Vendetta recently has undergone some major additions and branches from the basic gameplay that was there just 4 months ago. This trend started a while ago, and has increased in changes exponentially. It included the addition of the bohemoth, ship and stat re-balancing, the sporatic announcements such as 'bugged aerna seeker on the loose', the bounty system, the dueling system, and now the races and the cap ship.

All this new addition is great. It's all really fun. But they all seem seperated, like little different side shows at an amusement park.

I believe that Vendetta is quickly coming to be like an ice-cream sundae. It's got all the great toppings, the nuts and cherries and chocolate syrup, as well as the basic ice-cream, but all of these things are still seperated in their own little bowls. Vendetta hasn't brought together all the aspects of the game the way a made ice-cream sundae brings together toppings. And IMO an ice-cream sundae is much better than just cherries and nuts.

These new aspects need to be brought together. To me, everything is beggining to seem like a condiment, completely seperated from the whole of the game. A basic way to tie this all together would be to add a storyline or backstoryline to everything. That, however, would probably not be satisfying to most players.

These aspects, or 'toppings,' need to compliment eachother and all add up to create a great product. The potential is definetely there. In the game the way it was when I began playing, about 4-5 months ago, was basic, but very well balanced. You'd bot for a few licenses, trade to get the wraith so you could bot better, bot some more so you could get the centaur so you could trade better, trade until you got enough money to fight without going broke, etc. Everything fit in nicely, and if you wanted to be good, you needed to be well-rounded and you needed to do everything.

Things changed, however, as was necessary to meet the needs of the ever-growing range of player abilities and requests. Things got really good. But it's just spreading too far. This is kind of a preemptive post. As of now, things are still relatively tied together. But, at the current rate of expansion, these aspects will be spreading apart so fast they won't be able to contact eachother. This "faster than light" expansion, if you will, will affect VO in the same way it is postulated to effect our universe, a big freeze, with everything becoming too cold and too far away. Not good.

So, that's my observation. Sorry I couldn't come up with any specific ways to tie everything together, but I will work on it.

at this point i think the "toppings" are still being worked out. tyhe next step after that is probably some work on the mission system which should help tie things together. As it is i think adding the queens that attack the cap ships in Sedina is a good start to making things more integrated, now i can fight in seduna, and grab some bot cargo to cover ammunition expences thus cutting down on the amount of trading i have to do to keep fighting, but enery 3 or so deaths ends up calling for anothe bulk retreval mission.

OF COURSE the features are going to be tied together! That's the whole idea. This will all become more clear with the official development wiki, but c'mon, give the devs a little credit here.

I agree, FM.... why exactly are you complaining about new content, tboyz?

Try this: start a new character... do the things a new character would do... bot for a few licenses, trade for a few licenses.....

Most of the "toppings" you point out are really higher level activities, try going into Sedina B8 with guns blazing on a Wraith mkIII and a light battery... you will see what I mean. A natural progression of a game is a tree like structure... everyone starts out more or less the same, and ends up diversifying as they progress in levels.

I also think we've been faced with the problem of some higher level users going "I'm bored" and then posting long good byes. So the guys have put in some more diversions to keep us all busy while the long hours of programming keeps on chugging along behind the scenes. And it is the mundane task of coding and debuging that is slow. And it is oh soo thrilling to watch. I tried it. You get about 10 minutes of excitement and 50 minutes of looking at your shoelaces. Kind of like watching golf.

It is a matter of balance, you can't do all server side programming and no consumer end production or vice versa.

There is soo much more to come. I wish I could find a way to speed up things so they would get out sooner but my principal didn't think we could set up a human cloning lab at school, and NSF turned down my grant application becuase helping gamers get their product sooner isn't a top priority.

FM- I realize that they will all be tied together eventually, and I have extreme admiration for the devs as all players who have experienced Vendetta do, but, as sarahanne said, the "I'm bored" factor is beginning to come greatly into play. And I know that the devs are chugging along as fast as humanly possible, and perhaps even faster, but I personally believe more emphasis should be placed should be placed on building the body of VO one section at a time and tying it together as you go, as opposed to building the skeleton, then the muscles, then the skin, etc.

And I'm not complaining about new content, new content is great. I'm 'suggesting' that this new content should be tied together before more is added.

Some of us like watching golf...

*is hurt*

I grew up watching lots of golf with my father. I still watch Tiger Woods and a few others. :)

I like Ice Cream... ^.^;

I like golf AND ice cream, so there. But thats beside the point...