30周年回顾 第十章 重生

Chapter Ten

"Rebirth"

In early 2024 I was on a Zoom call with Ubisoft's current team of overseers for the Might & Magic Heroes license. Eric Damian-Vernet was the new brand director, occupying the sizable shoes once filled by Erwan Le Breton. Vicky Malineau was leading all the narrative direction for the IP, and was technically the person in this conversation who has been officially involved with Heroes the longest. At the date of this chat, it'd been nine years since the release of Heroes VII, and for most of that time there'd been nothing Heroes-related in development at Ubisoft—or at least nothing until relatively recently. In the run up to the thirtieth anniversary, the team had been at work on several new projects. As we spoke, one was only months away from release. Their schedule for the coming years was positively packed with Might & Magic projects, and from the sound of things, the future would (and will) be a terrific time to be a Heroes fan.

2024 年初，我与育碧当前负责《魔法门英雄无敌》授权项目的管理团队进行了 Zoom 视频通话。埃里克·达米安-韦内特是新的品牌总监，他接替了艾万-勒布雷东担任这一职务。维姬·玛利诺负责该 IP 的所有叙事指导，并且从技术层面上讲，她是此次通话中官方负责《魔法门英雄无敌》项目时间最长的人。在此次通话进行之时，距离《魔法门英雄无敌7》的发布已经过去了九年，而在那段时间里，育碧并未开展任何与《魔法门英雄无敌》相关的开发项目——至少直到最近才有所改变。在三十周年纪念活动前夕，团队正在筹备多个新项目。就在我们交谈之时，其中一个项目距离发布仅剩几个月的时间。他们未来几年的项目安排中充满了《魔法门》系列作品，而且从目前的印象来看，不久的未来将是成为《魔法门英雄无敌》粉丝的绝佳时期。

When Julien Pirou set Might & Magic X in a previously blank space on the map of Heroes VI, he would be the last narrative designer to plant a flag in a wholly unexplored area of Ashan. Going forward from 2024, all of the upcoming Heroes games would be set not in Ashan, but in a reimagined version of Enroth, the setting used for the original Might & Magic and Heroes games. The change would be a franchise-wide mandate directed by Ubisoft itself and managed by Malineau. Given all the energies that had been devoted to the creation of Ashan, it was a surprising development, although not entirely unexpected. From the almost moment that Ubisoft acquired the license, there had been ongoing pressure from fans to go back to the characters and stories presented in Heroes III and IV.

当朱利安·皮乌把《魔法门10》设定在《英雄无敌6》地图上原本空白的位置时，他就成为了最后一位在亚山一个完全未被探索的区域插上旗帜的叙事设计师。从 2024 年起，所有将要推出的《英雄无敌》系列游戏都将不再以亚山世界为背景，而是改设在重新构想过的恩洛斯地区，也就是《魔法门》系列和《英雄无敌》系列游戏最初的发生地。这一改变是育碧对整个系列的统一规定，由玛利诺管理。鉴于之前为打造亚山世界所投入的大量精力，这一变化令人感到意外，但也不完全出乎意料。自育碧获得该授权的那一刻起，粉丝们就一直在施加压力，要求回归《英雄无敌3》和《英雄无敌4》中所呈现的角色和故事。

战争纪元 - War of the Lords

One of the earliest games developed in this new era would be Might & Magic Heroes: War of the Lords, a mobile game co-developed with Chinese publisher Tencent. Although the Heroes games had been wildly popular in the Far East going all the way back to Heroes III (thanks more to piracy than legitimate sales), War of the Lords would be the first in the series to openly court Asian gamers.

在这个新时代中开发的最早游戏之一是《魔法门英雄无敌：战争纪元》，这是一款与中国的腾讯公司合作开发的手机游戏。尽管《英雄无敌》系列游戏在远东地区一直广受欢迎（这更多是由于盗版而非合法销售），但《战争纪元》将是该系列中首款主动面向亚洲玩家的游戏。

“I've heard it said that for many people in China, Might & Magic was the gateway to Western-style fantasy,” Malineau explained. Damian-Vernet nodded in agreement and added, “It's called Heroes Invincible in China. It's really, really something. Now it's mostly China and Vietnam. Vietnam has quite a sizable community of fans, and they're participating significantly in the tournaments.”

“我曾听人说过，在中国，对于很多人而言，《魔法门》是接触西方奇幻作品的开端。”玛利诺解释道。达米安-韦内特表示赞同，并补充道：“在中国它被称为《英雄‘无敌’》，这真是令人印象深刻。如今，它主要在中国和越南流行。越南有着相当庞大的粉丝群体，而且他们还积极参与比赛。”

In addition to being set in the Contested Lands, a region of Antagarich in the world of Enroth, and thus featuring many characters from Heroes III, the mobile game featured heroes, creatures, and environments that were inspired by ancient Chinese mythology in the same way that the original Heroes characters were inspired by the old legends of Europe. “Of course we haven't just dropped things in directly from their mythology. We've adapted them to fit within the Heroes universe,” Malineau said.

这款游戏不仅设定在恩洛斯世界的恩塔格瑞地区之“争议之地”（即哈蒙代尔周边），还因此有了许多《英雄无敌3》中的角色。跟原版《英雄无敌》中的角色受到欧洲古老传说的启发一样，这款手游的英雄、生物和环境设计也同样受到了中国古代神话的影响。“当然，我们并非直接将这些元素从神话中照搬过来。我们对它们进行了改编，使其能够融入《英雄无敌》的宇宙之中。”玛利诺说道。

In the long term, Malineau and Damian-Vernet hope to incorporate some of the elements that were created for the mobile game into the main Heroes franchise. “That's something we're trying to adapt, little by little. Maybe one day we will have an entire continent that will be inspired by Asian cultures, someplace that we don't know about yet in our new universe,” Malineau said.

从长远来看，玛利诺和达米安·韦内特希望将为手机游戏所创作的一些元素融入到《英雄无敌》系列的主要作品中。“这是我们正在逐步尝试去适应的事情。也许有一天，我们会在新的宇宙中创造出一个完全受亚洲文化影响的大陆，那里是我们目前还不了解的地方。”玛利诺说道。

Above: Might & Magic Heroes: War of the Lords showcases a distinctly Asian aesthetic but features several classic characters from the original games, like Crag Hack.

