Ryzom Forge meeting report - September 30, 2019
Agenda
1 - Review of the celebrations of Ryzom's 15th anniversary
2 - Progress of projects under test
3 - Coming soon: Launch of Season 2 of the Storyline
1 • Review of the celebrations of Ryzom's 15th anniversary
Tykus, 19:39 UTC
In order not to put the current projects on hold for several weeks, we have chosen to reuse the 10th-Birthday island. What we didn't anticipate was that in five years the ARK has changed a lot, so we had to rewrite a number of scripts with the new code (thanks to PtitBill!). As we also had to add the Ranger Camp which did not exist five years ago, we were limited in time. Ryzom's 15th anniversary certainly did not have the dimension it deserved, but the teams mobilized, in particular the Event team to animate this event, and the Infographics team to create the cake (Aileya) and the “confettis” effect (Xelios). Lessons have been learned and a debriefing took place internally, to better anticipate future events. If you have some question, I am listening :)
Q: The flaming wood is no more in the special bag.
A: That's normal. It was a one-shot element. It has been removed as planned when we switch to the new server.
Q: I know olds days are gone, but, if I may, I would say the 15th birthday event is a failure. I knows that's not very pleasant, but it has to be said... I have been much disappointed of the flop, and by events themselves. The only fun was in renames.
A: We are aware of the problems, but saying the game is no longer the one of yesteryear goes too far… Even if it is partly true (it has evolved quite a bit) :)
Q: I don't really have any questions, but as a player-payer, I have to give feedback. There is nothing worse than looking at your belly button and saying "Everyone is happy".
A: We have never said that, Azileth. That you are disappointed, we understand it. We are too. But you ought to have a global vision of things... That is to say, if the 15th birthday events were not sufficiently prepared, that's because, as there are many things in progress, we have run out of time…
Imotep, 19:56 UTC
I fully agree with Azileth. Why organizing events whom you can get some rewards, if these are removed afterwards? These rewards are the little bonusses which make the difference whith the players who never participate to events. And if rewards are interesting, they could attract more players in future events. Same for old titles given again several years after their first award. By doing so you devalue them.
Q: What about the addition of a dynamic durability bar, which would reduce according, in real time, to the wear and tear of the item? Would that be easily built ?
A: This is an idea for the forum!
Q: Be able at one's convenience to enable/disable the tooltip which pop on the taskbars items (nor beautiful, nor useful) and also to disable the user channel, is that possible?
A: Yes you send us a ticket about it... It's true that these popping tooltips can be embarrassing… But we're getting off topic.
Q: I am a bit confused about the titles of old... In what way do they get devalued if given again in latter days? Unless of course they are very particular to those very times?
A: Some titles were given to players who have been part of the beta testers, and could have been won later, as rewards for participation in some event; that's what Imotep wants to talk about… But that's not the point here either.
Soleya 20:12 UTC
I understand Imotep and Azileth's points of view, but I still wanted to thank and congratulate the teams in charge of the events of the 15th birthday. Everything didn't go as planned, but I still had a great time with really nice people :)
Imotep, 20:15 UTC
I didn't say 15th Birthday was bad, just that I didn't like it. That'all.
2 • Progress of projects under test
(Daily missions, Outpost battles refactoring, Ranged weapons, DeepL)Daily missions
Tykus, 20:17 UTC
The tests are still ongoing, some fixes still need to be coded. We will publish a manual to answer any questions you may have.
Q: Do we know when this will be available in game? Do we have an idea about release date ?
A: The task is ASAP, to be completed as soon as possible. Not for now.
Q: What kind of rewards will we be given?
A: We are building the system that gave implication points so that we can propose new items that can only be won with these points. So, fill up! We will add nice things later.
Q: Why always adding semi-finished things? For instance, these unuseful "points" but which will, maybe, become useful later, when you will add other "things"?
A: We don't add halfway, we make the additions in stages... Then, that depends on how we talk about it...
Soleya, 20:31 UTC
Unuseful points? Implication points are already useful, huh! They can be used as faction points, by the same NPC!
Q: Will there be any level or fame prerequisites to perform these missions?
A: There will be a filter system, which will allow you to select the missions you want to fill and those you don't, the fames you want to increase and those you don't want to be reduced; you will also be able to select the “occupations missions” you are interested in. Then the system will propose you a number of missions per day according to your personal filtering.
