The words of James Whitston, designer on Empire Total War at The Creative Assembly. s/ L5 I" m0 O
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My name is James Whitston and I'm a designer at the Creative Assembly's UK office where we're currently working on Empire: Total War, the latest in the epic series of Total War games.
: R$ Y& F9 T# \: Z: _我叫JAMES WHITSTON，是个CA英国办公室的设计师，目前在为全战史诗系列中的帝国这款游戏工作。
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Previous Total War games have always boasted a broad array of units, each lovingly crafted and with its own strengths and weaknesses. Every unit is in turn part of a wider roster unique to each faction, providing flavour and reflecting the different historical styles of waging total war. This is something which we've taken the greatest pains to carry over to the naval side of things.
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之前的全战游戏中总有很全面的兵种，每个都精心设计并有着自己的优缺点。每个国家或家族的单位都有一堆独特的属性，他们在游戏时候提供了不同的效果从而改变了“历史”的发展。这次，我们花了巨大的努力将这些单位特性也到带到了海战环节。
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Step one was to get a feel for the ships of the period and their general capabilities. Even at this early stage, the engine was a complex beast and we were able to simulate the whole range of handling characteristics from the fast and nimble little sloop, able to out-sail almost anything into a wind, to the ponderous first rate line of battle ship, a mobile artillery battery which is happiest with the wind blowing on its rear quarter.
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/ s# n) k+ ^- m第一步是要对那时代的船只和他们的总体属性有点了解。甚至在那个时代的前期，引擎也是一个复杂的怪兽。我们能模拟整个操作感，不论从快而敏捷的小舟，到全部依靠风力的海船，再到笨重的战船。一艘带移动火炮的战船往往更需要风力在它的后1/4部分助力。
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4 ~7 O! M% f1 pNext came the flavour element: what differentiated French ships from British ones? What differences were there between Spanish vessels and those of the Ottomans with whom they shared the Mediterranean, and so on. As fans would expect, we spent a lot of time on research .
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设计帝国有趣的元素还在于：怎么区别法国和英国船只？共用地中海的西班牙和土耳其船只之间有什么不同？等等。象FANS期望的那样，我们花了很多时间研究这些。
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# {/ D. D% n* y- K0 iWe examined naval engagements from various points in our period, looking at the tactics used and the wider factors behind those tactics. This began to reveal general trends in the shipbuilding policies of different nations. For example, Britain's strategy was to project its power at sea through weight of numbers, so it tended to build strong ships which could remain at sea for long periods without falling to bits . Currently there are almost 50 ships up and running, with many more in the pipeline.
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0 I, x2 A4 D% z: x0 W$ I我从我们时代的不同角度对比了海战方面。关注战争的战术，以及战术之后的各种原因。开始有点明白了为什么各国家造船方针的不同趋势。比如，英国的战略是增加船体重量增加战斗力，他们倾向造巨舰来保证安全，能留在海上更长时间.目前我们已经完成的超过50种船只，更多类型仍在准备中。
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8 i: ~% z- O$ A5 G( M, m. cWhilst all of this goes on, new features are steadily being added to the battles. Total War's land battle engine is a mature thing which has evolved and improved steadily across several releases. In short, we know how to do amazing land battles. The naval side of things is totally new though and we don't just want it to be 'ok': it has to be great fun to play, accessible and totally absorbing, every bit the equal of our land battles and campaigns. We've got a lot of great ideas, and there's an element of trial and error as we feel our way forwards, but it's already amazing.
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这些在进行的同时，我们仍有条不紊的在战争中加入新特点。全战中的陆战引擎经过多版本革新和进步已经比较成熟。简单的说，我们知道怎么让陆战做的令人惊讶。而海战是全新的，我们的要求不仅是“OK”，我们希望大家有极大的乐趣去玩海战，易上手、很吸引人，完全配地上我们的陆战和战略层面。我们有了些想法，也有了些测试和错误，但实际上它已经很不错了。
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8 l" P+ E5 L( g# I# w5 F6 IThis week the code governing dismasting and sail damage went in. Until now, fleets tended to have fairly straightforward fights, exchanging broadsides of round shot in an attempt to sink each other. Now I can order my fleet to load chain shot designed to cripple the enemy's masts, sails and rigging. Once they're helpless I can come in close to hammer the crew with grapeshot from a safe angle. Or I can position my ship across their bows from where I can fire murderous broadsides of round shot through the timbers and along the length of the gundeck within, turning it into a slaughterhouse. The amount of evil cackling which can be heard around the office at the moment seems to confirm that people enjoy this sort of thing!
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- q& X2 f8 m u+ K# e; t本周在编写关于折断船上的桅杆以及破坏船帆程序。直到现在，舰队才可能公平的战斗，交换船身，齐射试图把对方打沉。现在，我在让我的战船安装上“链锁弹”来干掉敌船的桅杆、船帆和绳索，这样一旦敌船因此慢下来，我能近距离找个安全角度，用葡萄弹轰击他们的水手。或者把我的船横放在敌船的船首，从那里我船侧致命的轮射将沿着敌船的轴线射入炮仓，立即把那里变成屠宰场。“邪恶”的笑声此刻在我们全办公室此起彼伏，大家喜欢类似的事情。
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So, what does it look like then? Simply jaw-dropping. The artists, coders and animators here at Creative Assembly are the best there is at what they do, but they've somehow gone way, way beyond anything even they've achieved before. Cannons, fire, smoke, flying splinters, wreckage, magazine explosions; you name it, it's there and it looks incredible.
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那么，这看起来到底象什么？就象下巴掉下来。CA最好的艺术家、程序员、动画师在这里，但他们已经都不在状态，因为他们已经超越了他们之前能达到的水平。炮、射击、烟雾、碎片、遇难、火药爆炸都很难以置信。
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All of these ingredients are coming together nicely now. The naval battles are really shaping up as an awesome new facet to Total War's traditional line-up of epic campaigns and land battles.
. b& {9 R( o' s* G, k7 F所有要素现在正在很好的拼在一起。海战的顺利发展将和陆战一起成为史诗全战里的重要构成部分。
