Ryzom has some great artwork and I am sure music and some 3D elements took it's time to implement, too.
But the experience is shallow, because every aspect in Ryzom is implemented better in other games I remember
– altough I have to admit that no game shares the unique collection of Ryzom which makes it it's own experience you can enjoy for some time.
So what does Ryzom need for a deeper experience and long-term enjoyment?
Something which attracts creative minds with a lot of experience from other MOMRPGs.
–––
1.
Add more hair-styles - like front/rear view. And seriously: add more colours (it's just a huge shift and brightness, really!).
Also add more tatoo choices (just an overlay), colours and overlapable parts that create a mixed texture based on numeric parameters.
In some games you can spend hours on hours just to create your character - even free to play ones like "Second Life", "Shaya" or other free games I could play years ago when I was still a newbie "default-Windows user".
But, in this game, character creating is mostly hair and tattoo – here should it improve first (and everything really difficult is already done).
2.
Extend the Stanza-system for spells.
In "Oblivion" and "Skyrim" you can adjust the range, damage, AOE, cast/cooldown –everything of 10+ stats– freely after some archivements.
During the tutorial it is just a matter of maxing the DPS of a spell, have 3 different for (initiation + follow-ups) and close-range for tougher creeps.
All the Stanzas, options and credits here give little room for individuality.
3.
I am now at Tryker's Main-Land and bored a bit.
– I see the same creeps, still have to just-run 2+2 minutes for quests.
– Foraging or hack&slash through mobs is still mostly waiting in front of the screen.
– The tutorials items I got ruin any hope of crafting something better myself.
– I see a lot of copy+paste work, NPCs which wear player outfits and have some generic-player-faces.
– Whater in which I cannot dive for pearls, walk-ways under which I cannot swim through, cliffs from which I cannot jump into water.
The thing I enjoy are other players to chat and beef-up the experience, but this is nothing Ryzom itself contributes to the game, but the players.
– Also, I figured it even more difficult to form parties on the main land than it is to form then on Tutorial-Island.
But there is a quick fix:
In oblivion, you could level everything individually – swords, daggers, each spell (here: each Stanza which is part of it).
If you can approach 100% Sap-to-DMG efficiency, but never reach it …
… if you can level your skill against each mob-type, once by super-type and once by sub-type (skill ratios multipled) …
… if you could level an item's super-type and the individual item.
It wouldn't be more complicated than implementing an inventory with a number how many items you have.
But it would add a nice feature to the game.
EDIT:
Wouldn't you like it if you could change the colour, split count, visual speed, flight pattern (arc, zick-zack), etc of a magic projectile just like you can modify your character? Or the animation of your meele-character?
But the experience is shallow, because every aspect in Ryzom is implemented better in other games I remember
– altough I have to admit that no game shares the unique collection of Ryzom which makes it it's own experience you can enjoy for some time.
So what does Ryzom need for a deeper experience and long-term enjoyment?
Something which attracts creative minds with a lot of experience from other MOMRPGs.
–––
1.
Add more hair-styles - like front/rear view. And seriously: add more colours (it's just a huge shift and brightness, really!).
Also add more tatoo choices (just an overlay), colours and overlapable parts that create a mixed texture based on numeric parameters.
In some games you can spend hours on hours just to create your character - even free to play ones like "Second Life", "Shaya" or other free games I could play years ago when I was still a newbie "default-Windows user".
But, in this game, character creating is mostly hair and tattoo – here should it improve first (and everything really difficult is already done).
2.
Extend the Stanza-system for spells.
In "Oblivion" and "Skyrim" you can adjust the range, damage, AOE, cast/cooldown –everything of 10+ stats– freely after some archivements.
During the tutorial it is just a matter of maxing the DPS of a spell, have 3 different for (initiation + follow-ups) and close-range for tougher creeps.
All the Stanzas, options and credits here give little room for individuality.
3.
I am now at Tryker's Main-Land and bored a bit.
– I see the same creeps, still have to just-run 2+2 minutes for quests.
– Foraging or hack&slash through mobs is still mostly waiting in front of the screen.
– The tutorials items I got ruin any hope of crafting something better myself.
– I see a lot of copy+paste work, NPCs which wear player outfits and have some generic-player-faces.
– Whater in which I cannot dive for pearls, walk-ways under which I cannot swim through, cliffs from which I cannot jump into water.
The thing I enjoy are other players to chat and beef-up the experience, but this is nothing Ryzom itself contributes to the game, but the players.
– Also, I figured it even more difficult to form parties on the main land than it is to form then on Tutorial-Island.
But there is a quick fix:
In oblivion, you could level everything individually – swords, daggers, each spell (here: each Stanza which is part of it).
If you can approach 100% Sap-to-DMG efficiency, but never reach it …
… if you can level your skill against each mob-type, once by super-type and once by sub-type (skill ratios multipled) …
… if you could level an item's super-type and the individual item.
It wouldn't be more complicated than implementing an inventory with a number how many items you have.
But it would add a nice feature to the game.
EDIT:
Wouldn't you like it if you could change the colour, split count, visual speed, flight pattern (arc, zick-zack), etc of a magic projectile just like you can modify your character? Or the animation of your meele-character?