Ive been thinking about my favorite genre of games, Turn-based strategy and another one of my favorite games, the Sims. Don't laugh, the Sims is a great game. Why I like the Sims, has to do with it's incredible open-endedness. My goals in the game are of my own choosing, there is no "Win" to the Sims, only playing and playing and having fun coming up with my own personal goals in the game. Then I thought about my favorite Genere, TBS, and how the goal of "Winning" often gets in the way of my fun. That made me think of Crusader Kings. You don't really win a game like Crusader kings, you play and play and the time runs out maybe, but you also create your own goals. the last time I played, I united Ireland and then made my bastard son the king of Finland. Gaining all the Spanish crowns was one goal I had. But the idea is, I want a TBS where the only real goal isn't creating the biggest, baddest kingdom to crush all other kingdoms.
I want a TBS with a dynamic world. One that is filled with many races, kingdoms, and factions, where I control a kingdom and try to make it prosper, I make alliances with neighbors, or maybe even war, but the focus of the game should be INTERIOR, not EXTERIOR. Most games, all danger comes from outside, and everything you do is in response to what is outside your nation. I want to focus on governing the nation, improving the land my people live in, making policies, laws, maybe there are multiple factions, like in Tropico, that want multiple things, so its hard to keep them all happy and there are riots, revolts, those kind of things. Maybe the kings brother is trying to assassinate the king, maybe the governor I appointed to a village is ruling with an iron fist and the people hate him, maybe a horde of monsters from the West is on its way, I better send diplomats to our neighbor nations to form a unified front. Maybe the forest in my kingdom has a secret village of Elves, should I befriend them and hope the friendship becomes beneficial, or maybe I need the wood for resources, or maybe the elves would make great slaves. And then maybe turns down the line, if I do enslave them, the elves could have a revolt, take a city, and make a new nation of their own. And maybe, I could have the ability to stop playing my nation, and play the new nation of ex slave elves? But the best part is, the world continues, the game goes on, and is dynamic.
Thats my idea for today, I will probably add more later.