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Is this game dead? I've been a subscriber for about 4 years and I have to say this game has not advanced in any significant sense. Sure, you've done your part to get more subscribers (aka more money), but what have you done to increase veteran happiness? Not a whole lot, it seems ...
I keep seeing all this "chatter" regarding Vendetta 2.0, but I see no evidence that such an endeavor/beta/test/demo will ever come to fruition; no proof.
Those 'neat' artist renditions of "possible things to come" only served to get our palette wet as "eye-candy", nothing more. Its like an awesome preview for, what is decided in the end to be, a really bad movie.
Moving on .. those incremental *special* updates only serve to appease long-time veterans who enjoy a slight adjustment to monotony. Those updates don't count and, as such, are not valid here.
It seems like the only people who benefit from the recent efforts of GS are the so-called weekend warriors who play the game collectively about 45 minutes a month. Those who are on Mac/PC seem to be lacking in any enjoyable/refreshed sense. Yay, higher subscription ...
Regarding theabove, I am just curious going forward, as I am seriously trying to decide if this game is worth the multi-year cost I paid last time. Hell, I am not even certain its worth the same expense over a decade. Super lame, super boring, super budget-reduction target -- what am I paying for again? Boringness? Staleness?
I keep seeing all this "chatter" regarding Vendetta 2.0, but I see no evidence that such an endeavor/beta/test/demo will ever come to fruition; no proof.
Those 'neat' artist renditions of "possible things to come" only served to get our palette wet as "eye-candy", nothing more. Its like an awesome preview for, what is decided in the end to be, a really bad movie.
Moving on .. those incremental *special* updates only serve to appease long-time veterans who enjoy a slight adjustment to monotony. Those updates don't count and, as such, are not valid here.
It seems like the only people who benefit from the recent efforts of GS are the so-called weekend warriors who play the game collectively about 45 minutes a month. Those who are on Mac/PC seem to be lacking in any enjoyable/refreshed sense. Yay, higher subscription ...
Regarding theabove, I am just curious going forward, as I am seriously trying to decide if this game is worth the multi-year cost I paid last time. Hell, I am not even certain its worth the same expense over a decade. Super lame, super boring, super budget-reduction target -- what am I paying for again? Boringness? Staleness?
Eh, go grope yer fruit in private.
Haters gonna hate.
Assuming you are not just another troll, take a break from the game. I've left and returned multiple times for reason including the same kind of frustration you are expressing.
Seriously, you don't need anyone's permission to end your subscription if you are not enjoying the game.
As a 7 year veteran (newby) part of what I enjoy about the game is watching the game develop, even if it's progress sometimes seems glacial. For me, these forums are the other half of Vendetta Online, where I can engage my fellow players in the Suggestions forums over ideas that we think would improve the game or disagree with. So your complaint does not speak for me.
Seriously, you don't need anyone's permission to end your subscription if you are not enjoying the game.
As a 7 year veteran (newby) part of what I enjoy about the game is watching the game develop, even if it's progress sometimes seems glacial. For me, these forums are the other half of Vendetta Online, where I can engage my fellow players in the Suggestions forums over ideas that we think would improve the game or disagree with. So your complaint does not speak for me.
Ok, so did you miss all the stuff in the last couple years like avalon torpedos, being able to use your own turrets, persistent mines, launching from capships, capship shields, a buncha new missions, the ipad port, etc?
I know you can be a subscriber and not play at all, but... damn.
I know you can be a subscriber and not play at all, but... damn.
I can't help but compare to what Josh Parnell has done for Limit Theory in the same time. Even he is starting to lose momentum, but it still makes it look like VO goes pretty slowly features wise. I wouldn't phrase the conversation like that because most people here are pretty hopeless at viewing VO's progress in context (case in point death fluffy) but honestly its not like anyone else is doing any better.
Star citizen for instance turned out to be a complete lie. According to them they haven't even started the mmo part.
Star citizen for instance turned out to be a complete lie. According to them they haven't even started the mmo part.
Josh Parnell designed his game from the ground up to be development-friendly and procedural since he knew he was going to be working on it alone, and he ran a wildly successful crowdfunding campaign. Limit Theory is also a singleplayer game. The VO devs have netcode and multiplayer concerns in all their development, as well as maintenance of what exists, on top of financial woes to consider.
I realize I may sound like an apologist here. I do love VO, but I'm not so attached to it that I can't see its flaws as well; I've been subbed one month out of the past two years. Maybe you're the one hopeless at comparing Limit Theory's progress to other games'. :p
As for the OP, VO is slowly growing as it has been since its inception. The sandbox and discussion keep people here for years. Even as they drift away, others return to check up on the progress, and more and more newbies hear about it. Features are slowly taking shape, some that have been promised for over a decade (I'm looking at you, capships). If that's not dynamic enough for you, there are many other games to play... or even constructive things to do instead of flaming the forums.
