Space Sim First Look: Darkstar One (August 26, 2005)

Cpl Hades

Mr. Kat
German developers Ascaron Entertainment GmbH have announced that they are producing a new space sim, Darkstar One. There aren't many details at this point, but GBase has managed to grab a first look at the game. The developers hope the game will follow in the footsteps of Wing Commander, Freelancer and the X series. There will be a vast universe with many economics opportunities. Kayon Jarvis, the main character, is trying to find out who murdered his father and ultimately becomes the galaxy's last hope in an interstellar struggle. Although there will be other ships to buy, the Darkstar One craft is designed to be heavily upgraded with over two hundred different components. A possible early 2006 release in Europe is being considered. Until then, here are some screenshots which were taken from 3D Gamers.






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Original update published on August 26, 2005
 
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Bah... am I the only one who's getting tired of all these new space sims following in Privateer/Freelancer's footsteps? Sure, games like that are cool, but with all these space sims coming out of the woodwork, why doesn't somebody try to make a new Wing Commander-style game? :(
 
Because they'd actually have to come up with more of a stroyline as a missing father? ;-)
 
wasn't there an extremely similar storyline used for independence war 2....why do so many games have to borrow each other's plots...sigh, looks pretty tho
 
Quarto said:
Bah... am I the only one who's getting tired of all these new space sims following in Privateer/Freelancer's footsteps? Sure, games like that are cool, but with all these space sims coming out of the woodwork, why doesn't somebody try to make a new Wing Commander-style game? :(


and that would be the cue to signal 'enter pioneer'
 
I don't care. I love Privateer/Freelance esque space sims. I'm just happy that they seem to be getting a bit of a revival. They'll have to churn out a few more similar games before I get bored.
 
BradMick said:
and that would be the cue to signal 'enter pioneer'
No, it wouldn't - as I understand it, you're doing another Priv/Freelancer style game :p.

(and also, like Eder said, I meant original... or more accurately, commercial games)
 
its a stand alone Wing Commander game. New story, a not touched on region (except in the novels) in the WC Universe. New engine. For all practical purposes its a brand new WC game....just not being put out by EA or whoever owns the rights.
 
Eh - we're hardly original - but then what is? Privateer ripped off Elite. Freelancer ripped off Privateer. Freespace ripped off Wing Commander. Just because something's not original doesn't mean squat in this world. It's the way that you do it that makes it a fun game. I certainly think that Standoff and Saga are in that boat. We (Pioneer) hope to be - but we're as yet unproven. That'll change, soon.
I figure as long as there's quality work out there and being done - the WC community is in great shape.
 
BradMick said:
For all practical purposes its a brand new WC game....just not being put out by EA or whoever owns the rights.
I think the point is "WC style game as opposed to Privateer style game".... meaning "something with a storyline", not "something set in the WC universe". :p

The world doesn't have enough of the former anymore (Starlancer, Freespace, etc - all pathetic attempts at it), while we have plenty of the latter (brand new engines or not - historically, I don't see any correlation between great engines and great games).

I agree with Q on this - it wouldn't hurt to have a decent story-driven space sim come out. For some time now, it seems that all the decent space sims go the Elite way....
 
Absolutely. I suppose that's driven by the desire to have more open-ended gameplay - Non-linear storylines and gameplay seem to be king right now. There's very little demand for a sort of game that doesn't let you go everywhere and do everything. I'm not saying it's right - A linear storyline allows for far more polish and intimacy with the player. The problem is - right now, the collective shout of game players everywhere is "FREEDOM!!!", and you just don't get that with a WC-style game. Well, let me re-phrase. You don't get that with the more recent WC-style games. The earlier ones WC1,2,3,4,(Prophecy?) had at least a win-loose track, if not several variations on it... I just don't see that in recent games. You loose the mission? Tough bannanas. Re-do it. Again? Yup. Gonna go play something else now? Definately.
Anyhow. That said, I'd love to see a story-driven WC-type game come out. I wouldn't leave my room for months. I just don't think it's gonna happen, and that makes me sad.
 
Howard Day said:
The earlier ones WC1,2,3,4,(Prophecy?) had at least a win-loose track, if not several variations on it... I just don't see that in recent games. You loose the mission? Tough bannanas. Re-do it. Again? Yup. Gonna go play something else now? Definately.
Yeah. It's quite interesting... while researching for my master's thesis (which was about game narrative structures), I found that many game designers simply did not understand the point of having a branching narrative. They seem to think that, because the player normally will replay every mission as many times as necessary to stick to the winning path the first time he plays through the game, then that means there's no point having a losing path at all. How it is possible that people who make games for a living haven't heard of replay value is beyond me :p.

That said, I'd love to see a story-driven WC-type game come out. I wouldn't leave my room for months. I just don't think it's gonna happen, and that makes me sad.
Ok, now we understand each other... Pioneer looks good, but, like Eder explained, it's just not the droid I'm looking for ;).
 
And how 'bout a Kilrathi-oriented WC game?

