As I said on the top line.
I have X-wing Alliance for mod purposes to play, but no joystick, yet. That's my next purchase. It requires one to work properly, so I figured why not get more games I can play this way. Seeing that steam prevents you from using some games without their bullshit, I wanted some they don't hold your dick hostage to play.
Have you tried Rimworld? It's a space colony simulator with an end game (if you want to work towards it). You don't even need a joystick because it works great with just a keyboard and mouse. They're charging $35 for it so I don't know if that meets your criteria for being cheap but it's absolutely worth it. A little googling reveals that you can run it without Steam, although I'm not sure if it's just a matter of removing it from the Steam folder.
Thank you. I love scifi games. My first was a PS1 space war game where you had to control a fighter and build up the ship. I couldn't even play it for more than a few minutes before it hurt my hands.
Stellaris for the win.
Looks like I found the next reason why I can't finish my novel. Thank you!
Fuuuuuuuckiiing A! I got RimWorld some three years ago, after waiting a long time for it to go on sale (spoilers: it rarely goes on sale, and when it does it's a 15% discount at most). Even though it's not exactly cheap (for a simple 2D top down game), it's still one of the gaming purchases I've made.
Vanilla is cool, but kind of repetitive. But the mods.... Aaaah THE MODS! It seems like making mods for it isn't too difficult, so the modding community is extremely active, and the selection is HUGE. I pretty much only make theme specific RP playthroughs (right now I'm playing as group of 18th century British marines from captain Cook's first voyage that somehow got teleported to a medieval Rimworld). RimWorld with mods is like many games in one. I've created Soviet gulags in the taiga, west African style Portuguese slave fortresses, nomadic Mongol like tribals who lived on their horses, an Eskimo settlement on the ice, a south American narco stronghold... I could go on all day. Just get the game if you like the genre, because you ain't gonna find better.