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Oct 10, 2004 Texe link
I got a beta key emailed to me last week and finally had a chance to sign up today. I'm an x-Earth & Beyond player who is looking for a new space-based, massively-multiplayer, combat/trade/explore type of game.
I tried Eve a while back and was having trouble getting into it - its pretty and all but there was something about it that I didn't like and that was the relentless pursuit of wealth above all else (or so it seemed to me).
Since that wasn't my bag I signed up to be eligible for the Vendetta beta test, and voila, here I am today. I've played maybe 3 hours and, at first, I wasn't sure that Vendetta was all that good (wow, my first impression wasn't that great). I think it was the first mission I took that got me killed like 3 times before I decided to abort the mission that had me very concerned. Since then I've tried a few different missions (killing bots) and all seems pretty good so far (although I have died once in this mission, but the xp seems ok).

My first question is about guilds - how does one get into a guild ? Since none of my real-life friends is playing this game I'm not sure how to hook up with a guild. Is there some 'monster' guild that I should be looking for ? A smaller guild ? Any suggestions ?

My second question is communications - why can I not seem to talk on anything other than the 'sector' channel when I am in space?? I can see 'channel 100' chat going on but I have no idea how to enter that channel when I'm in space. It's easy when I'm in a space station. God, this seems like such a stupid question but for some reason the operations of the comms are not intuitive to me.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.
Oct 10, 2004 roguelazer link
Aside from pressing F1 to view the ingame help, or reading the manual, or going into the Keyboard controls config, I do admit that it's hard to find out what buttons do what. :P Anyhow, to chat to channels in space, press T (shift-t). You can change channels by pressing t (lowercase t) and typing /join ###, where ### is the channel number.

As for guilds, well, a guild is a group of players oriented towards one goal. For example, the INM guild is a group of players dedicated towards being a Military. So you would join a guild that had similar goals to you. Perhaps if you were a trader, you'd join a trading guild. If you were a prospector, you might join a prospecting guild. Give it some time- it doesn't make sense to join on your first day.
Oct 10, 2004 Spellcast link
Welcome to vendetta.
Oct 11, 2004 sarahanne link
Welcome to VO

What about your 1st impression wasn't that good? Not enough info? No explaination of why you have a ship that is sooooo like a bus? Station inferface confusing?

What were you expecting? And what did you get? I'm curious to hear.
Oct 11, 2004 paedric link
Welcome to Vendetta Texe.

Sarahanne is our direct pipe to at least one of the Dev's ears. :-D

More info regarding your initial problems would be nice. I'm sure that anyone of us will also be willing to help in-game if you ask politely.

Anyway, here is the link to the omnipresent forum game FAQ. You might find it useful to peruse it at your leisure.
http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/1/6064
Oct 11, 2004 sarahanne link
Hey I'm allowed to do reconnaissance on my own. :P
Oct 11, 2004 Texe link
Thanks for the welcome :)

Perhaps I was looking for the intuitiveness of the GUI for starters. I guess I've still got lots of Earth and Beyond on my mind - perhaps that is unfair. But, when I was a newbie in E&B everything seemed pretty obvious - you point and click and things just seem to work naturally. As far as guilds went, there were plenty of guilds to choose from and they were all advertising their existance on the various in-game channels. In that game, I already knew someone so I just joined the guild he was in.
All my comparisions are gonna be to E&B - I'm sorry if this seems unfair but that's the game I knew and loved.

Graphics...
I find that some of the graphics in VO are not overly sharp and are almost 'fuzzy'. Conversely, the asteroids that I was prospecting were pretty, some even slowly rotating, which was pretty good. I guess the 'fuzzy' part would be the nav map and the ship/station GUIs - for example, the little graphics that show the weapons and such are really small and very fuzzy - can't really distinguish much detail there. The thing that made E&B immersive was the incredible array of 'stuff' for your ship. By 'stuff' I mean: weapons, devices, engines and shields. There were hundreds of them all with incredible detail and specifications - enough to keep one constantly researching the combinations of what worked great and not so great together. Is the array of 'stuff' for ones ship vast like this in VO??
And, ya, why is my ship shaped like a bus, lol - this is a pretty boring shape wouldn't you say ?? Give me something that is more exciting --- PLEASE !!!!!
Other than that I find the ship GUI to be 'ok' - again I'm used to E&B where your ship interface had lots of eye candy and plenty to look at and interact with.

