Three years pass, I see the kickstarter notice, I think maybe Vendetta is more civilized. I spend $10 and come back. In less than two hours, three morons shoot me down - I really dont have time for this. But thats ok because for the time i was on, I found the same lonely place. Nothing changed. The three pirates had to have spent more time than i can ever imagine getting to the point where they can sneak up on a rookie and blast away. Who wants to be in a universe with these losers? The most improved feature was the added ways to pay the monthly fee. Best of Luck.

Cheers

What the hell? that is the game? People shoot you so shoot them back, join other anti pirate groups and rally against them?

If you don't like that then why did you ever come here it's a space combat game?

so confuzzled

If he was ganked in a nation capitol or something I can empathize. Although Temp KoS and things have improved a bit, we're still tweaking the "safety gradient" available in nation space.

But, if he was in grayspace, I'm not sure what to say. You don't have to go there..

I still need to put some sort of really dire warning on the border. "YOU WILL DIE BEYOND THIS POINT".

Vendetta Online: Get good, get even.

"If he was ganked in a nation capitol or something I can empathize."

I can't.
3 deaths over two hours is not "ganking" in my view, whether it was in a Capitol sector or not. As TRS said, it's a space COMBAT game, called VENDETTA!. What did he expect?

If he was killed 10 times in 10 mins, then sure, I get how that's not fun, but 3 times over two hours is nothing to complain about in a pvp orientated game.

" I found the same lonely place. "
Well, a big universe during off-peak times gets like that, sure, but when he did "find" other players he complains about how they play? Does he think more players will mean less pirates?

Time for the OP to put on the big girl panties I think...

Dent.

A lot of new players seem to have false expectations about what type of game this is. Perhaps it's time to rethink the introduction / game description wording and rephrase them in ways that still leave all of the sand box options open, but leave the new player tinged with a greater sense of imminent danger... and potential reward. Thoughts?

In less than two hours, three morons shoot me down

You clearly went to the wrong part of space. Here's a hint: the safest parts of the VO universe are deep in Itani space, and the center of Serco space isn't far behind in terms of hosting few people interested in killing you.

UIT space is quite a bit more risky simply because it's smaller and more central, but Dau is generally safe...ish. The Devs should really put a disclaimer in the UIT new character description that makes its risks, as well as its benefits, clearer.

However...

If you're in Deneb or either of the adjacent systems? You're asking to die.

If you're in Ukari, Latos, Edras, or Pelatus? You're asking to die.

If you're in Sedina, Odia, or Bractus? You're begging someone to kill you.

If you think you should be able to go wherever you like without risk from non-consensual PvP encounters, you need to find another game.

@Inc: You should put a floating rock with a large wooden sign that reads "HERE THERE BE MONSTERS" in front of every wh leading to greyspace.

First time, shot down within the no fire zone of a UIT station, second, I took a chance, knew he was close but went for a jump, didnt stand a chance against a ship twice as fast. But the third, not on radar, five commands to stop and pay 300000 creds, I run, jump into UIT space and get within station zone and bang, shot down - still nothing on radar. This is fun? How do i fight a invisible foe?

It's hard to judge without knowing how advanced your character is and how long you played the first time. Unfortunately, the most common victims of this sort of thing are new players as vets generally have the flight skills and experience to avoid or evade predators, unless they are in a behemoth variant doing something silly like building a trident.

That you didn't see your attacker the third time suggests your inexperience. They were there and visible, but may not have registered as a threat on your radar.

I do think there need to be better station defenses as Lisa suggested a while back. I also think faction recovery needs to be much more difficult and limited. But wait. There's that selective magic thing again. We don't want magic armor, but commit a crime and a couple of XC loads of plasteel later and all is forgiven. I'm sorry, but if you want to play the bad guy, then just saying 'I'm sorry' should not absolve one of the consequences. But then I've made my position known on faction recovery repeatedly elsewhere.

Again, I'm with DentedHead on this one.

"no fire zone of a UIT station"

A UIT station or a UIT subfaction station, because they definitely get a faction hit if its an ACTUAL UIT station and not a subfaction that you dont have standing with.

"jump into UIT space"

So you were in edras? or Latos? That's greyspace dude - what do you expect.

What I really don't get here is how you think dieing three ttimes is going to stop you from actually getting your character progression done. It's just not in any way shape or form.

"This is fun? How do i fight a invisible foe?"

Um, you keep trying until you figure out what your mistakes are, VO is the game that doesn't treat you like an idiot, you need to use your brain to adapt to the situation.

Or you can just ragequit, it's up to you, but this is not a developer or a game design problem by a long shot.

