IDEAS FOR RYZOM

Good time to all.
I would like this post to be seen by all players and developers of the game for further discussion.
I warn you in advance, there will be a lot of text, several thoughts and ideas, I write through a translator, I'm sorry if there are mistakes somewhere or words that are not clear in meaning. I also warn people in advance who will discuss "Criticize — offer!". Thanks.

My name is Jaymz, I am 32 years old, of which I have been playing various MMORPGs for about 18 years. I have my own list of "favorites", I have an understanding and experience in different worlds, with different mechanics, styles and other "abstruse words" and I would like to share some thoughts here.

So back to the game. Ryzom is quite a curious game in many ways at once, it has its own uniqueness, but…
When I first entered this game (a little over a year ago, or maybe two), I stopped playing pretty quickly, an incomprehensible interface (by the way, it's still the same) panels that differ in size, windows that need to be found, in general, a total of "2000th" in combination with the old design, but that's okay, that's not why I stopped playing, but literally after leaving Silan. Familiar, isn't it? First of all, I was confused, there were quests on silan and it was clear what to do and where to go, once in the city, I couldn't figure out what to do next, how to deal with quests, and why mob levels vary so much around the city, I died several times, wandered around the city for several hours and nothing I could understand. After that, I deleted the character and abandoned the game…

After a while, I decided to try it all over again, and this time, for my luck, I met the guild "Atys Wizards" where I was kindly told about everything I should have known at the beginning of the game. And from that moment I stayed for further study of the game, I started pumping the magician, as a result (with difficulty) I got to level 60 and then it turned out why it was so difficult for me to play, it turns out I had to pump "melee" so that I could increase my HP, it was a novelty, but there was nothing to do — I want to live. I began to pump melee in parallel, having also spent a decent amount of time…

So lvlup. LVLup was carried out exclusively on "plants" because other monsters could attack in a crowd or are very strong by themselves, so I spent all my free time alone, or together with guild members, looking for plants suitable for the level in locations to raise levels on them. I must say right away, I have never done more monotonous actions in my life, i.e. in fact, the game does not offer options other than grind, and after a while I started to get bored, but I still continued, because communication with the guild brightened up this boring time. As for pumping melee, this still leaves a lot of questions, i.e. if I originally wanted to play an archer or a swordsman, I wouldn't have to pump magic — why?
Even omitting this moment, I noticed one interesting thing — an imbalance. So, having a magic level of 70+ (90 hands), I hardly kill one plant, while sometimes I have to heal myself (the chance of success of using a spell has never been lower than 97%, but usually 99%). But everything changes when I take daggers and just hit with a standard auto-attack, the melee level was 60, the same plant, I could kill 3-4 pieces without a break without even healing myself. At this moment, I completely lost the desire to play as a magician, because he simply does not survive, low damage per second, frequent misses and lack of understanding whether I caused "periodic damage" finally killed the desire to continue further.
I was thinking, because people (even if there are a few of them) still play, and I decided to ask around in my guild and in the general chat about the game. As it turned out, everything, absolutely everything comes down to the grind, monotonous raising of levels at everything, and from entertainment there are events (of which there are not so many) and not very diverse daily tasks.

Of course, this is not all quibbles, but what "lay on the surface". There are also bugs that are more likely to come from the game engine, for example, at a distance of over 41 meters, I do not see enemy magic attacks, but they continue to go. The hands of male characters at a distance turn into "paddles", optimization is very lame and if you increase the rendering distance it becomes very noticeable, shadows are displayed only on the ground (i.e. Grass and buildings let the shadow through) and not from all objects, some sounds cut the ear and have too high a DB level at low or vice versa high frequencies (for example, acid spells) and so on…

Well, as they say, "Criticize — offer!"

I don't know much about game development, but I understand that any change takes time and effort, so I will try to concentrate the proposals on "volumes".
My suggestions:

- Redesign of the interface: adjusting panel sizes, changing icons (heal from the guild swears at similar spells) changing icon points (if possible, because they can be made even more beautiful and detailed)
That was where my pain was XD

Combining the map and radar (this idea is already on the GIT, it needs to be tested and simply added to the game).
Anyone who can tell you why? Let me explain - the year is 2023. Getting used to the new interface will not be too difficult, and if it is beautiful and harmonious, and most importantly intuitive, then it will definitely attract the attention of beginners.

Quests: think over and make a simple quest system by adding NPCs to cities and neighborhoods that will give quests by analogy with "daily tasks", but with different messages: kill certain mobs or collect certain resources from them, and most importantly, give experience for completing tasks to all attacking branches at once. The same can be done for crafting, you can collect resources from mobs or dig them and also give experience to the branches of crafting and mining. Let this experience not be very big (you need to experiment), but so that you can pump the character by performing such tasks.
It would be ideal to make a "main quest" to get to know Lor, because there is practically no acquaintance with lor in the game itself, to think over a chain of quests based on the maximum attacking level and, for example, to give out clothes and jewelry to choose from for the class as rewards.