Missions...
I took my first mission within minutes of the introductory tutorial. I was dead within seconds of jumping into whatever quadrant it had me jumping into (still in my 'home' territories). I had no idea what killed me or what I did to provoke the attack. I tried the mission 3 times thinking that the first time was a fluke or something - same result each time *sigh*. So much for the newbie missions?? I'm on a much nicer mission now where I'm taking on bots for some initial combat type xp - so far so good.

Flying...
Why the 3000M distance from large objects in order to 'warp'? I find this rather unpleasant as I know have to try and find empty space if I want to warp away - this is tough if you are being pursued by enemies, at least it is for me with such a feeble ship. Other than that, the mouse/keyboard combination seems to work for me.
When I set a destination in my nav screen why can't I have something show up in the heads up display in my ship that tells me generally where I should be pointed??
Something I haven't tried but can you get from one square in a sector to another without jumping (i.e. just point and drive in that general direction - hmmm... wait, I guess not cause there's nothing in the heads up that tells you where you are going - unless I am missing something, which is entirely possible).

Trade...
How do I know if a particular trade good is in demand at another station?? Do I need to fly to other stations and see what they have in their inventory and then bring them something that is NOT in their inventory?? This question is perhaps a bit premature as I have not any serious trading.

Storyline...
When E&B was in its glorydays there was always this backstory that was quite interesting and kept you playing in order to see what would happen next. I have yet to see anything of a 'back story' in VO (other that what I read on the site). I have yet to get a sense of 'what is going on' in VO :-\ Maybe I'm missing something??
Sometimes the storyline would play directly into the types of missions that were available or which missions someone should take for extra bonuses and such - I don't see that in VO - is this kind of thing planned??

Player Interaction...
I've only played a few hours and have yet to actually see another player so I have no comment here yet other than 'where is everybody' ??

Summary...
When I said my first impressions weren't great I was being totally honest. I was hoping that VO would 'pull me into its reality' - but, so far, it has yet to do so. But, to be fair, I've only played for a couple of hours - I will give it lots of time yet and then see if my impression changes.
Oct 11, 2004 Forum Moderator link
If you want to be REALLY fair, realize that much of the content is yet to be added. There's not tons of reality to pull you into yet. It's still beta. Late beta, to be sure, but not being presented as a finished product as yet.
Oct 11, 2004 Spellcast link
HEH the newbie ship IS a bus. but what more do you want from a free ship. As for your graphics, go into the options and make sure you have everything set all teh way up. there should be very little that is "fuzzy" other than the station interface which is due for a serious overhall. the one we have now is primarily a functional model, but its not very snazzy.

Missions
As forum mod said, the mission area is missing much of the content. we should have another update here soonish with a much more finalized mission package. and just for the record, with the exception of the "prospecting for minerals" and "combat training, begginer" we dont have any noobie missions.

<<<Flying...
Why the 3000M distance from large objects in order to 'warp'? I find this rather unpleasant as I know have to try and find empty space if I want to warp away - this is tough if you are being pursued by enemies, at least it is for me with such a feeble ship. Other than that, the mouse/keyboard combination seems to work for me. >>>

The 3000m to warp thing is actually not that bad after you get a slightly better ship. Its there because otherwise there is no "risk" to combat. you can just jump away anytime you are damaged. As a helpful tip, if you enter a sector you know to be dangerous (the music is a good warning) immideiately go to your navmap and quickly set a destination somewhere safe. an empty sector or a station, this way if you do have to run, all you have to do is dodge your way to 3000m and warp. no messing with the nav map while under fire.

