The Stardock RPG

i've had a lot of thoughts myself recently, given that most of the other games out there aren't exactly what i want. i'm putting this as a post so as not to distract from the premise of the OP.

as much as i like elemental's art style, the story doesn't grab me much. at best it seems to be traditional high fantasy but less recognisable elements like elves and orcs, and more fallen and umberdroths. it works great for elemental as a device (making a load of different armour models for elves and dwarves would surely be beyond the scope of such a game), but i'm not sure how excited i'd be about exploring the world as a mancer channeler. however, i can concede that the stylised art style would probably make it easier to come up with an appropriately good looking game.

if the master of magic precedent is a good one, getting hold of a license would probably be pretty tricky, so the alternatives would be either something public domain or an original IP. public domain has a lot to be said for it. lionheart: legend of the crusader had the novel idea of using alternate history, in which magic was unleashed in the middle ages. this has the bonus of being original, recognisable, different and free. stardock could likely do something similar.

My thoughts are that more North American companies need to start making deep RPGs, or more need to be brought over from Europe where most of those are currently being made.

I am all for the idea with the caveat that it be with a four member party made up of very different characters. How about some thing like (with your own character of course) a succubus, a tiefling, and a Kurst ranger? Those are just suggestions to convey what I'm trying to express as the characters should fit in with the Elemental lore. The Elemental environment would lead to some very interesting and different story lines and quests - ancient runes, mythic demons, powerful witches, lost cities, etc. There are a lot of very experienced and creative people on these forums and they could give Star Dock games developers a lot of great ideas and quests. Star Dock should open a special thread for contributions of ideas for it if they decide to do it. It's a free and valuable resource that would be worthwhilw exploring. What does everyone else think?  

Demigod the RPG. 

I would very much be interested in an SD RPG.  Unfortunately it would probably end up like GC or Elemental, and end up like as a spreadsheet sim.  Now, the leads at SD seem to have recognized that they lack some story telling/character development, and have hired some folks to cover those deficiency.  Even with that though, I worry that we'd wind up with DnD, just table lookups.  I quit playing DnD about my freshman year in HS, and went to Champions Fantasy hero (Champions in general).  It was a very good game system, especially if you had a good GM to cover the rules, and game.  If they went the typical DnD or Heaven forbid, Diablo or Dungeon Siege, I'd skip it.  They only thing that made DnD playable were interesting characters.  I didn't care too much for their stories, though some portions were interesting. 

The final analysis; I'd have to see what their game mechanics are like.  If they can't get away from the GC/Elemental model, then I wouldn't touch.

They already confirmed an RPG - There's no subtle hints about it except as to maybe the content.

https://forums.elementalgame.com/404765

Roadmap states that it has just as much priority as Fallen Enchantress and patch 1.2, so I'm expecting news any time now.

Nothing is confirmed beyond Fallen Enchantress. Frogboy has said that if FE isn't received well by the fans, the Elemental world is over. As much as they love doing computer games, it would be foolish to think they would continue to do so at a loss while being shat upon by their players.

Edit: The roadmap isn't a "we are going to do this", it's a "we'd like to do this barring unforeseen circumstances".

If they're going to do an RPG, they need to hire some writers. RPGs require a LOT of content to work, and thus far they haven't put out a game that demonstrates they can generate that much story at once.

A SD FRPG is something I would greatly enjoy.  There is ONE primary thing SD could do to make a truly memorable entry into the hall of fame. Implementing this would lift the bar way above anything we have seen so far.  Those of you who know my core posts here know exactly what i am going to suggest.  Create a game with a tool set that allows for maxim user / player customization.  

Design the game, from the ground up, to be easily modifiable by players.  This means, a relatively easy to use editing tool that allows players to edit the game environment at a deep level.  Fan made mods (quests/adventures/cities) add a tremendous replay value to the game.  Further, it harnesses the desire of many players to create quests, environments, etc. that push the envelope.  Such a set of tools will unleash the (dread) 'bear cavalry' in all of us.  

Consider what they did with the elder scrolls franchise.  The 'construction set' allowed for awesome replay value.  I am not suggesting an 'oblivion' upgrade or clone.  I am suggesting SD create a FRP game that includes a set of tools so we, the players, can use the same engine / environment access that the developers of the story used to create their FRP story.  

