Where is Ryzom Headed?

[seiren]

We have all returned to Atys and continued our adventures, outpost wars, guild events, skill progressions, and the never ending harvesting. We’ve welcome new gamers to the Ryzom community, and continue to encourage the tradition of having one of the most mature and friendliest gamer communities in any MMORPG. I’m glad to be back and be part of this great community.

I believe it has been a slow but effective step by step progression in getting Ryzom back on track. In the last couple of weeks I’ve experienced less lag issues, hardly any bumps when switching to character selection, and even porting has become faster for me. In the beginning entering the editor and character creation would deceased my connection to the game. Within the last month I’ve not had any game crashes and now I’m able to port faster, minimum lag, and the game experienced has become enjoyable again.

Reviewing the last developer news I was pleased to hear the NeL Community is getting some support, and I can’t wait to see the content that will come from the NeL team(s). Furthermore, it was great to hear the goals and priorities the new Ryzom Team is aiming to achieve. I’m in high spirits to hear new missions will be added and I assume they are meant to continue the now stale storyline. We all know some of the Rites are missing, and I’m sure some of us are looking forward to discovering some myths and possible new angles to the Ryzom backstory. Some of us have been discussing the lore, and have noticed small changes, like the letter from Elias in the game manual. I don’t recall that letter being there before. Am I right to believe we’ll be hearing from Elias again?

I’d like to hear more about the reasons behind the removal of the lore from the main site? Some of us are wondering why this was done. Like some have already said the lore of Ryzom is one of the games strongest attractions, and not many games out today are story driven like Ryzom. I would not like for Ryzom’s lore to be forgotten or not improve because there is no budget or dedicated team to continue the work. We want it back, and updated.

There was also mentioned of new content and I think we are ALL ready for new content. But what content are we talking about here? Will Spires be added to the game? Should we be expecting new armor, or new NPC’s that have not been seen in game yet? Will the Kitin Patrols return to PR or a new section of PR not yet explored? Is Elias finally coming back from the underground where he has been searching and lost for the last 3 years? Is Jena finally arriving with her army to take us to a new planet? Will the canopy become accessible? Tells us what we should be expecting, give us something to say “wow! Finally, some content worth sticking around for.” During this beta face the only content I’ve seen has been created by the players, which is wonderful, only Ryzom gives us the freedom to have effective RP that in turn affects everyone and the environment. Though I think we would enjoy more some ingame content that will advance the storyline and give us a new direction. Which brings me to the next question – Do we have a live event team?

And last but not least the darn bugs. I want to see the annoying team window empty-name-slot after a party member has left team disappear, or the not being able to chat in the faction channel after talking in team channel, or the worst of them all – crashing after adding a new mark in the map because the character isn’t facing north. I’m sure these will all be worked on before billing comes back. Right?

I know there are many threads with questions to the new owners but I’ve not been able to post until now. This isn’t a ***** session from me either; I have some questions and bring up some points that I’d like to be discussed by the owners on their next announcement. I’m also expressing my self here as a long time fan of Ryzom, one that sees the potential of the game, and strongly believes Ryzom can be the lead in the MMORPG scene that is seriously in need of a new direction. Every year new games come out, and Ryzom keeps falling behind, and even overshadowed. There are few games coming out for 2009 that will offer more than Ryzom, and the differences between these games and Ryzom are few.

Even now I’ve noticed a decreased in players, while the weekends are somewhat more populated the weekdays aren’t, and even so those we see active now do not guarantee they will be around and pay when there is nothing more to offer.

I’d like to know what immediate fixes will be done ingame before the billing comes back. We know some of the bugs I mentioned are good way to start, these bugs are seriously hindering the game, although as someone who has been here before can understand and cope with them, someone who is just coming in will quickly get tired of loosing connection after they start to mark their maps. There are many questions still unanswered and the mystery behind the owners is at the top of the list.

What plans are there for the ring? The ring is one of the most fun features in Ryzom but it is lacking in so many ways, too many restrictions, and the fact that no hosting has been offered yet makes the ring inaccessible to many. There is a community very much interested in the ring but nothing has been offered to address the issues and the many suggestions given by the players. The ring can be a good source of income for Ryzom if the developers were to give us hosting and more freedom, plus special content packs for the ring, and the most important issue is the missing reward or scoring system that was promised. I definitely think the ring should be discussed in the next news letter by the developers.