Balance: it's not all that simple and you just have to sit and think, there are a lot of ideas, but you need to think through the implementation. I'll take as an example the 2 most popular MMORPGs over the past 18 years, let's see how it's done there? So "combat" usually wear heavy or medium armor, have a decent amount of HP, but the main focus is still armor, physical damage is absorbed by armor, depending on the specialty (tank, ranged damage, melee damage) cause different damage, I think the idea is clear and in principle I did not notice in the game, difficulties with this a branch, maybe just to finalize something. "Magic" is usually light, less often medium armor, have HP slightly lower than in the "battle" branches, but cause increased damage, have mobility and control of the enemy. That's where the questions arise, as in the example above. Ie. in another game, I can "magically" beat the enemy and, depending on the class, either the enemy gets to me with difficulty and dies halfway, or I can run away from him and cause damage at a distance, as well as beat several opponents with "mass skills" (in fact, there are many examples and not from one game, but I hope the essence is clear).
It would not be bad to add an "instant cast" let it have a certain castdown, but the spell itself will be pronounced instantly.
As for HP, I would think about getting rid of HP pumping altogether, so that it would be given automatically from the maximum level of a particular branch, it would be honest and would not require the magician to pump melee (who needs to pump himself).

Events: It would not be bad to also have automatic events, for example PVE, so that a chest appears somewhere on the map, monsters appear around it and you need to fight your way through and take it, or monster attacks on surrounding cities, well, or at least something =)
PVP to make an arena 2x2 3x3 5x5 or something like a battleground, and since there are not enough players yet, make certain sets of skills so that the player's level and clothes do not affect the balance, everyone had ± an equal amount of HP and by choosing a "class" there were several active skills, you could arrange fights for some "bonuses". This would also become unique =)

It would also be nice to see the icons of "buffs" and attacks on the enemy in order to understand whether the aura or periodic damage is acting on him at this time

It would also be nice to think about switching to another engine, such as TinyCore Mangos, but I think it's more difficult than finishing the Ryzom engine, so this question is rather just a thought out loud.

I made a few changes to the files inside the game (changed the loading screens, and started changing the skill icons and the game became a little nicer.

"Left to right:
Aura of life, self-healing, goal healing, running, fear, sep on yourself, roots and cold."



Anyone who says something like "go and play other games" guys, I can easily! But I am interested in developing this game and increasing the number of players, it would be much cooler! Let's discuss this?

There is also a question to the developers, as far as I know the graphics are made in 3ds max and version quite old, is it possible to reconfigure the engine to formats that could be converted from Blener? I think there would be more help in this regard =)

Un point que j'aime beaucoup dans cet ensemble de remarques constructives, c'est l'idée de donner de l'XP lors des missions des PNJ. Pas forcément toutes les missions, mais quelques unes, bien spécifiques et qui nécessitent un bon délais de plusieurs jours avant d'être reprises.

On peut ensuite ajuster cela en faisant en sorte que cette XP ait un rapport avec la mission, voir avec la nation/tribu qui la donne. Par exemple, les missions fyros donneraient surtout de l'XP en combat, les trykers en forage, les matis en artisanat et les zorai en magie, comme ce que semblent suggérer les missions sur silan avec les entraineurs.

By the way, a good idea, it would be possible to divide the trainers into factions and NPCs with quests, so it will be easier to understand what you are doing. And in this case, the NPC that gives a quest of a certain aspect could match the level of this skill. Let the quests be in different locations and send you to different locations as well, sometimes it's nice to run. I would also like to discuss nerf mobs, so that the player can kill a couple at a time having a certain skill in the game

There is another suggestion regarding teleportation. What if we do it by analogy with GW? There are points of cities that "open up" like as places for revival open up here. What if you open teleportation locations in the same way and when you click on the map on the desired teleport, you would be offered to write off the "amount for teleportation". I will explain why this is so, firstly, it is sometimes difficult to search in a bag among a bunch of teleports you need, secondly, a person who may not remember all the cities spends a lot of time to remember which teleport is in which place thirdly a place in the bag

Il y a beaucoup à dire, cependant je vais me concentrer sur quelques points principaux, et principalement sur le point où j'ai le plus d'expertise : la contribution au jeu.

Cela fait une dizaine d'année que je vois passer de bonnes (et moins bonnes) idées, des gens motivés pour les appliquer, et parfois même des améliorations qui se retrouvent réellement en jeu. Le schéma reste assez similaire au fil du temps.

