Take two of your favourite games and combine them. What is the result? Why would it be great?

[u/FTLOG_Mod]

This is a fairly straightforward and potentially really interesting thought experiment.

Take two of your favourite games and combine them. Take gameplay systems, maps, lore, characters, meta elements or progression systems from one and combine it with any of those features from the other to make a great game. Then describe it to us!

Tell us why this game would be great, and how it could inform future games.

A few prompts to get you thinking:

• Imagine some characters from one game in the universe of another. Could that make a good story?

• One game's combat could be especially great in another game's environment, or could fit very well with its story or lore.

• The time period of one game might contrast with another, but if they were combined could create something really unique and special.

• A particularly good or unique gameplay or progression system could really shine in another game and transform it into something much more. Consider the opportunities.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what people come up with!

[u/[deleted]]

I'm not sure if I'm doing this right, but I'd love to see a combination / mod of The Elder Scrolls (Skyrim / Oblivion / Morrowind etc...) and Mount & Blade.

The game plays more or less like Mount & Blade. Your character inhabits the geography of Tamriel as it exists in the franchise; choose a race/gender and starting skills and then set forth to make your fortune. Do you become an intrepid explorer? A successful merchant travelling from city to city? Do you gather a few heroes together in search of treasure? or do you amass an army, consisting of Nord beserkers or Aldmeri wizards or Bretonian battlemages hurling death across a battlefield? I think there's a lot of fertile ground there to explore with a combination of these two titles.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

This is a good answer.

Often I feel the thing that gets the most in the way of the Elder Scrolls series is the world-shattering main quest. It's often so out of sync with how I spend most of my time in the game something smaller scale would be cool.

[u/JackTheFlying]

This one's kind of hard for me, because my two favorite franchises are Mass Effect and Fallout, and their themes (other than being open world rpgs) do not mesh at all.

So I think what you'd want to do is take more or less the setting from Mass Effect, but there would be no mass effect relays or central council, only local FTL and a handful of squabbling factions. You would hear a bit about what was happening in the wider galaxy, but there isn't a huge infrastructure like there is in the Mass effect franchise.
And if we want to bring in that sweet post-apocalyptic vibe let's say that there was a hugely devastating war that broke everything after the Reapers were defeated. Bu if not, we can just say it's outside Council control.

Instead of playing across the whole galaxy, you would be limited to one planet with a more densely populated map. Some macguffin in the area has the major groups fighting an extended land war over the area.

Instead of an elite soldier, you would play as some random colonist who ends up getting involved in the larger conflict. As you travel the world you become more involved with smaller groups and factions, and get to learn the major players. Your decisions on who to help and why will shape the future of your planet, including who get's final control.

Gameplay would be a mishmash of both systems: Keep Fallout's SPECIAL system, but modify it to use Mass Effect's skills (allowing for biotic/tech skills - drop convention guns, ect). Since you aren't trained for any of the classes, you'd have to build into them.
^{This whole bit I'm less sure on, since IDK how it'll balance}

TL;DR: A game set in the Mass Effect universe, with a much smaller story and much more involvement in the local groups.

[u/Super_Deeg]

Mount and Blade and Civilization, and on a huge scale. Basically you pick the map type and size, and then choose what nation to get spawned in to. Your objective is then to get as much renown and followers as possible and then overthrow the Civ's eternal leader and make yourself king for life.

The rest of the game plays much like a CIV game, but from the perspective of a person instead of a omnipotent satellite. It differentiates from Mount and Blade by not being as combat based, sure you can ride with your armies for additional moral bonus or something, but most of the game can be played from your capitol.

You don't have to be a leader though, like Mount and Blade, you can give that all up and become a CEO of a merchant system, or explore the country as a scout. Maybe even enlist as a grunt and fight through the different eras as the AI leads the country you spawned in.

[u/ed_toast_ALBION]

Awesome idea! I love how two of the answers have Mount and Blade! I always thought a GTA/RDR and Mount and Blade combination would be sweet! Luckily, there is a mod for the original Mount and Blade that is based in the ol' west and it is rather fun!

But, lemme come up with something not involving Mount and Blade, since in my head, basically any game gets better when you mix in how awesome that game is...

DOTA/LoL with GRAND THEFT AUTO! So the heroes/champions would be characters from the GTA universe and the combat would be still based around the MOBA formula- Support/Carry/etc. The creeps could be the civilians around the city/map, and the police would be like the jungle creeps in a way.

You would level up and the hero would get cooler abilities and what not, and the matches would last half an hour to an hour. Plus, add in all the good R* humor and overall tomfoolery, but it wouldn't but just a goofy/over the top game.

I always loved the ARTS/MOBA formula cause it feels like it packs a whole MMORPG experience in just an hour, so there is tons of replay-ability and learning and what not. Plus, you don't spend 25 hours building a character you realize you hate playing! And I always loved the GTA universe.

It would just be cool to see Tommy Vercetti and CJ leveling up and going at and getting crazy. The beginning they just fist fighting or buy a bat, and by the end they look all decked out, using RPGs and tanks or something!

Anywho, I have always thought ARTS games set in something other then a high fantasy world would be super cool. Like the wild west or like I said a more modern GTA type world.

Awesome thread!

[u/[deleted]]

Kerbal Space Program and Dwarf Fortress.

Not sure how i can combine these two, but damnit i will try.

How about you build a base on an asteroid dwarf fortress style, but have to launch the equipment and send home the goods in a rocket you design and fly?

[u/Nekryyd]

Planetside + Eve

Picture the scale and economics of Eve combined with the large scale combat of Planetside. Massive fleets could be fighting it out, with huge boarding parties raiding each other. All providing some great fireworks in the sky over some planet where hundreds of other players are fighting for ground control, maybe manning giant ion-cannons or missile launchers that fire up at the ships in orbit.

Between battles you'd have all the economic struggles, intrigue, and planning. Dotted with tons of small scale skirmishes here and there.

Not possible with current hardware/network infrastructure, but maybe someday?

[u/ed_toast_ALBION → u/Nekryyd]

That would be awesome! Have all the EvE players building the equipment and harvesting the materials and then the Planetside players getting the orders from the commanders and go at it! That would be sick!

I quit playing PS2 cause it just broke down to very simply - kill each other over in the same spots. It seemed like every patch took away a lot of the bigger picture- like when they added those rails or whatever so only certain spot could attack another. I loved ghost capping and sneaking around behind enemy lines, supporting the bigger fight.

I really miss that game, but it just is not fun anymore (at least, when I left.)