Forums » General

a new player has a few questions

Mar 01, 2007 tisp link
Hi,

I'm new to the game and I start to like it. I think I'm going to subscribe after my test period is over. The last few hours of play a few questions arised:

1. how large is a sector? Can I fly from one sector to another without an in-system jump?

2. are the prices of goods dynamic? So, selling a lot of product A at station B lowers the price of product A at station B?

3. It seems, that new players like me have no chance against "older" players. The other day I got attacked by another player and after two hits I my ship was destroyed. It seems this game isn't that much different from all the other games around => the longer you play the better you equipment. I see no chance a player with low equipment can beat a highend-equipment-player. Is this true?

4. I've read somewhere that VO is using LUA for scripting the HUD. I like what I've read about the attitudes of the developers. Is is intended for players to use the LUA interface for customizing the HUD? Is there some API documentation out there?

5. I think the player number is quite low for a mmorpg, but I've no problem with this. Is the total number of subscribers known? I'm just curious...

Regards,
tisp
Mar 01, 2007 upper case link
1a: big
1b: no

2: yes

3 wrong. i'm an older player (27 months experience) and some pilots still own be. this game is twitch-based. yes, equipment gets better as your licenses increase, but you still need to have skills to wield anything and be successful. as you play the game, your skill should increase and you'll learn the tricks of the trades too. try finding a mentor and you should be given a few hints at how to best approach things (and avoid others too).

4a: no
4b: no

5: no. but is in the couple-hundred range afaik. the small community is intentional for now, as the folklore goes. the game is still having some of it's major pieces worked on and before they're all in place, the devs want to avoid massive amounts of users.

welcome aboard.
Mar 01, 2007 Keyser Soze link
Were you th' bus-flyin newbie ah found all lost in Sedina an', err... rescued by sendin' home?

on the subject of 4, you can 'skin' the HUD. See http://www.vo-wiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Skins
Mar 01, 2007 Lord~spidey link
yes but mot of thoses skins dont work with the new ui i suggest luis and greengalss there the only ones that work well with the new UI anyways

welcome
and have fun make shure you ask for a mentor ingame so they can teach you techniques so you stand a chance against thoses 1337
Mar 01, 2007 Alex Ryder link
Hello tisp, welcome to the game. I hope you like it and stay a while.
Mar 01, 2007 tisp link
Why can't you reach different sectors of a system without a jump? Is this a technical restriction or are there other reasons? I like the realistic aspects of the game (dynamic market, physics, etc.), so why do I have to jump to other systems?

tisp
Mar 01, 2007 drazed link
Flying between sectors... If this were possible, in a realistic sense, you would be flying a long long time... Think about it, a sector would be what? Hundreds of thousands of Km's? So If for some reason they made it possible to fly between them you would be sitting and holding the turbo button till you grow old =(

They will/are however adding new sectors that will be more interesting to fly around. Some should have more then 1 station soon. Check out the capital stations in Dau, you will notice there is actually some interesting places to fly too ;)

Welcome to the game tisp. Feel free to msg me and I'll be happy to show you around =)
Mar 01, 2007 Phaserlight link
Say for example the size of a given solar system is approximately Neptune's average orbit: ~30 AU = 4.49 x 10^12 meters

Fastest subwarp speed: 220 m/s

Number of sectors to traverse a system: 16

So if you assume all sectors are contiguous and spherical, a ballpark figure for the diameter of a sector would be (4.49x10^12)/16 = 2.81 x 10^11 meters

Time to traverse one sector (2.81 x 10^11 m)/(220 m/s) = 17,600,000,000 seconds... or 557 years 259 days 10 hours...

you get the idea :D
Mar 01, 2007 incarnate link
Welcome to the game. The client interface is constructed with Lua and we do intend to open it up to the player base for modification, but it is not open as of yet.
Mar 01, 2007 Aramarth link
To address your third question...
It seems, that new players like me have no chance against "older" players. The other day I got attacked by another player and after two hits I my ship was destroyed. It seems this game isn't that much different from all the other games around => the longer you play the better you equipment. I see no chance a player with low equipment can beat a highend-equipment-player. Is this true?

I made a new pilot just Monday (three days ago), and I am already killing other players with him. He is my 4th pilot. Yes, there are definite advantages to higher level gear. But NO, it does not a good pilot make.

Once you earn the Neutron Blaster (combat 3, light weapons 3, that's it!), you can match any other player in the game in firepower. After that the key to winning is experience and practice. I know how to fight someone with just two pieces of information: 1) what they are flying, and 2) what they put on it. You'll learn with time which ships are agile, and which are slow. Then after the first time they pull the trigger, you'll know what guns they're using. Knowing just their ship and their guns, I know how to best fight them.

This is the basics, the nice short version, of how to get good at PvP in VO.
Mar 01, 2007 slime73 link
5. I think the player number is quite low for a mmorpg, but I've no problem with this. Is the total number of subscribers known? I'm just curious...

I heard a developer (momerath I think) say the paying userbase is around the 700s.
Mar 01, 2007 chillum baba link
No Aramarth, the short version is: Fight player, die. Rinse, repeat.
Mar 01, 2007 tisp link
Hi,

> Welcome to the game. The client interface is constructed with
> Lua and we do intend to open it up to the player base for
> modification, but it is not open as of yet.

this sound's promising. Is it just not possible at the moment to create "hud-scripts" or is just the documentation missing? I thought I saw a lua script somewhere in the forum or the wiki?!

tisp
Mar 01, 2007 Ion link
Tisp, I'd like to further add to all the answer that already state that equipment is NOT the deciding factor in combat. Just for good measure, and to do VO justice. Vendetta Online is probably the least gear-dependent MMORPG there is.

I'd say that the quality of your stuff is, by far, the least deciding factor. And, just like Aramarth said in his post, once you reach 3ish levels, you'll have access to stuff that evens out what advantages superior gear might bring. 5ish, and there will hardly be any differencies. And if you truly indulge the inner nerd and play VO for severals hours a few days straight, you'll be seeing 3s and 4s and 5s in your licences info screen.

Ships are a small exception. Some excellent fighters, for example, are only available from certain factions, once you gain their trust, and some at rather high levels. One of the most famed light fighters, the valkyrie, requires 9 in combat piloting and light weapons.

However, while the valk can make a difference in the right hands (and make me look like a flying potato when in mine), there are many players who would make mashed potatoes out me while flying a basic, low-cost, low-license light fighter. And I've been playing this game for two years plus some, and am reasonably good at PvP combat.

So, welcome to the game where skill matters, decides, and sometimes even increases.
Mar 01, 2007 upper case link
yeah. the vulturius eats taters for breakfast.

boil 'em, mash 'em, sticks 'em in a stew. you know the drill.
Mar 01, 2007 incarnate link
At present it mostly isn't possible to do any real HUD-scripting or other UI lua work. There are those who poke and pry into various ways of doing it, but it hasn't been officially opened up and really isn't clean enough yet. I think using the lua language (loading scripts) is available, but our actual UI and other functions haven't been documented yet. It's something we want to do, we just want to make sure it's done properly.. and we've been very busy lately.

There's limited "scripting" available in the form of the console's Bind system, which people have used to make some interesting features. But it's nothing like having real access to Lua code in the client. See this thread for more info: http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/1/3229

It's also possible to graphically change your HUD and menus, making your own "skins" or using those of others. There is documentation on the forums about that.