In the last letter it was said that the billing will return in October, or possibly a bit longer, and I’m ready to pay and support Ryzom. Many of us here are. But before I commit my self to that I want to know where all the planning for Ryzom is headed. It would be a major failure from the new developers to give us back a game that has not progress for the last 3years with nothing improved or added. And I hate to say that we will lose many gamers because of it. I want to hear detailed announcements and above all I want our questions answered.

[seiren]

Because I can't yet post on the general section I'm using this old post as my response to this thread. The only reason I can post is because I created a new free account with the name of Seiren. There are still many of us who can't post on the forums with our main accounts and I'm sure they are as anxious as I to talk and ask developers what they are working on and where Ryzom is headed.

I'm happy that the billing is coming back mainly because of the forum restriction. I'd like to know what will the developers offer us in regards to annual subs? I plan to open two accounts and rather pay a yearly sub than a monthly fee. Personally one year's sub is exactly the amount of time I'm giving Ryzom to improve and become the game it was meant to be.

I have to be honest here and I do apologies if my candid comments make me sound biter and unappreciative of being welcomed back and being able to play for free for the last...what, five months? I am. But am also still bothered that I lost my original name, though it is a minor detail I can live with as long as the game progresses and improves. While I think the game has improved as far as my connection problems, there are still many, many, many concerns and questions that have not been address.

Anissa posted an excellent response to what worries us. She is speaking on behalf of many of us who can't post on the general forum, who don't have the vocabulary to express ourselves as eloquently.

It is quite possible that, after the free period, some players including yours truly will consider subscribing (or to be more optimistic, will subscribe more willingly...) if we have an idea of the development plan and general roadmap. I do hope that you have been working not only on setting up the billing system, opennel and the webpage, but also on the game itself, as you may have hinted in previous communication, even if it is simply defining a generic roadmap.

[minirushin]

i find it quite interesting you know...

Nevrax promised us many things; kitin lairs, spires, new planets, didnt deliver much

SW promise us... nothing... but have discovered it takes over 3 months to set up billing.

I think for many the initial excitement of the servers re-opening has faded, the surge in population has faded away, and with it maybe some of us are losing our hope.

i love ryzom, without a doubt more than any other game i have ever played, and i would humbly suggest most of us feel something like this. But it's not enough, we have been through a lot of drama over the years. For me it ended with GF, i left after a few months of them 'running' things, those that stayed past this had the horrible experience of servers being shut down. Cant imagine how painful that was if you were active player at the time.

Fast forward to present day, we have SW who, for want of better information, are Nevrax in some form. Initially to me this was great - i have a lot of respect for Nevrax for what they were trying to do, and what they managed to achieve. But history is repeating itself. We have been told the code is complex, ******* by various parties over the years i am sure, so not a single word that we are going to fix x,y,z we have plans for the future: blah blah blah. all they tell us is its terribly difficult to get the billing system up and running, but fear not we will be able to charge you soon for a game that most of its player base have exhausted for content, amusement, or anything else. No hint of a plan, no plan on marketing, enticing new players, keeping old. no plan at all unless its so super secret they couldnt possibly tell anyone.

sorry, that is BS. you - spiderweb, whoever, need to pull your finger out before the stubborn idiots you still have left playing your game give up as well.

It's not clever to have such a huge wall around what you have planned. it makes me think you have bugger all planned and are hoping for divine intervention to make everything ok. It wont. You need us, more you need new blood. there is NOTHING at present that is appealing to either group.

I dont want to have come back only to experience the demise of ryzom a second time. I wasnt a massive convert to the free ryzom campaign but honestly i can easily see how it would have been better for the game that what we have now.

sort it out, please.

[axor113]

Will this game remain free?

[acridiel]

Will this game remain free?

With 99% probability, no. Sorry.

CU
Acridiel

[seiren]

...sorry, that is BS. you - spiderweb, whoever, need to pull your finger out before the stubborn idiots you still have left playing your game give up as well.

I know I'm stuborn but I'm no idiot. No matter how blondlike or airhead like I played Trixie it was all roleplaying, honest. I do agree with you on other points though.

