Station Commander
The game is good, worth the money. I hope this will continue to be developed with regular patch updates. Some notes:
1. Pirate ships are too strong in early game. Make them less oppressive or add a difficulty setting so fighting pirates can feel more engaging.
2. Repairing ships is a serious chore. I mean like for each ship in a fleet (9 total) there are multiple clicks per ship which gets tedious very fast. Just add a simple way to repair all the ships in a fleet with one click.
3. The scaling on the storage modules is too high, forcing me to use almost all of my free slots to add storage space. I’d really like to use those slots for other modules….
– Real player with 7.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Economy Exploration Games.
Very bare bones resource collection / trading game. Best part of the game is gaming the planet economies and trading (sitting outside a planet desperate for food, waiting for prices to go up, selling at the peak, etc.)
Military units are really only for defending your trade/mining ships from pirates, or hunting pirates/other NPCs to take their cargo.
Your station itself, from what I can see, cannot come under attack in anyway so it’s not a high-octane challenge, but more of a fun little game to play with mini-stock markets in every planet (best part of the game is the economies shifting with line charts)
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
Age of Ascent
The year is 2176 and humanity has been forced to abandon the earth and rise into space, to start a new civilisation. Faster-than-light travel and communications have been achieved, and now it is time to help build the new world and fight for your way of life.
Age of Ascent is a truly massive multiplayer space game set in a vast galaxy, where you can play solo or join an alliance to explore and advance in an ever-evolving sandbox environment. It features six degrees of freedom direct-piloting real-time battles with thousands of ships; millions in the same galaxy, an entirely player-driven economy, deep strategy, and multi-device support.
We’re using the real Milky Way star catalogue and as much real science as we possibly can to provide a vast galaxy to explore, but with a unique custom visual style. We provide deep game play that encompasses all components of strategy-based and first-person sandbox MMO games where players interact with each other and the universe.
We’ve held regular playtests of the real-time dogfighting module, as we tweaked and optimised the combat code and physics engine. All that work - the most critical layer to get right - is finished!
We have now moved on to the core components of the rest of the MMO experience, ranging from trade/industry and missions, NPC AI & 3D pathfinding algorithms to the new, full UI, incorporating build-your-own cockpit and multi-device support:
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Real-time, epic, direct-piloting battles using our brand new cloud-based distributed MMO architecture that can support thousands of players in the same battle
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Everyone plays in the same universe, even across devices
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Multiple ship classes and modular ship loadouts
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A fully player-led economy from resource gathering to manufacturing and trading
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Exciting and rewarding galactic exploration
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Play solo or in groups, larger than you’ve ever seen before
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Player vs Environment (PvE) mission running and Non-Player Character Faction AI
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Alliances and Clans large or small as you wish, with sophisticated management and access tools
Once we get all of the initial gameplay framework up and running, we will start to layer in enhancements and further depth of play:
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New ship and hull classes (science ships, support ships, drone carriers, weapons platforms, minelayers and minesweepers, stealth recon)
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Build and manage space stations
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Claim territories and build an empire in space
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Deep and involving storyarcs that will play out over days, weeks and months
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Build your own multi-device cockpit
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Multi-player options for co-operative capital ship flying
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Banking and advanced currency exchange systems
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Full set of player APIs and extension libraries
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Advanced control and display device support (such as Oculus Rift)
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Player-operated tournament arena combat and racing zones
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Multiple language localization
Read More: Best Economy Action Games.
Orbit-X
I love this game, it’s new and it’s incredibly fun. I just got lost in time for over an hour building satellites and generating substantial income. I’m super excited to see where this game goes in the future and I’ll definitely be playing more, definitely recommend!
– Real player with 5.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Economy Flight Games.
This game is awesome fun to play no matter your interest on space and rockets! it fulfils the need to learn and experiment with different rockets and stratergys to launch rockets into orbit. im not so good at it :) but have had a good laugh trying my best to have a successful satellite internet company.
would highly recommend for any space and economy enthusiasts and any gamer looking for a cool, casual and chill space sim!