I realize I may sound like an apologist here. I do love VO, but I'm not so attached to it that I can't see its flaws as well; I've been subbed one month out of the past two years. Maybe you're the one hopeless at comparing Limit Theory's progress to other games'. :p
As for the OP, VO is slowly growing as it has been since its inception. The sandbox and discussion keep people here for years. Even as they drift away, others return to check up on the progress, and more and more newbies hear about it. Features are slowly taking shape, some that have been promised for over a decade (I'm looking at you, capships). If that's not dynamic enough for you, there are many other games to play... or even constructive things to do instead of flaming the forums.
Even he's full of shit when it comes to release dates and targets. The difference is he's transparent and he blogs daily, even if he actually does no work or has a holiday or goes out drinking with his g̶i̶r̶l̶f̶r̶i̶e̶n̶d̶ laptop.
But the point is still there are no other twitch combat multiplayer space games in a single persistent universe. I'm not including Jumpgate because there has to be a reasonable limit and it's a community run thingy now.
The point is if you add Steam integration + do a new kickstarter which 'forks' VO into a new game. As in avoid all the "why would we fund an existing game, that's greedy" bullshit then that's probably all that you'd need to put VO about on par with all the other space games that are currently under-delivering also.
But the point is still there are no other twitch combat multiplayer space games in a single persistent universe. I'm not including Jumpgate because there has to be a reasonable limit and it's a community run thingy now.
The point is if you add Steam integration + do a new kickstarter which 'forks' VO into a new game. As in avoid all the "why would we fund an existing game, that's greedy" bullshit then that's probably all that you'd need to put VO about on par with all the other space games that are currently under-delivering also.
...'forks' VO into a new game.
Unless I'm misunderstanding this, that would be terrible. This is basically the reason I'm avoiding games like Elite: Dangerous; the 'play with others if you want to, or else run your own universe' syndrome (well, that and system reqs). I understand some people like it, it's 'hot' right now etc., but it seems to me that a lot of depth is lost in the process. I want to be able to encounter anyone that might also be playing VO at the time, regardless of whether or not I want to. I want those thousands of interactions described on the landing page.
As far as the OP I am sympathetic, but respectfully, I think you are wrong. There have been a lot of changes, if you've been paying attention. 4 years is a long time. To me, the platform ports have been some of the most exciting changes of all, including mobile and Ouya; not so much because of changes in gameplay mechanics, but because these ports have changed the way the game is played (for an example of how differently a mobile MMO can express its mechanics, consider a game like Ingress. VO doesn't have any of these GPS-location specific augmented reality mechanics, but the fact that it can be accessed literally from anywhere makes for an omnipresent Sanctum-like experience, if you'll pardon the expression).
I agree that VO has not changed on the surface as much as games newly in development over the past four years, but this is in part due to design choices which every game designer has to make; part of it is sketching the outlines, and part of it is filling in the colors and shades. VO is more toward the 'colors and shades' end of the development spectrum, imo.
Unless I'm misunderstanding this, that would be terrible. This is basically the reason I'm avoiding games like Elite: Dangerous; the 'play with others if you want to, or else run your own universe' syndrome (well, that and system reqs). I understand some people like it, it's 'hot' right now etc., but it seems to me that a lot of depth is lost in the process. I want to be able to encounter anyone that might also be playing VO at the time, regardless of whether or not I want to. I want those thousands of interactions described on the landing page.
As far as the OP I am sympathetic, but respectfully, I think you are wrong. There have been a lot of changes, if you've been paying attention. 4 years is a long time. To me, the platform ports have been some of the most exciting changes of all, including mobile and Ouya; not so much because of changes in gameplay mechanics, but because these ports have changed the way the game is played (for an example of how differently a mobile MMO can express its mechanics, consider a game like Ingress. VO doesn't have any of these GPS-location specific augmented reality mechanics, but the fact that it can be accessed literally from anywhere makes for an omnipresent Sanctum-like experience, if you'll pardon the expression).
I agree that VO has not changed on the surface as much as games newly in development over the past four years, but this is in part due to design choices which every game designer has to make; part of it is sketching the outlines, and part of it is filling in the colors and shades. VO is more toward the 'colors and shades' end of the development spectrum, imo.
No I mean 'fork' like a company 'forks' what would be a traditional mens product into something for women and then charges double the price for it. Like a 'fork' of VO with new features but pitched independently like it's an entirely new initiative leveraging the codebase of the old VO. That way all the people that didn't pledge for VO because the first kickstarter was 'greedy' might think twice and the previous failed kickstarter won't matter because it's a new project.
