Newcomer

[forumbrowser]

Well, not so new. I played Ryzom years ago briefly and can't remember the account or even the name of the character. I do remember I was in a guild with only one other player, he was from Australia, but I can't remember the name of the guild either. They say memory is the first thing to go after ... er ... hitting a certain age. No matter, back then there was no silan and no ring, so I look forward to that. I do remember crafting and harvesting which were my favorite skills so I'll get back to them as soon as the game completes download. I'll get back here with a character name as soon as I make one.

[cyrogen18]

Welcome back

I played in beta & have come back for another round myself. Silan is a great improvement to the game and I'm sure you'll enjoy starting out afresh like I am.

~Cyro

[forumbrowser]

Thanks Cyro.

So, I picked a Matis this time around. The name is ...wait for it... Browser.

Silan is interesting though some of the quests are ridiculously irritating, especially the search for Fine Zun Amber. There I was right on the spot and the node wouldn't pop for me, then comes another player and bam first try he gets the node. I wait for him to finish and try prospecting again and I get nothing. Finally I give up trying and accepted one of his nodes after he offered.

Then there’s the harvesting quest by Sterga Hamla - he is some character, truly enjoyable to read, and amusingly funny. I rather like his uppity smug and righteous attitude. I don’t like that I have to spend so much skill points in order to complete his quests, especially the amps crafting quest, which is so unclear because it doesn’t say that one needs both the weapons and the amps crafting plans. In addition one needs to get weapons plan 2 in order to make the q15 amps.

I can imagine new players become easily discourage from these skills after doing these quests simply because they are irritating to complete and at such an early stage too. I find it disappointing because crafting and harvesting is the heart of Ryzom. No other game offers such a complex skill system. I’m not saying these quest need to be easy but they don’t need to be borderline frustrating.

Instead these quests should offer the player the right to pick what plans he/she wants to craft. Then the harvesting specialist trainer can offer the player to search for mats pertaining to the craft plan the player has learned. After all harvesting and crafting are codependent skills. Ryzom is a sandbox and players should have the freedom to choose even in Silan.

Another poor representation I found is the behavior of some animals. If I recall correctly Caprynis are social animals, therefore attacking one should cause the others to attack the player. I don’t think tweaking the behavior of the animals on silan gives players an accurate representation of what really is beyond the free trial island. Just my $0.02.

Other than the above comments I find Silan fun and it does give new players an opportunity to learn, rather quickly, the skills system, and editing stanzas, which can be confusing. But still I think the trial island should be more concise with how things really are in the mainland.

I haven’t tried the ring yet so I have nothing to add in that respect.