Vendetta Online

Vendetta Online is a popular online video game built by Guild Software Inc. It’s a very addictive game where thousands of players meet, interact, fight, and make alliances. Players take the role of spaceship pilots, flying to missions, planets, and stations all over the galaxy. All the combat is done in real time, against other people or NPCs (Non-player characters).

Participate in large scale battles

Gamers can even participate in large scale battles between nations or with the aliens. Vendetta Online has a complete economic system, making use of trading, mining, and smuggling. In this game you will be able to pilot your own ship in a single, persistent virtual universe. New gameplay content, such as missions, equipment, ships or trade items can be unlocked during the normal evolution of your character.

Ships are highly customizable

The ships are highly customizable, allowing the player to change its design and add new, powerful functionality. In addition, you can transform it into a trading ship or a combat one. Players can choose to be a military pilot, despicable pirate, guard for hire, peaceful trader, or whatever they desire. In addition, the difficulty of missions will increase as the player becomes more popular.

Play in lawless places

Another interesting feature is the ability to choose to play in lawless places or locations that are governed by the law. No matter in which one of them you decide to play, they all have their dangers. The game is actively developed by a group of talented developers who listen to their community and integrates new functionality or repairs flaws with every new release.

Runs on Linux, Mac and Windows

The software has been crafted to support the Linux, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. It is a true MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) that can be played by players of all ages. If you like MMORPG games, then we suggests to give Vendetta Online a try. It is the best of its kind for Linux operating systems, and we promise that you won’t regret it a bit!

What is new in this release:

• Fixed issue with flight stick buttons being unmapped when the game is restarted on Android (includes Oculus Go, etc).
• Fixed issue with certain forbidden console flight commands working on Windows.
• Persistent capship timeout now gets reset when the capship is damaged.
• NPCs now continue to target persistent ships when the player logs off.
• Fixed information-leak about whether a player is currently on or offline.

What is new in version 1.8.457:

• Keychains are now sorted with active keys first.
• Inactive key descriptions are now a darker color.
• When given an access key, the description of the key is now displayed in the text notification.
• Removed In-App Recurring Subscription choices from Gear VR and Oculus Go version.
• Players who spend a great deal of time docked in a station may find their sector visibility decreases while docked. This can then be reversed through regular gameplay.

What is new in version :

• Moved the updated Behemoth's turret to the correct position on the rear of the ship.
• Fixed problem with the flight control of NPC Behemoths.
• Improved the handling and navigation of the Capella-based NPCs.

What is new in version 1.8.437:

• Improved fidelity of the specularity maps used by many recent ships, for systems with GPUs capable of full DirectX 11 support, across Windows (DX11), Mac (GL4) and Linux (GL4). Older GPUs will fall back to alternative techniques.
• While this update may not be thoroughly exciting to everyone, it was important to get this in place so we could create new PC "installers" for people to download. The existing ones are quite old and require new users to pull down some big patches, so this will hopefully alleviate that situation.
• Additionally, it does also illustrate our moving into higher-fidelity graphics and textures, which should continue to be more evident as we release graphics updates.
• There is still a goal for some bigger gameplay changes this month. We have been delayed a little by Mac development (mentioned in the last newsletter), which is also laying the groundwork for the Steam release.

What is new in version 1.8.434:

• New Capella hulk assets.
• New enemy NPCs in Latos F-12.
• Updated test debris sector in Latos F-12, much denser debris (some slower devices may have performance issues).
• Debris chunks are no longer selected when selecting enemy ships.
• Engine performance optimizations for large debris fields.
• Fixed menu problem with lower-resolution Android devices.
• Linux version now properly selects the default desktop resolution instead of 800x600 for new installs.

