Just a piece of advice, if you''re going to make it 3D, remember that space navigation is not obvious to most people. There''s lots of empty space and no "landmarks" (the only ones are too far away). It''s just so different from what we''re used to in real life. I can remember a couple of old games that did this poorly and navigation usually consisted of choosing a destination in the map, pointing the ship to it, then moving forward (and wait and wait). If you find some enemies you fight and then repeat the process.

Look at Freelancer for a pretty good example of a nicely done big game world (or galaxy or whatever). And yes it uses waypoints but it''s so much more than that - trade lanes, system gates, custom or mission waypoints... and lots of interesting scenery and features for something that you expect to look so empty (don''t forget the asteroids, debris and particles that give you a sense of speed and position, this is VERY important, have a look at some screenshots )

My project is vaguely close to what you’re working on—at least in that it’s a 3D space sim with hopefully the same feel—the player’s a pirate/smuggler/independent fighting other pirates/*.* although I’m dropping a direct control over trading and smuggling to simplify the idea enough to be done. I’m leaning more towards a Interstate-76 style of gameplay rather than Elite, since I’m just one guy.

There’s a design doc and some info on the site (www.squidmobile.com) which you’re welcome to comb through for ideas, but the things that I’m focusing on are a wide range of available combat tactics, internally consistent physical laws, and story. You can see from the screenshots that graphics aren’t all that big of a priority, heh.

Toraque