[cairn]

Two words . . . well . . . sort of:

SPACE RANGERS X-3

Tell me you disagree . . .

1C Company and Egosoft need to team up and set a new standard for open-world sandbox-like space sims. They can combine everything that makes X-3 great with everything that makes SR2 great.

Really, their only 2 arguments should be, whether to have the game in a first person actual space flight sim view/interface like the X-series or a bird's eye top down view/interface of SR, and what elements to add onto what both games already have. The perspective should be decided by a vote from us. Personally, I prefer the first-person virtual-reality-esque perspective, but I can't deny that there is a certain attraction I have to the simplicity of the SR view/interface. And as for the new elements, I would leave the creativity of coming up with that stuff in both of their very capable hands.



And allow me to point out one other thing. The space-station/planetary economic dynamic should never be an argument. Never being able to land on planets and having only space stations handle all the resources and thus the economy is and always was a mistake on the part of Egosoft's X-series. There should be an economy that extends across the planetary bodies and space stations. We should be able to land on planets to find larger amounts of supplies, to trade, and perhaps even do some other things like find information. In x-3, for those who haven't played it, you can't land on any planets. Everything is done in space, and the economy, which is very dynamic and realistically strictly based on production, even more so than the Space Rangers-series, is all entirely done through space stations, rendering the planets but mere backdrops. It's just silly. At least in Freelancer, the planets had a point because we could actually land on them and do the very limited number of things that we could do. Same with Space Rangers. But if we marry the two, we easily fill in the gaps for both games to make one, as far as today's concerned, ultimate space sim. It would be absolutely magnificent. Then imagine if one day they went on to marry the Elder-Scrolls and/or Fallout Series with this X-3/SR hybrid. Then we're talking the perfection of older games with the graphics of today. I know, it's a mad-gamer's dream, but if necessity is the mother of invention, then dreams are the wrench.