Fanstratics月报#10#2021-06

来源：https://www.fanstratics.com/fstnewsletter10，以下由Heavenk翻译。

• Fanstratics Troop: Clockwork Gremlin.
• 兵种介绍：机械精怪
• This month’s Troop took a mildly interesting road from idea to concept art. For story, lore, and world reasons, I wanted at least one clockwork Troop. Stoutbluds were the logical Faction, but there are only so many Troop slots. Initially, I cut the Gremlin and replaced it with a Clockwork Warrior. About a week later, I was looking over the roster, and... well... I was missing the Gremlin. They are cheesy, endearing, surprisingly fun, and great for trolling an Enemy Player. I thought about it and eventually asked myself, “Why not merge the two?” Thus... the Clockwork Gremlin. On the art side of things, this was one of those instances where I gave Justin a good amount of background detail to digest. Upon seeing the initial thumbnails, I quickly realized I was getting in his way, and told him, “Don’t worry about the lore. You know what I’m after. Just make something cool. I’ll make adjustments on my end if necessary.” Ultimately, I think it turned out rather well. ;-) For those of you who want to see Justin actually render the drawing, you can watch a VOD of his Twitch stream.
• 简单说就是又想搞个机械怪物以配合Stoutbluds阵营富有逻辑性的一面，又怀念当初H3的精怪，于是整个二合一。

• Fanstratics Faction #7: Infernals.
• Fanstratics阵营7：Infernals
• Residing in Volcanic lands with persistent lava flows, this Demonic faction exists only to slake its unquenchable thirst for fire. Burn the world... scorch it all... until the self is destroyed... and the thirst no more. To ask ‘why’ shows an absence of understanding. Most will immediately recognize this Faction’s similarity to HoMM3’s ‘Inferno’. Representing the Infernals is the Bile Worm, which can be viewed in the Fanstratics Gallery.
• 这个恶魔阵营之所以选择定居在熔岩不停流动的火山地带，只为消除它们对于火焰的无比渴望。烧尽世界，点燃一切，直至毁灭，饥渴不止。而这样做的原因？问这种问题未免太不识风趣了。大多数人一眼就能看出，这个阵营与h3的地狱城一脉相承。该阵营的代表生物是胆汁蠕虫。

• Fanstratics Feature: Player Determined Weekly Events.
• Fanstratics特色：由玩家选择的每周事件
• HoMM3’s Weekly and Monthly Astrological Events were... oddly enough... one of its more iconic elements. For Fanstratics, I’m expanding this specific mechanic. It is no longer a passive event. Instead, on Day 1 of each Week, one Player is randomly selected. This Player is then given the option to choose one of two random ‘Decrees’, with a third ‘Gamble’ option. A Decree can affect Town Construction, Merchants, Resources, Troop Recruits, etc. If a Player chooses the Gamble option, there is chance to enact both presented Decrees... or neither.
• 简单说，每周第一天开始时，随机选择一个玩家，该玩家有两种选择，一是从系统随机生成的两个“敕令”中选择一个，这些敕令的效果包括城镇建设、商人、资源、部队招募等；二是选择“赌博”，这样有可能两个敕令同时生效，也有可能同时不生效。

• Question: “I also wanted to say some things about the Forge. I don’t know about the rest, but I think it’s a good idea to diversify the fantasy world with mechanical factions, and to be honest, it’s sad for me what happened to the Forge in HOMM3, I personally think it was a good idea, at least with regard to the faction itself, so I join the number of those who are waiting for the Forge (or something similar to it).”
• 还是关于铸造族，有的人决定这个设计很好，能够给奇幻世界增加一些机械派系。
• I understand your sentiments. I too was disappointed with the Forge’s cancelation, but I also understand the opinions generated by the opposition. Rudimentary clockwork technology has a place in the Fanstratics universe, so a clockwork faction isn’t out of the question, but we first need to publish the initial game.
• Fanstratics未来可能会推出以发条科技为主题的阵营。当然前提得把初始版本做好还要卖的好……

