Hello, everyone!

I'm a new player and I love the game so far, but I have a lot of questions. I would love for an experienced player to mentor me (I'm Itani if it matters). Or if someone could just answer some questions here, I'd really appreciate that too.

I play on mobile with a controller. I'm interested in all kinds of combat, especially PvP.

I got to 4/4/2/2/1 and I don't know what to do next. I joined the military, but I get smoked nearly instantly in those missions. I only managed a few lucky kills, but it didn't seem to be worth all the lost ships. My combat and light weapons licenses aren't progressing anymore after level 4. Do I need to subscribe to get higher levels?

Why doesn't autofire work in Deneb? Someone told me that I can use designate enemy to enable it. But i'm not sure how to turn this option on. I typed "/designateenemy" into the chat, does that mean it should be working now?

If I joined the military, does it mean I'm an Itani nationalist now? What are the possible paths to take for a combat pilot? Someone told me that if I'm an Itani nationalist, and I want to do PvP, then I should join a guild and get a mentor there to help me. How do I do that?

Thanks in advance guys, I appreciate any help!

While I too am a total noob, I can answer one of your questions: F2P players are license capped at 4. I'm sure one of the more experienced players will be along to answer the rest for you.
Glad you're liking the game, and welcome! :-)

When in PvP (or Deneb I guess?) Designate enemy needs to be done on while targeting someone to make autofire work. Best call us to use droidbuttons and create a button that does /designateenemy for you.

Oh and you have to do it on every single player you plan to fight

What's the difference between f2p and Lite subscription? I just bought Lite and my licenses seem to still be capped at level 4 =( What was the point then lol. Is it only premium to go beyond level 4?

F2P = Free to Play on mobile, license capped at 4/4/4/4/4
Lite = Same as F2P, but you can also play on PC!
Premium = same as the other two, but no limits

Thanks danstr.

Also: https://www.vendetta-online.com/h/faq_general.html

Thanks for clearing that up, guys. I read the FAQ, but I assumed for some reason that the level cap would be higher on Lite than on F2P. Oh well, that's ok, I got the monthly premium now ^____^

This game is soooooooo good. I just can't put it down. Very complicated tho, in terms of console commands and whatnot, but I hope to figure it out slowly...

Now I'm looking to get into some PvP and the autoaim thing is going to be a big problem it looks like. I found the designate enemy button, by longpressing mission on the phone screen. Too bad that when you change the buttong to designate target, it doesn't also change the function of the corresponding controller button. Even if that was possible, it still sounds like a pain though, when you're in a large battle, you have to taget every single enemy and then press "designate enemy" for the autofire to work on that enemy? Am I getting this right?

Isn't there a way to make everything an enemy? Or at least everything that you target? I've seen some talks of that in the chat, they do it with plugins or something. Complicated!

Also, I searched the forum and found this in a post by raybondo about autofire:

"It decides when to auto-fire if the last weapon in your primary weapon group is calculated to be able to hit the target, you are outside the No-Fire Zone, and your target is an enemy (GetFriendlyStatus(target)==0)."

Is /Getfriendlystatus(target)==0 a command to make all your targets enemies automatically? That would be great, but something is telling me that it's not that simple...

Basically, you only need the designate enemy if the target isn't already an enemy (red dot) on your radar. In some situations, autofire simply will not work no matter what you do (at stations it will not work, and in some situations it simply will not fire unless you are hit first), so it is always a better idea to learn to live without it if you can.

Getfriendlystatus(target) is not a command you can directly type in, it is a Lua command. You do not need plugins to get ahead, they just help a lot. But even with the best plugins, and all the knowledge of the best, autofire will fail you time and time again. Learn to shoot manually, especially if you have the use of a controller.

BTW, that's not entirely true, because in defend the border missions, even though the Serco bots are red on the radar, I STILL have to desegnate enemy for autofire to work. Thanks for the reply though. It was exactly what I was afraid to hear lol.

This sucks, it's so awkward to hold the controller to fire manually and be able to roll at the same time. It makes the whole experience pretty uncomfortable, because I have to focus on the controller and the way I hold it, more than focus on the game. It's bad enough that I can't even strafe diagonally on the controller with the default setup (only right/left or up/down, but not at the same time), but manual fire makes controls totally unwieldy in combat...

- Maybe someone experienced who uses manual fire with a controller can share their controller setup?

- Also I'd like to get more opinions on autofire, from people who try to use it almost exclusively. Their tips on how to do it.

Although it was very uncomfortable to play with manual fire, my results didn't seem to be much worse. So I guess I can use it when I have to. But playing with autofire is just so much more enjoyable =)))

I have another couple of questions

1) In defend the border mission I got to the stage where only one large enemy ship was left. It had shields on (but strangely, the shields didn't show up in target info in upper right, like the do with hive queens for example, there's a separate bar for the shields). Anyway, I couldn't do any damage to it with blasters. When I got close, it fired homing missles (I was pretty proud of dodging most of them). What was I supposed to do in this mission specifically? And how are shields disabled in general?

2) I'm stuck in the mission Lesson Amondg the Stars. One last annoying bot just keeps turboing in huge circles around the whole sector. I spent about an hour trying to cut it off, but even when I did, it flew by so fast that I couldn't land a single hit. Are homing missles maybe a good idea for this type of situation? Is this some kind of a bug in the mission and it's a matter of luck to kill all the bots before they get a chance to start running away all the time?

3) I'm looking for new rewarding activities in the game, fighting bots is getting boring tbh. I feels like i'm missing out. I mean, the game is so huge, you can do almost anything in it, but I don't know how. I want to get into the social aspect of the game more, interact with other players, team up for missions, or fight each other or whatever... What do you guys suggest I try?

