Vermillion Online vs Starbase

The short answer

Starbase is the deeper building game. Ships are assembled from parts held together with bolts, systems are wired up, and you can program ship computers in its own in-game language, YOLOL. It has been in paid Early Access on Steam since July 2021, with capital ships, moon mining and station sieges added along the way. Development paused in 2022, resumed in April 2024, and has been quiet since late 2024: the last Steam update was a test-universe build in October 2024.

Vermillion Online is a much younger game built around a PvP economy loop: mine contested ore, haul it through risky space, sell it on player order books, lose ships with full loot. Ship building is simpler than Starbase's (1 m blocks, no bolts or programming) but the insides still matter: engines, guns and thrusters are multi-part assemblies, From the Depths style. It's a free playtest on Mac and Windows with a small number of players and possible wipes.

Building ships: depth vs. speed

If building is the main reason you play, Starbase goes deeper. Its ships are held together by individual bolts, systems need to be connected, and the YOLOL language lets players script everything from fuel gauges to autopilots. Some of the most impressive player ships in any space game were built there. That depth also makes the first ship slow to learn.

Vermillion builds in 1 m blocks with Box fill, Mirror X, Y and Z, Paint and Undo. You don't wire or bolt anything. The depth is in the insides: an engine is a core plus cylinders plus coolers, a thruster is a nozzle plus amplifiers plus coolers, and a cannon is a firing piece plus barrels, clips, autoloaders, gauge increasers and recoil absorbers. Cannon gauge runs from 12 to 300 mm, so one big gun against many small ones is a real choice. Power, fuel, heat and ammo are simulated, and the designer shows live flight stats and a warnings panel until it reads "No problems found".

Then you press test flight and fly it, before you've spent a credit. Fabricating it for real costs refined materials at a station.

Combat and loss

Both games shoot ships apart block by block. In Vermillion, shells are simulated projectiles that chew through blocks until their penetration runs out, and destroyed blocks split a hull into drifting fragments. When a ship is destroyed, everyone aboard dies with it.

Vermillion's loss rules are built to feed the economy. Half the cargo is destroyed, the rest spills into the wreck for anyone, and other players can salvage the hulk. A dead character drops a body bag with everything carried, half of it destroyed. You always get a free Rookie Ship back.

Where you can be attacked is graded. Secure space has no damage. High security lets attacks land, but the attacker turns Criminal and invisible police destroy them 20 seconds later, so suicide ganks are possible but cost a ship. Low security has no police, and station guns shoot criminals. Lawless has no rules at all.

The economy and the reason to leave safety

Starbase has a broad economy with player factions and stations. Vermillion's is narrower and built on one idea: the best ore is where the law ends. Titanite only spawns in Low security, Iridium only in Lawless. A server director spawns ore fields and pirate sites near online players, and jackpot fields are announced by sector to the whole server, which tends to start fights.

Every station runs its own order book with buy and sell orders, escrow, a 2% tax and price history. Items exist in one place, so there's no global inventory: someone has to haul it, and hauling heavy cargo is slower and more exposed.

Radar and hiding

In Vermillion you only see what your sensors detect, because the server sends nothing else. Ships have a signature from thrust, heat, guns and radar, and asteroids hide you. Firing your pulse radar reveals hidden ore fields and pirate sites, and every pilot in range hears the ping as a bearing. Scanning is a risk you choose.

What Starbase does better

• Much deeper construction: bolts, wiring and in-game programming with YOLOL.
• Player-built stations and capital ships, which Vermillion does not have.
• Years of content and a bigger back catalogue of player designs.

What Vermillion does differently

• Built around a full-loot PvP economy, with risk-graded space and ore tied to danger.
• Faster to get flying: free Rookie Ship, guided starter missions, test flight from the designer.
• Free playtest, runs on Mac as well as Windows, and patched after every playtest round from player reports.

The downsides: Vermillion is early. One server, a handful of players per session so far, one star system, no player stations, and progress may be wiped.

Common questions

Who should play which

Play Starbase if you want the deepest ship construction in an online space game and don't mind that updates have stalled. Try Vermillion Online if you want block-built ships where the fights, the hauling and the market are the point, and you like being early to a game that's still changing. They're different enough that plenty of people will enjoy both.

Looking wider? See games like Starbase, or compare Vermillion to EVE Online and Elite Dangerous.