VO Oldfag here, once a long-time subscriber... from the days of the old economy and the CGCC, back around 2003-2006. I ended my subscription when finances became tight, and I was getting bored with all the new grinding elements being introduced with the economy changes at the time (I was always a big fan of the classic VO "Space Quake" combat model, and didn't have time to mine for cash to buy the ships and weapons to indulge in it, when costs went up.)

Sadly, my flight setup was destroyed a while back, or I may have jumped in sooner to say hello and test things out for myself. I'm just curious though to hear, in the words of the players, what are some of the biggest, best, and most notable changes to the VO universe and play style in the last 4 years?

Is it worth throwing down on a new pair of joysticks to get in on the action again? If so, what joysticks do the modern VO players prefer? (The old style Cyborg EVOs I used are no longer manufactured, and the new, cheaper, all-plastic versions of them suck.)

Finally, questions for the devs: Do you still only allow 6 characters per account? If I were to resubscribe with an entirely new account, could I have a few of my old characters transferred to the new account? Alternatively, could I have my old account/character names/factions changed?

EDIT: oh yeah, a few misc. specific questions:
Is the duel system still around? has it changed?
Have the license levels and requirements changed at all in type/implementation?
Have faction standings, FF, strikeforce, etc... changed?
Is there a fast travel system yet that doesn't involve /explode?
Are there still player extensions/HUDs in the works? Do the old player HUDs still work?
Any changes to the UI? groups, guilds, chat?
Has much changed in the way of weapons, ships, balance etc? is the valk still king?
Are there any Serco left in the game? let's see a show of hands...
Can we still /displayshippos? (;

The biggest changes are the introduction of Conquerable Stations and big changes to the Border skirmishes in Deneb, now a viable way of gaining EXP. The conquerable stations are also home to manufacturing missions that will eventually lead to making player-owned capital ships and such. Money is still ridiculously easy to get in the form of escort missions, although it used to be much easier. Avg payout if you know the good spots is like 300k+ for a couple minutes of following NPCs around between stations. There's also a valk-balancing deal in the works, although it hasn't done much so far.

Dueling is still here, no changes I'm aware of
I'm not familiar with how the EXP grinding was in 2006, but there are plenty of quick ways to get points now.
The 'Faction Redux' is on the horizon according to the devs,
No Fast travel system yet, but there's a new ship, the Greyhound that gets 225m/s infinite turbo thats quite good for travel (if you dont mind the pricetag)
Lots of plugins modify the HUD, and there are numerous skins. I'm not familiar with the old player HUDs.
Devs are taking steps to nerf the valk. Most recent change is universal mass increase +100kg. New weapons include the Gauss Cannon mk3, Plasma eliminator line (low-level large port gauss)
the Annihilator (basically an extra large Devastator),
There's still serco around, but still a minority it seems.
Conquerable station stuff HAS made the serco guilds somewhat more active recently.
/displayshippos still works.

Some notable changes since last year include the introduction of the long-awaited asteroid occlusion, the Corvus Greyhound, war convoys that result from victories in Deneb that blockade Edras/Ukari from Itani/Serco traffic, huge Deneb changes including an inner-ring of asteroids with sectors averaging 8000 asteroids, and nearly a dozen new hive drops. Also, Cargo Scanners and Scanner Blockers have been added, a couple storm radar extender updates and a new group varient, and multiplayer Atlases and Behemoths with several turret options (/gunner command).

Dueling has changed. There is now a lower duel limit of 900, and new dueling badges (1600, 2000, 2400, 2800 rank).

Yes, we'll be happy to move characters to a new account, if you sub. Use the "Customer Support" link on the left to submit a support ticket about it. But please be specific about exactly what account and characters you want moved, and there may be some additional steps to confirm that the old account was actually yours.

Well, you guys sold me... that and the 8 hours I spent trying to learn mouselook last night (I never could fly a ship right that way...)

Anyway, got to 3/3/3/4/0 on a new trial account, and just had to have some more.

I notice there are a lot of new missions, and some crafting related stuff in game, and I fsking LOVE the new roid occulsion.

As for the new badges, will any of them be retroactive for past accomplishments? or do we not have thorough enough data from before to make that happen?

Still need to decide on a new joystick.

Generally, they're not retroactive. A lot of them required some new data to be recorded. We make retroactive ones whenever we can, but if they aren't already.. they're not going to be.

>> Are there still player extensions/HUDs in the works? Do the old player HUDs still work?

I'm assuming you're referring to HUD skins, old skins should still work yes. If you are referring to something else then I don't know.

Here's a link to some existing skins:
http://vo-wiki.com/wiki/Skins

Also, since your leave VO interface was opened up to lua plugins, the result of which is many wonderful player contributed additions here:
http://vo-wiki.com/wiki/Plug-ins

I highly recommend targetless: http://targetless.com
[/end shameful self promotional plug]

not shameful, it is better than hitting U all the damn time

Yarr, Serco thar be.

Still around and eating people's livers, eh Lecter?

With some fava beans and a nice chianti.

You should try polenta and a cream liver stew once, Lecter.