Can something be too detailed...

[wizaerd]

I've hesitated quite a while before posting this because A) I'm entirely non-confrontational (or try to be) and B) don't want to be lumped in with the rest of the naysayers. But I'm extremely intrigued with the open ended play of this game, but I find a couple things a bit daunting.

First of all, yes it's true, I'm a WoW defector. I played for a long while, got tired of the community and the tedious gameplay and took a several month hiatus from it. But I was jonesing for some MMORPG gameplay. I am mainly a soloist, but I enjoy the living community aspect of the the MMORPG. Always seemed a bit more alive than a static single player game.

I checked out Ryzom, and was immediately intrigued by it. I started a trial account, and spent some time on the starter island. I was put off a bit by not having any real visual indication of who to talk to (aka question marks over NPC heads), and after running in circles for a while, I think I finally figured it out.

I typcially am drawn to the magic side of things, but the first thing I noticed is that the magic doesn't really seem like magic. Please take no offense, for none is meant, but there doesn't seem to be any real variety of magic. Acid Burn (I think it's burn, don't quite remember) seemed to be it. Of course, I was low level, but even in researching online, couldn't find any real information of the type of magic I could expect.

And this finally brings me to the real daunting aspect of Ryzom, at least for me. I like I can build in any and all skills, but holy moly, there sure is a lot of details to keep track of. Remember, I'm a WoW refugee, and am used to when I level, my stats increase automatically. Yeah I can buy gear to boost my stats, but I didn't have to buy points to drop into my stats, and build them manually. I'm not really much of a detail oriented game player, (perhaps a reason I never quite took to Neverwinter Nights, too many points and stats to manually track and build). So worrying about my regen rates and health rates while also worrying about building up my appropriate skills just seemed to overwhelm me.

Add on top of that Custom Actions (a great addition to MMORPGs, as is the Ring), but axctually doing it and understanding it? Made my brain hurt...

So I quit playing, logged into my WoW account (after several months of not loggin in), and was immedialtely reminded of why I ended up hating it. The community really, really, really, really, really sux... Argumentative, pushy, arrogant, insulting, churlish, etc....

So with all this, I'm asking "Is this game going to be too much for me?" I realize you don't know me, so answering that is not really feasible or possible, but if I'm a casual gamer, enjoy taking a break from real life (ooh, that reminds me of something I'm gonna say later...) and enjoy a bit of escapism without having to tax my already over-taxxed brain, am I going to be able to enjoy this game?

And the reminder I left for myself eariler, since this is a game, and includes taking a break from reality and real life, is it possible for a game to be too detail oriented, thus making it too realistic? Keeping track of Malus (Maltus? Hmmm, don't remember the actual term), manually tracking and building stats, learning everything there is to know about the creatures in order to be effective, etc... Unless you're the type of person where the over abundant details thrills you, isn't it a bit tedious?

[ummax]

Well i'm pretty new and did play WoW as well (a year or so ago now) in fact I think most people have played WoW in comparison to those that have not hehe. Anyhow I guess I never really noticed. I do the stats and buy the points and I guess I didn't really think that hard about it. I dunno maybe its intuitive for me not sure?

The animals I am still learning over time, but dont find that I am keeping track of too much really (either that or i have a super humungous memory ?)

Anyhow for me most of it is pretty much logical I'm not sure how much trouble anyone else has, but for me making sure a melee fighter has lots of Hp and with that HP since its sooo much to make sure I buy the skill to make sure it regens faster was a decision I made pretty quickly. The rest just kind of followed. The magic in this game I dont like a whole lot, but will probably turn back to it later on and play with it again.

I like the fact that all the armour etc is pretty much all player made and the materials well the system is falling in place with me over time and I am not spending hours memorizing or anything it all "just happens".

