Hi guys! Warhammer 40K is something close to my heart and has been a part of my life for over 3 decades.
I have read countless books and written several story idea scribbles, painstakenly painted and augmented miniature models, drawn artwork and used mods in other games to emulate and get more 40K, particularly Ultramarines Astartes, into the fibre of my very being.
I have, over all of this time, yearned, nay, ached for a Computer game that has been very much in the format of an open world exploration/free-roam. Where there are objectives, obviously to do with war and battle, 40k.. but also an RPG system at its core.
I'm going to say it.. but imagine Fallout, originally realised by Black Isle studios; In this you are exploring a post-apocalyptic wasteland, as you may already know. But the features of the game involve development of player character step by step as he/she levels up. Factions to side with, work with or just simply destroy. (in WH40K you will become part of a faction at the very beginning of the game, before even the opening sequence intro plays out, (depending on which faction you chose). Yep, cinematics, but only at key stages of the game, not every 10 minutes (eughh)
I'd like to see a game that is not "Table top RTS" style, even though 40K is played like this mostly in reality, I have dreamed for so long to be able to actually have the space and choice to wander and roam, decide on outcomes of encounters that may happen at random, or that happen to come to me having sought me out because, perhaps, of actions I have taken previously, against others...
This open-world exploration will not be aimless, however. There can be an initial objective, recover the artefact.. or Locate the signal, that kind of thing.. simple, obscure, opaque and not giving much away at first but growing WITH the player depending on their actions, choices and development throughout the game.
The game needs to react and adapt to the players progress. A dynamic flow created by the player rather than the plot leading the player. This will involve multiple outcomes, multiple cutscenes, multiple playthrough options and more work. TRUST ME, RELIC... you will be rewarded if you make a game like this, rather than a linear boring garden path that ends within a couple of hours of game play, having followed a continuous identical-every-playthrough scripted dialogue that is more rigid than stone. (and just as lifeless and boring).
Want any more ideas? Get in touch with me. Send me an email and perhaps we can discuss some ideas. I have 30 years' worth of amazing ideas which have brewed and broiled within my mind. So much so that I will eventually at some point offer u p polite requests to the Black Library publishers to see if I could get anything published, but that is a long way off yet.
I'd love to be able to experience freedom of movement in an open world in 40K environment, shooting rock solid boltguns into exploding enemies, or be able to choose the path of chaos and betray everyone and everything in the game. Maybe I'd like to play as a psyker? Maybe I want to follow a strict path of non-violence and still complete the game, but be rewarded with a different ending that teaches me that there can be only war and you actually die as a result of playing this way!? Maybe I could if it was made.. MY choices.. MY game, My story and its ending. (there will only obviously be a select handful of endings possible but a massive combination of choices and styles, upgrades, ways the player chooses skils to improve in order to achieve those similar goals.
Relic will profit x10 from this and a community of 40Kfans and post apocalypse fans will love it forever. After all in the grim darkness of the far future, there can be only war! If anyone would like to comment on this it would be great to see what anyone else thinks of an open world 40K RPG. I have longed for something like it. Fallout was close but too pansy, soft and full of patriotic American rubbish, I'd like to see something alien, something that the player can forge into theirs as they play and not be influenced by a certain nation's propaganda embedded into the game. I want to travel to other worlds as parts of ever expanding DLC where I go fight Tyranids and do the whole thing over again, making choices RPG-ing my way up through skill choices, using said skills as ways to bypass or succeed in dialogue with NPCs.. Oh please Relic.. please!
Ahem.. urhm..
Yours faithfully, in his eternal service,
Comments
BrotherMaleusPraetor
I forgot to include, and didn't want to mess with my already scruffy OP, that maybe girls can choose to play and they will be Eldar. Or maybe more fitting, sisters of Battle, with their armour being artificed to fit a more slender, or just all round feminine body, yanno, that accommodates bumps squidgy bits and curves, aka (a sexeh bodeh!) whereas if you choose to play as a male, you can obviously look like a hulking monster of ceramite and muscle, or even Eldar or whatever, Ork maybe? Perhaps these Racial choices are limited, perhaps it might be easier to make the game if you were just a Humanoid then, a Space Marine would be my preference, but perhaps the diversity therein could be based on what KIND of Space Marine you could choose to be; Psyker, (access to psychic abilities, extra dialogue choices to bypass speech checks) Battle Brother, (better knowledge and capabilities with weapons and armour) Captain? Sergeant, (dialogue choices based on charismatic influence or signs of leadership qualities gaining you access to better outcomes with factions or NPCs) Sister of Battle, (better reflexes, stronger mental acuity, or charismatic influences in dialogue, 10% better chance of achieving speech checks with males IDK, maybe that's sexist, you have to be careful in this day and age). Techmarine, (techmarine could grant bonusses such as access to a mechanised arsenal of weaponry and a better affinity with machines?), you can imagine the possibilities of choice and how they influence the game's path. This is ESSENTIAL to customer satisfaction and developing a relationship with player and game (and ultimately customer following and retention).
Whatever RACE you choose (think of Elder Scrolls, where you can choose a race, look, skill, etc) the game's environment AND more importantly the NPCs, dialogue and story plot line will suit that player's Racial choice and also their actions throughout the game, as mentioned in the OP.
But mainly,. boys, girls, men, women can choose freely to play a main character and have a look tailored to that choice before the game has even begun.
The game could start with waking up from being unconsious and you have to get your bearings and figure out what happened to you, and slowly the story comes to you, dynamically by result of what path you take throughout the game.
Maybe you start off evil, and want to kill everything, the game will take you down that path, with certain paths denied to you because of a "Karma" system in force at all times -
B U T! Here's the selling coup de grace - you can change and become GOOD and finally receive that reward based on that, maybe even a logger can trace your actions and deliver a reward fitting of someone who started off bad but then changed, seeking redemption - therefore the game will award the player with ending fitting of this.
Think of the possibilities, think of how awesome this game would be... Oh Jeez I think I just peed my pants.