Elite and similar games

Lorfarius · Post by **Lorfarius** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 6:48 pm

I've been playing Oolite for a few days now (mostly in my spare time at work) and it led me to have a look at similar titles to date. I purchased Freelancer and X3 both are interesting games of a similar theme to Elite but they just lack that certain something.

The original Elite was at its core a trading database linked to an arcade shooter, yet it provided such a wonderful, involving world. Looking at the current market and there still isnt anything that even comes close and I have a simple question....why?

Xaron · Post by **Xaron** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 6:58 pm

I don't think that the market for an Elite like game with real scale universe and newtonian physics is soo big.

Regards - Xaron

Lorfarius · Post by **Lorfarius** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 9:33 pm

Xaron wrote:
I don't think that the market for an Elite like game with real scale universe and newtonian physics is soo big.

Regards - Xaron

Really? Just look at how successful Eve is. Granted its an online game but its basically the same thing. The X Reunion games did pretty well as did Freelancer for its time so theres money to be made.

Uncle Reno · Post by **Uncle Reno** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 9:43 pm

Lorfarius wrote:
Xaron wrote:
I don't think that the market for an Elite like game with real scale universe and newtonian physics is soo big.
Really? Just look at how successful Eve is. Granted its an online game but its basically the same thing. The X Reunion games did pretty well as did Freelancer for its time so theres money to be made.

I think the point is that, AFAIK, none of those games has a real scale universe or Newtonian physics. Oolite (and original Elite) isn't anything near real scale and if it had Newtonian physics, I wouldn't play it, I could never get on with Frontier(?) for that reason.

Cmdr. Maegil · Post by **Cmdr. Maegil** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 10:07 pm

Uncle Reno wrote:
anything near real scale and if it had Newtonian physics, I wouldn't play it, I could never get on with Frontier(?) for that reason.

Not you too?!...

LittleBear · Post by **LittleBear** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 12:02 pm

Virgin Media is currently running a poll on the best games ever and I was pleased to see Elite included. http://www.virginmedia.com/games/inpict ... hp?ssid=20

Elite game play crops up in many modern games. Ok Grand Theft Auto isn't a space game, but feels quite Eliteish. Open-ended, can travel where you like, other people get on with doing their own thing whatever the player does, missions to do, money to earn and ablity to upgrade your weapons and car.

Frame · Post by **Frame** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 1:14 pm

No game has come close.. Eve is cool, but thats it... the relentless training of skills into obscurity is a complete turn off for me... Learning by doing is what Elite was about.. Eve is about Learn by training your skills..

Eve is for people with LOTS of time on their hands, Granted you can train offline... however you have to log in now and then to start to train...

many skills also cost money.. You buy a book which is the skill and it is allways exspensive...

The Trade universe of EVE also sucks, simply because of the reason that if there where any milk run trade routes... everybody would be using them and get rich quick.. it is all about time, time and more time... its MMORPG at its best so it has nothing to do with your human skills as a combateer / dogfighter / merchantmen... add to that the fact that there are people willing to cheat buy exchanging real life money for ingame credits. there are whole teams of Asian´s in south korea, malaysia that i know of that are doing nothing but earning Game Credits to sell for real life money..

something CPP(who made EVE), can do little about.

Add to that if you died... meaning that your escape capsule was blown up..
you lost skill points, cause your clone was revived and only had the skills you had when bought the clone. A simple on server Save feature would have done.

A game to succed Elite in the best possible way will prolly never happen, cause everybody who tries are not given the time to develop a game that could even come close...

Game Developers dont make games out of passion.. They make it out of pure hunger for profit...

True the employee might be passionate about it... but the boss or the suitboys cares more about dead-lines, costs and earnings. and they do have the last word offcourse...

Miangele · Post by **Miangele** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 6:07 pm

i've played the original elite, i think, or at least some of the older versions (acord definitely,pc elite plus, the nes one, elite: the new kind which should be a spot onbbc clone?) and while i can appreciate what the game did, i think more recent games have gone far beyond it, and you can't really deny that after a certain point in the original elite, you just weren't finding new stuff and it broke down to just killing constantly to get your rating up.

