a. I’m a big fan of Homeworld and Jagged Alliance 2, so I’d like to see a game that has the ship-to-ship combat of Homeworld coupled with the campaign layer and RPG aspects of JA2, complete with roaming armies and capturable sectors.
b. I’m also a big fan of Lego so I’d like to see a tactical RPG like Shadowrun Returns or X-COM using Lego figurines.
c. I like space combat sims as well as the open and player-run dynamic worlds of EVE Online or Ultima Online. I think Star Citizen might fill this niche. We’ll see.
d. Lastly, I’d like to see a Independence War 3.
Also, god yes.
First one sounds like The Mandate I think?
For me there are these impossibly ambitious and specific game ideas - one, for example, is an Ice Age survival and management game with genetic traits on an RPG system that allows you to play multiple generations, resource gathering, environmental hazards. Kind of like a mix of Don’t Starve, Spore and the recently kickstarted Long Dark.
Then there are the more ‘conventional’ ones. I’ve always wanted to see a fully functional virtual battlefield, somewhere between Falcon 4 and World War II Online and DCS World and Dangerous Waters. War Thunder might be able to deliver something that will satisfy this.
I would love to see a remake of Cinemaware’s It came from the Desert, a la Telltale’s Walking Dead, but not sacrificing the open map, and with the minigames done in modern action game fashion.
And another vote for that space game that the canceled Jumpgate sequel would fill. Star Citizen or Elite, hopefully, will realize this dream. Finally, since we’re also including undelivered sequels, I would have to put Outcast 2 over Independence War 3 (or even Freespace 3).
Easy. Simearth with realistic planetary and solar system dynamics, and plant/animal evolution based on factors you set. Then while playing the game you watch things evolve in fast motion and can play with genes and planetary climate/geology as the game progresses. If I had a billion dollars this is the game I’d make.
I would like a RPG where time actually matters. In most RPGs you get a quest, then have forever to get around tackling that quest. Like - holy crap, there is a group of orcs heading to the village to destroy it. The player responds by meticulously exploring every nook and cranny because he knows that the orcs won’t do jack until he triggers the next part of the quest by going to the town. There is no sense of urgency. No tough decisions about how to spend your time. It would be nice if there was also some ‘downtime’ that gives the player a chance to explore some without worrying about time, but I think time needs to be more of a factor. Granted, I wouldn’t want every RPG to be made this way, but I think the genre can use some. I think it would need to be an open world game where stuff just happens and you get involved where you want to get involved. I’m sure some think Skyrim would fit the bill, but I don’t think it is quite there. I would also like a combat model that actually feels good (if it is an action RPG like Skyrim or Dark Souls). I generally prefer a good story-based RPG like The Witcher 2, but I don’t think a time mechanic would work as well with a story focused RPG.
Dragons dogma style party but each player is possibly a human in coop. Open world like Skyrim. Combat and crafting like dark souls but able to climb up an ogres back for a super high risk high reward move.
Or some massive open world open space traveller 2300 game with coop, landable planets, space stations, ships but also wide open space combat.
My dream game is pretty much Star Trek. I think of it as a starship captain game with a wide-open universe just waiting to be being explored. The first Mass Effect was probably closest to what I am looking for, but I’d like something with more non-critical path stuff out there, a game that takes cues from Skyrim with lots and lots of stuff to see and do with a main plot that can be followed or ignored at your leisure. I’d love to have something of an economy with a bunch of alien races to establish relations with, trade with and, sometimes, when all else fails, engage in battles with. So I guess it would be an updated version of Starflight, pretty much.
Have you tried any of the Soldak ARPGs? All of them have quests in which monsters will attack and kill NPCs if you dilly-dally and don’t stop them in time.
In Din’s Curse, monsters will slaughter your whole village if you ignore them for too long. In Depths of Peril, rival NPCs can complete your quests and collect the loot. Then they will use that loot to attack you. In Drox Operative, various races are trying to exterminate each other and you get involved by helping one side, or the other. Or playing them against each other. Or killing them all yourself. With the help of monsters.
No, I haven’t. I actually own Depths of Peril, but I haven’t installed it yet. Din’s Curse sounds too much like Diablo / Torchlight. I get bored to tears with that style of combat. Actually, how does the combat in Depths of Peril play out? If it is mindless click to kill I probably won’t be able to take it, but if it requires some thinking I may like it. How does Drox Operative play as far as the combat goes? They all sound like they have potential, but if they are too Diablo like it may do them in for me.
No, I hadn’t considered simulating captain, crew, marines, etc. Star Wolves is kind of like what I described, except it doesn’t have a strategic layer and worldmap.
First person RPG with a character development system similar to the first Asherons Call. You can pick and combine anything you want, and are only limited by the exponential nature of skill costs. I.E. if you really want to master something it takes most of your resources, but jack of all trades can be viable if balanced correctly. Couple that with a minecraft-like world to build, craft, tunnel, create with realistic graphics. Then for the topper, add in a deep looting and crafting hunt, and specific boss mob encounters.
I’ve been looking for that game since the early 90s, if I ever get enough money, I’m going to make it.
A well thought out, official Pokemon MMO. X/Y did a good job of making you feel less alone in the world, and I felt it was a good step in the right direction.
Where is the link to your kickstarter, I wanna pledge!
Well, maybe not really, depending on your track record of shipping games, but it’s a cool idea that I’d love to see made nonetheless. Would definately play.
Combat in all the Soldak games is pretty dull, unfortunately, I’d say even moreso than in Diablo itself.
The often praised stuff is there, but either takes a long time to come into play or is essentially a gimmick.
Monsters doing their thing at their own pace works quite well in Dins Curse, but is also mostly nonconsequential. At least it was for as long as I have played. Lizardmen uprising on Lvl7. Ah well, big deal.
