I find that I'm becoming increasingly interested in games with integrated layers. Being an assassin is cool, I guess, but improving businesses that generate money I can use to buy better swords and armour? Sign me up. Exploring the universe is great and all, but slowly collecting resources to create a fleet to do missions for me? I'm all over it.
There's something about that power curve I love; starting off as a nothing and ending up with greater systems and abilities that make me near unstoppable. That's where the action is at. I don't think a lot of games understand that dynamic. Sure, it strips the late game of challenge, but the game is front-loaded with difficulty. The payoff is kicking ass without breaking a sweat. Don't give me none of that 'enemies scale with the player' crap.
That being said, I want two games. Problem is that they don't exist.
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The Skull Admiral
The third person gameplay of Assassin's Creed Black Flag, some of the sailing technicalities from Sea of Thieves, the economy of No Man's Sky, the ship customization of Mech Warrior, plus crew and fleet management.
I want to start off with a single dingy running simple trading missions. I want to work up to a sloop, and a brigand, and a galleon. I need to be able to customize the ship with weapons and hull types and sails and such that all have their own tradeoffs. More armour means less cargo capacity. Bigger guns mean less speed. As the ship grows, I need to recruit more crew and assign them to appropriate slots depending on their skills. Eventually I recruit other ships, appoint captains, and give them tasks.
I want to develop trade routs that involve buying a product from a port where it's abundant to a port where it's rare for a big profit. The route will have hazards along the way. Maybe I can assign some of my fleet as escorts so that I can gamble big on sensitive cargo. Like Drug Wars, that simple game for early Palm Pilots and T-83 calculators.
Of course there big fights with ship to ship combat where you need to mind the wind, ocean currents, line of sight, and weapon characteristics. Damage that impacts your maneuverability. Maybe you start taking on water and need to assign gun crews to start bailing. After a particularly bad fight, you can to go to port to repair, rearm, and resupply. If you're feeling ballsy, you can try boarding an enemy ship and fight back and forth on the deck. You can recruit defeated crewmen, steal their cargo, and maybe even salvage the ship for your own fleet.
There will also be ther factions and bounties and wanted levels and all that. Maybe you get into such big trouble that you start hurling parts of your fleet and your enemy. Maybe even a big showdown. And once you're done you can claim a territory and port, which will help your trade routes. Oh yes, get things really moving and watch the money come in. Enhance your fleet; more ships, captains, upgrades. You're on top of the world and unstoppable.
But now you've become too powerful that all the other factions form an alliance to take you down a peg. A new armada from the Old World arrives in force to carve out their spot. Maybe you can stand your ground, or maybe you watch your empire crumble until you're down to a single port and handful of sorry ships and need to start all over.
Also, storms, finding treasure, ambushing treasure ships, basic diplomacy, running blockades, smuggling, and all those other delicious pirate-y things.
I tried replaying Black Flag recently to scratch this itch. What was more disappointing than the dated graphics and simplified gameplay was the sheer potential that was left on the table. It was an alright story wrapped in arcade-y mechanics. They had a simple Fleet metagame, but it was so simple and inconsequential it kinda hurt. So close, yet so very far away.
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Limited Slip
Here's the thing with most racing games: you get a car, you attend an 'event' of 3-4 races with one car, and then you move on to another event with a different car. Their idea of progress is an arbitrary XP system that unlocks faster and faster cars. There's no real connection from one event to the next.
I want Forza 7 combined with Motorsport Manager. Hear me out.
Simulation Arcade racing is the best - it can be accessible while having enough depth to challenge you and add substance to the driving itself. Screw all that 'SWEET DRIFT AROUND THAT CORNER, NOW YOU GET MORE NITRO!!' crap (I'm looking at your NFS). I want to worry about apexes and undercutting and off-camber turners that upset your suspension. I want to feel like I'm driving, not watching an anime cover of Fast and the Furious.
So along those lines, I want driving with a hood cam, tire wear/temperatures, fuel, drafting, damage, weather conditions that affect grip, understeer, lift off oversteer, manual transmissions, and pit stops. Mmmm.
A step above that, I want a racing league with *gasp* seasons. That means you earn driver and team points that impact where you start on the grid. And in the right conditions, you can win a season by never finishing a single race above 5th place. It's all about that consistency, after all.
Wait a minute, team points? That's right. Teams. You can run your own teams, minding the mechanic salaries, hiring a team mate, selecting sponsors, creating your brand, building infrastructure, engineering parts, applying upgrades, etc.
That means you get buy the car you want, build it up how you like it, and tune it to driving perfection.
So how about that power curve? It goes like this: you start as a free agent driver, getting paid a pittance here and there to race for other teams where you can. Once you get a podium here and a bonus there, you start your own team. You start off in some low-end spec series with a cheap car. Season over season you improve and build your garage. With enough money you can buy better cars to compete in faster series. With enough wins and points, you get invited to higher and more prestigious series. With those come better sponsors and prize money. Eventually you have all the money and rep to race whatever car in whatever series you want, with a kickass team that will give you the edge over anyone.
If you don't get emotionally attached to the the very first shitty car you purchase, the game isn't doing its job. You've gotta take that haggard old Civic or whatever and squeeze every inch of performance out of it. It's gotta be one tired and abused war horse that's seen you through many a track battle. Eventually you'll have to choose between a big overhaul to take it to the next level, or simply putting the cash towards a better vehicle.
I get it, the variety of vehicles is what sells most car games. But that shouldn't mean that the game holds your hand through driving every single one in its own event. Give me a series, with seasons and points. Give me team infrastructure and personnel management. Then put me in the drivers' seat to enjoy the fruits of my labour.
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What can I say, I'm a man of simple tastes and attainable desires.
-Cril
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