Fanstratics月报#16#2021-12

来源：https://www.fanstratics.com/fstnewsletter16，以下由HeavenK翻译。

• Fanstratics Troop: Cyclops Siege Breaker.
• 兵种介绍：破城独眼
• Truly the anchor of Chimeran army power, the mighty Cyclops Siege Breaker has the ability to throw large boulders the length of any Battlefield. This makes them a powerful ranged Troop, and better than any Catapult when it comes to destroying Enemy Siege Walls. Over time, the Cyclops as a mythological creature, has gone from a one-eyed giant to a one-eyed monster. In popular culture this is due mostly to Ray Harryhausen and his work on the movie The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. As I have mentioned in previous interviews, it is often better to embrace a stereotype, than attempt to redefine it. With lesser, relatively unknown Troops, such as the Gatorkin Castor, you have a lot of room to play around with the conceptualization, and this is arguably easier than working within popular known constraints. With a Cyclops, people have a general idea as to their appearance. Working against these notions can often be counterproductive. So, when it came to the Cyclops Siege Breaker, I pointed Justin toward the Ray Harryhausen Cyclops and reiterated the Fanstratics mantra, “Something different, but familiar.” Some FST Troops are ‘more Justin’ than others, and this one, with the possible exception of the Medusa Vanguard, is definitely ‘more Justin’. Another gem. For those of you who want to see Justin actually create the drawing, you can always watch a VOD of his Twitch stream.
• Chimeran军队势力的真正顶梁柱，强力的破城独眼有着能将巨石投掷到战场另一边的能力。这让其成为一支强力的远程部队，在破坏敌人城墙方面远胜过其他攻城器。随着时间的变迁，独眼巨人的形象也从神话中的一只眼巨人逐渐转变成了一只眼的怪物。其中影响最深远的莫过于Ray Harryhausen在电影《辛巴达七海冒险》中创造的形象。对于破城独眼，我让Justin参照Ray Harryhausen的设计，并提出“相似但又有所不同”的要求。

• Fanstratics Feature: Quality of Life, HD , and HotA Efficiencies.
• Fanstratics特性：Quality of Life，HD ，和HotA特性。
• Games have come a long way since 1999, and while they are not necessarily easer... they are friendlier. To this end, Fanstratics will be modern in its approach to player/program interactions. This mean incorporating Quality of Life, HD , and HotA Efficiencies. For example...
  • Using the mouse wheel.
  • Replacing ‘right click’ with verbose tooltips.
  • True ‘drag-and-drop’ functionality in place of ‘click to select, then click to move’.
  • Eliminating confirmation windows with disappearing pop-ups (where it makes sense).
  • Displaying Troop Division sizes both verbally and numerically.
  • Seeing a Hero’s Excursion (movement) represented numerically.
  • Easy Troop Division splitting/merging.
  • Hero ‘costumes’.
  • Ability to replay Battlefield Combat as desired (solo games).
  • Simultaneous Turns for Multiplayer games (in one form or another).
  • Spell Research or something similar.
  • Etc.
  Bottom line... I’m not ignoring HoMM3 in its current state. If I find a mod feature to be compelling, I’d be foolish to ignore it.
• 现在的游戏和1999年那会已经大为不同，所以FST也引入了一些更现代化的用户交互，包括Quality of Life，HD ，和HotA特性。例如使用鼠标滚轮；将“右击”换成了提示文本；真正的“拖拽”功能；弹窗功能；数字化显示部队人数；数字化显示英雄移动力；简易的部队拆分重组；纸娃娃系统；重新战斗；同步回合制；法术研发或类似系统等等。

• Fanstratics News: Art Mock-up... and COVID (again).
• Fanstratics新闻：美术建模与新冠
• At the start of November, I began preliminary work with a couple of artists to produce an ‘artistic mock-up’ of the Fanstratics Adventure Map. For those who don’t know, an art ‘mock-up’ is an art test. Overall, the goal is to assemble a small collection of art assets, in the game engine, to prove or disprove basic assumptions about how the game will look. For Fanstratics, this is especially important, as we are attempting to utilize a forced perspective to replicate the HoMM3 look across three different environments: Adventure Map, Townscape, and Battlefield. About a week after we started, the artists realized they had been too optimistic in their work assessment, and were unable to take on the extra duties. A few days after they left the project, as I was about to reach out to other artists... I began to feel ill. Yep... COVID... again. While the symptoms haven’t been as severe as last year, they are eerily familiar. As of this writing, I am entering week three, and my productivity has suffered. Because of this setback, the ‘art mock-up’ I had planned for January 1st... has been delayed. At this point, my goal is to share the work sometime in the first quarter of next year (fingers crossed). Assuming we can nail it down, we will then move onto the Townscape and Battlefield. Once all three environments are complete, with some degree of program functionality, we can begin thinking about ‘next steps’.
• 简单说就是当期的进度到了美术建模部分。同时作者在出差工作的时候感染了新冠。