上图：《魔法门英雄无敌：战争纪元》展现了具有鲜明亚洲风格的美术风格，但同时融入了原版游戏中的一些经典角色，比如肯洛-哈格。

Evolving audience inclinations were a major factor that contributed to the narrative rewind. In the ten years that the Heroes license had lain fallow, the public's taste for fantasy had undergone a significant shift. “At the end of the '80s and into the '90s, fantasy tended to be a bit lighter," Malineau explained. “It wasn't super grim. It wouldn't be total comedy necessarily, but there would be some humor in there. But toward the end of that time the Game of Thrones books came along, and I think that that influenced the move toward fantasy becoming grim, dark, and horrible. That dominated the genre for quite a while, and everything was painted in shades of grey."

受众喜好的不断变化是导致剧情倒叙这一现象的重要因素之一。在《英雄无敌》授权暂停的十年间，公众对奇幻题材的喜好发生了显著变化。玛利诺解释道：“在 80 年代末到 90 年代期间，奇幻作品往往较为轻松。它并非极度阴暗，也不会完全是喜剧，但其中会有一些幽默元素。但到了《权力的游戏》系列小说问世的时间，我认为这影响了奇幻作品向阴沉、黑暗和恐怖的方向发展。这一趋势主导了很长一段时间，整个领域都被描绘成了灰暗的色调。”

Malineau believed that public tastes had drifted away from grimdark fantasy, and that a large segment of the fans lobbying for a return to the original games wanted to escape from the kinds of darker storytelling featured in Heroes V through VII. "I think this is where the next phase of fantasy is going. It's rooted in reality, but there's a wish for more hopeful stories, lighter stories that tell us if we get together, if we fight together, we have a dream we can build together. There are wars, and the world isn't fun all the time, but there's some happiness and hope to be found."

玛利诺认为，公众的喜好已经逐渐远离了那种阴暗怪诞的奇幻作品，而那些呼吁回归原版游戏的大量粉丝们，其实希望能摆脱《英雄无敌》五代到七代中那种愈加阴暗的叙事风格。“我认为这就是奇幻作品下一阶段的方向。它总是扎根于现实，但人们希望看到更加充满希望的故事，那些轻松愉快、能让我们相信只要团结一心、齐心协力，就能共同实现梦想的故事。虽然会有战争，世界也并非总是充满乐趣，但总还是能找到一些快乐和希望的。”

In many respects, Malineau was the perfect person to be stewarding Ubisoft's transition from Ashan to Enroth because of her first experiences with the license. She got her start as an intern at Ubisoft around the time that production on Might & Magic X: Legacy was wrapping up. Though she assisted with the nearly completed role-playing project, she was primarily tasked with creating material for Might & Magic: Duel of Champions, an online card game inspired by Heroes, but Malineau described it as "really its own thing." The card game drew heavily on the lore of Heroes VI, and used many of the same characters and creatures of Ashan.

在很多方面，玛利诺都是领导育碧从亚山世界转型到恩洛斯这一工作的最佳人选，因为她的第一次工作经历就与该授权相关。她是在育碧实习期间开始接触这个项目的，当时《魔法门10：传承》的制作工作即将结束。尽管她也协助完成了这个接近完工的角色扮演游戏项目，但她的主要任务是为《魔法门之冠军对决》（一款受《英雄无敌》启发的在线卡牌游戏）创作内容。这款游戏深受《英雄无敌6》的背景故事影响，并使用了许多亚山世界的角色和生物，但玛利诺将其形容为“自成一派”。

Malineau recalled being entranced by Ashan when she was first brought aboard. "Erwan Le Breton and Kurt McClung started off with the world, and had this beautiful bible called the Ashan Compendium. You can probably still buy it online," she said. "It's really beautiful, and a wonderful book. Initially I used that to get into the universe. I also had the in-house files from Kurt McClung that were like the secret sauces and recipes that they were using at the time to create the Might & Magic universe. I remember being super impressed."

玛利诺回忆起自己刚加入团队时对亚山世界的深深着迷。“艾万-勒布雷东和库尔特·麦克伦就是从这个世界开始的，他们还有一本精美的百科全书名为《亚山概略》（2012 年作为魔法门 25 周年纪念出版）。你或许还能在网上买到它。”她说，“这本书真的很漂亮，也是一本很棒的书。起初我就是通过它进入这个宇宙的。我还拥有库尔特·麦克伦的内部文件，那些文件就像是他们当时用来构建《魔法门》宇宙的秘密酱料配方。我记得当时令我非常惊叹。”

McClung's "secret sauces" were a set of specific rules for how content for the games should be created. "We built a crazy world, and I was the worldbuilding guy back then," McClung said. "We set it up so every faction would have an archenemy and every faction would have some allies. But even within the faction they could fight each other. So, I created this philosophical dial of the ten factions of Might & Magic, and that became our guide to help people when they were doing Duel of Champions, Clash of Heroes, and all these different spinoffs and adaptations."

麦克伦的“秘密酱料”是一套关于如何创作该游戏内容的具体规则。“我们构建了一个疯狂的世界，而那时我就是构建世界的人，”麦克伦说，“我们设定规则，让每个派系都要有一个主要敌人，也有一些盟友。但即便在同一个派系内部，他们之间也会相互争斗。所以，我为《魔法门》的十个派系创建了一个哲学性的仪表盘，这成为了我们在《冠军对决》、《英雄交锋》以及所有这些不同的衍生和改编作品中为制作者提供指导的依据。”

Above: Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes, released December 1, 2009 for the Nintendo DS, was a puzzle game which combined role-playing elements from Might & Magic with the strategic gameplay of Heroes. Set forty years before the events of both Heroes V and Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, it was the third game to feature Ubisoft's Ashan setting.

