《炉石传说》首席平衡设计师答中国媒体问:萨满胜率超预期 更新将每月一次

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2020-01-21 16:26     |     283209人浏览

之前随着新扩展包“巨龙降临”的到来,《炉石传说》巨龙年进入强力收尾期,玩家们也经历了一些不寻常的炉石体验。包括看起来更加强力的新卡,以及来得务必迅速的平衡性调整。

感谢暴雪和网易方面的努力,为了能让中国玩家有更多的机会同设计师们沟通,近两三年我们有了更多和《炉石传说》团队沟通提问的机会,而最近的一次就是现在。当乐和国内几家知名游戏媒体一起,向《炉石传说》制作团队递交了新一轮的媒体提问,其中有一些问题得到了首席平衡设计师 Dean Ayala(Iksar)的回复,其中还是有一些值得关注的方面,比如新一年我们可以期待更频繁的内容更新,以及狂野卡牌的再次回归。以下是回复全文:

1.新版本补丁来得很快,哪些职业的表现与你们测试时的预期差距比较大?为什么选择直接上线一个补丁,而不是靠环境自我进化或下个月的冒险模式新卡来平衡职业强度

只有萨满祭司的套牌在胜率方面远远超出了我们之前的预期。总体而言,我们想要看看更频繁的更新频率效果如何。 

        (编者注:Dean曾多次同玩家讨论新版本平衡性问题,可移步文末阅读他曾在官网论坛回复玩家的一篇长贴。)

2.近半年以来炉石的变动空前得多,已经成为常态了吗?这对于设计、平衡和线上内容(live content)团队的工作带来了什么影响呢?

我们认为《炉石传说》是一个富有生机的游戏,我们想要确保我们更新内容的节奏符合我们热情玩家的期待。我们当前的计划是差不多每个月更新一次。更新可能是平衡性补丁、新的活动、酒馆战棋更新、新的扩展包、单人游戏内容,或者大家没有见过的新内容!

3.是什么原因让团队决定重新设计商城界面,并开放金币购买狂野卡包冒险呢?

我们一直希望为玩家提供更好的商店体验。我们想要为玩家提供许多不同的内容,但是我们原本的商店设计很难以我们想要的方式让玩家轻松地搜索和看到所有的内容。我们新的商店设计让我们可以更加轻松地添加和移除内容,让玩家也有更加直观的感觉。

4.在几个版本的地下城之后,是什么让设计团队决定重新回归线性闯关的游戏模式,以及可获得构筑模式卡牌的设定呢?

我们一直很喜欢地下城冒险风格的内容,但我们想要在“迦拉克隆的觉醒”中诉说的故事更契合这种线性的叙事方式。我们还想要为现在的环境带来更多的卡牌,这次冒险模式就是一个绝佳的机会。

5.祈祷体系是否过强?会不会导致没有迦拉克隆体系的职业变成冷门职业?

卡牌强大与否取决于多种因素。我们之前在测试的时候发现许多迦拉克隆套牌玩起来会非常有趣,所以就想要提高一下这些套牌的强度,让它们可以和已有的套牌竞争。但是我们好像有点用力过猛,所以才推出两个平衡补丁来进行调整。

6.狂野橙卡的回归活动中,部分套牌(如异变萨)较为强力,对狂野天梯影响较大。设计师如何看待这个问题?之后还会有类似的活动吗?

我们认为《炉石传说》最有趣的地方就在于总有新的惊喜出现,所以我们之后很有可能再推出一个新的活动,让狂野卡牌回归标准模式。

7.会不会担心超模卡被削或者强势版本退环境之后,造成游戏体验度急剧下降的问题?

我们认为做出这些改动能让游戏更有趣,这是我们做出平衡新改动的原因。我们也一直在讨论,当这些扩展包进入狂野模式时,回调之前对它们的削弱。比如砰砰博士(编者注:指英雄牌“科学狂人”砰砰博士)就是一个很好的例子,这张卡牌在标准模式中显得过于强大,但在狂野模式中恢复到原来的法力值消耗就没什么问题。砰砰博士进入狂野模式时应该是我们回调改动的好时机。

8.记得之前设计师提到,希望天梯减少快攻卡组,但巨龙降临版本快攻套牌较为强力,能简单谈谈这点吗?

快攻、组合和控制套牌在《炉石传说》都有一席之地。因为我们的目标就是让环境不断地变化,如果有一套特定的战术一直都很强,使得游戏变得僵化,那时我们才会计划作出调整。


————全文完————


附:Dean Ayala 在官网论坛对“海盗战当真需要削弱吗”一贴的回复:

原帖地址:https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/hearthstone/t/does-pirate-war-really-need-a-nerf/22323

原帖标题:海盗战当真需要削弱吗?

我都没怎么见过海盗之锚。我打过的战士九成都加入了迦拉克隆战。

Dean Ayala的回贴:

I think under the normal circumstances in Hearthstone history, maybe not.

