Help me find a great starship game.
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There's no current entry in the Battlecruiser series, the most recent being 2005's Universal Combat.lightingbird said:Ah glad I finally came across someone that played it.CrystalShadow said:Ah... Starflight. I remember that.lightingbird said:I'm an old school gamer and I used to play a game that some of you who also fall into that category might know.
It was called Starflight.
It was a scifi game in which you commanded a non military ship for exploration and profit. You got to recruit your crew by creating them from different races. You could spec their stats, they learned and got better, and they could also permanently die.
You could fully upgrade your ship for better armor, science equipment, shields and weapons. The known galaxy was insanely huge and open for exploring. A huge sandbox with no storyline to follow. There were hostile races in the game and you could make allies and even enemies with all of them. Planets that could support life, you could recommend for colonization for money. You could even land on certain planets and mine which was the main way of getting money other than destroying ships and other stuff. For me, I felt like I was actually in a starship as the captain, exploring the unknown in which every decision mattered.
So it was a great game back in 1986 (I did say I was old school).
Is there anything like this but with a modern element and maybe more to offer? It seems like most of them are mostly fighter shooters or just ship based games with no way to land on planets, other ships, linear storyline, no free will, and no mention of crew members.
So can anyone recommend something similar to what I described? Does it exist?
ALSO - Why in the hell is there no instant reply notification by email on this forum?
Unfortunately there's nothing much quite like it these days.
Bridge commander isn't too bad, but it's nothing like the freedom of starflight.
About the closest thing I can come up with (though still quite different), is the X3 series (X3 Reunion or Terran conflict)
That's a large universe you can explore and trade in. Buy and sell stuff... Do missions for random people...
No landing on planets though, but it does have a VERY thorough economy. (You can buy ships and own a fleet, but you can also buy and manage factories to produce your own goods, which you can then use or sell on. - Managing 100 trading ships and 300 factories can get quite insane. - Assuming you have the patience to build up enough wealth to buy it all.)
But... It's still not quite what you're thinking of.
A special mention also to Battlecruiser 3000AD / millenium, etc. It's a disaster of a game series, but... You can do just about anything. Including manage individual crew members, land on and explore all the planets in the game... (using fighters, on foot, a land vehicle, or even by landing your battlecruiser itself). In the later installments of the series you can also explore the interior of your ship and space stations.
Now, while that may sound great and all, Battlecruiser 3000AD has a reputation for being incredibly difficult to learn, and (for most people) quite boring, despite what you can supposedly do in it.
Yea it seems that I can't find anything like it. I did look into bridge commander and its not what I was hoping. I'll look into Battlecruiser 3000AD / millenium next.
On the plus side however, it seems all the games in the series are available for free these days:
http://www.3000ad.com/download/
So... There's no real risk in seeing if you find it at all appealing I guess.
If it's anything like the game it's a sequel to (Star Trek: Starfleet Academy), it's not so much a combat sim as it is a Starfleet Captain sim. It's focused on combat, but you have to manage the entire ship, and there's parts where you do things like talk to other captains. Starfleet Academy even had "Historical Missions" as a game mode, where you got to play out major scenes from the TV and film series, like the final battle from The Wrath of Khan. It's not really what you're looking for, but it is cool.lightingbird said:
As for suggestions of other games that are in the style you are looking for, the only thing I can think of is Star Control and its sequels. They're old (Star Control 2 had a Sega Genesis remake/port, and the original DOS version is so old that the graphical mode with the most colors is EGA at a whopping 16) but they're pretty much exactly what you're looking for. Also, on the off chance that you didn't know about it, Star Flight had a sequel. Sadly, this is a genre that doesn't seem to exist anymore; the original Mass Effect took some pretty big cues from Star Control 2 (The Mako missions were pretty heavily based on the way planet exploration worked in that game) but I don't know of any modern games that are fully in that style.
Edit: And thank you for reminding me of how awesome these games are. I'm off to find that website that has the freeware version of Star Control 2.
