in designing and developing Age of Wonders 3 so far, any major challenges?
• 你的小组在开发《奇迹时代3》中遇到过什么难题吗？


• Implementing Artificial Intelligence is always the hardest part in a game like this. For every gameplay rule, spell or unit ability we need to determine if the AI would be able to use it effectively. We went back looking at mechanics from the previous games and indentified some bottlenecks like sea combat and flight, which have been changed to help AI, as a consequence it should also be more fair and balance for human players.
• 对于这类游戏来说，AI的开发总是一个难题。我们要考虑AI是否能充分的利用每项游戏规则，每种法术和单位的能力。我们参考了前几代游戏的机制，发现了一些AI的瓶颈。比如海战和空运。我们对其进行了调整，这样不仅能提高AI，也应该会让PVP变得更加平衡。


• One of the burning questions with this series is the fear of the AoW III being streamlined or made too accessible in gameplay terms i.e. down to an apprentice level not to a wizard one. Should fans of the series be concerned at all?
• 有个重大的问题就是人们担心《奇迹时代3》会不会变的流水线化，就是说让新人很容易上手，但是让老手觉得没有深度。粉丝们该不该担心这一点呢？


• AoW3 has more depth and challenge than the previous games, just as AoWII had more stuff going on that the first one. We have the new race-class combo`s, the territory and economic system is more advanced with terrain bonuses and especially battles have more depth. Random Maps have now been designed from the get-go so expect some improvements there too.
• 《奇迹时代3》 会比前作更有深度和挑战，一如《奇迹时代2》 比第一代内容更丰富一般。3代中种族可以和职业相结合，领土和经济系统由于地形的影响更加成熟，战斗更有深度。随机地图从项目伊始就在开发，以后必将更加完善。
• However we don`t think streamlining` is always a bad thing. We changed some of the things that would sometimes drag the game out, like the damage routines are fined tuned better so that battles don`t run on for such a long time. And the interface should be a lot easier to use with detailed mouse-over pop-ups on everything.
• 不过我们并不觉得“流水线化”就一定是件坏事。我们调整了一些会拖慢游戏节奏的东西，比如对伤害计算会有一些惩罚性的调整，这样战斗就不会拖的太久。另外界面使用弹出式对话框，这应该使界面更友好些。


• One of the best features of Age of Wonders was the ability to use a different wizard and mix and match races under ones control, enabling some very nasty unit/spell combinations. With good, neutral and evil alignments of races, units & spells, will this still be a feature in the game?
• 《奇迹时代》 最优秀的特点之一就是可以用不同的巫师搭配不同的种族，再配合其种族，单位，法术的善恶阵营，能衍生出五花八门的恶心人的战术。这些特点在3代还会保留吗?


• The mixing and matching of races is still there! However alignment is now variable, determined by our actions, like razing and looting, or being a super nice guy to everyone. Your alignment is also affected by what races you absorb in your empire. So if you`re a nice guy and absorb a tribe or nasty orcs, you have to consider that there`s going to be some unrest and your alignment goes down, at least for a while. The bigger the relations difference, the longer it takes for to absorb the people of a conquered town.
• 种族混搭依然会保留！ 但是阵营现在可不是固定的了，而是由玩家的行为所决定。你可以烧杀抢掠，也可以当好好先生。你的帝国融合的种族也能影响你的阵营。所以说如果你人还不错，但是想接纳一个讨人嫌的兽人部落时，你就要好好考虑下了。你的城市可能会发生动荡，你的声望也会在一段时期能下跌。你们之间的反差越大，融合所需要的时间也就越长。


• You`ve announced that there are classes now in the game for wizards or leaders, can you tell us more about this feature, its aims and how it came to be?
• 你说过游戏里巫师和领主也会有自己的职业，能说的详细点吗？其目的是什么？如何选择职业？


• With Overlord we created a game where the experience of being a leader of a fantasy series is a central concept. I think this gave us a different perspective on the leaders for AoW3. We want them to make a strong impact on their empire like determining the type of units they build and the type of societies they lead in addition to the type of magic they use. Since Age of Wonders has always had strong classic RPG aspects, the idea soon came to take the classic RPG classes and extrapolate them to be the new leaders for Age of Wonder 3. Warriors become Warlords leading Spartan societies, Priests become inspiring and crusading Theocrats, Rogues are good at covert actions and destabilizing the empires of others while keeping a firm grip on their own.
• 在《霸王》中，在奇幻世界中扮演一个老道的领导人物是游戏的核心理念。这让我们从不同的角度去审视《奇迹时代3》 的领主。我们希望他们能对自己的帝国有举足轻重的影响。如规划单位的建设，决定社会的类型，以及使用的魔法种类。由于《奇迹时代》 系列一直有浓重的RPG成分，所以我们很快想到，何不借用一些经典RPG里的职业到《奇迹时代3》 的领主里面来呢。战士可以成为战争领主（Warloard）来领导一个斯巴达式的社会，牧师能成为笃信并有感召力的神权者，盗匪长于煽动他人和颠覆其他帝国，并且从中牟利。


