The screen switches quickly, and various steam vehicles appear on the screen one by one.

Steam trains chase away on tracks, steam cars with huge boilers race through city streets, tractors with metal wheels churn over clay waves in fields, paddle steamers pluck water in inland rivers, steam engines and sailboats fight the wind and waves, steam warships roar with guns, steam tanks crush fortifications, steam submarines surface, steam airships float into the sky, steam robots click......

When these mechanical creations, which are either from historical facts or from fantasy, come together, the black smoke and white fog spewed by large and small chimneys actually form a black and gray smoke cloud in the sky.

Suddenly, steam tanks, armored trains, and steam warships fired in a salvo, countless shells exploded in the smoke cloud, and the flames formed the four big characters of "Steam Age", and the scattered shrapnel formed a vague letter phrase, which was the English name "Steam Age".

After the video was played, Atletico nodded with satisfaction, "It's not bad." ”

Seeing him nodding in approval, Bai Xing also secretly breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

After reading it last time, the boss proposed two revisions that kept them busy until now.

First, Atletico asked him to give up the name "AgesTeam" so as not to be confused with Microsoft's "AgeEmpire" series.

At Gamescom last month, Microsoft's games division announced that it would release "Age of Empires 4" and "The First Three HD Remastered Collections" to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the original "Age of Empires". The veteran is back in the player's sight, and the bees are naturally not good at making reverie moves.

This was easy to do, and the artist changed the English name to "Steam Age" after two days of busy work, which was not grammatical, but it did not affect the player's understanding of the theme.

Second, Atletico asked him to add a shot overlooking the Qing Dynasty at the beginning of the CG, which is a little troublesome.

Fortunately, Bee has a wealth of technical accumulation in large-scale scene construction and large-scale crowd simulation, and Bai Xing took the boss's instructions to find other departments to borrow resources, and finally completed the work before the opening of TGS.

Turning his head to look at the boss, he opened his mouth and asked, "Boss, that's it, just use this version?"

"Generally fine," Atletico nodded, and then continued under Lao Bai's nervous gaze: "However, there are a few small things that need to be changed. ”

Signaling the staff to replay the video, Atletico shouted a halt when Nan Huairen first appeared, "Stop here!"

"What's wrong with Nan Huairen?" Bai Xing was a little puzzled, "This image is based on historical pictures, and the degree of restoration is guaranteed to be fine." ”

"Well," Atletico said, bowing his head in approval, added, "That's why I said it was a minor problem, Nan Huairen and these missionaries also have braids." ”

In the early Qing Dynasty, the problem of hairstyles was very strict, and most of the men's hair had to be removed, leaving only the hair on the back of the head to be braided into small braids as thin as a rat's tail that could drill money holes. Merchants and sailors living in Macao and the treaty cities did not need to worry about this, but the missionaries who went inland would deliberately change into long shirts and horse coats with braids to show goodwill and respect in order to better develop believers. The priests on the side may also use wigs and braids to fool around, but Nan Huairen can't be so casual when he has been an official in the Qing State for twelve years.

Shirahoshi glanced at Atletico and remembered some rumors about his boss.

Bee Pictures has filmed anti-Japanese dramas and youth dramas, but it has never encountered a low-risk, high-profit Qing palace drama. "Classical Battlefield 2: 1756" eight major forces, others are flintlock pistols with steel cannons, only the Manchu green battalion wears cloth clothes wrapped in fire ropes, and there are shortcomings such as slow speed, low morale, easy to collapse and flee, even if it is easy to recruit cheap and expand the army, it is disliked by players and almost no one chooses. And the reason for such a strange thing that ignores the laws of economics and the principles of game design is obviously the result of someone's active intervention.

Originally, seeing that the boss agreed to their idea of "Hutong drag racing and Shichahai boat racing", he thought that someone had finally changed his mind, but he didn't expect to wait here.

Left and right are just a supporting role NPC, there is no need to argue with the boss, Bai Xing nodded and agreed: "It's not a big problem to add braids, let the 3D art team work overtime when you go back." ”

"No," Atletico shook his head, "wait and send me the relevant documents, I'll do it." ”

His own boss has excellent skills, and the authority to call the graphics supercomputer is also very high, so it is naturally no problem to hand it over to him. Shirahoshi nodded excitedly, "That's great, I'll have someone deliver it right away." ”

Nodding, Atletico picked up the handle on the coffee table and handed it to everyone, and invited: "Okay, let's have a game!"

