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keysofanxiety

macrumors G3
Nov 23, 2011
9,539
25,302
Everspace Beta Keys handed out today - it's gonna be a sleepless night for me... :eek:

;)

OK, I'm sold! But... can you still try to sell it to me? :D

Multiplayer? Online? Anything like X3?

EDIT: Looks like single player only -- I should've just indulged a Google search before asking you! Still it does look absolutely gorgeous. Might be tempted to get it anyway.
 

iShater

macrumors 604
Aug 13, 2002
7,025
464
Chicagoland
OK, I'm sold! But... can you still try to sell it to me? :D

Multiplayer? Online? Anything like X3?

EDIT: Looks like single player only -- I should've just indulged a Google search before asking you! Still it does look absolutely gorgeous. Might be tempted to get it anyway.
I like epic campaigns ... living the actual "movie" :D

I still miss the old days of the Wing Commander series.
 

gkarris

macrumors G3
Dec 31, 2004
8,301
1,061
"No escape from Reality...”
Looking forward to some updates :)

I haven't played much since Free Space 2. Lack of strong hardware, and decent games with that type of epic scale.

Work weekends and errands today. Trying to update my laptops so I can play it on them (and test it out since I am a Beta testor) as well but will play much more over the next two days on my Console PC.

This is an awesome game - exactly my type of Space Sim...
 
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Huntn

macrumors Core
May 5, 2008
23,396
26,520
The Misty Mountains
OMG OMG OMG OMG...

https://inovaestudios.com/battlescape

What No Mans Sky should've been.... :eek:


DANG - the "Dev Preview Version" is $$$... :(


They must be trolling for SC big spenders. :D It looks like SC has some competition. I'm really yearning to get into such a game. I feel like I missed the boat with Eve, but am so far behind the power curve I won't start that. And most importantly although I spend a lot of time gaming, I don't want commitment, I want casual play, with the ability to have rewarding experiences. Elite Dangerous was pretty good until I got bored with the grind, but in the realm of grind, it was not that bad, it just got boring. :)

Currently looking this over: The 15 Best Space Sims(2016)
Thoughts, suggestions?

I agree with this ED description:
Whether or not Elite 4 has depth issues, there’s certainly a widely-held belief that despite all the solar systems you can visit, the planets you can land on and endless missions up for grabs from every human outpost, there’s just not enough variation and very little impact a player can make on the game or the universe around them. Players have found ways to extend their fun of course, such as by hosting races, jumping to the rescue of stranded ships, infiltrating player groups and leading expeditions to the other side of the galaxy, but many of these player-sourced happenings have been in spite of limits put upon them as much by the scope the game offers. In that sense Elite has the least amount of “game” in this list.
 
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gkarris

macrumors G3
Dec 31, 2004
8,301
1,061
"No escape from Reality...”
They must be trolling for SC big spenders. :D It looks like SC has some competition. I'm really yearning to get into such a game. I feel like I missed the boat with Eve, but am so far behind the power curve I won't start that. And most importantly although I spend a lot of time gaming, I don't want commitment, I want casual play, with the ability to have rewarding experiences. Elite Dangerous was pretty good until I got bored with the grind, but in the realm of grind, it was not that bad, it just got boring. :)
.

Infinity: Battlescape looks more like exploring procedurally generated planets and building and combat. SC seems more to be highly detailed and in-depth gameplay and actual tasks and missions.
 
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JPark

macrumors 6502a
Jun 5, 2006
662
158
I like epic campaigns ... living the actual "movie" :D

I still miss the old days of the Wing Commander series.

Squadron 42 (the single player campaign component of Star Citizen) should be out in the first half of 2017. You can buy it now and play around with the Alpha version of Star Citizen (the multiplayer persistent universe component) while you wait.
 

Frign

macrumors regular
Aug 19, 2011
116
408
I recently started playing Galaxy on Fire 2 and have been really enjoying it. However, I haven't been playing that long and have discovered there isn't much in the way of ships, weapons, equipment to upgrade to.

I was wondering if there are any other Space Combat like games with deeper customization, world, and even story (optional)? I purchased X3: Terran Conflict, but so far it's been a little too much. There does not appear to be any sort of tutorial and I haven't had a chance to RTFM.

I would prefer the game to be native for OSX, but if it's a game I should really check out then I would not hesitate to play via bootcamp or parallels. Also, not a deal killer, but I would prefer the 3rd person perspective similar to GoF2 rather than the 1st person cockpit view (I like to see my ship).

Thanks in advance!

Try out No Man's Sky. It has a very realistic space combat simulator as part of the game.
 

erdwandler

macrumors newbie
Nov 2, 2016
1
1
Taking up this old school post and enrichening it with more old school info:

How about the new Elite Dangerous (Kickstarter) game? Surely it has some similar gameplay and feel as the original Freelancer and Wing Commander series.