– Real player with 0.1 hrs in game
orbit.industries
Build and manage orbital stations rotating around distant planets! Train your skills in a Mission mode or dive deep in a Free Play. Do you have the skills and wits to become a space pioneer, Engineer?
There are many space simulation games out there, most focus on deep space exploration or planetary colonization, still building and managing an orbital station is a new and unique challenge!
orbit.industries blends inspiration from classic science fiction literature, movies, and popular space-opera TV series with actual knowledge and progress achieved in the field of space exploration, space engineering, and orbital stations development.
orbit.Industries offers two graphically separate views while working on your station:
The outside space view shows your station in an orbit. Here, you will build and install new 3D modules - each with different functionality - and polish them with decorations. You will control and supervise all the ships arriving and departing the station. The full 3D environment allows expanding stations in all dimensions, taking advantage of the endless space.
The so-called Abstract System Layer (ASL) enables setting up and monitoring the different production cycles, to organize resources and services as efficiently as possible. These systems are placed and connected in a separate, abstract view that is presented in a circuit board form.
Those two different gameplay visual perspectives secure a high degree of creative freedom and optical variation in the outside view, enabling players to fully take advantage of the 3D in space. At the same time, outsourcing organizational processes with possibly hundreds of production lines inside the station into a separate ASL view ensures maximum clarity.
orbit.industries offers a unique economic system. Your task is to make your station as profitable and efficient as possible. Setting up stable production lines is hindered by the occurrence of errors and malfunctions, like fire outbreaks or hacking attacks. These errors are based on specific error probabilities that each module and each system entails.
Additionally, there are different mechanisms in place to prevent simply overloading production circuits to increase the difficulty of reaching high or even maximum efficiency. You are however able to have a positive influence by building modules and systems like a sick bay or a repair drone. These have a positive impact on the error probabilities of nearby modules and systems in a certain radius and they do make for an even larger variety of projects.
orbit.industries offers 3 different campaigns to play in a single-player mode, each set in a different location, so in every campaign, the station will orbit a different planet. Players need to build a device to terraform a planet to make it habitable and resource-rich.
Each of the 3 campaigns has its background narrative. Players must build one campaign-specific complex module, consisting of several smaller modules. Each of these modules has to be unlocked by researching the technologies through projects first and each of them requires the player to build various other basic modules first.
Additionally, players can choose between Endless or Creative modes, where they can build freely, set their focus, and keep busy for hours:
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Endless mode is a type of gameplay with no set objective – progress normally through the game, build new modules and systems, earn money through projects and unlock new technologies to make the space station even bigger and more efficient.
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Creative mode: while similar to Endless mode, allows you to approach the game with a more free-roam attitude and to build your station with absolute freedom. All technologies are already unlocked since the beginning and there are no constraints on money or time!
orbit.industries key features:
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Full 3D Orbital Station shown in two different visual perspectives
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Setup and management of production pipelines and cycles
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Research and Development of new production-related technologies
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Procurement and reward systems to keep players constantly engaged
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Contracts players can accept for one of two reasons:
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Earn money for the space station in form of a reward
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Research and unlock new technologies, in the form of a new module required for building
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54 extension modules you may build and expand your station
X3: Reunion
X3 Reunion is a game of monstrous proportions. Everything in it is vast and massive in a way that’s both exciting and daunting. It is relatively easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer scope of the game and the lack of any sort of proper guiding hand to teach you the basic will make many newcomers run for the hills. If you stick it out however you will find that underneath it all is one of the best open space games since the last game from the X series.
Reunion picks up where X2 left off and starts you as Julian Brennan once again. Your trade empire from the previous game destroyed by the Khaak you now have to resurrect it from the ashes, if that’s what you want. The story missions available are in true X style utterly forgettable and easily missable. They can even be disabled entirely by picking from one of several sandbox starts this time around.
