Author Topic: The Death of the Space shooter  (Read 28236 times)

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Offline ShivanSpS

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Re: The Death of the Space shooter
StarLancer in my opinion was a disappointment directly due to it's lack of joystick support and while I have X 2 and X 3 I decided not to install them as the StarForce copy protection is quite invasive has been rumour'd to cause issues and I refuse to support any company that makes or has made use of it.

y'mean Freelancer?

Meh, I've found a way past the no-joystick suckiness: Programmable Saitek P880 Gamepad (not a true joystick, but it's what I use for FS2. IMHO, much easier than a joystick).  :drevil:

Freelancer is the sequel of StarLancer, or something like that.

 

Offline karajorma

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Re: The Death of the Space shooter
Yeah but Starlancer allowed you to use a stick. Although the commies in space plotline more than made up for that in terms of stupidity.
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Offline Ghostavo

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Re: The Death of the Space shooter
Sci-Fi sims died likely for the same reason the thriving Mechwarrior series was destroyed.

they are to hard for the homogenous crowd to understand.

actually learning how to make use of an interface is a skill most notably recquired but the PC segment got flooded with First person shooters that stole the show and the interface in them translates across games very easily.

Space Sims along with the Mechwarrior series came built in with a recquired learning curve that intimidated buyers who didn't realise what they were missing.

If that's the case, why haven't flight simulators gone down the drain despite having much higher learning curves?
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Re: The Death of the Space shooter
because people that fly planes for real use Microsoft Flight Simulator to practice on planes that don't crash or take up massive amounts of fuel...

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Offline Thor

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Re: The Death of the Space shooter
cause flight sims are less games then they are virtual real life activities...like in theory, you could take what you learn from a good flight sim, and go fly a real plane (into the ground most likely).  But people don't want to spend a long time learning how to control their mech or space ship.  they wanna jump in and blow **** up.  thats why I-war wasn't bigger then it was....its freaking hard to play.  I'm by no means the greatest pilot ever, but I-war 2 kicked my ass routinely, and i through in the towel.  most people don't want realistic physics, or complex controls.  they want that star wars experience, the massive battles and the thrill of sticking it to a star destroyer.

In many ways, Freelancer lost the point by being too detached from the flying experience (who flys with a mouse?), and suffered from a pretty weak story.  I-war lost people with physics.  DS1 just seems way to big, with no variety of ships and missions, plus its not that well advertised.  Really, Tachyon and Starlancer where the last true biggish Spacesims, but FS2 was the last great space sim (IMHO).

Actually, I think that a free roaming space sim is problematic.  I found myself really bored in Freelancer, just traveling place to place took too much time, and all the non-story missions really achieved was to slow down the pace of the story, which was unfortunate, cause it was a plot that needed that urgency.

It'll take a more linear moving game with an epic story to really revitalize the genre, cause if your wrapped in story, even slightly weaker game play will be forgivable.  I wish i had pots of money and knew a bunch of coders...I'd write my own game...alas

But the space sim shall return one day...someday soon i hope.
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Offline Unknown Target

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Re: The Death of the Space shooter
Plus flight sims really have gone down the hill, they're just receiving a minor popularity bump thanks to established brands like the FS series, and the truly awesome game that is encased within IL-2 Sturmovik's box. If you look back maybe...8-10 years, pretty much every game shelf had at least a few simulators stocked - the era of Jane's and Microprose and the like. Nowadays, we just have two mega sims - IL2 and FS. Everything else is gone.

Sorry, semi-off topic rant.

 
Re: The Death of the Space shooter
IL-2...now that's an awesome sim right there.
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Offline NGTM-1R

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Re: The Death of the Space shooter
I'd argue that IL2 isn't even surviving because it's a flight sim.

It's where it is today because it's a detail freak. It has exasperated the one advantage that most PCs retain over consoles: complexity of control. IL2 succeeds because the consoles cannot follow, not because of any inherent qualities.
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Re: The Death of the Space shooter
Probably just me but I consider flight sims not to be hugely attractive to the population due to the following-

Its not taught in our classes

Ask yourself, when was the last time your history or war buff teacher telling you about the greatness of aerial/space combat? (Save for the massive bombings done by the wealthier countries on the poor).

The only time someone tells you something great about space and aerial dynamics is your math or science teacher that is cramming your head with formulas and physics.

It's lacking that "epic" scope

Take for example combat in FS2. On average you see about what? 3 capital ships in a mission duking it out and about 1 to 3 allied squads against steady and scripted waves of enemies.

Where as in CoD (Call of Duty) you're constantly telling yourself "omg this is WW2!" and being shelled by Artillery constantly.

Space is not pretty[/u]
-Save for the beautiful planets and stars that are drawn in game and what Hubo the telescope tells us, we know for a fact that there are no sounds in REAL space and that living in space merely sucks the air outta you and you die in 15 seconds.

Compare that to say, HL2. You see and can well, "feel" whats around you in game. Whereas in FS. you only ponder around in Space waiting to blast the next sucker into space dust.

The lack of a universal multiplayer connection.

-HL2 has STEAM for all the wonderful nubs like me so I can move on and get fragged quickly in the second server after leaving the first server.

-Strategy games such as Warcraft provided battle.net to browse games and provided adquete game servers.

Media Presentation

-Name a GREAT movie based on space flight. Don't say star wars cause the new ones suck and its all people remember.

-Star Trek is about people lost in space looking for the next hostile alien race.

-Firefly or Serenity is about the same as above, but with the government after them instead of aliens.

I think that generally sums up about why Space sims games are dying  :blah:

 

Offline castor

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Re: The Death of the Space shooter
I think the production costs these days are simply too high for a few nerds to pay.

 

Offline bloated

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Re: The Death of the Space shooter
my mistake the game was Freelancer and it blew, Starlancer was ok but really easy untill the final mission which for some reason no matter what I couldn't finnish it.

kill off every fighter the moment they arrive and still nothing..... it was really grating.

FS2 source code project is growing and is more than keeping quality games in the pipeline but the segment is niche and not attarctive enough for a developer.

I'd like to see the games compiled and distributed via Steam with enough income to keep Hard Light up and running.

I wouldn't hesitate to buy a real copy of FS2 open with all of the updates along with access to updates via Steam network...... but my guess is something about the license won't allow for it.

****ing interplay dead like doornail but stupid copywrite laws are reaching beyond the grave to enforce much ado about nothing.

 

Offline Flipside

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Re: The Death of the Space shooter
Quote
-Name a GREAT movie based on space flight. Don't say star wars cause the new ones suck and its all people remember.

Battlestar Galactica.

 
Re: The Death of the Space shooter
Quote
Ask yourself, when was the last time your history or war buff teacher telling you about the greatness of aerial/space combat?

About half a year ago. :nod:
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Offline bloated

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Re: The Death of the Space shooter
Quote
Battlestar Galactica.
BSG is pretty inconsistent at times it's exceptional and at other times it's pitifully bad but what hurts the series impact is that it's Sci-Fi exclusive and written for IQ's above 90.

 

Offline karajorma

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Re: The Death of the Space shooter
I'd like to see the games compiled and distributed via Steam with enough income to keep Hard Light up and running.

I wouldn't. Lets not mention Steam again so that I don't have to start hurting people. :p
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Offline Mathwiz6

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Re: The Death of the Space shooter
It's lacking that "epic" scope

Take for example combat in FS2. On average you see about what? 3 capital ships in a mission duking it out and about 1 to 3 allied squads against steady and scripted waves of enemies.

Where as in CoD (Call of Duty) you're constantly telling yourself "omg this is WW2!" and being shelled by Artillery constantly.


Meh, flak is epic enough for me :D. You get shelled, and killed in about 30 seconds. As opposed to unaimed flak, which would be rather dumb.

Anyway, you aren't nearly as powerful is FS2 as in other games. In Halo, for instance, you can actually win, without much difficulty, on the highest setting. Most people, even here, play FS2 on about moderate. Hell, I get my ass kicked by more than two fighters at the same time on hard!

Epicness, and making a difference = uber OP character.
Mininess, and making a diff = balanced char.
Epicness and making no diff = movie.

And if the mininess can feel epic, without making you OP, even better,

 

Offline MetalDestroyer

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Re: The Death of the Space shooter
Hum I guess people doesn't like game with a lot of buttons to memorize. The Freespace series and the X wing series (X wing vs Tie Fighter, Balance of Power, X Wing Alliance) have both an average of 110 keys buttons.

For the Freespace 2 failure I think Interplay was in cause and the official Trailer wasn't too excited compared to the Freespace 1 trailer (I know it was the Intro). I mean in the trailer we didn't see any cool action sequence. Plus, where I live, the day Freespace 1 and 2 was released it was very hard to find it and when I find one, there was no enought copy compare to other games.

 
Re: The Death of the Space shooter
"both an average of 110 keys buttons'

That is why I use game commander to program voice commands for these games. No way i can memorize all the keys. It's much easier to just scream what i want done.

First I use up all the buttons on my joystick, and than program everything through voice. The only keyboard function I use is hypersace just to avoid jumping in the middle of a mission by mistake.

These games should simply come with voice commands pre-programed ito them to make it easier for everyone.

 
Re: The Death of the Space shooter
"BSG is pretty inconsistent at times it's exceptional and at other times it's pitifully bad but what hurts the series impact is that it's Sci-Fi exclusive and written for IQ's above 90"

Err????  Battlestar is not exclusive to Sci-Fi. You don't even have to like Sci-Fi to enjoy Battlestar. The show is about human interaction and social analysis. It's about people confined to a space ship and fighting for their survival. It's just happens to take place in space.

Plus 90% people have an IQ over 90 anyway so it's accessible to everyone except the mentally challenged. Battlestar hasn't been called the best show on television for no reason, and it's huge success has not been due to sci-fi fans either.

The show as a whole is great. The writting is top notch, the production is better than most movies these days, and the acting is simply supperb.

I'm not a fan os sci-fi stuff like Star Trek, or Babillon 5, or Andromeda or any other sci-fi space show on TV for that matter but I have to admit that the only show I wait for everyweek is Battlestar.

 

Offline Colonol Dekker

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Re: The Death of the Space shooter
But buck rogers had erin gray, so there ;7

Campaigns I've added my distinctiveness to-
- Blue Planet: Battle Captains
-Battle of Neptune
-Between the Ashes 2
-Blue planet: Age of Aquarius
-FOTG?
-Inferno R1
-Ribos: The aftermath / -Retreat from Deneb
-Sol: A History
-TBP EACW teaser
-Earth Brakiri war
-TBP Fortune Hunters (I think?)
-TBP Relic
-Trancsend (Possibly?)
-Uncharted Territory
-Vassagos Dirge
-War Machine
(Others lost to the mists of time and no discernible audit trail)

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