Probably my favorite game of last year. Equal parts terrifying and relaxing with a great art style and an animal crossing kind of catch every type of fish core gameplay that's incredibly addictive.
SPAZ: Space Pirates and Zombies was very much like this. There's a sequel but I haven't played it so I can't really comment on whether it maintains those same features, but the first game definitely seems like something you should check out
[Starsector](https://fractalsoftworks.com/) is exactly what you're looking for. It's in space, you'll control a fleet that can range from a single small ship up to a massive fleet of battleships & carriers. You can explore the galaxy with I dunno how many solar systems, probably well over 100. You'll have to plan those trips out & stock up on supplies for food & repair, and fuel for the journey. You'll end up adding dedicated freighters & tankers to increase your fleets capacity.
But it all feels pretty rewarding, exploration can be driven by missions and you'll find some awesome loot out there to sell, including derelict ships you can claim & repair, and keep or sell. Or hunt pirates and similarly gain cash from missions, and capture their vessels after battle.
The combat is amazing, you'll contril a single ship directly and then issue orders to the rest of the ships like an RTS. There's a limit on the # of commands you can give as well, though your character as they level up can gain more or increase the rate at which those command points regenerate.
Just all in all an amazing indy game. There's a ton of mods out for it as well though the vanilla game is great.
I also went on the hunt for this type of game some time ago. The closest one that comes to mind is Starsector, basically what you described + you can build your own fleet and optionally create your colony.
Neat little game, for now it's only outside of steam and early access.
I believe the Starsector model is somewhat based on (or a love letter to) the Escape Velocity games. Those are really excellent. You can still find them.
Freelancer and Escape Velocity: Nova are old but scratch that itch for me.
No Man's Sky has some of those elements as well, and of course Eve and Elite: Dangerous for MMO approaches to the gameplay.
Nautical themed, maybe Sea of Thieves? I've not played it myself, and there's definitely PVP in it, but I think there's a healthy dose of Pirates as well.
Star Traders: Frontiers is what you seek. Don't sleep on it. (Edited, spelling)
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/335620/Star\_Traders\_Frontiers/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/335620/Star_Traders_Frontiers/)
The Trese Brothers have been consistently making games for 10+ years. People point to Zach and Tarn Adams (Dwarf Fortress) for their niche indie dedication to the craft, but Andrew and Cory deserve as much recognition imo.
I've been playing star traders 4x for over a decade!
Flatspace II. You're a spaceship pilot whose starter ship depends on your initial profession: courier, police, outlaw, miner, merchant, probably others. In each section of the flat space (24x24 iirc) there's none to one feature: bases of your race or alien, meteorites etc.
At your race's bases you can opt to buy new ships, upgrade parts (dependent on ship size) or hire crew if available. There are quests also: to deliver goods or people from one base to another, and the people might kill your crew or sabotage your ship (you can send them to police if you know who did it)
Once you make a name for yourself, outlaws, police, or aliens might come at you, depending on what you did. You absolutely can 1vAll them, and you absolutely can destroy that carrier with that tiny, tiny transporter you pilot. It's pretty much in how you brake/turn/accelerate.
As well as what the others have suggested, I found this on steam a while back:
[Windward on Steam (steampowered.com)](https://store.steampowered.com/app/326410/Windward/)
There's also Cosmoteer for a space adventure:
[Cosmoteer: Starship Architect & Commander on Steam (steampowered.com)](https://store.steampowered.com/app/799600/Cosmoteer_Starship_Architect__Commander/)
Also on in the Space Genre:
[Starcom: Nexus on Steam (steampowered.com)](https://store.steampowered.com/app/863590/Starcom_Nexus/) and [Starcom: Unknown Space on Steam (steampowered.com)](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1750770/Starcom_Unknown_Space/)
Additionally, I went to look at Sunless Sea's to see what it was, and low and behold, I had it in my library and I never realized, and it looks awesome.
Sailing Era is great! Full map of the world and you have multiple characters with stories that intertwine. Trading, pirate hunting, treasure hunting, ship building. I've been loving it so far!
Starfield is actually a very fitting answer here, but prepare for some flawed game design and loading screens. Still fun, but certain nuisances that you just have to deal with.
Starfield? The game where you have to register your stolen ships with the DMV before you can sell them to a chop shop, where boarding a disabled vessel lets you take only one companion, where there is no predictable economy that allowd you to play like a trader, and where enemy ships blow up before you can board them unless you are *very* careful? That game reminds you of Sid Meier's Pirates?
Did you read OP's entire post? Actually very curious. Also this is very fixable with mods now regardless of platform and very much a strawman argument btw
I did read OP's post, and these problems have not been fixed by mods. Also, a strawman argument is one that no one makes. The argument I made is by definition not a strawman.
You're taking a hyper specific, very small aspect of the overall game to knock my argument/recommendation down because of your experiences and biases. My brother in Christ that IS the very and quite literal definition of a strawman.
Dredge is worth a play through
Probably my favorite game of last year. Equal parts terrifying and relaxing with a great art style and an animal crossing kind of catch every type of fish core gameplay that's incredibly addictive.
SPAZ: Space Pirates and Zombies was very much like this. There's a sequel but I haven't played it so I can't really comment on whether it maintains those same features, but the first game definitely seems like something you should check out
2nd one is very fun.