Probably is just a personality thing really I suppose, but it actualy seems fairly simple and straigh forward to me just that I get to custom build and my magician is gonna have a heck of a lot of hp hehe when he does start levelling up in that respect

[alyssah]

Hi Wizaerd,
This is part of the whole game of Ryzom. It requires more intelligent thought than just bashing away. As a result, it gets a more intelligent community. Usually more polite as well and helpful. One begets the other.

On the plus side, if the game was immediately understandable you would grow tired of it in no time. As you progress, you realise where you're going and how to reach there. Help is at hand from the community and from guild mates. At the end of the day you decide if you like the thoughtful aspect of playing or not.

Certain aspects of the game caused me to quit but when they change I will come back. I like to use my mind in a game as well as my fingers.

[mindelyn]

Greetings and well met,

I am also a casual gamer, though perhaps a bit more active recently than most. And I understand it can be a bit daunting at first. Actually ryzom rings true of the style of older games like EQ. Now i'm not saying it is EQ, it's very very different. But since you are able to use the points in any real skills, this is something to keep track of. As for the "?", though sometimes you will a pointer in your compass, again there are so many paths a person can take..and therefore this truly isn't feasible.

As for the skills, they progress and become more specialized as you get better. Currently I tout myself as a healer. What this means is, I do such things as stun, sleep, and healing of the various attributes. But there is also the Offensive path, which includes such things as Madness, Acid , Cold and Rot...there is more to these just these are the one's I use by preference and therefore the closest to mind. They specializing of the action is up to you...will it all be sap and time, or perhaps you prefer to canabalize yourself in the hopes of killing it first. Doesn't matter, it allows you to build it to work the way you want.


Now i'm going to be honest, Ryzom isn't like most MMO's out there. The community is very active and cares a great deal about the game. It may not be the game for you...but it may well be a new start in a new direction of mmo's. Either way, it is your journey...and any journey is always worth pursuing..even if all you receive in knowledge and experience.

My name is Suryi, and I'm no Aristole, if you need any assistance in helping to familarize yourself with the mainland or Silan...just send me a letter..and perhaps I can help you.


Edit: *smirks* I need to learn to type faster some time .

[jamela]

Is real life too detailed? Hell yes! But you know how to deal with what you need to, don't you? Just play. Look into the specifics when you want to and then you find there is detail and complexity.

[zangan]

Hmm...I can see where you are coming from.

First the magic. I too was a bit disappointed when I looked at the magic system. I saw acid, then cold and rot. And then upgrades to them. They were stronger. No different animations, no AoE spells...nothing. Just the damage changed from 35 to 80.(or something like that) But magic does expand, or so I've heard since I havn't made it up that far yet, heh. At level 100, you learn how to cast double missile spells. Now I havn't got there yet, but does this mean I can combine like an acid spell with another acid or cold spell? Or use a cold blast with like madness? I'm not for sure, but I think it does.
Right after you get the damaging spells, you can get some affliction spells such as fear, madness, blind, stun, ect. At level 125, you learn fire, electricity, shockwave, and poison. I think. Also at 125, you can learn bomb, ricochet, and spray effects. So I'm hoping that can help spice up the magic.

Second, the stats. I don't mind these stats at all. At the begining it is difficult to understand and spend points on them because you have to get all of your other skills to. But if you progress a little further when you figure out what kind of char you want to be, you can be more selective and take you stats. There arn't a whole lot of stats. There is a regen and max increase for each stat. I recommend getting the max ones first as they let you use more equipment. For instance, your a mage, get intelligence. An upgrade appears every 5 levels and takes 10 points, so set aside a few points for them when they come.

