Anything like RF? I hope not...

[gruzbad]

I was just looking over the forums while my client d/l's, and I got thinking that some of the aspects of this game really remind me of RF Online.

I played that at launch and for about 2 months afterwards, and I sincearly wish that I could get that time back. The game was HORRIBLE.

The things about it that were so bad (and I'm hopeing are not in this) were as follows:

1. Virtually no individual customization of characters. All characters of a certain race/level/class were EXACTLY the same. Same items, same skills, same look, everything the same.

2. "PT" grinding. The skill system in RF was based on usage of a particular skill to level that skill up. For instance, if you wanted melee skill, you had to melee. Now, this was okay, but it eventually boiled down to grinding some of the more difficult skills (like shield) for hours upon hours upon hours.

3. Terrible imbalances. Now, I realise that this game has been out for a while and there has been more work done on balancing, but is there much in the way of rediculous imbalances?

4. Tiny game world containing no quests, only grinding. I realise that this game world is very large, but am I going to have to end up just killing scores of beasties for no reason other than to raise a particular skill or gain some XP? I realise that every MMO has it's grind, and that's fine, as long as that's not the only thing to do.

And the last thing that I wanted to ask about was the skill diversification (sp?). I know that there are all the skill trees, etc, but how liberal is the game with giving away skill points? Is there going to be a large number of players running around with ALL the skills in the game maxed out, or does the game sort of force you to specialise in a couple regions? I know that there is no imposed forcing, but is it realistic to think that there could be no real "class" differences in the later game (think Asheron's Call)?

Sorry for the long, negative sounding post, but this is the fifth or sixth MMO that I've played at length since leaving WoW (not soon enough!), including Lineage 2 and EVE. I really like the premise of this game but I just don't want to be wasting my time only to find that it's got the same problems as some of the games I'm running away from.

[katriell]

To answer your last question, although the skill system allows one to max every branch without penalty or limitation, no one has ever done so due to how much time and effort it would take to attain about 11,000 total levels.

#1 is not a problem at all. You can customize your character's physical appearance with sliders at character creation, like facial features and body, hair and tattoos, and there are hairdressers and tattooists on the mainland offering even more customization options.
There's plenty of armor options as well, IMO, since you can mix and match pieces:
- Parts; vest, sleeves, gloves, pants, boots, and helmet (only in heavy armor).
- Types; light, medium, and heavy.
- Races; Matis, Fyros, Tryker, and Zoraï. You can wear any race's armor, regardless of your own race.
- Qualities; basic, medium, and high. This affects the armor's style and secondary color.
- Color; beige, green, turquoise, purple, blue, red, black, white. Primary color is determined by the materials used in the crafting of the armor.
Math...

[namothil]

1. Jelathnia covered this.

2. Erm, only a problem if you make it one. Maxing levels is not particularly important (unless you're a PvP nut, and I don't think it's that important even then.)

3. Not really.

4. If quests are essential to you, this is probably the wrong game for you. Past the newbie island 'quests' (Tasks, actually) are mostly for fame and dappers, and very minor. Some are part of encyclopedia rites. As far as your worries about having nothing to do but grind, the solution is simple: Don't grind. (See #2) Meet people. Help out on treks. Participate in events. Explore the world.

5. Nobody has maxed out all skills yet. It is possible to obtain all the stanzas for a tree, but even then, different people will prefer to build there actions in different ways.

[sprite]

Most things already been covered so I'll just add a couple of notes here and there

1) Pretty much every character is different - hairstyle or the "way they dress"... to be honest you really can recognise people you know without looking at their names

2) I've never played RFO myself but I've had it explained at great length to me by some ppl who were trying to get me to play it As I understand it, RFOs "PT grinding" was very specific - if you wanted to lvl your shield skill you basically grabbed a shield, aggro'd a bunch of mobs and stood there taking it for a while and killed them once you'd got enough PT. With SoR there are 4 basic skill trees; Fight, Magic, Craft, and Forage - you can spend any sp gained inside those trees in any sub-tree within the one you earned it in. For example, Fight splits down into Melee/Ranged, and then Melee splits down into One-Handed/Two-handed/Close-Combat and then down some more.... if you gain sp by lvling you 2h, you can spend those sp on (eg) skills on the Ranged sub-tree or anywhere else in the Fight tree, but not on anything outside the Fight tree. While that is more useful with craft than fight, it does still mean that if you want to get the actual skill levels in a certain branch (close combat springs to mind) then you have to grind that skill. Having a higher skill level means you're better at doing something, but being able to get extra sp from other places in the trees makles it all more flexible

3) No major omgthisownscomparedtothis imbalances that I know of, with the slight exception of Ranged - the tree isn't broken per se but its a lot harder to level than the other skills.

4) SoR has a huge world, but alas as has been said, if you want a quest-based game, SoR is not for you. The quests on the island are a tutorial and don't represent the way most people play the game - other things to do instead of grinding have been detailed in quite a few places on the forums, but PvP, Politics, Treks, Mapping resources, and RPing spring to mind as alternatives.

Lastly, 5 (?) - as has been said, no one has maxed anywhere near all the skills in the game - not even close. The game isn't stingy with SP so its near impossible to "gimp" yourself to death, but at the same time not everyone has the same skills. That said, there is deifnately a trend that the "higher level PvPers" (tho this includes a lot of non-PvPers.. couldn't think of any other way to describe it) generally have a Master Melee skill, AoD (Master in elemental magic), usually CG (master heal magic), and a Master Forage/Master craft to make their gear. Usually their gear sets them apart in combat and their differing melee/craft/dig skills set them apart in terms of being "individuals"

[katriell]

1) Pretty much every character is different - hairstyle or the "way they dress"... to be honest you really can recognise people you know without looking at their names

On that note, I disabled names in the interface recently and I do recognise people from 50m or so away just by their appearance.

[gruzbad]

Thanks guys, you've been a very great help.

This cleared stuff up a lot

Oh, look at that, the install is done, time to venture into SoR, see you there!

[philu]

Nothing to add to what the guys have said, except to say one thing Ryzom does have is a great community. For me, that alone is enough to keep coming back for. The fact I enjoy playing the game and am able to whatever I feel like every time I log in is a bonus.

What I really wanted to add was: Welcome to Atys!

[ydyp1978]

I also have played RF, never got past the free month though. Game balance was gone, potions non-stop, and yeah shieldPT is a hard grind. And also being able to grind PT with just AFK buffing yourself was a bad way. These aren't here.

The most points of SoR are already covered, but it is a game where I can have fun in a relaxed way. If I want the adrenalline pumping action I go for a round of PvP in Eve-Online. I'm sure you can already guess I like games where it is player driven economy and open ended. I'm realy looking forward to R², content made by players for players.

[riveit]

On that note, I disabled names in the interface recently and I do recognise people from 50m or so away just by their appearance.

Indeed, it is fun to watch the videos like Ema's new battle one, and recognize most of the homins in it.

[raisrev1]

Since everything else seems to have been covered, and you've installed the game. Ill just add, Welcome to the Giand RootBall!