- 14 minuti fa
The Creative Assembly ha pubblicato il quarto diario degli sviluppatori dedicato a Total War: ARENA, strategico free-to-play per PC che pone i giocatori all'interno di vaste battaglie a squadre, con opzioni che consentono scontri uno contro uno o anche 10 contro 10. In questo nuovo filmato l’ospite Luke Kneller parla con il team dei comandanti.
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00:00I am back again, but this time to talk about something very different, Commanders.
00:05To my left I have two guys from the design team, Jan van de Krabben and David Petri.
00:10To my right returning, Rob Farrow.
00:26Commanders, a big feature in Total War Arena, and we're here today to discuss that fact.
00:31So I think the opening question should be simply, guys, what is a Commander?
00:35What's their purpose in Total War Arena?
00:36The Commander determines your play style.
00:38So even though you might be taking the same troops into battle that you've taken with a different Commander,
00:44because each Commander has a set of three abilities, each of which are different,
00:49that will greatly influence how you're going to use your units in battle,
00:53whether you play more offensively, more defensively, whether you're more support.
00:57That's basically how each Commander will offer you a new look and a new angle and a new play style
01:03with every type of unit, really.
01:06Yeah, they're quite empowering as well, right?
01:08They're captivating, they're legends of that kind of era, right?
01:13Each one has kind of a very unique look and feel, and especially in our game, they play very differently
01:18as well.
01:18They have different roles in the battlefield, and if you get a collection of different types,
01:24it can really kind of make them, battlefields really kind of come alive.
01:27So the Commanders, all from the same faction, let's say that the Romans, for example, they have different Commanders,
01:32each Commander has the same units, they have access to the same units, but they have different abilities.
01:38Is that fair to say?
01:39Yeah, so there are different sets of units that certain Commanders may be more aligned towards.
01:46Some will work really well with a very specific unit type.
01:49Others are slightly broader, you know, they might work okay with some.
01:52For example, I think Caesar's a decent example in the Roman tree.
01:55He works really, really well with missile units and with artillery, but he also is actually pretty competent with infantry.
02:03You just have to kind of realize a way to play him.
02:05Obviously, the way you play that infantry unit would be very different to how you would play it with Germanicus,
02:11who's really like a heavy-hitting melee person.
02:13Caesar would have to play more support in that role, but he still can go up to the front line
02:16and hang around
02:17and sort of make the right push at the right time with that unit.
02:20And the abilities that we choose for each commander are somewhat based in history as well.
02:27So, for example, Caesar is somebody who is great at maneuvering, at, you know, using his tactics and positioning to
02:33his advantage,
02:33which obviously is something he showed with excellence both in Gaul and in the Roman Civil War.
02:39But then you have somebody like Scipio, who very much worked on, you know, speed of reaction,
02:46did the Battle of Zama, also about adaptability.
02:51You don't start off with these three abilities that make them epic, right?
02:54Or do their abilities change over time?
02:56Or do they start with just one or none?
03:00And like, how does this progression work?
03:02So the progression, obviously, as you said, doesn't give you everything at the start.
03:07So what we did, we tried to balance kind of interestingness with ease of use.
03:13So when you start out the game, you kind of get the bread and butter ability of that commander,
03:19something that you can use in many situations, something that's pretty obvious how to use it.
03:25And then as you level up at Tier 3, you get the second commander ability in,
03:31which usually is something slightly more complex that requires a bit more thought or tactics.
03:38And then at Tier 6, you get kind of the top level ability that is the absolute signature.
03:44It's also usually the strongest ability of that commander.
03:47Then as you continue leveling up to Tier 10, you can, along the line, starting at Tier 1,
03:54you can unlock little talents that boost each ability.
03:59So each ability itself has like a little talent tree with which you can boost and modify that ability
04:05so that your Caesar won't be the same as my Caesar.
04:09And maybe your Caesar is a bit stronger in one way and my Caesar is stronger in another way.
04:14So the talent trees, you can't max them out.
04:17So everyone, when they get to the final level, won't have all the talents.
04:22Is that the plan?
04:22Well, when you're at Tier 10, you will not have maxed it out.
04:25So you can continue playing beyond that.
04:28And at some point, at some point, you will max it out.
04:31You will be able to max it out.
04:32But it will take you a long time.
04:36Customizing the 100 Caesar's on the battlefield,
04:38how do you make yours look unique or feel unique on the battlefield?
04:42There's 10 guys, or 10 guys per side.
04:44Let's say you've got three Caesars on yours and four Caesars on their team.
04:47How do you know which one is yours apart from the highlight?
04:50Is there a way to make your guy look better?
04:52At the moment, the only way to look at it is by your unit, right?
04:56And the way that the UI is set out.
04:58And we have investigated different ways.
05:01Like originally, we had a way of colorizing and looking at that.
05:05Customizing later on.
