Space sci-fi games

[gerey]

because all the combat stuff(and general sci-fi aesthetic) was excellent

It looked great, but when you stop and think about the way they fight, it really doesn't make much sense. And yes, I'm aware they were going for a particular feel to the combat, much like Star Wars did.

I generally think the best blend of realistic sci-fi battles and spectacle was the Expanse. Pity there's no game that actually attempts to simulate the way they fight in the show.

[rusty_shackleford]

It looked great, but when you stop and think about the way they fight, it really doesn't make much sense.

I think a yuge space battleship with tons of mounted defense weapons is cool

[gerey]

I think a yuge space battleship with tons of mounted defense weapons is cool

Fair enough, I much prefer the spin and burn approach of the Expanse.

Naturally, Owlcat being shitlibs, they won't feature the single coolest aspect of the setting in their game, but will find plenty of time to include gay ******* and ugly women as companions.

[rusty_shackleford]

BSG also wins big points for mostly featuring conventional weaponry rather than lasers or 'plasma' or whatever. In 1000 years from now a 1911 will be just as deadly as it is today.

[Nemesis]

opinions on empyrion?

It looks interesting and worth a try with the price at 60% off.

[Orvas Dren]

Starsector - haven't played it yet. If someone did please give me your brief opinion.

One of my favorite games of all time. General gameplay loops plays similar to Mount and Blade but with far more depth. You do real time battles where you control flagships and command your fleet (like M&B) and traverse the maps to go from destination to destination (like M&B). There are however a lot more stuff you can do and ways to make money, and exploration of systems outside the core is also a big part of the game. Besides big space battles and navigating hyperspace, the game has a fully simulated real time economy, high level of ship customization, bounty hunting, scavenging, piracy, exploration, mining, colonization and settlement management, quests, and more.

I have 1-2 thousand hours in Starsector so let me know if you want to know anything else about it

[rusty_shackleford]

Starsector - haven't played it yet. If someone did please give me your brief opinion.

One of my favorite games of all time. General gameplay loops plays similar to Mount and Blade but with far more depth. You do real time battles where you control flagships and command your fleet (like M&B) and traverse the maps to go from destination to destination (like M&B). There are however a lot more stuff you can do and ways to make money, and exploration of systems outside the core is also a big part of the game. Besides big space battles and navigating hyperspace, the game has a fully simulated real time economy, high level of ship customization, bounty hunting, scavenging, piracy, exploration, mining, colonization and settlement management, quests, and more.

I have 1-2 thousand hours in Starsector so let me know if you want to know anything else about it

Does this have a story at all?

[Nessa]

It's a shame the series has so much hamfisted social commentary ********, because all the combat stuff(and general sci-fi aesthetic) was excellent.
Only game I think gets somewhat close to this are Homeworld & its expansion. When watching BSG I was convinced the series itself was heavily inspired by Homeworld, presumably in a circular fashion: original series → Homeworld → BSG

I think the original Homeworld was supposed to be BSG but they wanted too much for the rights or something and they ended up making a better setting.

Only for it all to collapse with that recent crap game but that's another issue.

[MrTwinkls]

Starsector - haven't played it yet. If someone did please give me your brief opinion.

One of my favorite games of all time. General gameplay loops plays similar to Mount and Blade but with far more depth. You do real time battles where you control flagships and command your fleet (like M&B) and traverse the maps to go from destination to destination (like M&B). There are however a lot more stuff you can do and ways to make money, and exploration of systems outside the core is also a big part of the game. Besides big space battles and navigating hyperspace, the game has a fully simulated real time economy, high level of ship customization, bounty hunting, scavenging, piracy, exploration, mining, colonization and settlement management, quests, and more.

I have 1-2 thousand hours in Starsector so let me know if you want to know anything else about it

I have the same question as Rusty. Does it have quests with some semblance of a narrative or a main story?

[rusty_shackleford]

Anyone played this?

