OFFICIAL NEWS

F2P are more than restricted atm, 125 is max lvl and they cant buy packers, if you add more restrictions you will loose some % of player base which isnt huge anyway.

The trick is to find ways to encourage people to convert from F2P to sub'd - new content and zones would be one way to do this - but a balance is needed.

When I started ftp was restricted to Silan... So I think that ftp don't have enough to gain from subbing...

It can swing both ways, Entendu.

When I recently first had a look at Ryzom and started out on Silan it was a case of "yeah, fine, not sure".

This continued on my first visits to the mainland in the jungle around Zora... yeah nice, not sure.

Then a player that later became my guild mate lead me around the other regions of Witherings to gather up some TPs.
The weather was fair and we visited GoU, KoD and The Void and I was hooked.
A few days later I had sorted through the payment options, acquired the most convenient prepaid card and was subbed.

Any way to turn this off so other's can't see when I log in?

I already dislike Ryzom's friend function where anyone can add me without my knowing (privacy issues?) but now they also get notice in chat every time I log into the game? There are times I don't want anyone to know whether I'm in the game or not, what right does any player have to know that automatically?

If I join a guild, fine I have agreed to be on the guild list and know that my online status will show BUT I had to accept the guild invite. Where is the FRIEND invite?

My game got completely broken. :(

I logged in after the patch, everything was fine. However, I had 55 thousand hours of PvP on and I had an annoying PvP icon in middle of my screen that I couldn't get rid of. I'm on silan, so I shouldn't have any PvP at all.

I opened the web browser and hit refresh. Then I exited the game. Three times, I've tried going back in after trying to fix the PvP icon bug...and when I get in, all I see is a black screen and nothing else. Where as, I logged in fine before until trying to remove PvP status+icon. I have to close the game with task manager each time and my character seems to be logged in...but I can't see any graphics or anything, it is just the client+black screen.

I guess my game broke when I tried to fix the annoying pvp status and icon bug...:(

FIX: In order to fix the PvP bug you need to engage in PvP action with another. This will set the timer to 10mins. Then wait and that will get rid of it.

Someone a couple weeks or so back told me an easier way. Just open the in-game web browser, and hit refresh, quit the client and go back in...and that fixed it.

But I can't even get in-game now, I login to my character and it is just a black screen, but I can still hear sounds and my character is logged in. And I can't exit the client, except with task manager.

I have exactly same problem since yesterday, i can get in game randomly after several attempts, but the "black screen" issue is very annoying...

If you get a black screen - just wait a while - It loads but it can take a good 5+ mins.

You can turn off the logon/logoff messages in system , gameconfiguration , chat

Press U key to get there.

You miss the point entirely Xatokar, I don't want *you* or anyone else to see when I come on line or go offline. Currently anyone can add me to their friends list, without my consent, and so track when I am online or not.

There is no way to prevent others from knowing when we login and when we log out. I want, and I think privacy laws may actually require, a way to say NO to being on people's friends list.

I would think the only way to address that Vodani would ask for permission to be friends but really I think there are better things for the Dev team to work on. There are few areas which you see no homins and a simple /who would show you in region so you being online is most likely already known.

You've never been stalked, have you Entendu. /who doesn't let you know the *time* I log in or out, allowing you to see a pattern in my gaming behavior.

About Silan, f2p, etc.:

First let me say that if they had kept Silan the freeby zone and never implemented a trial period I probably never would have quit playing, though I'm not sure since my fall-out with a CSR who is no longer present was pretty bad--this over a simple quest reset...that was on arispotle over a year ago.

Anyway, I returned when I heard that Ryzom was now fully open with level caps for f2p. In my opinion this is one (if not "the") best f2p implementations I have seen in an MMORPG, and I have been playing since the early/middling days of evercrack... This easily trumps ddo's implementation: 1. because it is so simple to understand, and 2. because if you're adventurous--if not stealthy--enough, you can at lease "explore" the whole game.

Ryzom is a fully functional, p2p, true sandbox MMO--one of the few left (this is a huge selling point btw)--with its "roots" in both pencil & paper role paying as well as at least one cinematographic reference. It has a solid rendering engine, along with what I can only describe as "conversational" a.i. (they pee on you, you pee on them etc.).

I would discourage Winch Gate, as the publisher, from attempting to give it a more theme-park, f2p, (if not wowish) feel--for the sake of profit--with certain non-immersive, i.e. real world, events etc. (this may satisfy some of the older players). Silan is a bit theme-park, but newbies sometime need that sort of thing before they get exposed to the wide world that is the root ball of Atys. Sandbox purists can easily travel to the ML if they so choose.

I like that I can be completely self-sufficient, but at the same time there are any number of ways to interact with other players.

My initial experience this second time playing would have been greatly improved if I had the option to port a very well made trial character, even for a small fee, without having to sub.

I am against closing off sections of the game; however, I am not against reverting back to just Silan or areas close to the main cities (Dofus--another French game though in flat 2d--did/does this with their f2p players ((you can still explore the rest of the game, but you can't interact in any way with it))), though I don't think that would ever happen at this point. Although the earlier levels are much easier than the latter, Winch Gate can safely say that fully half of the levels are free. That in and of itself is a ton of f2p cred.

It seems that Nevrax, at least from a development standpoint, knew exactly what they were doing. Hopefully we will be able to see their vision fully realized.

(hopefully without any of the b.s.)

Au revoir Arispotle,

Regards,
Hadrian Kross