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[Askot Bokbondeler]

a cowboy themed, fallout 2 styled rpg written, or at least inspired, by sergio leone and with soundtrack by morricone. bonus points for clint eastwood as one of the possible main characters

[Leonon]

A cosmic horror game by Bethesda using one of the Elder Scrolls engines. Giant monsters, creeping things, things that don't die when you stab them, tentacles, all that fun stuff. Plus open world, lots of easy modability, and bugs that might help or hinder the player, or make them laugh or freak out. They could even add in a few things that seem like bugs but are there intentionally like Eternal Darkness did. Textures tearing, things shooting off at in a random direction, and NPCs that fall into the depths of the uncanny valley could add to the atmosphere.

The setting would either be modern times with magic and Things-Man-Was-Not-Meant-To-Know coming back or after an apocalypse caused by the afore mentioned event. I'm a bit torn between wanting magic and technology to work together (lots more possible bugs) or for them to cancel each other out (like in Arcanum). Either way there would be lots of magic arms and armor and lots of firearms.

Firearms would be like in Fallout 3/NV but with the scale going higher so things like this would be used at higher levels instead of the puny .50BMG. Some relatively common monsters would be big enough to need that much firepower.

Magic would cost sanity to use. Low sanity would cause hallucinations like seeing something that's not there, seeing things as something they're not, and animation failures.

There would be some monsters that would seem unbeatable. Extremely fast regeneration, high hit points, tough armor, or a combination of those would make defeating them seem impossible. True cosmic horrors that can only be run from. Players will probably find bugs or make mods that let them beat the impossible horrors but that's fine. It fits perfectly with the theme for players to defeat them using something else that should not be.

[Neonivek]

A cosmic horror game by Bethesda using one of the Elder Scrolls engines.

Actually... I can really see it. It actually seems like something they could do.

[Graknorke]

-snop-

I'm going to need a time machine, The Tower of London, a cult leader, a PEPS gun, and blueprints of the building Bethesda is situated in.
Can anyone get those for me?

[Sirus]

-snop-

I'm going to need a time machine, The Tower of London, a cult leader, a PEPS gun, and blueprints of the building Bethesda is situated in.
Can anyone get those for me?

Not on less than a century's notice. Sorry.

[Tsuchigumo550]

A cosmic horror game by Bethesda using one of the Elder Scrolls engines. Giant monsters, creeping things, things that don't die when you stab them, tentacles, all that fun stuff. Plus open world, lots of easy modability, and bugs that might help or hinder the player, or make them laugh or freak out. They could even add in a few things that seem like bugs but are there intentionally like Eternal Darkness did. Textures tearing, things shooting off at in a random direction, and NPCs that fall into the depths of the uncanny valley could add to the atmosphere.

The setting would either be modern times with magic and Things-Man-Was-Not-Meant-To-Know coming back or after an apocalypse caused by the afore mentioned event. I'm a bit torn between wanting magic and technology to work together (lots more possible bugs) or for them to cancel each other out (like in Arcanum). Either way there would be lots of magic arms and armor and lots of firearms.

Firearms would be like in Fallout 3/NV but with the scale going higher so things like this would be used at higher levels instead of the puny .50BMG. Some relatively common monsters would be big enough to need that much firepower.

Magic would cost sanity to use. Low sanity would cause hallucinations like seeing something that's not there, seeing things as something they're not, and animation failures.

There would be some monsters that would seem unbeatable. Extremely fast regeneration, high hit points, tough armor, or a combination of those would make defeating them seem impossible. True cosmic horrors that can only be run from. Players will probably find bugs or make mods that let them beat the impossible horrors but that's fine. It fits perfectly with the theme for players to defeat them using something else that should not be.

Possibly have the sanity as a difficulty- if your sanity is low, even common monsters can lead to fatal encounters.

[Parsely]

I have yet to see sanity implemented as a mechanic in a way that really excited and enthralled me. Except for that one gamecube game by Nintendo. That was pretty cool.

[Squill]

A cosmic horror game by Bethesda using one of the Elder Scrolls engines. Giant monsters, creeping things, things that don't die when you stab them, tentacles, all that fun stuff. Plus open world, lots of easy modability, and bugs that might help or hinder the player, or make them laugh or freak out. They could even add in a few things that seem like bugs but are there intentionally like Eternal Darkness did. Textures tearing, things shooting off at in a random direction, and NPCs that fall into the depths of the uncanny valley could add to the atmosphere.

The setting would either be modern times with magic and Things-Man-Was-Not-Meant-To-Know coming back or after an apocalypse caused by the afore mentioned event. I'm a bit torn between wanting magic and technology to work together (lots more possible bugs) or for them to cancel each other out (like in Arcanum). Either way there would be lots of magic arms and armor and lots of firearms.

Firearms would be like in Fallout 3/NV but with the scale going higher so things like this would be used at higher levels instead of the puny .50BMG. Some relatively common monsters would be big enough to need that much firepower.

Magic would cost sanity to use. Low sanity would cause hallucinations like seeing something that's not there, seeing things as something they're not, and animation failures.

There would be some monsters that would seem unbeatable. Extremely fast regeneration, high hit points, tough armor, or a combination of those would make defeating them seem impossible. True cosmic horrors that can only be run from. Players will probably find bugs or make mods that let them beat the impossible horrors but that's fine. It fits perfectly with the theme for players to defeat them using something else that should not be.

Possibly have the sanity as a difficulty- if your sanity is low, even common monsters can lead to fatal encounters.

That's kind of a neat idea. I think sanity would work better as a difficulty setting then as an "alternate health bar."

[SalmonGod]

I have yet to see sanity implemented as a mechanic in a way that really excited and enthralled me. Except for that one gamecube game by Nintendo. That was pretty cool.

That's Eternal Darkness, which was already directly referenced as the model for sanity mechanics for that game concept.  And I agree.  It's the only one I've ever played that did it convincingly.  I'll never forget when that fake game over screen popped up at a really anti-climactic moment, telling me to wait for the sequel.  I sat there jaw-dropped for several seconds until the game snapped back to normal gameplay... and then laughed so much.  Clever girl.

[Parsely]

I have yet to see sanity implemented as a mechanic in a way that really excited and enthralled me. Except for that one gamecube game by Nintendo. That was pretty cool.

That's Eternal Darkness, which was already directly referenced as the model for sanity mechanics for that game concept.  And I agree.  It's the only one I've ever played that did it convincingly.  I'll never forget when that fake game over screen popped up at a really anti-climactic moment, telling me to wait for the sequel.  I sat there jaw-dropped for several seconds until the game snapped back to normal gameplay... and then laughed so much.  Clever girl.

I freaked out pretty good when my head exploded and I was still walking around. :C

[Tsuchigumo550]

A cosmic horror game by Bethesda using one of the Elder Scrolls engines. Giant monsters, creeping things, things that don't die when you stab them, tentacles, all that fun stuff. Plus open world, lots of easy modability, and bugs that might help or hinder the player, or make them laugh or freak out. They could even add in a few things that seem like bugs but are there intentionally like Eternal Darkness did. Textures tearing, things shooting off at in a random direction, and NPCs that fall into the depths of the uncanny valley could add to the atmosphere.

The setting would either be modern times with magic and Things-Man-Was-Not-Meant-To-Know coming back or after an apocalypse caused by the afore mentioned event. I'm a bit torn between wanting magic and technology to work together (lots more possible bugs) or for them to cancel each other out (like in Arcanum). Either way there would be lots of magic arms and armor and lots of firearms.

Firearms would be like in Fallout 3/NV but with the scale going higher so things like this would be used at higher levels instead of the puny .50BMG. Some relatively common monsters would be big enough to need that much firepower.

Magic would cost sanity to use. Low sanity would cause hallucinations like seeing something that's not there, seeing things as something they're not, and animation failures.

There would be some monsters that would seem unbeatable. Extremely fast regeneration, high hit points, tough armor, or a combination of those would make defeating them seem impossible. True cosmic horrors that can only be run from. Players will probably find bugs or make mods that let them beat the impossible horrors but that's fine. It fits perfectly with the theme for players to defeat them using something else that should not be.

Possibly have the sanity as a difficulty- if your sanity is low, even common monsters can lead to fatal encounters.

That's kind of a neat idea. I think sanity would work better as a difficulty setting then as an "alternate health bar."

