That sounds cool, but doesn't this fall under a Universe Redux type of a change?

I like the Latos choke point idea as long as it isn't filled with Nation turrets, because that would completely defeat the purpose.

Create a new weapon that is actually good and make it the center piece of CtC, make neutIII available as regular weapons cause really thats all it is anyways.

Lets just have a flash back of what things used to be like and could be again....

http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/ctfstats/257

Oh and get rid of surplus. that is just making it annoying, if one side doesn't want to put effort in they shouldn't get the weapon

1. different ships for all three "races". So, if you're a SERCO you can't buy Itani ships, as an Itani you can't buy SERCO ships. The same for the neutrals (have forgotten their "correct" name, sorry)

2. player guilds can build stations (which are very expensive) and the stations can be captured by guilds of other nations, but NOT by guilds of the same nation (maybe only in space between the two nations that is not owned by one of them. When there is a station in a sector, the sector is owned by the specific nation.)

Oh and guild stations can be destroyed, too.

3. the princip from my first point goes for weapons, too.

4. go more to the backstory: serco have heavy ships, that are heavy armored, but have no shields and they are not that fast/maneuverable as the itani ships. For itani: weak armor, but shields and they're fast and so on.

*edit for the itani shields: because the shields are "monk-specific" there should be something that increases the shield that a monk can create...maybe it depends to the combat skill of the player?

5. maybe a little crafting...so you could go for some minerals and use them to increase the armor of your ship or a specific crystal that increases (maybe) the damage of one of your weapons. (so an item consists out of some parts that can be exchanged)

6. make another animation when jumping from one system to another, instead of using the same animation as when you jump from sector to sector

everything in the brackets is only "nice-to-have"
{{{
7. create a cockpit for ships (maybe a default cockpit for every "class" of ship (one for all valkyries). Then you could choose wether you want a cockpit or not

8. give the sectors a specific size! so (maybe) a sector has 2000 km³ of space. When you reache the end of the sector, you're flying into the next sector without the need of activating your jump engine!

9. and because of point 8, you've to make the map of a system 3d. so you don't have a plain sector map but instead you've a cube where each sector is a little cube in the big system cube.
would be so cool :) real 3d space! imagine!

(I don't know if point eight and nine are even possible without rewriting the whole engine...if that is the case, ignore it ;) if not...please make it a long or midterm feature...if possible.

and for point seven you could make a community project ;))
}}}
ver-very-very-very mega important:
10. keep the multi-system support :) and don't get bankrupt ;)

(have forgotten their "correct" name, sorry)

You have just lost any shred of credibility you may have once had. Do you even play this game?

I see these as major problems of VO and I call them business plan killers. Do not get me wrong. I am not complaining. I like VO and I will play it anyway. The problem is that many people will NOT and it is the time to do something about it.

1) Do not waste players' time - let them do what they like to.
a) Fog sectors are still not ready so reduce ION storms drastically. They are only pain in the ass these days.
b) Let players travel long ways quickly. For example, someone being in Itan wants to join NW and then be back. Doh! Make few long inter-system WHs or let players jump between stations easily (without ships and cargo and with some time (money?) penalty). Another principle could be thought out.

2) Attract older players.
Higher licenses are good for nothing actually. They do not even attract girls. Add new ships, weapons, funny gadgets for veterans. Let many of us grind again.

3) More flying less jumping.
We bitch other space games for being point and click. Part of VO concept is point, click and jump actually. (For flamers, I said a part of.) It has to be fixed. Add intra-sector navigation and make sectors widely interesting. More stations, asteroid fields, WHs(?), hives, WHATEVER in a single sector. Let us travel from point A to point B without jumping (in one sector). If we have WHs for long inter-system jumps as suggested in 1/b we can prolong intra-system traveling. Flying somewhere would be more fun then actual scenario which is: turn - turbo - wait for recharge - jump - rinse & repeat. Chasing would be more fun and realistic as well.

4) Stop nerfing, start improving.
Actually, every new ship has to be worse than the best ship in the game. The same applies for weapons. I know about roots of this dogma and I understand all the worrying about balance. However, this is a space game not can of food. I believe we would prefer getting all the excitement from new shiny stuff even for the price of some temporary imbalance. This has connection to point 2 because only newbies are experiencing the great feel keeping them in the game - "Oh my god I am looking forward for this nice Revenant/Vulture/Valkyrie/whatever ship/weapon! I cannot wait any longer!" Actual VO is like a marriage after 20 years. Give us all new excitement, give us a sweetheart.

5) Improve the guild system.
There should be fixed/improved some guild related stuff. Better member permission management, added recruit status, etc. There are many more experienced players than me to talk on this topic.

6) Make us love VO more.
I mean let us personalize, let us live it. Many, many small things like naming ships. I want to be able to name my ship and show the name to everyone. I want to be able to write a note for my character. Make it visible to anyone who pressed "k". Publish it after jump like Target Less shows distance and standings. I want to write here something like "I am AFK", "I am a mentor, just ask me." or even "I am a pirate going to kill you!".