– Real player with 892.5 hrs in game
X3 Reunion is a great game, if you considering it by its own. A large living universe, dynamic economy, many ways of earning money suitable to all kinds of players and, of course, many ways to spend money. Make money by doing bonty hunting or capturing pirate ships! Want to whipe out the evil Xenon from the universe? Go buy a couple of destroyers (if you are wealthy enough) and kill them all. Take their sector for yourself, use patrol ships to eliminate their reinforcements! Not interested in fighting, more in the economic side of things? Start by discovering local opportunities in needed goods, then hire other merchants to trade for you. Set up a whole network of good-producing station to exploit the holes in the economy and dominate the market! And don’t forget to protect your properties by the evil pirates (or worse enemies).
– Real player with 201.7 hrs in game
Helium Rain
Helium Rain (HR) is an atmospheric Economy/Management simulation game, set in a “hard sci-fi” space setting.
The atmosphere of HR gives off a bit of a lonely and relaxing vibe. The game setting taking place entirely in the orbit of a gas giant named “Nema”. The station and ship designs are great in HR, I like the more realistic designs here which is a bit of a departure from the majority of games set in space. The overall setting being in orbit of a gas giant gives a lot of opportunities for a nice backdrop. There is no sound in space which HR portrays.
– Real player with 159.9 hrs in game
I have been looking for a game that recaptures the magic of X3 for a long time. It is rare to find a space sim that has the same ethos as X3: your goal is to build an empire, and you build fleets to protect that empire, rather than the more common philosophy of “it’s fun to blow stuff up, so that’s the main goal”. But the devs are well on their way to delivering this, even though the game is VERY early access. I’m really quite surprised at how much there is since it was released (in EA) like a week ago. I really, really hope they continue to develop this game. So if you like space trading sims, it is playable as is but will no doubt get better and better. Probably its biggest advantage over X3 is a pretty sane interface.
– Real player with 88.6 hrs in game
Crypterion
A truly rare and substantive peace. Something with true emergen in mind. 8/10 (so far)
– Real player with 74.7 hrs in game
Great dynamic and evolving characters and compelling story. I am really enjoying this.
– Real player with 11.7 hrs in game
X: Tension
Ok, so I have been playing this game (X-tension) after starting with X: Beyond the Frontier.
The first thing that immediately stands out is that it fixes a lot of the problems with the UI that made the first X game so painful. This is a much more pleasant experience - far from perfect, but a vast improvement.
It’s also a lot less directed. There is no primary story mission that points you where to go - you stumble on missions as you travel, and initially this was fine, but ultimately this just led to frustration on my part. While just being let loose on this space to make your own way feels attractive for a while, once I’d set up some factories, made a bit of money, upgraded my ships a bit, I was left with that “why am I playing this?” which never went away. I didn’t get close to ‘finishing’ the game (whatever ‘finishing’ might mean) - there was clearly content that I wasn’t getting to, but without any direction or clues as to where to go (and worse, when to go) it just became this overwhelming feeling of ‘well I might stumble across something if I just wander aimlessly and do mostly the same repetitive stuff for ages, but seriously why would I bother?’. I could make lots of money and become bestest friends with everyone, but I’m already bored of what it would take to do this and without some indication of why I should be doing it it just bored me to quitting eventually.
