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General discussionSpace games where space feels vast(69 posts)(69 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted December 12, 2016
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For the past year I've been a massive fan of The Expanse series of books and TV show. One of the key aspects of that sci-fi setting is that outer space is unimaginably vast, and they don't have warp drives. Space travel is still relatively fast compared to real life space crafts, but still significantly slower than what you usually see in fiction. A round trip to saturn is half a year, that sort of thing. It changes what kind of stories you can tell and what kind of action you get.

Currently, in real life, the Voyager 1 is moving at some 17,000 meters per second which is impressive to our human senses but insignificant compared to the size of our solar system and beyond.

I'm curious to find games in which space feels vast like this. On the opposite end of the spectrum of what I want you have Freelancer in which a solar system is the size of a city where space feels like a submarine adventure in a bath tub. Similarly, I liked Rebel Galaxy, but it too is an action game where ships ram each other and everything is within reach in less than 5 minutes.

So far the only games I can remember feeling big are Smugglers V and Elite II. Unfortunately they are not games I'm interested in actually playing. Elite is just a little too hardcore oldschool for me and I don't like the fighting in that game. Smugglers is on paper the perfect game for me in every way and travel times in that game is quite substantial. Unfortunately the execution and design sensibility infuriates me to no end, it is one of my most hated games.

No matter the genre, I'm interested in any game you can think of where space travel is a commitment, so no hyper space nonsense. GIve me your best suggestions. Thank you!
Posted December 12, 2016
avatar
Sufyan: For the past year I've been a massive fan of The Expanse series of books and TV show. One of the key aspects of that sci-fi setting is that outer space is unimaginably vast, and they don't have warp drives. Space travel is still relatively fast compared to real life space crafts, but still significantly slower than what you usually see in fiction. A round trip to saturn is half a year, that sort of thing. It changes what kind of stories you can tell and what kind of action you get.

Currently, in real life, the Voyager 1 is moving at some 17,000 meters per second which is impressive to our human senses but insignificant compared to the size of our solar system and beyond.

I'm curious to find games in which space feels vast like this. On the opposite end of the spectrum of what I want you have Freelancer in which a solar system is the size of a city where space feels like a submarine adventure in a bath tub. Similarly, I liked Rebel Galaxy, but it too is an action game where ships ram each other and everything is within reach in less than 5 minutes.

So far the only games I can remember feeling big are Smugglers V and Elite II. Unfortunately they are not games I'm interested in actually playing. Elite is just a little too hardcore oldschool for me and I don't like the fighting in that game. Smugglers is on paper the perfect game for me in every way and travel times in that game is quite substantial. Unfortunately the execution and design sensibility infuriates me to no end, it is one of my most hated games.

No matter the genre, I'm interested in any game you can think of where space travel is a commitment, so no hyper space nonsense. GIve me your best suggestions. Thank you!
There's not really many games where it takes two years of real time to reach the nearest planet lol :D
Posted December 12, 2016
KERBAL
Posted December 12, 2016
avatar
Sufyan: For the past year I've been a massive fan of The Expanse series of books and TV show. One of the key aspects of that sci-fi setting is that outer space is unimaginably vast, and they don't have warp drives. Space travel is still relatively fast compared to real life space crafts, but still significantly slower than what you usually see in fiction. A round trip to saturn is half a year, that sort of thing. It changes what kind of stories you can tell and what kind of action you get.

Currently, in real life, the Voyager 1 is moving at some 17,000 meters per second which is impressive to our human senses but insignificant compared to the size of our solar system and beyond.

I'm curious to find games in which space feels vast like this. On the opposite end of the spectrum of what I want you have Freelancer in which a solar system is the size of a city where space feels like a submarine adventure in a bath tub. Similarly, I liked Rebel Galaxy, but it too is an action game where ships ram each other and everything is within reach in less than 5 minutes.

So far the only games I can remember feeling big are Smugglers V and Elite II. Unfortunately they are not games I'm interested in actually playing. Elite is just a little too hardcore oldschool for me and I don't like the fighting in that game. Smugglers is on paper the perfect game for me in every way and travel times in that game is quite substantial. Unfortunately the execution and design sensibility infuriates me to no end, it is one of my most hated games.