That's what I've been feeling since I played starwars:TIE fighter. You may find tons of documents concerning Kilrathi culture (history, rituals, sociology...) but have never been able to fly a Dralthi but in the Armada (and Priv, thanks to the patch by HC1)

I would love to fly and interact with some fellow Kilrathi wingcats in a whole story-driven brand new game :D . Kilrathi civil wars, rebels to the Empire... the lot!
 
One day I'll write a SciFi epic story where a young mercenary flies through the galaxy, searching for his father's murderers.....

only to find his father livin' large, boozing and womanizing in some space-las-vegas station.

Being a father in games is the same as comiting suicide. The hero's father is always dead for long or just been murdered. Better remain childless and enjoy a long life.
 
That's right, but you're still a human flying a captured kilrathi fighter. I'm talking about a whole Kilrathi character story. Maybe a campaing against terrans, other Kilrathi clans or something or even a kind of Kilrathi priv (Maybe looking for some missing kitty :))

Anyway, continuing with the thread, I got to say I loved Privateer so much, but once I killed the green egg I was done: No need for wandering through the systems with no objective
 
Quarto said:
Bah... am I the only one who's getting tired of all these new space sims following in Privateer/Freelancer's footsteps? Sure, games like that are cool, but with all these space sims coming out of the woodwork, why doesn't somebody try to make a new Wing Commander-style game? :(

Now there is some feedback I personally did not expect.

Granted the sense of having an open-ended game that is non-liniar is the fashion of things today, long term Wing Commander fans have always been fascinated by the concept of story telling to coincide with gaming.

Wing Commander prooved that this grand scale undertaking was certainly something that went on over the years.

Hello everyone, after that short introduction let me quickly introduce myself, I am Mirko Worsley, International Community Manager from Ascaron Entertainment GmbH situated here in Germany. I am 25 years of age and I have been a quite follower of WCNEWS over the years due to my passion for the Sci-Fi genre and the Wing Commander series itself. Believe it or not, my first ever game, on the now extinct Amiga 500 was Wing Commander. It blew me away and I have since followed not only the development of its successors (Owning an original copy from Wing 1 all the way to Wing 5) but also fan projects ranging from Privateer to for me personally eagerly anticipated WC Saga mod for the Freespace engine.

Anyways long story short, in my professional career I also look at the opinion of others concerning our titles. Either the ones that have been released or the ones going to be released. DarkStar One being one of them. I can imagine I am not one of the first people from developing firms to come in and say hi but I am an open kind of guy and since I am very fond of WC NEWS and here at Ascaron not the only one, I might as well give you one or two bits of information that are well, inaccurate in the news made in August:

First the Darkstar ship itself is and will be the only ship the player can fly. With 3 main upgrade modules (engines, hull and wings) the ship can be personalized in a number of different ways (especially since each of the 3 main sections can be upgraded up to 10 levels).

Secondly to the story itself. Yes it is similiar to Independence War 2 (well spotted btw.) but also different. There are elements in the game that differentiate it from IWAR2 especially concerning certain, shall we say plot twists.

There are over 400 systems in the game, each sector (containing several systems) boasts new challenges. Not only that the mission system in the game will make it easy to create storylines which run independantly from the main story, providing a nice change of pace, some hints at well, previous titles in the genre as well as indirect omages to the genre itself in some form or another.

Darkstar One is being created by Daniel Dumont the creative brain behind titles such as Patrician I through III as well as the Port Royale series. Any of you that have played them or even heard of them will find that Daniels keen attention to detail always prevails. Even though a rough outline of a game might not sound like much right now, it is a far fetch from what the end product will ultimatly look like :)

Anyway having said all of that I might even stick around and join in on the discussions of Wing Commander, its rumoured future and other tidbits floating about the web and Mr Roberts, if you ever read this, please go ahead and make another movie :)
 
Mirko Worsley said:
Anyways long story short, in my professional career I also look at the opinion of others concerning our titles. Either the ones that have been released or the ones going to be released. DarkStar One being one of them. I can imagine I am not one of the first people from developing firms to come in and say hi but I am an open kind of guy and since I am very fond of WC NEWS and here at Ascaron not the only one, I might as well give you one or two bits of information that are well, inaccurate in the news made in August:

First the Darkstar ship itself is and will be the only ship the player can fly. With 3 main upgrade modules (engines, hull and wings) the ship can be personalized in a number of different ways (especially since each of the 3 main sections can be upgraded up to 10 levels).

Secondly to the story itself. Yes it is similiar to Independence War 2 (well spotted btw.) but also different. There are elements in the game that differentiate it from IWAR2 especially concerning certain, shall we say plot twists.

Anyway having said all of that I might even stick around and join in on the discussions of Wing Commander, its rumoured future and other tidbits floating about the web and Mr Roberts, if you ever read this, please go ahead and make another movie :)

Chris Roberts is involved in half a dozen different movies right now. He's been a full time movie producer for the last couple years. Welcome to the forums anyhow. We're always hoping that new space sims bring something interesting to the genre to increase its popularity as a whole, but Quarto's right in that as precious few as are made these days, some of them end up seemingly like rehashes of classic space sims from the 1990s.
 
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