Space Sims/Strategy Games Catch-All

Veloxi wrote:

IT ISN'T EVEN THAT GOOD OF A STRATEGY GAME!

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/LgdsC.gif)

Veloxi wrote:

IT ISN'T EVEN THAT GOOD OF A STRATEGY GAME!

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/aFit201.gif)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/KA5qVUK.gif)

Quintin_Stone wrote:
Veloxi wrote:

IT ISN'T EVEN THAT GOOD OF A STRATEGY GAME!

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/LgdsC.gif)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/RBSHW.gif)

athros wrote:
Veloxi wrote:

IT ISN'T EVEN THAT GOOD OF A STRATEGY GAME!

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/aFit201.gif)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/KA5qVUK.gif)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/ql9BWcK.gif)

Hmmm, an interesting little detail that reddit turned up regarding who owns Freespace: http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=85...

A little Canadian outfit called Stompy Bot Productions, Inc.

Okay, wow, I'd never heard of Stompy Bot Productions, nice find Scratched. Also...

THEY'RE DOING A NEW HEAVY GEAR GAME OMG! Heavy Gear II is my favorite mecha game, and the Heavy Gear PNP RPG is my fave too. Holy cats...

K, I just wrote 'em about the Freespace trademark, hope to hear back! Scratched, could you link to the place on Reddit where you found that, please?

Veloxi wrote:

could you link to the place on Reddit where you found that, please?

http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/commen...

Thanks so much!

Submission submitted, submissively.
...
Submarine.

Well, we'll see if anything comes of this:

Crowdfunding campaign seeks rescue of Homeworld license from THQ

Tkyl wrote:

Well, we'll see if anything comes of this:

Crowdfunding campaign seeks rescue of Homeworld license from THQ

That seems like a real bad idea honestly. Just owning a license is meaningless really as you have to still build a game with said license. So that would be a second kickstarter I suppose. I thought sega got homeworld license and I'd be much happier with them having it.

If they actually manage to get HW/HWC/HW2 on GOG I'll be (pleasantly) surprised.

As for making the third, they're going to need more than money to bring that together. At the moment the company involved make websites, making a good quality 3D space RTS with decent production values and a bit of fiction behind it isn't going to be easy. I've seen comments on reddit that smell a scam, but taking it at face value it looks just a little bit optimistic to me.

Also, if they're such fans, why wait for the license? Why not make something great in the spirit of HW using different names.

I think people are hungry for another HW-like game. I remember the initial reactions to Blendo's turn based Flotilla.

Alright, more SSZ! Up through mission 6 or 7 now.

Fun fun and more fun!

Looked at some of the bad reviews, eurogamer, and such. I think they just suck at the game, honestly. There's only been one mission where I died as many as 3 or 4 times. And even then, I was trying to complete a bonus goal, so really pushing myself. If I had hung back and played it safe I never would have died. Not sure what that guy is going on about repeating a mission 20 times.

Anyway, the key to strike suit seems to be, use the lock-on targeting. There's an option for toggle/hold in the control settings. But either way, having lock-on, the suit automatically pivots from target to target as you destroy them. And you can use the control stick to strafe, while the suit blasts the hell out of everything. I feel pretty much invincible in the thing now. Already got that achievement for "kill 20 ships during strike mode" a few missions ago.

Still no crashes or graphical glitches here. From what I gathered, there was a final patch since the review copies were sent out, so maybe that hurt some of the reviewers? But giving the game a 3 or 4 out of 10 is really petty and uncalled for. Says more about the reviewer than the game at this point. Even if the story turns on it's head and goes completely bonkers, I'm not going lower than a 7/10 just on fun factor alone. But leaning more towards a 9/10 so far. Good graphics, good performance, great controls, and so much fun for $20 (or less).

Also saw a dev post that they are going to have mid-mission saves, or maybe just let you continue from a checkpoint. That would be nice, as one mission was rather long, divided up into like 4 different jump areas earlier. I needed a break when I got to the 4th section, but had to just leave the game paused for a few and come back to it, so as not to lose 30 min of progress.

SSZ patch on Steam:

- Added invert y-axis for mouse
- Fixed crash bug with CPUs with 6 or more cores
- Various Direct X fixes
- Mission 12 score bug fixed

OMGOMGOMG! I am SO geeking out right now. One of the designers for BOTH RULES OF ENGAGEMENT GAMES just commented on one of my Let's Play videos.

AAAHHHHHHHH! SO AWESOME!

plavonica wrote:
Stele wrote:

SSZ patch on Steam:

- Added invert y-axis for mouse
- Fixed crash bug with CPUs with 6 or more cores
- Various Direct X fixes
- Mission 12 score bug fixed

This is always a requirement for me.

Yeah it was in there for gamepads but not for mice for some reason. I think the reason was because the whole team was playing on gamepads.

plavonica wrote:

I saw this thread on the Star Citizen website and was wondering if we would want to start a guild/squadron this early on.

Why not, I'm starting one on SGJ.

Speaking of, my last Rules of Engagement 2 Let's Play video is up for your viewing enjoyment.

http://www.spacegamejunkie.com/revie...

Stay tuned for my next series!

Hey guys, me again. The Kickstarter for Beyond Beyaan -- a 4X that strives to be whatever you want, whether it's MOO1 or MOO2 style play -- launched today:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...

I invite you to check it out because the dev is SUPER nice, and I also helped him tweak it to hopefully make it more successful, so even feedback would be appreciated, if not donations.