• HoMM3 Recollection: Dave Botan.
• 太长的旧事对话不列了；
• 总之是在怀念年初去世的H3制作组成员Dave Botan。

以下是Behemoth Cave的采访问答，共18问。

• Let’s talk about balance. What methods did you use to make decisions about creature statistics, AI value, faction balance and schools of magic? Was every single value chosen on a whim and then verified or rather were there more complicated mathematical calculations involved?
• 关于平衡性，你们打算怎么进行平衡，有没有什么赋值和计算的公式之类的？
• Balance was determined using a process of opinion and verification, via abstract simulation. JVC and I hashed out the statistics for the various troops, based on our personal opinion of which was more or less powerful, in relation to one another. Using these preliminary numbers, I put each Troop through a Battle Simulator I constructed in Microsoft Excel. This Battle Simulator produced a relative number, which I then used to verify our assumptions. If something appeared to be out of whack... an adjustment was made. Using these base ai values, Gus Smedstad further modified the numbers, to account for special abilities, creating adjusted ai values, which were again verified using the Battle Simulator. If something appeared to be out of whack... an adjustment was made. Faction balance was less complicated. I did an analysis of Troop Power versus costs over time. If something appeared to be out of whack... an adjustment was made. Spells and spell schools were largely opinion.
• 首先是JVC和我给部队赋值，基于我们个人的判断，然后我用Excel编了个战斗模拟器。Ai部分，Gus Smedstad进一步选定数值，然后一样进行战斗模拟，有超标的就进行调整。阵营部队则稍微简单一些，我先对不同时期的部队战斗力进行分析，然后有超标的就调整。法术和法术派系也大体是这样。

• Were you aware of earth magic or logistics supremacy, or how useless eagle eye or learning are?
• 你们当时注意到土系魔法和后勤术过强，而鹰眼术与学习能力无用了么？
• Keep in mind, at the time, HoMM3 was considered, first and foremost, a single player game. If a skill or spell proved to be overpowered, it wasn’t a big concern, because the overwhelming number of games were human versus ai. If we had known, twenty years later, HoMM3 would be a competitive multiplayer game, we would have given ‘balance’ extra attention. This being said, at the time, we did not know Earth Magic or Logistics would be considered overpowered. Learning could have used a buff, but we were worried about it becoming a ‘required skill’, so we errored on the side of ‘underpowered’. Eagle Eye was a hold over from HoMM2, and within NWC it wasn’t considered ‘useless’. Regardless, in hindsight, it could have been cut.
• 你要知道，当初h3设计时还是以单机为目标，所以单机游戏里，平衡性没那么重要，毕竟都是欺负ai。如果我们当初预见到二十年后玩家会主打多人竞技，那我们当时肯定会在平衡性上多下些功夫了。不过要说的话，我们当初并没有注意到土系魔法和后勤术过强，学习能力当初设计的是一个增益效果，但是后来我们担心该技能可能会成为一个必选技能，于是错误的削弱了它。而鹰眼术是从h2保留下来的，NWC内部不认为这个技能没用，不过事后来看，这个技能是可以砍掉。

• Were there dedicated testers and balance designers in the dev team of Heroes III?
• h3制作组内部有专门的平衡测试和平衡设计师么？
• Short answer... no. Please keep in mind, at the time, network play was a relatively new thing, and the thought of competitive HoMM3 was inconceivable. Also, dedicated balance designers and testers didn’t really become a thing until Starcraft became an esport in South Korea. Today, it is standard practice for any pure multiplayer game.
• 没有。还是那句话，那个时候对战还是新鲜事物。

