kuson wrote: ...
Things that are making me not want to login to Ryzom :
- Death penalty. This both puts a dampner on exploration and also makes switching from dieing in combat to digging a problem because of the level difference.
- Levelling just feels like a chore and requires (imho) a group to make any significant progress. Don't get me wrong I like grouping, but there are times when I log in for a short time that I do not want to trouble people to group up.
- Self heal timer is too slow for solo play.
- Although the worlds landscape is interesting, there is not many places of interest on them.
- Complete lack of any 'dungeons' - ok caves would be more fitting here, but so far Prime Roots is the only one I have seen.
- Digging and crafting do not really interest me but it seems to be what people do a large percentage of the time. Admittiedly I only got to lvl 11 or so dig but that was so boring I do not understand the appeal?
...
I thought I'd go over some of your dislikes and see if I can help you.
As for Death Penalty, I haven't found it harsh that much at all. It usually only takes me a few minutes (3-5) to work it off. Finding the right mobs for your level, skill and equipment is key. It took me a while to find a good spot in the Matis areas, but once I found it, it wasn't too hard to work off a little DP. And for the most part, I never got any, as I was soloing slightly weaker mobs to avoid downtime. The few times I died it was cause I got cocky and did something stupid, or accidentally aggroed a gingo or two.
For levelling, I do agree it can get a little tedious, especially solo. But I just tend to try something different. Like take on a couple gingos for kicks to see if I got what it takes. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I'm sure if you joined a good guild you could RP/chat with them in between levelling. Soloing is not really the optimal choice in Ryzom, things work much faster in a team. And they're usually more entertaining too.
The self heal timer is long so that people have a use for a healer in groups. It's not bad for soloing, /if/ you use it the way it's meant to be used (at least how I think it's meant to be used). As an "oh crap!" button. When the fight goes bad and you need some health to finish it off. There's a couple Powers that you can use as well, I just can't remember their names for the life of me. One makes you immune to melee damage for 10 secs, yet it still lets you attack (I think?).
If you're soloing then you should try to find mobs that give you decent XP and aren't too hard to kill. You can chain kill multiples of them and still be good for HPs/Sap/Stamina, compared to a harder mob that gives more XP but makes you sit and regen for 2 mins. It's a lot of guess and test here. One thing that's cool about Ryzom, IMO. It lets you experiment a little. Not like most other MMOs.
As for places of interest in the world, I haven't been all over the place (I haven't even left the Matis areas), but there aren't many places (as in old ruins, etc.) to see because of the way the game lore is. The Homins have only recently come back to the surface, and the Kitins destroyed most of the settlements, so there isn't a lot to find. There are a lot of interesting locales and sights, but not so much places like many people would think (towns, ruins, dungeons, castles, etc.). Atys is still mostly wilderness.
[Note: Anyone with more experience feel free to jump in here and correct me, if I'm wrong.]
Again, as for dungeons, Atys isn't like a "traditional" fantasy world. There aren't going to be ruins of things, as /everything/ on Atys is made of plant material. It gets kinda hard to build stone dungeons, castles, etc. when there's no stone around. If I'm reading the lore right, there is absolutely /no inorganic material/ on Atys. No stone, no minerals, no gems, no gold, etc. it seems very hard to make a dungeon when the basic building blocks aren't available. There could be caves, like the Prime Roots, but these aren't even like traditional caves that are formed in rock. Atys caves would have to be formed in trees or plants. I'm not sure if there are any caves in Atys either, as I haven't ventured that far.
As for Crafting and Digging, I'm of a similar mindset as you. I don't really like the foraging at all, and I had a hard time actually finding the exact resource spot. I much prefer the old SWG way of waypoints and a sensor, but that's just me. Perhaps I've been doing it wrong. No matter, as I don't find it at all interesting, really.
Crafting is a major part of what a lot of people do, simply because the best items are crafted. With no loot from mobs, nor any quest reward items, crafters are in high demand, so a lot of people spend time crafting. I think this is a good thing, even though I don't craft (at least not right now). Compared to WoW, where most of what lower lvl crafters make is sub-par compared to looted, quest reward, or even NPC items, Ryzom does it right. If people are going to spend time crafting something, the end product better be potentially good enough that people will actually buy it.
I'm actually thinking about dabbling some more in crafting, so that I can make some items good enough for myself. My one RL friend has enjoyed crafting in MMOs in the past, because he liked being able to make all his own stuff.
I hope some of this might help you. I'm betting you just need to find tht right spot to level and take your time exploring. Don't ask the higher lvl players where things are/what to kill all the time. And don't let them tell you. Find out for yourself. That's one of the best parts about playing Ryzom. Exploring.
And sorry if any of this is a little hard to follow. I'm really tired and hungry right now. Not a good combo.
)
That makes the digging go by much, much quicker, and I am able to read up on lore... check my email... post here... etc etc