Perspective of a New Player

[zukor]

I've been playing a few weeks now. As a 46 y.o. with a full-time job and three small children, I think it's safe to say that I'm not more than a casual player. I've been gaming >20 years, but am relatively new to MMO's. The idea of a "dynamic world" where there is more to the game than just leveling up appealed to me.

After some time in the starter area, I transported to Pyr. I've now played about 15 hours, always solo, mostly because no one else who was about my level answered my request to group. As a level 30 fighter, 15 mage, 31 harvester, and about 12 craft, I have all store-bought weapons and armor. I find I cannot go far from the gates of Pyr, otherwise I die. Thus I've spent almost 12 hours within sight of the gates, repeatedly killing the few mobs I'm able to kill solo, and harvesting one level 25 mat at a time. There has been virtually no exploration, and no reason to try to explore. Needless to say, this is becoming dull quickly. The idea that solo play will become even more difficult after the patch is hard to accept. I really want to give this game a chance, but if it doesn't improve soon I don't see any reason to keep playing....it simply isn't any fun.

This doesn't square with how I imagined the game might be when I read the advertisements. I had visions of myself exploring a large settled region, doing low level tasks, and slowly (under the radar screen) building a more powerful character. Then, at some point, there might be an outpost that needed help, and my character would be strong enough to rush to the scene and take part in something heroic. Sadly, the game as configured currently gives me no hope that any such scenario could ever take place.

I wonder how other relatively new and/or lowish level characters feel about the game?

Doctor Z.

[btamilio]

I've been playing a few weeks now. As a 46 y.o. with a full-time job and three small children, I think it's safe to say that I'm not more than a casual player. I've been gaming >20 years, but am relatively new to MMO's. The idea of a "dynamic world" where there is more to the game than just leveling up appealed to me.

I wonder how other relatively new and/or lowish level characters feel about the game?

Doctor Z.

In any event, Stick with it a few more weeks. I *do* think the patches planned will help even out some of the issues for the casual/independant player.


EDIT: I'm whiny and tired tonight. I took out the whiny tired stuff.

[lyrah68]

This game is not about soloing. It is mostly about grouping. I haven't have the luck of CONTANT grouping, which is what I would love to have, but then I haven't had the luck of that in any game.

Guess what...you are EXACTLY the age that the "everlasting Clopper group" wants. Keep your ears open from around 6PM Central until roughly 10PM central, you are VERY likely to hear people shouting for another for the "clopper group". They might need a healer, might need a fighter, either way, IF you join, you will make new friends, AND gain enough levels to solo away from the Yubo and Izam area.

DO NOT dispare. If you see Ferra around, send me a tell. I will help you out with a better weapon and maybe a suit of armor...At ANY rate. Save up your dropped stuff once you venture slightly away from the gates, and I will use whatever you have to make your new gear...for free. (I need the practice at crafting more than I need the cash).

One thing you need to understand about "evolving games" is that this evolition...Much like the real thing, takes TIME (translation PATCHES). As much as the creators might WANT to change the game "on the fly" it did not work out that well in Horizons. I would expect BIG differences to take at least MONTHS, but you might notice small changes with each patch.

Main thing these games offer is a world that DOES change, unlike EQ, were it just SORT of grew. And these games, all of them that I have tried/played allow you to be in a world of MANY other players, ALL of us affecting the world.

(FYI store bought gear is NOT the best, better than naked and bare fisted, but not by much.)

[loyats]

All i can say, is have patience. I can no longer find the thread, but our community manager Cerest i belive had a post saying content would be out with patch 2, as we are about to experience patch one, i can only imagine 2 is shortly behind. If you don't want to wait to see what the future holds, then there is nothing I can say or do to keep you.

[jeffhill]

You can explore... with great care. I made it to dyrom at about level 30, and it was fun! All MMORPGs work in a similar fashion... further away from town the harder the mobs. If you could explore, then there would be nothing to kill.

