You guys who haven't bothered logging back in since patch 1 -- they fixed it since

[aelvana]

I'd like to note that the serious problems after patch-1 have been remedied, in a very fast fashion typical of Nevrox, in a series of patches during the few days after the fact. The bulk of people who still claim the game's not playable haven't bothered to log back in, assuming it would still be so.

They really did fix it overnight, guys... Nevrox's response to customers is as good as they say.

Ignore the cynical arguments and flames, they will of course come in DROVES in response to my post. This is an internet forum, after all 8)

[vaquero1]

I'd like to note that the serious problems after patch-1 have been remedied, in a very fast fashion typical of Nevrox, in a series of patches during the few days after the fact. The bulk of people who still claim the game's not playable haven't bothered to log back in, assuming it would still be so.

They really did fix it overnight, guys... Nevrox's response to customers is as good as they say.

Ignore the cynical arguments and flames, they will of course come in DROVES in response to my post. This is an internet forum, after all 8)

Yep Yep and last nights event Was The Shizzzzzle my nizzelll

[aelvana]

IM not gonna flame at all. Just to say this is a good post.

One thing i want to enlighten you on. Not all people left because of the actuality of the patch i.e the end result. They left because it happened. Doesn't matter if it got fixed in a day or a week. The fact remains 1 month after release the developer made an extremely game-breaking patch.

Thats the only reason i left, i lost faith in the developers professionalism and patch testing abilities.

I hope that wasn't flaming for you but, i didn't leave because of the problems that now have been solved.

Certainly not a flame -- I wish all responses were this mature :) I hope you'll come back if you liked the game. Major issues stemming from patches and balance attempts are common in the first months of any MMORPGs release.

[usinuk]

I'd like to note that the serious problems after patch-1 have been remedied, in a very fast fashion typical of Nevrox, in a series of patches during the few days after the fact. The bulk of people who still claim the game's not playable haven't bothered to log back in, assuming it would still be so.

They really did fix it overnight, guys... Nevrox's response to customers is as good as they say.

Ignore the cynical arguments and flames, they will of course come in DROVES in response to my post. This is an internet forum, after all 8)

I'm going to strongly disagree with you, Aelvana, and you can belittle me by claiming to ignore my post as a flame or me as ignorant, but the issues raised in it are dead-on.

You're a healer, first and foremost. Healing issues were addressed in the patch 1++, with heal rates boosted something like 100% to reflect the new damage potential of mobs. I like being able to heal with heal 7 for 450 points at a mere level 38 in Def Magic; it means with a full jewelry set and sap armor - neither of which has a stat requirement, so the fact I can make q100 items and use them at level 40/38 is a huge advantage mages have that the rest of us don't - I can go out with 100+ level melee friends and keep them alive against 100ish level mobs. That's fun.

Magic in general received a rather huge boost as long as you weren't using exploits like blind; I have not spent all the extra skill points received with the stanza reset, since many of my skill costs went down and I want to get to level 40 in def magic to regain my old stun skill. Granted, stuff doesn't seem to be sticking as far as it did, but I've picked up a couple new spells and increased the power of others.

So congratulations, the game you play as a dedicated healer is fixed.

What about the rest of us?

Well, if you craft, you're in a lot of trouble. Elimination of the crafting missions and raw mat prices going way up along with pricing for completed mats going down, packers being nerfed so you can't store stuff, and numerous crafting bugs that came in with patch 1 - the close combat line crafting bug is one of the single best examples of how Nevrax didn't listen to ATS feedback, as it was broken on that server and reported for almost a month before it got fixed in one of the emergency patches several days after patch 1 got rolled out - mean that advancing as a dedicated crafter is out as a newbie. You have to spend 10x the time harvesting to spend 1x the time crafting. Oh, and by the way, did you know the exposed raw mat sources don't instaregen focus for the poor newbie able to get a grand total of maybe 2 mats per pull of differing qualities since they can't afford terrain specialization yet? Its always been a bad learning curve for newbies; this just made it ridiculous.

I for one am not a defender of how easy things were pre-patch, but I will say that the changes have basically destroyed soloing for most people, especially at high levels. No, you shouldn't be able to kill a 3k mob routinely on your own, but neither should several creatures 40 levels below you be able to kill you in a few hits, which happens quite often now. I've adapted as best I can to the new melee system, and that's fine...but its still not fixed by any means. I know there are a lot of solo offensive mages who are not real happy either with high failure rates and insta death hits.

And as far as customer service, what sad experience has taught us is that the only way to get things done is to whine massively on the boards (ala harvesters) to get attention. Then Nevrax comes in and overcompensates by swinging the pendulum the other way. Its all nice and wonderful to submit a ticket and have a Guide hold your hand and not be able to do anything about it, but communication in this game from the powers-that-be is the worst of any MMORPG I've seen. And insulting your pre-order base by still not fixing things like titles for the first players and then lowering prices and giving free trials tells me I'm a number, not an early adopter.

Ok, so since this is the truth of the way things are for people besides dedicated healers and I want people to sign up for free, why do I play and why should you play?

I enjoy grinding when I'm bored, for some reason. The game offers a lot of that. But I also like the player community, and the fact that you're not boxed into playing one style of character (with the above exceptions if you started post-patch 1). The graphics are pretty, although if you have a Radeon card like me they can cause real problems that have gotten somewhat better (my trip last night to Tryker was the first ever including beta since previous Tryker trips resulted in me having to rebuild my PC since the video driver got corrupted). But mostly, I'm playing as there's potential in this game to be something very special. But like many, many of my friends, my patience is wearing thin and the track record of Nevrax ain't good.

So please play. But just keep in mind while its not awful, this ain't the world of roses that many people come over here pumping after being encouraged to on the main boards. It's still worth a free trial.

[usinuk]

encouraged to? i think thats an assumption i doubt people are encouraged to hype the game?

No, there are a couple of threads by loud cheerers who are encouraging people to come over here and post nice things about the game. I'm over as well to provide balance and a view more consistent of the majority of the postings on the main boards.

[aelvana]

Don't presume to know what I base my statements on. The fact that heals are huge didn't even enter into my mind -- everyone already knew healing was given a huge boost. I was talking about playing as a high level fighter (yup, that's me), as well as how groups perform.

If painting my comments as coming from a dedicated healer is your best rebuttal, I'd consider it meaningless.

As far as customer response, most MMORPG devs do not. Of course there are examples of the Ryzom devs being behind on things. You'll also find examples of me badly misspelling words, as much as I think myself a writer -- I'm human too. What should be taken into account is the excellent and fast response that they're becoming known for by the experienced player base.

Do I feel a desire to describe Ryzom in a realistic light? Yes! Why? Because, frankly, MMORPGs are games that nearly all of us become heavily addicted to (myself included). A balance issue, or mis-judgement by the staff, creates ripples like you'd never see when it comes to any other entertainment service. When things go right though, no one feels such an overwhelming desire to make a statement about it. New players should note you will see this on all MMORPG forums. Look to the horrendous complaints and whining on any other game's forums, and you'll see a lot worse than what you're seeing here.

(I knew there'd be one that'd get me going, woot!)