[General Battuta]

:V: still has all the people needed to make FS3 great, including (especially!) the writer.

[stuart133]

As has been said oh so many times before the market is dead for space combat sims right now. Couple that with the astronomically high development costs of games these days and we have a recipe for not seeing FS3 in the near future.
It is sad but it's life I guess

[ShivanSpS]

Thats because all space sims, except Freespace, are crap. And Freespace is so old that no one bother.

Addicionally, flight simulation fans are not happy about the missing cockpit, they said that even X-Wing vs Tie-Fighter has an acceptable cockpit.

ill agree about that is impossible for FS3 to have a market of a FPS or a GTA like games, but if Egosoft could survive alone for years with the X-Series, thats mean there is still a chance for FS3.

[Akalabeth Angel]

cockpit schmockpit
who needs it?

[deathfun]

Hey, tachyon wasn't a bad space sim, I rather enjoyed it

And as Angel said, who needs a cockpit.

[SypheDMar]

When we realize that FreeSpace shouldn't only be set in space is when FreeSpace becomes the Savior of Space Sims. A space sim that also includes atmospheric dogfights is something that the genre needs. We keep saying that FreeSpace 3 could be an economic risk because only the niche would play it, but aerial dogfighting games are something that gamers today still play.

The question is not whether it's going to be economically feasible but rather if we'll accept it as a space sim. I believe that as long as there are enough space missions, it will, indeed, be a space sim. Another concern might be that introducing Freespace with aerial dogfights may lead FreeSpace into a wretched path  that spawns inferior sequels that satisfies not the original fans, but the new ones that play for the aerial missions, which may turn FreeSpace air-based. But without a FreeSpace 3, we can't even get to that point. Even then, we shouldn't be afraid of that, because if the next FreeSpace meets our expectations, then that should be enough. If a FreeSpace 3 turns out to be a bad game, we can at least shamelessly declare that FreeSpace 3 does exist.

We all say that space sims are dead. It might be, although recently, there has been a surge of space trading games and at least one engine. But what happens when a FreeSpace 3 becomes a reality? Someone on the forum compared FreeSpace's gameplay to Ace Combat's. As paradoxic as it sounds, I think that if there was a Savior of Space Sims, it would need to have planetary engagements.

[Akalabeth Angel]

When we realize that FreeSpace shouldn't only be set in space is when FreeSpace becomes the Savior of Space Sims. A space sim that also includes atmospheric dogfights is something that the genre needs. We keep saying that FreeSpace 3 could be an economic risk because only the niche would play it, but aerial dogfighting games are something that gamers today still play.

Starshatter has atmospheric dogfights too. There's a demo for it.
But when I played it I wasn't too fond of it. The gameplay is less Tie Fighter and more Falcon 3.0. Well, not that I've ever played Falcon but I mean the combat is more like a real world military jet instead of a fast and furious space opera.

[NGTM-1R]

When we realize that FreeSpace shouldn't only be set in space is when FreeSpace becomes the Savior of Space Sims. A space sim that also includes atmospheric dogfights is something that the genre needs. We keep saying that FreeSpace 3 could be an economic risk because only the niche would play it, but aerial dogfighting games are something that gamers today still play.

No, actually those are pretty niche too.

Also, FS atmospheric combat is deeply lulzworthy when you're chucking tactical nukes at each other at under one kilometer. It just doesn't work, since it's a mutual kill situation.

[deathfun]

I could see glitches being able to formed in the FRED if they had those type of dogfights

Imagine a huge Shivan Juggurnaut INSIDE (partially) jutting out in the horizon?
Would look real cool though.

Hey, what if FS3 were to accompany with it FPS action (alongside space combat)? It may get players interested, or throw them away as they say "Psh, halo wannabe"

But hey, I'm just repeating what someone else said

[Sushi]

Starshatter has atmospheric dogfights too. There's a demo for it.
But when I played it I wasn't too fond of it. The gameplay is less Tie Fighter and more Falcon 3.0. Well, not that I've ever played Falcon but I mean the combat is more like a real world military jet instead of a fast and furious space opera.

I have played Falcon 3.0 and 4.0, and you're dead on. I grew up on Falcon 3.0...

After playing the demo, I am 100% sure that the author of Starshatter set out to basically create Falcon in space. He didn't do too bad...it's pretty darn impressive, especially for an indie project.

Hey, what if FS3 were to accompany with it FPS action (alongside space combat)? It may get players interested, or throw them away as they say "Psh, halo wannabe"

Been done.

As to the rest... I don't want FS3. I think that the community has done just fine extending FS2. What I *do* want is a fresh look at the mission-based space-sim genre that takes a good hard look at what Freespace and others in the genre do right. Including (especially!) high moddability and an easy-to-use mission editor.

What would really make my day is if Valve decided to take a break from FPS games and build a space sim. But only after they get their act together and give me my Episode 3. 

[stuart133]

What would really make my day is if Valve decided to take a break from FPS games and build a space sim. But only after they get their act together and give me my Episode 3. 

Now that would be awesome  .
Also I think that yo're right about FS3. It has been placed on such a high pedestal by us fans that it would never live up to expectations. That said I would love to see how shiny it would look with professional graphics and a shiny new engine 

[SpardaSon21]

We have professional graphics and a shiny new engine.  What do you think the MediaVPs and the FS2SCP are all about?

[General Battuta]

Well, it's got some problems which are very hard to work around, and the code's a mess.

[SpardaSon21]

Well I doubt that a professional-made FS3 will be much better, especially if modding is neglected by the developers.

And a lot of the code could be made less convoluted if the SCP team was willing to totally re-write the code to make it simpler.  But I doubt they are going to do that.

[General Battuta]

I'm sure they're willing to. A complete rewrite of the graphics code has been discussed. But it'd take years and probably destroyed backwards compatibility. They're willing, they're probably able, but it'd just take forever and probably destroy lives.

[stuart133]

We have professional graphics and a shiny new engine.  What do you think the MediaVPs and the FS2SCP are all about?

Yeah I know, I didn't mean any disrespect to anyone working on that. You guys are heroes, you make some awesome stuff.
But I do think that a full team working on it for 1-2 years (and being paid for it!!!!) would create some truly mind blowing stuff. Also seeing as I don't know a great deal about coding and engines I'll let you guys discuss that. But you are right, they probably wouldn't remember us modders, and the higher the standard of graphics the harder it is to create new content.

[SpardaSon21]

GB, I certainly hope the code undergoes a total rewrite to make it simpler.  Getting custom ships in FS2 could be much easier, and I hope that if the code is re-written making FS2_Open easier for modders to understand and mod for is a priority, although to be fair there isn't all that much documentation on a lot of the stuff which makes things hard as well.

[Sushi]

GB, I certainly hope the code undergoes a total rewrite to make it simpler.  Getting custom ships in FS2 could be much easier, and I hope that if the code is re-written making FS2_Open easier for modders to understand and mod for is a priority, although to be fair there isn't all that much documentation on a lot of the stuff which makes things hard as well.

You don't know how easy we have it.

FS2/FS2_Open is about the most mod-friendly game around. Period. Yes, there are difficulties, but much fewer than most.

[deathfun]

Been done.

I knew about the first, but the second I did not

I was meaning closer to the second one as it is closer to FS.

[Mongoose]

You don't know how easy we have it.

FS2/FS2_Open is about the most mod-friendly game around. Period. Yes, there are difficulties, but much fewer than most.

Seriously.  Even retail was incredibly open to modding, and that's only improved with the SCP's work.