Rikutatis
Well, those who chose boredom have lost the right to complain about. And no, the grind is not long and arduous unless you choose to master lots of skills.@Daomei: I agree there's certain players that go off the beaten track to make grinding a more challenging activity for them. Amazons Mysticia for exampe does that a lot. All I'm saying is that most people don't do that, but still think Ryzom is a more difficult game because it has a long and arduous grind.
For the game proper, that is completely unnecessary. nearly all standard melee combat tasks can be done with 3 weapons, namely 1h sword, 2h axe (or sword, up to you), and pike. All the rest may play a role e.g. in PvP, but is not necessary. And there is no need to level them all up to master at a time. Mostly. even a master is not really a must.
In magic, off ele and heal are important, where heal is already useful and powerful from lvl 125 on, and healers are always in demand. And ele is easy to train.
So let us do some math. How hard is it for a solo player to reach lvl 50 from lvl 25, then going on?
Assuming she takes only on opponents 20lvls and more above her level, yielding 6k xp each, it is 58 kills (avg and mean kill rate per level is 3). A solo player, sitting down and using self heal, may still kill 10-20 mobs per hour. When fighting in a team, e.g. with a healer, xp will drop to 2/3, but kills per hour will rise to 50-100. I still recall how some kind players (thanks Tomstato ;)) took me as a healer at level 24, healing in Dyron and FF, and I became lvl 78 in an afternoon.
Between lvl 50 and lvl 100, it is already somewhat more, kill rate per level rises from 4 to 8, and it needs 338 kills for a solo player to achieve lvl 100. To get to lvl 150 from lvl 100, it needs 542 kills (from 8 to 15 kills ph), and from 150 to 200, it will be 931 kills (from 15 to 22). Between 1 and 3 lvls per hour are still possible.
Just for completeness: To reach the master level, it takes other 1315 kills at 6k xp, which is not possible, as xp drops to 2000 per opponent once one kills mobs of the own level. Moreover, at those levels, healers and teams are very recommended.
What I wanted to show: it is in no way hard or cruel grind to reach level 200 in any combat skill. If concentrating on, it can be done in a week or two of casual play. On the toplevels, more cooperation is recommended, and, btw. is more fun too.
Assuming you are playing in team all time, have an average yield of 4k xp/mob, and a fairly low kill rate of 60 mobs per hour (kincher and najab teams will rofl about, they do up to 3 kills per minute), it takes 45hrs to ascend from lvl 50 to 200, and 78hrs from 50-250. I fail to see that an exaggerated effort. (btw. I took a low kill rate to take in account the time to gather a team and hold it together)
[quote]I just think that's a very artificial difficulty. It doesn't challenge you as a player, it just forces you to spin that hamster's wheel longer and harder. [quote]
In Ryzom, the route is the goal. I had much fun during level training, and somewhat regret that the times are over when I could do training with newcomers, showing them spots and tricks. And I still like plod teams and sometimes heal off team (granted I want my share of skins and eyes, then :) )
I would be totally fine with a game in which you could reach level cap fast but then have difficult, challenging and deep end game activities that require tactics and coordination.
Well I know Eve, and do not like it due to being forced to PvP. But just a matter of taste. And leveling in digging ist also widely passive, you have to dig for range fight (and will have maxed ammo crafting before auto/launcher fighting). Other crafts will come when doing dapper missions, or occupations. There is a lot of passive leveling in Ryzom.