Turns out Allegience released by M$ about 5 years ago is now free-ware:
http://www.freeallegiance.org/
Probably the most strategic, in-depth space-sim to date. Incorporating the strategy and resource management of say Homeworld through the commander function and the fun of Freespace for the grunts. Only sim to date I've seen that even included gunner positions on bombers, and it's still a blast. You can even run with 200 players on 5 year old server hardware, talk about a battle.
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"It's not pink! It's more of a lightish red"
"Dude they have a color for lightish red... it's called pink" - Donut and Simmons, RvB
My other car is a Puma