I'm a complete noob, but I really want to learn! I'll be very greatful for detailed answers to this post from experienced players. And If anyone wants to train me in duelling, that would be awesome. I'm willing to pay credits for good lessons (I'm guessing those kinds of transactions are possible in the game, but I'm not sure).

Thanks again guys, you were very helpful so far, I just need someone to hold my hand a little longer and show me the ropes. I'm totally commited to being an active player and an active member of the community. I'm really looking forward to your replies ;)

Have a great day, everyone!

Yeah, you are right, in some situations autofire simply does not work when really it should. TCS does kind of allow you to define who is a red dot or not based upon faction, whether they are AI etc etc but even with that setup and working, autofire will still fail from time to time. This may get fixed, it may not so for now I would learn to fly without it.

I do use a controller (Moga Power Pro on mobile and PS4 pad on PC) so my layout reflects most conventional controllers, but my setup isn't for the faint of movement; it is just what I find best for me. The defaults are terrible, imho so it would be my advice to at least make these changes:

Left Stick: Pitch and Yaw (You might want to play with axis reversed, i do not)
Right Stick: Strafes U/D/L/R (You will need to play with inverted axis, as by default, stick down strafes up)
D-Pad: Targeting and sector list / nav menu (You don't need a PDA button, or a mission button; sector list or nav menu opens the PDA)
Triggers: Rolling
L1+R1: Firing
ABXY: Thrust +/-, Brakes and Turbo
Start/Select: Activate
Chords: Set to whatever you would expect pressing A+B or X+Y would be (for example, I set Y+B to turbo, as I have Y set to turbo, so if I press Y+B accidentally I still want to turbo, not open a stupid menu)

Play with it, there is no perfect setup. Even with my setup I find things that I have to think more about than with a mouse+kb style setup, but I feel I have a way better strafe ability, even if aiming is harder. Oh, and you do not need a million ways to open the PDA, just 1 will do, you have a touch screen :)

As for the rest, I'm not really in a position to answer. Everyone is a pirate, they just do not know it yet.

Thank you sooooo much!!! Very nice setup, I wouldn't have thought of that. I'm used to aiming and strafing with right and left respectively, but i see that you switched it to be able to aim and apply thrust with the buttons at the same time. But i agree that all strafing should be on one stick...

I'm going to try your setup, but reversed and changed up a little. I'll reverse the left and right sticks and use Dpad for thrust and targeting, i think.

I see what the main tradeoff here is. Your setup as opposed to the default loses the ability to strafe and thrust at the same time, BUT gains the ability to strafe and strafe at the same time =) I can't imagine how it changes the combat style, I'll have to try it.

Also, I don't think I need separate buttons for braking and turbo, I'm fine with using the trigger clicks. You don't use them at all? Also, I'm sure that I don't need a separate button for chat. I also noticed that your setup has no buttong for Flight Assist. I think I need that one. Do you just use physics mode all the time? That's so hardcore, man =)

What are Chords?

And what's TCS?

How can I bind designate enemy to a button? It can't be done in regular controller setup. I've noted what you said about manual fire - I can do it if i have to, but I don't want to do it all the time just yet. Maybe I'll slowly transition to that later.

Also, how do you open the nav page with one button? there is no such option in the regular controller setup. It only has "show sector list" but i don't need that.

See, the thing is, i've had this problem a lot. Say i'm low on health and want to run away from the sector to repair before they kill me. So i turbo away from the action in a random direction. I haven't learned to be able to tell where a jump point is without having it selected. The thingy in the bottom of the center hud is supposed to show that? Anyway, so i turbo away to a safe distance to open up the nav menu and select a jump point. Currently i have to first open up the mission log or the sector list FIRST, only then i can switch to nav menu. That's why i lose precious seconds without being able to turbo. And it's always enough for them to catch up and finish me off. I figure that if i could get right to the nav menu with a press of a button, it might save me a second. Or am i just doing it wrong? Is there a better and safer way to run away?

You can bind a button to Navigation under Keyboard, it really is the best PDA screen to have on-hand. Changing to read mission text or whatever isn't as painful as needing to set a quick navpoint :)

See, you may think I cannot use thrust while strafing and firing and rolling, but believe me I can :) heh that is kind of what I meant by "movement" - I dont need to roll in both directions, nor do I need to continually fire secondary guns so when I need to adjust speed a finger can be placed on the right buttons while keeping others free for a left roll or primary firing; only jumping back to the triggers as needed. I never use flight assist.

"Chords" are dual button presses like Y+B or X+B etc, some can be bound in the controller page. By default they bring up menus, like the help page or jettison. Unless you really need these pages I suggest you change them to something else, again, just a suggestion :)

TCS is a plugin, the ToasterCrushSuite. AKA Pirate Toolkit. It has a few things, the most useful being MakeFriends, which allows you to customise your radar dots to your liking. If you never learn to install another plugin, fine, but you should get TCS.

As for binding designatenemy I do not use it, but if there is a command for it, you could try /bind BUTTON designateenemy (where BUTTON is an actual BUTTON, and whatever the command actually is)

/bind <keyboard button> nav
I thnk in the keyboard config screen its called nav there too.

You can also solve the problem of potentially hostile players showing as green on your radar by becoming hated by all the nations!

Ask me in game if you see me on 100. I enjoy helping new pilots :)

Oh yeah I should add that I am a leftie, so my setup reflects that. You might want to swap it around totally. lol

The 5%! 5%!