Hi there goggers,

I'm making some research on games with complex levelling and non-conventional systems. Although these are RPG elements, I'd rather see some non RPG games like adventure ones.

I don't know exactly how to describe it, but here are a few examples:

- Life simulators (not only the basic attributes levelling but others like learning capacity)
- Games with social / psychological concepts (ex: Digital - A love story, True Love, Papers Please, etc)
- Attributes indicators with complex modifiers
- Games in which they demand you to actually evolve your gameplay to gain XP and not only gain XP by repeating the same commands over and over
- Complex economics and/or crafting systems also interest me very much.

I don't know if I made it clear for what I'm looking for, but I'm very sure you guys are the ones who can help me find good underground games :) Thanks!

So are you doing research for getting a game with the likeness you listed?
Some games can be very unique. I've played games where there was
no other system like it. I know it can be difficult, but I believe that some people
may be able to find you find a few games here based on what you like.

Best of luck to you, fabricioz!

- Tim :)

Jagged Alliance 2 comes to mind (with the 1.13 mod). Other than that there's Gothic and VTM:B, even though they are both rpgs, they fit the description.

"Long live the queen" perhaps?

on the economic side of things, well there are the capitalist -series games here on GOG. I havent actually played X-spacesim series, but my understanding is that they are very very economic driven later on.

Thanks a lot for the input, guys! I'll play each of the games suggested and I'll write back to you to give my impressions about it.

Thank you again :)

I believe Patrician 3 that is available here has a well done economic system based upon supply and demand. I haven't played much as I got hooked in Patrician 4 for some reason (something about the 3rd bothered me, can't put my finger on it even if it's a solid game) instead but I've read that Patrician 3 is overall one of the better games in the Patrician and Port Royale series.

A combination of deep character developement and deep economics is spellforce for example a great RTS/RPG mix.

Thanks, guys. Here's my feedback by now.

Jagged Alliance 2: Excellent, very complex game and it sure does interest me. I love the OS UI part of the game believe it has influenced games like Uplink.


Long live the queen - Amazing!!!! It really goes the road I was looking for, because of the highly detailed stats list and it's mood system and how it affects its stats' performance. Really great tip for me! Also, because of this game, I could find lots of other good games in the "dating / life sim" category I didn't know.

Gothic and VTM:B - Couldn't yet mess a lot with them, just a few videos.

Patrician / Port Royale: I have these games for a long time and couldn't yet play them so well! But I believe they work a little like Knights and Merchants which I LOVE and has a very detailed economic system, right?

Spellforce: Couldn't play, just saw some videos but didn't find anything different at all yet.



I guess the kind of game which interest me the most are these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_simulation_game


And the kind of subjects which are most appealing to me are social / psychological issues. Not fantasy/surreal, but realistic.

Don't know if any of you guys know the flash game The Asylum (Die Anstalt) in which you play the role of a shrink who has to treat disturbed plush toys. Although we can barely consider this a game (more like a interactive story), man, this is one of the greatest pieces of gaming I've ever played because of its depth (url:
http://www.parapluesch.de/whiskystore/test.htm).

Can anyone think of games approaching these matters?

The old (1986) Alter Ego might be what you want. The is a browser version: http://www.playalterego.com/alterego

crusader kings 2

you dont level you manage your relationships with neighbor-states... its easy enough to pick up and play but there are 1,000's of pages on strategies and ways to play.

to date it the easiest and most complex game i have ever tried.

And then there is Path of Exile...

The skill tree to render as a compressed JPG is 24.2MB and needed to be in a resolution of 16135x15300 there are so many possible combinations of classes and abilities its mind boggling... along with that crafting is pretty crazy too.

http://webcdn.pathofexile.com/public/PassiveSkillTree.0.10.0.jpg
*the image is so large and complex it will seem to freeze your browser warning*

You might want to have a look at Darklands; its character generation in particular is...complex.

All right, I was going to suggest Final Fantasy 10, but I think you just took the cake.

This^

Yeah, Darklands – it's been a while since I played it, but age also played a factor there: you could create an older character with more skills and a greater wisdom, while younger characters were physically more able.

Or Realms of Arkania: unique in the way that level-ups aren't always satisfying. You get a number of skill points, but attempts at increasing skills and attributes have a good chance to fail. If you fail a skill increase three times in a row for a particular skill, you must wait until the next level to attempt increasing that skill again. So with, say, 20 skill points, you can increase your skills by only 15 or 10 or even less, depending how lucky you are. Also, enemies encountered for the first time give the most XP. Once you've fought the same type of enemy for a while, the XP yield from them decreases.

Not played it yet but Redshirts might hit the spot - life simulation in a tongue in cheek, satire of social media kind of way, I believe!