源地址
第一页
http://www.incgamers.com/Previews/104/SupremeCommander2PC
第二页
http://www.incgamers.com/Previews/104/SupremeCommander2PC/2
Supreme Commander 2 [PC]
06 Jul 2009 at 12:52:02 by Tim McDonald
What better way to start a preview than to quote Chris Taylor, CEO of Gas Powered Games and designer of Supreme Commander 2?
有什么比引用《最高指挥官2》设计师——GPG的CEO——克里斯.泰勒（简称CT）的话作为这篇前瞻的开场白更好的呢？
“We’re not happy to simply put a paint job on the game, for the sequel,” explained Taylor to a group of journos at a round-table preview during E3. “We took the game, and almost every aspect – we replaced the rendering engine, we have a new global illumination model, we have a new pathfinding system, we’ve redesigned all the units. We’ve got a new tech tree system that allows you to research and enhance units. And, of course, neural net AI, to cap it all off – because AI is very, very important.”
“我们不满足于在续作中简单地做些画面方面的工作”CT在E3展期间向圆桌周围的一群记者们说明道：“我们几乎把游戏所有的方面都改动了——我们换了新的描绘引擎，新的综合照明系统，新的寻路系统，全部单位都重新设计。我们有了一个新的科技树系统，让你研究和增强你的单位。当然，还有‘神经网络AI’，这是最首要的——因为AI是非常非常重要的。”
What we saw was certainly impressive. Oh, it’s hard to comment on the AI and the pathfinding, but the rest I can vouch for. It looks gorgeous, and there are a host of impressive features that,while not necessarily new, have had tweaks and additions that makes them look new. Take the unit upgrades. As with, say, Company of Heroes, you get tech tree points through combat, but you can also spend resources to make your scientists do research, essentially “buying” the points. These go into various trees, with upgrades falling into the categories of “boost, upgrades, and unlocks.”
我们看到的东西给人的印象非常深刻。噢，AI和寻路系统是难以评论的，但是其它的方面我可以保证。它看起来很华丽，有一个让人印象深刻的主要特征， 通过增加部件和改装来使旧的单位看起来很新颖，.比如单位升级，与英雄连相似，你通过战斗获得科技点数，但你也可以花费资源让你的科学家研究，也就是花钱购买这些点数。有多样的科技树，分为以下类别：“启动，升级，解锁。”
“You can research boosts, which take any capability the unit has and makes it better,” explained Taylor, proving the point by upgrading a Rockhead tank to have two gun barrels, then longer barrels, then three barrels – and then adding on anti-aircraft capabilities, which struck me as a rather useful idea considering the mauling they got from air units earlier in the demo. “This is a way of preventing units from becoming obsolete, because early-game units in SupCom weren’t terribly useful in late game, but now, with your upgrades, you can continue to evolve those same units rather than have to abandon them in the late game.”
“你可以研究启动项，令单位具有更强的能力，”泰勒解析道，然后通过升级一辆有两根炮管的火箭头坦克来证明这点，炮管变长，然后变成3根炮管，再之后又加了一个防空能力。这在demo的开头打击空军时显得非常有效。“这是一个预防单位变成废物的方法，因为游戏早期的单位在最高指挥官里在游戏后期往往没有用处，但是现在，你可以升级这些单位而不必抛弃他们。”
Following on from the boosts, “You have upgrades, where you can add that cannon, or add those torpedoes, or add those jump jets [to your Commander]. And you’ve got unlocks, like the AC-1000 Terror here,” Taylor grinned, pointing at a gigantic gunship on screen.