That or people will put two and two together, realise what you're doing and punish you more for it. But hey, no risks no rewards.
Anyway phaserlight you can't argue against people deploying their own local servers for games. You'd know this if you ever tried to play VO or any other twitch game from Asia, Australia or anywhere in the southern hemisphere. Sometimes you just need that low ping to make something fun. America isn't the center of the world!
That or people will put two and two together, realise what you're doing and punish you more for it. But hey, no risks no rewards.
Anyway phaserlight you can't argue against people deploying their own local servers for games. You'd know this if you ever tried to play VO or any other twitch game from Asia, Australia or anywhere in the southern hemisphere. Sometimes you just need that low ping to make something fun. America isn't the center of the world!
you can't argue against people deploying their own local servers for games
Sure I can, I just did! As far as low ping, I see your point, but I think that this will become less and less of an issue as technology improves. Cloud-based services may help improve ping across the globe (imagine a cloud server in Asia communicating with a server in California on a hierarchical level). The absolute outer limit of a photon packet traveling halfway around the globe in a vacuum is 70 ms, which is a respectable latency (obviously fiber optics are nowhere near there yet).
From a purely design standpoint, there are some huge advantages to a multiplayer persistent universe being synonymous with the game universe: the number of potential interactions between players that it facilitates, and the cultural ramifications (I could write a lot on this last point, but I'll spare you for now. The tl;dr is the ethics of play it encourages).
Sure I can, I just did! As far as low ping, I see your point, but I think that this will become less and less of an issue as technology improves. Cloud-based services may help improve ping across the globe (imagine a cloud server in Asia communicating with a server in California on a hierarchical level). The absolute outer limit of a photon packet traveling halfway around the globe in a vacuum is 70 ms, which is a respectable latency (obviously fiber optics are nowhere near there yet).
From a purely design standpoint, there are some huge advantages to a multiplayer persistent universe being synonymous with the game universe: the number of potential interactions between players that it facilitates, and the cultural ramifications (I could write a lot on this last point, but I'll spare you for now. The tl;dr is the ethics of play it encourages).
70ms is a crap ping for an FPS when you're looking at getting about half that on local servers, for starters.
The second point is the only reason that persistent universe matters so much for VO is because there are bugger all players. We could have a distributed VO with servers across regions and it would still be just as fun provided there were enough people. Of course there are advantages and yes it's more realistic to have a massive persistent universe but there's a reason other developers steer clear of it. It's pretty crazy to try and deploy it, which makes the VO devs look incredibly brilliant or incredibly stupid depending entirely on their success or failure.
The second point is the only reason that persistent universe matters so much for VO is because there are bugger all players. We could have a distributed VO with servers across regions and it would still be just as fun provided there were enough people. Of course there are advantages and yes it's more realistic to have a massive persistent universe but there's a reason other developers steer clear of it. It's pretty crazy to try and deploy it, which makes the VO devs look incredibly brilliant or incredibly stupid depending entirely on their success or failure.
I was a subscriber few years back. After changing job, city and continent I am still here reading news and flames. Not a big fan of gaming but still VO represent something forward to me to recommend.
Well I can understand the frustration of the OP when we see how many other space games with better looking graphics are out there coming soon, I am new at this game, I never heard of this game before until a post I saw in mmorpg forum. I think this game needs better advertisement to reach out to a bigger audience.
I like this game, I have enjoyed the few hours I have already played (I almost done with the 8 hours so if someone has a key to extend my stay until I get paid, please do so, I am mining to finish a quest and get my big mining Behemot ship)
I think this game is awesome, concepts, ideas and fills a big void in space games at this particular time. Like people said take a break and comeback in couple of months.
I like this game, I have enjoyed the few hours I have already played (I almost done with the 8 hours so if someone has a key to extend my stay until I get paid, please do so, I am mining to finish a quest and get my big mining Behemot ship)
I think this game is awesome, concepts, ideas and fills a big void in space games at this particular time. Like people said take a break and comeback in couple of months.
I find my aim / success at hitting people improves with higher ping. So... careful what you wish for.
I find my aim / success at hitting people improves with higher ping. So... careful what you wish for.
I've also found that to be true. The "sweet spot" for VO seems to be around the 130-180ms range, actually.
I've also found that to be true. The "sweet spot" for VO seems to be around the 130-180ms range, actually.
/me opens up some torrents
Hi gropefruit!
