Next round is on me.

[IronHound]

Hello all, for the last few years, Ive been on the hunt for a good space trade/combat sim. In my search for something that *sticks* Ive come across a good majority of the modern space genre. It all started with a little game called 'Wing Commander' My father played it, and I was engrossed with the included ship blueprints. I have vague memories of watching him play. Since then Ive tried the following;Freelancer*X2X3 TC*EV Nova*Evochron LegendsSpace Rangers 2Tachyon the FringeDarkstar OneOolite*FreeSpace 2*Beyond the Red LineEVE* - stands for games that I really liked.In addition I have tried several 4x empire management type games.GalCiv2Sword of the StarsSins of a Solar EmpireOverall I still have Oolite still installed on my computer... and thats about it. Even Oolite just doesn't 'hold' me. I think I enjoy the exploration the most, with slick combat coming in a close second. I am eagerly awaiting Black Prophecy, and just downloaded Privateer Gemini Gold. I tried the latter recently, but never stuck with it. Going to give it a second chance in hopes of stalling my space game slump.Anyway, enough about me. Since you poor sods sat through my sordid tale, the next round is on me.

[cultist]

First to say Hello!That is a nice list of space sims that you have played right there :DI hope you will feel here like home,on what ever planet that may be ;)And Welcome amongst us.

[sscadmin]

Hi IronHound welcome to SSCI am also looking forward to Black Prophecy the most out of all the MMO's that are coming (minus Infinity: The Quest for Earth that will be the game to beat), I just hope Reakktor gets a publisher soon so they can get this game out to the public.X3TC I have it on my machine right now with 2.5 patch and some mods and going to play through it slowly. When you get the chance you might want to give Nexus: The Jupiter Incident a try for a 4x game I like that one a lot and the is a few nice mods for it as well.Dive into the forums and have fun i'm sure there is some games you never heard of here and the link list is growing like a weed so take a look at that too.

[IronHound]

Thank you both for the warm welcome! I actually just scoured your forums, and it convinced me to give Privateer another try. I almost gave Terminus a look as well, but it seemed to have some issues of its own.I keep hearing the term 'vapourware' in reference to Infinity, however once I checked out the site, it did seem rather interesting. It will be slow going if they are still working out how to implement a good lighting method for their random generation...The Jupiter Incident? I might have to google that one when I wake up. I heard it was fun in spurts, but also rather linear as well as glitchy. Generally inferior to Iwar 2. Having played neither, I'll give it a look.*EDIT* Just googled the steam version as well as a skirmish mode mod thread. Very surprised I havn't heard much about this game, which is odd considering it looks rather similair to Homeworld. Thanks for the theads up!

[sscadmin]

Infinity is probably not going to be released until 2011-12 but it is definitely not vaporware its community is huge and a lot bigger than any of the other space MMO's with EVE Online being the exception. Nexus:TJI is a 4x and I-War2 isn't but both are worth a try especially I-War2. Privateer Gemini Gold is a nice game and have it on my machine as well. Make sure your running v1.3 it came out a few weeks ago.

[IronHound]

Yeah, the 1.3 seems a bit more stable then the previous version. ( I remember startup problems.)As for Nexus, the Steam page makes it sound like an RTS, I think 4x I think Galciv or Sins of a Solar Empire. 26 missions sounded like a strategy game, hence my confusion, thanks for clearing it up.

[SolCommand]

M8 I can tell you Nexus has a wonderful story and is also an "eye-candy". I loved it the moment I installed it !

[sscadmin]

Plus star trek mod is great, get latest on moddb

[IronHound]

Couple more weeks and I'll have access to my home laptop. I'll definately give it a once over when I get the chance.

