Ultimate Space Sim... Does it exist already?

Top Rate

Hey guys, new to the forum but I've scoured the inter and extrawebs for some idea ... some help.. in finding what would be, to me, the best space sim ever.

I fell in love as a wee lad with Privateer and since then anything that tries to come close (Read: Freelancer!) is very close to my heart. I've played the sh!t outta these games and love them. I've heard rumblings of mods for Freelancer, if anyone's played them please leave feedback...

Now... I get the impression that there just is no chance a game like Privateer / Freelancer can ever be what I truly want it to be, because on top of the space exploration/trading/combat and upgrading of my ship, I want a game that lets me do missions on the ground, walkin along. A - La Mass Effect where my character is also levelling up RPG style.

Does anybody know of anything remotely like this? I've heard about the "X" series, and haven't given it a shot yet. I'm aware of Freespace and love it, but ofcouse it has much more combat and much less :v: everything else I stated above.

I fear I am musing much ado about nothing, and fear the replies... the "SOL" feeling that may be appraoching me from behind.

Anyways --- Assistance Required! All suggestions will be taken seriously. Very seriously.

kuhlmeye

Some of the mods for Freelancer are very good. I suggest heading over to Lancersreactor and checking out some of the more popular mods. They don't really involve the RPG playing style you might be looking for, but they definitely add some more re-playability to Freelancer.

darleysam

Well having apparently been said by David Braben himself that Elite 4 is in production, I'm holding out hope that that will be everyting I could ever ask for in a space sim.

Everyone go buy Lost Winds to help fund it.

Indie Winter

A heavily modded X3 is a little piece of Space Sim heaven.

Also, Freelancer is extremely good.

subedii

Sounds like what you may be looking for is "The Precursors". It's an insanely ambitious free-roaming space RPG action game hybrid... thing. Look just watch the trailer OK?

Oooh, trailer

It's a Russian made game (all these really ambitiously free-form games seem to be coming from Russia and Eastern Europe these days don't they?) from the people that did "Boiling Point", which was quite heavily buggy but also very much an open world style of game. I've heard good things and bad things about Bioling Point, but if they can pull this off in the same way that GSC somehow managed to pull off Stalker, it sounds like it could be just the game.

EDIT: Another trailer with a bit more of the space combat shown at the end:

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/37359.html

Click on the link for hi-res.

If nothing else, if the game manages to take off you can probably expect for it to get the absolute tar modded out of it

Frem

Universal Combat!

Universal Combat is a space combat simulation. Universal Combat offers the player a very large game world to play in using varying forms of transport and combat. The player can pilot spaceships of varying sizes, land on and explore planets where they can then drive varying land craft, where more than 21,000 areas of interest are available to explore.

The game is most notable for its high level of detail. For instance, every single crew member on the ship is tracked in location, hunger, AI level, and fatigue. Every system onboard the players starship can be monitored and controlled. In order for the player to fly a shuttle, they must first take time to walk though the ship to the shuttle bay, forcing the player to plan ahead for tactical encounters. This often leads to a great many instances of emergent gameplay. For example, enemy boarding parties can be trapped on the ship by disabling Launch Control, which will not allow the intruders to escape via a shuttle craft or fighters.

I'm so sorry

Stregone

Independence War series.

Six

Universal Combat!*

*Not Universal Combat

subedii

Six wrote: »

Universal Combat!*

*Not Universal Combat

I'm not sure I can DERide an EK-splanation for this post that is SMART.

Silpheed

The Precursors looks like it has plenty of potential but I hope that it will be a bit more polished than the usual games that comes from Russia.

subedii

Silpheed wrote: »

The Precursors looks like it has plenty of potential but I hope that it will be a bit more polished than the usual games that comes from Russia.

Doubtful. You're really not likely to get a big budget blockbuster amount of quality there just yet.

But really, I've always found that a part of the charm of the games in a way. Assuming niggling little things don't really get in the way of the actual game, I can cheerfully revel in something that was built from the ground up on pure ambition.

I mean, Stalker was pretty buggy on release for example, but once it was patched and had Stolls' mod pack installed, it was a pretty unique game. You can't really find any major developers willing to try something quite like this. Closest equivalent I can think of is Rockstar with GTA.

Zilla360

So what are chances of 'The Precursors' actually coming out. Will we actually see a 360 release this year?
The last trailer I saw promised a 2007 release, which they've clearly missed.

subedii

Zilla360 wrote: »

So what are chances of 'The Precursors' actually coming out. Will we actually see a 360 release this year?
The last trailer I saw promised a 2007 release, which they've clearly missed.

Well Wikipedia states them as saying they were expecting to release in the first half of 2008, which they've also clearly missed.

Still, It's possible it might come out sometime this year, but barring an official announcement I'd say early 2009 sounds more likely.

Ninyu

subedii wrote: »

Six wrote: »

Universal Combat!*

*Not Universal Combat

I'm not sure I can DERide an EK-splanation for this post that is SMART.

Good job not uttering The Name of Which We Do NOT Speak. His presence has not been beckoned.

Zilla360

subedii wrote: »

Zilla360 wrote: »

So what are chances of 'The Precursors' actually coming out. Will we actually see a 360 release this year?
The last trailer I saw promised a 2007 release, which they've clearly missed.

Well Wikipedia states them as saying they were expecting to release in the first half of 2008, which they've also clearly missed.

Still, It's possible it might come out sometime this year, but barring an official announcement I'd say early 2009 sounds more likely.

If only these guys could actually deliver on what they promise, because what they promise is wonderful.

I actually paid money for Boiling Point, even after all the patches it still crashed.

subedii

Zilla360 wrote: »

If only these guys could actually deliver on what they promise, because what they promise is wonderful.

I actually paid money for Boiling Point, even after all the patches it still crashed.

Yeah, if anything, that's the big stumbling block. But like I said, if they can get it somewhere into the Stalker region of acceptability then it actually promises quite a unique gameplay experience.

Skillmore

its on your face

Top Rate

Thanks for the suggestions, just saw the preview for precursors, and what did he just go from shooting aliens to getting into the ship to sitting down in the pilot chair... wow.. fingers crossed for this one. Awesome space battles too, love those circular expanding explosions with slow-moving chunks of capital ships coming apart.

ALso, checked out Independace war footage, looks pretty space combat heavy but will check it out, anyone play it? is it > Freespace 2?

Finally I have to really get mentally prep'd to reinstall and play through freelancer again, then hit up the mod community.

Thanks for the suggestions and if anyone else has more to add keep em comin

Zandracon

Jumpgate Evolution looks pretty interesting, but it's still in beta. Like Freelancer but MMO, I'm guessing?

MechMantis

Independence War is for physics majors, honestly.


I simply could not play it. It was that nuts.

Mei Hikari

God, I loved Freelancer so much.

I know I'll never see another game like that, and it makes me a sad panda.

Sorenson

Hmm. Those Precursors movies were nice.

How did that Parken game turn out? I've seen vids and stuff of it but can't track it down for the life of me.

EDIT: Oh, yeah, and what about ROMANIANS! IN! SPAAAAAAACE!

DeMoN

Holy crap Precursors looks amazing.

All I want is a game set in the Firefly universe.

EDIT: Oh, and I want the space flight to use real Newtonian physics. None of this "airplanes in space" crap. The only game I know of that did this is the Eternal Silence source mod.

Nerdtendo

http://www.infinity-universe.com/Infinity/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCzDKj3hjOE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibZZRDIhtVo

I'm amazed it wasn't already mentioned.

Mei Hikari

I see no game in those videos.

I do see a nice engine that will never be completed.

Sorenson

DeMoN wrote: »

EDIT: Oh, and I want the space flight to use real Newtonian physics. None of this "airplanes in space" crap. The only game I know of that did this is the Eternal Silence source mod.

Maybe I'm one of the minority here, but man, fuck Newtonian physics. If we've developed FTL drives and artificial gravity and planetary terraformation and death rays and all that shit there's no reason we shouldn't be able to make momentum and all that stuff our bitch. And I can't think of a single instance outta' all the sims I've played where Newtonian physics actually made the game more fun THAN "fly as an airplane because we fucking want to" physics.

EDIT: Oh, great, top of the page. What to say...

Oh! If Precursors turns out to be moddable enough, I swear that never will I rest until a well-designed Star WarsxStar TrekxMacross crossover mod's been developed - and when it has I will die from happiness, my life's goal complete.

DeMoN

It's not really the lack of momentum that bothers me, it's more the ship designs themselves. A spaceship with all rockets facing in one direction will be able to go in one direction.

