Effectively the Idea of a "Spaceship Crew" that is running around the Human Sphere, JUST skirting (at least INITIALLY) the "Big Conflict" between the Hyperpower Factions and the Combined Army could be interesting to explore previously unseen parts of the Background & Lore of the In-Game-Universe. . . Sacking more some further concepts ranging from Star Wars (with Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon) and more recent Sci-Fi Tropes (from Serenity / Firefly and the "Rocinante" crew of Half-Renegades of "The Expanse") the "Plot" is ALMOST YET half-written. . . From the "Outrage Manga" we YET know that affluent parties could OWN and PILOT their own "Orbital Shuttle" drop-capable Vehicle; in that case was REALLY the Hexahedron of Pan-Oceania to be backers of Emily and her "Dolly Dagger" but MANY interests could be behind a similar enterprise. . . Why a small crew of "Elite Mercs" will be gallivanting around the Human Sphere, exploring and adventuring, could be found in the VERY interesting premises of the "Precursor Alien Ruins" of the Game Background (the mysterious "Digesters" that originated the Tohaa Culture and that seems a prized "Target" even for the Combined Army). . . Let's say the whole "Affair" starts in Bourak, where the Affluent "Prodigal Son" of a Silk-Lord Merchant-Prince, after wasting TOO many Years at the Al-Medinaat University is FORCED to make something worthwhile of His / Her Time and NEED to take a "Sabbatical Trip" with a Junior Assistant Archaelogical Professor, because the Main Professor has dug up "Something" weird-&-interesting in some "Desert Ruins" unhearted as result of the improvement of the Terraforming Project of Bourak. . . Being Haqqislam a CIVILIAN Naval Power, there could be the possibility of the "Players Crew" to buy some "Surplus Vintage" Ex Black-Ops Dropship that was recently decommissioned (the "Dolly Dagger" was top-notch Hi-Tech; maybe this is 5-10 Years in arrear, with some Civilian Craft parts welded on); the "Basic Crew" would be: 1°) The "Prodigal" (Main P.C. Avatar ?); rich spoiled brat and neer-do-well, a "Life of Privilege" had anyway left Him / Her with a "Gift For Gabs" and vey HIGH Social Skills (think of the most recent "Lando Calrissian" from the "Solo" movie). . . 2°) The "Professor" (Potential Love Interest of the Main P.C.); klutzy and bespectacled, goofy and YET adorable, could be a "Nerdy Loon" on Social Aptitudes, but obviously gifted with HIGH Intellect and DEEP knowledge of the "Alien Ruins Theories". . . . .Obviously, bing the Academic World of Haqqislam what it is, could ALSO be a Elite Hashashin Operative whose "Real" Skills will be revealed far LATER in the Game. . . 3°) The "Skipper" (another trove of Story-Driven Plots); Veteran and far expert beyond apparent years (thanks to Anagathic Drugs from Haqqislam Bioscience) is cultured and socially able, but harbours some kind of "Tragic Deep Past" (Wartime Commercial Wars against Pirates or similar); to "Double-Up" on Useful Knowledge could have ALSO good Medical Skills. . .a "Vintage Surplus" Drone Sidekick, like an Old Spiderbot from Haqqislam, buzzing and bleeping, could cool BUT ALSO be TOO MUCH of a "Star Wars Astromech Droid" rip-off. . . . . . . . The rest of the crew could be filled with various "Hyperpowers Factions Archetypes" that could be stereotyped or not as based on the Plot Needs. . . 4°) The "Pan-O Social Mayastar" could be an ex "Fraternity Pal" of the Prodigal Protagonist; affluent and rich too, Scion of some "Media Megacorp" from Neoterra (or from Acontecimento, where "Brazilian-Styled Party Nightlife" is even LESS stereotyped !!) will be a Vapid, Vain, Self-Centered "Rising Maya Starlet" that will ALWAYS push to be in the limelights (with Aerial Camera-Drones following EVERYWHERE) but ALSO a very good, and competent, "Civilian Hacker" who is able to edit footage on its own; the cutthroat world of "Pan-O Media" would be a PERFECT excuse to have a Civilian Character sporting Black Ices and Custom Firewall-Breakers. . . 5°) The "Yujing Attache" could be a LITTLE stretch, but could be done with the idea of the "Rich Human Sphere" elites going on a Sabbatical; could be coming from one of the two "Imperial Line Families" and have gone on a "Last Holiday Trip" before entrenching SERIOUSLY in the difficult Imperial Law Agencies; could have some GOOD Contacts, but that the MORE are used and the MORE pretends in exhcange (with dangerous "Triad-Related" sidequests !!). . . To avoid the usual China-Vs-Japan dichotomy so prevalent in Yujing / JSA fluff, maybe it hails from other interesting Oriental Culture, such as Korean, Taiwanese, Mongol, Thai and so on. . . 