Communication & Marketing

23rd of may

1 Ryzom on Steam

1.1 Statistics (number of connected player simultaneously on Atys)

They are still very good, and steady as a whole.
A little fall of US players, but rise of euro ones.
The mean value of simultaneously connected players on Atys is 350 during the week and 410 during the week-end.
Still many asks for restorations of characters from old players (63 between the first and the 23rd of may). To achieve most reactivity, SGM (Senior Game Masters) now have the rights to restore the characters themselves without having to go through the Dev.


1.2 Evaluations of Ryzom posted to Steam:

Main reasons for the drop:
- Outdated graphics;
- Non-scalable interface (typos too small, especially icons);
- Various bugs inducig error codes;
- Misunderstanding about the fact that "the game is free to play, but there is a subscription";
- Silan missions gameplay too complex and too repetitive, too much text to read.
Better see or become aware of our weaknesses is important because then we can see together how to fix them.

Lyne : On the other hand, don't be mistaken: Ryzom *is* complex. Players can learn by asking other players or by reading the xt, but they'll still have to make the effort to learn.
Nuts : I feel the contrary: Silan is a good introduction to the game ...

New player's feedback and comments
MrObject: Just a quick question, are there any newish players here? Specifically players who just started with the steam release?

Moniq: I do play for 6 months

MrObject: Ok, well then I guess I'm speaking for the steam players.
I want to use a perfect example from a recent post on the steam forums. The post is here. http://steamcommunity.com/app/373720/discussions/0/36404096144204 1660/
Essentially the player in question was doing the gathering quests on Silan and the quests request specific things.
Now I've just recently hit 40 gathering and I now have skills to let me search specific things.
Those gathering quests are based on pure RNG (random number generator) unless you have those level 40 skills.
I personally am more of an eco type player, so I really look towards gathering and crafting and Ryzom has a truly unique system but the tutorial makes gathering seem terrible at first.

Nuts: true that harvest is hard at the beginning :/ maybe too hard

MrObject: Then look at the crafting quests, you guys have an amazingly unique auction house system with the 'Sell to others' feature, why...oh why...does the crafting newbie quests not show off that feature blatantly. A quest like "Make a sword and use the sell to others option"
Lyne: As far as I remember, there's a "sell" mission. But you're right, it's not a "sell to others"

MrObject: I did *most* of the gathering quests, not the last few because I wanted to tear my hair out by the end. I really suggest you all go through Silan with an open mind and really think about what new players are thinking.

Moniq: I didnt finish harvesting missions on Silan with my very first alt, I think the main problem is that a new player have to become a bit familiar with the system of harvesting. And not many players do ask on chats. Maybe the game should inform about the possibility to ask others more obviously.

MrObject: My suggestion, it's a simple one and I'm betting it's been suggested before. Add teleporters to Silan to get back and forth from Atys to Silan. The reason I suggest this is I beleive Silan just has pacing issues, those gathering quests would be far more useful around 40 gathering.
Ryzom already has a ton of super friendly players who can help out on Atys, let them go to Silan instead of forcing everyone to make Silan alts.
Thanks for your time.

Zatalyz : Ho no, the highs level would return on Silan to annoy new players ...

Shaliss : Yes, it does not seem a very good idea.

MrObject: I'm sure some high level players will just be a nuisance but in my personal experience if Meggy and Lamda didn't tell me to leave Silan and basically taught me themselves then I probably wouldn't be here now. Think about that, if no one told me "Don't worry, Silan is just overly complicated for no good reason" I would have quit.

Zatalyz : We saw this before the merge with TP everywhere, suddenly high levels do their quests and help newplayers too much, removing them of the chance to experience the game.

Shaliss: One can still create alts to go on Silan.

Lyne: I think it's the idea, MrObject: either you learn by yourself from the texts (that's what I did) or you learn from other players. Ryzom is a lot about players helping other players. But it doesn't mean that the current missions could't be improved (A bit too complicated this sentence... Current missions can probably be improved)

MrObject: The game is a sandbox experience, quests are a themepark experience. Sandbox games are usually based around emergent gameplay, aka gameplay that is created by the players. If Ryzom really wants a more quest related experience then those quests should be created by players.

Lyne: I'm not sure I understand MrObject: Silan's quests are there to teach gameplay. You mean they should be created by players?

MrObject: Well, implementing something that allows players to literally create a quest in game and give it to other players has been done in other mmo's but I'm not sure it's something that could easily be added here. I was thinking more along the lines of having a collaberative project that takes suggestions from the existing playerbase about how best to teach new players about the four main base skills.
Then taking those suggestions and revamping the quest structure on Silan.
Oh, I just wanted to add one more thing. Another complaint about our advertising on steam is the lack of a 'gameplay' video on Steam. The majority of games on steam will usually show a video that displays actual gameplay as the second video. This really is the norm on steam and a good suggestion would be to create a contest for players, something like "Make us. An awesome gameplay trailer, win a prize." Maybe a month free of premium to the winner?

Nuts: hum well i like the contest idea but i don't think a video showing Ryzom gameplay will be relevant cause in fact, ryzom gameplay looks boring when you are watching it :/

MrObject: Doesn't matter. Look at a post like this.

AsphanysNB: i m talking about what to show in that kind of video... fighting ? well ok spamming enchant + hit button... same for magic... all the interesting things of the gameplay will not be shown and give a wrong image of what it is. Better to do a good trailer of the game. An actual one... explaining actual threat and stuff, you see what i mean ?

MrObject: I agree Nuts, imagine a trailer with scenes from a Kitin invasion. Showing off the skill list with all 63 skills showing. Showing off end game spell effects

Lyne: The effects are the same at lvl 1 and lvl 250 :-)

MrObject: Or how about a video that splices together RP events.

Lyne: There are already videos about RP events: at least Misugi's ones, but other ones also

MrObject: this could really be awesome !

AsphanysNB: and/or a vid that shows snippets of the different aspects of the game (rp and story, pvp, pve, exploration,...)

Lyne: (Comment read on Uni just 2 minutes ago: "Most of my friends hade to read games but his one is different enough it's worth it to get a step up by reading all the Silan mission tips" ) :-)

Nuts: For the visual effect it's not true for some spell such as fear, madness

MrObject: Does anyone have any objections to creating a contest for players to make a new gameplay teaser for Ryzom, getting the rights to it from the player and then posting the winning entry on Steam?

Tamarea: I like the idea a lot

AsphanysNB: (( just an additional idea - use a special ingame titles for the players who take part in the contest as an incentive))

MrObject: (( Good idea ))

Tamarea: (Yes!)


1.3 Request to Ryzom's Community

As our recent jump to Steam we have a Ryzom official group there: http://steamcommunity.com/games/ryzom. This group is divided in two parts, one is the Store: http://store.steampowered.com/app/373720 were the Steam users can get the Steam client of Ryzom; and the other one the Hub: http://steamcommunity.com/app/373720 were they have several ways to give a feedback about the game and share their ideas, opinions and questions about Ryzom, as we all do already in this Forum.
We are very proud about our helpful community and you all have the chance to keep helping each other at Steam. Is because of that we want to propose you all to join Steam and the Ryzom official group, and specially the Hub were there are awesome features; not just answering the doubts of other players, there is a chance to make guides, share artworks, videos too!
It would be great and help a lot if you could also recommand Ryzom in the Reviews tab http://steamcommunity.com/app/373720/reviews, explaining why you enjoy the game and why users should try it! Don´t hesitate to share with everyone your feelings about Ryzom!
Understand as well that on Steam by replying to negative reviews or negative posts you aren't really addressing the original poster, you're addressing everyone else that will eventually read that review or thread.

Q: It requires us to have a Steam account?
A: Yes, and even if you don't have a lot of time, make sure to put a short recommend review to help counter the negative ones. Ryzom only has 152 reviews, so each review is essentually worth about 0.75%

As stated though and I really can't stress it enough, we only have 152 reviews of Ryzom on Steam and our rating is currently 'Mixed' so it would be amazing to see some more positive reviews. Also Metacritic now has a 2nd page for Ryzom, since the game is no longer called 'Saga of Ryzom' we have a new review page http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/ryzom. There are currently zero reviews for the new 'Ryzom' game on metacritic, so it would be super awesome to see some more added there.


1.4 Hub Steam
- Add of an Roleplay sub-forum to develop roleplay side of Ryzom. Do not hesitate to publish your own RP wording, but also some posts which could help to understand the Lore basis
- The events will now also be announced on the Steam calendar (via the system of vents ads


2 Candidates to join the team of volunteers of Ryzom
10 candidates applied since the release on Steam (so in two weeks)! As much as we've gotten in two years!


3 Press Articles
Press releases and articles on Ryzom is here: http://app.ryzom.com/app_forum/index.php?page=topic/view/24899/. It is regularly updated (except this last week for lack of time. I actually several items to add).
Feel free to contribute by adding links to other articles or topics in the forum post comments on these articles: http://app.ryzom.com/app_forum/index.php?page=topic/view/24956, then will insert the links in the list.


4 Writing a Frequently Asked Questions section about Steam
- On Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/app/373720/discussions/0/36404096144816 1520/  (by Object)
- On the forum of Ryzom: http://app.ryzom.com/app_forum/index.php?page=topic/view/24919 (planned update with new Q/R). This FAQ is also enriched by the Q/A FAQ published on Steam.

27th of june 2016

Tamarea: I would tell you about of RF projects in general. Especially the LD group. It has many ideas, but we noticed the delay for achieving these project is too long.
The main reason is for, RF as for RT (Ryzom Team), the lack of means to communicate easily with each other.I am trying to implement a new system where all people who have to work on the same project can be found in one place, wether they are part of a group of RF or of a team of Ryzom.
I'll tell you more next week, once the first testing had been done. But this should give much more responsiveness and dynamism around each project and allow their implementation much quicker.

November 8th 2016

Ryzom Wikis
Ryzom has several wikis: Ryzom wiki for the Lore, Ryzom Core and Ryzom Forge. We've got the project to gather all these various existing wikis into one single official one: the one of Ryzom Forge, which has the advantage of being multilanguage. The other wikis will remain open, but only the one of Ryzom Forge will receive the official articles. It will have a "Lore" part gathering all the Lore validated articles of the ryzom.wiki, but also a "Dev" part.
Here is a mock-up of the project:  http://forge.ryzom.com/wiki/Maquette (clic on the Gameplay and Lore test pages please).

Q: It's planned to integrate the RC wiki also?
A: Yes and no: we cannot close the Ryzom Core wiki (used by others than us), but the idea is to use the one of Ryzom Forge to consolidate there the Dev articles useful for Ryzom. And in priority, of course, the up-to-date articles by Ryzom Core. The aim of this project is to stop scattering and to concentrate on the same wiki everything that is about Ryzom.

Q: And what about the pages created by the players? (So not validated by the Lore)
A: The forge.ryzom.com wiki will remain an official-collaborative wiki, also in its Lore and Dev sections.
But since it's not possible (nor advisable) to migrate the whole content of the Ryzom Core wikis and the 3 DE, EN and FR wiki.ryzom.com, the simplest way will be to just migrate the up-to-date and working articles on Dev side, and the validated Lore articles on Lore side. And then, to restart all together in collaborative mode on forge.ryzom.com.

Q: The new core.ryzom.com wiki will remain? (clone of forge)
A: No. We thought that instead of creating a 4th wiki, it would be better to reduce their number. It will be a part of the forge.ryzom.com which will host the dev articles.

Q: I've got a question regarding the wiki: if we find a typo (typing error, wrong orthograph, error in translation...), we can fix it or we have to mention it somewhere?
A: You can fix it, of course!

21st of november 2016

1 Gaueko leaving
Gaueko, who acted as Communication assistant manager and Translation group co-leader, and who was also a member of the Lore group, a translator towards Spanish, and in charge of the marauders, has chosen to leave the Ryzom team. We thank him for his great commitment and we wish him the best for the rest.

2 Result of the 2 years of Ryzom/Khaganat collaboration (by Zatalyz)
I invite you to read the very interesting thread by Zatalyz on Ryzom forum: http://app.ryzom.com/app_forum/index.php?page=topic/view/26129.

3 Reorganization of Ryzom Teams
 We're currently working at reorganising the Ryzom Teams, in order to move towards:
- a maximum transparency between the internal teams (under NDA);
- a maximum transparency with the Ryzom Forge and Ryzom Core groups and with the players (not total however to avoid spoil: the events scenarios, for example, won't be shared);
- a reviewing of our working method, in order to increase our efficience without overloading ourselves;
- a reworking of the tools, in order not to depend anymore on external tools and their limits for the free versions: we're studying and testing currently their open source substitutes, which will be hosted on a Ryzom server.

4 New presenting for the "teams roadmap" on the WebIG in 2017
The "teams roadmap" on the WebIG ( http://app.ryzom.com/app_devroadmap/ ) is increasing and becomes difficult to read, especially as the various lignes cannot be sorted. That's why a new roadmap, clearer and easier to follow, will be proposed for 2017

Q: When do we all move to #Ryzom and stop spreading ourselves in all directions?
A: You can already keep only #ryzom, #ryzomforge and #ryzomsupport. To close the last two ones (especially the last one), we first have to announce it and change the links everywhere. (The link to #ryzomsupport is given in lots of places, it will have to be changed into #ryzom before we stop using the #ryzomsupport channel).
A Glorf: Normally you can create redirection on IRC, to send the ones who log on #ryzomsupport to #ryzom. I'll have a look for next time. I had written it somewhere but I cannot find it anymore.
Q: Cant a bot sit on channel and inform visitors about the change in the meantime? Or just a new welcome message on the channel?
A: Probably.
=>  I'll try to implement this quickly.

December 15th 2016

1 Change of the tools used by the Ryzom teams
As said during last meeting, we are working on a redesign of the tools, in order to no longer depend on external tools and their limitations in free version: we are currently studying and testing their open source replacements, which will be hosted on a Ryzom server.

The tools that will be replaced are:
- The internal chat (currently Slack)
- The task management software (currently Asana)
- The file sharing tool (currently Dropbox)
- The Collaborative Publishing Tool (currently Paper)

It will lead to a greater visibility, since the members or Ryzom, Ryzom Forge and Ryzom Core will share these tools and will be able to follow the whole of the ongoing projects. There will only be a restriction regarding the access to some documents related to these projects.

I will tell you more soon, as soon as this project is more advanced.

Hi guys. Maybe you should have a look at:

- matrix.org - decentralized, distributed and federated chat protocol with many bridges (gitter, irc, slack etc)
- taiga.io - one of the best project management out there
- nextcloud - file sharing and more
- nextcloud - with collabora/only office/etherpad for collaborative doc editing.

You could have all of those self hosted with ldap support to have all those services accessible with just one set of credentials. I'm hosting thos services, and more with https://disroot.org project, so I could help you setup your instance of you want, or you could use our services.

- We just switched to Rocket.Chat for chatting, including integration to game, so i guess we won't change again that fast :D
- Also Kanboard has just been introduced for the project managment and i doubt that it is useful to relearn how everything works once again

Both of them are self-hosted too.

Ahh cool. Good to know things are in place and project is alive. I just wasn't sure since the links to kanboard werent working. I could setup bridge to rocketchat from matrix so ppl with preference to matrix could join too (just need to check whats needed for it).