• Fanstratics Fan Question: New creature designs look great and promising: carnivorous and alien medusa, wild and width mammoth bone crusher, hellish worm. But what about gator-caster? This unit looks weird. It’s not like anthropomorphic alligator can’t be caster, but this guy looks like brute, who ate wizard and took his stuff. Stereotypical wizard hat and tiny, well-crafted staff looks especially confusing. Is there any chance you will change this creature? Is there any chance you will redesign any other creatures? I know the common answer is ‘yes’, but I also know that developers really don't like such things.
• Fanstratics粉丝提问：简单说就是对gator-caster的形象有疑问，觉得太野蛮了不像法师。所以问问会不会对一些已有兵种的形象进行重新设计。
• There is always a possibility a Troop will undergo redesign or modification. This approach is not limited to art. If anything is not working as expected, it is typically modified or removed (assuming we have the time and budget to do the additional work). As for the Gatorkin Castor, I was specifically going ‘against type’. Every once in a while, it is good to do something unexpected, as making ‘everything’ stereotypical can be uninspired and boring. In fact, there are other unrevealed Troops which go also ‘against type’. So, I strongly doubt the Gatorkin Castor will be changed, as it is part of a ‘pair’.
• 已有兵种的形象都还有调整的可能性，但是gator-caster的设计本来就是有点“反传统”的类型，所以这个应该不会调整了。

• HoMM3 Recollection: Half-Life: Day One.
• H3拾遗: 半条命:第一天
• 点击展开长文
• 

• After Heroes 3 there were many failing Heroes game. But what features would you use from them in a similar Heroes-like game and what you would erase?
• 英雄无敌3之后有很多失败的英雄无敌游戏，这些游戏中有哪些特性你会保留，哪些会去掉？
• I’m going to politely decline to answer this question. Addressing this subject is effectively discussing Fanstratics (FST), and there are specifics I would like to avoid until much later.
• 我礼貌地拒绝回答这个问题。

• Overall, 3DO went into bankruptcy because it was poorly managed. Specifically, 3DO went into bankruptcy because it created a lot of low quality games no one wanted to buy.3DO thought all you had to do was create product, put it on the retail shelf, advertise it, and enough of it would sell. Givin the customer a good reason to buy the product, never seemed to be part of the formula.
• 总的来说，3DO的破产是由于经营不善，具体说就是制作了大量低质量没人买的游戏。
• Not once did I ever hear any 3DO executive talk about making ‘fun’ games. Not once did I encounter any 3DO executive who asked, “What have you been playing?” All the people in 3DO upper management were not gamers. They were all widget salesmen who thought ‘franchise’ was the same thing as ‘fun’. Don’t misunderstand me, you don’t need to be a gamer to create and run a successful video game company, but you do need to understand when you are not a gamer... and staff accordingly.
• 我没听过3DO的执行官提过制作“有趣”的游戏，他们只是管理者，而不是玩家。当然我不是说非玩家不能管理公司，但是当你不是玩家的时候就更需要注意这一点。

• It is my understanding, what happened with 3DO did not directly affect HoMM4, but keep this in mind, my knowledge of HoMM4’s development is second hand at best. Aside from the team losing three of the HoMM3 leads (myself, John Bolton, and Phelan Sykes), I have heard through the grapevine, the team did not get much needed resources, and there was persistent in fighting regarding a number of subjects.
• 我个人理解，3DO当时发生的事并没有直接影响到英雄无敌4，不过我对H4开发的信息都只是二手的。我听到的主要是H3设计团队的流失以及团队缺少足够资源。
• How 3DO indirectly damaged HoMM, was in how it directly damaged New World Computing (NWC).Soon after acquiring NWC, 3DO began pushing a ‘franchise’ model of game development. This should not be a surprise to many, as most of 3DO was composed of former Electronic Arts (EA) personnel. EA, under Tripp Hawkins, created the ‘Madden model’. For those who don’t know, to this day, EA makes most of its money from yearly sports games. This all started when EA began making yearly Madden football games for consoles. For sports games, the Madden model makes sense. For non-sports games, the Madden model can quickly lead to franchise fatigue, and an emphasis on quantity over quality.
• 3DO对英雄无敌的伤害主要还是体现在其对NWC的伤害上。在收购NWC后，3DO也开始推行“年货”的开发理念。EA的特里普·霍金斯搞年货是因为他们那边以运动游戏为主，可以年货。但是对非运动游戏，年货极大地降低了游戏质量。

• There were some concept arts about NWC’s Heroes 5 in 2003. Can you tell us something about it? (There were also a Nival Heroes 6 but it was stopped in 2008)
• 网上有些2003年的NWC时期英雄无敌5的美术设计。你能说说么？
• Unfortunately, I know nothing about New World Computing’s attempt at making HoMM5.
• 我不知道NWC当时对英雄无敌5的设计内容。

• What is your opinion and experience about Heroes 3 HOTA mod?
• 你对HotA有啥看法？
• It’s wonderful. HotA and the HD Mod effectively introduced HoMM3 to several new generations of gamers.
• 很棒的mod，将英雄无敌3带给了新一代玩家。