Space combat/trading simulation games

[Xahstur]

Hi guys can you tell me what is your favourite game of this genre and what can you recommand me?

Anyway ive played Privateer 2: The Darkening from 1996-1997 i think,X3 Terran Conflict and Freelancer.

[Halororor]

Well, I loved X3 Reunion and TC, but to be honest, after playing Eve Online I could never get back into it.

[raatorotta]

Tachyon is one too. I don't really like that kind of games, but i bought Tachyon long time ago. Never played it much.

[slimhouse]

Got X2 and X3 Reunion both good starter games for space/trade/fight sims, lots to do and loads of Mods

n Cheats available, not least the inbuilt script editor.

 

Can't think of anything you've not already covered/played in *this genre unless you want

to go all ~Retro and seek out the original ELITE / ELITE FRONTIER

on some old console or retro download... :tongue:

Edited February 17, 2012 by slimhouse

[Vagrant0]

Star Trek Online has gotten me hooked lately. The themes and general feel of the game are similar to the series, even all the missions and freeform content. Pretty good on on the lore side of things too.

 

From a F2P MMO perspective, it doesn't miss much, and since there is currently a way to earn all the currencies (even the cash shop ones) by just playing the game, it remains very well balanced without falling into the old "pay to win" mechanic that makes many others just utter rubbish.

 

From a gameplay perspective, it has fairly good ship to ship, realtime combat, and decent ground combat situations. Missions are challenging, but not impossible. Leveling is also fairly quick, to the point where you can be in mid-level range after a week or two of playing, with hardly any grinding unless you do dailies. Freeform missions, as well as player authored content tend to be fairly in-depth, and episodic content helps move a story along without feeling too isolated from the world. Even some of the non-combat missions, where you are just talking to NPCs and resolving some trade or worker conflict have a requirement on actually reading text and thinking about the situation.

 

The most daunting aspect of the game is just the way it handles its own group of skills and statistics, even for fans of the series, some of them might be too deep in technobabble to tell you what they actually do, but the good news is that you really don't need to get too concerned with most of them unless you're trying to powergame or be competitive at end-game content. And even then, they don't seem to make an overwhelming difference.

[Vindekarr]

EVE Online is probably the best space trader in the world right now.

 

The game really does set a benchmark for self determination. The only NPCs you meet give your missions and serve as antagonists and the game's police force.. Besides that, the whole economy is 100% player driven. Every ship, gun, bullet, cow, narcotic, car, mercenary, cybernetic implant and rock on the market was either pulled from a dead NPC and sold or made by a player. Nearly everything is craftable, from the smallest ship to entire space stations and the fuel to run them. The universe is vast, with four playable races, each with it's own radicaly different aesthetics, playstyle, strengths, weaknesses, and 50+ classes of ship, thousands of star systems, about 50,000 daily players, and one giant server.

 

EVE does have a dark side however. You can do ANYTHING at any time, whether that be "normal" things like mining, manufacturing and fighting, to going beserk and shooting up a trade hub. There's a simple but strict policing system-systems all have a "sec status" and shooting people in safe systems will destroy your ship after a short time delay, but besides that it's totaly self regulating, with minimal rules(no spamming, no HAX, no money-buying, no racism) that encourages players to be themselves, even if that's a tyranical lunatic pirate with a gigantic moustache.

 

Many people will tell you, Vagrant included, that EVE is an evil game, that it's impossible to play without being either a heartless greifer, or being heartlessly greifed. This is untrue. I've been playing EVE since 2008 and it's quite the opposite. Yes there's PVP, but it's not something that's mandatory, and I've only ever been attacked by another player once since march '08 so you can avoid being griefed easily enough aswell. EVE's hard, sure, but that also gives it a sense of comeradery I've never seen in another mmo. The corporation(guild) I'm in I helped form, I'm the XO and senior combat officer, and it's like no other guild I've ever seen. We really do rely on eachother, we all have things we do for eacother, and we've all busted our butts for eachother at one stage or another. The fact EVE's half survival means people rally together to survive, and that I think is it's greatest strength. It's got evil folks for sure, but it's also got an amazing ability to create memorable moments-like spending 9 hours blowing up a derelict station to cannibalise it for parts, or postponing buying a ship I'd wanted all year to help save a corpmate who'd gone broke.

