How would you describe the perfect space sim for yourself?

[cultist]

For me this would be the perfect space sim game:SandboxLeveling upSkills that open up to more powerful classes of ships and weaponryTradingEconomy based on demandMissions (in these maybe put a storyline too)Exploring (hidden stuff in systems so you have another goal,to discover as much as you can of the galaxy)In Depth Crafting (building ships from raw materials if you have a shipyard already built and don't want to buy one from those pesky npc traders,or building your own weapons.)Possibility to build on planetsFactions/GovernmentsPiracyWarsA progressive galaxy with harder enemies (ex: you can't go to zone x if you don't have a ship that can take on the pirate/faction ships there,unless you have a good standing with those factions.)An AI that could do everything that i can.That about wraps it out.I wonder if such a game will ever be created.

[Pinback]

I would say mine was a combination of Frontier First Encounter,but with Freelance/Freespacecombat mixed with MegaTraveller 2 adventure and a bit of Sundog as well.For when you are outside the shipon the planets citys(a GTA style city look)

[Geraldine]

PINBACK wrote:
I would say mine was a combination of Frontier First Encounter,but with Freelance/Freespacecombat mixed with MegaTraveller 2 adventure and a bit of Sundog as well.For when you are outside the shipon the planets citys(a GTA style city look)
Yes, that about covers it for me too. I have high hopes Elite IV will be all these things and more!

[cultist]

i also hope elite 4 won't be postponed forever.and it should bring something new to the market,space sims just got repetitive,sadly.

[sscadmin]

Pinback you should be a game producer, because you make that one and the heavens will bless you with $$$ I really long for a very immersive SP story based game where you get attached to your wingmen and you have real exploration of space. I mean make it interesting with combat and everything but I really want the WOW factor when I discover something new and land on a planet to look around. I'm hoping Infinity will fill that bill because of the procedurally generated planets and universe. Because in theory I could explore for ever and not ever get to 'End Game' material. I know Infinity is a MMO but if someone can stick that in a SP game that would be great too. I know talk of Elite 4 is all about. But it has been mentioned plenty of times that Elite 4 might be a MMO so we'll see.

[cultist]

ahforgot to add another motivator to the list :Dthe achievements list - on visiting important sights in the galaxy,achievements that have to do with shooting enemies,trading achievements etcEdit:I really hope someone from the distant future will read this thread and make one game like thisi hope i will play it during this life :Dif not i hope we will be able to transfer our minds in robots

[Sirian]

My perfect space sim... well it depends of the genre, but in the shooter genre, I would like something like X3 but with planets, and without portals (or stargates or warp gates, call them what you want). Or if it has portals, it should'nt be the main way of getting from a stellar system to another. And there should be discovery, like with weird stuff you don't understand, mysteries to solve, etc...I also agree with cultist about the crafting part, i always like to use ressources to build things, and in most games this part is botched or inexistant.Oh and the game universe shouldnt be very populated, most of the planets/systems should be empty of human presence or lifeforms.Actually i'm reading cultist post again and i realise that i agree with most of his post (except maybe the leveling/skills part but thats a detail i'm not really against it anyway)>Darkone, the game you describe makes me think "Mass effect".

[sscadmin]

Sirian wrote:
Darkone, the game you describe makes me think "Mass effect".
A few people have recommended that I try this game, when I get the free time I will have to buy it and give it a try.I do agree with you Sirian that I would like to see more games with the open universe like a Evochron Legends where you can just fly and not have to worry about jump portals/gates and you can have seemless travel to/from planet surfaces. Crafting I would like to do things with as well, Space Force had a crafting engine a bit simplistic but it let you mine materials and loot ships for the items needed to craft the higher tech items. Yes it takes a while but builds the immersion I am looking for.Trophies or achievements wouldn't be a bad idea if you were playing a MMO so others can see some of what you have accomplished in game. I know I do my best to acquire the trophies in my PS3 games with a passion sometimes :)I would like to see the capture of ships upped a notch and let you fight it out in a FPS just like Parkan II does and you can run through the ship and loot it and leave it or tow to sell it. You could have fun scanning a ship for new tech and scavange it for parts.

[eps200]

Freespace 3

[Bullwinkle]

Personally, I think that games should run on any Vista-capable computer. If the computer can handle Vista (with Aero), then it is a pretty darned good computer, even if it only costs four hundred bucks. Intel's integrated graphics have come a long way -- they give incredible performance for the dollar, and they have MUCH lower power requirements which is vital on a laptop. Sure, I prefer dedicated graphics on my workstation, but I wouldn't consider it on a laptop.If the game requires special hardware, then I don't think it deserves to sell one copy, let alone millions. It is unnecessary and, in my opinion, inexcusably poor design. Mass Effect and Crysis may be great, but I won't know until I happen to feel like playing a game while I am sitting at a computer that will run them. I am not holding my breath.The most fun games I ever played had modest hardware requirements. Freelancer, Privateer, Wing Commander, Black and White, X-Wing, Doom, Return to Wolfenstein, Duke Nukem, all the Infocom games, Myst, and many of the Tomb Raiders -- they all ran on Windows 98!!! Freelancer, MechWarrior, and the rest, all run just fine on an ordinary laptop. (I only have to add an external fan to keep it cool!)******************************************************************************************************Warning: Rant continues. Probably best to just skip this, unless you have an opportunity to influence the industry. (Darkone, that means you!)******************************************************************************************************It's not that I don't love great gear! Because of my work, I get to spend a lot more money on computers than most people. I have had some outstanding gear over the years -- often beyond anything available in any computer store.But most of my equipment still will not run Mass Effect, Crysis, or the last Tomb Raider that I tried. Should I upgrade my PC -- which is excellent for everything else that I do -- just to play a game?I don't think so.It's not that I never played the "upgrade game"... I did -- more than most folks. I'm just sick and tired of the rat race. Especially since there is something about so many games that just doesn't appeal to me. Maybe I am different, but I thought Half-Life was lame and Steam is so invasive and tedious that I will never buy another Steam game.Oh, I could probably run most games on my workstation, which is a beast. But it is big and hard to move with all those monitors and, frankly, I just don't bother unless I really need it for something. Because of nVidia's lack of driver support for beefier operating systems (Windows Server), I can only use an ATI card. That's not terrible, but some games are crazy about assuming that everybody has an nVidia card.That's just my $0.02. Darkone, when you talk to game companies, I hope you will point out to them that the hardware race ended two years ago when Microsoft leveled the field by making everyone buy good enough graphics to run Vista. If they go beyond that, they're just excluding the majority of the market (who have perfectly adequate integrated graphics controllers).