Sorenson

Vernier thrusters? Omnidirectional Microgravitywell manipulation? Sails and rudders and flaps that skim the ether?

Veegeezee

I used to play a game called Terminus. Seems to fit the bill pretty well, except for the planet-walking stuff, although it was a pretty tough game to get into.

see317

Sorenson wrote: »

Vernier thrusters? Omnidirectional Microgravitywell manipulation? Sails and rudders and flaps that skim the ether?

Man, I would so play a game like that. A steam-punk space flight sim.

cliffski

indeed, sign me up for steampunk in space too. Solar Sails FTW!

subedii

DeMoN wrote: »

EDIT: Oh, and I want the space flight to use real Newtonian physics. None of this "airplanes in space" crap. The only game I know of that did this is the Eternal Silence source mod.

You want Independence War 1 & 2. Personally I didn't really enjoy playing Independence War 2 (never tried 1).

Apothe0sis

I want a game that takes 3 years to fly from planet to planet.

subedii

Apothe0sis wrote: »

I want a game that takes 3 years to fly from planet to planet.

It's called NASA.

Zilla360

Apothe0sis wrote: »

I want a game that takes 3 years to fly from planet to planet.

http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/orbit.html

Jazz

Frontier: First Encounters, with JJFFE. I still await Elite 4, but with Braben's promises over the years I'll believe it when I see it.

SammyF

Zilla360 wrote: »

Apothe0sis wrote: »

I want a game that takes 3 years to fly from planet to planet.

http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/orbit.html

You beat me to it. I actually play with this sometimes, and it can actually be a lot of fun if you're like me and enjoy calculating vectors and angular momentum in your head.

Or you could play Freelancer. Freelancer is also fun.

jakonovski

Oh dear, that Infinity thing is sexy. One of the sad failures of modern gaming is that despite the huge increases in computing power, nobody is really interested in recreating the majestical vastness of space. It doesn't have to 1:1 (that would be silly since you'd be looking at dots most of the time), just something like Infinity there.

Arrath

Frem wrote: »

Universal Combat!

Universal Combat is a space combat simulation. Universal Combat offers the player a very large game world to play in using varying forms of transport and combat. The player can pilot spaceships of varying sizes, land on and explore planets where they can then drive varying land craft, where more than 21,000 areas of interest are available to explore.

The game is most notable for its high level of detail. For instance, every single crew member on the ship is tracked in location, hunger, AI level, and fatigue. Every system onboard the players starship can be monitored and controlled. In order for the player to fly a shuttle, they must first take time to walk though the ship to the shuttle bay, forcing the player to plan ahead for tactical encounters. This often leads to a great many instances of emergent gameplay. For example, enemy boarding parties can be trapped on the ship by disabling Launch Control, which will not allow the intruders to escape via a shuttle craft or fighters.

I'm so sorry

Worst. Impulse Buy. Ever.

Seriously, I couldn't even figure out the goddamned controlls enough to drive my ship into the sun and end my misery. All I did was sit there until I run out of fuel/oxygen and my crew died. At least in the infantry portion of the game I figured out how to dismount my tank and walk into a pond and drown. Played Struggled with the game all of 10 minutes and never touched it again.

edit: aw I thought the forum had strikethrough

SammyF

Arrath wrote: »

Frem wrote: »

Universal Combat!

Universal Combat is a space combat simulation. Universal Combat offers the player a very large game world to play in using varying forms of transport and combat. The player can pilot spaceships of varying sizes, land on and explore planets where they can then drive varying land craft, where more than 21,000 areas of interest are available to explore.

The game is most notable for its high level of detail. For instance, every single crew member on the ship is tracked in location, hunger, AI level, and fatigue. Every system onboard the players starship can be monitored and controlled. In order for the player to fly a shuttle, they must first take time to walk though the ship to the shuttle bay, forcing the player to plan ahead for tactical encounters. This often leads to a great many instances of emergent gameplay. For example, enemy boarding parties can be trapped on the ship by disabling Launch Control, which will not allow the intruders to escape via a shuttle craft or fighters.

I'm so sorry

Worst. Impulse Buy. Ever.

They have it on Gametap, which I signed up for so that I could play Sam and Max. You know when Universal Combat is good? When you're not paying any extra money for it.

Just kidding, it's never "good," per se.