Is what happened today. It's what most of us always wish VO would be. We had strong numbers (8 or so on each side) of Itani+allies fighting Serco from one end of gray space to the other over the course of three hours or so. And then later the serco took the battle back to Edras. Tridents were used, too. It's probably just the one day of the year that almost everyone has off, plus the free to play thing. But it was quite fun, and felt the opposite of the "lonely space" feeling that many report about.

If only VO was like this daily rather than bi-yearly (last time it was this fun were the events held in Latos).

This parallels another thread going on right now, but just wanted to say it felt nice playing with a bunch of other people finally in this "MMorpg". Obviously finding a way to bring more people in and KEEP them in is the only way this will happen more.

I have to agree, it was really fun, I have seldom seen so much action since I started playing VO.

DeepSpaceOne

Best day since the Latos H2 pirate holdup. But as you point out, it is the exception where it should be the rule.

Here we fought for hours in a massive Itani vs Serco war, without any objective. How about some objectives?

PS: Hell yeah it was fun. :)

I wasn't there, I haven't been logged on for half a year or so. This game could be so great, but it isn't at the moment, and the game engine is not the problem.

In my experience, the problems are:

1) The universe is simply too large given the player base. With the number of active players as it is, there should probably be more like 2 systems of each faction (including grey as a faction), instead of 6.

2) No real objectives apart from having fun with pvp. Money, military status, mission content etc just don't provide enough in this game...

3) What really caused me to stop playing was the leap from killing bots/npcs (including deneb HAC's and hive queens) to pvp'ing with the "in-crowd". The main problem is not that I lost horribly from all the vets (that is expected), the main problem is that I couldn't really find anytone that wasn't a vet or a bot. From my perspective, it seemed that there is a fairly constant group of really great players, and then a lot of nothing, and then a bunch of noobs. Either that, or I just really suck at this game :-)

There are no doubt many problems with this game... the point of my post was to say that all these problems became of little consequence for good portion of the day while we were all involved in populated combat with each other.

Fighting real pilots can be a little baffling until certain things start to click and you unlearn some strategies that fighting bots taught you. After that you see a wide spectrum of abilities as with anything else and it becomes more fun as you see what you can do to do better. But yes, group combat is great!

I did not participate in the conflict, but I was around for most of it. I have to applaud everyone who did because I thoroughly enjoyed the good natured banter on 100. That kind of good humor and pleasant conflict were part of what appealed to me about VO all those 7 years ago.

I'm with you Fluffy, but sadly many in game still think being a total dick is acceptable RP. I doubt we'll ever see that change. It's likely the reason it was tempered was because there was significant coordination going on within the fighting groups (which takes up time that might be otherwise spent spewing trash on 100).

Was there a wining side? I know it wasn't organized but did the sercos die faster :)

Itanis won in the first three hours and then serco's pushed back after itani lost players. I check these damn forums too often.

I'm not sure who the in-crowd is, but if you hang out in Sedina B-8 you will run into pilots of all different skill levels. Asking a few to fight you to 20% is a good way to build confidence.

/2c

This game has always shined when there are simply more people playing.

B-8 is lame. The real fun battles happen elsewhere.

B-8 used to be far better, but dueling seems extinct now. The "tough guys" called it "carebear" fighting and nobody wanted to be called a carebear. I remember times when a dozen duelists at a time would be in there, arranging 1v1s and having a great time. Now most players are spread out, and people whine on the forums about how the game is not designed to bring people together. Never was a problem for fighters to get together a few years ago...

A dozen duelists who would flip their shit whenever the unwritten "rules" of B-8 are broken.

Good riddance.

You mean a dozen people who understood the value of a friendly arena where people could enjoy and learn how to play the game free of rp silliness.

It was boring. 1v1 fights get really formulaic and there's a couple ship loadouts that really dominate.

When I first started playing that's what most of the "vets" did and if nobody was in B-8 they'd boohoo about it. It wasn't until a couple months later where I got into a big guild vs guild battle in Bractus over a measly 2cu of CtC xith that I really understood what VO PVP was supposed to be. :)

Those aren't mutually exclusive.

It used to be easier to arrange a duel than a decent furball and some people would rather have a duel than nothing.

Duel = More fun than being ganked

Furball = More fun than a duel

Being Ganked = More fun than trading