General

Given that the ranger "faction", has yet to be fully implemenmted, how about something for the Ranger folks who are denied access to many rewards in game ? The "new area" could be explained away by the kitins burrowing into our "known world" from a neighboring region ... prior to which homins had no access. The new "buffer" region could be outfittd with defesive outposts, owned / manned by Rangers which could then defend the region from Kitin Invasions (all mechanics already in place). This could then provide Rangers with "equal opportunity" access to game rewards in the way of:

Equivalent, not same, OP Mats
Large scale battles
Hero points, equivalent to PvP points

The beauty of this is that there is no negative impact on anyone, rangers would no longer be restricted from game rewards and all of the previously mentioned ideas (other than creating yet another Pvp zone) can still be implemented.

I'd even like to see a method (admittedly stolen from GoT) whereby existing players could "conscript" for a period of time whereby they are assigned to the Ryzom equivalent of "Castle Black". Guilds / individuals could enter into a conscription agreement committing to serve for defined periods of time (say two weeks). I am kind of "sitting on the fence" so to speak as to whether, while under conscription, conscripted players would have access to faction based rewards.

Mechanics:

-OP Owners (guilds) could not belong to factions ... no "double dipping".
-By conscripting for a defined period, other factioned players could earn hero points and access to a share OP produce.
-Everything else proposed for the region remains the same

In my personal opinion, a new region should be available to all and fairly used by all. With such a thing needing a lot of dev time to produce it would be a shame if only a certain group of players could use it to its full extent.

(Also there are other folks who are denied certain game advantages in my opinion but that is all I will say- don't want this thread going off topic)

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I am still very much in favour of a new region close to what this post details. After many years playing Ryzom it has sadly lost it's lackluster for me. I would love a new region with hidden secrets to uncover, challanges to overcome and a real need for some teamwork.

No need to be sorry about that :P

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A thought on one possible addition to the zone

Background: A huge group of kitins lie over an old outpost, hidden in the depths of the region. Once a week a kitin boss spawns, the boss mechanics become active and can be attacked by the server. If the kitins are successfully cleared then the players present can loot item X from the outpost.

Difficulty: This should already be hard with nearby aggro but this boss needs to be harder than the NPC bosses, with more players needed to kill. The server should fail, lots of times.

The purpose: A common enemy for homins, binding them together. Sure we can go back to killing each other (or the ground) later on but if there is one thing each faction/civ/religion's lore agrees on, is kitins are a major threat. (Yes there are the current nests to be raided but they provide little reward for a large group of players which is why they aren't attacked regularly).

Item X: An old (untradable) relic material that researchers in different camps collect which gives points to go towards titles and perhaps a unique piece of gear/set? (Sorry FF but I do not think the reward should be the same/similar to current game OP mats).



[I understand that it might be useless debating things for a region that may never happen, but I figure the more things people like about it, the more chance it has of happening]

So how would you suggest thie issue "equal opportunity" of access to be addressed if we can't talk about it when any change is proposed ?

I don't see how anything suggested made anything "unavailable" to all ... any more than currently exists. RThe same could be accomplished by placing the features in any region.

I am in favour of many different things being added into the game that are for only for specific factions/civs only. Many times (when concerning marauders) I was met with the answer "you choose that path, deal with it". I still do not agree with that.

In this specific case, with such a massive new thing being added- a new region, which many have asked for in many different posts, I believe, at least to begin with, that everything added should be available to all. One of the main points of a new region would be to tempt back old players, I think placing certain faction-only mechanics in the region might hinder this.

(Also from a RP-point of view I believe the marauders are entitled to the same opportunities (if not more) to fight kitins as the rangers. Probably bias but that's just my point of view).

I can see that ... but as w/ Episode 2, we didn't have OPs in any of the regions until then. In accordance with the story line, I can see it as a evolvement of area or areas. Of course it makese sense to have these progress accordingly and to fit in with the geography. It will take time to develop the story line, which may have begun already with the fortifying of Thesos.

I also agree that the maruders are short shifted as they are also denied access to equivalent opportunities which should also be resolved. I don't agree about your story line tie-in tho as maruaders are foused pretty much on hating all other homins. OTOH, no one is being denied opportunities to fight kitins. Go back and read my post ... ANY player can sign on to help Rangers defend as I would think they would against anything that tries to eat them ... kitins don't look for faction tags before attacking. And if anyone participates, they should be able to share in rewards.

If anyone can participate then how would your idea help re-adress the imbalance of ranger content?

Participate yes, benefit in the same way no. For example, lets use NH. As a citizen of a race, everyone gets double the points, fame and dapper as I do. As an Atys Citizen, I get 50%.

The same mechanic could be applied to Rangers as members of the "faction" responsible for the defense of Atys against the Kitin threat, they would benefit in a manner similar as do citizens of a race.