What is new in version 1.8.425:

• When chatting while warping out, the virtual keyboard no longer disappears.
• Increased accelerometer deadzone for mobile devices.
• Advanced Options menu buttons now support the Touch-Hover feature like the main Options menu.
• 'Enter Game' menu buttons now support the Touch-Hover feature.
• Moved General tab's touch settings into a 'Touch' tab in the Controls menu.
• Tabs are now larger in the Controls menu.
• Tilt Sensitivity slider is larger in the Tilt tab in the Controls menu.
• Fixed green texture on station docking bays on iOS.
• Hide the 'Don't show this again' check for the Swipe to change menus message when entering station/PDA for 3 times.
• Removed the 4:3 HUD option for mobile devices.
• If a mission becomes unavailable just as you attempt to take it, it no longer says "error".
• Renamed Input tab name to General in the Controls menu.
• Renamed Accelerometer tab name to Tilt in the Controls menu.
• Renamed Sensitivity to Tilt Sensitivity in Tilt tab of the Controls menu.
• Removed Mouse tab in the Controls menu on iOS and Android.
• Removed Keyboard tab in the Controls menu on iOS.
• Fixed Samsung GearVR remote controller issues.
• Optimized multi-threaded rendering.
• Added basic Oculus Rift Touch controller support.
• Fixed tutorial text for GearVR.
• Increased the quality of dynamic shadows being cast onto the cockpit for Rift and Simulated VR mode on PC.
• Adjusted the positions of HUD displays when using the Alternate 1 cockpit in VR.

What is new in version 1.8.420:

• New Centaur graphical ship assets, across all platforms.
• New Ragnarok and Hornet graphical ship assets now available on iOS.
• Improved Windows XInput device detection.
• Fixed lines disappearing in Gamepad menu on Windows.

What is new in version 1.8.412:

• Taking damage now aborts the logoff timer.
• Added a new, third optional cockpit model for VR.
• Muted players are now able to remotely command their capship via msg commands.
• Private messages are now echoed to chat in the SendChat() lua function instead of being echoed by the caller of SendChat(). This is intended to make plugin chat activity more transparent to the person running the plugin.
• Premium accounts that have never paid (used subscription keys instead) are not eligible for pledging as a Long Term Subscriber, unless the key is for at least a year of time.

What is new in version 1.8.409:

• The new Capella-class capital ship has been added to random NPC convoys.
• Capship Hangar and station Manage Ship tab ship lists now show the addons and cargo of each ship, and display the ship's total mass in its description.
• OpenGL 4 driver on Linux now uses 3.1 Core Profile to enable instanced rendering support on hardware that supports it.
• Self Defense flag now expires only when the 15 minute timer runs out, or the original victim kills the attacker.
• Gear VR now allows mining guns to operate when they are in the primary weapon group, and no gamepad is detected. The tap-to-select action changes to Select Nearest in Front and the mining guns auto-start when close enough to the asteroid.
• Previously unseen character names coming from kill messages are now added to the name tab-autocomplete list.
• Capella's rear launch bay is now also a docking bay.
• Fixed visual artifacts and improved quality of the Capella's texture maps.
• Increased number of turrets on the current Capella variant in convoy testing.
• Fixed crash when starting VO for the first time on a system with no audio driver enabled.
• A number of substantial changes lately, starting with the introduction of the new Capella-class capital ship previously announced in the Holiday Newsletter.
• Additionally, GearVR users on headset-only can now mine, something that was impossible before due simply to the limited number of controls and buttons when in headset-only mode (no game controller). Now a new automatic-fire mining system has been created to allow these players to invest in mineral and ore content as well.
• OpenGL users on Linux can expect some performance enhancements from the additional of Instanced Rendering on the platform, a feature we utilize much more intensively on mobile and we intend to expand drastically on PC as well. It's basically a best-case scenario for handling large numbers of identical objects, like asteroids, and helps enable much higher potential densities in asteroid fields. On the flipside: Players with old graphics chips, that are not OpenGL 3.1-compatible, will have to resort to using our older GL 2.x "Reference" renderer. Overall, we feel this compatibility matrix is the best fit for the game as a whole, as the vast majority of systems now have GL 3.1 support, and we should be targeting the game for the common-case and not the oldest machines out there. Support for older hardware, via the Reference driver, will be maintained for a very long time to come; but performance will not be guaranteed on slower systems, of course.
• Many other fixes and tweaks in this release as well.