启动项下面的是升级项。你有可以升级的地方，可以增加加农炮，也可以加鱼雷，还可以加喷射器【给指挥官】。接下来是解锁项，就像这里可怕的AC－1000，“泰勒笑着指向屏幕上一架巨大的武装直升机
The AC-1000 is from a new class of unit titled the mini-experimentals. Supreme Commander 2 has, Taylor reckons, 25 of these units. “Minis are so that players can enjoy the outrageous over-the-top nature of these units earlier on in the game. 15-20 minutes, build a mini-experimental. Lot of fun.” And it shows, with a fight between a Fatboy II (a slightly stripped-down version of the first game’s Fatboy, which functions as a “mobile, land-based battleship,” according to Taylor) and a Megalith – a giant, beetle-like Cybran. More interesting was a major experimental that made an all-too-brief appearance: the Cybran-zilla, a part-dinosaur, part-robot monstrosity. Another major experimental tantalised, too – the Unit Cannon, a factory/artillery piece that builds units and then fires them across the map.
AC-1000属于一种命名为小型试验级单位的新类型。泰勒说《最高指挥官2》估计大约有25种这样的单位。“小型”是一种可以较早拥有的让玩家享受凌驾于自然的暴虐的单位，游戏开始15－20分钟后，就可以造一个小型试验级单位，非常好玩。然后演示了fatboy ii（一个苗条版的fatboy，移动的地基战舰）和Cybran的Megalith（巨大的甲虫样的）之间的战斗。更有趣的是主要试验级单位，Cybran-zilla，一个半恐龙，半机械怪物。另一个试验级单位是单位加农炮，一个工厂或者火炮部件可以生产单位然后发射他们穿过地图。
But these are things that you know, or suspect. After all, Supreme Commander 2 is real-time strategy. It’s tweaked real-time strategy, with lots of neat little ideas, but it’s RTS. You build and upgrade units with a variety of capabilities, you take them to war, you get research points and upgrades, the map expands as you complete objectives, and you still have stupidly large experimental units to terrify your foes. And naturally, it looks absolutely stupendous, with a design ethos that seems to mirror Demigod, with the landscapes truly providing a setting that genuinely appears to enrich the experience rather than just being present.
但这些东西是你所知道或者怀疑的。终归，《最高指挥官2》是一个RTS。他是被很多巧妙的小想法扭转的RTS，但他是RTS。你建造并升级单位的各种能力，地图在你完全侦查后展开，你依然笨重地用巨大的试验级单位恐吓你的敌人。新的景观设计看起来很像《半神》，看起来自然地让人感到完完全全的雄伟，整个景观真实地产生了一种富足感而非单纯的景物陈设表现。
That latter bit is why the technical specs came as a surprise. “This game will run faster than Supreme Commander did,” boasted Taylor. “You’ve got this game coming out many years later, and it’ll run on that same hardware even better. [Performance] was one of our top goals. We hope to go back three, maybe five years, in terms of hardware, so that we have more people than ever that can play the game.”
后面的一点技术说明来得有点让人惊奇，这个游戏会比《最高指挥官运》运行得更快，泰勒吹道：“这个游戏晚出几年，但是他会在同样的硬件下运行得更快。[效能]是我们其中一项最高目标，我们希望硬件需求退到3年，甚至5年前的标准，让更多的人能玩这个游戏。”
Part of this is down to the pathfinding, with the new algorithms making sure that you won’t encounter late-game slowdown when trying to move hundreds of units. Part is down to being careful when designing assets and reworking the engine. The claim that the game will run on the same systems SupCom did, but better, seemed substantiated when Taylor revealed that the machine we saw running the game - at 1920x1080 resolution, with 8x anti-aliasing and 16x ansiotropic filtering - was a couple of years old.
其中一部分是靠寻路降低，在新的算法下，你不会在游戏后期同时移动几百单位时感到变慢。一部分是靠细心的设计和重写的引擎来降低。要求是在能运行《最高指挥官》的相同系统下能运行，但是更快，看起来这已经实现，泰勒透露，我们看到的是1920x1080分辨率下，8倍抗锯齿，16倍ansiotropic filtering（非均匀过滤）的效果，是在一台两年前的电脑上展示的。
This also implies that the somewhat ill-fated Xbox 360 version of Supreme Commander won’t be followed, with the sequel’s appearance on 360 having been thought out a lot more. “Controls are everything, and you’ve got to have the right game design,” says Taylor. “Thinking about [the controls] - you have a group of tanks selected, say. If you wanted to select a factory, then you’d lose the tank selection. Now, you can hover over the factory, queue up a bunch of units with the radial menu - still holding the selection - then go back out. That one little subtle change radically transforms it on the console. We’ve probably got another five, six of those subtle changes that’ll make the console remarkably playable and you’ll go ‘Oh! Why didn’t they think of this five years ago?’ It takes time; it’s an evolution.”
