Q&A Round I

[vinnyq]

When is Chapter 3 schedule for, roughly?

We just want the rough estimate at the moment, we won't hold it as the absolute.

[xcomvic]

Will they make the Expansion Pack, Atys 2 or whatever the new planet is called, direct download also? Sucks sometimes buying retail, only thing more you get is a cd and manual, both suck anyway

[raynes]

What are the plans concerning fame in the game?
Are there any plans to reward those who work to get a high fame level?
When are racial differences being implemented?
Is the Karavan vs. Kami conflict ever going to matter?
Besides the encylopedia what sort of story content is in the works?
Are there any new areas to be opened soon?

[tetra]

-The "first round of changes" for ranged fighting back in december was pretty much a slap in the face. ATS folks in english and german forums saying that brining the +hitrate bricks back, because the base speed for ranged was not sped up like melee was when the bricks were removed in FBT, hurt ranged were ignored. There was an obsurd +16 shots per craft when hundreds were needed. Given that ranged is the only skill that has not received any attention all through beta and all through retail, and is currently in a state with a bit more ammo per craft and a few KM lower range compared to early beta... is there a reason why there seems to be no interest in fixing it? Will it be fixed, if so when and what plans are currently in existance to fix it.

-In the real world... grenades fired from weapons like the mp5 that everyone remembers from halflife, are the same as those fired from simple grenade launchers... they weigh about half a pound each. Why is it that a single shot of ammunition from an autolauncher has comperable weight to that of an 80mm mortar and launcher ammunition has weight comperable to a 120mm mortar round? These are obvious typo's and really should be corrected.

-Thanks to the hitrate bricks and the terrible accuracy of ranged weapons, it is pretty much required that max accuracy be used when in a group with a ranged weapon. Tack on the +hitrate bricks and you will suck down stam/hp faster than even the most sap hungry mages in most cases. Ranged weapons do less damage than melee or ranged, have extremely high component costs, have virtually no long term staying power due to the high bulk of ammo, and have lower ranged than magic. The single "benefit" of ranged is that you can shoot while running, and this is not generally all that useful... especially in a group... is having the highest hp/stam burn in the game really justified for all these negatives?

-AOE fighting was nerfed into oblivion in beta, at best it's just a stupid choice and at worst it's suicide. Is there a reason why Nevrax feels launchers and autolaunchers should be hindered by these useless and suicidal forms of combat?

-At level 150 the 2 handed ranged tree splits into rifles, autolaunchers, and launchers. It is currently impossible to level the launcher or autolauncher splits due to ammo capacity and the extreme mat use for what is, to put it bluntly, pathetic damage. At 2 mats per shot with autolaunchers, and 4 mats per shot with launchers, with a max ammo capacity of 15 launcher or 30 autolauncher shots not clips level 151 autolauncher/launcher is a dead end and virtually impossible to reach. Is it intended that these forks be impossible to level in addition to their already useless and harmful addition to a group?

-Are there plans to fix ammo capacity, and ammo per clip? If so what is planned? Currently you can only have 128 items on a vendor, yet a half decent rifle with +hitrate bricks can burn through an entire inventory of ~60 clips in about 35-40 minutes of fighting in a group. Not only is there no market for ammunition, but due to the extremely high amount of clips needed over time, even the idea of selling ammunition or going through the skill by buying it is an impossibility.

-Why is it that +range and +damage stats on ranged weapons and ammunition are always zero? At one point early in retail, you could see values for these stats if you identified the item, but after it was reported as a bug this was fixed so they no longer show at all ever. Is it that these stats would apply to magic cast while having a ranged weapon equipped? Is Nevrax that scared of what a mage would do with a ranged weapon and it's associated malus instead of an amp?

- Finally... how is it that depite many posts on the subject of ranged weapons, that showed the problems and gave all sorts of numbers, that someone decided the best way to fix the skill was to halfway revert it to a state it had during beta? If it's going to be a crap useless skill, can it at least be a crap useless skill with the old 15-30KM range?

[glipe]

Umm, nothing much for me really. Just a few bits and pieces....

1) The Tracking stanza doesn't seem to bring you to the source you are looking for. Am I using it in the wrong way or does it need fixed?

2) Shields - I love them but they really seem underpowered. Don't get me wrong, I'm not asking for you to superpower them but I would like to ask: do you have any intention of changing them for the better?

3) Can I have a Yubo of my very own? To love and to cuddle who will follow me round and play-fight.......<goes on>........please!!??? kidding, btw I don't want anything more, I mainly love things the way they are! I would love to know what's going to happen but that would spoil the plot so leave me in suspense until you're implementing (as you're probably going to) and I will be happier in the long run.

