Agenda

[Feedback] Your opinion about the Refugee Days OOC events
[Information] Progress of ongoing projects: new launcher, marauder gameplay, OP refactoring, AIS changes

The Refugees' Day events have just ended, so we would like to get your feedback on them.
What did you like about these events? What do you think could be improved?

Fearing that a later addition would be problematic, we have wanted to take the time to add functionality to Ryztart before its release.
To wit: Ryztart now allows you to log in with your account name and password without having to enter them when launching the game and it will automatically retrieve the list of your characters and that of the servers (Atys, Yubo and/or Gingo) your account is granted access.
The objective of this addition being to make the launcher more secure, most of the work was to design a system that avoids having to store account name and password on the computer. Thus, Ryztart now only stores a token, which allows, and allows only, the connection to the game. Ryztart can also create shortcuts on your desktop for your characters that, too, do not contain either the account name or the password. Last, these shortcuts or Ryztart itself can launch the connection of a character without going through the "Character selection" step. (NB: this is already possible for those who know what parameters to provide to the current launcher).

The OOC events for the Refugee Days (Easter events) will take place from Friday, March 26th to Monday, April 12th.
Details will, as usual, be posted on the forum beforehand.

We've strated the work on the outpost battles refactoring project.
As some may have noticed, four outposts have popped in the Nexus, of four different "levels" (100, 150, 200 and 250).
Their names suggest that they are not "like the others" and will not function in the same way at all. In fact, their ways of working will evolve following the avancement of the refactoring project.
At first, their conquest will be the object of GvE battles (a single guild fighting the NPCs defending the outpost), none of them will be owned by a guild (nor will they host any drill). That in order to test the impact of the projected shortening of the battle duration (from two hours to one) in the best conditions.

This enigmatic wording actually refers to the additions made to the server to improve the artificial intelligence (AIS) that is managing the actions and abilities of the creatures and NPCs evolving within it.
These additions, I'm sorry to have to tell you, have given ideas to our dear Teanwen which will make you sweat a lot.. For they result notably in the extension to the NPCs involved in punctual events of certain abilities until now specific to outpost NPCs: launchers, bombs, healing, etc. Thus, as she was in the past, Teanwen will again be in charge of designing and driving animations and events where players will have to fight "mini-bosses" able, this time, to use a launcher, to heal themselves, to throw bombs or gas...
These mini-boss events will be announced in advance by in-game broadcast. Note that the AIS modifications have greatly increased the technical possibilities: be prepared, therefore, for many surprises during these little events!

Agenda

[Presentation] Ryzom's marketing plan: increase player loyalty
[Presentation] Silan Refactoring project

A 2021 marketing plan has been developed by the Ryzom Team, which pursues three goals:
1. Win players' loyalty
2. Get more subscribers
3. Attract new players
We will detail today the actions undertaken by the team to achieve the first objective, and your suggestions to enrich them will be welcome.

We are losing too many players, including high-level players, because of the lack of new content to motivate them to log in, because the long-promised additions are still overdue, and because the pace of maintenance remains slow.
That's why we decided to focus on the projects already underway and on maintenance. Specifically:
• To complete ongoing and long-announced projects: new launcher/installer, Boss refactoring, outpost battles refactoring, Marauders' gameplay, balancing of range weapons (see information given during previous Ryzom Forge meetings).
• To add new events to the Storyline on a regular basis, each leading to new permanent gameplay content.
• To not neglect maintenance: fixing bugs, adding new rewards, etc.
The upcoming patch will begin to put some of this content into play, with the activation of the test outposts of the Nexus and the gradual addition of the new Bosses.
• To encourage roleplay which, while remainining of course optional, is one of the raisons d’être of the MMORPG Ryzom. So, to make roleplayers want to stay, the team is working on two axes:
• School of initiation to role-playing (in project)
• Regular (weekly) events, impacting or not the History of Atys

Do you have any questions or comments about these actions?

In order to increase player loyalty, in addition to offering more attractive game content, we will work to better guide new players. We actually lose a lot of them shortly after they arrive on the tutorial island of Silan. After investigating the causes of this, we agreed on a possible remediation. This is how the Silan refactoring project was born, which will not result in a big change but only in various adjustments and improvements.
The objective of this refactoring is twofold:
• on the one hand, give the desire to new players to go further (at the moment very few of them take the step - i.e. pass to the continent);
• on the other hand, try to make the global experience of the game more homogeneous (at the moment, as Dorothée – may she be thanked – pointed out during the RT meeting preparing this one, there are too many differences between the game on Silan and the one on mainland).
Said Improvements and adjustments are planned for:
• The map of Silan Island. To make it more useful for beginners it:
   • will no longer be shown to players alone, but with the general map of Atys;
   • will allow the player to zoom in on the Ranger Camp (as is the case on the mainland towns);
   • will display icons showing the location of NPCs useful to players (at their stage of progress).
• Texts describing missions that are currently unclear, such as those that present a team-building suggestion as a necessity to players who cannot (or do not know how to) form a team.
• Damages from creature attacks near the Ranger Camp. They will be reduced as it currently causes too many deaths. Character dying too frequently suggests to players that the game is not for them, or that they have misunderstood the rules, increasing the risk that they will abandon Ryzom without delay.

