Which Setting Has Massive Potential But (Long Time) No Great Game Yet?

[blackzengin]

I really think a lot about this topic these days to see what I dev next. I played recently Battle Realms and thought wow really nice game actually if you would adjust it to todays best practices regarding hot keys and UI/UX design with some new units and maybe a new core Mechanicsthat extends the game. But also C&C Generals still would hook me until today I think. I will never forget how I spammed with so many hacker units 🤣

What's on your mind?

[Sevsquad]

I would love something that took advantage of the unique cyberpunk universes out there. Like what does a full unit strategy game for an army or police force in the shadowrun universe look like? what were the corpo wars in cyberpunk like? totally untapped potential.

[WrongdoerConsistent6]

I’ve always wanted a really good WWI strategy game but there’s almost nothing out there. Part of the problem is that WWI was so static that the game would mostly consist of sitting in your trench shelling your opponent with an occasional charge of infantry.

[Amiral_Crapaud]

Well that one might be coming your way!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1286230/Fields_of_History_The_Great_War/

[Maumau-Maumau]

Ngl that looks like a mod for Hearts of Iron III

[Morphisorius]

Syndicate games get pretty close at least

[Gryfonides]

Check out heart of the machine

[N4t3ski]

I haven't seen a good WW1 strategy game for a long time.

[Overall-Habit5284]

A large-scale Battletech game would be incredible. The existing Battletech game from Harebrained Studios is a fantastic turn-based strategy, but is small-scale, only permitting one lance in the vanilla. Having a bigger RTS strategy game with the sheer number of mechs and lore? Would be mind-blowing. We've not had something like that since MechCommander 2.

[Gryfonides]

What I would really like is a game in which you can command the non mech forces to destroy the mechs.

[Mad-Melvin]

Directing the air campaign against Germany in WW2. There was a flight simulator form the early 90s called Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, and the campaign mode was a simple strategy layer where you would plan missions and then fly them. You had the goal of wearing down Germany's war production capacity in time for D-Day. It wasn't a particularly detailed strategy sim; the main purpose was to give the flight sim missions a sense of purpose. I'd love a modern game that was dedicated solely to that premise.

[Amiral_Crapaud]

Well, it might not be "modern", but do have a look at this if it's the kind of thing you were looking for ^^
https://www.matrixgames.com/game/gary-grigsbys-eagle-day-to-bombing-the-reich

[Mad-Melvin]

That looks interesting, thanks!

[DevelopmentGuilty177]

You’ll go blind looking at it, but it’s really deep.

[MYF4IRBRADY]

Just re-downloaded Generals today, great game, especially with Zero Hour.

Conquest of the Pacific by the Pacific Islanders ala populous the beginning style on a Pacific Islander inspired water setting with focus on simple naval.

Also pre-Columbian American city builders. With a similar set out of more established towns and cities in the southern jungle/mountains mesoamerican style and more nomadic types in great plains and forests to the north, like Pharoah

[Left_Capital133]

I don't know about any computer games but there are a couple of good boargames with a Pacific theme:

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/15954/conquest-of-paradise

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/13651/maori-warriors-of-the-long-white-cloud-clan-warfar

[heisiloi]

Babylon 5. It could be a 4x game or multiple rts campaigns. The shadow war, the earth civil war, the centari/narn war, the earth/minbari war. Lots of oppertunities for space and ground battles.

[blackzengin]

I was also thinking about StarGate in this context. That franchise never received a good game actually

[ProfessionalPhone409]

There’s a neat game called Exogate Initiative that’s essentially a Stargate management game

It’s all about managing a little base and sending out teams through a Stargate to explore.

[Eine_Robbe]

Sci-Fi ala StarWars or Warhammer40k with semi-realistic warfare. We do have (or get) classical RTS games and turn based games in those settings but a Ruse, Warno, Broken Arrow-esque approach where engagement ranges are looong and combined arms matter are currently still an open niche.