6°) Nomads "Shiphand"; while a Bakunin "Chimera Gene-Freak" or a suspiciously well-connected Tunguskan "Finance Loan Shark" could be interesting, what makes REALLY sense is a Corregidoran "Meteorhead" Orbital Worker and Ship Mechanic; dour and pessimist, and yet caring for those "Stupid Rich Kids" would be an interesting Cultural Mix of African and South-American. . . As "Dolly Dagger" class Ships could hold EVEN a Small T.A.G. then maybe could double up as a sort of "Surplus Exoframe" pilot for "Heavy Lifting Purposes"; maybe some sort of "Evident Gun-Less Gecko" that is SUSPICIOUSLY powerful as an Anaconda. . . 7°) Ariadnan "Survival Expert"; while a Dogwarrior Crewmember could be interesting, I fear is a little TOO MUCH of a stretch; even a Wulver will be a LITTLE too much; anyway a rugged outsdoors-man / -woman could contrast nicely with the OTHER crew members. . . To avoid too much cliche, maybe a "Cultural Mix" of ALL the Ariadnan Cultures, with rugged "American Wall Veterans", Kazak Colonists, Merovingian Merchants and Highlander Patriots in the mix. . . 8°) A.L.E.P.H. "Minder"; this is the MOST difficult to insert in the crew; even a CIVILIAN "Service Shard" of the Human Artificial Intelligence will be a sort of "Rip Off" of AVA from Mass Effect or the Star Wars Protocol Droids; some sort of "Half-Renegade" Myrmydon Veteran with a mind of its own (based on some sort of "Lesser Troublemaker" from Ancient Greece, such as Telemachus Son of Odysseus) could be a little more interesting. . . 9°) Mercenary "Security"; this could be REALLY difficult to justify; the "Archaelogical Expedition" is so "Low Key" that is VERY difficult to justify a ELITE paramilitary (on the Level of Druzes and Kaplans) to be there and NOT usurp another Player niche. . . A "Tohaa Fellow Researcher" will smack too much of the Asari from Mass Effect and a Morat Krakot Renegade, while way cool, would be quite difficult to justify. . . Maybe is best to drop off the Merc Idea altogether. . . . . . . . This is JUST the "Basic Seed" of an Idea, but could be potentially explored in MANY interesting ideas for a Videogame about Infinity. . . . .!!!
Or just beeing Pirats with an old Rust Bucket with shaky controles, flickerings lights and so on. The first task is repairing everything if possible and discovering that there are some things left behind by the former owner. Not meaning the 30 Years old Pizza in the fridge :).
I think something similar to the new Battletech would be nice. Get RPG elements with the ship and team dynamics and whatnot, but keep the core tactical gameplay.
Doing that would have to make your repair skills pretty good at-start. For the blacksmith-type character (the one who fixes/makes stuff), that's not a good starting place. And it's not the 30yo pizza in the fridge you need to worry about, but the Ganymede Rock Lobster!
Well, the "Space-Pirates-On-A-Rustbucket" idea could be cool, but a "Civilian Crew onboard Star-Yacht" would have a lot MORE possibilities to explore the various iterations of the Human Sphere than "Raid Cargo Ship, Place Loot, Escape Authorities, Rinse+Repeat" format so prevalent in OTHER Game Systems (NOT that a well-thought Background about "Cosmic Buccaneers" could NOT be made Extra Cool too !!!). . . Battletech last Videogame incarnation I don't know very well, but it seems to Me, a little far off. . .unless the Game will be VERY "T.A.G.-Centric". . . . .!!! A SINGLE Ship Mechanic could be interesting enough to have, without devoting the WHOLE Crew to fix leaks. . . . .and the "Shrike Tardigrade" space pest (Pag. 491 of the Basic Manual bestiary) is YET terryifying enough (even if I believe that a Protein-Starved "Meteorhead Crew" of Hardy Corregidorans would have tried to cook one roasted on a spit !!!). . . . .
The thing I would like to see the most would be NeoColonial Wars and Paradiso Offensives, in a grander scale turn-based strategy game or a tactical RTS (like Company of Heroes or DoW2; I don't think base building would fit the universe).
Why not? I think most of the Military Structures in Infinity are prefabricated. A solid temporary base could be constructed in some hours. In RTS Game time this should take only some minutes.
Infinity conflict looks more like drop in, get work done, get out. With occasional "hold position". The main reason to base build in RTS games is to build units. I doubt Infinity units are built on site. Maybe you could work it like in the original DoW, where the buildings were more like landing pads for drop-pods, but it still doesn't feel right. Get Scot McNeil to voice Fusiliers please!
