I will continue to add enthusiasm for an Endless RPG. "Endless Adventure" would be a great way of keeping the naming convention going. My personal preference would be in the style of single player RPG with party recruitment and some interesting crafting mechanics (to play with the established resources that we already know in the setting). Add in some light planet hopping or at least heavy use of the science-fantasy theme they already have going. Include some multiplayer cross-over areas for things like dueling, playing mini games with collected components in-game, or completing special quests and you could have something unique.
To add another genre opinion: Metroidvania. "Ruins of the Endless", a game where you are an Academy recruit that has found themselves entering into an ancient Endless vault and must explore to find access to it's core. You could play with using Dust to power abilities and gaining various pieces of equipment while fighting against twisted buried abominations and competing raiders trying to beat you to the core.
They could try to resurrect Sword of The Stars (at least in the Endless world); SotS 2 had some (k, a bit more than just "some") problems, but it was a space turn-based 4x game with RTS ship combat and Boiii was that fun to look at, even if it meant going through the incomprehensible UI and randomly-generated tech tree (what??). To be honest, all they have to do is release Endless Space 3 with this type of RTS with a solar system as the map combat as opposed to the pick-a-card-any-card thing they have now. It would be a mix of what Amplitude knows and is good at already, turn-based 4x, and a fresh new genre, RTS.
I also feel like the ships in SotS 2 had much more character to them, with different types of turrets being spread about the ships and a variety of modules which were not only visually recognizable but also had a significant impact on the way the ship behaved.
The game's pretty dead at this point so I don't have much quality combat footage to illustrate my points, but take my word for it, the ships in that game looked way more interesting than ES2's, and not necessarily because of art direction. ES2 and SotS2 had very different art styles and that's fine, but I think that a SotS2 dreadnaught looks much more like.. well... a dreadnaught than any small-turret-covered boxes Endless Space 2 has.
I don't know about you, but if Amplitude salvaged the RTS mechanics from SotS2 and meshed it together with their own art direction and 4x gameplay, I think that it would be beautiful.
This appears to be the correct location to drop an idea I had rather than consume an entire thread of my own.
There was a lot of noise about the Pathfinder trailer they put out a while ago. Some people were hoping that was a declaration of interest or intent to explore the idea of making a Mass Effect style game set in the Endless Space universe.
I think the reason they shy away from something like that is because of the sheer amount of extra work that would have to go into making something on that scale. As professional and capable Amplitude is, I am not certain of their capacity to produce something of that size... But here's something within the immediate realm of possibility:
Using the Dungeon of the Endless graphics engine, build a short Action RPG set either in the Endless Space universe or on Auriga of Endless Legend fame.
Gameplay mechanics would be similar to Secret of Mana or Seiken Densetsu style gameplay from the SNES era. I can easily see this experience being worth 20 to 40 dollars depending on the length of the game.
I will develop this further as I think on the idea.
TL;DR: Ctrg+C SC2, paint it in Endless space and I'd be happy.
I'd love an RTS ala Starcraft 2. They could design a lot of single player campaigns around different factions in wich they can dig deeper into their lore and explore the origins of some heroes that we meet in ES1-2. Of course, there would have to be some amazing multiplayer, It'd probably be difficult to balance so many factions, but they could start with a few and then add new ones per DLC, wich would probably make it easier.
Also, I think it would be easier to tell storeys in such a game then In a 4X game where there are just the quests and descriptions to do that.
A small squad tactics game like FFT, with rpg elements. The plot is your character's team is trying to collate the knowledge from all the races, yes, even the Necrophages. Or you can play the Endless space version. But basically the game is a mix of "dialog" tree's and combat. The dialog tree's differ from different races and combat is not always optional. Heck the game's bosses could always be the necrophages /or/ cravers. They digested something that's a long lost secret and you have to figure out how to get them to spill their guts about it. If they were really brave they could have Rogue like elements where you have to restart as a different race each time, but if you're very clever you can recover the lore from previous attempts. Mind you this would feel like it needs a completely unified timeline between all the games and that might be impossible.
