Any Privateer-like game?

[RK47]

I enjoyed the gameplay where you upgrade ships and take on missions to earn that next upgrade or just pirate/rob/kill for profit.

So what other game plays like that? Can you recommend some?
I've played a few:
-Freelancer - this is pretty good, except the gameplay felt slow and constricted by the campaign too much, but I love going thru debris field and discovering a powerful gun in a derelict ship of sort. Faction v Faction warfare too.
-Space Rangers 1 & 2 - Not a space-sim but good enough. I've played and finished both, I kinda dislike parts of the arcade shooting you gotta go through, though.
-Privateer 2 - I doubt it'll work now. During the Derp Age of FMVs - But I finished it back in the day. Clive Owen as the protagonist - What the fuck. Subtitles were not available during that time I think.

There's a remake of Privateer that I'm playing at the moment
http://privateer.sourceforge.net/

But it's kinda draggy and boring after a while, trying to scrounge up creds for the next upgrade.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

Independence War 2
Evochron Mercenary
Escape Velocity Nova
Nomad
Hardwar
Starflight
Flatspace
that new Black Market commercial flash game
http://www.asciisector.net/

Iffy ones:
Starpoint Gemini
Eve Online (just don't)
Darkstar One ^__________^

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Hardwar

This is the best game of this type. Ignore the story and make sure you have the latest "Unofficial" (Made by a dev after the company went tits up IIRC) patch. Can even host a server which functions like a smaller scale MMO if you've got bros you wanna play with. Game world keeps trucking without players with dynamic economy and happenings. Can even buy a hangar and make it a shop and NPCs will use it.

 

[JagreenLern]

I've been looking for something like this as well. Any opinions on X3: Terran Conflict or Evochron Mercenary?

 

[Tzaero]

Pioneer: http://pioneerspacesim.net/
Its actively being worked on, and is worth a look.

 

[RK47]

Evochron Mercenary sounds good. I'll give the demo a spin.

 

[GreyViper]

I enjoyed the gameplay where you upgrade ships and take on missions to earn that next upgrade or just pirate/rob/kill for profit.

So what other game plays like that? Can you recommend some?
I've played a few:
-Freelancer - this is pretty good, except the gameplay felt slow and constricted by the campaign too much, but I love going thru debris field and discovering a powerful gun in a derelict ship of sort. Faction v Faction warfare too.
-Space Rangers 1 & 2 - Not a space-sim but good enough. I've played and finished both, I kinda dislike parts of the arcade shooting you gotta go through, though.
-Privateer 2 - I doubt it'll work now. During the Derp Age of FMVs - But I finished it back in the day. Clive Owen as the protagonist - What the fuck. Subtitles were not available during that time I think.

There's a remake of Privateer that I'm playing at the moment
http://privateer.sourceforge.net/

But it's kinda draggy and boring after a while, trying to scrounge up creds for the next upgrade.

Im glad you like theese types of game, they are partly the reasons that got me into gaming anyway.
From my part I would recommend Privateer: The Reckoning Total Conversion for Microsoft Freelancer, it mixed well together the best parts of both games. The best part being it made the storyline open ended unlike main campagin. On the sad part I dont think he finished it and the last version still has buggs, other then that I found it fantastic.

Yeah the remake is not rally my cup of tea, I guess its the engine.

@JaagreenLern I have a love/hate relationship with X3, since like Fo3/FNV, Freelance. You can make fantastic custom games with lots of MODS. The problem, how to make them all work together without CTD and sometimes it takes up ridiculous amount resources that leads again to CTD.

Independence War 2 was next best thing to me as Privateer before FL Priv mod. I liked how it worked and it has in built mod manager that makes using mods easy. But damn the game is gorgeous and the explosions, my god the eplosions are to die for. When the Antimatter reactors go critical the result is awe inspiring. Then there are the random collisions by freighters that are fun to watch and ofcourse preying upon freighter convoys in Lagrange points. But I must say that one mod that's must have is Colossus Freighter v0.98b for Jaffs.

Oh and sgc_meltdown Darkstar One is one huge POS.

 

[DraQ]

Pioneer: http://pioneerspacesim.net/
Its actively being worked on, and is worth a look.

Or go for Frontier: Elite 2 and Frontier: First Encounters (with JJFFE/GLFFE/D3DFFE) while you wait for Pioneer to become more workable.
One thing I really like about those games is huge, realistically scaled universe combined with Newtonian motion. Seamless planetary landings, orbits, day-night cycles - the games have it all.

It's a bit hard to get used to at the beginning, but it's awesome. You can pick pretty much any career you want.

Also, keep an eye on this:
http://www.spacesimcentral.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=2779

IWar2 is neat, but the AI is derpy, hud is barely usable and tutti-frutti backgrounds are annoying. Plus there is autorepair that works as fast as health regen in modern popamoles.

 

[Morkar Left]

Oolite with mods called oxp installed. Here's a list. In my last game I used around 100 oxps and it worked fine together. At least I couldn't find some gamebreaking stuff. The first time you have a new oxp installed you probably have to start/reload the game again to make everything work together.

If you're hardcore try Terminus

And there is still Escape Velocity when you had fun with SR2.

