I am a newb who just joined VO. The game looks really fun, pitty I didnt know about it earlier, its (exactly what I used to look for long time ago but never found).

I have seen the ACTIVE PLAYERS graphs... but they got no numbers. Does it mean that not much players are around? As far as now (2 days) i have seen only one other player... is the space deserted ;) ? or are the numbers healthy?

there are jillions of users, you just went to the wrong spot

Hi!

We used to have a list that gave the character names of everyone currently logged in, somewhere along the line one of the devs decided it was a bad idea (which is probably true), and it was replaced with the current graph without numerical stats. As an old vet I still refer to it as the "APL" (Active Player List) although it stopped being an actual list a long time ago. This does not mean the numbers have dwindled. In fact I think you'll find with the advent of the Android version there are a lot of "silent" users running around, quietly playing the game without contributing to chat.

When you are first starting out space can feel empty at times (or a lot of the time). It's just that you don't know where the "choke" points are, where players tend to congregate and at what time, and it takes a while to develop that situational awareness that allows you to spot another pilot. One thing you could do to help with this is go to your Sensor Log under Your PDA, and set a proximity alert for Player Characters only. Make it 5k to begin with, so you'll hear a whistle anytime another player (but not a bot) gets within that distance, then once you feel like you have a better idea of when you're not alone, bring it down to 2k, then 1k, then 500m.

Glad you came to check out the game. Myself (and others) are here to help. Just watch out for pirates. Read up on escaping tips and other advice here.

Welcome to VO, hope you enjoy your stay.

There are people around. Thing is, space is big, so if you stray from the beaten path you might not meet many people. Also, go install the TargetLess plugin from http://targetless.com/. It will help you to be aware of who is around you (also, it's invaluable for mining, if you're into that). Otherwise it's easy to be flying around in the same sector as somebody and not even realize it unless you compulsively pull up the sector list (or use your prox alarm - but mine has a tendency to get accidentally disabled due to me bumping the wrong keys at the wrong times).

Another plugin you might be interested in is the "Alert Machine" module of TCS (Toaster Crush Suite), which can display an announcement when a person enters or leaves your sector, which can be a life saver if pirates are about. TargetLess is great for seeing who is out there at the current moment, but you still have to glance over at it. With Alert Machine, it writes the message in the chat window (only you see it though) as soon as somebody enters, so you get an immediate notification.

As for how many people there are, my (possibly unreliable) sources tell me there are about a 100 unique people per day, who talk, plus untold multitudes who do not. About 360 talkers per week.

We're working on improving the game mechanics to help people find one another and play together. The universe is extremely large, but at the same time we use the sheer size to avoid instancing the way a lot of other MMOs do. So, at this point, the universe size is something we have to maintain, architecturally; but we are going to be changing and adding things to help bring people together.

One of the joys of VO is choice. After a while you know which parts of space are quiet, you know where you will run into other players and have to fight. So, you fly according to mood.

The open chat channels may seem deserted. Under it all guild, group and private communication goes on. To play you need to explore both physical space, and the social ( or antisocial ) space that makes up the content of the game.

The enemy-player indicator on skirmishes has helped a bit with that one. It's easier to send reinforcements where they're needed and get more PvP action going in Deneb now. :)

If yer lookin for people... Try Gray Space and the Deneb war zone. You'll find most of the really fun folk in those spots.

Phaserlight mentioned pirates (a better bunch of guys you'll never find, though my opinion seems a minority) Here's how to deal with pirates when (not if) ya meet them.

1. Pay, always works.
2. Fight, sometimes works.
3. Run, occasionally works.
4. If ya explode (and this applies to all situations where one explodes) be calm, s'just a game.

Anyway, welcome to VO. Hope ya like it, you've found us at a potentially very interesting time and always remember... ya can't go wrong with Serco.

Further to Ryan reigns post, it's a bad idea to try and outrun or jump from a pirate in a new players vessel. Best to explain that you're new and ask for a cheaper price. Some pirates tend to brag about their low newb prices so take advantage if you're heading to grey. It's always where I think the action tends to be at.