05:06We might be able to add some additional things to make your commander feel very unique.
05:10I don't really want to go into details too much about that at the moment.
05:13But we've definitely heard a lot of feedback about, you know, customizing.
05:16That's one of the reasons why we did the talent tree.
05:18You know, there is always options open to kind of work out how we make that more unique to you.
05:24But I think that's one of those things that we want to think about.
05:27Are you telling me I'm not going to be able to put bunny ears on my Caesar?
05:31I'm not saying that you can't.
05:33I'm saying not at this stage, but, you know, watch this face.
05:37When and if you can, they'll be the best bunny ears.
05:40So they'll be the most authentic bunny ears you've ever seen on a Caesar.
05:45How does this work with the units?
05:46So, for example, you've got your Caesar.
05:49He's level 5 or tier 5, sorry.
05:53And you've also got tier 5 spearmen and archers.
05:57And then you switch to another commander.
05:59Are you back down to tier 1 in your spearmen?
06:01Or, like, how does the relationship between the commander and the units work per nation?
06:06So, yeah.
06:06So the commander limits what tier you can take into battle in terms of units.
06:11So if your commander is tier 5, you can take up to tier 5 units into the battle.
06:15Even if you've already unlocked with another commander higher tier units.
06:19How is, I don't know if this is the right time to mention this, but you've got a commander who's
06:26level 10.
06:26And you start, it's your only command.
06:28You would stir up the tree all the way to level 10.
06:30And then you switch to a new one.
06:31What's the matchmaker going to think about that?
06:33Are you playing against other people who've also got tier 10 commanders?
06:36Or are you facing absolute newbies?
06:38Are you able to just crush them with your experience and your maxed out units?
06:41Like, how's that going to work?
06:42So the matchmaking does take your experience into account.
06:46It also kind of protects newbies from, well, from high tier players.
06:51This is currently, in the current playtest that we're running with, very limited playtest we're running with our players.
06:57It's currently turned off simply because we want to get as many players together into one group to play.
07:03But as soon as we open up the game to the wider world, we will put these protections back into
07:09place.
07:10Because obviously we do not want players to kind of just jump in and bash some newbies.
07:16Because a high level spearmen group who've got the extra weapons and stuff will just be better in general than
07:21the other groups, right?
07:22Well, if you come in with high level spearmen, for example, you will be matched with other high level spearmen.
07:28But the one thing that you can do is you can take a high tier commander, equip him with low
07:33tier units, and then enter matchmaking.
07:36And so what our matchmaking then does is it kind of looks at your units, but it also looks at
07:41your commander.
07:41And so, for example, if you take a tier 10 commander into battle with tier 1 units, you'll probably end
07:46up at tier 3 or 4.
07:47Actually, my next question was going to be about that. Experts versus newbies, right?
07:52I'm a micromanagement master. I used to be able to control 40 units in the past Total War games, and
07:57I can adjust them and control them all perfectly.
08:00That skill cap isn't there in this title. It's too simple.
08:04What do you say to those players who wanted that big experience versus the newbies who are like,
08:103 is too much. I can't even control those. I always forget about the extra unit over there.
08:151 would be fine.
08:17The granularity of control that you have in Total War Arena is so much higher than in the previous titles,
08:23and you need to micromanage.
08:26Whereas in our other titles, all the units that, well, actually, I think every single man in every single unit
08:32has a bit of a mini AI, so they kind of go around and try to figure out what's best
08:37in this situation.
08:38In Total War Arena, the men do exactly what you tell them to, and nothing else.
08:43Which is critical for a multiplayer game, right?
08:44You know, this is a competitive multiplayer game, so the fact that the units do exactly what you tell them
08:49is really important, you know?
08:50And so, yeah, it's very important that that does happen, right?
08:53And also the combat resolution, the speed of movement is so much slower in the large-scale battles
09:00that we have in our other games, whereas in Total War Arena, the pace is so much faster.
09:06When you're engaged in battle, you know, your units react instantly.
09:11They move faster, they turn faster, combat is resolved faster.
09:16So it's a very different gameplay experience that requires much more immediate second-to-second
09:22gameplay skills while keeping an overview of the grand strategy of your team.
09:28And it is a different game.
09:29It keeps the core of what Total War is about, these epic-scale battles and this kind of management
09:34of warfare.
09:35But at the same time, it just has something different.
09:37It's a very different type of game and concentrating on those three units and kind of how you manage
09:42those three, especially when you have to think about that commander in your unit as well and
09:46protecting that commander.
09:47And like Dave said, you know, sometimes you have to push forward because that's how you
09:52get the best out of that commander.
09:53And that working that out and playing around with that is really vital.
09:58And that's all the time I've got for today.
10:00I feel like I'm going to be kicked out and I've stolen too much of that time.
10:03So thank you guys for everything you've told me here today.
10:06And I'll see you hopefully on the Battlefield soon.
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