Total War: Gamespot - intervju med Bob Smith om M2TW (17.02)

[TSP]

Hei! Det er komt nok et intervju med Bob Smith angående Medieval 2 Total og noen nye bilder.

 

En god del av informasjonen er det samme gamle: variendre utseende, borger mer integrert, haugevis av animasjoner og alt det der, vi vet så godt fra før, men også noe ny informasjon kommer frem.

 

Under følger enkelte utdrag av ting i intervjuet, men det er ikke hele, som også inneholder en del kommentarer fra meg.

 

GS: What were some of the lessons that the team learned from Rome: Total War, and how did they go about shaping Medieval 2? Also, there must be no shortage of ideas being submitted by fans, so what did they want to see in the sequel?

 

BS: I think that the most important thing that we're continually learning about, and striving to improve, is the organization needed to produce huge games like the Total War series. This covers the way we write code, the pipeline for getting assets into the game, the way we document designs, write art specs, organize audio recordings, and tackle localization. Having good systems in place from the beginning saves a lot of stress at the end of the project, and having less mistakes to fix should give us more time for polishing to raise the overall quality.

 

In terms of generating ideas, it's nearly eight years now since work on Shogun: Total War began, so we have an enormous backlog of ideas for things to put into the game, far more than we could ever cram into one game. Also, with nearly 100 developers between the two studios, most of whom are avid gamers, we live in a bit of a creative furnace and are continually coming up with new ideas. Of course, we're continually scanning the Internet forums for fans' ideas, and they do get incorporated.

De forteller altså her litt om hvordan de har lært av tidligere ideer blant annet.

 

GS: There seems to be a split between fans over the kind of strategic map that they prefer. Some liked the Risk-style, board game map of Medieval, while others preferred the "living, breathing" world map of Rome. What can you tell us about the strategic mode in Medieval 2? Will it be more like Medieval, or will it improve on that of Rome?

 

BS: Medieval 2 will use an enhanced version of the 3D map as first seen in Rome, and there are some significant changes to the map itself and the turn-based campaign game.

 

Firstly, the map will be populated with new types of agents, which include merchants, princesses, and priests. These will give the player new opportunities to engage with rival factions off the battlefield by aiding with trade, diplomacy, and spreading the influence of your religion, respectively.

 

The map will also be bigger than the Rome map and include the opportunity for the player to discover the Americas. Initially, these lands will be hidden from the players, and the squares of the Atlantic Ocean will be impassible. Late in the game, however, players will be able to develop the technology that allows them to cross the ocean, discover America, and attempt to capture its riches. However, before a faction can begin to claim the rich resources that lie in wait, they'll have to do battle with the Aztecs who, not surprisingly, will not take kindly to would-be invaders. If a faction can claim the New World, then it will have access to resources that will aid them considerably with their expansion in the old world. So the race to discover and claim these prized lands will introduce some added spice to the campaign.

Det fortelles altså her at de vil benytte seg av en forbedret versjon av 3D -kartet vi kjenner fra Rome Total War. Og at det vil være enda større. Du vil ettervert som tiden beveger seg fremover kunne oppdage teknologi som kan få deg over Atlanterhavet til Amerika, men du må altså vente en del år, og så tar det en stund å komme seg over atlanteren med båt også, det er svært. Når du er kommet over atlanteren vil du støte på overtallige aztekerhærer som ikke er redd for å gi deg kamp og som mest sannsynlig vil kjempe til siste slutt. Selv om de ikke har de beste våpner, er de sterkere, mye modigere og fler. Når aztekerne så er bekjempet, kan du glede deg over sjeldne og store rikdommer, som det nye land bringer som for eksempel gull, men regn med kamp fra de andre i Europa...

 

GS: We understand that the historical period covered in Medieval 2 is larger than that of Medieval. What year does the game begin, when does it end, and what's the significance of those start dates? Also, Medieval featured yearly turns, while Rome featured six-month turns to allow for winter and summer seasons. What's the case in Medieval 2, and why did you choose this system?

 

BS: The grand campaign will span four and a half centuries of history, from the year 1080 to 1530. These years are significant because it was a particularly turbulent period and because of the milestones that took place. It begins with the golden age of chivalry and the crusades, spans the Mongol invasion and the invention of gunpowder, and finally ends with gun-toting professional armies, the renaissance, and the discovery of America.

