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论述策略游戏包含的8大杰出功能

作者:Troy Goodfellow

下文是策略游戏的8大杰出功能。不是所有游戏都需融入这些内容,但这些是吸引我眼球的元素。(请点击此处扩展阅读:列举策略游戏或让玩家反感的8种设计

Empire Earth III from geforce.com

Empire Earth III from geforce.com

1. 随机地图——这点对我来说非常重要。虽然《命令与征服3》之类的游戏包含众多地图,或者《地球帝国III》等游戏设有优美地图,但这些都比不上随机性,虽然这更多像是《帝国时代》中的模式随机性。《文明》游戏、《帝国主义》或《战斗任务》存在的一大优点是,你无法知晓自己即将探寻的内容。若你制作的是款历史战斗游戏,或是大型策略游戏,这显然缺乏可行性,但随机地图确实会给原本略显呆板的游戏带来持久生命力。

2. 翻转工具提示——这是非常重要的界面创新。我们没有理由不融入此元素。它们能够起到指导效果,提供屏幕视觉内容以外的信息。这些工具可令玩家无需查看指南或在线百科全书。

3. 清晰图解——这是另一界面元素,但屏幕所呈现的元素应保持相同。若你融入英雄元素,确保其突出呈现(游戏邦注:如《Rise of Legends》)。为什么我总是把自己的小型骑兵和枪骑兵混淆起来,或是把弓箭手和杰出弓箭手混淆起来?NATO符号的优点在于,你总能够知晓各单元的具体类型。玩家不会将机动式的大炮和盔甲混淆起来。《地球帝国III》采用夸张的动画式单元,旨在避免这种情况(该游戏的第二个系列存在此问题)。有人觉得这是个失误;但我觉得这种做法很好。

4. 多种有效初始选择——你无法真正消除“构建顺序”心理,但你可以采取措施消除这所带来的影响(游戏邦注:通过不在游戏初始要求所有玩家都进行相同操作)。套用Geryk法则:“若你制作的是二战题材的游戏,游戏包含入侵法国的唯一最佳方式,那么你就应该在入侵法国后开始游戏。”关于这点,我们能够采取的一个策略是确保游戏各方的表现截然不同(如《Age of Mythology》和《Rise of Legends》),因为这令我们需要重新评估在地图中遇到的对象。另一方式就是提供适用于各类玩家的多种玩法(如《Europa Universalis》和《文明》)。若你发现所有测试者都以几乎相同的方式开始游戏,也许你就需要重新考虑设计。

5. 分层策略元素——这不适合RTS和战争游戏,但对有关4x的内容来说必不可少。我这里的意思是游戏包含不止一组的爱/恨,和平/战争关系。若和平和战争是可选项,那么游戏应该允许玩家准备战争,在和平阶段放松自己。战争不应莫名其妙地出现;若游戏突然呈现战争内容,要立即说明其中原因。充满矛盾元素的游戏在此表现突出,《文明IV》也非常不错。而《帝国主义》在此的表现则非常惨淡,游戏融入相当简单的策略机制。Slitherine的大型策略游戏在此也是惨不忍睹。《Total War》游戏在策略方面略显武断,其制造战争的原因只是不想玩家太过轻松地获胜。

6. 真正的超级武器——这主要针对RTS玩家。我喜欢超级武器。但它们不应只是技术层面上的最大型武器,而应具有活动性,不应只是结合4-5个正常单位的威力。玩家应无法轻松获得这些武器,但若他们愿意掏钱,就能够随意摧毁其他游戏物件。

7. 包含恢复期的非一次性特殊能量——这是另一RTS元素,有点像《神话时代》中的超级武器:泰坦巨神。一次性能量存在的问题是(游戏邦注:就如《AoM》多数竞赛所存在的问题),你得承受未能派上用场的风险。总体来说,保护和射击之间的紧张氛围是非常巧妙的设计,除非你过早射出Zeus的闪电球,这样强大魔法就会消失。扩张赋予Atlantis无穷尽的能量及恢复期。《帝国时代III》让你能够在最后阶段更新若干卡片,这是很好的折中方案。如今恢复期已似乎已变成游戏设计法则。

8. TCP/IP和LAN连接——我清楚运用Gamespy或EAOnline等网络多人平台的益处所在。它令社区凝聚起来,能够轻松追踪玩家数据。但应确保TCP/IP和LAN具有可行性,而不是可能性。我常发现自己难以访问支持TCP/IP技术的游戏,这令我怀疑这些游戏究竟有无经过合理测试。但游戏不妨提供LAN或直接网络连接,因为用户常常会忘记登陆密码。

游戏邦注:原文发布于2007年8月8日,文章叙述以当时为背景。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转载,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

The Eight Greatest Features

by Troy Goodfellow

Juuso at Gameproducer.net has just posted what he thinks are the 7 greatest things you can put in a game that would appeal to him. It’s a fairly wide ranging list, but I’d collapse his number 6 (reflective water) and 7 (details), since, for me, reflective water is a little detail. It’s nice, sure and adds reality to the unreal. But it’s not like it serves much purpose beyond that, just like his theoretical flocks of birds.

