IDEAS FOR RYZOM

Marauders are not civ aligned, but they are supposedly getting a town, and presumedly a player government too ("they" will be missing an opportunity if they neglect this).

It makes sense that in a time of such conflict, when this unknown enemy is rising in conflict with our nations and our faiths, it is natural to set aside differences with the enemy you do know, and join in opposition to the new foe. To this end, I hope the other "neutrals" will not be forgotten in this struggle. We would hope that we can get at minimum a place to hang our weapons while discussing our strategies and plans in defense of our home. But, being neurtral, it does make sense that such a place would be on neutral ground, someplace within Primeroots.

I suggest a Hominist Outpost be made. Allow us to rebuild one of the science outposts (Make us demonstrate our desire by allowing us to collect the mats). All it needs is a central building with a meeting spot, a stable, and some guard towers (and some guards).

OPTIONAL:

Give us a residence hall, with apartments and/or guild halls.
Give us two TPs, Kami and Karavan, just outside of town on opposite sides.
A player government...even if it is only for democratic "upkeep" of our outpost.

POSSIBLE LOCATIONS:

Lowhills Research Center, SW GoO
Aedengate Workshop, East ToT
Earie Valley Magicpole, West ToT
Umbragate Farm, SW Nexus

Other Suggestions:

Almati Wood
Olkern Lake
Aelius Dunes

I do love the idea of the tavern in the middle of nowhere that is partly a safe place for travellers in the middle of the wilderness, partly a smugglers nest and trading post, partly a cosmopolitan meeting place for outcasts from all corners of the world, and partly the center of politics for the region even if it's just a humble tavern.

But, I've some concern this would quickly become the Dalaran of Ryzom, that is, the place where all the high level players always hang out. At least players hanging out in the capitals might be tempted to communicate with the newbies there sometimes. If they all leave for the neutral hanging spot, the capitals would seem very empty to a new player indeed.

So, definitely no merchants, no apts or GHs, and no teleports. And even then I'm not entirely sure it'd be enough to prevent the capitals emptying out. I'd still definitely hang out there all the time :P

Such a place would certainly be the place to be for many of us and even know I am really attached to the Prime Roots as it is now - isolated and dangerous - the idea of an haven in this environment is tempting.

However, like Marelli I am concerned about the possible consequences... so yes for the place and some commodities but PR must remain isolated so no merchants or appartments imo...

XD I would definitely go for the tavern though... A tall tryker like me can't go too far without stinga rhum ! XD

I understand this argument, of course the consequences must always be considered...and good point Marelli, but would your opinion change if the PR Marauder town has access to these things? Or...maybe that is how they balance not being able to get TPs...

That depends, if the Marauder town has the potential to become a neutral hang out spot for everyone, it no longer matters if the Hominist town is too.

If non-Marauders are killed on sight there, however... that would be a very effective way to prevent that and make sense for a Marauder town, but not so much for a Hominist town.

Agreed, we will see how that turns out. Still think it would be cool to enjoy the civ aspect of the game without having to leave the people I have been playing with for 6 years (because we are from a variety of races and call different places home...we remain civ neutral).

Marauders are like the criminal element of today's society; since we have no way to distinguish political or moral differences with outright violent offender status, it all gets rolled into one classification. While wishing the best out of all people, and giving everyone a chance, wouldn't Marauders be the group of people who showed time and again that they did not wish to be a part of "normal" society, and rather, wanted to disrupt that society in favour of another model?

You would obviously have activists in pushing to have Marauders re-integrated into society, but the responsible behaviour of a ruling body to all of its citizens is to protect them from threat of danger, even those who willfully bring threat of danger upon themselves.

I can see Marauders being given warnings to stay away (difference for Hominist cities) and then being attacked on sight, regrettably so, to maintain safety for the residents of the Hominist city.

I'm not certain the comparison to Dalaran (or Shattrath before it) would be adequate. Those cities were somewhat centrally-located within their expansion's new region, and they had portals to all of the other cities. Dal even had a dungeon, while Shat had the only portals to the pre-expansion extra content. They had max-level daily missions, including dungeon and raid missions, and a number of other missions and fame (reputation) related content. They also had merchants for very high-end equipment as well as "tier" pieces. Dal also had a flying mount vendor, where you had to go elsewhere in BC to obtain (most of) your mounts and training.

