Here I offer some suggestions which should improve (in my biased opinion) many of the aspects of Vendetta. Now this has probably been mentioned before, but I could not find another relevant thread using search, plus I feel the need to push for these changes.

First off, the No Fire Zone really annoys me. People complain that they've gotten killed under their protection and others brag that they can get by the defenses. The problem is they hinder combat, piracy, and overall exploration. I think only major stations should supply defenses, but for the most part players should be the line of defense, not bots.

Then there's the issue of the 3 km warp distance. Many complain about players running away. I really think there should be a delay of 5 seconds, akin to logoff, before warping. Admittedly, I have gotten screwed over by bots when I ran out of ammo and found myself unable to distance myself when there was the old delay. However, I think that it was entirely fair; the system shouldn't allow weakened players to just jump off mysteriously into one of ~256 sectors.

Now, why would this help? Well, I absolutely love fighting around stations just like in previous versions. For the most part, my combat did take a major part around them. Stations give atmosphere too, instead of just fighting in an empty field all the time. Although players can run and repair in stations, disappearing to another sector/system is a bit more of a challenge.

For traders, this may mean more of a requirement of convoys, mercenaries and such. For pirates, it means taking down a Behemoth, Atlas, Centaur is (theoretically) possible for even the newer ones. But that's fun right? More player interaction, combat, and less boring empty space.

Yes.

Yes. Except for the warp delay. I think a follow player option/key should be used instead (see other thread). Oh yes, and the 3 major nations could maybe have their stations equipped with beam weapons, akin to the ones found on the frigate. Someone in the game suggested this (forgot who), and I thought it was cool.

1. that wasnt very long for a rant.

2. yes to fighting around stations.

3. no to delayed warping, that is just boring.

For warping through a WH, I like how it requires the battery to be fully before it can warp, and completely drains the battery. But the way in-system jumps completely drain the battery, but have no energy requirement before you can jump, confuses me. I think it would make more sense if an in-system jump required a certain amount of energy, and only drained that much. What I think would be coolest, would be to make the energy requirement based off how long the jump was, say 15 energy for each sector. So jumping from A-1 to A-2 would only require & drain 15 energy, but jumping from A-1 to A-16 would require & drain 225.

That ends up being less of a delay than Katarn suggested, but IMO is easier to explain than an arbitrary delay. It would also give more of an advantage to the Medium & Heavy (& Ultra-charge) batteries, as they would be capable of longer jumps. Right now, the F/C battery is the best battery for almost everything, which means there's little "real" variety in battery selection.

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Re: Arolte
> Except for the warp delay. I think a follow player option/key should be used instead

Why instead? I personally would like to see both. And actually, without sometype of delay between jumps (something more reliable & consistent than load times), I don't think a follow key is going to be particularly useful, as they can just jump a few empty sectors, which would lose pursuers 9 times out of 10. But if there's a delay between jumps, the pursuers will be able to keep up much better.
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For the delayed warping, how about have this time called "Calibrating Navigation Systems." Undamaged ships would either not have to do this or for a very short amount of time. The amount of time needed increases as the ship is more damaged. Calibration would lock your controls unless you hit the fire button or something so you don't accidently disengage the timer with a slight movement.

I really like that idea Beolach. It does get a bit complicated, so for diagonal warps, it could just use the pythagorean theorem and round up/down to the nearest whole number for distance.

You say it's just boring, who? me?, but the problem is lots of players find it more annoying when players just warp off and disappear after a fight or such. Besides, it adds more danger, a kind of adrenaline rush as the enemy is in hot pursuit while you are forced to wait to warp. While it will indeed be more of an annoyance traveling around empty space, I think Vendetta could benefit by adding this kind of minor yet dangerous and enfeebling situation.

Station turrets sound like a fun idea, although placing them on all stations, such as mining, might not make so much sense. Perhaps only major capitols or fringe stations should have them.

Katarn speaks the truth!

its boring because you wait and die EVERY TIME. 5 seconds is enough time to be flared to death atleast 2 times.

Well, that means you actually need to 'get away' before you warp and go poof who? me?. IMHO if someone is close enough and lined up to flare you to death at least twice then maybe you shouldn't be able to just pop out of the system and live.

I agree that as stations get farther away from there capitals that defenses should become less strong to possibly having only a single ship as it's only defense or adding turrets to stations that can use AGT's or Beam Cannons, whatever. But I do think that the NFZ is a good thing to have, just not at EVERY station. All pirate/corvus stations should be NO-NFZ, BUT, should have strong station defenses so that if you attack a pillar of society or someone that is Admired that they will join in and defend him/her.

