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I know you've probably seen this kind of thing before, every time someone new started playing. But after 4 hours of having fun (my friend gave me his beta account)... I have some questions and a bit of a review of the game so far. Don't flame me if I'm redundant... I'm new ;)
1. Graphics. Not bad at all. Definitely good enough for me, and what really matters is the frame rate, not the graphics itself, anyways.
2. Sound. I really hope this music is coming soon folks ;). And I hope its good. For good space music, see Earth and Beyond.
3. Gameplay. This is a big category here.
a. I've seen ideas about weakening lateral thrusters. Don't. I love strafing ;).
b. The game's startup seems really, really bland. The tutorial isn't bad at all, but its the balance at the beginning (btw I'm Itani). Drone Is are still the only thing I can kill in large numbers without getting pounded, even though I now have two small weapons on a ship with 8500 armor. Drone IIs are barely possible, and anything above that is insanely hard. Looking through a few more systems, I see that the bots scale way too fast. I propose an idea to make combat a bit more reasonable, and also save us a lot of running back to base every 5 minutes to repair. A shield. Something that recharges when its not being hit. Something that can absorb enough damage to make armor more of a last-resort thing than your actual HP.
c. I'm guessing the fact that all the trade missions tell you to get the same 2 crates of ore is because the missions are standins, right?
d. The corporate espionage mission doesn't work--they didn't give me a scanner! Same with the mining mission.
e. Currently the ONLY way to get any decent experience is to run the beginner's combat mission (at least at the stations I've seen so far). Killing things without the mission doesn't even give combat experience, only light weapons (as thats what I'm using).
f. Where the heck can I buy Large Weapons? Don't see them anywhere.
g. Where is everyone? There were only 2 people on last night, one of them me!
One thing I would like to applaud you guys for is the INSANE smoothness of your engine. It is the most lag-resistant engine I've ever seen, combined with incredibly low-latency servers. I felt like I was playing a single player game in terms of the smoothness of it. If this stays when more people log on... well, that'll be even better.
If I'm wrong about things (which I probably am!), don't flame me... just correct me, I'd love to know ;).
BTW, I do want to note just one thing... what the hell are you thinking with a release date of October 5th?! This game needs mining, crafting, a revamped mission system, a storyline, a more complete backstory, more items, guild features, loot-only items, etc... I don't see that happening in a month. I would rather wait the extra 6 months for the game and have it full of content and fun rather than have yet another unfinished game be released. You've probably seen the record--Anarchy Online is one of the biggies. But countless games have failed due to early release dates--don't make this one of them.
And if you already have plans for this stuff, as I said, don't flame me--just correct me, as I'm new and I don't know everything :)
1. Graphics. Not bad at all. Definitely good enough for me, and what really matters is the frame rate, not the graphics itself, anyways.
2. Sound. I really hope this music is coming soon folks ;). And I hope its good. For good space music, see Earth and Beyond.
3. Gameplay. This is a big category here.
a. I've seen ideas about weakening lateral thrusters. Don't. I love strafing ;).
b. The game's startup seems really, really bland. The tutorial isn't bad at all, but its the balance at the beginning (btw I'm Itani). Drone Is are still the only thing I can kill in large numbers without getting pounded, even though I now have two small weapons on a ship with 8500 armor. Drone IIs are barely possible, and anything above that is insanely hard. Looking through a few more systems, I see that the bots scale way too fast. I propose an idea to make combat a bit more reasonable, and also save us a lot of running back to base every 5 minutes to repair. A shield. Something that recharges when its not being hit. Something that can absorb enough damage to make armor more of a last-resort thing than your actual HP.
c. I'm guessing the fact that all the trade missions tell you to get the same 2 crates of ore is because the missions are standins, right?
d. The corporate espionage mission doesn't work--they didn't give me a scanner! Same with the mining mission.
e. Currently the ONLY way to get any decent experience is to run the beginner's combat mission (at least at the stations I've seen so far). Killing things without the mission doesn't even give combat experience, only light weapons (as thats what I'm using).
f. Where the heck can I buy Large Weapons? Don't see them anywhere.
g. Where is everyone? There were only 2 people on last night, one of them me!