这也暗示着最高指挥官XBOX360版本的一些恶运不会跟着来，续作在xbox360的表现已经在充分的考虑中。“控制就是全部，而你会得到正确的游戏设计，”泰勒说：“想象一下[控制]-你选择了一队坦克，如果你想选择一个工厂，你就会失去坦克的选择。现在，你可以悬停在工厂上面，利用放射状菜单将一连串单位编成一队-依然保留你之前的选择-然后返回。这个精细的改动完全改变了游戏手柄的控制方式。我们还有5，6个这样精细改动，这会使到控制显著地变得可玩，然后你会惊讶他们5年前到底在想什么，这须要时间，这是一项进化。”
The story, too, has evolved, both in the game and in the company. Square-Enix are publishing this sequel, and it’s honestly hard to say, in part, whether or not some of the decisions are down to their influence, or whether Taylor just decided to go about things another way.
故事性也提升了，无论是游戏还是公司。史克威尔艾尼克斯将会发行这部续作，因而很难说，是否有部分的决定受到了他们的影响，或者是否泰勒真的想走另一条路。
“War is often seen historically from 30,000 feet. We talk about war, and this side won, that side lost – but it’s about people, about individuals,” explained Taylor. “We’re going deeper [in SupCom 2] and telling a personal story in the campaign, about three friends who found themselves on different sides after the war broke out. It’s actually one long continuous campaign – well, it’s three campaigns, but told sequentially. It only has one outcome. With TA and SupCom, you had different victors, and then you go to make the expansion pack and the sequel, and… um… this one won!” laughs Taylor. “I’ve been stubborn. Now I’m going with the common sense approach.”
”战争经常被人以历史的角度从30000步的距离外观看。我们谈论战争，这边 赢了，那边输了-——但这是关于人的，关于个人的，“泰勒解析道‘我们会更加深入[在最高指挥官2]讲述战役中一个人的故事，关于3个朋友在战争爆发后发现他们属于不同的势力。这是一个连续的长战役——有3个战役，不过是连续的，只有一个结局。在《横扫千军》和《最高指挥官》你有不同的胜利者，然后你买了扩展包或者续作，然后。。嗯。。。这个人赢了！“泰勒笑着说，”我过去是很顽固的。现在我的观念开始接近普通人了。“
The common sense approach is a design philosophy that shone through the whole preview. Supreme Commander was a game of excess, both good and bad – huge maps and wide designs gave birth to something that crawled on all but the most powerful system, and that had some design issues that gave it character, but occasionally left the gameplay lacking. There’s a worry that Supreme Commander 2 may go too far the other way, but it doesn’t seem too well grounded. There are still huge units that swat the others like gnats, and there are still utterly gigantic battlefields that expand out, and out, and out. But now it looks more sensible, and a tad more accessible, and that’s not a bad thing so long as it maintains the feeling of conflict that the first game possessed. Roll on Spring 2010
接近普通人的观念是照耀着贯穿整个前瞻的设计哲学。《最高指挥官》是一个过度的游戏，好和坏两方面都过度——巨大的地图宽广的设计产生了除了最强大的系统外都是爬行一样的速度，有些设计使他显得有个性但是有时会使游戏性缺乏。有些人担心《最高指挥官2》会在另一条路上走得太远，但是那里看起来不像是一块很好的土地。依然会有巨大单位拍小苍蝇，依然会有巨大的不断扩张的战场，但是现在它看起来更加的有感觉，更加平易近人，而保留上一代的战斗感觉也不是一件坏事。2010年春季进厂压盘。
