This post may be a bit lengthy but please hear me out.
Having played a lot of MMORPG's as well as just about every Genre there is.. And as well as having friends and family who are also addicted to games but are no where near the level I am at in excelling at them. I would like to suggest some idea's that may help out newbies and those not extremely familiar with online games, or RPG's for that matter.
I really want to see this game excel, with all my might. This is one of those unique jewels in games that, desperately need to be heard. But before that can happen, things need to be changed to keep it newbie friendly while not affecting the core game play that makes it so great.
For 1, this game has no advertisements, I have searched for unique MMORPG's for years and haven't heard of this game only until recently, Which was completely shocking. The problem is, you need money to advertise, and things need to be fixed before any major investment in advertisement can go about..
so here are the things I had difficulties with, and that i think should be addressed as soon as possible to start making it easier for new players to become addicted to Ryzom
.First... There needs to be more polishing up on the beginner quests. Newbie island quests should be easy to understand, while teaching you everything you need to move onto the mainland. The problem is, some quests are unnecessarily challenging.
There are 2 quests that need to be fixed before it drives too many more players off.. First is the warrior scouting quest to select 4 different creatures. The major problem with that quest is there is no updates once a creature is selected. The problem isn't just the fact that some people may not remember what creatures they selected and which ones they need to get... But also that when nothing updates, that person usually things they are doing something wrong, causing the quest not to update. Thus they get confused and frustrated without taking the time to think and consider that the quest doesn't update properly and maybe to just try and click all 4 and see what happens. For someone who has played a long time in Ryzom, this may seem ridiculous, but watching family and friends struggle through games, This would drive them absolutely nutz, and there is no need for that, Especially in a newbie quest.
Also the crafting quest for creating 3 quality 15 amplifiers. I don't even recall it asking me to create 3 amplifiers. And again that is another quest that doesn't update. Even for someone like me who flys through just about any single player RPG in days, and who has been playing games all my life, thought i was doing something wrong. And even though I experienced another quest that didn't update, I was still worried the whole time while creating the amplifiers that I may not be creating them properly, perhaps missing some important text in the quest that i didn't see. Now that i have done that quest, and have had more experience in the game, to me now, it seems ridiculously easy, But for someone who doesn't have much experience, only gets very put off by the lack of quest updates, or clarity.
There is also some bad english translations in a few quests that would defeinetly put off some people that i know. For example locating the camp of bandits near the lake. One of the quests i recall asks to look for bandits, "in the lake", The problem is... I was in the center of the lake in a previous foraging quest, And was ultimately very confusing before even heading to the lake, due to knowing there is no bandits "in" the lake. So i therefore asked in /r before heading over there only to find out.. It's not even close to being "in" the lake, it's north of the lake.. and you actually have to be on land, north of the lake to see them. At least with the default graphic setting distances and such.
There can be many other things but i have one last big suggestion.. There are many players who come to play Ryzom for it's unique classless and crafting system, being able to choose to craft or forage or melee or anything you like without restrictions on how many levels your allowed to have in each category. Also a lot of people who come, also like the idea of having a very in-depth crafting system and are tired of the extremely simple WoW type crafting systems that are obsolete because of dropped mob items that far surpass the weapons you can create.. So many people come looking for that change..
Now to get to the point on the previous paragraph.. is the foraging system. It's fine, and i like it.. past level 50... The problem is.. It's not only extremely drawn out for those familiar with the foraging system, but it's also very confusing and hard to learn for someone who is totally clueless on how it works. I caught on pretty quickly to how to locate spots using the different tools, But even then i can understand there being a lot of people, who are very mature players who simply would have a very hard and frustrating time to trying to grasp a reason to bother going up to 50 in foraging. If it wasn't for everyone telling me how much easier it gets at 50 due to having more options. I would probably have given up on it myself, And yet i know without a doubt i had an easier time catching onto the aspects of foraging then most people will at first..
