Distribution:Download | Retail Price:Free | Pay Type:Free | Monthly Fee:$10.95
Desktop Client | System Req:
| Out of date info? Let us know!
Ryzom Review: Ryzom Re-Review - Edit
7.25
| Pros |
 
|
 Crafting is more than a half-baked mini-game Lots of progression Unique level system |
| Cons |
|
 Performance issues up the wazoo Terrible inventory system Uiltimately grind oriented Uncertain future |
In 2004 the MMORPG genre saw a revolution; a golden year of hope and glory; conventions were redefined and adventures started afresh in lands unexplored and wild. In this orgy of online role-playing newness two figures cut a strong impression, sadly neither were the game of topic; EverQuest 2 and World of Warcraft fought for our attention and all those in their bloody path perished to obscurity. Six years on we catch up with the woefully ignored Ryzom to examine the game in its current state.
Ch-Ch-Changes
Due to numerous reasons, Ryzom has had somewhat of troubled life span. Throughout its six years it has seen several houses of ownership, a name change and also a prolonged closure. In short, Ryzom is like child of divorce; neglected but tragically full of dreams and aspirations of a better time. Naturally when it comes to taking a second glance at this game, one cannot help but feel a little apprehensive. While the Blizzards and SOEs of this world may not be celebrated and popular in their ethics, there is something in their hugeness that creates a feeling of safety and warmth; while playing Ryzom you can't help but feel that the shaky fabric of the game world may slip away forever at any moment. The games turbulent history can only inspire a sense of uncertainty in any loyalties you may impact on it and while it is stable for now you cannot lose that resounding feeling that you may just be wasting your time on a game that could slip into silent death at any point.
Surprisingly with these concerns stated, Ryzom is a game so charming and unique that it becomes impossible not to enjoy and with great sandbox game play it is one of those oh-so-rare hidden gems of the MMORPG genre. Of course Ryzom has its faults and the low population only projects the worries stated previously, however if you can ignore this, Ryzom is one to try, now to dive even deeper.
Old Beauty, Phwoar
Of course as this game is of an older generation it would be unfair to simply dismiss the game on the grounds of outdated visuals, but Ryzom still packs a little graphical flare and beauty for a game of six years. Ryzom has a unique charm that is again presented through the visuals and the game world of Atys is a joy to behold at times as landscapes change from desert to tropical with great beauty and color. The art direction verges on flawless as the game becomes unlike anything you have played before, the world flows effortlessly from one temperate to another and it really can leave the player in a state of awe at the time and care obviously gone into crafting such a playing terrain. As the game is of a certain age it is ultimately pleasantly surprising to find such visual appeal and truly disconcerting when compared to the somewhat lackluster imagination of some of the newer games on the market.
)
Alas with every compliment must come a criticism and while the environmental detail of Ryzom is great, the character design is regretfully dull. Players are given the choice of four races and while they are adequate- the races are simply boring and inferior to the landscape in which they exist. Character models too look wooden and while this is a sign of the game;s age, you can't help but crave a little something extra. Overall the graphical experience of Ryzom is somewhat of a mixed bag but honestly I can say the game has aged gracefully with one or two exceptions.
Plumbing The Depths
Ryzom is ultimately a sandbox style affair with almost no linearity and with as much creative freedom afforded to a player this side of Eve Online. Ryzom takes a very unique approach to its class and level system in the way that there really aren't definitive classes as such and levels are achieved in specific skills- of which there are hundreds to choose from, ranging from archery to flame magic. To the freeform player, Ryzom is a very exciting prospect as the game allows you to mix and match might and magic and crafting in any which way you see fit. Ryzom's approach to leveling is a little different to anything you may have played before; the mindless slaughter of beasts to achieve experience is accompanied by a rather creative method of allocating said experience to whichever skill was used to emerge victorious. It is simple and yet rather ingenious in its madness, the mindless grind is replaced by a form of micromanagement and in effect, an illusion of choice. To further this individual trend, when a character progresses so far within a certain skill level, they are awarded with points which can be spent on a number of different skills which adds another layer of choice as well as character progression.
The game's approach to the level system is perhaps both its greatest achievement and greatest flaw in that it really offers a truly pure non linear game but also leaves you inevitably and ironically directionless. Being able to advance in any direction at any point is a great idea and works for the most part but at times you can't help but feel that certain skill progression is a little worthless in that everyone can do it and there will be no real individuality. Ultimately the results of Ryzom's level system simply refer back to preordained roles of Tank, Healer and Support and while it is nice to be able to play around the class as you see fit, there seems little point as only a certain specific character progression model is wanted and desirable to the player.
)
If There was ever a game that should follow DDO's Subscription model change it is this game... It would expand the population and make it a more visible product.
Its weird that you had problems running the game. I run it on a 5 year old machine, a true pos and it runs fairly well.