 

http://i1090.photobucket.com/albums/i380/Zenryn3631/20111227034519.jpg

Edited February 18, 2012 by Vindekarr

[Vagrant0]

Many people will tell you, Vagrant included, that EVE is an evil game, that it's impossible to play without being either a heartless greifer, or being heartlessly greifed.

You don't HAVE to be, you could also be a masochist who has extra money to spend on a monthly membership so that you can have months of effort washed away because someone was greedy, saw a chance, or just felt like being a dick. I'm sure it's a great game once you get past the generally caustic nature of the community. But unless you actually like that sort of thing, it will likely just lead you to ask yourself "why am I paying for THIS?". For some, they like an environment where they can do whatever they want, troll, harass, grief, or be the target of such and don't mind spending several hours of their day on these things, and paying money for it. For others, such a game is just a massive waste of time and money compared to the many other options out there. Sure, EvE might have some good points, but you have to trudge through the crap at the bottom dealing with the dregs of the community to see any of them.

[Vindekarr]

That's harsh, and unfair. The same problem exists in nearly every MMO and is a lot worse in atleast 4 of them. You can get ganked in any MMO with PVP, same goes for griefing. The difference with EVE is here you can actualy fight back. In AOC, the noob areas get camped out by level capped players just for the sake of stats. Here, if you did that, you'd be banned. You have to be observant and use common sense here, if you do, you'll be absolutely fine. I've been playing virtualy daily since '09 and haven't been ganked or griefed once. I've lost ships, but that was willingly and knowingly engaging in PVP in a sanctioned PVP area. If you get killed in EVE outside of PVP and do not defend yourself, you are free to kill those responsible, free of consequences, for a month.

 

I mean, if you hate EVE, that's fair, it's your perogative, your opinion, but blaming it for having PVP everywhere isn't, you may aswell be fair blame WoW and AOC and GW for having virtualy the same mechanics.

Edited February 19, 2012 by Vindekarr

[Vagrant0]

I mean, if you hate EVE, that's fair, it's your perogative, your opinion, but blaming it for having PVP everywhere isn't, you may aswell be fair blame WoW and AOC and GW for having virtualy the same mechanics.

Not really. The difference is that you lose everything you had on your ship when someone kills you in EvE because they get to scrap you. Insurance may help, but not much. By pretty much every account this is less forgiving than every game with a PvP aspect, and in some cases is even worse than some of the old Corpse Retrieval nightmares that plague some early MMOs (Everquest, Ultima Online) since you still had a chance to go back and reclaim your stuff (although often very slim if you died deeper in some of the more dangerous places.) Being able to freely attack someone for a month doesn't mean much when you get slaughtered by someone much stronger that will take months to match their current level. And even if you're close in range, you get further behind and they get stronger with every failed attempt to kill them. Nearly every MMO with a PvP aspect doesn't reward exp and money for killing players. You've been playing every day, and got into what sounds like a good corporation, but others results will vary.

 

But yeah, it isn't my kind of game. I like games where I can go about my own thing without having to be ultra defensive and suspicious of every blip on my radar. I like my PvP for fun, and not necessarily so consequential or detrimental to my progress through the content of the game.

[Vindekarr]

I mean, if you hate EVE, that's fair, it's your perogative, your opinion, but blaming it for having PVP everywhere isn't, you may aswell be fair blame WoW and AOC and GW for having virtualy the same mechanics.

Not really. The difference is that you lose everything you had on your ship when someone kills you in EvE because they get to scrap you. Insurance may help, but not much. By pretty much every account this is less forgiving than every game with a PvP aspect, and in some cases is even worse than some of the old Corpse Retrieval nightmares that plague some early MMOs (Everquest, Ultima Online) since you still had a chance to go back and reclaim your stuff (although often very slim if you died deeper in some of the more dangerous places.) Being able to freely attack someone for a month doesn't mean much when you get slaughtered by someone much stronger that will take months to match their current level. And even if you're close in range, you get further behind and they get stronger with every failed attempt to kill them. Nearly every MMO with a PvP aspect doesn't reward exp and money for killing players. You've been playing every day, and got into what sounds like a good corporation, but others results will vary.

 

But yeah, it isn't my kind of game. I like games where I can go about my own thing without having to be ultra defensive and suspicious of every blip on my radar. I like my PvP for fun, and not necessarily so consequential or detrimental to my progress through the content of the game.

 

Well said. :thumbsup: