Forums » Bugs

PK Not Reported

Jun 10, 2025 H.Hornblower link
My pilot and Guild Lieutenant, Bromon-Do Bashane, scored a fatal kill against [ITAN] pilot "Allus Oshea." Yet this action in defense of the Latos I-8 manufacturing station is not recorded in his record. Please correct:
Jun 12, 2025 incarnate link
Nothing in your screenshot showed you killing this pilot, only that they left your radar range. People can die for all kinds of reasons, like getting hit by stray NPC fire, or slamming into an asteroid, or /exploding, or whatever.

I don't think I've ever heard of a PK "not being reported" by the server. Clients might miss update messages, but the server still keeps track. Are you sure you consider this a major bug that merits developer investigation?
Jun 12, 2025 H.Hornblower link
I was not aware the qualifier “major” was implied. Thank you for the clarification. Ever helpful, as always
Jun 12, 2025 incarnate link
I was not aware the qualifier “major” was implied. Thank you for the clarification. Ever helpful, as always

Okay, well, let's leave the word "major" out of it for the moment:

I don't see any actual evidence of a bug in your report.

Are you sure there is a bug at all, and you didn't just misunderstand the gameplay of the situation?
Jun 12, 2025 H.Hornblower link
Ive called at least 40,000 shots -real world- since week two on the range at MCRD PI. That is, the clearest possible visual snapshot of where my round landed to compare to where it actually landed. In this instance the target was conducting wild evasive maneuvers -precluding /explode. The target was in proximity to an asteroid and no warp wave -precluding a lucky escape. There was the clear background of space between the target and the asteroid -precluding collision. Finally, there was an arc of following fire into the targets direct vicinity. I cannot rule out turret fire, but my visual image capture does not indicate that as a cause. Finally, there is the unscrupulous gameplay of one of the guilds prominent members, the fact this has happened before under the same conditions with another member of the same guild, and this:
https://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/14/39153#432275

But that unspoken insinuation would fall under another form of complaint with further unknown ‘implied’ qualifiers. At this point, I’m just grateful to play a truly remarkable game available at the same subscription cost as five years ago. I truly am: #BravoZulu
Jun 13, 2025 incarnate link
Okay. I'm going to respond to a few points here, that you seem to be claiming:

1) My pilot and Guild Lieutenant, Bromon-Do Bashane, scored a fatal kill against [ITAN] pilot "Allus Oshea." Yet this action in defense of the Latos I-8 manufacturing station is not recorded in his record.

This is incorrect. "Allus Oshea" was killed by "*CONQUERABLE STATION Turret 8" on 19:04:57 and returned to the sector at 19:06:26.

"Bromon-Do Bashane" was also attacking/damaging "Allus Oshea", getting him down to 323 hp just before he was killed by the turret.

Additionally, the player actually said as much, albeit in group chat which was not visible to you:

Jun 10 19:09:48 <Allus Oshea> i let my speed get too low flyin round the roids and the turret got me

In other words, it was exactly what I suspected from my initial response on this thread.

2) You believe that you are able to personally "call shots" and discern the "correct" outcome, based on your game client's view.

This is incorrect. Your game client has a delayed view of the game reality, which is subject to intermittent packet loss and random packet latency, due to the nature of traffic across the global internet. The "UDP" traffic used by real-time games is the same traffic type favored by Distributed Denial of Service attacks, and as a result, it is not uncommon for providers anywhere between the client and the server to be filtering or dropping traffic based on rules intended to prevent or mitigate an attack (at any given time, DDoS attacks are happening somewhere).

This is part of why the server determines the "state of reality". It has the best picture of what is happening, as it has the most up-to-date information. Your game client's information about other players is always delayed, compared to the server's, because the server itself has to forward the information to you.

While the game goes to some length to send data reliably, occasional network dropouts and delays are inevitable. These result in occasional differences in player perception, which must be accepted as part of the reality of engaging in a real-time global online environment. If we tried to make it absolutely robust with zero loss, then it would not be real-time.

3) You believe that other players are engaging in "unscrupulous gameplay" and vaguely imply in your linked RP thread that this may involve "pilots employed a yet unknown technology or programming modification to foil our sensors".

It's tough for me to say if this is some kind of "Role Playing" storyline exposition, or an actual real-world accusation. Your linking it from here implies you think there's some merit to it in reality, in which case:

This is incorrect. There is no magical cheat code that allows people to "foil sensors". If your client sends your ship's position to the server, the server relays it. If you client fails to send your ship's position to the server, the server will "drift" your ship from the last updated position, making you an easy target. If you suddenly disconnect from the game, the server takes over your ship, and keeps it drifting in space for a specified countdown period.

As I've written elsewhere, No one is cheating in VO PvP combat.

However, the types of suspicion and accusations that led to the above-linked thread had an extremely negative and corrosive impact on our game's community. All due to a problem that did not exist, and was wholly imagined.

