Doesn't help you now...but I'm really looking forward to Jumpgate Evolution. Maybe more combat than trading though.

Hmm, Eve online terrifies me. That's the one with the crazy insane people right?

I've found some stuff about the "X" series. Steam has a couple of them online. Any experiences with these?

I guess I'm lucky I came into it without any experience in the series. I just remember loving the idea of being able to fly too and from any system I wanted making money by escorting cargo and the like.

I loved the original Privateer, along with the Wing Commander series in general.

This game is fun:
Freelancer
Note quite as open as Privateer, and you fly with the mouse, but still lots of fun to be had.

PS You may put Privateer 2 down as the single biggest dream-crushing disappointment in a game I have ever bought.

We have a whole thread on that ASCII privateer game. There are also some links in there to privateer remakes. But it sounds like you wan't something new.

The only thing I can think of that fits the bill is EVE or X3 but both of those are massively hardcore.

Hmm... you might love Evochron Legends, Darkstar One or perhaps Parkan II. X3 is also good but a little overwhelming at first. Although it's not exactly what you are looking for, I can't help but throw in a plug for IWAR2.

Sadly this is my favorite genre and it's just not being supported anymore.

X3 is very very far from Privateer. X3 is all about trading, it's pretty much Space Excel the game. Privateer had a nice blend of action, story and light trading and Darkstar One is very much in the same vibe, though the story is pretty terrible.

Though it lies in a somewhat different sector of the galaxy (the 2-d display with pausable combat sector to be exact), I have to mention Space Rangers 2. There's ship design, character development, trading, combat, and an interesting story.
The trading is nice in that the prices actually respond to supply and demand, and there are tons of other things to do from "choose you own adventure" style text quests to (admittedly uneven) RTS missions.
Your ship is also ridiculously customizable and just about every choice has some kind of meaningful tradeoff in terms of protection, speed or firepower.
The other really cool thing was that while in the end the player is the force that brings on the endgame, the world doesn't really revolve around you. The military plans missions to fight the Dominators whether you're there or not, and traders will go about their business buying low and selling high without regard to whether you got to take advantage of the deal or not.
Some of the game mechanics are a bit tough to understand at first but there is a thread around here with a bunch of tips.

I enjoyed Privateer 2 until it bugged on me about 2/3 of the way through the game. There was someone I was supposed to meet somewhere to advance the story and when I showed up, he wasn't there. That ticked me off to say the least.

I would recommend X3 but only if you are willing to put real time into getting good at it because it isn't a light game. I bought DarkStar One but couldn't get very far into it before getting bored. There's just no mission variety to speak of and that you can't really do anything to your ship is disappointing. Evochon Legends might be good for you too but I found that hard to get into as well from the demo, from an accessibility point of view as well.

OK, lots of interesting suggestions. Thanks!

I picked up X2 on steam because it was there and it was $10 which is right in the price range I'm willing to pay to experiment with something. What really impressed me was how hardcore X2 is. I have a new found appreciation for how much Privateer 2 automated.

For example in P2 when if I wanted to fly across the galaxy I picked the sector I wanted to go to and my nav computer plotted all the jumps. Each new sector I arrived at a marker would come up leading me towards the jump gate I needed to hit next.

Same goal in X2, whole different process. If you don't know what sectors are linked to each other you're SOL. Even if you know what three sectors you need to pass through to reach your destination, every time you jump into a new sector you're completely blind. You need to find the jump gates in the sector and fly close enough to them in order to scan their destination. Then you can use them.

The flight model is solid, and I think I might be able to get into the trading aspect of the game, but the true economic simulation terrifies me. Having to be responsible for building and maintaining resource production facilities is a bit more than I bargained for. Oh, and the simulation tutorials are a must. The game has an almost impenetrable menu system, it offers a ton of depth, but you have to know where to look.

I'm gonna sink a few more hours into X2 tonight and see if I can't crack it's hardcore exterior to extract some space trading enjoyment (and perhaps so nougat, mmmm I do love nougat). If not I'll chock the $10 up to a learning experience and try my hand at some of the less hardcore offerings you fine folks have placed on the table.

So I put a little more time into X2. Worst character models ever! I'm not sure why they even bothered.

The real issue for me is that it takes a huge amount of time to get into the game. With your initial ship you are easy prey for any enemy ships, and it takes a while to upgrade to something functional. Until that you're unable to handle all but the most basic (non-time sensitive) missions and without an adequate understanding of the economy I'm having a hard time making enough money to afford the necessary upgrades.

I tried the demo of Evochron Legends only to quit halfway through the tutorial. I didn't like the flight model. There was no sense of speed, which is kind of a must for me in the space-sim category.

Darkstar One is cheap on steam, and I from the look of the trailer it's worth a try. So away we go.

http://oolite.org

I've never played any of the X games but you guys are making it sound like the space equivalent of Europa Universalis as far as difficulty goes. Guess I'll be avoiding that one. It's been years since I've played a good single player open space game. Well, there was SWG's space game, EVE, and SR2... but you know what I mean. The Privateer types. I may have to jump on this bandwagon too. I'll be interested to see how Darkstar goes over with Zoid.