[usinuk]

As far as questions:

a. Ranged. Forward tetra's post on ranged. Add this simple question: is there any reason that the devs haven't told us (gameplay, PvP changes, major further enhancement, problems with coding) as to why ranged damage-per-minute (DPM) works out to between 1/2 to 1/4 that of every other form of combat? Why do no ranged weapons modifiers work besides speed and range? Can we get a list of definitive changes that are planned for this tree and what the devs view of the tree should be?

b. Crafting and pricing. Is there any reason why wondermat pricing and overseer missions were changed in patch 1 to make crafting as a solo profession impossible? Was this an unintended oversight of the vendor system implementation, and if so, are there any forthcoming changes to rectify this?

c. Harvesting. Is everything in the tree working as you intended it? Will we get mission mat specific stanzas? Was the purpose of changing the excellent/supreme PR requirements to q100/q150 to reduce the availability of mats or to reward players who have gotten that far? Is the PR actually supposed to run out of excellent/supreme mats outside of Umbra/Nexus? Is damage reduction really supposed to cost 50 points every level, and with the time requirement is it really supposed to be only usable in a team where you can just use ground stability instead for zero damage and less skill points? Are visible weather changes now not supposed to correspond to mat quality changes?

d. Melee fight. Are there any changes planned for shields, and should the shielding skill really be able to be used as a damage reduction trick solo? Do slow and bleed work the way they're intended (e.g. very little effect)? Are warcry and beserk intended as major buffs or the minor ones they are now? Are specific body area targeting skills really intended for future PvP, since they basically don't work for mobs? Is there any chance we will see armor damage reduction pick up just as much as the mobs damage picked up post-patch 1?

e. Magic. Can we get an explanation for how concentrate is really supposed to work?

f. Content. Can you give us a roadmap to how you see content being added to the game and when?

As far as additions to the website:

a. Can we get a Q&A session going where a dev answers one or two questions like this per week on the main site?

b. Can we get a dev chat once every month or two? I know that translating from French to English/German is a pain, but I'm sure one of the CSR firms can do it.

One final question:

a. When will you take off the many restrictions the CSRs have on doing their jobs?

Cheers.

[kaetemi]

Major Add-Ons
Within 6 months of the initial release, and on a 6 monthly basis thereafter, Nevrax plans to launch the first major upgrade. This upgrade will contain new major land maps, new generations of creatures, a new playable races and entire new sets of player activities. The Saga of Ryzom being a skill based game, the addition of new skills and associated actions is absolutely possible. All players will have access to the new content without having to abandon their existing characters in which they have invested their game time so far. The new skills and actions will give access to new branches of content, opening up the possibilities for different types of gameplay, opening up the game experience to an ever-increasing audience. The action sets for the existing skill trees will be extended, as will the skill trees themselves, allowing players to progress further than they had done previously. The major upgrades should require about as much play time, in order to reach the end of the character progression, as the initial release.

that means new civilisations in 40 days?

<kaeru> we are going to implement a music system, based on sample banks, so that each player with the right skill + instruments can compose his own. Everyone in the game will be able to hear it since all samples are installed on client side. We'll patch new samples regularly too, and some famous DJs will contribute too. Using these samples, they'll do some tunes. Talented players will be able to become famous too. There is also some gameplay implication for the music, but that is not for release.

I am kinda of obsessed with this music system, so I will push it in as soon as humanly possible.

when???

[dam23]

Seasons, Weather, Day/Night:
At the very beginning, one could read that mobs and plants would be more or less resistant/powerful depending on the time of the day, year, and the weather.
I *so* take it its not true anymore, is there a chance we'll see that sometime in the future?

Itemised bosses/dungeons, and racial differences:
Since all the weapons the different races can craft are the same (different design, same stats), how about unique stuff from named mobs, unique weapon plans for each race...
You said, not long after the release, in a forums post, that "patch 2 would introduce racial differences" , will we see them sometime in the future, too ?

Prime roots:
PRs are not rewarding enough, why would one want to kill a roaring varinx there for q172 *BASIC* mats o_O ?

New skills:
I wanna be able to tame a yubo, then a ragus, followed by a scary gingo, and eventually a varinx. (this, is a new skill suggestion)
The question here is, are any new skills planned? which ones would that be?

External communication:
Are there any plans to make the ingame guild forums and mail accounts accessible from the outside?
Any plans too, on allowing one to email a special email address from outside the game (ie: dam@players.ee.ryzom.com) , and get the email delivered ingame to that player? obviously, there would be a need for some antispam measures here.

Thats about all, for now :p
Nice thread idea btw, hope we do get answer ;)

[mboeing]

6. Where do babies come from?
...

My wife can give you a life demonstration on that one in the next couple of days (weeks) =P

[hans1976]

My wife can give you a life demonstration on that one in the next couple of days (weeks) =P

Nothing yet? Man, the tension is rising! (pun intended)