Check Out Evochron Mercenary While You Wait

[Malicar]

Not sure if I should be posting about another game here on the Elite forum but I managed to pick this gem up recently on STEAM and have been exploring the stars ever since. Would be nice to hook up with some Elite fans while we wait. Currently I'm floating on the ocean on a ringed class M planet. I flew down to do some exploring and ended up finding some rebels and having some atmosphere combat before seeing if my ship would float on the oean which it does

http://www.starwraith.com/evochronmercenary/


This game is HEAVILY inspired by Elite Frontier and features many of the stuff we have been talking about here in the Elite forums. It's worth mentioning this is a 1 man dev team with real 3D space and procedural planets. There is no loading screens and even while in orbit around some stations the procedural planets are right there visible to the naked eye complete with terrain and everything. The only real reason I mention it is because it's a great game to play while you wait for Elite. It has single and drop in multiplayer. You can take your single player into multi and vice versa. There was mention of one server with a hardcore setting and dbase that means when you die that's it but I can't remember the server name and or if it's still running. It also supports clans and clan territory control so if PvP is your thing you can get your rocks off. The game is mainly about fun though and offers all pilots the ability to simply load their save when they die. No worries about griefers etc. Play the way you want when you want and how you want.

Have a look at one of the guides posted it might be just the game your looking for to hold you over. I might add I've been playing the game in 1920x1200 with 16xAF 8xAA with 8x Supersampling and the lowest i've seen the fps around 45 with a station, full planet, and passing ships including capitals in the scene. You don't get to fly capital ships in Evo but your ships are modular and can be upgraded for various tasks. You even get a little freedom in how you make your ship look. If anything it's like a cross between Freelancer and Elite Frontier. Msg me if you want to do some multiplayer while you wait for Elite. Perhaps this will stimulate your senses and ideas for what ED should have to offer.

http://www.starwraith.com/evochronlegends/guide/elguide.htm#124

You can also pick up a DRM free version from their website clocking in at just under 190mb. Super fast install, super fast framerates, and a whole galaxy to explore in real time. It looks very good for a 1 man dev team. Best I've seen yet for an indy effort of this size. Check it out if you have that space itch and can't find something to scratch it.

Again if this violated forum policy I do apologize. It's not meant to detract from Elite by any means. If anything this will stimulate ideas and allow some peeps to maybe play a game they missed that they might actually like.

I really love how you can visit planets and or dock at cities. If you go to fast your ship will burn up on entry. Max the shields to full power and reinforce the front shield arc and you can push the entry speed without your hull exploding. Lots of cool stuff to check out. Also gravity plays a large roll here. Be very carefull jumping near a star Forgive my post I get excited talking about this stuff.

Thank you to the poster who listed Third Rock Radio also. Been listening to this while flying around... pretty cool

http://www.rfcmedia.com/thirdrockradio/

Cya in the stars...

 

[Geraldine]

Hi Malicar
I've moved your thread to the General Gaming section.
And yea, Evochron Mercenary is a pretty good game.

 

[Malicar]

Hi Geraldine sorry about that. Was too good of a game to let is pass by the Elite groupies Aren't you on Space Sim Central also? Figured nobody would mind seeing how it's an indy game and all. Kind of reminds me of Elite Frontier many years ago and how David got started. Also is that an Amiga 500 in your pic and does it still work?

 

[Geraldine]

No worries Malicar, with all the different sections the forum has these days, even I get mixed up now and then
And yes, been a member of the SSC for ages. Darkone runs a great site there, a wonderful resource for space sim fans.

My avvie? Yes that's my 500+ and it still works. Here it is here

 

[Malicar]

Yeah I found it when I was looking to thank the dev of Pioneer. Very cool site and it helped me find Evochron. I'm just wondering if you have a working copy of Elite Frontier on that Amgia in your picture

I still remember playing stunt racer on Amiga and having a blast. Psygnosis was a pretty big name back then. I also remember playing my first Liesure Suit Larry, Space Quest, Police Quest, and Heroes Quest.... Those games looked realistic to me back in those days. My how games have evolved.

