First, let me say that I am a fellow Ryzom supporter. Some would call me a fanboi. Having said that, let me also say that I would love to take you up on your invitation to come to your house and play on your magic 1.4 GHz 384 MB RAM 16.8k dialup machine. If you are running smoothly, it must be because you are still on newbie island.hubba1 wrote:He talks of some lag and even display lag, yadda yadda. Hey dude, come ona and play a myhouse-ah. I have a 384 MB RAM , Pentium 3 1.4 GHz BELOW MINIMUM SPEC machine. I run the game on 16.8 K dial-up partly as an experiment to see if I was right and that it could be done. Well guess what Mr. Reviewer, it does at least in the Newblands where there are , yes, less player characters, but I've been surrounded by multiple herds, firing off spells etc, very little lag, certainly nothing that effects my game.
I run Ryzom on a Pentium 4, 2.4 GHz machine with 512 MB RAM at 52k dialup, and I have serious lag issues. I can't run the game on anything but low, all across the board. You're right, it still looks better than a lot of games, even on low, but, damn, I really want to beef my settings up and see it like it's meant to be seen. My machine meets the min reqs, and I can't get past the low graphics settings.
One thing that I realize may be slowing me down: my computer is a laptop. If I had the same configuration with a desktop computer, things may be different. I know that part of the problem is that my video card (Radeon 9000 equivalent) is integrated; that is, it eats some of the 512 MB memory. Yet, even then, it should be running smoothly by your standards, since you are running on 384 MB RAM and having no problem; that means that I should be able to set my video card RAM to 128 MB and have no issues. That is definitely not the case.
My machine did run Ryzom smoothly on newbie island. Believe me, it is a different story once you get to the mainland. Especially in the big cities, the animation becomes very stop and start. When I turn to the left or to the right, it's at increments of 45 or even 90 degrees. This can be very frustrating. I would imagine that if you port to the mainland with your current 16k set up, you will not move at all.
Anyhow, to speak to the original intention of this thread--whether or not this game is "worth it:" This game has a lot of potential. I have been a big supporter of it. Currently, it seems like it is floundering. We had a great, campaign-style event staged last weekend, but without any "static" type of content, it really is beginning to feel like a grindfest. Currently I spend my time digging up materials on the beach. When I get enough, I craft something. When the system "dings" at me two or three times, I go train. I chat with people and crack jokes. It's fun and all, but it certainly feels like something's missing.
Certainly, if you haven't given Ryzom a chance, yet, come play. There's a lot of fun waiting for you for several weeks, at least. But, after that, like many things, it seems to taper off and lose its novelty. I, for one, am hoping that the devs address this with more static content. They've created a rich backdrop with Atys and the game idea in general, but now they really need to step up to the plate and flesh it out. I feel like I am walking around on the bare bones of a potential MMO giant. Nevrax needs to deliver the meat.