• From the announcement, alongside a brand-new tactical battle system, flanking is a new feature, could you tell us more on how this works in practice and other new battle and map changes we expect to see in AoW III, e.g. how will sieges work this time from both a map and battle perspective?
• 从公布的内容看，在全新的战术性的战斗系统中，夹击是一个新的功能。你能给我们说说实战中这功能是怎么使用的吗？还有其他关于战斗和地图的调整吗？比如说，这代的围城战，从大地图上和战场上看，于以前有什么不同？


• Flanking is what we call it when a unit is attacked from behind or the side in a battle. The unit will take extra damage, then turn to face the unit that attacked it rather than retaliating. This means players need to pay a lot more attention to positioning and allows weaker units to destroy stronger ones using pincer attacks.
• 当一个单位受到来自后方或者侧路的攻击时，我们称之为夹击。该单位会受到额外的伤害，然后转向攻击它的单位，但不能反击。所以玩家在布阵的时候应该多花点心思。还可以利用夹击，以弱击强。
• The concept of sieges is the same, it`s all about breaking through the wall and getting to the defender. We have changed the layout of siege maps, with the clashing armies standing opposite of each other and the wall in-between. The advantage is less longwinded treks around walls for multi-army attack and more realistic looking towns.
• 围城战的概念倒是没有变化，你要做的就是推倒城墙，扫荡防御者。我们调整了围城战的格局，城墙在中间，交火的单位在两边正对着对方。这样城墙的两翼就比以前更短，围城部队的数量不能像以前那样多了。也使城镇看起来更加真实。


• How many magic spheres will there be to choose from compared to Age of Wonders 2 and are there more tiers of spells? Any new spheres you could share with us compared to Age of Wonders 2?
• 与《奇迹时代2》 相比，3有多少种魔法派系？魔法的级别呢？有没有什么新派系可以透露的？


• We`re still in the process of organizing spells into their final groups. More on this later!
• 我们还在给魔法进行分类，还是下次再透露吧！


• I know an Orc hero called Grom who demands to know how many races will be available to play from release and any new ones? He`ll take my, well, you don`t want to know if he doesn`t get his answer :( .
• 有个叫格罗姆的兽人英雄要求知道游戏发行时会有多少个种族，以及有没有新种族。如果他得不到想要的答案的话，他会把我，你不敢想象他会把我怎么样。


• AoW3 will ship with six player races, six player classes and at least six specialization “spheres”, which include magic. The initial races will be High Elves, Humans, Dwarves, Draconians Goblins and Orcs. It doesn`t mean the other races have all gone extinct and we hope to release them at some later stage!
• 《奇迹时代3》 发行时会有6个种族，6个职业，已经6种派系（包括魔法派系）。初始种族有： 高等精灵，人类，矮人，龙人，地精和兽人。不过这并不意味着其他种族都灭绝了，我们期望以后能放出其他种族。


• From the new changes, it sounds like you can go even more nuts with this game than ever before, creating things one wouldn`t have thought possible, you mentioned goblins with wings and flaming swords so could one for example, combine spells and their properties into new effects e.g. Fire and Wind to create a flaming tornado or turn Frostlings ranged attacks into fire equivalent`s (not that they`d like that)?
• 从这些新变化来看，你会为这款游前所未有的疯狂，创造出难以想象的东西。你提到过的长着翅膀，手握火剑的地精。所以有没有可能把不同性质的法术相结合创造出新的效果。比如： 火系法术和风系法术能产生火焰飓风，或者把霜族的远程攻击变成火属性的（倒不是说霜族喜欢这样）？


• Yes, the new race, class and specialization combos will give players an unprecedented amount of choices. Magic spells do not merge in the same way as the base race and class leads to unique units. Of course players can still use multiple spells from different sources to buff a single unit.
• 是的，新的种族，职业和特长相结合，可以给玩家提供无尽的选择。种族和职业的结合能产生新的单位，但是法术的结合不会像这样。当然，玩家还是可以使用不同种类的魔法来强化同一个单位。


• Do you have any plans for an upcoming alpha/beta?
• 近期会有alpha/beta版本测试的计划吗？


• We plan to involve the community in testing as we`ve always done. But what scope the tests will have has yet to be decided.
• 我们一如既往的希望玩家团体能参与到游戏测试中来。不过测试范围仍然有待决定。


• In closing, anything you`d like to say to your fans?
• 最后，你希望对粉丝们说些什么吗？


• Triumph would like to thank everybody who played our games, with a special nod to the people who (re-)bought the re-released Age of Wonders games from Steam, Gamer`s Gate, Impulse and Good Old Games, you really helped make this sequel possible!
• Triumph 感谢每一位玩了我们游戏的玩家，尤其感谢那些购买了在Steam，Gamer`s Gate, Impulse and Good Old Games上再发行的数字版游戏的玩家。你们让这款游戏的生命延续了下去！