Agree on the population. Although being in a guild helps finding people to do stuff with, the game could use more people. But some just nitpick so much that they end up not enjoying a game that would totally suit their needs.
I find that hard to imagine, mainly because Ryzom is very very niche in it's design. Sure, it has most of the standard MMO elements, but what it's focused on are primarly crafting and exploration... and there's a part of the problem - what do you introduce into that game via item shop without disrupting it? I mean, what can you add? Stanzas are custom built, crafting is very deep and could be disrupted easily with some uber recipe or kit and exploration would be completely ruined if they added mounts for the player.
It's just too niche if you ask me.
mm- I still like playing, even with an occasional lagspike, but those have become increasingly rare for me.
This is an excellent review of my new favoritist game! Hard to argue with the faults that Adam mentions, but he adequately balances that by mentioning so many of the endearing features that this MMO has.
The thing about population?
Well, although it's been mention a time or two on these forums, population is the hidden psycological element that continues to make this market so skewed.
Most gamers play MMO's to see other players...sometimes even to play with them! Regardless of how great a game is (in their minds), most of them will quit if the gameworld is desolate. After a while, most gamers tend to move to the game that has the best population, even if it isn't their favorite game.
Simply put, that's the main reason that WoW will never lose it's grip on it's domination of the subscription-based MMO model.
Back to Ryzom. With a 21-day free trial, I would suggest that anyone who is looking for a totally unique MMO experience that hasn't tried Ryzom lately...come take a look! If nothing else, it'll give you a chance to go back in the histry of MMO development to 2004...when the gaming world chose Themepark over Sandbox, and dancing Night Elves over Zorai.
Have to agree with most of this despite my being a Ryzom fanboi.
Except the performance issues, I've played Ryzom on shabby airport connections on my non-gaming laptop and never had lag. Must be something unique to that notebook.
Lots of good and serious guilds though. Only game I've ever seen real public role play political meetings.
I tried this game. Here's a run down:
I found the game to be wonderfully thought out, but woefully group dependent. With the population being what it is -- this was a tough selling point. Also the combat is a little archaic, not quite click and forget, but not quite freeform. You hit a key to start a stanza, and that stanza fires once. Then you pick a different stanza. You can cue them up. The game likes to auto attack, but due to the lag I found myself charging up to a monster, only to have it be behind me and get a couple free shots before I could fire off my first hit.
The lag. I live in California. I play a couple games located in Europe. My average ping to these games is around 200 ms. My average ping to Ryzom, located in France, was a staggering 400+ ms, and I often had spikes where the ping would skyrocket beyond 3000!
My system. I run Vista 64 bit Ultimate, on a Phenom 4 processor. Ive got gobs of resources. My system is virus and malware free, and runs a minimal list of applications at startup. Performance hits it seems were native to Ryzom in some way, not my system, as other MMOs play well, and I even got The Chronicles of Spellborn (a known laggy game) to run on my system with a 64 ms ping time.
In the end I just didnt see myself playing Ryzom. I really wanted to. The game offers quite a bit. But it seemed like there was alot I would have to ignore to get to that. Its like having a relationship with your friend. You may have alot in common, and want the best for each other, but there's a reason why theyre your friend and not your soul mate, and that reason consistently nags at you.
After 24 days I uninstalled. 3 days pondering whether I shouldnt just subscribe and keep it as a back burner game.
about performance issues I'd like to share that I run Ryzom well with this system:
Operating System: WinXP Pro
Processor: Intel Pentium D CPU 2.80GHz
Memory: 1GB
Graphic card: Geforce 8500 GT
It also runs Lotro (and ran Aion) just slightly worse than Ryzom, but still perfectly playable.
Now, I live in Europe so cant really comment on the lag. I have a ping of around 200, more or less.
The few times I tried Ryzom I had the same connection issues.
when the game first came out it was apparenlty an issue with the router. I just couldn't stay connected.
A few years later, and a different router later, I had no connection issues. I remember seeing this a bit and there even was a supposed work around.
In any case, the mention of connection issues did ring true for me.
I also agree with the poster above who mentioned that population is essentially a catch 22.
Because it is. If there are few players and no "bright lining" on the horizon players won't play the game. No players playing the game and other players won't want to join.
to a certain extent vanguard suffers from the same thing though it does have its own issues.
In any case, the company who wons ryzom seems intent on developing it. If they are steadfast and make decent changes they might be able to make it grow.
Who knows, there could be another eve type of thing where die hards keep subscribing until it is "the" place to be.
I certainly hope so as it is a unique game.
My one disagreement with the review was that I felt the avatars were fine. Their art design is very unique and dare I say "very french".
There is something a bit surreal about them that reminiscent of Pierrot or the surreal grand guignol.
Not exactly but if any one saw the olympics that France hosted years ago, the art design of their opening ceremonies seems in step with the avatars of Ryzom. Not quite as bombastic but something in the lines, in the faces.
I found your re-review enough fair, despite you focused mostly in the low population.