我认为,如果是在过去的《炉石传说》游戏环境下,海盗战或许本不需要削弱。

The influx of card changes this expansion has a little to do with those cards being quite powerful, but it’s mostly that we wanted to try a different approach to the cadence we make card changes.

这次扩展包的改动大潮当然和过强的卡牌有关,但我们主要还是想尝试一种新的卡牌改动节奏。

The changes I feel were absolutely necessary this expansion were the ones to Galakrond Shaman. It was really the only archetype that was at a power level unacceptable under any past circumstance. Even after the first round of changes, there turned out to be an undiscovered deck that played a little slower and was even more powerful than the version being used during the first couple weeks. During playtesting, we honestly just thought that Galakrond Shaman was an incredibly fun deck to play and wanted to push it to a level where it would be considered one of the more powerful decks. We pushed too far, it happens.

这个扩展包最有必要的一次平衡,我觉得是JK萨的改动。把这个绝无仅有的套路拿到历史上的任何环境下都强得让人看不下去。甚至在第一轮改动之后,又涌现出了一副之前没发掘的套牌,速度是略有下降,但强度比前两周的还高。在测试过程中,我们真的只是单纯地觉得JK萨是一副特别好玩的套牌,想让这套牌成为最强套路之一。可我们用力一过猛,就变成这样了。

As far as the rest of the changes, I think in the past we would have waited a little longer to take action. There are some advantages and disadvantages to waiting. One of the advantages is that the fewer changes you make, the more I think players are motivated to deckbuild and create new solutions rather than depend on us to make balance changes to things that might appear to be slightly out of line. In general, it’s probably healthier for the game if your first reaction to a powerful strategy is to try and find ways to beat it rather than join along and ride the wave because investing time into finding alternatives is undermined by constant changes.

至于其他的改动嘛,我觉得,如果是在过去的话,我们可能会等一等再改。等待是把双刃剑。等待当然有好处,我们改动的越少,玩家就越有动力去构筑套牌和研究针对套牌,而不是等着我们去对强度跳脱的内容进行平衡性改动。对于游戏而言,一般在更新速度不快的时候,面对一个特强套路时,最好的第一反应是寻找针对他的方法,而不是打不过就加入,因为花时间去组建新套牌的努力会被连续的卡牌变更抵消。

One of the core disadvantages is that change happens less frequently. If there is something that frustrates you, maybe you can play a different strategy but maybe you don’t enjoy that strategy as much. Maybe you don’t own the cards for it. Maybe your favorite class is just weak to whatever the popular deck is and you don’t get to play it. Some of these things are very hard to avoid, but a faster rate of change makes it so you are less likely to be frustrated by a particular thing for too long. Change can be fun. Expansions aren’t just fun for players with the new cards, they can be fun for players playing old strategies too because the meta environment totally changes.

但等待也有个核心缺点,变化频率太慢了。好比说现在某些套牌打得你特别不舒适,或许你可以换一个策略,但新打法就可能不合你的胃口。换套路还可能缺卡。又或者你最爱的职业碰上所有主流套牌都是弱势,你可能就不想玩了。这些问题很难避免,但如果改动的频率变快的话,或许你就不会再长时间地被同一个打法困扰。改动其实挺有意思。新扩展包上线不仅能让使用新卡的玩家得到快乐,那些使用旧套路的玩家也能得趣其中,因为环境变了。

So, why are we trying something different? Some of it has to do with research. We dug through a bunch of data trying to find out what the behavior of players is when they have a strategy they play get nerfed. I think it’s pretty reasonable to assume that a dedicated Shaman player might see a large decrease in play if their deck is nerfed in a way that makes them less excited to play it. It turns out, data hasn’t really backed up that theory in a way we might have expected. We’ve done this kind of research in the past, but as Garrosh might say, times change.

所以,为什么我们要尝试不同的改动节奏?其中一部分原因和研究有关。我们深挖了大量数据,试图找出玩家在常用打法被削弱时会有什么反应。我觉得,按常理推断,如果萨满玩家被削得很不开心,那他们游戏的次数肯定会大大下降。结果实际数据并不是非常支持我们预期的这种推断。我们过去做过这种研究,但正如加尔鲁什所言,时代变了。

Of course, we’ve just started on a track to a different strategy. It’s possible we’ll find that over time increasing the cadence of change fatigues players in a way we would only find out after sticking to the strategy for a longer period. It’s possible that because we’re opting to change more cards more often, we’ll end up changing cards players didn’t think needed changes at a rate that makes people unhappy. We look to the audience for feedback on that, so let us know!

当然,我们已经开始尝试不同的策略了。我们可能会发现,随着时间的推移,长时间一成不变的卡片改动节奏会让玩家感到厌倦。我们也可能会发现,我们改动得越来越频繁,结果改了一些玩家认为没必要改的牌,让大家很不爽。我们期待获取大家对于卡牌改动的建议,欢迎大家和我们交流!

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