"perhaps giving UIT exclusive access to the Heavy Behemoth the npcs fly (along with built in capital gatling turrets)."

For a second there I was really excited, but then I realized you said "capital gatling turrets", not "capital gauss cannon". Because NPC Behemoths do carry capital gauss cannons in their L-ports; they just don't normally fire them unless you spawn them with the mission system and tell them to fight.

OP = no fucking way.

I suggested back when the exculivity went into effect that the XC be made exclusive to UIT. I still support that option.

On the other hand, I sort of agree with TRS. UIT has always had the largest population. Exclusivity has changed the distribution a bit from what I can tell, but I think there needs to be more work done to balance the player base- particularly with the Serco population.

+1 to the OP for a sense of 'fairness' in what is available to to UIT vs Serco & Itani

I don't think keeping UIT as an overall crappier nation choice is an effective method of directing more equal amounts of players to serco or itani. That comment is just TRS's usual method of trying to mislead and troll. There are very obviously other, MUCH better ways to do that, and would be the subject of a separate thread.

Deathspores -- how is a player controlled Behemoth Heavy OP? You can kill NPC ones easily. *oh -- you probably meant the original post...*

Cap Gauss would be OP on a moth. Shouldn't be there to begin with, honestly.

There seems to be a lot of discussion about UIT not needing a good exclusive combat ship because most UIT are traders. Let me point out one fact that has not been mentioned, ANY GOOD TRADING VESSEL WITH LARGE CARGO CAPACITY needs some fighter escort at time or they will never reach their destination successfully.
UIT may not have any part in the on-going Itani/Serco war, but they still need some way to protect their own. Some of the ships mentioned that UIT can buy at this point can also be bought by Serco and Itani, so where is the fairness in that talk.
Making the XC UIT exclusive would not work as then only UIT could build Tridents and other items we hope to see in the near future. Making a larger cargo capacity Moth, which would be even slower that the XC, would be of little use, as it is luck a lot of the time for a XC to make a good trip.
Making a smaller capacity cargo ship - 70 to 80 cu - would not work unless it had turbo speed of 220+ which would make the Pirates whine. UIT would be better off flying the basic Moth with 3 large ports, with mines, and 3 turrets with Gems.

I agree with OP that UIT needs some exclusive combat ships for their own protection as they trade throughout the Verse.

If the UIT was such a shitty deal it wouldnt have the pop numbers it does. Nobody identifies with the serco or itani when they come to the game so they choose UIT, unless that's going to be offset with some kind of character picking positioning that emphasises the importance of contributing to the nations before the UIT then the situation will remain the same.

The problem is the population, sad feelings about bad combat ships are irrelevant. The UIT is the smallest backstory faction with the largest population. Does that seem right to you?

I also happen to support the idea of a ship like the XC becoming UIT exclusive, even if trident manufacture remains as stupid as it is now.

"The UIT is the smallest backstory faction with the largest population. Does that seem right to you?"

Little people with little back stories having a large fan base? I'm shocked!

TRS:

One casual glance at the weekly player graph and you'll see times when serco and itani dominate as well. So stop trying (for once) to mislead the conversation because you like being a total dick.

http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/active

I'm glad you agree with me that we need better summaries of nation choices at the outset of the game.

Other than that, you can take your "overpopulation" straw man and stick it up your ass.

Savet nailed it, UIT are all midgets!

Greenwall you can take your "equal advantage" straw man and have your way with it. Its not even possible to have an "equal advantage". All you propose is we make UIT the best choice so that nobody even needs to make a tradeoff to become 'neutral'. Boring.

By its own definition, a strawman cannot be the original proposition.

I'm honestly a bit surprised more UIT haven't chimed in here...

All you propose is we make UIT the best choice so that nobody even needs to make a tradeoff to become 'neutral'. Boring.

Neutrality isn't even a positive thing in this game. It paints a bullseye on your back everywhere (no permanent standing loss for whoever kills you). Also, you don't get access to any of the better ships and weapons til you work your standing up.

There's a reason I love griefing/pirating in UIT space. Newbs keep running to the local faction stations to hide, but unfortunately they forget that their standing with them is still neutral, so I massacre them with impunity. How the fuck is that an advantage?

Bottom line: UIT is at a disadvantage right now. It needs to be fixed in some way, that I agree with.

The advantage of neutrality is the ability to move through both Serco and Itani space as well as UIT without incurring the wrath of either side. If you've pissed off the local Serco warlord or Itani monk-man that's on you. If that isn't the advantage that you want in Vendetta then you don't really want to assume the role of a UIT and you can change your standing within the system or change race.

Anyone can be neutral, that's not some special thing only UIT can do. And even if it was, there is no significant advantage to having access to blue, yellow and red space at the same time.

Apart from being able to easily do all 3 dynamic hives (military), there is virtually no real commercial value to being neutral with both Itani and Serco. There are only a few exclusive items that either nation offer that are at best mediocre trade items.

Nor is there any travel advantage- particularly since there is no longer any faction protection.

There may be some ores that are more common in Serco or Itani systems, I've never done any more mining than was absolutely necessary to get what I wanted. I do not recall needing access to Itani or Serco space for any of the ores I used to build a trident.

So, UIT neutrality imo is really meaninless. Back when I actually bothered to trade, I did so almost exclusively in Serco space.

Yes there is, it's a financial trade advantage. Just because trade and economy is beyond broken in VO doesn't mean we should make UIT better at combat. It means the economy should be fixed and if necessary the UIT trade advantage should be expanded.

You're still yet to give a good reason why UIT should get expanded combat ability; they don't need it. Nation choice is a choice of play-style. If there isn't a significant difference in the choices they all become meaningless. Those who choose to be UIT and maintain good standing with UIT should get good stuff, but not good combat stuff.

+1 to more exclusive UIT combat ships.

I don't get what problem there is with that. UIT never were meant to ONLY be the rich but weak traders. You would expect their ttansports has some supporter spacecraft...

Traders don't need anything better than a bloody UDV raptor to protect themselves. It's a decent ship in all combat settings.

New exclusive infini-turbo 220 m/s with like 100 cu...make it a marauder or an atlas...UIT does not need exclusive combat ships. For crying out loud, as it is there is only the valk and prom that UIT cannot pilot. Are you really being serious?!?! THAT IS TWO SHIPS. "ok devs we got another great idea to waste your time. make us some new irrelevant UIT exclusive ships please. we just cant do anything cause of all the valks and proms flying around"

come on guys...they have better things to do with their time. This, at the end of the day is not affecting gameplay in any real way and anyone who said they are in need really does not care about the balance of this game

I repeat: combat ships aren't the only way UIT can be more exclusive.