Thanks!

So, because I'm a filthy skimmer and I'm not going to read all 100 pages:

I'm craving a space sim. SSZ doesn't really look super interesting to me, and really, neither does Miner Wars.

Priors include WC2, Privateer, Various X-Wing/TIE series games, Freelancer, and part of Darkstar One. Lately, I've been playing with keyboard and mouse, and really, kinda like it that way, but I've got a joystick.

Should I just reload Darkstar and play it through, re-install Freelancer instead? or should I give X3 a shot? or something else?

EDIT: Although, considering Veloxi's favorable reviews of SSZ, I could, alternatively, be convinced it'd be a good idea to get it.

What are you looking for in a space sim? Militaristic-linear or mercenary-open worldish?

I'd prefer mercenary open-worldish, but I didn't feel too terribly trapped by Freelancer's semi-open nature, either.

Well SSZ is right out then, it's completely linear. Next question, do you want an in-ship sim wherein you're in the cockpit, or is 3rd person (like Freelancer) okay?

Veloxi wrote:

Next question, do you want an in-ship sim wherein you're in the cockpit, or is 3rd person (like Freelancer) okay?

What? People played Freelancer 3rd person? First person, please.
Not to project my tastes on the rest of goodjer-dom, but isn't the point that you're supposed to be the one flying the ship?

I"ll also just throw out there that I tried some Evochron, but it didn't quite click during the demo part I played. Don't know why.

Squeegee_Joe wrote:

What? People played Freelancer 3rd person? First person, please.
Not to project my tastes on the rest of goodjer-dom, but isn't the point that you're supposed to be the one flying the ship?

I"ll also just throw out there that I tried some Evochron, but it didn't quite click during the demo part I played. Don't know why.

Well, yes, I played Freelancer in 3rd person because the cockpit view was sheeeeeeeeeeeit.

I was gonna recommend Evochron but it doesn't click with everyone.

Have you tried the X games, such as X3: Albion Prelude?

If you don't mind 3rd person I have another suggestion for you.

Generally speaking, the answer to every question about space games is Freespace 2. It's more X-wing than X, but it's widely considered to be among the very best, if not the very best, of the space sims.

http://www.gog.com/gamecard/freespace_2
http://scp.indiegames.us/

Archangel wrote:

Generally speaking, the answer to every question about space games is Freespace 2. It's more X-wing than X, but it's widely considered to be among the very best, if not the very best, of the space sims.

http://www.gog.com/gamecard/freespace_2
http://scp.indiegames.us/

Not if someone is looking for an open-space/world merc sim. As much as I lovelovelove Freespace 2 (my favorite game ever, my next tattoo will be from the game), it's a different animal.

I second Veloxi's mention of X3:AP. I really like the X games.

I haven't put as much time into the Evochron games, but I gather they are slightly shallower, but more approachable.

I'm honestly not as much a fan of the X games as others, honestly (it feels like an office that happens to be a spaceship rather than a spaceship sim to me), but I think it's maybe the only example of the more recent games that fits Squeegee_Joe's criteria.

I think I just played with the HUD, left the room lights off, and called keyboard and mouse my cockpit.
I'm not categorically opposed to 3rd person, but I'll take a look. Honestly, I'm not sure how opposed I would be to linearity if the space-flight is done right. It's almost like I need a fix of space sim, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get it.

Freespace 2 is there, beckoning, I'm just kinda... wanting a newer model. I haven't touched the Descent universe since the mid-90's.

Honestly (Don't let EA hear this), I wouldn't terribly mind someone licensing and developing a space sim in the Mass Effect Universe. Man, Star Citizen needs to hurry up.

Hhmmmm, I have some ideas for you then...

Starshatter - Military combat sim but with a dynamic campaign. Very tough to get good at, but very satisfying. Recently went open source and is already being improved upon. Totally free.

Dangerous - I just played a bunch of this for review, but I'll give you a spoiler. Initially made for tablets so the graphics aren't great, but it runs smooth, has a living universe with TONS to do (seriously, there are storyline quests, freelance quests and dynamic quests that pop-up all through a system, plus trading, mining and so on) and a lot to keep one playing if you're a loot or ship hunter (you can scan for derelict ships in a system and claim them as your own, for example). Been playing this one for days now and REALLY enjoying it.

Now, question, in terms of graphics and such, how far back can I go to give suggestions, because I have some others but they're from a while ago...

I like the idea of a classification system for space sims.

In the merc-open category, I think the next question should be about scope. I'm going to take this as an opportunity to set out what I think about the X series (of which I've played hundreds of hours) as compared to Evochron Mercenary (about a dozen hours, now :)).

The X series is about empire-building. Even when I start a new game with the intention of staying small-scale, I end up with lots of factory stations, a fleet of merchant ships semi-autonomously trading on my behalf, and a military fleet with multiple capital ships to protect all of the above and do massive damage whenever I happen to feel like it.

Evochron is about being a spaceship pilot. The economic models are simpler, but the flight physics are much more involved. You can hire wingmen and build stations (not that I've tried either yet), but instead of buying fleets of ships and ordering them around, you customize and fine-tune and fly one ship at a time.

Everything in the genre these days seems to come with a steep learning curve. My hope is that this is just a consequence of it having been a niche market for so long, and that a virtuous circle of accessibility and popularity is on the horizon. (We shall see.)