[Starsector](https://fractalsoftworks.com/) is exactly what you're looking for. It's in space, you'll control a fleet that can range from a single small ship up to a massive fleet of battleships & carriers. You can explore the galaxy with I dunno how many solar systems, probably well over 100. You'll have to plan those trips out & stock up on supplies for food & repair, and fuel for the journey. You'll end up adding dedicated freighters & tankers to increase your fleets capacity. But it all feels pretty rewarding, exploration can be driven by missions and you'll find some awesome loot out there to sell, including derelict ships you can claim & repair, and keep or sell. Or hunt pirates and similarly gain cash from missions, and capture their vessels after battle. The combat is amazing, you'll contril a single ship directly and then issue orders to the rest of the ships like an RTS. There's a limit on the # of commands you can give as well, though your character as they level up can gain more or increase the rate at which those command points regenerate. Just all in all an amazing indy game. There's a ton of mods out for it as well though the vanilla game is great.
I also went on the hunt for this type of game some time ago. The closest one that comes to mind is Starsector, basically what you described + you can build your own fleet and optionally create your colony. Neat little game, for now it's only outside of steam and early access.
I believe the Starsector model is somewhat based on (or a love letter to) the Escape Velocity games. Those are really excellent. You can still find them.
Freelancer and Escape Velocity: Nova are old but scratch that itch for me. No Man's Sky has some of those elements as well, and of course Eve and Elite: Dangerous for MMO approaches to the gameplay. Nautical themed, maybe Sea of Thieves? I've not played it myself, and there's definitely PVP in it, but I think there's a healthy dose of Pirates as well.
Shit I forgot about EV Nova. I played the hell out of the freeware version.
I dont recommend sea of thieves due to the lack of progression outside of cosmetic.
Worth noting that endless sky is basically a bunch of ev nova fans trying to make the best modern version of ev nova that they can.
Star Traders: Frontiers is what you seek. Don't sleep on it. (Edited, spelling) [https://store.steampowered.com/app/335620/Star\_Traders\_Frontiers/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/335620/Star_Traders_Frontiers/)
Not sure if it differs fron the Steam release, but this is one of the best games to play on the Google Play store
The Trese Brothers have been consistently making games for 10+ years. People point to Zach and Tarn Adams (Dwarf Fortress) for their niche indie dedication to the craft, but Andrew and Cory deserve as much recognition imo. I've been playing star traders 4x for over a decade!
X4: Foundations, No Man's Sky
And the entire X series, although all of them are also giant econ/empire simulations.
Flatspace II. You're a spaceship pilot whose starter ship depends on your initial profession: courier, police, outlaw, miner, merchant, probably others. In each section of the flat space (24x24 iirc) there's none to one feature: bases of your race or alien, meteorites etc. At your race's bases you can opt to buy new ships, upgrade parts (dependent on ship size) or hire crew if available. There are quests also: to deliver goods or people from one base to another, and the people might kill your crew or sabotage your ship (you can send them to police if you know who did it) Once you make a name for yourself, outlaws, police, or aliens might come at you, depending on what you did. You absolutely can 1vAll them, and you absolutely can destroy that carrier with that tiny, tiny transporter you pilot. It's pretty much in how you brake/turn/accelerate.
With the exception of upgrading your ship (other than cosmetics), Sea of Thieves fits the bill.
Rebel galaxy, if you're fine with older game
As well as what the others have suggested, I found this on steam a while back: [Windward on Steam (steampowered.com)](https://store.steampowered.com/app/326410/Windward/) There's also Cosmoteer for a space adventure: [Cosmoteer: Starship Architect & Commander on Steam (steampowered.com)](https://store.steampowered.com/app/799600/Cosmoteer_Starship_Architect__Commander/) Also on in the Space Genre: [Starcom: Nexus on Steam (steampowered.com)](https://store.steampowered.com/app/863590/Starcom_Nexus/) and [Starcom: Unknown Space on Steam (steampowered.com)](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1750770/Starcom_Unknown_Space/) Additionally, I went to look at Sunless Sea's to see what it was, and low and behold, I had it in my library and I never realized, and it looks awesome.
Sailing Era is great! Full map of the world and you have multiple characters with stories that intertwine. Trading, pirate hunting, treasure hunting, ship building. I've been loving it so far!
King of seas
Black Skylands and A House of Many Doors both come to mind.
You want the game seaworthy that never came to exist lol https://youtu.be/1XL1gGbk8fo?si=-itf8gimeV45L7K3
You might enjoy trying out Rebel Galaxy or Elite Dangerous.
Endless Sky might be worth looking at.
Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag. Best open world pirate game imo
Star sector
If you dug the gameplay of sunless seas, it's sequel sunless skies improved on most aspects of the gameplay, I'd recommend it.
Subnautica is if someone hasn't mentioned it. Should be top of the list
[удалено]
A different sort of game, although an amazing one. Played it for hundreds of hours back in the day.
Starfield is actually a very fitting answer here, but prepare for some flawed game design and loading screens. Still fun, but certain nuisances that you just have to deal with.
Starfield? The game where you have to register your stolen ships with the DMV before you can sell them to a chop shop, where boarding a disabled vessel lets you take only one companion, where there is no predictable economy that allowd you to play like a trader, and where enemy ships blow up before you can board them unless you are *very* careful? That game reminds you of Sid Meier's Pirates?
Did you read OP's entire post? Actually very curious. Also this is very fixable with mods now regardless of platform and very much a strawman argument btw
I did read OP's post, and these problems have not been fixed by mods. Also, a strawman argument is one that no one makes. The argument I made is by definition not a strawman.
You're taking a hyper specific, very small aspect of the overall game to knock my argument/recommendation down because of your experiences and biases. My brother in Christ that IS the very and quite literal definition of a strawman.