A veritable avalanche of newbie questions

[acridiel]

I've been having a hard time adjusting to Ryzom. Silan helped explain some things in a very basic and general way, but Ryzom is a very detailed game and the devil is in the details. The game simply does not explain itself or present a progression that makes things clear to me. After getting dropped off in Zora, I was terribly lost on what to do for hours. Hopefully a poor noob can get some answers here.

Welcome to Atys then and please don´t let these seemingly overwhelming details distract you from your fun playing
1. Ryzom is a Team-Game. Soloing is pretty hard. Manageable, but it takes far more time.
2. There´s been new Missions introduced to help you settle in on the Mainland, just with the last patch, about a month ago. In Zora it should be an NPC on the City-Square with the huge flags to introduce you to them
3. You may always ask in Region,or Universe Chat for help. People will very probably rush to help you (most probably won´t look very favorably on an "LFG, ned Hlp, plz!" whine anywhere, so ask politely and in whole words, it helps )

- How do damage types/resistances/protections work?

Are the resistances and protections listed on the character sheet only for magic? If a Mektoub in Cities of Intuition stomps on my face, has he done jungle damage or some kind of unlisted physical damage? My heavy armor lists a protection % and max absorption values. Is this for physical damage?

Exactly. You saw this correctly. Resistances on the (P)ersona Sheet are for the 4 Race-Specific types of magic. Each people has got a slightly higher resistance to its own special kind of magic.
Matis = Poison
Zoraï = Electricity
Tryker = Shockwave
Fyros = Fire

And yes, heavy armor and all other kinds protect solely against physical damage. For added miagic protection you´ll need jewelry. Which is craftable by players.

- Where to buy better equipment?

I understand I can craft items myself, or buy generic equipment from the merchants in town, but should I expect to always be making my own items? Where do players generally sell good items of quality? Is there an accepted central market location like Jita in Eve?

On this I can only speak for Leanon server, which has generally accepted Dyron in Fyros (the Desert) as the Market for good stuff.
Arispotle probably will have another town acting as such. But it is a given fact that verndors in the citys are split by qulaity.
On the "lower" market in capital citys you may buy up to Quality 50.
The second market there will sell up to Q 100.
The next village nearest to the Capital will sell up to Q 150 items.
The third, up to Q 200 and so on.
You can find player sold items at the vendors under "Players sale".
So you´ll have to travel a bit to get at everything.
Be glad you´re in Zoraï, its the region with the least aggro mobs in this area.

- Weapon selection

Are some weapons better against certain mobs? Is there some way to tell other than personal and extensive trial-and-error?

Again your guess is correct.
Some weapons do better damage to specific mobs. And as many, many players before you did already go through this stage of trial and error, there´s been established the sites you already did find.

- Good websites

I've found these sites so far

ryzom.wikia.com
ballisticmystix.net
ryzom.raum.com

Are there any other really good info sites? A lot of information I find is so incomplete or vague as to be useless, or hopelessly out of date.

Not that I know of.
But especially Ballisticmystix is near to perfect as far as I know.
Sorry to rant a little now. But, do you really need them?
Do you really want to make your gameplay and fun dependant on if some site can lead you by the hand and spoil you with all the info you need?
I myself can´t find any fun in that. Sorry.
Why don´t you try and shake off this dependency on spoiler sites?
Try to "life" your own game!
But, to each his/her own.

- Missions

Are all missions just generic, repeatable filler? Are there any personalized or story missions? I have only found the welcome mission line in Zora.

Sadly most so called "Encyclopedia Missions" aren´t fully implemented yet.
We all hope that they will be finally finished in one of the next patches!
These Missions will be, in a sense, more of something you might know from other games. But generally Ryzom is different.
It does not lead you by the hand through all of its content and huge Questlines to level up with.
With the last patch there´s been a few new missions introduced to help you get by on your way to level 100, and you may find them with the welcomer and the sage in your city. But even these do not provide continual questing.
They do however try to provide a motivation to level with friends and other players to reach the intended goal of these missions.
You´ll probably will have to out the actual mission "aside" for a few hours, to get to a level where you can complete the required tasks.
Personally I find this a far superior Sytem than just running from a to b collect rewards and XP. Espacially if you do it with friends

So let me stress this for emphasis again, Ryzom is different from other MMOS as it tries to further your own initiative. It tries to encourage you to seek help and social contact and learn things for you own progress. So called "player skills" are pretty important around here. It´s not all in the avatar. You´ll have to use your brain and your social skills a bit too

- Where to fight at 46?

Most mobs in Cities of Intuition are a bit too low to give good xp, and the mobs in the other zones are all skulls. Have I missed something?

