Another Newbie

[pferde]

Since I'm also a forum addict as well as a game addict I though I'd drop in here and say hello. I'm Eomar in-game.

I found Ryzom a few days ago after it was mentioned in one of the forums I'm a member of for Second Life (which is the other thing that owns my soul at the moment). Someone mentioned there the concept of "sandbox gameplay" and that really got my attention.

So after a whole weekend of play, here's my thoughts so far.

- I love how much of an emphasis there is on harvesting and crafting, and how customizable everything is. Customizable spells/actions too.

- I like the optional nature of PvP and forced grouping. I'm not a PvP fan at all, and I'm not hugely keen on group play either (although that could just be that I've been soured by two years of WoW in a string of immature guilds and even more immature PUGs).

- Maturity. I spent most of the last two days reading the chat in the Universe channel and I'm stunned by how mature and adult most (not quite all but most) of the players actually are. This bodes well for those PUGs, I guess.

My background is WoW and Guild Wars (and Second Life, if you count that as an MMO, which I tend not to really) and I compare Ryzom highly favourably to both of those. Guild Wars might just slightly edge it on graphics but I hate the way you're dragged by the nose through a single storyline, I may as well watch a movie. And WoW, I just despair at the players mostly. I think Ryzom is going to be a keeper.

I have a few questions though, or observations from my first couple of days.

1) Is there a way to repair armour or weapons that have been damaged? Or do I just have to wait for them to fall apart and just replace them?

2) Looking at the Vendor lists for selling items. I have put some swords in for sale but neither I nor a friend that looked for me can find them on the weapons merchant's For Sale list. How can other people buy my stuff if it doesn't appear on the list? Also how could I buy a weapon, say, a sword, when the list only displays a hundred or so daggers (plus the regular NPC weapons at the bottom) where is the other player-crafted stuff?

3) What happens when my skills hit level 20? Am I then stuck at that level until I go to mainland? And what if I've not yet completed all the quests at that stage (I can see I'm going to hit 20 way before I finish them all)?

okay I think I'll stop here, this is getting really long...

[wilkinc]

1) There is no way to repair items, this is intended to encourage trading between crafters and fighters/mages for new gear every so often.

2) When you sold your gear, did you 'Sell to Players' or 'Sell to NPC'? If you sell to the NPC, the item does not appear in the for-sale list. As for the other weapons, some NPC sellers only stock certain items. Try a different seller?

3) The levels on the starter island are not capped, you can go way beyond 20 without leaving Silan. Of course, you can leave the island before you hit 20 or before you complete all the quests if you so choose.
The levels go all the way up to 250 and split at various points so you can specialise in different skills.

[pferde]

When I sold my gear I chose "Sell to other players". It wasd two swords which I made myself and I expected them to appear on the Melee Weapon trader's list and they didn't. A friend I was playing with couldn't find them either, although they are still showing as my items for sale with 6-plus days to go.

It is also impossible for me to find swords made by any other player. I can find daggers no problem, but the only swords showing are NPC-made. The two-handed melee weapons vendor shows only Magic Amplifiers made by players, not any other weapons.

It looks to me like the trading-via-vendors system is fundamentally broken somewhere, unless there's some Search facility that I'm unable to find (I can find Search by level, class and price but not item name)

[brash1963]

There is a filter setting that allows you to look at ONLY magic amps, or ONLY 2H swords etc and it is possible you have that accidentally set. Make sure also you don't accidentally have a price or level range preset. I think also the 2H sword plan is more 'expensive' for newbie crafters to buy and make, but I did see at least two player-made ones listed at Silan (Q39 & Q40). Since they 'compete' with the mega-uber quest reward Fire And Wrath 2H sword, many crafters may not bother making these as most dedicated fighter characters complete all the base fighter quests and eventually earn this sword themselves.

