Recommendations for Nervax...

[zumwalt]

Get the devs involved in a 1 hour chat session once a week in game with the players, choose a city each week and hold a discussion emporeium where the players can attend, listen and talk about issues.

Release a real time table chart for your development strategies, something that can be viewable from the main board, and has progression, show us that things are getting worked on.

Stick to your promises, nothing worse than promising the sun and delivering a black hole.

Be realistic in what your shooting for on each patch, and use common sense.

Allow player accounts to remain up to 1 full year on your servers, players right now are leaving, and it would be in YOUR best interests to allow the accounts to remain dormant for up to a year.

Most MMO's keep them indefinately, and I know some players in other MMO's that disappear for up to a year and come back, and want the character they put all the work into.

Create tools for the home site of Ryzom that shows real network status and server status. If the network is down and the server is up, just post on the main page, NETWORK DOWN, SERVER OPEN.

Its not that hard.

If the Network for the Klient goes down, the website goes down, and we can't reach the server, well its obvious.

If we can get to the website, but Klient is unavailable, and the game server is up, then post a status of Klient (customer service tool for those who never used it)



Things we presume as players:
You have a team working on content, 3dsMax coders / scripters and designers.
You have a team working on bugs.
You have a team dedicated to storyline.
You have an agenda for this game that is a mass secret.

Let us in on the agenda, tell us where your taking us.



Communication is what we, the players, are asking for.
You have the tools, use them.

[lariva]

I'll agree with the post 100%. I know at least 4 people that played since beta that have cancelled their accounts and just playing to the end of it.

But then again, I dont need to tell Nevrax how many poeple are leaving; just check the database - I only see the results - last night i could hardly find someone to play with... thats not exactly a good sign for prime time

Get the devs involved in a 1 hour chat session once a week in game with the players, choose a city each week and hold a discussion emporeium where the players can attend, listen and talk about issues.

Release a real time table chart for your development strategies, something that can be viewable from the main board, and has progression, show us that things are getting worked on.

Stick to your promises, nothing worse than promising the sun and delivering a black hole.

Be realistic in what your shooting for on each patch, and use common sense.

Allow player accounts to remain up to 1 full year on your servers, players right now are leaving, and it would be in YOUR best interests to allow the accounts to remain dormant for up to a year.

Most MMO's keep them indefinately, and I know some players in other MMO's that disappear for up to a year and come back, and want the character they put all the work into.

Create tools for the home site of Ryzom that shows real network status and server status. If the network is down and the server is up, just post on the main page, NETWORK DOWN, SERVER OPEN.

Its not that hard.

If the Network for the Klient goes down, the website goes down, and we can't reach the server, well its obvious.

If we can get to the website, but Klient is unavailable, and the game server is up, then post a status of Klient (customer service tool for those who never used it)



Things we presume as players:
You have a team working on content, 3dsMax coders / scripters and designers.
You have a team working on bugs.
You have a team dedicated to storyline.
You have an agenda for this game that is a mass secret.

Let us in on the agenda, tell us where your taking us.



Communication is what we, the players, are asking for.
You have the tools, use them.

[basicart]

I know i hear things getting so bad ya having to team with Xcomvic

[xcomvic]

I officially Second Zummie's part!

[xcomvic]

I know i hear things getting so bad ya having to team with Xcomvic

!!!! Oh no you didn't!!!! What's wrong with grouping up with me anyway? I am nice enough in game

[thexdane]

don't mean to really come down on you but if you don't participate in the game events at all and you're nuetral why do you care about the stuff they add and when they release it since 95% of it is for ppl who participate in the game and the storyline

thing is the chart is nice to have a timeline but it's unrealastic. thing is bugs and other problems come up that get in the way of certain things being released. 2 prime examples are the linux clients for doom3 and neverwinter nights. both were supposed to be on the cd, then soon after the release and then to a when it's done

also incase you haven't noticed nor read the 50000000000000000000 times it's come up on the forum THE DEVELOPERS ARE FRENCH AND PROBLY DON'T SPEAK ENGLISH

also most mmorpg's DON'T keep your account as long as ryzom does, 6 months is the norm i've seen both eq and swg were like that.

also if you want a server status page, get klients

pretty simple

[tetra]

also incase you haven't noticed nor read the 50000000000000000000 times it's come up on the forum THE DEVELOPERS ARE FRENCH AND PROBLY DON'T SPEAK ENGLISH

You are mistaken. They spoke enough english to crawl out of their caves and have dev chats during beta.

also most mmorpg's DON'T keep your account as long as ryzom does, 6 months is the norm i've seen both eq and swg were like that.