Sometimes it’ll prompt me to go back a couple of levels to solve a quest, but doing that is just busywork.
If a monster attacks town, I’ll basically drop what I’m doing and teleport back to defeat it - sometimes, it’s very easy, sometimes, there’s no way to save the townsfolk. IIRC, this can leave you stranded without a merchant of some type, but they might just “respawn” in the form of their resposibilities being taken over by someone else. Sometimes it can cause quests to fail with no way of preventing this.
Drox Operative is really the same game just with a different skin attached, you still defeat “monsters” in click-click-click combat to eventually have a slightly better “sword” (laser) or armor (here, also shield) drop.
Dungeons are different space sectors and the whole 4x angle that was/is indicated is hardly visible.
All in all, these games are a tremendous achievement for a single person studio like Soldak, but far less spectacular in-play than some praises here make it sound.
But they really resonate to a certain audience, or so it seems, and thus I’d always say it’s worth to at least check at least one of them out.
rezaf
Sounds similar to my pipe dream. I’m not wedded to the first person perspective, but picture a roguelike with tech like EQ Next so everything is randomly generated every play. Add resources, crafting, deformable terrain and weather conditions that actually matter. Then add boatloads of epic encounters (different every time) with unique rewards and loads of danger.
I’m picturing a batshit insane melding of an open world, serious crafting options, huge on exploration, but somewhat in the vein of Don’t Starve or similar where crazy unexpected things can happen.
I have a giant wishlist of things to create this monstrous thing, but I highly doubt anything quite like it will ever happen.
That Gearbox temporarily gave Duke Nukem to Croteam and asked them to make a Duke Nukem vs. Serious Sam game.
It would be a mix of the two genres over various levels. Sometimes in control of Duke in SS levels, and Sam in DN levels, including mix-up of enemy types. They meet up later and comment on each others kind of levels, of course in a snarky way. Maybe they also fight each other to begin with in boss fights until they decide to work together, slap their fists together like in that scene in Predator, and then shoots the enemies side by side. Think also of the co-op opportunities here. They could work on puzzles together, and one could save the other in the last second in a boss fight (after having been split up), after which the first guy claims he was on top of things but thanks anyway.
Serious Sam: “Want some gum?”
I’ve always fantasised about a sci-fi co-op roguelike-like survival horror game where you have a few players in first person playing as a lonely band of engineers and another player off-site, an overseer of sorts, who has access to the entire complex’s site plan and power, security and communications systems. The engineers are alone and have to survive and make it out of a deserted and heavily damaged facility with the help of the overseer trying to guide them to supply caches, lifts, trams etc. by re-routing whatever power systems the engineers manage to get operational, tapping into security cameras, sealing doors, flooding areas, adjusting air pressure, gravity, heat etc. The threat would be the environment itself and aliens that react to sound and commotion so, while powering and booting up systems is useful, there’s a greater likelihood that you’d attract the very things that are out to get you. They wouldn’t be crazy run-straight-at-you style aliens either; they’d prefer to hide in silence, waiting for the perfect time to attack. In fact, I’d want them all to have very particular personalities like say, paramites and houndeyes.
Without power, the overseer can’t pinpoint your exact location so players would need to relay and describe where they are so the overseer can try and get a hold on on their position, direct them and plan ahead. You could even feature fuzzy first person cams for the overseer on each player. Comms could be affected by player positions too depending on the position of comms stations and what the engineers are close to, so it’s very possible to be entirely in the black and cutoff from your overseer (voice chat would be best in-game because all sorts of distortion effects would be applied as players move about). Sometimes there would be no way of avoiding these situations so adequate planning and communication would be requried beforehand. For example, repairing a damaged electrical duct would not only restore power but reduce comms interference. Certain systems could require a lot more power than others for certain areas so as overseer you’d need to consider what you can afford to turn off and keep on. Weapons would be rare and invaluable and if anything rather ad-hoc. I’m thinking something like Teleglitch, Routine, Natural Selection 2 and Deadspace with more emphasis on slow burning dread and steady measured play. I’d also like any logs and notes in game to be pivotal to your success rather than just being lore padding. With it being a roguelike-like it would be almost endlessly replayable too with all sorts of rarities and surprises in store for each playthrough, perhaps with different ways of resolving the situation/game. And yes, it’s very much inspired by Aliens. But I think it would be an incredible co-op game with all the different systems at play.
I’ve also dreamt of the unholy fusion of Pokemon and MMO - I feel like the game type suits itself well to that, e.g. populating the world with actual trainers instead of NPCs.
My actual dream game would be the greatest birdwatching game of all time. It could be an RPG type deal where you go from novice to world-class birdwatcher. Or it could be more of an exploration type game where you go around to different habitats to see as many species as you can find, maybe with a “par” for different areas. You could have a binocular mechanic (where you aim with the mouse and focus with the left/right buttons). You could bring photography into the mix as well. Or maybe it could be a single/multiplayer board game where each player vies to see as many species as possible within a given time period. Or a combination of all of those things. In any event, I think you could end up with something cool.
Skyrim*-- as it exists today (modded with better models, textures, UI, balance fixes, etc.) – with better writing and more dynamic events.
*Or TESVI, or Fallout 4, whatever.
Depths of Peril is a good one to start with. It emphasizes competing against other adventurers, which adds an element of kill-steal tension beyond what’s found in Din’s Curse.
Combat is mostly Diablo-like in all three. However, I thought Depths of Peril also had interesting complexity in the class-based mana system. It actually is reminiscent of Guild Wars 2 (fighters build mana up naturally as they fight, rogues need to use special preparatory moves, mages use a conventional system of depletion).
Unfortunately Depths of Peril is also the earliest of the three and has the ugliest graphics.