[DDC]

Ok, so this is going to get me some heat because you play as a buzzcut girlboss with a traumatic past who talks to the "voices" in her head like she's in Hellblade, and questing around the first area you do odd jobs for several negresses. Oh, and immediately upon taking control of your ship, you'll notice that you have no direct control of the pitch axis, meaning the only control style is the equivalent of "arcade" or "simplified" mode in other space games. So it sounds absolutely terrible, BUT, if you can set all of that aside, Chorus is actually quite good.

The controls are an acquired taste for sure, but once they click, in my opinion it has the most fun handling model out of arcadey space games. There is a real sense of speed, you can powerslide, you can do a fast rolling strafe-dodge, and the camera angle is slightly dynamic and adjusts to make it all feel and look good. For sure, it's not one of those games where you feel like you're just rotating in circles barely moving while you try to get your sights on an enemy. The gunplay and aiming feels very polished. It has a semi-open world structure with sidequests, etc., and even what I would almost call the occasional dungeon. And despite the woke veneer, the story isn't all bad. Your AI ship is kind of a cool character.

It's not perfect and there is a little bit of jank in parts, but it succeeds in some things I haven't seen in other space games, and the graphics are excellent at 4k 120fps if you have the hardware to max it. I have not played all the way through, but from the chunk I played, I'd say that if it had attractive characters, it would be in the high 8s out of 10.

[Norfleet]

Oh, and immediately upon taking control of your ship, you'll notice that you have no direct control of the pitch axis, meaning the only control style is the equivalent of "arcade" or "simplified" mode in other space games.

No pitch controls? So, how's that work? Even the oldest arcade flight sims had a pitch control. Are we forced to just improvise using only roll and yaw controls? Normally if they're going to omit a direct control, it'd be the roll or yaw, since they tend to be most similar when mapped to left/right. But no pitch? How's that work?

[Norfleet]

Starsector - haven't played it yet. If someone did please give me your brief opinion.

One of my favorite games of all time. General gameplay loops plays similar to Mount and Blade but with far more depth. You do real time battles where you control flagships and command your fleet (like M&B) and traverse the maps to go from destination to destination (like M&B). There are however a lot more stuff you can do and ways to make money, and exploration of systems outside the core is also a big part of the game. Besides big space battles and navigating hyperspace, the game has a fully simulated real time economy, high level of ship customization, bounty hunting, scavenging, piracy, exploration, mining, colonization and settlement management, quests, and more.

I have 1-2 thousand hours in Starsector so let me know if you want to know anything else about it

I have the same question as Rusty. Does it have quests with some semblance of a narrative or a main story?

There are some questlines, with decent narrative, but they currently are mostly incomplete, and something that could arguably be deemed a "main" story, which is similarly incomplete at this time. It's mainly designed as a freeform "Shoot Spessship" game similar to the EV games.

[DDC]

Oh, and immediately upon taking control of your ship, you'll notice that you have no direct control of the pitch axis, meaning the only control style is the equivalent of "arcade" or "simplified" mode in other space games.

No pitch controls? So, how's that work? Even the oldest arcade flight sims had a pitch control. Are we forced to just improvise using only roll and yaw controls? Normally if they're going to omit a direct control, it'd be the roll or yaw, since they tend to be most similar when mapped to left/right. But no pitch? How's that work?

I misspoke, I mean no independent roll controls. You press left, you roll left while moving left. The only direct control you have over rolling is that you can click the thumbstick to level the craft. As I said, it's the equivalent of "simplified" or "arcade" controls in games that give the option. Some people would probably discard the game immediately over that, but it plays well once you get used to it and have all of the ship functions unlocked.

[rusty_shackleford]

Ok, so this is going to get me some heat because you play as a buzzcut girlboss with a traumatic past who talks to the "voices" in her head like she's in Hellblade, and questing around the first area you do odd jobs for several negresses. Oh, and immediately upon taking control of your ship, you'll notice that you have no direct control of the pitch axis, meaning the only control style is the equivalent of "arcade" or "simplified" mode in other space games. So it sounds absolutely terrible, BUT, if you can set all of that aside, Chorus is actually quite good.

The controls are an acquired taste for sure, but once they click, in my opinion it has the most fun handling model out of arcadey space games. There is a real sense of speed, you can powerslide, you can do a fast rolling strafe-dodge, and the camera angle is slightly dynamic and adjusts to make it all feel and look good. For sure, it's not one of those games where you feel like you're just rotating in circles barely moving while you try to get your sights on an enemy. The gunplay and aiming feels very polished. It has a semi-open world structure with sidequests, etc., and even what I would almost call the occasional dungeon. And despite the woke veneer, the story isn't all bad. Your AI ship is kind of a cool character.

It's not perfect and there is a little bit of jank in parts, but it succeeds in some things I haven't seen in other space games, and the graphics are excellent at 4k 120fps if you have the hardware to max it. I have not played all the way through, but from the chunk I played, I'd say that if it had attractive characters, it would be in the high 8s out of 10.

Have you played everspace 2?

[rusty_shackleford]

opinions on space sci-fi that takes place entirely in one star system?

[rusty_shackleford]

FTL is basically space magic(sorry nerds, we aren't getting FTL unless there's something we're overlooking) and limited fantastical elements tend to make most games more interesting, especially if it adds to the unknown factor.

A single star system is too easy to chart, even if it's not all explored.

---

Might work better if it was part of a system that is just being colonized, I guess.

[DDC]

Ok, so this is going to get me some heat because you play as a buzzcut girlboss with a traumatic past who talks to the "voices" in her head like she's in Hellblade, and questing around the first area you do odd jobs for several negresses. Oh, and immediately upon taking control of your ship, you'll notice that you have no direct control of the pitch axis, meaning the only control style is the equivalent of "arcade" or "simplified" mode in other space games. So it sounds absolutely terrible, BUT, if you can set all of that aside, Chorus is actually quite good.

The controls are an acquired taste for sure, but once they click, in my opinion it has the most fun handling model out of arcadey space games. There is a real sense of speed, you can powerslide, you can do a fast rolling strafe-dodge, and the camera angle is slightly dynamic and adjusts to make it all feel and look good. For sure, it's not one of those games where you feel like you're just rotating in circles barely moving while you try to get your sights on an enemy. The gunplay and aiming feels very polished. It has a semi-open world structure with sidequests, etc., and even what I would almost call the occasional dungeon. And despite the woke veneer, the story isn't all bad. Your AI ship is kind of a cool character.

It's not perfect and there is a little bit of jank in parts, but it succeeds in some things I haven't seen in other space games, and the graphics are excellent at 4k 120fps if you have the hardware to max it. I have not played all the way through, but from the chunk I played, I'd say that if it had attractive characters, it would be in the high 8s out of 10.

Have you played everspace 2?

For about an hour on gamepass. It's probably the game I know of that is most similar to Chorus. Chorus had better feeling guns, and a more exciting handling model. Out of all the space games I've played, it's the one that really feels like you can fly fast without crashing into stuff. Everspace, I would guess, probably has a larger gameworld, better customization, and less objectionable story/characters. The combat in Everspace seemed to skew more towards circle-strafing type adjustments at a slower speed, whereas in Chorus you tend to fly at higher speed and turn around to make another run at what you're shooting, with the powerslide allowing you to flip your direction quickly.

[Norfleet]

opinions on space sci-fi that takes place entirely in one star system?

Could work, but there's an issue where planetoids tend to become condensed points of interest, which in turn limits the number of points of interest present. If your game is an RPG where spaceshipping is essentially just a form of fast-travel to reach these points of interest, this is probably no big deal: a half a dozen or so points of interest is fine: Earth, the Moon, Mars, Venus, etc. If your game is an RTS or TBS, there may be a shortage of places to fight over, as your map is essentially totally empty except for those few points. It ultimately comes down to how the structure of a star system dictates the topography of the map.

