Originally posted by Rockgod99
a patch!!! Awesome! Seriously though... How are they keeping this game running with so few people playing? The devs must be getting paid less than kids working at fast food joints just to keep the game alive.

They have suffisant money to pay a small dev team.

Ryzom have 3 servers and the english one have the smallest population. And Ryzom is one of the few MMO where a significant number of people still pay for an account they doesn't use for months just to support the dev team (because of the Open Source for instance).

Originally posted by pupurun

* Same thing happens all the time with many mmos. They over use the same icon for 2-3 skills that have nothing to do with eachother. Is it so hard to "create" new icons?

These little things might sound to most of you as minor details but to me shows the flawed mentality of many game developers. They never see things from the player's prospective.

Ryzom have a dev team but a small one. It's not easy, when so much has to be done, to spend time on the incredible amount of small things to do when everyone ask for new game mechanics, content...

A survival guide about exploration.

• in the graphic options of the game, push up the distance of view for the mob. The max is 500m and a normal computer can handle it (in the same time, push all others options at max, the game is beautiful at max).
• always keep an eye on your compass. The compass is your best friend.
• you can modify the range of the compass with your wheel mouse. In dangerous zone, 50 or 100m are best to see the breach in paqued mobs. Look at 250m from time to time to see the global path.
• put your compass in "target" mode. It will give you the distance between you and your target.
• learn at wich distance each mob can see you : an ocyx see you at 10m, a varinx see you a 17m, a kincher around 20m, a vorax more then 25m, the kitins patrols in the prime around 60m.
• you can recognise predators from mamal on the compass. Predators move a lot faster and frequently.
• if you have to flee, do it in a straight line. A chasing mob follow you during a certain (and long) distance from the point where you have aggroed it. If you run in circle, it will never leave you. The hard thing is to find a clear way before you for at least 500m. Putting the compass on 250m can help. Learning how to flee is vital.
• learn which mob is fast and which one is slow. You can run through a pack of Cloppers, they are slow and only one (if none) will hit you just once. They will follow you at their slow pace but never catch you. The same thing in a pack of varinx and you will be bitten 10 times in 500m.
• listen to the surrounding sound. You often hear them before you see them.
• a big pack of mammal is very very often a sign of safe zone (free of predators). A spare pack of mammal is a sign of danger lying around.
• if you find a dead mob, a predator is certainly not far.
• if you see a mammal running, it is chased by a predator.
• if you see a mammal running to you, it is chased by a predator AND the predator will chase you if it has not yet engaged the mammal.
• if you see a predator fighting a mammal, you can pass near it without being immediatly engaged. BUT the predator will remember you and chase you after its kill so be far away when it ends its fight. You can choose to help the mammal to kill the predator, it's often less dangerous than going on. If you want to help it, let the mammal do a lot of dammage before engaging and the predator will not target you during the fight.
• water is life. If you are in trouble, find some water and swim, predators will leave you.
• get an heavy armor when you travel.
• if your are in light armor when a predator engage you, put your heavy armor on you when fleeing.
• some mobs move a lot in Ryzom. You can find a quiet place to dig and 5 minutes later, a herd of frahars is around you
• never loot a mob during exploration. You can repop the whole herd if the corpse you loot is the last one of the herd. Too bad if it was a herd of varinx.

Originally posted by Zyonne

• Progression in character power relative to mobs and other players in the world is as linear as it is in a typical theme park game. If you try to explore the mainland right after arrival, you will find yourself dying in one and two hits constantly just like in a theme park game. This is probably the one thing that turned me off the most. Being able to explore most of the map right from the start without spending days, weeks and months grinding to an appropriate level is one of the reasons I prefer sandbox games to theme park games, and Ryzom didn't offer me that opportunity.

You can explore the whole world even at level 10 (except some rare places).

But it requires a good knowledge of the world, the fauna and the game mechanics. Somme dangerous spot need you to sit down and look around you during several minutes to see the breach in the paqued mobs.

For instance : you often have to wait that a couple of predators fight a poor mamal to pass through them. It requires no game's skill but a sense of observation and patience.

You think exploring is too dangerous for the low levels. But you are wrong. In fact, exploring is dangerous for ALL levels. A level 250 player can be killed by level 150 mobs in seconds. But it's not frequent because all ryzom players have learnt from their beginning how to move between pack of dangerous mobs. It's one of the main feature of Ryzom = feeling the danger during the trip.

If you had played a little more to Ryzom, you would certainly learned how to go easily where you want before your level 50.

(sorry for my poor english)

Why Ryzom has low population ?

 - no elves, no dwarves

 - no strong licence

 - no "as big as you" swords

 - it was closed 10 months

 - it's an old game. Peoples doesn't want to try old games

 - no marketing

Ryzom is a wonderful game. A gem hidden under an old and dusty carpet.

