I firmly believe that capping the boost speed has slowed down combat significantly. It makes sense when you understand that the top of your boost speed affects how soon your acceleration drops off on a turbo. Or am I the only pilot who uses boosting in combat situations?

Off topic: Lecter, while I agree with you on the intent of the preceding post of yours; without having any way to make you, could you please refrain from making your posts sound like insults? It's really bothering me, since I don't believe that your way of posting could be called 'disarming honesty', and also because I am a follower of the 'Be Nice'-creed.

On topic: I can only reiterate what CygnusX and I said: There must be something to being UIT, or else there wouldn't be so many of them.

Maybe if we could clearly point out what it is that makes the UIT desirable as a major faction to choose, and do the same with Serco and Itani, we could work towards finding suitable solutions to the balancing problem. I'll try and make a few examples:

The Itani are rather far away from the hub that is Sedina/Latos. They have okay standing with UIT and some other factions when starting out, and they have the IBG Centurion, as well as the Valkyrie line of ships to show. They are (currently) slightly larger in active population than the Serco, but a lot smaller than UIT. This last thing just as a very rough estimate from yours truly.

The Serco are moderately close to Sedina/Latos, have slightly worse standing advantages, but they have a very good variant of the Vulture, the Serco Guardian, and the ultimate in ramming tools, the Prometheus. They have the smallest active population and are rather heterogeneous in that they have both respectable and despicable folks (in-game actions, not character-wise) among their ranks.

Both Itani and Serco are able to start Border Patrol and Border Skirmish missions, reap the benefit from having won the CtC contest, that being the Neutron Mk3.

The UIT are closest to the Latos/Sedina complex, and they have the best situation when starting out, being at least neutral or liked with almost every faction there is, including the major ones. They are the absolute top dog when it comes to numbers, oftentimes outgunning the other nations at a ratio of 2:1 or better, however, their immediate faction-specific ships leave something to be desired, with the Territorial Defender Warthog being not much more interesting than the MK4, and the Marauder Mk1 being a handy, but not by any means exceptional trading ship. With their standing boost, they have an easier time to acquire the other factions' specific ships, though. Due to the independence of the Nation, they are not allowed to start neither Border Patrol nor Border Skirmish missions, and they may not profit from helping any of the other two major factions to win the CtC contest, save through player interaction.

Did I forget something?

Back when I started playing VO, some time in the early bronze age, I picked "Neutral" (as UIT were called at the time) because I figured I could switch sides later.
Since then it sort'a stuck.

If it was possible to change faction from UIT to Itani or Serco, but not back or between then, I'm sure we would see more Itani/Serco in the game.

Then there would be no real reason to be UIT, other than to delay the faction choice.

On extra advantage that Serco/UIT have are called:
Pyronis and Helios.

Right now mining is pretty useless but once cappies (or trade) hit the market I am willing to bet that we will need ores. And right now getting Heliocene to Itan or to EO is not the easiest thing.
Itani have {some} Xith but very little compared to UIT, I have yet to encounter a pyronic or apiecene roid in Itani space. And the only Heliocene one I have seen was at 0.2%.

So yeah another interesting facet :D

Not sure how the situation with Denic is in Serco space though (since the only times I am in Serco space I have seekers on my arse)

I worked pretty hard to get my standing up to buy the maud... and found it a serious dissapointment. It's cargo hold is nothing compared to the moth, which was the shocker, as supposedly their marketers and merchants. Who cares about their fighting ships? They're not actively engaged in any 'war' with a faction, and even corvus doesn't have valk or prom level ships so the UIT doesn't need a powerful light fighter.

The Maud and the moth should change places, the moth becoming the UIT special and the maud the galaxy-wide trading vessel. If UIT really wants fighting ships they could doubtless buy them from both sides. Mining will doubtless be fixed LONG before player cappies arrive. SO:

-Make the Maud better or switch maud and moth.
-Give UIT access to the lower level valks and proms, at least until they get their own baby.
-Give the Itani and Serco SOME fast way to get to the "hub that is latos and sedina" because right now it's the only real place for pvp.

I see what LeChatlier is saying. Almost everybody trades and mines with a Moth. UIT is the trading/mining/commercial faction. The best trading/mining/commercial ship should be theirs. I don't see the Maud as that ship at all. It's the Moth.

(1) Yes, the moth should be a UIT special. Axia and other maud variants should become moth variants.

(2) Someone's an idiot: go to Jallik and SS for itani heliocene, just to name a few. AA also has a massive field. Ask VN.

(3) Tosh, I've asked nicely enough times. They had time to cock it up, surely they can take the time to explain either a) how it's actually a great solution to the problem, or b) when it will be fixed. Very simple, and I started asking nicely as soon as this harebrained cap was thrust upon us.

@ Lecter: Point taken. But I think that it will not likely provoke a friendly, or at least constructive response, posting like that. I know what you're getting at, it's just that I'm a harmony freak :) Well, never mind. I agree with you on the purpose, anyway.

