Recommend me a space game

[shrekfan246]

I'm looking at Starpoint Gemini 2 right now, and while I like the concept, I'm still undecided on what I feel about the game itself.

For the record, while the basic combat is very similar in style to games like Freelancer, it allows you to toggle an autofire mode which means you don't need to spend five years trying to keep enemy ships in your sight just so you can aim at them.

Otherwise, the game certainly won't be everyone's bag either, and it's especially not something you should look at if you want a great and coherent story.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

After seeing like a million recommendations for Rebel Galaxy, I checked it out and liked what I saw. the 2D plane kinda seems like a waste, but if it really does do it as well as I hear they did, then I'm gonna trust that it's good.

I'm on a budget right now so it's going on the wishlist for the summer sale.

I did actually try to get the Evochron Legacy demo, but in the 3 times I downloaded it all I got was an invalid zip file.

Oh for- That still happens?! I thought the dev fixed that months ago! *sigh* I know there's a fix to it but I don't remember.

 

[LetalisK]

Rebel Galaxy - This game was actually on my wishlist, though I forgot to write it down. I'm not sure how I feel about the 2D plane, but it's not a dealbreaker for me. It's currently on a 50% off deal, so it's one I'm highly considering.

I think the talking bear put it right: it's like Black Flag's naval combat, but personally I think it's even better because it's more fleshed out. Not to mention it doesn't constrain how you play. Want to be pirate? Sweet, you can do that. Want to be the pirate stomper? Want to get your money by doing odd jobs and being an interstellar trucker/smuggler? Or would you rather play the trade markets and manipulate planets so you can get the best prices? Even the fighting itself is varied. You can work your way up to huge ships bristling with weapons or you can stick with a small speedy vessel for hit and run tactics. There are different ways you can approach combat then by just upgrading to the next big thing. Big ships vs little ships, broadsides vs turrets, cannon broadsides vs beam broadsides, auto turrets so you can focus on piloting vs manually firing them so you get a higher rate of fire, quick recharging shields/boosters vs longer lasting shields/boosters, anti-missile flares vs homing missiles vs dumb bombs vs mines, etc.

Also, if you get sick of the countryish music it plays, you can add your own. The game separates music between(for example), simple travelling music, bar music, and combat music with the music fading in and out depending on what's going on at the moment and it's done well to where it's not jarring when it switches from travelling music to combat music. I ended up adding my own music near the end and it does a good job of integrating that too.

I'll sum it up this way: I'm the dog from Up. I start a game, see a squirrel somewhere else, and then lose focus. I rarely complete games anymore, let alone space flight games. I didn't have that issue with Rebel Galaxy. Even at full fare it's worth it.

Now I'm afraid I hyped the game too much and you'll be disappointed if you buy it.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Also, if you get sick of the countryish music it plays, you can add your own.

How simple is the process?

Like, Evochron has that too, but it's .ogg format only and you have to manually separate them into "Sets" of 3 (Safe Sector -> Enemies present -> Enemies attacking), which was a pain in the ass for me to set up.

Please tell me that for Rebel Galaxy is just "plop .mp3 or .ogg files into Combat, Bar, open space folder and start game".

 

[Ironman126]

- Homeworld 1&2 Remastered

Loved every second of them. It actually just got an update that makes it play more like the originals, which is a very good thing. I cannot recommend these games enough.

- X: Rebirth

I haven't played Rebirth, but if it's anything like the rest of the series, then it's garbage. The previous titles feature controls that are beyond complex, gameplay that is boring at best and painful at worst, and tutorials that are useless.

- Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion

Loads of fun, but lacks a true single player campaign. Great if you have friends that play it, still pretty good even if you're solo, so long as you don't mind not having a campaign.

Of games not on your list, I recommend the following:

Elite: Dangerous if great if you don't mind dogfights and running out of fuel half-way between stars. The latter is easy to avoid if you have at least a high school level reading comprehension (which, based on the data, I do not).

EVE Online is my second favorite space game, after Homeworld 1/Remastered. Downsides abound, of course. The Combat is meh, the game in an MMO which means dealing with people, and there is the $15 a month subscription. But it is so good that I am willing to look passed those.

Space Engineers is fun, if a bit... different. It's Minecraft in space with physics. Fun, but you sort of need to be an actual engineer to make the best parts work.

 

[LetalisK]

Also, if you get sick of the countryish music it plays, you can add your own.

How simple is the process?

Like, Evochron has that too, but it's .ogg format only and you have to manually separate them into "Sets" of 3 (Safe Sector -> Enemies present -> Enemies attacking), which was a pain in the ass for me to set up.

Please tell me that for Rebel Galaxy is just "plop .mp3 or .ogg files into Combat, Bar, open space folder and start game".

