Post 'em here.

I've got a few to start off with.

For the nav bind, can you devs please make it so that when you hit the nav button again it closes the window? The same way sector stats key works, in other words. It's just a pain having to move your mouse to the close button every time.

I like that the custom colors feature was implemented. However, I don't think the range of colors is wide enough. There are way too many bright colors. Maybe it's just my LCD or something but the contrast between some of the colors is hardly noticeable at all. This is especially true for the upper portion.

In regards to ship and weapon balance, I'm not sure if a lot of time was put into balancing them out or not, but there are definitely some new ones out there. Some good changes, and some bad. Starting with the bad, I couldn't help but notice a teammate mentioning a second version of the gauss cannon. It fires at a quicker speed (190m/s) than the original and it fires at a quicker rate.

I'd just like to request that either the autoaim of the gauss be reduced drastically, or that tachyons and gravitons get a higher speed than the gauss cannon. This was the uber weapon of the previous version, and it looks like it still is. The new variety of weapons is otherwise greatly appreciated. I noticed that the rockets got a much needed reduction in proximity radius (thank you).

The chat system is okay, but it needs cleaning up. I'm still a little confused about the whole thing. The team chat key is no longer functional and has moved to the station interface as limited range chat. Okay, I have that much down. So we now have a total of five different chat modes--sector, group, system, global, and station (team). I don't think global really works (or is limited).

A possible way to simplify this would be to keep team and system chat in the station, while group and sector chat outside the station. Something like that. Right now my key bindings are all messed up because I can't quite decide which chat modes to choose from (or which even work at all).

Okay, that's all I can think of right now. I really like this new release and I thank the devs for a job well done. It's definitely starting to take shape now.

Okay, one more. Right now your warp drive engines can jump you from across an entire system (from system wormhole to system wormhole) without much effort. I think there should be a limit of five or six quadrant squares for the maximum distance of your warp drive. Put those empty sectors to good use. Add some excitement by choosing unknown paths during trade runs. If you're lucky you won't go through a path containing bots.

=)

I have another universe travel suggestion, would it be nessicary to have ships only travel at a certain amount of squares from their current location??

Though it would be silly for trader ships trying to get out of the astroid fields before they can travel to another sector..

This idea is also known as Warp range.

Example, the EC-88 should travel only 2 squares away from their current location.

Good or bad idea?? I wouldent want to see a bunch of useless sectors where no one travels in.

Yeah, exactly. Maybe the distance you can warp range could depend on the type of engine (or battery?) you have. Free/Light = 2 squares, Efficient = 3 squares, Medium = 4 squares, and heavy = 5 squares. The heavy/heavy combo is already at a disadvantage with its high energy drain and slow recharge rate, so it should at least have greater warp drive range. It's a compromise between in-sector endurance and warp drive endurance.

Anyway, at the very least I think there could be some limit to help the player explore the universe more. Of course the trade missions would need to be tweaked with this idea, so they would either be more rewarding or their paths would be shortened. Everyone like?

Only problem is that you spend a lot of time in those empty sectors. Which is boring. Boring can be bad in a game, and since it seems that hidden sectors/stations/whatever won't be appearing in those empty squares for a while, there's no incentive to be there at all.

Global chat (the t button) sends text to anyone within 3000m of you. It's, like, short-range radio transmissions. :P

"I think there should be a limit of five or six quadrant squares for the maximum distance of your warp drive. Put those empty sectors to good use. Add some excitement by choosing unknown paths during trade runs. "

a1k0n said something about ionic storms that would blow you off course (if you weren't aware of them).
is that implemented in this version?

Oh, and I second Arolte's comments about the color picker. It would be cool to get some non-pastels in there.

quite a few people would pick a dark color like black.
who doesn't want to have some evil sneaky hard to see ship?
dark blue (itani color) is the closest I've seen to an invisible ship so far

First off...I *HATE* the idea of only being able to move like 3 sectors at a time. That's just stupid. The reason *why* no one goes there because there is *nothing* to see, maybe a lone roid, but that's about it. Implementing this ingame would make it so incredibly painful to go *anywhere*.

While it would be cool to have a black ship, it wouldn't change much, you'll still popup on radar. But I think it'd be cool.

Lastly, I've said this a million times, give us back our communication! You may as well not have it if I have to warp to a sector with a station, go into the station, and then wait a minute everytime I want to say something. It's a completely worthless function right now! To prevent spam, when someone says more than like 10 things in a minute, they loose speaking privileges for five minutes, with a warning at 8 messages. I want my universal and team chat back! None of this latency crap! It just makes thing frustrating! Not "realistic" or "cool", it's "stupid".

