endless-sky VS UQM-MegaMod

Sounds very similar to Endless Sky[1] - another open source game drawing on the old Escape Velocity games. I really enjoyed both Endless Sky and the Escape Velocity games, so I'll have to check out Naev at some point!

[1] https://endless-sky.github.io/

There's an open source successor to Escape Velocity that's fun and continues to grow:

https://github.com/endless-sky/endless-sky

#2 - Endless Sky - ALSO inspired by Escape Velocity, but IMO this is more polished Escape Velocity clone and could reasonably be called the modern successor. EXCELLENT space trade/piracy/combat and definitely take some good strategy to get far into the game.

From the changelog

Bottom left of the website has discord invite link https://endless-sky.github.io

This also was what stopped me from ever completing the game, even back in the 90s when it was still Star Control 2. I am not really a fan of games that force an arbitrary timer on the player, it feels like a holdover from the bad old days of coin-op arcade machines.

A while back I discovered a fork of Ur-Quan Masters which includes a time dilation feature that seems like it might make the game more fun to play, although I haven't tried it yet simply because I don't want to start playing and realize once again that I'm being punished for exploring and forced to start all over again: https://uqm-mods.sourceforge.net/

At least in Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mass Effect 2 when this same thing happens it's based on a trigger, so as long as you know the trigger you can go do the mission immediately. Alas in Star Control 2 the timer is counting from the beginning so the game leaves you little choice.

For a full comprehensive list of changes check out the changelog, or if you prefer it in web page form check out the main website: https://uqm-mods.sourceforge.net/Features

It's the MegaMod: https://github.com/JHGuitarFreak/UQM-MegaMod/releases

And if you're looking for a version with more updated graphics and too many extra options to mention there's The Ur-Quan Masters MegaMod.

You can get the .dmg from the Github releases page: https://github.com/Serosis/UQM-MegaMod/releases/tag/0.8.1-3

uqm-megamod (enhancement of "Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters")

Ur-Quan masters (http://sc2.sourceforge.net/downloads.php) runs on modern systems well plus it's free and even has a HD mod (https://github.com/Serosis/UQM-MegaMod/releases) - I'm not sure if it's good though, I played without it.

Ive played the uqm-megamod (a updated fork), it's probably the better option.

Recreated all the UI fonts (not the alien fonts) for HD, they can be found in this very repository in TTF and OTF format