Ok, I'm assuming a fair number of people have heard of Privateer or Elite. These were fairly open-ended (the latter at least, not actually sure about the former) space games where you could take different missions for different political groups or just be a mercenary, or a trader...
I love free form games and I also love ones that let you make a difference in the game world. Mind you, I have yet to create a real game of any sort, but this is one that I have the most interest in doing.
Concept: Elite on the Seas
A Deeper Look:
The player takes the role of a vessel captain on the high seas of a world made mostly of water (perhaps earth after global warming takes place.. think Waterworld, only perhaps a bit better). The world is 'free form' with built in sides, alliances, etc. These alliances and sides might change from game to game or during the game itself. The player is free to officially be affiliated with a side (think military style missions), covertly affiliated (spying, smuggling, etc type missions) or a mercenary contracting out to the highest bidder. Or perhaps just a character trying to make his/her way in the world by trading and avoiding pirates (or for that matter being a pirate themselves).
As the player completes missions, they will gain money to repair their vessel, upgrade it, or buy a new one. With enough money, a vessel might be commissioned from scratch. Dangers will include pirates, enemy nations, an undersea race (perhaps), sea creatures, and the ocean itself.
How will it play?: I have in mind something along the lines of the StarFleet Command series for the feel of combat, but faster, especially for the smaller boats. It'll be third person, realistic physics (relatively), but the assumption will be that it's futuristic so the computers on the ship will handle the firing and take account for waves and speed of the enemy etc. Better computers will do a better job of homing in on the target. Instead of picking a mission in a location and automatically getting transferred to that mission, you'll get the mission and actually have to sail there. Pirates in the area might jump you, or enemy vessels, or whatever, on the way to the main mission. There would be time compression of course.
"Winning" would be based on what the player wants to do. Just want to be the scourge of the seas with the most powerful vessels? Go for it. Want to be part of a nation that defeats a rival? Could do that too.
Yes it's ambitious, but I think is the game I'll be working towards... Comments, suggestions?
PS: Yes, this means I've ordered DB Pro.
PPS: And yes, I plan to make simple games like Pong, Tetris, etc first, to get a handle on things.