Cheers.

Also, a cleaned up station would be nice, make it a lot less clunky and whatforth, give items individual icons, organize the database's, etc.

When you use "u", it tells you who is in the sector. This isn't very functional because no one is in the sector anymore. I played for 2 hours and ran into *1* person. Perhaps when you press "u" it tells you who is in the system, and where they are (but don't show bots, it's fun scoping about for them). This would allow you to hook up with people more.

I'm not sure...but is there a function telling you where your buddies are? If not, that'd be nice.

Lastly, I haven't seen *any* Drone I's or II's. Are they no longer in the game...or are they just in funky places? They were superb for upping standing with a nation.

EDIT:
Scratch the D1 and D2 comment, they're around, you just have to look for them.

Pardon me if I'm being picky or needy!

Cheers.

My Comments on a few other Suggestions:

HyperSpaz, calm down. (hehe ok... or maybe not)

The team chat is set up for a universe full of people Imagine a couple hundred people of one nation saying stuff all the time. It would be impossible to read anything. With the number of people we have now it just feels empty, but with the release goal in the near future we need to start testing things as they will be for the final game, even though it won't be as interesting with the testing base we have.

As for increasing your communication form large groups. It makes the game playable in its current state.

Dark colors are a large tactical advantage. In large fights you can't judge the distances of your 5+ opponents by looking at the radar, and you can only select one enemy at a time allowing you to see them by the targeting box. As much as I really only like dark colors I think the devs were smart in limiting their use. That being said the dark purple might be a bit hard to see... not sure since I haven't really seen anyone flying around with it (other than myself).

As for Arolte's suggestion about having /nav get you out of the nav window. YES please.


New Suggestions:
Put a "Zoom to current sector" button in the Nav window, allowing us to return to our current sector's zoomed in view with the click of a button.

Not sure if this is a bug. Once you click plot course, if you change the selected destination the count down continues but once you reach "ready" nothing happens. I would suggest that it just jumps to your original destination letting you look up information about other sectors/sub-sectors you plan on visiting while waiting for the timer (since it'll be coming back).

maybe just being in a sector with a station could increase the range of transmissions... also being able to pick up more transmissions.


or even be able to talk to people in other nearby locations of the same sector controlled type... so i could be at a TPG controlled sector... and be able to chat with people around other TPG controlled sectors in diffrent locations.??

food for thought..


MorbidlyWrong[VC]

... sorry for the double post...

also about the NAV key... i agree with arolte... could i also hit enter from that menu to jump if the 3km reqirements are met.


MorbidlyWrong[VC]

>First off...I *HATE* the idea of only being able to move like 3 sectors at a time.
>That's just stupid. The reason *why* no one goes there because there is *nothing*
>to see, maybe a lone roid, but that's about it. Implementing this ingame would
>make it so incredibly painful to go *anywhere*.

What's the point of having all those empty sectors then? It's way too easy to go from system to system right now. A vast majority of those 7000 some sectors are unused. I'm not sure if that's what was intended but it does nothing to encourage exploration. Your issue with boring navigation can easily be cured by tweaking the trade mission system. Shortening the required number of systems to travel between for your destination would easily make up for the time spent on going through "empty" sectors. The danger of being attacked by bots and other players in these "empty" sectors would make trading less boring if anything.

>While it would be cool to have a black ship, it wouldn't change much, you'll still
>popup on radar. But I think it'd be cool.

There's all this talk about black ships being unfair or whatever. If black is a problem it can just as easily not be added. From experience with other games that allow players to customize colors, however, I have to say black doesn't look good most of the time. I knew that topic would come up, but that's not what I had in mind. I'd just like to see fewer pastels and faded colors overall. There's very little contrast between most of them. Some darker or higher contrast colors would be nice. Not necessarily black. Anyway I don't want to get too obsessed with the colors. It was just a minor suggestion.

Dark colors in general would be the issue, not black. Infact given many of our sky boxes dark blues, reds, oranges, browns, and greens would be harder to spot than black in many cases.

whats the point of not havng them... I expect that the devs will implement more things in them... Since if you only make them to go through, then it will take an immense time just to cross 1 system. It takes me 10 mins, at least just to go 3 - 4 warps far. This is exact the same time as in the previous sectors. With as a major difference that it is constantly the same, point for open space, boost hit n and jump, rinse and repeat. Probably we will get ambushes by a group of pirates(bots) if you travel through from point a to point b at once... If you wanna risk that then you make such a super long jump, if you dont then you take the usage as before.

