English

A friend of mine asked me to try out Ryzom as I am between MMO's right now. I started playing a few days ago and have a few thoughts on ways to increase enjoyment throughout the game.

Initial take:
The game seems very grindy which in and of itself isn't a terrible thing; However, I feel as if the addition to a few creature comforts could help alleviate this.
UI Improvements:

• Scalable Radar:I play in high resolutions; making the radar near impossible to see. I haven't found a way to re-size this aspect.
• Radar Boundaries: while I don't expect a detailed local map on the radar it would be nice to see wall boundaries in outline form so I can better navigate the immediate area. the map works well for large areas but sometimes a more finite view would be helpful.

Gameplay:

• Rez Effects/dying:I feel as if this penalty is a bit harsh. In other MMO's you can get a rez to return most, if not all of your experience. there doesn't appear to be a system like that here, which would be fine if the server was densely populated (people are around to pick you up). I feel as if a "corpse-run" type system may be suitable for alleviating or reducing any rez-effects. Alternatively, the 3-day cool-down on rez effects might want to be scaled with level.
• Macros: This system is awesome, I do feel as if the Healing limit of 2 is a bit restrictive at low-level... 3 would be much more appropriate; alternatively combat seems unlimited. might want to put the breaks on that to say 5-ish actions.

Mobility:

• Inventory:I can hardly carry anything... why is this not expandable? I have a hard-limit of 500, doubt anyone ever gets there. Could we have a Standard amount and possibly expand based on the users Balance score? EQ used bags and Weight reduction to accomplish this, with strength being the limiting factor. I feel Like I'm playing a monk in this game...
• Out of Combat Run-speed:seems like I'm running a marathon to another country trying to get back to the city or out to the fighting area. SWTOR/TSW/EQ all have speed buffs and/or out of combat run-speed that assists the players in mobility. I doubt giving us a 75% increased run speed that drops when aggro'd would be very game breaking.
• City Travel:a skill/ability on 60-minute cool-down to "teleport to closest city/spawn point" would be awesome.
• Teleport:given limited storage space there may be room here for a premium enhancement... SWTOR requires a player to discover a teleport location before fast-travel. I like this system, the Ryzom System clutters up your inventory with scrolls. A better system would be get rid of individual scrolls and have generic scrolls as a reagent for teleporting, make the scrolls cost 200each and then a click-to-teleport function that costs an additional 800 per teleport.
  • for Premium members remove the scroll requirement.

These are a few suggestions on way of improving the game. As I play I'm sure I'll have more.

Thanks!

• *Update*

• E̶x̶p̶r̶i̶e̶n̶c̶e̶ ̶s̶h̶a̶r̶i̶n̶g̶/̶g̶r̶o̶u̶p̶i̶n̶g̶:̶ ̶I̶ ̶u̶n̶d̶e̶r̶s̶t̶n̶a̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶n̶e̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶s̶p̶l̶i̶t̶ ̶X̶P̶ ̶a̶m̶o̶n̶g̶ ̶g̶r̶o̶u̶p̶ ̶m̶e̶m̶b̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶h̶e̶a̶v̶i̶l̶y̶ ̶d̶i̶s̶c̶o̶u̶r̶a̶g̶e̶s̶ ̶g̶r̶o̶u̶p̶i̶n̶g̶;̶ ̶i̶t̶'̶s̶ ̶b̶e̶s̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶s̶c̶a̶l̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶g̶r̶o̶u̶p̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶s̶o̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶t̶i̶m̶e̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶g̶e̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶5̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶y̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶a̶ ̶g̶r̶o̶u̶p̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶e̶n̶a̶l̶t̶y̶ ̶i̶s̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶v̶e̶r̶y̶ ̶b̶a̶d̶.̶.̶.̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶ ̶E̶x̶a̶m̶p̶l̶e̶:̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶E̶v̶e̶r̶q̶u̶e̶s̶t̶ ̶e̶a̶c̶h̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶y̶e̶r̶ ̶a̶d̶d̶e̶d̶ ̶a̶ ̶2̶0̶%̶ ̶b̶o̶o̶s̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶g̶r̶o̶u̶p̶ ̶X̶P̶ ̶b̶e̶f̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶d̶i̶v̶i̶d̶e̶d̶ ̶(̶e̶f̶f̶e̶c̶t̶i̶v̶e̶l̶y̶ ̶m̶a̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶5̶t̶h̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶y̶e̶r̶ ̶f̶r̶e̶e̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶n̶o̶ ̶X̶P̶ ̶p̶e̶n̶a̶l̶t̶y̶)̶ ̶n̶t̶o̶ ̶s̶a̶y̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶i̶t̶'̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶s̶w̶e̶r̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶i̶t̶'̶s̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶s̶i̶d̶e̶r̶.̶  This works differently then observed. it's fine.

Hallo

Animals, apartment and guild hall also have inventory space. Inventory has three limits, bulk, weight and slots (number of different item groups in one inventory)

Karavan and Kami followers have an item to store those teleportation pacts in. Plus they take no bulk in inventory. Marauders and Rangers are using other systems.