Anyways have a good day

OMG Borderlands theme song just came on! Oh this is like firefly zooming over planets listening to this!

 

[Malicar]

No worries Malicar, with all the different sections the forum has these days, even I get mixed up now and then
And yes, been a member of the SSC for ages. Darkone runs a great site there, a wonderful resource for space sim fans.

My avvie? Yes that's my 500+ and it still works. Here it is here

OMG Im jealous. You ever notice how those older games look so good on the older CRT monitors? It's kinda like trying to emulate dos mode in windows now. Just doesn't look the same. I bet you have a copy of Dungeon Master in that box somewhere.

LOL modded Amiga with overclocks and custom heat sinks haha that makes my day. BTW did you enjoy the Babylon 5 series done on the Amiga Video Toasters? My fav sci fi of all time. I still remember the day Amiga died a little in my heart. It was for the release of Ultima VI. I had to buy a whole new PC just to play that damn game. If only Commodore had kept up with the curve. I remember when Commodore switched over to PC's. By the time I was playing Wing Commander on PC you could still find Amiga 3000's on the shelf. Ultima IV was just amazing on C64 also. Wish they would have done an Amiga version. Hell Ultima VI didn't even have digital sound. Just PC speaker and adlib for music.

Speaking of which the first PC game with Digital Sound support... Anyone remember which game it was? No I don't mean adlib or fm synth or general midi. The first PC game to support the Sound Blaster 8 bit for DAC. Anyone remember which one it was?

 

[Geraldine]

OMG Im jealous. You ever notice how those older games look so good on the older CRT monitors? It's kinda like trying to emulate dos mode in windows now. Just doesn't look the same. I bet you have a copy of Dungeon Master in that box somewhere.

Got boxed copies of Dungeon Master 1, Chaos Strikes Back and Dungeon Master II Great games. Do you know there are free re-makes of these games in one package called Return To Chaos, runs perfectly on modern machines too. Have a look here

LOL modded Amiga with overclocks and custom heat sinks haha that makes my day. BTW did you enjoy the Babylon 5 series done on the Amiga Video Toasters? My fav sci fi of all time.

If you like modded miggys, then you should drop by Amibay. Although it is a trading site for all kinds of retro hardware including Speccys, Acorns, Ataris, Amigas and goodness knows what else, it also includes tons of cool projects too.

It's funny you mentioning B5, I just bought the complete box set today! Epic series. Video Toasters were used in series one and two

 

[deMangler]

I used to love playing Evochron. I stopped because I figured I would wait for the update with real sized planets.
Good slightly alternative multiplayer system in that as well. Another variety on a theme. Works in it's own way.
Not much to fault with it (I am a natural fault finder - sorry), I don't much like the way missions are implemented but I mentioned it to the dev and he responded with a good explanation which was cool.

 

[Malicar]

Wow and your a B5 fan... Sad they took it off Netflix US. Now I'm also looking for the box set. What hardware did they move to for season 3 and up? I'm not sure if NASA still owns the patent for the Starfury but last I checked they were going to adapt the design for a space forklift or lifter as they call it.

 

[Geraldine]

I am not sure, but I think they just moved over to generic PC hardware as it had finally caught up with the Amiga's graphics capabilities by that time.

 

[Malicar]

Such a great show. So many cast members have passed away since.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27MXcQrZc1Y

Funny little clip heh not related to the show but yeah. Amazing story in B5 and cast with such a synergy. Kinda wish Bruce had a bigger role in the new Tron movie also. Anyways they will all be remembered. Ironic how I see so many extras on Star Trek that were cast in B5. Saw Lita the other day as an alien romulan imposter

 

[eigenman]

Thx for the game tip op. I'm looking just for space games this year to prepare for Elite and Star Citizen.

 

[Caribou]

Got boxed copies of Dungeon Master 1, Chaos Strikes Back and Dungeon Master II Great games. Do you know there are free re-makes of these games in one package called Return To Chaos, runs perfectly on modern machines too. Have a look here





If you like modded miggys, then you should drop by Amibay. Although it is a trading site for all kinds of retro hardware including Speccys, Acorns, Ataris, Amigas and goodness knows what else, it also includes tons of cool projects too.

