It seems to me that a lot of this can be achieved with mods, using the engine of games that already exist.
I thought that was the reward!?
What if there was a space 4X where there were no other space empires out there? (I guess that would make it a 3X game.) You expand away, but there's no need to worry about a military at all. You'll find life out there, but nothing that's interested in space travel. Just plants, not-very-sentient critters, and weird life forms (think Lem's Solaris).
Making new space colonies won't be easy. You'll need to make decisions about whether to colonize that so-so system that's close by, or spend more time reaching for that distant system with high specs.
I would give it a series of tech trees, along the lines of Sword of the Stars. You'll have the bottom tech for a few of them, but there will also be a bunch that can only get started via finding weird stuff out in space. Once you get up into the "canopy" of the tech trees, they can start boosting each other - so maybe learning how to make your own wormholes will make research into logistics go much faster.
Goals... let's see... how about keeping personal records? Track how many turns it takes before every solar system in the galaxy is scanned, how many turns until any tech tree gets to level 10 (or whatever), biggest percent population growth over the course of any 10 turns, largest population on a single planet, and so on. The more, the better, but I would stay away from any that you can improve simply be playing the game long past the point of populating the whole galaxy. When you play a second time, you'll beat a lot of your previous records, but not all of them. Give the ability to see your Steam (?) friends' records, too, if you want some hopefully-friendly competition.
Does anyone actually enjoy city management in Civilization?
Like a mix of Stellaris and Anno. Or maybe more like Factorio. I'm not sure whether to lean more in the direction of management sim or 4X on this. I feel like you'd need more management to offset not having the extermination part of a 4X.
You could introduce competitors if the player is playing as a corporation. You wouldn't have a military to fight them, but perhaps like in Railway Empire you have some options to sabotage your competitors. Maybe a mechanic to take over parts of a competitor through various means might be nice in case they manage to grab something you really wanted.
As for goals, I would suggest something like Factorio or Satisfactory. Some kind of system you're building towards that needs tons of resources.
Where would the challenge come from in your opinion?If the systems and stuff were deep enough, I wouldn't need any competition from other aliens or corporations. I think it would be incredible to just take on the challenge of space and colonization and managing a far flung civ.
Where would the challenge come from in your opinion?
Picture something like Roller Coaster Tycoon. There are no enemies, no competing theme parks, etc. The challenge is building out tied to economics, time and keeping your guests safe and happy, doing maintenance and keeping your park clean, etc. Just translate this into expanding into space. Colony ships, by themselves, would pose many problems. New colonies on alien planets would also have many challenges. You would have space stations to deal with, shipyards, mining stations, etc.
Also, there could be many objectives you need to meet.
What saddens me is how Games workshop has a strong IP but does absolutely no justice for it. i would love to see a COD Sp campaign for the WH40k universe. Play as the IG for the mass shooty bits and when you switch to space marines it plays more like gears of war (or space marine 2 i guess) in a narrative campaign. the game has plenty of epic battles to implement. Hell don't make it a narrative campaign and just call the greatest/epic battles of the imperium and just simulate key battles/wars.
So you would also go for a management sim route?
Roller Coaster Tycoon is a good example. And I like the idea for objectives. Something like the grants from Prison Architect for example,
I've also wondered why there are so many bad Warhammer games. Hopefully at least one of the upcoming games will be decent:
Ok, I just remembered a game that doesn't exist, but should.
I worked 11 years in a factory, and I quit there about 17 years ago. My idea is from back when I worked in the factory, so this has been brewing for a while. I worked a lot with various machines and robots, and part of my job was troubleshooting when the machines and robots went down to keep them running smoothly. They paid me a decent wage, plus insurance and benefits to do that and keep the lines going.
So why not make a stupid, addicting app game where people have to do what I did in the game. The robots and machines go down, and the player has to troubleshoot what is happening, and keep it running smoothly. Obviously this wasn't available back when I came up with the idea, but the player could earn points and even cheap NFTs or stickers for keeping the robots and machines running smoothly, and we could have streaks to motivate people to keep playing.
Now here's the kicker. The people playing don't know that they're actually troubleshooting for real robots and machines. They think they're just playing a game, but the game is connected to the factory's network, actually controlling what is happening there. So not only does the factory get free labor if it's an addicting enough game, but we could even introduce things like in-game purchases. We could set this thing up so that people are actually paying their own money to do factory work, and they don't even realize it! With people already playing games like Satisfactory, we're already halfway there!
No sir! The diabolical plan only works if it's secretly controlling real machines and robots.Everything was going so well, and then something must have hit you in the head right before you wrote the last paragraph...
It's bizarre how some games are priced these days. Multiplayer only games are selling for SP game prices now, which is ridiculous when the game is an arena shooter or something and cost a small fraction of what an SP game cost to make. Personally, I think multiplayer only games should be free to play and just sell cosmetics. People buy those like crazy, so the more people you have playing, the more you got buying.i cant think of any particular game type that has not been covered but what i would like to see is longer play times on games that have an ending.
I am fortunate enough to be able to buy any game i want but £25 to £30 for 12 hours to complete compared to same price for multiplay and open ended that will keep you going for years.
That said i have done the wolf amongst us , blacksad and beyond a steel sky to name a few
There is definitely a trend for more free to play multiplayer games. Even the multiplayer of Halo Infinite is F2P.It's bizarre how some games are priced these days. Multiplayer only games are selling for SP game prices now, which is ridiculous when the game is an arena shooter or something and cost a small fraction of what an SP game cost to make. Personally, I think multiplayer only games should be free to play and just sell cosmetics. People buy those like crazy, so the more people you have playing, the more you got buying.
eXploration, eXpansion, and eXploitation - so you've still got three of the four X's. Might be able to throw Logistics. That's it! An XXXL game!So you would also go for a management sim route?
Ender's Game, the Game!No sir! The diabolical plan only works if it's secretly controlling real machines and robots.
One of my all-time favorite books.Ender's Game, the Game!
You probably know the book's been written—Ender's Game. Strange tho that a game of the Game never made it out of the stalls.The diabolical plan only works if it's secretly controlling real machines and robots
It's really good.One of my all-time favorite books
Great book! I didn't think of it, but you're right. It's a lot like that, only giving free labor to a factory, instead of fighting a stellar war.Ender's Game, the Game!
Great book! I didn't think of it, but you're right. It's a lot like that, only giving free labor to a factory, instead of fighting a stellar war.
It would have to be a HUGE mod. It some point, it becomes better to just make a new game.It seems to me that a lot of this can be achieved with mods, using the engine of games that already exist.