The Saga of Ryzom

Originally posted by Tuyet

Free cats and Companions would both be quite controversial. Maybe just a load of non-tradeabl e Q100  cats for a new paying account? No biggy though and as is low lev Q50 cats have been pretty hard to just give away.

Companions/mercenaries would just be a nice solo option for those that prefer solo play -- Ryzom isn't really soloable for most of the skill levels in the game ( digging/crafting aside ). And they would never be as good as being in a good  team.

I have mixed feelings on both of these ideas. I can see how they'd be attractive to some players, but the adage of:

You can't have your cake and eat it too

applies.

Ryzom, more so than most mmos, is very community oriented. The whole game design is geared towards players co-operating with each other. Throw in companions and free cats, and you undermine that design.

Most of the time that I played I was able to get into levelling teams, and when I couldn't, I spent time harvesting and crafting.

Something like hired mercenary companions would help with solo'ing, but personally I'd rather see them invest time in developing mechanics that make forming/joining groups easier.

Eg. something like City of Heroes' team search function. It would just need an additional field or two for players to enter their skill level/the highest skill level being used on existing teams.

Cos this was, as I recall, a problem with the game. There's no LFG chat channel - I was told to get my reputation up, join a faction, and use that channel, which even then only reaches about half of the game.

In my opinion,  I found only the last 10 levels impossible to solo (you really have too few choices at that levels, unsoloable). Other than that with the right knowledge of the correct animals to hunt at the right level, you can pretty solo up to 240 with no problems (i'm speaking of combat skills, ofc).

Of course, grouping is much more fun, but sometime, traveling solo is better for testing mobs and getting knowledge as your time don't depends by others.

My experience in Ryzom leads me to make a few observations:

1. It's not a game for instant gratification and easy casual soloing. It's not Guild Wars. Ryzom rewards time spent observing and learning. It rewards putting in an effort to meet people and learn from them. It can be soloed, and I spent most of my time solo, but teaming definitely makes things easier. Even when "solo", I was chatting with friends and guildmates, so I was never lonely. Ryzom is a rich and dynamic environment, with its own unique characteristics and methods. Spend the time to get to know it and you will probably come to love it with a fierce passion. If you are not interested in making that investment, the game may not be as fun for you as it is for me. Nothing wrong with that, there are plenty of great games that don't float my particular boat, c'est la vie.

2. In my opinion, Ryzom's best hope for long term survival is to locate and market to the correct people. Many of them are probably not playing games right now. I wasn't when I stumbled upon Ryzom. Also, there is a segment of the game-playing public that yearns for something richer, something that demands more from a player. That's another potential source of new blood. Ryzom is (was) and should be a game that fills a niche, a place in the gaming spectrum left hollow by its absence. Attempting to compete for players who wouldn't like Ryzom anyway is not a path to success.

3. Ryzom's best feature, by far, is the core playerbase. Yes, that means that the game isn't nearly as good if you play solo and never talk to anyone. It's also a fragile feature that the owners cannot directly control, but they've done a pretty good job of damaging it in previous incarnations. Those of us remaining are a pretty tough and obstinate bunch. We dearly, dearly want to grow our ranks, though. I believe there are many more out there waiting to be found.

Tossing my plugged nickel into the discussion about newbie areas:

I played Ryzom very, very briefly. I remember being baffled by the game, but that was entirely my fault; I didn't bother trying to find a manual and so just muddled along. I quit playing simply because of real-life affairs and I plan on giving it another spin -- a more informed spin, thanks to the links provided by folks in this forum. (Aw, c'mon now, group hug everyone!) I don't remember much about the newbie experience, so I can only speak in generalities.

When I first start playing an MMO, I want to get guidance on 'How to play the game.' This not only means instructions on how to do tasks -- harvest, fight, sell, craft, and whatnot -- but also the goals and activities the developers have in mind. In games like WoW this means questing. I learned early on that I should take quests to earn rewards, and I carried that behavior on throughout the rest of the game. The game reinforces this by having the quests direct you outward, so that you're steered to more advanced locations as you progress; by the time you reach a city you've probably got stuff worth putting on the Auction House, for instance.