You are again mistaken. Last I heard AO only deletes what are essentially unplayed nameholders (under level 5 and unplayed for some number of months). I don't believe AC kills of characters ever since I quit playing for over a year and went back to my old characters for a bit at one point. Many other MMO's are the same way.

also if you want a server status page, get klients

pretty simple

Yea... klients works great ifor those folks who can't get to it for whatever reason. There is already a server status thing on the main page, it essentially tells you the server is still turned on rather than when it's simply not allowing players in or is being worked on or the login server is down or the network that feeds the server an internet connection is down is the problem.

[raynes]

also incase you haven't noticed nor read the 50000000000000000000 times it's come up on the forum THE DEVELOPERS ARE FRENCH AND PROBLY DON'T SPEAK ENGLISH

http://www.icandies.org/ryzom/card.jpg

That was sent to me with my t-shirt for the encylopedia easter eggs. The postage on the package was from France. They understand and write English very well.

[khayne]

Kinda like fireside chats with Roosevelt...those were most definitely successful for him...

[fadin]

Hi,

I can give a couple answers here, but I really can't answer them all. Some are for others to answer.

I really have to say, please do not say "It's not hard" unless you are intimate with the specific code used in the game, network, integration of the sites, etc. I won't speak for the coders, but even being on this side of things for as long as I have, I will not tell them it is easy or "not hard"

Some of the Devs do speak English, others speak mainly French.

Nobody wants to break a promise, and I am not sure anyone has ever said "I promise" about much of anything. There are times when things just do not work out as planned, and something may not be as possible as it once seemed. These are the times developers and coders dread the most, but they are times that happen. Everything done today is working toward a goal for tomorrow. Players will not always be aware of that goal, and the main reason is to avoid the "You promised!" issue. The last thing anyone wants to do is create a bitter player. Though it seems to happen.

I know a little bit about AO... Actually, I know a ton about AO...

Anarchy Online's policy, last I checked (and based on their written policy, but I cannot quote their policy as enforced), was to guarantee 3 months on your character. However, as mentioned by Tetra, they have not done a complete wipe since the game went live. Based on that, Ryzom guarantees 3 more months than the mentioned game. I don't forsee any plans to wipe any characters, but the limit has to be in place to avoid overflow and to allow names to be released. It is very rare any MMO deletes large groups of accounts, but it is a needed evil to have the policy in place.

There is nothing unrealistic about the given goals per patch, however there are issues that may prevent the goal or deadline after it is made. Being realistic about a patch would be to say something like "We are updating sometime next week, unless something happens, then we may not update. But, if we do update, we want it to be a great update with absolutely no issues. If there are issues, we understand there could be some angry players out there, and we really hate it when we create an angry player. Anyway, look out for the update we are shooting for next week that we want to be really great but won't promise anything until we know it is good to go and really great."

A timetable chart is a great idea, and at the same time, a not so great idea. In a perfect world, a timetable chart would allow the players to know what is happening, when it is happening and how hard we are working to make it happen. Unfortunately, this isn't a perfect world. A timetable chart would then show we are working on melee before ranged, we are working on craft before harvest, we are working on stanzas before mounts, etc... etc... I can guarantee almost each one of you has a different priority. So, instead of finding more and more time to defend the listed priority, we have to work on our priority and get it done.

Server status page. We do have a server status page, but Tetra is correct in saying it shows the server up, but does not show if it is currently available. Currently, the only way to see if it were available would be to try to log in. Generally, if the entire Network, including support sites, was down, you wouldn't be able to get to a server status page to find out.

It seems some people are assuming people are leaving in droves and tend to post that all over the place. I see the numbers every day, and I don't see the people leaving in droves. People stay, people leave and new people show up... daily... So, I can say, I took a look at the database and have no idea what you are talking about.

I apologize for the novel. I am just at home and looking through the forums. I thought I would at least try to get some responses on this one. I hope I haven't disturbed the wasp nest.