Agenda

[Presentation] Ryzom's marketing plan: increase player loyalty
[Presentation] Silan Refactoring project

A 2021 marketing plan has been developed by the Ryzom Team, which pursues three goals:
1. Win players' loyalty
2. Get more subscribers
3. Attract new players
We will detail today the actions undertaken by the team to achieve the first objective, and your suggestions to enrich them will be welcome.

We are losing too many players, including high-level players, because of the lack of new content to motivate them to log in, because the long-promised additions are still overdue, and because the pace of maintenance remains slow.
That's why we decided to focus on the projects already underway and on maintenance. Specifically:
• To complete ongoing and long-announced projects: new launcher/installer, Boss refactoring, outpost battles refactoring, Marauders' gameplay, balancing of range weapons (see information given during previous Ryzom Forge meetings).
• To add new events to the Storyline on a regular basis, each leading to new permanent gameplay content.
• To not neglect maintenance: fixing bugs, adding new rewards, etc.
The upcoming patch will begin to put some of this content into play, with the activation of the test outposts of the Nexus and the gradual addition of the new Bosses.
• To encourage roleplay which, while remainining of course optional, is one of the raisons d’être of the MMORPG Ryzom. So, to make roleplayers want to stay, the team is working on two axes:
• School of initiation to role-playing (in project)
• Regular (weekly) events, impacting or not the History of Atys

Do you have any questions or comments about these actions?

In order to increase player loyalty, in addition to offering more attractive game content, we will work to better guide new players. We actually lose a lot of them shortly after they arrive on the tutorial island of Silan. After investigating the causes of this, we agreed on a possible remediation. This is how the Silan refactoring project was born, which will not result in a big change but only in various adjustments and improvements.
The objective of this refactoring is twofold:
• on the one hand, give the desire to new players to go further (at the moment very few of them take the step - i.e. pass to the continent);
• on the other hand, try to make the global experience of the game more homogeneous (at the moment, as Dorothée – may she be thanked – pointed out during the RT meeting preparing this one, there are too many differences between the game on Silan and the one on mainland).
Said Improvements and adjustments are planned for:
• The map of Silan Island. To make it more useful for beginners it:
   • will no longer be shown to players alone, but with the general map of Atys;
   • will allow the player to zoom in on the Ranger Camp (as is the case on the mainland towns);
   • will display icons showing the location of NPCs useful to players (at their stage of progress).
• Texts describing missions that are currently unclear, such as those that present a team-building suggestion as a necessity to players who cannot (or do not know how to) form a team.
• Damages from creature attacks near the Ranger Camp. They will be reduced as it currently causes too many deaths. Character dying too frequently suggests to players that the game is not for them, or that they have misunderstood the rules, increasing the risk that they will abandon Ryzom without delay.

Actually, few players take the time to read everything (this is natural: the excitement of discovering a new game pushes them to immediate action, not to think about its mechanisms).
So I'm going to show you what we have planned to overcome the disadvantages of this understandable haste.
We won't rewrite the mission texts: it would require too much time. But I've noticed, when accompanying players who don't know Ryzom in their first session, that displaying an adapted screenshot on their screen was often more efficient than giving them a long speech to explain them such or such gameplay mechanism.
This is why we will introduce the concept of schools (or academies) whose function will be to provide in-game "Academic Knowledge" that will be available, at any time, to all players and delivered in the form of practical lessons that will guide them, in a visual and playful way, in the accomplishment of the missions as well as in their actual learning. Each school will contain several pieces of information about a gameplay topic (e.g., the mastery of magic or that of jewelry) or a more general topic (e.g., the game's interface, or even, as mentioned above, role-playing).
Below a prototype, for the school of "Melee fight mastery", of a window showing in game the information made available by a school.



It presents a teaching plan with four sections (or lessons), which can be activated (if your progress allows it) or not (greyed out) so that you do not get lost in a long list. When you activate a lesson, a list of exercises to do (presented in the form of cards) will be proposed to you. Once you have completed all the exercises on this list, you will be offered a reward.
You will find below a prototype, for "Elementary Movements", of a sheet describing such an exercise.



It is composed of four parts displaying respectively:
• A title with a short explanation in subtitle
• An illustrated goal, optional (button to click for acceptance)
• A small reward, optional (button to be clicked for recovery once the goal reached)
• A set of pictures to make it easier to understand how to reach the goal.
Why, you may ask, propose an objective and a reward and not only the explanation and the illustrations? Quite simply because proposing an action in exchange for a reward is more motivating and fun, much more so than a long explanation text.

Do you have any questions?

Damages from creature attacks near the Ranger Camp. They will be reduced as it currently causes too many deaths. Character dying too frequently suggests to players that the game is not for them, or that they have misunderstood the rules, increasing the risk that they will abandon Ryzom without delay.

