ENDLESS™ Space 2 is turn-based 4X space-strategy that launches players into the space colonization age of different civilizations within the ENDLESS™ Universe. Your Vision. Their Future.
Instead of having a class system, this RPG would have races be the classes, with some variety within each race (if Broken Lords, you can end up as either a Knight like character or a Dust Bishop support).
I'd prefer having slightly more choice than this when creating a character. Sure, different races in EL have different specialties, but two options seems a bit too limited to me. Also, why not allow people to try and make an Ardent Mage tank and then realize how hard they just made life to themselves? (Okay, maybe you like to be nice to new players. Fair point)
I think a race-based class system is the best way to play an RPG. Options and custimization can be carried out by providing a long list of specializations that are picked at the begining of the game, where each choice is static and provides each player with a truely unique skill tree based on what combination of specialties they choose.
Tabletop PnP RPGs offer the most freedom. Anons on 4chan were homebrewing a couple of things to play tabletops (D&D, Fate, Savage Worlds) in Endless Legend universe. They went silent, and I hope it's due to finals and not because their enthusiasm died.
I backed an RPG Kickstarter a few years ago for a game called "Red Aegis" that could be modded into being played in the Endless universe. Core idea of the came is you play a bloodline of influential heroes that guides your society from stone age to space age over a campaign. Could be cool to start things with the Endless Legend Auriga setting and bridge over into Endless Space. Not a traditional character based game, but might play very nicely with the 4X elements already in place for Endless.
Video game RPG, I personally would want to stay away from an MMO style game. Stick with single player narrative, play heavy with the science-fantasy aspect, work in a crafting system and party recruitment of various races and set it all in a single solar system (maybe with the Academy at the center? It would be a good way to justify all races intermingling).
If Amplitude Studios made an RPG, it would necessarily be something original and tastefully designed.
It think it would be a king of mistery rogue-like. A bit like Sunless Sea or Call of Cthulhu, except that you would play as a team of searchers/archaeologists, in the footsteps of the Endless, in a pre-Space age society (but more advanced than what we see in Endless Legend).
We would need to resolve puzzles, "fight" powers beyond our understanding and discover fantastic wonders. Our team members would discover the Dust and the leveling system could be based on the abilities they unlock through it.
In a P&P RPG, the possibilities would be endless (maybe the Sophons could kidnap the players, so they can play on the galactic scale ; or the players could be tourists aboard a huge cruise ship that gets somehow transported to an unknown area of the galaxy, they are the only survivors in a ship cemetery who has been populated by numerous other races since the beginning of the universe, and must find a way to escape...).
If it's a video game, There would be random events and branching scenarii within a general story with a beginning and an end (or different ends). That would bring us from an immersive alien society, with different people that have different reasons to go exploring, to the great answer to the universe and everything.
I'm also thinking on an "alignement/favour/affinity" system based on the behaviour of each character in the team, rather than skills based on combat abilities.
They would "please" different "dust entities" (that could be heroes from the other Endless games) and they would unlock perks in an affinity skill tree. For example, privileging an agressive, Craver-like, behaviour would lead to more points in the "Obsidian Dust" that would grant access to more "violent" choices (like cannibalism, murderous rage...), while favouring a more rational behaviour, like quickly solving a puzzle, would grant access to more Sophon-inspired skills, through "Saphire Dust", like the ability to make certain objects or to use certain artifacts.
Okay on second thought I got an idea I really like to dream about.
First of all: I'm very well aware of the financial risk in developing an MMORPG and it is unlikely ever to happen. That is why dreaming is so much fun. You don't need to worry about any risks.
Here is my idea.
The basic concepts of early WoW.
First or Third Person as you like. It would be real time, open world, single player quests and party quests. The fighting system could be similar to Neverwinter but the skill tree more like in Path of Exile.
There are instances for small groups and for raids to complete faction and world quests. I will write about that later.
Character creation
Not too much of a fuzz at character creation. I think amplitude would do a great job at balancing quick and easy character creation with a good amount of variation to be available.
Levelling up
One thing I always hated about WoW was the need to level up any character you would like to play with. It is good to have that option if you want to learn and play with a class and if you want the lore.
But players should not be forced to do that. Thus levelling up to the maximum level should not take you too long. It should be just like a longer tutorial for your class and that's it.