Since Ryzom doesn't work like that (apparently) I think the newbie experience should be a bit different. I think Ryzom might benefit from a isolated tutorial area that operates mostly on a metagame (OOC, if you like) level. Basically, it'd be an interactive game manual, divorced from the world-at-large. You'd learn how to perform the game mechanics, and at the end it would set expectations for you: "Now go, explore Arys! You may wish to find a guild to support you in your travels... and support them in return. The world is a dangerous place, so keep your wits about you blah blah pep talk blah...." Basically, reinforce the idea that you're not going to get a lot of NPC guidance but should seek out other players instead. Now that they've got a grasp on how to interact with the game they can figure out which direction they want to go in: combat, crafting, harvesting, what-have-you.

After that you're dropped in a major activity hub, albeit one where you can wander off a little ways without getting slaughtered by hordes of ravenous beasts or harvesting nodes that melt your skeleton if you try to extract them.

Obviously, a player should be able to skip the tutorial "zone" if they're so inclined, such as a experienced player making another character.

the new-ish starter area kinda does this, the old ones were nightmare's

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Originally posted by Curate
{snip stuff about WoW}

Since Ryzom doesn't work like that (apparently) I think the newbie experience should be a bit different. I think Ryzom might benefit from a isolated tutorial area that operates mostly on a metagame (OOC, if you like) level.

{snip very good starter area suggestions}

Obviously, a player should be able to skip the tutorial "zone" if they're so inclined, such as a experienced player making another character.

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Some time in 2006 (iirc) Ryzom introduced a new starter area that worked very much as you describe. It went through a few updates as well to make incremental improvements. Although it definitely served the purpose of tutorial and used quests to do so, as you suggest, it also had the unintended effect of giving new players a wrong impression of what the game would be like.

I think your ideas are spot on, but the implementation probably needs yet another iteration, to make a clear distinction in expectations between the quest driven tutorial of the starter island and the largely questless mainland.

P.S. Hiya Jack ;)

Originally posted by RedwoodSap

If they offer a fresh server, a new start, then it should draw in a lot of people, but if they offer an existing 4 year old server, then I am not interested.

That's really weird. A server wipe would damage this game more then it would attract new players. A sandbox is what you make of it, not how it makes you. Like some other popular MMOs out there, where yes if you start late you will be at a disadventage, especially 'end game' wise. But as far as I understand Ryzom is always changing and evolving, there is no real end game like you see in other games. There is still raids and bosses and pvp both in duel form and while contesting for outposts (right?), but it's not driven by the game but by the players themselves.

You're asking to wipe the work of your fellow gamers, it's like asking an artist to pour water on their painting because you want to use the canvas for something else. :/

Originally posted by Cynthe

Originally posted by RedwoodSap

If they offer a fresh server, a new start, then it should draw in a lot of people, but if they offer an existing 4 year old server, then I am not interested.

 

That's really weird. A server wipe would damage this game more then it would attract new players. A sandbox is what you make of it, not how it makes you. Like some other popular MMOs out there, where yes if you start late you will be at a disadventage, especially 'end game' wise. But as far as I understand Ryzom is always changing and evolving, there is no real end game like you see in other games. There is still raids and bosses and pvp both in duel form and while contesting for outposts (right?), but it's not driven by the game but by the players themselves.

You're asking to wipe the work of your fellow gamers, it's like asking an artist to pour water on their painting because you want to use the canvas for something else. :/

I think people are forgetting that though a server wipe would be a shame, in essence, this game was over. Finished. Kaput.

What you all have is a second chance to play this game. If they wipe it is that worse than if the game just ceased forever? And keep in mind, you don't know what these developers are going to be doing. They "might" keep it as business as usual and they might take it in a completely different direction.

However, assuming that they don't, as I said, this is a second chance to play a game that you love(ed).