lastplayed
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But all those moments will be lost in time.
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How do No Mans Sky, Elite Dangerous (+ Horizons) and Star Citizen compare?
- Thread starter Gowans
- Start date
But all those moments will be lost in time.
UncleSporky
Member
Yeah, Elite's trading is sort of like how you would do real world trading. Idaho has cheap potatoes because they're all over the place, ditto for Florida's oranges, so you buy oranges in Florida and sell them in Idaho and pick up potatoes to take to Florida while you're there.
No Man's Sky's "trading" is just another form of mining, essentially. Tap those nodes.
Seems to me like what a lot of people want is a game that combines the universes of Elite Dangerous or NMS but with a bespoke Mass Effect 1-like experience bolted onto it. Part of me wishes Mass Effect Andromeda is basically this -- a regular RPG with a procedurally generated galaxy to fill in the blanks. I think it's time someone took another crack at the Daggerfall formula.
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
Not for nothing. Certain things do trade for higher to different species or parts of the galaxy, and are represented by a gold star when they do.
Xplatformer
Member
True, but it's a great concept that no one else appears to be attempting.
ED and NMS are actual games though. Star Citizen/Squadron 42...not yet.
Star Citizen is beyond AAA ambition at this point. Not only will it have a massive persistent mmo universe where you can get together with your friends to do whatever you want (and fly all sorts of ships) but it will also have a separate singleplayer campaign that fleshes out the lore of that universe. As a result its taking forever to release.
Elite Dangerous is more of a space simulator with a boatload of grinding.
NMS is more of an high budget indie take on the open world survival/exploration/crafting/sandbox genre.
Elite Dangerous is more of a space simulator with a boatload of grinding.
NMS is more of an high budget indie take on the open world survival/exploration/crafting/sandbox genre.
Elite isn't that complex, it's systems are deep, but also satisfying, even though I got bored after 30 hours.
NMS is certainly pick up and play, but many of the systems seem to fight against it.
Django.Mango
Member
NMS is an arcade console game, Star Citizen is a simulation pc game.
hobblygobbly
Member
These are all games from the top of my head that I think people will find interesting but I am probably forgetting some. These all have a focus on spaceships at its core so I am not going to include games like Starbound. Most of these are 3D but some are 2D as well. Most of these are on PC, however there are some on consoles such as Rebel Galaxy on the PS4.
Where it says "still in development" it means that it's not released yet in any form full release, beta, alpha to my knowledge. Where it says "available, still in development" it's effectively "early access" but I'm avoid using that phrase since some of these aren't on Steam. Where it says nothing the game is fully released and only gets post-release development such as updates.
Q: I want to play the best online space game ever made that is a sandbox and player-driven. A game that is heavily focused on combat tactics/strategy or playing the market/industry side of the game. A: EVE Online. I must stress this game is player-driven, the player's make the content, so you need to engage with players. They create content. Despite this being one the most intimidating games out there to play it has been the most welcoming online game communities that respect new players. I think this is because of the niche aspect of the game and that everyone knows more new players bring in new blood and keep this game alive. Did you get blown up by a pirate in low-sec that you stumbled into by accident? Explain that you are new to the game, I can almost guarantee you that they'll even reimburse your ship, give you ISK, and give you a lot of tips on how to play the game. Join an alliance/corp that is active and does things. Big battles in EVE you hear about are the big ones, corps/alliances are fighting smaller wars/conflicts every day in the game. This is my favourite online game (granted I don't play many).
Q: I don't want to play EVE but still want to play an MMO space game. A: Star Trek Online (yes it exists still and it's still fun if you want a MMO)
Q: I want to play the best seamless, procedural (+ accurate star catalogues), photorealistic game where you can explore procedural planets and galaxies that is also free. A: Space Engine (available, still in development. It doesn't have full spaceship gameplay although it's in at a basic level, but this game is super great to relax to. Check out my post here of some screenshots and this timelapse video. Did I mention it was free? (if you really like it donate to the dev, he's one person working on it and does great work + frequent updates. More money that is raised means he'll be able to add more things like spaceship gameplay).
