So, for the past few months (well, longer) there's a certain type of game I've been really wanting. I had hoped that the MMO that Notch (creator of Minecraft) would be able to fill the void that this want was creating, but I can't even tell if he's working on it anymore. The only other game that has come close to it is Shores of Hazeron. And, honestly, SoH will probably be the game once it's more complete and has a few more key features, plus a larger population or something to make up for it's small population (compared to the scale of the game, which is bigger than anything I've played before for the most part). Actually, now that I'm typing about, SoH would almost be the perfect fit as it is now... but perhaps I'll wait until the new starship re-working is finished before I dive into it again. It's biggest downfall is that AIs can fill any role on the ship, including captain. Which, in a game of space empires, makes you think, "Why would I be in a ship when I could be controlling a fleet of ships? Or an empire?" That sort of thing. Anyways, I'll continue.
The game I want is something that anyone that was a fan of Star Trek, Galaxy Quest, Firefly, or any other great fiction series that take place on a ship would want. I want a game that simulates what it would be like to be crew on a star ship. There was one 2.5D game a while back that did this (forget the name), but it fell into some extremely bad times and ended up in the hands of a company that horribly mis-managed it. So, essentially, I want a game where everyone has to join up with a ship, or buy/build their own and have it become crewed.
Of course there would be places for people who don't want to permanently join the crew of a ship, and would just join as a per voyage basis. But there would also be the possibility of being able to stay on the same ship for the whole life of the game if you liked.
A big part of the game would be the actual designing of the ship (SoH feature). Of course, these ships would need to be manufactured. This is where people would need to take control over planets or asteroids and set up proper mining equipment/facilities. At first, maybe only fairly inefficient mining drones would be available, but bigger corporations/empires could maybe afford something like a "drop pod mining facility" that you could drop down and then it would set itself up and mine. (mining/producing is also in SoH)
This is where player politics, freighter ships, warships, etc... come into play and factions spawn and all that. Because what's the point of being in a starship in a universe with no danger or change?
As for the ships, each ship could be run by a single person, but it would be extremely inefficient. For the ship to be at full capacity, it would need engineers, navigators, a pilot, a comms specialist to make sure all communications got thru for each part of the ship and other ships/stations, etc...
There would be built-in voice comms that could be use. But they would require the use of simulated radios of a sort. Not shitty radios (this is a sci-fi game...), but there would be separate channels and such with different levels of security and encryption. Perhaps it would be possible to "hack" into another ships communications as a tactic in combat/espionage. I was even thinking of having one player position for a ship "AI". Where that person would act as the ships AI. Kinda similar to Space Station 13. Actually, a lot of what I want is similar to what is in Space Station 13.
So, essentially, the game would be focused in space (like EVE Online). Would have each person on the ship having a responsibility (such as Space Station 13 or Shores of Hazeron), would have ship designing (SoH), Mining/Resource gathering and production (SoH), a massive amount of space to explore and expand into (SoH/EVE), Hopefully good graphics (Star Citizen/EVE), and a decent population to make it all exciting (EVE).
As you've noticed, a lot of games have elements of what I want, but they all fall short in several areas :/ EVE is a great space game, but ships are single-player controlled and you don't walk around in the ship (SoH/Star Citizen), and thats a feature I really want. It also doesn't have planetary exploration/Atmospheric Flight (SoH has this). However, SoH has pretty bad graphics at the moment and is more focused on the macro (empires, fleets, etc...) rather than the micro. It also has a fairly small population for the size of the galaxy in the game, which can make it feel lonely sometimes (which may be a good thing considering that there is nothing stopping a larger empire from consuming/destroying you).
Anyways, feel free to discuss my dream game or maybe even bring up what your dream game is, what features would make it your dream game, and what games come close but fall short.
For me it would have to be a persistent online version of stalker, it'd basically be DayZ with anomaly hunting / mutants / emissions... I know there's already sZone Online but it just doesn't feel right. I was very close to modding DayZ into a kind of Stalker online but their scripting language just baffled me.
I cry a bit when I think of the awesome games that could happen but don't.
you may want to keep an eye on this indie game: Faster Than Light.
i guess you probably have read about it already.
im a bit hopeful for it although it is still single player at the moment.
it seems to have a lot of player enthusiasm because of its strong detail to ship management http://www.ftlgame.com/