Tried the game a bit and almost already conviced to stay and get a subscription, but, would like a bit more help on which race is best for me. I generally mostly like combat, both PVP and PVE(eg on EVE I do PVE Missions and PVP too) - I am definitely not much on crafting and mining. Also are all 3 races active in terms of player population?

All three races have fairly close shares of players, although Serco seem to be down recently and UIT tends to have more than the others. You can look at the recent relative activity of nations on the Active Players graph: http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/active . Itani and Serco are at war and joining nationalist guilds on either side will quickly introduce you to PVP in a group format.

UIT are much closer to greyspace, where most action happens. If you're interested in PVP, joining UIT and being a pirate is a great way to get plenty of action. It may not always be even odds though.

Many players simply arrange duels and practice fights, regardless of their nation or role. Ask on channel 100 for a fight or a tutor. A common staging place for fights is Sedina B-8; you may even be shot at before you get there. :P

One of the great things about VO is that you don't need to be locked into your nation. You can create a character for each nation, and even different roles: Serco militant, Itani nationalist, UIT pirate, trader or miner for any nation, etc. Log on to whichever role you feel like playing that day.

Thank you, militarist and nationalist are like EVE's fuctional warfare in a way? For the graph seems like Serco have the least players but it doesnt show amounts really. I will try go to the spot you said but I think I should raise my skills a bit first

Serco militant, Itani nationalist, UIT pirate

Wrong. Any nationality can be a pirate.

In this game, your initial nationality doesn't offer any advantage regarding manufacturing or trading. However, if you start as serco or itani, you will get access to elite combat-oriented ships that UIT do not.

Itani: Valkyrie. Labelled a light fighter, but it has an unusually high amount of armor as well as 3 small ports. One of the best ships for pirating since it has a low battery drain rate as well as the highest turbo max speed.

Serco: Prometheus. THE tank of the game. It WILL beat all other ships in game in a 1v1 fight between equally competent pilots. Higher battery drain than valkyries, so it's not really good for chasing. If you want to chase, instead use SVG (Serco variant of vulture)

UIT is a good choice if you want to manufacture/trade, but only okayish if you are more interested in PvP. There are some good ships throughout the local factions. However, the fact remains that Itani and Serco have access to superior combat-oriented ships at the moment. No, Raptor UDV does not count. It's a freaking flare magnet.

This game is a sandbox. You are free to take your character in any direction. Become a traitor even, and join the ranks of Itani while being Serco.

That's all you really need to know.

Wrong. Any nationality can be a pirate.

Didn't say they couldn't. I have pirate characters of all nationalities.

"Sandbox" is really the best word to apply here.

Moooo?

Actually, you cannot fully roleplay a traitor since the devs intentionally neutered the mechanics through gameplay.

http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/2/27604

One of the best ships for pirating since it has a low battery drain rate as well as one of the highest turbo max speeds.

FTFY.

It WILL beat all other ships in game in a 1v1 fight between equally competent pilots.

I'm not sure you understand the definition of "competent". Each ship has weaknesses, it just depends on what you favour, and how you exploit those weaknesses. It's not good enough to label one ship as being always the winner between two combatants, because it just sounds like you're being deliberately obtuse.

However, the fact remains that Itani and Serco have access to superior combat-oriented ships at the moment. No, Raptor UDV does not count. It's a freaking flare magnet.

You're just doing it wrong. There's a certain cow who uses it quite well.

Awesome, I played spaceship games with manual control(star trek online, freespace, klingon academy) and one with somewhat automatic(EVE), so I do understand you need to know your ship and your opponents ship well to pvp efficiently. You say the game IS a sandbox, then it has the usual player driven economy and industry features? curious, as Vendetta seems to interest me a lot. Also on the video in main site you see people flying some ships from external view. How you activate external camera? its not on keys list.

F9 to change the view.

