https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1299837
As part of the launch of Path of Exile: The Awakening, we've created two new
challenge leagues - Warbands and Tempest. In this article, I'd like to talk
about how these leagues work and give some insight into their development.
(将推出2个新的挑战联盟：Warbands 跟 Tempest。)
Like the ten previous challenge leagues, Warbands and Tempest are
self-contained economies that are essentially an optional fresh start for
players. They have a set of difficult challenges with prizes that reward
mastery of Path of Exile. Challenge leagues are extremely popular, so we put
substantial development resources towards them.
(跟之前10个挑战联盟一样，Warbands 跟 Tempest 是独立的经济环境，无法从其他联盟
带东西进去这里，对玩家而言也会有新的开始新的体验。
同时也包含了一些有奖励的挑战项目。)
While these two leagues play very differently from each other, they both share
a design goal - to make the area that you're playing in matter more. In their
own unique ways, both Warbands and Tempest provide fluctuating incentives and
obstacles for playing in various world areas.
(这2个新的联盟的目的是让玩家更有意愿去探索各地。
Warbands League
In the Warbands league, warring clans have spread throughout Wraeclast. During
your travels, you'll occasionally encounter one of their Warbands - a
tight-knit group of enemies who cooperate to take you down.
(在 Warbnads 联盟里，氏族分布世界各地。在你冒险旅行的同时，将会遇到各个氏族的
战队，有组织会协同作战的一群敌人。)
Our primary design goal with the Warbands league was to create an encounter
where your enemies feel intelligent and work together. In addition, adding
mechanics that allow the presence of these Warbands to wax and wane throughout
Wraeclast based on player behaviour creates some very interesting economic
consequences regarding the exclusive items that they can drop.
(在 Warbands 联盟的设计初衷就是会遭遇一群有智慧又一起作战的敌人。
此外，根据玩家的行动去呈现各氏族战队的消长，并且获得特殊掉落物。)
Not only are the Warbands designed to use skills in synergistic ways, but each
of the Warband members has a distinct role. The regular warriors try to engage
you in combat directly. Their behaviour can change substantially based on pack
composition. Supporting Warband members generally use support skills that help
the warriors without attacking you unless you get in their way. The higher
elites and warband leaders start out by directing combat, making sure that
their subordinates are attacking the right targets. They commonly have auras to
improve their allies. If much of the Warband is slain, the elites and leaders
will take matters into their own hands and become very aggressive, trying to
finish the encounter quickly with their own deadly attacks.
(战队里面不只有技能的协同合作，战队成员的角色也有分工。
战士类会直接找你对打，后援类的会使用技能辅助战士。
精英或领导会指挥作战并且通常带有灵气，如果手下死伤惨重时它们会积极参与作战。)
Each of the Warbands was designed by a different Grinding Gear Games designer,
to give them a distinct personality.
(每个战队是由不同的GGG设计者所设计的，确保各个战队有不同的特性。)
As you progress through the game, you meet Warbands with more senior members.
In Normal difficulty, you encounter Warbands that just consist of Warriors and
support members. Elites start appearing in Cruel difficulty and Leaders start
appearing in Merciless, becoming more frequent in Maps.
(在普通难度，你所遇到的战队只有战士类跟辅助类。
在残酷难度，会多一种精英类。
在无情难度，再多一种领导类。
在 Map 里，战队出现的频率会更高。)
Each of the Warbands has several exclusive Unique Items that can only be
obtained by killing their members. While we don't want to reveal the full
details right now, there are Unique Shields that can be obtained from any
member of the Warband, plus very rare Unique Rings that only come from the
most senior members. Rumour has it that they sometimes drop magic items that
have a new mod exclusive to their Warband.
(每一个战队会有几个特有的独特物品。
例如某个独特盾，罕见的独特戒，或者独特词缀的物品。)
Warbands aren't tied to a specific world area. They each control various parts
of the world map and these areas of influence ebb and flow over time. If
players target and hunt a Warband in a particular area, then they can wipe out
its influence in that area, causing it to move elsewhere. Only areas with very
strong influence can spawn the most senior Warband members.
