How would you describe the perfect space sim for yourself?

[Darkone]

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 sim

http://www.ugoplayer.com/games/azulbaronis.html

Its a flash game where your ship is identical to the AI ships one fighter cant bring down an armada five kills is good


more 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!!

[aefthe2nd]

For me, you would have to go with the balance of X3 without the Hyperion, balance that with the ability to dock and interact directly for trading while docked, (and walking around the stations,). Insurance would cover lost ships, and increase in cost with the cost of the ships. Licenses to move from sector to sector based on experience...

I hear a rumor of an Elite 4... Yes? Used to play the first one on the Commie 64 in 1986 / 87...

Anyone have the resources? Let's develop one!

[IronHound]

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.

[Acey]

*Ability to land on planets / comets / asteroids /etc ( not gas planets )
*Ability to collect resources from planets / comets / asteroids (rocks , gases from gas planets , etc )
*Ability to Modify your ship through a modular system, as well as internals.
*Non-retarded AI marines you can take w/ you into a first person mode sorta thing while capturing enemy ships / landed on planets.
*Navigable ships / space docks /space stations / etc ( make sure theres a way of quickly moving to the places you need to go like ship parts/ repair etc ) Should be multiple venders
*Reasonable graphics but not over the top enough to make it so whenever you try a massive scale space battle it lags like no other, should be scaled so that these massive battles can be a dream come true.
*PROPER control over your fleets/ owned ships and such via an RTS style view
*Lan support ( not mmorpg ) in where you can have multiple people as a crew for the same ship all of which can leave the ship via pods or what not or get into fighters docked on the ship ( if its a big ship anyway , cause lets face it piloting a giant cap ship is not as fun as you would think.
*Destroyable planets / stars /etc using the proper weapons it could be done as a tactical solution to a fleet battle if theres a star near by and you have the fire power to destroy it , the destruction of the star could take out everyone around it , etc
*SEVERAL ships to capture / buy , i hate having to use the same boring ship with the same boring weapons.
*SEVERAL types of equipment , offensive and defensive weapon systems, non combat systems, such as mining drones ,pods , etc offensive weapons should be more varied than a laser, a pulse laser , a machine gun type laser , a charge up laser or a missile ,a long range missile , a swarm missile , a nuke type missile,
*Missions you can actually complete, and you are actually paid a worth while sum for it.
*Anytime sector jumps, lets face it if theres somewhere you wanna go, you don't want to watch your ship slowly climb through space for 7 hours w/ time compression at x200 or what not.
*Ability to team up / befriend other ai pilots , so they start following you around or so you can build up a small pirate group this way and go attack freighters rather than just doing the norm thing on space sims which is just attack it out right while fighting other pirates / police / the freighters defense systems.

In all honesty a lot of these exist in space sims today , especally the likes of games like Universal combat / X3 Terran conflict ,but these games take so much time to get to the point where you are making enough money to actually buy what you want or actually capture a ship worth being proud of that you ( I ) get bored before that point.

The only space sim i can get into and play for hours is EV Nova because its easy to make money , the learning curve is not over the top , its got plenty of varied weapons / ships / etc to capture / buy / sell however it lacks in the depth i am looking for i would like to see something thats easy to get into but is deep enough to keep you finding out new things as you play.

[Bouitaz]

*Snip*

This..very much so.

[IronHound]

I must admit, Acey has a fantastic idea and description. If anybody finds this game let me know. (Stuck with EV Nova and Noctis I guess.)

[yamo]

I would like to see a large scale wargame using the combat system from Space Rangers 2..but with a Z axis.

[Darkone]

*Ability to team up / befriend other ai pilots , so they start following you around or so you can build up a small pirate group this way and go attack freighters rather than just doing the norm thing on space sims which is just attack it out right while fighting other pirates / police / the freighters defense systems.

This feature in games would be just great. In most games you hire AI players to join you. But it would be great if people joined you just because of your rep or you saved there butt in battle a few times. Nice list Acey!

I would like to see a large scale wargame using the combat system from Space Rangers 2..but with a Z axis.

Yamo, isn't SR2 a 2D game? It would rough showing Z axis without making it a 3D game.

[yamo]

yes ..turn based 3d combat....like star fleet battles war game...but bettter ....with a zoomable rotateable (3 axis) camera.

[AcesHigh]

* A mix of procedural generation and hand crafted planets/cities. I really dont care for a galaxy with 200 billion stars. 1000 stars is already an ENORMOUS quantity of stars, would give you dozens of thousands of planets, and hundreds of thousands of moons and space stations. Procedural planets can give you variety, but a few hand crafted planets can be much more interesting to explore... you may end up losing MUCH MORE TIME investigating and exploring a really cool handcrafted planet than 20 other 100% procedural planets.
*Planets with interesting stuff to do beyond sight seeing.
*RPG element
*Tactical battles X-COM style. That also means you must recruit or find nice soldiers,
*Ship building... maybe like INFINITE SPACE, but more complex... as your ship gets bigger, you must recruit more people to manage it... as you get more people, you must improve and expand your ship... you start the game with people who are proficient in many tasks (pilot should also be a good soldier and have some medical knowledge). When your ship is bigger, you will have a medical team, a field expertise team, etc, etc.
*Procedural and handcrafted missions, both at ship and walking tactical level.
*Ship boarding
*Realistic universe scale
*control system similar to INFINITY or IWAR2-EoC