As I begin my venture in what I hope to be an awesome and amazing experience let me describe where I come from and what I hope to find here.
As for space sims, I began life as a pilot in Eve with 2 accounts. One was a mining and manufacturing account and the other was a stealth and exploration account. It was getting expensive though to maintain 2 accounts so I primarily would only pay for mining account until I could afford plex regularly to keep both accounts alive without using any real money. I stopped playing Eve in 2014 when it just stopped being fun for me.
I then tried out a few other games but really got into 3 main games, each for its own reason. KSP was fun for the challenge of building ships that could get into orbit and travel to other planets. I really enjoyed the challenge with newtonian physics and a realish orbital system.
Space engineers gave me the opportunity to be creative with my builds and play with automation and programming in a "survival game." I still enjoy this game and p[lay it on occasion but found it lackluster with no real goals and little to do outside of imagination.
I found Dual Universe and followed it for a while before biting the bullet, I like the direction it is heading and am really hoping to tie in all I enjoyed out of the other three games noted above.
I will be looking for a group to join but am not sure in which area I plan to focus yet. Invites will be welcome but I am not sure when I will be ready to make a commitment as I may plan to begin my own after venturing into the game.