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[Majestic7]

Starshatter is a great indy game, but it is a space combat sim where you can do anything from flying an interceptor to commanding a battle group. So if you wanted a free space trader sandbox, it doesn't fit the bill. I can't believe I forgot Space Rangers! Yes, Space Rangers 2 is definitely exactly what you are looking for!

[diamok]

@Grishnak - Have an old wingman plugged in, will disconnect and give that a shot, thanks.

@Derekristow & Deon - Checked out the Homeoworld series and although they look and seem to play great, again, does not fall into my mood right now.  As for the X series, I am getting Terran Conflict today if I can...it looks pretty cool and some of the mods I read about last night might get me close to what i want.

@Shadowgandor & Majestic7 - Gonna try to get SR2 today as well, depending on price.  I'm not to hip to the Turn-based aspect, but it does sound pretty unique and could be cool even though it might not totally fit.

Thanks for help/suggestions all.  If we've missed something, by all means, please post.

Take care,

[Majestic7]

I-War 2 is semi-sandbox. It has a plot and plot missions, which are mostly combat or space stealth. However, you collect resources through space piracy and then trade them for stuff with other factions. So you spend at least half, if not 3/4 of the game time doing piracy on your own, without any missions. I-War is one of the few space flight games with a realistic flight model. Highly recommended (part one too) though not exactly what OP is looking for. You can get I-War and I-War 2 from Good Old Games, cheap and working for modern systems.

http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/independence_war_deluxe
http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/independence_war_2

[diamok]

Also checked out I-War series, would go this route if it had the option to just be the captain and command the crew.

Take care,

[Majestic7]

Also checked out I-War series, would go this route if it had the option to just be the captain and command the crew.

Take care,

If you are willing to play abandonware, check Rules of Engagement I & II. They are very old though and thus clunky UI, but you can find them from abandonware sites.

[LoSboccacc]

well, if good oldie games are permitted for the contest, frontier and the sequel first encounters were not that bad

[diamok]

Open to anything really, will check those out guys, thanks.

Edit: Hmm well, just tried to install Rules of Engagement II, seems windows 7 64 bit doesn't like it, I got the pop-up about not being compatible.  Might have to try a dos shell or something, not sure really.

Take care,

[Majestic7]

Open to anything really, will check those out guys, thanks.

Edit: Hmm well, just tried to install Rules of Engagement II, seems windows 7 64 bit doesn't like it, I got the pop-up about not being compatible.  Might have to try a dos shell or something, not sure really.

Take care,

You need DosBox to run oldie games. Most abandonware games have it and include instructions about how to use it. I presume DoxBox works with Win 7, I don't have Win 7 so I don't know if it does.

[diamok]

Yeah, have had a few in the past that require DosBox or something similar.  The problem here is the game has an installer, running that is whats giving me the compatibility issue.

Take care,

[diamok]

I hate to post back to back, but was wondering if anyone has played Eve and could give me a round down on their control system?  Is it you controlling the ship with a joystick, or mouse, or mouse and keyboard, or is it more like clicking on commands and then the ship performs the maneuver you request?  Pretty much, is it more like you flying the ship, or giving/simulating order commands?

Any other info about the game would be cool too...you know, is it fun and all that.

Take care,

[ductape]

Flying a ship in Eve is interesting, when I came across it I had never seen that type of flight control before. You click on objects either in space or on your radar/objects list, or you can even just click on empty space. Once you have a locus, you can then issue commands such as approach or orbit at distance.

Is it like issuing orders? kinda but there no crew. In each ship of Eve you are whats called a "pod pilot". You like in a little pod and you control the ship through a neural link, at least I think because I never really read the story stuff and I played for years. I will add that the economy and political world is incredibly robust and certainly sets the bar for these things in the MMO world.

EDIT: Oh right, I played X3 and I didnt find any fun in there, did I miss something because I wanted to like it, read some threads here that made it sound fun. What it seemed like to me was a big, empty, single-player Eve Online.

[creodor]

Everything I've seen from SoH you control the ship.  The wiki says stuff about commanding units (though the info is sparse and not really helpful), but I haven't seen anything (maybe I just haven't found it yet) about these units piloting the ship, firing weapons and all that.

Take care,

You can either control the ship manually, manning the stations and jumping around as needed, or you can hire a crew of NPCs to run the stations for you as you sit your captain's chair and yell out orders at them (and shoot them when they do stupid things). You can also hire on players to run stations for you, though they normally don't want to do that (it's really fun when they do though ). There's the added bonus of getting to design the ship from the ground up to your specifications, so you can be in something unique.
And there's lots of other stuff to do as well, if you're so inclined.
That said, the game is laggy and very early testing stages, so be warned.


X3 was cool until I realized that I spent more time just speeding my money making empire along than anything else, and that I had spent a total of like 3 hours shooting things and around 15 actually doing stuff at all of around 100-120 recorded playing. I woke up, looked at my game left running overnight, and just went "what the hell am I doing", uninstalled, and did something more enjoyable. Honestly, I think it's that stupid speed up time button. They should've gone with some superfast engine instead.

[diamok]

@ductape - I'm heading out of town for the coming week, but when I get back I'm going to go with the Eve trail to see if it's something I could get into.  Thanks for info.

@creodor - That sounds pretty darn cool actually.  Again, when I get back I'll have to get into it and see whats the deal.

As for X3: TC - Well...it looks good, plays really smooth and has the trading, building empire type stuff that's cool too.  But alas, I really don't like the travel from sector to sector mechanism.  Maybe I haven't played enough, but having to enter this gate to get to that gate, then that gate to get to another gate, then another gate to get to 45 gates closer to where I actually want to be.  It's as bad as questing in Dragon Age II...talk to this guy, now get this item and talk to this guy, he says take that item to another guy who then says take it back to him, and then again I have to take it over to someone else...aaaaahhhhhhh!  (Sigh

I shouldn't HAVE to follow a flow chart to have fun, right?  Course, maybe there's a quicker way to go from sector to sector I don't know about.  Oh, it also took me like 4 hours to figure out how to change ships...the wiki has no info on it and the FAQ on main site blows chunks.  A help section in game would be "helpful" too, as would pop-up tool tips so you don't have to click on everything in a sector just to find the 1 station (which is always the last thing left to click on) you want to dock at.  Yeah yeah, I know there's the find in sector option but blah...click click, click, clicky, click click.  BAH!!!

Ok, sorry, slight rant there, my bad.

Again, thanks for input guys.

Take care,

[timferius]

X3 stuff

If I remeber from my x3 days, you can get a jump drive from the Gonar temple (same in TC?). Basically let's you skip sectors and jump directly to a distant gate of your choice. the more sectors you skip, the more energy it costs. As in the commodity, so it actually runs off the energy you buy at solar farms and such