Space strategy roll-call!

[Crandaeolon]

Space strategy and space games in general have been my favourite genre since Warhead, Starglider (2), Supremacy and Millennium on the Amiga. I played pretty much every space game before MoO2, since then I've been a bit more selective. Sadly, MoO2 is still the best of space strategies. (And Freespace 2 is the premier space combat sim. )

GalCivs lack the crucial space combat aspect, and SE IV / V races are just bland and boring. Sins is a rather shallow game.

Lost Empire: Immortals

So, are you actually playing the current version and is that any good?

Freelancer (loved it, though was disappointed that it didn't do much to expand on the Starlancer plot)

Thats' a strategy game? Not quite on topic, but adding elitelikes and space sims to the discussion would be fine by me.

Sins of the Solar Empire (I feel like I'm the only person to absolutely hate this game with a passion)

Hate with a passion? "Dislike" I could understand, it is a rather shallow game after all, but it is definitely a decent game by any objective standard. What, then, is your beef with it?

What would your "dream" space game (assuming it doesn't already exist) consist of? What features would you need and/or really like to see?

I'd like to see a space game with somewhat simplified empire building but complex diplomacy, espionage and battle aspects. Good multiplayer over PBEM would be great - that means a compressed turn structure, a lot of things happening during any given turn. Something like Dominions 3 in space, though I wouldn't mind a bit more complex "province" management.

I've always liked the combat model of Nexus. An expanded version of that would make a nice tactical battle engine. Sprinkle in some fleet management features from Space Empires and an orders system to make it work in PBEM play, and the battle system would be pretty much nailed.

Espionage shouldn't be too abstracted, and it should be related to "real-world" espionage like ship designs, fleet orders and so on. I've always felt that direct stealing of technologies or massive-scale sabotage are a bit silly. Some of the recent espionage models are okay, such as in GalCiv and SE IV/V, but adapting that to a multiplayer simultaneous execution system would be something of a challenge.