I also have a better idea how to deliver lore and make quests really matter. Later.
Factions
Unlike world of warcraft where there are only two factions you would have most/all of the factions of Endless Legend.
A living world
The game would be a persistent world AND a game of Endless Legend that starts at turn 1. This is some kind of meta game that is played very slowly and directions are determined by some kind of in game version of games2gether.
This is how the world develops over time. More details about this. It is not easy to structure what I have in my mind right now.
There are two parts.
First: the game starts at turn one. This means that most of the world is unclaimed land. It is dangerous/interesting (minor faction monsters) to go there but there are rewards (like ruins).
There is also not much technology available at first. Over time technologies are unlocked for a faction by players performing quests. More on quests later.
The same way players unlock technologies they conquer land. At first they do it by performing quests but later there would be some kind of battlegrounds where they face other faction’s players and fight for land (tiles, not regions).
Second: the meta game takes place at ingame-games2gether. Battleground results/statistics are reported to the platform and players would decide what those results would mean for the world.
Yes this means that one faction could actually win the meta game. How to balance this? The question is: why would a player be willing to fight for a faction that is on the verge of losing the game anyway?
They will be rewarded with honour/loyalty points. Something you need to gain access to specific style items for you characters.
Quests for glory
Quests serve two major purposes. You gain resources for yourself and you serve your faction.
There are quests for single player that do not have any time limit and you can stop the game any time when you are doing them.
The reward is resources for yourself and/or your faction. They are not as efficient as group quests and they are used to tell story about your class, regional or faction.
There are also quests for groups (smaller and larger ones). They can have a time limit and they are more efficient than single player quests.
They can also have an additional reward like assigning science for unlocking a specific technology or claiming a tile.
And lore. Never forget lore. Quests always affect your own faction so you need lore to explain that.
There would be different quests depending on factions.
For example a science quest for the vaulters could be some dungeon crawling (archaeology quest). A science quest for the shadows could be going behind enemy lines and steal certain objects (secret agent quest). Something like that.
FIDSI
Food
A faction needs food for growing their cities population just like in Endless Legend. Active players decide how to assign population.
A player needs food for levelling up. No experience but a cereal bar.
In here lies a challenge that has to be tackled for the broken lords.
Industry
A faction needs industry for expanding their cities and to improve battleground fortifications. How about AI-controlled troops (weaker than players and they come in waves)? Could be fun.
Players need industry to forge equipment. This provides access to more specialised items for the class which would help with quests.
Dust
This is difficult. Maybe a faction would need dust to "license" AI-controlled troops for them to be available in battleground and maintain infrastructure.
A player needs dust to learn and maintain the ability to cast powerful spells / use stunt-like abilities and to buy equipment that would be more generalised and would tend to help better in battlegrounds.
Science
A faction needs science to unlock technologies; of course.
Players decide what research they put the science they produce into. This allows multiple researches to be worked on at the same time but the more researches are worked in parallel the higher the overall cost. Multitasking gets inefficient.
Influence
A faction can use influence for diplomatic actions. These actions are about trade of luxury and strategic resources. They are also about war and peace. This would be difficult to balance.
A player can use influence to influence how the faction assigns their influence. They also get to vote for temporary faction or world-wide effects like in Anno 2070 using their influence.
They can use it to make quests easier or haggling for a better reward.
This will be difficult for Necrophages.
La fin
I really like the idea of "ending" the MMORPG game.
There could be a goal like "finishing the ultimate faction quest" or "building that incredibly expensive wonder" or "extinguish your enemy". After the goal is reached the game could just be restarted.
I first thought you were talking about pen and paper RPG. Then I would really like to see a Dungeon of the Endless style RPG. I think you could easily make that with Fate Core rules (which is a free system).
On second thought I would rather like to see a browser game that brings the idea of turn based strategy to the persistant world of a browser game. There was once a star trek game with a similar idea and there is KoL. Something like that.
Yeah I was thinking Original Sin would be a good template myself and also really cater to the strategy strengths of Amplitude.
A mix of DA: Inquisition (in terms of world design and structure) and D: OS for combat would be best I feel. Have recruits from various factions (maybe just a merchant group from the Clans given their "pacifist" nature.)
I REALLY REALLY want to see an RPG about the Endless Universe, this universe is so cool, enigmatic and with his own universe style !
