大家好，歡迎來到Grey Eminence的第一篇開發(fā)日記

Hello everyone and welcome to the first development diary for Grey Eminence!

發(fā)布時間：2022年2月7日17:20，原標題：Dev Diary #1: What is Grey Eminence?

我難以表達我內(nèi)心的興奮，來分享我們Nestinars工作室在過去三年里所做的工作。起初只是對一項很酷的新技術的粗略探索，現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)演變成對大戰(zhàn)略類型游戲進行革新的全面嘗試。因此，不再多說，讓我們深入了解一下吧

It’s difficult to describe how excited I am to share what we, the Nestinars, have been working on for the past three years. What began as a cursory exploration of a cool new technology has evolved into a wholesale attempt to revolutionize the grand strategy genre. So, without further ado, let’s dive in!

什么是Grey Eminence？

What is Grey Eminence?

Grey Eminence是我們對這個問題的回答。

Grey Eminence is our answer to the question:

"如果你能實現(xiàn)100倍的性能提升，你會如何開發(fā)一個歷史向大戰(zhàn)略游戲？"

“How would you build a historical grand strategy game if you had a x100 bigger performance budget?”

從1356年到1956年，Grey Eminence以迄今認為不可能的規(guī)模模擬了（架空）歷史的進程。它通過扮演一個特定國家來實現(xiàn)這一點，而你作為玩家，可以嘗試通過外交、政治、經(jīng)濟、戰(zhàn)爭和陰謀來引導歷史向你認為合適的方向發(fā)展。

Spanning from 1356 to 1956, Grey Eminence simulates the course of (alternate) history on a scale that was hitherto considered impossible. It does this through the lens of a particular country, which you, the player, can try to steer in whichever direction you see fit through diplomacy, politics, economics, warfare, and intrigue.

這在實踐中是什么樣子的呢？Grey Eminence的世界是一個真正的有機體。它是由1,004,880塊六邊形地塊（和12塊五邊形地塊，出于數(shù)學的原因）組成的，每塊地塊都有自己的人口、建筑和地理環(huán)境。這些大量的數(shù)據(jù)通過多個系統(tǒng)進行互動：從人口統(tǒng)計學模型到生產(chǎn)、消費、貿(mào)易、氣候等等。

What does that look like in practice? The world of Grey Eminence is truly a living organism. It is made up of?1,004,880 hexagonal tiles?(and 12 pentagonal tiles, because math), each with its own?population,?buildings, and?geography. This vast quantity of data interacts via multiple systems: from?demographics modelling?to?production,?consumption,?trade,?climate?and so much more.

所有這些系統(tǒng)的核心是模擬現(xiàn)實的理念。在Grey Eminence中，沒有隨意的機制，沒有類似棋盤游戲的抽象概念，沒有點數(shù)。相反，Grey Eminence的系統(tǒng)盡可能忠實地表現(xiàn)了推動人類走向現(xiàn)代的因素和歷史現(xiàn)象?？偟膩碚f，它們使我們能夠準確地模擬1356年到1956年之間存在的大量國家：從貴族君主制和部落聯(lián)盟到憲政共和國。

At the heart of all these systems is the idea of simulationism. In Grey Eminence, there are no arbitrary mechanics, no board game-like abstractions, no mana points. Instead, Grey Eminence’s systems represent the phenomena that drove mankind towards modernity as faithfully as possible. Collectively, they allow us to accurately model the huge variety of states that existed between 1356 and 1956: from aristocratic monarchies and tribal confederations to constitutional republics and communist dictatorships.

我們的模擬機制超越了物理領域，延伸到社會領域。在《Grey Eminence》中，你所扮演的國家不是一個單一的實體；它是精英們各種利益競爭的集合體。貴族、教士、商人、軍隊和國家官僚機構本身都在爭奪權力，并將經(jīng)常迫使你的國家向你可能不想要的方向前進。這些階層也不是鐵板一塊的實體：它們又是由各種人物組成的，每個人物都有自己的個性、歷史、野心和恐懼。

Our simulationist approach extends beyond the realm of the physical and into that of the social. In Grey Eminence, the country you play is not a monolithic entity; it is the amalgam of the various competing interests of its?elites. The?nobility,?clergy,?merchants,?military, and the state?bureaucracy?itself all vie for power and will often drag your country in directions you might not agree with. The estates aren’t monolithic entities either: they are, in turn, made up of various?characters, each with their own?personality,?history,?ambitions, and?fears.

雖然所有這些復雜的內(nèi)容聽起來令人生畏，但《Grey Eminence》并不是一個學習起來很困難的游戲（至少對于大戰(zhàn)略游戲而言）。我們之所以能做到這一點，是因為我們創(chuàng)新地使用了UI/UX，有意識地放棄了微操而選擇了自上而下的戰(zhàn)略抉擇，以及以 "非強制的復雜性 "為中心的設計理念。在Grey Eminence中，許多核心系統(tǒng)都是 "非強制的"，也就是說，即使沒有玩家的干預，它們?nèi)匀豢梢园凑漳阍跉v史上的期望發(fā)揮作用。你可能在600年內(nèi)沒有建造一個農(nóng)場，但這不會阻止貴族們擴大他們利潤豐厚的煙草種植園，或者在發(fā)現(xiàn)新的礦藏時開設銀礦。當然，讓你的國家完全靠自動機制來運轉，可能會導致不太理想的結果，但至少它可以讓你在開始第一場游戲之前不必閱讀每一個工具提示和百科條目。

While all this complexity might sound daunting, Grey Eminence is not a game with a steep learning curve (at least for a grand strategy game). We have achieved this thanks to innovative use of UI/UX, consciously eschewing micromanagement in favor of top-down strategic choices, and a design philosophy centered around “optional complexity”. In Grey Eminence, many core systems are “optional”, in the sense that even in the absence of player intervention, they still function as you would expect historically. You might not build a single farm in 600 years, but that won’t stop the nobility from expanding their wildly profitable tobacco plantations or from opening a silver mine when a new deposit is found. Of course, leaving your country to be ran entirely on autopilot will likely result in less-than-ideal results, but at least it’ll spare you the need to read every tooltip and encyclopedia entry before starting your first game.

