Supreme Commander: Warfare at Sea (PC)
During our demo (and brief hands-on time) with Supreme Commander, by far the unit that stole the show was the Battleship. As mentioned in our preview, it dwarfed land units. It was massive. It bristled with guns: 4 AA guns, an anti-air phalanx machinegun, and multiple turrets bristling with cannons intended for shore bombardment. A battleship could fire it's explosive ordinance several miles inland -- you did not want one of these lurking off the coast near your base.
在我们玩Supreme Commander的DEMO(很短的游戏时间)中,到目前为止最上镜的就是战列舰了。就像在我们的Preview中题到的,它让地面部队看起来像小不点。它非常巨大,充满了炮台:4门防空炮,一个密集阵防空系统,以及复数量的小塔充满了供轰击的大炮.战列舰可以炮轰惩罚内陆几公里的地方 -- 你不会想让一艘这样的东西潜伏在基地附近的海上。
This led us to believe, initially, that sea combat in Supreme Commander was simply a matter of being the first to crank out Battleships. Wrong ... wrong. There's a whole naval simulation at work here, and there's various strategies with regards to how you'll compose your fleet.
一开始,我们因此相信,在Supreme Commander中的海战只是简单的比谁先造出战列舰。错..错。整个海军都是有用的,这里有不同的关于舰队构成的策略。
A Terran battlegroup in motion. Look closely to see the subs. This picture doesn't do justice to the sense of scale: Even the smallest of these ships is larger than most land units.
一个行进中的人类舰队。离近些看看潜艇。这个图片对于比例的感觉处理的不是很好,即使最小的潜艇也比绝大多数的地面部队大
Let's take that Battleship, for example. The cost of building one is phenomenal, and it'll take a lot of time to get one into the water. Once there, it has very little defenses against submarines and torpedoes. And its main guns, while among the most powerful in the game, have a slow firing rate that may not be ideal against smaller ships -- other ships would be more cost-effective. No, the Battleship isn't the end-all of naval warfare: it's more like the ultimate artillery piece, super-powerful against certain targets but something you still need to protect.
让我们用战列舰做例子。建造一个这样的家伙的花费显而易见,要让一艘战列舰下水还需要很长时间。建好后,它对于潜艇和水雷也没有足够的防卫。它的主炮,是游戏中最强大的武器之一,开火速率非常慢,用它攻击小船不是个好主意 -- 其他的船会更划算。战列舰绝对不是海战终结者:它更像超级炮台,对于特定的目标超级强大但是仍然需要保护。
Sharing the sea with the Battleship are cruisers, destroyers, and frigates. Each carries a different weapon compliment, so just like in real life they all have their own uses. Cruisers, for example, are mobile missile platforms: use them to target specific targets far inland or as an anti-aircraft screen. Destroyers carry more depth charges than the other ships, so it's ideal in anti-sub warfare.
和战列舰分享海洋的是巡洋舰,驱逐舰,护卫舰。每个都带有很赞的武器,就像在真是世界中,他们都有各自的用处。巡洋舰,做个例子,是一个移动导弹平台:用来对付内陆的特定目标或者作为防空平台。驱逐舰呆着比其他船更多的深水炸弹,在反潜艇战中很完美。
The original game design called for both minelayers and minesweepers, but the team recently removed them from the game because they slowed down the action too much. Supreme Commander is about grand strategy and over-the-top destruction, not slowly clearing a channel of explosives before moving in.
最初有一个游戏设计叫做“布雷和扫雷”,但是最近被小组去除了,因为它让战斗的节奏变得过于缓慢。Supreme Commander从事于大战略和巨大的破坏,不是在移动前缓慢的扫除一片片的爆炸物。
Of course, aircraft carriers also make an appearance. These enormous ships are important because (as explained in our section on air combat) aircraft in Supreme Commander need to land and restock periodically. By parking your aircraft carriers close to the enemy shore, you'll be able to project your airpower deep into his territory.
当然,航空母舰也要登场。这些巨大的舰船非常重要因为(在空战部分也要解释)Supreme Commander中的飞机需要周期性的停泊。将航空母舰停在敌人海岸附近,你就可以将空军放到敌人土地的深处。
Submarines? Oh yes. A whole compliment of subs is available, each with different armaments. Attack subs are monstrous beasts who can deliver heavy torpedoes into the hulls of ships. Anti-sub subs are smaller, cheaper, more maneuverable submarines whose armament is designed to take out attack subs. Supreme Commander is a simulation, so there's no reason you couldn't send the cheaper anti-sub submarines against ships, but their light torpedoes likely wouldn't do as much damage before the destroyers blew them out of the water.