I don't want to focus on what you said about your tech issues, i never got problems running ryzom, except some small issue common to the majority of mmo games around.
I think your review can be summarized in this way: Ryzom is a great, unique, old-style and somewhat grindy sandbox mmo but the population is too low to be enjoyable.
Is this a vicious circle?
My opinion is that you, as most of actual mmo gamers, are doing the usual mistake: consider a mmo something that must be planned for the future.
There is no difference between gamers and mmo gamers and there is no difference between games and mmos, being mmos just a type of game. Nerds are the minority part of the global mmo community and never should be taken as the example on how a mmo should be approached.
So, my suggestion is: if you are just a gamer or a mmo gamer doesn't matter, give Ryzom a try. The trial has no constraints and it's 21 days long. You'll have plenty of time to move from the starting island to the mainland and try to catch the lonely homins wandering around wasting their time (but, maybe, having some of *actual* fun).
Well your ping time isn't your framerate and given Ryzom's server is located in France and Spellborn has a NA server, you should ping better on Spellborn. Hardly anyone suffered with ping problems, even in the closed beta, with Spellborn. All the issues were engine related and ATI users (like me) had performance spikes that were like a roller coaster.
Ryzom's performance has always been fine on every PC, my notebook included, I've tried to run it on. My ping was always high, but the server is in france, what do you expect? All the resources in the world won't fix a slow connection. I don't recall anyone having latency issues with Spellborn for the most part, tho.
It's a good game. The graphics are 'atmospheric', and the crafting is interesting too.
Very interesting re-review. I've been very curious about Ryzom for a while now.
But again, it could be a router issue which was happening to some players when the game released, myself included.
do a trace or such !america is one of the worst for this
say one dude upgraded its security at a gateway but forgot to update the allowed in! you get issue
and lot of net provider in the usa arent bound to a minimum speed so if you are going trough say att with your game and they have too many for their network you ll suffer big trottling
governement will probably have to pass laws to get a garanteed minimum bandwith but until then
all those outfit play the
ITS NOT AT OUR END IT MIGHT BE SOMEWHERE ELSE!DID YOU CHECK YOUR COMPUTER?(beurk)
its always easier to blame the player then the one between point a to point b
but blizzard and soe showed this very often in the past
lag issue are always between point a and point b
the few time the player is indeed the culprit he find the answer way beforehe bother posting a note about lag
hell some server still use 32 bit!dont know how they do it but in this days and age
64 server and os are mandatory ,unless you are lucky enough to run game like flyff or maplestory
then you could probably run those on a 10 year old +computer lol
Ryzom is quite an interesting game, i liked it even to my own surprise. The gathering and crafting system is good.
I didn't like one thing - the char control is... i don't know can i say laggy... If you're casting or fighting, you can't just suddenly click and run away - everything takes time - stopping casting or attacking, turning around, starting to run. Destroys the immersion to me.
I had a connection issue with Ryzom where I would be running and a small computer icon would appear on the screen when going to newer areas, like a loading thing, but it was lag. I couldn't play it because of that it kept ruining the experiance.
Small correction, but it is one way to point out the fact that Ryzom is science-fantasy rather than simple fantasy:
There is no archery, there is gunnery.
It has been a while since I tried Ryzom. The world felt more alive then in any other MMO. This was mainly because of the wildlife that actually noticed you were there. And also how the predators roam around herds. Herds that also move around. Ive never seen it to this degree in other games.
The problem however is that although I like sandbox style games, I prefer it when its combined with some themepark stuff in the form of quests etc. EVE online is a good example for that. In Ryzom I got most enjoyment out of character progression, but combat (the action itself, not skillcreating) and lack of quests made it too boring for me.
I have played Ryzom since the start of Beta. I have played and tested many games since. But none to me compare to Ryzom and the community.
It has had its hard times but it is trying once again to relive.
As far as population goes, It is a very large area, There is not a lot of people running into each other other than the town areas. Well would not be. Yes right now population is not what I would like to see, but I guess maybe I think wrong but if you try it and then say oh there aren't many people here and leave, it never will grow. Stick around, and it will grow. There are players, but many time zones are around. Many helpful people, sometimes almost to helpful. But much appreciated.
I love how the mobs will roam around and attack other animals. It is a living world. there is migration, and trying to stay alive. You can just sit and watch life go about around you. Watch out for the Yubos, tho they can surprise you :)
So don't center on population as it will grow if you stay, and the next one stay and the next. Drag you family and friends in and pretty soon we will have many :)
Just a thought
Hope to see some of you in there. :)
Ya I hear ya bro... But this review in of itself on a very popular site is more PR than this game could ever hope for at this time... I remember back in beta, and also when it went free... You had to be "in the know" to even know it existed... while the game is not particularly my cup of tea it certainly has some amazing elements such as the skill (Stanza) system, which is truly unique...
With this positive PR, and perhaps a DDO type subscription model, can really give the game much more visibility and get people interested in the product and also open their eyes to the awesome skill system... it does have a pretty generous 21 day trial which should give people a chance to get the overall flavor of the game...
For the record I am NOT a fan of F2P, it just situationally makes sense, considering what it did for DDO... but as you said, it would have to be implimented gingerly as to not upset the apple cart, considering how intense the crafting system is...
Good rating, fun game.
Thanks for the re-review. sucks that you had stability issues.
I've been told ryzom runs really nice on older systems I guess thats why i hav no issues.
Don't forget the Ring. You can create your own scenarios, and publish them into the game. I've had a blast hosting other people in my scenarios. It is easy to create quests, for those that like them. I have not seen any other MMO game that allows this kind of freedom to create and publish your own stuff.
Some of my best times in any game, ever, was to watch people solve my quests in the Ryzom Ring.
We just moved our guild into Ryzom. So far we are enjoying the experience. The world is amazing. Every creature seems to be part of an AI-driven functional ecology. The pve is very challenging compared with the games which have released recently. Harvesting and crafting are better than anything I've played except the original SWG.
I've had no graphics lag although the high ping is sometimes noticeable (I'm in NA). I've had no connection problems at all.
This is not a game which caters to solo players. The grind would be very heavy if you didn't have a guild to group with. Fortunately there are many guilds to join. I suspect PUG's are very rare due to the low population.
The art style is truly unique and while some will love it others will not.
Unfortunately new players will experience bugs in some of the quests in the starter area. That probably ruins the first impression for many.
Bottom line: Great game, free download, 21-day free trial, and only $11/month subscription.
Nooooooo!
Never that.
If anything, what they might benefit from is something like the AO model. Allow players to play for free for an unlimited time but cap their skill level.
The game is - as someone colourfully described it "woefully group dependent". But for some that's a good thing and once you join a guild you're set. With the open skill system you're not limited to finding someone your own level, either. Veterans and nooblets can play together quite effectively.
Something the reviewer didn't touch on - and couldn't have been expected to know....
To be fair, while the community is generally excellent (helpful etc. etc.) some aspects of it have turned very toxic and are driving off some players. It's one of the inevitable pitfalls of a real sandbox game.
o.k. the lag stuff with Ryzom usually comes from one thing. They use UDP instead of TCP for network stuff. Some routers dont handle the UDP very well....when I played it my router just would not do it not matter what I tried. When I stuck my network cable directly into my cable modem game ran great. One of those annoying issues that would probably get fixed if they game had a real revenue stream but otherwise ends up being on the bottom of the stack.
I did not play past the free trial myself as I knew I wasnt willing to pay to play the game at the time for one major reason...lack of population. The content was also lacking in the form of interesting combat situations...IE dungeons or something similiar. All combat at the point I stopped playing - which was past newbie isle but still around the main town you go to after newbie isle - was basically killing mobs that wandered around in groups aimlessly. Nothing wrong with that as a filler but not something that would keep me occupied for long.
I think the game could easily be set up as a free to play with a store with some very basic and simple items. This would breathe new life into the game and quite likely make it viable again. I loved the skill system. I loved how you level stuff up. I loved the ability to create your own attacks and spells etc. If you have not tried the game out and dont know what I am talking about...the free trial (assuming they still have it) is well worth the time. You wont get the full effect of the skill system untill you have spent enough time to at least get off the newbie isle so that would be my recomendation.
For me the graphics were fine, overall gameplay was fine, population was big minus, lack of interesting content was a big minus. They do have a lot of tools in the game that could remedy the two big minus's but it would require a company to think outside of the box only a little bit to do it.
For me if I was a low budget game company I would try to buy the game...use all the systems that were created in the game and make a brand new game with a brand new engine all the while making the first game free to play to get some revenue coming in. I bet you could make a good updated game for under $10M that is better than most of the crap that is out there today.
Personally, I think it should switch to a free to play model with an item shop.
That would bring in gamers
IS it still UDP only??
Overall, I liked the game. The ecosystem is still one of the most realistic I've ever experienced in an online game, the creature AI is just amazing. That being said, the resource gathering is complicated to the point of being annoying, and the lack of population truly is a point of contention.
I mean really, you can DIE while gathering? Truly?
I like involved crafting systems, but dying while gathering takes the cake for me. From what I understand it gets easier and more profitable as you learn more skills, but this game is even less hospitable to the novice than EVE in terms of crafting.
The community is grand... until you question a certain game mechanic. At that point, they get all FANBOY on you, insult you, and tell you to leave. I'm not talking about an insult, or poorly worded critique (which IMO are deserving of flaming), I'm talking an honest-to-God bit of constructive criticism. Say anything against the game, and they pounce like a group of hungry cougars. In my own experience, I had a good time until I made a remark that resource gathering was tedious and boring. The flaming and insults which ensued were the stuff of legend. This community is WAY too defensive.
