I saw a screenshot from Civ VII, near the beginning of the game, that showed a little scouting camp of a few tents on a piney hillside. That screenshot made my heart happy for a second, but then I felt disappointment as I realized that the game wouldn't be about whatever made me excited about the screenshot.
(Hey, I found it! It was this. Try to mentally edit out the oversized figures.)
Now I'm trying to go back and figure out what I was imagining for a second, what I even got excited about. What's the game I wish I was about to play when I see those tents? I imagine different things:
- Hunting and gathering food. The people who eat it are grateful *coughcoughSpiritfarer* and have relevant things to say.
- Placing the tents, fires, and stations. The people who live in them add visual details that make them unique.
- Oh no it's getting cold! How can we warm up? We can insulate the tents, we can make better clothes, we can make the fire bigger, we can weave blankets...
Hm. So far this is sounding kinda like Rimworld, but I'm intimidated by Rimworld. What would make it less intimidating? Nobody dies, I guess. Or at least you have to really try and neglect people before they die. Maybe nobody dies, but they leave. And they might come back when you get your shit together. Or maybe they just have low productivity when they're unhappy.
Having some content drip as incentive to do things would be cool too. When you set up a loom, your little people can have conversations about it. You can learn if they like weaving or not. They bring their own styles and patterns of what you can make. And when you finish a piece on that loom, there's a bit of a ceremony. Other people have things to say about the piece, there's a scene where you can give it to somebody or put it away (at least the first time, or if you create a special masterwork or plot-relevant item. Not every time, obvs). Items you make can have content tags... Like, this was the first scarf Bob ever wove. This bed is made from magical wood we got from that spectral lumberjack. And when somebody receives the piece, the game has things to say about that.
I'm imagining a game where you're moved forward through the "base building" phases by pulling the threads handed to you by NPCs. Slower than Rimworld, a bit less mandatory multitasking and a bit more "focusing on one issue at a time is fine." More carrots, fewer sticks.
(Maybe actual carrots! And there will probably be actual sticks too.)