If I want an Rpg about, I want something like the one Larian do recently (Divinity, original Sin),
The combat system is interresting (it's like a turn per turn but with action point) and let a lot of thing for the roleplay !
If not this time, Shadowarior style could be good too (but I prefer Divinity)
For the seattle time, I don't really care, both is good ! And Co-op or MMo (but really, do a MMO when they're ready to do a Really great MMO) because I thinkCo-op gameplay is great in a RPG
Every once in a while, people bring up the idea of an Endless RPG, and Amplitude always says they don't have anything like that planned.
But what if they decided they wanted to make one, what kind of RPG would you most like to see them make? RPGs come in many different forms, after all.
Would you like it to be party-based, or only have a single playable character?
Turn based, real time with pause, or full-on real time?
Isometric, third person, or first person camera?
Class-based, or skill-based?
Single player, co-op, or full on MMO?
Would you want it to be set on Auriga within EL's timeframe, or would you want something more Endless Space themed?
A lot of this is assuming the hypothetical game would be a video game, but what about a tabletop RPG?
Personally, I would most like the game to be party-based, with a third person camera, set on Auriga. An isometric style camera would be fine, as well, but a third person camera could show off some of Auriga's awesome scenery a bit better. I would be okay with turn based, real time with pause, or full on real time, as long as it doesn't have action combat. I would be fine with either class-based or skill-based. Some good example games would be Knights of the Old Republic or Guild Wars 1 (if you strip away the pseudo-mmo aspects - or leave them in, maybe). I would not enjoy something Skyrim-esque at all.
But what about you, what kind of RPG would you want to see?
Having really loved Dragon Age Inquisition I could see it as a base for a pretty interesting game with a diverse set of characters, in a semi-open world showcasing the diversity of landscapes in Auriga. I see the game has detractors here...
While I agree on the landscapes, I'd hope this hypothetical RPG gets a better combat system than Inquisition. Compared to the previous entries in the series, the DA:I combat really suffered from consoleitis.
Besides, I didn't say the game was bad, I just said that I despise it when the player character vastly outshines the rest of the team in a nominally team-based RPG. Like in Mass Effect 3, where you can't even give detailed orders to your squadmates any more, just "do a thing", and hope that they interpret it correctly, so it's better to just ignore them and zoom around with Ubershepard smashing everything.
KnightofPhoenix wrote:
Instead of having a class system, this RPG would have races be the classes, with some variety within each race (if Broken Lords, you can end up as either a Knight like character or a Dust Bishop support).
I'd prefer having slightly more choice than this when creating a character. Sure, different races in EL have different specialties, but two options seems a bit too limited to me. Also, why not allow people to try and make an Ardent Mage tank and then realize how hard they just made life to themselves? (Okay, maybe you like to be nice to new players. Fair point)
What also might be an interesting idea might be an Endless board game. Of course, there's always the problem of balancing between complexity of the rules and the faithfulnes to the source material.
An Endless Legend inspired RPG (which would make me cry of joy) should definitely be party based. Keeping in line with turn based gameplay, I'd love for it to be a turn based combat a la XCOM, like the Shadowrun games (one of my favourite RPG series), with characters having different abilities.
Instead of having a class system, this RPG would have races be the classes, with some variety within each race (if Broken Lords, you can end up as either a Knight like character or a Dust Bishop support).
Now add to that winter gameplay, and you've got yourself a unique RPG (imagine being an Allayi, with different gameplay depending on the season. Imagine having an Allayi companion who is the sweetest in Summer, but becomes aggressive and difficult to manage in Winter!).
Put all that in a game that has the trademark Ambience that Amplitude is so great at + great story driven "campaign" and you'll have me pre-ordering that without hesitation.
Updated 8 years ago.
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I played Numenera briefly with a few other from the Amplicrew, and while the setting has interesting parallels, I really wasn't sold on the game systems themselves.
Having really loved Dragon Age Inquisition I could see it as a base for a pretty interesting game with a diverse set of characters, in a semi-open world showcasing the diversity of landscapes in Auriga. I see the game has detractors here...
We should totally make a thread where everyone here helps to design a Tabletop game in the Endless Universe.
Another one? Oh fine, I'm up.