TGHC · Post by **TGHC** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 10:11 pm

Miangele wrote:
after a certain point in the original elite, you just weren't finding new stuff and it broke down to just killing constantly to get your rating up.

That's the beauty of Oolite being expandable, there is always interest with new OXP's being added, new ships, The Tionisla Graveyard, pulsars, new stations etc,etc.

There's always something new being developed!

Miangele · Post by **Miangele** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 6:06 am

yes, quite. i think this is sort of like what happened with the morrowind mod community, actually. in both instances the ability to make new content isn't simply a matter of making addons and expanding the game. it basicaly lets you make the world dynamic in ways that really cant gracefully be programmed. in addition it allows for a sort of, er, asynchroniouos online play experience if you will

in any case, i think that as far as modding goes, modular, plug-in type mods are definitely the best choice for many things. total conversions aer nice, but they don't have the same flexibility. similarly, the unreal tournament series has mutators, which are basically the same thing -- small, very modular mods. i felt this gave those games a rather sizable leg up as far as custom tailored playing experiences go.

anyway, though, if you wanted an elite game to sell in this day and age, you'd need massive customization. players like showing off. not just how much experience or money or whatever their characters have. if you make an elite like game where the player could customize their ship in infinite ways to make it extremely cool looking (and, of course, powerful. both should go hand in hand, I guess) (and also advertised it, along with this fact) it would probably sell well.

Makandal · Post by **Makandal** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 5:33 pm

Attention, dont quote me for what I did not say. The game I will introduced is NOT Elite. It is different. Some parts are better, some worst, some simply does not exist in Elite.
ALL OF YOU, TRY "SPACE RANGERS 2". The best space game with Elite (and Oolite).
This is a russian game, that went out in 2005 I think. It mixed many things, space trading, role playing, arcade, doom-like shoot-them-up and even crazy text adventure. It is mad, russian, incredibly rich and quite breathtaking to play. The company making this game is dead, so do not expect patches, extension or new versions.

The game is HUGE although the galaxy is smaller than Elite. I think there are 256 suns with 4-8 planets on each. The life on planet is truly dynamic, there is even a kind of CNN giving news about the galaxy. You can be simple trader, pirate or follow quests.

It's for me the best space game with Elite. The universe is very alived, even with personalized traders, there is all. I think their web site allows you to download a playable version (I cannot post the adress but you will find it easily on Google)

Once more, TRY THIS ! And I am french, not russian, nothing to do with the game team.

Cmdr. Maegil · Post by **Cmdr. Maegil** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 6:02 pm

There's http://www.spacerangers2.com/, download for US$19,99, and a review at http://pc.ign.com/articles/699/699191p1.html.

Is that it?

Makandal · Post by **Makandal** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 6:03 pm

Yes Commander, that's it.

Miangele · Post by **Miangele** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 6:18 pm

Get Space Rangers 2 through totalgaming, which is some... company affiliated with Stardock (Galciv guys). It doesn't have any copy protection, and they let you download it it as much as you want once you buy it. The download link on the official webpage doesn't have any starforce or anything either, but apparently it's... less user friendly.

Stainless Steel Rat · Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:28 pm

There are quite a few interesting freeware titles I'd recommend.

VegaStrike
You probably know this already. The best space trading game right after Oolite. Unfortunately development is slow.

Space Merchants: Conquerors
A very well made space trading sim with great graphics and easy flight controls. It even adds roleplaying-like character attributes. They promised a sequel but after over one year there's still no news about that.

Scum of the Universe
Basically a 2D vertical scrolling shoot 'em up combined with Elite-like trading and missions. It lacks a bit of depth but overall it's a nice game for your coffee breaks. Note: This game is freeware, yet still it's buyable (works as some sort of donation).

Space Trader
A simple yet quite addictive strategy game without any action or flight elements. I played this a lot on my Palm some time ago.

VegaStrike is available for Windows, Linux, Mac. Space Trader for Windows, Palm and PocketPC. The rest is Windows only.