What is new in version 1.8.407:

• Teller-Ulam mine ammo now no longer free in capships.
• Mine timeout lifespans increased, maximum count per user/sector also increased.
• Added a 'Local' option to the Mission Category filter that shows all missions that are local to the sector.
• New gamepad configuration menu in Options -> Advanced -> Controls -> Gamepad for Android when a gamepad is detected.
• Added an 'Insufficient Energy' warninig message when using weapons that require 400 energy or more and the power cell doesn't have enough available.
• Auto-fire and the target lead-off reticule now work when non-blaster weapons are in the primary weapon group.
• An itemized list of storage rental deductions is now displayed in the log when you are charged each week.

What is new in version 1.8.400:

• Updated the crystal intro menu to better explain the Free-To-Play business model.
• Added Speech-To-Text feature on the virtual keyboard for Android. It requires a Play Store App update.
• Added Text-To-Speech for mission text for Android. It requires a Play Store App update.

What is new in version 1.8.398:

• GearVR: Significant improvements to analog stick sensitivity, for game controllers such as those made by SteelSeries, Moga, Razer and Nyko. Custom sensitivity curve is now applied, allowing better "small motion" accuracy when aiming. Center deadzone has been reduced, and outer saturation deadzone has been eliminated entirely, giving an additional 13% of analog input range. Continued feedback on this is welcome, on our forums.
• Basically, the goal here is to improve support for playing the game with a console-style game controller, particularly in VR. From our own testing and usage, this above change is a big improvement, but we may continue to tweak things before we bring to across to other platforms. We also intend to eventually add more heavily customizable options for controller sensitivity.

What is new in version 1.8.396:

• All empty sectors in Capitol systems that contain Training Sectors are now Monitored.
• Fixed issue where no menu was visible after doing an auto-generated account conversion on mobile devices.
• Made some tweaks to the management of powercell energy in capital ships, during jump-out.

What is new in version 1.8.395:

• The Goliath has been added to random NPC convoys.
• Gear VR version now applies a dead-zone to the analog triggers on gamepads; this mitigates flawed controllers with non-zero "button-off" states, and helps prevents spinning in space.

What is new in version 1.8.385:

• Simulated VR Mode now has a bindable key or button for looking around, called "+VRLook". It currently defaults to right-mouse-button.
• Fixed a Lua error for capship owners launching their fighter while manned to a turret.
• New dynamic server packet-queuing and priority change to drastically improve chat and effect delays during larger capship battles. Tested in development with 200 close-proximity capships per battle. Prioritization only dynamically scales with larger numbers of ships per sector, so less populated regions and sectors are unaffected.
• Changed the distribution of services within the game-server cluster, to enhance performance with higher peak player counts.
• Fixed issue with dropped key and mouse inputs in OS X with the new OpenGL 4 video driver.
• Fixed lua error when joining a group and Voice Chat is enabled.
• Removed dark background of HUD notification text when not in VR mode.

What is new in version 1.8.384:

• Added /voicegroup set of commands, similar to /group, that creates arbitrary Voice Chat channels (up to 32 players). Use the /voicechattoggle command to switch between subscribed channels, such as Group, Guild, and others. Type /voicegroup to display its usage.
• Added a description overlay to the nav map in VR mode, when Look-To-Select is enabled, to show the description of the currently selected sector.
• The new general-usage voice chat system is just a first pass. We intend to also add an elaborate UI around it, but after we do some more testing with VR and other use-cases to determine what kind of interface will work best.