上图：《魔法门之英雄交锋》于 2009 年 12 月 1 日在任天堂 NDS 掌机上发布。这是一款结合了《魔法门》中的角色扮演元素和《英雄无敌》中的策略玩法的解谜游戏。游戏设定在《英雄无敌5》和《魔法门之黑暗弥赛亚》剧情的 40 年前，是育碧设定在亚山世界的第三款游戏。

Above: Duel of Champions was a free-to-play online strategic card game that was launched on September 13, 2012. Although additional expansion packs were released, and a sequel was discussed, the servers for the game were shut down on October 31, 2016 and the sequel was canceled.

上图：《冠军对决》是一款免费的在线策略卡牌游戏，于 2012 年 9 月 13 日推出。尽管随后发布了多个扩展包，并且曾讨论过续作事宜，但该游戏的服务器于 2016 年 10 月 31 日被关闭，且续作计划也被取消。

McClung's notes would provide an excellent philosophical roadmap for Malineau as she began the work of resetting the Heroes universe once again. Revisiting favorite characters from the past and putting a new spin on them added lots of fun to the process. "I went back to several heroes from Heroes III and spent a lot of time fleshing them out because they often had very short biographies," Malineau said. "I went back into those old campaigns and tried to figure out what their motivations were." Conversely, some characters from Ashan were repurposed to work in the rebooted universe. "It's funny, because ten seconds before we hopped on this call, I was reworking a character from Heroes V and reinventing them for the new Enroth. It's interesting because I have to separate these characters' identities and how they were imagined from the universes they were originally intended to inhabit. Then I have to ask the big questions like ‘Who are these people? What do they like? Are they good or bad?' Then I have to reimagine what the answers to those questions mean in the context of the new universe I'm putting them into."

麦克伦的笔记将为玛利诺提供一份极佳的哲学指导蓝图，去开始重新构建《英雄无敌》宇宙的工作。她重新审视了过去喜爱的角色，并为他们赋予新的特色，这为整个过程增添了诸多乐趣。“我回顾了《英雄无敌3》中的几位英雄，并花了很多时间来丰富他们的形象，因为他们的传记往往都很简短。”玛利诺说，“我重新审视了那些旧的战役，并试图弄清楚他们背后的动机是什么。”另一方面，一些来自亚山世界的角色也被重新利用，融入重新构建的宇宙中。“这很有趣，因为在我们这次通话开始的十秒钟前，我还在修改一个《英雄无敌5》角色的设定，为新的恩洛斯世界重新塑造他们。更有趣的是，我必须将这些角色的身份以及他们最初设想的形象与他们原本所应归属的宇宙区分开来。然后我还要提出一些重要的问题，比如“这些人是谁？他们喜欢什么？他们是好人还是坏人？”接着我还要重新构想这些问题的答案在放入新宇宙之后的含义。”

Although there are many characters from the Enroth era of games that Malineau likes, she admits special fondness for Mutare, an overlord who rules over a subterranean faction in the Heroes III expansion, Armageddon's Blade. "One thing I found really interesting is, among all the very overtly masculine things that appeared in '90s fantasy, the female characters of Heroes are really strong, like Queen Catherine. She's famous because she's the main character of the game, but Mutare is also really interesting because she's this super powerful overlord that wants to become a dragon. She's going to stop at nothing, and she just destroys every other overlord one after the other to achieve her goal. And I think it's super inspiring, particularly for a game of its time."

虽然玛利诺喜欢恩洛斯时代的许多角色，但她承认对《英雄无敌3》资料片《末日之刃》中的地下领主摩莉尔这个角色有着特别的喜爱。“我发现有一件非常有趣的事情，90 年代的奇幻作品中极具男性化的元素，而《英雄无敌》系列中的女性角色却非常强大，比如凯瑟琳女王。她之所以出名是因为她是游戏的主角，但摩莉尔也非常有趣，因为她是一位超级强势的地下领主，还想要变成一条龙。她将会无所畏惧地一个接一个消灭其他所有地下领主，以达成自己的目标。而我认为这具有极大的激励作用，尤其是在当时的游戏环境下。”

In her role as the narrative director, Malineau stressed that her primary responsibilities are to reimagine and build the world for the resurrected Enroth setting, and to handle any story threads that will interconnect the forthcoming Heroes titles. In particular, she has focused on reframing the deep lore, and reimagining the consequences of a cataclysmic event called the Reckoning that canonically destroyed the original Enroth setting during Heroes IV. In the meantime, she had already started to build a new world bible for Enroth that explains where the changes occurred and how they would affect the story going forward.

作为叙事总监，玛利诺强调她的主要职责是重新想像并构建重生的恩洛斯世界，并处理那些将今后推出的《英雄无敌》系列作品联系起来的故事线索。具体而言，她将专注于重新诠释深厚的历史背景，并重新构想《英雄无敌4》的原作设定中，摧毁了恩洛斯世界的那场名为“大毁灭”的灾难事件所带来的后果。与此同时，她已经开始为恩洛斯构建一部新的世界百科，以解释这些变化发生的情况以及它们将如何影响未来的故事发展。

"We will keep Enroth alive," Damian-Vernet interjected, "but we want to explore the consequences of this magical disaster. There will obviously be shifting dynamics, and it will impact all of the factions."

“我们会让恩洛斯活过去的。”达米安-韦内特插话道，“但我们想探究这场神奇灾难所带来的后果。显然，局势将会发生变化，而且这会影响到所有的派系。”

重返木头矿 - Returning to the Wood Mines

On October 7, 2021, Archon Studios declared to the world that they would be launching a Kickstarter the following year to fund Heroes of Might & Magic III: The Board Game. The announcement came as a surprise to fans because it was the first public indication that Ubisoft had plans to revive the Heroes brand after several years of dormancy.

2021 年 10 月 7 日，执政官工作室向全世界宣布，他们将于次年通过 Kickstarter 平台众筹资金用于开发《魔法门之英雄无敌3：棋盘游戏》。这一消息令粉丝们感到意外，因为这是育碧公司在多年沉寂后，首次公开表明其计划重新推出《英雄无敌》系列品牌。

In the announcement, Damian-Vernet declared, "Heroes of Might & Magic III is still the most played game in the Might & Magic series, with a very passionate and dedicated community. We are confident that the Heroes III legacy is in very good hands with Archon Studio. Not only are they one of the top specialists of miniature board games in the world, but more importantly they are authentic fans of the original game. I can't wait to see the lands of Erathia, its iconic heroes, fantastic creatures, and strategic battles come to life with superbly detailed 3D miniatures!"

