Ring Around The Ryzom

[cloudy97]

I'm probably the slowest leveler in the world, highest combat skill after 15-16 months is just 109 of 250. People outlevel me in a month. So... I can't really say "increase numbers". I'm not doing that at all.

Instead I want to make really good one handed maces, which proves to be very difficult. There's SO many combinations.
For this I need to find good materials, and the best harvest spots seem to be located near really nasty creatures. So, sneaking past the monsters to dig and run if/when they spot me. Digging in itself is fun - using very harmful actions gives more materials but makes the source explode if you're not careful.

Boss mobs also drop great materials and teaming up to kill them is fun.

Declaring war against another guild to take over their outpost can be fun. Huge battles.

Treking a new player between countries is great fun.

Official events can be fun, currently the lands are invaded by very strong kitins.

[AcidCat]

Since I've been slowing down on WoW a bit until the expansion hits I figured I would check out the free trial last night.

My first hint that the game would not offer the most intuitive experience came right away when prior to starting the game a box popped up and asked my preferred control scheme, and I picked WASD of course. But upon entering the game... WASD does nothing. After asking around I found that you still have to bring up your menu and map the WASD keys to the appropriate movements. Makes a lot of sense.

Well after figuring out how to get around I step right outside the camp you start at and spy some little creatures roaming about. Whatever con system the game has is not immediately obvious, but this little hedgehog dude is an "Inexperienced Yugo" and the first creature you meet, so he seems like an easy kill.

Of course, he kills me. The Inexperienced Rodent bests me. Right there, something inside me died a little.

So I spend some time contemplating the error of my ways and start foraging stuff from glowing green mushroom patches. There are quite a few of these around the newbie area and they seem to yield an odd assortment of craft items, I guess. Well maybe it serves some purpose, but for now it's just a middleman between my foraging activities and the currency of the land from an NPC that buys all this random junk. Yawn.

So I find another creature ... this was, I dunno, Premature Cripple Yugo, and in a tight battle I defeat him, getting some Medium Yugo Hip Bone of +8 Quality ... nice. Well, now I guess I'll sit here while my health sloooowly regenerates. Yep, here I am sitting.

I go after another Yugo and kill it easily. The next Yugo that seemed exactly the same kicks my ass and before you know it I'm rezing again.

I frown. I've only been playing about a half hour. But this isn't fun. Certainly a half hour is nowhere near enough time to properly judge an MMORPG. You know what? I don't care. This activity is not fun. I can see already this is the kind of game that makes you think it will become fun at some point in the distant future... maybe there is fun to be had, I don't know.

Anyway Ryzom is a showcase to remind you again just how well WoW introduces a newbie to the game. That first experience is really a make or break proposition - games like WoW or City of Heroes show that a game can feel fun from the minute you step into that world. Ryzom doesn't even feel like a game by comparison. I know it's going for a more virtual world experience... maybe I'm just not into that style of MMO.

[Furiously]

Yea - the lack of a consider system really makes Ryzom a "WTF were they thinking?" diku.

I thought it was an interesting game other then that for the 2 hours I played.

[Hutch]

I just downloaded and played the trial for a few hours this weekend. My guy is in the level 10-12 range as mage, warrior, and gatherer, so I'm not particularly advanced yet.

Nonetheless, here's a quick list of pros and cons.

- I liked the world. I liked that it's clearly a fantasy world but without elves or gnomes or dwarves. The little inside-out wombats and the big hammer-head grazing creatures showed that the design team has good imagination. Reminded me of AC1 in that way.
- The skill system is quite nice. I liked that your xp earned goes towards whatever skill you were using at the time. I like that you can spend the skill points that you accumulate, to customize your character.
- I really liked the stanzas. Coming up with your own variations on spells and other skills is way cool.
- Crafting is excellent. Incredibly complex. I like the recipes, and the fact that different types of the same material will imbue different properties to the crafted item.

- Combat is lacking. I'm not a fan of the fact that most of the time, I walk up to a critter, press the attack button, and the next thing I see is a dead critter and an xp message. The combat animation was just lost. This is probably a network/lag issue, but still quite annoying.
- Also annoying was the fact that I took a newb two-handed axe and was defeating the little ragu's in one hit, where it took me 3 newb magic shots, which are interruptible, to take down the same creature. I died way more times as a mage than as a warrior.
- Prospecting and gathering is annoying. It's dumb that gathering raw materials can kill you, and apparently at random.

Overall, it's a neat world. There's plenty of room for a player to either specialize their character, or become an expert-of-all-trades. I didn't explore the pvp at all, so no comment on that. They need to work on character animations. Running and turning and combat are herky-jerky and slow. (Spell animations are neat though.) I don't know if a world without elves will ever have mass market appeal.

The free trial is a good idea, because this will get more players into the newbie areas. And maybe some of those will become paying subscribers. But it's also a good idea because they need to test the game a lot more.

[Stormwaltz]

This just in: Nevrax going into receivership.

[geldonyetich]

So, fully knowing that France is a captalist nation, exactly what does going into receivership mean for Ryzom?  I hear that subscriptionless play is involved, although from my previous experience in Ryzom I'm not sure I'd want to play it even for free.

[Signe]

I am so not surprised.  Themis is like the King Midas of shit. 

Dammit, Stormwaltz.  I have "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" totally stuck in my head now!   

[cloudy97]

Sad news...

I hope they find a buyer... a good one. I don't care much for improvements of the core game, but I'd like to see the storyline continue. I think the chances of that happening may be even less...

[Simond]

I wouldn't be completely surprised if one of the Medium Three (SOE/EA/NCSoft) pick it up to add to their portfolios. I mean, SOE picked up MxO and all that had going for it was a fading license and a events team (which SOE promptly gutted).

[schild]

Pretty sure SOE Picked up matrix for the DC liscense.

[Simond]

Ah yes, I forgot.