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[pantschesnut]

they need jobs there too and I'm the social type, you know

*checks proudly on the fin on his back*

embrel

only one problem with this point, and that if too many people encourage it, whos gonna encourage them to come back and give us jobs when they have moved them all over to india etc..

[arfindel]

generally those who get western jobs in eastern countries, soon will have western jobs (presumably the same) in western countries

[saber091]

why not?
I'd love to have access to the sky-roots... and the worlds they promised...
Hey! theres the potential for the expansion that could bring in more mooooney;P

Sky roots, for the win. I don't know why, but many of the players I hung out with would /love/ to get up there. Me too. It would be far too completely awesome. Though I can see that they would possibly be advanced pathways with higher level critters and possibly more flying critters to make it difficult.

But yes, this game has more expansion potential than EVE Online has empty space. The look and /feel/ of the game is extraordinary, and fleshing out the Lore/encyclopedia while working it further down into the game would be wonderous.

-Would I pay more? Yes.
-Would n00bs pay more? Probably not much more than for other MMOs out there.
-Do I like the idea of free expansions? Yes.
-But do I want to see Ryzom go down again? Heck no.

Balance in all things. Making the players ecstatic is well and good, but do take care for sustainable finances and over-the-top advertising. I'd /love/ to see Cho come back online, and four more new servers beside, all filled to the brim with new players (and CP alts!). But all in good time.

We can wait awhile longer for the game to be ready. Waiting more than a year from this point would be too much. It's better to be fully prepared and polished, than too hasty.

[arfindel]

I'm not exactly on topic but the thread actually discusses ways to make money for Ryzom and the most important one is to have the player base happy and most of the time busy. I do remember long times when in Ryzom nothing new happened and people complained about it, only the huge complexity of the game saved it, and as history proves it was not enough.
The exact inverse feeling I've had playing LotrO. The game as is conceived is shallow but Turbine makes the best of it.

I would like to enumerate some things that, as player, made me feel pampered and at the same time wished Ryzom team would have for players as well:

- Servers always up, never have a server down without anouncing it in time, never have a server down without a clear updated if necessary ETA. Never allow wishful thinking involved with that. If some work seems to require 8 hours down and you hope for 6 hours, then ETA>=8 never 6.

- MMO time is faster paced than RL time. Even if you work something that is not ready until a month, have a weekly report with what you are doing so players feel there is somebody working out there for them. Give concrete hints of what is going on. Sacrifice some time to write down in detail over the forums what are you working at.

- Server maintainance is a concept few players appreciate. Add a little patch. Go in small steps. It doesn't have to be each week a huge server fix patch. But each server down accompanied by a small fix gets much more respect than a pure "server maintainance" one. On a side note Ryzom should get rid of the "gold rush" following server maintainance, you know what I mean: bosses and supremes, cmon there should be a way to make them spawn with an individual delay at server start.

- Get a good quests writer. Yeah I do hate quests but the majority of players don't - even the Ryzom hard core ones. Make modular quests and implement gradually. There's no need to make Ryzom quest based, but good stories are appreciated, can anytime start with fame/tribal stories which as mechanics exist already but the quest itself has basic to primitive story. Identify them and rewrite the stories only. Quests are an infinite source of small fixes and upgrades, mainly if they don't interfere with game mechanics. (there are people in the hard core player base you could take as kami/kara advisor for the quest writing and content).

- Use RL time to make IC events. Autumn/spring festivals, fashion contests, runs through the PR, arena fights etc. Automatize them. Let the player come at any time and take part. Advertize over forums in advance. Let such events last 2-3 weeks and revive abandonned cities. Allow all time zones to take part. Set honorfic rewards, mainly wearables that can be showed off without interfering with game mechanics. Make sure the events are not forever (like the lottery) to create inflation. An event has an end as well as a start. People who were not playing at the time of the event will have one more reason to play in the hope they'll be there at the next festival. Even with a low population events make people feel they are not alone on the planet.

- Once in 4-6 month make a major fix. Announce it long time before. Describe it. Don't be shy with words. Implement gradually small abilities that do not interfere with main skills: dance, fishing, hats making, playing songs (or even instruments), diving for pearls or just individual time to stay under water/without water in the desert, source of contests, gymnastics and exercise, hula hoops, climbing trees, all in essence only complex emotes to more development intense stuff like cooking or cosmetics industry.

If these are working then you can think of a second team (Turbine works with 2, one less experienced for maintainance, one hard core for developpment of future expansions if i know correctly) or an overworked same one to create real expansions, these can be - imho - sold in a different box, and can also be developped in a year or more.

Ideas: new small maps, underground dungeons, new special lairs, new improved pvp areas (Matis arena is extremely bad planned, but I feel a very bad idea to revamp such an old part of the game), pets, short distance vehicles (dont't forget Ryzom is a very small world, long distance vehicles would only make it look tiny), player housing, shops, better guild halls (all these last, being instantiated, should be replaceable with better ones still instantiated but buyable).

However future developpments are a secondary thing to worry about for now imo, keeping the game alive as is and make the thin hard core layer of players become a player base should be on first place. Whatever strong seems the enthusiasm now on the forums and klients, it's still only a few over 100 subs Ryzom would get once opened.

Ryzom worked in the past on a depressive maniacal scheme It either showed fervent, overenthusiastic activity (kitin nest, the ring) that led to unfinished, not working huge expansions or no activity for years where the players felt abandonned in a silenced world. That vision should change first and foremost and hopefully Ryzom, once reopened, will take a stable constant pace of living.

[d29565]

Wow. You said all of that perfectly Faa. I'm glad you put so much thought into it!

[acridiel]

- Servers always up, never have a server down without anouncing it in time, never have a server down without a clear updated if necessary ETA. Never allow wishful thinking involved with that. If some work seems to require 8 hours down and you hope for 6 hours, then ETA>=8 never 6.

I appreaciate the "Scotty approach" to maintenance time. Always said the same back then.
But please tell me, do you realy now ANY Game out there that NEVER had an unexpected serverdown?
Sorry, but to announce each and every problem that might occur with a server before it happens is wishful thinking taken to the extreme.
If Devs had some form of oracular ability then no MMO would ever go out of business.
What do you want them to say in such an announcement?
"Sorry folks, the servers main core is going to explode in precisely 15 minutes, you now got 14.50 min. left to leave the server."

- MMO time is faster paced than RL time. Even if you work something that is not ready until a month, have a weekly report with what you are doing so players feel there is somebody working out there for them. Give concrete hints of what is going on. Sacrifice some time to write down in detail over the forums what are you working at.

Agreed and signed.

- Server maintainance is a concept few players appreciate. Add a little patch. Go in small steps. It doesn't have to be each week a huge server fix patch. But each server down accompanied by a small fix gets much more respect than a pure "server maintainance" one. On a side note Ryzom should get rid of the "gold rush" following server maintainance, you know what I mean: bosses and supremes, cmon there should be a way to make them spawn with an individual delay at server start.

Agreed, maybe do it like LotRo and put in a fixed day for maintenance.
Every Wednesday night or somesuch.

- Get a good quests writer. Yeah I do hate quests but the majority of players don't - even the Ryzom hard core ones. Make modular quests and implement gradually. There's no need to make Ryzom quest based, but good stories are appreciated, can anytime start with fame/tribal stories which as mechanics exist already but the quest itself has basic to primitive story. Identify them and rewrite the stories only. Quests are an infinite source of small fixes and upgrades, mainly if they don't interfere with game mechanics. (there are people in the hard core player base you could take as kami/kara advisor for the quest writing and content).

Tough one to decide upon. If those quests differed from the "normal" approach other Games take it´d be great. Only problem is, "non-repeatable" or "custom-quests" are extremely difficult to implement without alienating a huge amount of players. Namely those the did not get to do "this weeks quest update" (just an example). The Ring was the right way to go, with "Quests" provided by creative players that could be changed on a whim and repeated or not as liked. And nobody would feel left out because it was his own decision to join in a scenario or not. Whatever flaws the Ring had, it was a sensational idea and should be taken further, step by step.
Those that clamored for "perfectness" in its very first incarnation are simply too impatient imho.

- Use RL time to make IC events. Autumn/spring festivals, fashion contests, runs through the PR, arena fights etc. Automatize them. Let the player come at any time and take part. Advertize over forums in advance. Let such events last 2-3 weeks and revive abandonned cities. Allow all time zones to take part. Set honorfic rewards, mainly wearables that can be showed off without interfering with game mechanics. Make sure the events are not forever (like the lottery) to create inflation. An event has an end as well as a start. People who were not playing at the time of the event will have one more reason to play in the hope they'll be there at the next festival. Even with a low population events make people feel they are not alone on the planet.

Agreed. Revive that tradition. It worked quite well back then. Life events don´t always have to be Invasions.

