Death of the Space Combat Sim?

PixPirate said:
Man you guys got me wanting a good space sim again! I too started out with Wing commander (On a 386-SX16!) and I still miss the thrill.

The best, last one that I liked was X-Wing alliance. Excellent action, excellent plot, and plays just fine on XP.

I played Freespace1, looked for FS2 but could never find it. Had no idea it was available, I'll have to check it out.

I never played Star Trek:Bridge commander, anybody know how it was? Lawrence Holland was the king of space sims (Along with Chris Roberts...boy he made a stinker of a movie, though!)

PP
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Star Trek Bridge Commande was actually amazingly fun and engrossing. It really felt like you were on a bridge and it's basically a space sim and the combat system is fun.
 
PixPirate said:
Man you guys got me wanting a good space sim again! I too started out with Wing commander (On a 386-SX16!) and I still miss the thrill.

The best, last one that I liked was X-Wing alliance. Excellent action, excellent plot, and plays just fine on XP.

I played Freespace1, looked for FS2 but could never find it. Had no idea it was available, I'll have to check it out.

I never played Star Trek:Bridge commander, anybody know how it was? Lawrence Holland was the king of space sims (Along with Chris Roberts...boy he made a stinker of a movie, though!)

PP
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There's also an expansion pack for Freespace 2 so be sure to look for that as well. I don't remember the name of it though...
 
WhyYouLoveMe said:
There's also an expansion pack for Freespace 2 so be sure to look for that as well. I don't remember the name of it though...
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FS2 never had an expansion

FS1 had silent threat expansion tho as far as i know
 
Okay - so the next obvious question is *where* can I get FS2 at so I'll have the original 11+ megs of files needed to use the FS2 open source patches? At least, thats my take after glancing through the readme.txt files. Ebay sucks and I can't seem to locate it elsewhere. :(

Ax
 
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Freespace 2 has a weird EULA that allows owners to make a copy for a friend. that would be the route i'd try to go rather than getting scalped on amazon. ask around someone you know has to have a copy.
 
Nasty_Savage said:
best i can do:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref...2921636?search-alias=aps&keywords=freespace 2
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Wow!!! I appreciate the linkage, but all I can say is Wow!!! I can't believe that peope are asking the kinds of prices that do for that game, especially after 5+ years out. :eek:

Guess I'll wait and hope somebody out there can offer me one at a better price... :(

Freespace 2 has a weird EULA that allows owners to make a copy for a friend. that would be the route i'd try to go rather than getting scalped on amazon. ask around someone you know has to have a copy.
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Well, thats another issue - I live back in the woods where hardly anyone has anything like that. Beside - no disrespect to their EULA - but I like to own my software personally.

Ax
 
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Okay - new twist on the availablility of FS2. I've found this in stripped down form at HotU (Home of the Underdogs) for download (labeled as *abandonware*), but there are all kinds of questions in my mind as to the legality of this. Yeah, there's the disclaimer on the HotU site too, so my question is "what constitutes Abandonware" exactly?

I went ahead and order me a sealed version (20th Anniversary edition) from Ebay, anyways. :rolleyes:

Ax
 
I got sooooooooooooo addicted to Freelancer. It was the first Microsoft Game Studio game that I was really impressed with. I am definately sad there aren't any new space sims out there ...........

SOMEONE PLEASE MAKE ONE!
 
A new massive multiplay online player space sim would be excellent! I remember I used to play descent all the time as a kid.
 
theNoid said:
I got sooooooooooooo addicted to Freelancer. It was the first Microsoft Game Studio game that I was really impressed with. I am definately sad there aren't any new space sims out there ...........

SOMEONE PLEASE MAKE ONE!
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I still play Freelancer online - The Void Server (Void Mod) makes it pretty interesting, Adding some new systems and ships as well as the old. Been looking for something more lately. FL is nice, but after you've played it as long as I have, it gets kinda stale. :(

Ax
 
Does anyone want to actually make a space sim game using some other engine? I mean I don't know much about programming, but im definitely willing to learn, as I always wanted to know how. I'd try and help out as much as I can, if anyone else is willing to set up some sort of developer team?
 
