I believe that this is my first post.

I have 6 suggestions. I'm not sure whether they ought to be in different threads, but here they are. I know that some or all of them have been made before, so please bear with me or skip them as you see fit.

1. Please reduce the size of the universe. I liked the suggestion about dynamic universe size posted here:

http://vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/1/23390

As it stands, I believe that the universe is too large for the number of players occupying it. To me, the allure of an MMO depends on it being...massively multiplayer. The current size of the universe might be great for a larger number of players, but I think that VO could use smaller spaces for now so that it feels more populated and alive. Providing a vibrant atmosphere of living human beings is important in an MMO, and based on what I've been hearing, I'm not the only one to suggest this, so I'm not sure why it isn't already in the suggestions thread.

2. Finding a way to reduce travel times could certainly help with how the size of the universe feels. When it takes half an hour or more to travel from one end of the universe to the other, it becomes an incredibly boring inconvenience to do so. This is why, I think, Deneb seems pretty barren, when (I think) it ought to be full of players on both sides fighting large battles together, which would be very fun to see. So here is my suggestion for reducing travel times: group each nation's systems (and grey's) together into larger systems or galaxies. Travel between systems within these galaxies could be instantaneous, i.e. a player could jump from any system within a galaxy to any other system sharing the same galaxy. But to travel outside of the galaxy, a player would need to travel to a central departure area within said galaxy. This allows conveniently quick travel while creating strategic choke points that could become dense areas of interest and congregation for players. It also preserves the borders between nation space, and right now I think that the biggest "border" in traveling is the time that it takes to do so.

3. Please remove ion storms. They are very annoying, ancillary aspects of the game that interfere with travel more than any benefits that they may offer.

4. Please turn of NPC friendly fire. I can't count how many times that I have been killed by friendly NPC's, and I'm not convinced that this feature of the game is one that contributes positively to gameplay.

5. Currently, when an NPC shoots a player, they become an "enemy" to the targeting system, and pressing "x" targets their ship. This can be very annoying. If NPC friendly fire remains, then I would appreciate a feature that allows the player to indicate to the targeting system that an offending friendly NPC is not an enemy or, alternatively, we could avoid altogether designating the friendly NPC as an enemy.

6. Please organize nations around grey space rather than sticking grey on the end. Placing grey in the center of other nations would be fun and convenient on a number of levels. If my #2 suggestion is not implemented, then placing grey in the center would be even more helpful than otherwise, but even so, I would recommend it both ways.

Thanks for listening.

"I believe that this is my first post."

I have faith that it won't be your last. In jesus name. Hallelujah

1. meh. Some of us still have hope that the player base will increase as the game continues to improve. Why take away when you'll need to put back.

2. +1

3. +1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
The only thing ion storms accomplish is to put me an a bad mood.

4. -1

5. Yeah, it can be a nuisance.

6. One would expect grey to be a bit more interspersed, however, I don't approve of anything that makes VO look and play more like a board game than it already does.

I would rather that, other than two or three systems, no nation systems be adjacent. It ought to be more spread out to encourage nation engagements.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

Please, don't bother trying again.

Ignore Lecter, he feels a need to belittle all around him in order to self-aggrandize.

In terms of your suggestions, much of what you're saying is stuff that people have been talking about for awhile. The devs have said that they're probably not going to reduce the size of the universe, but, as you noted, the size would be a lot less of an issue if there were ways to travel more quickly between points. Various suggestions have been made to create shorter routes between places like Deneb and Grey space, and it is my belief (can't remember any specifics to back it up) that the devs are more interested in possibly doing something like that.

Ion storms will soon be mostly phased out in favour of statically-fogged sectors. What this means is that you won't randomly get pulled into unexpected sectors by a storm, but there will be places where you can't, say, get to a certain station without traversing a fogged sector, as it sits in the center of a fogged ring. I'm pretty sure their plans for that are mainly centered on Grey space, but it might happen in nation space as well a bit. In any event, storms will soon become much rarer, if not disappear completely.

Friendly fire in VO is an all-or-nothing system, and most of us like it that way (probably a majority support removing friendly fire protection from all parts of the universe, actually). The current system is that inside nation space there is friendly fire protection for people in that faction (in Itani space two blues can't hurt each other unless one has Hated standing or lower), while Grey is a free-for-all. I would suggest practicing in nation space first, and getting a hang of avoiding the fire of friendly NPCs, before jumping into Grey and getting swamped.

For targeting issues, there is actually a solution. Unfortunately, the solution is to install a plugin, but that's why the plugin ecosystem exists. For your specific problem, you want the Makefriends plugin, which is part of tcs-plugins. It allows you fairly granular control over your hostile indicator. More generally for targeting purposes, you should definitely check out targetless, which most pilots find invaluable for keeping track of the things flying around them. The Community Projects portion of the boards has a bunch more plugins, as well as instructions for installing them.

I hope this helps, and I'll see you out in the 'verse!

Thanks for the thoughts, everyone. diqrtvpe, I read the forums before posting; I have Lecter's number and he is as ineffective as he is cliche.

I know people have been discussing these issues, but because I didn't see these items in the thread containing the list of suggestions, I wanted to add my two cents and, perhaps, generate further discussion. Thank you for the plugin suggestion.

