Review of Ryzom after two weeks of play: The Good and the Bad...feel free to discuss

[uncus]

(FEEL FREE TO DISCUSS, AGREE OR DISAGREE - THANKS)

The Good:

--Stability/Tech: The game has been very stable and I have encountered much less bugs than in other MMORPG's (don't even get me started on AC2 or Horizons).

There are bugs that still need to be squashed [Inventory; Disappearing newbie trainers-trapped at trainers] and there are now lag issues that weren't there for much of beta. The first are "fixed" by logging - but still annoying.

The Bad:

-Content: The game, at least the newbie game (i.e. up to around 30 levels of melee or magic combat) is very very stale. You just run around the outside environment and kill low level mobs. There is not exploring, no dungeons or buildings.

Well you can explore newbie isle...lots to look for if you're a harvester and little time spent there if a fighter...

-Sound: Dead boring. I've heard more interesting sounds at the library!!!

Dunno - I like the animal sounds and the peace and quiet myself - what more noise do you want?

-Crafting interface is too cumbersome...you can only make 1 piece at a time...why not have a field that allows you to set the number you want to create? Am i wrong...is there a way to do this already?

-Selling interface is too cumbersome...takes to long. There should be a drag and drop window or something that allows you to drag all the items you want to sell and then confirm you want to sell those items. As things stand now, you have to sell each item individually and then reconfirm you want to sell each time.

Legitimate gripes, but then...what if you oops a plan crafting? or accidently sell all when you wanted to keep that sword you just made and just sell the other ones?

-Quests: The quests are cookie cutter and only consist of killing 'X' amount of a particular animal or gathering X amount of raw materials. There are no epic quests, there are no variations in quests for any of the different races and no quests which have any storyline to them. Ugh...one of the worst aspects of Ryzom

Again, I concede the point, though I am having too much fun harvesting and exploring to worry about quests being implemented yet. maybe when I get to 100th level or so, or decide that I am bored enough to join a guild...

-Combat: Too much down time between mobs.

-equipment/loot: No usuable dropped loot....if you are only interesting in combat and not crafting, than you are nothing more than a worker drone collecting raw materials for crafters. Other than XP, hunting is not rewarding, especially since there are no quests, boss mobs and exploring for new content that makes adventuring more interesting. I have yet to see special loot/equipment, everything is standard issue from crafters. I believe that there is an enchantment system but I have yet to see people selling enchantments.

-Mobs: very little variety on Newbie island....other than Kittin, the mobs are wild beasts types. I would like to see NPC mobs that drop usuable loot.

Down time? Actually very little once you learn how to use your skills to proper effect. Maybe a problem if you feel the need to PL - not really needed in this game.
Loot is better when you LEAVE NEWBIE ISLE. Newbieland is just to get you started! Once you have some experience and learn how to use your skills, move on - there's a lot to see on the mainland - and in the prime roots, if you can get there.

-No player vaults/storage and no NPC consignment vendors.

-No preceivable difference between the races.

Apartments on mainland as well as mektoub packers. Consignments supposed to be coming soon.
Other than looks, why should there be? We are all homins. Then again, they have promised to "fix" that in patch 2 - will lead to griping by people "nerfed" because of their previous choice of race.

-very bad manual with the retail box that contains only bare minimum of info.

-In game description needs to be more detailed and give better descriptions of what stanzas, skills, attributes, materials, and items do.

-No sense yet of what the over arching story line is in this game....maybe it has yet to be introduced or encountered.

Agree, agree, correct - not introduced yet...perhaps dependant upon player events.

Overview: The game is fun...don't get me wrong. There is something about this game that, even with its issues, makes it interesting. It may be the "new" factor or it may be that its not the same cookie cutter Tolkien rip off. Also, the world and potential story line has a lot going for it. [editted]
For now, this game holds my interest and I believe with improvement, it could be a sleeper hit that provides a much different on-line world than the usual swords and sorcery types of MMORPG's that are coming out (i.e. WoW and EQ2).

I agree - regardless of the problems, this game is FUN. And that's why we play isn't it?

[larsa]

... when you LEAVE NEWBIE ISLE. ...

Hehe, I agree, it sounds like the original reviewer actually never left the "newbie" island.

[rugster]

The Bad:

-Content: The game, at least the newbie game (i.e. up to around 30 levels of melee or magic combat) is very very stale. You just run around the outside environment and kill low level mobs. There is not exploring, no dungeons or buildings.

2 patchs due out soon, delayed to perfect them, instead of releasing like many other mmo games do.

-Sound: Dead boring. I've heard more interesting sounds at the library!!!

play your own sounds, although music is being added, lets face it, after playing 72 hours in a row you're not listening anymore. The only sound you really need in an mmo is footfalls, which denotes your incoming demise if you're a low hp harvester...in which case its better not to hear at all, but to think "oh look a baying gingo, you dont see many of those around here!"

