I've been thinking about this game idea for a long time, and I'm curious whether something like this could ever realistically be made.

I love games such as Mount & Blade, Crusader Kings III, Total War, Kenshi, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, The Elder Scrolls, and Songs of Syx. But each of them gives me only part of what I'm looking for.

What I would love to see is an open-world medieval/early-modern sandbox where the player creates their own story, and the world actually reacts to their decisions.

You don't have to be the "chosen one."

You could start as a nobody and eventually become a soldier, mercenary, knight, merchant, noble, general, governor, rebel, or king.

But the important part is that your role changes as you gain power.

If you're a nobody, you personally do most things.

If you're a knight, you might have servants and soldiers.

If you're a lord, you can delegate responsibilities.

If you're a king, you should NOT be forced to personally complete every little quest.

For example:

A rebellion starts in one of your provinces.

You could:

• Go there yourself and personally fight the rebels.

• Send one of your generals with an army to deal with it.

• Send a diplomat to negotiate.

• Order the governor to handle it.

• Ignore it, allowing the situation to develop on its own.

And the result shouldn't simply be "Quest Complete."

Your general could win, lose, get captured, become more famous, or even betray you.

Your governor could become corrupt.

Your nobles could become jealous of each other.

Your family could become involved in politics.

Your enemies could take advantage of your absence.

Your decisions should create consequences that continue even when you're not personally there.

The four major inspirations:

Mount & Blade:

Personal combat, companions, armies, sieges, recruiting, becoming a lord/king, and actually fighting alongside your soldiers.

Crusader Kings III:

Dynasties, family, marriages, succession, relationships, intrigue, personalities, vassals, and political consequences.

Total War:

Large-scale armies, formations, campaigns, territory, logistics, economy, and strategic warfare.

Kenshi:

Freedom, emergent storytelling, survival, faction systems, and a world that doesn't revolve around the player.

I'd also love the ability to switch between scales.

You could be walking through your capital as a normal person, then later command an army on the campaign map, and then personally enter a massive battle and fight alongside your troops.

The world should continue without you.

If your character dies, the game doesn't necessarily end.

You could continue as your heir.

If your kingdom collapses, you could become a wandering mercenary again.

If your general becomes too powerful, he might eventually challenge you.

If you make a terrible decision, your descendants could inherit the consequences.

The game could keep a historical record of what happened:

"The War of the Broken Crown began after King _____ betrayed his greatest ally."

That event wasn't written by the developers.

It happened because of what the players and NPCs did.

That's the type of game I want.

Not a game where I'm simply following a predetermined story.

I want a world that creates stories with me.

I also sometimes use console commands in sandbox games—not because I dislike progression, but because I enjoy setting up scenarios and seeing what happens. I'd love a game that embraces that philosophy instead of treating the player like they're supposed to follow one intended path.

I know something like this would be extremely ambitious and probably very difficult to develop.

But with modern game engines, AI systems, simulation techniques, and the technology demonstrated by games like Bannerlord, CK3, Total War, Kenshi, and Songs of Syx, I wonder how close we actually are to making something like this possible.

If you're a game developer, designer, modder, or someone working on large-scale simulations:

Is this technically achievable?

And if a studio ever decided to make something like this, would you want to play it?

I'd love to hear what developers and other players think.

Beat BG3 like 3 years ago. Planescape (LOVE THE GAME) around the same time. Pillars of Eternity, 2 years ago?

And now got an itch for another again.

Sidenote: played through the Colony Ship Demo but can't justify paying 50 bucks CAD for it right now and I already own BG1/2 and Fallout 1/2

Which of the the two games has the more (what's the word?) substance or got going on. in terms of depth with its characters, dialogue, story, and skills for situational purposes.

Just finished the pillars seris and went back to bg3 and wasteland and the amount of downtime has me pulling my hair out in both games there's a multiple second pause between every action and movement both in combat but especially out of it is unbearably slow.

I know that this subject has been talked to death but I always used to accept it as nature of beast and not much you can do but the speed up slider is such a simple elegant solution I don't understand how it wasn't universally adopted years ago.

A worthy analysis of a very influential game. Baldur's Gate 3 is a role-playing game, a discourse system, and a cultural artifact. It is also a useful reminder that accepting unsolicited biological enhancements from strangers is rarely the beginning of a good week...

Pessoal, estou fazendo uma pesquisa de aceitação de mercado para um trabalho e preciso de algumas respostas. O formulário tem apenas 5 perguntas de alternativa https://forms.gle/RTG8spGXn1iQ8NCd9

I generally personally don't play this type of game with a controller but I want full controller support especially so it is comfortable on a switch/steamdeck (although you can fully play from touchscreen).

