Been whatching Ad Astra take shape over the last few years and its a huge achievement by Steve

Chapman.

Only whish the commercial devs could show show much imagination,instead of the usual 25 year old Elite

gameplay with some nice graphics and a couple of over hyped features (x3 being a good example). 😆

Couple of ever point about the game I would make,is that it does require a powerful system to run it

on.So I wont be playing on my netbook. 😥

And I always felt that being attack by pirates as soon as you start of game is a mistake

(inless this has now changed) IMO the first system should be neutral to let the player get a feel for

the game.

As Stardreamer said the game is definitely worth downloading.

You nailed X3, Pinback. As much as I do enjoy the game, and dribble over how pretty everything looks, I still look around what's on offer and see nothing but shortcomings. Planets that are so much eye-candy rather than something you can land on. The horribly artificial 'town-square' navigation set up. Alien races that don't act alien in any sense (the Xenon and Khaak are just gun-fodder). The fact stations now look identical no matter what race they belong to...

But worst of all is the amount of genuine work you have to do to get anywhere. At it's heart X3 is a business sim and that just turns me cold. I don't want to be a space-industrialist. I want to EXPLORE, and more than just a grid full of identical stations.

For these reasons Ad Astra represents a step UP from X3 for me. As I said, Steve should be very proud.

That pretty much how I feel about the X games.

you never get to be Han Solo in the X games only a company director.

One of the things I like about Ad Astra is that it has animals on the planets.

You dont often see that in a game.

Funny you should say that about the animals, but I just noticed in Universal Combat (freeware) today that they've managed to cram a few horses and even bears in there (oh my). They just wander about like badly animated robots (which could be said about his human figures, too, although I think this may have been improved upon in later iterations of the game) but still, the gesture is appreciated.

I love that the animals in Ad Astra blow up the same as spaceships when you shoot them. 😀

Iam hopeing to see some strange alien animals in Precursors.

We all just want to see Precursors get released, that game has way to much promise to slip into the vaporware blackhole.

I need to give Ad Astra another try. I know I played around with it one evening and thought the flying was quite difficult but I think I setup my controls wrong or something. So many games so little time 🙂 I do my best to try them all...

IIRC the controls are very sensitive and any sudden movement will send you into a spin.

Darkone have you sent an email to Steve Chapman's as I recall he was looking for feed back about the game.

Cool looking game. For some reason, the screenshots of flying in beautiful planets and flying over cities and seeing other planets in the sky reminds me of Spore's space stage.

I'm gonna look at it some more. I miss Spore. Some people don't like it, but I think it's a very impressive and fun game. I'm just not playing it right now, because I got to upgrade my computer before I can. It's got a crappy graphics card and a new PSU is needed to support a high graphics card that some people suggested to me.

But, I'm not planning on saying good-bye to spore just yet. If I can play it again some day, I'm gonna get Galactic Adventures.

If you like Ad Astra check out the Russian remake of FFE in the Space Sim Community Projects

section and the indie game Evochron Legends in the Starwraith Games section.

What would you say are the differences between Ad Astra in comparison to FFE?

What does it set it apart from it?

I havent played the game for while as the netbook not capable of running it,things i like

about Ad Astra are the planets,life on planets which is not in Frontier,combat and flying

the ship about the same as Frontier(hard).Not to keen on the menus system used in astra.

Thought so myself.The life on planets is the only feature that FFE does not have.

What a shame 🙂

The space sims haven't progressed much since FFE and the year it was made.

I emailed Steve Chapman the developer behind Ad Astra and he graciously gave me some info on the next update.

Oh and Stardreamer, Steve wanted to address your issues on the user interface but you need to give some specifics?

And Steve if your reading this thanks for the feedback 🙂

Good to see he still working on the game. 😀

In less it changed What I like see done is making the start system the player starts in safe ie only the player should initiate any combat.As it stands at the moment you are attacked as soon as you start the game,this would give the player a chance to become familiar with the control and features of the game.

Did you know that you can set the pirates and aliens passive? They won't start attacking you until you shoot at them

Oh really didn't know that, thanks for the tip Cultist. Is the update what you were looking for in the next version?

Well the update will make my life easier in the game 😀

So it is most welcomed.

But i was looking for more features also.

Not saying that i'm not satisfied with how things are going now with this game.

Another wish of mine : i t would really be something if the game creator could drop by 😀

PS: this game along with other ones out there that don't have top notch graphics show how important the ideas behind the game really is.

Did'nt realise that myself must read the manual 😆

But I still think the first system in the game should be a safe one.

Oh, superb! It's still in development! I was afraid it had been lost to RL after the IGF awards. I henceforth await the March-ish update with fervent anticipation! 😎

Ah. Ok. Um. I can't quite remember what bits particularly I was unhappy with back then (memory like a seive...:D ) so I'll see if I can have another play around and report back. I think I still have Steve's e-mail addy around here somewhere (computer filing system like a seive... :D) but I may just post 'em here.

He's a good man is that Steve.

This game is in serous need of lateral thrusters with an "engine's off" mode for manual flight. Currently, it's a pain to maneuver in combat without 6-degrees of lateral control. I mean it's space fer-christ's-sake..

In the F5 tactical view, it's possible the pitch and yaw your ship, but you can't roll! Why can't I roll in tactical view??

In the system view, every time click on a planet there is an annoying info window that keeps popping up. Also there should be a way to set the pan controls to the mouse in the system view and tactical.

The universe view is cumbersome as well. it's too hard to find an intended system. Also, in police and navy mission, the amount of fuel need to jump should be included in the briefing.

Those are the ones off the top of my head.

As promised Steve Chapman has released a new version of Ad Astra. Feel free to write a review and let everyone know your opinions on the new release. Check out all the details of version 1.3a below:

You can download the game from here: http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums ... tID=379449

Found a nice vid of Ad-Asta gameplay,not played the game for about a year,its looking good,like

the asteriods in the gas gaint rings. 😀

Look like its come on quit a bit,the ship looks a lot more detailed. 😀

Just a bit annoying that I can't play it at the moment. 😥

Hi @all,

this game is truly a masterpiece!

I want you to know that a new version arrived:

Write Steve a e-mail, he listen to feedback and makes almost everything possible!

Bye muni