<<When I set a destination in my nav screen why can't I have something show up in the heads up display in my ship that tells me generally where I should be pointed?
Something I haven't tried but can you get from one square in a sector to another without jumping (i.e. just point and drive in that general direction - hmmm... wait, I guess not cause there's nothing in the heads up that tells you where you are going - unless I am missing something, which is entirely possible).>>>
No you cant jump from one sector to another without using the nav screen. This isnt possible for a number of reasons that are serverside and gameplay related.

<<Trade...
How do I know if a particular trade good is in demand at another station?? Do I need to fly to other stations and see what they have in their inventory and then bring them something that is NOT in their inventory?? This question is perhaps a bit premature as I have not any serious trading. >>

Right now the only way is experimentation, There is hope for an economy redesign to make trade more intuitive before the game goes live, but there is only so much time and there are only 4 devs. sooooooo

<<Player Interaction...
I've only played a few hours and have yet to actually see another player so I have no comment here yet other than 'where is everybody' ??>> Its a big universe lol there arent that many people in it really.

Summary...
When I said my first impressions weren't great I was being totally honest. I was hoping that VO would 'pull me into its reality' - but, so far, it has yet to do so. But, to be fair, I've only played for a couple of hours - I will give it lots of time yet and then see if my impression changes.

As a long term tester i appreciate that. Sometimes those of us who are pre-alpha cant really identify thigns like this, we've been with it so long that all we see is how far its come. (and it has come a long long way)
As Forum Mod mentioned, its not a final product yet, so any suggestions you have are very welcome, provided you can air them in a resonable manner and do so constructively, which from what i've seen of this post isnt a problem for you.
Oct 18, 2004 Texe link
I've been able to get a good chunk of time this past weekend to play and I have to say I'm quite enjoying Vendetta on-line.
I think my issues were due to my unfamiliarity of the interface. Now that I've used it more I am doing much better. I'm not sure why I found the interface to be less than intuitive... perhaps I was just having a bad week when I first fired it up :-)

I still haven't seen anyone else in the space that I've been travelling so I cannot comment on any of the grouping features - but I am getting more adept at navigation and the such so perhaps I will seek out a group in the next few days.

I've been able to get my stats up sufficiently to purchase a few new ships and I must say, the new ships are WAY better than that bus that you start with - w00t!

So far, so good...
Oct 19, 2004 Zidane2010 link
lol i hate the bus... but a better looking ship is only less than 300 credits away, (which you can get by killing 4 bots in a training mission not including the cargo ;) Vendetta is a game that needs to be played alot to really appreciate it, i remeber with the really old beta about half a year ago, there were people everywhere, but the universe was alot smaller, and plus there was no nav window... so you had to travel everywhere (by wormholes) :S
Oct 20, 2004 yodaofborg link
Arrrr Zidane, some will still think the old way was better too (me for one)....lol, i miss having to fly wh to wh, but saying that, im enjoying the new universe also, sooooooo... ;)

Texe : Normally there would be a big flame coming your way, as most of us who have been here a while are already sick of the *but thats not like it was on EnB* (even though we ourselfs compared v to many games, including quake at one point....lol) But your post does have valid questions, and in a *moderate* tone too ;) all of which will be answered, Soon™
Oct 20, 2004 RelayeR link
...and, for the record, the "Bus" is B E A Utiful!!

(Devs: can you make it so the bus sparks and smokes at 100% so it REALLY looks more like the classic "Buck Rogers" ship ???)
Oct 20, 2004 Viper2560 link
Texe sorry for the late welcome but i havent checked the msg boards in awile. But besides that welcome to Vendetta. Awsome game isnt it. But I almost do miss the "simplicity" of so long ago *drifts into memory lane*. But this is still one of the best games around. 1 thing thou dont hate that bus sooo much. When I Started I ended up back in a bus for a day b/c i ran outta credits. But anyway go ahead and msg me at CyborgGamma if im on if u need any in-game help.