[iOS] Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator

[hepcat]

I did not see this one coming.  An iOS port of the very fun Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator just hit the app store.  Apparently it will allow you to join up to a PC game in progress AND you can use it as a server for the game. 

Artemis is a fantastic social event in the guise of a game that I can't recommend enough.  You FEEL like you're on the bridge of a starship, taking and giving orders for weapons, engineering, communication, etc..   Doing so with a touch capable device just makes it better.

p.s. there's an unofficial Android client too.  It's a labor of love by a fan of the game.

[wonderpug]

Is it pointless or impossible to play as single player?

[hepcat]

I would say pointless (although probably impossible too).  The fun in the game is found almost entirely in getting a group together in the same room and pretending you're on the bridge of a starship.

It gets hectic,with everyone yelling out their status and the captain barking out orders to the various stations, but the sense of accomplishment you get when you successfully emerge from a firefight with a much larger force due to teamwork can't be beat.

[wonderpug]

If you want more fun along those lines, check out Spaceteam, which sounds like a sillier, way simpler take on the same sort of concept.

[hepcat]

Someone mentioned that one on qt3 and I was just looking at it.  It won't beat a full game of Artemis with a group of drunken gamers, but it sounds like it might be a fun appetizer.

[Bullwinkle]

I picked up Spaceteam a couple of days ago, and it's a lot of fun.  It's intentionally goofy, though.

I've been wondering about Artemis.  How complicated or sim-like is it?  I expect to play it with my daughter most often, and I could see her playing it with a roomful of cousins at Christmas, but they're mostly in the 6 - 10 range.  I know they'll enjoy Spaceteam, but I'm not as sure about Artemis.

Also, for a similar feel in a boardgame, Space Cadets was just released.  It seems this one would be best with 5-6, so I don't know that I'll be picking it up.  It's supposed to be a lot of fun, though.

[hepcat]

It's probably not going to keep the interest of kids in that age range as the graphics are pretty old school.  For adults though, it's not the graphics that make the game though.  It's the sim like experience of managing a virtual starship.  It took me about a half hour to grasp the basics of engineering in the game, but soon after that I was fixin' things like a pro...well, a severely idiotic pro, but a pro nonetheless. 

There are a wealth of helpful tips and docs on their main site to get you up and running faster though.  I was just too lazy to grab them before our inaugural run of the U.S.S. Toast.

[Turtle]

I setup Artemis for my friends on a LAN multiple times now, once with multiple ships worth of computers at a birthday bash, and two more times with just enough computers to run one ship.

Overall, it's very fun, but it's also brought low by just how primitive it is right now.

By that, I don't mean graphics, but rather the space gameplay and scenarios.

There's some very primitive missions included in the game, and some decent ones the community has made, but there's no career mode and it's all just focused on combat.

The combat itself, once you get over the fact that you're only controlling one station and obeying a captain, or being the captain yourself, is nothing that interesting. The AI is braindead.

I also wish the game had full 3D movement. I mean, there's an entire station dedicated to moving the ship, might as well have the player do more with it.

As for Space Team for iOS, I think Artemis should include something like that so you could have away missions as well.

I'm hoping that either the Artemis guy expands into a team of devs (instead of just himself, which he often gets distracted), or someone else makes a competitor.