Having actual health in addition to Sanity would be a great thing- losing all your HP results in death, losing all your Sanity results in nontypical gameovers- you become the abomination, for instance. Low sanity makes the game much more difficult- nothing you see is actually happening the way you see it, things that aren't actually real look like they're damaging you, your HP gauge is unreliable and you may appear dead despite having full HP, anything such as quest markers, maps, and items are completely scrambled so you have no idea where your sanity pills actually are in your pack or what they'll look like to you. Trying to hold conversations with anything is a bad idea, as you'll be spouting gibberish and it's doubtful you'll get anything helpful at all out of their hallucinatory speeches other than "You shouldn't have let yourself go" or something similar. Monsters may appear looking like NPCs. The NPC might look like he's doing something normal, but he's actually shooting fireballs at you- fireballs you see as bolts of ice- and you're dead despite thinking that your HP bar was still full (it wasn't).

Gaining back some of your sanity fixes the gauges for HP, but maps and markers will still have errors. At about half sanity, you'll be able to identify things (anything you can identify- even at full sanity some things simply break the world around them) but their attacks will sometimes be off (a gun-weilding enemy might flash to having a useless item for a moment, and that bullet will look like a wind spell, temporarily). At 3/4 sanity you'll only have slight issues, such as rare hangups that last a couple of frames or brief flashes of nonexistant things, and at full sanity, you'll be able to see the world as it truly is. Low sanity means you'll be taking more damage and be more easily hit by the devil-creatures, and your stats will be debuffed- you won't be able to tell, as anything about your character at low sanity cannot be read correctly or trusted.

[BlindKitty]

As far as the sanity mechanics go, I would like to add one more idea - you are all actually thinking that being completely sane is good, and being completely insane bad (on Bay 12 Forums? Really, guys?) and I see it differently. Sanity could be not a gauge - full or empty - but a slider. Less sane characters would actually see more of the world behind the Veil; they would see devils and horrors for what they are, but, unfortunately, they would also see themselves and objects in the world warped. Like the never-know-your-health effect, or enemy markers and quest markers all messed up. The perfectly sane characters wouldn't have any trouble with this, but on the other hand, they would perceive potential threats as normal, everyday things, having they brains filter the impossible from the world around them...

[kaian-a-coel]

I was going to post something along those lines before seeing your post x)
Yes, insanity shouldn't be absolutely awful. "Perfectly sane people see the world as it really is". I mean, really guys? Isnt it supposed to be the complete reverse, as in seeing the world as it really is results in utter insanity? (lovecraft, and all that)

[Tsuchigumo550]

As far as the sanity mechanics go, I would like to add one more idea - you are all actually thinking that being completely sane is good, and being completely insane bad (on Bay 12 Forums? Really, guys?) and I see it differently. Sanity could be not a gauge - full or empty - but a slider. Less sane characters would actually see more of the world behind the Veil; they would see devils and horrors for what they are, but, unfortunately, they would also see themselves and objects in the world warped. Like the never-know-your-health effect, or enemy markers and quest markers all messed up. The perfectly sane characters wouldn't have any trouble with this, but on the other hand, they would perceive potential threats as normal, everyday things, having they brains filter the impossible from the world around them...

I was thinking this, in a way. Such as some enemies being much harder to see and or hit if you're sane- say the final boss is EXTREMELY hard if you have anything above 5% sanity, then make the secret good ending if you manage to not hit 0% sanity.

[Graknorke]

As far as the sanity mechanics go, I would like to add one more idea - you are all actually thinking that being completely sane is good, and being completely insane bad (on Bay 12 Forums? Really, guys?) and I see it differently. Sanity could be not a gauge - full or empty - but a slider. Less sane characters would actually see more of the world behind the Veil; they would see devils and horrors for what they are, but, unfortunately, they would also see themselves and objects in the world warped. Like the never-know-your-health effect, or enemy markers and quest markers all messed up. The perfectly sane characters wouldn't have any trouble with this, but on the other hand, they would perceive potential threats as normal, everyday things, having they brains filter the impossible from the world around them...

I was thinking this, in a way. Such as some enemies being much harder to see and or hit if you're sane- say the final boss is EXTREMELY hard if you have anything above 5% sanity, then make the secret good ending if you manage to not hit 0% sanity.

Perhaps at lower sanities it starts getting into a sort of meta-narrative (e.g. Save The Date); having the game world itself reveal itself to be gamey to the protagonist.