Its all to help with character advancment, progression and accomplishment. None of these will make much sense or have purpose if anyone can just willy nilly go anywhere.

[xman1102]

Having only played for 3 nights now, i'm not one to give much of an opinion on the game myself. However, i definitely see where you are coming from and see myself in your shoes shortly. I'm a married father as well who only gets 15 or so hours of gaming in a week, so i'd qualify myself as a casual gamer too.
Although its only been 4 or 5 hours, i'm starting to feel the pains of having to solo. Unlike you, i have played numerous mmorpg's before and have had the support of guilds to group and hunt with and not have to rely on soloing. But having no other friends playing and not seeing but 1 other player so far in my 5 hours of playing, the soloing is growing tiresome.
I will give it a couple more weeks to try and get off newbie island, but i suspect i could be in the same boat as you are now being left to hunt by yourself. So far i like what i see about the game, but i refuse to play a mmorpg and solo. I'm just hoping to find a few people to make friends with so i can feel like i'm not playing a single player game.

[josephm]

short time...I thought patch 2 was scheduled 6 months after retail release.

[tinpony]

I've been playing a few weeks now. As a 46 y.o. with a full-time job and three small children, I think it's safe to say that I'm not more than a casual player. I've been gaming >20 years, but am relatively new to MMO's. The idea of a "dynamic world" where there is more to the game than just leveling up appealed to me.

I have been playing for about a month. Just over a month. I've noticed a real push on this game to indoctrinate everyone into a guild, and to try to eliminate solo players. There's nothing wrong with guilds or the people in them, but they are not for everyone. I make join a guild some day, or at least try to join a guild (if any would have me), but for the moment, I like the idea of standing on my own two feet and developing my skills. I think it gives me a better awareness of what I can offer to a guild.

I am lucky that I team with a friend, and that makes life easier. He's a mage/forager and I'm a fighter/crafter. Between us, we've covered all our bases enjoyably.

It is funny to see the progression around me. One day someone will be looking to buy q60 armour. Three days later, they want q110. I've accepted that I'll never keep up. I'm going to be left behind by the people that joined when I joined. That's the way it is. I truck along at my slow pace, so be it.

It's not a bad thing. You have to find the things you enjoy.

You mentioned travelling. I'll admit, Fyros is harder than Zora (where my character is from) for that. We made our way from one end of Zora to the other at about L30. Even now, I'm melee 80 and we've gone from the gate in Thessos to the gate north of Dyron. We had help from a very kind local finding our way from Dyron to Pyr and the initial trip south to Thesos, but the rest is all us. Basically anything in there that would kill you, would kill us too.

If you want to get out there, my advice to you is to learn a couple things:

1) Learn to sneak. Not getting aggro is huge for exploration and levelling harvest. You don't need to fight your way through everything. Listen for the sounds of predators. Try to make it from Pyr to the walls north of Pyr without dying. The gingos and goari are the only real threats and they have their ranges. I don't like to fight, and the truth is I'd die a lot if I tried it. I prefer to avoid it altogether. Last night we went down to the big canyon in the south and took a look. It's not easy and you will die, but if you want to explore, it is possible. Gettting to know aggro ranges is probably the most important skill for the explorer classes. I spend a great deal of time as our official photographer perching on cliffs and searching out pretty places. Other groups will likely be more willing to take you on trips and tours if you can figure out your navigation skills.

2) Content. Ugh. Ryzom is very much a 'BYOP' (bring your own plot) game at the moment. You mentioned the saving an outpost thing. Get to know the mission givers. They can often give non-lethal missions. Target a kipee, harvest some quest items. They can build up your fame which *will* become important. There's the Leviers north of Pyr to start. Get missions from the kami or the welcomers. There's a hunter a little north of them that gives target quests. You can become a hero to this tribe. At this point, that does precious little, but I hear talk of that providing spawn points? As you go up in levels, other tribes will give you other missions.

Compared to Zora, Fyros is downright chatty. Whenever we're in Pyr, I'm amazed at the number of people talking. It can be hard to find a group, but ask questions and look around. I rarely ever group myself (usually only in Pyr to conduct business) but there always seems to be people looking for groups.

