Vermillion Online vs Empyrion: Galactic Survival

People land on this page from two searches: "Empyrion multiplayer" and "games like Empyrion". Both make sense. Empyrion is one of the few games where you build a ship from blocks and then go somewhere with it, and lots of players run it on community servers with PvP zones. Vermillion shares the block-built ship and the PvP. Almost everything around them is different.

Survival game vs economy game

Empyrion's loop starts on a planet. You crash, you're hungry, you need oxygen. You mine, build a base, then a hover vessel, then a ship, and the game opens up from there: more planets, more systems, alien factions, story missions. Other players are optional.

Vermillion's loop starts at a station with a free Rookie Ship. There's no hunger or oxygen meter. The pressure comes from other people. You mine Ferrite and Cuprite, refine it, fabricate a Starter Miner, and soon you're deciding whether to haul ore through Low security to get a better price. The guided onboarding goes Rookie, Starter Miner, gunship, prospecting, fighter, radar, pirate hunting, shield. After that, the market is the game. Every station has an order book with buy and sell orders, and there's no global inventory, so goods have to be hauled from one station to another.

Building: devices vs assemblies

Both games give you a block grid and let you design the hull. The difference is what goes inside.

In Empyrion, a thruster, a generator or a turret is a device: one block you place, in the size you need. Design is mostly about fitting enough devices into the hull and protecting them.

In Vermillion, the important systems are assemblies you put together from parts, the way From the Depths does it:

• A thruster is a nozzle plus amplifiers plus coolers.
• An engine is a core plus cylinders plus coolers.
• A cannon is a firing piece plus barrels, clips, autoloaders, gauge increasers and recoil absorbers, from 12 to 300 mm.
• Radar is a core plus emitters plus a dish.

More parts mean more output, more mass and more heat. Flight is Newtonian on six axes, and thrust comes from where you placed it, so a lopsided design turns badly. There's no speed cap. Most ships end up between 150 and 300 m/s. You can test-fly any design from the designer for free before you spend a credit building it.

Empyrion multiplayer vs one shared server

Empyrion multiplayer means picking a server. Each one runs its own scenario and its own rules, and the admin decides which planets and orbits are PvP. That gives you a lot of choice, and also means every server is its own small world.

Vermillion has one world on one EU server, and everyone who plays is in it. The rules are the same for everyone and written into the map:

• Secure (1 sector): no damage.
• High security (6): attacks land, but the attacker turns Criminal and police destroy them after 20 seconds. Suicide ganks are possible.
• Low security (9): no police, station guns, criminals are fair game.
• Lawless (3): no rules.

The better ore sits further out. Titanite is only in Low security. Iridium is only in Lawless. The server's director spawns ore fields and pirate sites around the players who are online, and announces jackpot fields by sector to everyone, which tends to start fights.

Honest note on numbers: our playtests so far have had a handful of pilots at a time. Empyrion has a far bigger player base and many servers to choose from.

What you lose

Death in Empyrion is usually a walk back to your backpack. On PvP servers, raids on bases and ships can cost much more, depending on the rules there.

Vermillion is full loot everywhere outside Secure space. When a ship is destroyed, half its cargo is gone and the rest spills into the wreck for anyone. The hulk can be salvaged. Your character drops a body bag with everything you carried, half of it destroyed, and everyone aboard dies with the ship. A free Rookie Ship means you can always start again.

Walking around

Both games let you get out. In Empyrion you walk planets, bases and your capital ship. In Vermillion you walk your ship and stations with magnet boots that hold you to any deck, wall or asteroid, EVA with a jetpack, board other ships and repair. Pistols and assault rifles work on foot, but not in Secure or High security space. Ships have gunner seats, so friends can crew.

Where Empyrion is better

• Planets. You land, dig and build on real terrain. Vermillion has no landable planets; the planet you see is backdrop.
• Survival and story. Food, oxygen, alien factions and missions. Vermillion has none of the survival side.
• Bases and stations. You can build them in Empyrion today. Player-built stations in Vermillion are planned, not shipped.
• Scenarios and mods. Community scenarios like Reforged Eden 2 give the game years of extra life.
• Play alone. Empyrion works fine single-player. Vermillion is online only.

Who should play which

If you want to build a base on a moon, play Empyrion. If you'd rather spend your evening deciding whether that radar ping is a miner or a hunter, and your ship design decides who wins, try Vermillion. It also runs on Mac, which Empyrion doesn't.

Questions people ask

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