Silan is in my opinion a pretty complete tutorial as it is now. So, if adding icons to better indicate this or that point seems useful to me, the rest of the refactoring is not, I think, a good idea. Because giving everything to new players as soon as Silan will deprive them of the surprise of discovering Atys. Simplify Silan, why not? But from there to make it a mini-Atys… we might as well remove it and make new players be born directly on Atys.
[i]Ulukyn recalls that it is not a question of turning Silan into a mini-Atys, but only of making sure that Silan gives new players the means to be autonomous, to know what and how to look for on Atys as soon as they set foot there. Because currently, arriving on the mainland is a surprise, yes: to discover almost another game. So the refactoring is not about remaking Atys on Silan, but about providing tantalizing glimpses of Atys on Silan.

• Many players I know have actually left Ryzom thinking that the playing field was limited to Silan. For the same reason, some have played Ryzom for only two months… time to exhaust the pleasures of Silan.
This Ulukyn confirms by saying that one of the first questions he is asked when he has the game tested is: "Is this the map of the entire game area?".

Agenda

• [Feedback] Last patch
• [Information] CoC update project

Ci-après les liens vers le dernier patch appliqué :
    • Patch 868 du 17 avril 2021
    • Patch 873 du 20 avril 2021 (correctif du patch 868)
Pour information, le contenu de ce patch est désormais complétement actif sur Atys.
Nous avons donc ajouté, entre autres :
   – des leçons et récompenses pour toute la Storyline ;
   – des allégories productrices d'effets et des missions Storyline permettant d'améliorer lesdits effets ;
   – l'activation des avant-postes du Nexus Mineur.
À noter que la forme des leçons (guides illustrés des missions) de la Storyline sera reprise pour les projets :
   – de refonte de Silan (leçons tutorielles) ;
   – de la nouvelle Encyclopédie (leçons guides des Rites).

Y a-t-il des questions, remarques ou des retours ?

S'agissant du « multiboxing » ainsi qu'en ce qui concerne les sanctions, nous aimerions mettre à jour d'ici peu le Code de Conduite. Je vais donc vous présenter ce que nous pensons changer.
Pour rappel, l'actuel Code de Conduite est consultable ici (cliquer sur le drapeau de langue pour en changer).

1 - Multiboxing et JcJ

Nous avons actuellement un problème d'imprécision et même de contradiction au sein du Code de conduite (CdC) :

• En zone JcJ, les joueurs qui ne veulent pas être attaqués sont priés de quitter la zone. ==> Attaquer un joueur au Nexus avec 4 comptes simultanés est donc autorisé.
• Le multiboxing est limité à 2 comptes simultanés dans les événements de la Storyline. ==> Attaquer un joueur effectuant une mission Storyline au Nexus avec plus de 2 comptes simultanés est donc interdit.

Ceci, outre que le cas des spots magiques n'est pas pris en compte, rend la résolution des tickets concernant le Nexus très délicate. Donc, pour clarifier le Code de Conduite, nous allons étendre la limite de 2 comptes simultanés à tout le JcJ, donc au JcJ sur les avant-postes, dans les régions JcJ (spots magiques et Nexus inclus), et partout sur Atys.

2 - Multiboxing pendant les heures creuses

La limitation du multiboxing dans le CdC a eu un impact positif sur les heures de jeu européennes, mais aussi un fort impact négatif sur le nombre de joueurs présents durant les heures de jeu extra-européennes (heures de pointe de jeu dans des pays comme les USA, mais durant lesquelles le nombre de joueurs connectés sur Ryzom est très faible).
Ce dernier point pose à Ryzom un problème insoluble en termes de marketing, qui a des répercussions financières. Concrètement, alors que la limitation ne pose aucun problème de jeu aux heures européennes, le faible nombre de joueurs et les nombreux fuseaux horaires rendent impossible, aux heures creuses, l'accès au jeu de haut niveau (Rois, Chefs Maraudeurs) sauf à utiliser plus de 2 comptes simultanés.
Cela nous fait entrer dans un cercle vicieux : Manque de joueurs aux heures creuses ==> Pas assez de personnes pour accéder au jeu de haut niveau ==> Désabonnement et abandon du jeu ==> Personne pour accueillir les nouveaux ==> Départ des nouveaux ==> Manque de joueurs aux heures creuses.
Ainsi, pour permettre aux joueurs d'heures creuses d'accéder à nouveau au jeu de haut niveau et pour nous donner une chance de repeupler le serveur pendant ces heures, nous allons tester, durant 1 mois, la tolérance de 4 comptes simultanés pour tout sauf le JcJ pendant les heures creuses, de 22h00 UTC (0h00 CEST) à 05h00 UTC (07h00 CEST), période où cette tolérance est nécessaire pour pouvoir jouer à haut niveau.
Si l'accueil de la communauté et l'impact sur le nombre de connexions/abonnements aux heures creuses de cette disposition sont positifs, elle sera ajoutée au CdC après le mois de test, lequel se déroulera du 15 juin au 15 juillet.

3 - Ajout d'un barème de pénalités

Actuellement, le CdC ne prévoit aucune sanction intermédiaire entre 1 mois de suspension et interdiction à vie : nous allons y remédier en ajoutant une sanction d'un an de suspension (plus de détails viendront plus tard).

Je vous laisse réagir sur les trois points : d'abord sur le 1 (multiboxing et JcJ), puis nous enchainerons sur les deux autres.

