Space Sims/Strategy Games Catch-All

Well said, misplaced. That's why the X games always felt more like a business sim in a spaceship than a spaceship sim. I'm glad this subgenre of a subgenre has such variety within it though.

Veloxi wrote:

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!

Yay! Super cool, hope you find some easter eggs and video them.

Mixolyde wrote:
Veloxi wrote:

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!

Yay! Super cool, hope you find some easter eggs and video them. ;-)

He already posted one:

Try this...go the FW ship builder and push F10 (I think).
misplacedbravado wrote:

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.)

Veloxi should make a flowchart where you answer various space sim game questions to arrive at the perfect game for your mood.

And they all point to Freespace 2 or Wing Commander: Privateer at the bottom.

Veloxi wrote:

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.

Huh. Have to keep an eye on that. I remember it looked promising before but I don't think I ever tried it. Might have even downloaded it at one point but just not got around to it.

Mixolyde wrote:

Veloxi should make a flowchart where you answer various space sim game questions to arrive at the perfect game for your mood.

And they all point to Freespace 2 or Wing Commander: Privateer at the bottom.

Hah, it really could be that simple if Privateer were newer or the remakes were as fun as the original.

Veloxi wrote:
Mixolyde wrote:

Veloxi should make a flowchart where you answer various space sim game questions to arrive at the perfect game for your mood.

And they all point to Freespace 2 or Wing Commander: Privateer at the bottom.

Hah, it really could be that simple if Privateer were newer or the remakes were as fun as the original.

It really would be, which makes me really hope Star Citizen can live up to the hype. Meanwhile, I'm torn, because X3 seemed what I was looking for, except I don't really want to manage an empire. I'll look at Starshatter, and maybe I'll give Evochron another shot.

Of course, I do like business sims, though....

Basically, I haven't seriously focused on a space sim since Freelancer, so anything less than, say, 10 years old seems fair game to me.

I do have Privateer in my GOG account, but that's more for nostalgia than actual gameplay nowadays... it's just so .... low-res.

Squeegee_Joe wrote:
Veloxi wrote:
Mixolyde wrote:

Veloxi should make a flowchart where you answer various space sim game questions to arrive at the perfect game for your mood.

And they all point to Freespace 2 or Wing Commander: Privateer at the bottom.

Hah, it really could be that simple if Privateer were newer or the remakes were as fun as the original.

It really would be, which makes me really hope Star Citizen can live up to the hype. Meanwhile, I'm torn, because X3 seemed what I was looking for, except I don't really want to manage an empire. I'll look at Starshatter, and maybe I'll give Evochron another shot.

Of course, I do like business sims, though....

Basically, I haven't seriously focused on a space sim since Freelancer, so anything less than, say, 10 years old seems fair game to me.

I do have Privateer in my GOG account, but that's more for nostalgia than actual gameplay nowadays... it's just so .... low-res.

Try Ascii Sector! Which would be awesome if moving around stations to get missions wasn't so incredibly tedious and annoying.

Oh yeah, FS2 with the FSO patches looks just fantastic.

Squeegee_Joe wrote:

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. [...] I do have Privateer in my GOG account, but that's more for nostalgia than actual gameplay nowadays... it's just so .... low-res.

BTW, Freespace is not Descent; it was made by the same team, and the first game had "Descent" in the title (in the US) for cross-marketing purposes, but the two games are nothing like each other.

FS2 with the FSOpen patches/textures/etc looks like a whole new game, taking full advantage of modern hardware. I urge you to check it out.

Hey kids, new Q&A up today regarding an upcoming space sim called Rogue System, made by a former USAF vet who looks to sims from Janes, DID and others as a model for the seriousness and realism he's going for here (i.e. dynamic campaigns, Newtonian physics, etc). It looks AWESOME.

http://www.spacegamejunkie.com/featu...

Enjoy!

Watching the footage of the nebula missions reminds me how I really want someone to use a modern particle physics version.

Veloxi wrote:

Hey kids, new Q&A up today regarding an upcoming space sim called Rogue System, made by a former USAF vet who looks to sims from Janes, DID and others as a model for the seriousness and realism he's going for here (i.e. dynamic campaigns, Newtonian physics, etc). It looks AWESOME.

http://www.spacegamejunkie.com/featu...

Enjoy! :)

Excellent, I was wondering if you'd put something together with him. Off to read as it showed up in my RSS feed now.

Scratched wrote:

Watching the footage of the nebula missions reminds me how I really want someone to use a modern particle physics version.

I know, right? I still don't think anyone has done nebula missions right since FS2. SSZ has one for example and it's just...not as creepy, you know?

LiquidMantis wrote:

Excellent, I was wondering if you'd put something together with him. Off to read as it showed up in my RSS feed now.

Yaaaay! Thanks man, I hope you like it!

Veloxi wrote:

Yaaaay! Thanks man, I hope you like it!

Nice write up! A bit higher level than the SimHQ interview that got into the "study sim" aspect. It's cool to see his over-arching plan. I'm really excited about this game and my wallet is fearing his upcoming Kickstarter.

The Rodina dev posted a new video. It's very much an alpha but the video is great to see the framework he has going already.

Yeah, saw that video in my RSS feed today. VERY exciting. And I'm glad you liked the interview.

Veloxi wrote:

Yeah, saw that video in my RSS feed today. VERY exciting. And I'm glad you liked the interview. :)

+1 for nice interview. Looking forward to Rogue System. May even kick in some kickstarter based on your interview when it goes live

Yaaaaay. This an Enemy Starfighter are totally moving closer to the top of my "OMGIWANTITNOW" list.

Veloxi wrote:
Scratched wrote:

Watching the footage of the nebula missions reminds me how I really want someone to use a modern particle physics version.

I know, right? I still don't think anyone has done nebula missions right since FS2. SSZ has one for example and it's just...not as creepy, you know?

At least there are some nebula effects on the game in SSZ. Like you (or your enemy) can't use missile lock in nebulas. I'll give them credit for giving it a gameplay effect at least.

Stele wrote:
Veloxi wrote:
Scratched wrote:

Watching the footage of the nebula missions reminds me how I really want someone to use a modern particle physics version.

I know, right? I still don't think anyone has done nebula missions right since FS2. SSZ has one for example and it's just...not as creepy, you know?

At least there are some nebula effects on the game in SSZ. Like you (or your enemy) can't use missile lock in nebulas. I'll give them credit for giving it a gameplay effect at least.

This is true, but what I loved about the nebulae in FS2 is just how creepy and spooky it was beyond the affects on gameplay. IIRC, they did it first, and it's still the best implementation of it to date.

LiquidMantis wrote:
Veloxi wrote:

Hey kids, new Q&A up today regarding an upcoming space sim called Rogue System, made by a former USAF vet who looks to sims from Janes, DID and others as a model for the seriousness and realism he's going for here (i.e. dynamic campaigns, Newtonian physics, etc). It looks AWESOME.

http://www.spacegamejunkie.com/featu...

Enjoy! :)

Excellent, I was wondering if you'd put something together with him. Off to read as it showed up in my RSS feed now.

Looks right up your alley, LM.

OMG, totally up my alley too. When he mentioned DID in the Q&A I audibly squeed because I love their sims.

garion333 wrote:

Looks right up your alley, LM.

Isn't that awesome? Now I'll need another cold start checklist.

LiquidMantis wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Looks right up your alley, LM.

Isn't that awesome? Now I'll need another cold start checklist.

I can hear your wife's eyes rolling get from here.

Veloxi wrote:

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!

That's great dude.

Veloxi wrote:

Well said, misplaced.

Hold on, aren't we on the internet? Shouldn't we be having heated arguments about whether the X games are the best thing ever or a threat to all sentient life in the galaxy?

And, speaking of Freespace Open: the convenient installer I'd used in the past doesn't work any more. What's the current recommended way to add the MediaVPS, etc., to a GOG installation of FS2?

misplacedbravado wrote:

And, speaking of Freespace Open: the convenient installer I'd used in the past doesn't work any more. What's the current recommended way to add the MediaVPS, etc., to a GOG installation of FS2?

I think that installer was outdated as well.

Follow the instructions.

Scratched wrote:

I think that installer was outdated as well.

Follow the instructions.

Come to think of it, the last time I successfully used that installer was several years ago. Pity it hasn't been updated -- it was really convenient.

Okay, manual installation it is.

Having missed the Freespace bandwagon back in the day I'm interested in what you guys are posting. So if I have this straight, Freespace 2 is on GoG.com for a reasonable price, and there is a mod called Freespace open that updates the graphics. Is that correct?

Correct, but it does far more than update the graphics. It's called open because the source code of the game was made open source a while back and the modders went wild with it. They have done a ton of work to the code to bring it up to modern standards.