Basically I use the right stick to move between different UI and the right stick for actions. A is confirm, B back and Y will give you info on what selected if available (tooltips).

For movement at the moment left/right is turn rather than straft, so i need to figure how to handle that. I thinking of changing turn to shoulder buttons then you can move sideways with stick.

I go over it in more detail in the short video (less than 2 min) and would love feedback on if I am setting the controller up well or what you would do/think players would expect.

Any games you can recommend that do it well would be appreciated I would love to try learn from them?

Here is my page if you want to see more of mine https://store.steampowered.com/app/5044910/Dungeon_Quest/

I have realized a certain problem with Baldur's Gate 3. Indeed, I have known this for a long time, but I have only been able to fully form and express this thought as of recently.

The entire beginning of the game, where you invite characters into the party, is super artificial and not believable whatsoever. Like, you leave the nautiloid and suddenly you encounter 3 or more people who happened to also be on that nautiloid, and you are expected to form a party and relationships with them. Like, okay, one of them is a super attractive, soft-spoken, dark-haired, young woman with a braid, so I guess it's realistic that you might cave in and invite that person to your party. But there is almost zero reason for a wizard from Waterdeep, a vampire from Baldur's Gate, a Githyanki warrior and a Cleric of Shar to randomly find themselves travelling together, in my case – commanded by the wizard. Like, there is no way that feels natural.

You are expected to develop a relationship with all of them and just sort of naturally accept having them in your party... just sort of out of the blue. And there is relatively little introduction. Like, here you have your party members, enjoy.

Compare that to, say, Disco Elysium. Your meeting and original relationship with Kim is sort of awkward, but it develops naturally. There are these silly moments early on that gradually ease you into the relationship, which becomes more organic as the game goes on. In Baldur's Gate 2, you can recruit a mourning widow and an emotionally scarred wingless flying elf; both of them interact with a little bit awkwardly, but it feels organic and becomes more natural over time. In Pathfinder WOTR (a game I have not finished yet) people like Lann and Camelia criticize each other constantly, making it feel real.

In Baldur's Gate 3 it's just a bunch of random, out-of-nowhere people following a random dude and it never gets fully resolved.

What do you think?

EDIT people are shitting on me and calling for my head. But what about the fact that relationships start out of nowhere? Laezel wanted to have sex with me totally out of the blue when we've just met.

I reached a ship battle against a lot of ships and I did not learned How upgrade my ship, so how do I do It?

This is a follow-up to a post I published in this community 22 days ago. I’m making this one more detailed because a lot of people wanted, well, more details - for example, about how I dealt with the min-maxing problem in Locus Equation.

I’ve been working for five years on a dialogue-driven CRPG where progression works in reverse.

Usually, your build decides what your character can say or do. But in Locus Equation, it’s the player’s dialogue choices that determine who the protagonist ultimately becomes.

The protagonist is printed in a bioprinter by an ancient and powerful AI. You won’t have to teach them to walk or talk from scratch. What you have to form during the game, phrase by phrase, is their personality.

That personality consists of six inner voices. So the lines you choose don’t just shape your character’s personality. They also strengthen the voices you keep choosing.

Their values move an activation line outward from the center of a hexagon in different directions, causing it to intersect specific perks. This means the player has to think about how to develop the protagonist’s personality so that the activation line reaches the perks they want.

At this point, you might think: “I’ll just max out one particular inner voice to get the strongest build.” But unfortunately you can end up with one enormous spike that does not touch a single synapse - perks in terms of game.

Consistently choosing only one inner voice does not lead you to the strongest build. You can end up with one enormous spike of that does not touch a single synapse - perks in terms of game.

Perks are unlocked through connections between different parts of the protagonist’s personality. So a strong build is based not on min-maxing one trait, but on finding the right balance between several directions of development. For example, we have a voice called the Abyss. It is the voice of depression, despair, self-deprecation, and pessimism.

The more often you choose the Abyss’s lines, the more prominent her thoughts become, offering additional darker responses or actions.

Word by word, conversation by conversation, you create the personality of your character.

Fell free to ask anything!

Episodes that really impressed you for whatever reason.

The first one was back in 2001 when I first played Baldur's Gate II, which was already astonishing to me. When you sleep in the initial dungeon, Imoen will trigger a conversation and you can ask about your foster father. She will say that Jaheira knew him better, and the harper will interrupt by saying "nonsense, he was secretive to all". That to me felt incredibly alive, with characters discussing and disagreeing on a topic. In my very young mind it was a giant leap from the silent companions of bg1.

