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[EuchreJack]

GTA but it's in space.

Setting is a densely populated single solar system, maybe an asteroid field. Dense traffic of ships that you can hijack at your whim. For gameplay reasons, like GTA, civilians mostly don't react but get high enough heat and system police start coming after you in bigger and bigger hardware.

Dogfight with the ships you steal. Different weapon loadouts depending on the model of ship (but mostly consistent loadouts for a given model).

I wonder how much you lose not being able to just walk around the city, being forced to be in a ship at all times.

I think you just described every Elite-like arcade spaceflight sim ever, except with an interactive boarding component stapled on. There aren't many with that latter feature, though.

The only two I could think of are Ascii Sector, a roguelike Wing Commander: Privateer semi-clone, and some old obscure Russian stuff I shall not name.

A GTA-like set inside a massive space station that rotated for gravity, on the other hand...Go fast enough against the rotation and you might just tumble off into the sky. That would be one unusual gameplay mechanic right there.

You'd like Heat Signature. The game is about boarding ships and completing the missions. It's even got the top-down perspective of the old GTA games. Not a lot of ship combat though.

[Il Palazzo]

GTA in space would lose the best part of GTA imo - the getting from point A to B across a unique and highly varied environment by any means necessary. It's that parkour mentality. In space, you can just go in a straight line. It's terribly boring.

[hector13]

One of my better remembered gaming moments was playing GTAIV online, and single-handedly winning my team a particularly match in a lime green Comet super car.

[Egan_BW]

GTA in space would lose the best part of GTA imo - the getting from point A to B across a unique and highly varied environment by any means necessary. It's that parkour mentality. In space, you can just go in a straight line. It's terribly boring.

Something like Freelancer can make navigating space more of a challenge, with hyperspace lanes and lots of space rocks and such. Or you could go in the other direction and make it more realistic like KSP~

[Niveras]

GTA in space would lose the best part of GTA imo - the getting from point A to B across a unique and highly varied environment by any means necessary. It's that parkour mentality. In space, you can just go in a straight line. It's terribly boring.

Hence the need for a heavily dense system, like an asteroid belt or maybe an enormous interconnected station. But you're right, it would severely limit "parkour" potential.

[Il Palazzo]

See, asteroids and space junk don't work. They're too generic. It'd be like driving around in Vice City, but all buildings are grey and nondescript, and you can't tell one street from another.
There's plenty of spaceship-centred games out there, and they all tried to make space interesting to fly around. But they all end up feeling samey and empty.

[E. Albright]

The problem is that space is BIG. It's hard to get around that and still make something feel like space.

[Sirus]

Not just big, it's also mostly empty. I'm not talking empty like a poorly constructed open world, I mean there's literally nothing for millions of kilometers around.

[AzyWng]

I remember playing Oolite (like the old game Elite but with modding abilities and such) for a little bit.

I never got very far.

Travel took a long time. I barely even had asteroids to be afraid of colliding with.

[Egan_BW]

Add realistic physics and technology (limited fuel, thrust not at scifi omgwtf levels) and it can still be difficult to navigate, despite being empty.

[Aoi]

"At the International Space Station, roughly 350 kilometers away, there are only around 10 trillion... In intergalactic space, there are only about ten atoms per cubic meter of space."

'Nothing' is just a matter of perspective!

Travel took a long time. I barely even had asteroids to be afraid of colliding with.

I had an experience like that recently in Dyson Sphere Program... I was blasting off at max (intra-system) speed without realizing my fuel tank was basically empty. I misaimed my approach, ran out of fuel to correct my course, and slingshot myself around my destination planet into deep space. It took me something like six hours of real time to get back, as I was adamant about not reloading to fix stupid errors on that run.

[AlStar]

I misaimed my approach, ran out of fuel to correct my course, and slingshot myself around my destination planet into deep space. It took me something like six hours of real time to get back, as I was adamant about not reloading to fix stupid errors on that run.

Did you just let the game run in the background until your orbit eventually caused you to run into another planet?

I try similar things when I play KSP, but it's hard not to hit the reload button when things go pear-shaped. So far I've managed to allow myself failed missions that result in stranded Kerbals that need saving, but my program has never lost an astronaut (kerbalnaut?), since I just can't bring myself to let the little buggers die on me.

[Mathel]

I had an experience like that recently in Dyson Sphere Program... I was blasting off at max (intra-system) speed without realizing my fuel tank was basically empty. I misaimed my approach, ran out of fuel to correct my course, and slingshot myself around my destination planet into deep space. It took me something like six hours of real time to get back, as I was adamant about not reloading to fix stupid errors on that run.

Elite: First Encounters. It has orbital mechanics
I do not remember what system it happened in, or what ship I was flying. This happened years agon.

I set my autopilot to get me to a station orbitting a moon and hit the maximal timewarp button. Autopilot wasted most of my fuel chasing the station around the moon on full thrust before I managed to kill.
Had to use what I knew of orbital mechanics from watching KSP to get to the station manually.

[GalacticMonkey]

An action-rpg roguelite, with the Nemesis system from Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor/War. Ideally you play as an Orc, who climbs the treacherous Orc hierarchy, with different skills, events, quests, skill trees and (ideally) a procedurally generated map for that extra replayability factor. I would be satisfied if the combat mechanics were 50% of that from ME:SoM/W but the Nemesis system and the proc-gen portion would be expanded. Bonus points for a some light strategy/base-building elements (bulding a war camp, uruk baracks, preparing ambushes, striking deals with warlocks etc)

A proper remake/reimagining of Gangster: Organized Crime (the first game, not the second). Paradox would fit my idea of a game studio which could handle such an undertaking, however they do not seem interested or any other studio for that matter

Also Scarface 2.

[hector13]

Paradox did actually publish a game based in prohibition era Chicago.

It… leaves a lot to be desired. It’s basically Gangsters 2 with the more recent XCOM turn-based tactics tacked on. Very disappointing.

I’ve been in the same boat as you for years though, Gangsters was a tremendous game.