I understand the rationale for making equipment visible to players who cannot purchase it -- as an encouragement to level up, etc. However, I think that what we currently display is a little overwhelming to new players, and perhaps we should only display equipment that is purchasable at {{level}} and {{level + 1}}, and not show any mission-only equipment at all.

That's just my 2¢.

Wasn't that how it used to be?

Regardless, seconded. Especially seeing how you plan to put more equipment for lower levels ingame.

A lot of noobs look at the swarms and lust, then fly to Corvus.

I liked it better the old way. It created a sense of mystery when I was a new player. Now anyone can look at all the equipment specs at any level. A certain degree of excitement must be lost for new players.

I third the recommendation, but I think there should be places where you can see more of what is available. Corvus for one, and perhaps others in grey-space. Swarming noobs are a little funny in that the first person they go up against may just whoop them...

All in all, a great idea, roguelazer.

We had complaints before, from people saying things like "it doesn't look like there's any stuff to buy", etc. People assumed that the visible equipment was kind of.. it. Plus, it is troublesome to give people goals to shoot for if they can't see what the goal even.. is. I view that as an issue with our current items that require Accomplishments, but don't actually say what or why.

Anyway, I'm not shooting this down, more explaining why we changed it back in the first place. More input welcome.

Why not both? Have an option to toggle between all or only purchasable equipment to be shown in the list.

Personally, I prefer seeing everything and actively used red items to establish short-term goals. More info on what kind of faction standing and/or badge for those special items would have been nice though - the wiki is useful but shouldn't be a replacement for basic info that could easily be put in-game. For example, stating that a certain ship requires the Bus Hunter badge would be fine without going into details.

And while I'm thinking about the equipment list: moving the sorting choices from the Options>Interface menu to the station screen would be dandy.

I second the purchasable toggle. While it's only a minor thing now, once the equipment pool starts expanding, we could quickly run into a sea of red ink. Having a toggle for listing all items versus what you can currently use allows for the best of both- a full view of all the goodies just waiting for you, and a short list of your current options so you don't wind up in scroll bar hell.

Heck, let's throw in an option to set certain items as "Preferred" so they bubble to the top of the list. There are only a few weapons I use on a regular basis, so getting them to show up at the top would be nice. However, I can certainly live without it, so I don't consider it to rate even a moderate priority.

Incarnate, how about this? Only show the equipment that's within a level or two of the player like it was before. However, show equipment placeholders that say "You are not authorized to view data on this equipment" so that players still understand that better equipment is available. It's the best of both worlds. There will still be mystery, but new players will still understand that there is a lot more equipment to buy at higher levels. The placeholders should just show what levels are required and the message saying they are not authorized to view data on it. Put the placeholders in their normal spots under each equipment category (small port, large port, power cells, and ships). How's that for a compromise?

I want special equipment, at very limited amounts, to be available to players with high enough standing in one faction (and maybe requiring LOW standing in another faction - like POS itani and KOS serco in order to get this weapon.)

Don't tell anyone about it, just push it out there as, oh, I dunno, a "Neutron Blaster Mk. IV Prototype", available only at Ellias Stand (Deneb O-3), and make only 50 available. Give it a slight stats bump and see what happens.

Or maybe other cool widgets can get thrown out there. Maybe a special trade item that is really cheap at a certain station, but overwhelmingly in demand at another station across the galaxy. You know, one-time things like "Rare Latos Orchids" which only bloom in October, but are mandatory for Divinia's Orchid-Fest, where they are distilled into rare perfumes which sell for millions of credits.

But, yeah, hiding the equipment/widgets and letting the players discover these things would be awesome.

Then, the wiki would become a source not only of information, but of "item lore", rumor, and mystery, which would make for more fun reading.

Bump.

http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/19453#244266

I think the crux of the matter is as Incarnate said. New players can see all this cool stuff and have absolutely no idea what the criteria is to purchase it.

Enter the wiki. It's telling that my real introduction to the game was through the vo-wiki. That's the only way I knew what I needed to do to get an Atlas X from TGP or get access to the rail gun and so on. Every time I need to figure out what to do to progress I hit the wiki. Without that I would have quit in frustration and that is a failing somewhere. Either in the documentation, the progression of quests, or the information provided by the game.

IRS: "sea of red / scroll bar hell"

Or even if red items were simply pushed to the bottom.