[Shant]

Hey there Ironhound, I just joined myself a few weeks ago and at this rate even D1 will be saluting me in no time. You're among brethren here amigo, welcome. Reading your first post you sound much like myself, I'm in a constant state of finding a new space sim that 'sticks'. I've played most of the newer games in your list, but recently got Freespace 2 working with my xbox 360 controller and I am having an absolute BLAST with that one. That's how capital ships are done baby. I can't go as far back as you though, with the privateer/wing commander games. I need the eye candy too much. Freespace 2 was a stretch for me graphically, but it's just new enough that my imagination kicks in and gives the graphics an upgrade, if you know what I mean. Let me make my recommendation for you. Go with Iwar 2. It's got all the goodies we like, exploration and combat and a top notch story with cut scenes & all to go with it. Upgrades, modular ship design, and a really well written encyclopedia that goes into even subtle details about how the shielding systems work and such. You can't miss. It's hard though, and the realistic newtonian physics takes a little time to get used to. I don't see Starlancer in your list either...that's a quality game, similar to Freespace 2. There's a demo right here on SSC. If you don't find a game that sticks between those 2 I'll be shocked.

[IronHound]

Unfortunatly, I went from a Netbook to a Mac.My love of space games is pretty close to done with. Ive spent almost a YEAR now looking for a game that rivals Freelancer. Nothing.I-War sounds good, but its impossible to find, and it wouldn't run anyway. I love my mac, and dualbooting, frankly, would be a downright PAIN.Terminus might be an option, but I doubt it runs on OSX.I just want a freelancer-ish clone. Oolite is ok, but gets boring pretty quickly. Privateer is fine, but hardly something I would play for more then a month. Eve, and X3TC just take too much to be fun. I want an easily accesible, yet fun, mac game like freelancer. EV Nova is fun, but hardly something that I play all that often, would rather have it be first person.So far I'm stuck with Privateer GG. and privateer Ascii. (and X3tc, but it is just.. too much an eco-sim then a space sim.)I'm just down and out on Space sims right now, the only one that even really caught my eye was Terminus, and that is IMPOSSIBLE to find.Anyway, enough of me whining, thanks for the welcome!

[Pinback]

You can find a copy of Terminus on the Elite games forum,make sure you run it through a virus checker first.If you want the disks with the manual there should be a couple of copies on ebay.

[IronHound]

The Frontier Forums?I must be missing something, searched high and low.

[Pinback]

IronHound wrote:
The Frontier Forums?I must be missing something, searched high and low.
No the Russian one.http://www.elite-games.ru/

[IronHound]

I actually thought you where joking at first. Thanks for the heads up.

[sscadmin]

You have a direct link to to Terminus and I will download it and upload it here for people. Has it been released to freeware?

[IronHound]

I'm not entirely sure, the files are .iso files, and translating the page doesn't give me any clues. I don't think its abandonware quite yet, as the site is still up, and the game can still be found on the developer's website. (Vicarious Visions)Which may be why Pinback was keeping it on the DL.Maybe we should all just look the other way? >.>

[Grimloon]

Terminus is now abandonware. I managed to find a download link here but I'm not sure if this is a combined Linux/Mac/PC version. Unfortunately the poxy server at work didn't like the like I was checking for a Mac download so I can't verify that one There is still an active site that I'm currently perusing which has the license to the engine and is apparently still working on it - Terminus Point.I've never played it myself but my curiosity usually gets the better of me and my Google Fu is strong

[Taymar]

Not that you're one to waste time on things that aren't important Grim.Terminus is one I've heard of but like Grim, never played. The only site/community I've got involved with dealing with stuff like this is the Freespace 2 project, a site I haven't visited for a long time. While I'm all for people making MODS and tinkering with source code, it's not really my bag and the thought of looking at millions of lines of code doesn't excite me at all. I'm a firm believer in 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it', a line that I agree doesn't apply to most abandoned space games but as the guys at X Wing Alliance Upgrade project proved, you can only make it look as pretty as the game engine will allow you to and for most Space games that's not terribly pretty as there have been so few over the last 5 years or so.(Sorry, I really do sound like a broken record on this subject, I apologise)I'm more of a 'Lets use what we know to improve what's coming rather than trying to make what's gone look and work better', kind of guy.

[Pinback]

Its a bit of grey area with some of these games.