Proposal Discussion Hoping for an interesting discussion [Space Sims]

[DarkWalker]

I thought battlecruiser was a really great idea wrapped up in a dull game, I don't know of any others where you were controlling a huge warship with a crew of a couple of hundred or so, (nearest was I war I think, you had a crew in that) and the scope seemed massive...you could land on planets and get out and walk around and all that stuff.

Well, what you described sounds like Star Trek Online; control a ship with a crew measured in the hundreds (you can actually get up to a few hundred named "Duty Officers" and use them for tasks and missions), and also land on planets using your away team.

STO is an interesting F2P game, though not for everyone.

 

[Sagan Ross]

STO is an interesting game if you can live with the fact that Cryptic wants your wallet really badly.

 

[Thargon]

Slightly offtopic post follows:

I know not a space simulation, but how about Carrier Command (Amiga) - anyone played that? That's the kind of 'feel' for a game that I liked - maybe the same thing would apply for a small/large scale feel to E. I think this is what RSI/SC will be like (I hope), and I kind of get this from EVE online (when there are corpies online!).

The point I'm making is that Carrier Command was a 1 player game with multirole strategic and first person simulation, and was extremely challenging. Maybe these gameplay elements could be incorporated?

 

[Thargon]

Lets not forget this freebie Orbiter

If its realism you want then this has been around a while and is well worth a look

http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/index.html

Note for anyone following this - the .msi installer link via this site is dead - it appears there is only the 121mb zip files installer still active.

 

[Angus]

Slightly offtopic post follows:

I know not a space simulation, but how about Carrier Command (Amiga) - anyone played that?

Now you're talking. I loved Elite on the C64 but found the 16 bit versions a bit uninspired. I became aware of the Carrier Command when it was released for the ST and waited (seemed like ages) for the Amiga version. Apart from Frontier it was the closest I got (kind of) to my C64 Elite thrill on the Amiga.

I played the recently released pc version, and actually felt they did a very good job. A lot of people moaned about the AI pathfinding for the Walruses, but it wasn't much of an issue for me - although it did get patched.

Yes, the first time I encountered the enemy carrier on the original I frantically changed priorities in the (gorgeously designed) auto-repair screen.. Fix that lift, I need Mantas flying NOW!!! But it was to no avail, my systems went inoperative one after the other, and I was blown out of the water, but delighted with the challenge and extremely satisfied when I finally exacted a terrible vengeance.

 

[Phoenix_Dfire]

Carrier Command was recently made for the PC, However it got poor reviews even though I think it had a multiplayer element to it.

I think I played Battlecruiser 3000AD for about 5 hours before giving up. Watching the flame war was far more entertaining than the game.

Bridge Commander - now there was a game that seemed to do Star Trek Ship to ship combat correctly. I still play it from time to time and the multiplayer was really fun.

Now I'm to be a little controversial and say, I really enjoyed x-com interceptor. I really like the fact that you had to fight in the cockpit and manage the war as well. It's been released on Steam and had a game killing bug which meant that it was impossible to play if you were on Xp or Later. Some folks in Russia have managed to fix it (wonder where that's happened before )and it still plays quite well.

 

[Thargon]

Note for anyone following this - the .msi installer link via this site is dead - it appears there is only the 121mb zip files installer still active.

Update - the msi is alive now. I used the main download site.

 

[X2Eliah]

it's just that there didn't seem to be that much to do, felt a bit aimless

That's a big problem I have with several space games I used to enjoy (e.g. X3 games) and games in general (e.g. torchlight 2, minecraft) - those games that do not give actual directives when starting the player, but instead do a "here you are, there is the universe, you are on your own now" - they inevitably feel aimless to me, and I'm very likely to not bother with those games...

It was not always like this, of course. But over the last few years - I just want proper introductions to a game. I want well-designed tutorials / intro missions that explain a) how the game works, b) get me interested in doing stuff via explicit goal systems.

I do wonder if Elite will have any of this, or will it essentially also be an aimless game. I fear that for me, it might be a deciding factor in whether I play for 1 day or 1 year+...

 

[jan]

I atm are playing Evochron Mercenary and its like a tiny Elite clone but whit desent grafix, but whit a tiny part of the galaxie and it about 250mb in size so dl was over very fast and no Dos Box needed or any other geek metode to make it run. First i played 30-45 of the 90min demo, before i signed up for the full game to unlock but it was wort the few credits.

 

[Sagan Ross]

That's a big problem I have with several space games I used to enjoy (e.g. X3 games) and games in general (e.g. torchlight 2, minecraft) - those games that do not give actual directives when starting the player, but instead do a "here you are, there is the universe, you are on your own now" - they inevitably feel aimless to me, and I'm very likely to not bother with those games...

It was not always like this, of course. But over the last few years - I just want proper introductions to a game. I want well-designed tutorials / intro missions that explain a) how the game works, b) get me interested in doing stuff via explicit goal systems.

I do wonder if Elite will have any of this, or will it essentially also be an aimless game. I fear that for me, it might be a deciding factor in whether I play for 1 day or 1 year+...

Is it really that scary to figure things out for yourself?

Personally i get a lot of satisfaction out of discovering what a game has to offer for myself instead of getting everything spoon feed constantly or getting told "now you have to do this.." instead of connecting the dots myself.

Maybe I'm just from a to old generation of playing..hmm.

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

Is it really that scary to figure things out for yourself?

Not everyone is used to playing a sandbox game - Transport Tycoon Deluxe was the last one I played - all other games have had missions and/or a purpose to which once you arrived at the "end game" you said thanks, put the game down, and found something else to play.

