I found this back in early 2005, liked the trial terms and subscribed. I did mainly mining and trading (skills 3/4/3/8/5 even though I don't even remember what that means).

Anyways, the trading and mining got really boring, and I've not much of a fighter. Is there more for me now?

the 3/4/3/8/5 correspond to your license levels--Combat 3, Light Weapons 4, Heavy Weapons 3, Trade/Commerce 8 and Mining 5.

There's a lot of new stuff, but a lot of it is still in flux. There's a new, skinnable user interface, several new missions (including a new tutorial system that was released Friday night), one new player-usable ship, a re-modeled EC hull, several new capships, and several other major gameplay changes, such as the ability to carry weapons and equipment as cargo between stations (this came after weapons became droppable items in battle) and various new features around the license system.

If you come back now, you'll have to be somewhat patient--some of the new features still have a few bugs, and there still aren't a lot of players around at the moment--but if you stick around it should be worth it. If not, you should wait until the major release when the advertising push comes out.

I am in a similar position. I started playing a couple years back, and decided to wait until there was more to do. Plus, I'm poor, and now, my apartment has a firewall that blocks everything. MSKanaka is quite correct, everything cool that a noncombatant might want (or anyone) is in the planning and groundwork stages. Most of what they're doing right now has to do with user interface and building framework around which when the time comes they can quickly and easily add "content." Plus, not many players yet, since no major advertising has happend, they're waiting for the game to be "ready." The features I'm waiting for are player/guild owned stations/capital ships, and capturable territory. Also, a new, truly dynamic economy is right around the corner, and may be the first step towards a viable crafting system. My advice (which I would follow myself if not for the firewall issue), is go ahead and pay for one month. Play a lot, and then make your decision. You will probably want to wait for Vendetta 2.0 for a permanent subscription, but a month is cheap and worthwhile since you've not been around for awhile. Also, read up on the suggestions forum, and throw your two cents in. Just a warning on that, though, a lot of people here don't understand exactly what this game should be, and fail to recognise the obvious greatness of my suggestions. Don't be one of those. Just kidding.

To echo what ProfessorChaos said about payments:

If you're interested in seeing how things have changed, plop down ten bucks on your credit card and play for a month. If after that month you still want to wait for a while before really coming back just cancel the sub and start it up again when VO 2.0 comes out.

If you decide to come back for real after that month, all the better to you. We'd love to have you.

no. unless you want to subsidize their creative efforts, then dont come back yet. trading and mining have not really changed since 2005, except that there is a bigger trading ship (behemoth, 2-3 times more cargo, slower), some new trading items, and the sedina wormholes have nasty NPC pirates.

rumor is they are about to add a bunch of new minerals, change dispersal, add more missions, etc etc etc.

Rumor mill is correct, but that really doesnt add that much content. Its gunna drive a few miners crazy, and make me (and many others) go on a roid/widget mappin spree is all.

But VO still rocks for the angry pvp types (like myself) and I personally just can;t wait for it to get better, which is why I still pay for my account, I can't wait for the future of VO, and without people paying a measly $9.99 USD - £5.25 GPB - 7.83 EUR - $13.28 AUD - 266.93 RUB :P the devs won't be able to eat (maybe I'm exagerating, but...) They need food, buy your local dev a pizza today!

Did you go look up those exchange rates, or is it easy to see when you sign up for VO? Because if you looked them up, man, you have way too much time on your hands. Then again, if you haunt these forums as much as I do, you have too much time on your hands.... or are not using it wisely....

http://xe.com

yes, i have not a lot of time either, my vo time is very limited, and cos of that, i suck! I should have never have dowloaded Real Life, tis a bitch!

You can also use Google for exchange rates.
http://www.google.com/search?q=1%20usd%20to%20gbp

Well seeing as I'm not a PvPer, it looks like I should wait before coming back in. I remember getting a whole lot of money and then having nothing to spend it on. It pretty much felt like I "won" the game. I thought about trying to get the mining badge but that is a LOT of mining!

What's driving me nuts is I can't remember what ship I was flying around in at the end... I worked a lot to get enough faction to get a factional variant... I think it had the most cargo hold available at the time...

Well, out of the faction variants you could be talking about it'd either be the Valent Marauder Rev B or the Tunguska Mineral Marauder, holding 56cu and 60cu respectively. Right now there's a 120cu ship called the Behemoth that's available with -/-/-/5/2 at Corvus stations, -/-/-/7/3 at Xang Xi stations (I think) and -/-/-/8/4 universally.

But there's plenty to do even without PvP, but you should consider learning a bit of it--it can't do anything but help, really.

Also dynamic economy is going to emerge soon if rumours be true. That is where production and prices will be driven by avaliability of raw materials.