(各地区的战队不是固定的。)
Warbands is the standard challenge league, where death is not permanent, so
we've been able to balance the encounters to be challenging and the rewards to
be worth it.
Tempest League
In the Tempest league, Wraeclast is affected by magical Tempests. These can
cause a variety of effects that influence both monsters and players, such as
changing their sizes, causing damage, altering drop rates or even automatically
animating weapons that drop.
(在 Tempest 联盟里，世界各地受到魔法暴风雨的影响。
魔法暴风雨会改变玩家或怪物的体型/伤害/掉落率等等。)
When you're in an area affected by a Tempest, you'll occasionally see markers
on the ground. They signal that the tempest is about to strike that area. When
it strikes, it affects everything caught within the radius - either players or
monsters. Depending on what the effect is, it can have either negative or
positive consequences for those caught within the blast. This produces some
really hectic gameplay situations.
(当你进到一个暴风雨区域时，你将会在地面上看到暴风雨的源头。
当暴风雨开始时，它会感染范围内的所有人，给予正面或负面影响。)
We initially tested this idea with blanket mods that affected the entire level,
but found it far more engaging if the mods are stronger but only affect
entities in a specific location. With careful positioning you can deny monsters
from getting positive buffs or kite them into negative ones.
(在良好的风筝走位拖怪下，你可以让怪物得到负面的暴风雨影响。)
Some rare tempests are positive for you in both directions. For example, the
Glimmering Tempest causes you to find better items and for monsters to drop
better items. If you manage to hit yourself and some monsters with the same
blast, then you'll get compounding results.
(一些稀有的暴风雨会让你有双重正面效果。
例如 Glimmering Tempest 让你打好宝让怪掉好宝。)
Like other systems in Path of Exile, Tempests have prefixes and suffixes.
The prefixes dictate the effects caused by the periodic tempest strikes that
occur, and the suffixes cause the entire area affected by a tempest to exhibit
a new behaviour. For example, a Tempest of Animation causes all of the weapons
dropped by monsters to rise up and fight you before you can claim them.
(Tempest 有前缀跟后缀。)
When a Tempest affects an area, it affects it for everyone in that league.
Approximately 50% of areas are affected by a tempest at any one time. These
tempests change every hour, on the hour. You can look at the world map to see
what Tempest affects each area. Some of the tempests are rarer and much more
valuable than the others, so it's good to keep a lookout for them.
(暴风雨每一小时改变一次。任何时刻大约有50%的地区会受暴风雨影响。
在世界地图上可以查阅暴风雨发生地。)
Tempests can also affect end-game Maps. Because there's no world map for maps,
the community will need to collaborate to share information about which
valuable tempests affect which areas at the moment.
( Map 也会受暴风雨影响，因为没有世界地图的查阅方式，
所以分享各 Map 发生什么暴风雨是很重要的。)
As Tempest is a hardcore league, death is a one-way trip to Standard. Because
the Tempests change every hour, players can choose to take risks to maximise
how much they get out of good tempests, or potentially play in other areas
until the tempests move, in order to get past places where they are stuck.
(因为 Tempest 联盟是 HC 联盟，所以人物死掉会去 Standard永久联盟。
要生存下去或是冒着下凡的风险取决于自己。)
Challenges
There are a set of eight challenges that span across both leagues and other new
content introduced in The Awakening, such as the Jewel system. As you complete
challenges, a Totem Pole decoration in your hideout grows to permanently
display your accomplishment. In addition, the first 50 players to complete all
eight challenges will receive an exclusive Warbands/Tempest t-shirt.
(八个挑战。
藏身处有图腾柱装饰。
前50位玩家有T-shirt。)
These two challenge leagues launch alongside The Awakening on July 10.
We're greatly looking forward to playing them alongside you!
(7月10日发行。)