I believe that what this game needs are special attacks that vary from ship to ship. It would make the depth of gameplay MUCH deeper, and that's just one thing that this game needs. Now onto the specifics.

A special attack would need you to arm your ship in a certain way. It would also need your ship to have full battery's or something, and drain all of it at once when you fire. So it would really take alot out of your ship, maybe even make your ship loose some health or not be able to recharge for like 30 seconds. It would also require say...8+ or something in Combat, Light Weapons, and Heavy Weapons to use a special attack. The thing about a special attack would be that it lets you release ALOT more shots at one time.

Some ideas for such and attack would be ...
For the Vulture: It starts spinning around at a fast speed and launching out rockets in a spinning, yet random patter. (requires sunflares)
For the Ragnarok: Launches all of your ammo in one big blowout shot. (This'd look EXTREMELY cool from a standers point of view, watching dozens of rockets screaming at one unit). (requires 3 gemini's, 2 swarms)

I know this'd be very difficult for the Devs to incorporate but do you think this idea might make it into the Test or into the final release? Is it already under construction? Please post your idea/suggestions/etc!

I agree that ships need to be more special, but not in the way you mentioned. I'd like to see each ship have their own special properties, rather than attack combos or weapon availability. Right now there's just not a lot of variation to make any of the non-special ships interesting. They're all pretty much hollow chasis with variations in mass and weapon ports. That's all there is to it. I'd like to see something that would make each one unique.

By this I mean the design of certain ships will give it some kind of advantage that is totally independent from anything that can normally be bought from stations. For example there can be a ship that has the reputation of being the fastest in the universe. Because of its advanced design, you'll gain +50m/s towards whatever engine/battery combo you purchase, making it faster to any other ship with comparable specs.

Another idea is special devices. Cloaking devices and shields have been discussed before. I'm totally against the idea of making it purchaseable at every station. However, what might be cool is to go into a very secret location with a station guarded by very hard bots, and be able to purchase an alien ship off the black market that has cloaking abilities. Only that alien ship will have that capability. That's what makes it unique

Same idea with "shields" or advanced armor or whatever. The list goes on... In any case I think stuff like that would really help make Vendetta into a more refined MMORPG. There seems to be some information that's hinting on special or rare items that can be obtained under special conditions. I just hope that includes more unique ships.

Special weapons should be nation specific. I'm sure in the real game there'll be a lot more special ships and weapons. Itani would have some sort of shield/high tech weapon, while Serco has a devastating super powerful weapon, and NT has cloaking devices/tractor beam or equally tradery/piratey weapon. For the "Black market" nation, which isn't really a nation but just any black market station, just about anything would be for sale. At inflated prices with faulty components, of course. Maybe the nation-specific weapons have extra power and upgrades with nation-specific ships.

In any occasion, there needs to be a way to customize, not just with engines or weapons. It is VERY common in previous version to see people flying aroung in Vultures or Valkyries, you didn't see much of anthing else (most were tri-flare fc/heavy). But if there were, as Arolte had said, certain abilities or benefits to each ship, everyone would have an individual preference.

Any Devs want to post their thoughts?

Super Special Ragnarok Power Attack, goooo!!!

Methinks HyperSpaz as been watching too much anime... :P

pyro! you can never watch enough anime!

seriously though: ships do need to be more unique. the differentiation fighter-bomber-trader has to be more exact, maybe with borderline models to bridge the gaps (one per gap, being a compromise between the two classes), but still visible.
within the classes, we need equally distinctive traits, like arolte said.
or, maybe give the ships special loadouts that enhance them beyond the items' abilities (as has been brought up earlier, and is reminiscent of the set items in diablo 2: lod), there you could provide uniqueness easily imo.

Pyro: Most definately.
Toshiro: Anime must be the best TV EVER!!!