It's funny you mentioning B5, I just bought the complete box set today! Epic series. Video Toasters were used in series one and two

OMG Dungeon Master - I even remembered the characters when I started playing it.. WOW

 

[Malicar]

I used to love playing Evochron. I stopped because I figured I would wait for the update with real sized planets.
Good slightly alternative multiplayer system in that as well. Another variety on a theme. Works in it's own way.
Not much to fault with it (I am a natural fault finder - sorry), I don't much like the way missions are implemented but I mentioned it to the dev and he responded with a good explanation which was cool.

Yeah Shawn seems like a really cool guy. He's an older fellow also who has been around since the old days. I was asking how to de-select a target and he was like your the 5th person to ask me that in 8 years. Had an email shortly after asking for my advice about it's implementation. Should be in the next build if no problems arise That really made my day. I mean I'm a fault finder also and aside from some VSYNC issues I can't really find any in that game. For a 1 man dev team that game is borderline brilliant. If only I could do something like that wow. Even the voice overs are great. I love hearing ship coms and traffic controllers etc so frigging cool. Lets not forget the flight model. Gotta love newtownian physics and gravity Most games fail so hard at the flight model now. X3TC is an amazing game but I can't fly it now without realistic control and flight model. Just seems so natural for me to use newtownian. I don't wanna spoil any more of it but there are some nice surprises.

OMG Dungeon Master - I even remembered the characters when I started playing it.. WOW

Definantly a classic. I haven't played the remake but Legends of Grimrock is very simular albeit different and is available on STEAM with very nice pre-rendered graphics with SSAO etc

 

[Caribou]

Definantly a classic. I haven't played the remake but Legends of Grimrock is very simular albeit different and is available on STEAM with very nice pre-rendered graphics with SSAO etc

I'll check it out I have to confess DM is a bit clunky by todays standards! but quite fun actually

 

[Malicar]

I'll check it out I have to confess DM is a bit clunky by todays standards! but quite fun actually

Has full STEAM workshop support also. You can create your own game with the engine and publish it on STEAM for everyone to play. Very nice little Indy game that even keeps the controls like the old games. It brought back some memories for me when I picked it up on the STEAM Xmas Sale.

 

[Malicar]

Thx for the game tip op. I'm looking just for space games this year to prepare for Elite and Star Citizen.

Good to hear. Evochron seems to run very well on older systems also. You don't need an X3TC rig to run it smoothly. There is also a DRM free demo that lets you play unlimited training to get a feel for it then you have 90 minutes in the full game to see if you like it. I bought that up like candy at the corner store. Been playing since. Navy start is a bit hard but I used that to test out the combat which is actually quite hard. You really need to upgrade your ship and or hire some NPC to your fleet. Having a tactical officer helps also or some real life buddies! Group missions work also! Can fight in space and on planets

I opted for the Miner/Merc start so I could do some exploring etc and build up. Found a nice Asteroid belt made a bookmark and started selling to this one station that was paying big bucks. The game has amazing scale also. You can fly forever on impulse or fire up the jump drive to zip around the system. Trave between systems is linked via stargates with their own little nifty effects and all. Very very cool little game with what looks like a huge galaxy to explore.

 

[eigenman]

Good to hear. Evochron seems to run very well on older systems also. You don't need an X3TC rig to run it smoothly. There is also a DRM free demo that lets you play unlimited training to get a feel for it then you have 90 minutes in the full game to see if you like it. I bought that up like candy at the corner store. Been playing since. Navy start is a bit hard but I used that to test out the combat which is actually quite hard. You really need to upgrade your ship and or hire some NPC to your fleet. Having a tactical officer helps also or some real life buddies! Group missions work also! Can fight in space and on planets

I opted for the Miner/Merc start so I could do some exploring etc and build up. Found a nice Asteroid belt made a bookmark and started selling to this one station that was paying big bucks. The game has amazing scale also. You can fly forever on impulse or fire up the jump drive to zip around the system. Trave between systems is linked via stargates with their own little nifty effects and all. Very very cool little game with what looks like a huge galaxy to explore.

