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early impressions of a noob

Apr 19, 2005 Iron Wolf link
Hello Vendetta community!

You said you wanted to hear from me (or was that the voices again?), so here I am. My name is Zev Veers, I'm a newbie, having only been signed on for two weeks. I've kept a low profile while learning about the game and getting to my initial goal of a level 3 combat pilot license. I've "listened" to the rest of you on channel 100 but said little. Along the way I got some useful mentoring from a friendly and helpful chap named Bronab, so give him some of those mentoring points. I have spent the last three years in online flight sims, but I love sci-fi also and wanted to give something different a try.

Overall, I think you folks have done a very good job. So far I'm having a blast. The game and community is very noob friendly, which is critical for longevity and continued success IMHO. The current Star Wars alternative to this game will eventually go down the tubes because they cater almost exclusively to the established player. Getting started in a virtual world like that is tough and discouraging. I really like how "mentoring" and such is actively encouraged and rewarded within this game system.

Technically, I have some occasional lag with my poor ole dial up connection, but generally the 56k functions pretty well. The price is also reasonable for us not so rich folks (easier to justify to the wife) and helps to encourage a larger participating group of players.

I've had a lot of fun practicing against collector and guardian bots, grabbing crates of goods and selling them back at the station. The trading and business end of the game is far more fun than I expected. It's a real kick buying something at a low price and then selling it to a station short of the supplies for an obscene profit (it is a capitalist's dream world). I sure wish I was as good at business in R/L, lol. Mining........
............, well, I'm not a miner I guess. ;) I love the freedom inherent in the game. You can pretty much do what you want to do without any supervision. I have went sight seeing quite a few times and enjoy the views of space that has been
provided. You really get a feeling of being millions of miles away from everyone when you are in one of those empty sectors (sure hope my warp engine doesn't fail me in the middle of nowhere, lol). But I'm here primarily for the military end of the game.......... you know, the war supposed to be raging between the Itani and Serco nations. At least, I have
heard rumors of war! It is strange seeing Serco bots (that I have been told not to shoot) flying about in Itani space and into and out of Itani stations. All for good reasons perhaps, but it sure don't lend to the wartime atmosphere. I fly to the Deneb system wormhole to enemy space, declared to be the heavily defended border with the Serco expecting it to be armed to the teeth and find, not a heavily armed station or swarms of defending ships, but a single guard bot and a pleasant lady miner named Angelina going about her business in the local asteroids. Not exactly the image of a bristling defense at a hostile border.

I've watched the introduction and development of the "capital ships" with great interest and, apparently, these are the intended vehicles of starting or expanding the war(?). They are very impressive looking. (I've circled Sola twice trying to find the dock, where is the blasted thing located on the ship?) That is all great, I love huge warships and spaceships, but do
you really need the capships to conduct combat? Actions between
fighters/assault craft can be just as interesting and fun. Is "dueling" the only means of pvp in the game? Darn, I forgot my shirts with the long frilly sleeves, my box of dueling pistols and second to hold my smoking jacket while we mark off the paces. Don't get me wrong, dueling is a lot of fun, quite interesting and I'm sure some of the pilots are deadly at it. It may be great fun, but it ain't war. Does an Itani pilot really need to get permission to jump into Serco space to have pvp combat with a Serco pilot (or vice versa)? Hopefully, I misunderstood this. Now, I can see this within your own faction or side, or even a neutral, but to the enemy? Is this a war or not? Where I come from, if you see the enemy, and it doesn't jeopardize the mission, you strike! And you strike as hard, with as many ships/planes as you can bring to bear and with
as much unfair advantage as possible (we didn't care who got credit for the kill, as long as the enemy was dead). The object is to destroy or damage the enemy to gain the objective or complete the mission. The enemies mission is to avoid you succeeding and do it to you if possible. THAT is war. Like I said, I am new, perhaps I missed something, but I would really
like to see organized, pvp combat missions with realistic goals........such as taking back one of our systems lost to the mutant Serco (clearly a race driven mad by their own self experimentation) and if unaware players are caught up in a raid or attack, then they have to realize that they are conducting business in a war zone and it can be dangerous. I have a strong
desire to defend Itani space, but it doesn't seem real threatened right now, lol. If we can't fight around the present stations and systems, perhaps new ones could be added to the universe for the two warring sides to fight over, advance to and retreat from. Friendly sparring between a few willing
pilots of each side does not convey the feeling of war, or it's effects. I realize that this is not necessarily easy to furnish in a persistent MMP world where members are coming and going all the time, but you could schedule events and announce them ahead of time, have sign up sheets, whatever, to organize a combat team or teams for these events.

Now, please take this in the spirit in which it is written. I am not bitching, just indicating what I, as a player and customer, would like to see in the game. I fully realize that this is still a developing system and that major additions and changes are coming in the future. The war between the Serco and Itani, however, form one of the primary factors of this entire concept and I feel that the game needs to reflect that better than it does.

I have not joined a guild, so there are many things I have yet to learn. My comments may have been covered elsewhere on these forums. If so, I apologize. I do not have time to read all of the posts already made, so if this is redundant, please direct me to the relevant thread.

One complaint - the chat system is the most confusing one for a new player that I have seen in a multiplayer game. I'm sure it makes sense to you folks that are used to it, but not to this noob. I am now gonna start using it to irritate the rest of you, so I'll have to learn how to use it anyway.

To the designers, thanks for creating this virtual diversion to our, all too real, universe. Yep, it is not yet complete, but it still fun to play and I look forward to the additions you will add in the future. Great job.

To you folks in the community, I've observed you for the last couple of weeks and declare you a good (if somewhat weird)bunch. I look forward to exploring this game with you. Make room for another (just as weird) noob. ;)

Regards,
Zev Veers
Apr 19, 2005 LaMas link
hehe, welcome to us weird lot ;)

/maso
Apr 19, 2005 sarahanne link
if you have a suggestion to make the chat system batter please post it. I looked at WOW and they use little pop up windows and you click on them to activate the chat window, but in VO the mouse is used to control the ship in mouselook mode. Using the various keyboard shortcuts is the only way I could see to maintain all the freedom of choice in interface (keyboard, joystick or mouse)
Apr 19, 2005 Suicidal Lemming link
Is "dueling" the only means of pvp in the game?
By all means, no! You can engage any player except for players of your own nation, unless they have become hated by their nation. Dueling is just one form of PVP, dueling people will increase your duel score and stuff, but doesn't currently give any advantages except to improve your skills in one verse one fights. Successfully engaging in PVP will give you PVP kills, as you gain more of these you will get medals at certain intervals, 25, 100, and 500. Acquiring such medals will give you equipment not available to players without these medals. The equipment isn't the best of the best, they just give you an edge. Dueling also allows you to engage in combat with those of your own nation, but be sure to do so away from stations.

You can bring your suggestions to the suggestions forums where they will be more likely to be recognized as suggestions. Threads on hot topics often grow rapidly, and no posts to a suggestion isn't necessarily a bad thing.

The chat system is quite easy once you get the hang of it.

Chat commands on a key:
t - Sends a message to your current channel.
T - Sends a message to your current sector.
g - Sends a message to your guild, assuming you are in one.
G - Sends a message to your group, assuming you are in one.
h - Sends a message to your current target, very useful when you want to find out what an npc is doing.
m - Brings up the mission bot tab and an input box for it, good when you want to find out what you are supposed to be doing.
! - Brings chat tab to the front.
@ - Brings mission tab to the front.

Chat commands:
/join - Joins a channel, such as 1 or 100.
/leave - Leaves a channel, as in you no longer receive messages from it.

Useful channels:
1 - The help channel, guides (like moderators and stuff) often hang around in here and are all knowing, along with other players. Very good when channel 100 chat is moving very rapidly and your question is lost.
100 - General chat, you know, general and stuff, yah.
11 - Nation chat, only those of your nation can hear your words, and the other way around.
Apr 19, 2005 a1k0n link
The "Capture the Cargo" scenario was created to initiate an Itani-Serco conflict in grey space. It's sort of like capture the flag, except with lots of flags. If both sides participate it's pretty fun.

There is also a "border patrol" mission where you can fight on the battlefront in Deneb. The trouble is it either doesn't work very well or isn't fun, so nobody's playing it. That could definitely use some attention.

We plan to have scheduled Serco incursions into Itani space with at least one capturable station. But we don't have it now, so yeah, unfortunately the Serco-Itani war isn't very interesting yet.
Apr 19, 2005 Phaserlight link
Nice post, Iron Wolf... you just made me eat my "this game is not newb friendly" hat.

Right now, Sedina is the place to be. Sedina B-8 in particular if you want to see some truly impressive international battles. Also be sure to check out the race tracks in Sedina B-5 through G-5. Oh, but don't try this unless you are at least level 3/3/3 or a kickass pilot... grey space can be a very hostile place.
Apr 20, 2005 Bobsin link
well put phaserlight!

iron wolf, as was mentioned sedina b-8 is a great place for player interaction. especially when the cap ships get there. in this situation you often find a good amount of people fighting tooth and nail to keep their ship alive. the fighting gets so intense that you will often see guild members fighting each other as well. these conflicts have been refreshing to those of us who are more interested in carnage rather then ctc or duelling.

so i do hope to see you out there when you are prepared for the carnage you filthy itani!! err, sorry... getting carried away. :)

Sebastian, Soldier of Serco... BLAK at heart >:D
Apr 20, 2005 CrippledPidgeon link
yea, last night I kept the SMV Protarus alive for quite a long time after all but two or three of its turrets were destroyed trying to fight 3 or 4 enemy IBG and Rev-C Centurions with my Atlas. That isn't to say I got any kills (my one possible kill was stolen from me by some dude who in the whole battle, only fired one shot to kill my target... what an ass... I mean, I don't mind the occasional kill steal if the kill is stolen by someone on the same side of the battle, but this guy just waited at the periphery and didn't help at all), or didn't spend a fortune on new Atlases and running back into battle, but it distracted the attackers for quite a while.
Apr 20, 2005 Iron Wolf link
Thanks for the responses. Good ones all. Btw, I have adopted the name of Zev Veers for this game (A minor Star Wars character, estranged son of Gen. Maximillion Veers, who went for the Rebel cause). Iron Wolf is actually my old name for an online submarine game. I used it when I first signed up for Vendetta, not knowing that I was going to end up buying into the game. Iron Wolf is my user name, but I didn't know it would show up on this forum. Is there a way I can change that name to what I am using in the game? Hmmm, I probably need to check the FAQs, ehhh.