(Note: See Ryzom Forge meeting report - 24.06.2019 for more details)
Outpost battles refactoring
Tykus, 20:38 UTC
The system is ready, but we still need testers to balance the feasibility (not too hard, not too easy). So if you are interested: https://chat.ryzom.com/direct/Tamarea
Mithian, 20:41 UTC
We started the testing on Yubo (the Test&Dev server) of the new outpost battles system (as a reminder : one phase only, lasting one hour). We have to test that in order to balance it. During our first test, we tried a pop rythm two times higher than the one used on Atys for now. Then, as we have no more outpost battles every day, we had a test on Gingo (Test server, whose operation is more like Atys) for us to have an idea of how it would work in real. The next steps will allow us to determine the right rythms of pop of NPCs. For the outpost battles to be more dynamic (that's the goal) but not too easy to win. In order to test high rythms, we need more palyer-testers. So, Is you are interested, you can send a /tell or an email to Tamarea.
Ulukyn, 20:46 UTC
On Yubo, the rythm has to be reduced then. But duration was set to one hour.
Ranged weapons
Tykus, 20:56 UTC
This addition takes time, you have to make these weapons attractive without making the rest of the game obsolete. A new test session is about to start; all the necessary tools are created to finalize the settings. Riasan (and Ulu) created some tools which allow the spawning of all the materials needed for testing.
Q: That means I will soon be able to use my gun whithout shamefully die? To make ranged weapons evolve is a good idea, but what will be the average level of damages? When comparing to melee or magic damages, I mean.
A: Yes, the purpose of this change is to compensate for the fact that to increase the shooting levels you have to drill: it is quite constraining. In addition, despite this disadvantage, the ranged weapons did not have enough impact to be interesting for all the activities of the game :) We changed the damages, activated the bonuses (which until then were not taken into account), readjusted the ranges. Basically, using materials other than choice for ammunition will become interesting :) We also changed the space required in bag for some ammunition and increased the rate of fire.
Azileth, 21:08 UTC
That would be great if I could defend thanks to something else than axe or magic!
Q: What about the Ranger Rite which is out of order for 15 days now?
A:[\b] We're talking about ranged weapons here:) But I'll see that after the meeting?
Q: My question is about the digging of material for ammunition crafting and more widely digging in general. To be kamist should give you an advantage when digging : peace. But is it so, actually? I am not speaking of real advantage, but of differents styles of digging according to your faction regarding stability... And, as far as equality between factions is concerned, we could mention the Marauders teleports...
A:[\b] I can't answer this question. Kamis don't like it too much that we drill on Atys, but a reasoned drilling is appreciated… But not so far as to give an advantage for that...
DeepL
Tykus, 21:17 UTC
Phase 2 of the “development work for DeepL to manage translation between game channels and chat.ryzom.com”, is currently underway. This is only for information: I don't know more about. But maybe, soon, automatic translation will be available in this channel for RF meetings? That would be great :)
3 • Coming soon: launch of Season 2 of the Storyline
Tykus, 21:21 UTC
The various teams continue to prepare for Season 2, the first episode of which should begin in January.
Each episode, which will advance the ongoing Atys Planet History, will include a series of events played and scripted and will end with a permanent gameplay addition. The current projects are largely integrated into Season 2 (Dynamic Events, Pocket worlds, Collections, Boss in a Box, Nexus Reloaded, Marauders' map and gameplay…), even if some of them, which cannot be integrated, will be implemented in parallel (outpost battles refactoring, rebalancing of ranged weapons). We are not yet revealing the themes of this Season, so as not to spoil for you the pleasure of surprise!
Q: I would like to know more about the Marauders gameplay which will comme with Season 2
A: For a start, the first element will be the island, where the Marauders will have a camp and a map of their own. This will be introduced during a series of roleplay events. For the following nothing is really planned yet .
(Note: See Ryzom Forge meeting report - 24.06.2019 for more details)
Q: What is the theme of this season?
A: There is no specific theme but a series of events and additions. But I won't tell you any more at the moment: I'll let you discover all this in January. For now, let's make way for Anlor Winn and Atysmas :) The end of the year is always busy.
Q: What do you mean precisely by “Nexus Reloaded”?
A: The Nexus Minor will be the scene of change, of activities for guilds, but I'm not telling you more :)
(Note: See Ryzom Forge meeting report - 24.06.2019 for more details)
Q: How so many OOC events while RP events are so rare?
A: OOC events are calendar-driven, they are unavoidable (Christmas, Easter, Halloween...), while RP events require a longer time of preparation. But the Storyline will allow us to have a more substantial calendar for the latter :)
Q: Yes. But we are not compelled to hold an entire month for each of them, are we?
A: For it to be tested properly, yes we are. As for them, RP events require people to play and it's sometimes complicated :) In addition, it is the same team that participates in RP events and leads OOC events :)