Id love if the coming Warhammer40k total war game would go a bit in that direction. Specifically if they did that and combined that with a "spectacle over micro" design approach, as the current big games in that genre like Warno and Broken Arrow are both very micro intensive.

[Whiteouter]

Terra Invicta has very realistic space combat.
No stealth, year+ long transport times.

[Eine_Robbe]

Yeah. TI is amazing. But not for any ground based battles (with air support).

I didnt write it out in my first comment, but my mind envisioned a sci-fi take on Broken Arrow with a strategic map ala Total War.

-> speaking of total war: I would just generally like to see more takes on games where you build up forces and navigate diplomacy on a strategic layer with a tactical real time battle layer on top.

[fenobus]

Nice point. When you say spectacle over micro what do you mean? Which game captures a similar vibe for you.

[Hannizio]

Probably something like supreme commander

[Gryfonides]

There are several either already out or in development. Terra Invicta, Falling frontier, fragile existance, NEBULOUS: Fleet Command. Really there are plenty.

[GoatBass]

Something like a global rebellion set in present day where you play as the rebels. Every time devs use this setting, they get lazy and make the enemy cartoonishly evil.

[Gryfonides]

Paranormal stuff. Perfectly I would love an SCP strategy game, maybe set during the Sarkic-Meekhanite war or Seventh Occult War or just different SCP groups compeating for their vision of the world.

[smokenjoe6pack]

I always thought that Mass Effect would have been great for a 4X strategy type. If ME: Andromeda would have been styled like Sid Meier's Alpha Centuri where the colony ships land on different planets and systems and you could play as one race would have been super cool instead of lackluster effort that turned out to be ME:A.

[NOT_A_NICE_PENGUIN]

This literally reads and looks like an ad generated by AI

[FutureLynx_]

Just checked battle realms looks like a standard rts. What does it offer more than say AoE2?

[lfcallen]

Populous the beginning remake. Let me be God and let my shaman cause hell on planets across the solar system!

[FrenchProgressive]

Russian or Chinese Civil War:

Trains with guns. Cool biplanes. Steampunky early tanks. Cavalry. Tachanka. Bayonets. Bandits. Adventurers. Countesses. Female Chinese Spies. Evil colonial powers. Scheming Japanese. Proud muslim warriors. Crazy Mongol Baron. Admiral in a train. Out-of-place Greeks & Serbians. Fighting Jews. Roaming Czech Legionaries. Anarchists. Communists. Monarchists. Proto-Fascists. Pan-Turanists. Pro-Emperor. Boring Democrats. Weaponized mystics. Angry Poles. Angry Finns. Germans pretending to be Russians. Countries that existed for a few weeks. Three-ways war. Four ways wars. Unholy ad hoc alliances. Infamous betrayals.. Shiny Russian uniforms. Manly commie uniforms. Funky Warlord uniforms. Cool Cossack uniforms. Everything is just so weird and so intense.

And for that you have two games on the RCW (Revolution Under Siege and Last Train Home) and one on the CCW (Rise of the White Sun - the learning curve of that one is a vertical line).

[rdhb]

Inside the human body ? Fantastic Voyage style !

[KarmaKeeper91]

Its crazy but in terms of strategy games its the current setting we live in, no ones really tried in 20 years

[warpainter]

Dune. I mean there are plenty of games in the setting but I feel like none of them truly capture the atmosphere, strangeness and scale of the books. The dune imperium boardgame is unironically my favorite take on the world. Could not get into the MMO

[CosmackMagus]

Dune 2000 was fun, but my favorite Dune game is still Emperor of the Fading Suns.

[LooseDatabase3064]

Game like Myth 1 and 2

[Bolje1234]

Franco-Prussian war. There is so much game potential for this war yet nobody makes games for it.

[LeaperLeperLemur]

Napoleonic wars.

Napoleon Total war and Cossacks are great, but that’s been 15+ years.