Anyway...Here is my day-dream about what Ryzom ring could be, or how it could be implemented:
Ryzom-Ring should be a skill tree. Seriously.
To start on this tree would be like any other, you can use skill points earned from another tree to obtain your basic creation start. When you recieve this plan, you are also given access to a relatively small chunk of randomly-formed land with some trees, animals (gentle and aggro), and raw materials present.
So, you'd have your basic Skill-Tree. Level 1-20 would be called 'Landscaping' or something basic. Then at level 21, it could branch to Plants, Animals, Structures, and Dirt (but with better names), and so on.
So, as you start out on this tree, you would be given an action called 'Create Tree 1' to create a small tree or bush (no, I'm not kidding!) which consumes focus, sap, etc, or some new as of yet untapped Homin power source and gives you exp if you successfully perform the action. A new skill trainer would be available specific to this skill-tree. Training with this NPC would allow you to learn new actions like:
Create Tree - creates a bush or tree or living plant (psykoplas, etc)
Depress Land - Creates a depression in the ground (size based on brick level)
Raise Land - Creates a mound or hill (again, sized based on brick level)
Flatten Land - Flattens an uneven area of land.
Create Structure - Build structures from fences to guild halls (Materials Required).
Create Animal - Creates an animal (animal and its aggro state set by sub-bricks in the action using the stanza system)
Create Homin - Creates an NPC.
Create Raw Material Source - self explanitory
Of course, the type, quality, complexity, strength, etc (or whichever of those applies) will increase as you gain experience, and aquire higher level versions of the bricks. As you progress, other more powerful actions will become available, like the ability to increase the size of your land.
So I think thats realistic, and has great potential for creativity. But I know many people are concerned about exploits. Like how could it be controlled so that people aren't putting supreme mats in the ground everywhere, or setting up high-level monsters in situations where they can be easily killed.
Totally valid concerns. So my daydream continues:
1) Each unit of land is given a preset amount of 'creation points'. Everytime a player creates something, it costs them 'creation points' in that section of land. Creating trees and topography would cost little, but raw material sources, animals and structures would cost much more. This keeps the player in check, and makes sure they have to to think about what goes on their land.
2) Everything you create should be based on the stanza system. If you want to create a specific material source, you must apply credits to it to penalize respawn rate, quality, class and even the exp it gives. You wouldn't get to specify that you want supreme or excellent mats, only that you want a raw material source. Weather you get Supreme or not, and how often, depends on the credits you use to create the source. This concept could also be used to limit people setting up boss monsters for easy leveling and mats, but still allow the player created areas to have everything.
In combination, these two systems would help keep things fair.
So, after months of creating crappy trees, animals, mat sources and structures, you'd be able to create really nice ones, and have a beautiful land to share with others. I honestly think that this would fit with the existing spirit of ryzom. slow, steady progression, rewarding the thoughtfull and hard working. If players really had to earn the abilities to create their
world, you would see less slapped-together exploit attempting zones.
Thats all I have to say, except that the new ryzom-ring website sparked this idea in my head with the following sentence:
I appologize if this is totally stupid.Develop your maps in real time
). Although it might discourage serious modders.