Third, the complexity. You do not need to learn everything about all the monsters to become efficient. Knowing a little bit about each may help,(such as which creatures can cross water) but you will most likly learn these without even knowing it. You will just happen to figure it out, and from then on, you have a little heads up on what's going to happen. You can spend a lot of time studying the creatures to make the best use of your attacks, or you can go fight and learn as you go.(I choose the later)

Last. The stanzas. They are very overwelming in the begining, but end up making the game(and much magic) more customizable and incredible. It doesn't take a whole lot of time to do it either. For instance yo are solo hunting with magic. I tailor 3 spells that I'm using. One is a blast with range, one is a blast with range penalty, one is fear. Setting it up only takes about a minute and then you go to max range, hit with long range spell, then close range spell, then fear, then close, far, far, close, fear. It isn't to complicated, but you have to try it out yourself. It is difficult to explain, especially for someone new like me.

You have expressed your concerns, and I hope I cleared them up a bit from the perspective of another new player.


Oh, and welcome to Atys!


Edit: Just wanted to add. In the time it took me to write this, 4 people before me responded. Just goes to show you how good the community is here and that we LIKE to help!

[jamela]

You might like to watch Grandma's tutorial for Action Building, by the way (19Mb download). It isn't advanced science, it is just an excellent explanation of the basics. Also lots more interesting stuff on Acridiel's site.

[raynes]

I don't think the game is too complicated for anyone. It's just a matter of having someone explain things to you in an understandable way. As far as I can tell there is nothing to explain the complex skill system to people in an understandable nature.

So before you go eating a bottle of aspirin I'll try to explain the skill system to you so you can understand it. I can't go into explaining the exact way magic skills work because I don't use magic, but the basics are the same for all skills.

The skill system is based on building blocks called stanzas. With each level you gain, you earn skill points that can be used to purchase new building blocks. You can take those building blocks combine them and make unique skills. For each building block their is a cost to using it. So lets say you buy the acid 1 building block, the cost associated with that is a deduction in your sap with each use. The more building blocks, the more a skill costs to use.

Using 2 handed melee skills for examples.

In that skill tree 4 of the common building blocks are:
*Increased Damage - Increases the damage done by an attack
*Bleed - Makes a target bleed heavily, hence loosing damage over time.
*Increased Accuracy - Increases the chance of hitting a target
*Circular Attack - Lets you swing your weapon in a circle hitting multiple targets in one swing.

Now lets say that I decide that I want to go attack some bandits. When you attack NPC bandits in the game, one you hit one, they all come after you, surround you, and try to kill you. Not very pleasant to have 10 npcs gang up on you at once.

No one of those building blocks alone will help me defeat them. However since they are building block, I can combine them. So to really kick butt, I create the following skill combination:

Increased Damage, Circular Attack, & Bleed.

Now when I activate my custom skill and I am surrounded by 10 npcs, my character will swing his sword, hitting a good number of them, making them all start bleeding heavy, and kicking some major butt.

Hope that helps ya some. If not and your on aristople, contact me and I can walk you through it in game.

[ralgur]

WoW... The game 1-60 is fast-paced, easy to pick up and downright fun. The is a double edged blade in that it makes it appeal to a lot of people because it is fun, but that means that more of the idiots out there can play it. Thus, WoW has a really crappy community as a whole.

Ryzom, on the other hand, requires a bit more thought. It was rather a shock when I started playing Ryzom after having played WoW off and on for two years, but it was fun being challenged.

I realize you said you are a casual player. If you really want to give the game a go, just relax and play. Don't sweat the small stuff. If you stay on the starter island and do all the quests, you should have a very good understanding of the game. The /u (universal) channel is very helpful. This game has the best community I've had the pleasure of encountering. You won't get ridiculed for asking a "dumb" question. I see the occassional socially challenged "WoW-type" player, but they are few and far between, and I doubt they'll make it past the free trial.

[acridiel]

I´m a pretty casual gamer too, as in two years playing and nothing on 250.
So just take your time and learn. Don´t push yourself too hard, even if others seem to rush trough levels at hyperspeed.
I find it quite more anoying if someone´s 220 Melee in 3 Month and doesn´t know how to build an effective action against say a Kipuka, then someone who´s playing for moth and is just coming into his 100s

Patience young padawan

CU
Acridiel