If they want to do their jobs poorly out of annoyance with my tone, I imagine they're shooting themselves in the foot more than they're getting back at me.

Hmm... how is it that like, everyone these days has their own model for the Maud? The design of that ship gets around like Becky, oh-my-god! But, like, there's totally only one version of the 'moth available on market. It's so not fair! You can't buy variants of the Valk, like, anywhere but from the Itani. And the same's true with the Prom. =( I dunno, I'm not like, very smart or anything *twists hair around* but it seems to me that the Maud would make like, a way past cool universal trade vessel, and the UIT would have access to additional models of the 'moth, uhuh! ^-^

SMegMa, I don't feel like repairing my UIT standing to get the damn variants. And the corps are a logical place to find UIT special ship variants; witness the current situation. 'Nuff said.

[Edit] Exactly! Glad to see you understand, youngin.

Yes, because everytime a new feature is added, Dr. Lecter must find a way to make it his own. For this reason, let's not consider adding anything that Dr. Lecter would have to work at to get.

Life sucks then you die, Lecter.

The original poster made a good point that this thread somehow lost track of. That is, the warthog TD holds no practical advantages over other 'inferior' variants of the warthog. He recommends increasing the thrust to >=235N as a balance tweak, I agree with this.

Also, look at toshiro's point. Not all nations need to be matched militarily. If the UIT are underbalanced, then why is their population often 2:1 over the Serco and Itani?

It does seem in want of a tweak. And why such high license levels? Something neat about the Centaurion Itani Border Guardion is how early in the game it becomes available. When I played Serco and UIT for the first time, Itani being my original pick, I was hoping to get their national ship very early like I did the IBG. Well, I never made a Serco character that reached 4/4/0/0/0, and by the time I had enough license to get a Warthog Territorial Defender, I settled for the superior Mk IV instead.

(2) Someone's an idiot: go to Jallik and SS for itani heliocene, just to name a few. AA also has a massive field. Ask VN.

I didn't say that there aren't, I said "I have yet to find". And I still think it's easier to find some in Helios than in SS. (From personal exp, I have stumbled upon 3 decent Helicene rocks in Helios and none in blue space, but I have mined WAY more in blue space).

I could just be unlucky, but I can only speak of my experience. Good to know that it makes me an idiot.

Your inability to scan sectors and rocks isn't what makes you an idiot.

Statements such as "On extra advantage that Serco/UIT have are called:
Pyronis and Helios," and "right now getting Heliocene to Itan or to EO is not the easiest thing," are what make you an idiot.

Any more issues or questions? No? Good.

Now get a scanner and some beams, and get working.

Hehe. Lecter must be PMSing... he's even MORE snippy than usual!

I don't see a decent UIT ship that I would fly into combat. If I was a trader, I'd use a Behemoth (Or a Centaur until I could get one of those...) If I was a miner, I'd use a Centaur or a Behemoth.

The Itani and Serco have four ships that I'd rather pilot into combat, Valk, Prom, IBG Cent, SVG Vult. In addition, there are corporate ships I'd fly before boarding a TD Hog: Corvus Vult, Orion Rev C Cent, maybe even the Aggresso.

So, if the intent of the TD Hog was to make a ship that would be as desirable as the Valk or the Prom, it's an utter failure.

Agreed, Lex. Even before the TD was nerfed, it paled when confronted with the Prom and the Valk. A tweak on the thrust(up) and the drain (down).

The only actual problem I see with implementing this is the fact that unaligned bots for some reason get TD's (which makes no sense, whatsoever). Why not give the SCPs and IDFs too?

Hi. Fixing the Marauder and giving it a purpose again (especially as a mining ship) has been on my list for awhile. Tweaking the TD is probably also in order, although I doubt it will ever be a light fighter of the IBG class. However, as we start to see more and more capship utilization in the game, a relatively light ship with a large port may become more worthwhile.. especially once I get torpedoes tweaked and in place. Keep in mind that the "point" of a given shiptype is a moving target: as new addons and content are added, new roles tend to emerge. And we are looking at new addons in the near term.

Lecter: top speeds were reduced because they have a dramatic impact on combat speed. You can agree with that or not, but it's true. The curve for turbo ramp-up is the same regardless of the outer bounds, so having a higher top speed makes one faster to reach a lower one. This impacts all sorts of tactics, from combat fundamentals to ramming and rocket-stacking type strategies, and so on. Not to mention the problems of trying to chase someone. The point is not to make it more difficult to cross sector-space, the point is to give the game a certain amount of latency-independent playability until a more involved, more correct solution can be reached. Something more along the lines of this:

http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/13242

So, if you want to be angry and frustrated, how about channeling it constructively into that thread and what we *should* do. Yes, the big changes like this take awhile to do, but we have a full plate, and given the fundamental importance of our flight model, I think it makes sense for me to be fairly conservative.

INC speaks : a relatively light ship with a large port may become more worthwhile...

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOES!

(Unless, you tweak the AGT too, like, say, remove it from being able to be equiped by ships?)