My perfect game would be a Skyrim /Mass Effect combo where I could decide which planets to visit, land explore,shoot some things and go home.
http://i.imgur.com/TUbDn.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/5sA3W.jpg
I have been waiting for a game that combines all genres into one massive game. A Galactic TBS gives way to a planet wide RTS, which controls a series of FPS/RPG battles. And all of it is MMO, FTP. The best players would be promoted to the next level of gameplay. There could even be an app that simulates different geopolitical structures that are the basis for the war effort (Farmville).
Sean, ever played Free Allegiance?
No. Is it like I described?
It CAN be. The base game is team-based a space-shooter. Well, sorta. As close to a space shooter as you'll get when there is also map exploration. So you have scout ships that you jump into but you can customize the loadout (so lots of probes to start) and then you fly around, scouting the map. Well, behind every team is a commander. And the commander CAN fly a ship, but his main job is to control the miners (not controlled by players) and direct the team. So, he can issue orders to you (which you may or may not follow) and he also builds new tech bases. So you have two guys playing an RTS against each other, while the third is playing a FPS(space shooter, not sure if you'd consider that the same).
The ensuing battle lasts between 30-120 minutes, with players hopping in and out throughout it.
Now take those battles throughout multiple Galactic sectors and add on to it a player-constructed sort of campaign, where players make decisions that create battles occurring, which are then played out in game.
I'm not sure if that part even still exists but I heard talk of it happening in the past. However, the main game is really good just by itself - and only the better players get to be commander. Takes a long time to earn that sort of respect, and even longer to actually learn to command well. Because when you screw up the first time, which you will do, they will not let you go again for a bit... But it's fun to play just in a ship...
Free to play.
Is Allegiance still kicking? Man, that game was a blast. I remember playing that 10 years ago. If I remember correctly, it was being developed by Microsoft Game Studios and then something happened, the project fell through and they released it as freeware, then the community took over.
I'd describe it like a first-person Sins of a Solar Empire. You had two teams (picked from the different factions with different ships, although I don't know how much has changed in 10 years), each team with the "commander" who played the strategy layer and ordering around the AI-controlled miners and builders, creating bases, mining complexes, tech stations and so forth. Everyone else suited up and got into the cockpit of an array of ships based on the resources of the faction. Initially everyone starts out in dinky scout ships but as the resources and tech roll in the players can get bigger and better ships with different weapon loadouts.
My favorite experiences involved taking bombers (2-seaters, only thing that can destroy bases & structures), being escorted by heavy fighters... one man piloting this slow hunk of junk with big fatty torpedoes while the gunner fended off missiles and other enemy ships. There were also cash bonuses for rescuing your fellow pilots in their escape pods and other stuff. I stopped playing because it just seemed there weren't enough people playing the match to keep it fun. I'll have to check it out again.
I don't know if it's still kicking, unfortunately. Last I checked there was still a community around, but that was a while ago. I was never a good player, you see. I suck at anything in the first person... but I can build a damn good Tropico. It was fun to be a part of something, and maybe a pickup of your teammate's pod would end up winning you the game later, or repairing that bomber, or doing one of any number of things that I could actually do... simple grunt type things. When it's your probe drop that picks up the bomber... and there's enough time to scramble for defense... that's a really great moment. The ripple effects I tended to make, though, would be the probe drop that the commander THOUGHT was watching a sector but is 500 meters away from where it should be letting the bomber through, and missing the pod so that they base was destroyed instead of being saved...
Good times.
Free allegiance was/is amazing, and a massive wall of whatthefuck of learning curve. Only problem with it is the incredibly shitty default controls and dated graphics. Last time i checked (6 ish months ago) it was still going pretty strong.
Pbhead gets an urge to break out joystick and blow shit up.
I should load this up again:
With all the MMO out there, one would think this type of game would take off in new directions. Seeing this, I don't want to play another RTS until they do this with it.
What are those screenshots from, please?
Photoshop
Another hope destroyed.
I hate you now.
I think I know what you mean, though I want different for games.
Remember before the Big Boom and games didn't subscribe so narrowly to genre? Nowadays they're very restricted in terms of their outlook, and with the importance of graphics, their resources can only go so wide.
Basically what I want is a game with as broad a scope as at least a few types. In some phases you're 3rd person shooting, in some phases you're flying a spacecraft, and in some phases you're managing a fleet's broader maneuvers. Stuff like that. I'd really like if games could make a return to that sort of flexibility.
This isn't meant to be a complaint, I just want games to have come up with more "modes" and connectivity between those modes, instead of the now-usual case of single mode and nothing outside.
Imagine a Mass Effect title, in which once you board the Normandy, you pilot it around like in Freelancer, and can board your own capital ship, in which you can conduct fleet maneuvers that really change over the next course of (gametime). Yeah it's cumbersome but I at least want someone to try it, see if they can't make it work.
It's a big reason I still enjoy tabletop RPGs.
Didn't Spore try to do that?
Yeah, but I don't think they (were allowed to?) try very hard.
There's some randomass Russian game called The Precursors which mixes genres a bit I heard, and has a fan improvement pack to get rid of some of the cheese.
I bought it a while back but never found the right time to download it on my conn.
I've been in a pre-design phase of this sort of idea for about 5 years, its a lot of work. The difficulty is in creating a complex yet simple to understand framework so that players don't get lost. I haven't ever spent my full time on this project, its always been a slow side passion and it hasn't gone beyond paper and pencil. Yet, good pre-design is critical, and this is what I expect to be my most competitive asset, as mmo pre-design in the industry is usually just a Copy+paste from WoW + a few innovative "feature gimmicks".
Doing the research has also been a lot of work, getting smarter by the day .
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