That being said, I recommend the game for those whom are seeking something deeper than 'the next raid'. I just hope the community that exists can learn to live with the fact that not everyone who plays will agree that this game is GOD.
I am playing Ryzom now for a good year. And I like the game.
In most games you are always doing grinding. Sorry to say, but grinding is no real fun.
In Ryzom you can feel free to do what you like. Yeah you can do some of the quests that are offered to you. But you can also wander around and explore new areas. You are free in what you do.
For some this is bad, because they need the strong hand, that leads them from point A to B and say kill 10 stupid mobs to get a new sword. I personally like the freedom to do, what i like.
And Ryzom has no class system as many other systems. You can specialize in everything over the time and you are not restricted to what you learn. I said over the time, because you need a lot of time to get high levels in all areas.
Havesting may be boring to some players... and yes you can get killed by doing it. The mobs around will watch you and may find you interesting enough to take bite :) Its like a real life. So while casting a spell that takes some time, it also may take some time, to turn in between around and run away. That makes it more realistic. Harvesting will take some time - and is mostly a solo job. In the beginning it is frustrating, because gathering 1 or 2 Materials out of the ground takes some time. But with the time, it gets faster and more Materials can be gathered in the time. There are areas where you can harvest easily, without fear of aggro Mobs. But the interesting part to harvest are the Prime Roots area. There are more aggro Mobs and you have to watch your back while digging to stay alive. Thats not boring. Especially because there you can find the better materials to craft your weapons with.
The crafting system is unique at all. Dependend on the materials choosen, the resulting equipment varies in its values. But the best recipees are not always using the "Best" mats at all, but to place some lesser mats in there as well.
For Fighting you have 3 main areas. Melee, Gunnery or offensive magic. Each specialises with the time. So maybe you are very good with using your 2 handed sword, but with a dagger you can only clean your fingernails. The offensive actions can be done alone, but it is easier to do it in small teams. And teammates are easily to find, just ask in the universe chat.
The starting island (Silan) is quite nice, to learn the game mechanics a bit. But often i hear, that there is almost nobody there. So move quickly to the main area. Here the Homins of Atys will welcome you and help you where ever possible to get used to the game (at least on Leanon the german server, this is common)
If you like a game, that does not place you in a corset, that gives you freedom to do, what you like, you should give Ryzom a try with the 21days free trial and move after a few levels on Silan to the mainland.
There is everything for PvE, PvP, Roleplay and just having fun.
Hello,
I'm Vianney Lecroart, the CTO behind Ryzom.
I would like to thank you, Adam Tingle, for this great re-review. It's honest and the current reality. We continue to work hard to make things better.
I'm sad that you had some network/stability issues and we take this very seriously. Don't hesitate to contact us to do more investigation if you want.
I want also to thanks guys who made all these great comments and continue to support Ryzom after all these years. We are really happy to have you in our community.
See you soon in Ryzom!
Vianney Lecroart
If you are who you say you are this makes a refreshing change.
So many game companys focus on their own forums way too much. They should spread out and see what people say of their game when they are not under the restrictive rules of their own forums.
OK, well firstly, here is a rundown of the DDO sub service, the bottom line is that the monthly sub is probably the most useful, but the diversity of subscription costs, is mind boggling and just too confusing (for these old brain cells) to fathom easily.
http://furlugedepot.com/2009/09/15/the-true-price-of-ddo-unlimited-free-to-play/
The Ryzom subscription is very cheap, So should be able to stand on its own merits, but as an "added value" if they took Catalyzers out of OPs and gave them to players as a part of their subscription rate, it may make an attractive proposition, to new players, but the way they currently stand, all they do is make the high level players more powerful and annoy those with no easy access to them, other than to go "begging" for them from guilded players.
On to Ryzom the game, it (for me) is one of the most beautiful universes, with some of the most evocative scenery I have ever seen in a MMOG, its a beautiful world to inhabit, check out Acridiels movies, the eco system and the actual monsters are quite awesome, compared to the dross in most MMO's :
http://www.ryzom-movies.de/
On saying that, it is unfortunate that is has such a tiny population, I would even say that a significant number of characters you see in game, are alts of players, I know players with more than one or two subscriptions, dual boxing their way through the game.
Its hard to get a team, because the dual boxers dont need help, so unless you are in a guild, good luck on getting a team together, so its not new player friendly, in that respect, sure you can get tons of advice and gear, even if non guilded, but getting people to actually play with (the essence of a MMO for me), is next to impossible.
As regards crafting/harvesting, well there are so many players that have maxed out those skills, that it is pointless grinding those skills to level 250, just to be able to make one weapon ever few months of Q250 for yourself.
This basically leaves combat, the game is probably solo-able to lv 100, but after that you will need to get a team to progress in a timely fashion.
It is a universe that in my opinion, should be experienced by all MMOG players, just to see if you would fit into that setting and maybe stay on playing it after the trial period finishes, it is unique in many respects and beautiful in all.
As regards performance, I have played Ryzom on a 500mhz 1gig ram PC, and a current Win 7 2.93 ghz with 6 gigs of ram and it ran fine on both, but of course exceptionally well on the 6 gig PC.
Overall I think it was a fair review.
Unfortunatly no matter how good an MMO is, without population its nothing.
A player is much like a single human cell, the body needs a certain amount of these cells to survive, and its needs a certain amount to flourish.
Some mmo's tick over in an almost comatose state, bairly alive sustained only by a hand full of stubborn players.
But on the bright side, when these MMO's finally die their players continue to exist strengthening another games population, as malice as it may sound sometimes I wish that these near-death MMO's would just let go.
I played Ryzom for 8 or 9 months a while back and really enjoyed the game. The only reason that I stopped playing was the shutdown, then when it came back online I was involved in something else and never returned. I generally prefer sandbox MMO's to themeparks, so it was no surprise that I enjoyed this game.
As others have said the ecosystem in the game is truly unsurpassed in any MMO. Migrating herbivores, stalking predators, curious yubo's that like to 'investigate' your feet, changing seasons... The game pulls this all off with aplomb.
The stanza system is truly unique, being able to build your own attacks/spells is very refreshing. Gathering and crafting are the best since Pre-CU SWG. I find crafting in pretty much all other MMO's nothing but an annoying minor inconvenience, SWG and Ryzom had crafting done correctly, Vanguard isn't bad in this regard either actually. All other MMO's might as well take crafting out the game tbh.
Last thing that I'd like to mention about the game is Ryzom Ring. It lets players create their own quests and storylines for other players to experience. This was introduced to SoR long before NGE SWG's 'Storyteller' system or CoX's 'Mission Architect' system again proving what an innovative game Ryzom actually is.
I'm really glad that this article turned up as it has gave me a reminder of how good this game actually is. I can see myself subbing for a return to Atys in the near future.
Honestly... The reviewer may be correct in saying the game world felt empty... I mean it would feel empty if 5 thousand people were on the server the world is that massive.
Ryzom is one of those "need to get into a guild asap" games. I'm sure if the review did such a thing he wouldnt have been so hard on the games lack of population.
Oh and Ryzom's community isnt going anywhere, they have some pretty wicked large scale OP battles constantly. player run contests and events, dev events and with a bit of pre-planning they even raid together.
The game is filled with drama and social ties that keeps the game going. Amazing gathering/crafting, fun exploration and truely a challenging game world.
Ryzom is a Gem and with the amount of shit on this market that completely fails I hope it keeps on going even with its small 5k playerbase.
5k accounts were recorded combined through all three servers. considering that about 20% of those players are active at a time that would mean a couple hundred are on the server at any time. so your right in saying there are about 1-2 hundred people on.
I have to look for the link for my source.
I played on the English server. I unsubbed last month to focus more on Eve but ill be back soon.
Its true that you could potentially disregard an MMO's player quantity providing your in a good guild who successfully integrates you in their community. This, unfortunatly is very rare and unless you have played for some number of yearsalready your going to feel woefully inadequate, you wont be involved with the high end guild gaming events and you'll find yourself lonley.
Ryzom does look good! I think I did do the trial once and saw its potential, but any new player would rather consider spending 'mmo' amounts of time on a more vibrant and busy game that has more options where guilds are concerned.
Its the only Real reason ive picked up DDO again, sure its improved massivly but I get good groups almost instantly when I log on.
OK mate thanks for that :)
bows*
I do beleive that you are who you say you are. It is great to see you post here. It gives me a boost of hope. I have been and will always be a deciated player of Ryzom. But this post really made my day.
Thank you for all you and your team have been and are doing. To have Ryzom back is a wonderful thing.
Hello all
Ive tryed Ryzom trial, but i gave up as i passed the trial island. Normaly im not a guy who searches for the best graphic, but this was simply too much for. Graphic and uglyest UI ive seen were KO reason for me. I cant judge the gameplay of Ryzom as i just played tutorial island.
PS: Yeah it felt really empty almost as i would play a single player game except you saw ppl chating in chat.
Don't forget this game was developed back in 2003. So considering the age of it, it is outstanding. I still like to sit and watch the leaves and flowers move. and everything else. Have you looked at the detail. If you had stayed in the game to make it to the Lakelands, the shells and water plants are awesome.
To each his own. But thank you for at least trying it even tho it was for a short time.
Ryzom is a good game. It is a rather clan oriented game for sure. I was with Nexus back in the day, nothing like a couple of crazy Frenchman to make your game time fun. Hi Genia and Darm if you're watching! :) I stopped playing when I lost my comp and by the time I was able to play again, they'd shut down. Once it returned I was in other games and clans. It's been one of those games I want to go back, but just haven't yet.
