How cool would an Elder scrolls style game set on Roshar be?

[Arook he/him]

I have been contemplating how a game set on Roshar would work here is what i have thought of. Before i begin First this is just idle thought I'm not planing nor do I have that ability to make a game like this its just wishful thinking. With that said feel free to add or critic my ideas.

 

Finally this will have spoilers for both Way of Kings and Words of Radiance, so if you have not read them please do not continue because I will not be placing any spoiler tags other than this.

 

 

 

 

Spoilers ahead

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

well some maybe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First we will address scope.

 

Every one wants a full world 1 to 1 scale world with destructible environments. This is not something that current tech is capable of so lets find what we can bring over into the game world and still have fun. Skyrim is a masterpiece of open world with hundreds of unique locations and quests. So if we limited the game to just the shattered plains and the war camps that leaves a lot of room for quests and locations, it even leaves option for crafting and trading. It is the single best location to start building from. 

 

next we have story and timeline

 

So now we make a choice what kind of story can the game have. Because it is a game based in the world during an ongoing story you have to be careful, you don't want to mess with the story line of the books. Go to far into the past you become too limited the future is unusable as it limits the author or makes the two drift away from what is cannon. I feel that half the fun of playing a game set in the Cosmere would be the that you can get little hints of the worlds. 

 

Now the best location for the game would have to be after Gavilar's death but before Kaladin arrives on the plains in fact your best bet is about 2 years before Kaladin arrives on the plains. If I recall its been something like 6 years since Gavilar's death in the WoK. there are a couple of good reasons for this one it is after gavalar did the think that most likely brought surge binders back into the world and it provides easy and steady combat challenges(ie battles on the shattered plains, combat with bandits in the surrounding area) with the Alethi based around the plains. The war camps after a few years would start to become functioning towns as they are in the books. This allows for the option to maybe expand your characters personal holdings. but more on that later. If we had chose to place the game during the novels we run into time limitations and well destruction by the ever storm.

 

 

Now that we have a time frame for the game we can work on the characters you can choose from. This is were I'm going to get a little side tracked because the there are 2 types of game that can be made. I have stated that I think skyrim is a great concept of what the open world is, but large open battles like Plateau assaults, its not real great at. However two games that do really well on them are war band and battlefield games. Warband is a better straight port if you just overlaid the world on the game than battlefield is. The reason I bring this up is that the battlefield games give you generic troops you can choose from (ie archer, spear man, etc) that  makes it complicated with the Alethi class system. If you allow people to be a dark eyed soldier then the maximum rank they can achieve is limited even the maximum fame you can have is limited. On the other hand having everyone be a light eyes is workable does stretch the class system a little. 

 

So I choose characters are light eyes of extremely low rank just about as low as you can get. So now that is settled we can have each person pick a one of the many human variants available and for options place the start of the game near the end of your enlistment so if you wanted to you can leave the army and go freelance. The different types of people on Roshar would create an interesting variation in racial traits and looks. now we could even go so far as to allow for other starting points maybe even freed slave. Even just picking who your high prince is would provide for some interesting bonuses.That settled lets move on to surges and shards

 

Surges and shards honestly having them be available for characters to have for them selves would break the game world if if played as an MMO. If more like skyrim and Less ESO then the surges and blades are back in. numbers is the key, ten people on a plateau assault with shards would devastate the enemies no longer making a it a challenge. Surges would have to preclude the use of shards and real limiting them is best. shards on the other hand  provide some nice options. because there are so few available if you reached a high enough rank you might be able to duel using borrowed plate or even enter battle buy renting shards from someone for money. In fact I would say surges is on a different path that can not be followed if you stay a member of the army.

 

One thing that is cool is the books already have a mechanic that allow for free events, the visions glimpses of the past, usage of surges and plate, free bits of non story breaking fun.

 

If someone made this they could expand and add more areas and more classes for people to be.

 

You could even choose to explore the chasms looking to salvage but beware the fiends.

 

 

 

That is most of what I have so far please tell me your thoughts and sorry if I kind of ramble its starting to get a little late.

 

Also one last thought if you commit crimes in the camps and get caught you can run into 3 possible fates if tracked down. 1 pay a fee. 2 if unable to pay fee sold to Sadeas and forced to run a bridge if you survive a relative pays for your release. 3 left out for the high storm.

 

I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Sorry if its a little jumbled.

 

 

 

[Tyson]

A mission where you have to recover the highprinces son from the Chasms. Like a labyrinth where you are being hunted by a Chasmfiend. Would be cool.