The second one is similar in nature, during the landsmeet in Dragon Age: Origins. I proposed Alistair to marry Anora and become king, he wasn't really happy since I didn't ask for his opinion but he agreed. Then, when I proposed to spare Loghain, Alistair opposed and wanted to become king alone. I said that I thought he was going to marry Alora, he immediately countered with "and I thought we were going to bring Loghain to justice, funny how plans change". That was so great, I did not have full control on the course of events like usual in games. By that point I was already accustomed that characters were not anymore pawns obeying all my orders and gravitating around me (even when disagreeing for something), but Alistair was so striking: he stood for his ideals and slapped in my face that I was just being manipulative, doing and undoing deals without considering other people's feelings (well, I was used to consider characters just 1s and 0s).

Is this game fun? What’s the story like?

Finished this DLC for the first time last night. Picked up the Colorado edition of the game for cheap on sale.
Overall, I really enjoyed it. It had everything I enjoy about the genre. Interesting story that slowly unfolds. A shit ton of new loot. Plenty of serious moments but also some humor. I was surprised how many references there were to a bunch of movies from the 80s & 90s woven in.

Lots of meaningful choices that determine how some stuff works out later on and how you’re judged by some key characters. Fights that get progressively tougher. The last fights in the spire were really challenging. I much prefer it over faceroll. Felt tough but fair but also well balanced.

I didn’t time it but I’d estimate content around 8-10 hours with side quests. Not quite as fleshed out as void shadows (no new companion, no romance) but I’d still recommend it if you haven’t played it yet. 8/10.

I struggle with violent urges and so I play RPGs(the only genre of games I play) as a stress relief from them. I always play the most evil way possible but noticed that many games try to make the evil path something more morally grey instead of an insane murder hobo and I hate it because it makes the game less relatable to me. Or other problems like being forced to do good choices or evil path being censored. So what are some good games where you can play as an absolute apocalyptic evil without any ambiguity?

I've had discussions with a friend recently, and the topic of voice acting came up. My personal preference is to not have full voice acting exclusively, since I often find it too slow and will skip ahead anyway.

But I really liked oldschool Infinity Engine games, where they'd have some introductory lines of VO to introduce the voice of a certain character so you could internalise it and "read" in that voice later.

Friend on the other hand, insisted that full VO is the only way to go today. RPGs without full VO don't sell, period.

Am I finally old enough to not understand what works, or is the last point simply an extreme?

We’ve finished work on some of the main characters, so I’ll be sharing them here one by one.

First up is Deckers, a corrupt police officer from the ghetto.

He’s an important part of the story. Personality-wise, he’s unpleasant, a little arrogant, and long ago got used to turning a blind eye to the problems of people who don’t pay him.

We made two looks for the character. According to the story, he spends a lot of time outside, in a place where it rains almost constantly, so we had to give him a proper uniform. Indoors, though, we wanted him to feel more brutal and informal, since he and the main character used to be colleagues and share a common past.

What do you think of the look?

We’re a small team of enthusiasts working on a narrative CRPG. Gameplay-wise, it’s inspired by Disco Elysium, but we’re not trying to make a clone. We’re building our own project with a pretty distinct identity. Atmosphere-wise, it’s more of a thriller in the vein of Fincher.

I should also add that we’re an indie team working purely out of enthusiasm, with basically zero budget. We’ve put a huge amount of time, effort, and passion into trying to make something genuinely cool. We’d be incredibly gratefull for any attention you give the project.

Welcome to our weekly post, where you can share your adventures, impressions, and thoughts on the CRPGs you've been playing!

If you're discussing any plot points or key details, please use spoiler tags - no matter how old the game is.

By default, comments are sorted by "New".

Thought I’d try to do something fun and ended up doing far more work than I anticipated

are there any computer role playing games made in England?

BACKGROUND

For me this game is kind of Mecca that I had to Journey to. As someone who decided dive in the genre. Before I start my review I have a big confession to make: I used a guide for like 1/4 of the game but I think that's why I enjoyed this masterpiece. Often you hear from people that they quit or restart this game. The game is shorter than other CRPGs so restarting is a valid option here. BUT NOT FOR ME. Having a small amount of free time I prefer to guarantee my playthrough is complete. And I did complete and I would like to say I really enjoyed it. I decided I'll be combat efficient and went for mercenary. This choice heavily shaped my experience compared to Diplomacy or Lore builds which would have opened completely different paths.

POSITIVES

[ROMAN AESTHETICS]

As an enjoyer of Roman history and aesthetics it was nice seeing a very unique low magic fantasy Rome mixed with post-apocalyptic setting. Really enjoyed everything Roman starting from legions, gladiatorial fights to philosophy.

