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4X+RPG

21 Oct

I’ve been feeling the urge for playing a good 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) game for some time now, in the same vein as the old Master of Orion, Deuteros or Sins of a Solar Empire, but I haven’t found nothing that tickles my fancy…

Tried out “10 Min Space Strategy”, and although it was good, the AI made the experience a bit annoying (not hard, just annoying); it also lacked the depth of the aforementioned titles…

Although I’m still searching, I started thinking on the whole 4X genre and I had an idea that I haven’t seen implemented and I would appreciate: a mix of 4X and RPG…

First, for some definition: when I’m talking about RPG, I’m talking more precisely of the CRPG aspect of it, and more to the point, the stats and character building.

I’m aware that most 4X games have a certain RPGish characteristic to it… You evolve your civilization (character) through resources (experience). Some of them even have experience levels associated to your units, etc…

But the idea that came to me was more related to “character development trees”:

image

This is the World of Warcraft talent tree (for mages)… Every time you level up, you get a point that can spend on this tree. Although you select in the start of the game your class (and that effects what you can do, what roles you can take and how you achieve it), this affects the way you approach the game and changes a million things in the gameplay style (hence most high-level players spend an insane amount of time fine-tuning this).

There are 4X games that allow you to define “racial traits” when you start a game, but as far as I know, none of them allows you to have a dynamic/changeable tree that modifies the way you play the game while you play it, and I think that would be awesome…

I can think of several mechanics associated to this… Simple model, you get a point to apply in your “civilization tree” the first time you do some meaningful action (first planet explored, your first colony, your first defense against invaders, first death star, whatever). A bit more complex model would be to get some “civilizational experience” every time you perform a meaningful action (not only the first time). This would be a bit harder to adjust (for example, destroying a planet controlled by a weak opponent shouldn’t affect that civilizational experience that much). An even more complex model would be to have different trees and different experience levels (“Explore” tree, “Exploit” tree, “Expand” tree, “Exterminate” tree).

I think this would add an additional depth to the game, and an interesting one at that, specially if the designers would spend enough time thinking about the tree(s) and the elements within, considering all the four facets of the game…

Of course, this might be just a matter of semantics… there are plenty of 4X games that kind of do this through the tech-trees/research, but the fact you could change the civilization tree during the game, tweaking it to the particular needs (of course with some penalization, so you wouldn’t do that every 2 minutes) would lead to some interesting gameplay in my opinion…

Another thing I’d like to see in a 4X game (haven’t seen it yet as well) would be ground combats, although I admit that might add a layer of micromanagement that might not be suited to this sort of game… but it would rock to fight a battle in different layers (or more precisely, let the computer fight the battles, since I appreciate that more in my 4X… space combat strategy is a different beast in my opinion), having to decide before hand what kind of units my drop-ships would carry, and that could affect the amount of resources/facilities that could be salvaged from the planet (instead of just using an orbital bombardment to wipe it out).

Currently I have my hands full, with my spare time being occupied with “SurgeEditor”, “Something Fishy” port, and the “Cell.Ection” development for me to be able to tackle a new project, but I’d like to see this developed so I could play it, so get busy people!

 
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  1. thorondir

    December 11, 2012 at 10:19 pm

    i have no clue as to how recent this is, but replying anyway:

    there is not a great deal of these games out there which combine rpg character building and the 4x system, but a few are roaming out there.

    the exeptionally underrated elemental 2: fallen enchantress is so far by far the best combination that i found. you build cities and research tech in a sid meir’s civilizations manner, but you also incorporate a fantasy element adding on magic shards and mana into the mix(which coming to think of it pretty much replaces all political and religious tech which you would find in civ).
    and then there is a flipside to the game: you start off with a sovereign ie a hero. you can choose one from the original 8 stock characters all of which are rather playable, or you can create your own race(civilization) and choose its perks and weaknesses and create your character, choosing his/her abilities, perks, weaknesses and appearence. throughout the process of the game you can recruit other heroes to aid your cause, and all of them level up and you can choose their upgradable skills, abilities and proficincies, and you can buy/quest for equipment.

    overall that game is rather hard until you get the hang of it(took me about a dozen tries before i was able to win my first game on the easiest difficulty against 1 opponent on the smallest map). but dont sweat: the game is incredibly fun and ive already put almost 50 hours into it without getting bored. also its very convenient to play on-the-go ie between university lectures or on the bus as well as comfortably at home =P.

    anyway, enough marketing for fallen enchantress. its availible in store, on steam, on TPB, etc. get in the way you want to, i suggest legally.

    oh, and one downside: no multiplayer.

    anyway, other games of the type… heroes of might and magic is apparently similiar to this genre but i have not played it. kings bounty features a similiar combat system, but yet agian, have not played it. disciples series. desciples 2 was a magnificent game for its time and the expansion packs were pretty awesome, but after downloading it a few months ago, i realized that it did not age as well as i expected it to.but thats just my opinion. and if you get a chance to try it out, do so. you are forewarned: its addicting and fun.

    i think it might be availible on steam.

    as for desciples 3:renaissance and desciples 1, they are both ok too but not as grand as the 2nd one.

    hmmmmm…. thinkey thinkey.
    4x… rpg… nothing else comes to mind.

    live long and prosper, and dont forget: the angels have the phone box!

     
    • Covenant

      December 18, 2012 at 3:16 pm

      Thanks for the suggestions, Elemental 2: Fallen Enchantress seems like a good one… I like my 4X more “spacey” (always liked Alpha Centauri more than Civilization, for example), but if it’s everything you say, it’s probably a good game; just need to sort out through my pile of games I have gathering dust, but I’ll definately check that one out… 🙂
      Lack of multiplayer doesn’t bother me that much, since I’m an anti-social person… 😉 I have enough socializing in World of Warcraft… 😀
      Heroes of Might and Magic have some elements I described, but it’s a more traditional RPG game than a 4X one… I remember trying King’s Bounty some time ago, but the game didn’t leave an impression on me (can’t even recall the overall look of it)…
      It’s curious that most “RPG-ish” elements are more present in Fantasy-based games than Sci-Fi ones; guess that one hand it’s more in line with the D&D tradition… and probably it’s easier to design RPG elements around a fantasy/magic setting than sci-fi (although you have some sci-fi stuff, like Anarchy Online or Shadowrun, but I’d say they’re outnumbered 10 to 1!)…

      Anyway, thanks for the suggestions!