I was on another site and we were discussing the types of games PC gamers want but can't have because no one is making them anymore. After scratching my head, I realized that one genre we haven't seen in a long time is the starship simulator. By that, I mean a game that puts you in command of a full-fledged, space-going warship. The last good one I played was back on the 16-bits and was called Starfleet Command I. It was a game that took place in a Star Trek-like universe where the player was put in charge of a warship. You could earn ranks and medals by completing successful patrols and such. Even though it was a simplistic game by todays standards, it still had all the essential feature: navigation, tractor beams, marine boarding parties, damage control, phasers and photons torps, mines, etc. Great stuff!
In the world of 32-bit gaming, we haven't really seen a good starship simulator. There have been a steady trickle of Wingman-type games (with Jumpgate Evolution being the most recent), but those are more about single seat craft and dogfighting. There was Battlecruiser 3000 AD, but that was a disaster. Star Trek Bridge Commander was decent, but it is quite long in the tooth now (but it did have the right idea). EVE does offer command of large ships, but while configurations can be quite complex, you really are still only operating a ship of one.
I would love to see some company take a crack at this forgotten genre once again. After playing Ubisoft's excellent Silent Hunter series, I think a similar, space-based game could be awesome. With today's computational abilities, a gamer could literally walk the corridors of his ship, interact with his crew/systems and engage in detailed patrols (again, basically Silent Hunter).
Perhaps Stardock/Ironclad would be the ones to do this? Both companies seem to love their space-based games. What is more, now that we've seen the excellence that is Sins, a game that will only get better and more epic as it matures with these expansions, the Sins universe would seem to be a natural setting for such a game. I think it would be a lot of fun to see the Sins universe from the bridge of a single vessel, such as a Kol battlecruiser.
Just a thought. I just wish somebody would pick up the spaceship sim genre once again, though.