- Once in 4-6 month make a major fix. Announce it long time before. Describe it. Don't be shy with words. Implement gradually small abilities that do not interfere with main skills: dance, fishing, hats making, playing songs (or even instruments), diving for pearls or just individual time to stay under water/without water in the desert, source of contests, gymnastics and exercise, hula hoops, climbing trees, all in essence only complex emotes to more development intense stuff like cooking or cosmetics industry.

Agreed, good idea!

If these are working then you can think of a second team (Turbine works with 2, one less experienced for maintainance, one hard core for developpment of future expansions if i know correctly) or an overworked same one to create real expansions, these can be - imho - sold in a different box, and can also be developped in a year or more.

My guess is that this was the plan all along, but failed due to the known problems back then. The 1 on the original resale box is still a good hint at that.

Ideas: new small maps, underground dungeons, new special lairs, new improved pvp areas (Matis arena is extremely bad planned, but I feel a very bad idea to revamp such an old part of the game), pets, short distance vehicles (dont't forget Ryzom is a very small world, long distance vehicles would only make it look tiny), player housing, shops, better guild halls (all these last, being instantiated, should be replaceable with better ones still instantiated but buyable).

All nice ideas, but please no instances. And when doing so make it less awkward then LotRo does. It´s always a very weird moment when running through a supposedly instanced area and encountering another group of players coming your way from the opposite direction. Having just killed "the boss"... *blargh*

However future developpments are a secondary thing to worry about for now imo, keeping the game alive as is and make the thin hard core layer of players become a player base should be on first place. Whatever strong seems the enthusiasm now on the forums and klients, it's still only a few over 100 subs Ryzom would get once opened.

Ryzom worked in the past on a depressive maniacal scheme It either showed fervent, overenthusiastic activity (kitin nest, the ring) that led to unfinished, not working huge expansions or no activity for years where the players felt abandonned in a silenced world. That vision should change first and foremost and hopefully Ryzom, once reopened, will take a stable constant pace of living.

Agreed, three additional words to the new owner from me:

Organize, organize, organize!!

CU
Acridiel

[slippery]

Yeah i'd pay it, to be honest i'd pay about $50 a month to play now, talk about keep me waiting!

[arfindel]

[..]

But please tell me, do you realy now ANY Game out there that NEVER had an unexpected serverdown?

Honestly I am sure it's unavoidable but in a whole year of LotrO it never went unexpectedly down... errm. There is a difference between going down about once in 2 weeks unexpectedly and 6 days in a row without an ETA like dear old SWG managed to do and not going down at all (except maintainance) in LotrO. However my point is make it as stable as possible

"Sorry folks, the servers main core is going to explode in precisely 15 minutes, you now got 14.50 min. left to leave the server."

Hehe that certainly sounds like an event

Agreed, maybe do it like LotRo and put in a fixed day for maintenance.
Every Wednesday night or somesuch.

SIgned as well

Tough one to decide upon. If those quests differed from the "normal" approach other Games take it´d be great. Only problem is, "non-repeatable" or "custom-quests" are extremely difficult to implement without alienating a huge amount of players. Namely those the did not get to do "this weeks quest update" (just an example).

We had a big number of fame quests that gave certain abilities, auras etc. Not very useful but very nice to have. Diggers know them painfully well. Except the Fyros fame one most none had a story. The quests were remarkably badly done to say it nicely What I am thinking is put to work what is already 3/4 working.

Secondly. There is a huge number of quests implemented among the tribes both at surface and in the PR. Make some stories with them. Maybe ask hard core players to make them. There are people who mapped migrations here, people who lived with the tribes, they would be more than happy to contribute. Don't say: kill 5 kinchers and 2 voraxes, cmon, do the same but tell it nicely. Rewards are very scarce with these quests. I'd make the tribal chief bow when you visit or something when you gain a certain amount of fame. Just make it worth.

A lot of them are already not repeateable.
[/quote]

All nice ideas, but please no instances. And when doing so make it less awkward then LotRo does. It´s always a very weird moment when running through a supposedly instanced area and encountering another group of players coming your way from the opposite direction. Having just killed "the boss"... *blargh*

Let me be more precise on this one: player housing and guild houses are already instances now and here. Create a mechanism to improve and enrich these instances and sell them. You want a bigger house? Ok buy it. You don't mind what house you have, or don't have enough money? Never mind, you'll still get the old apartment.

I am not talking about raid instances no, no, not me ... I might be crazy but not out of my mind

[eriu3]

yeah id pay, but soubt newbies will, £12.99 would be an absolute limit. They need to scrap the multi month super saver plan that they introduced asap, that was a bit pointless as anyone who was gonna sub for long periods of time didnt care about the price.