One thing I would like to applaud you guys for is the INSANE smoothness of your engine. It is the most lag-resistant engine I've ever seen, combined with incredibly low-latency servers. I felt like I was playing a single player game in terms of the smoothness of it. If this stays when more people log on... well, that'll be even better.
If I'm wrong about things (which I probably am!), don't flame me... just correct me, I'd love to know ;).
BTW, I do want to note just one thing... what the hell are you thinking with a release date of October 5th?! This game needs mining, crafting, a revamped mission system, a storyline, a more complete backstory, more items, guild features, loot-only items, etc... I don't see that happening in a month. I would rather wait the extra 6 months for the game and have it full of content and fun rather than have yet another unfinished game be released. You've probably seen the record--Anarchy Online is one of the biggies. But countless games have failed due to early release dates--don't make this one of them.
And if you already have plans for this stuff, as I said, don't flame me--just correct me, as I'm new and I don't know everything :)
welcome to the community
As a long term tester i'll go over some of the items you touched on, you have indeed hit many things that we have disscussed.
1. Graphics. Not bad at all. Definitely good enough for me, and what really matters is the frame rate, not the graphics itself, anyways. (i couldnt agree more )
2. Sound. I really hope this music is coming soon folks ;). And I hope its good. For good space music, see Earth and Beyond.
(see thread http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/1/5780 )
3b At present the startup is somewhat slow, most of the content is fairly limited right now, and the full mission system is not in place. In theory there will be other low level missions. The shield idea has been discussed many times, and at present it appears that it will not be added. There is some balancing to do with the "fun" factor of the game as a whole, however much of that is tied to the missions.
c. I'm guessing the fact that all the trade missions tell you to get the same 2 crates of ore is because the missions are standins, right?
(To a point. I'm actually wondering if the mission list is malfunctioning at the moment, because every station used to have different versions of the same missions. (eg you'd always have 2 cargo transport missions in your home areas, but each station would have different cargo transport missions) at the moment all the missions appear to be remaining the same no matter where you go until you do them.)
d. The corporate espionage mission doesn't work--they didn't give me a scanner! Same with the mining mission.
(you have to have an empty small weapons port on the ship when you accept the mission. Both of these missions are however buggy. (see the bugs forum for details)
<<<e. Currently the ONLY way to get any decent experience is to run the beginner's combat mission (at least at the stations I've seen so far). Killing things without the mission doesn't even give combat experience, only light weapons (as thats what I'm using).>>>
Once again this is primarily part of the mission system being not fully active and ready to test.
<<f. Where the heck can I buy Large Weapons? Don't see them anywhere.>>
Once you have gained some combat levels you should get access to the warthog class of ships. since they mount a large weapon you will then get access to some large weapons as well.
<<g. Where is everyone? There were only 2 people on last night, one of them me!>>
It varies how many people are on. Mostly the community is fairly small at the moment due to the test being between content. It went from a small tight PVP intensive universe that had little to no roleplaying options to a huge 7000+ sector universe that has a lot of RP framework in it, but no actuall content.
<<One thing I would like to applaud you guys for is the INSANE smoothness of your engine. It is the most lag-resistant engine I've ever seen, combined with incredibly low-latency servers. I felt like I was playing a single player game in terms of the smoothness of it. If this stays when more people log on... well, that'll be even better.>>
At one point in the old universe we had 60+ people in a single sector, weapons firing everywhere and i had a 197 ping on a dialup connection using a 56k modem. The vendetta test has actually been going on for approx 2 years, most of it designed to make sure the network was stable.
<<BTW, I do want to note just one thing... what the hell are you thinking with a release date of October 5th?! This game needs mining, crafting, a revamped mission system, a storyline, a more complete backstory, more items, guild features, loot-only items, etc... I don't see that happening in a month. I would rather wait the extra 6 months for the game and have it full of content and fun rather than have yet another unfinished game be released. You've probably seen the record--Anarchy Online is one of the biggies. But countless games have failed due to early release dates--don't make this one of them.>>
Much of the content you are wanting is planned, the backstory is ready and has been written for years. (maybe the devs will let us see it soon) However Guildsoftware is not a multinational corporation with millions of dollars to spend. if they don't begin to recieve a return on investment in the near future, there may not be a vendetta. In january they were a month from closing doors for good. They managed to get an investor and have been able to press forward, but some of the rush is financial in nature. I'm sure the devs would love another 6 months to get more stuff they want in the game, so if you have a few tens of thoulsands of dollars you can give them, i'm certain theyd love it. :)
As a long term tester i'll go over some of the items you touched on, you have indeed hit many things that we have disscussed.
