Of course I always had and I still have flying with Freespace ; but there is a lack of multiplayer. What would be so awesome, would be to have someone developing a kind of MMO space sim. But not a MMO with XP gaining and such, that is really weird, i've played one or two of these kind of MMO space sim.
What would be awesome, is to have a game simulating a real space battle. So in a fight there would be :
-> Battleships (cruisers, destroyers..) led by a Commander (someone who has a lot of experience). He would be assisted by turrets, guided by men (if not enough slot -> IA controlled, but it would be much inaccurate. So they would be deadly only if men would controlling them, with some kind of automatic targetting to help them or i don't know) : the newbies, the one who are just starting the game, would go there, trying to kill ships. And he would also have a defensive team inside, in case the ship is boarded (FPS like).
-> Ships : free to use for everyone.
The backdrop is that it would need at least 20 players to have a real battle ; but if it's MMO, there should be enough, right ?
Let's say for example : 1 player playing RTS-like and giving orders to others
1 commanders leading 1 cruiser
6 other players in the cruiser, controlling the turrets or fighting when it's boarded
8 fighters and/or bombers (haha actually there would need more)
4 players, part of the boarding team : so one who drives the transport, and three who stand ready to fight
That's just a basic idea of what it would look like. I know it's currrently just impossible due to latency and such between players.. But if one day such a game was made, I would be so happy !
Of course, the battle system would be at least as dynamic as the one in Freespace. And it would have to be balanced. Of course, players would be able to switch to be either a pilot or someone inside the cruiser.
A typical game would be :
-> team A and B try to destroy the enemy cruiser
-> if the cruiser B is destroyed, team A has finished its work, so cruiser A tries to jump out of the battle (let's say a 3 min time before the jump drives recharge)
----> if the cruiser A is destroyed while trying to escape : it's tie, everyone will die (the fighters won't be able to return home because they would have no cruiser, so it would be considered as a tie)
----> if the cruiser A escapes : 1 point for team A
and same for team B if cruiser A is first destroyed
Being destroyed or killed would lead to a 1 minute cooldown before respawn (for every ships but the cruisers..). So if every one on team A dies.. I'd be better not be the commander of the cruiser A
If the cruiser A is successfully boarded by team B and securized (let's say there is an area to go, and wait there 1 min before it's securized). At the moment it's securised, fighters on team A will try to land manually in the fighterbay of the cruiser A. But be careful ! The men that are currently boarding cruiser A will try to take them down with turrets. If fighters manage to dock in the fighterbay, they will try to retake control of cruiser A (meanwhile, the fighters of the team B can continue to manage the cruiser A, just in case.. Or they can help to destroy fighters A before they reach the fighterbay. They also can dock in the fighterbay to help the boarding team !). If after 1 or 2 minutes the cruiser A is still under control of team B, it's win for team B, and they got 2 points instead of one (heh, they have gained another cruiser afterall).
But while the team B is boarding the cruiser A.. The team A can board the cruiser B !
That would give some really awesome games..
That was for the "I have a dream" part
Let's hope there will be such a game in a distant future !
