To Infinity...and Beyond!

[DaCosta]

I could never get into any space sims ever, yet they still fascinate me.

On an intellectual level they sound like great games. Going around in a spaceship getting into dogfights in space combat games, exploring the universe and being a space trucker, smuggler or pirate in space sims. It all sounds pretty fucking awesome, but then I play the game and immediately drop it, never to return again.

I tried playing Wing Commander. The game was old and the controls needed a little getting used, and there weren't that many features, but it still had some pretty pixel art graphics annd the dogfighting was still fun, I think. I failed to escort some cargo 3 or 4 missions in, thought to myself "I'm going to replay that mission when I have the time, I know I can do it right". Never played the game again.

I tried playing Strike Suit Zero. It's more modern. Looks the part and all. Played a few missions and I guess I must've enjoyed it. Then I told myself "Tomorrow I pick up where I left off". Didn't play it again for at least 2 years. When I did I was in another space sim kick, thinking "I find the genre so interesting, this time I'll really go for it and get the most out of it". Replayed through the tutorial, figured "Now that I got through that initial chore, tomorrow I can start the game proper again". Never played the game again.

I tried playing Rebel Galaxy. The combat isn't really dogfighting, it feels more like naval combat, shooting cannons from your broadside and all. It may be different but it's still an interesting approach. Plus, it's a proper space sim, where you play a space trucker and haul and trade cargo accross the galaxy. Played it for an hour, thought it was pretty interesting. Never played it again.

Then there's all the controls thing. I bought a flight stick I found for cheap once, when I first got into a space sim kick. Barely used it. Felt a little discouraged to play, frankly, knowing I'd have to learn how to use the flight stick. Then I moved and lost one of the cables in the goddamn thing. The connector is pretty strange, I don't know if I can get a replacement. So now I feel discouraged for the opposite reason, because I feel like I shouldn't be playing it without the flight stick and I don't want to buy a new one or hunt for a replacement cable.

I don't really know what to say. I just never played them again. I don't think I disliked them, they seemed alright, I just didn't ever return to them, for some reason.

But then I look at other space sims now, like Elite: Dangerous, Everspace or House of the Dying Sun and think "Shit, that looks awesome!", and I just want to the plunge and buy them, but I have to get a hold of myself, because for all I know it will end up like all the previous ones where I play for an hour and never touch it again.


I guess I'm just curious about other people's experiences with space sims. If you like it or not, which sort of space sim you like, how you first got into the genre, etc.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

I love space-sims. At least the idea of them, but so few are up to my standards.
The first space-sim I ever played was either Tachyon - The Fringe or Escape Velocity Nova, I forget.
I could never play Tachyon today. The first person view feels forced and constricting.
It also causes a form of claustrophobia and makes it hard to judge the difference between where the camera ends and my spaceship ends.

I long for another Freelancer game to come out. The absolute pinnacle of third person chase cam Space-sims.
Star Citizen lit my hopes at the beginning, but I don't do Online games and thanks to that it also doubled down on forced first person view.
No real contenders here.
Escape Velocity Nova still holds the lead for 2D/top-down ones but there have been many contenders there.
(NAEV, Flatspace, 3030 Deathwar, Drox Operative, Endless Sky, Space Rangers, Transcendence.)

I don't use HOTAS or joysticks, only mouse and keyboard.
pls...no joypads/controllers..pls..

 

[Parrikle]

I loved Elite. A friend had it on the C64 and I played it occasionally. Later I picked up the MS-DOS port and played it for months. It was hard - docking was impossible at first, but made a real sense of accomplishment when you succeeded, and the scale of the game seemed incredible for the C64. I did try playing the sequels, but I always felt they had the balance wrong. It wasn't until Elite: Dangerous they they got it right again (largely by duplicating the original), and while I haven't had the time to play that the way I wanted to, I have it for when I do have the time. I purchased a flightstick just for it, then purchased a label maker so I could track what all the buttons did. There's a lot of game time in something like Elite once you get over the initial learning curve. The main problem is that you need a fair bit of time each sitting, so these days I'm more likely to play Overwatch or similar, so I can commit just 15 minutes or so and then return to what I should be doing.

Otherwise the one I loved most was Tie Fighter. When my daughter was born I had her sitting on my lap while I killed the rebel scum. Her first words were the "ping ping" of the lasers. I am very proud of this.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

Otherwise the one I loved most was Tie Fighter. When my daughter was born I had her sitting on my lap while I killed the rebel scum. Her first words were the "ping ping" of the lasers. I am very proud of this.

Sorry for the slight derail but, Daaaw, that is just too cute!
First word/sentence can be really telling of current environment.
My first sentence was "Daddy Pang deer"..In Swedish ofc.

 

[Parrikle]

Otherwise the one I loved most was Tie Fighter. When my daughter was born I had her sitting on my lap while I killed the rebel scum. Her first words were the "ping ping" of the lasers. I am very proud of this.

Sorry for the slight derail but, Daaaw, that is just too cute!
First word/sentence can be really telling of current environment.
My first sentence was "Daddy Pang deer"..In Swedish ofc.

The risk was that her first words would be "die rebel scum", which probably would have resulted in some odd looks when shopping.