^ Thanks man! 
I think I'll just have to bite the bullet and start making a few little games, shite visuals and all. I can do decent pixel art and photoshop, but the feats of modern artists working in the games industrry just astound me. And in my head, these ideas are fully-formed, with preposterously good cinematicc graphics. 
The pipedream would be to meet a prodigy programmer and a genius digital artist/animator, who both have no ideas of their own and are completely directionless without strong guidance, and then I could just focus on the writing, sounds and music while shaping the project the way I see it. It's something I keep putting off 'cause my time is filled with other crap, but I've seen other indie developers throw themselves into creating their game (sometimes all on their own), and come out with something incredible at the end of it.
He's right pal, I've read a few of your musings and you do have great gaming ideas, some of which, if done properly, would probably produce spectacular results. I wish you the world of luck in any endeavours you decide to tackle.
A lot gets said about period settings regarding these type of games, and with good reason. Each has a huge baring on what weapons and defence are available in games as well as other equipment and of course the environment, and recently a lot of these have been modern/futuristic.
I'd love to see a different change though, in order to freshen up the FPS genre; I'd love to see the game engine changed to incorporate the best of a 3PS. What I like about the 3PS is the cover system, you look at GOW, Mass Effect, and more recently The Division, and they all make good use of cover and all have a slightly more hunkered and self-preservative approach, making them a more tactical experience. The draw back with 3PS is that you can see your character, and draws the player away from being immersed in combat. The fact that you can sit behind a low wall with your head down but still clearly see your enemies the other side of this cover means it lacks a certain amount of realism. Of course this is required for more classic RPGs, like Uncharted/Bloodbourn etc, but for specific armed combat, really you want to go FPS.
Your classic FSP enables you to get a realistic view of your environment, and immerse the player with more focus, but often become a bunny hopping sprint fest with reactions being everything. Cover doesn't really get much of a look in here, as the game becomes about moving quickly and hitting your opponent at the first opportunity and the way you do step in and out of cover is somewhat clunky. Although the game gives you a more realistic perspective, it doesn't give you a realistic simulation of what armed combat is actually about.
I'd love to see a blend of each aspect to give you a really realistic animation of warfare, particularly one to one and small grouped armed combat that is gritty and hunkered, with a realistic feel. The key will be a good movement system and somewhat flexible/adaptable game engine. In terms of perspective you want to FSP view but with the ability to lean in and of cover in similar style that the 3PSs do. I'd plump for a cover to cover system similar to The Division, where you automatically sprint to cover when you look towards it and hold down an action button. In cover you'll face sideways like you do in real life, and have a system where you can lean and 'peep' round corners, before holding the aim button to step out a bit and draw a weapon, or establish which cover you want to move into. Maybe some simple tools to aid you like small mirrors , or periscopes, to help see round/over difficult cover. Squad mates being able to give detailed descriptions of their views would encourage the realistic team work required to fight in a real battle.
Realistic injuries would be great too! Where, if specific parts of your body take a direct hit, it adversely affects your performance. A shot to the leg means your ability to sprint its greatly decreased, or a shot to the arm making your aim wobble when you aim; maybe even a glancing blow to the head making you momentarily disoriented. All this could add to a really gritty, simulated combat experience where self-preservation, clever tactical movements and considered shots fired would strike a lovely balance between the modern FPS and 3PS and give it a really grounded, realistic armed combat simulator edge . Maybe when you are injured you can spend a bit more time healing yourself in whichever way required, (a bandage round the leg/arm and a shot of adrenaline taking 7-11 seconds).
It doesn't all have to be like this, there can be scenes where you blast your way past 3 guys with a shotgun as you sprint through them, maybe some hand to hand combat thrown in with a more realistic melee system than you find on most games. Of course you can throw in all the extras you usually find one Battlefields and CODs to make the experience a bit more diverse, abseiling, shooting out a vehicle etc etc, but with the realistic game engine.
What would also be nice is the ability to develop your character. Your character has the ability to level up and strengthen certain skill sets; sprint speed, stamina, pain resistance, gun stability, reload speed, vision, tactical awareness, subtlety, medical care. All this could be done with the training when you reach certain intervals, but also through your style of play. It would enable you to team up with people who have different abilities to you to provide balance amongst your squad.
I think if you achieved these things the time period really wouldn’t matter too much, it would still have that honed and tactical edge whether it was WW1 or WW3 in 10 years’ time, it would still feel like human vs human even if the guns and armour where very technical. If you gave it an authentic engine and realistic human feel and perspective, it would remain gritty and grounded.
I really hope a developer is working on giving us a proper realistic experience in a similar way.
Poll