在公告中，达米安-韦内特说道：“《魔法门之英雄无敌3》仍然是《魔法门》系列中最受欢迎的游戏，拥有一个热情且忠诚的玩家群体。我们坚信，《英雄无敌3》的传承交到执政官工作室手中是再合适不过的了。他们不仅是世界上微缩棋盘游戏领域的顶尖专家之一，更重要的还是，他们是原版游戏的忠实粉丝。我迫不及待地想看到埃拉西亚大陆、其标志性的英雄、奇妙的生物以及战略战斗以极其精细的3D微缩模型栩栩如生地呈现在我们面前！”

The project came about following a pitch from Archon Studios designer Jakub Olekszyk to Ubisoft. "As a company, Archon Studio is always looking for the IPs and licenses that are really close to our hearts. Heroes of Might & Magic is my all-time favorite computer game from the '90s," he said. Olekszyk wasn't alone at Archon in his sentiments. It held near-mythic stature among his countrymen, and fellow project manager Michal Tukan summed up their sentiments beautifully. "Our team is Polish, and Heroes is pretty much our national sport. If you wish to marry a girl here, you must first beat her father at Heroes."

该项目的诞生源于执政官工作室设计师雅库布·奥列克希克向育碧公司提交的一份提案。“作为一家公司，执政官工作室一直都在寻找那些深深契合我们心意的知识产权和授权许可。《魔法门之英雄无敌》是我九十年代最喜欢的电脑游戏。”他说道。在执政官工作室，持有这种看法的绝非奥列克希克一人。这款游戏在他们国家的民众中有着近乎神话般的地位，而项目经理米夏尔·图坎也恰如其分地总结了他们的想法：“我们的团队是波兰的，《英雄无敌》几乎就是我们的国技。在我们这，如果你想娶一个女孩，就得先在《英雄无敌》游戏中打败她父亲才行。”

The choice to tie the board game specifically to Heroes III came during negotiations with Ubisoft after acquiring the license. "I was in the creative meetings and negotiations and we pitched two proposals," Olekszyk said. "I'm a wholehearted fan of the originals, so the first proposal was set in Enroth, and covered Heroes I through III. Because Ubisoft hadn't made the decision yet that everything was going to be set in Enroth, I also had a proposal set in Ashan. We spent a lot of time discussing which universe we should use. In the end the Heroes brand director for Ubisoft said, 'Let's stick with Heroes III, and make your board game an homage to the original cult classic video game.' So, the plan was to stick with III's mechanics and visual aesthetics, but we also included some of the factions from the fan mod, Horn of the Abyss." The team also did their best to replicate the narratives of the original campaigns. "Our campaign for Sandro the Necromancer is maybe a little shortened," Tukan admitted, "but you still feel the flavor of the original game. It has a very similar feel to what players experienced while playing it on the PC."

在获得游戏授权并与育碧公司进行商谈之后，他们决定将这款桌游与《英雄无敌3》紧密联系起来。“我在创意会议和商谈中参与了讨论，我们定出了两个方案。”奥列克希克说，“我是前作的忠实粉丝，所以第一个方案设定在恩洛斯，涵盖了《英雄无敌》一代至三代。由于育碧当时尚未决定所有内容都将设定在恩洛斯，我还提出了一个设定在亚山世界的方案。我们花了大量时间讨论应该采用哪个宇宙。最终，育碧的《英雄无敌》品牌主管表示：‘让我们定为《英雄无敌3》吧，让你们的桌游成为对前作游戏独具特色经典的致敬之作。’因此，计划是保留《英雄无敌3》的机制和视觉风格，同时我们还融入了一些来自粉丝自制模组‘深渊号角’的派系元素。”团队还尽力重现了前作战役的叙事。“我们的亡灵巫师山德鲁战役可能稍微短了些。”图坎承认，“但你仍然能感受到游戏原作的韵味。它与玩家在电脑上玩这款游戏时所体验到的感觉非常相似。”

Winding the setting back to Enroth also meant that the designers were free to reclaim some of the light-hearted humor which was characteristic of the New World Computing era. "We've got this deck called 'Astrologers Proclaim.' The flavor text on them is mostly jokes and puns and references to pop culture. So, you'll see references to Shrek and Rocky Balboa and Coolio and lots of other things," Olekszyk said. "Also from the Wood Mine," Tukan chimed in. "In Polish fandom there's really famous professional band called the Wood Mine. That's because in one of Polish versions of Heroes III, the translators translated Sawmill into “Wood Mine”—in Polish, it sounds totally wicked. The band has all these songs with characters from Heroes and stories from it. They've got songs about war machines, ballistas, ammo carts, about the medic tent and its ability to heal only one hit point during the battle—just a lot of allusions to the game. It was Jakub's idea put these tracks from them on some of the Astrologer cards.”

将背景设定恢复到恩洛斯，也就意味着设计师们能够重新融入一些 NWC 时代所特有的轻松幽默元素。“我们有一个名为‘占星家宣布’的卡组，它们的说明文字大多是笑话、双关语以及对流行文化的引用。所以，你会看到诸如对《怪物史瑞克》、《洛奇·巴尔博亚》、库里奥以及其他许多内容的致敬。”奥列克希克说。“还有对木头矿的致敬。”图坎插话道，“在波兰的粉丝圈里，有一个非常著名的专业乐队叫做‘木头矿’。因为在《英雄无敌3》的一个波兰语版本中，翻译人员将‘锯木场’翻译成了‘木头矿’——在波兰语中，这个词听起来就很怪异。这支乐队的歌曲中包含了《英雄无敌》中的各种角色和故事。他们还有关于战争机器、弩车、补给车、急救帐篷以及吐槽其在战斗中只能恢复1生命值的歌曲——充满了对游戏的诸多影射。这些歌曲的片段被放在了一些占星家卡片上，这是雅库布的主意。”

While Heroes grew out of King's Bounty—which itself had been strongly inspired by several board games—adapting Heroes III back to a tabletop environment still required a lot of effort from Olekszyk and the rules designers at Archon. “I always tell people that tabletop gaming and video gaming are two different kinds of games. The biggest challenge was resource management. We decreased the number of resources from Heroes III from seven to only three. And the combat system was really challenging to translate.” Tukan concurred, and explained that some aspects were very difficult to translate between mediums. “Simplifying the numbers in the game was tough. In a board game, you don't have a computer making calculations for you. You can't be asking players to multiply forty-five by one hundred and sixty-one or things like that. So, simplifying it was very important.”