Q: I want to play the closest thing to EVE online that is singleplayer. I want the best economy/trade system in a singleplayer game ever made. A game where I can build an empire, have massive fleet battles, own fleets of capital ships and other classes, have them protect my assets, run factories (for profit or producing weaponry for your fleets), complexes, trade, build, fight. Basically I want the best singleplayer sandbox. I want to fly big ships. A: X3 Terran Conflict with the Albion Prelude expansion. You may also want to try out Litcube's Universe mod for it later on, it's what all the X3 vets play nowadays. This game has a huge amount of mods to use as well. This is my favourite space game ever made, the amount of depth and complexity that exists in this game puts it on dwarf fortress levels so you will definitely experience a learning curve. Litcube's Universe mod ramps it up even more. It is not an easy game, but when you learn how to play it you'll be constantly disappointed with a lot of space games that lack a lot of depth with things like economy. You see that factory over there? It produces a certain ware. That ware is required by another factory that produces something else, and that ware is required by a weapons factory which supplies a certain type of missile. Those wares need to be transported by either you or the NPCs, so goods are moving around in the world. You will see NPCs beating you to trades, and that means you can also play a pirate better than most games and actually starve out factories and certain supply chains, especially weapon ones that you may see your enemy uses to outfit their ships. The most fun I ever had with this game was starting out as a small smuggler and building a drug empire. Here's a cool blog post. "5 Things I love about X3 Terran Conflict". When you build a large trade empire for example, you also need fleets to protect your assets, owning 10 capital class ships is not cheap, not to mention actually maintaining and repairing them. If you go the full out empire-building way of the game be prepared for it to get complex quick to have it running smoothly. While the game may not have endless amount of systems, it does have a lot of them and almost all of them are unique and have specific stations, corporations existing in them, etc. Some are important trade hubs for different reasons, major military hubs (i.e lots of weaponry, military ships), some shady systems that don't care much about certain illegal wares in the game, etc.). The game is also dynamic so sometimes certain systems can become decimated if things like the Xenon roll through for example. Here's a video of a random battle I looked up on YouTube. Also the game has cool big explosions if you're into that sort of thing.
Q: I want a MMORPG sandbox that's the cloest thing to EVE but not EVE. A: Dual Universe (still in development)
Q: I want the closest thing to the X series but that is more procedural (such as spaceships). Lots of things are procedural such as stations, planets, etc. A: Limit Theory (still in development).
Q: I want the closest thing to NMS with more depth to the mechanics and the best spaceflight model in a game + multiplayer, minus (currently) no procedural life and no terra planets that you can land on (you can land on others). A: Elite: Dangerous
Q: I've heard there are more Elite games, I want to land on any planet and that has some other features its latest iteration doesn't have. A: Frontier: Elite II. You may also want to check open source projects that remade these games such as Oolite, Pioneer, FFED3D.
Q: I want to command a ship as a captain sort of like Star Trek. A: Star Trek: Bridge Commander (old game but still fun). A VR game that is going to be similar announced at E3 this year is Star Trek: Bridge Crew.
Q: I want to command a ship as a captain that is multiplayer with friends where we roleplay a physical bridge in our home (requires them physically being there but it's possible for multiplayer if you Google). A: Artemis: Spaceship Bridge Simulator
Q: I want a free-form game with a light story and missions, with a unique 2D plane (still a 3D game) space combat that plays similar to a naval game on sea (i.e focus on your port and starboard weaponry weaponry) with a kick ass Firefly-esque space-western soundtrack? A: Rebel Galaxy
Q: I want a game like Elite: Dangerous with simply a lot more to do. A: Evochron Legacy
Q: I want a guided experience of an old space game. A: Wing Commander series
Q: I want cool dogfights. A: Freespace 2, Freelancer, Starlancer
Q: I want more cool dogfights. A: House of the Dying Sun (available, still in development)
Q: I want a lightweight trading and combat game with a campaign that is open ended. A: Starpoint Gemini 2. It's "lightweight" to me not in a bad way, it just does a lot of things simpler than other games similar to it but are still engaging. They are making a new game which is in development and available called Starpoint Gemini: Warlords where you build a space station and has more focuses on factions.