As for jumping, and "runner", your all just sour that you can't get your kill shot in, too bad. I totally disagree that the jumps should be delayed. HOWEVER, I do like Beolach's idea of needed x amount of energy depending on how far you are jumping in-system. That I would have no problems with, and makes much more sense then the current system.

1. Do away with the no fire zones? Are you mad, man? Do the words "station mining" mean anything to you? The strike force AI needs some improvement, no doubt, but if you want to fight in/around stations, try the one in Sedina F5. Or better yet, let's put in a few old, abandoned stations not marked on the map in grey space, and a couple war torn, bombed out stations at the Geira/Debeb border.

About delayed warping: this used to actually be a feature. I can understand why it was taken out, but I also see the argument for putting it back in. 5 seconds seems a little much however... I don't think it should be any longer than 3 seconds, tops. Or perhaps the time could be based on the distance of the jump, .25 seconds per system.

A "follow" key would make it easier to follow someone, but you still wouldn't be able to catch them unless they ran into an ion storm or accidentily jumped to a sector with roids.

How about keeping the NFZ, but reducing how large it is for most stations? Remove it completely from Corvus stations, and have the NFZ for the other stations based on the station type.
Capital Stations: 1000m (like it is now)
Commercial Stations: 500m (this station is for trading, put your guns away!)
Mining Stations: 250m (and mining stations can only launch a 2 or 3 ship strike force)
Barracks Stations: 50m (but they can launch a big strike force)

I really want to see more difference between the different station types (there is a little difference now, but not a whole lot). This is one way they could get a little more variety.

? I could be wrong but I thought the no fire zone was only 1 km.

I like the idea of having different strike forces/NFZs for different types of stations, however. We could also have different strike forces for different factions. http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/9913#113463

Well, hail a Marshal & ask about the local laws, at least at Capitals (where Marshals are), it's 3000m. It's been a while since I checked it, but I think it's the same at most other stations, as well (although I do think Corvus stations already have smaller NFZ).

Which is actually another thing I'd like to see. Have a "Captain of the Guard" at stations, that we can hail & ask about the NFZ & other local laws (similar to the Marshals, but not with the bounty stuff). Currently, the only way to find out the size of the NFZ (except at capitals) is to go >3000m away from the station, firing a shot ever 25m or so, until you trigger the NFZ warning. And you have to do it starting outside the NFZ, because if you start inside, you only get one warning, even if you're still firing inside the NFZ, so you'd have to jump out & back in.

Faction specific guards & SF would also be way cool.

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Huh, I just hailed a Marshal. Looks like they changed it, it is 1000m now. I swear it used to be 3000m. Edited my previous post w/ new NFZ distances.
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I'd really like to see the NFZ removed from most, if not all grey space stations.
I don't think station mining is that hard to stop, simply keep the SF flying around, and they can shoot down mines much like they do already. They just wont come after you for dropping them.

Now the warp timer, man i'd love to see it, but I'm going to propose something else, and I know all you traders are going to disagree, but too bad. :P

If the timer is 3 seconds, or 5 seconds, or 10 seconds, it doesn't matter unless you have to stop all movement. you could easily keep turboing away while the time ticks down. So let's assume you'd have to (at the very least) cut your turbo boosters for the 3 seconds. if you manage to last through that, you're still home free. by the time the other player gets to whatever sector you warped too, you'll be gone.
Don't forget that you'll have a 3 second lead on the pursuer, because he can't plot his jump until he sees you warp.
So I really don't think the timer would solve much, it just means people will run earlier, and still get away.

I'd like to see a warp bubble. if you warp within 1k of another player, he goes with you, and ends up in the sector within 1k of you, perhaps even forcing the player with the faster ping to wait for the slower player to load the sector to make it fair.
That's the only way I see of stopping the double jumps to safety.

If you think that's too much, you're wrong, because it's not that hard to get to 1001m from a pursuer, especially in a trade ship with 50 drain and an FC batt.

Actually... there's an interesting concept. If I recall correctly the /oper /teleport system used to make a kind of small warp bubble. It was different though, it didn't suck you in, but if you pressed enter you could follow just them. I think this would be a totally awesome implementation when applied to sector warps.

Perhaps what could be a really cool concept is if the energy requirement is implemented, the warping player would make a kind of displacement which could allow for a quick, lower energy consuming warp by nearby players.

It would get a bit complex, but essentially you could have lots of Fast Charge, Medium, Efficient, and Free Batt ships warping across the entire system with the help of a single Heavy battery ship's catalyst.

In some senses, it'd make trade easier for lower level players when traveling with some higher level ones. While it'd also make pirates be a bit more dangerous. Overall, traveling in convoys would be a lot easier, since a leader could choose a destination without notifying those following.