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《钢铁门徒》中角色有 8 种属性和 22 种技能可以直接通过消耗经验值升级。
Characters in Disciples of Steel have eight stats and 22 skills, which are increased by directly spending experience points.
战斗发生在带有地形和障碍的地图上，玩家可以使用一些战略，比如将门关上分隔敌人。
Combat occurs on a tactical map with terrain and obstacle considerations, e.g. you can lock a door to divide the enemy.
玩家以第一人称视角探索地牢，辅助以方便的小地图和设定环境氛围的描述文字。
Dungeons are explored in first-person mode, with a handy automap and room descriptions that set the atmosphere.
受 SSI 的《亚拉冈之剑（Sword of Aragon, 1989）》影响，当玩家召集（或征服）性格各异的同伴后可以采取不同的战斗策略。
Once you gather allies (or subdue them), the game reveals strategy battles inspired by SSI’s Sword of Aragon (1989).
理解这些系统是非常重要的，因为《钢铁门徒》是一款十分困难的游戏。玩家诞生于一个充满敌意的环境却没有任何向导。而所有的区域和地下城在最开始的时候就对玩家开放，玩家非常有可能在低等级时就进入高等级地图或者遇到不知道如何通过的障碍。一个新玩家通常来说会输掉五场新手战斗中的四场，还需要花费几十个小时的时间来让自己的小队稳定下来。
当玩家做好准备之后应动身前往九个王国，解决国王们给你的一系列任务。这些任务相互交织，在长度和难度上都有很大的不同。在王国任务线的最后，这些国王要么答应在大战到来之前和门徒结盟，要么交出国家让门徒制定税率和筹备军队。
此时，已经很复杂的游戏方式又显露出了完全不同的另一面：玩家可以在地图上部署大规模军队并攻击其他王国。你可以移动军队、调整装备、观察士气和地形。这样复杂的系统是《钢铁门徒》脱颖而出的一个重要原因。
Understanding these systems is vital, as Disciples is a very hard game. You start with little direction in a hostile environment. All areas and dungeons are open at the outset, so it's easy to stumble somewhere you're not ready to be—and that's just about everywhere. A new player might lose four out of five beginner battles, and it takes about a dozen hours to stabilise the party.
Once you're feeling ready, you should visit each of the nine kingdoms and solve a series of quests for each king. The quests vary considerably in length and difficulty, and many intertwine. Reaching the end of a king's quest line results in the king either agreeing to ally with the Disciples when the Big Battle comes or actually turning over the kingdom to the Disciples, letting them set tax rates and raise and equip armies.
At this point, an entirely different side to an already complex game becomes available: the ability to field large armies and attack other kingdoms on a strategic map. You move stacks of troops against their opponents, observing equipment, morale, and terrain. That such a complex system is basically optional is one of the amazing things about Disciples of Steel.
《钢铁门徒》因为初始难度饱受诟病，后来开发者发布了一个更新，让玩家一开始就拥有 1000 点经验值可以使用。
Disciples of Steel was heavily criticised for its initial difficulty, so developers released an update in which characters start with 1,000 experience points to spend.
游戏甚至允许玩家跳过任务直接刺杀国王和王后并占领他们的国家。这就需要突袭他们的城堡，屠杀他们的守卫——一场艰难但确实可行的战斗。
你可以通过 3 种方式赢得游戏：在地下城中用自己的小队杀死邪恶巫师瓦里兹（Variz，传统 RPG 路线）；等待“末日审判（Armageddon）”的到来，瓦里兹会带领他的军队进攻拉纳托，你要用自己地军队击败他（战略路线）；或者在末日来临之前攻占所有敌军城市。
然而，要想成为《钢铁门徒》的粉丝——我自己就是一位铁杆粉丝——就要容忍很多很多东西。有一个食物和水的指示条但永远不会变化；没用的对话选项；找不到任何东西的“搜索”功能；鸡肋的技能和咒语；糟糕的游戏手册；过多的 bug；不能让人满意的结局等等。
虽然在很多方面都失败了，但《钢铁门徒》在关键部分的表现还是让它成为了一款 RPG 佳作：策略性的战斗、魔法、装备、角色培养、以及任务设计，都让这款游戏时至今日仍值得玩家反复细品。
The game even offers the ability to skip the quest threads entirely and just assassinate the various kings and queens and take over their kingdoms. This involves storming their castles and slaying their guards – an extremely hard battle, but absolutely winnable.
You can win the game in three ways: kill the evil wizard Variz in his dungeon with your party (a traditional RPG path); wait until the “Armageddon” date when Variz leads his forces against Lanathor and defeat him with your armies (a strategy path); or conquer each of the enemy cities before the deadline.
However, to be a fan of Disciples of Steel – and I am an unequivocal fan – is to forgive an awful lot of things. There's a food and water metre that never budges, useless conversation options, a “search” function that never finds anything, skills and spells that have no use, a poor manual, many bugs, an unsatisfying ending, etc.
And yet, despite failing in so many things, Disciples of Steel performs excellently in the core areas that make a good RPG – tactical combat, magic, equipment, character development, and quests – and is thus enormously fun to play even today.
《电脑 RPG 游戏史（The CRPG Book Project）》原书信息
英文原版主编：Felipe Pepe
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这本书历时四年，由 119 名志愿者共同完成。
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