Recommend me a space game

[renegade7]

I've been playing Starmade a lot lately. It's one of the "Minecraft in space" games and some of the PVP servers are really good. The PVE is still pretty heavily in development though, but supposedly adding more diverse PVE is one of the major upcoming goals in the development roadmap.

I second the recommendation for Infinite Space, though it's not really a "space game" so much as a story-based RPG that happens to take place in space. It's really hard to find though.

I also can't recommend FTL, Homeworld, and Sins of a Solar Empire enough.

You could also sacrifice your soul and get into EVE Online. It's worth it, trust me.

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

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.

From what I know of Freelancer, Elite and it are worlds apart. There is no defined story or direction in Elite, and I'll admit the way into the game kinda sucks ass; no intro, no fanfare, no context, just the game starting with you sitting in a crappy Sidewinder in a station. Maybe 1.6 and Horizons have overhauled that, but I've not heard anything so I assume it's as abrupt and unfriendly as ever.

There are some tutorial vids launched from the game's menus, but frankly they're not exactly that well presented. If you ever do get Elite, head to the forums for some great beginners guides, or fire me a PM and I'll give you some pointers.

Elite's community is, for the most part, remarkably helpful - even in game; run out of fuel in the big black? Shut down your systems to conserve power, and head to the Fuel Rats website; they're a group dedicated to rescue/refuel for players, and have saved many a player from the otherwise certain fate of self-destruction.

/edit

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

I can understand that, though sometimes people do have really dumbass beefs with it, that usually arise from some specific expectation that ED never claimed to service.

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.

I've only seen bits of Evochron Legacy, and I'd say if the tutorial is any indication of that game's flight modelling, it handles like an arcade game compared to Elite (particularly with regards to just how swiftly the thrusters re-oriented the ship).

Not entirely sure what you mean by it feeling like piloting a plane, though. Since when did a plane flip on its axis to scan/fire in one direction whilst maintaining forward momentum? Sometimes if I drop at a station not facing the slot, I boost 'down' from above it, request docking, disable FA and tilt my ship horizontal, only toggling it back on to end up more or less perfectly level to enter. It takes practise, but it's satisfying when you get it right (ditto FA off boost turns in combat).

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.

1-3mins isn't accurate on an overshoot at all, though. At a guess I'd say maybe 20 to 30secs? Depending on if it's a station, what the size of the moon/planet is, etc, as the mass of that body will affect the drive. Also sounds like you never knew about the 7sec trick; regardless of approach speed, at 7secs to target, throttle down to the centre of the blue and you'll have a perfect drop every single time. ;-)

...though that's changed, now. Not confirmed this with anyone else, but I feel it's likely now dependent on ship mass, so your own build will have its own sweet spot drop. Nail that, and you'll never overshoot again as with the 7secs rule.

Oh, if you had issues with having to wait maybe half a minute on a lazy/bad drop, you should try the hike to Hutton Orbital in Alpha Centauri; from star to station it generally takes about 1hr 30mins. ;-)

Elite models the galaxy, so I feel supercruise is a fine compromise; you have the sci-fantasy of breaking relativity, yet exploring a new system feels like exploration because it can sometimes take a fair while (15mins between stars sometimes). Outfit with the best discovery scanner and you can reveal all bodies in a system in one ping - then you can decide whether or not to approach to surface scan, land on, or maybe just give 'em a miss.

Space is big - and it should damn well feel it, and so I love Elite's scale (took me about 20mins to approach my first black hole - partially because I was scanning worlds on the way, and partially 'cause I was kinda nervous... ).

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.

Did you know in Elite you can find one of the Voyager probes? I've not tried to track it/one down yet, but it's there in supercruise.

Have you played it since 1.6's mission (and graphical, and UI) overhaul, or Horizons? Missions boards are no longer just soulless lists - jobs are chosen per faction leader, and there's an avatar plus a little flavour text. Ship outfitting is so much better as well, as opposed to the bland, convoluted list of pre-1.6.

 

[Souplex]

If you have a DS (Which you do)

But-

I-

Uh-

How?

You play video games.
Therefore you have a DS or 3DS (Which is backwards compatible)

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Not entirely sure what you mean by it feeling like piloting a plane, though. Since when did a plane flip on its axis to scan/fire in one direction whilst maintaining forward momentum? Sometimes if I drop at a station not facing the slot, I boost 'down' from above it, request docking, disable FA and tilt my ship horizontal, only toggling it back on to end up more or less perfectly level to enter. It takes practise, but it's satisfying when you get it right (ditto FA off boost turns in combat).

By "plane" I mean that the "yaw" axis felt almost useless, and the only way to turn effectively was "roll, then pitch". That and turning flight assist off still made me feel like I was flying forward.

I'm used to being able to hit the spacebar to disable flight assist/Inertial Dampening and the ship turns into a damn gyroball that coasts effortlessly in the direction I was just going in, allowing me to pull a 180 with the mouse controls and shoot at stuff behind me. Flight Assist off only seemed to weaken the effect of the forward thrust, not disable the forward motion entirely. (Like, I'm used to having NO forward thruster power at all when I turn off flight assist, unless I'm boosting)

That I've become accustomed to being able to make reasonably sharp turn on the Yaw Axis. That alone was aggravating. I'm more used to shooters and stuff where horizontal looking around and turning is essential, not so much pitch and roll. :s I got my ass handed to me in the handful of pirate fights I got ganked by (I didn't even get more than one small volley off) and it kinda soured my experience, especially since escaping is much harder.

Also sounds like you never knew about the 7sec trick; regardless of approach speed, at 7secs to target, throttle down to the centre of the blue and you'll have a perfect drop every single time. ;-)

...though that's changed, now. Not confirmed this with anyone else, but I feel it's likely now dependent on ship mass, so your own build will have its own sweet spot drop. Nail that, and you'll never overshoot again as with the 7secs rule.

That's good to know. If I ever reinstall, I'll keep that in mind.

Like I said, I like the concept of Cruise, as it lets you get intercepted or have adventures happen along the commute. If I'd have known the trick to getting easy stops, I'd likely have been kinder to it, especially if I didn't have such a bad reaction to the Yaw axis situation (or maybe if I used a controller instead of mouse+keyboard)

 

[Meximagician]

I've only played the demo, but Tachyon: The Fringe likes to follow physics occasionally. Press the 'slide' button and your ship will continue maintain it's vector, regardless of how much energy is diverted from engines mid-slide. It was great for getting from one dogfight to the next: divert all power to engines, go to full speed, slide, then divert all energy to recharging weapons and shields mid-slide. Newton's first law FTW.

 

[The Madman]

I am very disappointed in these forums. How has no one said Freespace 2 yet? Widely considered one of the best space sim ever made, it's got both an amazing base campaign plus one of the best modding community in the entirety of gaming.

Released in 1999 by Volition (Yes, now known as the Saints Row guys) it was a continuation of the popular Descent series that took the franchise out of cramped corridors and into the wide expanses of space with spectacular results. Amazing gameplay combined with a surprisingly solid story made both Freespace games exceptional for their time. What makes 2 stand out even more however is that in 2002 Volition released the games source code for free onto the internet, ensuring that what was already a thriving modding community had the tools to do with the game pretty much whatever they want.

Nowadays not only are there mods for much improved visuals in the core game, but fan campaign exist for all sorts of things from expansions which take place in the game universe to campaign set in original settings to stuff involving the Star Wars and other properties, most famously a total Battlestar Galactica conversion is out there as an example.

My favourite trailers remain these two, old although they might be.

For the base campaign:


For the Blue Planet fan campaign:


Freespace 2 is available on GOG.com and the main forum for the still ongoing open-source project can be found here.

Hell, just take a look at the GOG reviews if you don't believe my love for this game as legit; 'The Pinnacle of Space Combat' 'Probably the best space simulator out there!' 'Nothing like it since' and it remains one of the highest rated games of their entire catalogue with over 6000 votes.

 

[Lightspeaker]

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 really, really want to like Elite. But personally whenever I load it up my immediate thoughts are along the lines of "What the hell am I doing? Where the hell am I going? How in the name of god can I get to the system I'm trying to get to? How am I supposed to know how all of this works?"

Then I fly around for a bit, get more lost and then turn it off. Usually after staring at the map totally baffled for ten to twenty minutes.

I've played a lot of space games. And complicated systems don't phase me considering some of the utterly impenetrable games I've played which took dozens upon dozens of hours of research to play. But Elite comes across as a special brand of blanking the player; and given the sheer scale of it I just take one look and am immediately exhasuted.

Eventually I guess I'll take a look again. But with my backlog it'll probably be a while...


Edit: On a side note - everyone saying Freelancer is correct here. That's a fantastic game that absolutely everyone should play.

 

[infohippie]

No FTL on the list. You need to try out FTL it's a totally different experience, but one I bet you were looking for.

Rebel Galaxy

This one surprised me by how much I enjoyed it. You pilot a single ship in space. I'm too tired to get into specifics, just that the only thing better than the gameplay is the atmosphere. One of the things I thought would rub me the wrong way, only being able to pilot your craft along an X and Y axis(no Z), didn't actually bother me in the slightest.

These are the two games I came into this thread to recommend. I just completed Rebel Galaxy the other day and it was fantastic. Naval style ship-to-ship combat with a space western atmosphere.
FTL is a very different experience, I was surprised by just how absorbing it is. And it's pretty cheap on Steam, definitely worth picking up.

I'd also recommend Elite: Dangerous, I've been having a lot of fun with it. It really does need a joystick, though, or a HOTAS for the full experience. Playing it with my own HOTAS has been amazingly immersive, and it's being updated all the time.

I've just picked up House of the Dying Sun on Steam, and though I've not spent much time in it yet it looks like it will be a great experience. In-cockpit like Elite, but with simpler controls and easily playable with a mouse or a controller.