-Crafting interface is too cumbersome...you can only make 1 piece at a time...why not have a field that allows you to set the number you want to create? Am i wrong...is there a way to do this already?

i dont see the objection here, the cumbersomeness of it is required to give the crafting system some depth, if it was simple noone would craft. Thats the nature of mmo games. noone wants simple. They want and need cumbersome. Btw out of interest, if you could make a sword in real life, explain how you would make 2. Besides using 2 hammers at the same time, how would you turn the steel? Mmo games try to duplicate real life mechanics whilst remaining as simple as possible.

-Selling interface is too cumbersome...takes to long. There should be a drag and drop window or something that allows you to drag all the items you want to sell and then confirm you want to sell those items. As things stand now, you have to sell each item individually and then reconfirm you want to sell each time.

to a degree i agree, multi drag n drop would be nice, but again i dont see why you list this as cumbersome. It is as simple as it can get. open pack see whats for sale sell or buy.

-Quests: The quests are cookie cutter and only consist of killing 'X' amount of a particular animal or gathering X amount of raw materials. There are no epic quests, there are no variations in quests for any of the different races and no quests which have any storyline to them. Ugh...one of the worst aspects of Ryzom

Yep the quests are carp, fish i say!

-Combat: Too much down time between mobs.

You're training the wrong skills or fighting the wrong mobs.

-equipment/loot: No usuable dropped loot....if you are only interesting in combat and not crafting, than you are nothing more than a worker drone collecting raw materials for crafters. Other than XP, hunting is not rewarding, especially since there are no quests, boss mobs and exploring for new content that makes adventuring more interesting. I have yet to see special loot/equipment, everything is standard issue from crafters. I believe that there is an enchantment system but I have yet to see people selling enchantments.

Sell for dappers, use dappers to buy, used in crafting, how much more use do you want?
no specials, true, but do you think it makes sence for a kitin to drop a sword in combat?

-Mobs: very little variety on Newbie island....other than Kittin, the mobs are wild beasts types. I would like to see NPC mobs that drop usuable loot.

They get interesting after about level 60, if grouped or 100 is solo. Some of the mobs in fyros are downright scary and very odd looking.

-No player vaults/storage and no NPC consignment vendors.

There are houses, guildhalls and personal packers, whats better then a movable vault?

-No preceivable difference between the races.

The fyros are gods, the others are just slaves. Tho matis get fire base magic and even the men look like girls.

-Ranged Weapon combat is broken in my opinion. Ammo is ridiculously expensive. Furthermore, ranged combat seems to be no where near as effective as magic or melee combat on mainland area... Sometimes, ranged combat seems to have been an ad hoc after thought that has not been fully implemented yet.

Try the aoe bazooka.. Ranged is for groups. It adds to damage. Try not to get hit as well.

Expensive to buy, fairly harsh on mats to make.

-very bad manual with the retail box that contains only bare minimum of info.

ignore all mmo manuals.

-In game description needs to be more detailed and give better descriptions of what stanzas, skills, attributes, materials, and items do.

yep

-No sense yet of what the over arching story line is in this game....maybe it has yet to be introduced or encountered.

hopefully they will patch in the old text with voiceovers soon, there should be some info in char selection but it went missing awhile ago.

The answers as i can best concieve them in my opinion.

[rugster]

Well all your points have been said before by me and alot of other people during beta testing... im sad that they have packaged off the 'release' version of ryzom... if you could even call it that because frankly it still needs a lot of polishing and basic content/story to make it a release version.

Its been said by alot of people already now and previously that the game does have potential... that it looks great on paper but at its current status it is underpopulated, buggy, unpolished, beta product.

This is why i didnt buy release, having played WoW i saw how much a difference it was to ryzom... it had less new 'features' but it felt right... everything felt like it belonged unlike in ryzom where everythying feels like it has been thrown together very quickly.

Im sorry you paid the 50 dollars.

you like wow? i thought it was too babyish.. i got release and its pretty staid, but given we're all still striving for lvl 100 it doesnt really matter atm, hopefully..hopefully..it will be made good within a few months, this content shouldve been in before release and tested but it wasnt.. *shrugs* I like and hate ryzoms. But i bought a copy and i play it. When i'm not playing other great games.

[kronides]

"equipment/loot: No usuable dropped loot....if you are only interesting in combat and not crafting"

I don't understand this complaint. The loot that is dropped can be used for crafting, either by yourself or bring it to a crafter to make some stuff for you. If you don't want to use the loot for crafting, you can sell it and use the cash to buy stuff.
You don't mean you'd want mobs to drop ready made armor and weapons do you? I mean, these creatures don't wear armor and they don't use swords, so they don't drop those things when they die.

I'll remind you that you said that next year when Ryzom Joins Hz in the "Going Offline" list.