Actually, few players take the time to read everything (this is natural: the excitement of discovering a new game pushes them to immediate action, not to think about its mechanisms).
So I'm going to show you what we have planned to overcome the disadvantages of this understandable haste.
We won't rewrite the mission texts: it would require too much time. But I've noticed, when accompanying players who don't know Ryzom in their first session, that displaying an adapted screenshot on their screen was often more efficient than giving them a long speech to explain them such or such gameplay mechanism.
This is why we will introduce the concept of schools (or academies) whose function will be to provide in-game "Academic Knowledge" that will be available, at any time, to all players and delivered in the form of practical lessons that will guide them, in a visual and playful way, in the accomplishment of the missions as well as in their actual learning. Each school will contain several pieces of information about a gameplay topic (e.g., the mastery of magic or that of jewelry) or a more general topic (e.g., the game's interface, or even, as mentioned above, role-playing).
Below a prototype, for the school of "Melee fight mastery", of a window showing in game the information made available by a school.



It presents a teaching plan with four sections (or lessons), which can be activated (if your progress allows it) or not (greyed out) so that you do not get lost in a long list. When you activate a lesson, a list of exercises to do (presented in the form of cards) will be proposed to you. Once you have completed all the exercises on this list, you will be offered a reward.
You will find below a prototype, for "Elementary Movements", of a sheet describing such an exercise.



It is composed of four parts displaying respectively:
• A title with a short explanation in subtitle
• An illustrated goal, optional (button to click for acceptance)
• A small reward, optional (button to be clicked for recovery once the goal reached)
• A set of pictures to make it easier to understand how to reach the goal.
Why, you may ask, propose an objective and a reward and not only the explanation and the illustrations? Quite simply because proposing an action in exchange for a reward is more motivating and fun, much more so than a long explanation text.

Do you have any questions?

Agenda

• [Feedback] Last patch
• [Information] CoC update project

Ci-après les liens vers le dernier patch appliqué :
    • Patch 868 du 17 avril 2021
    • Patch 873 du 20 avril 2021 (correctif du patch 868)
Pour information, le contenu de ce patch est désormais complétement actif sur Atys.
Nous avons donc ajouté, entre autres :
   – des leçons et récompenses pour toute la Storyline ;
   – des allégories productrices d'effets et des missions Storyline permettant d'améliorer lesdits effets ;
   – l'activation des avant-postes du Nexus Mineur.
À noter que la forme des leçons (guides illustrés des missions) de la Storyline sera reprise pour les projets :
   – de refonte de Silan (leçons tutorielles) ;
   – de la nouvelle Encyclopédie (leçons guides des Rites).

Y a-t-il des questions, remarques ou des retours ?

S'agissant du « multiboxing » ainsi qu'en ce qui concerne les sanctions, nous aimerions mettre à jour d'ici peu le Code de Conduite. Je vais donc vous présenter ce que nous pensons changer.
Pour rappel, l'actuel Code de Conduite est consultable ici (cliquer sur le drapeau de langue pour en changer).

1 - Multiboxing et JcJ

Nous avons actuellement un problème d'imprécision et même de contradiction au sein du Code de conduite (CdC) :

• En zone JcJ, les joueurs qui ne veulent pas être attaqués sont priés de quitter la zone. ==> Attaquer un joueur au Nexus avec 4 comptes simultanés est donc autorisé.
• Le multiboxing est limité à 2 comptes simultanés dans les événements de la Storyline. ==> Attaquer un joueur effectuant une mission Storyline au Nexus avec plus de 2 comptes simultanés est donc interdit.

Ceci, outre que le cas des spots magiques n'est pas pris en compte, rend la résolution des tickets concernant le Nexus très délicate. Donc, pour clarifier le Code de Conduite, nous allons étendre la limite de 2 comptes simultanés à tout le JcJ, donc au JcJ sur les avant-postes, dans les régions JcJ (spots magiques et Nexus inclus), et partout sur Atys.

2 - Multiboxing pendant les heures creuses

La limitation du multiboxing dans le CdC a eu un impact positif sur les heures de jeu européennes, mais aussi un fort impact négatif sur le nombre de joueurs présents durant les heures de jeu extra-européennes (heures de pointe de jeu dans des pays comme les USA, mais durant lesquelles le nombre de joueurs connectés sur Ryzom est très faible).
Ce dernier point pose à Ryzom un problème insoluble en termes de marketing, qui a des répercussions financières. Concrètement, alors que la limitation ne pose aucun problème de jeu aux heures européennes, le faible nombre de joueurs et les nombreux fuseaux horaires rendent impossible, aux heures creuses, l'accès au jeu de haut niveau (Rois, Chefs Maraudeurs) sauf à utiliser plus de 2 comptes simultanés.
Cela nous fait entrer dans un cercle vicieux : Manque de joueurs aux heures creuses ==> Pas assez de personnes pour accéder au jeu de haut niveau ==> Désabonnement et abandon du jeu ==> Personne pour accueillir les nouveaux ==> Départ des nouveaux ==> Manque de joueurs aux heures creuses.
Ainsi, pour permettre aux joueurs d'heures creuses d'accéder à nouveau au jeu de haut niveau et pour nous donner une chance de repeupler le serveur pendant ces heures, nous allons tester, durant 1 mois, la tolérance de 4 comptes simultanés pour tout sauf le JcJ pendant les heures creuses, de 22h00 UTC (0h00 CEST) à 05h00 UTC (07h00 CEST), période où cette tolérance est nécessaire pour pouvoir jouer à haut niveau.
Si l'accueil de la communauté et l'impact sur le nombre de connexions/abonnements aux heures creuses de cette disposition sont positifs, elle sera ajoutée au CdC après le mois de test, lequel se déroulera du 15 juin au 15 juillet.

3 - Ajout d'un barème de pénalités

Actuellement, le CdC ne prévoit aucune sanction intermédiaire entre 1 mois de suspension et interdiction à vie : nous allons y remédier en ajoutant une sanction d'un an de suspension (plus de détails viendront plus tard).

Je vous laisse réagir sur les trois points : d'abord sur le 1 (multiboxing et JcJ), puis nous enchainerons sur les deux autres.