Translated with deepl.
There is a lot to say, however I will focus on a few main points, and mainly on the point where I have the most expertise: the contribution to the game.
For the past ten years I've been seeing good (and not so good) ideas, people motivated to implement them, and sometimes even improvements that actually end up in the game. The pattern remains quite similar over time.
There are two points to keep in mind: Ryzom has a very long history, and as many liabilities to overcome. And the overall complexity of the project makes it complex to grasp.
Regarding the history part, although the game is partly open source, it has been organized as a labyrinth of secrecy. It's fun if you like to snoop, it's less fun when you want to build, because you have to deal with scattered information (and sometimes only in the head of a contributor long gone), extremely tormented chains of command, and if I summarize: there is a stasis to overcome that is worthy of the biggest French administrations. I specify that the problem is systemic and independent of the individuals who compose the system. In fact, a lot of work has been done to simplify this organization, but it remains very, very far from an environment where contribution is easy. This almost impenetrable system discourages the majority of contributors; those who remain have a tendency to either become jaded or to become totally allegiant to the system and thus perpetuate it (I oscillate between the two, and when it becomes too unbearable, I run away!) If this has always been a problem, I fear that it is becoming even more critical today: in the past there was still enough money and motivation for the numbers to compensate for the losses, now there are really too few expert contributors (= knowing the ins and outs) to effectively accompany the newcomers. It's all the more sad because there is really a lot of work that has been done to simplify the contribution, but the step is still huge.
If you find Ryzom's grind painful, the experience mechanism in the contribution will give you another idea of the word "difficult" ;)
Because it is not only the social system that blocks. It is possible to get the whole code, to have access to the proprietary part (datasheets and primitives) if you show your credentials, and then? Then the trouble starts. I remember my despair when trying to untangle the Webig overhead, which is an easy part: 20 years of accumulating frameworks and poorly finished internships had created a polycephalous monster, and cleaning up this mess would have sent Hercules and the Augias' stables back to the rank of "ordinary housework". There are parts of the code where the expert devs will tell you "don't go there, if you touch anything, everything will fall apart". That doesn't prevent some things from being refactored over time, but the work to get it all back together is just incompatible with Ryzom's resources. It's all the more complex because some things are well thought out, and touching a part that seems trivial can lead to an imbalance of the best parts.
One of the parts that I particularly despair about is the lack of competent gamedesigners. I ended up training myself on the job (10 years of training, of course you learn a bit?), but I wouldn't risk a complete analysis of Ryzom. Some parts are easy to criticize (the economy? I can talk about it for hours), others are admirable and I shudder every time I read a proposal to touch it (the crafting... its balancing is really delicate and rather successful). And while we're on the subject of balancing, you should know that it's one of the most complex parts of a game to work on. When you have millions, or even billions, of players and therefore all the resources to do it well, well even then it's long and complex. Ryzom doesn't have these resources and empiricism on this kind of work gives very bad results (let's talk about the economy again, no? Don't touch the economy anymore, please). My point? As players we have lots of ideas about what would make us happy; but we need to be able to see these ideas in the overall context of the game, the impacts that the changes will have on surprising games.
An example with the grinding of Ryzom. Well, I hate it. I really hate it. So, if tomorrow we get rid of that, that you can get your level 250 in 5 nights of play, I'll be the first to dance. However, almost all of the gameplay mechanics in Ryzom revolve around this grind, and always having one more branch to climb. If I take a step aside, we are in a game that has more in common with Asian games than with Western games. Let's take a step back: it's a question of target and market. Some players like repetitive tasks, the optimization they require, or the fact of doing without optimizing and getting there by persistence. Ok, I am not one of those players. Yet I stay on the game, despite this mechanic that drives me crazy. Why? Because of the side effects of grinding. It's annoying, yes. So? So it leaves room for socializing. In fact, you said it yourself: when you came back, you found people, and that's what made you stay. That's also what brings me back to this game, even though I've played a lot of other games that are more dynamic and nice in terms of mechanics. Yes, but here, in fact, there is no choice, you *have* to take your time and be with the people. You don't play "the game", you play "with people". And if you can't make those connections, you leave. Can we keep this social aspect without grinding? Yes and no. It requires such a deep transformation of the game that it will no longer be "Ryzom", but something else. Am I saying that we should leave the grinding? It makes me sick, but... yes. Because if you want another game, you might as well do it on the side, without taking Ryzom away from those who love it as it is. I still dream that the universe will be freed one day to make this alternative Ryzom without grinding ;)
It would be nice. We had worked on it in 2013, and even released money for it (but clearly not given to the right people). Currently, Blender can make static objects for the game, so that's something. But unfortunately the graphics pipeline is a very big piece, extremely complex. We've turned this around, and the answer is always the same: either you need a lot of money AND extremely competent people (and there are not many of them, and they are expensive...), or you have to start from scratch on the graphics part. There is some tinkering to add things in game, but some parts will remain complicated with the current system. This is clearly a part that blocks the contribution. What is cheaper, adapting or starting from scratch? I think it's worth it, and it would probably be in the millions if we paid people.
I hope this post gives some ideas about the work that these proposals require and the difficulties that can arise.
There is a lot to say, however I will focus on a few main points, and mainly on the point where I have the most expertise: the contribution to the game.