Il y a deux points à garder en tête : Ryzom a une très longue histoire, et autant de passif à surmonter. Et la complexité globale du projet rend son appropriation complexe.

Concernant la partie historique, bien que le jeu soit en partie open source, il a été organisé comme un labyrinthe de secret. C'est drôle si vous aimez fouiner, ça l'est moins quand vous voulez construire, car il faut faire avec des informations éparpillées (et parfois uniquement dans la tête d'un contributeur depuis longtemps parti), des chaines de commandement extremement tourmentées, et si je résume : il y a un immobilisme à surmonter qui est digne des plus grandes administrations françaises. Je précise que le problème est systémique et indépendant des individus qui compose le système. En fait, un gros travail a été réalisé pour simplifier cette organisation, mais cela reste très très loin d'un environnement où la contribution est facile. Ce système quasiment impénétrable décourage la majorité des contributeurs ; ceux qui restent ont une tendance soit à être blasé, soit à devenir totalement allégent au système et donc à le perpétuer (j'oscille entre les deux, et lorsque ça devient trop insupportable, je me sauve !). Si cela a toujours été un problème, je crains que ça ne devienne encore plus critique aujourd'hui : autrefois il y avait encore assez d'argents et de motivés pour que le nombre compense les pertes, à présent il y a vraiment trop peu de contributeurs experts (= connaissant les rouages et les secrets) pour accompagner efficacement les nouveaux arrivants. C'est d'autant plus triste qu'il y a réellement beaucoup de travail qui a été réalisé pour simplifier la contribution, mais la marche reste énorme.

Si vous trouvez le grind de Ryzom pénible, le mécanisme d'expérience dans la contribution vous donnera une autre idée du mot "difficile" ;)

Car il n'y a pas que le système social qui bloque. Il est possible de se procurer l'ensemble du code, d'avoir accès aussi à la partie propriétaire (les datasheets et primitives) si on montre patte blanche, et ensuite ? Ensuite les ennuis commencent. Je me souviens de mon désespoir en essayant de démêler les surcouches du Webig, qui est pourtant une partie facile : 20 ans à accumuler frameworks et travaux de stagiaires mal finis avaient créé un monstre polycéphale, et le nettoyage de ce bordel aurait renvoyé Hercule et les écuries d'Augias au rang de "banal tâche ménagère". Il y a des pans entiers du code où les devs experts vous diront "n'y va pas, si tu touche à quoi que ce soit, tout s'écroule". Cela n'empêche pas qu'au fil du temps, certaines choses sont refactorisées, mais le travail pour tout reprendre est juste incompatible avec les moyens de Ryzom. C'est d'autant plus complexe que certaines choses sont bien pensées, et que toucher à une partie qui semble anodine peu mener à un déséquilibre des meilleurs morceaux.

L'une des parties qui me désespère particulièrement est le manque de gamedesigner compétents. J'ai fini par me former sur le tas (10 ans à se former, forcément on apprends un peu ?), mais je ne me risquerais pas à une analyse complète de Ryzom. Certains morceaux sont faciles à critiquer (l'économie ? je peux en parler des heures), d'autres sont admirables et je frémis à chaque fois que je lis une proposition pour y toucher (l'artisanat... son équilibrage est vraiment délicat et plutôt réussi). Et puisqu'on parle d'équilibrage, il faut savoir que c'est une des parties les plus complexes à bosser dans un jeu. Quand vous avez des millions, voir des milliards et donc toutes les ressources pour le faire bien, et bien même là c'est long et complexe. Ryzom n'a pas ces moyens et l'empirisme sur ce genre de travail donne de très mauvais résultats (on reparle de l'économie ? Non ? Ne touchez plus à l'économie, pitié). Où je veux en venir ? En tant que joueurs nous avons plein d'idées sur ce qui nous ferait plaisir ; mais il faut arriver à voir ces idées dans le contexte global du jeu, les impacts que les changements vont avoir sur des parties surprenantes.

