Each nation in Vendetta Online has its own rich culture, personality, and history as outlined in the backstory. How is this portrayed in the game? Well, you have ships like the prometheus, the valkyrie, and the marauder, as well as some special variants of common ship types, like the SVG and the IBG cent. This is the right direction, but I would suggest taking it even further.

Why do warring nations share 80% of their military ships? There are five types of vultures, just like in real life you have the F-18 Hornet A-E. Even though the Hornet E may be the most advanced version, you don't see Russia flying Hornets A B C and D. Allowing any old joe to buy a Serco designed or Itani designed military ship like the vulture or the centurion adds to the same-ness of the universe, which is a bad thing. Each nation has its own unique culture and technology, and it would be nice to see this reflected in the types of ships available to them.

The way I see it, there are 13 classes of ships available for purchase in VO. Four of them are overtly trade ships while nine are more military. What I would suggest is dividing up the nine classes of military ships among the Serco, Itani, and UIT. Before you have a cow, this doesn't mean that an Itani wouldn't be able to buy a vulture... it just means that all classes of Vultures would only be sold in Serco stations to players with the right faction. Since Trade brings nations together rather than isolates them, Trade ships would be international, and available in all stations.

Here's how I would recommend dividing up the ships:

International Ships:
EC-Series
Atlas
Centaur
Behemoth

Itani Ships:
Centurion
Wraith
Valkyrie

Serco Ships:
Vulture
Ragnarok
Prometheus

UIT Ships:
Warthog
Hornet
Marauder

This way each nation has seven classes of ships available to them, which is more than enough imho. If I remember correctly the old EnB game only gave three ship types to each nation. Each nation also has three military ship types, a basic fighter, a basic bomber, and a more advanced special ops ship. The Centurion and the Wraith are the most obvious Itani designs with their smooth curves and maneuverability (the wraith is a *light* bomber remember), so it seemed fair that they should get those. The two ships I wasn't sure who should get were the Hornet and the Ragnarok. I originally thought the Serco would have the Hornet, but then I realized that they wouldn't have a military ship with an L-port until the prometheus, and besides, Ragnarok is from greek mythology just like Prometheus. The serco get the ships with the heavy firepower and armor, while the UIT get the versatile ships that can fulfill a multitude of roles. Each nation has its own culture reflected in its military.

Now obviously this would require some balance, most notably regarding license levels so each nation's military has a steady progression of ships. Since the vulture would be a Serco only ship, the SVG could be bumped up in license, same with the IBG cent and the Warthog TD. The wraith could probably be given 20N of extra thrust, 1k more armor, and bumped up a few license levels as well. The Atlas MkI could also be made available at trade level 1.

And what about those special ship variants, like the Corvus Vulturius, and the Axia Guardian Wraith? Those special variants would remain, sure, there are a few design leaks and crossovers, but they would be the exception, not the rule.

[stamp of approval]

dude, no way you read that whole thing in 2 minutes

He didn't need to. You got your mythology mixed up.

Ragnarok is the Norse doomsday.

DON'T TAKE AWAY MY WARTHOG

Gotta love the well thought out, expository criticism.

While I disagree that the current ship selections should be broken up (everyone is too used to the current situation, I think), it would definately be a good idea to add more nation specific lower level ships.

I have a better idea...

Instead of taking away ships, how about the developers
(holds breath) MAKE NEW ONES!!!!!

O_O

I know, I know it's a ground breaking idea but someone had to post it.

Yes, yes I know that is what the developers are doing right now. And it takes too much time and yade yade etc etc......

/givemoney Devs 2c

You can still have your Warthog, CP, you would just have to go to UIT space to get it.

Well, even though this isn't quite getting a favorable response, my suggestion really comes in 2 parts:

Not only would each nation have its own military ships, each faction would have its own unique Station Guard/Strike force.

Serco:
Serco Vulture Guardian w/dual nIII (or nII if they lost CtC)

Itani:
IBG Cent w/dual nIII (or nII if they lost CtC)

UIT:
Warthog TD w/Gatling Turret

TPG:
TPG Marauder Type B w/tri neut II

Axia:
Axia EC-101 mkII w/dual AAP

Tunguska:
Tunguska Centaur Agresso w/dual Plasma Devestator mkII

etc. etc. etc.

Think about it from a newbs perspective... sweating bullets, they venture for the first time into foreign territory, and are greeted by an array of alien ships. They are immersed in the feeling of being in a foreign country, wondering what each type of ship does and what its stats are and maybe one type of ship looks so cool they will stick around and gain enough faction so they can buy it too.

Right now all you see are Vultures and Atlases.

Despite what people say, Vendetta really does have some cool ship designs. There are enough ship types in game right now to do this, giving each nation its own unique look and feel. Having every kind of ship available everywhere is not a good thing, super-convenience is bad. Do you really want the entire universe handed to you on a silver platter? You would have to be willing to let go of what you have to make this work, but I think it could be really cool.

I agree with Phaserlight on this one. This game realy needs some diversity between the nations. Atm, there is not that much of a difference entering Serco, Itani or Uit space. It would be even better imo when faction standings are codependent to eachother (ie being an admired Serco has its negative consequences on your Itani standing etc).

approval. I don't think he meant nation specific as in how the N3 are, but high standing specific. Also note, this would make grey space very very tempting if Corvus has all the ships we currently have, and the other factions have the "international" and 1 or 2 of the newly "Nation Specific"

I would still prefer that each nation has its own version of the standard ship, meaning from the hornet one with a bit more hull but slightly slower for the serco, for the itani one with less hull but slightly faster in acceleration and stuff like that.

cheers

agrees with the notion that each nation needs some differential when it comes to ships.

Phase, your division is too drastic, though I'm all for making it more divers and specific to each nation. Perhaps, since there are independent corporations like TPG that's primare venture is the production of ships, standard and new designs, that the ship models remain available to all nations, but that each nation has a few more nation specific variants. Make the MkI's of all "universal" and then start to vary them to the nations. The devs have shown über ability in making variants of ships rather then new ones. Let them do it that way until they have more time to come up with newer more specific ships.

This may sound like it already is, but you can get too many variants at almost any station you go to right now, instead, make these ones depend on your nation rather then your faction standing. That way it would not mater if you worked up your faction, if your not of that nation you don't get the ship.

a.) you can pry my centurion out of my cold dead fingers

b.) ...wait a sec, I'm Itani-admired :D

c.) stirring the pot is a GOOD THING

d.) I agree that nations need DISTINCTION

<seal of celestial approval>

The idea itself makes sense, but to make it work and make the game interesting, we'd need more ships to begin with.

I agree at present its not too hard to be an itani with a prom, which means that getting any ship you wanted shouldn't be too hard

Secondly, the only difference between itani and serco is the prom, the valk, and how lobsided ctc is (though last week was something else entirely (way to go rene)) It would be nice to have some more ships, but balance being as difficult as it is, that would be a can of worms, but the idea is a good one IMO

I would sugest making base models of the UIT ships universal. this makes sence because the UIT wouldn't be as able/concerned with protecting military secrets. It would make sence for there to be "UIT military surpluss" stores threwought the galaxy. Also it would make going into UIT space less alian than going from secro to itani or vise versa. This also makes sence given the existing trade between the UIT and secro and the UIT and itani. However advanced models of the UIT ships would still require UIT standing to purchas.

Isn't that how it is now LordQ?

I vaguely remember hearing something about it being this way back in alpha/beta...
-:sigma.SB

@Johnnyhawl: thanks for the feedback. In my opinion, there's a big difference between having a unique ship *variant* and a unique ship. Why not make Valk Mk 1-3 and give them to everyone? Because it's an Itani design, unique to the itani nation, intended to give that race more character. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if any old joe could buy a Valkyrie, even a less uber one, the Valk wouldn't be so special any more would it? There's something about having a unique *shape* to your ship that keeps it special, the rest is just numbers.

If I recall correctly, the devs were originally planning not to keep any of the non-special ship designs we are currently using. Time and necessity dictated otherwise, so we may as well make the best of it.

If my suggestion is a little too drastic, then how about starting by giving the Vulture to the Serco, the Centurion to the Itani, and the Warthog to the UIT.

Remember also that each nation would also be able to purchase the four trade ships, adding up to a total of seven basic ship types, that's a fairly wide selection if you ask me. Members of each nation could also buy other nation's military ships if they were well liked.

@LordQ: That's a good point about the UIT, worth discussing. I don't think being a militaristic nation is a prerequisite to keeping design secrets though, aren't trade secrets just as zealously guarded? So while UIT ships probably wouldn't be as directly geared toward combat, I still think they would have some unique designs, perhaps to a lesser extent than the other nations.