Great post, phish! (good to see you again
)
I totally agree with distilling what makes it fun, and recreating the magic with something new. but I also think that designing an entire game from scratch using the abstract principles of TFC and FF is pretty hard. I think it's in some ways easier to change what you know, but obviously there is the danger of community backlash when you delete the sniper class, for example
For example, I would love to see a game invent a movement system as deep and complex and satisfying as bunny hopping, with intuitive controls. The idea is that purely moving around a map on your own should be fun, and difficult to optimise.
The whole concept of Movement vs DM is also such a great core concept.