Zoraï is a bit complicated in this, yes. But truly alomst nothing isn´t
As stated above, look for others to help you Look for teams, by asking politely in Region or Universe chat, and get to know people that will go out adventuring with you.
This will help you kill these "skull capped" MOBs. Team up and get´em!
You´ll all get your 3K Xp
The progress is as follows:

Green
Blue
Yellow
Orange
Red
Violet
The MOBs size increases the further you get away from the Capital in one direction. So if I remember correctly "Heaven of purity" might be the "yellow" region, of 50 and up MOBs. (Please correct me if I´m wrong folks, I´m not that often in Zoraï)

And btw, for those following the "efficiency path", "good XP" can be defined quite different
Killing one MOB for 3k (max.) XP in 3 minutes, is most of the time less efficient than killing several smaller MOBs for 1,5K, each in 30 seconds
It always makes me chuckle when I see people speaking of "efficiency" and then watch them making this simple mistake.
And complaining about having to rest after each high MOB to recuperate. *LOL*

- How does time and weather affect prospecting?

Do deposit contents change? Location? Quality? I've spent some time meticulously mapping out some digs and I'd hate for it to become irrelevant when winter ends.

In the higher level regions it does in a way, yes.
Some specific materials are only present during daylight hours, or spring, or when it rains. This too progresses with Quality level (and thus foraging skill) up to, or rather down to, the prime roots, where specific materials are only present at combinations of all factors.
But your map won´t become obsolete once come spring. Don´t you fear.
The spots themselves never change, only the Quality level found there and as you progress some additional mats may be found. You can find location maps on the aforementioned sites. Sometimes foraging requires a bit of patience on your part. But that´s what makes the occasional lucky find of supreme material all the more exciting. At least for me, who mostly doesn´t use the spoilers.
But I know, some people don´t care for that, so do as you like.

- Raising offensive magic

As a mage my character seems tremendously fragile and gets resisted a great deal. Is it typical to have to make heavy use of fear/blind/root just to survive one fight against a weaker foe? My standard fight involves me finding something 5-10 levels below me, engaging from 50 yards with acid, landing one spell and getting resisted 5 or 6 times, casting fear 3 times and having it resisted every time, then turning around and running to the guards, either dying or reaching safety with a smidgen of health. What could I be doing wrong?

Hmhm, this doesn´t sound typical to me. Maybe you should find someone to craft you a good set of HP Bonus Jewels, or a nice combo of Sap/HP Boost.
And again for emphasis, team up So you can learn to deal damage and someone else might learn to heal damage, on you
Soloing is a valid way to play, but its testing and needs a lot of patience.

- Is it feasible to start over in another city?

I'm starting to hate the jungle. Can a new character somehow make it to another city and start leveling up there?

Yes you can.
Again with the help of other players.
If you ask around politely, they´ll gladly trek you around the world
You can try on your own, but be prepared to die a lot and get to your destination with max. DP and only in a few hours time.
So, its better to let an experienced player guide you through the wilderness.
Getting to know the way around Atys takes time, patience, a good eye for distances, judging of animal behavior and practice, practice, practice.

Ryzom´s different, so to again Quote Obama: Can you change?


CU and have Fun on Atys
Acridiel

[petersk]

Greetings and welcome!

Ryzom is a complex game, and we all have needed, and sometimes still need, help. Even a master at melee (level 250) needs help with certain creatures or while in certain areas. Don't be afraid to ask.

The jungle areas are split like this:
lvl 1-50 Cities of Intuition
lv 51-100 Maiden Grove
lvl 101-150 Haven of Purity
lvl 151-200 Knot of Dementia
lvl 201-250 The Void

Player created Items blow NPC items away (usually), and yes, while casting spells, you are more vulnerable to physical attack. Armors can be made to have "boosts" in hit points, sap (spell casting energy), focus (digging/crafting), and stamina, as can your individual pieces of jewelry.

The reward items on Silan are actually quite good, and for a few levels, or more, will serve you well on the mainland too. Once you outgrow them, or before, ask for some help in getting equipped, most would be happy yo help. Also, once you get to the ML, and have your feet under you a bit, ask for help in a trek (world or region travel to gather teleporter pacts) to save time and death penalty later on.

Also, before going to the mainland, Chiang will ask you where you want to go. I would recommend your homeland, whichever that may be. While you can learn almost all skills anywhere, crafting skills are limited to race in the beginning, and you would have to "relearn" craft skills you already have in the non-homeland. In the beginning, having skill points to spend is a bit slow, so spend wisely, and ask for advice if you need to.

I look forward to seeing you in game, enjoy Atys!