 

[happyninja42]

If you have a DS (Which you do)

But-

I-

Uh-

How?

You play video games.
Therefore you have a DS or 3DS (Which is backwards compatible)

I play video games, and I don't own a DS or 3DS

 

[shrekfan246]

I am very disappointed in these forums. How has no one said Freespace 2 yet?

Well, OP said they're not really looking for dogfighting and a few of the recommended games already skirt that pretty closely.

 

[Ryotknife]

If you have a DS (Which you do)

But-

I-

Uh-

How?

You play video games.
Therefore you have a DS or 3DS (Which is backwards compatible)

I have a gameboy color that i still use and dont have a DS or 3DS.

....do i win?

In all seriousness though, I have been looking at getting a new handheld seeing how the last one I had was the Sega Nomad, although im kinda leaning towards the Vita.

 

[happyninja42]

Well if you're not looking for dogfighting games, the Homeworld series is a great space gameline. It's in space, but it's an RTS. Has great music, an awesome story, good voice acting for most of them (Homeworld 2's VA was terrible in my opinion, but 1 and Cataclysm were top notch).

Some of my favorite games of all time.

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

By "plane" I mean that the "yaw" axis felt almost useless, and the only way to turn effectively was "roll, then pitch". That and turning flight assist off still made me feel like I was flying forward.

Ah, that kind of plane. Not sure if that was you not being entirely clear, or me just being amusingly daft. ;-) Though ultimately it pertains to the same thing.

I'm used to being able to hit the spacebar to disable flight assist/Inertial Dampening and the ship turns into a damn gyroball that coasts effortlessly in the direction I was just going in, allowing me to pull a 180 with the mouse controls and shoot at stuff behind me.

Disabling FA does exactly what you describe, though. If your ship's pitched at, say, forty degrees down from an arbitrarily fixed plane and you disable FA to pitch ninety, your trajectory/forward momentum remains at forty.

Are the maneuvering thrusters less effective than the main engines? Well, derp. ;-) Unless you want comparable size and power engines mounted around the ship (which would colossally overburden all ships, plus change how they handle, plus require higher grade shield gens because of the greater total mass), FA agility during intensive situations like combat will always be rather moderate (though canny use can be the deciding factor between victory and utter defeat. it's essential against higher ranked NPC's after recent AI tweaks).

Flight Assist off only seemed to weaken the effect of the forward thrust, not disable the forward motion entirely. (Like, I'm used to having NO forward thruster power at all when I turn off flight assist, unless I'm boosting)

Elite rather stringently obeys its Newtonian laws; the momentum/velocity gained by the applied thrust at the moment FA is disabled remains the same. Reorient and reapply main thrust and you'll need a certain amount of power to scrub off or cancel out the gained momentum.

That I've become accustomed to being able to make reasonably sharp turn on the Yaw Axis.

Given the size/power of the thrusters mounted around the ship, and the ship's mass, was/is that realistic, though?

I got my ass handed to me in the handful of pirate fights I got ganked by (I didn't even get more than one small volley off) and it kinda soured my experience, especially since escaping is much harder.

When was that? 1.6 and Horizons have brought a lot of changes.

I really, really want to like Elite. But personally whenever I load it up my immediate thoughts are along the lines of "What the hell am I doing? Where the hell am I going?

Pretty sure the only question you should ask yourself on starting the game is 'what do I want to do?', and then everything is a logical step from there.

If you have a broad RP then that'll dictate what you want to achieve and how you go about doing it.

If results and creds are the be all and end all (never a good way to approach Elite, to be fair, given such players obviously just burn themselves out), then generally speaking you either have a look around the mission boards to start gaining influence with a given faction/superpower (the better your standing, the more jobs will offered above your rank, ergo rewards are all greater), or you just do a couple of jobs to maybe buy some better lasers for the Sidewinder, then head straight for the nearest RES or low-RES; pick some Wanted targets, get enough hits in before the system security open up and you'll get their bounties. Within a session you'll very likely have a few hundred thousand creds to buy a starter ship suiting your preferred role.

...How in the name of god can I get to the system I'm trying to get to?"

Erm, select the destination on the map? Then jump to it? ;-) (if a system's permit-locked, then obviously that's a bit different. ranking in the navies of the Federation or Empire's very straightforward if permits are all you're after)

Then I fly around for a bit, get more lost and then turn it off. Usually after staring at the map totally baffled for ten to twenty minutes. / But Elite comes across as a special brand of blanking the player; and given the sheer scale of it I just take one look and am immediately exhasuted.

I don't really understand that, given if you have any passing knowledge of the game and the kinds of things you can do, it's just like any other open-worlder - there's always a clear path of progression. In Elite it's even simpler than any RPG; get money to get ships/parts...

Eventually I guess I'll take a look again. But with my backlog it'll probably be a while...

If you've not played since 1.6 or Horizons, then it's a very different beast.

Either way, if you do get back into it, feel free to fire me a PM for pointers or/and head to the forums, where the resources are considerable and there are always knowledgeable people ready to help with any question.