Freespace. Most gamers you mention that name to immediately begin a rant of how good the franchise was, how awesome the storyline was, how great the graphics were and how they wish Volition would make Freespace 3.

Six years and still waiting on that one.

Other companies have tried to cash in on this undervalued genre with such titles as Starlancer. The new trend involves giving the player an entie galaxy to explore and a mandate to "go play." Trading is available, as well as piracy and becoming a mercenary. All of this freedom can be a good thing, but too much freedom, in the gaming sense, can lead to boredom, comfusion, and the player loosing interest.

I digress.

Has there really been a Space Combat Sim (SCS) released that can even rival the Freespace franchise? Do people even care about that type of gaming anymore? I think they do. I turned a co-worker onto Freespace just by talking about the game for five minutes, and now he's hooked! Why do game-makers fail to create any more games for this genre? The possibilities are wide open!

What about making a SCS that brings real physics into the game engine? What about creating levels where you can enter an atmosphere? There are so many innovations possible with this type of game, but does anyone really care?

Are we nearing the death of the Space Combat Sim?
 
Any chance there will be a Firefly themed game? Just curious. I'd rather see FS3 though.
 
Tell me about it.

Tie Fighter Collector's CD is one of the best games ever of any genre, let alone space combat. It's still one of my top 5 all time favorites.
 
There are a few freewares, google: space sim combat

some took an mmorpg twist such as Star Wars galaxies: lightforce
and EVE online

but not the hard-core space sim

there was one game, that was lie fps+vehicles+space combat, not tooo mcuh space combat, its called BREED, one of the best games imho

Star wars: starfigher is the last pure SCS I can remember

another great SpaceCombat sim for the freespace2 era is

Independence War 2, its story, still open and still enough action and online too
 
The "Shitty First Person Shotter" fad is been around for FAR too long.
Right after the RTS and Space Sim fad, which was almost 7 or 8 years ago, we've been sucking down these worthless FPS games. I'm ready for a change, that's for sure.
 
i really want a new X-wing or tie fighter game. X-wing alliance was alright, but just for kicks, i busted out tie fighter a few weeks ago, and i had more fun playing that than most recent games put together.
 
Killdozer said:
The "Shitty First Person Shotter" fad is been around for FAR too long.
Right after the RTS and Space Sim fad, which was almost 7 or 8 years ago, we've been sucking down these worthless FPS games. I'm ready for a change, that's for sure.
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Well the RTS/Space Sim fad ended about 2000? It's kind of hard to say since WC3 and TFT was immensely popular but was kind of the lonestar in the market at the time (2003). Other titles had very little market penetration compared to the days of old.

Anyway, the FPS "fad" might have some time left in it yet if it only picked up after that fad. FPS and RTS kind of bounce back and forth. Back in the day it was all about Wolfenstein and original Doom, then came some sequels and derivatives, then the WC2 and C&C era and its sequels/derivatives, then back to FPS.

I'm not sure where great titles like X-wing vs. TIE fighter fit in... memory hazy.
 
There will never be FS3 because Violition unfortunatly doesn't have the right to FS series.. Fucking Interplay does.
 
Obi_Kwiet said:
Is X3 any good?
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it seems like its pretty good I havent had much time to play it and it is the type of game I think you have to play alot to get the most out of it, however pilioting the capital ships in the test mission thing was pretty cool
 
Obi_Kwiet said:
Is X3 any good?
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I've been playing it for the last couple of weeks and I love it. The game can be a little overwhelming at first because they just throw you into the universe without a tutorial but after the first few hours of playing you get the hang of things. It's a game where you can pretty much do whatever you want (some say it's like a single player eve online).

Just to give you a little idea of the game....You start out with one ship and a little money, but it's not too hard to figure out ways to make money. And whatever you do influences your relationship with the other races. If you attack their stuff you'll lose recognition and they'll either become enemies or not allow you to trade with them. If you help them fight an enemy or if you trade with them you'll gain recognition which gives you access to more of their goods and ships to buy. And at every station you dock at there are odd jobs you can do like help transport goods, give people rides to other stations, or people wanting someone assassinated.

The manual for the game explains a lot. And the universe in the game is absolutely huge. I've probably played the game for 150 hours and still haven't explored every sector. There is a main plot story that doesn't take that long to get through and when you finish they give you free-will of the game. Or you can just start out by being able to do whatever without a story.
 
I too have been looking for a good SCS like WC3 or X-Wing but haven't found anything.

Is X3 a third person game or FPS?

I personally feel that SCS need to be in FPS because I feel thats what made them so great. Its fine to walk around in 3rd person but once I'm in a ship I want to see the HUD, see the cockpit controls.

And another thing that turned me off to the X series is Star Force. Does X3 have Starforce?
 
CreganTur said:
What about making a SCS that brings real physics into the game engine? What about creating levels where you can enter an atmosphere? There are so many innovations possible with this type of game, but does anyone really care?

Are we nearing the death of the Space Combat Sim?
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Someone made a SCS with real physics. It was the most un-fun game I've ever played. I'm not the only one who thoguht so, two other people I know were both drooling over the concept of the real physics, had the mindset to deal with it, and still thought it was horribly unfun. Very realistic, but about the most tedious and boring thing ever.

Which leads to another problem with SCS games. Namely the controls. A large portion of people find controlling an object in a large open space where you can move in any direction and there is no down to be very hard to get a handle on, and thus not enjoyable. Even those that can deal with it often times find beating it into a mouse and keyboard, or a simple joystick to be less than ergonomic. So if the game actually requires good piloting performance, you get your ass kicked from the get go, which is no fun.

About the only SCS type game I've played that got the controls down to a point where they were increadibly accessable was Freelancer, which a lot of SCS fans pissed and moaned about the controls being too easy.

Heck, there are lots of folks bitchng and moaning that X3 gives you docking computers from the get go. Which pretty much made 90% of X2 content meaningless to most folks. To most folks, that was like putting a super hard jumping puzzle on the first level of a platformer.

The problem basically boils down to a disconnect between waht SCS fans like, what makes a good game, and what the crowd of folks that represent actual profit want to play. The end result is that SCS games are a niche product like flight sims, and similarly try to throttle production to avoid oversaturating the market. Similarly, they don't get a lot of ad dollars spent on them.

going back the 7 years claimed by the one poster since SCS was "in"

You've had X, X2, X3, Starlancer, Freelancer, Independence war 2, freespace 2, the horrible game referenced above that I cannot remember. Battlecruiser millenium, Universal Combat, Universal Combat - a world apart, riftspace, star wraith, star wraith IV, evochron, EVE online, Rogue leader - rogue squadron II, and I'm sure I'm missing one or two.
 
Looks like X3 is something I will look into picking up. Will probably need an upgrade though...that demo kicked my 6800NUs butt.

I still remember loving Freespace2. I think mostly because the story was actually engaging. I never got around to reinstalling it...maybe I will sometime soon. Need to get a joystick for it though.
 
It's clearly time for an X-Wing game - offer simplified controls for console users (with d-pad menus in case we need those options), or the option of more complex ones for PC users. Just don't dumb down the missions themselves, and it'll be amazing.

I'd love to see LucasArts' analyses for this - I'd imagine they at least consider the idea every couple years.
 
I've noticed a trend in these discussions. It seems people only mention a few games but forget games like entire Wing Commander Franchise, Privateer and a few others.

Why is that? I think Origin had the whole SCS thing down to a science, the games were terribly fun and the controls weren't too difficult and could be played with a joystick, controller or a mouse and keyboard.
 
Moose777 said:
I too have been looking for a good SCS like WC3 or X-Wing but haven't found anything.

Is X3 a third person game or FPS?

I personally feel that SCS need to be in FPS because I feel thats what made them so great. Its fine to walk around in 3rd person but once I'm in a ship I want to see the HUD, see the cockpit controls.

And another thing that turned me off to the X series is Star Force. Does X3 have Starforce?
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In X3 all you see is the HUD, no cockpit controls. And depending on where the cockpit is on the ship you might see the front of the ship. And sadly yes, X3 does use starforce. I haven't had any problems with it, but it is annoying
 
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