 

The campaign will feature summer and winter turns as in Rome, but we're trying to get away from the idea that a turn represents a specific amount of time, since it's impossible to reconcile the scale you need for army maneuvers with the scale you need to cover a decent slice of history. The history of the period will unfold in around 225 turns

Det blir overraskende og ganske så skuffende bekreftet at de 450 årene bare vil dekket av rundt 225 turns, det vil altså si omtrent en turn hvert andre år. Bob Smith forteller at de vil prøve å gå litt bort fra en turn er et visst antall år, eller måneder. De vil prøve å få inn sommer/vinter syklusen som var i RTW, men med tanke på at det sannsynlig blir 450 år delt på 225 turns (altså 2 år per turns) er nok veldig mange spent på hvilken måte de vil gå bort fra at en turn er et visst antall år/måneder, hvertfall jeg.

 

Elsewhere in the engine, we've made some major improvements when it comes to the rendering of settlements in the game. It wouldn't be Medieval without vast, monumental cities and castles, and we set out to do them justice by ensuring that we represent them in-game in a far more realistic manner than ever before. Cities and castles will be built around the environment, incorporating cliffs and slopes in their layout. This not only makes for a far more realistic representation of settlements, but also introduces new layers of strategy when it comes to siege situations. This new system also includes per-pixel lighting effects and localized damage, so what you hit is what you break.

Det blir altså nok en gang bekreftet at borger og byer vil bli mye mer integrert i terrenget, noe som ikke bare vil se bra ut, men som også vil tilby nye taktiske utfordringer og muligheter. Man vil også ha "per pixel lighting effects" (har selv ikke peiling på hva de mener med det, eller hva det innebærer) og lokalisert ødeleggelse, det du treffer er altså det du ødelegger.

 

The textures in Medieval 2 are done to a much higher level. In general, the texture resolution and polygon count is at least double those of Rome. As for the impact this has on the minimum spec, the game will ship around two years after Rome, and as technology has progressed, the minimum spec will be higher. However, as with previous games, everything is scalable, so it'll be possible to scale down the most system-hungry effects. You certainly won't need a monster PC to run the game, and there are already games being released with higher min specs than we're targeting.

De røper altså her at det ikke vil kreves noen monster-PC om du er førnøyd med den enkle og ikke den helt sjokkerende fantastiske grafikken, og at det finnes spill som blir utgitt den dag i dag som har høyere minimumspesifikasjoner enn de folkene bak M2TW håper å få til. Men personlig tror jeg at jeg fortsatt vil ha den monsterPCen for å kjøre det helt ut.

 

GS: Naval combat was abstracted very heavily in Medieval and Rome, to the point where the computer automatically generated battle results whenever hostile fleets clashed. Will we see that same level of abstraction in Medieval 2, or will naval combat be fleshed out a bit more?

 

BS: Creating full-scale 3D naval battles is a massive task; creating them to the standard we'd want to achieve for a Total War game is an even bigger one. Consequently, we decided not to embark on such a task this time around. Naval combat will be handled similarly to the system employed in Rome but polished and tweaked.

Det vil fortsatt ikke være sjøkamper i full 3D med i spillet, man må nok derfor auto-resolve som vanlig (latterlig at de ikke blir autoresolvet auotmatisk forresten når du ikke kan flykte noe sted.) Sjøkamper ville ikke bare tatt tid å utvikle, men det ville tatt enda lenger tid å få det integrert på den måten de ønsker, sier Bob Smith. (Det er forresten tidligere gitt uttrykk for at de ikke ville ha det med nå, men at det kommer senere. )

 

GS: Will the multiplayer gameplay in Medieval 2 still be restricted to being able to battle other players? We know that one of the impediments to creating a fully multiplayer campaign game is that, by Creative Assembly's calculations, it would take years to play an epic game from start to finish online.

 

BS: A full multiplayer campaign is certainly an idea we've discussed, but the time it would take to play out a full game to completion would seriously affect the number of players who could commit themselves to such a game mode. With this in mind, it makes far more sense for us to spend our time developing features that'll be enjoyed by a larger numbers of players. Having said that, we do have some exciting plans for multiplayer battles. We can talk about these in more detail in the months ahead.

