News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Video Gaming Will Take Over by usrusr on Tuesday January 14, 2020 @09:32PM (#22051304)
Something CK2-like ("sim RPG"?) had already been my hypothetical mobile game concept long before I even discovered (and immediately fell for) CK2: Macromanaging a player character that is basically just another NPC existing in a few layers of abstracted off-screen simulation, a slightly interactive story generator. Highly hypothetical of course, no way I'd ever make it a reality.

For example a pirate game would have a detailed social sim of the crew, an "FTL level" sim of the ship in combat, a "Sid M. Pirates" level sim of ship to ship combat (that is all NPC off-screen when the player character isn't in command of a ship) and a sim of baroque-era Caribbean economy. A low level sailor would just manage relationships and balance focus between categories like following orders, initiative, camaraderie, bravado and risk avoidance (each influencing how he fares in the off-screen social and "FTL combat" simulations), peppered with the occasional decision set-piece, whereas a pirate-king might decide on resource allocation and strategic city upgrades (but still not micro-manage anything but relations). The tactical level would be a much more interactive (if the PC happens to be in command) series of decisions, but still do exclusively fast-forward-to-pause timing. ("free form turns", imho mobile games should be as passive as a book whenever you put down the phone)

The pattern could be applied to anything that has a somewhat limited set of characters for the social layer (the CK2 courtier population might still be a bit heavy for mobile...) and involves separable tactical and strategic layers. The original idea came from the question of how one could do a WW2 air combat sim on mobile that is deeper than Sid M. Ace Patrol but unlike IL-2 still without a dexterity factor. The player would balance focus between e.g. spotting, engine operation and navigation when on mission but not in combat and during engagement between aiming, evading, energy conservation, situational awareness and so on (plus a series of decision points that might be seconds or minutes apart depending on situation). The social layer might involve storytelling decisions like choosing to "accidentally" miss an emergency scramble after a night of heavy stress relief or flying under the influence.

With a bottomless fantasy budget, this kind of game would come with full 3D modeling for illustrating every sim layer, but only ever show a single frame at each interaction, representing the state of the simulation (which is actually closer to board-game abstraction than to 3D physics) in a semi-randomized way. Reasoning: animations quickly get old no matter how good they are and single frames can be doused in nice-looking postprocessing that would cause unsightly artifacts if animated. An endless pool of informative flavor illustrations, not the usual showing-off of GPU power and production effort.

Re:Video Gaming Will Take Over by flukus on Tuesday January 14, 2020 @10:49PM (#22051623)
> Something CK2-like ("sim RPG"?) had already been my hypothetical mobile game concept long before I even discovered (and immediately fell for) CK2: Macromanaging a player character that is basically just another NPC existing in a few layers of abstracted off-screen simulation, a slightly interactive story generator. Highly hypothetical of course, no way I'd ever make it a reality.

You might be interested in Stellar Monarch (https://store.steampowered.com/app/446000/Stellar_Monarch/). I haven't played it (no linux version) so can't recommend it but it seems much more focused on role playing as emperor sitting in your throne room. I think a successful mobile CK2 would look more like this and less like the desktop map staring one.

Re:Video Gaming Will Take Over by leksak on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @01:13AM (#22052102)
This reminds me of an idea, has there ever been any multi-tiered games such that,

1. Each tier is its own game, 2. The games are not independent

As a simple, two-game, example. Imagine a strategy game such as Shogun (turn-based strategy). When the players kn that game start conflicts that opens up a match for FPS-type players to join. The outcome of the battle will depend on the FPS-player performance while the match-up is skewed depending on the relative forces deployed by the generals.

Maybe cities are maintained by more Minecraft-esque players, while the eye in the sky can submit tasks down below for resources, certain buildings, etcetera.

Re:Video Gaming Will Take Over by usrusr on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @04:28AM (#22052871)
I doubt that "each tier is it's own game" could ever really work: what about the different time scales? It's bad enough already in the Total War series where the strategy and battle compete more than complement.

What would be in it for the player extras on the tactical level? It's hard enough for level design and matchmaking to compose a match of random internet players when there are no further constraints, forcing the parameters of one players strategy session on top of that problem can only make it worse.

"RPG sim" would aim for the opposite, creating a uniform UX with consistent interaction pacing (even if on wildly different timescales) for all the off-screen sim layers.

Re:Video Gaming Will Take Over by friendlybus on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @06:03AM (#22053259)
There was a multiplayer RTS called arkaron or something that featured time travelling. The gameplay was built around building up your forces to fight at a particular point in time. As you built up you sent units back in time to battle opposing forces in waves with a limited amount of energy. The game ran on a constantly ticking timeline that implemented changes in the timeline (spawned units) at the end of each timeline section. The original idea was to be more expansive with the implementation but it had to be cut down.
Re:Video Gaming Will Take Over by indigochill on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @02:38AM (#22052380)
Well, there are games like Nuclear Dawn or Natural Selection 2 which feature both an FPS and an RTS in the same game, with one player acting as the commander plopping down research/buff/harvest buildings and issuing orders, and everyone else playing the (often disobedient) units.
Re:Video Gaming Will Take Over by bdsa on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @07:13AM (#22053554)
There was Dust 514, which was directly connected to EVE Online: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_514
Re:Video Gaming Will Take Over by dTal on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @08:37AM (#22053982)
Yes! Rowans Battle of Britain had both a flight simulator, and a high level strategic overview. It was possible to play the game entirely strategically, changing the outcome of the Battle of Britain through effective resource management (like making Germany win by focusing on airfields instead of city bombing), but for every combat encounter you could also jump into a cockpit and get your hands dirty. Truly a tour de force of atmospheric gaming.
Re:Video Gaming Will Take Over by hannofcart on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @02:44AM (#22052407)
Mount and Blade series. (I've played 'Fire and Sword' but you can try the others as well).
Re:Video Gaming Will Take Over by ryacko on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @02:45AM (#22052410)
Genghis Khan II: Clan of the Gray Wolf was a turn-based game that was tactical and strategic.
Re:Video Gaming Will Take Over by airstrike on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @01:47PM (#22057101)
Squadron 42 + Star Citizen