Name some. Looking for a specific kind, sort of.

It must have the ability to start with a small ship and either end with a massive capital ship or stay small and powerful

Can have a story or not.

Player can be any type of role such as a pirate, bounty hunter, miner, etc.

Use rpg elements to either level up with experience and allocate skills or acquire better tech to upgrade your ship or both.

Content as wide as an ocean and deep as such.

Some that you name I may or may not have. Just trying to get a list as to which ones I might try out. (have a huge backlog). So, just getting some suggestions.

Also, they can be on GoG or not and I don't care how old the game is.

BUT please do NOT mention any MMOs. I do not care for multiplayer only games. I don't mind if they have an option for multiplayer. However, the main premise needs to be singleplayer.

Thanks for those who do respond to this post with some ideas! And Merry Christmas to all!

Space Rangers should fit some of those requirements.

Does it allow for getting bigger ships? I checked the game page and video but it doesn't state. Unless I'm blind and didn't see it.

Starcom: Nexus

Starpoint Gemini 2

Drox Operative

Any reason why not Starpoint Gemini 3 or Warlords?

Sort of... But at the same not necessarily? You get better, more capable hulls but visually it isn't really a difference between a tiny fighter and a huge battleship.

Evochron Mercenary

And

Evochron Legacy


I don't know about moving to bigger ships.

Hmmm ah okay, thanks for the info! Those look promising.

Though, I was not really planning on mentioning this game on ... this forum,

Star Traders Frontier

Only available on Steam as far as i know.

Check it out.

Ah this seems pretty interesting

Ask 100 people what RPG means in a game and you'll get 100 different opinions.

Space Haven is in development, played it a while ago and did a full playthrough in about 55 hours.
You start with a small ship and a small crew. You traverse the galaxy exploring, scavenging, mining.
The game loop is basically, enter new zone, mine the asteroids, explore the derelict ship if there is one, which may or may not require combat. You'll need a 'squad' that can handle themselves (that you control).
There are other factions, not sure how much they've expanded on it, but you can take them on if you like, but you'll need your ship to be capable. There are also pirate factions that are shoot on site, so you may enter a zone and have to man your battle stations asap to retreat or fight.

You build up your ship hull with the things you collect. You build work stations for processing, living quarters, leisure areas, power grids, lighting, air quality systems, it's quite a bit. You do it inch by inch though so it's not too overwhelming. You can end with a massive ship, and multiple ships if you choose to.

Very cozy game (at times), great soundtrack, and great developers.

Reassembly isn't really an RPG but you can build some huge and crazy ships. It's more of a twin stick shooter.

Eh, doesn't quite meet your wide range of requirements, but Rebel Galaxy does match some of them. It's not role-playing though in a sense that you aren't playing a character much at all.

It's also a tad grindy and it's not necessarily deep in most ways. *shrug*

Hello TheCleaner517!

I know, they are not exactly roleplaying games as you are looking for. However, regarding space games with progression to not just better equipped but also much bigger ships (even large capital ships) the X series comes first to my mind.

My recommendation would be especially for the second one in the series, "X2 - The Threat".
If you do not mind neither the increasingly more complex interfaces nor the heavier system requirements, than go with either of the X3 packages or the most recent X4 game.
X3 - Reunion
X3 - Terran War Pack (actually 3 games in one package)
X4 - Foundations (and a lot of DLCs)
(Just avoid the first game in the series "X Gold" and "X Rebirth", since both are limiting the player to only one upgradeable ship.)

And I have to agree with Braggadar, the first "Rebel Galaxy" was a pleasant surprise for me, as well!

Kind regards,
foxgog

The genre you're looking for is called STACS. Space Trading and Combat Simulator.
Due to the similarity, you could call some games Maritime Trading and Combat Simulators.

2D STACS:
Solar Winds 1&2, Escape Velocity series, Transcendence , Void Expanse, Star Com Nexus, Star Flight, NAEV, Star Nomad, Epiar, Drox Operative 1&2, 3030 Deathwar, Drifter, Flatspace 1&2, Space Rangers, Star Sector, Unending Galaxy.

3D STACS:
Freelancer, Galaxy of Fire 1&2, Evochron series, Everspace 2, X-series, Darkstar One, Starpoint Gemini 1&2.

MTACS:
Corsairs, Sid Meiers Pirates, Windward.