Hi Cody_91.
I'm trying to think I haven't played many games like this. There are plenty of muds that offer what you want the best one I've ever played is prometheus. The reason I call it a space empire game is because you start with a small shuttle, then get more ships, more money, you can buy your apartment, stuff like that. Also try miriani, spaceworlds, star conquest, star wars mud, and flux world. I never liked miriani or star conquest but you might like them better than I did. Definitley try core exiles I haven't played it so I can't offer any help on how to play. There is a sci-fi game for iOs called ErnCon I don't know anything about it other then that it's a space exploration game. There was a game I heard mentioned way, way back called lisauora sorry I don't know exactly how to spell it.
There are some choiceofgames and hosted games titles that you can get that have that space empire feel. The ones I remember are mobile marine and apex patrol.
Hth.

Hi Cruiser Destroyer.
Here is the connection info.
swmud.org
port: 6666
Hth.

Hi Cody.

First Core exiles. if you go to the articles room you will find my explanation of some of the screens in the game which might help. I used to be a major ce player, so ask any questions you want, though I confess I've not played for quite some time, also note the core exiles forum sinse it's one of the friendliest game communities you will find anywhere.
Basically at the staart the object is flying your ship from place to place, double click the planets to fly. You will get missions to do when you've landed and can talk to npcs, and those should explain a few key things like mining and combat, the game expands from there.
Core exiles starts off in a ship and is about the exploring and the missions and the resource management rather than running an empire with troops etc. Later you can get factories and settlements and coorporations and all sorts of other things, but at the start you'll be just a captain with a basic ship.

As to ateraeon, like most games that are based around military empires the object is to build up resources over time and research. It's not a game I've spent as much time with as I'm not really into battling other players. I don't remember it being a difficult game to understand, but as with   most of these sorts of browser games you need to be fairly good at navigating web pages sinse there is often a lot of information such as stats etc. some indeed I've never got the hang of, such as warring factions, though personally the hole attacking other players thing which these games are based on was never as much my thing.

If you go to www.whitestick.co.uk there is a list of games to play online which lists a number of space empire type games such as space oddessy and ateraeon, also note the mud federation 2 which is a space business game and is played as a mud not a brwoser game.

There are also some mentioned in new releases as well, though I confess sinse I'm not a big fan of pvp core exiles is the only one of this sort of game I've played very extensively.

Mud legends of the jedy too is accesible

Hi Cody_91.
I almost forgot try smuggler's 3, 4, and 5. And if you have an iOs device get star traders rpg. The smaller version is free but if you buy the rest you get a whole bunch of extra stuff. Don't get star traders 4x that is not accessible.
Hth.

A while ago, I thought about creating an empire game like OGame, but in a (realtime strategy) MUD/MOO format. With a space system similar to that of Star Conquest/Miriani, but as an empiror/empress, you would be giving orders most of the time, rather than directly flying ships. Orders like where to send your ships, What to do, etc.

Maybe someone else will pick this idea up and do something cool with it.
I had some other cool ideas. Feel free to PM me if any of you are interested in discussing ideas with me.

Try the mud "Wayfar1444" it's quite an excellent project.

connection info is:
host wayfar1444.com port 7777

Commands are in quotes.

Going to wayfar1444.com in your web browser of choice will also give you access to changelogs and help, and even though the game can be challenging at first, do to there not being much of a help system, you can talk to people just fine by using the command "chatnet on" and "chat" and what ever your message is, from within the game.

To turn on and off certain settings use the syntax "@prefs" to get a list of possible categories and "@pref" "the setting you want" "is on" or "is off" respectively.

You can also type "help" by it's self to get a list of help files and "X" "and item name" to get the possible commands for any object.

"help colony" will get you started from the beginning.