Q: I want the next big thing of a space game that has a guided experience regarding a campaign + optional sandbox. A: Star Citizen (available in some parts, still heavily in development, wait and see).
Q: I want an exploration game focused on a single planetary system, walk around and leave your ship etc. A: Rodina (available, still in development).
Q: I want a hardcore hypothetical simulator (think in the vein of flight sims) space game. A: Rogue System (available, still in development)
Q: I want the Star War game. A: Star Wars: TIE Fighter (and Google for more, there's many games)
Q: I want an awesome and 2D overhead space game with large battles, open-ended, missions, amassing fleets, fitting them out, managing combat readiness, supplies, etc. A: Starsector (available, still in development, many mods)
Q: I want a rogue-like (3D) space game that's incredibly beautiful. A: Everspace (still in development)
Q: I want a multiplayer sandbox game that is procedural with seamless interplanetary warfare and newtonian physics A: Infinity: Battlescape (still in development)
Q: I want a game that focuses on ship components like generators, engines, radiators, life support which also plays a role in combat where you can target them, a near-future space aesthetic, command multiple ships and build an empire in a single planetary system. A: Helium Rain (still in development)
Q: I want to build rockets and explore the solar system with my contraptions with silly green men and women. A: Kerbal Space Program
Q: I want an open ended singleplayer RPG. A: Wayward Terrain Frontier (available, still in development)
Q: I want a 3D (gameplay) RTS that will also be open-ended (i.e gameplay is like a RTS but in a typical space game open world). A: Shallow Space (available, still in development butn the overhaul for the open-ended gameplay is not out yet, just the base RTS). This game may be a bit of an outlier among all these due to its RTS core but I think it's open-ended gameplay they are building makes it worth mentioning.
Q: I want Minecraft in space. I want to build spaceships with voxels and fly them. A: StarMade (available, still in development)
Q: I want to build cool spaceships but that doesn't use voxels. A: Space Engineers (available, still in development)
Q: I want a kick-ass Russian space sim from the 90swhere I can leave my ship, colonise planets, trade, missions, open ended gameplay such as being a pirate if you want. A: Parkan: The Imperial Chronicles. It released on GOG just recently, this game is very niche and not well known outside of Russia. Yes it is in English. Here is a RPS article on it recently.
Q: I want a challenging game with a cute 2D aesthetic art style where I piece together parts of my ship in space as an unique contraption from other spaceships I have destroyed. A: Captain Forever Remix
Q: I want a cool game where ship combat/gameplay is in the vein of submarines where you also manage multiple ship systems and customisable and combat is long-range where you focus and act on the information your systems give you. I want the closest thing to being on a bridge like Star Trek: Bridge Commander but without a crew, a lonely experience as a captain as part of the a esthetic. A: Objects In Space (still in development)
Where it says "still in development" it means that it's not released yet in any form full release, beta, alpha to my knowledge. Where it says "available, still in development" it's effectively "early access" but I'm avoid using that phrase since some of these aren't on Steam. Where it says nothing the game is fully released and only gets post-release development such as updates.
Q: I want to play the best online space game ever made that is a sandbox and player-driven. A game that is heavily focused on combat tactics/strategy or playing the market/industry side of the game. A: EVE Online. I must stress this game is player-driven, the player's make the content, so you need to engage with players. They create content. Despite this being one the most intimidating games out there to play it has been the most welcoming online game communities that respect new players. I think this is because of the niche aspect of the game and that everyone knows more new players bring in new blood and keep this game alive. Did you get blown up by a pirate in low-sec that you stumbled into by accident? Explain that you are new to the game, I can almost guarantee you that they'll even reimburse your ship, give you ISK, and give you a lot of tips on how to play the game. Join an alliance/corp that is active and does things. Big battles in EVE you hear about are the big ones, corps/alliances are fighting smaller wars/conflicts every day in the game. This is my favourite online game (granted I don't play many).
Q: I don't want to play EVE but still want to play an MMO space game. A: Star Trek Online (yes it exists still and it's still fun if you want a MMO)
Q: I want to play the best seamless, procedural (+ accurate star catalogues), photorealistic game where you can explore procedural planets and galaxies that is also free. A: Space Engine (available, still in development. It doesn't have full spaceship gameplay although it's in at a basic level, but this game is super great to relax to. Check out my post here of some screenshots and this timelapse video. Did I mention it was free? (if you really like it donate to the dev, he's one person working on it and does great work + frequent updates. More money that is raised means he'll be able to add more things like spaceship gameplay).
