Ok, i know this is sounding like E&B and Freelancer, But, when your grouped, the ability to "Form" up with each other would make it much siimpler to work together as a combat unit. Most games i have seen, (all two of em) allowed the players to group, form up and fly and fight togeather at their destination point.
Da Fox

Well, nothings really keeping anyone from doing this. You just have to fly formation yourself ;). I've been in a few battles where we formed up as 2-man wings, the lead picking targets and going after them, the wingman watching their collective backs. It was a pretty effective tactic.

I was recently in a group of 3 pilots that flew across 3 systems. It was a lovely sight and much closer to realistic formations than any kind of artificial linking of ships.

In the "old days", watching a 10 pilot cap team warp and fly was goose bump raising.

formation flying just has to be done manually starfox, it's actually more satisfying to me to do it that way anyhow. The one thing that truly sets vendetta apart from most MMORPG's is that there is very little "click and the game does it for you" involved. I prefer the aspect of this game where almost everything is based on how well you, the pilot, actually do it.

RelayeR:
indeed. Squadrons are very viable, Even earlier we actually practiced formation-flight, for both trade, and combat runs. To have the game "just do it" would ruin the feeling of skill to the game as it is.

Spellcast said
formation flying just has to be done manually starfox, it's actually more satisfying to me to do it that way anyhow. The one thing that truly sets vendetta apart from most MMORPG's is that there is very little "click and the game does it for you" involved. I prefer the aspect of this game where almost everything is based on how well you, the pilot, actually do it.

I have to agree with this, unlike some other Space based MMORPG's the point of Vendatta is that you, not your PC flys the ship, You want to fly in formation, do it manually, it gives you a bigger buzz when you get it right :)

Hmm, i think i'll agree with ya on this one guys, although a formation could be a nice feature, doing it manually definatly gives a good buzz factor to it. thats the one thing i really do like about this game atm, the fact that a player truely pilots his ship as oppsoed to the computor :-)

Well maybe there could be a feature where the "squad leader" defines what formation (out of presets like diamond, line abreast, eschelon, etc) and rendered icons appear in formation to his ship and all the other players can use those icons go get into the correct location. They'd still have to work to stay there.

thats a really cool idea crippledpidgeon :-)

I wouldn't mind if the squad leader could brodcast the desired formation and it would give some kind of hint to the group as to where you should be flying. A ghost ship or arrow on your hud that showed what your current position in formation should be would be great.

Me and silentsuicide used to do formation flying drills until the cows came home. It was fun. We'd group up, the leader would pick a target, and we'd to various attacks. Hmm. We should try it again sometime. :P

To this Post i can only say: "Use some freespeak programms like Teamspeak, and you can easy control your wing formation". How to hold the right position into the formation, the pilotes need to learn it, same as at real life. For controling if you have the right formation place, use the radar and train formation flight wiht your friends or guild mates.

*salutes* Cu in space
MikeST

Might just be me, but the "real life" argument always rubs me the wrong way. I play games to get AWAY from real life. A certain amount of realism is important for the player to be able to "suspend disbelief" ... but beyond that it needs to be fun.

I just want to blow stuff up, why do I have computers on-board if not to navigate for me?

Oh btw: some of us (might also be only me) can't use Teamspeak, since running the client causes Vendetta to crash. (submitted the bug report first day of beta)

There's one MAJOR problem with saying that "pilots do that in real life." It takes a lot of practice and time spent teaching formation doctrine even when not in the game. I don't know about the rest of you, but I usually can only play for blocks of an hour or two. Personally, I'd rather spend that time getting money or battling (bots or humans) than roaring around space to practice formations. If little icons tell you where to go, in the formation, then it would make the whole process a lot faster. The player only now has to hold that location without drifting very much. Still would take a lot of skill, but not nearly as much as if you were just supposed to know where to go. As for Teamspeak. I assume that's where you have a mic and talk to other players. That's fine and dandy IF YOU HAVE A MICROPHONE. I don't. I wouldn't use it for anything outside of this game, so it really isn't high on my priority list, especially if it's only to be able to get into formations.

The biggest thing is that you will warp into a sector seperated from your team. If you and your teammate are on opposite sides of the sector, then time is lost regrouping before you can actually fight in formation.

octapus, when you warp in if you are coming from the same sector you should exit within 1500 meters or so of each other.

Fighting in formation breaks down quickly, unless by "formation" you mean "buddy system". Simply double teaming another guy is great.

It is a lot of fun to fly in formation with a bunch of friendlies - anyone remember the battle for sector 13? That was awesome... about eight or nine Itani flying to fight the screaming Serco horde...

Man I miss those days.

Spellcast: A groupmate and I came from the same sector, and ended up on the edge of sensor range of each other, and a couple times were outside of sensor range of each other.

Ok, how about this then, A formation flight for the purpose of getting your squadron to its desired warp destination. That way, on arrival, at least your ships are all togeather, then free flight normally like the game does now?
Da Furball

P.S. (all my old E&B buddies will get this :) When ya gonna put some chickens in da stations!! Da fox is hungry :)

I see both sides of the coin on thi one, sure, the skill element is great, however....this is a game for kids and adults, it shouldn't require so much skill to play that you can't relax when playing it. I think the idea of a symbol that the group leader can turn on off as to where the group mates should fly for formation is the best idea, that way you almost get the best of both worlds.

The group warp button could be handy as well, although using simple commands in chat is ok most of the time, the ability to have the group leader engage the warp for all (if in the correct spots of formation) would be cool.

A simple icon for where your ship should be in the formation shouldn't be to hard to add to the game either, as oppsoed to a system where a ship is locked in a place in relation to the group leader :-)