P.S.: my DP is my fault, I made a mistake and I deserve it :P

• Animals: I think you have to subscribe to get those.

• Apartment: don;t know what this is yet but i assume you have to travel there and again we are met with another time-sink of launching an expedition just to get across town.
• Guild Hall: ok, so is that for guilds or for individual player too? also, See above.

• as for pact storage this seems a bit confusing; is it a racial thing? or a bag or something?

The pact storage item Moniq is referring to requires you to align with either the Karavan or Kami factions. It'll unclutter your bag quite a bit.

For the respawn penalty, it's meant to incentivize caution and team play, in my opinion. With a team you can be less careless, if you're on your own you need to be more cautious of hazards nearby and how much you can grind a combat skill before you need to take a break. If you do die, usually by user error, there are the death pacts you can buy at a kami or karavan alter to accelerate the process of removing the death penalty.

As for the inventory, you will find that you will hit your bulk limit (300 lbs.) more often than your hard cap of 500 items. As a new player, you should be fine so long as you dont try to hoard sets upon sets of armor and equipment on your person.

For travel, consider getting a mount if it is a bit slow. Mounts also offer more inventory space and dont need a subscription. Just remember to keep it fed.

I understand the replies here But the point is being missed.
This is a NEW player first join view of the game that is well versed in modern mmo. Do we wish to attract more "new" players? How do we intend to keep them if we keep systems that are extremely limiting that even modern 100% free games surpass?

Take a step back from thinking this is how it has been and should be. We need population. The only way we will retain more PAYING players is to listen to their concerns. Commonly seasoned players that complain are met with passive hostility or drama posts that ultimately serve more harm than good. But some new players especially ones that log in and really want to give it a try end up annoyed more than enjoying the time.

Fast run out of combat - HORRIBLY NEEDED.
Redo of inventory size and weight management - ALSO horribly needed. Maybe make subbed accounts able to carry much more. Give some incentive to pay to play.
I agree with the overall clunky feeling of travel. Not sure what the answer is, but our teleport system is dated and could use some rethought. Maybe if we had faster out of combat running it wouldn't be so bad.

I just want to complete the information :)

That is fine and all, but that only illustrates the issue a new player might face in comparison to other games they may try b4 buy.

Also you have apartment and guild hall wrong. Everyone can buy, but only subbed can use.

I understand the hard cap of 500; however I think it's the bulk that's getting me. New players need to hoard low-end items and haul them to a seller; with the travel being so slow and no way to quickly return to a city or outpost to sell It's unduly cumbersome for newer players to accumulate wealth.
If the solution is just pay to get ahead and ignore the issues I'm not sure I like that answer. IMO any MMO that subscribes to the thought of it's unbalanced and broken but if you pay it's not so bad is really asking to stagnate and die off. As it is right now; Point-Blank SWTOR's F2P model is better; and they use a Micro transaction and subscription model... and it's freaking Bioware.latest patch updates from SWTOR makes it so all crafting mats go into their own special inventory that is shared and doesn't count towards storage. (I don't expect that here; however,a nice compromise is to re-balance the inventory bulk, or put in a bonus based on the balance score.)

• Further monitization options:
  • Out of Combat run speed: %75 increased run speed
    • Subscribers get 100% run speed
  • City Travel: 60-minute cool down
    • subscribers: 30-minute

Thank you for your input, it will be archived :-)

It seems like a lot of the issues are either Ryzom not being well-documented, or Ryzom being different from other games and thus not all of the common tropes apply.


Scalable Radar - While it is a bit hidden, if you open up the Configuration dialog (hit U) and look under Graphics -> General, you will see a slider to scale all UI elements. Admittedly, that would be a handy piece of information to know without having to be told by a fellow player.

Radar Boundaries - The cities may seem a little hard to navigate if you are not familiar with the map's UI, but if you click on the grey area of the map where the city is, you get a more zoomed-in version, walls and all, that is more than good enough to navigate the maze that is the southern half of Pyr. Again, that would be a handy piece of information to know without having to be told.

Rez effect/dying - If you get a Death Penalty (DP) then it's a simple matter of any XP you earn going towards reducing that DP instead of towards your skills; you NEVER actually lose XP. And if you are doing things challenging enough to normally earn a decent amount of XP, you can work off a DP in mere minutes.If your highest skill is 20 (reasonable for Silan), the DP is 2,750 per death. A Weaned Yelk is worth 1500 XP to a level 20 character, ((20/10)*1500)=3000, and 3000>2750, so soloing one Weaned Yelk should get rid of the DP with points to spare. A Master (250) has a DP of 462,500 and (for DP purposes) a Great Kincher is 2305 XP, so it would take a master about 8 Great Kincher kills to lose a DP... or a couple minutes of digging.
I can see why new players might think the penalty is a little harsh, but once you learn how the XP system in Ryzom works, especially how RELATIVE level affects XP, it's less harsh than it seems to those that do not understand the sliding scale XP system.
In fact, it seems that the way teh XP system works where XP is rewarded based on relative level instead of absolute level seems to confuse a lot of folks coming from other games whoa re used to earning at least a tiny bit of XP from massive repetition of trivial tasks. Once you unlearn that, you will realize that taking on the challenges you would to advance at a decent rate will burn DPs fast while beating up on things 10+ levels below you won't get you very far.