Q: I want to play the closest thing to EVE online that is singleplayer. I want the best economy/trade system in a singleplayer game ever made. A game where I can build an empire, have massive fleet battles, own fleets of capital ships and other classes, have them protect my assets, run factories (for profit or producing weaponry for your fleets), complexes, trade, build, fight. Basically I want the best singleplayer sandbox. I want to fly big ships. A: X3 Terran Conflict with the Albion Prelude expansion. You may also want to try out Litcube's Universe mod for it later on, it's what all the X3 vets play nowadays. This game has a huge amount of mods to use as well. This is my favourite space game ever made, the amount of depth and complexity that exists in this game puts it on dwarf fortress levels so you will definitely experience a learning curve. Litcube's Universe mod ramps it up even more. It is not an easy game, but when you learn how to play it you'll be constantly disappointed with a lot of space games that lack a lot of depth with things like economy. You see that factory over there? It produces a certain ware. That ware is required by another factory that produces something else, and that ware is required by a weapons factory which supplies a certain type of missile. Those wares need to be transported by either you or the NPCs, so goods are moving around in the world. You will see NPCs beating you to trades, and that means you can also play a pirate better than most games and actually starve out factories and certain supply chains, especially weapon ones that you may see your enemy uses to outfit their ships. The most fun I ever had with this game was starting out as a small smuggler and building a drug empire. Here's a cool blog post. "5 Things I love about X3 Terran Conflict". When you build a large trade empire for example, you also need fleets to protect your assets, owning 10 capital class ships is not cheap, not to mention actually maintaining and repairing them. If you go the full out empire-building way of the game be prepared for it to get complex quick to have it running smoothly. While the game may not have endless amount of systems, it does have a lot of them and almost all of them are unique and have specific stations, corporations existing in them, etc. Some are important trade hubs for different reasons, major military hubs (i.e lots of weaponry, military ships), some shady systems that don't care much about certain illegal wares in the game, etc.). The game is also dynamic so sometimes certain systems can become decimated if things like the Xenon roll through for example. Here's a video of a random battle I looked up on YouTube. Also the game has cool big explosions if you're into that sort of thing.
Q: I want a MMORPG sandbox that's the cloest thing to EVE but not EVE. A: Dual Universe (still in development)
Q: I want the closest thing to the X series but that is more procedural (such as spaceships). Lots of things are procedural such as stations, planets, etc. A: Limit Theory (still in development).
Q: I want the closest thing to NMS with more depth to the mechanics and the best spaceflight model in a game + multiplayer, minus (currently) no procedural life and no terra planets that you can land on (you can land on others). A: Elite: Dangerous
Q: I've heard there are more Elite games, I want to land on any planet and that has some other features its latest iteration doesn't have. A: Frontier: Elite II. You may also want to check open source projects that remade these games such as Oolite, Pioneer, FFED3D.
Q: I want to command a ship as a captain sort of like Star Trek. A: Star Trek: Bridge Commander (old game but still fun). A VR game that is going to be similar announced at E3 this year is Star Trek: Bridge Crew.
Q: I want to command a ship as a captain that is multiplayer with friends where we roleplay a physical bridge in our home (requires them physically being there but it's possible for multiplayer if you Google). A: Artemis: Spaceship Bridge Simulator
Q: I want a free-form game with a light story and missions, with a unique 2D plane (still a 3D game) space combat that plays similar to a naval game on sea (i.e focus on your port and starboard weaponry weaponry) with a kick ass Firefly-esque space-western soundtrack? A: Rebel Galaxy
Q: I want a game like Elite: Dangerous with simply a lot more to do. A: Evochron Legacy
Q: I want a guided experience of an old space game. A: Wing Commander series
Q: I want cool dogfights. A: Freespace 2, Freelancer, Starlancer
Q: I want more cool dogfights. A: House of the Dying Sun (available, still in development)
Q: I want a lightweight trading and combat game with a campaign that is open ended. A: Starpoint Gemini 2. It's "lightweight" to me not in a bad way, it just does a lot of things simpler than other games similar to it but are still engaging. They are making a new game which is in development and available called Starpoint Gemini: Warlords where you build a space station and has more focuses on factions.
