[Tyrian]

I've been trying to find a good free roaming space game for a while now, but I keep coming up empty.  I've played the I-War games to death, along with Freelancer.  I played a bit of an X3 demo (I forget which one), but couldn't really get into it, mostly because of the indecipherable UI and the fact that I spend about two hours ferrying some guy from station A to station B inside the same orbit...  On the other hand, I only spent a couple of hours with it, so maybe it gets better later. 

I guess overall, I'm looking for something similar to one of the X3 games, something with combat, trading, maybe a little corporate empire-building. 

Anyone have any suggestions?  Should I give one of the X3's another shot?

[General Battuta]

EVE 

[Tyrian]

I thought about that, but I don't want to pay a monthly subscription.  Also, I think the X3 demo I tried was Reunion.  Is Terran Conflict significantly better?

[headdie]

I am grinning like a mad one at the irony of a person with the name Tyrian is asking about free roaming space games .

On a more serious note if you fancy going retro Wing Commander Privateer I/II are good along with the venerable Elite series

[Fineus]

X3 is notoriously hard to get in to - there are those out there who say it has the steepest learning curve of any game. The reward is debatable - at least with Eve you have the added random human element which doesn't exist as much in X3 single player. Maybe stick with it for a few more hours and see if you have an epiphany, otherwise consider an alternative?

The sad thing is there just aren't that many modern space sims out there that offer what I think you're looking for.

[General Battuta]

I thought about that, but I don't want to pay a monthly subscription.  Also, I think the X3 demo I tried was Reunion.  Is Terran Conflict significantly better?

If you're seriously willing to consider the brutally unfriendly EVE, you don't actually have to pay a monthly subscription - you can make enough money ingame to buy Pilot License Extensions with ISK, the ingame currency.

[Dragon]

Definitely X series, my father plays it and managed to built a pretty sizeable corporate empire.
I've only flew in X3 a few times, in combat (I'm not patient enough for economic side of such games, but dad once had something else to do and left cleaning an enemy strike group to me. I've even managed to capture a nice ship for his collection, one he had trouble getting.  ), but I can say it's quite enjoyable to fly. Interface is complicated, but you can use a hotkeys for nearly everything. Dynamic economy is also incredible, the simulation is very complex and detailed. Too much for me (it was fine with Freelancer's easy economy), but you may like it.
The learning curve is rather steep indeed, but you can try X2, which is somewhat simpler (and perhaps XTension and original X, though I never tried them).

[Thaeris]

Nuke once suggested Oolite, which is an open source clone of the classic Elite game:

http://www.oolite.org/

...I have yet to play it myself. You might also look into the original games if you want to fire up DOSbox. If THAT interests you, you can always look for Frontier or GL Frontier.

I believe Vega Strike is also free-roaming:

http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/

[Dragon]

Yes, Vega Strike is free roaming.
There was also a Privateer conversion for it's engine.
It's missing a few things, but it's quite accurate (again, according to my dad. I don't generally play such games).

[Polpolion]

http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/

have fun

[Alex Heartnet]

Free roaming, hmm.  Freelancer, anyone?  How about Star Control 2?

There's also some lesser known games, such as Hardwar (which is currently unavailable to buy legally), and Darkstar One.

[General Battuta]

Oh ****, Hardwar was amazing.

[Nuke]

elite

http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/

have fun

yay! new version

[Flipside]

You might do well to wait for X-Rebirth, depending on the amount of time it actually takes to develop and whether it lives up to the promise of being just as deep without the uneccesary complication of the original. X-TC is good, but there are annoying glitches that can ruin the experience at times (Your Colossus was destroyed in [insert system] by Pirate Harrier...).

[FireSpawn]

Battlecruiser 3000
If you find X3 a little too intense with all it's fancy doo-dads and jee-jaws, why not try X1 and 2? They're a lot simpler and easier to get into (in my opinion anyway).

[JGZinv]

No Tachyon the Fringe in here... seriously....

[Nuke]

No Tachyon the Fringe in here... seriously....

that game was hardly free roaming. you werent allowed to leave the base unless you had a mission. point of free roaming is that you can wander around mindlessly and the game dont care.

[Retsof]

There's also Pioneer Space Sim, but it is still in rather early alpha and is missing quite a bit.  Has procedural systems and planets though.  (be warned, the face generator for spaceport comms can get reeally creepy looking people)

[Shade]

Omg, Hardwar. Thanks for reminding me, I must find my CDs and play that again.

[Locutus of Borg]

Freelancer with the Discovery Mod