Review of Ryzom posted to my guild of 200+

[daleknd]

I think part of the problem is the mindset many have that they need to have the best gear possible. Getting the materials for that and the crafting skill is indeed very time consuming.

On the other hand, if you approach it from the angle of getting useable gear. Even a warrior can provide many of the materials needed to make gear he could use from the mob drops, instead of selling those things for coin. If you gather even most of the material needed for an item, getting the item made is just a matter of a few seconds.

Make a network of crafting friends who make the things you need. It doesn't necessarily have to be someone in your guild.

Dalwin
humble forager of the Fyros

[phoenyx]

I think part of the problem is the mindset many have that they need to have the best gear possible. Getting the materials for that and the crafting skill is indeed very time consuming.

On the other hand, if you approach it from the angle of getting useable gear. Even a warrior can provide many of the materials needed to make gear he could use from the mob drops, instead of selling those things for coin.

Well, this is the basis of one of my biggest complaints. There's quite a large difference between a crafted choice max-damage + max-dodge weapon and anything else bought from an NPC vendor or crafted from fine or basic mob drops. The difference should be much more slight, IMO, so that crafted items become desireable if you have the cash to burn, but not mandatory to get anything done at all.

The situation is even worse with regard to armor. There's simply NO comparison between a set of 99% dodge armor and anything you could possibly make from mob drops. A fighter's best way to manage stamina is by using custom ...After Dodge actions, so you need all the dodge you can get. And if you're a caster, you need all the dodge you can get because you're tissue paper in your light armor.

[raynes]

After a week of playing, though, you are in awe of the smooth gameplay, the fun factor, and the sheer variety of things to do.

I played the game for a week and I certainly wasn't in awe. I found to game to be boring and very repetitive. I'm also not sure what you are talking about when you say there is a huge variety of things to do. You basically have fighting and crafting. I could of missed stuff but as far as I could tell there was no faction system. There was no harvesting system. The game pretty much can be summed up as kill-to-level. The worst thing I found about the game is that just like so many other games, combat was pretty much the only thing to do. No combat, no fun.

[lupine04]

Hmm...

I'm not sure how to take that. I certainly wouldn't call it an objective review.
It reads more like a strong rally for WoW, based on the reviewer's personal gaming tastes ("This" is wrong in Ryzom... WoW is better! "That" is wrong in Ryzom... WoW is better!), than an objective review judging Ryzom on its own merits.

Personally, I certainly have no trouble with the focus on crafting in Ryzom, and I'm concentrating most heavily on being a Mage, only crafting to keep myself well enough armed. I haven't found it obstructive at all. I craft as necessary, and it takes no more than about 10 minutes, tops, for me to gather the materials I need to make an item or two of gear. In that time, I'm training my Magic skills or what-not.. so it works out all-around.

I'll mark the review down in my "passionate but-not-necessarily-centered opinion" column.

[daleknd]

Well, this is the basis of one of my biggest complaints. There's quite a large difference between a crafted choice max-damage + max-dodge weapon and anything else bought from an NPC vendor or crafted from fine or basic mob drops. The difference should be much more slight, IMO, so that crafted items become desireable if you have the cash to burn, but not mandatory to get anything done at all.

The situation is even worse with regard to armor. There's simply NO comparison between a set of 99% dodge armor and anything you could possibly make from mob drops. A fighter's best way to manage stamina is by using custom ...After Dodge actions, so you need all the dodge you can get. And if you're a caster, you need all the dodge you can get because you're tissue paper in your light armor.

In my experience, the difference between the gear made from the easily obtained materials and the best possible crafted gear is much slighter here than the same difference in another popular game, Dark Age of Camelot.

DAoC and even EQ are much more gear centric than this game and the top gear in those games is many times more difficult to obtain than it is here.

I do agree that decay rates are too high. Yes decay is important to keep a constant demand for new items to be crafted, but having items wear out after only a day or two of heavy use is excessive. What happened to the concept of having a repair skill or perhaps even a repair NPC who you could take the gear too and in exchange for coin get back an item that is very nearly as good as what it was when new? There are many ways to limit this so that items cannot be repaired indefinitely.

Dalwin
humble forager of the Fyros

[amcyr]

Well, I may not agree with everything said, but I do think crafted armor and weapons degrade "insanely" fast.

On the other hand, it makes crafters and harvesters a valuable part of the game, and not just an amusing sideline. You don't need to be a crafter, but if not, you at least have to find one (the new ones often hang around the raw mats merchants, the advanced ones drag their Mektoubs around, lol).

Degrade rates should probably be tweaked a little and repair capability would definitely help. I'm pretty sure the devs will look at the issue, considering the amount of concern that has been expressed, and I certainly won't be jumping out of the game because of a little imbalance right now.

(I also now wish I had kept my refugee clothes for those embarassing moments when your armor falls apart completely. )



Out of Cavern Explorer

[jdiegel]

Umm...I came here from a MMOG-based guild where a group of fellow guild mates checked the game out and I purchased it on their recommendation. So far the game has completely lived up to their recommendation.

[daleknd]

Another thing that will help a lot is when the NPC vendors who sell player made goods go into the game. This will allow someone to buy good gear that has been made in advance rather than having to find someone who can make something to order.

There are some issues with stats on items not displaying properly that should be worked out first, but the vendor system should alleviate a lot of the acquisition problem. The decay problem still exists.

I only hope that the vendor system makes it practical for harvestors to make materials available to crafters via NPC's.

Dalwin
humble forager of the Fyros

[Starla]

This post is user feedback for Nevrax. Detailed reasons why I won't be subscribing after the free month is out, with the hopes that they will eventually be able to address these issues, provided they notice a trend similar to mine. Sincere attempt to help better a game that has potential.

As for my guild, we're fairly well-known in PvP circles, being a PvP-centric guild of mature players. We were voted the most influential guild on AC2 Darktide, on AC2 Insider magazine. Formed back in the early days of AC1.

The Ancient Order - TAO
http://theancientorder.com

First off let me apologize if I came off a little rough. After reading your comments to me and reveiwing your site, I'd have to admit that your review is on the money in the context of what your guild is all about which is PvP. I think that if you had posted your view on being a PvP oriented guild in the first place you would have gotten less angry-responses. With that in mind I for one am quite happy with the fact that Ryzom is doing almost nothing with PvP. For me it was one of the things that ruined SWG.

[aelvana]

I think part of the problem is the mindset many have that they need to have the best gear possible. Getting the materials for that and the crafting skill is indeed very time consuming.

I agree. The game seems to work as intended and have no flaws whatsoever in this respect if you're willing to use degrades, or gear you can throw together yourself. Sometimes you may even have to buy cheap vendor gear. Varied and interesting, IMO.

Your guild has crafters and harvesters, and you have a source for some heavy armor and high quality weapons? That's a good thing 8) Use them for raids to cross the Prime Roots, or difficult guild missions. If you want to grind EXP, use whatever you can get. This will vary, but over time smooth out for even steady advancement.

(yeah, I switched to writing my post as if it were out of a booklet )