THE FIGHT

A perspective view of the early prototype.

The boss introduction was to resemble action films of the late 80s/early 90s, with its over-the-top epicness and the general atmosphere. The train would arrive to the battlefield as the weapon of last resort, and you'd better get out of its way. It would destroy everything on its way, and if the player had blocked any tracks beforehand all the obstacles would be destroyed as well. Its initial point of entry was the tunnel track and it would begin the fight with a ballistic missile attack.

The entry and exit point schematics.

After all of the above, the train would start its routine of cruising along one of the tracks, launching an avalanche of attacks available from its current position, leave the map, choose a new entry point and do it all over again. The reason for limiting the number of available attacks on a track is twofold. First, you do not want to overwhelm the player. Second - the structure of the level, with all the height differences, overpasses, tunnels, would render some of the weapons useless in a couple of circumstances. You don't want to shoot rockets at a wall, after all.

In order for this fight to be fair, we had to put some limits in place. First of all, as you already know, the train would follow 6 tracks with a total of 12 entry points. The attacks used by the train were determined by the point of entry it used. This way it was entirely possible to learn the attack sets by heart and how to counter them. In addition to predictable attack patterns, the intercepted radio comms would also give the player a hint of what's to come. It would be up to the player, however, in what order they wanted to get rid of the carriages.

This mockup presents?the overview?of the level together?
with the train model to give the viewer a sense of scale.

The energy shield protecting the train engine disappeared only after all the other parts were destroyed. The wrecked carriages would still travel with the train, as the wheels and suspension system would not be destructible. Additionally, the train could move both forwards and backwards, thanks to the rocket engines mounted on the electromagnetic cannon carriage. All these elements were to result in a demanding, multi-layered boss fight. Sadly, the Chinese Dragon did not make it to the final release, but it is a design we're quite proud of.

CONCLUSION

While daunting in scope, the boss was not as complicated as it was complex. The sheer number of elements would take at least 3 months of work and we could not justify it. All the carriages, their elements, destruction levels - we are talking about hundreds of models here. Therefore, it was not about the lack of skill or tech. Resigning from the implementation of the Chinese Dragon Train was a decision dictated by reason. All that remains of the boss in the game today are the huge tunnels and multiple tracks on the China map. Perhaps someday the design will find its way to one of our releases.

That is only one of our sick, over-the-top ideas that we never found the time and resources to finish. And since we are already on the topic of insane bosses, the next time we will try to tell you the story of another one - a boss fight comprised of two boss fights. We hope you have a pleasant time this holiday season and that you will have the chance to spend it together with your friends and family.

EXOR Studios

譯文：

水平設(shè)計

設(shè)計這種機器的一個限制因素是它只能在軌道上移動。這意味著，這一級別必須專門為滿足這一需要而設(shè)計。我們決定在平地上鋪設(shè)六條火車軌道。玩家看不到在X變形：防御中超越等級界限的東西。這反過來又給了我們一個自由的手，讓我們可以把火車轉(zhuǎn)回來，旋轉(zhuǎn)它，然后把它放在一個完全不同于以前的軌道上。通過簡單地傳送boss實體，我們避免了創(chuàng)建一個多公里鐵路網(wǎng)絡(luò)的必要性，而僅僅是為了使這樣大的火車掉頭。這本應(yīng)表明，鐵路網(wǎng)非常復(fù)雜，要求球員總共防守12個切入點。

一個很早的水平設(shè)計模型。整個環(huán)境設(shè)計

以適應(yīng)敵人的常規(guī)波以及老板的戰(zhàn)斗。

火車軌道的布局不可能是隨意的。如果我們簡單地把交叉的軌道放在一個平面上，就不會讓這場戰(zhàn)斗變得更有趣，只是不必要的復(fù)雜。因此，我們沒有選擇平坦的沙漠環(huán)境，而是選擇了一系列的隧道和立交橋。這個元素使它進入了最后的游戲，因為它引入了多種方式，玩家可以塑造敵人的道路，并采取的水平。

此外，為了一點戲劇性的天賦，火車軌道不會是空的開始水平。為了喚起人們對襲擊感到驚訝的感覺，地圖上到處都是定期的火車。就像我們游戲中的所有東西一樣，玩家可以摧毀它們。然而，一個更為史詩般的假設(shè)是，玩家讓他們獨自一人，而龍之列車只會猛撞穿過所有的“常規(guī)”列車。它畢竟是來拯救人類的，你最好別擋它的道！

戰(zhàn)斗

早期原型的透視圖。

老板的介紹類似于80年代末90年代初的動作片，有著超乎尋常的震撼人心和大氣。火車將作為最后的武器到達戰(zhàn)場，你最好離開它。它會摧毀途中的一切，如果玩家事先封鎖了任何軌道，所有障礙物也會被摧毀。它的初始進入點是隧道軌道，它將以彈道導(dǎo)彈攻擊開始戰(zhàn)斗。

入口和出口點示意圖。

在以上所有這些之后，列車將開始沿著其中一條軌道巡航，從當前位置發(fā)動雪崩式的攻擊，離開地圖，選擇一個新的入口點，然后重新開始。限制一條賽道上可用攻擊次數(shù)的原因有兩個。首先，你不想壓倒玩家。第二，由于高度不同，天橋、隧道的結(jié)構(gòu)會使一些武器在兩種情況下失效。畢竟，你不想對著墻發(fā)射火箭。

為了使這場斗爭公平，我們必須制定一些限制。首先，正如你已經(jīng)知道的，火車將沿著6條軌道行駛，共有12個入口?；疖囀褂玫墓羰怯伤褂玫娜肟邳c決定的。這樣就完全有可能學(xué)習心臟病發(fā)作的過程以及如何應(yīng)對它們。除了可預(yù)測的攻擊模式外，截獲的無線電通信也會給玩家一個提示。不過，這將取決于球員，他們想以什么樣的順序擺脫馬車。

這個模型展示了這個級別的概述

用火車模型給觀眾一種尺度感。

保護火車引擎的能量防護罩在所有其他部件被摧毀后才消失。由于車輪和懸掛系統(tǒng)不會被破壞，受損的車廂仍將與火車一起行駛。此外，由于安裝在電磁炮車廂上的火箭發(fā)動機，火車可以前后移動。所有這些因素都將導(dǎo)致一場要求很高的、多層次的老板之爭。遺憾的是，中國龍并沒有最終發(fā)布，但它是一個設(shè)計，我們相當自豪。

結(jié)論

雖然范圍令人望而生畏，但老板并沒有復(fù)雜得多。純粹的要素數(shù)量將需要至少3個月的工作，我們無法證明這一點。所有的車廂，他們的元素，破壞程度-我們在這里談?wù)摂?shù)百個模型。因此，這并不是因為缺乏技能或技術(shù)。辭職執(zhí)行中國龍列車是一個由理性決定的決定。在今天的比賽中，老大留下的只有中國地圖上的巨大隧道和多條賽道。也許有一天這個設(shè)計會找到它的方式，我們的一個版本。

這只是一個病態(tài)的，過分的想法，我們從來沒有找到時間和資源來完成。既然我們已經(jīng)討論了瘋狂老板的話題，下次會討論的。