While picking Psykoplas earlier I pondered the long-standing lack of team-search functionality in this game, peoples approach on the matter and possible impact.
Currently all we have is general means of communication we can utilize for team finding.
I consider this a given and essential, not an asset. I'm sure the game would die were they to deactivate the chat. So don't make the mistake of thinking this is enough.
Also do not misunderstand me: I'm not saying talking to people is wrong or bad, just that it is an imperfect team-finding mechanism.
MORE RATIONALE
(you might want to skip this)
Since the population has fallen well below what was expected by design players in many cases did not have an easy time consistently finding a team.
The situation since the merge certainly is no low-point looking at the old servers individually.
In any case, the lack of team-search makes it difficult for people to progress into the realm of the veterans, which, I think, is an important prerequisite for them to stay with the game.
Many do not even start to actually play the game:
They run a free account, leave Silan, find no teams easily and quit. No one can fault them.
Like advertising this is a matter that is and has been both important and neglected.
I'm no MMOG expert of any repute, but I believe in most MMOGs, Ryzom included, teaming is an important part of the game and should be assisted and encouraged.
A common, general means of doing so is "looking for team" channels, which would help here, too, but due to the games classless system team arrangements in general are more cumbersome via chat. Allow me to make an example:
Warlock 55 LFT
vs.
Sword/Dagger 205/198, Heal 142, Ele 175, 2H 103, Def.Aff. 73 LFT
The first is rather conclusive, the latter only gives good coverage of skills and levels.
To make matters worse: Ryzom has no LFT channel, while the other game in this example (and virtually every other game we might want to talk about) does have a LFT channel of sorts, and a conclusive LFT inquiry can be as short as a dozen letters (14 in the example, including spaces).
On top of this most other games provide an additional layer of team search functionality and this is what my suggestion will be about.
Other games make for easier arrangements via chat, less typing, have special chat channels and also have special functionality to find a team (like a search window or the like).
Ryzom has none of these things and you have to converse people instead of spamming a few letters, which exacerbates problems with, for or of:
- Uncommunicative people
- Language barriers
- Effectiveness & amount of effort expended
- Size of the player base
SUGGESTION STARTS HERE
(this will be the short part, promise)
Allow players to tag the skills they would like to train with a team as "in-training" in the Action Progression window.
Have these skills (and their level) show in the players info and profile.
Additionally, add a search window to browse the people with tagged skills and search them by level of by using ones own tagged skills as a filter.
I arranged for two illustrations to be fabricated:
Other filters could be a "Teamed" checkbox, hiding people already in a team and a "Region" checkbox hiding everybody not in the current region.
These ideas came too late to be included in the illustration.
If such a feature is to be included it should be explained as part of early Silan teaming quests.
Currently all we have is general means of communication we can utilize for team finding.
I consider this a given and essential, not an asset. I'm sure the game would die were they to deactivate the chat. So don't make the mistake of thinking this is enough.
Also do not misunderstand me: I'm not saying talking to people is wrong or bad, just that it is an imperfect team-finding mechanism.
MORE RATIONALE
(you might want to skip this)
Since the population has fallen well below what was expected by design players in many cases did not have an easy time consistently finding a team.
The situation since the merge certainly is no low-point looking at the old servers individually.
In any case, the lack of team-search makes it difficult for people to progress into the realm of the veterans, which, I think, is an important prerequisite for them to stay with the game.
Many do not even start to actually play the game:
They run a free account, leave Silan, find no teams easily and quit. No one can fault them.
Like advertising this is a matter that is and has been both important and neglected.
I'm no MMOG expert of any repute, but I believe in most MMOGs, Ryzom included, teaming is an important part of the game and should be assisted and encouraged.
A common, general means of doing so is "looking for team" channels, which would help here, too, but due to the games classless system team arrangements in general are more cumbersome via chat. Allow me to make an example:
Warlock 55 LFT
vs.
Sword/Dagger 205/198, Heal 142, Ele 175, 2H 103, Def.Aff. 73 LFT
The first is rather conclusive, the latter only gives good coverage of skills and levels.
To make matters worse: Ryzom has no LFT channel, while the other game in this example (and virtually every other game we might want to talk about) does have a LFT channel of sorts, and a conclusive LFT inquiry can be as short as a dozen letters (14 in the example, including spaces).
On top of this most other games provide an additional layer of team search functionality and this is what my suggestion will be about.
Other games make for easier arrangements via chat, less typing, have special chat channels and also have special functionality to find a team (like a search window or the like).
Ryzom has none of these things and you have to converse people instead of spamming a few letters, which exacerbates problems with, for or of:
- Uncommunicative people
- Language barriers
- Effectiveness & amount of effort expended
- Size of the player base
SUGGESTION STARTS HERE
(this will be the short part, promise)
Allow players to tag the skills they would like to train with a team as "in-training" in the Action Progression window.
Have these skills (and their level) show in the players info and profile.
Additionally, add a search window to browse the people with tagged skills and search them by level of by using ones own tagged skills as a filter.
I arranged for two illustrations to be fabricated:
Other filters could be a "Teamed" checkbox, hiding people already in a team and a "Region" checkbox hiding everybody not in the current region.
These ideas came too late to be included in the illustration.
Toak (atys)
Added. An opt-out option would be great. Untagging all skills to have an hour of peace is cumbersome.an ability to hide themselves from the list.
If such a feature is to be included it should be explained as part of early Silan teaming quests.