– Real player with 311.5 hrs in game
I’ll have to be honest about this. The game itself is fun to play, but Egosoft needs their knuckles rapped for the pathetic story line (if you can even call it that). One should expect to see continuity between XBTF and X:Tension, but X:tension simply doesn’t provide it. Hey, remember me? I’m Kyle Brennan, the Hero of Argon and loved by all of the races for my part in the Xenon War. So then why does no one even know me now, plus the Split and Piranad are downright hostile? I was in a sector called Brennan’s Triumph, and the Split told me to sod off. What happened to my trading empire and my million plus credits I usually carried with me? Egosoft no doubt spent quite a bit of money developing that video with the kid telling us about Captain Brennan. Unfortunately, the video does nothing to explain what happened to Brennan’s mines and fabs, or why the prices of almost everything have skyrocketed. Would it have been so hard to find a reason? Of course not. I took a few minutes and came up with this: After the Xenon’s mother ship was destroyed, Ban Danna gave Brennan those fantastic 125mw shields, which he promptly used to wipe out the Xenon ships and bases in all of their sectors. In retaliation, the Xenon staged a major attack that destroyed all of Brennan’s possessions and caused prices to skyrocket among all of the races. The Xenon also put a large bounty on Brennan’s life, causing Ban Danna to advise him to go incognito for a while. Danna gave him an Argon buster and a few thousand credits to start out on his own. (Brennan couldn’t draw on his own account, since that would reveal where he was.) And then the game could proceed as it does, but at least there would be a reason for Brennan’s sudden poverty and unpopularity. Surely their professional writers could have done even better. Having said that, I do like the way the game is put together and recommend it for many hours of fun. Still, Egosoft really dropped the ball when it came to setting the stage for Brennan’s new adventures.
– Real player with 174.6 hrs in game
X2: The Threat
X2: The Threat is the continuation of the X saga and is, for it’s time, the quintessential space game. That is not to say it starts off that great. Most people will quit after a few hours of gameplay and label it a mediocre experience and they’d be right to do so, X2 is not a game that impresses in the beginning, it is a game that requires tremendous investment in time and effort before you start to understand and appreciate the scope of the game.
As the game starts up you’re treated to some low quality cut-scene with poorly modeled people trying to cover up their lack of animation, you’re then booted into the game with little instruction on how to do anything and a tutorial that is so completely useless at actually teaching you anything it might as well be a deterrent to keep new players from learning the game.
– Real player with 200.7 hrs in game
An hour or so into the game, I’m given a transporter ship and a mission to ferry some civilians from one sector to another. Accompanying me is my employer’s daughter, Saya (who bears an uncanny likeness to Alyx Vance). Just as I’m approaching the last jump gate separating me and my destination, Saya’s voice crackles over comms: “…I think we’re being followed…I swear I saw a pirate ship.” We pass through the gate and my heart sinks. A dozen pirate ships were waiting for me. I hand the controls over to the ship’s computer and hop in the aft turret to lay down some desperate cover fire. The intelligent auto-pilot system gracefully and effectively dodges the brightly colored emmisions from the enemies' gamma impulse rays as I fire wildly into space.
– Real player with 79.2 hrs in game
Stellar Warfare
A 4D strategy game….
This game does something that I’ve never seen before, which is to allow 4D combat on the battlefield. You can attack (and be attacked) from above or below which is amazing. I don’t know why nobody has thought about this before… 4D combat adds such a whole new level of strategy to the battlefield and combat. You can also go 1st-person on your units, which is amazing… yet again that’s something that I’ve never seen in any other strategy games.
This game already is a pretty playable strategy game, and I’m certain with a year or more development time, the game will be an exceptionally playable strategy game, and if you couple that with the two above mentioned unique mechanics, then you’ll have one fantastic space strategy game on your hands.
– Real player with 28.9 hrs in game
This is a cool game, and I think it has good potential. I can tell that a lot of work has gone into this for one solo developer, and I look forward to seeing how it progresses. Building spaceships, collecting space junk and attacking your enemies, it’s a good basis.
I would say this is quite a niche game, it might not be for everyone, and it is a little rough around the edges, but nothing too crazy for being Early Access. Once you get past the barrier of figuring out the controls and how to navigate the 3D space, this is quite a fun game, and I hope to see it fleshed out in the future with some QoL features and smoother progression, as well as the expanded campaign, of course. I would expect that to take quite a long time considering the solo development and scope of the project, so I would only recommend getting in this early if you want to support the project and follow development, if not, you should wait for release instead of expecting a full and polished game right now.
– Real player with 9.2 hrs in game