虽然《英雄无敌》系列源自《国王的赏金》，而《国王的赏金》本身也深受几款桌面游戏的启发，但奥列克希克和执政官公司的规则设计者们仍需要付出大量努力才能将《英雄无敌3》转化为桌面游戏。“我总是告诉人们，桌面游戏和电子游戏是两种不同的游戏类型。最大的挑战在于资源管理。我们在《英雄无敌3》中设定的七种资源数量减少到了仅三种。而战斗系统要转变过来确实颇具挑战性。”图坎表示赞同，并解释说有些内容在不同媒介之间的转换非常困难：“在游戏中简化数字是个难题。在棋盘游戏中，你没有电脑为你进行计算。你不能要求玩家去计算 45 乘以 161 这样的东西。所以，简化这部分内容非常重要。”

Apportioning abilities to units was another feature that required careful insight. “There are a lot of cards,” Tukan said, “and when you have a lot of creatures to describe with a lot of different skills, it's difficult to manage. Players have to understand how these things work based on what's on the card and the simple rules in the rules book. For example, in the PC version of the game, there are a few dragons that have a magic immunity ability. In our game, we decided to only give this ability to some of them. Black dragons get magic immunity, but gold dragons don't. Instead, gold dragons get splash damage because of their fire breath, and black dragons don't get that.”

将能力分配给各个单位也是需要深思熟虑的一项特性。“这里有很多卡牌，”图坎说道，“当你需要用多种不同的技能来描述众多生物时，就很难进行管理了。玩家必须根据卡牌上的内容以及规则手册中的简单规则来理解这些事物是如何运作的。例如，在这款游戏的电脑版中，有一些龙具有魔法免疫能力。而在我们的游戏中，我们决定只将这种能力赋予其中的一部分龙。黑龙具有魔法免疫能力，但金龙则没有。相反，金龙由于其喷火的能力会给予溅射伤害，而黑龙则不能给予这种伤害。”

From concept to release, Heroes of Might & Magic III: The Board Game would take three years for Archon to complete, aided by one hundred and fifty designers, artists, and play testers to get the game over the finish line. Despite the complexity of the task, the team from Poland managed to replicate the gameplay and vibes of one of the most beloved strategy games of all time. Olekszyk is justifiably proud of what they were able to accomplish. “In general, I'm still pretty satisfied with the final outcome.”

从构思到发布，执政官工作室耗时三年才完成了《魔法门之英雄无敌3：棋盘游戏》，期间有 150 名设计师、艺术家和玩家测试员的共同努力，才让这款游戏得以问世。尽管任务十分艰巨，但来自波兰的团队还是成功地重现了这一有史以来最受欢迎的策略游戏的玩法和氛围。奥列克希克对他们的成就感到由衷的自豪：“总的来说，我对最终的结果还是很满意的。”

ABOVE: Heroes of Might & Magic III: The Board Game was released in 2024.

上图：《魔法门之英雄无敌3：棋盘游戏》于 2024 年发行。

A year after my first chat with Ubisoft, I was on another international group call, this time around with Unfrozen, the developers behind the upcoming Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era. On the line I had Unfrozen's CEO Denis Fedorov, Game Director Leonid Parmenov, and their translator Katharina Viveros Shevchuk who was responsible for both the game's lore and localization. I was lucky to have caught them, because they were still knees-deep in getting their game ready for its Early Access release on Steam in just a few months.

在上次与育碧公司首次直接对话的一年后，我又参加了一次国际电话会议，这次是与 Unfrozen —— 即将推出《魔法门之英雄无敌：上古纪元》的开发商进行的。电话那头坐着 Unfrozen 的首席执行官丹尼斯·费多罗夫、游戏总监列昂尼德·帕梅诺夫，以及他们的翻译卡塔琳娜·维维罗斯·舍夫丘克，她还负责游戏的背景故事和本地化工作。我很幸运能与他们取得联系，因为他们当时仍忙于为这款游戏在几个月后在 Steam 上的抢先体验版做准备。

The new game had been in production for almost four years, but fans had only known about it since its announcement at Gamescom in August 2024. The reactions to the game's trailers had been stellar, and there was a palpable feeling in the community that this, at last, might be the successor that everyone had been waiting for since the release of Heroes III. The graphics were certainly amazing, and some fans were optimistically making the case that Olden Era might be the game that could "save" the Heroes of Might & Magic franchise.

这款新游戏的开发工作已经持续了将近四年，但粉丝们直到 2024 年 8 月在科隆游戏展上得知其消息才开始关注它。对于游戏预告片的反响非常热烈，游戏社区中弥漫着一种强烈的期待感，认为这终于可能是自《英雄无敌3》发布以来大家一直期盼的接班之作。游戏的画面确实非常出色，一些粉丝满怀信心地认为《上古纪元》可能会成为拯救《魔法门之英雄无敌》系列的那款游戏。

The most striking aspect of this production—beyond the obvious eye candy—was that the game had been developed with a keen awareness of all the titles that have preceded it in a post-Twitch streamer era. Its creators have paid very careful attention to how players have interacted with the different versions of the game, and they've made a number of modifications to ensure that Olden Era would be a viable eSports platform. "Lately, I've been watching a lot of the professionals on Twitch and YouTube," Parmenov said. "There are a lot of Heroes players, but they play in very unusual ways, and it's interesting to see how they approach it. I don't think the original designers could have imagined how the game is played today."

