Here's the thing, i'm in the mood to play a game that is kind of similar to FTL and Star Command but more advanced than those two. What does this mean? Well, i would like to play a game in space where i could battle, upgrade the ship and buy new ships, manage the crew (maybe level them up?), make text based decisions, etc.

I love FTL but honestly, it gets boring after a while because you can go to the end in 20-ish minutes and you're probably (definitely? definitely!) are going to lose against the boss, as for Star Command, i've started playing that on my phone and while the idea is neat, well, it's barebones, it's really simplistic, doing stuff takes WAY TOO LONG (i'm serious, the battles are awful because of that, it's almost a minute and half to shoot a weapon and do other stuff), shooting and hitting are some dumb reflex mini games, etc.

Btw, i would prefer if it was something more simple where i only need to manage 1 ship and not a fleet (ex. Sins of a Solar Empire or Endless Space), i don't mind if it's sandbox but i would prefer that there was some kind of story based missions and that i don't need to read 100 page manuals to fully understand how to play.

Basically, if it makes sense, Freelancer meets FTL, instead of having a pilot on a small ship fighting in real time i would like to manage a bigger ship with a crew and having a tactical combat (aiming to specific parts of the enemy ship for example). Oh, and i would prefer that the game was available to buy digitaly (so no Bridge Commander recommendations).

Does this game even exists?

Star trek armada, or Star trek Dominion wars , maybe.

or you could try one of the Battlecruiser games http://www.3000ad.com/download/

Eventually, the latest games in the X series : X-rebirth. http://www.egosoft.com/games/x_rebirth/info_en.php

Dunno what that 'Redshirt' thing is like - more of a you're a drone trying to work your way through the ranks of a ship, once of the routes involves some kind of social media type stuff, which sounds weird!

Turn based strat on a starship anyways...

This probably isn't exactly what you are looking for but Aurora 4x might be worth a try. It's freeware but it's extremely complicated with a steep learning curve.

http://aurorawiki.pentarch.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

The Star Trek recommendations are mods for SoaSE right? Not what i'm looking for though. The Battlecruiser one looks interesting but i need to research more, as for X Rebirth, it's a space simulator and my laptop would probably melt trying to run that. Errr, i thought it was some kind of visual novel with the romances and stuff, nah, it looks cringe worthy. *Watches video*

Well, if X Rebirth would melt my laptop then this one would melt my brain.

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Is Space Ranger HD kind of what i'm looking for? The battle looks real time though, not sure if it's just shoot the enemies or if it has some kind of strategy elements on those space battles.

Hm not sure if this is what you look for, but I would suggest "Imperium Galactica" 1 and to a lesser degree also 2, plus "Haegemonia" which is the latest game in that setting but counts as the prequel.

I think Nexus: The Jupiter Incident should be close to what you're looking for. And it shows up from time to time in flash sales for $1.99.

I barely played it myself but your post instantly made me think of Star Wolves which is a real-time tactics / RPG hybrid with space ships.

Uhm, Imperium Galactica looks kind of 4x game in the sense that you have to manage a base/planet but Haegemonia looks interesting, the combat looks similar to Homeworld but with less ships. I've noticed but it's a fleet commander/4x kind of game, i already have 3 of those on my steam library (Endless Space, SotS 2, SoaSE Trinity, plus some more less known that appeared on bundles).

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I guess it's one of those genre that it doesn't have a middle term, or it's hardcore, full of ships and management or it's way too simplistic. Guess i'll wait for Galactic Princess to be released...

I also found Ur-Quan Masters HD, the combat looks simplistic but the rest looks interesting.

No, no, you somehow got wrong impression. Nexus is not 4x, I'd call it tactical RTS, you command only a couple of capital ships, attack subsystems of enemy ships, it has an actual story, you can choose how you want to equip your ships before missions (you have limited resource points to do that).

Here's a bit of a gameplay with commentary by Scott Manley - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZgnO9p-u5Y

If you're not adverse to Steam, or have an Android device, you might want to have a look at Cosmonautica. Note that it is in Steam Early Access, I haven't tried the Android version... and even though you'll get DRM free installers if you buy from the developer via the HB widget, they don't exist yet...

I've been reading some user reviews and it doesn't look like good, you're kind of dropped in the game and have to figure out what to do, travelling takes too much time, buggy, etc.

I think that IamSinister (i think it's him) said:

"Like almost all of 1C's game, this game features unpatched bugs, a horrible and laggy user interface, and just plain bad game design. Definitely not recommended. "

You're right, i just seen the screenshots with a bunch of ships on the hud and assumed it was one of those. Uhm, i'll bite the next time that appears on sale (probably tomorrow).

Edit: Can i pause during combat and give instructions?

Ohhhh, definitely interested on this, thanks for bringing to my attention, i wishlisted and i'll buy it when it comes out of Early Acess.

Well, in fact this is a space management game, and can be as fun as SAP or ACL if you're an accountant or an auditor

Yes, absolutely, the game has an active pause.

It doesn't tick all of your boxes but I definitely recommend Salvation Prophecy, a space based Mount & Blade-ish type game. You start off as a grunt and work your way up to Faction Commander. Once you become Faction Commander you can choose to attack enemy colonies/space stations, rebuild your own, invest in more troops/ships/etc. There is light diplomacy involved as you can try to make your enemies completely surrender or make them surrender and help you.

It's definitely more of an action game than a management game though, as you'll be fighting battles across the galaxy on foot and in ship (large scale real time space battles mind you, twenty vs twenty) and occasionally you'll be sent to faraway galaxies to explore (and those missions are very much story based). there's a demo on GamersGate, and it can be bought DRM-Free on ShinyLoot.