Space Sims

[Captain Mobius]

I've just been thinking about how there has been a recent influx of indie space titles. I mean, we really are headed towards what appears to be a golden age of space games, as well as gaming in general. The indie dev community has been churning out games recently, like Elite: Dangerous, Space Engineers, Enemy Starfighter, No Man's Sky, Star Citizen, and, yes, Starmade. I think that it's really cool how much progress we're seeing in engines, software and dev capabilities. Check out some of the games I've listed, they're pretty cool if you haven't already seen them.

 

[Mered4]

Also Limit Theory! DO NOT forget Limit Theory

 

[jayman38]

I want to throw out a cautionary tale of a space sim that nearly died. The devs were shooting for extensive realism. They took 2 years to put out an update, during which time they lost most of the fanbase. I now have difficulty getting it to compile. Plus, the last time I played it, it had a built-in time limit on how long you could play it without "cheating" (by giving yourself rich funds to buy top-of-the-line equipment). This is due to the fact that after a while, your reputation would increase just enough for you to be noticed by pirates, who would then swing by your position at 30,000 kps, firing weapons with pinpoint accuracy, ruining a new player's day. It had an unprecedented ability to mod game settings and features, but those settings tend to be buried so deep in large XML files that only the most daring modders dare to alter their game. Development continues, but the community no longer has the energy it used to. The game I refer to is VegaStrike.

http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/

 

[MossyStone48]

I know the guy who made vegastrike. A lot of people at a certain forum have no love for him or his project. I tested a very early beta of the game. AAMOF I think I still have a copy some place. Privateer Remake was a nice effort too. Past that early beta tho I never could get the game to run reliably. Not seen much of the guy who made it in the old chatroom either.

For me, now, there is only StarMade.

 

[FunnyBunny14]

... ... ... ... ??? ??? ??!
?????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nobody, nobody (I'm almost cryimg)...
Nobody...
Nobody at all...
Why did nobody mention the most awesome, funniest and greenest (literally) space game:
KERBAL SPACE PROGRAM!!!!!!!! (Really crying now, even if it is only inside, deep inside, really, really deep inside, there aren't even tears. I am still quite upset though!)

I have devoted my entire kerbal career to building more compact and efficient rockets, and nobody even thinks to mention it? I am truly offended by these actions (they're actually more like inactions!!!!) of you lot here
(Ignores thread until someone agrees) (Joke, seriously, has it come that far that I have to put this here? Yes, FunnyBunny14, it has. Some people just take things too literally, so it is best to say what is a joke and what is not. But how is it a joke if you... (Very, very long discussion))

 

[RoyalWolfe]

what about this little gem i recently found?
https://www.seedofandromeda.com/

 

[NeonSturm]

X2 - The Treat
X3 - Reunion
X3b? - Rebirth

was the first space sim with proper graphics I've played

@schema should definitively see the video from this game: https://www.seedofandromeda.com/

Thanks for digging it out @RoyalWolfe

 

[ToyotaSupra]

I can't figure out what might have started this trend, I would say it's tv but we've been getting mostly things like GoT which isn't SciFi at all, I would say it's the 'cool nerd' thing but that happened quite a while back.

Nevertheless I'm HYPED for Elite:Dangerous, especially after I saw the single-player campaign.

@NeonSturm The landscape is certainly impressive, but I'm guessing you're after the idea of being able to crash on a planet and slowly rebuilding yourself back to space?

I would love to see planets of this scope, scale and beauty in starmade, though. Scheems should take inspiration:

 

[NeonSturm]

They did it in C++, dunno how big the performance differences are...

I especially like that they have 1/2 of our block size and are a bit curious what they did which solves the performance issues.

 

[MossyStone48]

I've plated every space themed game I could get my hands on. It can be a real wasteland. Space Rogue (Origins 1998)got close with 3D flight and FTL with RPG twists but I was really disappointed that the locations you visited were not 3D as well when two years prior Yuji Naka produced a 3D dungeon system for Phantasy Star (Sega 1987). Both games share an over-head view but used it in different situations. Wing-Commander came close. Privateer especially. The BC3000 series also comes close to what I'd like from a space sim but even Universal Combat fell short.

Then came StarMade. I've hardly played another game since.

 

[Captain Mobius]

... ... ... ... ??? ??? ??!
?????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nobody, nobody (I'm almost cryimg)...
Nobody...
Nobody at all...
Why did nobody mention the most awesome, funniest and greenest (literally) space game:
KERBAL SPACE PROGRAM!!!!!!!! (Really crying now, even if it is only inside, deep inside, really, really deep inside, there aren't even tears. I am still quite upset though!)

I have devoted my entire kerbal career to building more compact and efficient rockets, and nobody even thinks to mention it? I am truly offended by these actions (they're actually more like inactions!!!!) of you lot here
(Ignores thread until someone agrees) (Joke, seriously, has it come that far that I have to put this here? Yes, FunnyBunny14, it has. Some people just take things too literally, so it is best to say what is a joke and what is not. But how is it a joke if you... (Very, very long discussion))

Yeah, sorry. I was just sort of grabbing the nearest sims and tossing them on a thread; I totally forgot about KSP! That is a great game. Sorry for forgetting.

 

[Captain Mobius]

I can't figure out what might have started this trend, I would say it's tv but we've been getting mostly things like GoT which isn't SciFi at all, I would say it's the 'cool nerd' thing but that happened quite a while back.

Nevertheless I'm HYPED for Elite:Dangerous, especially after I saw the single-player campaign.

@NeonSturm The landscape is certainly impressive, but I'm guessing you're after the idea of being able to crash on a planet and slowly rebuilding yourself back to space?

I would love to see planets of this scope, scale and beauty in starmade, though. Scheems should take inspiration:

Dude, that would be so cool! Although, I feel like if schema tried to create something of that scale, instead of being able to smoothly transition between space and planetary environments we would end up with a clunky, lame world system. Not because schema is incompetent, but because the sheer scale would be incredibly difficult to manage.