这部作品最引人注目的地方——除了那些显而易见的视觉元素之外——在于其开发过程中充分考虑到了在“ Twitch 游戏主播时代”之前已经出现过的所有同类游戏。其开发者非常注重玩家对不同版本游戏的互动方式，并为此做出了多项修改，以确保《上古纪元》能够成为一款可行的电子竞技平台。帕梅诺夫说：“最近，我一直在观看 Twitch 和 YouTube 上的许多专业玩家的直播。有很多《英雄无敌》玩家，但他们的游戏方式非常独特，看他们是如何进行游戏的真是很有意思。我认为最初的设计师们不可能想象到如今这款游戏的玩法会是这样的。”

CEO Fedorov agreed with his game director and underlines the point. "From our first project, Iratus: Lord of the Dead, we learned how important it was to communicate with the community. We listened to their feedback about what things were missing from our games, and what they wanted to see. We have the same philosophy on this project. We're constantly checking in to learn from the best possible teachers, the streamers who are always playing the game. We also have a few streamers on our team, some of whom are pretty famous Heroes III tournament champions, and they are working on the game as full-time employees."

首席执行官费多罗夫赞同他的游戏总监的观点，并进一步强调了这一点：“从我们的首个项目《伊拉图斯：死之主》开始，我们就认识到与玩家群体进行沟通是多么重要。我们倾听了他们对于游戏中缺失的内容以及他们希望看到的内容的反馈。在本项目中，我们秉持同样的理念。我们不断与最优秀的导师——那些一直在玩这类游戏的主播们——保持沟通，以汲取最佳经验。我们团队中也有几位主播，其中一些是著名的《英雄无敌3》锦标赛冠军，他们作为全职员工正在参与这款游戏的开发工作。”

Plans to create a new entry in the Heroes franchise hatched soon after Unfrozen completed development of Iratus. Many Unfrozen staffers were hardcore fans of the series and had long dreamed of working in the Might & Magic universe. Along with several other studios, they responded to Ubisoft's call for pitches and submitted a prototype. After several rounds of negotiations and tweaks to their submission, they at last proved that they would be worthy of carrying the banner for a new generation of players.

在 Unfrozen 完成了对《伊拉图斯》的开发之后不久，就提出了创作《英雄无敌》新作的计划。Unfrozen 的许多员工都是该系列的忠实粉丝，并且一直梦想着能为《魔法门》的宇宙工作。他们与其他几家工作室一起响应了育碧的号召，提交了方案并制作了原型。经过几轮谈判以及对其提交内容的多次修改，他们最终证明自己完全有资格为新一代玩家高举旗帜。

Unfrozen's pitch was to create an "indie" version of Heroes, made by fans for fans. In many ways their pitch echoed the approach made by Julien Pirou and the developers at Limbic Entertainment for Might & Magic X. As at Limbic, the team at Unfrozen was hugely multinational, but thanks to the power of teleconferencing software they were scattered around the globe rather than being co-located in a central office. "I'm in Spain," Fedorov revealed. "We have people in England, some people in Cyprus, some in Serbia, and some even in Uzbekistan." The company originally occupied brick-and-mortar offices, but Covid changed all of that.

Unfrozen 的宣传理念是打造一款“独立制作”的《英雄无敌》游戏，由粉丝为粉丝开发。在很多方面，他们的宣传理念与朱利安·皮乌、以及 Limbic 娱乐公司的开发团队在制作《魔法门10》时采取的策略如出一辙。与 Limbic 一样，Unfrozen 团队的成员来自世界各地，但由于远程会议软件的强大功能，他们并非集中在一个中心办公室，而是真正分散在全球各地。费多罗夫透露：“我在西班牙。我们的员工一些在英国，一些在塞浦路斯，一些在塞尔维亚，甚至还有人在乌兹别克斯坦。”该公司最初也拥有实体办公场所，但新冠疫情改变了这一切。

As with millions of others around the world, the switch to remote work was initially a significant adjustment for the team, but in the long run the Olden Era developers found that the new workflow meshed with Unfrozen's shared cultural sensibilities. "Most of us are kind of introverts, and we work better from home. I know it's a challenge for a lot of studios, but for us it was beneficial. Without all the stress of commuting, office routines, and bureaucracy, we're able to get a lot more done. And our people don't need, you know, big brother keeping an eye on them all the time. We can afford this because we're essentially an indie studio. People are here because they're passionate about the work, and they're loyal. They're not going anywhere."

和全球数以百万计的其他人一样，团队成员最初对转变为远程工作感到相当不适应，但从长远来看，《上古纪元》开发团队发现新的工作方式与 Unfrozen 工作室的共同文化理念十分契合。“我们大多数人都比较内向，居家办公对我们更有利。我知道这对很多工作室来说是个挑战，但对我们而言却是有益的。没有通勤的压力、办公室的常规流程以及官僚作风，我们能够完成更多的工作。而且我们的员工不需要……你知道的，总是有‘老大哥’盯着他们。我们能够做到这一点是因为我们本质上是一家独立工作室。人们在这里是因为他们对工作充满热情，并且很忠诚。他们不会离开的。”

ABOVE: The continent of Jadame from the forthcoming Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era.

上图：即将推出的《魔法门英雄无敌：上古纪元》中的贾达姆大陆。

From the project's inception, the team made clear that while it is set in the same universe as Heroes II and III, and while it shares many of the same mechanics with those games, Olden Era was neither a reboot, nor a remaster, nor a sequel to Heroes III. It would not bear a number, and notably the series would be called Heroes of Might & Magic once again, rather than the Might & Magic Heroes title inversion that was imposed during the Ashan era.

自该项目启动之初，团队就明确表示，尽管《上古纪元》设定与《英雄无敌》二代和三代处于同一宇宙之中，且与这两部游戏在机制上有很多相似之处，但它既不是《英雄无敌3》的重启版，也不是重制版，更不是它的续作。它不会带有编号，而且值得注意的是，该系列将再次被称为《魔法门之英雄无敌》，而不是在亚山世界时代所采用的“魔法门英雄无敌”这种重置的名称。

Olden Era is set on the continent of Jadame, which was last seen in Might & Magic VIII: Day of the Destroyer. The developers had also hinted in public interviews that a few familiar faces might turn up, especially considering that the continent is dominated by some long-lived races.