What is new in version 1.8.380:

• New user-selectable fonts for PC platforms, with the new default font set to 'Play-Bold'. Fonts can be selected at Options -> Interface -> Font
• New UI skin called 'Platinum' and it is now the default for PC platforms. The old skin can be set at Options -> Interface -> Skin
• New option to enable first-person warp/jump/launch animations located at Options -> Game -> Cinematic Camera Mode
• Performing 'Activate' will continue certain missions if there is only a 'Continue' button and nothing else to activate.
• Y-B gamepad chord added to open the jettison menu by default.
• Added a shadow behind HUD Notification text for better legibility.
• The blinking docking bay arrows are now angled inwards for easier head-on visibility.
• New head-based flight models for VR.

What is new in version 1.8.378:

• Serco border defense turrets have been added to the Geira Rutilus O-4 wormhole, on the Serco-Deneb border.
• The giant Latos M-7 station has been replaced with something more reasonably sized, to let capship owners get from place to place more quickly.
• Faction standing display and radar-color for ships with multiple docked players now shows the highest standing of any given player onboard the vessel.
• Sporadic rendering glitch, related to shadows and threaded rendering, has been fixed on OSX and Linux.
• Guild member limit increased to 1,000 members.

What is new in version 1.8.371:

• The "Furie" related missions have been added back into the game.
• Furies no longer target players if they or the targeted player is in the No-Fire Zone. Temp KoS ramifications of Furie actions are now applied to the owner of the Furie, as though the action was performed by that player.
• Removed support for Windows XP.
• Added a CAPTCHA for anyone who is not a premium subscriber and has been logged in for 6 total hours over the previous 12 hours. The CAPTCHA must be solved within 5 minutes, or the player is kicked offline; after which it must be solved the next time the player tries to log in.
• Updated Leap Motion drivers.

What is new in version 1.8.361:

• Oculus Rift "Beta Test" VR support updated to the 0.8 SDK. As always, the presence of a Rift is auto-detected on runtime, and prompts for the option of starting the game in VR mode.
• New "VR Welcome" panel on startup, lists the currently known issues and workarounds.
• New "VR Options" added to Options area, when a VR headset is detected.
• VR game startup environment, for initial orientation and controller settings.
• Improved Windows gamepad support for Xbox One, 360, PS4 and Logitech F710.
• If you have a Rift, please consider posting feedback on the Windows forum of our site, vendetta-online.com!
• Temporarily disabled default anti-aliasing (in non-VR, 2D mode) for new installs with AMD GPUs, due to a crash with their most recent drivers. It will be re-enabled when the issue is resolved.
• Our Oculus Rift VR headset support has been updated! We were widely reported as the first MMO to launch support for the Rift, back in July of 2013, and we're happy to now bring it up to the latest 0.8 SDK support, along with adding many new VR-specific features and improvements.
• This is also concurrent with the launch of our recently-updated DirectX 11 rendering engine, adding a lot of new visual effects and image quality, with more yet to come.
• This is still considered a Beta Test of our VR-headset implementation, and will undergo considerable change between now and when the Rift headset finally launches to retail in Q1 of 2016. For the moment, we'd appreciate feedback (on our Windows forum) from any early adopters of the Rift DK2 development device. We still consider our VR support to be "rough", it's lacking some of the more VR-specific interface solutions we intend to add, and the tutorials and mission system need improvement. But re-working our DX11 engine over the last year, getting the right performance and image quality has been the top priority. Once that is proven stable, it's easier for us to add in newer features (which may make a lot of non-VR players happy as well, since they've often requested "cockpit" interfaces and the like).
• We've also spent some time improving PC integration of gamepad controllers, specifically targeting the Xbox One controller (Oculus's recommended default), as well as 360, PS4 and Logitech F710 controllers. Some aspects of controller integration are also still a bit rough, particularly navigation in the UI, but this will be improved. The benefits of this work go well beyond the Rift implementation, to help all gamepad users, across PC, mobile, AndroidTV, Steam "big picture" mode, etc.
• Bringing the Rift implementation up to date has always been a goal of the 1.9 release, and a key part of our Steam plans, and we're happy to get this out the door. We made a lot of generalized improvements to game performance to help this development, which are also to the benefit of all players (VR or otherwise, including mobile).
• Related to all of these changes, we recently updated the game's Official System Requirements. Please pay particular attention to the new VR requirements: if you want to do VR in the game, you will need very strong, recent desktop system with a big discrete gaming card. Oculus themselves specifies a Core i5-4590 CPU (or AMD equiv) with an NVIDIA GTX 970 or AMD R9 290 as the bare minimum. We'd suggest going further than that, if you can. You aren't going to want to do VR at the "minimum" settings. Laptops are not currently recommended for the Rift (not yet, anyway).
• Players have periodically asked us if they should buy a one of the Oculus development kits, and we've generally said "no, wait for the finished product". Well, we've used the pre-release Consumer devices, and we think the experience is great. If you're an avid VO pilot, you will find an incredible level of immersion with VR. It can be pretty intense, you may want to try out VR in general before buying, to make sure it's compatible with your particular inner ear sensibilities (some people get motion sick).
• To players looking at other types of VR headsets and the like, we are considering broader support down the road (SteamVR in particular). "VR" development is mostly a user experience and performance issue: once one integrates one type of headset, others should be pretty simple to add.
• Lastly, to any wondering about upcoming gameplay changes and improvements, yes those are coming soon as well. We have a whole laundry list to get through before 1.9 drops, but it has been important to get the Rift update "out there" for testing sooner, so that can now be happening in parallel, while we switch back to other development. That's why the timing was prioritized.

