The Saga of Ryzom

I've seen a few scattered comments from people who have been able to try Ryzom for the first time the last couple of days.

I'd like to hear more from any of you, and also from anyone who tried it briefly before but didn't get far.

For the benefit of others who may be considering trying it out, what do you like, or dislike? What is fun? What gave you trouble?

Well my first impressions were that Ryzom has a great community and I felt at home straight away, I love the art style and music which seems to add to the immersion, I like the sandbox feel with the combat which gives so many ways to build my character. I've been playing a few days and I have joined a small guild who have been really helpful.

All in all, great game and it's a pity it hasn't been adverised more heavily in the past years as people who like sandbox games really have missed out, saying that I don't know if I will fall with the WAR craze or continue playing this.

Graphics and sound are quite good, as well as some of the character animations. Much better than I was expecting, to be honest. Character customization is pretty good, you can morph your bodily dimensions and there is a wide selection of unique and really artistic tattoos and facial colorings available to each race & gender combination. Textures on characters, mobs and world geometry are colorful, diverse, and crisp. Most armor is made up of 3D meshes rather than just painted onto the player character. In screenshots, the UI looks kinda basic. But in game it's actually very fluid, well constructed and very clean. Every statistic and technical term has a tooltip explaining the game mechanics. The controls are fully customizable, I haven't found any keybindings that are hard-coded into the game which is very nice. Hell, I can even type in a custom display ratio--there's a lot of control given to the player even on the UI layer. The built in MP3 player is a nice touch too, no more alt-tabbing to Winamp.

What can I say about stanzas? Out of this world. For people that haven't played it, basically stanzas are actions/abilities which can be fully customized and defined by the player. For example, melee combat has a number of actions that you gain access to as you build your combat experience. You can use some skill points to learn a 'bleed' action and use it to customize attacks with a bleed effect. Using the editor you define your new stanza as a melee attack, add the bleed effect, and then you have to add a 'credit' which is basically a balancing component--it effects things like how much energy the skill requires, when it can be used (after a crit or a parry, for example) or timer until it can be used again. It then creates an icon on your toolbar, so the customization potential of characters is really amazing. It's not even limited to combat either, it's used in crafting and resource collecting as well. The custom stanzas for those disciplines can add special attributes to armor or make your 'digger' more effective at gathering resources. To me, this is the most impressive feature of the game that I have encountered by far.

What else? Crafting and resource gathering is really cool. The quality of materials affect the quality of crafting output. Resource gathering itself is a profession in its own right, with the more time you spend refining your character's custom gathering stanzas the more efficiently he or she can draw resources from the environment.

This is about all I have experienced so far. My character is level 20 in combat and high teens in crafting and gathering. I have not focused on magic yet but the stanzas there look like they will function much the same as they do in combat; essentially players can create their own spells rather than simply be limited to new ranks of the same old fireball, or what have you.

I am completely sold on this game. I'm loving it. It's unlike any other MMO I have ever played.

Oh, as for what gives me trouble. The questing system on the noob island, to be honest. Don't take a quest if you do not intend to read the NPC text and complete the quest immediately-- as far as I can tell, there's no way to drop the quest and get the instructions again. Sometimes when the NPC is talking to you they will tell you generally where you need to go, but only the objective is listed in your journal. So if you have to scout out one specific resource using the 50 meter prospecting ability, and forget which direction to start looking in...have fun running around endlessly. You can't spam the ability either, as it requires both time and energy to fire the thing off. That makes some of the resource quests quite painful and time consuming. It's not because you can't find resources, but because finding specific resources can take a good amount of effort. A typical flaw of quest systems in my opinion and I look forward to simply doing gathering on my own without an NPC breathing down my neck.

Here is the problem, next to impossible to join unless you had a previous account!

Originally posted by Zyllos

Here is the problem, next to impossible to join unless you had a previous account!

They are opening accounts, but there isnt a real 'create new account' feature yet. Looking at how things go now, I would expect it in the near future.

I'm really really enjoying my stay in Ryzom...haven't got off the island yet. I want to do all the harvesting/crafting/magic/melee missions done first. I know there aren't any missions on mainland, and that is A okay with me.

