Ryzom Forge meeting report – January 23, 2023

As a preamble, please note that specific technical questions are only taken into account if they are addressed to the support team via ticket or posted on the forum, not when expressed on any of the Ryzom Chat channels. The latter are too numerous to be constantly scrutinized by a Ryzom team whose resources are limited.

1 - Boss Refactoring

Ulukyn (RT) – 20:36 UTC

The next patch (which we plan to apply this Friday starting at 23:00 UTC—expect about 2 hours of downtime on the game server) implements the activation of Bosses in all regions of Atys. The new Bosses system has indeed been running smoothly for several weeks now in Prime Roots.
The associated guild application may not have been updated yet, but it will be shortly after the patch.
In the new regions concerned (on the surface of Atys), the species of the 6 Bosses that will receive your assaults will be chosen exclusively from those present in the region. However, the places where the Bosses obeying a particular mechanic appear (such as Gebre, Cratchakin, Shooketh, etc.) will remain unchanged.
The redesign of the Bosses will then proceed with the testing and implementation of new mechanics for all Bosses, wherever they spawn on Atys.

Q: Will there be new spawn points for Bosses in the regions?
A: Yes. From memory we have doubled the number of possible locations.

Q: La fréquence d'apparition des Rois en surface sera-t-elle, comme dans les Prime Racines, journalière ?
A: Yes.

Q: Will there be any changes among the species of the Bosses spawning in Prime Roots?
A: No.

2 - Outposts Refactoring

Ulukyn (RT) – 20:53 UTC

The above mentioned patching will be accompanied by a rotation of the outposts (OP) and followed by an bidding period set this time to about ten days (in order to include two weekends).
The distribution of OP materials has been reviewed: after this rotation all types of materials (8 in all) will be available in Q250, Q200 and Q150 on at least one of Atys' OPs. Therefore, no Q250 material will be missing during the so started cycle.

Q: Would it be possible to lower the threshold of OPs gained on NPCs after GvE battles? The current threshold (24) causes the freeze of these OPs for one month, since the duration of an OP battle (1h) only allows to lower it by 12 points at best.
A: The said freeze gives the victorious guild the time needed to enjoy a minimum of the materials resulting from its conquest. So, the patch mentioned above does not change the threshold in question. It is planned to take these freezes into account during the following developments, those that will allow the introduction of GvG battles.

Q: The patchnote published 9 months ago already announced this introduction. Where are you with the GvG?
A: We have started thinking and prototyping (understanding of the code, action planning...).

Q: So, apart from the improved distribution of materials, the mechanics of the OPs are not changed by this patch?
A: No, indeed. We didn't want to apply a patch including unfinished GvG mechanics, nor did we want to wait until they were finished to open a new cycle.

Q : Given the freezes mentioned above (which leave, on each cycle, little time before the rotation that will closes it) will the gap between two rotations remain fixed at two months?
A: Actually, this gap is not really two months, since it depends on several factors (OOC events, unexpected reboots, etc.) and will remain so, approximate, until we have reached the cruising speed.

Q: Is it possible to allow, through a dedicated NPC, the trading of OP materials of different qualities between guilds?
A: Yes, but first we have to fix the bug with the guild island NPCs. And the implementation of this trading will be part of the implementation of the fully redesigned OPs.

Q: Since during the current cycle some materials and qualities were missing, could we have more details about the features for the next rotation?
A: Yes, all materials will be present on Atys, in all three qualities (150, 200 and 250) at the end of this rotation and, in particular, this time at least 8 OPs will each produce one of the material types in quality 250.

Q: But, as up to now, any OP will produce materials of the three qualities in proportions determined by its level?
A: Yes: same chance for low level OPs to produce high quality materials and same three qualities involved. But this could change later.

Q: The guessing game (during the betting period) is not fun… Couldn't we make sure that everyone is informed, at the end of a rotation, of the nature and quality of the materials produced by each OP?
A: No. Because, if everyone knew in advance what each OP produces, and unless the OPs were of interest to the guilds other than through the materials they produce, some OPs would simply not be attacked and all PvP activity would be concentrated on a few OPs.

Q: Why is this a problem? The refactoring was supposed to balance OP wars, but one guild currently has eight OPs and two guilds have half of the OPs in Atys between them. Have you thought about other ways to help the outnumbered factions (e.g. by adding NPC fighters or scouts) for this rebalancing?
A: No. Because balancing OP wars is impossible, unless you open as many OPs as there are active guilds and each guild has its own OP. But we'll talk about it again once the current redesign is complete, as the remaining planned modifications will change the game a bit.

Q: Couldn't the minimum level of OP guards be increased to 150?
A: No, this is not planned.

Q (not serious): Would it be possible to implement OPs in Prime Roots?
A: No, it is not planned. *smile*

3 - Growing of Rywards

Ulukyn (RT) – 21:44 UTC

We will continue the migration of rewards into Rywards (shift+e) to include everything possible to include and make it a big catalog.
Like mounts, the Zigs will be migratable in Rywards which will make it easier to change them and not risk losing them. For that, as for the mounts again, it will be necessary to send them to the pasture to then list them in Rywards. It will not be necessary for a Zig to be in the stable to be able to replace it with another one, it will be enough for it to be in your bag. Only Zig #1, however, will be substitutable: the others will have to go through the pasture to be substituted. As it is already the case with the mounts, the inventories will not be affected by this operation.
Underclothes will be real underclothes, usable as such, not equipable inventory items anymore. Therefore, it will be enough to equip them once for them to hide (or highlight) your character's forms when this one takes off her/his armor, without depriving you of any slot that can be occupied by a piece of armor. Trading them will still be possible but will be done via a special interface allowing you to indicate the name of the character and via Izam exchange.

