Like the thread titles suggests: pick a favorite game and a mode/mechanic you’d like to see within them.
Dark Souls: Competitive Co-Op. I think it’d only work in DS1 as DS2 and 3 are more linear with a singular hub for leveling up, but I imagine a mode in which two “Chosen Undeads” both start in the Asylum with a race to defeat Gwyn. PvP damage would be turned off (to incentivize progress over screwing the other player over, maybe toggled if skill merits the additional challenge,) but everything within the game would stay the same as the normal single player game; i.e.: since both are likely alive when they reach the Asylum Demon, the game is “jolly cooperation” until it falls, then, it’s every man for himself. The game becomes being the first to reach unique items, rack up souls and beat bosses in the order each player feels most fortuitous with the understanding that what you don’t go for, the other player can get! Bosses could still be co-op’d and loot split if both reach the fog wall at the same time, but if a single player manages to beat one without the other inside the fog wall, the Boss Soul and regular souls are awarded to the victorious player who kills it. The world wouldn’t reset on any single player’s death as in the core game, rather a player who dies must sit out a 1-minute delay (also adjustable) before respawning at their last bonfire; should the surviving player die during that runoff, THEN the world would reset. No requirement both players be in the same area at the same time; the open world left to be tackled as each sees fit. Certain items that gate progress are shared, like embers and the Lord Vessel, etc.; if a single player gets an ember and turns it in, those upgrades become available for both players. I’m sure there are a lot of problems with this that I haven’t foreseen, but the idea is kinda cool and I feel might be worth the added layer of gameplay it'd offer.
Dark Souls: Competitive Co-Op. I think it’d only work in DS1 as DS2 and 3 are more linear with a singular hub for leveling up, but I imagine a mode in which two “Chosen Undeads” both start in the Asylum with a race to defeat Gwyn. PvP damage would be turned off (to incentivize progress over screwing the other player over, maybe toggled if skill merits the additional challenge,) but everything within the game would stay the same as the normal single player game; i.e.: since both are likely alive when they reach the Asylum Demon, the game is “jolly cooperation” until it falls, then, it’s every man for himself. The game becomes being the first to reach unique items, rack up souls and beat bosses in the order each player feels most fortuitous with the understanding that what you don’t go for, the other player can get! Bosses could still be co-op’d and loot split if both reach the fog wall at the same time, but if a single player manages to beat one without the other inside the fog wall, the Boss Soul and regular souls are awarded to the victorious player who kills it. The world wouldn’t reset on any single player’s death as in the core game, rather a player who dies must sit out a 1-minute delay (also adjustable) before respawning at their last bonfire; should the surviving player die during that runoff, THEN the world would reset. No requirement both players be in the same area at the same time; the open world left to be tackled as each sees fit. Certain items that gate progress are shared, like embers and the Lord Vessel, etc.; if a single player gets an ember and turns it in, those upgrades become available for both players. I’m sure there are a lot of problems with this that I haven’t foreseen, but the idea is kinda cool and I feel might be worth the added layer of gameplay it'd offer.
