Space sims have been doing the same thing for years. Obviously there needs to be some type of breakthrough for the genre, such as the introduction of other genres. But the question is how far??? Getting out of your ship and perhaps wandering around in a capital ship. I know it''s been done many a time in a prerendered style, but I''m talking real-time. I''ve heard other developers are doing things like this. But what about taking it one step further. Such as landing on planets and wandering around. Obviously it may not be as seamless as one would like, and there would need to be certain rules in place. Such as only being able to land in big cities like the Mega Cities in Judge Dread. Tell me what you think, give me your opinions. -David

Hey Bully we''re in the same territory as thinking goes. I''m not going with 3D because it to me vastly limits the type of game you can do. But I have been brainstorming stuff like exploration; ship customization; a changing, dynamic universe; and crew / group simulation.

To my mind the greatest problem is the singular focus of most 3D space sims, and the territory you play in. Most are solely combat oriented, and because space is pretty empty gameplay degenerates into turning battles.

So there are a few things you can do: You can deepen the simulation (like I-War did) or you can widen the gameplay (adding trade, like Privateer, X-Beyond the Frontier).

I love the idea of character level interaction (ports, walking your decks), btw. It may be a bit more radical than what you''re interested in, but I''ve been considering a space RPG oriented around different ships and crew adventures. At this level of detail, one of the problems you immediately get will be how to create content that spans multiple planets (and even stars).

A few threads that may give you ideas:

Star Trek RPG thread

Exploration brainstorming

The Sims meets TNG

Also, did you ever play an old game called Starflight? You could explore 200 stars and 800 planets all on 2 floppies. It had 7 races, a crew you could train, life on alien planets, mysterious artifacts, and a pretty awesome backstory. It was very cool. I''d love to see that kind of gameplay mixed with an RPG (which is what I''m aiming for, even if it''s pretty far off).


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Just waiting for the mothership...