This has just been shipped to an inbox near you (if you have the box checked in your account data, and a verified email address):

http://www.vendetta-online.com/newsletter.05.2014.html

It's mostly about the last few months, and some of the art development, but a few hints in there about upcoming gameplay, and some new event announcements!

I'll hopefully ship another newsletter before long that dives a bit deeper into the upcoming gameplay changes that will be a part of the Universe Redux.

The insets on http://download.vendetta-online.com/images/station1.newsletter.05.14.jpg look awesome. I am very excited (12 years of membership later) to see VO plays with truly massive stations.

Taking a gander at the concept art for the new Hornet design, I've gotta say that I'm not very keen on concepts 1 and 2; even with the stated intent to establish an 'ad hoc' UIT design aesthetic, they look too ramshackle and fragile for such a beefy fighter. Simple and no-nonsense would perhaps be more appropriate for a 'convenient' design in this case.

Concept #3 is probably my favorite of the lot, although I'm not sold on the canards. Maybe they're just too pointy?

As an aside, I wonder if the Hornet could maybe possibly get a proper in-game description along with the redesign? Looking at the current/old Hornet model, with it's largish wings and beefy intake ports, I've sometimes wondered if it was originally adapted from a terrestrial design in-universe much like the Vulture is said to be a descendant of the Serco Nighthawk.

Also, the huge stations built with modular components look fun to play with.

lol looks awaesome :)

Oh geez!

I'm really keen on the time the foretold capital stations appear in production. They look awesome!

Congratulations Guild software team!

I love the hornet concept. Pointy is good.

Dig the concept art!

Do we get any hints for what to look forward to on this event or is it going to be a big fat secret until everyone shows up?

I too, really like the concept art. Really awesome stuff.

Also looking forward to those Developer Run Events :-). Congratulations, Guild Software.

Very cool. My only hope is if that enormous spire-like capship station comes into existence it isn't completely obscurbed by fog so that we can really take in its epicness.

I kind of like #2, but vIsitor has a point. #4 with #6's canopy would probably be the best, perhaps also #6's wings (but keep #4's tail fins).

I think #1 would be cool as an independent ship in its own right.

Do we get any hints for what to look forward to on this event or is it going to be a big fat secret until everyone shows up?

We're still figuring it out, and probably will be "figuring it out as we go along" for a little while, determining what's fun and what works well. The first test event will be this coming Saturday.

Very cool. My only hope is if that enormous spire-like capship station comes into existence it isn't completely obscurbed by fog so that we can really take in its epicness.

We're modifying the engine for that explicit reason, amongst others (infinite rendering of asteroid fields, etc).

I love the hornet concept. Pointy is good.

Clearly, I sent along some pretty early Hornet concepts, while we're still looking at a number of different options. The final version will probably not be quite like any of the different options. But that's how the process of "concept" evaluation works.

I'd really like to keep the existing collision hull, to avoid any of the debate that happened with the Vulture. I kind of favor some modification to #5, without the vertical winglets.. or some other amalgamation of multiple ideas that bring in new "visual aspects" without straying too far from the current fundamental shape.

Plus, the other concepts could inspire entirely new ships, as people say.

Plus, the other concepts could inspire entirely new ships, as people say.

As people say?

Got any sketches of a new heavy bomber? :)

As people say?

Heh, well, Pizza said "I think #1 would be cool as an independent ship in its own right.", etc.

I don't have any bomber-specific art yet. I'm hitting the most time-critical stuff first, like capship-stations (the lack of which is legitimately holding back some more expansive gameplay).

1.9 ?

I have now lived to see everything :-)

The [insert relevant stuff we actually want] Redux has been "right around the corner" for years and years now. So nice drawings and whatnot, but I'll believe it when I see it.

Economy Redux is somewhere around the corner too? 2.0?

Maybe transfer to players the prerogative of crafting items and ships, and to set sell and buy prices of all stuff. From ore to ships and weapons.
Would be nice to have this type of content removed from NPCs and given to the players.

Incarnate nobody is going to have a debate about Hornets. They are all crap at the moment if you make them good people will commend you not debate about them. Hornets are widely considered to be the worst ship model whereas vultures have some of the top tier, which is why the vulture change was debated, but the hornet change would not be.

It needs improvement.

The hornet is a decent ship, it just doesn't do well in 1v1 PvP. That doesn't make it a bad ship, it just makes it a bad ship to you, TheRedSpy. Not all ships need to be as agile as a vulture or centurion to be considered good.

Really i like whole concept and grats....but guys ....i feel something missing from whole picture....not any word??

So many ppls await them....

Cheers...:)

Really i like whole concept and grats....but guys ....i feel something missing from whole picture....not any word??

This is a brief newsletter, it is not all things to all people, and it can't include everything that everyone is looking for. In the first post on this thread, I did mention the idea of a future newsletter more about gameplay development.