u/BeastOTEast

I just want some thoughts and input for my game idea. It’s a third person fantasy RPG with a focus on base management, inventory management, and dungeon crawling. You play as a traveler who was exiled from his home land for an unpaid family debt. You start as a nobody in a new land looking to start fresh. It’ll be a freely explorable open world consisting of different regions and different factions. You’ll venture around doing odd jobs to make some coin to buy some gear. This part of the tutorial will introduce the many different minor jobs that you’ll need to know in the future. After you acquire some gear, you’ll be encouraged to take care of a small group of local thugs. When you beat the thugs, you’ll be able to loot their gear. This is where a key mechanic of the game is introduced, an inventory system like Death Stranding, where every piece of gear and loot must be physically carried by the player. This mechanic slows down the player’s wealth progression. This can be managed however, by purchasing pack animals, wagons, boats, companions, etc. The player can also own many different types of property such as refineries, quarries, workshops, storefronts, farms, plantations, etc. To manage their properties, the player will need to hire more companions, which can either be bought with a salary or acquired through side quests, odd jobs, having a good reputation, or simply through wandering around and stumbling into them. The objective of the game is to become as wealthy as possible, and if the player chooses to end the game, they can simply pay the debt that got them exiled.

I have an idea for a Pokémon GO style AR game based around Mount and Blade Bannerlord. The idea is simple: walk around, fight enemies, trade at settlements, build an army, and capture territory. That’s the basics of it. The combat would either be simulated like in Bannerlord, or would be more like you watch from a high view while the computer controls the battle, but you’d be able to use hero skills during the battle.

So far the discoverable locations the player will see are: Villages, Towns, Castles, Bandit Hideouts, Faction Hideouts

Traveling NPC’s: Trade Caravans, Villagers, Bandits, Looters, Deserters, Wild Animals, Mysterious Travelers, Wandering Merchants

So far, the things you’ll be able to do as the player include:
- Recruit troops
- Arm you troops (weapon, armor, mount if applicable)
- Battle your troops
- Garrison your troops
- Recruit Heroes
- Buy and sell goods
- Create merchant caravans
- Create workshops
- Create a ship fleet
- Capture territory (village, town, or castle)
- Set up camp
- Blacksmithing
- Hunting
- Mining
- Fishing
- Create alliances with other players
- Participate in large, multi-alliance wars
- Participate in world events
- Fight in the arena
- Gamble on the arena, horse racing, cards, etc.
- Build relationships with NPC’s through small side-quests
- Trade with other players or NPC’s
- Participate in the never ending world war

The player’s lifeblood is their income. Every player will start out with a set amount of daily income. The primary focus of the player is to increase their income amount, which in turn increases the amount of influence they can have on the world map. The player can increase their income through owning some sort of money generating venture (workshops, caravans, even loaning a prized horse to the races). This sort of income is affected by world prices and volatility. The only form of guaranteed income is from holding territory. As of now, without having put much thought into it yet, the income you’ll get from the territories is as follows:

- Village: 50 gold per day
- Castle: 250 gold per day
- Town: 1000 gold per day

Players can also garrison troops at their territories which can either boost the territory’s defenses, or be linked to another territory to then aid in battle.
*Players can create a link that sends selected troops from one territory’s garrison to aid another territory if they come under attack.

Troops consist of 7 types so far, with 5 tiers, and 3 specializations at Tier 3.
Troop Types:

- Infantry
- Archers
- Cavalry
- Mounted Archers
- Engineers
- Crewmen
- Captains

Troop Specializations:
*All names are just placeholders

INFANTRY: equipped with one-handed weapon

- Warden: equipped with a large shield to better deflect arrows
- Berserker: equipped with a two-handed weapon making them effective shock troops
- Duelist: dual-wields 2 one-handed weapons making them nimble strikers

ARCHER: equipped with standard bow

- Marksman: equipped with longbow giving them better range with decent draw speed
- Crossbowman: equipped with crossbow giving them greater power per shot
- Ranger: equipped with a short bow allowing for quicker movement and fast firing

CAVALRY: standard mounted troops with spears

- Charger: fast and strong, they excel at charging into the enemy
- Galloping Steel: heaviest armor, allowing for frontline fighting
- Riding Death: dual-wielding horsemen

MOUNTED ARCHER: mounted troops equipped with bows

- ?
- ?
- ?