On the other hand, mechanical parts of tabletop Infinity (dice rolling, LoF/ZoC checking, measuring etc.) are cumbersome enough that a lot of time can be saved on that if we are talking about VG port. So that should more than make up for the issue. Then again, compared to more simplistic video games, it can still be pretty cumbersome, and we probably must compare the game with VGs and their market rather than with TTs. Eh, I wouldn't say there's a radical difference between 2 and 3, if we compare an entirely new game to any of those, and that means its writing will be its own thing anyway. Besides, ME3 had a fair share of extra gameplay mechanics, and then there's weirdly addictive multiplayer (I've dumped 120 hours into ME3 MP, didn't even bother with putting meaningful time into SP, so there's that). Andromeda is basically what happens when same game meets low quality execution and an attempt to ride the wagon of repetitive content. Frankly, it sort of worked for aforementioned ME3 MP, but being MP, it's a bit different thing with extra selling points, I feel. That's mostly the conflict we see in TT rather than what's possible in-universe. But then, we don't know much about Infinity universe from different point of view, so trying to make a game about that will result in some generic sci-fi RTS that mentions a few familiar names and tries to use its brand... And that's basically about it. Nevermind that RTS is basically a dead genre at this point. Frankly, that's the reason I'm not particularly interested in anything that doesn't involve Infinity as ruleset. Let's face it, if Infinity doesn't hold special place in your heart already (like it doesn't for most of those people you are going to try and sell it to), it's some generic sci-fi setting with very few elements that makes it more or less distinctive, although not that much original, what's with taking heavy inspiration from same works which inspired almost all modern sci-fi / cyberpunk universes. And because of that to most people "Infinity Mass Effect" will be just another Mass Effect with aliens reskinned into different humans, Infinity TBS will reek of XCom reskin, Infinity RTS will be no different from something like Halo Wars, Infinity RPG will end up as DeusEx / Cyberpunk2077 wannabe, Infinity FPS will be sci-fi FPS #43214... You get the point. I don't know about you folks, but I'm absolutely not interesting in getting even more of those things. Now, a quality TT -> VG port (and not that TT Sim adaptation that sadly combines the worst of two worlds in it) will be an entirely it's own thing...
I agree with that and would like infinity VG to not be a simple clone of those games. But i think Valkyria Chronicle nicely capture both the Order and the ARO mechanic which is almost unique in VG. Frozen Synapse is nice but has an added simultaneity aspect that is absent in Infinity N3. I would not mind having a second (as I haven't seen any other game close to it) Valkyria Chronicle. It can have either multiple standalone games, or as a chained game campaign like in Paradiso.
Valkyria Chronicle is actually a reason I gave Infinity rulebook another try... And here I am now. Playing that game, at some point I've realized that I've seen similar turn structure already, somewhere... :D If anything, I can get behind an attempt in this direction. VC has interesting mechanics, but Infinity rules can inspire more (advanced movement options, extra CH: stuff, CC, visors, hacking...). A game that uses VC premises and updated with such features will probably feel fresh enough, if only because basic concept isn't exactly overused. ...and because chances are, a Japanese game telling a story about a bunch of schoolkids allergic to everything including each other waging a war isn't for everyone, even if it's mild enough in that regard.
That was my first reaction, except I forgot what it was over a decade ago and just call it the Mutated Fridge Thing.
And as far as a dream Infinity game goes, I'd love a squad-based tactics game, either RTS or turn-based a la Frozen Synapse, with Syndicate-like (but more) customising your agents' cyberware but more, speccing them into HI, TO etc. roles and gear. I want a procedurally generated world with a good mission generator and consequence generator - if an agent falls you have to extract them or their cube, otherwise you might get to do that in enemy territory, with guards aware and reduced manpower, or have to put them down before the enemy pulls info from their cube, etc. etc. Also TAG customizing options that put Battletech to shame.
That would probably mostly works with Mercs/Nomads, as most TAGs seem like stock that everyone gets. Mercs would be a good idea since it would allow a mixed regiment (as in, from multiple factions) and fighting everyone. Have a reputation mechanic as well, going from "Kaplan" to "Druze" ;P
Jagged Alliance 2 may be good, featuring turn based combat, mercs, light RPG elements, various weapons and cover mechanics, even something similiar to ARO happens, when someone gets into your firelanes from out of sight.
This game was EXACTLY what I was thinking of as people were discussing how to implement it. JA2 is, like, the best fit i can think of in terms of style, theme and also mechanics.
I'm looking forward to Iron Harvest, sure it's steampunk WW1 but it's got small unit combat and crucially, Mechs!
I work at a big games studio and i've had this discussion with a couple of people that play Infinity here. You would have to warp and cull a bunch of rules, and the schrodingers quantum state of the two skill per order structure would have to be streamlined to make it readable/predictable. I could see it being excellent, but it could never be a 1:1 rules translation (and we wouldn't want it to be if it could).