Macros - Could you please elaborate a little? It sounds like you are wanting spellcasting to have the same sort of locking toggle that melee has instead of having to press the key to cast every 2-4 seconds in order to maintain a steady barrage of spells. Personally, I'm not sure what that would do aside from encourage bot-mages.
As for limiting melee actions the same way instead of the current system, that might be worth considering. It would make using enchants a bit harder and complicate Ranged considerably while also being a meaningless change in situations where the tank has more than 1 mob on them at a time, so there's a bit to consider. But if you honestly think that having magic and melee work more similarly to each other would make new players more comfortable then it's worth discussing.

Inventory - This is one area where knowledge of other games is actually a drawback due to Ryzom being a bit different. One lesson I learned fairly early on was space management. With just my bag (300 bulk), I can easily 2 sets of armor, 2 sets of jewels, 5 weapons, a shield, and a pick while still having space left over. But if you insist on looting every kill and keeping it's mats whether you need them or not, then that space goes away quite quickly; 0.5 bulk per mat.
It may seem like you need to keep every mat and item you get and sell it, and to sell EVERYTHING you craft, but the truth is that that is a bit of a waste. You will find that you really do not need much money in Silan; reward gear is plenty good, and there isn't much worth buying. And on Mainland, you will make so much more from missions than you will from merchants that you really won't need much storage unless you get REALLY serious about dig/craft. If you stash a couple suites or armor and a dozen weapons on your mount, and carry only dig gear (LA, jewels, pick) and a craft tool, you can hold over 400 mats with ease, craft them off to free up space, and repeat the cycle, living happily out of just your bag.

Out of combat run speed - My first thought is that going in and out of that speed would cause enough motion sickness to make some folks quit for medical reasons. My second thought is that Super Speed (200% movement for a few seconds) is a power, and I still have a few hundred Speed Eggs collected from events that allow me to use that double movement even when my action is on cooldown. And my third is that I rarely run for long distances except when I am scouting and thus less interested in a destination than in who I find along the way.

City travel - Carry at least one of each Neutral TP at all times, and getting to any capital anytime from anywhere is easy. Now, they could do a better job of explaining New Horizons and how to use it to get between cities within a region...

Teleport - TPs work differently for Kami/Karavan than for Neutral/Ranger while Marauders have their own system that works much like you describe. Honestly, I had hoped we'd all use a system like the Marauders by now, but I know that some hardcore factional-RP folks would NEVER EVER EVER EVER allow those not aligned with a higher power to have such a convenience because "Neutrality has a price", and at least two who think that because they don't use TPs, nobody else should either and everyone should just run everywhere.
That said, TPs used to be 0.2 bulk a piece but are now 0-bulk, so it's now simply about organization/UI and not actual storage.

No if you have any items in apartment inventory or on packers, you can always withdraw those items, you do not have to be subscribed.

It seems to me mayebe, we can see an other aspect ?

Ok, we need new gamers to keep it alive (to pay the servers and providers, have a little team to help, test, debug... etc).
But Ryzom is unique, quite different than other MMO (and, it's the only game I like on my linux PC - I am not a "real gamer", I dislike most of "famous" games. Therefore it's very hard for me to understand what you guys are saying, as you compare with softwares I never saw, and/or with lot of English acronyms).
And, it can runs on old PC, with a quite bad network...

Do we know what is the limit? I mean, how much sub accounts we need to pay OVH and all other providers ?

* Do we want to get more new players, coming from other games? and change ryzom for them? (becoming more like the other games)?

* Do we want to keep Ryzom NOT like the other games? That's not saying we should not change anything (I agree lot of stuff could be improved, and lot of stuffs have been improved this last year).

 

I agree the documentation is a big lack.
I tried, with my little knowledge and capacities to help (using the wiki, as I don't like the forum: I can't find anything in here, or I find stuff but can't understand) but I'm currently discouraged (and currently, I almost play solo, left the wiki team etc).

Very nice array !!!what is the difference between F2P and Unsub  (I thought it was the same !) ???

edit (reading Moniq answer):

OK, it was some translation issue (English is not my native language, I was wrong of the "Unsub" translation)....

* Unsub = or a free account (someone who never paid), or was sub and pay no more

* F2P = free account (new player, who never paid for this account)

I have separated F2P and Unsubscribed because it could be confusing for new players.

There can't be situation when a pure never subscribed F2P could have items on a packer or in Apartment inventory. You need to subscribe first, buy packer, place items in apartment and on packers and after your subscription will end, you will still be able to take items out.