1. Graphics. Not bad at all. Definitely good enough for me, and what really matters is the frame rate, not the graphics itself, anyways. (i couldnt agree more )
2. Sound. I really hope this music is coming soon folks ;). And I hope its good. For good space music, see Earth and Beyond.
(see thread http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/1/5780 )
3b At present the startup is somewhat slow, most of the content is fairly limited right now, and the full mission system is not in place. In theory there will be other low level missions. The shield idea has been discussed many times, and at present it appears that it will not be added. There is some balancing to do with the "fun" factor of the game as a whole, however much of that is tied to the missions.
c. I'm guessing the fact that all the trade missions tell you to get the same 2 crates of ore is because the missions are standins, right?
(To a point. I'm actually wondering if the mission list is malfunctioning at the moment, because every station used to have different versions of the same missions. (eg you'd always have 2 cargo transport missions in your home areas, but each station would have different cargo transport missions) at the moment all the missions appear to be remaining the same no matter where you go until you do them.)
d. The corporate espionage mission doesn't work--they didn't give me a scanner! Same with the mining mission.
(you have to have an empty small weapons port on the ship when you accept the mission. Both of these missions are however buggy. (see the bugs forum for details)
<<<e. Currently the ONLY way to get any decent experience is to run the beginner's combat mission (at least at the stations I've seen so far). Killing things without the mission doesn't even give combat experience, only light weapons (as thats what I'm using).>>>
Once again this is primarily part of the mission system being not fully active and ready to test.
<<f. Where the heck can I buy Large Weapons? Don't see them anywhere.>>
Once you have gained some combat levels you should get access to the warthog class of ships. since they mount a large weapon you will then get access to some large weapons as well.
<<g. Where is everyone? There were only 2 people on last night, one of them me!>>
It varies how many people are on. Mostly the community is fairly small at the moment due to the test being between content. It went from a small tight PVP intensive universe that had little to no roleplaying options to a huge 7000+ sector universe that has a lot of RP framework in it, but no actuall content.
<<One thing I would like to applaud you guys for is the INSANE smoothness of your engine. It is the most lag-resistant engine I've ever seen, combined with incredibly low-latency servers. I felt like I was playing a single player game in terms of the smoothness of it. If this stays when more people log on... well, that'll be even better.>>
At one point in the old universe we had 60+ people in a single sector, weapons firing everywhere and i had a 197 ping on a dialup connection using a 56k modem. The vendetta test has actually been going on for approx 2 years, most of it designed to make sure the network was stable.
<<BTW, I do want to note just one thing... what the hell are you thinking with a release date of October 5th?! This game needs mining, crafting, a revamped mission system, a storyline, a more complete backstory, more items, guild features, loot-only items, etc... I don't see that happening in a month. I would rather wait the extra 6 months for the game and have it full of content and fun rather than have yet another unfinished game be released. You've probably seen the record--Anarchy Online is one of the biggies. But countless games have failed due to early release dates--don't make this one of them.>>
Much of the content you are wanting is planned, the backstory is ready and has been written for years. (maybe the devs will let us see it soon) However Guildsoftware is not a multinational corporation with millions of dollars to spend. if they don't begin to recieve a return on investment in the near future, there may not be a vendetta. In january they were a month from closing doors for good. They managed to get an investor and have been able to press forward, but some of the rush is financial in nature. I'm sure the devs would love another 6 months to get more stuff they want in the game, so if you have a few tens of thoulsands of dollars you can give them, i'm certain theyd love it. :)
k now to respond to your game play questions
b. The reason that you cant kill any of the drone II yet is because unlike most games, just because you have the best stuff doesn't mean you can slaughter anything that comes in your path. Most of the vets can kill drone II in a bus(the free thing u get when u first start to play). Each drone you fight will require you to be a more and more skillfull pilot and there is no one stragety that works for all bots in general. and the shield idea has been batted around before. i think ppl are considering a "gizmo" slot where putting a shild generator will be possible. also if armor was a last resort thing then PvP will drag on wayy to long.