For a story-driven and quest-driven game like that one, the story led players to end their leveling, and even spend much of it, right in those cities. It encouraged activities at max-level to be directed toward those cities, as well.

Ryzom isn't a story-driven or quest-driven game, so there is no story or level progression that pushes you toward any one town or another once you get to the mainland.

Merchants, stables, and neutral TPs are standard in every Ryzom town, and should remain so. Trainers, faction vendors, apartments, and guild halls are features of capital towns and should remain available only in the capital towns. I'd even go so far as to recommend Nexus for the Hominist town, and then separate its market from the general Forest market; hawkers in Nexus sell to the market in Nexus, and you go to the Hominist town in Nexus to participate.

Since there are already TPs in Nexus, I'd suggest making those faction-only, and then adding neutral TPs to the Hominist town.

The big question for this town, though, is, "Why a town like this?" Hominists are already welcomed in all of the cities, and Marauders are not (or should not) be welcomed in any of them, so there is already unity of sorts against the Marauders. What could this town do for Hominists that can't be done with existing, aligned towns? Or, how could this town represent Hominists in ways that no other town presently can do?

I suspect Loryen just wants a place that Hominists can call totally their own, rather than being guests of one of the 4 nations.

Me though, I want the same thing out of a different desire... I want a place where the nations can meet on neutral ground. Currently if I want to make the Nobles meet with the Akenak, it either has to happen on our turf, or on their turf (neither is neutral ground), or in a third nation (which begs the question of whether that nation's government is truly impartial) or in the middle of the bloody wilderness.

A hominist outpost would naturally fulfil the role of neutral meeting place, seeing as Hominist means friendly with all nations.
Tell that to the Kamists and neutrals who have to swim all the way to Avendale :P

Marelli,

This sounds like we should start a United Nations homin style. That is an awesome idea.

Nice idea.... though i did have this sort of idea before too.... everyone was just saying "Why don't you go ahead and start it up!" or "IF yo do something i might join in later if it's going good." etc etc.

Good luck with it! I'm now Fyros.

Aww boogers. That is indeed a capital city (and Desert city) perk. Thanks for correcting me =)

Well Keyif, I have been playing for months with the idea of trying to start up a bi-monthly or maybe tri-monthly meeting between all 4 governments...

My main problem is that there always seems to be at least 1 government that's totally inactive, even if it varies over time which government this is :P

But, my second-biggest worry is definitely where to hold it. Rotating between the capitals is one solution, but then where do you hold the first one? A Hominist outpost would makes this easier :P

Well, I had many of the suggestions mentioned here...even the possibility of a UN type meeting place, in mind when I suggested it (although I did not want to push my lucj even further with the requests).

One of my primary motiviations was the search for lore. I love the PvE in this game, as well as the story...especially the fact that there are so many questions yet unanswered. It is my hope that the devs do not just "hand" us Encyclopedia v2, rather give us a variety of ways to find hints at answers. What I really hoped for such a neutral place was to "rebuild" one of the research or science stations. Therefore those of us who want to focus on PvE, and to whom faction alignment is primarily a convenience, would have a place.

To this end, ideally this outpost would be based in FD or SC, due to the abundance of ruins "to explore", but the KPs would make this difficult.

This was my initial idea, but I also saw the possibilities with the hominist perspective and presented the idea from that direction. Being neutral, it would be a place for those whose interest in something else (in my case, science/lore) was more powerful than the need to belong to a civ. Yet, this would also allow those who are part of a civ, but have interest in neutral interaction to visit without threat of KoS due to negative civ fame. Perhaps, we would even be neutral to Marauders...or as originally suggested, we would be the antithesis of Marauder.

I suggest Almati Woods. Methinks the Ranger camp in there is mostly hominist/impartial.

And it would give us a reason to go there other than just raiding the Kitin Nest to gather occupation products and harvest DP.

It's accessible from the 4 nations quite directly (by the temples and occupation trainers).

And it gives us an opportunity to watch over the Kitin Nest's entrance, along with the Rangers.