He asked others to write their seven greatest features, and, since I won’t be blogging for a couple of days, I thought I’d throw this out there for discussion.

Here are my eight greatest features for strategy games. Not every game needs to have all of these, but they are things that appeal to me. Why eight? Because I had seven but thought of another one and didn’t want to remove any of the others.

1. Random maps – This is huge for me. Even if you have a lot of maps like Command & Conquer 3 or really pretty maps like Empire Earth III, nothing beats randomness, even if it is patterned randomness like you find in Age of Empires. One of the great strengths of the Civ games, Imperialism or Combat Mission is that you never quite know what you are going to find. Sure, this isn’t really feasible if you are doing an historic battle or even some grand strategy games, but random maps add longevity to otherwise pedestrian games.

2. Rollover Tooltips – These is the most important interface innovation ever. There’s really no excuse not to use them. They can serve instructional purposes or provide detailed information beyond what’s visible on screen. They free the player from having to look for things in the manual or the online encyclopedia. Games that don’t use them start with a count of 0-2.

3. Clear Iconography – Okay, this is another interface thing, but stuff on screen shouldn’t look like other different stuff on the same screen. If you have hero units, make them stand out, like in Rise of Legends. And there’s no need to be subtle here, Creative Assembly, all right? Why the hell am I always mixing up my skirmish cavalry and my lancers, or my archers and my really good archers? The great thing about the NATO symbology is you always know what unit type is what. There’s no chance of mixing up your self-propelled artillery and your armor. Empire Earth III has moved to exaggerated, cartoonish units to get away from this sort of crap – it plagued the second game in the series. Some people think this is a mistake; I think it’s brilliant.

4. Multiple Valid Starting Options – You can’t really eliminate the “build order” mentality, but you can do a lot to reduce its influence by not forcing the same moves on everyone the moment the game opens. To quote one of the Laws of Geryk, “If you are making a game of World War II and there is one single best way to invade France, you should just start the game after the invasion of France.” One way to do this is to make each side in a game radically different (Age of Mythology, Rise of Legends) since this forces re-evaluation based on who you are facing on which map. Another way is to make different kinds of play immediately possible and viable for different sorts of players (Europa Universalis, Civilization). If you find all your beta testers start a game in exactly the same way, maybe you should rethink the design a little.

5. Layered Diplomacy – This doesn’t work for RTS and Wargames, but is necessary for anything approaching 4x. What I mean here is more than a love/hate, peace/war relationship. If peace and war are options, then preparation for war and relaxation during peace should be possible. War should rarely just pop out of nowhere; if there is a sudden declaration of war it should be immediately obvious why it happened. The Paradox games do this well, Civ IV does it well. Imperialism got it cold with a really simple diplomatic system. The Slitherine grand strategy games failed miserably on this level. The Total War games often seem arbitrary in their diplomatic side, creating wars just to keep you from winning another one too easily. (Yeah, yeah, balance of power. But three province Pontus doesn’t care about Carthage.)

6. Real Superweapons – This is for the RTS people. I love superweapons. But they have to be more than just the biggest weapon on the end of the tech tree. They should take effort to mobilize and then be more than a match for any four or five normal units. The effort involved should be enough to make rushing for them prohibitive, but if you are willing and able to make that investment, you should be able to just stomp things.

7. Special Powers with Cool downs, not one shots – Another RTS thing, and learned, like superweapons, from Age of Mythology: The Titans. The problem with one shot powers, like most of the races in AoM had, is that you run the risk of never using them. The tension between conservation and firing away is a good one, in principle, but if you fire too soon with Zeus’ lightning bolt, for example, that’s pretty much it. A powerful spell is gone. The expansion gave Atlantis powers with limited uses and a cool down period. Age of Empires III lets you refresh some cards in the final age, a fine compromise. Cool downs seem to be design law now, so hopefully the one and done is gone.

8. TCP/IP and LAN Connection – I understand the appeal of using proprietary internet multiplayer lobbies like Gamespy or EAOnline. It keeps a community together, makes it easier to track numbers of players and get ladders going. But please make TCP/IP and LAN not just possible but feasible. Considering how much difficulty I often have even getting a TCP/IP game going in those titles that support it, I wonder if it’s even tested properly. But let me LAN or do a direct internet connection. Because I always forget my login password.(Source:flashofsteel


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