Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Mormota]

Well, hello there everyone! I've been long since looking for one specific kind of game. Looking, hah, longing! One where you control a single ship or a fleet at most, with heavy customisation options and generally open-world gameplay. Can you recommend me such a game?

[Krelian]

X3: Terran Conflict

This

[Mormota]

Does it allow you to pilot stuff from small(-ish?) fighters to capital ships? Also, can you make your ship from scratch, or do you have a basic blueprint and add components to it?

[h3lblad3]

All kinds of ships.

But no designing, sadly.
At least so far as I know.

[lastverb]

Does it allow you to pilot stuff from small(-ish?) fighters to capital ships? Also, can you make your ship from scratch, or do you have a basic blueprint and add components to it?

1) Yes, however you would like to find some good mods if you plan to use carriers more.
2) Answer with blueprints (quite a lot of them) and components.
edit: but if you really want and have some modeling skill you can mod anything in.

[Eek-A-Mouse]

Evochron: Mercenary seems like a decent space-sim game. You can fly into a planet's atmosphere, the space flight seems nicely complex, and the graphics aren't too shabby. I never played it, but the game seems pretty nice.

[MrWiggles]

Escape Velocity: Nova

Its a sandbox, arcade space-sim with twitch combat. You can control fighters, or eventually work yer way up to Capital ships. Through the various weapons, and additions you can purchase to yer ship, you can make'em fit your play style.

It lets you function as a freelance trader, or pirate, or a bounty hunter. There are 6 main story missions that are somewhat exclusive. (As in some of the story missions let you switch over to another), but once you complete one, the endgame of that story mission affects the universe forever.

It has a very active modding community, ranging the gambit of cheat mods, to extra difficulty, story mods and total conversations mods.

[Akura]

Someone around here is creating something called Void Destroyer, which allows you to control(both directly and indirectly) a variety of different ships, and is so far shaping out pretty nice.


There's also Shores of Hazeron.

[hemmingjay]

These are all good options but would also like to suggest something different..........Space Rangers 2

[GT]

These are all good options but would also like to suggest something different..........Space Rangers 2

Great game. I really got into the universe when I got imprisoned on a planet where I wasn't welcome, and broke out through an old-school style 'choose your own adventure' styled story. Really cool to see that integrated into a game.

Also, if you can stomach the old graphics, check out Wing Commander: Privateer. It's an open game. Only 4 ships (your starter one, a 'trader' type ship, a 'tank' type ship, and a high-end combat ship) but I've lost many hours months on it. If the graphics are too poor for you, look into the Vegastrike Privateer mods. The Gemini Gold and Privateer Universe ones are both great - Gemini Gold holds true to the original (basically a near-replica with updated graphics) and Privateer Universe greatly expands - allowing you to pilot nearly every other ship in the game, new weapons, etc.



Edit: Sorry, missed the open world. But I can still suggest FS2 if you like space games at all, it's fantastic. Tons of user-made missions along with the wonderful campaign

Also, I can suggest FS2... can grab it on GoG and then grab the FS2 SCP - it's an update that brings the graphics VERY close to modern day graphics. GREAT storyline (IMO), great gameplay. With the SCP, it's about on par (give or take) with newer space games. Can't recommend this one enough if you want an old school Wing Commander/X-Wing/TIE Fighter styled game with a smoother and more modern feel.

Link to the FS2 SCP install guide on GoG:
http://www.gog.com/en/forum/freespace_series/quick_and_simple_freespace_2_scp_installation_guide/page1

If you still need convincing, check this out - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HFEmGcJcWA - jump to ~1:20 for gameplay footage.

[Knave]

Yeah Space Rangers 2, FS2 and X3 are all great games that you can't go wrong.

If you're looking for something that will really suck your life away, have you considered EVE online? A lot like X3 but MMO. Not everyone's cup of tea, but those that like it, like it a lot! There's even a bay12 corp that seems to be prospering quite nicely.

[GT]

Yeah Space Rangers 2, FS2 and X3 are all great games that you can't go wrong.

If you're looking for something that will really suck your life away, have you considered EVE online? A lot like X3 but MMO. Not everyone's cup of tea, but those that like it, like it a lot! There's even a bay12 corp that seems to be prospering quite nicely.

I've gone back to EVE so many times.. and while I love it.. the risk vs reward just leans too far towards risk for me to get too heavily invested in the game.

After a long day at work, if I only have an hour to play a game, I want to get something done - not spend three hours warping and hiding with a massive fleet because there's a 25% chance we won't be in the 'optimal' position to win a fight. Even at smaller scale, same thing. To each their own - if you got a lot of time to burn, EVE is a lot of fun.


Edit: Hate to edit again, but Homeworld 2 is a great game if you're interested in fleet control.

[Sensei]

The big thing to keep in mind about EVE is that you aren't directly piloting your ship, so it's kind of a different genre.

[beorn080]

Transcendence with mods. Specifically, the Playership Drone mod and the Auton Hanger, plus some of the world expansion mods. Not a TON of customization, but its a good game.

[Rakonas]

Freelancer fits the bill on the generally open-world part, I'd say. Still one of the best space games I've ever found.