Un exemple avec le grinding de Ryzom. Bon, je déteste ça. Vraiment. Aussi, si demain on supprime ça, qu'on puisse avoir son niveau 250 en 5 soirs de jeu, je serais la première à danser. Cependant, quasi toutes les mécaniques gameplay de Ryzom tournent autour de ce grind, et du fait d'avoir toujours une branche de plus à monter. Si je fais un pas de côté, nous sommes dans un jeu qui a plus de point commun avec des jeux asiatiques qu'avec les jeux occidentaux. Prenons un peu plus de hauteur : c'est une question de cible et de marché. Certains joueurs aiment les tâches répétitives, l'optimisation qu'elles demandent, ou le fait de faire sans optimiser et d'y arriver aussi à force de s'obstiner. Ok, je ne fais pas partie de ces joueurs. Pourtant je reste sur le jeu, malgré cette mécanique qui me rend dingue. Pourquoi ? Pour les effets secondaires du grinding. C'est ennuyant, oui. Donc ? Donc cela laisse de la place aux relations sociales. En fait, tu le dis toi aussi : à ton retour, tu as trouvé des gens, et c'est cela qui t'a fait rester. C'est aussi cela qui me ramène à ce jeu, alors même que j'ai joué à plein d'autres plus dynamiques et sympathiques sur les mécaniques. Oui, mais ici, en fait, il n'y a pas le choix, il *faut* prendre son temps et être avec les gens. On ne joue pas "au jeu", on joue "avec les gens". Et si on n'arrive pas à faire ces rencontres, on part. Peut-on garder cet aspect social sans le grinding ? Oui et non. Cela demande une transformation si profonde du jeu que ce ne sera plus "Ryzom", mais autre chose. Suis-je en train de dire qu'il faut laisser le grinding ? Cela me rends malade, mais... oui. Parce que si on veut un autre jeu, autant le faire à côté, sans enlever Ryzom à ceux qui l'aiment comme ça. Je rêve quand même que l'univers soit un jour libéré afin de faire ce Ryzom alternatif sans grinding ;)

Ce serait bien. Nous avions travaillé dessus en 2013, et même débloqué de l'argent pour ça (mais clairement pas donné aux bonnes personnes). Actuellement, Blender peut permettre de réaliser des objets statiques pour le jeu, c'est déjà ça. Mais hélas le pipeline graphique est un très gros morceau, extrêmement complexe. Nous avons tourné ça dans tous les sens, et la réponse est toujours la même : soit il faut beaucoup d'argent ET trouver des gens extrêmements compétents (et ils ne sont pas nombreux, et chers...), soit il faut repartir de zéro sur la partie graphique. Il y a des bricolages pour arriver à ajouter des choses en jeu, mais certains morceaux resteront compliqués avec le système actuel. C'est très clairement une partie qui bloque la contribution. Qu'est-ce qui est le moins cher, adapter ou repartir de zéro ? Je pense que ça se vaut, et ça se chiffrerait probablement en millions si on paie les gens.

J'espère que ce message donnera quelques idées sur le travail que ces propositions demandent et les difficultés que cela peut soulever.

Structurally, that's why I want to understand more deeply what can be changed in the game without major engine changes. In principle, 85% of what I have proposed can be applied without resorting to a strong change. Work on the balance, make quests (by the way, I didn't talk about pumping in 5 days =)) However, this needs to be done to break the vicious circle.
The vicious circle that I see looks like a small number of players bring a small income because of which the development of the game slows down, so the more players there would be now, the more it would be possible to invest in development.

So back to the topic. Changing the engine would probably be interesting, but as it turned out, it takes a long time and has a whole bunch of pitfalls that can simply change the essence of the game, so we will put this question on the back shelf of our thoughts and return to the Ryzom engine as it is.

For myself, I have already decided that I will study the Ryzom engine (at least superficially) in order to better understand the stuffing and try to make changes that I think could pleasantly diversify the game, and most importantly (yes, this is the goal of my entire mission) to increase the number of players! It would be nice if 300-400 online players played here, ideally to bring it up to a thousand and above! So let's move on to the discussion.

First. What can really be changed from the text that I wrote earlier. QUESTS, RAISING LEVELS and CLASS DEPENDENCIES!

So the proposal as a whole does not change much and after a little reasoning I came to a certain system (offer options, a fresh look is always better), why is this the first? Because it doesn't change the system much, which means it won't take too much time, but it will give good results.

Quests, in the first location it is well implemented, I suggest doing so in all locations and cities. Place a dozen NPCs in each location that will offer (on a daily basis) quests for leveling. NPCs should be of different races for different pumping and, accordingly, have different tasks, whether it's killing mobs, collecting or crafting. For completing quests, give experience for magic / crafting / attack / or loot, depending on the race of the NPC that belongs to these branches.
For example, the Fyros NPCs raise the level for close combat
Mathis raise the levels in the assembly
Tryker — crafting
Zoraï — magic

The essence is to diversify the grind with quests and runs through locations. The only thing that needs to be done somehow is to make the system so that quests are issued under the player's leveling level (here we need to think about a script for the server).

Dependencies of classes, I ask you to study this question as much as possible, because (again, I wrote above) when pumping a magician, you need to pump melee because of HP, I think it would be wise to remove HP pumping (only HP pumping, without touching regeneration) and make a calculation of the number of HP only from the maximum level, so you can remove a certain dependence in extra body movements when pumping a certain class.
This will require (most likely) resetting points and skills so that the player can intelligently reallocate the free points and spend them wisely. How do you look at it?