Q: Is there a "Quality of Life" patch for (among other things) Rywards planned in the near future that would include all of these new features (especially the fix for the bug with wigs earned from Wheel)?
A: In fact, everything has already been modified for the client, through the last corrective patches. It remains now to correct the Rywards app which does not require a patch as such, but regular corrective patches, which will follow one another in the months to come. For the Zigs, it remains to implement the possibility to get a gubani Zig without spinning the Wheel. We will then import the underclothes and plushies to make room in the inventories.

Q: Would it be possible to transfer the bonuses of a garment won in the wheel with a rather ugly skin to another one with a better skin?
A: No it is not possible. But you can easily find a crafter who will give your garment with the same bonuses a skin more to your liking.

Q: Will it be possible to trade the other Rywards items? Especially plushies and wigs?
A: The trading system will work for any Rywards item. However, it may be limited to premium players (for giving, not receiving). We haven't, to tell the truth, thought about the case of each of the Rywards items. But everything in Rywards is potentially tradeable, even if it is sometimes under certain conditions (for example, for generic materials, only during OOC events). Concerning the plushies, a new system has been added which gives the possibility to equip in the left and/or right hand pseudo-objects (objects without stats and out of inventory) which are displayed only when the hand is empty of any real object (i.e. with stats and effect(s)). The number of these pseudo-objects that can be added in the future is a priori unlimited because they do not require, given their lack of stats, the patchiing the server for their implementation in game.

Q: Can we get the new robes other than by spinning the Wheel of Fortune?
A: Not yet, no. But it is planned that once all the existing stuff has been transferred to Rywards, you will be able to get the rewards in other ways. The Wheel will then only be one option among others.

Q: Has any thought been given to using the pockets for anything other than crystals? The teleportation artifact, for example?
A: Yes. But this could not be coded yet. The request will be made to the developer who coded the pockets as soon as he is back with us.

Q: I heard from a F2P player that he was losing pieces of Zig while assembling it. What about this?
A: From memory, this bug has been fixed, but that will be checked.

Q: Since we are talking about F2P... Would it be possible this page lists all the limitations that apply to F2P accounts? Some of them are missing in the current list, so they take the F2P player by surprise.
A: We have been thinking about this already. So yes, we will publish a complete list.

4 - Various issues

Below are the off-topic questions which, asked before, during and after the progress of the agenda, were nevertheless answered... Ulukyn is good-natured! :-)

Q (from a returnee): I don't suppose my old account from 2005 exists anymore, does it?
A: Yes, it does. Contact support (support@ryzom.com) to reactivate it.

Q: Can't we resurrect the faction pickaxes? They are indeed very useful and not very difficult to implement, I think.
A: Noted!

Q: Is there any new content planned for high level players (e.g. skill bonuses)?
A: No, there are no plans for that..

Q: Given the current lack of space in the inventories, are there any plans to make a fourth Zig available to players, as was done for the mektoubs?
A: No, not at the moment. But the idea is not rejected and we will talk about it again when Rywards is complete.

Q: It's not an extra Zig we players need, it's infinite GH extensions, or larger inventories, right?
A: Guild hall extensions are planned. But I don't have any information about them, except that the tests that have been done have shown that they may take a while to implement. Indeed, if the extension itself requires only two seconds for coding, the loading at the connection of all the objects it allows to store is problematic when the said connection is not excellent.
This is why we thought of implementing these extensions in the form of tabs representing compartments of the GH, each of which could see its items loaded, on demand at the time of connection. But coding this mechanism requires much more than two seconds, especially since all this is still theoretical: we will then have to test the system on a GH full of items by measuring their loading times in case of slow connection. So, even if on Ryzom every player is a tester on the day of the patch, this improvement will take time to be implemented.

Q: Couldn't we increase the storage capacity of packers by increasing the storable quantity (the number of identical stackable items) in each slot of a packer?
A: This is technically possible as long as the number of inventory slots remains unchanged, and the matter could be discussed with the Gamedesign team. But the consequences of such an increase, on PvP (including OP battles) in particular, should be carefully considered first.

Q: Shouldn't object collisions, which make it difficult to move around the apartments, be removed?
A: Yes! The work on this point has begun... I note that I will have to complete it.

Q: Currently, the bulk taken up in inventories by a barrel of byrh is 150 (which does not make it easy to transport) while a barrel of shooki takes up a bulk of 1. Is there a chance that, in the future, these barrels will take up comparable bulks?
A: This must be a typo. I will pass it on to the concerned developer.

Q: Are there any plans to complete the bunch of Marauder Bosses of Atys?
A: Yes, as for Bosses dropping Marauder light armor craftplans, one of us will be working on the Fyros one (which will be an adaptation of the 60-second mini-game) and another on the Matis one, but these projects have been launched too recently for me to have more information about them. We will then think about creating and putting in game four Bosses wearing a medium armor.

The meeting is closed at 22:42 UTC.

General

Ryzom Forge meeting (January 23rd 2023)

Ryzom Forge meeting report – January 23, 2023

1 - Boss Refactoring

2 - Outposts Refactoring

3 - Growing of Rywards

4 - Various issues