Ryzom

On the subject of plantes and Suns:

As far as I can guess from my limited (a bit of interest) knowledge of Astronomy and Astrophysics, the big "Saturn like Planet" is actually the "planet" and Atys is a moon orbiting it.
So is the other "moon" we see in the sky.
It too is in a geosynchronous orbit around the "Saturn planet", only one slightly higher than Atys.
(Remember, big Planets like Jupite,r or Saturn for that matter, can have more than one Moon.
Some even with their own Atmosphere, if they´re big enough themselves.)
The many falling stars we can see in the nightsky are nothing more than debris from the planets rings entering the atmosphere of Atys.
So Atys revolves around "Saturn II" slightly outside its ring-orbit.
The Ring probably being the devided mass of a former moon, that was torn apart by the big planets and the other moons gravitational pull, some millennia ago.
Atys and its "sister moon" thus being in the very fortunate position of balanced gravitational pulls.

As for the Sun staying in the same place, it all depends on the synchronousness and form of orbit and the spin of Atys itself. If the night as we see it on Atys isn´t caused by the moon itself revolving around its axis, but by it entering the parent planets shadow at a certain angle, it would cause the sun to look like it was fading and reappearing over time. While actually Atys would move away from it and in addition enter its parents shadow, causing darkness and coldness.
Atys could very well be rotating at the same speed as the planet "below", just as earth-moon does, causing us to always see the same site of it. (Bound rotation) just as from the planet below one would always see the same side of Atys.

Phew... all else regarding other "continents" has been said already.
Atys is quite big, and I´d be quite surprised if the New Lands would be all there is to it

CU
Acridiel

I know this has already been discussed but not with the new owner.

This opens up new development possibilities to expand the game. After all, once the game has been improved in its current version, they will surely look for expanding it and this way is good opportunity.

When as a developer you look into expanding a game, you need to find meaningful believable justifications to give the community as to why they have chosen this way of expanding. Having unseen continents on the other side of the planet would be one justification.

So you could say the purpose of this entire thread is aimed at the dev team and not the community.

The current Dev team should have all of the unfinished content from the previous dev teams. Nervax original dev team did work on adding new lands to atys, if i remember right. I believe there are some screen shots or a map that is floating about out there. So long story short the dev team should have many possibilities to expand the world of Atys which ever way they may choose.

IA-Zone? [inActive]?


http://www.guardians-of-fire.de/index.php?option=com_ponygallery&Itemid=33&func=detail&id=600

garg0yl3 wrote:IA-Zone? [inActive]?


http://www.guardians-of-fire.de/index.php?option=com_ponygallery&Itemid=33&func=detail&id=600

InAccessible, more likely

acridiel wrote: So is the other "moon" we see in the sky.
It too is in a geosynchronous orbit around the "Saturn planet", only one slightly higher than Atys.
(Remember, big Planets like Jupite,r or Saturn for that matter, can have more than one Moon.
Some even with their own Atmosphere, if they´re big enough themselves.)

Synchronous orbits don't happen at different altitudes. Might be in the same orbit somewhat separated, but I don't know enough to model the gravitational effects between two moons in such a situation. The term "LaGrange Points" springs to mind, but I'll have to google that later.

Also, even a small planet can have multiple moons. (consider Mars)

Otherwise, I like your thinking.

New "continents" like opening up the Old Lands again or similar would be cool. But I think it's better to build where we can see, or right nearby, first. The stuff we see that always piques our curiousity, and hints at mystery.

Personally, I'd love to get up into the Canopy. Those branches taunts us...
But then, I've always been the sort who loves to climb trees,to be up high in the green and enjoy the sun. I imagine mostly flying mobs and some kitin-like beetles would be the main problems there. Getting up in the canopy would presently mean a static image of the "ground" I think, as it seems like the engine is mostly 2D, though I love the speed it achieves and the minimum of system requirements. It also gives Surveillence advantages, which the Kami and Karavan won't like the local inhabitants having, I am sure. What in the world could they POSSIBLY want with the local inhabitants anyways? Why are the locals so important? The whole Religious angle is okay, and is a normal way that more advanced races control more primitive ones. I think this needs to be MUCH more developed.

With the technologically superior Kami and Karavan around, the devs could introduce just about any fashion of access to any other area entirely. Kind of like a cheat code, or shortcut. It's not NEARLY as much fun as a quest chain leading to new access and discovery: something we must do on our own. (A sense of Accomplishment keeps people invested.) ...but that loses the MM of MMORPG. As a classless game, complicating how players can work together to achieve something is more difficult. Complicating is important, as it draws out the involvement and time-sink capability. I think we need more building aspects, perhaps where a player can learn only one. Requiring multiple players to interact for something rather than just swarming battles. A Creating aspect to an MMORPG seems like New News in the era where it's pretty much just Battles, Slaughter Quests, Escort Quests, Exploration/"go here" Quests, and Collection Quests. I think this is what The Ring could have been aimed at, and I agree it should be more integrated and polished.

But yes, CONTINUITY is the most important thing in any story, and breaking it the gravest sin. The entire POINT of an MMORPG is to create a story that people can get wrapped up in, with other people. To fail this is to fail your fanbase, to run with it and enhance it, making it easy to get wrapped up, is to become addictive. Addictive is key, and successful. Community is good, get everyone to get their friends to come so everyone can play together. But addiction is the other side of getting people to come back every month and invest more.

Exploring the reason for why the Outpost drilling stations work and what exactly is going on would be cool. And not only returning the Lore but DEVOTING the game to it, I believe is important: Capitolize on Ryzom's core values and very uniqueness, it's individual flavor noone else can match.

But now we're into "new content" instead of "new continents." I have thousands of ideas and new spins for everything we already have. And everyone loves a good story. Ryzom already has far too much space and not enough /purpose/ and interaction, it lacks the potency of flavor I /know/ it can achieve. Hence why we should be aimed at the small picture instead of new continents entirely.

The moral: Slim down, refocus and concentrate on what makes Ryzom unique, build on this like a manic steroid hyped sculptor. Launch a viral advertising campaign aiming everywhere every other MMORPG fails to advertise. AND THEN go for the throat with REGULAR DEADLINES that put out new game mechanics and new content (this requires insane project management skills and a bit of micro management): we love to be in the loop, it's a thrill being let in on a shared secret and makes us feel special, but we don't like to be disappointed by delays and cancellations. So the size of each project needs to be a careful consideration.