Q: I want the next big thing of a space game that has a guided experience regarding a campaign + optional sandbox. A: Star Citizen (available in some parts, still heavily in development, wait and see).
Q: I want an exploration game focused on a single planetary system, walk around and leave your ship etc. A: Rodina (available, still in development).
Q: I want a hardcore hypothetical simulator (think in the vein of flight sims) space game. A: Rogue System (available, still in development)
Q: I want the Star War game. A: Star Wars: TIE Fighter (and Google for more, there's many games)
Q: I want an awesome and 2D overhead space game with large battles, open-ended, missions, amassing fleets, fitting them out, managing combat readiness, supplies, etc. A: Starsector (available, still in development, many mods)
Q: I want a rogue-like (3D) space game that's incredibly beautiful. A: Everspace (still in development)
Q: I want a multiplayer sandbox game that is procedural with seamless interplanetary warfare and newtonian physics A: Infinity: Battlescape (still in development)
Q: I want a game that focuses on ship components like generators, engines, radiators, life support which also plays a role in combat where you can target them, a near-future space aesthetic, command multiple ships and build an empire in a single planetary system. A: Helium Rain (still in development)
Q: I want to build rockets and explore the solar system with my contraptions with silly green men and women. A: Kerbal Space Program
Q: I want an open ended singleplayer RPG. A: Wayward Terrain Frontier (available, still in development)
Q: I want a 3D (gameplay) RTS that will also be open-ended (i.e gameplay is like a RTS but in a typical space game open world). A: Shallow Space (available, still in development butn the overhaul for the open-ended gameplay is not out yet, just the base RTS). This game may be a bit of an outlier among all these due to its RTS core but I think it's open-ended gameplay they are building makes it worth mentioning.
Q: I want Minecraft in space. I want to build spaceships with voxels and fly them. A: StarMade (available, still in development)
Q: I want to build cool spaceships but that doesn't use voxels. A: Space Engineers (available, still in development)
Q: I want a kick-ass Russian space sim from the 90swhere I can leave my ship, colonise planets, trade, missions, open ended gameplay such as being a pirate if you want. A: Parkan: The Imperial Chronicles. It released on GOG just recently, this game is very niche and not well known outside of Russia. Yes it is in English. Here is a RPS article on it recently.
Q: I want a challenging game with a cute 2D aesthetic art style where I piece together parts of my ship in space as an unique contraption from other spaceships I have destroyed. A: Captain Forever Remix
Q: I want a cool game where ship combat/gameplay is in the vein of submarines where you also manage multiple ship systems and customisable and combat is long-range where you focus and act on the information your systems give you. I want the closest thing to being on a bridge like Star Trek: Bridge Commander but without a crew, a lonely experience as a captain as part of the a esthetic. A: Objects In Space (still in development)
Mr_Appleby
Member
Great post. I've played about a 3rd of these and this is spot on.
Django.Mango
Member
Agree, great summary.
Turin Turambar
Member
Niiice post.
I will add two
Q: I want to experience a 3d game of a pirate in a dynamic open world star system, that still mixes in more guided linear missions for variety, and has a kickass Newtoian flight model
A: IWar 2.
Q: I want the definitive sandbox emergent, mega-variety space game, where I can trade, fight, pirate, explore, do quests, live adventures, puzzles, arcade sections, all in a dynamic, organic star system that works for real, and can be influenced by player's actions, even if to have all that I have to play a 2d game
A: Space Rangers 2 (or HD versions).
Dr_Boris_Goltz
Banned
It's very accessible. It's much more of an action game than a space sim, but it still gives you a good "space is incredibly massive" vibe, which I feel is important with these games.
ZombieSupaStar
Member
Subnautica is the best
OT: I hope it does well for unknown worlds I loved natural selection 1 and they deserve it. Even if didn't like NS2 much and felt being out in 2006 as a source engine game would have turned out better in the end for NS2.
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