Video Games You Wish Existed

Gradine · 2026-04-13T22:47:56+0100

Annoyed that the turn-based patch for PoE isn't coming to the console versions after all

Kaodi · 2026-04-13T23:24:48+0100

I imagine it would take too much processing power to run effectively but imagine if you took Total War and Supreme Commander and/or Kingdom Come and mashed them together into the next logical step: an open world real time strategy game with an enormous, sprawling, persistent map.

Ruin Explorer · 2026-04-13T23:38:59+0100

Kaodi said:
I imagine it would take too much processing power to run effectively but imagine if you took Total War and Supreme Commander and/or Kingdom Come and mashed them together into the next logical step: an open world real time strategy game with an enormous, sprawling, persistent map.

Oh people have tried!

It's just the classic way to make a deeply mediocre game. Try and be three or four different games at once. Kingdom Come: Deliverance (esp. 2) works because it has a lot of tightly-crafted, absolutely non-procedural stories in it. It's got more in common with TW3 than most games. The main story is also pretty tight and somewhat linear. That's completely hard-incompatible with Total War/Supreme Commander-style map painting.

So one has to give. And which is harder to do and more expensive? The story and good side-quests. So they go. So at best you get some procedural crap, and frankly, before you know it, the game you're playing is Mount and Blade, and it's a bunch of janky procedural nonsense and whilst it is kind of fun, it's not as tight or focused as any of those other games.

A huge map doesn't work because huge maps are inherently boring as hell for most players in practice (c.f. a lot of more recent TW games, when unless you are a truly dedicated map painter you will be basically bored and know that you're going to win, it's just a matter of time, and you'll never face a serious battle again, by like 1/3rd of the way through the time it would actually take), people just like the idea.

If you haven't tried Mount and Blade, I would definitely give it or the sequel a go, they will definitely keep you amused for a while, even if they're not perfect.

To be honest, not to be Debbie Downer, but a lot of "Why don't they combine [insert 2-4 disparate gameplay genres]" ideas are kinda doomed because you have to be really thoughtful when combining gameplay genres to get an actually good result. Even GTA ("combine driving games and shooting games") works more because of the wild craziness and thus the jank working in its favour than because of anything else.

MarkB · 2026-04-13T23:39:49+0100

Kaodi said:
I imagine it would take too much processing power to run effectively but imagine if you took Total War and Supreme Commander and/or Kingdom Come and mashed them together into the next logical step: an open world real time strategy game with an enormous, sprawling, persistent map.

What does the gameplay look like in that? Those RTSs have constant build progression and end-goals of destroying an opponent or their base, so how do you make that persistent, and in particular how do you handle it when someone isn't online to defend their territory?

Ruin Explorer · 2026-04-13T23:41:27+0100

MarkB said:
What does the gameplay look like in that? Those RTSs have constant build progression and end-goals of destroying an opponent or their base, so how do you make that persistent, and in particular how do you handle it when someone isn't online to defend their territory?

There have been MMOs which fit pretty much exactly this description (mostly Korean) and in those you get to destroy your opponent's stuff when they're offline. I guess they shouldn't have been offline?

Ruin Explorer · 2026-04-13T23:45:21+0100

There's also this which at least adjacent to the concept:

Albeit a lot damn sillier!

But has the RTS elements and the third-person combat and so on!

Reynard · 2026-04-14T00:54:08+0100

Ruin Explorer said:
Not in my experience. I dunno where you discuss CRPGs, but on various CRPG-relevant subreddits, for example, PoE is Path of Exile and Pillars of Eternity is Pillars.

Also Path of Exile gets priority because it was first by a long margin, coming out in 2012, and the acronym was well-established.

Path of Exile is not a CRPG.

Ruin Explorer · 2026-04-14T01:05:14+0100

Reynard said:
Path of Exile is not a CRPG.

Not sure what your point is, I mean, obviously, it's an ARPG but it doesn't change what people call things.

The only people who insist on intentionally confusing people by calling Pillars "PoE" in 2026 are the most performatively groggy grogs in my experience. The only CRPG-oriented place I've seen it be popular as a term is that weird old (but still busy) site the name of which escapes me (it's black with red writing I think - or it used to be) which is basically the equivalent of the bar where Luke chops off a guy's arm from Stars Wars, only instead of weird aliens, it's unrepentantly anti-social types who still curse the existence of multiplayer games, wacky misanthropes and misogynists (but never misandrists), and the sort of people who throw their monitor out the window when they see a black guy in full plate armour. Not suggesting you're like that but that's the only "CRPG community" I'm aware of where they really do call Pillars "PoE" and it's because they really, really, really hate ARPGs and blame 1997's Diablo and 1998's EverQuest for ruining everything.

Reynard · 2026-04-14T01:08:16+0100

Ruin Explorer said:
Not sure what your point is, I mean, obviously, it's an ARPG but it doesn't change what people call things.

The only people who insist on intentionally confusing people by calling Pillars "PoE" in 2026 are the most performatively groggy grogs in my experience.

People do it all the time on reddit.