C. Once you start to get better and better trade licences the type of trade misions will change. And the type of ship you have affects it. in a vulture they will not tell u to carry 10 crates of x simply because it does not hav ethe space
D. The mining missions and espo missions do work. you have to have a empty small weapons slot open when selecting the mission, i think in the next update the devs will change it so that if u dont have a small weapons slot open, it will overflow to you extra weapons menu and u can select and replace it into a slot. as for music, see the music list thread, some of that music is pretty good http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/1/5780
E. Yes using a mission is the best way to get good experience.
F. The weapons that are avialbe to you will change with every station you visit, if you visit a mining station dont expect many weapons for sale, but if you are visiting a barracks then you will find some good weapons for sale, also your lvls and faction standing play a part in what weapons and ships that the station offer you, if am itani also, and while i am allowed to dock in serco stations i dont expect very good weapons for sale because i am at dislike with them, if ur at hate ur not even allowed to dock
G. dont worry, the stress test has not been opened up yet(and i am starting to wonder when it will be) when that happens many many new players will join the fold
as for the rest of your post i dont believe that mining is going to be part of the carrer options, there is already a nice back story and story to this game, the items are pretty plentiful, as for crafting i cannot comment on that because there has been debt wether to have it or not. and guild features are coming "soon (tm)" and the devs love their game, they want it to succeed.. i trust them to release it when they believe it ready
darth out
b. The reason that you cant kill any of the drone II yet is because unlike most games, just because you have the best stuff doesn't mean you can slaughter anything that comes in your path. Most of the vets can kill drone II in a bus(the free thing u get when u first start to play). Each drone you fight will require you to be a more and more skillfull pilot and there is no one stragety that works for all bots in general. and the shield idea has been batted around before. i think ppl are considering a "gizmo" slot where putting a shild generator will be possible. also if armor was a last resort thing then PvP will drag on wayy to long.
C. Once you start to get better and better trade licences the type of trade misions will change. And the type of ship you have affects it. in a vulture they will not tell u to carry 10 crates of x simply because it does not hav ethe space
D. The mining missions and espo missions do work. you have to have a empty small weapons slot open when selecting the mission, i think in the next update the devs will change it so that if u dont have a small weapons slot open, it will overflow to you extra weapons menu and u can select and replace it into a slot. as for music, see the music list thread, some of that music is pretty good http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/1/5780
E. Yes using a mission is the best way to get good experience.
F. The weapons that are avialbe to you will change with every station you visit, if you visit a mining station dont expect many weapons for sale, but if you are visiting a barracks then you will find some good weapons for sale, also your lvls and faction standing play a part in what weapons and ships that the station offer you, if am itani also, and while i am allowed to dock in serco stations i dont expect very good weapons for sale because i am at dislike with them, if ur at hate ur not even allowed to dock
G. dont worry, the stress test has not been opened up yet(and i am starting to wonder when it will be) when that happens many many new players will join the fold
as for the rest of your post i dont believe that mining is going to be part of the carrer options, there is already a nice back story and story to this game, the items are pretty plentiful, as for crafting i cannot comment on that because there has been debt wether to have it or not. and guild features are coming "soon (tm)" and the devs love their game, they want it to succeed.. i trust them to release it when they believe it ready
darth out
About the Large Weapons... I bought a Warthog (later sold it for a 2-small-weapon ship) but I still didn't see any large weapons...
hmmmmm, the devs may have broken something in the level progression then. when they started the levels out the same combat level that got the warthog got your first heavy weapon option as well.
We all completely agree with 3b. That's what we're working on next. The corporate espionage missions weren't even intentionally released by their author; obviously improvements are necessary there.
Ray's wife was caught in the Large Weapon Newbie Conundrum yesterday (you need to kill stuff with a large weapon to receive a large weapon license... and you need a large weapon license to buy your first large weapon...). I think almost all players online now never notice this because they established their levels before the bonus points were changed. Anyway, something else to fix.
One thing the game does not need is any more backstory. The printed manual is currently 150 pages because of the backstory. If anything it needs a condensed version. Certainly it's fair to say that the game itself needs to introduce its backstory to some extent, instead of just existing as a part of the manual.
Ray's wife was caught in the Large Weapon Newbie Conundrum yesterday (you need to kill stuff with a large weapon to receive a large weapon license... and you need a large weapon license to buy your first large weapon...). I think almost all players online now never notice this because they established their levels before the bonus points were changed. Anyway, something else to fix.
One thing the game does not need is any more backstory. The printed manual is currently 150 pages because of the backstory. If anything it needs a condensed version. Certainly it's fair to say that the game itself needs to introduce its backstory to some extent, instead of just existing as a part of the manual.
>>The printed manual is currently 150 pages because of the backstory. If anything it needs a condensed version.
Whoa! Will this be availiable to d/l or is it one of the benefits of the retail package?
On topic:
I think another problem is that there is no real incentive to do missions and progress licences other then being bored, there is no GOAL to try and complete... (e.g. Jedi thingie in SWG, although thats a bad example since I am thinking of a more nation-oriented goal, not individual-oriented) I am hoping the backstory introduction will fix that.
Whoa! Will this be availiable to d/l or is it one of the benefits of the retail package?
On topic:
I think another problem is that there is no real incentive to do missions and progress licences other then being bored, there is no GOAL to try and complete... (e.g. Jedi thingie in SWG, although thats a bad example since I am thinking of a more nation-oriented goal, not individual-oriented) I am hoping the backstory introduction will fix that.
Yeah, mind giving us a PDF or something of it? ^_^
The backstory will go online on the website sometime soon (yeah yeah, I know, the inevitable "soon"). The printed version will be a benefit of the retail package.
We want to create missions with larger story-arcs and more defined "goals". Ie.. subfactions that you can join and all sorts of other things. But we're still so lacking in "basic" missions that we haven't had to chance to get to the "Jedi" sort of progression yet.
We want to create missions with larger story-arcs and more defined "goals". Ie.. subfactions that you can join and all sorts of other things. But we're still so lacking in "basic" missions that we haven't had to chance to get to the "Jedi" sort of progression yet.
Oh god, not a pdf!
Nobody really answered his questions about /guild and such,
Oh, by the way... when I delete characters, and then relog, the characters come back...
And also, one thing you guys will need to make this game succeed is advertising. For every Everquest, there are tons of failures, many because of lack of advertising! Not all advertising costs that much money. There are many cheap ways to get lots of players, or at least get the name out:
1. Penny Arcade/Ctrl-Alt-Del/etc ads. Not that expensive, and its EXACTLY the audience you're looking for.
2. Have beta testers go around on a bunch of top gaming/MMORPG forums are proclaim VO Jumpgate 2 ;). Release a teaser video they can link to :).
3. One word: GOOGLEBOMBING :). For example, Spacefed.com (which does a couple of pretty decent HTML-based games) has a massive set of basically google-cheating text, links etc, and all of the hundreds of pages on its site link to every other page (all the links, etc are size 1 and same color as BG). Basically, its got itself near the top of Google's search if you look for the right terms. Its evil, but hey, it works!
1. Penny Arcade/Ctrl-Alt-Del/etc ads. Not that expensive, and its EXACTLY the audience you're looking for.
2. Have beta testers go around on a bunch of top gaming/MMORPG forums are proclaim VO Jumpgate 2 ;). Release a teaser video they can link to :).
3. One word: GOOGLEBOMBING :). For example, Spacefed.com (which does a couple of pretty decent HTML-based games) has a massive set of basically google-cheating text, links etc, and all of the hundreds of pages on its site link to every other page (all the links, etc are size 1 and same color as BG). Basically, its got itself near the top of Google's search if you look for the right terms. Its evil, but hey, it works!
If I found that Vendetta Online were Googlebombing, I don't think I'd care how good it was, I'd refuse to sign up simply based on that.
Agreed. In my not so humble opinion, Guild should keep it on the level. Advertise legitimately.
True. I've always felt spacefed was cheating a bit... plus their HTML files are so massive that they are larger than the images on the page :).
Strategy First will be advertising for us. We want to do penny-arcade as well.
Nice! This has got to be the first time I've run into a group of guys making a game, only to find that they know EXACTLY what they're doing, EVERY step of the process, almost like they've done it before :).
Aren't they great?! They're even potty trained!
(I won't tell on you, Andy...shhhhh)
(I won't tell on you, Andy...shhhhh)
ahh but do they clean up the pizza boxes we send them?