《上古纪元》的故事背景设定在贾达密大陆，该大陆曾出现在《魔法门8：毁灭者之日》中。开发团队在公开访谈中也曾暗示，可能会有一些熟悉的角色登场，尤其是考虑到这片大陆上存在着一些长寿的种族。

For his own part, Fedorov was happy to be playing in the narrative sandbox of the original games. "I really liked Heroes V, VI, and VII, and the stories of the Ashan universe were interesting, but as an old-school gamer and a fan, I wanted to return to Enroth, and I'm happy that's the setting that Ubisoft has chosen to take us back to." The lore, as with all of the Heroes products of this era, would be driven by the IP team at Ubisoft, and Fedorov indicates that he's pleased to have them coordinate things externally. "They've given us a lot of creative freedom, and we've got lore experts within Unfrozen who have a very deep understanding of all the old stories, but the brand team at Ubisoft really respect the legacy of what was done before."

就费多罗夫个人而言，他很高兴能进入到前作游戏的叙事场景中来：“我非常喜欢《英雄无敌》系列的五、六、七代，亚山宇宙的故事也很有趣，但作为一名老玩家和粉丝，我希望能回到恩洛斯，所以我很高兴育碧选择了让我们回到这个设定。”与这一时期的所有《英雄无敌》系列产品一样，其背景故事将由育碧的 IP 团队来主导，而费多罗夫表示，他很高兴能让他们在外部协调相关事宜。“他们给了我们很大的创作自由，我们 Unfrozen 中也有了解这些古老故事的背景专家，他们有着非常深入的研究，但育碧的品牌团队真的非常尊重之前作品的传承。”

Katharina Viveros Shevchuk, Unfrozen's editor-in-chief, coordinates all of the Olden Era lore for the developer. She revealed she's glad to have Ubisoft involved in their process. "They're not preventing us from doing anything we want to do, but making sure we don't do anything that's unnatural or just stupid for the universe. They watch very attentively to make sure that we're consistent. We've got a team of writers who have been given a lot of creative freedom and sometimes they'll say 'I've got this awesome idea' and want to do something, but not understand why it won't fit organically into the Might & Magic universe. That's usually when I step in to ask the brand team if there's a way to implement what the writers are pitching, and then they'll usually come back and either find a way to make it fit or suggest something else we can do that fits with the old lore."

卡塔琳娜·维维罗斯·舍夫丘克是 Unfrozen 的首席编剧，她负责代表开发团队协调整个《上古纪元》的背景故事。她表示很高兴能有育碧参与他们的制作过程。“他们不会阻止我们做任何想做的事情，但会确保我们不会对这个宇宙做出任何不自然或者简直愚蠢的事。他们监管非常认真，以确保我们的内容保持一致。我们有一支拥有极大创作自由的写作团队，有时他们会说：‘我有了一个很棒的想法！’然后想要付诸实践，但不明白为什么它将无法自然地融入《魔法门》的宇宙之中。这时通常我会介入，询问品牌团队是否有办法将作者们提出的创意付诸实施，然后他们通常会回复说，要么找到了一种使其自然融入的方法，要么提出一些与原有故事背景相契合的新方案。”

As the narrative designers immersed themselves in the story, Game Director Parmenov busied himself by analyzing the history of the franchise's mechanics. "Heroes is very complex, and consists of many, many parts, so we studied every previous game thoroughly and split them into their components. Our first task was to triage all these pieces and decide what we wanted to keep, what we wanted to improve, and what needed to be removed. That process allowed us to get a new perspective on the game and how it's been perceived by the players. We also saw what things were missing and needed to be added to the experience."

当叙事设计师们沉浸在故事之中时，游戏总监帕梅诺夫则忙于研究该游戏系列机制的历史。“《英雄无敌》非常复杂，包含了很多很多的部分，所以我们仔细研究之前的每一款游戏，并将其分解成各个组成部分。我们的首要任务是对所有这些部分进行分类，决定哪些我们要保留，哪些我们要改进，哪些需要删除。这个过程让我们对这款游戏以及玩家们对它的看法有了全新的认识。我们还发现了哪些东西是缺失的，需要添加到体验中去。”

One of Parmenov's foremost concerns was that in the past, factions had too few differences between them. He felt this resulted in play experiences that were sometimes too homogenous, so choosing to play a hero from one faction instead of another seemed to have little impact on the strategic choices available to the player. "One of our goals was to make the factions more unique and different from one another," he said. "We wanted to make your choices more meaningful and impactful in terms of how you play." As a result, in Olden Era, players will now get the option of choosing from among different Faction Laws which can provide bonuses ranging from economic buffs to combat enhancements. "For example, if you play Necropolis as a Necromancer, you can pick a Law that will force every battle you engage in to happen on the necro terrain. That's just one of several different kinds of Laws you can pick from."

帕梅诺夫最为关注的一个问题是：在过去，各个派系之间的差异太过微小。他认为这导致游戏体验有时过于单一，因此选择扮演某一派系而非其他派系的英雄，似乎对玩家可做出的战略选择影响甚微。他说：“我们的目标之一是让各个派系更加独特且彼此之间差异显著。我们希望让玩家的选择在游戏中的意义和影响力更强，从而影响他们的游戏方式。” 因此，在《上古纪元》中，玩家现在将能够在不同的派系律法之间选择，并因此获得从经济加成到战斗强化等的多种奖励。“例如，如果你玩的是墓园的亡灵巫师，那么你可以选择一个律法（死亡之地），它会强制你在每一场战斗中都于亡灵地形上进行。而这只是你可选择的多种不同律法中的一种。”

The implementation of these Laws in the game were just one of the tools that Unfrozen employed to differentiate unique playstyles from one another, and Olden Era from earlier entries in the series. "You can't expect players to keep doing the same things over and over for thirty years," Fedorov said. "At times we have had to make Solomonic decisions about what we cut and what we keep, and that extends to what factions we've chosen. Necropolis and Dungeon are very well known to players, but we're also adding new factions that have never been in the game before. And that's also the way that we're planning to do with the DLCs. We'll add factions that are well known to players, but also factions that we've created from scratch, or some pieces of lore that are completely new."

