Personally, the only thing I could see as a gameplay improvement to Ryzom (other than fixing the bugs ofc) is a real time combat system more similar to ESO or its likes. But that's just my personal taste, some people dislike that type of combat.
When I first started playing Ryzom I also felt a bit like that: that underneath all the freedom of a classless skill based system with dozens of skills to choose from, it all boiled down to choosing the 4 or 5 most "optimal" skills to play with and everyone was basically the same.
But that impression was wrong. I think in small scale PVP is where it becomes abundantly clear just how diverse and unique your character's fighting style, crafted gear, mastered skills and stanza building can be. There's no such thing as a "perfect build". Basically you need to be flexible and use different strategies to fight different opponents. As for the stanzas and actions, a player with "inferior" gear who knows how to build effective stanzas for the right situation can easily defeat another one with all the shiny uber stuff.
I suppose in PVE all the nuances of the skills and stanzas may not be as evident, specially when you're in a team with unlimited heal and no real need for concern or strategy. But yea, I don't think all the skills are exactly balanced. Some are clearly more useful than others. But that doesn't concern me so much tbh.
I do believe the grind can be a bit tedious though, specially in the lower levels. I've seen many players who loved the concept and theme of the game, but couldn't deal with the grind and left before mastering their first skill. I'm not sure what could be done to improve that though, short of making a "theme park" option for players to level their first skill branch with a mission-driven storyline - like Silan. But that's hardly a solution for players who really don't like Ryzom's gameplay. It just keeps them around for another month or so.
When I first started playing Ryzom I also felt a bit like that: that underneath all the freedom of a classless skill based system with dozens of skills to choose from, it all boiled down to choosing the 4 or 5 most "optimal" skills to play with and everyone was basically the same.
But that impression was wrong. I think in small scale PVP is where it becomes abundantly clear just how diverse and unique your character's fighting style, crafted gear, mastered skills and stanza building can be. There's no such thing as a "perfect build". Basically you need to be flexible and use different strategies to fight different opponents. As for the stanzas and actions, a player with "inferior" gear who knows how to build effective stanzas for the right situation can easily defeat another one with all the shiny uber stuff.
I suppose in PVE all the nuances of the skills and stanzas may not be as evident, specially when you're in a team with unlimited heal and no real need for concern or strategy. But yea, I don't think all the skills are exactly balanced. Some are clearly more useful than others. But that doesn't concern me so much tbh.
I do believe the grind can be a bit tedious though, specially in the lower levels. I've seen many players who loved the concept and theme of the game, but couldn't deal with the grind and left before mastering their first skill. I'm not sure what could be done to improve that though, short of making a "theme park" option for players to level their first skill branch with a mission-driven storyline - like Silan. But that's hardly a solution for players who really don't like Ryzom's gameplay. It just keeps them around for another month or so.
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"We are Kami. We are here to be you. We are many as you are of many minds. We are one as you are one in Ma-Duk."