7) More playing less empty no RP related talking
This is not an idea, in fact. I do not know how to fix it. I hate VO used mainly as a chat service and I often really hate 100. Leaving the channel solves nothing until we all leave. The fact is that 100 destroys real role playing. On the other hand, it gives a lot of benefits, especially to new players. I know it and I have not an idea what to do about it. I just wanted to pin it out. Just my feel, do not bitch me for it.

8) More Role Playing feel
Force NPC interact more with players and themselves. Let us talk. If foreign nation NPCs are shooting at me in NFZ deploy Strike Forces on them! Create NPC pirates. Let them attack convoys and let us hunt them down in missions. Let us talk with a station and force us to ask for docking permissions prior docking (e.g. in the case of questionable standing). Stations should be hiring players to protect them, players should be able to hire a wingman or escort, etc. There is space for many, many ideas.

9) Fix bugs
There are many bugs which are not critical but still, after years, bother people. Give any bug a deadline it has to be solved to. We have to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Some bug tracking system would be really nice.

10) Do all your best to find new players and to attract the current ones.
VO needs players. Any game, except solitaire, does. Guilds need members, pirates need targets, ... devs and VO need money from memberships. Yeah, nothing new here. Maybe we just have to take this more seriously. We all. Improve payment system, complete PayPal in house, etc. Work in some new schemes. For example give a little discount or free month for bringing new subscribers in, etc. I believe there could be a lot of models.

Well, these are just my ideas. I believe that at least some of them could improve the game play and even the business success of this great project.

We all, or most of all, feel VO as the best space game ever. If it is the best game ever, and I personally agree it is, and it has smaller user base than an average online game, there is something wrong. Even small national UO shards have more players. (I was running one few years ago.) This debate is all about that. Some of my ideas and opinions maybe right, some are wrong for sure. Do not blame me for them. Read the "Be Nice" page twice and stay constructive please. This thread and VO need it.

Thank you for this thread, thank you for the game!

@ladron very funny...

Great post Infinitis.

Destructor - your post was a tad noobish (if I can spot it after a month of being here, it really is) but ladron is just a trolling gimpish Lecter wannabe, just ignore him. :P

I like the Vo Chat service!

I also like the sector system, turboing for 20 min to get somewhere would NOT be fun

I also like the sector system, turboing for 20 min to get somewhere would NOT be fun

A sector system combined with the ability to turbo somewhere for 20 minutes (and actually get somewhere) would be pretty darned cool I think. I mean, leave the sector system in place, but allow me to travel from one sector to another via turboing (lots of implementation/design issues with this idea though). This suggestion probably belongs in another thread, and is more of a long term goal anyways. Just saying I think it's a good idea.

Back on topic: A non-exploitable bounty system would seriously pick things up. EDIT: adding to orig post.

I was not talking about removing sector system at all. It is perfect! Make it even bigger when we have enough players. I just want to improve intra-sector playing. It was discussed some time ago and devs agreed to put more stuff into sectors (more stations, etc.).

I also did not suggest turboing for 20 minutes to get somewhere, of course. Ten times less would be OK. Turboing to the jump point, jumping, turboing from the in-jump point takes the same and requires more work from the player. I could also imagine torboing a bit more to get to another sector like Atice suggested. Very nice idea.

Right Atice, many of my ideas are long term ones. I forgot to mention it in my original post.

Meh. As for intra-sector nav I think EVE, of all games, got it right. Let there be a 'combat' drive (the normal 65m/s and turbo) and a 'cruise' drive (Several km/s) that has a warmup period, a cooldown time, and some way to inhibit it over a large area (*coughwarpscramblerscough*).

That in-system navigation layout is the one thing I like about EVE.

Meh. As for intra-sector nav I think EVE, of all games, got it right. Let there be a 'combat' drive (the normal 65m/s and turbo) and a 'cruise' drive (Several km/s) that has a warmup period, a cooldown time, and some way to inhibit it over a large area (*coughwarpscramblerscough*).

That in-system navigation layout is the one thing I like about EVE.

And X-3, and Freelancer, and Vegastrike, and Starshatter, and many other space games.

Seriously, this problem has been solved correctly by just about everyone else, including some games that predate vendetta. I realize it would probably involve some (possibly large) modifications to the game engine, but it's probably worth it, especially if we're talking about medium- or long-term goals.

Back on topic? Just maybe?

1) I would like to second CrazySpence's request for some CtC revamping.

Making an actual special weapon and/or ship available to the winners other than the MkIII Neut will revive an entire element of gameplay that almost nobody bothers with anymore!

2) Also resetting the race tracks every month would be cool. The winner with the best time at the end of the month on each race track can get some special cash prize.

There's some good stuff in the game already that just needs a little more love to make it fun again.

Hive posi would be a good N3 replacement choice, or better yet the Widowmaker. Limits on per account purchase should likewise be imposed.

Yes a limit would be great

What would be better is

Only participants can get it! That's right, participate or die!

That, too, yes.

Good idea Dr. Lecter. This really would get more players in.