Anyway, the info you folks gave me is very useful, and I will act on it. At the present time, I'm only a 3/3/2/3/1, so I may still need a bit of practice. I do know that I ain't no "kickass" pilot, lol. I'll come over and have you experts show me what it's all about. ;)

Thanks again!
Veers
Apr 20, 2005 UncleDave link
Ok, we need more newbies like this guy. :P
Apr 20, 2005 tramshed link
indeed. And for the record books, the Itani Serco Conflict was heating up quite nicely, then us pirates got out of hand in grey space, causing an unprecedented group effort to try and purge grey space of the pirates, killers, and other lowlifes. Sadly for the three nations, thier efforts are not going so well, and have cost them many billions of credits.
Apr 20, 2005 Iron Wolf link
LOL, then a police action this has turned into!!!! Clearly all of civilized space is in jeopardy!! Perhaps the Serco, UIT (like you could trust them) and Itani nations should temporarily put aside their differences, as distasteful as that might be, and form an (uneasy) alliance to rid the galaxy of such unacceptable miscreants (pretty impressive word, ehhh?)(I love spellcheck)

I call for a Crusade (hmmm, politically unacceptable word) errr, a Campaign, against the satanic and EE-VIL forces of the Grey Side! (Oh man, I feel some Force coming through here!) All forces of civilized space should be marshaled against the threat! Hey, hey, don't get me wrong.....I'm a good Itani. I go to Meditations three times a week and do the standard devotions daily, but sometime violence is necessary. It is simple logic that we must do what is necessary to protect ouselves (and our credits). ;)

Sebastian, don't apologize for hating me because I'm an Itani. You can't help it, being the poor, twisted, sick and sadistic genetic mutant that your nation has turned you into. I understand that. It's not your fault. (sniff) I'll add your name to my meditation and burn an extra candle.

Phaserlight, thanks m8. I will show up at Sedina to meet you (perhaps briefly, but I will show up). I'm glad I made you eat your words. I've been around (but not sleazy) and this community is one of the better ones. The game is pretty straight forward and relatively easy to pick up for anyone who has had flight or space sim single player experience and maybe some online experience. Pointers from experienced players really helps, tho. From what I've seen, when newbs ask questions on chat, they are quickly and warmly answered by the vets. That is critical. If newbs are made to feel welcomed and, indeed, wanted, then there is a much greater chance they will have fun and decide to stay. All established players should make an effort to greet the newbs when they show up. I do think better communication is needed with incoming players about what is going on in the community. You guys have told me a lot of things I didn't know on this thread. Others need to know these events are also available to them. Perhaps have this info added to the news or something.

LEMMING, how do I get into your frikkin machine? Where is the docking bay on that monster? (TY for the chat info).

Salute!
Veers
Apr 20, 2005 Shapenaji link
You seem to be under the impression that we of grey are somehow ruthless and evil.

I would liken us more to Pai Mei from Kill Bill II (with bigger egos) than to most "ruthless" pirates.

We train players.

In fact, we've trained members in all the guilds that attack us now. (And, occasionally, continue to train players in said guilds).

We love to fight.
We cull the weak.
We are the forces of chaos that balance the universe.
Apr 20, 2005 Bobsin link
a certain pirate friend of mind had an interesting response when asked about his KOS (Kill On Sight for you newer people) list, it was as follows....

1. Anyone who doesn't realize the danger they're in
2. Anyone who scoffs at the danger they're in
3. Anyone who Points out the danger I'M in
4. Anyone missed by 1,2,3

this philosophy <sp?> has earned us simultaneous admiration and disgust from the players. we are ruthless at times. we will hurt you. and once you are a flaming mass of fried Itani (in my case) we will drop hints to let you know where you went wrong.

this makes you a better player for the future and gives us tougher challengers as well. everyone wins... except those Itani Alliance guys, all they get are IA boxers to keep them warm at night. poor guys. :D

so that is what the residents of grey space are like. seek us out when you are prepared. (level 4/4/4/4/0 is more then enough levels i think)
Apr 21, 2005 softy2 link
Actually, I am seriously thinking of ordering an [IA] Thong....
Apr 21, 2005 Bobsin link
O.O

>.<

O.o
Apr 21, 2005 tramshed link
yeah, lets see how that looks after twelve hours in a hot, sweaty, cramped cockpit holden. peanut butter in shag carpet i tell you.
Apr 21, 2005 Beolach link
arrRGHHH!!! Must poke out minds eye!!!!
Apr 21, 2005 Othiamba link
Would you post a pic with you wearing the thong if your a woman? :)
Apr 21, 2005 Forum Moderator link
Off topic!

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