I've always pondered the idea of an Endless Space RPG. I'm one of those nerds that read every discription of everything in that game, and I've always thought that whoever writes those, could write a compelling RPG, not to mention the cast of races, and the general feel of the game, its more of a modern, technophilic, and in some places, very transhuman feel, almost hard sci-fi with its adoration of cool tech, but lacking the strict scientific basis that hard sci-fi obsesses over. This alone makes me think that and Endless Space would be a compelling enough of a world to quest in. Hell it inspires RP in off topic...
Design wise, I'd say that Endless Dungeon is a good start, it was an oddity of a game, very original in its mechanic set, and still really fun to play, but its like really light on the depth. It had a basic set of stats, and really quick decision making when it came to kit and class. I'd say for an RPG, I'd want it to go pretty deep, as deep as their 4x can get. Focus most of the design work on a compelling, interesting, very indepth roleplaying mechanic set ala Pen and paper, or CRPG (Hell it'd probably be best as a CRPGish game) and then brush over the story and the world with the usual Endless flare. Of course things are more complex than that, but I feel it'd be successful.
I think an RTS would be awesome!!! Similar to Rise of Nations (where you start out in almost Stone Age then advance to whatever...), maybe start out in Endless Dungeon/Legend tech stage and advance to the end tech of Endless Space/ES2.
While I am thoroughly enjoying the development of Endless Space 2, I am also already very excited about the possible next addition to the Endless universe that is not a sequel, but something entirely new.
And indeed, an Endless RPG would be great. I think it would also be interesting to see an RPG combined with a Survival game. Or maybe call it a Survival game that is very story-/quest-driven …
Another thing that could be interesting would be a SciFi/Fantasy City Building game in the Endless universe. It could feature some 4X elements with a new livery, maybe limited to one or only very few cities. Politics and how to handle the needs of different factions inside the city could be an important factor in this.
But what I would most love to see is a digital realisation of a Living Card Game. I am currently very much enjoying the Lord of the Rings and A Game of Thrones LCGs by Fantasy Flight Games, and I think an Endless version of that would fit right in. Different playable major factions like in A Game of Thrones, or FIDSI could be the equivalent of the spheres from Lord of the Rings, there could be neutral allies from minor factions. Maybe it could be made more story-driven than a physical card game easily allows. Also, the concept of Living Card Games would be ideal for endless DLC expansions and modded content … and it would be a smaller game like DotE, which might be nice again.
Hmm i would love to see a 3D space battle game, not a 4x like Endless Space but more like Homeworld, where you control your ships, they can move on the 3 axis, with news ship category, carrier, asteroid collector, supercarrier, frigate, defense station, mothership.
This combine with their beautiful ship model from Endless Space 2 could help them with their narration with a full solo campaign
I actully would love a RPG-MMORPG, as it would be awsome, but please, no WOW, tons of Text for a boring "go there and kill 10 ducks", that nobody is ever going to read (lost dev time).
I would love a kind of EVE-Online/Star Citizen type of RPG, with a bit more story, but not as in one big Mainstory, but more in the sense of, Oh, you are a Sophos from a Institue for Biology, we have a Anomaly on a Planet, could you investigate, and then you are send with a team of other Scientists on this planet (THAT IS UNIQUE, pls not 08-15 sh**), where you can actually explore and learn and immerse youself into the job(Setting up a outpost, etc), Big "mainquests" could be connected to Endless Ruins, as in, I am with a crew on my ship, and am scanning a planet, find an Endless Ruin and in the End, i am partly uploaded and accesed a new ability, that partly uses your ability to interact with machines of all kind. (AI-S(elf)I(nsert) in Star Wars or Mass Effect like).
There are so many possiblitys in this Universe, but i would actually wait, till we have more options in term of AI programming, Graphics and other stuff. So they should focus on what they are doing right know (and its awsome), and maybe in the future ^^
For now, I really think they should focus on one particular genre until they're really well recognized by the gaming community; Even if their fan-base is slowly growing and they manage to acquire a pretty big and new publisher. While "Dungeon of the Endless" shows that they can do pretty well in other scenarios, I think it'll be wise to focus on maintaining a steady reputation before expanding their line of products.
However, if we just instead talk about what genre I would like to see and ignore what I just said :p , I would want to see them do a FPS in the style of Section 8. Ignore all their experiences of turn-based strategy games and do something completely new just because the trailer for the Cravers was good.
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