So i seriously suggest fixing the first 50 levels of foraging. Don't touch the rest of foraging, that's fine, leave it as it is. But make the foraging quests more informative.. give more exp, or more of a boost in getting past that frustrating first 50 levels. I in all the games I've played my whole life, have never ever been so bored and never seen a grind so bad when it comes to getting to 50 in foraging, I had to literally be talking to people in the game to keep my mind off of it, so i could forage without falling asleep. Don't get me wrong. I will love foraging and already to love foraging now that i have more tools available and more uses for it, But seriously the first 50 levels there isn't a whole lot that makes it worth it, And certainly would confuse many people in trying to find reasons to keep at it.
I garrente the majority of people who give up on Ryzom early, is foraging. Crafting can be a little harsh too, but no where near foraging and foraging can be very important for crafting, so if the first 50 levels of foraging is that difficult, most people will tend to give up on crafting as well, and there for be disappointed in half the game already. Endless they somehow find fighting so interesting as to push them far enough into the game, and talking to enough people in the game, to realize how fun crafting can be later on.
I don't know for sure specifically that can fix the 50 level foraging grind.. But i suggest possibly making ether more content for the first 50 levels.. meaning more things that can be done with the lower level foraging, other then making items that are almost worst then the npc's items, (most people take a while to grasp the important of fine and higher levels of mats, including me). So i think one idea is to up the stats on user created items early in the game to encourage and excite people to keep at foraging and crafting... Or.. Make it easier to get to 50, so that people can experience the added specializations of foraging skills.
Making it easier to get to 50 by lessing exp, or something similar might not be a great idea if overdone, because then once 50 is reached it may actually become so slow in the leveling process that people will see it as .. thinking that every 50 levels this degree of slowing down will continue.. So i suggest maybe a little bit of tweaking on the exp needed to level up first 50 levels, but more emphasis on the quality of items that can be made with basic mats.. or making it easier to access mats on newbie island or something.
Whatever it is, something needs to be drastically done with the foraging at the first 50 levels because even as an extremely patient person that i am.. I almost gave up on it myself if it wasn't for other players explaining the options that would open up at 50+.
I have noticed that the players in this game, more then any other, actually want more mature players into the community. This world is huge and vast, and there simply isn't enough players to fill the void. But they also appreciate the work and dedication to playing this game, and in that it keeps mature players around and tends to leave those more immature players from ruining for the others. But while I'm saying that these changes need to be made to make things easier for new players, I am not saying to change the core aspects that keep the mature players here and the bad ones out. All I am saying is that there is no need to torture even mature players who are very potential customers with little imperfections like bad english translations in text or non-updated quests and very frustrating beginning foraging learning curve. These things can be fixed while still keeping the core aspects that everyone who plays love about this game.
So to sum things up, If we want more mature players, and we won't more money, There for more money to spend on development and advertisments, which would therefore create even more players and more development... We need to fix the most important things that would otherwise cause very potential customers from playing in the first place.
I hope that my post has made an impact on one of the developers, or at least some players with some patience of reading this, to push developers into waking up and realizing the importance of this.. I will continue to contribute anything i can to keep Ryzom alive.. and kicking. And i hope to be a great aspect to the community. I truly support any games like this that try to dare be different then the rest. Because it is not easy being different, It's very hard to convince old players and new alike to learn a system that is different then what they are used to, To break them of their comfort level and to ask them to relearn what they have learned in other games.. And that is why it's very important to have the beginning area's and quests and grinding to be as smooth as possible while teaching as much as possible to easy the learning curve of a completely different game then what they are used to experiencing.
P.S. I hope this post is realized and that more players read this and decide to post their difficulties and frustrations while learning this game, So that things can be addressed to ease more players into our world. As this to me, is one of the most important things that need to be done. Yes long time players want more content, want more things happening for them, But without new players, new revenue, advertisements, and so on, There can be no new content for those players who want it.
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. Just tell people that they have to learn Aggressive extraction before they can learn the more delicate Gentle action, which takes a little more skill (5 more levels).