Edit Edit: It looks like the game I actually remember playing is the original Starflight. Either way, I will be playing it by the end of the night.
Final Edit: Wikipedia is wonderful. There was a spiritual sequel to Starflight 2 called <link=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protostar:_War_on_the_Frontier>Protostar: War on the Frontier. It may be what you're looking for.
Ha well I a good laugh looking up 3000ad. Gamespot has several bad reviews on it and it appears to be a fighter game. Ha oh well, thanks anyway for that.
Yea there is actgually a starflight3.Owyn_Merrilin said:
I was just really hoping that someone had made a more recent version of those types of games but it appears not. I look into starfleet academy next.
Well, Mass Effect is quite literally Bioware's take on the genre. It's different enough that it doesn't really fit into it, but that's the closest I know of from a modern game. It's a shame, really; I'd love to see something in that genre with current gen graphics. Starflight was a graphical powerhouse when it came out, what with the fractally generated 3D planetary landing sequences.lightingbird said:
If you're open to older games, then there was a classic very much in the same vein as Starflight (which I also loved).
Star Control II, now available open source as "The Ur-Quan Masters." Unlike most open-source games, this one actually includes the resources (graphics and sounds) of the original, and it's a classic.
Star Control II, now available open source as "The Ur-Quan Masters." Unlike most open-source games, this one actually includes the resources (graphics and sounds) of the original, and it's a classic.
Nah I was hoping there would be something with newer graphics and stuff. Looking bleak.targren said:
I wish I knew how to make a game ha.
Yeah, unfortunately space explorers like that have joined space combat sims (Wing Commander / X-Wing) in the "has-been" pile of gaming.lightingbird said:Nah I was hoping there would be something with newer graphics and stuff. Looking bleak.targren said:
I wish I knew how to make a game ha.
There's always the Genesis version of Starflight. I don't like it as much as the IBM version, but the graphics were pretty good for the time; it's probably your best bet for a game in the genre with more modern graphics. Like the guy above me said, this is one genre that just doesn't get made anymore.lightingbird said:Nah I was hoping there would be something with newer graphics and stuff. Looking bleak.targren said:
I wish I knew how to make a game ha.
Ha well I am looking for a starship game, not a fighter game. Pretty much the description in my first post. Which would not be in a fighter game because they wouldn't have a crew, land on planets, get out of ships, and have people who gain skills that could die. Not to mention something new, well at least at most a few years old.bussinrounds said:
Ha but few people are reading my post! Hence all of the fighter based suggestions and I'm not looking for a fighter game. Haha annoying but oh well at least people are trying.
Blindly trying, but trying. Haha. I've accepted that the game I'm seeking might not exist so I am giving up for now.
Would any actual Starflight carts still have live batteries? It's pretty old. Might be better off with an emulator for it.
Basically you want an Elite-like with a crew... not sure there's much modern in that genre. Someone mentioned the Mass Effect games earlier and that's probably the example closest to the genre in the last few years. The crew aspect is the real sticking point though as there're plenty of Elite-likes without one.
Protostar runs quite well in DOSBox and has all the gameplay elements of Starflight. I remember spending hours exploring planets, building up wealth, taking notes on trade prices, even drawing diagrams of enemy ships labeling where systems were located. I sure wish I'd kept all those notes. >.>
Basically you want an Elite-like with a crew... not sure there's much modern in that genre. Someone mentioned the Mass Effect games earlier and that's probably the example closest to the genre in the last few years. The crew aspect is the real sticking point though as there're plenty of Elite-likes without one.
Protostar runs quite well in DOSBox and has all the gameplay elements of Starflight. I remember spending hours exploring planets, building up wealth, taking notes on trade prices, even drawing diagrams of enemy ships labeling where systems were located. I sure wish I'd kept all those notes. >.>
Frontier First Encounters (aka Elite 3)? Most of what you've described except the RPG elements. And I think most people did read the op, it's just what you're asking for doesn't exist!