[ScottFreeCapital]

I'm curious to know what everyone thinks given some of the feedback to Star Citizen on this forum (along with the notion that Star Citizen is one of the few major space sim titles).

Is there any game aside from FS2 that give you what you want? And, what is the future of space sim as you see it?

[Phantom Hoover]

Enemy Starfighter looks great, Elite: Dangerous has plenty of good stuff in it. I'd like to think the future would feature less giant projects that promise the world and collapse or fall short, but who am I kidding.

[Spoon]

What I want from a space sim is an engaging story, a fun single player experience. Sadly, nobody actually seems to be making those. (Well, star citizen will... if it ever releases) Sandbox games, 'make your own fun' seem to prevail. Ergo, the easy way out for developers since you only need to make the basic gameplay without having to engage with those nasty things called mission design and story writing.

[Phantom Hoover]

It's honestly pretty hard to get people hyped about maybe a dozen hours of campaign gameplay, even if it's good. Even FS2 would just be an interesting distraction were it not for the modding tools.

[Aesaar]

What I want from a space sim is an engaging story, a fun single player experience. Sadly, nobody actually seems to be making those. (Well, star citizen will... if it ever releases)

Engaging story and Chris Roberts?  lol

On topic: Enemy Starfighter looks pretty interesting.

[OverDhill]

For me I would like to see a sim like FS2 and Wing Commander but with a lot of high quality multiplayer co-op missions. Squadron 24 is suppose to be something like that within Star Citizen but it is hard to say if it will end up like that. Also one that is not Pay to Win which some seem to be heading towards.

I would agree with Phantom in that many times they try to be too much and end up a mess in the end (or boring as hell).

I always thought FS2 Open had enough going for it to actually give some of the new games a run for the money if it had a better online frontend. It is too bad that a complete turnkey install package could not be created including a built in launcher with the best of the best missions for single and multiplayer packaged together. I think many people are turned away even with the new installer for some reason (speaking from experience as I have friends that are). Also the lack of a server browser built in like many of the flight sims have to be able to find games being played makes getting together more difficult.

Maybe there are just too many people that want 'new' and refuse to look at the great job these guys have done with FS2 Open.  Personally I think it has a lot going for it and that for certain aspects of game play SC and Elite Dangerous have to play catch up.

Can you imagine what Wing Commander,  X-Wing or Tie Fighter would be like if they had their graphics improved as much as FS2 Open?

X-Wing Alliance with the Upgrade package looks decent but nowhere as nice as FS2 Open does. It also doesn't support TrackIR (except for a clunky mouse emulation hack). Not sure what the multiplayer experience is for it.

[NGTM-1R]

Engaging story and Chris Roberts?

In a land of incredibly uneven performances, a man who can create flawed masterpieces consistently is king.

[Aesaar]

Point.  Squadron 42 is better than nothing, and I can't think of another story-oriented SP space sim on the radar ATM.  Probably why I'll buy it despite my current opinion of SC.

[ScottFreeCapital]

IMHO, it's actually sad that Descent: Underground is happening instead of a real FreeSpace title.

If the mechanics are great/feel good for S42 and the graphics are great a lot of people will probably be happy.

Also, Enemy Starfighter is looking really promising.

[NGTM-1R]

I'm still holding out for Flagship, though as far as I know nothing's been said about it really since their first trailer. The concept, if nothing else, is fresh enough to be interesting.

[Mongoose]

The only future I want is a tightly-plotted game with good writing and engaging mission design, but I'm not sure that it exists outside of our merry little band.  I have no interest in playing Space Rock Trader in a big empty purposeless sandbox, and I sure as hell don't want a jack-of-all-trades game that isn't so much as competent in any of them.  Basically all I want is for someone to pick up the ball that Lucasarts and carried so superbly.  Is that really too much to ask?

[Wobble73]

The new Star Wars Battlefront game looks like it could be good, the only footage I have seen so far though appears to be within an atmosphere?

[ScottFreeCapital]

The only future I want is a tightly-plotted game with good writing and engaging mission design, but I'm not sure that it exists outside of our merry little band.  I have no interest in playing Space Rock Trader in a big empty purposeless sandbox, and I sure as hell don't want a jack-of-all-trades game that isn't so much as competent in any of them.  Basically all I want is for someone to pick up the ball that Lucasarts and carried so superbly.  Is that really too much to ask?

Honestly, I think there is enough talent in the people on this forum to really kick something off the ground that's superb. I've always been blown away by the modding community here and the amount of effort & quality that ends up in the total conversion mods or new games using the engine.

If I wasn't already working on an RTS, I'd probably be working on a new space sim myself. I promise that it's high on my own list but in that case I'm currently a one man army. The RTS project itself will probably take me another 2-3 years to begin with. 

That being said, I encourage anyone to get passionate and start development on their own. I talked about this in the FSO to Unity/UE4 post, but the FSO engine is not likely to last forever.
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=89528.0

[jr2]

It's honestly pretty hard to get people hyped about maybe a dozen hours of campaign gameplay, even if it's good. Even FS2 would just be an interesting distraction were it not for the modding tools.

If they could make a game engine good enough to easily make themselves more stories (campaigns), then sell the campaigns, and charge a small percentage for anyone wanting to sell their own campaigns using their engine (free works still remain free, x% of $0 is still $0), I think that would work well.  They could always expand the engine / add capabilities.  Sort of like FSO, except commercial.

Hmm.  I don't know how you would prevent people from knocking off for-profit additions, though.... Well, if the prices were relatively cheap, shouldn't be too much of a problem.

[FlamingCobra]

I lost all interest of Star Citizen quite a while ago. But I'm excited for No Man's Sky if that counts.