For the past ten years I've been seeing good (and not so good) ideas, people motivated to implement them, and sometimes even improvements that actually end up in the game. The pattern remains quite similar over time.
There are two points to keep in mind: Ryzom has a very long history, and as many liabilities to overcome. And the overall complexity of the project makes it complex to grasp.
Regarding the history part, although the game is partly open source, it has been organized as a labyrinth of secrecy. It's fun if you like to snoop, it's less fun when you want to build, because you have to deal with scattered information (and sometimes only in the head of a contributor long gone), extremely tormented chains of command, and if I summarize: there is a stasis to overcome that is worthy of the biggest French administrations. I specify that the problem is systemic and independent of the individuals who compose the system. In fact, a lot of work has been done to simplify this organization, but it remains very, very far from an environment where contribution is easy. This almost impenetrable system discourages the majority of contributors; those who remain have a tendency to either become jaded or to become totally allegiant to the system and thus perpetuate it (I oscillate between the two, and when it becomes too unbearable, I run away!) If this has always been a problem, I fear that it is becoming even more critical today: in the past there was still enough money and motivation for the numbers to compensate for the losses, now there are really too few expert contributors (= knowing the ins and outs) to effectively accompany the newcomers. It's all the more sad because there is really a lot of work that has been done to simplify the contribution, but the step is still huge.
If you find Ryzom's grind painful, the experience mechanism in the contribution will give you another idea of the word "difficult" ;)
Because it is not only the social system that blocks. It is possible to get the whole code, to have access to the proprietary part (datasheets and primitives) if you show your credentials, and then? Then the trouble starts. I remember my despair when trying to untangle the Webig overhead, which is an easy part: 20 years of accumulating frameworks and poorly finished internships had created a polycephalous monster, and cleaning up this mess would have sent Hercules and the Augias' stables back to the rank of "ordinary housework". There are parts of the code where the expert devs will tell you "don't go there, if you touch anything, everything will fall apart". That doesn't prevent some things from being refactored over time, but the work to get it all back together is just incompatible with Ryzom's resources. It's all the more complex because some things are well thought out, and touching a part that seems trivial can lead to an imbalance of the best parts.
One of the parts that I particularly despair about is the lack of competent gamedesigners. I ended up training myself on the job (10 years of training, of course you learn a bit?), but I wouldn't risk a complete analysis of Ryzom. Some parts are easy to criticize (the economy? I can talk about it for hours), others are admirable and I shudder every time I read a proposal to touch it (the crafting... its balancing is really delicate and rather successful). And while we're on the subject of balancing, you should know that it's one of the most complex parts of a game to work on. When you have millions, or even billions, of players and therefore all the resources to do it well, well even then it's long and complex. Ryzom doesn't have these resources and empiricism on this kind of work gives very bad results (let's talk about the economy again, no? Don't touch the economy anymore, please). My point? As players we have lots of ideas about what would make us happy; but we need to be able to see these ideas in the overall context of the game, the impacts that the changes will have on surprising games.
An example with the grinding of Ryzom. Well, I hate it. I really hate it. So, if tomorrow we get rid of that, that you can get your level 250 in 5 nights of play, I'll be the first to dance. However, almost all of the gameplay mechanics in Ryzom revolve around this grind, and always having one more branch to climb. If I take a step aside, we are in a game that has more in common with Asian games than with Western games. Let's take a step back: it's a question of target and market. Some players like repetitive tasks, the optimization they require, or the fact of doing without optimizing and getting there by persistence. Ok, I am not one of those players. Yet I stay on the game, despite this mechanic that drives me crazy. Why? Because of the side effects of grinding. It's annoying, yes. So? So it leaves room for socializing. In fact, you said it yourself: when you came back, you found people, and that's what made you stay. That's also what brings me back to this game, even though I've played a lot of other games that are more dynamic and nice in terms of mechanics. Yes, but here, in fact, there is no choice, you *have* to take your time and be with the people. You don't play "the game", you play "with people". And if you can't make those connections, you leave. Can we keep this social aspect without grinding? Yes and no. It requires such a deep transformation of the game that it will no longer be "Ryzom", but something else. Am I saying that we should leave the grinding? It makes me sick, but... yes. Because if you want another game, you might as well do it on the side, without taking Ryzom away from those who love it as it is. I still dream that the universe will be freed one day to make this alternative Ryzom without grinding ;)
There is also a question to the developers, as far as I know the graphics are made in 3ds max and version quite old, is it possible to reconfigure the engine to formats that could be converted from Blender? I think there would be more help in this regard =)
It would be nice. We had worked on it in 2013, and even released money for it (but clearly not given to the right people). Currently, Blender can make static objects for the game, so that's something. But unfortunately the graphics pipeline is a very big piece, extremely complex. We've turned this around, and the answer is always the same: either you need a lot of money AND extremely competent people (and there are not many of them, and they are expensive...), or you have to start from scratch on the graphics part. There is some tinkering to add things in game, but some parts will remain complicated with the current system. This is clearly a part that blocks the contribution. What is cheaper, adapting or starting from scratch? I think it's worth it, and it would probably be in the millions if we paid people.
I hope this post gives some ideas about the work that these proposals require and the difficulties that can arise.