ENGINEER: standard infantry that excel at siege battles

- Demolitionist: excel at sieging
- Fortifier: Excel at defending against sieges
- Bombardier: troops equipped with homemade explosives

CREWMAN: standard infantry that excel in sea battles

- Privateer: excels at using ranged weapons during sea battles, acts as “archer” otherwise
- Sea Dog: excels at melee combat during sea battles, acts as “infantry” otherwise
- Hybrid: Balanced for land and sea battles

CAPTAIN: troops who specialize in rallying your army, offering buffs

- Leader: specialize in boosting morale
- Man-of-Arms: help to maximize troop numbers
- Warlord: boost troop gear efficiency

HEROES

Heroes act more like companions than standard troops. At Tier 3, the player can choose between one of three skills that the hero will learn and can use during battles.
Heroes can also be captured by other players, so use them wisely.

Troop Pricing by Tier

- Tier 1: 3 gold per day
- Tier 2: 5 gold per day
- Tier 3: 9 gold per day
- Tier 4: 12 gold per day
- Tier 5: 16 gold per day

BATTLES

I could use some input into what system I should use for the battle sequences. I have two options I’m leaning toward.

Option A: the battles unfold like the simulated battles of Bannerlord, where a chart of friendly and enemy troop statistics. This negates the possibility and need for the hero skill system mentioned earlier.
In this simulated version, victory would depend on a variety of factors including:

- troop numbers
- troop types
- troop tiers
- troop specializations
- troop gear
- troop morale
- troop satiety (are they hungry, well fed, etc.)
- troop preparedness (were you ambushed, was this a head-on fight, etc.)
- troop coordination (are they organized or scattered?)
- type of battle (open land, siege defense, etc.)
- weather (effects different troops differently)
- time of day (effects different troops differently)
- commander efficiency (player experience)

Option B: battles play out in a 2.5D fashion with small troop character models fighting on screen. The player’s only real action would be triggering their hero skills. This option allows for the possibility of drawing troop formations, giving commands, etc. but would be much more technically demanding.

BATTLE LOOT

At the end of a battle, the player will be the choice to take any prisoners, recruitable troops, and gear as reward. For those of you who play Bannerlord, acquiring useful loot is easy in the beginning, but as you become more powerful, finding better loot becomes much harder. In this game, every troop at your disposal, from a standard infantry troop to your most powerful hero, is to be equipped by the player using gear acquired from battle or through trade. This means every piece of gear you loot could be of value to someone in your party. The type of gear a troop can equip depends on the type of troop they are. Basic infantry can only equip any one-handed weapon, while Duelists can be equipped with any two one-handed weapons. Basic archers can only equip standard bows, while crossbowmen can only equip crossbows. This means saving those few decent swords might be more practical than selling them.

There’s still much more to cover like the different factions or kingdoms, the persistent war that goes on amongst the entire player base, or go into the fleet management, territory management, or other systems, but I’m still fleshing it all out. What do you guys think?Is this game even worth the attempt at making? What technical hurdles can you foresee being an indie dev trying to tackle this project?

I just want some thoughts and input for my game idea. It’s a third person fantasy RPG with a focus on base management, inventory management, and dungeon crawling. You play as a traveler who was exiled from his home land for an unpaid family debt. You start as a nobody in a new land looking to start fresh. It’ll be a freely explorable open world consisting of different regions and different factions. You’ll venture around doing odd jobs to make some coin to buy some gear. This part of the tutorial will introduce the many different minor jobs that you’ll need to know in the future. After you acquire some gear, you’ll be encouraged to take care of a small group of local thugs. When you beat the thugs, you’ll be able to loot their gear. This is where a key mechanic of the game is introduced, an inventory system like Death Stranding, where every piece of gear and loot must be physically carried by the player. This mechanic slows down the player’s wealth progression. This can be managed however, by purchasing pack animals, wagons, boats, companions, etc. The player can also own many different types of property such as refineries, quarries, workshops, storefronts, farms, plantations, etc. To manage their properties, the player will need to hire more companions, which can either be bought with a salary or acquired through side quests, odd jobs, having a good reputation, or simply through wandering around and stumbling into them. The objective of the game is to become as wealthy as possible, and if the player chooses to end the game, they can simply pay the debt that got them exiled.

Lately I’ve been really wanting to do merchant runs and feel like I’ve hit a wall in terms of games to try. So far I’ve done a merchant run in Fallout 4, Skyrim, Starfield, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, Bannerlord, and now am dabbling in Assassins Creed Odyssey, selling whatever smaller items I can to buy any gear, no crafting really. My favorites have been the Bethesda games with the loop of adventuring, collecting valuable loot, selling it at the nearest town, and buying whatever I need to go back out. The survival and economy mods make for a really fun game for this playstyle. Does anyone know of any other games that might scratch this itch? I was even considering Stalker 2, but seeing as loot is so scarce, it almost feels impossible to be a traveling merchant.