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[Sordid]

I wish an RPG existed in which non-violent interactions with NPCs had the same mechanical depth as combat and were an equally valid option for solving encounters and quests. For example, a character in Skyrim has 18 different skills, of which only 2 are purely non-combat. Many games have complex combat systems that track damage to individual body parts, yet the mental state of NPCs, when it's even modeled at all, is generally condensed down to a single "disposition toward the player" stat. I want a game where an NPCs emotions and attitudes are tracked separately and can be influenced by different actions. For example, if you needed an item from an NPC, you could get it by interacting with them a lot and becoming their friend, doing a quest for them and earning their gratitude, pointing a gun at them to intimidate them, etc.

[hector13]

Undertale has a non-combat way of playing, and there’s a game called Alpha Protocol in which a significant component of the game involves manipulating characters through dialogue.

[Iduno]

there’s a game called Alpha Protocol in which a significant component of the game involves manipulating characters through dialogue.

I've really got to pirate that. I bought it, but the DRM makes it unplayable, and Steam refuses refunds to people who aren't in the EU.

[MorleyDev]

Alpha Protocol is great, usual Obsidian "can be janky but the sheet ambition of what they did makes up for it". Really main issue it ran into that make SEGA kill any future for it was that SEGA advertised it as a 'Mass Effect' competitor when really it's more "Splinter Cell: The RPG".

Been playing XCOM 2: Long War of the Chosen recently and it's been bouncing around again ideas in my head for a game like XCOM 2 where you're managing a secret resistance of soldiers against alien forces but instead of an Alien Invasion you are playing as Delta Green and sending cells to deal with Lovecraftian forces beyond human understanding.

Honestly there need to just be Delta Green video games in general...

[MaximumZero]

Phoenix Point is basically NuCOM: Terror From The Deep but not in the shitty underwater way that XCOM:TFTD was. It's worth a look if you like the NuCOM games.

[MorleyDev]

The thing in particular I'm liking about Long War for XCOM 2 is how it has a formal squad system to encourage you to keep the same troops as part of set squads on a rotation, which fits for military, and more-so how you have to send troops to infiltrate ahead of a mission and the longer you have them infiltrating the easier the mission will be and the less enemies you'll face.

So what I'm imagining is where you get a report of 'strange activity' and have to send a cell to investigate. The cell spends time investigating, discover whatever the horrible monstrous thing happening is, then does the tactical mission to put a stop to it. Thinking on it more, it could even be a mini choose your own adventure for the infiltration phase, where you go through a series of events as the investigation progresses and could even avoid the tactical mission entirely with the right (or wrong) outcomes of those events.

Like, one event chain could be a young man in a remote town is caught robbing a corner shop. The CCTV shows them demonstrating unusual levels of physical strength, and when the police arrested them they fought back and took several bullets to eventually stop. Upon autopsy, fully formed eyeballs were found inside their arm and leg muscles. You need to send a cell to investigate.

After some time, the cell reports back that they've traced the incident back to a pharmacutical trial being ran. You can spend some resources to help them get an inside contact at the company running the trial and fake IDs. This helps them follow the trail, and so they discover the head of the company is using a Lovecraftian Entity to develop experimental pharmacuticals to make money. You have the choice of how to put a stop to this. If you choose to assassinate the company head, then the rest of the cult will scatter and the problem will be neutralized. If you choose a full-on assault you can kill all the cultists and much greater reduce the Eldritch Level of that region. But a full-on assault is riskier to your agents lives since you need to go through the tactical gameplay.

You choose to order the assassination. The best marksman of the cell attempts to snipe the company head. However, they fail the skill roll and the company head survives. Now you have no choice but to either pull-out and fail the investigation or launch a full-on assault. The cult is now suspiscious and so defences are higher than they would have been if you ordered a full on assault, but you can spend more of a resource to aid the cell so they start the assault better equipped or in a better tactical position. Or you can spend a large amount of resources to arrange for a 'tragic accident' to hit the company headquarters.

You don't have the resources to spare, so you send the cell in at normal preparedness. You fail the tactical gameplay and all but one of the cell are wiped out, who you manage to evac. You now have to choose between abandoning the infiltration and taking the increase to Eldicth Level of the region, or pay the resources for that tragic accident. You use what little resources you have left to pay for the tragic accident. An pop-up tells you how a military training exercise went wrong and a military drone struck the headquarters of the company. This lowers the Eldritcc Level of the region, but increases the Instability of the region. Higher instability means higher level Incidents are more likely to happen in that region in the future.

You already lost Western Europe to maxed out Eldritch Level. Paris isn't euclidian anymore. Fail a couple more missions and the global Eldritch Level will reach a peak and Cthulhu will wake up.

[NRDL]

I've posted a few Highlander related game wishes throughout the years on this thread, so here's another one: Just a straight up Battle Royale.


The main crux of the game would be that the ONLY thing that can kill a player is decapitation, which can only come from other players. There'll be the usual duels, using whatever the most feasible and accessible sword fighting system there is in games these days. The goal in all these fights is to inflict enough damage to break your opponent immortal's posture, stunning them long enough to do a decapitation.


Now, of course a lot of other things can HURT the players, such as fall damage, fire, environmental hazards, and if a player is caught and isn't able to heal fast enough before another player gets to their prone body, they can get decapitated without a fight. But a player's game can only end by decapitation.