 

I think the game would grow dull. Being only set on the Shattered Plains is such a boring environment. The Elder Scrolls games rely on varied locations to keep an otherwise monotonous mission set interesting. Each city is always vastly different, but how different can you make the warcamps and the platues. This game would quickly descend into Shard fueled killing sprees through a warcamp, then rebooting from the last saved game once you have been caught. I'd still play it though. 

 

I think a game set on Roshar would work better as a Force Unleashed style storyline, where you are either:

 

1. Szeth on his king killing spree across Jah Keved

 or

2. A loyal henchmen to Nalan. Entrusted with a shardblade to kill new surgebinders in Alethkar. Your first few missions could be the character hunting and kiling surgebinders. The twist is that you start to attract an unusual spren and start developing surges, you realize Nalan will be coming for you soon. You become the hunted. Climaxing in a battle with Nalan in Kholinar, maybe during or sparking the riots in the capital. 

[ElusiveWorldhopper]

I like both of these ideas, but personally I would prefer to see something along the lines of MIstborn: Birthright, as in it's set in the same world, but a completely different time period. I'd like to see something along the lines of when the Knights Radiant were kicking around during a Desolation. Create a character, choose an order and help save the world. It could expand on the history of Roshar some more, and let us see what life was like for the citizens of Roshar thousands of years ago.

[Wyndrunner he/him]

If you are set on this then you might be able to drum up support for people to mod Skyrim. I don't know how to mods or anything but you could start by adding shardblades and surges and whatnot and if it works you could work on a larger expansion.

[Nicrosil he/him]

I was rereading Hero of Ages, and it made me realize something: A lot of Brandon's magics are based on movement. Steelpushing, Ironpulling, Lashing. How do you design something like that that's so variable and complex, but so natural to its users?

[Wyndrunner he/him]

 

 

I was rereading Hero of Ages, and it made me realize something: A lot of Brandon's magics are based on movement. Steelpushing, Ironpulling, Lashing. How do you design something like that that's so variable and complex, but so natural to its users?

I've actually thought about this a lot. For something like Allomancy's Steelpushing and Ironpulling you would have to go with a Force Unleashed style, that is, you would look at an object and it would be highlighted and then you click a button (kind of like force grip) and you can push it or pull it from there. Like some guys are coming at you and you rip the doors from behind them and then jump out of the way so the doors hit them and not you. For something like Pewter or Tin I imagine you would have to toggle it on and off. I guess what you could do is have a set metal where clicking a button (let's say RB for the Xbox) would flare it but i don't know. 

 

Lashing is a little more difficult. Or at least it's more difficult if you want to remain exactly true to how it works but I think for the sake of a video game you can tweak it a little bit. For instance I don't think you should have to worry about half lashings or subtle lashings, that's all just too confusing. The easiest would probably be a Reverse Lashing because you would just stand by an object and when enemies are about to fire arrows you would get a prompt to hit a button which would put you in a stationary position while investing the object of choice. A Full Lashing is also difficult but I think might click Y or something and if you're not moving it would lash the floor to set a trap and if you're moving it forward it would lash whatever is within reach. A basic lashing is where it gets tricky. How do you get from floor to ceiling naturally? I think the best way to do that would be to activate the jump button and then click it again in midflight, once you've clicked it you would move your analog stick or whatever in whichever direction you want to go and you would fall that way. Alternatively, if you just want a quick dash towards or away from something then there would be another button for that. If you were outside then double clicking the jump button would just put you into a sort of levitating/flying mode where you can move about freely.

 

I'm not sure how this would all go or how even to begin with other surges but to me right now these magic systems seem best fit for an action game like The Force Unleashed. Though I could see a Dragon Age type game where you could just get by with clicking buttons that do all the fancy moves for you that require more precision than is possible for a normal person to do.

[Arook he/him]

I was rereading Hero of Ages, and it made me realize something: A lot of Brandon's magics are based on movement. Steelpushing, Ironpulling, Lashing. How do you design something like that that's so variable and complex, but so natural to its users?

Well you could have power ups that allow you to automatically push things away like flying coins and such. As for lashings they would have to be much more like button commands maybe press X and a direction on the D pad to were gravity is orientated. You would have to have general movement separate from flying and such.

 

Also a skyrim mod would basically have to be a complete overhaul using their engine.

 

I still miss my gaming computer

Edited April 23, 2015 by Arook

[Kestrel she/her]

I was thinking more of a Legend of Zelda style game for Roshar, where you can pick what surgebinder you want to be, each plot is different, and your spren is your "guide" throughout the game, similar to Navi/Midna/Fi's purpose in the Zelda series.

[Paragrin she/her]

But... the Force Awakens!