space combat sim?

[arteom]

First I would like to say thanks to DCS for releasing such a simulation! I have never seen or played anything with such depth and attention to detail. The PC Gaming and specifically simulation industry may not be what it once was but if we have to wait a bit longer for games of this quality I'm all for it :thumbup:.

 

Which bring me to a genre that has been kinda dead, space combat sims. For me the genre kinda died after Freespace 2 (now heavily modded btw) I for one would love to see this genre brought back to life by the DCS team. If we could see the imaginative story, ships, weapons mixed with the depth of play presented by these guys I think we would have a winner. It would be something completely original. I mean to be flying a ship which is not real but sure as hell feels like is, with all the micromanagement thrown in, think about it! Not to mention the level design that can come out of technology today, depth within huge vessels, crossing into planets to attack ground units...

 

Would be the first study space combat sim! What do you guys think?

[BRraptor]

Huh? :helpsmilie:

[GGTharos]

ED is into realistic flight simulations ... sorry!

[slug88]

I think it's a good idea, I would thoroughly enjoy such a hardcore "space sim". However, ED aren't the ones that will be making it. Their business model depends a lot on their contracts with various militaries, which precludes fantasy endeavors such as this.

[arteom]

Ah, wasn't aware of any such contracts. Still think its a grtea idea, the technology has caught up and I think something really great can come out if one were to follow the same attentiveness to detail that DCS has with Black Shark.

[Kuky]

a "study space sim" ? :huh: How can something that doesn't even exist (at least to our Earthling's knowledge) be simulated?

[Boberro]

Space Combat Simulator? :huh:

[nscode]

Simpe. F-35 was flying in the sim long before first prototype. It's also common for cruise ship crews to start practising in the sim before the actual vessle is completed.

 

These days, first thing you do when making something is to make a mathematical model. From that, you can make a simulator. In fact, even if you have something that is already flying, the first step you need to take in order to make a sim is to make a math model.

 

So, it's not a problem... only it's not something you are going to see released comercialy ;)

[significant]

I for one would love to see this genre brought back to life by the DCS team.

You just have to wait DCS: PAK FA:lol:

[arteom]

Space Combat Simulator? :huh:

 

Space combat sims used to a staple of computer gaming, Freespace 2 was perhaps the best of them here is a link to its wiki page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeSpace_2 Btw, the source code has been released and game has been heavily modded, do a search on google, you can get the game for free and all the mods that go with it.

 

a "study space sim" ? :huh: How can something that doesn't even exist (at least to our Earthling's knowledge) be simulated?

 

I think I may have mislead you guys, the idea is not to replicate something that does not yet exist but rather to create such a system within the game that is highly sensitive to user input and has a great level of depth. I don't quite know how to explain it, and I'm sure someone can do a better job. I will try to explain by an example; the source engine in counter strike source, or half life 2. Counterstrike is a bit of gem because although it may seem like a simple shooter the physics engine within the game is modeled so well and with such depth that the player really needs to familiarize and LEARN it, become accustomed to its complexities to learn how to throw nades properly, how to lead a target on, when to fire, etc. There are no gaps within this game, everything from the rate of fire of weapons, to their weight, reload time, etc. has been modeled.

 

The idea would be to give the player great freedom in manuevering and just in general existing within the system that is the game. Just as in counter strike the way a player moves before firing will make allot of difference on the target being hit or not. In this game that level of depth would have to come through. I think we have some information on how objects behave in space, to model the phsyics well and then to drop a spaceship with thrusters and some imaginative cannons would be blast if you ask me, and to make this fly might be a bigger challenge than one might imagine. To model things like gravity (if you are near big objects), I am sure there are many variables that exist in space flight and getting something to fly straight. And again it doesn't have to be real, it just has to be cohesive. I think depth is the key, a game like Freespace 2 might have gone to 90% of what I'm talking about, but that extra 10% would be the little subtleties that would immerse a player into the game, give the player the extra sense of control, getting closer to complete control of the system [spaceship] within which they exist within the game (in other games: the character in counterstrike, the KA-50 in Blackshark).

 

I have been playing computer games since I first had a computer, and as a lover of simulation games it is not really the idea of playing a game that very accurately replicates a real situation that appeals to me, but rather the idea of a game that creates a system within which there are no gaps, within which the player has maximum control. Shame the pc gaming industry is mostly dead, I think it would have responded very well to such a simulation as Black Shark.

Edited March 1, 2009 by arteom

[predaeus]

The Freespace 2 Mod 'Beyond the Red Line' is probably the best you will get in that regard, simulating the pseudo physics of the Battlestar Galactica universe very well. The demo was quite fun, but they had some organisational problems recently.

 

Actually I don't think you would really enjoy a 'realistic' space combat simulator. Unless you introduce some methods of propulsion and for overcoming inertia, you will get something that 'Elite' kind of modelled. Or you can check out the 'flight dynamics' of space ships with the simulator 'Orbiter' which is really great. But probably only interesting in the long term for really interested people.

 

There is also the 'X3' arcade/economics series.

 

I feel with you, as I would also love to do turns around a Star Destroyer in an X-Wing like they showed in the movies, where you had that nice feeling of speed. None of the SW games I know ever portrayed that in a convincing manner yet (last one I've played was 'X-Wing Alliance').

 

I plead you game developers out there, enough of blueish space engine trails!!!

Edited March 1, 2009 by predaeus
vocabulary

[rapid]

Try this arteom i think this is what you are looking for>>> Orbiter

You have to give me a high five for that link lol.

And the best space sim i ever played was I-War.

Edited March 1, 2009 by rapid

[Ali Fish]

http://starwraith3dgames.home.att.net/evochronlegends/index.htm

 

a modern day equivalent of elite.

[monotwix]

Correct me if I’m wrong but I think that ED have produced quite a number of sims and games, so the idea of sophisticated space sim shouldn’t be entirely eliminated.

The biggest challenge would be making it and the entire team would have to be assembled together with some kind of producer or a director and it would have to be really good, the overall task and thought processing would have to be tremendous just about the size of the gamble related to the financial input and output.

[arteom]

Thanks for that rapid! I will download it and give it a try, it looks like they have put allot of time into it. Although it is definitely not a combat sim of any kind. I will also check out and see what is new in the modworld with freespace 2, I haven't played that for a bit.

[LazerPotatoe]

Have you seen Space Shuttle Mission Sim 2007 ?:

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/2637080/STS_31.html#Post2637080

[H-street]

you want space combat arcade get

 

Independence War 2 (Closest you'll get to a sim, it has newtonian physics somewhat),

Free Space 1 and 2 (Best Story next to Tie Fighter and its free),

X3 (very complex),

Xwing + Tie FIghter + Xwing Alliance,

Bridge Commander,

Battlecruiser 3000AD (Free game, but very complex and somewhat bug ridden)..

even tachyon fringe was OK

 

you want a sim with no combat get Orbiter: http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/ (also free)

[rapid]

Have you seen Space Shuttle Mission Sim 2007 ?:

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/2637080/STS_31.html#Post2637080

 

 

nice post.

 

you want space combat arcade get

 

Independence War 2 (Closest you'll get to a sim, it has newtonian physics somewhat), )

 

Part 2 to I-War I think but not as good as.

[CyBerkut]

There is also Starshatter: The Gathering Storm. IIRC, you can select newtonian physics, or go with more arcade-ish settings. You have fighters and capital ships both. The fighters can also go down into the planetary atmospheres.

 

http://www.starshatter.com/