The economy and industry are pretty limited still. Stations sell an endless supply of goods whose price never changes, but they do fake variable demand when they buy stuff from you, and different stations will have different prices so that you can find trade routes. There are a bunch of things stations don't sell though, that you have to find, make, or buy from other players. Some people like to wave that around to claim the game has a player driven economy, but that's just kind of deceitful in my book. A limited black market for select goods is not what most people mean when they ask this question. As for industry, most items in the game cannot be crafted, but you can make a number of weapons and a very nimble ship, and there is a very involved manufacturing tree to construct capital ships as well (takes months of work to complete).

I see and thank you. So basically it has space trucking for commerce and low scale crafting/selling. Definitely its not a sandbox, at least yet, not sure what the future plans are, but right now from what you told me I would say the game is closer to Elite and Fairspace than it is to lets say EVE and Perpetuum.

A sandbox is an open-world experience that allows blending of multiple gameplay types without requiring highly specific linear progression paths. We are a sandbox.

We are not the economic and mining sandbox that EVE is, to be sure. Although, strictly speaking, even EVE's economy is not entirely "pure" either, as Wikipedia puts it: The economy is balanced by the automatic introduction of extra materials in underpopulated areas. This encourages a more even spread of players. Practically everyone retains some automatic control over their economies, it ends up being more about the degree of control that happens behind the scenes (which can be quite difficult to measure by the player, so they usually assume it's all "real". In our case, our supply-side is very obviously disconnected, at present).

We actually have an entirely dynamic "shadow economy" that is in the background as a prototype, but does not have influence over the current game. We've always been challenged by the balance of making sure newbies aren't harmed by player-created economic chaos, vs using a more natural and dynamically-interesting system.

Our goals right now include an expanded galaxy with locations that can be conquered and occupied dynamically by players, who then have genuinely supply/demand driven economics themselves. It's easier for us to move towards a structure like this.. "relatively safe" core systems with fairly static economics and item availability, and as one moves outward into the wild-west, so the economics and resources become more interesting as well.

In the short term, we will be testing other economic models in current "grayspace"; but that probably won't be for a couple of months, as we have to complete existing projects.

That sounds really cool Inc, I can see how grey space could stand to have a much more dynamic economy perhaps relying more on player trade and NPC convoys. Also if player/guild owned stations proliferate those could become entirely reliant on player or NPC trade convoys to sustain supply.

Nice, as a new player too, its important to see Devs that are active on their forum and inform people on the directions its going. I bought quite a number of Early Access games in the last 18 months and few actually communicate often. For the record I like both Elite and EVE and their economy models. What some people dont know on EVE is there are some npc buy orders(example pirate battle tags) so I do agree its not entirely "sandboxy" either. My opinion is dangerous space(gray space in the case) being more rewarding can result to more pvp and warfare between guilds and alliances for control, which always generates gameplay. By the way what is the strategic use of capitals in Vendetta? being a bit curious as from tutorial i saw you can dock and control a battle tower

The biggest advantage to capital ships is that docking in one lets you repair your ship and reload any ammunition based weapons. If you have a capital ship in the same sector you're fighting in, that can be a big time saver. It's especially useful when you're behind enemy lines in a system that has no stations that will permit you to dock with them. Since you can carry extra ships in your capital ship, it can also give you the ability to quickly change into a different ship more suited for a particular situation without having to leave the sector.

In some situations, fighting from within the capital ship can also be a lot safer than fighting outside due to the shields. The flip side of that is that your effectiveness is much lower in a turret than in an actual ship, so whether that is actually an improvement depends (usually it isn't).

Another big use for capital ships is hauling cargo. They make it a lot safer, since a lone pirate will have a much harder time killing one. On the other hand, if you run into multiple adversaries or even a particularly tenacious and heavy-hitting solo one, you could find that you're a sitting duck. In that case you might have to call in backup, bribe the attackers, or go into hiding for a while (if you can escape for long enough to do that).

Ok so more or less capital ships are basically carriers and mobile bases with a lot of hp but little firepower from what I understand