Hello total noob! o/

Yes, you got it right, you can just stay in monitored sectors of nation space and enjoy high levels of protection.

Unfortunately there are some players that can aptly be described as, well, 'idiots'. It's a conundrum I know! God forbid this isn't the only place in the ENTIRE WORLD where they don't exist, but alas there is the occasional one that seems to mistake this game for http://www.hellokittyonline.com/

What can we do about it? I don't know!

Thanks for the link TRS, I'm gonna go pirate me some fucking cats.

Anything I can do to be of service.

Totally new to online gaming in general. Don't much like talking to strangers if I can avoid it but VO looked cool and I have always liked space station type games, having own ship etc so I am giving this a go. I am on Ouya and typing is basically impossible and all the shortcuts are not so easy either, so the other day when a pirate randomly attacked me as I was tootling about Uit space was a shock as I thought I was in a safe area. Someone attacked him so I escaped, but an hour later he started shooting me again, when I did not pay him. I have no intention to start paying. As he started shooting me I presumed I could fire back and I killed him with plasma HX and stingray missiles. I thought this would be okay, but my Uit standing went down. Does this really matter? Am I not allowed to kill pirates? And what is the best way to get my standing back?
Thanks for any advice.

If you are "hated" and cannot dock with UIT stations, you may head down to Corvus and have a chat with the Reparations Group. They can work wonders for a mere few million creds. Repeat offenders have to pay 30 million, which may or may not be worthwhile to you.

If you can dock at one of the stations belonging to the faction with whom you are trying to build standing, bulk procurement missions from the local trade guild are the way to go. These will go much more quickly if you have access to a Behemoth (available at Trade 4, Mining 2 from Corvus, just watch out for... pirates), or even better: a Behemoth XC (Trade 9, Mining 4 at TPG).

A third option in building standing with the major nations is to head into one of the asteroid belts within the particular nation's territory with whom you are trying to build faction and begin killing bots. Each bot kill grants about half a faction point, if memory serves. Make sure to do this in an unmonitored sector if you are hated; of course, that also means you will have to crank past the turret field and evade the strike force to get to the right asteroid belt.

Lastly, the UIT minor corps and Greyspace corps have recently implemented a TRIPS (Trade Reparations Investment PackageS) initiative, which will let you recover standing if hated for 20 million credits.

All of these, except for the third option, involve using the mission board.

Congrats on the HX / Stingray kill. Keep in mind your HUD will warn you if you are damaging someone who you are not supposed to: something like "<player_XXX> is under our protection! cease fire immediately". There are places in the universe where you can shoot another player without penalty, but I'll leave that for you to discover.

If the person you kill is admired by the faction owning the space in which you kill him, you will take a penalty. You start out admired by your own faction, so if you were UIT and if he'd killed you instead, he'd be the one penalized. Now that your standing has been reduced, you are likely fair game.

Also, be aware that of the three nations, the UIT is the most dangerous. The various sub-factions all handle infractions within their sectors independently, so high UIT standing doesn't protect you in BioCom space, for example. And (except for in Dau and Arta C.) people can still dock with sub-faction stations even if they are kill-on-sight with the UIT itself. So this makes UIT space much easier for pirates to infiltrate than Serco and Itani space.

As for repairing your faction via procurement missions, you might want to see if you can find a friendly trader to help you move the cargo. Things will go a lot faster that way. People in the guilds [ORE] and [TGFT] are trader/miner types and should be willing to help. Members of [EMS] might also be willing to assist (they're a group of pacifist mechanics who fly around repairing people and helping newbies).

Right... Pizzasgood's post made more sense than my own. If you are now UIT neutral, you may even consider starting a new character, depending on how far along you are. Some "pirates" will goad a player into making the first kill in monitored/guarded space, so that s/he gives up his/her faction protection. The best thing to do is to stay in nation space and never shoot at another player unless you are really confident in what you are doing. Eventually, you will fall in with the right group.

Remember... "sticks and stones..."

Sticks and stones will reduce my health but faction standing hurts forever!!!!!