No matter the genre, I'm interested in any game you can think of where space travel is a commitment, so no hyper space nonsense. GIve me your best suggestions. Thank you!
Try either of the X3 games, and start in Terran Space, and don't ever use your SETA
Posted December 12, 2016
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tinyE: KERBAL
This x1000!
Posted December 12, 2016
To clarify, I don't necessarily mean real time games or that I want to sit and watch nothing happen for hours. Turn based games are actually quite appropriate for what I'm asking for.

For all it's awfulness, Smugglers V does at least show the passing of time which captures my imagination in a good way. Every time you try and do anything in that game, you see the days pass in the blink of an eye. A career in space can take many years and you only accomplish a few things in that time. It feels rough, much like The Expanse.

Kerbal Space Program is on my wish list since it came to GOG, and I can see how that suggestion makes sense. You win the internetz today, tinyE. Just like most days.
Posted December 12, 2016
I'd say that there are probably aren't that much games, where you move at STL and are in space (and even then they usually have some sort of time compression going on) - and I'm unable, unfortunatly, to remember even one of them. However, I would rather reccommend you three games with "nonsence FTL", where space (at least on occassion) does feel quite big:
1)I'll second the mention of the X3 - even with SETA and fastest ship the Solar System feels (to me, at least) exceptionally big.
2)Star Wolves 3 (the one that sprung from the mod). While generally the maps aren't that big and backgrounds are mostly just your usual pretty space - there is one episode that takes place in general vicinity of mega-structure. It is prettty big - and a background - so the feeling of wastness and awe can quite well stay with for all the length of your - ah - stay there.
3)Homeworld. Even the cyclopical Mothership is casually dwarfed on so many occasions by both artifitial and natural objects in space. Special mention goes to the Graveyard. Plues, space in here is just in general beautiful.
Coming to think about it: all three games either don't have casual hyperspace and have to rely on gates, or have quite a restrictive version of it.
Posted December 12, 2016
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Sufyan: Kerbal Space Program is on my wish list since it came to GOG, and I can see how that suggestion makes sense.
Not only is there a fair "amount" of space in KSP, but anything you fly or ride (!) out there feels better and more realistic to any other game. The downside is the steep learning curve and the fact that KSP is a huge time sink, but if you enjoy spacey stuff & science in general, that's no problem at all. ;)
Posted December 12, 2016
Another shoutout for Homeworld. Like Dition pointed out, your massive mothership is dwarfed by the expanse of space which makes up each level, which in turn is pitifully dwarfed by nebulae and, sometimes, by incomprehensibly colossal structures in the background.
Posted December 12, 2016
Thanks for these suggestions. I namedropped hyperspace because it is the antithesis of how I like my space fiction. In Star Wars they treat travel like it isn't even a thing, the whole galaxy is just seconds away at all times (except when the plot demands otherwise).

Space is mindboggingly big and empty, and life out there is scary and soul crushing. It shouldn't be that your mate asks you to do a thing and you're done before the end of the day, or week even.
Posted December 12, 2016
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Sufyan: Space is mindboggingly big and empty, and life out there is scary and soul crushing.
Space is disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence. - Dr. Leonard McCoy.

Anyway, you raise an interesting point. Most space games I can think of are like Mass Effect or KOTOR, the type of sci-fi where space travel is no biggy, and you travel between solar systems like between towns in other RPGs. Even Star Trek Online didn't get it much better. I was always disappointed with how Starcraft was entirely planet surface based. The coolest thing about such a military sf/space opera mix, the space battles, entirely missing.

The one game that came to my mind so far if The Dig. It only actually takes you to one alien planet, but at least it actually feels like being stranded on an alien world hell knows where is a big deal in that game, not a walk in the park.
Posted December 12, 2016
Star Ruler 2

The sheer scale of the game is incredible. You could theoretically have maps with billions of stars. You can construct vast megastructures like ringworlds. You can blow up galaxies (yes galaxies).

