I'm putting out some blatant marketing feelers today because one thing I've been thinking about a lot lately is the type of games I want to focus on making the most but more importantly what type of games do I actually play the most? The thing that smacked me in the face a lot was how much I enjoy grand strategy type games.
The problem with that is of course, there aren't that many of them out there that I haven't played to death and the ones that do exist are created by companies that are trying to wring their playerbase dry as much as possible like Paradox Interactive and Creative Assembly.
So with that in mind I've been wondering about the type of grand strategy game people would want that doesn't have the DLC garbage spammed everywhere. What sort of features would you want to see? As for the setting, I'm kind of thinking of having a fantasy setting but allow you to control Romans as part of the main story.
Sort of like the anime GATE but in the reverse and I'd have it where Rome ends up invading a fantasy world which would be hilarious I think but also somewhat interesting. There are also frequently used features in grand strategy that I find very annoying which I would probably remove or fix somehow like diplomacy spam for example. I do know that Age of Wonders exists, don't get me wrong but boy did that game need to be optimised, don't know if they've fixed the issues yet.
Hard question.
For settings, I like grim. If you ever played Myth: The Fallen Lords that is what I like. The narration in that game is stuck in my memory since I was a child, there is something so well made that no one in modern times will ever be able to achieve. Compare that to the 2 jokes in each seen of modern games. Who said that children can't be exposed to grim and dark themes.
A campaign from that but about Romans starting their own empire inside a dark fantasy world where humans can barely survive among all the monster factions that are also fighting each other would be interesting. They need to study the new magic and combine that with their weapons of war, magic catapults and magic actual shields.
I also like story in my strategy games, nothing very complex but a purpose and to create the feeling the world is living, changing around you. While you are off fighting a battle somewhere another city fell or the emperor died and is now replaced by his soy drinking son that will divide the empire if you don't act soon.
Alternative, crusaders reach monster infested fantasy world and go on a holy crusade to purge the planet.
Mechanics. Would be nice to have a talent tree between missions. For Romans it would be improving New Rome that would give you better weapons and more starting resources or other stuff like that. For monster factions would be appeasing their dark gods.
Shogun Total War had realm divide and I absolutely hated that because their diplomacy systems were garbage to begin with and that made everything pointless. I also love how you had vassal states and they would just randomly declare war on you for no reason and even when they didn't they would be the most useless allies ever and refuse to expand or attack factions you were at war with.
All of that crap is something I'd look at fixing and it wouldn't even be difficult. At the very least give us the option to disable features people don't like and allow for customisability.