IDEAS FOR RYZOM

I've wondered about that attitude, and you might be on to something there. For me Ryzom was my first MMO, and the only prior experiences I had to compare it with were singleplayer RPG games. In those singleplayer RPG games, generally it took quite a while before you got from the starting city to the second city. You'd spend a lot of time just adventuring around the starting city first. So I thought nothing of spending my first several weeks in Ryzom being constricted to just one capital and it's surroundings.

But as far as I can tell, MMOs these days mostly always have all their starter cities easily linked, either by a totally safe road that even lower levels can travel or by some form of teleportation. So it's not surprising if newbies come into Ryzom expecting to be able to see all the cities in one day, and when they can't, they feel as though this game is horribly slow. "It takes weeks to do what only takes a day on other MMOs? Sjeesh!" It's all about expectations.

It's a good thing players are stuck with their choice of land. It really helps to establish the sense of wonder later on, when you finally leave your land and enter the other one.

However, there is a slight problem stemming from the current population of Ryzom (or rather, from the lack of population of Ryzom). You come to Pyr, and it's totally empty. You come to Yrkanis, likewise. Doing /who gives you four, maybe five names, most of which would be way too high a level for any form of useful cooperation. Now, I don't mind, I'm a grumpy old crone who prefers playing solo most of the time; but I surely imagine that your typical MMO player would be dismayed by the fact he has nobody to party with.

Too few new players come to mainland already; no more than a handful. And this handful is further divided into four enclosed regions, their only meaningful chance of reunification being a late night tuesday BM trek. Will they wait until the next trek, to visit other cities and see if they can find any more players there? Or will they eventually leave, having nobody nearby to show them the beauty of Atys?

More and more people are staying at Silan, willingly, often complaining that they have nobody to play with at mainland. It is not a good sign.

Now, I don't suggest portals (or giving new players pre-filled teleport pacts) is a good thing, or even a good idea. No, I hate it. But the problem stays: new players are coming to mainland to find out they have nobody to play with. Any suggestions?

Well if that is really the case... I just started a few days ago and am really enjoying it. If the number of people playing suddenly drops to only 4 or 5 people from usually never running far without several other homin dots on the compass... then I would ask what is the draw for the people that have been here the longest to be back at the beginning areas?

Is it to help out the new people? (I certainly have had plenty of great people helping me on my way so far) Is it revisiting because they have kind of 'explored themselves out'?

Whatever the reason, I would suggest that perhaps everyone get together via getting a thread started on it, or a blog roll somewhere and set some dates. Make some regular events happen that are character set, not dev set.

I know that for a long time my wife's 'kinship' on LOTRO was tapering off and there just weren't many people around at any given time on their home server. Several of them got together, started doing shoutouts in town, started a forum thread, did some recruiting as well actually, and after a few months they had a pretty booming community again for a long time.

Worth a shot anyway. Once I get leveld up more and learn more - I know I am all for helping out however I can.

Take care all,
- Zift

/sign
Whilst being "off" Ryzom I used frequently Free-Trial Chars Lvl 10-20 to run from city to city or explore our old OPs.
It is difficult, involves some dying sometimes but its entirely possible./sign again
It is really a fun thing especially when a trek is organised and the group is big and you are going to see the Roots as well for the first time.

The solution is joining some guild. It solve both problems - a newcomer will have people to play and communicate with and any treks would be done easily.

maybe some ppl don't want to join a guild. i don't know if this portal thing is a good idea, but if it ever did get implemented, you could limit it's use to once a week or some time period maybe.

would still mean exactly the same ppl would just buy tickets and can port to where they want.
I'm against this over pampering ppl in mmo's, it's the game live with it and finding a trek party isn't that hard usual, joining a guild helps.
Then again joining a guild also helps with cats/armors/weapons/... , if you don't wanna join a guild then those things are gonna be harder to get and it's the same with tp pacts they gonna be harder also => it's a free choise

on another note i remeber a year or so ago maybe 2 they removed all mobs for some days and lots off ppl got all tp's that way but then again that made me not log in some days aswell since i had nothing to do

oh yeah you're right... would have to deactivate the tp ticket buying [edit] in that region or region and surrounding areas' [/edit] if you used a portal within that week or whatever... not saying it's a good or bad idea, just saying if it did happen, that might be the way to go

Maybe a different approach, then: allow people to see how many similar-leveled people there is in any given zone, BEFORE they pick their destination. Not exact numbers, perhaps more like an activity chart, sorted by timezones. If they see Pyr is dead during European peak hours, while Zora or Fairhaven is "where it's at", they'll be more likely to head to Zora or Fairhaven, resulting in more people to play with.

But yes, I tend to agree about guilds. Entering a guild is apparently a solution to this problem - if you are lucky enough to avoid "zombie-guilds" full of alts and AFKers.

Guilds help, but most if not all guilds will help players without expecting them to join.
Just ask in region and/or universe and more often than not someone will offer to help you (maybe you need to wait a bit if they're busy) or telling you when there's a trek starting or coming your way (some guilds have regular treks, say once a week).

Ryzom is in a way unique (or nearly) in this in that most mmos don't allow players of different factions and/or races to mingle at all, except within the confines of specially designated killing zones for pvp battles, and of those that do offer such melting/merging many have ways to make travel easy (flying mounts, mage portals, etc.).
When the world is designed around those, they can work well. Atys however isn't so designed.

For the record... portals are not needed.

I just got to do my first trek earlier this week. What level am I / was I? 26-ish or less in everything.

How difficult was it? Let's see... my firend shouted out something along the lines of "Hey my friend and I are low level n00b characters and he would like to take his first trek. Any takers?"

It took all of about I dunno... 10 seconds for the first "Sure hold on a sec we'll put it together." and all of about 10 min for I'd say about two teams worth of people to join in on a chat channel, group up, go over the rules (who was leading, who to follow, what to do if you die, what n00bs should do, etc.) and head out.

My only regret was that during I'd say the last half hour / hour I'm guessing? I got a service call that came in and I had to leave >:(

It was friggin' kick ass! If you have not done a trek yet, and you have not seen even just the parts of Atys that a trek can show you... then you cannot possibly imagine what you are missing and you would not even dream of wanting freebie portals everywhere to skip it all.

Plus here is the deal breaker. All throughout the trek you make stops where you can buy a pact if you want... I picked up two at each spot just in case, so if the need arises that I absolutely MUST get somewhere instantly to help someone or whatever. Now I can. But I can tell you this - I won't be just popping around the world unless I have to. It's just absolutely un-friggin-believeable and I can't wait to do it again sometime.

Anyway I could go on for longer than the trek took about how much I enjoyed it and appreciated everyone who took us or went along with us.

Take care all, and to anyone who started that trek or particpated in it earlier this week... THANK YOU! That was f'nAwesome :D
- Zift

Treks are always a great fun and I almost never refuse to participate when there is a call for one. I might not be the best trek guide on Atys, but I always love to act as a bodyguard / healer. If Newcommers no longer need to be trekked between capital cities, I'll lose one of my favourite activities, which is making sure everyone gets to their destination alive. ^^

Hey Zift ! I was there on the trek and I remember you. Yes, it was awesome. If anyone ever needs a trek from Pyr to Dyron, just ask me. I can even show you some nice digging spots around the city.

I wholeheartedly agree with treks being an important and distinguishing feature of Ryzom. Sadly, getting a trek together can a slight annoyance due to vastly different timezones: often, potential trekkees and potential trekkers don't even meet each other online. Someone's peak hours can be someone else's 4 AM.