You can build star sized battleships. Hell, you can build a starship the size of a galaxy - don't do this without cheating. Even if you had the resources of multiple galaxies focused on building it - it would take years of real time even on max speed to build it. The devs did it once just to show it could be done.

[EDIT] Also not all races have FTL capability.
Post edited December 12, 2016 by tremere110
Posted December 12, 2016
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tremere110: Star Ruler 2

The sheer scale of the game is incredible. You could theoretically have maps with billions of stars. You can construct vast megastructures like ringworlds. You can blow up galaxies (yes galaxies).

You can build star sized battleships. Hell, you can build a starship the size of a galaxy - don't do this without cheating. Even if you had the resources of multiple galaxies focused on building it - it would take years of real time even on max speed to build it. The devs did it once just to show it could be done.

[EDIT] Also not all races have FTL capability.
The scope of the simulation appears to be rather wide, sure, but I'm turned off by the planets and suns all being tiny balls floating close enough to observe each other. The scaling doesn't seem much different from Rebel Galaxy. Compare this to our own solar system where planets are so far apart that they are merely dots to each other. The sun even looks like just a slightly brighter star when you observe it from one of the outer planets. That's the feeling I hope to get from a space themed game, wether it is a graphical effect or the passage of time showing that yeah, traversing the emptiness between planets is a significant undertaking.

I'm fine with faster than light travel and communication, so long as it doesn't trivialise life in space. Going between solar systems or galaxies shouldn't be as simple as driving to the super market when you're hungry.
Posted December 12, 2016
avatar
Sufyan: For the past year I've been a massive fan of The Expanse series of books and TV show. One of the key aspects of that sci-fi setting is that outer space is unimaginably vast, and they don't have warp drives. Space travel is still relatively fast compared to real life space crafts, but still significantly slower than what you usually see in fiction. A round trip to saturn is half a year, that sort of thing. It changes what kind of stories you can tell and what kind of action you get.

Currently, in real life, the Voyager 1 is moving at some 17,000 meters per second which is impressive to our human senses but insignificant compared to the size of our solar system and beyond.
I understand your reasoning but the opposite-argument is why I kind of lost interest in news regarding real life excursions with space shuttles and the likes simply because it takes like years to get anywhere and I find commuting more than 30 minutes/day not civilized enough. Now that I think about it though I don't disagree with the idea that science fiction shouldn't trivialize space distance.
Posted December 12, 2016
Well here is your answer, I do not know how vast the Elite Dangerous universe is, but the Eve Online universe feels pretty vast.

You have jump drives and stargates. As far as I know you cannot enter another system without using a jumpgate, but even in a system alone you would need hours, perhaps days(have not tried it) to fly to another station or planet in that system without the use of a jumpdrive depending on the distance between them, but that would be possible if you want to. If you want to pass through several systems to a destination(using another jumpgate) and do not use your jumpdrive, prepare for a journey of several weeks^^.

I never tried to jump from one corner of the universe to another, I think largest number jumps was 28 usinfg stargates and that were about 3+ hours^^ on autopilot (btw do not use autopilot^^) and using the jumpdrive in a system to get to another stargate.

You can encounter npc enemies(called rats) but they mostly in so called deadspace pockets, it is more likely that you will meet another player jumping you on your way :).

If you look for a universe that feels vast, EvE Online is worth a try, especially because they have introduced "Alpha Clones", what means playing with a limited skill set, but for free.

The universe:

http://evemaps.dotlan.net/

Trailers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQciMy_Pr0Q&index=1&list=PLF614A7A6461E61E1

I recommend watching some vids of the Rooks and Kings channel, because there you can see how the gameplay is and what stories and theorycrafting are possible in the game:

Clarion Call 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrYe_4vHzgE

Clarion Call 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNUu75fH8Uc

For non online-playing, there is still the X-Series.
Post edited December 12, 2016 by MaGo72
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionSpace games where space feels vast(69 posts)(69 posts)
(69 posts)