Merge the servers?

[larwood]

I guess each design philosophy has its own pros and cons. Some smaller MMO's have survived for many years catering to niche markets though.

I agree that we don't need to attract millions of players to be successful. But a company that goes through multiple owners and bankruptcy is hardly producing a product that is market ready. Ryzom is great, but its not "there" yet. It needs to attract and retain new players, and it honestly can't do that on a systemic basis.

On the subject of quests, the sandbox nature of Ryzom does allow new players to pursue missions with strong story elements, relevant lore and really good gear rewards once they get to the Mainland.

This is where I disagree. Sandbox is good, but you have to have a clue what the sandbox is. This is the story I see far too often:

New player leaves Silan, gets to the ML and says in Uni - "Now what?"... and people respond: "whatever you want"... and that player looks around sheepishly, tries to do what they did on Silan, has no clue where they are, what is going on, why the world is empty, and poof - gone. You can't deny that is what THE MAJORITY of new players do. (most re-roll alts to go back to Silan where they have quests with rewards and other people to look at - some get sucked into a guild but very few stick it out).

My TOP 4:

1. Reduce the grind, its way too much. (hundreds of thousands of meaningless clicks, followed by meaningless vendoring while facing into a stable is hardly loretastic)

2. Balance the combat system, so all forms are equally weighted - giving homins real options, instead of just one "real" option - nuke.

3. Introduce a quest-line to guide Homins through Atys and explain what is going on. It doesn't have to be all inclusive, or give them uber rewards. Crafted gear must be superb or the intricate crafting system is useless.

4. Test-Server - for systematic updates/testing/tweaking new ideas on a regular and ongoing basis - allowing for player/dev feedback.

Do those 4 things, while maintaining the style and flare of Atys and Ryzom will start retaining more players and the population problem will no longer be a problem. It can cater to this Niche market, without attracting thousands of 1337 haxor pvp newbs - just fix the few bumps in the road and get into the black.

[larwood]

What are you still doing here, Thom, if Ryzom can't attract and RETAIN players, after 5 years?

Ryzom is like my first girlfriend. It was the first MMO I ever played, and regardless of how she really looks or performs, she holds a special place in my heart.

But i've hardly been "retained" - of those 5 years probably only 1.5 were subbed. Meanwhile other mmo's have garnered much more of my hard-earned dollar.
____________________

But you are right Iala - Ryzom does have a special magic that I value. I just feel that its gimping itself, and that magic is dying - and if it did a couple of things, that magic could grow and flourish.

We are ignorant to say "Everything is fine as is." Look at the game's history! Something has to change, and I don't think any of my suggestions, if done correctly, will compromise any of the beauty that is Ryzom. They will only enhance it and promote player growth, which means more money, which means more developers, which means a continual cycle of improvement and life.

p.s. anyone else think I talk too much? ugh...

[katriell]

your suggestions would turn ryzom into a WoW clone.

/facepalm
Turning Ryzom into a WoW clone would mean converting the skill system to a class system and completely changing the crafting and harvesting, as well as rolling back the PvP update, getting rid of the neutrality option, having players select a character's faction at creation, and disabling communication between the factions.
Your penchant for overreacting is worse than mine, jwenting...

[gcaldani]

Ryzom should always maintain its true sandbox nature.

This doesn't means we could not enjoy some more quests. Having quests doesn't means the game is a theme park, as long as the quests don't drive you from 1 to 250 giving you experience (forcing questing to advance). Encyclopedia rites are the correct way to implement more quests. This was the initial idea and it would have worked pretty well since the beginning if Nevrax would have been wise to put them in game as planned.

In my opinion, as stated many times, the game need more sand in the box. Simple.

Add storage points where people can rent space for dappers (upkeep), points at tribes and towns, unlockable with fame. Add a caravan service (NPC), still unlockable with fame, to move stuff from one point to another.
This is a sandbox element that gives people more reasons to work on specific fame. About the tribes, make the fame requirement enough high, based on the region they are.
Add a second building into outposts, to build a stable.
When the devs add the upkeeps for gh, outpost building and apartments, so we have a reason to use the actually useless dappers?? If people don't pay the upkeep, they lose access to the place/storage. Simple.

PS: I just remembered that when the devs "fixed" afflictions, they said that they wanted to modifiy them to make them more handy and useful. One idea would be to add a stanza to reinforce a link, so you can run without losing the link. How much you can run depending on the level of the stanza. Make the stanza gainable thru rites.
This would improve afflictions and drain spells (well, all the spells that create a link ofc).

Remember devs, no matter what you do, people will always tell you that you could do more

[larwood]

Gilgamesh,

I think your ideas about more sand in the box are awesome - the exact types of things that could be tested on a test server to make sure work right.

But very few newcomers even think about the suggestions you made, more outposts buildings and optional extra storage space - they have abandoned the game long before then. We need to address the glaring issue of free-trial > subscription turnover. Why aren't people sticking around? It's a root problem, not a content problem. Most of them feel that Silan > Mainland and leave frustrated.

* I would love to see actual figures - the number of account creations vs the number of subscription creations. I am making assumptions from my own experience, and the turnover of new names in Uni.

[gcaldani]

Gilgamesh,

I think your ideas about more sand in the box are awesome - the exact types of things that could be tested on a test server to make sure work right.

But very few newcomers even think about the suggestions you made, more outposts buildings and optional extra storage space - they have abandoned the game long before then. We need to address the glaring issue of free-trial > subscription turnover. Why aren't people sticking around? It's a root problem, not a content problem. Most of them feel that Silan > Mainland and leave frustrated.

* I would love to see actual figures - the number of account creations vs the number of subscription creations. I am making assumptions from my own experience, and the turnover of new names in Uni.

I have a different opinion. If you speak about general players, that love theme parks, of course, Ryzom will never attract them. Trying to get the gamers from the theme parks community or even the f2p community is a lose point.
Ryzom must attract people that love the sandbox style, people that enjoy EVE or loved SWG pre-CU/NGE. There are a lot around, and they are not newcomers, even if new to Ryzom.
To attract this kind of people you need to show them a lot of things they could do in game, even if not at first days. Ryzom is not just about advancing your skills.
And, please, without a working economy (with upkeeps and currency with a real value), ryzom will never attract such people.

Also, a working economy would work very well with the player managed governments, opening a lot of possibilities.

Your opinion has it's own value, but I think different.

Anyway, you are right when you speak about "root" problem. And the sand in the box is about the "core" game, not just content.

Any suggestion that gives the players more chances to move in different regions (and stay there for some reason), is a good suggestion because one of the problem of the game is that the world is huge but people stick always in the same few places.