As far as your swords not showing, sometimes if there are a LOT of swords, not all will show. Again using the filters to sort by type (1H Sword) and level ranges or even price may make yours appear (most players will sort by level to get the ones most appropriate for them). (actually this is probably why you saw only amps at the 2H vendor as tons of players grind on amps or make them for quests then dump them on the for sale market, probably crowding out the 2H swords unless you filter for them).

I sorted by lower level swords (1-30) and found some Q10 1H swords made by Eomar. Just as a note also, these are sometimes difficult to sell on Silan as the Q20 1H quest reward 'Duellist Blade' is often resold by players very cheap, has almost no prereqs and pretty much obliterates anything players can make at the lower levels on Silan (till you get to maybe Q40+ level). This sword is one of the first purchases my own baby alts buy, followed by the Q15/Q30 quest reward magic amps.

Weapons are a great tradeskill for sales on Mainland, or once you can get to Q40-50, but can be more difficult until you are able to surpass that dang Duellist Blade and its 49 DMG rating with no wield reqs... as a result I tend to focus more on medium and heavy armor sales on Silan and these sell much better for me.

Once you get to mainland, you'll find a huge market for Q50 gear as many crafters just grind past these or dump very cheap low quality ones on the vendor. Players will pay a lot more for ones carefully made to give them better stats. Currently all accounts can go to any level and access any part of the gameworld, though as a crafter it is very nice getting your training first on Silan.

[pferde]

Another question - I'm doing the Magician quest involving killing Weaned Rendors, but no matter how many I kill the quest doesn't update and it's still saying "kill 10". I've tried solo and in a party, I've tried with both magic and combat.

Is this quest broken, and if so how to proceed with the rest of the chain?

[pferde]

There is a filter setting that allows you to look at ONLY magic amps, or ONLY 2H swords etc and it is possible you have that accidentally set. Make sure also you don't accidentally have a price or level range preset.

OK, so how do I find this filter? I've not got the price filter on, it's set for 0-9999999 (something like that).

[eriu3]

just keep killing them, it will update eventually, the counter is broken on that mission

[eriu3]

OK, so how do I find this filter? I've not got the price filter on, it's set for 0-9999999 (something like that).

bottom right of the vendor window

[brash1963]

Is this quest broken, and if so how to proceed with the rest of the chain?

Once you get all 10. the quest updates. The counter doesn't track on that one. All of the quests can be done solo. Probably you only have 2-3 to go (in a team/group, only one person gets the 'kill' for the quest so hard to guess whether you actually got some for the teamed efforts, but probably you are very close to finishing it).

As said, the sales filters for item type are in the lower right of the trade menu, just below the item price (shows a picture icon of any selected items filtered)

[iceaxe68]

- I like the optional nature of PvP and forced grouping. I'm not a PvP fan at all, and I'm not hugely keen on group play either (although that could just be that I've been soured by two years of WoW in a string of immature guilds and even more immature PUGs).

- Maturity. I spent most of the last two days reading the chat in the Universe channel and I'm stunned by how mature and adult most (not quite all but most) of the players actually are. This bodes well for those PUGs, I guess.

Changing the subject a bit...

Silan is mostly OK to solo, though a group helps with some of the tougher things. On reaching the mainland, you may also find soloing OK for a while.

Eventually, though, soloing gets harder and harder, slower and slower. Some very patient people can manage to go it alone all the time, but they are rare indeed.

I started out with much the same feeling you express. Not so much because of bad experiences in other games, as Ryzom was my first MMO, but because I'm a fairly quiet and shy person by nature. I never grouped at all on Silan.

However, the friendliness and helpfulness of the people around me on the mainland quickly convinced me to be a bit more sociable. I joined a guild, and when possible I grouped up with other members of the guild, or people they introduced to me. I still frequently solo hunted, and still do, but I've found that for me the single most enjoyable thing about this game is the people playing it.

I've learned to say hello to the people I meet, and have made many friends. So, while you may certainly go solo as much as you like, I hope you'll take advantage of the best resource on Atys - the homins.