I just finished my free trial. I like the game. Its nicely designed and the graphics were good even though they didn't run fully on my Radeon 7500.

I don't want to buy the game and pay a monthly fee for what I got which was: a single player rpg with built in irc chat. While I was playing the game I never once saw another human player. I realize there are a limited number of players online but it seems that the human players could be manipulated twords eachother through missions, events and game structure.

While I was playing I never saw anything interesting happen. If there was always stuff going on like a station I used to go to sell my scrap metal getting attacked and exploding, or a HUGE player or bot capital ship coming into a station system and docking with a station about half it's size. Just think, Instead of hurrying off to deliver stuff for the nth time I could have been hurrying off to Latos with my new Itani friend to help my other UIT buddies that were under attack by a Serco radical group. Or something.

I believe I would pay money for a VO that had multiple interesting things to see every day and other players around to interact, team up and fight with.

that is the direction VO is going but the game is still in development, check back in a couple months, you'll probably be suprised at the difference.

Well most ppl get out of nation space rather quickly.
You should check out grey space.

Grey space IS more active, but the universe is still too small. And
the population won't grow unless they feel immersed.

Unless the plan is to bring a bunch of people all at once. But when the devs would feel comfortable about that is beyond me.

Smaller universe, cut out some of the systems, and connect them in interesting ways.

I did and I got almost instantly asassinated by a super bot I met in a ion storm.

Well, supposing you kept on playing. You would reach a point where you wished the bots were harder. No matter what bot attacks you.

So super bot.... idk.
Guardians SURE are hard in the beginning though.

Bob I sympathize but really you need to get a bit more away from Sol II to get any intereaction. Nation space is like training wheels for grey space which is where everyone hangs out since it's connected to all the nation zones, you can get equipment earlier, and well, all the players that ARE on are usually around there. Perhaps pay for one month and stick it out a little longer and see. $10 is not that much for one month of service and you'll be suprized at the difference between nation and grey space, especially the bots (hive/npc).

The Population is really of no concern at the moment, a boom in numbers right now would be bad with the new UI.

Lets think of it this way, Vendetta was prematurely released, and has undergone major changes *IE the new user interface* This game is basicallt in an open-beta state with a small user base of around 400 regular players who help the developers in bug testing and other things in the eventuallity that Vendetta will become a large game.

I say we have another six months until we start to see the flow of an expanding userbase. By then the game should be actually completed, and content levels should be very high due to the new Mission Editor. Ships will also grow in numbers as HAC's, and seven other ships make their way into Vendetta *ALL user controllable*
More ships will likely follow and a diverse set of enviornment models will also appear *IE Luis and his space junk, graveyards, and other things as well*

EDIT: Sedina, Dau, Latos, Azek, and Helios are all active sectors, you run by several dozens and if you play for an extended period of time, youll notice hunderds of different people.

6 months is too Soon&trade. If the devs say 6 months, I say 1-2 years. That's when you can expect the flow of new users.

-Calder

Oh, that's too bad, Bob Dole. I heard Bob Dole never gives up. I heard Bob Dole's not afraid 'o no robots. But yeah, in the nation-space home systems, things are calm and boring. Head to Deneb or head to Sedina, there's always stuff going on there. Even if there are only 20 players online.

Oh, and Person, I dunno about 1-2 years. I think 6 months is actually MORE accurate.

It's 750 Chikira.

Person,
The devs never said 6 months did they?
Except for capships but not what chikira is talking about.

Well, I'd agree that for the current userbase, the universe is too big... yeah yeah - sure some of you will say why... I think its just fine blah blah. But the universe being too big is something I hear newcomers saying all the time. Ok, we all know that - moving on.

Well, what if the devs made some kind of temporary small universe? With much more happening in a concenetrated area, there is a large possibility more people would stay, making the transition from a smaller userbase to a larger one much faster. Just a quick idea. And I'm quite aware of the fact of the devs saying that making changes to the universe is not so simple, since all the code is interwoven. But wouldn't it still be a good idea?

Honestly, if you were around on the weekend, ie Friday through Sunday, you'd see several player run events going on that are tons of fun. Like the Deneb Run, a race around the universe, the TGFT Mining Event, a competition between mining groups to haul in ore faster than the other while under fire. The Nation War Event, three teams, on eper nation face off in a huge furball. And some others I forgot.

I can vouch that this game is absolutely incredible with more players. In beta, we had upwards of 100 players online at a time at times. With the current size universe, it seemed a little sparse but you would at least run into a lot more people just going about tasks throughout the universe. You didn't all have to congregate in one spot, although that often happened anyways. The problem is that players won't pay to play a game in the state vendetta is in. The devs know this. That's why they're waiting to make their ad blitz. Once they feel the game is in a marketable state, we will start seeing more people.

They're worried about people getting a bad impression of the game before it is finished, and rightly so. Hence, the lack of players at the moment.

Hopefully, things will begin moving as quickly as the devs claim they will as soon as the new UI is implemented.

Sorry I killed ya bob.
I forgot you were a noob.
/msg me if you need help killin bots or players and such.

100 during the beta? when was this! i remember 15-20 and like the day or 2 after a major release we'd get like 40 or 50 for a day or so!

nation space should be made smaller so new players dont have to travel for an hour in their mark 1 junk heap to see why they should stay in their space until ready!

We had 300 during beta.

Actually it was more like 600 the first couple weeks, most of them EnB refugees.

It was impossible to read the chat since there were about 10 messages per second along the lines of "how do I mine?" "how do I level up?" "how do I talk to the mission computer?" "where can I find collector bots?"

the population dropped off pretty fast as 9 out of 10 wanted another EnB and not Vendetta. Just goes to show if you wanna hook the general audience, you need content.

edit: @ Leber and Person; I'm hoping by next Christmas.

I was one of those EnB refugee's....
The thing that hooked me was the flight system and the almost nonexistent lag.
EnB was CRAZY LAGGY!
EA had the bright idea of running 3 games on the same servers.
They were making money with EnB, but not nearly as much as Sims and the other one.
So out with EnB.
EnB was coded horribly too, so it was the lag problem.

"Lets think of it this way, Vendetta was prematurely released, and has undergone major changes *IE the new user interface* This game is basicallt in an open-beta state with a small user base of around 400 regular players who help the developers in bug testing and other things in the eventuallity that Vendetta will become a large game."

Does this mean we all get beta badges when the game goes 'mainstream' again? =P

Sure, it's still in development... but what software ever isn't?
Bringing more people in may be more smooth when it's more polished and has more of the major bugs worked out, but otherwise, it really doesn't matter - we need more players, and if you can bring them in now, today, tomorrow, whenever, we'll take them.

as it is, VO has virtually zilch exposure... no advertising, nothing. The only ways people learn about this game is from friends who play it or from random google searches for obscure things (btw, I bet that new remake of 'V for Vendetta' has potential to boost our newbie influx).

as for Bob_dole, he has a point - for one, we need more encouragement to meet up with other players, especially as newbies. Sure, heading to Sedina will do the trick, but who does he have to guide him there? This is where the tutorial needs to come in to play - the tutorial in the mission computer is the first responsive entity these players come into contact with, and then shortly thereafter the mindless ramble on 100 (which, more often than not, is unrelated to the game... it really is like a built-in IRC client) We need to bring the focus to player interaction early on... we could for example assign or allow grouped beginner combat missions - group newbies together with other newbies who are taking the mission, and offer rewards to other players for showing up to guide them. Above all though, the newbs need to be directed to make contact with other players... get them a mentor.