Yes, nothing screams "I'm a great guy!" better than blowing someone up because they wouldn't pay you whatever you wanted them to. Last I checked, that's called extortion & isn't exactly on the list of Good Guy (TM) activities. Now, that being said not all pirates are a$$holes & some are great guys to be around/chat with (as long as you're in their guild or have paid them plenty...). "It's just business" as they like to say or RP.

In either case, be careful where you treat. Space is vastly lawless & can be dangerous. I'd also recommend you NOT lower your player proximity alert past 5000 meters. The farther out, the better. You'll have the most reaction time should another player pop in. I'd also set up a friendly hail message (options > interface > hail) (or not so friendly) to let your intentions be known when you target a player who's in proximity to you.

Just remember not to trust anyone out there until you know otherwise & your losses should be light.

And ryan, paying DOESN'T always work. Try paying pup off & see what happens.

Pup isn't a pirate. Nobody said paying would always keep you alive no matter the situation, just that it works with pirates.

Hey now come on defender x1, paying pup DOES work you just don't use his currency (verasi specialty foods). Even through he is absolutely fantastic as a pilot, he's only flying a cent 1 with govt issued blasters so he's not going to threaten you unless you really don't know what's going on.

It seems to be a fairly political point as to whether pirating is good and whether or not pirates will honour your agrements, in my experience the ones that say things will typically only seek profit, so you are best negotiating a good deal with them. Perhaps even turn it around and offer them an escort contract.

The reality is if you're at the stage where you have valuable things to haul, you'll know what works for pirates, and if you're new, just do a few escorts and you'll regain the value of your ships that you lose in grey plus the experience of a pirate encounter.

Guess its cuz I'm new, I thoight the only currency pup took was blood. lol But I never said pup was a pirate, just that you can't buy your way out of it. Same with Niki; if he wants to see you explode chances are you'll be dust shortly, however he may just pay ya back... He just likes to blow shit up methinks.

I didn't read the whole thread, because

I would like to caution you against installing any plugins early on. Plugins are written by amateurs and idiots that want the dubious glory of being an awesome plugin developer. Some of them aim to improve your playing experiance, but all of them fail misirably. They will crash your game, and then you'll either post a stupid thread in the bugs forum or just give up because the game "doesn't work."

Plugins work great IF you know what you are doing. i use 6 of them and have NEVER crashed with them

Welcome to VO! Everyone that posted here has given you great advice and I really have nothing to add to that. Amazingly tho I noted a lack of normal trolling and that makes me smile. Good turn mates. (except of course genka) Minen is right, read and know what you're doing with plugins. If you have questions don't be afraid to air them on /100, /1 or /444.
Cheers!

Thanks everyone for tips and info!

I'm actually in agreement with genka about the no plugins early on advice. Plugins can make the game more complicated to play in some ways and can introduce some quirks and bugs that otherwise wouldn't occur.

Get to know the game and how to use it's normal interface first, then consider which plugins to use after you've got a grasp of how to fly and use the stations and PDA.

Welcome to VO.

Yes but they can also make the game tons better as well. While I wouldn't recommend using this yet, Targetless is a wonderful addition to the game. It brings your sensors player/npc list too the main UI, allows for mouse wheel targeting based on faction, distance, health. It greatly helps mining in that once you've scanned an asteroid it's now remembered & will help your efficiency greatly.

So don't go out there and just throwing a blanket statement that plugins are bad. They're not. Just like EVERYTHING in life if it's done well, it's great. If it's half-assed it's not.

I'm specifically referring to Targetless when I said they can make the game more complicated and introduce quirks and bugs that otherwise wouldn't occur. Using it right off the bat means new users will come to rely on it so heavily that they'll overlook features the game has built in. Sometimes even posting on the suggestion forums to ask for things that already exist.

It's also pretty good at causing a very noticeable performance hit on the game client in densely populated sectors such as central hive skirmishes and border battles.

I'm not saying it's not a worthy tradeoff, I use it personally. It's well worth it for the pin target feature and asteroid contents logging for sure. Don't go out there and assume there aren't drawbacks to something just because you haven't run into them yet.