Any Privateer-like game?

[Cassidy]

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

I have to recommend I-War 2 too, btw, although some of the main plotline missions were downright frustrating, specially because you couldn't save in any system but only in the pirate base and had to make all your way through multiple jump points again if you failed.

As for the Privateer remake, I haven't played it, but I tried the main game it shares the engine with, Vegastrike, which is another Privateer-style game in a perpetual beta, specially now that it seems to have like three active developers at best and a few occasional artists sending new 3d models for spaceships, and although it is not stagnated and actively developed, progress is going on at a glacial pace. IMO it is a classical example of over-ambition: for example the design concept of it intends for 200 different spaceships for the twenty-something different factions while most commercial space sims don't get much further than about a tenth of that number(consider the guy responsible for the game universe background history etc left the project due to RL, this might change after some Thursdays). But at least they did something playable from scratch, engine included, and went farther than the sheer majority of open-source game projects.

I cannot recommend it for more than a brief try though, because trading is unbalancedly the most profitable and fast way of making money in it and at the same time incredibly boring(specially in versions past 0.43 where cargo inside a ship has its mass influencing in the spaceship's acceleration in an example of realism taking precedence over fun.), in its current state of development being a pirate is pointless and suicidal and bounty hunting missions offer quite low rewards compared to trading and oftenly are internally unbalanced too, because taking down a very big cargo ship with guns will often yield the same reward as destroying a battleship, and taking down a pirate with a shitty obsolete space fighter oftenly rewards the same as taking down an Aeran(aliens at war with the Confed) super-fast and deadly one. And you'd need to do hundreds of bounty hunting missions to be able to afford the most powerful spaceship in its latest version, a corvette. And finally, as for some it is a dealbreaker, it has no main campaign, just randomly generated missions. It is not entirely bad though, and can be fun as a coffee break kind of game.

 

[Hoodoo]

idk about privateer, but going deep into fringe sectors in EV: Nova is some of the most intense gaming i ever plehed

 

[SuicideBunny]

And finding powerful stuff in derelict ships? Are we talking about the same Freelancer?

there was a ton of hidden exploration stuff in freelancer, the derelict ships with their lootable uberguns were just the easiest to find.

 

[Thrombone]

Starfarer (top down, similar to EV Nova, and with fleet control) is progressing very nicely.

http://fractalsoftworks.com

 

[CorpseZeb]

Starfury - http://www.malfador.com/starfury.html - not exactly a Privater type of game, but fairy close... Think of it, as a single ship version of "Space Empire 4". Sort of. Bought at some strange occasion, but never had a much time to play it, though.

 

[Morkar Left]

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

It doesn't look as good as X3 and isn't as easy to control as freelancer. Plus it has no Save-the-universe-awesome-story. In fact it has no real story at all.

Personally I don't like the 'jump everywhere all the time'. It means you don't have to fly but instead you jump everywhere.
Delivering cargo from a base to a capital ship? Open map, click right before the capital ships destination, jump, fly under the ship takes 2 secs, drop cargo, jump back to base. Uh, yeah, there where some enemies I think, whatever...
Entering a new system, getting chased by one enemy, this enemy brings support with more enemies jumping in. Of course you can flee, but the enemies will jump after you and so on. Finally you will jump to the base in the sector and 'dock' which means you get still attacked (no save zone) while nobody gives a shit about it.
The economy seems totally unbalanced to me, too. Basically the games tries to be like Elite but fails completely in copying the pace and sense of accomplishment from it.

It's a shame because it has A LOT of good features/ideas otherwise and could be one of the best spacesims ever created with some tweaks. Sigh...

Maybe some of my complaints are fixed by now. If someone is here who plays the actual game can give me a newsflash about it I would be thankful.

Remember the first time when you rammed a Talon, resulting into a dead Talon and half your front plating dented?

Oh yeah

Is there any modern game with visible cockpit damage?

Nowadays you can be happy if there's a cockpit at all...

 

[Commissar Draco]

OK which one has best story, is most stable and not too much into Space Simulator with 300 keys to memorise? Bonus points for Space 1889/WH 40K Ships:

And no Kwan like we fight for Democracy and Freedumb in Space.
Darkstar One was tech competent and bland... Can't remember the story despite finishing it... PC and mellow As all things done in Germany after 1945. M:

 

[RK47]

Nowadays you can be happy if there's a cockpit at all...

Yeah can't understand it.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Another game like Starfury with some fleet tactic level, ships look like lifted from MOO2, the Starferer:

http://fractalsoftworks.com/

 

[DraQ]

OK which one has best story, is most stable and not too much into Space Simulator with 300 keys to memorise?

Let's see:

FE2 has no story, is fairly stable, and can be controlled in its entirety with 2 button mouse, shift and enter.

FFE is more or less the same, although it has optional storyline and most of the time you will use numpad instead of shift and enter if you use JJFFE.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Let's see:

FE2 has no story, is fairly stable, and can be controlled in its entirety with 2 button mouse, shift and enter.

FFE is more or less the same, although it has optional storyline and most of the time you will use numpad instead of shift and enter if you use JJFFE.

thanks for tips Fellow Potato, playing Starferer now... preordered her for 10 jewgolds, So maybe they will manage to finish her before ITZ will come.

 

[CorpseZeb]

... and she is worth buying? I mean, Starfuher... they don't offer any demo or something.

 

[SuicideBunny]

just finished downloading and doing the combat tutorial now, but i'd say for the 10 bucks you can get it for now, most definitely.

 

[Lunac]

On the PC? Nothing in the last 20 years or so. Unless you count things like Derek Smart's BattleCruiser series and gazillion of identical sequels to it, or things like EVE Online, which is an MMO. For best "Privateer-like" experience, and you have probably already gone this route, try StarFlight, the Sega Genesis port, circa 1991. That's of course unless you have something against 16bit emulators. Good fun, tho!


...
..
.

 

[belowmecoldhands]

Wow nice thread. Added a several games to my favorites. Wanted to bump this, since it was useful to me.

I also wanted to make a comment about Starpoint Gemini 1/2:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starpoint_Gemini
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starpoint_Gemini_2

Also note it's supposed to be more of an RPG with some skills and stats and crew.

According to metacritic, Starpoint Gemini 2 has a better score than the first one:
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/starpoint-gemini-2

Here's a review for it:
http://www.gamewatcher.com/reviews/starpoint-gemini-ii-review/8668

(...)
That's the main thing holding Starpoint Gemini 2 back, really. You level up, you improve your skills, but you never really feel like your actions are making a real impact on the world around you. I'd like to see a developing universe, with ships and factions that pursue their own goals rather than merely sending a few enemies after you when you enter their turf, an economy that you can really dig your teeth into. There's lots going on in the game, but it never really reacts to your presence in a dynamic and interesting way.

STARPOINT GEMINI II VERDICT
Maybe Starpoint Gemini 2’s universe doesn’t always feel as alive as it could, but it’s still an enjoyable place to spend your time. I love the freedom, the lack of restriction on what you can or can’t do. The touchstone influences here are clearly games like Freelancer and Privateer, and SG2 gives you that same sense that the galaxy is your playground. The campaign isn’t up to much, the interactions between various factions are simplistic and missions occasionally feel repetitive, but the game largely nails that feeling of being a grizzled starship captain who doesn’t play by the rules, making his living any way he can. And also that feeling of being in charge of a fleet of warships laying waste to the innocent. Both are pretty fun.

However, note the big difference between official reviews and user reviews for the first one:
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/starpoint-gemini

In my experience you only see such a gap when something happens to the game which the users don't like (a few are Thief, Simcity, Risen 2 and Diablo III) or the game just hasn't found its place yet in the official realm.

Starpoint Gemini 2 is on GoG but is expensive vs older games:
http://af.gog.com/game/starpoint_gemini_2?as=1649904300

Considering there're open source and freeware offerings (privateer is freeware), I'll pass on that. However, I'm sure hte gfx are real good and because it's a new game it probably has a strong modding community with some optimism for the future.

 

[SuicideBunny]

starpoint gemini 2 is pretty friggin boring and the modding doesn't save it.

 

[praetor]

Hardwar gets a nod, but Quarantine doesn't? man, i spent so many hours on that game (and the sequel) 20 years ago. fun times. i wonder if there's a remake/port/mod...

 

[Ulminati]

Elite: Dongerous is also an option. The jury is still out on whether or not it's going to be ready for prime time by dec 16th though. Some of the stuff they cut was pretty essential. FD said it'd be added in post-release, but I guess there's always the risk they'll pull a Double Fine.