Many of you have been playing the game for four years now - or even longer if you were part of one or more of the pre-release stages. The fact that you have stuck around this long shows that you care so much about the game, just as we do, and want to see it succeed and be the best it can be. The fact that the game has elicited such devotion from many of you is something that we're very proud of and very glad to be a part of; to be blunt, we hope to be one more reason that you stay with the game for even longer

Thank you for understanding that we can't always give you absolutely all of the details; it's simply not possible in every situation, regardless of the industry you are in. Having said that, we strive to be able to claim that when we say we're going to do something, it happens. Hopefully you have already seen some evidence of this mantra in what we've done so far but we also understand that you need some more "future-oriented" information alongside things that we have been telling you thus far.

To start with, we bought the game because we love Ryzom dearly and strongly believe that it has what it takes to "make it" and become what we all dream it can be. Before we start "dreaming" and putting those dreams into practice, we need to stabilise the game and rectify some of the issues that might put off new players. We need to get profitable first and to do that we need to tidy things up and make the game a lot more user-friendly and accessible to as many people as possible, without diluting what makes Ryzom special. With that in mind we've already started on creating new ways of marketing and translating the game among other things.

To answer your direct questions ( http://forums.ryzom.com/showpost.php...92&postcount=3 ), we also have fixes written for some of the bugs that annoy you the most and we plan to put those on the live server as soon as we have the infrastructure in place to ensure that our code reaches you all effectively and in its proper state. To be specific that means test servers and processes, as well as the patch system - these are "in the works" at the moment, but *hopefully* should be ready for deployment at somewhere around the same time as the billing system goes live. We're not yet quite ready to talk about "large-scale evolution" of the game; obviously the game must evolve to survive and we have some ideas floating around regarding that, but changing the game so that it's not "Ryzom" anymore is most definitely not our goal

As an aside, we also plan to fully support and re-introduce Live Events to the game. The whole way we handle and manage events is being reorganised; the lore pages and chronicles website are currently being reviewed as part of this so that we can bring them back in a centralised and easier to use manner once the reorganisation is complete.

You see, that wasn't so hard. This is the kind of announcement we want to hear. Though you still owe us word about the ring, I can see you guys have plenty on your plate, I can live with. The best news, the bug fixes, and [holds back over excitement] LIVE EVENTS!!!!!!!

Thank you for the update. Count on this idiot's support 100%.

[danebramage]

To start with, we bought the game because we love Ryzom dearly and strongly believe that it has what it takes to "make it" and become what we all dream it can be. Before we start "dreaming" and putting those dreams into practice, we need to stabilise the game and rectify some of the issues that might put off new players. We need to get profitable first and to do that we need to tidy things up and make the game a lot more user-friendly and accessible to as many people as possible, without diluting what makes Ryzom special. With that in mind we've already started on creating new ways of marketing and translating the game among other things.

I'm a right noob to Ryzom but I'm in love with it. I've been playing computer games a long time and I think this one belongs among the all-time classics in terms of art, story, and design...and that's just in its present state. I will fully support anyone who's in it for the love of Ryzom and who is committed to guiding it forward according to a well-thought-out vision. Go, team!

[fiach]

I have played every other MMO out there. They do not offer to me, what Ryzom does.

Atys is my home, specifically Fyros. I have never felt like this about an other MMO ..... ever....

To me, other MMO's are games, but Ryzom offers me more.

As I said it feels like home, it has a great community, it is awesome looking, its VERY immersive, just as a young homin, when I was sitting in Fourways, regaining HP and Stam, watching the Goaris bullying other animals, to now, digging in PR, watching Tyrrancha attacking Arma, the world seems so alive.

The way Gubani come up to you with their big eyes, checking you out, Arana curling up to sleep in the gas of your exploded digspot, the way insects burrow out of the ground, rise up an take flight in a burst of colour, Abyss of Ichor, looking like some fantastic underwater scene, but without water. The wooden barriers in OP's with all their different grain.

The lakes of Fairhaven, to a desert homin like me, are so fantastical. The seasons in Matis are just so beautiful, from an autumnal dawn, to a snowy dusk. Running in the desert, the smoke from my flaming axe, pluming behind me in the dark night.

Kinchers, the most awesome devestating tower of destruction ever created, that they deserve their own line here!

Last but not least......My friends .......