In case you’re looking for something that may fit your criteria…

Warzone 2100 is an amazing game. It’s what gets me to replay the game every so often. An RTS, though I think RTT (Real Time Tactics) would be more accurate here. Choice of units matters (for ex: a main force of anti tank and anti infantry units, an auxiliary force of artillery units, another force of air support… Using these tactically is the key to victory). A special commander unit exists that increases your forces effectiveness and determines the course or movement/attack. When managed right, units obtain ranks, increasing their effectiveness and survivability. These units can be recycled to reclaim their ranks and generate better units with those ranks. You can slow down the game (and practically pause it), speed it up as well.

There’s two types of missions in it: the main map, which expands multiple times. As you progress through the missions, the map expands, you unlock new technology (buildings, units, etc), you get to use the base to defend against enemy attacks multiple times.

The other type of mission consists of using your base to send out units to surrounding zones (to reclaim technology, for ex). These surrounding zones are separate maps connected to the base on the main map.

There are 3 campaigns in it. I highly recommend Warzone2100. Oh, and it’s open source these days, and available on multiple platforms.

https://wz2100.net/

I’ve already seen Mindustry mentioned, but also an amazing game. It is less RTS and more resource management / tower defense. Also free and available on multiple platforms.

More minecraft open source clones. or a modded community version of mc that works without microsoft. The game belongs to the community and I think we should take it back from the corporation.

one thing i’d be interested in: is it possible to make a fun 4X-style game that challenges the very premises of 4X (which are mostly patterned after the models of expansion we’re familiar with in the West)?

I’ve recently noticed that the tactical shooter genre has kinda fallen out of favor. Games like ghost recon, socom navy seals etc. Aren’t being made anymore. I think it’s a shame that some genres go dormant for a while.

But more than that, I just want to see developers take more risks again. Indie games have been the exception here, but I remember there being so many unique games in the early 2000’s.

I think a really cool strategy game idea would be a logistics themed game

Have you tried Factorio? The demo is free, basically the full game just with an 8 hour time limit. for reference I have over 1k hours in it.

https://www.factorio.com/download

If you want pausable combat and a logistics focus, the Hearts of Iron games might be interesting to you. They’re pseudo-real-time in that things happen on an counter that ticks forward once per in-game hour of the day (so the results of two units fighting, a diplomatic message being sent, construction on a building), but you can speed up, slow down, or pause however you wish. If you want to zip along at a few seconds of real time per day in game, cool. Want to slow things down to a few seconds per in game hour instead? Also fine. Need to pause while you read a description? Also fine.

i really like the idea of civilization… but its so freakin scripted it feels like im playin someone elses story.

totk is almost a masterpiece, i would not hate more of that kind of game play/world experience.

Doesn’t have a release date yet but you might like Empire Eternal, kinda like new Empire Earth.

I feel like a rogue-like version of the civilization genre could work.

What I mean is:

• short games that you can finish in one evening without rushing
• random events and stuff that drastically change your builds without being able to do the same strat all the time

The latter is needed because the former means you would play many more games. So they have to feel different.

To make games shorter you would probably have to remove any tactical combat. Maybe just say “attack here” and the game automatically sends troops for you, battle it out and shows you the result, in a few seconds. Maybe you can see the battle itself but not play it. Not having to move units on the map should also make the IA play faster and thus reduce waiting time between turns significantly.

To compensate for the lack of depth in combat, city building, building your economy, and random events would have to be made more interesting. Without introducing micro-management that would make the games more tedious and thus take longer.

To make games feel different with randomness, a fantasy setting seems ideal, like in age of wonders. Tons of fun stuff can happen when magic is involved. Focus on telling a story.

Basically I love the fantasy 4X genre but I find the games too long for the wrong reasons (too much micro-management and tedium). Bringing in ideas from the modern rogue-like genre could help fix those issues.

Look I just don’t want Xdefiant to die.

A multi-era multi-conflict first person shooter, with campaigns from the 18th century all the way through to the modern era. Singleplayer, and with tons of weapons, vehicles, and factions to choose from.

Basically, a game much too big and ambitious to ever be made.

Oh boy, I have so many game ideas that I would love to make, but they’re all so complex I would either need a full game studio or the determination of the dwarf fortress devs.

• A fantasy civilization builder in a massive open world. Think stellaris, but on the ground with magic rather than in space with spaceships, where you essentially design a civilization from the ground up, with countless different options for said civilization, and with a massive world to explore full of events and discoveries and other civilizations to interact with. As an example of what I would like to see, you could play as dwarves who live fully underground and end up finding the buried body of a massive god, which they must deal with the consequences of. Or you could play a nomadic civilization that progresses from living out of horse-drawn carts to constructing massive vehicles which they build entire cities on the back of. Maybe those vehicles are actually living creatures, or magically animated constructs. I absolutely love the wildly different civilizations you can create in stellaris and the stories they create, but I always wanted something somehow even more sandboxy, plus I love magic and fantasy so I wanted to mix that in.

• An extremely in-depth survival game with a focus on interactivity. Another genre of games I deeply enjoy is survival games that really make you survive. Two examples of this are the excellent games Stationeers and Vintage Story. The first game has a major focus on interconnected systems and full simulation, while the second involves a series of realistic and in-depth yet largely separate systems. I’ve always imagined some combination of the two, a deeply simulated world where everything interacts with everything else, and yet each individual system is extremely in-depth and meaningful. I would hope that this would enable extremely creative problem solving, such as you might find in the newest Legend of Zelda games, yet much more meaningful as now it is actually necessary to your survival. There are some more specific touches that I would personally add to such a game such as separating it from our world, and placing it in a fantasy world with radically different animals and environments, which I believe would open up more opportunities for unique and fun game mechanics when no longer restrained by realism. This is more of a pipe-dream but I would also enjoy if the in-depth systems were so in-depth that mastery of said system would require significant effort, without it getting stale. Combine this with highly intelligent NPCs that you as a player could work with and you could realistically form a village in which you as the player would fulfill a single role, such as being a farmer, or blacksmith, or scholar, without it getting boring, even if you’re playing singleplayer.

• Lastly, I’ve been rolling around the idea of an RPG in which the classes are all so different that they feel like playing different games. This came about from frustration with Final Fantasy XIV, where it felt like the only thing that changed when I changed classes was the order in which I press my buttons. I’ve had ideas such as a summoner who plays the game like an RTS, or an alchemist who gathers ingredients and crafts various potions and tools to use in battle, or a bard who casts spells to a beat almost like a rhythm game, or a fighter who dances with his opponent with parries and dodges and counterattacks. Admittedly this game is a much looser concept than the previous two, but I’m mostly just tired of games where class choices feel more like cosmetic options than like actual meaningfully different playstyles.

A dark souls kind of slow paced combat game, but built for co-op. Except I don’t have any friends who are on the same skill level and schedule.

More broadly, I really want more games that you can play co-op in where the players are vastly different skill levels, but it’s still fun. I don’t know how to solve this.

I can imagine like a game where one person is playing dark souls and the other is playing candy crush, and they interact somehow. Like making matches in one give estus in the other, and killing bosses gives stuff.

Basically I want to play games with my frienda that don’t play the same games, somehow.

I want a new, modern Battle for Middle Earth 2 with better balance, modern graphics, and maybe different modes like quick vs longer form games. Definitely some reform like making it more difficult to build walls, but the walls stand up better to infantry and you really need siege engines.

The game was not balanced competitively (men so OP) but holy damn the battles felt epic and building your own forts and castles to defend was amazing.

Something new that isn’t some remake of a game.