Hello everyone. I am a noob to v.o. but i really like it. Anyway i was wondering if anyone would like to give me some hints on some good maneuvers to pull in combat. Not your super secret maneauver that kicks butt just a few basic winning combat moves. Also is there a way to view your ship from a 3rd person view? I like the cockpit thing but think it would be cool to have a 3rd person kinda thing.
jakepalmer (Cpt.Ringo Starre]

Hi Jake,

Welcome to V.O! The easiest effective maneuver is the "backroll" wherein you either back away or coast away (see http://www.vendetta-online.com/manual/gam_flight.html ) and, at the same time, hold a strafe key and a roll key (eg using default key-bindings: A+E). This will help you not get hit, but it will also make it hard to hit your target. I usually stop maneuvering briefly for a second or two while I shoot and switch to a different combo.

About 3rd person, F9 will cycle through available viewpoints and is really useful for taking screenshots (in one viewpoint you can control the camera with ship controls), but I personally can't see becoming effective in combat with a 3rd person view.

Hope this helps:)
MomeRath

As an addendum to that, don't just hold the backroll keys, as that will earn you universal scorn, and the better fighters will just kill you anyways. Mix it up a bit. Switch roll directions, slide, turn and circle. Only practice will tell which style is best for you.

Thanks guys. Please add more stuff though. I had not thought to look up special functions like roll and the such. I am an ace pilot on the game oolite and would love to try out some of my combat maneuvers from there out on vendetta. I am away from my house right now and can not try out all this stuff but hope to in two days. Also, how do i know if i can or cant install a type of weapon onto my ship. I tried to install a missle launcher (hornet or something like that, sorry i cant check it out to be sure) onto my ship but i dont think i can. thanks
ringo starre

If I may be so bold as to expand on/clarify what ctishman said, learn the basic "barrel roll" and "backroll." Here's my link to an explanation of those, pictorially:
http://www.wylfing.net/vo/basic_rolls.html

Then, when you've mastered those, start thinking about ways to mix it up. Against bots (at least for now) the backroll is a pretty easy win, but it's irritatingly hard to use other tactics against them. So once you're pasting Tycorps by the dozens, you HAVE to start fighting other players. Be prepared to die 50 times (seriously) before you kill anyone. You'll learn a ton from every fight.

/Edit/

There are only 2 types of equipment: small port and large port. If you have a Hornet, you have 4 small ports. So any four items that fit a small port can be mounted, but no large port items are possible.

Now what you should put in those 4 ports is very debatable :)

4 ports are pretty useless until you get the heavy battery, though. None of the batteries have enough charge to sustain large amounts of fire.

Itani Alliance [IA] is actually quite interested in training new people in all aspects of VO. If you're Itani, msg one of us in game and we'll work something out.

Or if you're UIT, message anyone from the Viper [VPR] guild... they'll be glad to help you.

Here's a couple previous threads with combat advice. Note that tips for PvP combat are often different from tips for botting, and these threads have advice for both. Also note that some tips about which ships are best may also be obsolete, as these are older threads & changes have been made to a number of ships since these tips were given. But there's still lots of good advice.

http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/1/10148
http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/1/7965

I've given a lot of thought to the differences between botting and PvP, and I realized while players don't pick up a lot of useful PvP tactics through botting, what they do learn is how to judge where enemy shots are going and start to learn how they can avoid them. That at least is a good foundation skill that one needs to learn to be successful in any mode of combat.

Momerath,

You wrote, " ....(in one viewpoint you can control the camera with ship controls) ..." Which view is that? I'd love to know.

You also wrote, "... but I personally can't see becoming effective in combat with a 3rd person view." I agree, but I think that's mainly because the 3rd person views have been poorly chosen. Sorry, but that's my #1 complaint [very nearly the only complaint] with VO: the 3rd person views are just about useless, which is a shame because the ships look so cool.

I wish we had one external camera view where *we* decide the camera's placement, so I could put the camera where I might like it best as I fly around the universe, and you could put your camera where you liked it best. Being able to assign movement key combos just for the cam would be nice, but I'd settle for just being able to move that cam into place while giving up ship control, as long as I could then switch from cam-moving back to ship control while viewing out of my custom external view.

Being able to set aliases to move the cam or switch between custom external views would be best. That way, I could set up an alias to give me a quick glimpse of the view behind my ship, then snap back to cockpit view, for example.

Being able to set aliases to move the cam or switch between custom external views would be best. That way, I could set up an alias to give me a quick glimpse of the view behind my ship, then snap back to cockpit view, for example.

I agree with this one. For us mouselook-off people, this would be very useful. I don't care so much for 3rd person in general, but this would be virtually required when we get larger ships, namely player-owned capital ships.