I have two immediate suggestions to improve the experince for new players looking at VO.

#1 - Loosen the experince needed to attain license levels based on combat. Or rather, give a more significant bonus to the beginner and advanced combat missions. The game seems to try and pit you against things way tougher than we may be ready for before we have access to adequate equiptment.

#2 - Add some kind of relatively weak large energy weapon requiring license level 0 so that players can work on heavy wepaons without having to dock and reload every few fights.

I agree with your number 2, but not with your number 1.

agree with #2 as well.

For #1, I think the first few levels are alright, but starting around license 6 or so, combat licenses get very frustrating IMO.

#2 would be very nice.

I agree with #2 as well. but the # 1 I liked it the way it was, remember this is where you get a lot of your piloting skills, there is a nOOb chn 1 - 10 thats where you can ask for advice on combat tatic's.

Syberfly out

I live for the One, I die for the One

Syberfly

do you live and die for the one that was, the one that is or the one that will be?

Sorry, but there was a massive slump between license levels 1 to 3. I almost hung up on VO because of it. I could just as easily be bored elsewhere and save my money. After moving beyond this gap, it gets repreive as level 3 opens up better ships and equiptment. I stand by my suggestion that something needs to be done, even if retooling the lower end ships a bit to make them a bit more capable.

Tactical advice serves no purpose either if the accessable ships are not capable of pulling them off. Mindless botting until you have access to the capable ships is the bedlam inducing tedium caused me to take about a week off to begin with.

Glad I came back so far, but the problem appears to extend beyond me. Others I know have tried this game and all quit well before they got as far as I have. All told me not to even try this game because it was just "boring".

At the very least, evening out the flow of character progression deserves to be looked at a bit more closely.

This gave has come an EXTREMLY far way since the alpha a few years ago and even quite far since the beta in september(thats when i joined).Trust me, the devs are working on character progression by adding new missions etc. But many people think the comba is fine. Also, the game is not completely about combat. As for the levels being hard to get, the experince required has actually been reduced since the game came out to make it easier to reach levels.

On a lighter note, that second idea is good, and i agree it needs to be implemented in order for new people to be able to more easily level up heavy wepons.

I think the level curve we have now is fine. There are really only 5 significant levels to gain, so each level *should* take a long time. However, I do think that there should be more equipment available to new players, with money as a limiting factor rather than experience. In other words, I don't think the rate at which you gain levels is the problem, I think it's the distribution of equipment available at those levels. It seems like you start out with almost nothing, and then suddenly after you've been working for hours and hours you gain access to more weapons than you know what to do with. This seems almost backwards to me.

To that end, I agree completely with #2. I think a dumbed down version of the gatling cannon would make a good newb energy l-port weapon.

Also, as a further response to #2:
http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/8321

MechaDragonX, I assume you are refering to the point in the game when you cannot take Beginner Combat anymore and have to move from killing Collectors to taking on Guardians and Assault bots.

Would better tactical advice in the Advance Combat mission description help new players?
Should Beginner Combat last longer?

Re: GrimLeo's post

Yes.