Actually, I've started mapping the ES races into Savage Worlds, which is a setting-agnostic system, like GURPS, but considerably simpler. However, the Scifi supplement doesn't appear in German until Christmas, and the core book is a bit sparse on futuristic equipment.
Crixler wrote:
But don't you think Endless Grinding would be a good name for an Endless MMO? It just works.
First marketing rule of MMOs: You don't talk about the grinding. Ever. Especially not in the title.
Crixler wrote:
I'm really new to tabletop RPGs, and have only played Numenera. I've briefly thought about how to port Endless Legend into the Cypher System (Numenera's system), but haven't really taken the idea very far (yet?).
It was mentioned in the other thread that Numenera might be the best start for a port due to the similarity of the setting, but I haven't played it (Closest thing I did was watching the gameplay demo of Torment: Tides of Numenera on the gamescom).
I'm really new to tabletop RPGs, and have only played Numenera. I've briefly thought about how to port Endless Legend into the Cypher System (Numenera's system), but haven't really taken the idea very far (yet?).
We should totally make a thread where everyone here helps to design a Tabletop game in the Endless Universe.
While I have logged more hours in singleplayer RPGs (I think), I'd also not be averse to an Endless MMO. However, to ensure long-term viability, there shouldn't be just lategame grinding for the gamesters, there should also be enough stuff for roleplayers. It makes sure those people who came for the story also have a reason to stay.
But don't you think Endless Grinding would be a good name for an Endless MMO? It just works.
That second link is very cool, a lot of that could be relevant for both a tabletop rpg or a video game.
I'm really new to tabletop RPGs, and have only played Numenera. I've briefly thought about how to port Endless Legend into the Cypher System (Numenera's system), but haven't really taken the idea very far (yet?).
If it's going to Endless Space, I would love to see something in the vein of Freelancer with RPG elements, open space game environment with plenty of opportunities to play the game your way, either it being a trader, mercenary, pirate, explorer, or a combination :) Add in the lore-rich universe of Endless and I think you'd have yourself a winner. Plus, although we have Elite Dangerous, and one decade we'll have Star Citizen, there still haven't been any games that successfully emulated the feel and quality of Freelancer, so I really want something like that
If it's Endless Legend, I agree totally with BlackBird1696, but I'd want to see the combat and movement options from the Farcry series implemented into the game (It always pisses me off in an Elderscrolls game that as a stealth player, I can't duck and hide in undergrowth while sneaking outside )
Oh boy, that's a tough one. Starting with the Endless games being rather difficult for conversion. Due to their 4X nature, it always seems like the races are very separate (we'll see how far ES2 manages to change that up), and especially the highly discrepant natures of the EL factions make it difficult to for example imagine a Broken Lord and a Wild Walker sitting down together for a beer.
As to what I'd like, well, I enjoy lots of different RPGs. I have some gripes though that I do not want to see in a game again. For starters, if it's party-based, then the protagonist shouldn't be treated like a special snowflake, and definetly shouldn't outshine the other party members in combat so much that you don't actually need to bother with them (looking at you, everything-of-Bioware-after-DAO). And if it's a world with hundreds of NPCs, please hire more than five voice actors.
Given that it's Amplitude we're talking about, I'd be interested if they could manage to shake up the whole tank-healer-dps system that has become so common, especially in fantasy games and MMOs. I can't say how, but I'd like to see a different approach for once. Of course, as often as not, I suspect it's also the fault of the players just making somebody a tank (charged as guilty for filling up a ship just with defense modules so that the nosebreaker targeting is useless).
Whether it's class-based or skill-based, both can work fine, although I really despise the whole line in the sand of "over there are mages" with those people who have gained special abilities and therefore are now incapable of doing anything else. The Endless universe is off to a good start there, since canonically, all Heroes have been touched by Dust and now use special abilties, whether they're throwing fireballs or are just able to do more damage with a single crossbow bolt than an entire batallion of normal people.
While I have logged more hours in singleplayer RPGs (I think), I'd also not be averse to an Endless MMO. However, to ensure long-term viability, there shouldn't be just lategame grinding for the gamesters, there should also be enough stuff for roleplayers. It makes sure those people who came for the story also have a reason to stay.
I'm also a fan of PnP RPGs, and while they've been slightly buried by the forum revamp, there have been discussion about Endless Legend tabletop RPs, like this short announcement, or this somewhat longer argument which went down to the technical.
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