SpaceSimCentral

Hello all, I've been a long time lover of space sims, and now I'm looking for something to scratch my space sim itch. I've been looking around for quite some time for the 'perfect' game for me, but have not yet been successful.Basically what I'm hoping for is Starshatter the RPG. AKA, realistic Newtonian physics, capital ship combat, but with the element of exploration that Starshatter lacks. I don't even care if you can't change ships, as long as the one you have is a larger ship, NOT a fighter.Does anyone has any recommendations for me?Thanks much

Off hand the only one I can think of is Battlecuriser/Universal combat or Starfury[url]http://www.3000ad.com/[/url]

Couple of more older game you may want to take a look at,are the Hyperspeed game[url]http://www.planetmic.com/orbit/hyperspd/hspd01.htm[/url]

You also might try FFE..as you can fly capital ship in that game...it has been updated it d3d and uses psuedo-newtonian physics, Terminus is another good one which uses Newtonian flight, but it's basically single FPS fighter combat.Battlecruiser/Universal Combat is your best bet, however it has a really shitty flight model.. Freespace 2 is a good one.Also any of the X games allow capital ship flight, but again the flight model is arcade.Also Vega-strike uses a good flight model and I think they have capital ships as well, but no control of crew.BC/UC is your best bet.BC3K is free and can be downloaded here: http://www.fileplanet.com/section.aspx?s=49748&v=0BCM is free and can be downloaded here: http://www.gamershell.com/download_9337.shtmlVegastrike can be had here: http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/getfiles/UC is free and be downloaded here: http://www.gamershell.com/download_22610.shtml

The first I-War game nearly fit the bill,big ship,newtonian physics,but no element of exploration.Same goes for Warhead.[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-War_(Independence_War)[/url]

Does Freespace 2 incorporate exploration? I'm thinking about doing that one next. All the commands seem daunting to me though, especially since I like to operate on a control pad. It's a couple years older than I like to usually go, but it got such good reviews I'm considering making an exception.

No, it is mission based. There is a bunch of mods for it and you might want to install the FSO (Freespace Open Project) it really enhances FS2 and there is a host of games being written against the FSO engine.

What kinds of thing does the FSO incorporate into the game?

This covers most of the info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeSpace_2_Source_Code_Project

Is it something I should install even before having played through the campaign for the first time?

Shant wrote:
Does Freespace 2 incorporate exploration? I'm thinking about doing that one next. All the commands seem daunting to me though, especially since I like to operate on a control pad. It's a couple years older than I like to usually go, but it got such good reviews I'm considering making an exception.
Freespace 2 is a mission oriented "on-the rails" type game. It isn't a free-form open-ended type game.