I've sat in the "right seat" of a couple of fighters, FM and at fighter speeds, the difference between "hard-to-see dots on the horizon" and "way too close for comfort" happens in the blink of an eye!

With just a couple of exceptions, I like the balance of speed that the Devs have settled on. In the future, when we are talking about much bigger distances, that may need to be changed but for now, IMO, it's just right.

As for maneuvering thrusters, I would imagine that the response we get from ours is way-faster than reality would dictate. :)

I just started playing, and I was wondering, why is the ships' maneauverability so slow? It's almost (if not) impossible to perform quick evasive maneauvers like looping or nose-up-and-brake, even with an Itani Valkyrie. Barrel rolls are also performed very slowly, as with all general control response, be it mouse, keyboard or joystick. Now, I don't know if it's a thought-of issue, but as a game designer/developer myself, I figured it's a matter of how gameplay was coded. I'm not posting that as a rant, Just wanted to know why the general maneauverability of all ships is so slow.

You can switch between "arcade" mode (with active compensators) and physics mode (compensators only work on your boosting velocity) with the ' key. Try it and notice the differences.

I think I made a thread exactly like this when I first started playing.
lol

part of the reason the responses are so low alexion is the same reason that the top speeds are so slow. Because it makes the game more playable and more entertaining.

It does feel a bit like an underwater sim till you adjust to it. I have to say the feel of the control is unlike any other I've used. Something about the 'friction'. I don't mean this as a good or bad comment just an observation that it may take a little playing to get used to the feel. For a lot of maneuvers you'll have to point-and-turbo-point-and-turbo rather than trying to use your 'impulse' thrusters.

The manuevering may be tweaked as time goes on, but what has been said before in this thread is correct: this isn't a flight sim and sometimes reality has been altered to make game play more fun. If you eliminate simulators from consideration and think about just about any other computer game, there is a great deal of unrealistic "physics" going on.

As for the "nose-up-and-brake", are you referring to the Immelmann? That wouldn't work in open space anyway.

I don't see why slower gameplay would make vendetta more fun unless it was more about tactics and strategy which is clearly NOT what vendetta's about. I'd very much like to see high speed combat in vendetta but the current energy weapons aren't suited for it and it would strengthen rockets even more so maybe it's better to leave it as it is for the moment.

Well the weapons are sort of the issue. Vendetta currently features a "twitch-based" combat system or style. It's similar to a FPS or "Space-Quake" in that straight-fire or semi-guided weapons are used. That's part of the appeal of the game IMO, and will be more striking and unusual when role-playing elements are added.

If we increase the speed then smart, fully-guided, fire-and-forget or large effect weapons would be necessary. Consider modern jet warfare, for example. That's been done and really isn't the concept that the devs have been going for. The devs have tried out realistic physics and speeds and have found them to be less fun. I use the "dev engine" quite frequently, and have found the increased speed to be nice for running away, but even at the lower speeds it's hard to draw a bead on an opponent before you've passed them.

I know several pilots and have flown in private planes on many occasions. The reality is that other planes are either hard-to-see dots on the horizon or they're way too close for comfort. Reality isn't always fun.

Yes: that is the core reason. We want you to be able to see your opponent. Otherwise it's combat between dots on the screen 3km away which shoot projectiles which move so fast they hit you before you see them, or all guided rockets. One variation would be to require everyone to zoom in on each other, but that's just not what we went for.

Alexion, here's a neat maneuver you *can* do in about a second if you pull it off right:

If someone is chasing you, boost away from them and switch to physics. Then let up on the turbo and pull a 270 degree turn such that your crosshairs swing past your pursuer, and when they do fire off a sunflare. Hit the boost again and you'll be headed off at a 90 degree angle, (hopefully) evading any return fire.

I call it the Twister. It works particularly well when you're being chased by multiple opponents ;).