Everyone takes their seats and starts the game.

In the official version, as the protagonist of the Dai family travels all over the world, other European cities and wild maps such as the sea and grasslands will be added one after another. But now it's just a concept demo version, and for the time being, there is only one competition scene called "Jingshi Hutong".

A street about ten meters wide appeared on the screen, but it was an unknown alley in the Jingshi of the Qing Dynasty.

The reason why the beginning of the plot is placed in the Manchu Jingshi is also for a reason.

In 17th century Europe, only Paris, Milan, Venice, and Florence had a population of more than 100,000. The Americas, Africa, and Australia are even worse, limited to backward agriculture, transportation, industry, and medical care, and settlements are often destroyed for various reasons, and even if they are well developed, they must be regularly redeployed to spread the risk.

In contrast, although the population of Jingshi in the early Qing Dynasty was less than the 180,000 households in the late Ming Dynasty, about 850,000, it also had 117,000 households, about 556,000 people, making it the world's largest metropolis.

What is even more rare is the 400,000 children of the Eight Banners who live in the inner city.

There were green battalion Han soldiers in the war, and the soldiers of the Eight Banners, as a nation, only needed to "guard" the big city of Beijing, and they could take "hardcore crops (flag salary)" for nothing, but they lived a good life of consumerism three centuries in advance.

Knowing that the money of the Eight Banners is easy to earn, craftsmen from all over the country flocked to the big cities with flag cities, which made the cultural and entertainment industry of the Qing Dynasty develop rapidly.

Peking Opera, Martial Arts, Juggling, Cross Talk, Storytelling, Piano and Drum Books, Goldfish Farming, Starling Training, Cricket Fighting, Calligraphy and Painting Antiques, Jade Ornaments, Kite Prints, Snuff and Hookah, All Kinds of Snacks...... Many traditional skills originated at this time, or were carried forward to the peak in the Qing Dynasty. In modern times, there are still many people who enjoy this legacy, and even take a look at the "prosperous Kangqian era where the ancestor is located".

In "Steam Age", the game planning has made some changes in the hobbies of the children of Eight Banners.

As the old saying goes, "what is good at the top must be very good at the bottom", the Kangxi Emperor issued a decree to the world to recruit strange people who can improve the ability of steam cars to carry people, and they are the yellow belt (royal family), red belt (clan), and blue belt (official Yanei) to share the worries of the master, and have spent a lot of money to recruit skilled craftsmen from all over the country, and those well-informed foreign merchants, sailors and missionaries cannot be missed.

In real history, the money spilled by these people promoted the integration of local theater and produced the national treasure art of Peking Opera.

In the fictional game, the monetary stimulation of these people caused the existing technology combination of the East and the West to collide, resulting in a steam car that could ride people, and even other creative steam vehicles, but inadvertently opened a new "steam age".

Since cylindrical springs would not be invented until 1776, rubber vulcanization technology would not be until 1844, ball bearings and electric welding would be decades later. Without these key technologies, the sealing, friction resistance, and heat exchange efficiency of steam engines and boilers at this time are relatively poor, and they generally have the problems of stupid and coarse, and the power torque is small, which is not suitable for application in the field of industry and agriculture.

But these problems are not a problem in front of the Eight Banners, and they quickly developed new ways to play Hutong drag racing, Shichahai rowing, Mulan paddock horse racing, etc.

Just like now, there are three rows of six strangely shaped steam cars parked at the mouth of the rather wide alley.

Crafted from wood and solid copper, the four wooden wheels are coated in leather for shock absorption, and at the front is an open cab with steering rods and seats, followed by a copper jar shaped like a wine jar with a crankshaft link and a straight chimney.

Young men in six-colored coats stood beside the car, chatting casually about the weather today, and whose wren brother would shout, while their respective servants were busy preparing for the drive.

The steam engine requires a boiler to transport steam, and before it can be used, the boiler needs to be fired, and then fuel is added to wait for the steam temperature and pressure to reach the target before it can be used, which is also reverted to the game. Of course, it is impossible for game planning to make players wait for half an hour like in reality, and arranging the preparation for the fire is more to buy time to load the map.

While the NPCs are busy heating up the boiler, the alley on the screen is also automatically extended forward under the drive of the PCG system, which looks very interesting.

