Hyper- realistic PC game that can help us with ship design ideas

[Rynn]

I've seen the tech assumptions mentioned many times by people, so I'm going to chime in here:

The reason the tech is limited isn't because the author doesn't think that more advanced systems are possible or even probable. Rather it's the result of either a) not enough public domain information exists for the dev to create an accurate simulation of the technology, or b) the dev hasn't gotten around to adding it because it's just one guy.

To give an example, right now all the loaders for guns are electromagnetic, but the dev has said that blow-back receivers are on his to-do list. This is radically going to change the drone/missile paradigms because drones will no longer require RTGs which make up 1/2 to 1/3 the cost of a drone currently.

Buying this game you have to set your expectations to a realistic level: this is a one man indie effort, so don't expect the moon. Having said that, it's still a lot of fun to play, and the community on the official forums has come up with some really neat stuff (ie: it turns out that the physics engine is robust enough to allow users to create nuclear explosively formed penetrators by simply sticking an an appropriately engineered nuke next to an appropriately engineered plate, that was a fun realization).

I totally respect the fact it's an indie game, and it does seem to have a great physics simulator as its base. I just feel that the "game" is sorely lacking at the moment. I'll pick it up again if issues with the AI and interface are sorted (the way missiles and drones are programed to intercept is a big annoyance, rather than projecting the enemy position based on their vector and plotting against that they simply point their nose at the enemy and fire the engines. Less than optimal to say the least).

Scott Manley has a lets play series of it running at the moment. He's a heavy hitter youtuber in terms of space games, particularly kerbal space program. He has similar criticisms about the game but in the video below he goes over how great the engine is for designing ships and their parts: