IDEAS FOR RYZOM

Hi, I'd like to speak on behalf of the paying community of Ryzom. I hope some others will post in response, but more than that, I'd like to see some response from the Devs.

A free subscription for any subscription based game is usually meant to introduce people to that game, and give them an incentive to switch to a paying sub. In that regard, I feel that a level cap of 125 in Ryzom is too high for a free sub, regardless of the amount of XP a player may get.

At level 125, a player can use double spells. At 125, a player can earn a decent living from crafting or foraging. And at level 125, the player could make a useful part of a team in an OP battle, or be used for a "newbie" guild, or somesuch thing. Plus, there's really no incentive for any player to sub until all their desired skills are at 125.

In order to make a compromise, let us first look at a cap at level 100. The player won't be able to get their next level title (which occurs at level 101), and mark my words, we all love our titles. The player will thus have an incentive to subscribe. And the player can play the game for long enough, even casually, to find out whether they want to continue their support for the game by switching to a sub account.

I personally feel that a level cap of 50 is high enough for any gamer to find out whether they like Ryzom enough to begin a subscription or not. This is what a "free trial" is all about, no? To give a person enough experience in a game to work out whether they enjoy it or not, and from there, whether they want to pay for it or not. A level cap of 50 is enough to allow players to graduate from Silan onto the Mainland and level their dig/craft/fight/magic skills just high enough to no longer want to stay in their ML starter towns (Yrk, Pyr, etc). Thus giving players incentive to subscribe.

If the issue that Ryzom is currently facing is a lack of financial support for the game, then surely having a level cap of 125 will delve too deeply into the possible financial windfall from paying subscribers. After all, we are your "bread and butter", the reason you have a job in the first place. So in order to promote the game towards those that don't pay, please re-consider the proposed level cap of 125, regardless of how much XP it takes to reach those caps.

My vote is for level 50. I'll make a poll to find out what other people think.

Thanks so much for your time.

Sincere regards;
/Oscarian

I was and still is against (unlimited f2p no matter level). before that it was 30 days trial and then sub or leave, it could have been expanded to 90 days max for convenient sake, but not unlimited.

Unlimited F2P will kill the game.

Well the unlimited f2p has brought us some lovely homins but at the same time brought the community alot of headaces when not so great homins joined, it also brought us loads and loads of alts wich I don't like either.

The only thing I think is good for f2p is having a careplanning alt, other then that its not worth the bandwidth or server strain imo.

I have no experience on the business side of a MMO, but it seems that the rationale for a liberal F2P policy is not just to give an extended trial, but also to increase the population of players and general interest in the game. Players tend to go to games with lots of other players. Indeed, one of the biggest (and perhaps THE biggest) criticism of Ryzom in the reviews is that it has a small player population. One video review from just a few years ago was very positive about the game, but showed Silan to be essentially a ghost town (fortunately, that is no longer true as of this past summer!). A liberal F2P policy should, in theory, provide more visible players in the game, increase word-of-mouth and grassroots advertising, provide more low-level players for newcomers to hang around with, etc.

Plus, the 2x xp bonus for subscribers and the removal of outpost cats should give a pretty strong incentive to subscribe! In fact, I wonder if the devs might consider removing the level cap altogether if that would make it easier for old subscribers to get back in touch with their friends and fall back in love with the game...

- 100 is plenty, looking at the stanzas available. 100 allows you to trek with others easily, and join the high end content in a team as a backhealer. You can easily see everything in the game at 100 (and even below) 125 is too high. I'm subbed, and I'm still 60ish after ~1.5 year.
- Keep cat production in outposts (so guilds are higher motivated to get one),
- keep xp gain the same for free and subbed accounts
- to discourage alt's and storage twinks, introduce a time limit to free chars. Even if it's a year or so, it's a gentle nudge to go for a second account if you want to play with alts.

I strongly agree, i came in too late to vote however i beleive the f2p cap and abilities should be lowered. I know I have always sorta been looked at as the f2p freeloader and sorta taking advantage of the game but thats only since I dont have a method of payment that suits my lifestyle. Lowering the capabilities in the level and ingame content for free to play people would greatly increase the number of people who subbed, even if just for a month or two during summer or whenever they can get on it would still bring more money to ryzom and that helps support events and other fun changes for Ryzom supporters.
Hope they think long and hard about this change, for better or worse.