Elite Dangerous is not a real kickstarter btw. It is based on a old ATARI Game called ELITE, one of the first space sim games where not only flying and shooting was needed, but also trading

I just made a research on several games for mac in 2016 and came up with this list of space sim games rolled out during the last years:

EVERSPACE
ELITE DANGEROUS (Freelancer like)
X3
No Man's sky
Star Citizen
EVE Online
DUal Universe (2017)
Galaxy on Fire 2 Full HD (Freelancer like)

On OSX I've only played Galaxy on Fire and I must say, though it misses a better story (there are no trailers or something like that and you start playing knowing only: pilot gets into a wormhole and appears several years later at the other end of the galaxy), no refined story as in freelancer or wing commander. Nevertheless, the gameplay is similar as freelancer, there are story missions, side-missions, you can mine asteroids for ore and sell it then, or pirate like shooting ships and getting their cargo. lots of ships upgrades, weapons, etc.
 
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Solomani

macrumors 601
Sep 25, 2012
4,785
10,477
Slapfish, North Carolina
It's unfortunate that Ambrosia Software never went ahead with the much-requested Escape Velocity Online (or multi-player version). :( EV had everything about a space-ship simulator…. you had real-time combat (lasers, missiles, shields, space mines, bombs, etc). You lived for ship upgrades, or earning enough credits to buy a bigger better ship. And you had trading, piracy, landing planet to planet in trading and refueling, taking missions.

You also took sides (or remained neutral) in an overall Galactic rebellion story.

Only those who knew who Ambrosia Software was are the old school Mac gamers. Ambrosia was one of the earliest stalwarts of Mac shareware gaming, and their games oozed with quality. Exactly like only the true veteran Mac people know about the Mac origins of Bungie and their Mac games (Marathon, Myth, etc), years before Bungie had anything to do with Microsoft and PC gaming.
 
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old-mac-man

macrumors regular
Dec 29, 2012
131
85
Mind your own business.
Elite Dangerous is not a real kickstarter btw. It is based on a old ATARI Game called ELITE, one of the first space sim games where not only flying and shooting was needed, but also trading.

Elite Dangerous is inspired by Elite which started life on the BBC computer, released through a company called Acornsoft if I recall correctly.

I hope it was a KickStarter, it seems to display all the traditional traits, hand over money for reward, release delays, a community that always knows better than the devs, etc.
 

Janichsan

macrumors 68040
Oct 23, 2006
3,030
11,006
Elite Dangerous is inspired by Elite which started life on the BBC computer, released through a company called Acornsoft if I recall correctly.

I hope it was a KickStarter, it seems to display all the traditional traits, hand over money for reward, release delays, a community that always knows better than the devs, etc.
"Inspired" is an understatement: it's an official sequel from the same developer (well, one of them).

And yes, it is a Kickstarter funded game, though things like delays and the know-it-all community are by far not exclusive to Kickstarter projects.
 
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Razzerman

macrumors 6502
Sep 11, 2007
276
172
Ah, I remember seeing Elite for the first time on a BBC micro - jaw dropping at the time.

Played ED for a while, but they've hit a stumbling block and have ceased development for the Mac version. Something to do with apples wonky drivers not supporting some shaders or other. Shame really, was a real buzz to fly.
 

gkarris

macrumors G3
Dec 31, 2004
8,301
1,061
"No escape from Reality...”
Ah, I remember seeing Elite for the first time on a BBC micro - jaw dropping at the time.

Played ED for a while, but they've hit a stumbling block and have ceased development for the Mac version. Something to do with apples wonky drivers not supporting some shaders or other. Shame really, was a real buzz to fly.

Actually, when I bought a copy of Elite: Dangerous, I saw on my account on their website that I had a copy of the original one to download.

So I downloaded it to play.

It seems to first go into a BBC Micro emulator... :eek:

Never saw one of those here in the US... :)
 

Janichsan

macrumors 68040
Oct 23, 2006
3,030
11,006
Played ED for a while, but they've hit a stumbling block and have ceased development for the Mac version.
Not completely. The Mac version hasn't got the "Horizons" expansion, but it's still in active development. They recently released version 1.7 for the base game, which includes a bunch of new features. But yeah, the most interesting new stuff won't be available on the Mac.
 

gkarris

macrumors G3
Dec 31, 2004
8,301
1,061
"No escape from Reality...”
Wow, that was pretty brave. What did you think to it?

I had no idea what was going on, plus playing on a BBC Micro Emulator was weirrddd... deleted... :eek:

I guess Space Sims is one of those genres where graphics and visuals DOES make a difference...

OMG - Dreadnaught Shipyard Update adds 30 ships!

https://www.greybox.com/dreadnought/en/news/shipyard-update-patch-131-now-live/

OMG OMG OMG........

image-filename_CKcdELw.original.jpg
 
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Razzerman

macrumors 6502
Sep 11, 2007
276
172
I had no idea what was going on, plus playing on a BBC Micro Emulator was weirrddd... deleted... :eek:

I guess Space Sims is one of those genres where graphics and visuals DOES make a difference...

Lol, yeah I'll bet it was weird alright. Going back to olde worlde graphics would be a bit of a system shock.

Ironically, I found the graphics were (and had to be) secondary on the old 8-bit machines. It was the gameplay which hooked people, including me, and the old imagination had to do the rest. Now I find the graphics are so superb and realistic it's really amazing. The gameplay is what you make it. I really enjoyed flying around with my eldest lad as a wingman. Really good fun. He keeps an eye on the latest and greatest space-sims. He enjoyed Dreadnought, much faster paced than Elite, I think.

Keep posting the space-sims please :)
 
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