潜艇,当然。全部出现的潜艇都很赞,各自都有着不同的武器。攻击潜艇是凶暴的禽兽-可以从船体内释放强大的鱼类。反潜艇潜艇更小,更便宜,有着更强的机动性的潜艇,它们的武器被设计成专门对付攻击潜艇。Supreme Commander是一个模拟,所以这里没有理由你不可以让一个便宜的反潜艇潜艇去对付其他的船,但是在被驱逐舰击沉到海底前他们的轻型鱼雷很可能并不能造成什么伤害。
Next: More on Submarine Warfare...
下面,更多的关于潜艇战
Speaking of finding enemy submarines, sonar works underwater similar to the way that radar works above land. You can have your subs emit sonar pings to see other objects, but these pings will give away their location to any listening devices. As with everything else in Supreme Commander, keeping your force hidden until you use it is one of the most important strategies in the game.
讲讲搜寻敌人的潜艇,声纳在水下工作就好像雷达在陆地上工作。你可以让你的潜艇发出声纳响声去寻找其他的目标,但是这些响声会把你的位置暴露给任何收听设备。就好像Supreme Commander中的每见事,在使用你的武装前把他们藏起来是游戏中最重要的策略。
Of course, there's also nuclear submarines. A nuclear sub can build and carry a whole array of nukes. It's one expensive piece of hardware! But just as in real life, it allows you to project nuclear force nearly anywhere on the map from a platform that the enemy has a real hard time tracking.
当然,这里也有核潜艇。一个核潜艇可以建造核携带大量的核弹头。非常昂贵!但是就像真实世界中的那样,核潜艇可以让你从一个敌人很难找到的平台上向几乎地图上的任何地方发射核弹。
A nuclear submarine launches its devastating payload.
Goodbye, world!
一艘核潜艇正在发射毁灭性的武器。再见,世界!
Naval warfare is made even more interesting with the addition of structures that can be built on-- or under -- water. The design team hinted at floating or submerged factories or power plants. Although the specifics are still being worked out and play-balanced, the crew at Gas Powered Games is playing with the idea of basically allowing a player to build almost his entire base underwater. Suddenly ruling the waves takes on a new importance.
有了可以在海面和海底建造的建筑物,海战变得更有趣了 - 设计小组提示有漂浮或水下工厂和能量平台。尽管细节还在创造并平衡中,全部Gas Powered Games成员都有一个基本理念,让玩家可以几乎将全部基地建造在水下。快速的占领海洋变得重要了。
Because Supreme Commander takes place in the far far far (far) future, the team is also able to play around with bizarre technologies. For example, several of the Cybran ships can partially submerge -- they drop most of the way down into the water, creating a lower profile that's hard for other ships to hit. Of course, when they do this, they're bigger targets for Torpedoes. Other ships can actually lift themselves up onto skids and hydroplane across the water. This has the opposite effect (making them a bigger target for other ships), but allows them to move many times faster than a conventional navy.
因为Supreme Commander发生在很远很远很远(很远)的未来,小组允许玩家使用一些奇异的技术。据个例子,一些电子人的船可以部分潜入水中 -- 他们在行驶中大部分时间都进入到水里,更不易察觉,更难被击中。当然,这样做的话,就成了鱼雷的大靶子了。其他的船可以让自己悬空越过水面,像是水上滑翔机(让他们变的更易被击中),但是可以比其他的海军船只移动的更快。
An artist's concept of the massive experimental submersible aircraft carrier...
巨大实验型水下航母的概念艺术图
And finally, you have the experimental super-units. A submarine aircraft carrier?! Yes, you can build it. Imagine having a couple of those surface off of your coast behind your defenses, open up, and spew out armadas of fighters and bombers. Ridiculously over the top? Oh yes -- welcome to Supreme Commander!
最后,你还有超级实验型单位。一个水下航空母舰?!是的,你可以建造它。想象一下,在水面上来几个这样的家伙,展开,喷吐出大量的舰队,战斗机,轰炸机。完全不可思议?是的欢迎来到-- Suprem Commander!