And as some who may visit the PUB forums and know I mostly solo...well I've grouped more in my short stay in Ryzom than i have in previous MMOs...and I've only been playing a short while. In fact, I'm really enjoying grouping in this game...a lot.

I'm definitely gonna subscribe when payment is up.

I'm really curious as to how payment is going to work. From what I have experienced so far, I think the game would get my subscription. It would be really nice to know who the new company is though, and what their intent is with the game. I am sure many Ryzom players would ideally like to see renewed development on the game but is that feasible? Maybe they are gauging interest with the batches of new sign-ups.

I'm not exactly new. I tried the game somewhere around the end of 2006. I remember thinking it was nifty, but Other Stuff dragged me from the game. So... mostly new. (“It just so happens that your friend here is only MOSTLY new. There's a big difference between mostly new and all new...”) Here's my initial, offhand reactions, which I will change on a whim just to be contrary:

PROS:

The game system and setting work well together. In other words, the freeform skill system and stanza creation really compliment the sandbox style world. If the game had more rigid leveling/quest content the flexible character advancement might've felt out of place (or at least subject to balance problems); if the game had fixed class/level definitions the wide-open might feel curiously shallow, since there would be no real depth to character advancement.

In particular: Stanzas. These are great. Even more fixed class/level games could probably implement these in their magic/superpower system.

I love the look. It's stylized without being cartoony, emphasizing the otherworldy feel. (I'm reminded of “Fantastic Planet”, but maybe that's because it's my only other exposure to French animated Sci-Fi.)

Material type and material quality affecting the final crafted product? Fantastic. I loved this aspect of Star Wars Galaxies, and I'm glad to see it here.

Personally, I love the religious aspect of the setting and the somewhat murky nature of either side.

Tryker women are cute. I know, I know. Leave me be.

“MEH”s:

The starting island needs a rethink. On the one hand, it is a great introduction to the concepts and mechanics of the game. Again: stanzas. I could've been really confused by them, but the game explained them clearly. Harvesting, crafting, magic, combat – the game covered them well. However, the lore was not given as much emphasis. I suspect I glossed over it, but I'm still unclear how my character appeared on the island, or really much of the background for the game. I think those parts should get as much “air time” as the game mechanics.

I also agree that the quest-centric method of teaching the game sets up a false expectation that may confuse and alienate players once they get to the mainland.

In a broader sense, I'm wondering if there's enough sand in the box. I've just started the game so I may Not be There Yet, but I'm hoping there'll be more to do than just fight, craft, and harvest. (I'm tepid about PvP.) Player housing, badges, points of interest (places that are not only visually interesting but has special “stuff” going on), and whatnot. On the other hand: Ryzom Frackin' RING. I get to be a GM. Mwah hah hah hah!

CONS:

First, the Con system. Maybe I'm missing the elegance here, but it seems needlessly complex. Quoting olepi from another thread: “Say you click on a mob, and he cons blue. That means he is below you in level in most MMO's; in Ryzom, that blue (and the attendant number of stars) indicates an absolute level. So a 4-star blue is probably around a lvl 40.” If that's the case then why not just show, oh, 'level 40'...? Either that or do the relative con system everyone else does: Squishy, Slighty Squishy, Gamey, Tough, Will Eat Your Soul, and so on.

If you're going to tout cooperative play, have a damn Looking For Group tool. I strongly suggest taking City of Heroes tool, futzing with it to match Ryzom's setting (no classes, no instances), and releasing the result into the wild.

There's got to be a better way to steer people to quest goals. I loathe those floating question-marks and exclamation points in other games, but wandering around a town reading every single NPC name, trying to find your target, gets real old real fast. I suggest a mini-map/quest journal interface where the person/thing you want to see shows up on your radar. Or, for immersion fans, allow me to ask the town announcer/greeter/thingy “Hey, where's Vinnie 'The Bodoc' Lambcakes?” and have her tell me which way to go (which, in the UI, translates to showing up on your radar).

INITIAL VERDICT: Pretty damn cool.