That's too big for me (but I like your idea of flying crewman and picking boarding locations).  What makes a ship sim challenging is using your limited resources to achieve a victory.  Naval warfare, in many ways, is very chess-like in that regard.  It is a battle of wits.  Once you include thousands of weapons, wits are replaced with raw firepower and the battle becomes a brawl instead of a duel.

Still, at this point, I'd take any type of realisitc cap ship simulator! 

Though not capship (not military atleast), Northstar (Kerberos Space Trading Love Letter to the Privateer/Elite/Firefly styles) is going to have boarding actions with fully modelled interiors and individual crew members.

That sounds really interesting! 

I just purchased X3TC and discovered that that game has marine boarding parties as well.

I like the look of X3 TC but I am going to wait until they drop Tages from it.

Star Trek Online is one to look forward to.

Details can be found on www.startrekonline.com

All of those games you listed Daton, are very good in their own right. I've played almost all of them.  One I think you guys forgot to mention was Freespace 2, which is open source. There has been a tonne of work done on the engine and its led to some AMAZING space fighter simulation. Here's a good mod link for you guys to look at: http://www.youtube.com/user/BeyondtheRedLine 

They've done some incredible stuff there. However, it seems this mod won't be coming up for awhile as there was a team dispute shortly after they won the Mod of the Year award at ModDB - which was bad news, at least for a BSG fan like me.  The members who left did make a new team and are making the following mod: http://www.moddb.com/games/diaspora
It looks like it's going to be just as good if not better than BTRL.

And for those of you that love Babylon V, I 100% recommend this mod here: http://www.moddb.com/games/the-babylon-project   It's brilliant.

Now, for Freelancer (FL), I've been playing that game for the past 3 yrs now. There are quite a few online groups around that are really interested in modding the game. One of the most notable communities is called "The Starport". It's basically a forum where all the different FL communities get together and discuss things.  That link is found here:  http://www.the-starport.net/

For me, I am the developer of a mod called "FreeWorlds" for FL.  It's a Star Wars (SW) Total Conversion for FL.   We're trying to make the mod itself as SW canon as possible, if you're into that sort of thing.  You'll be able to fly both fighters/bombers and capital ships.  For more information about that, if you're curious, go here: http://www.moddb.com/mods/freeworlds-182/

or our developer blogs found here: http://www.freeworlds-mod.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=44

(we have a tonne of videos and screenies there for people to look at)


Hope you guys didn't mind these plugs, but I thought they'd be appropriate for the thread.

None of those games sold the same amount of copies as say, W40K Dawn of War. Also, many of their sequels completely sucked, which almost everyone either forgets or dont talk about it. So if 100K people sign a petition for a space sim. No developer is going to spend the necesary millions required to make a great space sim in this age.

Even if there are millions of people hungering for a space sim. Just read this entire thread. Almost every single person has a diferent taste, a different niche, a diferent preference. Homeworld2 is one of the best space RTS ever, yet many people think it sucks, and a lot of people begged for that sequel.

Still, I heard many Silent Hunter remarks, and you guys are forgetting one thing. Silent Hunter is based on real life, on real history, on real source material. This mean the devs of that game did not had to create a whole universe of rules out of nothing in order to make the game.

In my opinion, most space sims of old are quite limited in their universe. Many of their rules are rock-paper-scissor in nature. Many of them copy real life rules and paste them in outer space. Even EVE Online copied the old medieval siege warfare system in it.

Some space sims created a great and diversed universe, but its implementation sucked. Others space sims had a great implementation, but their universe was very small, very limited.

Sushisemegato he wants a starship simulator not a fighter or freighter game. At least thats the way I read it.

@Destraex: Seeing some of the games named here, like XWA, people were touching on different areas.  I thought I'd dive in a bit more of the area of fighter simulation.  As for capitals, you can fly them in FL. 

@Rackjabbit: If you liked XvT, you'll like FW 2. We're trying to reproduce XvT/XWA as much as possible, even getting ships from the X-Wing Alliance Upgrade project.  Here's a video of some of our fighters: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8bhrxF5_nQ#

Someone sell me on Starshatter. I hear that there are still some serious problems--less-than-intelligent ally AI, difficult capital ship combat...

I'd like to like it, I think.

@Sushisemegato I just think its strange to go off on such a tangent when he has stated thats the kind of game he is trying to avoid. Hes played these games and wants to move onto something that has a real starship feel and simulation. Does FL provide anything for cap ships at all that is different? Or does it treat them as big fighters? Not angry just find it strange.

P.S. I'm sorry but I think an FL Star Wars mod would make me miss my XWA/XvsTie shield controls and other ships systems too much. FTL is just too simple. Another thing I used to hate about FL was the spin BS that went on everytime a fight ensued, it drove me nuts. I mean you needed to be in third person mode to see everything and in that mode the ships look absolutely silly and unbelieveable when they turn. I mean no thusters just a slight movement of the model to indicate its doing ww2 style turns.

 Looks good though

@Legerdemain As for Starshatter. To be really honest i'd have to play it a whole lot more to answer your questions on AI Leger. I find the cap ship controls to be fine though, no real problem with it, but its no childs play, it does take a bit of learning. I would say its got the same learning curve as the more complex craft in XWA or xwing. Cap ship combat is certainly not difficult but you do need to learn how to control your squadron of ships properly.

Whatever else you'd like to know i'd be happy to tell. If you want pics of anything too just let me know. I can even do a small review if your really keen.

In the mean time here is some starshatter shots I took on my PC. Just to show you a bit more. Obviously their are management and other planning/universe screens to show if your interested.

I thnk the really good space combat flight sim that is the modern equivalent to X wing is freespace 1 and 2.  I heard independence war 1 and 2 are goog too, never tried it.  Tried a bit of tychon the fringe, but that was awhile back, it was fun almost like an older version of Freelancer without the multiplayer.

i think there is an indie developer that does the Starwaraith series of games from 3D games, google him up, you can email the dude, he will answer your questions. 

As far as a real starship sim are concerned, if you want something that allows you interaction with your crew while being able to control your ship in combat, freespace/x wing style, i think you might have to wait a while.  Sorry to disappoint you, but Universal combat/battlecrusier series just doesn't cut it, there is virtually no crew interaction allowed, and even there are crews you can sorta command, they feel tacked on.

ok here are some of the management screens to show you what kind of depth the game gives. Their are people talking in briefings and during missions. But thier is something a little stale about it as it does not really seem to flow, mods have got this stage right though. The Battlestar mod especially surprised me with its ability to make me feel like I was there. There are cutscenes occasionally.

The game also allows you to fly down to planets to assault the surface! Different physics apply here.

If you want to cammand a starship with an entire crew try Star Trek Bridge Commander