I think that the ships need a wider range of speeds. While the speeds of ships are different, all that really seems to matter is the stats on the turbo. I think that there should be a few ships that have speeds outside of the 50 m/s-65 m/s range (i might have that range wrong) because it could add some much-needed diversity.

Also, the ships need to be more different and specialized. As it is, a player gets access to a lot of ships when he/she gets to a certain level, and one of the ships will usually be quite obviously better. I think that, say, the various models of the ships should have very different stats, so that there is a reason to get a MkI ship rather than a MkII ship, or a non-mining ship over a mining ship.

I totally agree with the speed range of ships being different. However, this would bork up balance, so I would hold off on doing this until a number of things get implemented:

1. more ships are really needed. Once we add another 5-10 models, we can go changing around stats and generally experimenting. It might be interesting to have a test server the devs can have us on experimenting with this.
2. More/different weaponry
3. The "Widget"/Equipment slot, which would house stuff to do neat things to your ship, like add armor or sumthin'. I've posted a fair bit about this here: http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/1494?page=5#116467

Cheers!

Edit: one more thing: Since when can a fighter *not* clearly outrun a transport ship? This seems the most obvious sign that something is wrong with our current speed system.

Harry: I've been saying "fighters should outrun transports" for so long and with so much opposition that i've practically given up.

Now, diversity, there's an idea. I don't think changing the non turbo speed would really make much of a difference, the only time that comes into play is in fights, and you want the fastest speed for fighting.

There are two conflicting systems in Vendetta that don't lend themselves well to balance. In any other RPG with levels the higher level equipment is obviously better, but Vendetta has combat based on skill, and if you make all the higher level ships substantially better than the low level ships, then you're limiting the choice of ships to whatever the top ones are in each category (trader, fighter, bomber) which is essentially what we have now (except the best doesn't always mean highest level).

There needs to be more trade offs for ships, for example... The IBG Centurion is the lightest ship at 3000kg, it can turbo as at 240mps (the top speed of the universe) and it can fly at 70mps (which I believe is the fastest non turbo speed in the universe) it has the highest thrust of all the light fighters, and has two weapon ports which is only topped by the Valk in the fighters class.

So what you have here is a ship that has top numbers in almost every category.
What are the downsides? well it has 60 drain, so it can't turbo forever, but that doesn't really effect it's fighting that much. It has low armour which seems to keep most newbies from using it to it's most effectiveness, but once you get dodging and aim down, the ship is only really matched by itself.

So what I think needs to be done is compromising on certain categories. you could make it an interceptor, maybe reduce the drain to 55, but slow the non turbo speed to 50, lower it's armour even more, and you could even lower the standard thrust, without effecting the turbo thrust. it would then become useful for pirating, or intercepting an enemy who's trying to hurt your friend/guild mate but on it's own it wouldn't be very formidable. or you could go the other way and drop it's turbo speed, and make it more of a designated fighter with little chasing ability.

But there really needs to be compromises and that's what will lead to diversity.

(offtopic)I would also add that most newer players fundamentally misuse the Rev C and IBG. The backrolling doesn't bother me at all anymore, I've got several ways to deal with it. Mostly I just sit there and think: "hmm you have the fastest ship in the game, and you want to hang out at long range and try to tag me? when I'm in the same ship?"

Advice: learn to fight close.(/offtopic)

(ontopic)

Go look for spellcast's thread on turbo maxspeeds, it relates to this issue. Too lazy to grab it right now though :D.

yea... if someone starts to backroll on me, I just back away and wait for them to come back. And when they get 4000m away, I just leave.

I would chase after the backroller, but my fundamental problem is that I refuse to fly the IBG and Rev-C in combat (and if I ever get around with it, I'll only going to put a flechette and a charged cannon on it), so I restrict myself to slower fighters and can't keep up with a backroller.

I think the Dev's reasoning for not slowing down the transport-oriented ships is (at least for now), is if they do so, then we won't have as much variance to fight with. However, as soon as we get more fighters/bombers, then they can mess with the stats as much as they like, and make transports actually fly like transports. Honestly, take a look at the entire Escape Velocity series. Players that wanted the [transport name] of d00m had to put a lot of money and time into getting a workable combination, and even then, it would get pwn3d by real combat ships, particularly the ones you would have outfitted had you been flying them.

I'm not saying the Devs *will* slow the transports down, or anything like that, but that in order to make this more realistic and interesting, we *ought* to do so.