There is at least 2 others : Dofus and Wakfu.

But as you say it's not very wise to promote the "french" conception of Ryzom (and I'm french)...

I hope they will change this (and some few others things).

Originally posted by RedwoodSap

Most MMOs don't offer separate language servers, they mostly use the universal language of English without any problems and guess what, most Europeans speak English. Only Americans seem to be limited to speaking their native tongue because they are so arrogant they can't be bothered with learning other languages.

 

I'm french and I write a quite understandable english.

But I'm completly unable to translate my usual roleplay in english !
English langage for us is good for a game without roleplay because there is no need to use elaborate sentences.

But in Aniro, the level of french langage used is far superior than in a lot of others MMO.

For instance : "Si la lutte anti kitin était une guerre, on pourrait traiter de futiles escamourches les quelques initiatives isolées qui ont lieu en ce moment." I'am unable to translate it correctly into a nice english sentence...

For french people, a Ryzom server without a good roleplay is a dead server and we are unable to give a good roleplay in english.

It's certainly the same for german peoples.
 

What you have downloaded is already the full game and you only need to pay a monthly fee after free trial is over.

And don't listen to RedwoodSap, there is no plan of a new server or fresh server start in a near (or longer) future.

Originally posted by Mahlo

What do you mean 'their tastes'? It's not about tastes. There aren't enough people playing Ryzom. Nothing to do with tastes. Unless people have tastes that involve games that don't get enough players to be viable.

The necessary amount of players for Ryzom to be viable is far, far smaller now than at Nevrax or GF time. The dev team is reduced and administrative costs have been severly cut (Cyprus localisation). I think that WG have good chance to make some profit with the actual population in the 3 communities.

The necessary amount of players to have a nice gaming experience is about personnal taste. I personnaly prefer a game where in most case I have someone rezzing me in 2 minutes despite of the distance than a game where I see 10 guys walk beside me without healing me (like in Wow)...

But for sure, more people will be a good thing.

Originally posted by Kordesh

...and because I feel I'll just end up in that same old grind which is a pity because the world is huge and the environments are varied, but there doesn't seem to be much to do in them but kill the same critters hundreds of times over. 

The actual event (kitin invasion) is the proof that there is much to do in Ryzom.

Come back and enjoy !

Goo have been spotted in Aeden.

We will have to fight Kitins and Goo at the same time ...

This event is surprising !

Your master harvester is true. You can even find materials only harvestable when it rains...

All about Roleplay can be found here : atys.ryzom.com/

You can check event's progression for each civilization here : http://atys.ryzom.com/api/ke0904.php?language=en

You can be everything you want, but you can't use effectively everything at one time.

In Ryzom, if you try to cast a spell in your warrior gear, your spell will have a BIG malus in power, mana consumption and cast time.

The same thing if you try to hit a monster with magic gloves. It will be ineffective.

So, even if everyone can do everything, during a combat each player has a given place (the tank pull, the wizard throw spells and the healer heal). The next combat, you can switch role if you want by switching gear. Switching gear require some time and you can't do nothing when you are wearing off.

Another important thing, if your are 200 in melee and 100 in magic and you fight a level 150 mob :

 - if you kill it only with your magic, you will gain 100% of the mob's xp.

 - il you use your melee (even one time) during the combat, you will gain 0 xp.

It's not gear dependant but crafter dependant.

There is no gear to loot on mobs and NPC merchants sell crap.

You have to buy all your stuff to crafter player (or craft yourself).

Originally posted by Piquedram

 ... and not allowing scenario's to stay online. The latter was, in my opinion one of their greatest mistakes as now it's a nice feature, invested with a lot of dev time, but rarely used as the creator has to be IN his scenario while it's running.

Hosting scenario was scheduled by Nevrax's team. But the company was closed before they can finish it...

Originally posted by RedwoodSap

Three servers with very low populations reinforces my point. Ignorance is bliss.

There are 3 servers because there are 3 communities with different languages (french, english and german).

An international server is not a good thing for the game because it will lower the strenght of each community.
One big point of Ryzom is the strenght of its communities. A servers merge can be catastrophic.

Roleplay is also a big problem. It's easy for some to speak in a foreign language but it's very hard for all to do a good roleplay in a foreign language. For instance, I am unable to translate in english this sentence : "Hé, peau blanche ! Dégage de là avant que tes omoplates ne servent de porte manteau dans la hall de notre guilde".

You feel OK to play at certain hours surrounded only by french and german peoples,  not beeing able to roleplay because no one speak english at the required level for a good roleplay ?

And what about events ? In wich language will they be ?

 I don't expect you to follow with pleasure a french event with Dexton...

The game is not dead yet.

There is 3 weeks for a buyer to make an offer. 

At least one buyer is known : ryzom.org project.