这些律法在游戏中的实施只是 Unfrozen 团队用来区分出与其他游戏相比的独特游戏风格（以及区别与该系列前作）的手段之一。“你不能指望玩家在三十年的时间里一直重复做同样的事情。”费多罗夫说，“有时我们对于要删减的内容和要保留的内容不得不做出艰难的抉择，这也包括我们要选择的派系。墓园和地下城对玩家来说非常熟悉，但我们还将加入一些此前从未出现在游戏中的新派系。它们也是我们计划会在资料片里加入的。我们会加入玩家熟知的派系，同时也会加入我们全新创造的派系，或者一些全新的故事情节内容。

Along with the Faction Law system, Olden Era introduces several other new features. The game includes an enhanced one-click matchmaking system for multiplayer that matches players with opponents of the same skill level without necessitating a long search process. Other multiplayer systems were enhanced as well. “One of the biggest and most important challenges was creating a good random map generator,” Fedorov said. “This is really critical for both multiplayer and the PVE players. It can be tough to satisfy both, but it was important to us to create a proper matchmaking system. Every tournament organizer has asked for changes and improvements of these kinds, and for a networking solution that lets the game run smoothly and without lag. It was pretty challenging.”

除了派系律法系统之外，《上古纪元》还引入了其他一些新功能，比如为多人游戏引入了增强型一键匹配系统。该系统能够根据玩家的技能水平为他们匹配相当的对手，而无需过长时间的搜索。得到增强的还有其他一些多人游戏功能。“而最大也是最重要的挑战之一，就是开发一个出色的随机地图生成器，”费多罗夫说，“这对多人游戏和单机游戏玩家来说都至关重要。要同时满足这两类玩家的需求确实很难，但对我们来说，创建一个合适的匹配系统也是很重要的。每个赛事组织者都要求对这类内容进行修改和改进，并寻求一种能让游戏流畅运行且无延迟的网络解决方案。这确实很有挑战性。”

Of course, no version of Heroes is truly complete without a community map editor, and Parmenov was proud of the work that's been done on theirs. “The players will be able to create all possible—well maybe not all possible—but a lot of possible scenarios. We've spent a lot of time and attention on this. It's going to have its own script system, so you'll be able to create not just simple, basic scenarios, but also complex chains of dialogue, quests, and hopefully even full campaigns.”

当然，如果没有社区地图编辑器，任何版本的《英雄无敌》都无法称得上是完整的。帕梅诺夫对他们所完成的工作感到非常自豪。“玩家将能够创建所有可能的——好吧，也许不是所有可能的，但会有很多可能的场景。我们在这上面投入了大量的时间和精力。它将拥有自己的脚本系统，因此玩家不仅可以创建简单的基本场景，还可以创建复杂的对话链、任务，甚至有望创建完整的战役。”

When comparing Olden Era with the earliest games in the franchise, Fedorov appreciates the series' origins while celebrating the improvements that have been made to the games over the years. “The developers of Heroes II and Heroes III were geniuses. They built a core game loop that is quite strong, and it explains why these games are still popular and still played by such a large community. The base mechanics are good, and it's important that we not change too much. We want to preserve the good things properly and keep the players satisfied. But at the same time, we have to acknowledge the original developers had limited time, limited budgets, and the technical restrictions of the era. There were things they weren't able to implement, but thanks to the passage of thirty years, things are different for us. We can look back and see what can be improved based on the realities of the modern day, on the modern behaviors and habits. We have our own engineers, our own code, and we don't have those same limitations. We have unlimited possibilities.”

当将《上古纪元》与该系列的早期游戏进行比较时，费多罗夫既欣赏该系列的起源，又对多年来游戏所取得的进步表示赞赏。“《英雄无敌2》和《英雄无敌3》的开发者都是天才，他们构建了一个非常强大的核心游戏循环，这解释了为什么这些游戏仍然受欢迎，并且仍然有庞大的玩家群体在玩。它们的基础机制很好，这些关键我们不能做出太多改变。我们希望恰当处理并保留好的东西，让玩家感到满意。但与此同时，我们也必须承认，最初的开发者们所拥有的时间有限、预算有限，而且受限于那个时代的技术条件，有些东西他们无法实现。但三十多年过去了，对我们来说情况已经不同了。我们可以回顾过去，根据现代的实际情况、现代的行为和习惯来审视哪些方面可以改进。我们有自己的工程师、自己的代码，而且我们没有那些类似的限制。我们有着无限的可能性。”

In the thirty years since the original Heroes was released, the game has passed through many, many hands. It has been reinterpreted through the lens of different cultures and different generations, each of whom have attempted to make the game their own. Regardless of their graphical presentation or narrative setting, the games have always managed to capture the imagination of their fans and kept them riveted with wonder. Though every single designer who has ever touched it can rattle off a list of features, factions, and plot points, they are hard pressed to put their fingers on exactly why this particular blend of strategy and role-playing has continued to keep players coming back time and time again. Heroes seems to be ageless and immortal. In this, its anniversary year, we should give thanks to all of the heroes behind Heroes who made this series such a beloved part of our lives. Cheers to them, to Enroth, to Ashan, and everyone who has ever played these games that we hold so dear.

自《英雄无敌》第一部游戏首次发布以来的三十年间，它已历经众多版本的更迭。它被不同文化背景和不同年代的人们以各自独特的视角重新诠释，每一代人都试图让这款游戏成为属于自己的作品。无论其画面呈现方式还是叙事背景如何，这些游戏始终能够激发粉丝们的想象力，并让他们为之深深着迷。尽管每一个曾参与过这款游戏设计的设计师都能列举出一系列的特色、派系和情节要点，但他们却很难确切说出这种策略与角色扮演的完美结合为何能一次次地吸引玩家的回归。《英雄无敌》似乎没有年龄的限制，也永不会过时。在这个周年纪念之年，我们应该感谢《英雄无敌》背后的每一位英雄，是他们让这个系列成为了我们生活中备受喜爱的一部分。为他们、为恩洛斯、为亚山，以及所有曾经玩过我们如此珍视的这些游戏的人们干杯！