I'm sure you know all of this, but as a solo/duo, it is possible to get to where you want to be. It won't be fast, but you can set yourself goals. Until the game actually provides us with goals, exploration is a great way to give yourself something to look forward to doing... and you don't *have* to be high level and it's a great break from the grind.

Edit to add: Today, BGrifter and I found a new teleporter in Haven, got our spawn spot in Void (last one we needed in Witherings), made it from Void, through to Nexus via the Roots, across the Nexus, and we logged out with max DP at the front entrance to the Abyss of Ichor. Hoping we can find some kind souls to help guide us through to Matis, but we'll see tomorrow. And there you go. Places to see, things to so, even at the low levels and even solo/duo.

Tin.

[tayster]

I wrote this long post about what you should try, how you shouldn't be discouraged and all, but because of the retardness of how these boards are set up it logged me out, and I lost my post. I don't feel like typing it all out again, seeing as how it was long, so you can blame Ryzom for that. I know I do >_<

[zukor]

I'd like to thank everyone for their comments and for some of the kind offers. A few thoughts:

By lyrah68:
"This game is not about soloing. It is mostly about grouping."

I hope that is not entirely the case. While I agree that there should be extra benefits to grouping, if the game does not allow for satisfying solo play also, then it won't be the game for me. If I have a 45 minute slot of time for gaming, I don't want to spend half of it looking for a group.

By loyats:
"our community manager Cerest i belive had a post saying content would be out with patch 2"

Actually the lack of content isn't a major problem for me at this point. Some meaningful low-level quests other than the generic kind would certainly be nice, but otherwise my char is way too low-level to play any major role in the story at present.

By jeffhill:
"You can explore... with great care. I made it to dyrom at about level 30, and it was fun! All MMORPGs work in a similar fashion... further away from town the harder the mobs. If you could explore, then there would be nothing to kill.

Its all to help with character advancment, progression and accomplishment. None of these will make much sense or have purpose if anyone can just willy nilly go anywhere."

I agree with the principle that the farther away from town, the harder the mobs. I also agree you shouldn't be able to just go "willy nilly" anywhere, especially as a low level char. I question the implementation in this game, though. It seems to me the area surrounding a major town should be pretty safe, unless you purposely look for trouble. As you explore further, it gets more dangerous. In SOR, you're in real danger the moment you leave the gates, as a low-level char. Apparently the patch will make this even worse. Perhaps with lots of dodging and weaving you can sneak through the "seams" between aggro mobs, but why take the risk? You aren't going to be rewarded for doing so in any way.

By tinpony:
"Get to know the mission givers. They can often give non-lethal missions. Target a kipee, harvest some quest items. They can build up your fame which *will* become important. There's the Leviers north of Pyr to start. Get missions from the kami or the welcomers. There's a hunter a little north of them that gives target quests."

Unfortunately many of the missions, aside from being very generic, are also way beyond the capabilities of a low level player. I did find the hunter and did some of his quests. The next night, when I went looking for him again, I got accosted by a baying gingo that had never been in that area before (very close to town) and was killed before I could make it back. I haven't gone out to look for him again since, because I have no chance when up against the baying gingo at my level, and I can't run away from it either.

By tinpony:
"I'm sure you know all of this, but as a solo/duo, it is possible to get to where you want to be. It won't be fast, but you can set yourself goals. "

I really hope that is true, but I'm starting to doubt it. There is this huge gulf between the higher level players, and players such as myself. It seems the game is about to be made more difficult to accomodate the higher-level characters....where does that leave the rest of us? It's already too difficult, IMO, to solo advance as a lowish level character, and you're way too limited in what you can do (and where you can go). If the patch worsens this problem, I don't know where the "new blood" that every MMO needs will come from. Are new characters supposed to stay in the boring starter area until they are level 50?

Again, thanks everyone for your thoughts.

Doctor Z.