[cultist]

I aproove Bullwinkles message!:D

[KageMusha]

I wanted something that would give me:Cinematic Battles between Capital Ships on battlefields as large as 32768 cubic kilometersGiving me the choice of:Choosing between ataining victory on foot by capturing the enemy's subsystems, or be a pilot and bomb vital systems from space.Allowing me to have:Fast and Furious dogfights between Fighters and other Tactical Craft in deep space. Escort you gunships to deliver a squad of marines to the enemy hangar.Providing me with:A True Space Experience. Cut your ship's engines and drift in the frictionless void of space.And not only space flight but also packed with:Action-Packed ground battles. Seize decks of your enemy’s ship, controlling or disabling their shields, weapons... Fight off the enemy and work as a team, fulfilling the role of one of many classes with an array of unique weapons at your disposal.Guess I found it...

[eps200]

I thought it only aplied to stuff that dosnt exist if it can include stuff that does an expanded ES

[Pinback]

You may want to have a look at this thread if you have not found it.I think you hit the nail right on the head there"content is king"http://www.spacesimcentral.com/surveys-and-polls-f9/things-you-would-stick-space-sim-t194.html

[sscadmin]

Oh exactly, content is king.I have been playing Star Trek Online beta the past few days and the one thing I was so looking forward to is exploration of space, that is one of Star Treks main themes 'to explore strange new worlds and civilizations and to boldly go where no one has gone before'. Well I'm not getting that feeling, now I am still learning the STO beta but the freedom isn't there.I want FREEDOM to do whatever I want. For instance I should be able to pic a nebula out or a star and point my ship in the direction and eventually get to it. In STO you cannot do that, so much for the exploration And another thing is that they limit your freedom because in a mission you will be able to teleport down to a planet. But if your not on a mission they won't allow teleporting down to a planet :(I have always like coming across those derelict ships or stations in a nebula cloud etc. So I would agree the content is king but also the freedom in how you give or get the content is a huge factor as well.

[eps200]

Here is an intresting concept i would love to see in a full space simhttp://www.ugoplayer.com/games/azulbaronis.htmlIts a flash game where your ship is identical to the AI ships one fighter cant bring down an armada five kills is goodmore multi-player hardly any that i know of outside of FS2 and mods most games dumb everything down in multi

[Stardreamer]

The clues are in my name...Freedom to roam. I want to see the beauty of space laid out before me. Distant galaxies filling the sky. Nebula ablaze with colour. Celestial events - sunrises, sunsets, eclipses. I want to see planets in high detail, to scale. I want to explore their surfaces. Stand on lonely mountains looking up at gas giants in the sky.Let me be the ultimate space tourist, and I can finally shed this thin thing we call 'real life' and let my soul be where it's always yearned to be.

[GUNSMIF]

I loved the elderscrolls morrow wind/oblivion series and think if a space game (in cockpit of course) were to be developed minus all the O.T.T RPG stats, that played like them it would be fantastic, instead of entering a cave or dungeon and finding gold swords and armor, you found ship weapons add ons and technology, added trading and a good combat system it would be awesome!!!! plus the atmosphere of the series if outstanding, and that i think makes all the difference with space games!Mix it up with other aspects our fellow pilots have mentioned and we are on a winner!!

[IronHound]

Stardreamer wrote:
The clues are in my name...Freedom to roam. I want to see the beauty of space laid out before me. Distant galaxies filling the sky. Nebula ablaze with colour. Celestial events - sunrises, sunsets, eclipses. I want to see planets in high detail, to scale. I want to explore their surfaces. Stand on lonely mountains looking up at gas giants in the sky.Let me be the ultimate space tourist, and I can finally shed this thin thing we call 'real life' and let my soul be where it's always yearned to be.
I want this. Yet, I think there could be a lot of potential in the 'Core Worlds' Make it an X3/Ev Nova/Freelancer type environment to start, and have lots of NPCs/Quests/Factions. Basically a populated section, with space stations and such, and the ability to join say.. the military, or be a freelancer. Yet, also have the ability to Star Control, or explore the farthest reaches of space. to land on lonely planets and look around. and have it be Single Player as well as an MMO. (Don't always have access to the internet.) Also, Freespace Combat, as well as the usual sandbox goodies.I dunno. I doubt such a game would come out, but it would be nice.

[Bouitaz]

Acey wrote:
*Snip*
This..very much so.