On a related note Elite (Classic) for me suffered because of a lack of things to do - once you had amassed all the credits you could carry; pimped your ship out to the max; all that was left was to grind to Elite and for some (myself included) that quickly wore thin .. I hope ED has more things that can spice it up.

 

[DarkWalker]

Is it really that scary to figure things out for yourself?

Personally i get a lot of satisfaction out of discovering what a game has to offer for myself instead of getting everything spoon feed constantly or getting told "now you have to do this.." instead of connecting the dots myself.

Maybe I'm just from a to old generation of playing..hmm.

Those two aren't self-exclusive, though. Sometimes it's a good idea for an open game to have an obvious, clear objective, with glowing signals pointing in it's direction, but where the player can go out of the beaten path and find what else the game has to offer. Specially if the game allows the player to ignore the arrow-laden main path if he wants.

Doing like this gives both the players that want clear objectives, and players that want to find things for themselves, something worthwhile to do.

 

[Thargon]

Those two aren't self-exclusive, though. Sometimes it's a good idea for an open game to have an obvious, clear objective, with glowing signals pointing in it's direction, but where the player can go out of the beaten path and find what else the game has to offer. Specially if the game allows the player to ignore the arrow-laden main path if he wants.

Doing like this gives both the players that want clear objectives, and players that want to find things for themselves, something worthwhile to do.

Yes, this is the well known game mechanic called side-quests. I know, don't call them quests! Ok side-missons? Hmm doesn't have the same ring to it.

 

[1stBiker]

Hard War.

When reading through that thread I was looking for any game not mentioned so far and Hardwar popped up in mind - for my post

Glad you mentioned that one Geraldine, I loved that game.

So, there are some few I didn't play from that huge list I must say.
There is just one left I haven't seen. Its not a SPACE -Sim but its very close to that and it was super in Multiplayer. It was from Activision and the name was BATTLEZONE ! That one was a remake of the old original Arcade Battlezone (vector-graphics) - wonder if someone knows this one - a great game and still on my top10.

Nice Thread - good memories
thank you
<<<1stBiker

 

[Oss133]

Those two aren't self-exclusive, though. Sometimes it's a good idea for an open game to have an obvious, clear objective, with glowing signals pointing in it's direction, but where the player can go out of the beaten path and find what else the game has to offer. Specially if the game allows the player to ignore the arrow-laden main path if he wants.

Doing like this gives both the players that want clear objectives, and players that want to find things for themselves, something worthwhile to do.

Two words in support: Sky Rim.

When reading through that thread I was looking for any game not mentioned so far and Hardwar popped up in mind - for my post

Glad you mentioned that one Geraldine, I loved that game.

So, there are some few I didn't play from that huge list I must say.
There is just one left I haven't seen. Its not a SPACE -Sim but its very close to that and it was super in Multiplayer. It was from Activision and the name was BATTLEZONE ! That one was a remake of the old original Arcade Battlezone (vector-graphics) - wonder if someone knows this one - a great game and still on my top10.

Nice Thread - good memories
thank you
<<<1stBiker

Battlezone is still a favourite and still playable.

 

[Thargon]

That's a big problem I have with several space games I used to enjoy (e.g. X3 games) and games in general (e.g. torchlight 2, minecraft) - those games that do not give actual directives when starting the player, but instead do a "here you are, there is the universe, you are on your own now" - they inevitably feel aimless to me, and I'm very likely to not bother with those games...

It was not always like this, of course. But over the last few years - I just want proper introductions to a game. I want well-designed tutorials / intro missions that explain a) how the game works, b) get me interested in doing stuff via explicit goal systems.

I do wonder if Elite will have any of this, or will it essentially also be an aimless game. I fear that for me, it might be a deciding factor in whether I play for 1 day or 1 year+...

Well, not being sarcastic, but try EVE Online "You are here."
As said before the Sandbox thing isn't to everyone's liking, but the emmense freedom you are given can sometimes be overwhealming. That said, there is a very good tutorial system in place, as should be on all these Sandbox games (RSI for example has the whole squadron 42 thing in addition to the Sandbox). I hope Elite Dangerous has something similar (perhaps someone more knowledgeable can post a linky to a relevant post).

 

[DarkWalker]

Well, not being sarcastic, but try EVE Online "You are here."
As said before the Sandbox thing isn't to everyone's liking, but the emmense freedom you are given can sometimes be overwhealming. That said, there is a very good tutorial system in place, as should be on all these Sandbox games (RSI for example has the whole squadron 42 thing in addition to the Sandbox). I hope Elite Dangerous has something similar (perhaps someone more knowledgeable can post a linky to a relevant post).

If you want to introduce panic in someone that has never heard about sandboxes, get him to play Minecraft. In that game players have to craft even their own minimap

 

[Thargon]

Well that make sense. Loose one gamer because he/ she repels new gamers from the game. Wich is indeed a very bad thing if you want to keep your MMO healty with good new gamers flow in.

I agree. I'm stick to death with trolls, especially prevalent on games like DOTA/LOL (online battle arena type games). A lot of people spoil the playing experience by leaving an inherently team based game. At least with Elite and other dogfighting games, you can Deathmatch Vs all (and die in a furrball!).

 

[Ittiz]

FFE
Frontier
Diaspora

 

[Phoenix_Dfire]

I-War 2 Server.

What an excellent idea! Start up a new thread seeing who wants to play, please invite me to the thread, and I'll go dig out the box and see if it installs!
(Possibly not!).

How about this Thursday after 8pm. PM message me and I'll send the IP addresses when its set up.