I agree with fluffy on faction recovery. But more to the issue at hand.

You died and didn't like it, so the game is probably not for you. But you also chose to make an inflammatory thread for satisfaction. So yeah, who really cares what you think at this point. You could have made a thread asking questions or even just talked to someone ingame for help on the matter. Heck, even the pirates would probably have given you tips if you asked. I realize asking a pirate for tips after he/she just killed you might leave a bad taste in your mouth, but really get better and get even. Or even work with someone to bother the pirates. Instead of reacting emotionally and doing irrational things, you could have reached out to a playerbase that is by far the most helpful playerbase I've ever experienced.

As a personal note, when I was new I was killed countless times by a griefer. Not a pirate, a griefer. Basically following me around anytime he knew I was online and killed me constantly. Now this is where the game is probably not for you. Because I never made a thread about being killed by him, I picked up some guns and intentionally put myself in his path. He killed me dozens of more times, but the funny things is, I started winning all our encounters and he started complaining.

That is the spirit of the game right there. People start bothering you, you kill them. If you don't know how, you learn how and not blame the game for your inexperience. No one learns anything in life by complaining about something they can't do and refuse to learn how at the same time.

"First time, shot down within the no fire zone of a UIT station,"
It happens... you died, he took a faction hit.

"second, I took a chance, knew he was close but went for a jump,"
Sounds like it was your own fault then.

"didnt stand a chance against a ship twice as fast."
Assuming you had the slowest ship 150mps, that would make his ship 300mps... there is no such ship.

" But the third, not on radar,"
Then, he couldn't see you either.

"five commands to stop and pay 300000 creds,"
So, you esentially chose to die.

"I run, jump into UIT space and get within station zone and bang, shot down - still nothing on radar. This is fun? How do i fight a invisible foe?"
Oh... so you fell victim to a ship that flies at 300mps as well as a cloaked ship... two ships that do not exist, that's kind of interesting.

If you want things to be improved, or for you to be taken seriously... try to be more honest.

The thing is, if he had the basic plugins (targetless, TCS suite, the like), we wouldn't be having this conversation about "invisible enemies" and such. Just another reason to implement them into the game. I grow tired of having to instruct every noob I meet on how to install these plugins when they should be in the game from the get go.

This is my second day back after a looooong hiatus. I've been killed by players twice and I've avoided being killed at least a half dozen times. I probably wouldn't have died at all if I hadn't completely lost my flight and fight skills. Learning how not to die is a big part of the 'problem solving' part of VO. You get some skills and you figure out what works for you in the staying alive department. Once you have some basic survival skills down you can move on to pursuing some other goals. And really, for a game with full on non-consensual PvP, VO is pretty forgiving when it comes to the consequences for dying.

As far as the plugins go, some of the ones I'm using right now didn't exist when I last played. Which is a shame because plugins like targetless really smooth out some of the rough spots. I used to keep track of ore locations on graph paper! The ease of tracking and targeting that it adds makes it totally worth using. A lot of the humps you have to get over as a new player are really quality of life issues in regards to how easy it is to do some basic things in the game. Various plugins really help in that regard.

I think the root issue here is the need for a plugin like Targetless to see who is in sector with you without going to a menu screen.

The game should really provide this functionality, perhaps by a toggle, to give people a better understanding of who they are flying with.

As to the dieing....he could have paid or opened dialogue with the pirate. Many give new player discounts.

Well, for my part, just reinforcing what I said before.. we definitely need to put some more work into balancing the gradient of safety. Particularly punching up the safety of capitol faction sectors, and increasing it a bit for nation capitol systems. Part of that will be faction recovery stuff mentioned, but part will also be adding more long-term repercussions to faction hits for guarded/monitored PKs, which build up quickly and decay much more slowly (kind of a secondary faction parameter). I've talked about that elsewhere in a big Suggestions thread, but it hasn't been implemented yet, and I need more mechanics to do it right. That would be one of the zillion things I'd like to do in this "1.9" thing.

At the end of the day though, you will be hunted and killed by other people in this game, be it to a greater or lesser extent. Even if in some case it's a rarity, it'll still happen. This is a game that strives to retain that element of tension and uncertainty as one of its core design tenets. I've always wanted a balance of relative safety, and we're still striving for it, but the game is not entirely safe.

I'm also fine with adding more standard HUD and awareness features that are currently common parts of plugins.

The balance is pretty damn good at the moment, you just can't stop people coming in with the wrong attitude and getting all precious about their hulls.

I also know for a fact if you had complain on 100 somebody would have offered to help, if you're a serco getting killed in ukari I make sure you achieve your goal and lots of other players will help too