I'm kind of like you (except quite possibly far more handsome) since I've been playing this game on and off since 2004. I put it away a few times but continue to come poke my head back in for a few reasons:
10% to test out new features
15% to hook up with other old farts who still play this game
35% because I saw Smittens was back on the ITAN forums and I love annoying him
15% to hopefully shoot Dr. Lecter some more, which was always fun
15% cause I've finished Skyrim, even bored with the Thomas the Tank Engine mods
10% because I like the Devs and wish they'd make something more of this game
So I feel your angst when you say stuff like
"this game has not advanced in any significant sense"
and
"incremental *special* updates only serve to appease long-time veterans who enjoy a slight adjustment to monotony"
and
"I am seriously trying to decide if this game is worth the multi-year cost I paid last time"
While the $10/month doesn't really matter all that much to me budget-wise, I do find myself coming back, playing for a few months, canceling, because VO doesn't hold my interest as much anymore. I can pretty much guarantee that the next time Divinity:Original Sin goes on sale on Steam, that I'll be gone from VO again in a poof of 20-sided dice.
What it comes down to is that the next time I get a chance I'll probably pop for the 2-year plan and just play casually whenever I feel like it. I suppose that my point is that I've learned to accept the incremental updates and upgrades as they come out, without expecting VO to have the kind of content and playerbase that WOW has, since... well you all know the excuses. Money. Personnel. Platforms. Legal. Bugs.
I feel like the parent of a mediocre child, celebrating small wins and minor advances as if they were much more than they are, because I know that my little V.O. is never going to be an astronaut or a doctor. Maybe a bookkeeper or a fast food restaurant manager. Or an attorney if they can't do those. ;P
And I'm OK with that.
I admit, back in 2005 I had high hopes that 'lil V.O. would grow up to be a major player in the MMO space, but I've learned to temper my hopes and expectations to be more in line with what can realistically be done. I still wish Guild Software the absolute best, and I have a lot of excitement when things happen like being greenlit on Steam. So there is always hope for the future, and I'm sure that Guild still has some future surprises in store.
So take heart, disgruntled subscriber! Others feel the same way and yet still maintain hope.
I'm kind of like you (except quite possibly far more handsome) since I've been playing this game on and off since 2004. I put it away a few times but continue to come poke my head back in for a few reasons:
10% to test out new features
15% to hook up with other old farts who still play this game
35% because I saw Smittens was back on the ITAN forums and I love annoying him
15% to hopefully shoot Dr. Lecter some more, which was always fun
15% cause I've finished Skyrim, even bored with the Thomas the Tank Engine mods
10% because I like the Devs and wish they'd make something more of this game
So I feel your angst when you say stuff like
"this game has not advanced in any significant sense"
and
"incremental *special* updates only serve to appease long-time veterans who enjoy a slight adjustment to monotony"
and
"I am seriously trying to decide if this game is worth the multi-year cost I paid last time"
While the $10/month doesn't really matter all that much to me budget-wise, I do find myself coming back, playing for a few months, canceling, because VO doesn't hold my interest as much anymore. I can pretty much guarantee that the next time Divinity:Original Sin goes on sale on Steam, that I'll be gone from VO again in a poof of 20-sided dice.
What it comes down to is that the next time I get a chance I'll probably pop for the 2-year plan and just play casually whenever I feel like it. I suppose that my point is that I've learned to accept the incremental updates and upgrades as they come out, without expecting VO to have the kind of content and playerbase that WOW has, since... well you all know the excuses. Money. Personnel. Platforms. Legal. Bugs.
I feel like the parent of a mediocre child, celebrating small wins and minor advances as if they were much more than they are, because I know that my little V.O. is never going to be an astronaut or a doctor. Maybe a bookkeeper or a fast food restaurant manager. Or an attorney if they can't do those. ;P
And I'm OK with that.
I admit, back in 2005 I had high hopes that 'lil V.O. would grow up to be a major player in the MMO space, but I've learned to temper my hopes and expectations to be more in line with what can realistically be done. I still wish Guild Software the absolute best, and I have a lot of excitement when things happen like being greenlit on Steam. So there is always hope for the future, and I'm sure that Guild still has some future surprises in store.
So take heart, disgruntled subscriber! Others feel the same way and yet still maintain hope.
"Well I can understand the frustration of the OP when we see how many other space games with better looking graphics are out there coming soon, "
And that's an issue. We joke about the GSW "Soon", but where are these other games? Soon never comes for so many, because the genre is a difficult sell. VO is actually here now.
And that's an issue. We joke about the GSW "Soon", but where are these other games? Soon never comes for so many, because the genre is a difficult sell. VO is actually here now.
15% cause I've finished Skyrim
Shut your mouth, blasphemer!
Shut your mouth, blasphemer!