Realistic space games

[baronjohn]

All the space "sims" I've tried so far have been very disappointing wrt realism. Are there any space games with realistic physics (Newtonian + whatever interstellar scifi), distances, orbits, weapons, heat, ...?

 

[Fens]

you just could have sent draq a PM, if you wanted to talk about elite, you know ?

other than that... i-war had newtonian physics afair

 

[Raapys]

Yeah, Elite has it and I-War has it.

I-War 2 is excellent, though the controls are slightly difficult to get working with a mouse instead of joystick.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

Of the recent ones, I think Starshatter: TGS also had NP, in case you want to try it. Though, the early missions (fly for half hour, shoot some stuff, fly back for half hour) kinda put me off, so I didn't get into it much.

 

[dbx]

Space shuttle mission http://www.space-shuttle-mission.com/ . A new version is coming out late this year.

Eagle Lander 3D

Orbiter

For proper games:
I-War 2
I-War
Darklight Conflict
The various Elite, Frontier.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

There are no realistic "proper games" when it comes to space games if you think that only shooty shooty pew pew games are "proper games".

If you understand "proper games" as challenging games, realistic non-combat sims are definitely "proper games".

 

[Jack]

Shuttle: The Space Flight Simulator, just make sure to take flange orbits into account after liftoff.

 

[DraQ]

Frontier: Elite 2 and Frontier: First Encounters (get JJFFE/D3DFFE with the last one as it was originally pushed out of the door by greedy suits in something resembling late alpha stage) are old games (1993 and 1995 respectively), but probably your best bet, unless you want something hardcore, but not much of a game - like Orbiter.

Both Frontiers feature Newtonian in-system flight mechanics, full scale, approximately astrophysically correct planetary systems with simulated orbital motion, planetary rotation (inducing day-night cycles and Coriolis' Force), seamless planetary landings, relative frames of reference and gravity (somewhat simplified, as it seems to only account for dominant source of gravity per object, but you can still slingshot and orbit).

Gameplay is sandbox in nature, allowing you to do anything you damn please (as long as you can afford it) and doesn't include any sort of end condition aside from death/imprisonment (FFE includes handcoded plotline, but it can get completed by NPCs if you don't pay attention), the gameworld is procedurally generated (save for our solar system, and quite a few well known or nearby stars) and encompasses entire galaxy, though, admittedly, slightly downscaled (to about half billion systems) and flattened.

The variety of careers includes courier, passenger transport, military, planetary mining, asteroid mining, piracy, bounty hunting, assasination, hydrogen scooping and trading. There are multiple ship types and upgrades available, cargo and individual ship systems (including individual directional thrusters) can get destroyed/damaged in a fight, collision, or due to lack of maintenance. Some cargo doesn't tolerate vacuum, live cargo also requires life support. Some types of cargo are illegal in certain systems though can fetch nice prices on black market.

You travel between the systems using hyperdrive that can be activated at any time provided you have fuel, are at least 12km above nearest planetary surface and not too close to orbital station's entry corridor. Hyperdrive can then take you to any system within range (several to tens of ly, usually), with exit point being random (but time and location dependent - useful in pursuits) point approximately 10AU from target system's centre. Then it gets Newtonian.
Thankfully the game has up to 10000x time compression.

Graphics has obviously aged a lot (hello? 286, Amiga, Atari ST), but it aged surprisingly well - the game uses extensive amount of Bezier curves, curvy polygons, a lot of detail, powerful LOD algorithms and coloured lighting. FFE looks better overall, but has lost some distinct elements, like nifty, Bezier based clouds over planets with atmospheres.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc-0rf1J ... re=related <- a vid showcasing French version of FE2 (it's badly compressed, though, the guy doesn't know how to fight properly and "jousts" with semi-auto engines flinging him around out of control and the soundtrack is obviously not the in-game one).

There is also Pioneer - open source, fan-made remake of Frontier currently somewhere in playable alpha stages. It looks very promising.

I wouldn't bother with original Elite, as it's not Newtonian but features incredibly simplistic arcade'y flight model instead. It started the genre, but has been since surpassed in all possible ways and thus serves mostly as historical curiosity.

I-War series - I've only played I-War 2 but would rate it much lower than Frontier. It's a good game, and handling your ship feels nicer than in Frontier (due to rotational inertia), but the interface is an absolute clusterfuck, backgrounds don't resemble space and are inconsistent with each other, there are no planetary landings, no gravity, no orbital motion, interplanetary drive kills the sense of space (and is inconsistent with description), AI (and often mission designers) fails to understand Newtonian in a very exploitable fashion, and stealth mechanics is inconsistent with perception (and the fact that there is no stealth in space ). There is also the fact that there is no permanent hull and subsystem damage, as everything gets autorepaired at speed resembling regen in modern popamoles. It also has the most retarded laser ever conceived, far surpassing the inevitable idiocy of beams being visible in space - it has beam slowly extend to its maximum length - no joking. Thankfully beam weaponry plays marginal role in game, eclipsed by all types of energy projectiles and missile weapons.

Still, it has a lot of nifty stuff like sub-targeting, good fluff, good piracy, good trading, a lot of missiles and equipment, remote control interface, the best shield system in existence and is a fun game overall.

