P.P.P.S.: We still *need* a new space game for this generation ... and it sucks how this "dream" has been captured and is currently run into the ground by a certain Chris Roberts.
I guess Elite: Dangerous doesn't count because it's had a development in the reverse direction?
Oh, wait, it doesn't, despite being a functional game delivered as promised and drastically improved over the past almost-three years, clearly not a space game for our generation. 
I've flat out given up on SC being anything that could be considered "fun." At least the ****ing combat in ED is consistent, while every update in a goddamn five year old alpha changes the combat so much that nobody is happy.
No Elite doesn't count for me, because I refuse to play games anymore that revolve mostly about grinding as the main motivation to play.
SC doesn't count for me either for that matter because: See trainwreck described in this post. And whether SC will end up as just another grinding game is still up in the air as well.
(I had my hopes on SQ42 from the start ... but that hope is several meters below ground level by now.)
Matter of fact, what I am really looking forward to is the next instalment of Blue Planet. No ifs, no buts, just adoration.
But it would be nice to have a commercial Space Sim that finally tells a story worth telling again as well.
is it just me or after 5 years of development is the basic gameplay still in shambles
If you want to go full cynic mode you have to admit that "obviously broken" combat that of course will be much much better "in the future" is pretty much perfect if you are in the business of selling "dreams" instead of actual "games". And it doesn't matter if they do it on purpose or out of genuine incompetency.
Nothing could hurt them more at this stage, than presenting gameplay in "finished" stage.
P.S. In related news: This video made me so sad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy5kXCm2ct0 (Check the date after watching it.)
P.P.S.: It also made quite a few people at RSI sad: https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/376405/wtf-is-this-vid-an-april-fools-joke
P.P.P.S.: We still *need* a new space game for this generation ... and it sucks how this "dream" has been captured and is currently run into the ground by a certain Chris Roberts.
If you want a new Privateer, have you tried X3:Albion Prelude? It's the best open world space sim you can get, and pretty good at its job if you can overlook the flaws and/or are willing to mod them out. Just stay away from X: Rebirth, it's garbage.
Yes I did. Played the heck out of it actually, despite past experience with the X Games. X - Games still always make me sad in the end because so much promise meets such bad mechanics. Basic space combat and space combat AI always sucked and X3 is no difference. Outfitting a full airwing for your new Carrier and then noticing that 50 fighters have a hard time hitting anything with guns is a bit of a downer. Those capital ships that deftly dodge their bulk out of the way of comically slowly incoming capital weapon shots is another matter, effectively meaning a player run ship can defeat dozens of enemy capitals while an AI controlled ship usually dies in the first headon charge ... because AI can't dodge DUH! Don't take me wrong ... the X - Games do a lot of things right and I guess what they do best is that elusive "immersion" that SC is always after as well. But the story has always been so bad in the X Games that it gives rise to unintended hilarious laughing fits and that coupled with gameplay that mostly revolves around getting "more so that you can get more so that you can get more ... " until you arrive at a point where gameplay kinda breaks down because the developers obviously never gave fleet management or large scale engagements or even basic AI vs AI combat any thought at all always kills it for me in the end. And don't take me wrong ... I get what sandbox games are and what they are trying to do ... but to do that successfully it's not a good idea to continually lure the player in with promises in the early game just to have every single promise come crashing down in the mid and late game due to badly working gameplay mechanics - if they work at all.
Funny thing ... when thinking about it now ... there are a lot of similarities to SC in some respects: I.e. the best times in X3 I had when playing the early game with a small ship as I was only "dreaming" about all the great things one could do in the game later ... then as you finally arrived at your dreams it turned out the game sh*ts all over them.
What we are seeing now with SC and also Nomads Sky for example, appears to be a new kind of game: A game that is better than anything that came before at making you "dream those dreams", but doesn't wait until mid/late game to start sh*tting all over them, like X3, but rather sh*ts all over them the moment they get officially released and you start playing.
And no, I haven't seen any mods for X3 that address the basic flaws in mechanics, although the last time I checked was of course a couple of years ago. But to fix what is wrong with X3 would pretty much require a rewrite of the entire combat/flight engine and it's AI, just for starters, so I'd be surprised if anyone took that on.
P.S. Sorry for the rant ... you kinda struck a nerve there, as you can probably tell. ;-)