Notably, we spent many months of development time on objectively refuting these accusations, which could have been better spent on improving the game.

4) You stated: "At this point, I’m just grateful to play a truly remarkable game available at the same subscription cost as five years ago."

I'm truly happy to hear this. I'm glad you're enjoying the game, and that you've returned to VO with such feelings of positivity.

Please keep in mind that this Bugs thread has now absorbed about two hours of developer time, including log analysis, to fully refute your claim.

We're a very small team, managing this game is difficult and our time is precious, as obviously we struggle to make forward progress on the game's development, largely due to our limited resources being spread very thin.

I would suggest that in the future you do not open any Bug reports that do not have direct, objective evidence of a bug (ie, do not open Bugs based on your "opinion" or "perceived shot calling").
Jun 13, 2025 H.Hornblower link
Roger. So where do I report the two month newborn with a moth badge. The last time I reported somebody ok farming you chastised me for using the wrong method. Said I should have reported the chat instead of filing a ticket. And when I do report people for trolling in chat it’s dismissed. Know what, I’ll just go radio silent because there seems to animus here. Carry on
Jun 13, 2025 incarnate link
Okay, we're now well off topic from this bug..

So where do I report the two month newborn with a moth badge. The last time I reported somebody ok farming you chastised me for using the wrong method. Said I should have reported the chat instead of filing a ticket.

Yes, I suggested using the "/report" system to report any suspicious chat activity. I'm not sure what you're expecting me to add to this. If there isn't any suspicious chat where people are talking about farming, then there's nothing to report.

We created the "/report" system because we cannot manage the influx of Support Tickets, especially when some players (not you, but other people) have been inclined to open dozens of them per day (in one case, someone had to be banned for their extreme Support Ticket activity). The support ticket system does not scale, and it will be substantially deprecated except for extreme situations in the future.

And when I do report people for trolling in chat it’s dismissed.

That's because the things that you report do not rise to the level of toxicity. The appropriate reaction to simply not liking someone's chat is to use "/ignore".

For example: The chat-report system is mostly intended to manage two scenarios..

1) People behaving with substantial toxicity, overly sexual or real-world threatening manner in a public environment.

2) People behaving in a overtly sexual or real-world threatening manner in a private environment.

Note that any version of "toxicity" has been removed from the private environment, as we expect people to simply "/ignore" those they don't like.

This message, sent to you as a private message, and "/reported" by you:

"you announced it you dingus"

..does not rise to the level of toxicity. It wouldn't in a public environment either. Calling someone a "dingus" is pretty innocuous at best. There's even a character named "Dingus". It seems a bit ridiculous for you to take deep offense at this private message and demand an administrative intervention.

If you don't like receiving private messages from certain people, then "/ignore" them.

If your reports are administratively rejected, then learn from that and stop making reports that fail to meet the level of toxicity required for administrative action.

This will happen automatically in the future: once a few reports are rejected, the player will lose the ability to submit more of them, for an extended period of time. But, for now, the system doesn't have these automated guards.

Know what, I’ll just go radio silent because there seems to animus here. Carry on

Your assumption of animus is inaccurate. I've tried to be excruciatingly patient with you in this entire Bugs thread. I wrote out every detail and tried to explain everything, including patiently relating why these kinds of tickets are a bad idea and a burden for us. This is not an display of "animus". This is me trying to help you in an informative way, and to help you to create better tickets in the future.

You, on the other hand, seem to be upset that your expectations have been unmet by your administrative reports..

Now, I could be That Corporate Guy and just say "Thanks for your report!" and then trash it. Or, I could try telling you explicitly that your report does not meet our requirements, so you can adjust your expectations and future reporting accordingly.

I'm inclined to do the latter, and to try and be honest with people.

We do not have a "suspicion reporting system". There are way too many people with suspicions of one another in our game. If we were to seek these kinds of reports, it would lead to our never getting anything else done.

Much like this Bugs thread, we're only interested in objective, actionable reports. That's what rises to the level of requiring administrative action.

We especially are not interested in being used as an "out-of-band remote weapons system" for players to attack people they simply don't like.
Jun 14, 2025 H.Hornblower link
"...snapshot of where my round landed to compare to where it actually landed...cannot rule out turret fire, but my visual image capture does not indicate..."

"Allus Oshea" was killed by "*CONQUERABLE STATION Turret 8"

As you are surely aware, and allowed for, it was a turret. But it was your station owner key so count it as an assist.

...too easy #NoAnimus
Jun 14, 2025 incarnate link
As you are surely aware, and allowed for, it was a turret. But it was your station owner key so count it as an assist.

..Wat?

Look man, if you want to suggest new ideas for gameplay, we have a forum for that, called "Suggestions".

We do not have "conquerable station assists". Those are not a thing in the current game.

This is the "Bugs" forum. Bugs are specifically things that are not functioning as intended.

Everything here is functioning as intended.