There were 1,000 alleys in the Ming Dynasty, and the number further increased in the Qing Dynasty, with the saying that "three thousand six large alleys, and the number of cow hairs in small alleys", and later statistics, the number should be between 3,300 and 6,000. The names of these alleys are all-encompassing, and the length and shape are also different, there are five or six miles long "Dongxijiang Rice Lane" (a street of rice noodles, invaded by foreign forces at the end of the Qing Dynasty, renamed Dongxijiaomin Lane), there are also less than three zhang of "one-foot street", and there are actually 13 turns of the "Jiudaowan Hutong" and so on, which can be described as a variety of patterns.

With the development and construction of the city, the vast majority of hutongs have disappeared, and can only be relied on by a few ancient protected areas, as well as words and photos.

Now, this part of the hutong enthusiasts will soon have a new choice, through on-the-spot sampling and research of photos and documents, Giant Rat Studio has developed a Hutong street generator based on PCG procedural content generation technology, to ensure that players can experience the closest to the real style, but also full of highlights.

After a while, black smoke and white vapor began to pour out of the chimney and exhaust vents, and it looked like it was full of steam.

The driver ends the chatter and climbs into the car, and the screen automatically splits into six and focuses on one of the cars. At the same time, the handles in each person's hands also lit up with indicator lights, and the colors correspond to the coats worn by one of the drivers.

"Hey!" Atletico turned his head to look at the white star next to him, his handle glowing green, but it was randomly forgiven.

As the official game of Bee Games, "Steam Age" comes with "God Optimization" by default, not to mention the native 4K resolution, it also supports split-screen display, and supports up to eight people to play together, which is obviously aimed at the typical scene of party games.

Fortunately, the PT platinum engine did not disappoint Atletico Madrid, and the split-screen switching of the trial version was still smooth and delicate, and there was no stuttering.

The prompt text "Drivers are in place" appeared on the screen, and a dense urging drum sound was heard in the stereo.

"Three, two, one, boom!"

A gong sounded, and six steam cars immediately rushed out.

Even though the game plan quietly increased the speed of the steam car, it was still less than 120 miles per hour (30 kilometers per hour), not to mention that it could not be compared to sports cars, airplanes, etc., and even off-road vehicles and bicycles were faster than it.

Faced with this situation, the developers had to polish the details of the experience in order to create the characteristic advantages of the slow racing car.

The slow speed of the car gives the player just the time to admire the large number of gatehouses and eaves behind the courtyard walls that appear on both sides, and it also makes it difficult for the leaders to pull away, as long as they are not unlucky enough to roll over and exit the race, there is always a chance to overtake and counterattack.

As the speed of the car gradually increases, the body also becomes bumpy.

Because there are few large vehicles running over, the road surface in the alley is smoother than the street. But at that time, bricks were still handmade high-grade building materials, and they could not be used to pave roads on a large scale, let alone slate, cement, and asphalt. People walking in the alleys will inevitably encounter the bad experience of being covered in dirt on sunny days, muddy feet on rainy days, and sand on windy days.

If you don't pay attention on this road, you may stumble and fall, and it is inevitable that a steam car without rubber tires and using a rigid suspension will run over and shake and bump. If it were the real world, the driver and crew would only be greeted by the miserable end of the broken egg, which is also the reason why the rigid suspension was quickly eliminated.

Fortunately, this is a game world, and players can sit on a soft and comfortable sofa without the constant slapping of the seat, but they can feel the slight tremor through the handle while watching the surrounding scenery, which is also very interesting. The loss of the giant rat studio has the experience of participating in the development of driving simulators, and the grasp of the scale details is in place, coupled with the high-definition vibration function of the bee handle, it is enough to achieve such an excellent feel.

It's just that, as an entertainment-oriented racing game, what players want is victory after all, and the speed of the car is inevitably faster.

At this time, it is obvious that the "insidious place" of planning to put the track in the alleys and alleys, and the car walks in these places, but all kinds of accidents are inevitable. Wild dogs peeing in the corners, women and maids pouring sewage, large pits in front of them, parts that suddenly crumble, braids that quietly catch fire...... It is reminiscent of Giant Rat's previous work "Crossing the Battlefield".

Even if the speed of the car was slow, there was still no lack of thrills and excitement, so that the six of them were quickly immersed in it, and everyone in the Giant Rat Studio also let go of their scruples about the big boss, put aside the forbearance and retreat, and played with him in the alley bumper cars that collided and framed each other. 2k reading web