I don't see that VO would seem like a board game with gray in the center, and in any case, it certainly doesn't play like one. The idea of peppered nation space sounds better, though, as I think that gameplay would be much more dynamic. This could easily be adapted to my galaxy idea.

"The current system is that inside nation space there is friendly fire protection for people in that faction (in Itani space two blues can't hurt each other unless one has Hated standing or lower)"

What the fuck version of vo are you playing? It hasn't been like that in a while.

Heh, it's been awhile since I've been in nationspace. :P I forgot about the latest change. It's only capitol systems now, isn't it? Sorry about the confusion!

1. -1, verse is beautiful as it is. IMHO it should grow. And the amount of player is okay with pretty good future perspectives. Space is not overpopulated China. To own a spaceship is privilege, not a right. Do you really believe there should be 100+ players in every sector? And if someone isn't talking on channel 100, it doesn't mean "someone" is not online.
2. -1, this is ridicilous.
3. -1, read suggestion forum carefully, many players want more "weather" effects, and I'll agree with them.
4. -1, friendly fire should be ON everywhere, so you can shoot everything. Atm, FF is off in capitals for admired+ players of one nation.
5. -1, you need more targetting practice.
6. -1, grey is already almost in the center of universe, look at the map.

Welcome to Vendetta Online, comradeseidl, I believe we had some good fights last night. Certain items on your list have been suggested by others before, myself included. Here is my current take on them:

1. Half an hour to get from one side of the galaxy to the other really isn't that bad. Also consider that as the game progresses there will be a) more interesting things to do in each system and b) higher level players will likely gravitate either toward "lawful" battles (i.e. border skirmish in Deneb) or "unlawful" activities (i.e. greyspace). Right now there isn't much incentive to focus on the lawful side of combat, but the most recent newsletter makes it sound like that's going to change and there are already several nationalist guilds in place to take advantage of this. Think of the flow of players starting out in nation space and then depending on their activities or missions they take generally sweeping either toward Deneb or Odia.

2. It sounds like you are suggesting a galactic structure similar to many other space games (like Escape Velocity, for example) with nodes of stars branching out in clusters. There's nothing wrong with this, but VO's galaxy is set up in rings. If you read the backstory this has nothing to do with the physical location of each system, rather the geometry of the wormholes connecting them. This is interesting as it could allow "arc" blockades of important systems, and to this end instantaneous travel would be a bad thing.

3. I believe ion storms will become more rare but will not be phased out completely. Ion storms are good for Hive Skirmishes, and it's easy to avoid random storms by plotting around asteroid belts once you learn how. If you're careless about setting your nav route then you risk getting pulled in to one. Caveat viator

4. No magic barriers in game, please. This includes friendly fire from NPCs. I'd rather deal with the consequences of action than having action prevented in the first place.

5. It would be interesting if there were a way to differentiate between a player/NPC that accidentally hit you and a player/NPC that was purposefully targeting you on radar, but sometimes simpler is better. It only takes a second to use the information on your HUD to determine whether the nearest "hostile" is a true threat or not. This gets easier as you are involved with more battles.

6. Grey could be considered the center of the galaxy as it stands. Imagine UIT space flipped outward so that it arcs around the outside of grey, then grey is in the middle. Remember the galaxy map is a connectivity map, not a map of realspace.

My thoughts:

1. Please no. In real life space is big and empty, and while I'm not always of fan of "realism" in my games, in this case it works quite well. You can go for days without encountering another soul, making those times when you see another player inherently interesting. The only change I would make to this system would be to make is somewhat easier (with equipment) to find people if you go hunting^H^H^H^H^H^H^H looking.

2. Pretty much the same answer as number one. Space is big. The "long" travel times reflect this. Allowing instant jumps from one end of the galaxy to the other would not only defeat this, but also further reduce the chance of seeing other players (no one would have to share travel routes, like we do now).

3. I've already accepted I'm the only person who likes ion storms and wants to see more of them. And they are going away soon, according to the devs. So all I'll do here is make a sulky face and grumble to myself.

4. I like friendly fire. I think we should have more of that sort of thing.

5. Yeah, this is stupid and should be fixed.

6. Could be good, could be bad. Right now, there's very little incentive to travel between nation spaces. Putting lawless territory between them would reduce the incentive to near zero. At the same time, with grey where it is, you pretty much have to choose between it and things like BS and BP. Eh, I'll defer to people who've been playing more than a month on this one.

Welcome to VO, comradeseidl!

Too good you already knows trolls and to ignore trolling...

Let's reply:
1. VO reachable universe is too small. But some more inter-connections should be good, as alternative paths!
Dynamic universe makes no sense. What happens to goods/ships stored in now unreachable systems?

2. Same as 1, make more interconnections is more adequate.

3. Ion storms, as now, makes no sense. But some subspace disturbance between WHs should be great!

4. No restrictions, only consequences.

5. Problem is that nation divisions are weak, and there is no ban to traitors. No 'gray' nation. But I agree that accidental fire or ram/crash should not make NPC enemies.

6. As already said, gray is the center, despite map makes you think otherwise. Again, more interconnections and alternative routes should be preferable.

Let's reply:

you are many?

3. Ion storms, as now, makes no sense.

GFY