As far as the detail of the actual 'campaign' created by SD, I would suggest three things:  

1) maintaining the aura of mystery as the story unfolds.  

2) many interesting choices with real tradeoffs.

3) player enabled decisions that actually affect the game world in a substantive manner.   Neverwinter nights 2 (Mask) comes closest to what I envision.  

I hope this is a helpful addition to the discussion. 

Well, I still hope Fallen Enchantress will be more important ! They really need to work that one out ! They want to make a deeper RPG game with FE, I think it's RPG enough.

War of Magic lacked of too much things ! War yes, of magic no ! Elemental? Certainly not ! Reading what they plan to do with FE, I have a lot of hope for it.

I would love a NWN2 style, Elemental game.  Would be awesome.  I think there is a lot of interesting things that could be done in the game.  the Novel had a lot of cool things in it, I know the world in the game is bland, but the ideas are there to make it interesting.  And Please, no or little voice acting.  Why?  Because Voice acting is expensive and ultimately limits the games depth and choices.  It would be awesome if we could someday have a Western RPG that gave you a great choice of main character, many companion choices AND were voice acted, but right now it seems a choice between one or the other, I would choose no voice acting and a lot of choice.  But then again...with 6 of the 10 major races all being white humans, I guess you wouldn't need that many different voice actors...

They really should avoid comparing it to any game that currently exists, and just stick to saying what it is like.

And it needs magic equipment that also acts as NPCs, and lots of ponies.

I agree with Tridus. SD may be good at creating sandboxes like GC2, but they have no experience with focused, detailed storytelling and content creation. It would be tough to make a very good RPG, but if they can pull it off it should be a good ride.

Yeah, I think it is cool how there are "living items" in King's Bounty that get lower or higher morale based on certain factors (different for each artifact).  It was really cool and I think, a quite innovative idea.

Best regards,
Steven.

I may need to see about getting that game then.

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Anything that makes the player more attached to the game world is a good thing in a story based game.

I wonder if I'm the only one but I don't care one bit about their RPG. It's irrelevant to me.

Besides, the RPG market have heavy competition. One reason Brad made War of Magic was that TBS games like Master of Magic and Age of Wonders are an abandoned genre. He made the beta (alpha if you ask me) so open since he didn't fear any competition.

But considering his talk about "Middle-market" I believe their RPG will focus on that.

How competive it is depends on the type of RPG.

What?  I hardly ever see any Western RPGs out any more. 

Well, I care in the sense that I like good RPGs. I don't care that it's a "Stardock RPG" per se, I care that it's an RPG. If that makes sense.

yeah, you've basically got the bioware games, which are now highly linear and the bethesda rpgs which are first person (not everyone's taste) and pretty much force you to become a one man jack of all trades. both are highly consolized, heavily focused on production values and have very little depth to their character development systems. even dragon age has now removed most of the nuance of using a group tactily, and forces you into a certain race and name.

everything else is stuff like gothic and two worlds: superficially interesting, but usually too buggy and poorly conceived to ever achieve classic status (and even these, when they're good, are just trying to be bethesda games).

Why not do an arcady space RPG.  Arcady in the flight chaacteristics but with real world physics invelved. Have the ability to have awesome dogfights in space. Would be great with the ability to become anything in space. Like Freelance only with better gameplay and flight chracteristics. Bring back the flight sticks and give you the ability to do anything. This would be a blockbuster hit and would be awesome simply for the fact no one has done it really well that appeals to the masses and is easy to get into and enjoy. Or just do what you think is best.

Have to agree with Lord Xia and lean towards a good western also.

Wait wait I am almost done now. How about a tactical squad RPG like silent Storm or X-Com. Would be good and a game that should be made, well you could do it in a fantasy universe equally as well. Would be great.

I'm pretty ambivalent about this (if it's even on the table). Assuming that all the basics are there, good writing and ambience are what make or break an RPG for me. And, let's see... how to put this nicely... Stardock's games, while traditionally good, tend to be a bit jokey and cartoonish for my tastes.

I'd much prefer a tactical squad-based strategy game. I think that a decent, updated X-Com type game would be a runaway success.

As long as they don't start adding or changing to much of what made it a classic.

....Like they did with "Not-MoM"

i think you are wrong the second expansion has been confirmend or atleast i think that

frogboy sayd if 1.3 didnt get well they will stop suporting elemental war of magic not the engire series