How Himmelsdorf was built

Hello warriors,

哈喽大家好~

this time, we will have a look at how Himmelsdorf was built, based on an interview with Aleksandr Shilyaev, the Wargaming director of global operations for meta-games and mobile products.

这次我们来818锡城是如何创作出来的，这些信息基于Aleksandr Shilyaev的一个采访，这个人是WG全球运营的元信息游戏和移动产品的总监

The idea to create Himmelsdorf came because after Karelia, Prokhorovka and Malinovka, the game needed a city map. Style-wise, the map resembled the armored clashes that took place late in the war in Berlin for example. As the first city map, it was a challenge as for example the building production had to be optimized (streamlined). After Himmelsdorf, all the other city maps were easier to make as the process was already there.

锡城的制作初衷是，（WOT初期阶段）在卡累利阿、普罗霍洛夫卡和马利诺夫卡做出来后，WOT需要一张城镇图。这张图的风格可以是类似柏林战争发生的武装冲突一类的。作为首张城镇图，诸如优化建筑等工作是一项巨大的挑战。锡城完工后，今后的巷战图就可以参考这张图的制作过程来制作

There is no "Himmelsdorf" in real life. The map uses elements from several places but it is overall based on the mapmaker artists' fantasy. It was designed for comfortable gameplay, not realism. The map was originally supposed to be called "Khrensdorf" (a Russian joke, "khren" means horseraddish but also "nonsense") but there were issues with the localization of this name and it was changed to "Himmelsdorf" instead. After this map, the developers started working on its Soviet-themed counterpart, the result of which became Ensk.

现实中并无“锡默尔斯多夫”这么个地方。这张地图的制作使用了不同地方的元素，总体上基于制图者的艺术幻想。这张图设计得适合游戏而不是为了史实。地图名字本来是想叫做“Khrensdorf”（毛子笑话，“khren”既有辣根（欧洲植物）的意思，也有“无意思”的意思），但是这个名字牵扯一些问题，最后改成了“Himmelsdorf”（锡默尔斯多夫）。这张图后，开发者们开始做苏联特色的地图，产物便是地图安斯克

The map was not themed to be exactly German, it was supposed to be simply European. That's why the developers, who visited Europe in the past brought their photos and those photos became the basis of the buildings and design of the map. Since the tourists photographed mostly known buildings, it turned out however that what the developers thought as "typical" European architecture was in fact something unique - for example the red "town hall" on the map is in fact the Royal Palace in Warsaw. The horse statue was taken from the Hohenzollern bridge in Köln (respectively old pictures of it).

地图并非基于德国真实的样子，只是做得欧洲化而已。那些游览过欧洲的开发者们带回的照片成了地图中建筑设计的基础。由于游览一般只拍那些有名地标的照片，开发者们认为的“典型”欧洲建筑其实是当地的奇特建筑——例如红色的“市政厅”基于华沙的皇宫，地图中央马的雕像取材自霍亨索伦桥科隆（老照片）。

Warsaw palace versus the building in the game:

华沙皇宫与游戏中市政厅：

The details on the map (like signs and such) were taken exclusively from old photos to make them as realistic as possible.

地图上的细节（例如标志牌一类的）也是从老照片上取材的，目的是把地图做得更逼真

The first thing that was created for the map was the symmetry principle and after that, the developers began to fill it with content. Identical houses would look boring and that's why the houses have different heights for example - plus there are landmarks so players orientate themselves easily. On one side, it's the church, on the other side it's the above mentioned town hall. In order to make the parts more distinctive, the church side has a typical European housing while the other side has more like "Third Reich" type of architecture (more like an office district).

地图制作首先考虑对称性，之后再填充内容。相同的房子会显得沉闷，因此房子做得有高有矮；除此之外还有些地标，玩家可以比较容易地确定自己的位置。一边是教堂，另一边则是刚才提到的市政厅。为了使不同部分特色更鲜明，教堂一侧是传统欧洲风房子，而另一侧则是“第三帝国”式架构（更像办公区）

Himmelsdorf mock-up:

鸟瞰锡城：

Himmelsdorf base - resources used:

基地与制作用照片：

The railway station - resources used:

铁路与照片：

The first version of Himmelsdorf appeared during the beta testing of WoT and the "houses" consisted of textureless boxes.It was only gradually that the map was filled with textures and other elements. The lighting proved to be a challenge - to make it look natural without interfering with the gameplay. At one point, one part of players drove against the sun while the other team had the sun in their back. This was not ideal and after consulting the player statistics and feedback, it was decided to simply leave the sun on one of the sides for both teams to have equal chance.

首版锡城出现在了WOT的beta测试中，一开始“房子”还只是无纹理的盒子。逐渐地，地图加入了纹理和其他元素。光照也是个挑战——要让其尽可能自然而又不干扰游戏性。有一点是，一队玩家迎着太阳而另一队背光，这并不理想。咨询玩家意见反馈后，太阳的位置移到了地图的另一侧，两支队伍都有相同的机会去迎光或背光

Himmelsdorf content (house models) was made with its further re-use in mind for other maps. The set of houses, developed for Himmelsdorf could then be later re-used for faster map creation and appears in many locations that were added later.

锡城的填充物（房子模型）制作时就考虑了用在其他地图上。为锡城制作的一系列房子重新用于更快地建图，出现在了许多之后加入的地图中。