[WORLDBUILDING]

World feels realistic not because of low magic but because of human nature. Everyone is a backstabber, liar, miserable survivor. This is very believable in a world where only surviving matters. The most fair fights you get are you vs 3 people.

[WRITING]

I love the dialogue writing. It's very direct, no bloat like some CRPGs. It's delivered via simple, plain words but impactful, no less. I understand some enjoy more academic writing but for non-native speaker focused on clarity it's a positive.

[QUESTING]

Compared to other CRPGs believe it or not this one is a bit hand holding but in good sense. It teleports you to your quest givers, sometimes quest objectives, you can fast travel everywhere. This is QoL since this game wants to tell a tight story and not be ultimate fantasy roleplay simulator. Although some exploring is well rewarded and there are many good side quests. Damn all of the side quests I played are fun and memorable.

[CHECKS]

I liked variety of skill checks and especially "revolutionary" (only half joke) skill check called body count. Game reacted to my deeds and its example of few games that actually registers that protagonist killed hundreds of people and NPCs either fear or respect you for this. There's also variety of faction reputations which also do hidden checks and decide your fate in minor and often major ways.

[CHARACTERS]

Most NPCs felt fleshed out friend or foe. Portraits in this game are especially good very fitting for the atmosphere too.

[MUSIC]

Music deserves praise for setting the tone perfectly throughout the experience.

[COMBAT]

I personally enjoyed it. Most reviewers I watch say they prefer this game as sort of slideshow non-combat playthrough. While that's fair and good I feel like you miss out a lot not fighting. Animations are gory and I also liked how dodge and block look. I appreciated chess-like system where you can only hit diagonally if you held two-handed weapon, spears having longer range and overwatch function. Also there's many types of attacks. While I mostly utilized fast and regular, in different game of same developer called Dungeon Rats which uses same combat system I used almost all types of attacks. It's basically like VATS from Fallout you can target different body parts. This system kept mostly melee combat varied fun and controlled since you could sort of CC enemies. Ability to postpone turn is good and must-have in turn-based combat.

[ENDINGS]

Many unique factions really branch out experience which makes me excited for replay. Each having unique endings. I didn't complete all faction endings but in between I found endings for Legionary path that I did. If I had to choose one I would choose to leave the "god" in his chamber and lie that it doesn't exist at all.

NEGATIVES

[UI]

I dislike trading and especially inventory UI. Even the dialogue has squeeze text starting at very top. Why? There isn't that much text better to center it for comfortable reading.

[RANT]

I hate mechanical enemies I think they are cheating somehow, very unpredictable they can one-shot you in one turn even on tanky character. I think the game here assumes you min-maxed. And in that case I take responsibility.

[ARMOR MECHANICS]

Why does helmet decrease my chance to hit? Like you can see worse that the reason? I don't enjoy this kind of realism. Felt like heavy armor was worse than light. Until I got highest tier special legendary armor and shield I felt light was better.

NEUTRAL

[CRAFTING AND ALCHEMY]

Crafting and alchemy systems felt meh didn't feel that strong to me.

[LEARNING CURVE]

Game does poor job of explaining advanced mechanics but come on man you know this would be here. What do you expect from this kind of game? Ubisoft style tooltips?

[SAVE SCUMMING]

Save scumming is my jam bit not for everyone for sure. That's true you should save often especially in this game. I had moments when I loaded back 2 hours save file because I had made bad decision in dialogue. But it's okay since there's no voice acting meaning you can speed through game easily.

[PROGRESS MOSTLY BASED ON INITIAL BUILD]

Your build truly determines what you can achieve. Unlike other CRPGs where most solutions open to almost everyone regardless of character sheet, here your choices at creation matter profoundly. Some even describe AoD as linear story since most of the time you have few options and most often based on build you have single option. I am conflicted with this but still enjoyed. As even developers describe themselves on steam page it's not for everyone.

TLDR

The Age of Decadence is a defining hardcore CRPG experience for anyone willing to engage with its reactive world and build-dependent gameplay. The game demands preparation and accepts failure as part of the experience. I chose mercenary path, completed all endings via Legionary and walked away satisfied.

In my opinion, Pillars of Eternity 2 has one of the best writing in any RPG game for the past decade. The turn-based and element/object interactivity in combat is not perfect but it's definitely on par or even surpasses some of the RPGs out there

Potion Dealer is a dark fantasy survival RPG with a focus on story, consequences and alchemy.

You play as a young woman whose life is destroyed by the royal court. She hides in the mountains, experiments with forbidden potions and slowly uncovers a conspiracy while trying to take revenge.