OFFICIAL NEWS

As is told and remembered by those who came first, contemporary history of hominkind began with the influx of refugees from the wilderness. In history's first episode, the refugees gathered and were forced to defend their new homes from an enemy of old, the Kitins. And just when all seemed calm, a new threat of Marauders entered the world of Atys.

The second episode of recent history saw homins building great temples in honor of their gods. The Marauders tried to claim the lands of homins and the Kitins again threatened the lands as they moved into an old, forgotten, lair. Bravely working together, homins largely kept them at bay by building guard towers that would keep their nations safe, only to be later divided by conflicts between the races. But as this episode draws to a close, another begins...

Because now, a new shadow looms over Atys. The Kitins are rebuilding their lair and the arrival of a Queen seems imminent, making terrible memories of the Great Swarming resurface. The Marauders appear unrelenting in their efforts to claim a home for themselves. The corruption brought by the Goo might very well change the face of Atys forever.

The ever-evolving story of the living planet Atys moves into its next episode. No homin, creature or plant will be safe. The threats are real and the storm is building. How will you respond? The Saga continues in Episode 3: At the Edge of Darkness.

Sounds exciting! Just hope the game won't get too much harder, as then you can expect me to no longer consider subbing... I trust the devs to do it right though :)

excuse my OT:
ryzom isn't hard. it just isn't very new player / single player friendly. please don't let ryzom get a year 2010 game ;P

great one Kreios :), give us some daily KotD at the FH stables and maybe a weekly tryker exterminator to get started

in fact it probably should be made harder as it's rather too much of a cakewalk at present, especially in some of the high level zones (thus the low level zones are likely about as hard as they should be for low level players, but some of the higher level zones could be made harder, or even higher level, harder, zones introduced that remain a challenge to players even at multiple master level).

I agree with you actually. I think everyone should be able to attack an equally challenging target for all players depending on the region level it's in. What I meant to say in my last post was that i wouldn't want to sub if it was very hard, not "harder". My bad loll

Ryzom really does seem difficult at first but over time you learn to stop treating it like other MMOs and learn to work with Atys instead of against her.  

It was only about 12 months ago on the old Feedback Forums that Iala was saying how KP had to be removed as it was too hard, and that the Kitin Lair was only good for maxing your DP because it was too hard ot gather Occupation mats.  Pretty sure I was the one telling Iala back then that he just needs to learn how to play, now here's Iala telling others the game isn't hard enough.  Ahh, how quickly they grow up :D

Stick with it Sinsemilla and anyone else struggling with the difficulty, it feels like an honest achievment when you work it all out.

Not quite, Kaly. The lair is indeed mostly good for getting dp, I rarely if ever go there without ending up with a decent dose of the stuff :)
And the KP was toned down, with a lower aggro range. They were I still feel too much, not maybe their existence but their strength and range.

I'm talking here about the balance between zones. Relatively speaking, the low level zones (especially Verdant Heights, Haven of Purity and Frahar Towers) are far harder than some other zones like Void and Fount.

Heck, hardly anyone goes into Bounty Beaches even at master level because it's considered too dangerous in places (same with parts of Enchanted Isle and elsewhere).

Of course over time everything seems to get easier, which I keep telling people. Not only do we gain experience about the world around us, allowing us to more easily avoid the worst areas, but we gain strength and striking power, so we can more readily both survive and fight our way through trouble.

I am not so concerned with imbalances in regions. But Iala is right that Bounty Beaches is too hard for a 200 rated region and Void too easy for a 250 rated, etc.

Even the aggro knows the Lakes are the best =D

The zones could use some rebalancing, on the other hand why not accept them as they are? It's atys! Red zone does not equal hard, it is just the mobs level. The player associate a creature level with a difficulty, not the game. Ryzom is different, stop adding all mainstream ideas to it. Imbalance has it's charms, no?

Homins who survived Yrkanis and the dogs come from a totally different breed than let's say swimming Fairhaven starter. The game itself has alot potential to be more newbie friendly, but dumbing everything down is not the right way imho. Add more hints and helpers instead, optional of course.

yes and no, Mirie. I agree Ryzom shouldn't be changed to be just another WoW clone (which a lot of the "suggestions" posted here would result in, which is why I don't like them).
OTOH, there are now parts of Atys where noone goes because it's just no use, that's a waste of real estate :)

I love being able to dig in Void unimpeded, btw.

Hmmm. I agree Ryzom might appear difficult to a new player. But it isn't really once you figure it out. There are always ways to level up solo - more time consuming but it is possible. Only when you are hitting 150+ do you really need team work. I do think it could actually be made harder for higher levels - at least once there is a larger influx of Homins.

My advice to any newish player would be this: always level Speed spell combined with protection spells either Inv or Melee Shield for example - this should normally give you enough time to shake off mobs and survive. It just becomes part of your daily routine (or in my case it used to be used non-stop haha).

More story input and new content can only be good. Just hope I get time this week to download Ryzom once again. Been a long time hehe.

And to any new diggers - I remember back in the old days (around 2005) when going through PR and Abyss etc was near on impossible without an army - used to be huge almost unavoidable patrols - even great timing would result into a fight (or more often than not party wipe lol). Now you can walk throughout them solo and survive - good use of speed and protection spells essential ofc!

A day or so ago, I was with a couple of people in Underspring, and we happened to walk into the middle point of two patrols. At least there was one less Kirosta by the end of it =)

When I started at the end of 2006, there was no KP. Boy howdy was it a surprise when friends and I came back recently to work on some PR digging skills =)

I'd say, then, that PR now is a good compromise between what you remember and what I remember. It's not a cakewalk like the surface, but it's also not impossible either.

Though I love the Lakes, I do agree that a couple of zones could use a hair fewer aggro spawns ... but not too many, lest they lose their charm. And what isn't charming about Fijoo coming to give you a hug, right? =D

@ Erizon! - yah that sounds about right - one Kirosta less! I'm not a digger and have had many try to influence me into it - but im toooo lazy lol. But originally back in time with my other main, we went through PR simply to collect the TP's - back then there were not faction Tp's so you could calmly get em all anywhere. (saying that there were only like 3 or 4 Master melee or ele on the whole server so lvl 200+ mobs were a bit tough anyway lol - easy TP's were very much needed!). Once starting with Twina though, I had to start from scratch and then just ran through everywhere solo grabbing my Kara tp's. Now digging I might have found boring - but running solo TP to TP was one of the highlights on returning to Atys.

Can't back my firewalls down atm to download arghhhh! Best get it sorted in the next few days - getting itchy to ride Vorkoo haha....