Pretty much that. You can just straight up link the combat music to your itunes directory if you want. The only issue is it won't play mp4, so you'll have to convert those to mp3. What I did is I took a bunch of songs I wanted from my itunes, copied them into a separate folder, and just linked the combat music to that folder. Worked perfectly.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Also, if you get sick of the countryish music it plays, you can add your own.

How simple is the process?

Like, Evochron has that too, but it's .ogg format only and you have to manually separate them into "Sets" of 3 (Safe Sector -> Enemies present -> Enemies attacking), which was a pain in the ass for me to set up.

Please tell me that for Rebel Galaxy is just "plop .mp3 or .ogg files into Combat, Bar, open space folder and start game".

Pretty much that. You can just straight up link the combat music to your itunes directory if you want. The only issue is it won't play mp4, so you'll have to convert those to mp3. What I did is I took a bunch of songs I wanted from my itunes, copied them into a separate folder, and just linked the combat music to that folder. Worked perfectly.

Oh goody. That's how custom music should work. "plop, link, done". No faffing around.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

I have one recommendation to play and one to avoid. Avoid first...steer clear of Elite Dangerous. It is so utterly boring and is devoid of any actual game. There is a Bulletin Board for random generated missions, but you need reputation/restrictions to accept them, so you end up having ZERO missions you can accept. Yes that's correct, the mission generator generates missions you cannot even accept. Within a few hours of faffing about you will have literally experienced EVERYTHING the game has to offer, namely: docking at a station, undocking from a station, travelling between systems and "Super cruise". There's no autopilot and it's horrible controlling your ship in super cruise. I gave it two dozen hours, they were boring, tedious and I would actually pay money to avoid having to "play" it again.

One worth playing, X3: Albion Prelude. A lot of folks will suggest Terran Conflict over Albion Prelude, but AP is the ultimate of the X3 games and the "old" X universe. There are mods for it too which add most/all the storylines from TC into AP so you can still play thru all the stories and get all the goodies. The universe is great big enough to be huge (but not Elite: Dangerous 40billion systems or whatever that is frankly pointless since you'll never see them and they're full of absolutely nothing to do) but still have lots of things in it. You can mine, build, trade, explore and of course fight, you can fly anything from faster scouts and interceptors to heavy fighters, missile boats, carriers, capital ships, etc.

One reason to choose X: Rebirth over X3: AP, is that it cuts down on a lot of stuff. I own it but haven't played it and have heard mixed things. Either it's not great and lost what made its predecessors great OR it's been fixed by the added content and ongoing support and is a fun game. I expect that if you can live without changing ships (IMO I can't...working towards new ships/weapons is > 50% of my fun) then there's a good game to scratch your space itch

I have an X3: AP game ongoing atm. Entering some systems with gorgeous stars, nebulae, planets, etc is wonderful. Watching a capital ship pass right by you is white knuckle grip tense. The music is cool and the ships, weapons and upgrades are so well developed and nuanced. It's *so* nuanced I don't actually know what half the shit does. There's NEW categories of ships, hybrids between older categories, labelled +, like M5 and M5+, M4+, M3+ and even M6+. There are multiple storylines, the war itself, the Xenon (no idea what happened to the Kha'ak) and lots to do. Best of all it's single player and moddable so you can add/tweak many things with community mods.

 

[LetalisK]

snip

So then I have a question. I tried playing X1 awhile ago. I quit probably within half an hour simply because it felt too cumbersome and dense for me. Is X3:AP or Rebirth something I should avoid as well or is it more dirty casual friendly?

 

[Souplex]

If you have a DS (Which you do) you should see if you can track down a copy of Infinite Space.

 

[Poetic Nova]

If you don't mind an older title, i'd say Total Annihilation, or its spiritual sucessor Supreme Commander. Although TA has a more interesting world and lore imo. Both are RTS.

 

[LetalisK]

Another suggestions: S.P.A.Z. It's a fun little game with a lot of customization. Takes longer than you'd expect, but it has a great payoff at the "end".

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

snip

So then I have a question. I tried playing X1 awhile ago. I quit probably within half an hour simply because it felt too cumbersome and dense for me. Is X3:AP or Rebirth something I should avoid as well or is it more dirty casual friendly?

I think Rebirth would suit more. It was clearly designed for use with a console controller (not that such is the sign of a "casual" friendly game quote unquote, hear me out!) so the number of functions is significantly reduced.

X3: AP has a LOT of functions. I used a Steam controller and mapped a lot of stuff custom and I still have to use the keyboard frequently. I must be honest, I cannot tell if I remember X2: The Threat and X3: Reunion differently than they are, thru nostalgia goggles or I was much more willing to get into that much depth back then. X3: AP still lets you control a galactic empire, but I found navigating menus reasonably easy after some time. Like you remember easily which screen to use to do what. But since there's a LOT to do, it's not so accessible.