• How did you react when you realized that after 20 years Heroes have a huge fanbase (which still grows) in the central-eastern Europe (especially in Poland and Russia) and Asia?
• 你怎么看20年后的今天，h3在中东欧（波兰和俄罗斯）和亚洲有着巨大的玩家群体？
• In the USA, immediately after its release in 1999, HoMM3 stayed at #3 on the sales charts, for 3 weeks, before declining. HoMM3 was respected, but never showcased. At the time, it felt like a cult hit, not a commercial success. Around 2016, to my genuine surprise, I saw thousands of people regularly playing HoMM3 on Twitch.tv. After speaking with David Mullich, and doing a little digging, all of the hints I had seen over the years... suddenly made sense. Whenever I mentioned HoMM3, to my surprise, most people knew of the game. HoMM3 SoD? HoMM3 Chronicles (x3)? HoMM4? HoMM3 WoG? HoMM5? HoMM6? HoMM7? HoMM3 VCMI? HoMM3 HotA? HoMM3 HD? Thousands of user made maps? Persistent GOG.com bestseller? In the 3DO bankruptcy, when Ubisoft bought the Might & Magic intellectual property, I thought they were going after the RPG and the TBS games for their long history and built in fan base. In truth, they were specifically after HoMM. Ubisoft distributed HoMM3 outside of North America, and it sold millions of copies across Europe, Russia, and Asia. I was stunned. I had really had no idea.
• 很惊讶。99年h3上市之后，在美国曾有过一段销量不错的时候，不过3周以后也就慢慢下滑了。实话实说，h3并不是那种爆款游戏，当时也只是小众游戏，并没商业上的大热门。2016年前后，当我知道还有上千人在twitch上直播h3时挺吃惊的。后来育碧说h3在北美以外有着百万销量时，我相当震惊。

• Do you have any idea what could be the reason behind the popularity in those regions?
• 你认为h3在这些国家的流行背后有什么原因么？
• I’ve chatted with David Mullich about this, and thought about it at length. In my opinion, it is a unique combination of elements.
  • Easily accessible genre: Fantasy is a universal genre. Around the world, most people understand the concepts of knights, wizards, and dragons. It doesn’t hurt this genre was also birthed in Europe.
  • Beauty: HoMM3 is a beautiful game, and continues to hold its own after all these years. Phelan Sykes, Scott White, Adam McCarthy, George Almond, and David Mullich, don’t get anywhere near enough credit for what they pulled out of the New World Computing art staff.
  • Exceptional Value: There’s plenty to see, experience, discover, and play within HoMM3. It’s unusual for a game to be both deep and wide. This creates an exceptionally large amount of gameplay for your money. With all the expansions, mods, user made maps, and the random map generator, you can literally play the game for 100’s if not 1000’s of hours.
  • Accessibility: While HoMM3 isn’t the easiest game to get into, you don’t need to be a guru to enjoy it. Also, being turn based, there is no pressure to immediately engage the game, and you can explore it at your leisure.
  • System Requirements: You don’t need to be a member of the PCMR to play the game. Any office computer or laptop should suffice, and this makes almost anyone with a computer, a potential fan.
  • Piracy: Most game developers don’t like talking about this, but at some point in their lifespan, all of PC’s biggest franchises were heavily pirated. This effectively got the game into the hands of people who wouldn’t pay-to-play the game. This ‘unofficial’ demo uncovered a lot of fans who didn’t know they were fans, and hopefully purchased a legitimate copy, at a later date.
• 我和David Mullich聊过。在我看来，有几个原因导致了这样的结果。
  • 世界观平易近人：一提起奇幻大家都知道骑士、巫师、巨龙这些。
  • 额外预期高：h3有着两个资料片，各种mod，玩家自制地图，随机地图生成器。
  • 画面优美：h3有很多出众的美术设计。
  • 易于上手：h3上手还是比较容易的，而且回合制让玩家没那么紧张。
  • 配置需求低：任何pc和平板都可以游玩。
  • 盗版：虽然很多游戏开发者不愿意谈这一点，但是所有的大型pc游戏系列都少不了盗版，这些盗版玩家虽然没付钱，但是当他们转化成粉丝之后，就有可能成为未来的潜在买家。