What is new in version 1.8.351:

• Vendetta Online adds independently configurable "Ship Livery". This new type of skinning system will allow a variety of different aesthetic ship "looks" to be available. Ship Livery may have diverse requirements, including faction standing or affiliation, purchase with credits or crystal, or be related to an accomplishment or badge of some sort. Any mission outcome could result in a special Livery, and may eventually be something that can be picked up as Cargo. The "Livery" button can be found in the Ship Purchase menu, near the color-picker. (Livery only available for the Vulture, so far, more are in the works).
• Commodities and ship lists now retain their current scroll positions when the station interface updates.
• The rotating ship view no longer resets its orientation when changing ships.

What is new in version 1.8.344:

• Increased support for anti-aliasing with certain Intel GPUs, and perhaps others.
• Mitigated issue with Mac OS X mouse cursor when cmd-tabbing in fullscreen.
• Windows version now built with a better optimizing compiler, some performance improvements should be evident.
• Fixed intermittent sector crashes.
• Fixed a rare potential issue with /vote mute.
• Fixed issue with joystick input on the Windows version.
• NPCs now require more collision damage to be applied to them before they will consider the attacker a threat.
• New station designs for Sol II H-13.
• Added anti-aliasing and gamma correction to the Mac OpenGL 4 driver. The Linux version already has anti-aliasing.
• Added ability to manually set the screen rotation on Android. The option is in Advanced -> Controls -> Input and has Landscape, Reverse Landscape and Sensor Landscape as the three options.
• NPC capships now target and attack PC capships with their primary weapons.
• Optimizations to multi-threaded rendering.
• Multi-threaded rendering is now default to enabled on DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4 versions. When switching to those drivers, a restart of the client is required to enable multi-threaded rendering. The setting can be turned off by editing the config.ini file and adding multithreaded=0 in the [Vendetta] section.
• A variety of infrastructural improvements, in the lead-up to VO 1.9. We also have quite a bit of server-side work going on in the background as well, along with some interesting new gameplay scenery and content. Next week we may start to reveal some of these enhancements, as well as prepare for some significant server migrations, to increase game capacity and performance. Have a great weekend!

Requirements:

• 1ghz Pentium III or Athlon
• 256mb of system ram
• A GLX-accelerated video card (32mb GeForce1 class or better)
• Glibc 2.2 or better
• GTK 2.0 or better
• ALSA or OSS for sound

Limitations:

• The free version allows only 8 hours of play