Darklight Conflict - I honestly don't know why it was mentioned here as it's an arcade'y shooter through and through, with typical arcade'y plot, arcade'y flight and so on. Not in the least bit realistic.
Still, despite arcade'y flight mechanics, it does use inertia quite a lot, and apart from unnatural constraints, its physics can be fun and feel as if someone took a decent Newtonian system and stuffed it between arcade'y limits. Bastard.

Nexus: The Jupiter Incident is not a spacesim (is a tactical fleet sim) and is not Newtonian. IT does, however use Newtonian stylistics prominently (retros, directional thrusters and so on), and feels very space-like. A good game overall, but very imbalanced, don't play on high difficulty settings. Also, devs couldn't into aliens - results are embarrassing.

 

[Raapys]

There's also Evochron Mercenaries, come to think of it. P.decent flight system, though it's definitely more of a multiplayer game. The single-player aspect is...overlooked, to put it kindly.

 

[Raapys]

Nexus: The Jupiter Incident is not a spacesim (is a tactical fleet sim) and is not Newtonian. IT does, however use Newtonian stylistics prominently (retros, directional thrusters and so on), and feels very space-like. A good game overall, but very imbalanced, don't play on high difficulty settings.

Yeah, strange they only took it halfway, they were definitely on the right track. Kind of annoyed me that the engines had to be running to keep up the speed. Really liked the whole power generators and sub-system stuff though. And yeah, the difficulty on the hardest setting( when patched, unpatched would default you to the easiest setting) was utterly ridiculous.

 

[deuxhero]

Eternal Silence (Source mod) has Newtonian flight, but still has space weapons limited to a kilometer in range.

 

[DraQ]

@raapys:
Not just ridiculous - my experience hints more at "unfinishable".

Eternal Silence (Source mod) has Newtonian flight, but still has space weapons limited to a kilometer in range.

Derp. Frontier has beam weapons with 5-6km range (since you have to aim manually and game runs in 320x200 this is about as far as you can hit anything anyway, even with a big helping of luck - not that it isn't practically melee in space anyway) and missiles that are limited by fuel rather than having explicitly defined range, but since they apparently have 60G acceleration and about minute worth of fuel it can be calculated that they would theoretically be able to hit an inert target from over a thousand km away, but in practice evasive manoeuvres make their effective range much more limited and highly dependent on target's manoeuvrability.

IW2 with it's zoom, higher res and computer tracking has non-missile weaponry ranges up to an order of magnitude higher than in Frontier.

1km is hilariously close.

 

[MetalCraze]

B5 IFH is a good little free game with what you want.

Has newtonian physics, real space distances and based on B5. Has a good production quality too for a free project. Made by the same guys that did commercial Homeplanet (it also has what you are looking for). Playable with a mouse and a keyboard.

The problem is that it's very short.

http://ifhgame.ru/main/campaigns/what-w ... pportunity

Anyone enjoying Homeplanet and I-War2 has to give it a spin.

 

[asper]

ELITE: FRONTIER motherfucker.

End of topic.

 

[DraQ]

ELITE: FRONTIER motherfucker.

End of topic.

 

[DraQ]

Also, Frontier has, unexpectedly for its time, very comfortable and easy to learn UI.


*Shameless bump *

 

[Baron]

Origin System's Space Rogue came out 4 years earlier than Frontier: Elite II and had Newtonian physics. Also had hull degradation whilst traversing wormholes, in-game video game mini-game*, the ability to explore bases you landed on, and was just all round fucking great.

* triple word score

 

[DraQ]

Origin System's Space Rogue came out 4 years earlier than Frontier: Elite II and had Newtonian physics. Also had hull degradation whilst traversing wormholes, in-game video game mini-game*, the ability to explore bases you landed on, and was just all round fucking great.

* triple word score

Looks pretty nifty, actually.

 

[oldmanpaco]

I remember wanting to buy that game so badly back in the day. Limited resources suck and the 'Demo' version, well, it was the late 80's.

Anyway kids have it so easy these days.

 

[Mister Arkham]

It feels kind of weird to agree with Skyway about something, but I have to. B5: IFH is really a very good, modern iteration of the game type you're looking for. The first time I played it I wasn't expecting the Newtonian physics at all and I got irreversibly lost in the swirling red hell of Hyperspace. A good looking and fun title, but it is on the short side.

I also remember that there was a Freespace 2 conversion a couple of years ago that was based on the Battlestar Galactica remake. I played an early build and they were working on ramping up the realism, but I don't know what ever came of it.

 

[Data4]

Just download Orbiter if you want to fap to realism. It's free and requires a doctorate in Astrophysics to figure out.

 

[Xi]

http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic ... 34fe60bfe1

Would be cool ;P

 

[DraQ]

Just download Orbiter if you want to fap to realism. It's free and requires a doctorate in Astrophysics to figure out.

I never got into it - interface is a shortcut nightmare.

Now, if it had some mouse-driven virtual cockpit I'd probably be very into it.

Still not much of a game, though - the best thing ever, from gamer's POV, would be using Orbiter engine and physics in conjunction with Frontier-like procedural generation to power a Frontier/I-War 2 style actual game.

 

[tennishero]

why hasn't anyone mentioned sins of a solar empire?

best "space feel"

 

[DraQ]

why hasn't anyone mentioned sins of a solar empire?

Because you lack reading comprehension as is expected of an inbred moron like yourself, duh.