One example is the main storyline. Whether you start as Terran or Commonwealth, if you start the war storyline, missions will alternate between story and "Help the War Effort". The latter is your signal to feel free to do what you want, enjoy the sandbox universe and when you feel like it, kill some enemies and we'll carry on with the story. One story mission later on involves getting some items for a station, say 2000 of one thing or 500 of another. You need to buy them and freight them yourself, and they are not cheap, easy to source in such quantities or easy to transport. So to complete that mission you would have had to, in the freedom the game affords you, made enough money and invested in a transport ship

Saying that, all the "flight controls" do fit on a traditional 360/dual shock controller so you can pilot a ship quite happily and enjoy cool dogfights with pirates, aliens and filthy terrans! I personally haven't built any stations or set up a complex trade network, it's more than I wanted to invest. I *did* buy some trade ships, got some trade software for them and set them to auto-trade (Sector Trader it's called). I earn money and gain trade rank passively, as well as get faction reputation, and it leaves me to shoot things in my M3+.

There's a lot to do in the game but the thing is, you don't need to do it all, let alone at once. There is a whole ship boarding thing that I haven't explored. You can have a ton of fun and make money just shooting pirates, capturing (and selling) ships, exploring and that sort of thing. I think Rebirth is more casual friendly, in fact I think the game's raison d'etre was specifically to make the franchise more accessible.

And there's always Freelancer For fun space combat, exploration and story without the faff, it still can't be beaten

 

[Laughing Man]

I'm currently playing Stellaris and I'm having an absolute blast. A few bugs become obvious during the late game but Paradox updates its games regularly and well, so I'm not too worried. It's definitely their easiest grande strategy to get into though some of the advanced stuff is not in the tutorial. Then again I had little issue figuring things out once I got the ball rolling

Do not go with Stellaris, the late game is utterly broken, both on a gameplay level as well as a technical level.

Gameplay

Fleet combat is as complex as whoever has the highest number wins.... except that with the broken evasion mechanics it's possible to have vastly superior fleets comprised of the most powerful battleships trounced by inferior fleets made up of the weakest ships. Read about the Corvette and evasion stacking (the ship you start with) it's the only vessel you need to win the game.

Late game diplomacy comes down to stand on your own and watch as everyone gangs up on you or be part of a Federation and watch as you have no say in who or what you declare war on.

Talking of War the Warscore mechanic is horrible and serves to do nothing but artificially extend the life of enemy empires. That guy is bugging me he's been bugging me since the word go, I now have the fleet to invade and wipe the floor with his 20 or so planets but it seems the Warscore system allows me to only Cede 4 or 5 planets at a time. It is awful

Technical

It uses an engine that has no multi threading capability and is 32bit so the late game chugs even on my 4690K at 4.2Ghz and then it crashes when it hits the memory cap.

I would go with Sins Rebellion.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

If you have a DS (Which you do)

But-

I-

Uh-

How?

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

It's an obvious suggestion, but Elite. As the following reply reveals, it depends wildly on taste, but I adore it. I think it's particularly awe inspiring and engaging for anyone with an interest in astronomy/the cosmos.

It simulates our entire galaxy, for feck's sake... See a nebula out of your cockpit? Dive into the galaxy map, find it, and you can see what the rest of space looks like from over there looking 'back'. Ever been curious as to what a neutron star might do to a ship's systems systems if you get too close? Pack some heat sinks and repair modules, and find out...

I've not journeyed out anywhere near that far yet, but I gather the view on the way to Sagittarius A* is incredible (seeing black space or the arms gradually give way to seas of stars), particularly if you choose to ascend over the top of the galactic core, to finally descend into towards the supermassive black hole at the centre.

I have one recommendation to play and one to avoid. Avoid first...steer clear of Elite Dangerous. It is so utterly boring and is devoid of any actual game. There is a Bulletin Board for random generated missions, but you need reputation/restrictions to accept them, so you end up having ZERO missions you can accept. Yes that's correct, the mission generator generates missions you cannot even accept. Within a few hours of faffing about you will have literally experienced EVERYTHING the game has to offer, namely: docking at a station, undocking from a station, travelling between systems and "Super cruise". There's no autopilot and it's horrible controlling your ship in super cruise. I gave it two dozen hours, they were boring, tedious and I would actually pay money to avoid having to "play" it again.

Elite is like Marmite; you seem to hate it, I love it. For me Elite's one of the greatest gaming experiences I've ever had, and it just keeps on getting better.

...I mean, sometimes it goes sideways and sometimes it does stuff like the Engineers, but the perks for me utterly and completely trounce any negatives.

As for the underlined in order: what is and is not "actual" gameplay? Elite has its own pace and structure just like every other game ever made, so it's simply down to whether you subjectively value it or not. You don't, I do.

Missions: erm, not really? I'm not sure I've seen a station with "ZERO missions". I've seen stations (orbital or surface) that aren't offering jobs that tie in to my preferred faction or superpower, sure, but for those not RP'ing or working for Federation or Empire navy ranks, there are always some jobs up for grabs, be it from a faction aligned to a major power or an independent. I'm loyal to the FNA so I stick to Fed faction jobs - given I don't fly around Empire or Alliance space too often, I have all the jobs I could ever want or need.

Auto-pilot: why on earth would you complain about no auto-pilot in a flight/space sim? How would you wish SC to handle given it models the warp bubble drive's efficiency relative to bodies of mass? There is an auto-docking module, however, which is fun and handy for giving an extra little breather when busy trading or busy working for community goals.

And as for claiming docking, departing, jumping and supercruise is all there is to Elite, methinks you neglected combat (including the odd spot of ground assaults), exploration (be it in deep space hundreds - or tens of thousands - of light years out from the bubble, as well on surfaces in the SRV), mining, Arena (not tried it, 'cause I'm not overly interested in combat/PvP), Engineers (that seems kinda shite at the moment, unless you grind for the best modifications, but I'm hoping Frontier listen to feedback and tweak or even overhaul it), and, frankly, the sheer awe at having an entire galaxy to explore.

No other game's given me as remarkably authentic a Solar system to explore in such a way, from slowly noticing Saturn rising over the horizon of one of its moons, to exploring colossal night-dark craters with the only illumination being the SRV's headlights. Diving into ice rings gives truly spectacular sights (arguably some of the best in the game), and the entire vista will shift when you're deep within a far flung nebula, replacing the black of space with oppressive purplish, reddish hues in some parts of the Pleiades, for example.

You say you got bored of it after just two dozen hours? I must've put over a hundred hours on it, and it just keeps getting better.

 

[Don Incognito]

snip

Is there any point to it if I generally don't enjoy playing with a bunch of other people, and prefer a single-player type of experience?

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

Is there any point to it if I generally don't enjoy playing with a bunch of other people, and prefer a single-player type of experience?

Well I've not played a single minute of Open[footnote]Well, barring flipping between modes to reset the bulletin board... Not sure if that trick still works post-1.6/Horizons.[/footnote] and just stick to Solo, so yeah, I'd say an SP experience is fine.

That said, the background simulation and economy is persistent, and exists across the PC and console communities. There are also community goals featured, and I've found they can be fun to engage in (e.g. a recent one was an in-game/in-story celebration for the Distant Worlds PC expedition, where the CG was to bring in coffee, water purifiers and meds to help with the hangovers and clean up... this week's there are some combat goals, plus either trading or mining for gold, I think), as well as giving a healthy boost in creds sometimes (do well enough, for example, and you could get a 5 million pay out when the event ends).

You can always play on private groups, too, so you can avoid griefers and just go about your business whilst seeing where your friends are (or, obviously, joining up with them). Private groups weren't available on XB1 till recently, so I will likely be joining up with a group from the official forums.

Given the recent tweaks/updates, solo players can't really enter the very toughest instances anymore, though, but I think that's fair; there's logically no reason a low or mid level ship should be able to hold their own against, say, high-end dedicated fighters being piloted by veterans, or the biggest and best classes of ships in the game. Solo trading has gotten a little tougher, too, but all you need to do is take some precautions and you'll survive. Again, previously you could even run without shields, which was absurd, so the changes have been sensible.

 

[Don Incognito]

snip

Hmmmm. Maybe I'll give it a go the next time it is on sale. I've been wanting to scratch the Freelancer itch with a new game.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

*snip*

Those are the reasons I tried to get into the game. :s Sadly, it didn't quite "click" for me.

I didn't like the controls (I feel like I'm piloting a plane in space, not an actual ship. Everything felt like Pitch-and-Roll to steer, which felt really wrong to me), probably because I got used to how much freedom the other space sim series I'd played gave me with flying.

And I just...REALLY didn't like Supercruise. It's a neat concept, but I hated how it ultimately boils down to "Aim at your destination, Activate cruise, then wait 1-3 minutes, then carefully try to brake and if you overshoot the goal, that's another 1-3 minutes of supercruise". :s I mean, I like the concept, ESPECIALLY interdiction, but overall the mechanic just didn't click for me.

Still, I'm glad you found your dream space sim. I'm still looking.

Like I mentioned in a previous post, I REALLY like Evochron Mercenary (vast seamless universe with seamless planetary landing, and fantastic flight controls), but I feel it lacks in interaction and while the point-to-point drive is great for saving time, it feels like it prevents the sort of accidental adventures that should happen as you travel from place to place (pirates, distress signals, etc). It's the best I've played, but it's missing a certain jenesaisquois.