Hello VO!
Going through the historic posts I've found a past map. Looking at it an idea popped to my mind that hasn't been suggested lately (or ever?). There might be a reason to it of course but why not make a link from the middle of grey to Serco and Itani-Space.

To push everyone's Imagination, here's the map (found in http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/1/25899):



The idea is to create a wormhole-link between Odia and Metana and Odia and Betheshee. There's no need for another UIT link as it is well connected to grey space. Requirement for this would be to flip Grey and yellow on the map of course but that's not really a problem.

A significant benefit would be easier travel between Nation space coming at cost of better placesr for pirates to wait and strike in.

I don't mind this however the trip from deneb would probably be faster for Itani to go through betheshee under this plan

That isn't one of the old maps, actually. Just something somebody made up as part of a larger post about doing something similar to what you propose.


"The idea is to create a wormhole-link between Odia and Metana and Odia and Betheshee."

-1 to that particular implementation. Odia should never connect directly to any nation's space. Remember, it is the heart of Greyspace. There must be buffer systems.


Here is my favorite version:



The gist was that Cratesom and Monsticus would have no stations at all, lots of angry bots, and lots of stormy asteroid sectors (making it impossible to plot a consistantly storm-avoidant path). Closetos would be slightly tamer with maybe one station, and Candyna would have two.

This implementation provides a significantly shorter route to Deneb for nationalists who are deep in greyspace or near their enemy's borders, while still keeping the route long enough to not trivialize it. It keeps a buffer around Odia and prevents people from easily injecting into or escaping out of the depths of greyspace. It creates a nice bottleneck path. Finally, it creates some particularly troublesome systems to work in (no stations), which could thus have higher concentrations of rare ore and interesting bot drops. Omitting the station in Closetos as well would make Monsticus especially painful, since the nearest places for most people to home would be at least two systems away in either direction. Cratesom would be even worse if you're KOS with both the Serco and Itani as I am.

Aye, this has been discussed almost to the point of nausea, but most of us pretty much agree.

Rin, perhaps pull one of the Gray Pass / Odia Cut systems so the buffer around Odia is the same in all directions (roughly 4 jumps back to any nation space), then fill all 3 with unmapped asteroid sectors with lots of nasty bots in them and no stations at all? (just to keep it from being heavily traveled) The center system (Monsticus) would have the most interesting things, including occasional high tech drops at random (some hapless survey ship got itself blown up while trying to map the place). Each system outward from there would be less of an El Dorado (as you'd mentioned).

I for one (as someone who enjoys exploring) would love to have more systems.

+1 Rin, though we're obviously likely to see enhanced graphics and F2P for VO on an internet-enabled personal massager before this kind of content becomes any kind of a priority.

+1 Rin, though we're obviously likely to see enhanced graphics and F2P for VO on an internet-enabled personal massager before this kind of content becomes any kind of a priority.

Well, yes, you will. But that doesn't rule out new systems and wormholes sometime early next year.

Anyway, I'm not opposed to new wormholes and things, I've stated elsewhere that I'm planning on doing exactly that. But I'm also looking to use wormhole instabilities (oscillation rates) and other things.

Dev confirmation of VO for Vibrators? +1 to Inc. for awesomeness, though it takes the whole 'fucking over the players' thing a bit literally.

More likely it's a port; VO for Samsung washing machines...

Anyway, OP's map is actually really awesome, with the simple re-arranging of system links like that the game would be a whole lot more interesting. Wouldn't that be possible with a few relatively simple changes here and there? You'd just have to change where the wormholes spit you out. I know you've got a complicated (and annoying) numbering system for sectors but surely this is doable.

Dev confirmation of VO for Vibrators? +1 to Inc. for awesomeness, though it takes the whole 'fucking over the players' thing a bit literally.

Haha. I read your original post as "personal messenger", as opposed to massager. Ah well. +1 for teledildonics, or something.

Anyway, OP's map is actually really awesome, with the simple re-arranging of system links like that the game would be a whole lot more interesting. Wouldn't that be possible with a few relatively simple changes here and there? You'd just have to change where the wormholes spit you out. I know you've got a complicated (and annoying) numbering system for sectors but surely this is doable.

Er, the original poster's map is identical to the production map.

I thought the suggestion was limited to adding new links? So, I do support that, but I'm not exactly sure what gameplay ramifications might be included to adding said links (tradeoffs to usage, risks, etc). But it doesn't require changing anything about wormholes, just adding new ones. So, numbering for sectors is unchanged (not that sector numbers are related anyway?).

As it is now, its 14 jumps to Deneb from Latos. Add a jump from Arta to Deneb. Note, that won't fix all that is borked in Deneb, but it'll shorten the commute.

I think the most simple way to create a link between Grey and Serco/Itani space is to stick a single grey system between Helios, Arta C, and Deneb, with link to each or perhaps just to Helios and Deneb. The position of Monsticus up above looks about right for that.

Wormhole oscillation sounds fun. Randomly drop links?

Oh it is, I looked at that map too quickly. Lame.

What's borked about Deneb these days?

I like Pizzasgood's idea with several systems in between Deneb and Odia. The idea Inc's mentoined a few times about a big ring of new gray systems around the current map doesn't do much to help with travel times to and from Deneb and other hotbeds of player combat.

In addition to providing new gameplay by adding space to explore, shouldn't the map be arranged in such a way that it promotes conflict and interaction?

Meh, if four systems get added connecting Odia to Deneb, then it really makes no difference whether they are on the "inside" or "outside".

to the devs: I think adding more systems would go far in quieting some of these old-timers about new game content. And from what i gather about the universe as a building blocks, this wouldn't take you guys but a week or so to implement. Getting it properly balanced would be the tricky part but there are many players who will be assisting you guys with that. This is a great idea on so many levels.

I think a version of Rin's map, mixed with the OP's map. So that no wormholes have to go under any others. It would be sick.

I think the new systems and the shortcut to Deneb is exactly what is needed to stimulate more gameplay. Particularly if the systems are strange. By that I mean places where weird things happen: bots are more aggressive, show up at stations... storms hit stations or even wormholes... maybe some different drop rates or new goodies from the hive... interesting roids to mine... and some sort of contraband or unique items to obtain or trade at the few stations.

No need to add it all at once, but parse it out over time starting with the new route to Deneb.