If you increase the times then you will make trading even more boring, especially sice you cant customize your own engine anymore. It really is a pain having to use aheavy engine on a centaur and then having to wait for it to recharge ...

Besides I expect all these sectors to have their use, either as possibilities for hidden warpholes, hidden stations or by making them an objective of a certain mission. Like intercept a messager from xxx that uses the next traject yyy. You can wait on that traject and ambush him. Or get a striketeam and kill the frig in system 22 sector b10. But all these enemies will spawn in random sectors that are otherwise free from bots, so that there wont be any collateral damage from newbies or botters interfering in a mission. You dont make people make use of sectors just because you think it has to be so, but because the story or some missions drive you to the sector. Or maybe because certain npcs show up in sectors with missions or ...

Not every mission will have to come from within a station, it would also be possible from an encountering ship. that ask to lend them a hand with tackling a pirate that is chasing them ... or ...

Dont make travelling sectors boring or a need to do that to get there. But make it fun to go in the sector for the chance of encountering another mission. Or for getting some bonus or ...

content will drive an rpg not repettitiveness.

cheers

THERE IS A FRIG IN SYSTEM 22 B-10?! SCORE!!!!

Anyways, color doesn't matter much. And Arolte...if you have 7000 sectors...and *ALL* of them have stuff in them...that just might cause some lag. And honestly, people go where they need to go, unless they're bored, then they wander. Unused sectors aren't an issue either. They're just there for bragging rights of having 7000+ sectors \ \/ / (^_^);;

But it would be near impossible to travel if I had to jump 3 sectors at a time, I mean, that's forcing people to do something that they hate, and that's not going to sell a video game.

I'll be posting later.

Cheers.

Okay, back to the colors. Think of it as buying camoflauge for your ship. You can only choose it while you buy the ship. Not after. So you need to choose wisely. Luckily the backgrounds in Vendetta contain a wide range of colors. Not just black and different shades of blue. Nobody will be at a distinct advantage because of this. You may be able to blend in a few sectors, but in others you'll stick out. So I don't think changing your ship color to some of the darker ones will necessarily serve as a distinct advantage. Even white can blend into some of the ice asteroids.

Renegade, nobody asked for an increase in trading mission time. I said that trade missions can be modified so you don't have to travel through as many systems as you do now. Instead of spending your time traveling through systems you'd travel through more sectors. In other words the amount of time it would take to do a trade mission would be equivalent for both methods if tweaked properly. What's being suggested here is the location which that time is spent (systems versus sectors). I think some of you misunderstood that.

You also appear to show some concern with the heavy/heavy combo. With my proposal the heavy engine will have a distinct advantage with warp drive. Yes, the medium and fast charge combo will still catch up to it inside a sector, but because of the bigger engine you'll get a 1 sector lead (5 sector distance) when compared to the medium engine which has a weaker warp drive (4 sector distance). So although you may have a med/fc pirate chase your hvy/hvy transport, when you finally make it to warp drive distance you can make a clean escape.

>But it would be near impossible to travel if I had to jump 3 sectors at a time, I
>mean, that's forcing people to do something that they hate, and that's not going
>to sell a video game.

We're talking about the changing the navigation system, not making the game more boring. It won't be boring if it's done right. Right now the new universe still feels small. The reason behind this is because despite all the thousands of new sectors, people still only want to go to the ones with stations and system wormholes in them. Players can jump from system to system with little effort. An MMORPG is supposed to encourage exploration, not kill it.

Hidden sectors, hidden stations, and mining for minerals are a few tasks that are planned in future releases. Lonely sectors will have their purpose and people should be encouraged to go to them. And I repeat again, if the trade mission system is properly tweaked, traveling three to five sectors at a time won't be boring if it takes the same amount of time. The universe is meant to be big, not some race track for traders to go through within seconds.

I've a few suggestions, minor ones really.

When you buy a ship it often comes with stuff, but it only shows the icons. It would be handy if it also had text describing what it is.

Lot's of 'screen estate' is wasted in the station on the frame. It would be nice if it would be a bit cleaner.

Some form of 'old style' group chat. Maybe like a group, with invite and join, but joining this group doesn't block missions. This would be nice for all of us who want to waste their time chatting about all kinds of non-Vendetta related stuff ^-^