As the off-peak period ends in the early afternoon for players in Australia and New Zealand, and that some European players might want to use their alts as well, I was wondering : if the test goes well and the community largely wants it, would you consider in the future the possibility of extending this increased tolerance to more time zones?

We chose these hours to test because they are off-peak hours in terms of connections. If the test is positive, we may adjust the time slot by one hour if needed. The goal is to allow players connected at off-peak times to also enjoy the high level game. This is not related to nationalities, so any player who is connected during these hours will benefit from the lifting of the limitation.

Nilstilar

[b]As the off-peak period ends in the early afternoon for players in Australia and New Zealand, and that some European players might want to use their alts as well, I was wondering : if the test goes well and the community largely wants it, would you consider in the future the possibility of extending this increased tolerance to more time zones?

I have the impression that you understand it the wrong way: the general limit is 2 accounts: In European night time (22 UT - 5 UT) four accounts are allowed. So why would it impact the multi accounts outside Europe more than in Europe? Also: reducing this the the very intention...That said, basically everything can be done with 2 accounts other than killing certain bosses - where you then need 2 or 3 actual players.

Agenda

-Test of Ryztart, the new Ryzom installer/launcher
-Upcoming update of the Code of Conduct
-Events in july and august
-Recrutement: Event team

I inform you that Ryztart has reached a rather satisfactory stage (even if there are still some small things to be polished and translations that could be missing).
It is now stable enough to propose it in beta version on the Ryzom website, at least the Linux and Windows versions (the Mac version has not been finalized). We will also make a post on the forum to get your feedback. In the meantime I give you here the links for the downloads:
• for Linux >>> https://me.ryzom.com/ryztart_installer_x86_64.tgz
• for Windows >>>  https://me.ryzom.com/ryztart_installer_amd64.exe  (this is only 64b version, for those who are still in 32b, be patient).
It is not necessary to uninstall ryzom_installer, nor even Ryzom, but it is strongly advised to save the folders 0/ 1/ 2/ 3/... which contain your backups and which are located in :
• under Windows >>> C:/Users/<USERNAME>/AppData/Roaming/Ryzom
• under Linux >>> ~/.local/share/Ryzom
You can find more information on the wiki.
That's it for Ryztart. Any questions or comments?

We will soon update the Code of Conduct with regard to multiboxing, courtesy rules and sanctions. I will present to you what we will change.
As a reminder, the current Code of Conduct is available here (click on the language flag to change it).
Addition of a penalty scale
Adding (in B. Warnings and sanctions) a penalty scale for ''Major Offence'': 1 week of suspension / 1 month of suspension / 1 year of suspension (NEW) / Permanent ban.
Precision in the Courtesy Rules
Adding (in I.7. Bad behavior on a chat channel of the game (Game server, IRC, forums and Rocket chat included)) homophobic ones to the list of prohibited comments.
[b]Modifications about Multiboxing and PvP & Multiboxing during off-peak hours[b]
Three additions in III.4 Multiboxing, namely:
a) Adding all PvP situations to the list of those subject to limitations: to clarify the code of conduct, we will extend the limit of 2 simultaneous accounts to all PvP, i.e. PvP on outposts, in PvP regions (i.e. including super nodes and the Nexus), and everywhere on Atys.
b) Adding a new paragraph ruling multiboxing during off-peak hours: to allow US players to access the high-level game again and to give us a chance to repopulate the server during US hours, we are currently (until July 15) testing the tolerance of 4 simultaneous accounts for everything but PvP during off-peak hours, from 10pm UTC to 5am UTC (0-7am CEST), so during the hours when it is necessary for proper gameplay. As the community response and the impact on the number of US connections/subscriptions is positive, this rule will be added to the CoC in a few days, as follows.
III.4.4 Multiboxing during off-peak hours
Multiboxing is tolerated for up to four simultaneous accounts for all activities except PvP during the hours when it is a gameplay necessity due to low game server traffic (22h-10h UTC, i.e. 0h-12 CEST).
c) Adding a summary of the multiboxing rules, as follows.
At times when the game server is busy enough - 10:00 UTC-22:00 UTC (12:00 CEST-00:00 CEST)
Multiboxing limited to 2 simultaneous accounts during:
  • PvP
  • Bosses Hunts
  • Marauders bosses assaults
  • Storyline scripted events
Multiboxing tolerated at 4 simultaneous accounts for all other activities.
At times of low game server traffic - 22:00 UTC-10:00 UTC (00:00 CEST-12:00 CEST)
Multiboxing tolerated at 4 simultaneous accounts for all activities except PvP.
Do you have any comments or questions?

As many people are absent in July and August, both among the players and the animators, the Storyline events as well as those of nations and factions usually proposed by the Event Team (one per week) are put on pause until September.
The summer leaves room for player events, mini-bosses, kitin invasions, atmosphere events… Atys Games should be back during the whole month of August.
Any questions?

We are looking for volunteers who want to help write event scripts, or wish to become actors by playing a character during the events we play.
Training is provided, and entry into acting is accomplished very progressively to allow time for the recruit to bed in.
Join us to benefit from this unique experience!
To apply, contact Tamarea exclusively at [i]tamarea@ryzom.com[i].