I didn't drop to hated, just neutral. I was only -140 ish after the incident and after killing nearly a hundred bots I am now -117. I will try trade stuff but I was doing that when I got into bother. I was in the yellow section and did not think I would get in trouble until I went out of the yellow areas. I was a bit flustered as I was being shot so did not notice any onscreen messages. Does not seem fair that they can shoot me with no penalty and I get a penalty for defending myself.
If it is in a yellow area but the red NFZ is not below the cross-hairs, can I shoot back?
I am not going to start again, I will just keep on as best I can.

hahahahaha

There's no penalty for anyone shooting (unless done inside a NFZ, and that penalty applies to all equally)--only killing. Remember that, and remember what you were told when you left the training sector: NOWHERE IS TOTALLY SAFE, YOU DUMB NOOB.

Look at it this way: things are going to be a little more interesting for your character from now on.

If the red NFZ warning is not below your HUD you will not be penalized for damaging another ship, but you will be penalized for destroying another ship if that ship is Admired by the faction controlling the space you are in, as Pizzasgood stated. If this were the case you would get the yellow "cease fire!" warning. If you were inside the NFZ and had damaged another ship, or had another ship damaged you, the Strike Force and Station Guards would have attacked the offender immediately (and you would have been allowed to defend yourself).

When flying, there are really 2 things to pay immediate attention to and 1 thing to keep in the back of your mind at all times:

1) Are you inside the NFZ?

2) If outside, is the sector you are in "Guarded", "Monitored", or "Unmonitored"? (displayed on HUD)

3) Keep in mind your faction standing (Your PDA -> Character -> Faction Standings) with the faction that controls the area you are in, and be aware of who else is in your vicinity.

Let me add: Watch your radar, and consider setting a "PC Only" prox warning at 2000m or so. This will give you an audio alert each time another player gets within engagement range.

Thanks for the advice about the warning when others are within 2000m. Good idea. I guess I will just have to be careful where I kill pirates from now on.

FYI, doing the procurement missions will probably be a lot faster than killing bots (where killing bots is good is when you're hated, so you can't even take missions). Plus, those are also the best missions for leveling up your trade license, so you kill two birds with one stone.

If I'm closing on you at full boost in a Valk or Hound, 2000m is not going to be enough time for you to evade me in your crap ship unless you're already sitting at the dock. VO is not blessed with an overabundance of PCs, so set the prox alert to the full 5000m and PC Only.

At least you'll have the best warning you can get.

I will try these prox settings, thanks. Can pirates get away with killing because they don't care about standing generally? I am not against fighting back, seems quite fun and my new ship isn't that crap anymore and my weapons are improved as well. Just want to make sure it is me versus them without worrying about standing being lost. I can no longer buy the best stuff they have available which is a pain. So is unmonitored the only place I can fight back with impunity?

It depends.

Not greyspace so much as unmonitored space and places where they aren't admired with the local faction. There are unmonitored sectors within UIT space (all stations are monitored/guarded, however). If you can get them to shoot you within the NFZ, their standing with the local faction will drop to Hated for the next 15 minutes or until they die, whichever happens first, making them fair game. (But note that the NFZ rules still apply to you as well, regardless of the standing of the enemy.) And there are some pirates like me, who don't bother to maintain high standings everywhere because we're pirates, not mafia.

Stations within greyspace still have penalties, they just tend to be weaker (except for Corvus, who simply don't care). All non-station sectors in greyspace are unmonitored though, including wormholes.

Hey LEWI5777,

I'd like to commend you on how you go about the game, you are displaying the right mentality in shooting back and trying to get good and get even.

If you haven't already, certainly check out the targetless plugin, it makes it much easier to see who is around and target who you want to target - although I don't know how that works on android devices.

In UIT space, always be conscious of which sub-faction you are in. Say you are at an Axia station, if you are not admired+ with Axia then everyone can kill you without penalty. Conversely, if you are harassed by a player that is not admired with the local faction, you can attack him/her without problem. If you are not admired but he is, you can kill him but that will cost you a lot of faction, so only do it if you've decided to not care about that faction. If both of you are admired, it might be wiser to try to flee, since being killed is cheaper than suffering a huge faction hit.

When I was a newbie I killed Savet in his greyhound in Verasi O-7 and tanked my UIT standing. 10 months later Phaserlight described me as the 'most notorious pirate in VO'.

Vendetta is a journey, it is different for every player. In order for the journey to have its highs, it must have corresponding lows. You never know where you might end up.

Now I'm a Serco Nationalist and most pirates dislike me for instance!