Every player starts off the match with I suppose you could call it a Heat Move, a special sword attack that does extra damage and nearly beats someone's posture down immediately, if it's landed with the right timing. Upon killing another immortal, the player who wins absorbs their opponents Heat Move, with all the Highlander Quickening lightshow accompanying it.


So a player that successfully hunts and defeats other players gets multiple Heat Moves, which can be represented by differing sword techniques from different styles. The more opponents you defeat, the more Heat Moves at your disposal ( they'll probably have a very long recharge time ) for the final confrontation.


This allows for two play styles. Hunt other immortals and have an arsenal of heat moves so that the final battle is a bit easier, or if you're more confident in your mastery of the basics you can run and hide, and in the final battle use conventional sword attacks and environmental trip ups to secure a victory.


The map could be a modern day city, the Scottish Highlands, Rome, a Japanese city, Medieval Europe, 18th century America, etc. And apart from other players in the battle royale, who would of course be other sword wielding immortals, there'd be tons of NPC opponents and obstacles. Police in the modern day, Scottish highlanders, Roman soldiers, that kind of thing. They'd be using weapons like guns, spears, bows, and stuff that bypass posture, and can stun you, but they can't decapitate you.

They're not that difficult to kill one on one, but there'll be a lot of them, and they can hurt you and bog you down enough to give another Immortal a chance to finish you off.



Every few minutes, you get an alert for the direction of the nearest immortal to you, and when it's just the last 2, that's when the map starts closing in.

[Egan_BW]

Dangit now you've got me thinking about cool mechanics for a fleshhorror BR. Think Prototype vibes.

Anything living that you eat makes you stronger, and also lets you mimic it. Pretend to be a tasty NPC so that other players try to eat you and you get the drop on them instead.

Hunt monsters to build up an arsenal of biological weaponry, or just mimic something with hands and use big guns?

[Frumple]

I wish an RPG existed in which non-violent interactions with NPCs had the same mechanical depth as combat and were an equally valid option for solving encounters and quests.

This is from like a month ago, but Griftlands more or less literally has its non-violent interactions have the same mechanical depth as its combat ones, because it's a deck builder that has separate decks for physical and non-physical conflict.

From what I recall, it's not the only game out there that rolls like that, too, though I'm blanking on specifics. Trawling around smaller indie/experimental RPG adjacent stuff is probably your best bet to find stuff like this. Itch.io, etc.

[NRDL]

Watching a bunch of Last of Us 2 gameplay, and boy that stuff is smooth. I want a Rambo game with that kind of combat. Lot of emphasis on sneaking, improvised weaponry, messing with AI tactics, brutal hand to hand combat, and very low health. One shot kill kind of rules, along with realistic injuries ( shoot to the foot makes you limp until healed, shoot to the hand means no weapon handling and reduced hand to hand ability, etc ).

Of course there'd still be video game esque healing, which can be completely disabled on harder difficulties.

Combine this sort of combat with RDR2 outdoorsman simulation, you can have a true guerrilla simulator. Spend all your time using the forest/jungle to your advantage, set traps, forage and hunt for food, and take out any encroaching forces from the shadows.

[Robsoie]

It's a pity the only Rambo games that are true to the stealth and survival aspects of the movies are the Metal Gear games.
There's a lot of potential for some good game with the Rambo stories.

[hops]

I wish an RPG existed in which non-violent interactions with NPCs had the same mechanical depth as combat and were an equally valid option for solving encounters and quests. For example, a character in Skyrim has 18 different skills, of which only 2 are purely non-combat. Many games have complex combat systems that track damage to individual body parts, yet the mental state of NPCs, when it's even modeled at all, is generally condensed down to a single "disposition toward the player" stat. I want a game where an NPCs emotions and attitudes are tracked separately and can be influenced by different actions. For example, if you needed an item from an NPC, you could get it by interacting with them a lot and becoming their friend, doing a quest for them and earning their gratitude, pointing a gun at them to intimidate them, etc.

I wish there was an open world bard game where you are a poet in a fantasy world trying to make a living and see wonders.

And occasionally merking bandits.

[Lidku]

I want a Call of Duty X Kingdom Hearts crossover game.

[NRDL]

Sort of obliquely related to hops and Sordid's ideas, I'd love a grand strategy game but your only role in the world map is that of a diplomat.

Instead of managing international politics by commanding whole nations or armies, you just have your character's background/stats/skills/personal resources and the backing of whatever political regime your country has.

Your job is to maintain peace/forge alliances/create opportunities for casus belli by interacting with officials in other countries as well as their diplomats. Successfully doing conversation minigames, carefully picking and choosing things like gifts, political gestures, and even attire can influence your success or failure in improving international relations.

Of course this sort of game can also have a spycraft element, as diplomacy and espionage have always been interlinked.


You can be a spymaster if you so choose, managing planted agents in different territories. You can act as a spy yourself, using the relationships you have with official channels, as well as underground contacts in countries, to garner useful intel for your nation ( especially in times of war ).


Of course, getting known for any involvement in espionage could potentially reduce your public image, which could damage your ability to maintain positive relationships with officials in other nations. So it'd be a nice balancing act.

[Lidku]

Does anyone else want a game with the mechanics and gameplay of Liberal Crime Squad, but instead it's a God Game? Instead of the human level mundane stuff, now you deal with matters on a divine level; trying to beat back the influence of rival gods across multiple universes and planets.