De holder oss enda på pinebenken. De lover oss nye multiplayerting, men de røper enda ikke noen verdens ting om hva dette er. Dette begynner å lukte noe bra spør du meg, men samtidig kan det lukte noe bekymrende, da Bob Smith og kompani kanskje gir større forhåpninger enn det de innfrir. Multiplayerkampanjer vil nok en gang ikke være en av de nye tinga.

 

Then, of course, there is the discovery and invasion of the New World, battles with the Aztecs, the new multiplayer options, new historical battles, and lots more that we just can't reveal right now.

De holder oss på pinebenken...

 

 

Her er hele intervjuet: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/mediev...512&mode=recent

Endret 19. februar 2006 av The Strategy-player

[ZlummGlumm]

225 turer? Dette var urovekkende, det er nesten det samma som BI kampanjen .

 

Er det noe jeg hater i strategispill, så er det tidspress. Det er godt mulig at dette blir en gamebreaker.

 

Sålenge vi kan velge å spille videre etter 1530 så er det vel greit...

Men hvis ikke...

[DurinVIII]

Enig der. Tidspress er noe jeg hater, samme hva slags spill det er.

[Gunfreak]

tar vel 10 sekunder å for noen modere å utvide dette. hvis det viser seg å ble et problem

[TSP]

Nå har vi fått et mer offisiellt svar fra en i CA i denne tråden: http://rtw.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/...t&f=17,3680,,10

 

Hey guys, thought I'd clarify Bob's comments for you.

 

Medieval 2 no longer tracks years, it tracks turns. The turns alternate between winter and summer, so we are definitely keeping the seasons in there.

 

From a practical point of view it means that we've abstracted the passage of time so it's no longer linear - although the amount that gets done each turn stays constant, the amount of time that passes does not.

 

As far as actual gameplay goes it's merely a cosmetic change so rather than seeing the year displayed in the UI you see a turn number.

 

Prasant Moorthy

Associate Producer

The Creative Assembly Australia

Selv om det står: "Registered user" akkurat der, så er det forumet litt snålt, det sier nemlig hva du var og hvor mange innlegg du hadde skrevet, når du skrev det innlegget, slik at på et nyere innlegg av han, vil man se at han jobber i CA og har flere innlegg, selv om det ikke ser slik ut om du følger linken. Gå inn i profilen hans og klikk på hans nyeste beskjed, så skjønner dere (Det er også bekreftet av Wikiman at han er fra CA.

 

Men til saken: Vet ikke helt om jeg likte den uttaelsen... =/

Endret 2. mars 2006 av The Strategy-player

[Portalol]

Hørtes, spesielt ut :/

 

Får se om jeg liker det eller ikke når jeg prøver spillet første gang

[Viking__]

Nå har vi fått et mer offisiellt svar fra en i CA i denne tråden: http://rtw.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/...t&f=17,3680,,10

 

Hey guys, thought I'd clarify Bob's comments for you.

 

Medieval 2 no longer tracks years, it tracks turns. The turns alternate between winter and summer, so we are definitely keeping the seasons in there.

 

From a practical point of view it means that we've abstracted the passage of time so it's no longer linear - although the amount that gets done each turn stays constant, the amount of time that passes does not.

 

As far as actual gameplay goes it's merely a cosmetic change so rather than seeing the year displayed in the UI you see a turn number.

 

Prasant Moorthy

Associate Producer

The Creative Assembly Australia

Selv om det står: "Registered user" akkurat der, så er det forumet litt snålt, det sier nemlig hva du var og hvor mange innlegg du hadde skrevet, når du skrev det innlegget, slik at på et nyere innlegg av han, vil man se at han jobber i CA og har flere innlegg, selv om det ikke ser slik ut om du følger linken. Gå inn i profilen hans og klikk på hans nyeste beskjed, så skjønner dere (Det er også bekreftet av Wikiman at han er fra CA.

 

Men til saken: Vet ikke helt om jeg likte den uttaelsen... =/

5686671[/snapback]

 

 

Veldig teit gjort, men ein blir vel vant til det.