RoamingDragon looks interesting. You might want to take a look at Project Angela, which has similar movement requirements. You may be interested in their ideas on physics-based movement.
WorldForge, Delta3D, and CrystalSpace are all viable choices. Delta3D in particular has good physics, though I understand it currently has limited scalability.
The bottom line is that no engine is perfect. Some are better than others for certain tasks, and they all have shortcomings. You shouldn't tie yourself too closely to any one engine, because you may want to switch at some point down the road.
BuildaWorld is a project to create an abstraction layer which will make it easy to switch between engines, and to allow different versions of your game with different engines. Ultimately they plan to create tools to enable non-programmers to design their own game or game world. It's still in the early stages, but then, anyone wanting to design a game or build a world has to think long-term.
You should consider linking up with an existing open-source project such as WorldForge or BuildaWorld (or both, since their products can be used together). They plan to provide tools to allow non-programmers to design their own games. They still have a ways to go, but designing a game is going to be a long-term project for you no matter how you go about it.
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RoamingDragon looks interesting. You might want to take a look at Project Angela, which has similar movement requirements. You may be interested in their ideas on physics-based movement.
WorldForge, Delta3D, and CrystalSpace are all viable choices. Delta3D in particular has good physics, though I understand it currently has limited scalability.
The bottom line is that no engine is perfect. Some are better than others for certain tasks, and they all have shortcomings. You shouldn't tie yourself too closely to any one engine, because you may want to switch at some point down the road.
BuildaWorld is a project to create an abstraction layer which will make it easy to switch between engines, and to allow different versions of your game with different engines. Ultimately they plan to create tools to enable non-programmers to design their own game or game world. It's still in the early stages, but then, anyone wanting to design a game or build a world has to think long-term.
You should consider linking up with an existing open-source project such as WorldForge or BuildaWorld (or both, since their products can be used together). They plan to provide tools to allow non-programmers to design their own games. They still have a ways to go, but designing a game is going to be a long-term project for you no matter how you go about it.