上古纪元#开发日志5#Arena

Recently, we discussed two game modes: Classic and Single-Hero. But we have one more mode up our sleeve, which has seen the light of day because of the community requests. It brings all the players to the fast-paced, dynamic battle: Arena.

最近，我们讨论了两种游戏模式：经典模式和单英雄模式。但我们还有另一种模式，由于社区的要求，它已经面世。它将所有玩家带入快节奏、充满活力的战斗：竞技场。

Why did we do this? you might ask. There are 2 points to be made here!

我们为什么这样做？你可能会问。这里有2点需要说明！

The first one, due to long working hours, and many responsibilities in their lives, not many people have the time to allocate to longer templates that have been the classic experience in other HOMM games. The second, to put it simply, arena modes are just very popular, and very entertaining templates to play. We want to not only improve on this idea, but bring you the best possible iteration of it! No traditional map exploration, no castle building, no resource gathering. Just. pure. battle.

第一个，由于工作时间长，生活中责任重，没有多少人有时间分配到较长的模板，这在其他 HOMM 游戏中是经典的体验。第二，简单地说，竞技场模式非常流行，而且玩起来非常有趣。我们不仅希望改进这个想法，还希望为您带来最好的迭代！没有传统的地图探索，没有城堡建设，没有资源采集。只是。纯的。战斗。

The player picks the hero, their artefacts, spells, troops, and jumps into the single fight that determines the outcome.

玩家选择英雄、他们的神器、咒语、部队，然后投入决定结果的单一战斗。

But not so fast!

但没那么快！

Arena is not our unique invention. Its predecessor first appeared as a full-fledged mode in HoMM 5 and was called Hot Seat Duel Mode (as if your seat is not hot enough…..). The concept was simple: a quick battle between two preset heroes. The settings weren’t extensive, but the mode still became a hidden gem for those who wanted to dive straight into battle without spending time gathering armies and developing cities.

竞技场并不是我们独有的发明。它的前身首先在 HoMM 5 中作为成熟的模式出现，被称为“热座决斗模式”（就好像你的座位不够热......）。这个概念很简单：两个预设英雄之间的快速战斗。设置并不广泛，但对于那些想要直接投入战斗而不花时间聚集军队和发展城市的人来说，该模式仍然成为隐藏的瑰宝。

Hot Seat Duel Mode in HoMM 5 featured 18 preset heroes from different factions, each with unique abilities and equipment. But the choice essentially boiled down to one thing — picking the hero.

英雄无敌5中的热座决斗模式有 18 个来自不同派系的预设英雄，每个英雄都拥有独特的能力和装备。但选择本质上归结为一件事——选择英雄。

But players still missed the option to customize their hero, skills, and armies, so the community created alternatives in other Heroes games — sometimes makeshift (but inventive!). In these Arenas, players could level up their hero — for instance, by gathering everything from Pandora’s Boxes. Some Arenas relied more on luck, others on thought out choices. All were united by specially created maps.

但玩家仍然错过了自定义英雄、技能和军队的选项，因此社区在其他《英雄》游戏中创建了替代方案——有时是临时的（但很有创意！）。在这些竞技场中，玩家可以升级他们的英雄——例如，通过收集潘多拉魔盒中的一切。一些竞技场更多地依赖运气，另一些则依赖深思熟虑的选择。所有这些都通过专门创建的地图统一起来。

However, modders couldn’t add a fully-fledged new mode to the game. The maps always had to be custom, and this created an issue with finding the templates to begin with, as well as not being very popular, so it was hard to find opponents. It was always very specific ideas, that belonged to individuals, without much balance to it. And so we want to change that!

然而，模组制作者无法向游戏添加成熟的新模式。地图总是必须是定制的，这造成了寻找模板的问题，而且不是很受欢迎，所以很难找到对手。它总是非常具体的想法，属于个人，没有太多的平衡。所以我们想改变这一点！

What about Olden Era?

那上古纪元呢？

For starters, we’ve always enjoyed these Arenas! Our team is no stranger to short sessions whenever you want just a quick break. So, we added that to Olden Era as a separate game mode

首先，我们一直很喜欢这些竞技场！当您想要短暂休息时，我们的团队对短期课程并不陌生。因此，我们将其作为单独的游戏模式添加到了 Olden Era 中

that doesn’t require special maps. On one hand, it’s a format familiar to fans, but on the other, we’ve reworked and adapted it to be approachable to the new audience.

这不需要特殊的地图。一方面，这是粉丝熟悉的格式，但另一方面，我们对其进行了重新设计和调整，以使其更适合新观众。

Our Arena is a classic draft. As a player, you're offered a choice of one of three heroes. Then you select their skills (again, one of three, with multiple level ups), artefacts, spells, and army. In other words, you assemble and customize your build, but it’s very fast-paced — the entire draft takes around five minutes. You may choose to fight the other player, or the AI. After all the preparations are done – to battle!

我们的竞技场是一个经典的选秀。作为一名玩家，你可以从三个英雄中选择一个。然后你选择他们的技能（同样，三者之一，具有多个级别）、宝物、法术和军队。换句话说，您组装并定制您的构建，但节奏非常快 - 整个草案大约需要五分钟。你可以选择与其他玩家或人工智能战斗。一切准备就绪后——战斗吧！

Making this mode was not without its challenges, for sure.

当然，制作这种模式并非没有挑战。

There were questions like ‘what do we do with skills or spells that are only useful on the adventure map (like Logistics or control spells)?’ or ‘How do we use the heroes who specialize in them?’. Not to mention that heroes in the Arena start with an empty skill pool (unlike the regular map, where they always have two or three skills to start) — which means that specialist heroes don’t always get their key primary skills.

有人提出这样的问题：“我们如何处理仅在冒险地图上有用的技能或咒语（例如后勤或控制咒语）？”或者“我们如何使用专门从事这些工作的英雄？”。更不用说竞技场中的英雄一开始技能池是空的（与常规地图不同，他们总是有两到三个技能开始）——这意味着专业英雄并不总是能获得他们的关键主要技能。

So we took it step by step.

所以我们一步一步来。

We’ve started with improving the balance. Specialist heroes have an increased chance of learning their corresponding skills, and mages always start with a basic spell.

我们已经开始改善平衡性。专业英雄学习相应技能的机会增加，而法师总是从基本法术开始。

The leveling process has also been simplified — you receive the 2nd level of a skill from the start (the level that allows you to immediately choose a subskill). Additionally, artefacts and skills now influence the magic offered.

升级过程也得到了简化——你从一开始就获得了技能的第二级（该级别允许你立即选择子技能）。此外，宝物和技能现在会影响所提供的魔法。

We ensure that the draft is fair: if you get a rare artefact, your opponent will be offered an equally powerful one, both players being offered artefacts of the same rarity. But grabbing everything won’t work — it’s crucial how you use your resources, so be mindful of the combinations.

我们确保选秀是公平的：如果您获得一件稀有的宝物，您的对手将获得同样强大的宝物，两名玩家都将获得相同稀有度的宝物。但抢占一切是行不通的——如何使用你的资源至关重要，所以要注意组合。

And of course! The same goes for units. Tiers and upgrades will be similar, so we ensure the battle is as close as possible without giving the same choices to players.

当然！单位也是如此。等级和升级将是相似的，因此我们确保战斗尽可能接近，而不给玩家相同的选择。

Our goal is to preserve the uniqueness of every fight, as well as balance, so that it will always bring a new challenge.

我们的目标是保持每场战斗的独特性和平衡性，以便它永远带来新的挑战。

We see Arena not just as a new ‘format’. Quick battles, allowing the player to jump in with minimum preparation and take maximum action, are a good starting point for those who are not very familiar with the series, as well as for those who want to enjoy the game on their lunch break. We hope this will be a great opportunity for both the newer, and the more experienced players, to enjoy the Arena mode, even when they don’t have the time for hours and hours of gameplay. This also brings a way for everyone to very quickly understand and improve their knowledge about the game.

我们认为竞技场不仅仅是一种新的“形式”。快速战斗，让玩家以最少的准备投入并采取最大的行动，对于那些不太熟悉该系列的人以及那些想在午休时间享受游戏的人来说是一个很好的起点。我们希望这对于新玩家和经验丰富的玩家来说都是一个享受竞技场模式的绝佳机会，即使他们没有时间进行数小时的游戏。这也给大家带来了一种非常快速的了解和提高游戏知识的途径。

Leaving the best for last, the Arena mode will not only be a quick, and accessible template to play, but it will also have its own separate rating system, and matchmaking, just like the Single-Hero and Classic modes. This will bring a difficult, new challenge, to even the most competitive players!

将最好的留在最后，竞技场模式不仅是一个快速且易于玩的模板，而且还将拥有自己独立的评级系统和匹配系统，就像单英雄和经典模式一样。即使对于最具竞争力的玩家来说，这也将带来艰巨的新挑战！

You will learn more about what kind of competitive aspects this will bring, in one of our future devlogs about the ladder system!

在我们未来关于天梯系统的开发博客之一中，您将详细了解这将带来什么样的竞争方面！