 

[Scroo]

Pioneer: http://pioneerspacesim.net/
Its actively being worked on, and is worth a look.

Wow, this looks great. Thanks for the link!

 

[RK47]

Fuck. I just beat the main campaign in Privateer Gemini Gold. What a horrible boss fight. The allies were raining friendly fire on my Centurion while I was forced to pew pew with a single steltek gun. Of course, watching the goddamn ball of doom ramming the Paradigm over and over for 2 minutes contributed to the tedium.

When that shit blew up, I kinda felt sad it was all over. Then I remembered Righteous Fire. Did they forget to add that one in for the Remake? Hmm, only one way to find out, I set course for Jolson, the Pleasure Base where the Righteous Fire Intro took place. BAM! Cutscene triggered! Privateer back in business! AWESOME! Quad Laser and Dual FF launchers seems like the easiest setup so far. Although a fully outfitted Orion battering ram is unstoppable as well.

 

[Captain Shrek]

Independence War 2
Evochron Mercenary
Escape Velocity Nova
Nomad
Hardwar
Starflight
Flatspace
that new Black Market commercial flash game
http://www.asciisector.net/

Iffy ones:
Starpoint Gemini
Eve Online (just don't)

Brofi..

Darkstar One ^__________^

 

[Captain Shrek]

I've been looking for something like this as well. Any opinions on X3: Terran Conflict or Evochron Mercenary?

Very nice when played outside the campaign. The combat is okay. The design is good. I am still loathe to try the Albion prelude. May be a time sink or a horrible disappointment. Need neither of that.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

relax baby I've never played that game before

about the only best thing I've heard being said about it was that you might have some fun if you didn't have anything else to play

 

[lefthandblack]

I've been looking for something like this as well. Any opinions on X3: Terran Conflict or Evochron Mercenary?

Terran Conflict is good, if you mod it to hell. Unmodded it's good for what it is.

Evochron Mercenary might be good if your into multiplayer; I don't know as my connection won't work for MP. The SP is decent but get's old pretty fast. I actually had more fun making a mod for it than actually playing it.

http://www.lefthandblack.com/maincgi/YaBB.pl?num=1334600650/0#0

 

[Metro]

There's http://www.minerwars.com/ which is still in development and slated to come in a F2P MMO variety and a single player with co-op variety.

 

[Renegen]

Terminus: newtonian physics, limited to solar system, a combination of story missions and freeform, 4 factions to play as, the mercs are more freeform gameplay.

 

[Norfleet]

-Freelancer - this is pretty good, except the gameplay felt slow and constricted by the campaign too much, but I love going thru debris field and discovering a powerful gun in a derelict ship of sort. Faction v Faction warfare too

Wait, what? Are we talking about the same Freelancer? I don't remember any of this in the game. There were factions that sent you on quests, some of which were against opposing factions, but actual faction warfare? And finding powerful stuff in derelict ships? Are we talking about the same Freelancer?

 

[Captain Shrek]

err yes? Ypu could join the houses or the pirates (which is actually the spanish house).

 

[Stokowski]

The best loot available at any given level/area was always from space-wrecks.

 

[Tzaero]

err yes? Ypu could join the houses or the pirates (which is actually the spanish house).

I'm pretty sure this is the discovery mod for freelancer

 

[sser]

Space Pirates and Zombies ... kinda. I dunno, it's a very generic, simple game, but in tune with what you are looking for. I didn't really get into it but it is cheap and the dev support is still there.

 

[Outlander]

Evochron Mercenary allows Seamless Atmospheric Penetration™

 

[RK47]

metascore 68.. Hmm. why is it so low?!

Also quick comment on Privateer Gemini Gold - Mini Review:
1. Enemy will never give up a chase.
This is a big problem when you're running a wimpy Tarsus at the start. The original Priv allowed me to run away from bad odds by going full burners and dodging the incoming fire till they break the 15k distance mark for the auto nav to kick in. But Gemini Gold does not allow this at all. They'll stay on your tail, full burners, opening fire on occasions once they get within 5 klicks of you. Even on Centurion, I cannot outrun the Talons. The mod gave enemy increased max burner speed. LAME. I dare not try the Galaxy due to this change.

2. Lack of Visible Cockpit Damage
They took this out. Remember the first time when you rammed a Talon, resulting into a dead Talon and half your front plating dented? It was awesome in the original, keyboard had sparks coming out of it, displays went dead, comms went static, panels had blasted look to it. It was GREAT. I miss this most in Modern games where GUI was merely a HUD display, not affected by the ship cockpit. Kinda hate it. Is there any modern game with visible cockpit damage?

3. Reputation fuck up.
After taking that smuggling mission for Tayla, the milita went perma-hostile on me. After taking the Palan blockade campaign, the whole Mercenaries faction are after me. Cue Gladius, Taloins, Centurions, Demons and Orions giving chase whenever they spot me. This continues even after I saved the galaxy from the Steltek Drone. What the fuck. The only friendlies are Merchants, Confeds AND Kilrathi.

All in all, the original seems more fun, but the remake had smoother graphics.

 

[Outlander]

Seems like a decent score considering the genre.

Have a go at the demo --> http://www.starwraith.com/index.htm