I bought it. I was surprised it was such a small amount of disk space. That speaks a lot to procedural methods. I also noticed that it supports Track IR head movement and that's all I needed to buy it. I'm so addicted to moving my head while flying that this has become important.

BTW I notice you have the FTL logo for your avatar. I just started playing it about 2 weeks ago. Addictive and fun little game. I also bought Galactic Civilization II to add to my galactic strategic domination impulses. I'm all space this year!

 

[Malicar]

I bought it. I was surprised it was such a small amount of disk space. That speaks a lot to procedural methods. I also noticed that it supports Track IR head movement and that's all I needed to buy it. I'm so addicted to moving my head while flying that this has become important.

BTW I notice you have the FTL logo for your avatar. I just started playing it about 2 weeks ago. Addictive and fun little game. I also bought Galactic Civilization II to add to my galactic strategic domination impulses. I'm all space this year!

Yeah amazing how little space the game takes up (no pun intended) yet how much detail is packed in there. I really need to get a track IR. I've never used one but every sim now uses them from racing to space games. I love flight sims also but I admit I haven't been interested in them until recently again.

Yeah I was following the FTL on Kickstarter and exchanged emails with Justin a few times. I knew that game was going to be a good one. It took runner up this year for Indy game of the year although I still think it should have won.

If you like turn based space strategy games you should really check out "Endless Space" on STEAM.

I tried it during a free weekend event and be damned if it wasn't the best turn based game since MOO2. Currently in a co-op multiplayer game that has lasted ages. Wicked realistic galaxies and even though the combat is not rts or turn based it is real time and uses a unique system that allows the player to select different attack and defense stratgies during different phases of combat. I have to say though when you get a fleet of Battleships and everything going the game goes into EPIC mode and the battles are just amazing to watch.

Community and devs over there at Endless are top notch also. With 2 free content updates for the XMAS break featuring some nice goodies and a nice patch to go with it. There are still plans for expansions and the game is shaping up to something I would consider a classic.

What is really driving me these days are Indy games. There are so many coming out and with such a high level of quality it takes me back to the shareware days. This really is a good time to be a gamer and now with David and Elite coming back wow. I can't wait...

For us guys without the TrackerIR at least Evochron has a nice padlock view.. Alt+v to lock to target from cockpit and wow its almost surreal fighting in and over planets etc. My name is Malicar if you see me on one of the servers. I also bought Galciv 2 at release and was in the beta. The guys over at Stardock are awsome. They gave me a free copy of Elemental Enchantress just for purchasing the first one. Which I still have shrink wrapped in the collectors edition. Stardock is cool allowing you to download the game even if you buy retail from them. Galciv 2 is also an amazing game. Brad just can't stop updating the AI he's compulsive impulsive about it lol I love it.

I honestly can't beleive Elite is coming back. I missed it the first time but I'm drooling over the thought of it and it looks like David has been playing alot of multiplayer over the years. Much like the rest of us I find when he talks I can't help but listen. I hope I get to fly escort for David when Elite comes out. There is probably a lineup but I can just see him flying through Elite with a massive echelon of wingmen haha!

Really is going to be amazing with all these new space games in the works. Infinity looks amazing. Really things to live for. Flying a starship with your friends all miced up listening to music broadcast from our own space station the ISS. Really is an interesting time to be alive and gaming while we hurdle through space endlessly... Oh yeah we get two new consoles this year followed by the STEAM box. Oh baby... and now the Oculous Rift is looking like it's going to be something to watch for. I'm going to appreciate every moment of it all.

 

[Caribou]

Definantly a classic. I haven't played the remake but Legends of Grimrock is very simular albeit different and is available on STEAM with very nice pre-rendered graphics with SSAO etc

Just an FYI for people (and thx to Malicar) I just got Legends Of Grimrock on Steam for £4.99 (I think) - as M said somewhere it has the ability to edit levels so you can create your own adventures for people