I honestly didn't know where to ask this question where a lot of people might know the answer.

I really like the game Evochron Mercenary, but the more I play, the more I wish it had further depth in gameplay. I love the fact that you can land on planets, that inertia plays a key role in space travel, and that there's a pretty good amount of things to do within the game...though I haven't loaded the game up since 2.0 hit, but will eventually tonight. What I do find lacking, and has been something I've always wanted in a space sim game, is the ability to move around within your ship while traveling in deep space. I guess kind of like Mass Effect, though I'd love some RPG elements to play a role, like upgrading certain portions of the ship, while also being able to hire a staff of people for certain jobs.

I'm hoping 0x10c turns out to be something similar to what I've stated above, but having no idea when that'll be finished I still ask. Does anyone know if a game like that exists? Or if one is being developed?

You should follow Star Citizen. :)

X-Rebirth is also a good project to keep your eyes on.

@Funkydupe: Thanks! Just got done looking at Star Citizen, and it looks pretty awesome. I'll continue to follow until it releases. X-Rebirth I've known about, but hadn't done any research into it. I've played a little of X3 Albion Prelude, and though I do like complex games, it just seemed way out of my league, but Rebirth seems to have many of the components I desire, so even if it still sports a steep learning curve I'll give it a go and hope for the best. Thanks again.

Oh X... God damnit Egosoft you've already taken hundreds of hours of my life and I just know Rebirth is going to suck up at least another hundred. It did take me a while to get into X3 but it was well worth figuring out.

Star Citizen is definitely exciting as well. I'm never going to sleep again. :(

Sounds to me like X3 will be the game you are looking for. I know I literally had to take a good part of a day to hit up their forums and to read guides to get a hang of how the game works, but once you put in the time the game is jaw dropping in depth. I just looked in Steam and I put in just under 60 hours with the game before I jumped off. If you don't mind going old school, Freelancer may scratch that itch for ya too.

It sucks for the right now, but honestly I would try and hold off to avoid getting burnt out on the genre. The next few years is going to see a disgustingly large glut of games in this genre. I'm sure most of them will suck, but I'm sure at least a couple will offer new and amazing experiences that were not possible up to now. If they can pull it off, there are some guys doing some mind blowingly ambitious concepts with this genre.

@crusader8463: I agree that I need to hold off and just continue playing Evochron Mercenary off and on. I can wait for X-Rebirth and Star Citizen. And I own all the X games, I just could never dig deep into what the games have to offer, plus it doesn't help that I never really have the time to learn the mechanics. I may still give Albion Prelude another go, but I don't expect it to grab a hold of me like EM has. Any suggestions on guides that might help me with x3: AP?

@Spiritgod: I just went to their forums and looked through their sticky of them. You can find it here. There's also some videos on youtube you may want to try, but I can't speak to their ability to teach. I remember just using the forum guides, but the videos may be good as well.

@crusader8463: Thanks, I'll give their forums a go. I did try learning through Youtube videos, but every video I watched wasn't really a tutorial on how to play as much as it was a tutorial for seasoned veterans of the franchise.

@Spiritgod said:

@crusader8463: Thanks, I'll give their forums a go. I did try learning through Youtube videos, but every video I watched wasn't really a tutorial on how to play as much as it was a tutorial for seasoned veterans of the franchise.

Ya, the best stuff your really gotta read through written stuff. None of the videos really go into the depth that you want.

@runcrash: I've always wanted to play it, but I already have EM and all the X games so I'm pretty set on space sims. Thanks though.

i reccomend the XRM mods for both tc and albion prelude , if you ever got bored of what vanilla X3 has to offer .. then again if you couldnt really grasp the mechanics these mods will only add more confusion.

terran conficlt is still the best to jump into i think , albion prelude is cool and has some cool new features but it dumps you in a war that can get out of hand pretty quick especially if youre trying to ignore it.

i also need ot go see what the latest updates added to evochron mercenary.

and yea 0x10c looks pretty amazing , ive dicked around with the programming and managed to get a hello world program running on a virtual machine , cant wait to see how crazy that shit gets in game.

@Spiritgod: Elite: Dangerous may have some elements of what you are looking for as well. Most of the info is on their kickstarter page.