Here's hoping I don't have weird taste in games...
A massively multiplayer RTS that is essentially a combination of Factorio [1], Rust [2] (the game), Planetary Annihilation [3], and Z [4].
Thematically what I've wanted is the persistent nature of Rust, with the logistic focus of Factorio, the scale of Planetary Annihilation, and a dash of the absurdity of Z (which I haven't played in a very long time so I might be off a bit there). Controlling units, managing supply lines, planning complex offensives, setting up a defensive posture for when you're offline, creating one or more bases to supply yourself, researching technology to increase capabilities, and a very open system for cooperation (or not) are aspects of games that I have yet to see combined. I am for sure leaving out quite a bit here, but if I had all the time and money in the world I'd throw this all together as a weird experiment and see what happened.
1) Scaling is super-linear, so players who got ahead only get more ahead. Unless you add some (frustrating) gimmick to give a chance for others to catch up, a small number of players or factions will control the universe
2) Fighting offline players isn't fun for either party involved. There are some workarounds for this, like EVE Online's timer system (bases can only be attacked at a specific time), but they are far from perfect
Make explosives absurdly cheap. Make other players hard to detect -- limited sensor capabilities isn't really a gimmick, more of a reality of signals processing.
One player with enough explosives and appropriate braking power could land himself in an automated factory and rig it to blow in just a few days (depending on the scale of the factory).
Maybe add a time-based ban mechanic to discourage this behaviour. "It takes X days/weeks to re-assemble your constituent atoms. Money will speed this process up."
I’ve thought about this a lot because I love this idea as well, but I don’t see how this would be fun on the long term. I don’t know how the creator could balance the game in a way where it wouldn’t end up with one huge overpowered player and the rest dead.
So my fantasy was to create a bit of a twist: A PvE + PvP RTS+RPG game, where you can equip a limited set of technologies, and where you can unlock many technologies like an RPG. You’ll basically have a “commander level” or something which you can grow slowly, unlocking new technologies and unlocking new unit slots.
Imagine for example a new player will have 1 tank slot, and 1 factory slot, with 0 ability slots. He’ll start a game (against AI or another similarly leveled player) and when he wins, he’ll level up (eventually unlocking more slots) and “find” some “loot” (new technologies)
So every match requires you to build from scratch, you build some stuff for 5-20 minutes until you win (or lose) (maybe using blueprints etc to speed it up / make it easier) and at the end you’ll unlock stuff you can use in your next match.
Maybe you can combine this whole gameplay look with a “home base”, which you can visit and have factories running, and which you can expand whenever you wish (limited space). To get more space, you’ll have to clear the area by force. (AI bases) Attacking these bases will trigger very aggressive AI which you’ll have to defend against (so it’s basically a tower / wave defense). Maybe your home base can run 24/7 (but do require you to login every day, or it will be paused) and unlock some kind of stuff which you can then use to unlock more technologies.
The technologies can be just a limited set of units with slightly randomized stats and visuals, and some optional changes you can equip as abilities.
You can play missions COOP with friends, or play against each other. Add some cool events, event-exclusive technologies (just the same units but with different skin and slightly different stats).
The idea here is to make RTS games more accessible to people that are less into “APM” and the best micro-management / meta, and more into unique strategies that only work with the exact items you have. Also, the slightly random nature of the technologies requires a player to design their own blueprints instead of downloading them from the internet if they want perfectly optimized blueprints matching their technologies’ stats.
Because you keep unlocking new things, you’ll never have a “final best strategy” and you need to keep learning if you want to consistently win, or just have fun and accept a lower rank / play against AI
A massively multiplayer RTS that is essentially a combination of Factorio [1], Rust [2] (the game), Planetary Annihilation [3], and Z [4].
Thematically what I've wanted is the persistent nature of Rust, with the logistic focus of Factorio, the scale of Planetary Annihilation, and a dash of the absurdity of Z (which I haven't played in a very long time so I might be off a bit there). Controlling units, managing supply lines, planning complex offensives, setting up a defensive posture for when you're offline, creating one or more bases to supply yourself, researching technology to increase capabilities, and a very open system for cooperation (or not) are aspects of games that I have yet to see combined. I am for sure leaving out quite a bit here, but if I had all the time and money in the world I'd throw this all together as a weird experiment and see what happened.
[1] https://www.factorio.com/ [2] https://rust.facepunch.com/ [3] https://planetaryannihilation.com/ [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_(video_game)