StarWraith Command: Space combat sim

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

My itch to play a decent space flight combat sim was re-kindled by the disappointing release of In the Black.  YT suggested a video to me highlighting a game that's in free beta right now called StarWraith Command by the developer who made Evochron: Mercenary.

I downloaded the beta last night and only fiddled with it a with.  I'm still working on setting up the controls how I'd like them (Mapping the reticle to a hat isn't working out as well as I'd hoped) so I didn't get a chance to get too deep into it.

It's not going to win any awards for best graphics but the flight model was pretty cool (even though I sucked and died a lot).  I like the fact that you have to actively trigger your shields.  It's got proper Newtonian physics, the flight model just feels right, and there is a lot of depth in the ship customization and layout.  I also like that you're a Navy pilot rather than a free-trader type so it's solely focused on combat rather than space trucking.

[JasonPratt]

Interesting. Searching Steam for Starwraith didn't seem to come up with anything -- the top hits in the preliminary returns were all Star Wars, but then I thought, SW may be flooding due to popularity, I'll click to actually look at the full search, maybe it'll be listed down lower.

Doing that, returned no Star Wars games -- only the Evochron Legacy game (which I've owned since its release and played a little), its predecessor Evochron Mercenary... and Avroch Alliance SE (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1219770/Arvoch_Alliance_SE/) which the designer released this Feb 2006.

Which is NOT Starwraith, evidently -- the review video SDR posted does reference Avroch Alliance separately. But the dev (and publisher) is (now?) known as Starwraith 3D Games LLC.

Anyway, the only bad review (of the few at all) so far, complains about the TrackIR VR experience, but every other review is solid. It's only $15, and the dev is still patching it, up through v2.2508 a few days ago May 12. So development on this game continues as well as the new Starwraith game (apparently)!

Starwraith is currently(?) free, and as the reviewer said looks to be focusing more on bringing 90s space fighter sims up to date with Newtonian physics models etc. The link to its free beta is here https://www.starwraith.com/starwraithcommand/downloads.htm

Avroch Alliance looks to be aiming more at Freespace2 -- it has a built-in single/co-op campaign, plus a campaign editor for game fans to work with, and an instant action mode. Evochron Legacy of course is the kitchen sink game which in its earliest incarnations goes back a long way (like Elite) but which has been somewhat passed by other 3D kitchen sink space piloting games (like Elite).

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

It's not on Steam as it's still in beta testing.  If you want to try it, go here and click the downloads button at the bottom of the page.

https://starwraith.com/starwraithcommand/index.htm

[SpaceGameJunkie]

I've played it. It's gonna be great once it's ready.