[Norfleet]

FTL is basically space magic(sorry nerds, we aren't getting FTL unless there's something we're overlooking) and limited fantastical elements tend to make most games more interesting, especially if it adds to the unknown factor.

FTL is basically magic, but it's a magic you can often confine to a very narrow box so that its influence over the rest of the game can be limited. It is also not technically physically impossible, but you have you confront the fact that you have introduced time travel into the system.

A single star system is too easy to chart, even if it's not all explored.

Also, if there's no FTL, you're going to get a very SPECIFIC single star system.

Without FTL, you choose:

1. Unique star system.

OR

2. Human as know them.

Because without FTL, humans as know them aren't getting anywhere out of THIS star system.

[Nessa]

Soooo Helldivers 2 had a deal. Friend of mine talked me into trying it out. Basically it's the ME 3 mulitplayer part but better for the most part.

• Tons of worlds.
• Tons of missions
• Tons of weapons
• 3 factions, much like ME 3. Instead of Collectors/Cerberus/Reapers, we get Collectors/Zerg/Robots.
• Maybe the second shooter I've played that was actually fun. (I normally don't like shooters at all.)
• Hilarious democracy satire. I love all the catchphrases and silliness like: "How about a cup of Liber-TEA!" <- grenades. "Today is always a good day to die for democracy."
• Vehicles! One of which is hard to drive just l like the tank thing in ME1. Makes for hilarious situations. My first try I kept rolling it and killing my friend because he was on the gun up top.

Only real negatives I can come up with:

• They pull the woke voice type crap instead of just labelling voice male or female. Perverts.
• No real gender. (Fixable via mods. Men only is fine but don't pull this genderless filth. Sick bastards.)
• Is hosted online. Something like this would be better as a direct connect type of thing in my view. Otherwise it has an end when they pull the plug.

Most of the fun stuff doesn't hit till around level 25. But a few months playing over the weekend should get you there. There are enough planets and things to keep it from getting stale. And I've only seen a few missions, there are tons more. I'm particularly impressed with the city type missions. Save stupid civilians and the like. Community is surprisingly open and friendly which is a first for me. But you can play solo or only with friends too.

[Orvas Dren]

Starsector - haven't played it yet. If someone did please give me your brief opinion.

One of my favorite games of all time. General gameplay loops plays similar to Mount and Blade but with far more depth. You do real time battles where you control flagships and command your fleet (like M&B) and traverse the maps to go from destination to destination (like M&B). There are however a lot more stuff you can do and ways to make money, and exploration of systems outside the core is also a big part of the game. Besides big space battles and navigating hyperspace, the game has a fully simulated real time economy, high level of ship customization, bounty hunting, scavenging, piracy, exploration, mining, colonization and settlement management, quests, and more.

I have 1-2 thousand hours in Starsector so let me know if you want to know anything else about it

I have the same question as Rusty. Does it have quests with some semblance of a narrative or a main story?

lately yeah, there is a series of quests related to the Galatia Academy, a pre-collapse institute that managed to survive all the wars and chaos. You do jobs for them before eventually earning their trust for more important missions, which eventually culminate into some pretty big stuff. Don't want to spoil it beyond the setting is a dark age and these guys are trying to start a renaissance

[Orvas Dren]

opinions on space sci-fi that takes place entirely in one star system?

we should see more of it. Preferably with less fully proc-gen slop

[Lich]

My good friend @krokodil recommended this; it must be great.

[rusty_shackleford]

My good friend @krokodil recommended this; it must be great.

[SpellSword]

Excluding games made last century, when men were still men.

Including games from the time when men still roamed the stars, with hope in their eyes and phasers on their belts:

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