At first I wasn't to sure about the graphics and animations, but they grow on you. I really got to like the magical animations. The AI is top notch. They seemingly had a mind of their own, they interacted with each other, and they would migrate during the various seasons. The yubos were just fun. The seasons made game play interesting, especially when trying to get various digging materials. Pretty cool stuff overall.
I thought this game was "dead and forgotten". Interesting how it still has life.
Perhaps they should offer a one month free trial. Yes, it's a long time but it would get people playing and have the ability to develop a character. Once the character has been developed, perhaps people would pay to keep it going.
Oh and like CCP/Eve online, offer to get the game at monthly cost, no purchase (if thats not already the case)
Alright, one month is a long time. heh, just trying to justify playing it myself :/
I dont play any more, It was more a group game and simply didnt have the population for it when I played. While I never griefed or bad mouthed the game and wont to this day I can say two things. Reduce the chained spawns, return the unlimited free Island. Maybe even expand it. From what I recall that Island was busy and there was a desire to play this game. If even 10% of that converted to Sub you would have a solid base. Even after I sub'ed I stayed on noob Island for a while because it was poulateted. Traffic in this game is critical, or was anyway.
Ryzom, now that brings back some memories.
One thing i will say about Ryzom is that it still looks good after all this time, it's held up really well.
I agree with others that have posted here, it's too party driven. This in and of itself isn't a problem when you have a moderate population, but when the population starts to dwindle it became a frustrating affair.
If you have a group of friends that want to try some other MMO out then Ryzom isn't a bad place to go, i enjoyed my time there but trying to get into -any- type of group was difficult, especially at lower levels.
I miss playing Ryzom quite a bit. I have a lot of fond memories of the game, even though none of my characters ever made it exceptionally far being a solo player primarily. The world and architecture and environment all were very surreal and had a very painterly feeling to it that I loved. It really brought out the imagination in the game.
I tried getting back into it, but found the controls encumbersome as I've since gone away from the point and click method of gaming.
It was realy the environment and ecology that drew me in to this game as well as the crafting. Curious creatures coming up to me to inspect me, and some defending their young from being attacked by aggressive creatures.
In crafting, I liked how the quality of the materials you got affected the outcome of whatever you were making. A stick wasn't just a stick. A bone wasn't just a bone, but all had varying qualities that could be used to craft, essentially the same item.
Want a wood long sword? A bone one? A steel one? What about one made from an armored carapace? The possibilities were endless. And not just within the varying materials and elements that go into the crafting, but the actual quality values of the materials. You could find a really really really good stick, or a really crappy stick. using a good stick would make a better longsword than a crappy stick, obviously, and the items overall stats reflected that, and that blew my frickin mind.
A long-standing criticism of Ryzom has been the new-player experience not really showing off its assets.
Ryzom actually has a lot of boss mobs and other content that requires dungeon-style grouping. The outdoor environment is also such that on one level the entire gameworld is a dungeon. It takes serious skill to navigate some areas and some spots are nigh impossible to reach on your own.
There are also faction missions to be done - which can help to kill the aimless wandering.
I played Ryzom a few years back, when it was, I guess you could say, in it's prime. After reading the re-review, I decided I had some free time and I'd try it again. And you know what the funny part about all these population comments is? I found them to be false.
I spent a good few hours in the starting area, and I saw more than a handful of people running around, getting the initial quests out of the way, and prospecting. There were even high levels bantering back and forth in the general chat, who were just hanging out to help other players. Read that again. Players that were hanging out to help others. Some out of boredom, some as a recruitment tool for their guilds, most to level the skills they didn't focus on from the outset.
I felt it was one of the better MMO experiences I've had in a long time. These days, when you jump into a new MMO, how long would you say it takes before you get anyone of consequence in the population to interact with you in a meaningful way? 10 levels? 20? In Ryzom, I had people giving me a helping hand at square one, and because I asked nicely. That, for me, was an impressive throwback to when MMO's weren't mainstream and community meant something.
Yes, there's gameplay flaws, and they'll be very very apparent to the WOW generation. But if you're looking for something different, I strongly recommend the 21-day, no strings (no cc info required) trial.
ALSO, whoever is saying the crafting system is difficult is effing high. You open the crafting interface, click on what you want to craft, and then click on the corresponding slots for your craft mats. It gives you a GRAPHICAL flyout bar to select the mats in your inventory. For instance, I was going to craft a pair of boots that I'd been skinning low level mobs to get the mats for. But on the way back to town, I offed an on level mob and got a skin from it. When I went to craft, both skins showed up in the flyout menu. Meaning I can craft the same pair of boots with low level mats, OR I can go out, kill on level mobs and craft better quality boots instead.
It's the little things, people.
FYI, you can choose your control scheme. I chose WSAD.
If what you say is true, then I should be back in the game world in a few days!
Thanks for the info!
You choose it right after character creation and before you enter the game world. But you can still change the keys after that of course.
I thought point and click was where you point where you want to go and click you run to it.
We don't do that in Ryzom. you can use arrow keys or WASD, you have options
Off topic, unrelated, and totally political...
But I can't help but comment on my "Comrad " here who happens to think that government is the answer to everything. Here's a better idea...hows about finding an internet provider, a private company, that gaurantee's a minimal bandwidth instead of relying on government to pass yet even more laws, which will require hiring more people to enforce those laws and more politicians to campaign on said laws and ultimately lead to higher taxes and more government control and less freedom...
Just saying...
This infiltration of European style, socialized, government control way of thinking has to stop. It's destroying America, which will inevitably result in all of us being forced to worship Allah and speaking Chinese.
* this has been a public service announcement, please resume regularly scheduled game talk *
I can't find myself to trust a company with any credit card information when they can't even secure a simple user account registration process (they store your password in plain text and then even email it to you). They just can't be that smart with such amateur security in place to start off with.
I also support this game. Ive only played it for 3 months in which time i was totally addicted to gathering and crafting. The gather and crafting system in this game is so unique and well thought out that its how i spent most of my time in this game.
Also the ecosystem is the best ive ever seen, migrating animals etc. The world just really feels alive. There's also danger everywhere and you need a group to even get past mobs to get to the next zone. Its a tough, beautiful and very realistic world.
The only reason i quit was coz back then it was fairly quiet already and i didnt really feel like grinding skills up non stop. However besides that even though i only played it a few months i still at times long back to the game. Thats the unique impression it made upon me. In ryzom you really feel llike you are exploring. The world is crafted for you to go out and explore with beautiuful sceneries everywhere.
Its a shame such a gem of a game has been ignored for so long. So many things in ryzom are unique to any other mmorpg and this game deservers way way wayyyyyyyyyyyy more attention. The innovation put into this game is beyond most current mmorpgs. It also is a true sandbox game.
To put it simple. Ryzom did what many mmorpgs still do not dare to or still cant. It simply was ahead of its time.
@ Wighty: There is no way this game would make it with an item shop in it, because first off the existing player base would quit as soon as that was announced that is one thing I have seen debated in the official forums and it was almost completely shut down by the vast majority of the player me included when I did play! Sencondly the game was not designed at all with an item shop in mind so adding one would take some serious re-coding of cretain aspects of the game and new coding, if it has not been stated befor the company that bought the game simply does/or did not have the funds to do such a thing!
@ Methos12: There are mounts in the game already you can buy them at the stable in any major town.
There is 21 day free trial :) Not a month, but pretty damn close.
I tried it (my 4th day in game) and I love it. I can't believe I haven't heard of this game until now. It's really sad, because, as the re-review says, it has a whole bunch to offer.
The comunity is probably the best I've ever seen in any MMO, helpfull, polite.. you feel compelled to be helpfull to others. And this is unusual to me, I must admit.
The crafting is 10/10, never seen anything so simple and in the same time, so freaking complex.
You can craft with a few clicks, but it pays hugely if you take your time and study the materials, to get the best result. Do note please that before Ryzom, I never ever took pleasure in crafting.
About the technical problems, I didn't experienced any, except a few connection issues (a couple of seconds each). Nothing even close to a major problem.
I run a med-range PC for 2010, with Win 7 64Bit.
If you like the sandbox concept, you'll love Ryzom.
First off, there's no longer a 21-day free trial - it's free to play up until level 125, and the only restriction appears to be on the use of extra storage in apartments and guild halls (you can deposit items, but you can't take them out of the apartment or guild hall unless you've got a paid account). So that's a major bonus.
Second, this is probably the Ubuntu player's best native Linux option. The only thing that doesn't work on my client is the MP3 player, and, well, I've got tons of those so it's not a big deal. (I hear it works on Windoze, but won't install M$ long enough to find out.)
Third, I rather LIKE the fact that the game's not teeming to the brim with players. If I need to trek somewhere, all I have to do is ask and there's usually a long-time player or three online willing to help a newbie out in that regard. (VERY friendly community, and exceptionally mature - I've literally run into ZERO playground nonsense since starting two months ago. None. Try getting THAT with WoW.)
Finally, I run this puppy with full graphics on a 6-year-old Gateway with mobo graphics only - no video card. No problems. So, whatever issues the reviewer faced have evaporated or were computer-specific. I've experienced none of them.
Bottom line?
If you're tired of crowded MMOs with rife immaturity among the playerbases and want to be more in control of what your character does and who your character becomes, instead of being stuck on some linear path progressing in just one or two vocations, then log into Ryzom.
If you're the kind of person that wants to forge their own path, make their own way and be whatever you choose to be, with a massive world as your canvas, then DEFINITELY log into Ryzom.
But if you're one of those players that likes a crush of people, linear spoon-fed progression, and requires the work of others for you to have a story, then by all means avoid Ryzom like the plague. This isn't your typical MMO, as it requires a certain skill level and intelligence to appreciate.
I wouldn't have it any other way.