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[borghe]

Vendetta Online is a MMOG space combat sim by Guild Software. It went live yesterday.

You are represented in game by your ship which is fully upgradeable (and replaceable) as your skill levels improve. You can either fight mobs, do mining/trading, or full scale open PvP between three factions.

Guild Software is made up of only four guys and to see what they have done and what they have planned is pretty impressive. The community is tight and fun to play within.

If you want to check it out for yourself, the game is freely downloadable which gives you 8 hours of in game time. Time after that is $10/month, or lower for larger blocks of time.

My overall impression of it is that it is a great start to an MMOG. There are some longevity questions at this very minute, though the devs are working continually to add content. Overall it is certainly a fine way to kill some time for the time being and has tons of potential. The gameplay is solid, the community is outstanding and at completely free for the first 8 hours I recommend any one who enjoys space combat games and MMOGs to check it out.

my rating is 8/10

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

 

[thorns]

can you use a joystick? or is it more like "click on ship"-attack etc.

 

[borghe]

there are two kinds of combat, both real time, more twitch gaming. the space physics is also present in both versions, meaning it handles like a ship in space, not like a plane in the air (ie. star wars games).

the first kind is "assisted" mode. basically this "kind of steers" like your typical star wars game. you keep pointing in the direction you want to face and the game will automatically adjust thrust to get you going in that direction. this allows you to just move and not worry about which way you might be drifting. this is the default and will be easiest for beginners.

the second kind is physics mode. this is true asteroids drift type space flight. your momentum keeps you going in the direction you accelerated until you thrust in a different direction. this is a toggle and gives you MUCH greater control over the movement of your ship (ie thrust in one direction then spin around and attack while moving backwards).

some notes. assisted takes some getting used to. it isn't truly like star wars flight. the mouse changes your view instantly with a mouselook but the nose of your ship can still take a split second to correct to your view if you move the mouse too fast. joystick AFAIK doesn't have this oddity because it controls more like a typical space sim with joystick. basically with any sweeping mouse movements it is most of the time easier to decelerate to a virtual stand still, do a quick spin (which is much quicker than if moving) and then accelerate again.

so short answer is yes, joystick or mouse can be used and it is space combat, not (psuedo) turn based like most other MMOGs.

 

[borghe]

I forgot to add that in physics mode there are still "air brakes" to stop you immediately if you are spinning out of control. so there is still some assistance available in physics mode.

 

[thorns]

I am quite familiar with space type physics so I understand exactly what you mean. Since I played Jumpgate for over a year and was quite a good pilot in that game. I might dig my joystick out and try this game , if my computer can run it..

How is high-level/low-level balance? Let's say if you're a pretty damn good pilot, what are your changes against a high level who is not so good? In Jumpgate you could own most high level ships with a low level ship if you were good enough and the other guy wasn't.

 

[borghe]

ok, here is how it lays out. you basically have (at least as far as I am) the following factors:

ship
battery
weapons

your ship controls how much damage you can take, max speed, max turbo, cargo capacity, etc.

your battery determines your max energy and recharge time.

weapons are damage and rate of fire.

you ARE limited on what you can buy based on your rank. so a higher level guy will be able to buy better weapons than you and own a better ship than you. however where I am at right now the higher level ships aren't a crapload better than a lower level, and I Am still using lower level weapons (higher level sucks energy too fast for my current battery).

all of that being said, it is still skill. this is a tiwtch game. kind of like a hybrid FPS/space combat sim. so yes, if you had a guy in a high level ship who was not skilled, a low level guy could in theory do stuff like thrust past him, whip around and shoot him from behind all the while he was still trying to lock in on him. This game is skill based, not like many other MMOGs where it is solely based on stats. Though here stats will allow you access to other upgrades that you can't get otherwise.

there may be more to it than I am describing here. I have only been playing since yesterday evening. this is just what I've seen so far.

 

[borghe]

oh, I almost forgot one of the most important parts. The game is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and all OSes play on the same server.