Grey Eminence的創(chuàng)新不僅僅是為了玩家，也是為了mod制作者。我們從一開始就考慮到了游戲的可修改性，因此，幾乎沒有硬編碼的機制。在Grey Eminence中，你可以修改任何東西：用戶界面、人工智能、圖形，甚至核心系統(tǒng)邏輯。我們幾乎讓你接觸了除源代碼本身之外的所有東西。值得注意的是，原版游戲?qū)ㄒ粋€內(nèi)置的世界編輯器，也就是我們現(xiàn)在用來構建默認的1356開局的游戲世界的工具。在未來的開發(fā)日記中，除了概述Grey Eminence的各種功能外，我們還將解釋如何在世界編輯器中操作它們。

Grey Eminence has innovations not just for the players, but for modders as well. We have built the game from the ground up with?moddability?in mind, and as a result there are virtually?no hardcoded mechanics. In Grey Eminence, you can modify anything: the UI, AI, graphics, even core system logic. We’re pretty much giving you access to everything short of the source code itself. Notably, the base game will include a built-in?world editor, the very same one we’re using right now to build the default 1356 game world. In future dev diaries, in addition to outlining the various features of Grey Eminence, we’ll also explain how they can be played around with in the world editor.

總而言之，Grey Eminence是以下三個設計原則的體現(xiàn)。

1.模擬現(xiàn)實高于抽象化

2.非強制的復雜性

3.普遍的可修改性

如果你想知道一個獨立工作室是如何用比迄今為止發(fā)布的任何游戲都多兩個數(shù)量級的數(shù)據(jù)來構建一個大戰(zhàn)略游戲的，我們寫了一篇短文，介紹了Unity的面向數(shù)據(jù)的技術堆棧背后的一些創(chuàng)新，這個實驗性技術為Grey Eminence提供動力。你可以以下地址閱讀這篇文章：

https://nestinars.com/news/technology-overview/

To summarize, Grey Eminence is the embodiment of the following three design principles:

Simulationism over abstraction

Optional complexity

Universal moddability

If you’re wondering how an indie studio is capable of building a grand strategy game with two orders of magnitude more data than anything released to-date, we’ve written a short article that goes into some of the innovations behind Unity’s Data-Oriented Tech Stack, the experimental technology that powers Grey Eminence. You can read the article here.

最后，我想告訴你為什么我們現(xiàn)在公開宣布 Gray Eminence，而我們距離游戲發(fā)布至少還有一年的時間。自成立以來，我們的工作室一直是完全自籌資金的。 Gray Eminence 最初是一個完全由熱情驅(qū)動的項目——事實上，大約一半的 Nestinars 工作室成員來自現(xiàn)有大戰(zhàn)略的mod社區(qū)。我們不依賴外部投資者，也不追求固定的最后發(fā)布期限，因為我們了解在游戲準備就緒時發(fā)布游戲的重要性，而不是在股東要求的截止時間。

I want to conclude by telling you why we’re announcing Grey Eminence now, when we’re at least a year away from a full release. Since its inception, our studio has been entirely self-funded. Grey Eminence began as a passion project – indeed, about half of the Nestinars come from the modding communities of existing grand strategies. We are not beholden to external investors and are not chasing fixed deadlines because we understand the importance of releasing a game when it is ready, not when it is convenient for the shareholders’ bottom line.

然而，隨著我們團隊和項目規(guī)模的擴大，開發(fā) Gray Eminence 的成本超過了我們的承受能力。在這一點上，我們不僅用盡了自己的畢生積蓄，而且——對我們中的許多人來說——也用盡了家人和朋友的積蓄。我們相信 Gray Eminence 是大戰(zhàn)略類型游戲的未來，我們已經(jīng)付出了一切來實現(xiàn)這個夢想。如果您也想看到這個夢想成真，請考慮在 Patreon 上支持我們。前面還有很長的路要走，但我們可以共同推動這場革命。

我們將在接下來的幾周內(nèi)分享更多新聞，所以不要忘記加入我們的 Discord 和 Subreddit，并在 YouTube、Facebook 和 Twitter 上關注我們。

As our team and project grew in scale, however, the cost of developing Grey Eminence outstripped our capacity to sustain it. At this point, we have exhausted not only our own life savings, but – for many of us – those of our family and friends too. We believe Grey Eminence is the future of the grand strategy genre and we have given everything to fulfill that dream. If you, too, want to see this dream come to life, please consider supporting us on Patreon. There is a long road ahead, but together we can make this revolution happen.

We’ll have a lot more news to share in the coming weeks, so don’t forget to join our Discord and Subreddit, as well as to follow us on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

請關注我，我將持續(xù)發(fā)布Gray Eminence的各種消息。

有錢的有志者可在https://www.patreon.com/nestinars資助制作組。

官方Discord服務器：https://www.nestinars.com/outbound/?url=https://discord.com/invite/greyeminence

官方reddit版塊：https://www.nestinars.com/outbound/?url=https://**********/r/greyeminence/

對此游戲有興趣者可以加QQ群：785256043。