Starship Command Games?

[Maquise]

I was wondering if there were any good starship command games out there. Games where you actually command a whole ship; I'm more interested in an exploration/combat game than a hard sim.

Games I've played so far:
FTL
Star Trek: Bridge Commander

I'm watching the development of Star Trek: Excalibur, btw.

[mistformsquirrl]

This is something I've long wanted myself, and as far as I know? There really isn't such a thing beyond FTL and Bridge Commander. If someone knows something we don't I'd love to hear it. I do know there's a kickstarter for a game of this kind (The Mandate) up at present, but it's a real tossup if they'll hit their goal or not last I checked - and even if they do it's going to be awhile before it's out.

The closest I've found as far as games that actually exist now are EVE and Star Trek Online; neither of which quite nail down the feel you're after I think. (I do enjoy STO a good bit myself, but it's hardly flawless and I don't blame anyone for not caring for it. EVE... I can't get into it for some reason. Don't know why, I just can't.)

So yeah.

[Maquise]

Unfortunately, The Mandate doesn't look like it'll hit its goal. Too bad, but I can't afford to invest in it.

Oh well. Standing request goes.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Donate to The Mandate (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1964463742/the-mandate). They shall make it happen.

[druid91]

EVE.

Star-Made.

[Cikomyr]

The Mandate may still make it. Many Kickstarter have a huge surge of contribution in the last days. Also, Angry joe said he'll try to make some publicity for the Kickstarter, as the Mandate's artists have made a gift for him...

Just look at it (http://garretaj.deviantart.com/art/Angry-Joe-The-Mandate-Fan-Art-410894151)

[iyaerP]

Artemis. Works best as a LAN party game, but the gist of it is that each player is a bridge officer on a starship and their computer is their bridge console. It is a TON of fun at LAN events.

One copy is 40$ but it comes with no DRM and a free license to copy for personal use. SOOOOOO much fun being the captain standing in your living room with a giant TV as the ship's main viewscreen, giving orders to your friends/officers/minions while they provide status reports and fight the good fight. The only thing missing is camerabuilding shake.

[Philistine]

Artemis was the first thing I thought of when I saw the thread title.

The OP may also be interested in the Independence War sims - older games, which I believe are currently available from GOG.

[factotum]

Independence War 2 is more of a ship piloting sim, though...never played the first one so can't comment on it.

I believe it's possible to download Battlecruiser Millennium for free...which is about all it's worth, honestly, because it's a bug-ridden POS; however, you might get something out of it if it actually works on your system. I think there's a real gap in the market for something akin to Silent Hunter, but on a spaceship rather than a submarine...somebody get working on that, will you? :smallwink:

[Maquise]

So I just found out about a game called X Rebirth. Anyone have anything to say?

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Artemis is absolutely something you should check out.

The only other I can think of is the tablet game Star Command, but it's not stellar.

[mistformsquirrl]

So I just found out about a game called X Rebirth. Anyone have anything to say?

I've only mucked around with the older X games, so I'm honestly not sure what to say about it. I didn't like X-3, I can tell you that; but I also didn't get far; it just felt like the game treated even larger ships like starfighters; albeit slow moving starfighters.* It also appeared to have a lot of fiddly controls that I'm sure were handy if you really wanted to learn the game... but for someone who just wanted to blow up some spaceships it wasn't so great.

Now that said; that isn't X-Rebirth; that's X-3: Albion Prelude; I have no idea if that carries over to X-Rebirth, or even if that's a bad thing from your perspective if it does.

*What I mean by this is - you don't designate targets for batteries and let them pound away; you pull the trigger and everything fires forward at one point.

[factotum]

*What I mean by this is - you don't designate targets for batteries and let them pound away; you pull the trigger and everything fires forward at one point.

??? That's definitely not how capital ships work in X3--they all have turrets which can be given commands to fire independently of your control. Light capital ships (like most of the M7 class) do have pilot-controlled forward-firing batteries in addition to their turrets, but none of the M2 or M1 class have those.

[mistformsquirrl]

Ah < . .> Well that shows how far I got eh?

[Impnemo]

From where I sit, the X series is another elder scrolls type game. A raw, buggy skeleton that a devoted modding community can bring to life. I'll check on rebirth in a year or two after theyve had some time to flesh it out.

[iyaerP]

The whole point of capital ships in the X3 games was to serve as mobile firebases that you could order to teleport in system if your zippy little corvette couldn't handle whatever was there. And to serve as out of sector Xenon suppression, although it was really only the Osaka that could pull that off reliably, as Xenon Qs had a cheatingly good OOS combat capability compared to their in sector combat capabilities.

[Hawriel]

Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator.

It's a game for a crew of 5 friends to finally command their own Enterprise, in all but name.

http://www.artemis.eochu.com/

[iyaerP]

Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator.

It's a game for a crew of 5 friends to finally command their own Enterprise, in all but name.

http://www.artemis.eochu.com/

We played that for like 6 hours at my birthday LAN party. :smallcool: My favorite station is sitting in the captain's chair, ordering people around.

[Hawriel]

We played that for like 6 hours at my birthday LAN party. :smallcool: My favorite station is sitting in the captain's chair, ordering people around.

That sounds like an awesome party.

[Cikomyr]

Is it actually fun for the other crewmates?

[Airk]

Is it actually fun for the other crewmates?

Well, considering that they are the ones who actually 'play' the game...

[Cikomyr]

Well, considering that they are the ones who actually 'play' the game...

Correction: they are playing mini-games that help power the Captain's decision-making, no? Basically, it's the captain playing and the others are just doing their own little thing following the Captain's instructions.

[iyaerP]

Correction: they are playing mini-games that help power the Captain's decision-making, no? Basically, it's the captain playing and the others are just doing their own little thing following the Captain's instructions.

Less of that, and more of the captain gives orders, and the bridge crew sees to the specifics of them being carried out.

I recommend 4 crew members, as Engineering, comms, and possibly science can be folded into other stations without losing much in the way of fun, those are the least involved stations.

Helm, and weapons are both definitely full time stations, with science coming close, depending on how much coordination you have, and how often the captain wants to know of sensor updates.

[Dynodragon]

How much of the game can be pre-programmed? Could you add it to a Trek RPG and have it as the action sequences?

[shadow_archmagi]

I was wondering if there were any good starship command games out there. Games where you actually command a whole ship; I'm more interested in an exploration/combat game than a hard sim.

Games I've played so far:
FTL
Star Trek: Bridge Commander

I'm watching the development of Star Trek: Excalibur, btw.

This isn't quiiiite what you wanted, but everyone already said Artemis-

What about Star Control 2? The central mechanic is arcade-style top-down ship duels, and then it's got some RPG elements tacked on as you explore space and find resources to upgrade your ship, and also try to build alliances and save the galaxy.

[Artanis]

What about Star Control 2? The central mechanic is arcade-style top-down ship duels, and then it's got some RPG elements tacked on as you explore space and find resources to upgrade your ship, and also try to build alliances and save the galaxy.
Seconded.

Also, it's free. (http://sc2.sourceforge.net/) Get it anyways :smallbiggrin: