XP Crystals

[myraven]

I wont use crystals at all..I didn't use them be fore and i wont when i get back . As most of you who know me know.. im a power lvl'r and to have something lvl me faster would only lead to my leaving the game for good because i would run out of combat skills to lvl ..and as all who know me also know .I hate digging ....and if thats all i could do ...well then id most likely leave. but i think they should atleast make it so you can only use them as high as your highest level that way you atleast have to work once for it

Redslayer

[varelse]

I'd like to see the production rate of cristals cut 50-75% and more outposts opened.

[richky]

I don't (and won't) use the crystals, even though I have no 200 skills let alone 250. It doesn't bother me if others use them, but it does bother me that it was felt necessary to introduce them to the game.

Artificial xp boosters such as the crystals, are usually an indication that a game is in poor health. They are an opiate tossed out to the players to keep them amused in lieu of substance. The developers are, in effect, saying 'we are sorry that we do not have the resources to produce the content that you would like, but here, have these crystals instead and do some grinding until we can come up with more fun things to do.'

Taking them out of the game would be a sign of confidence that there were enough other things to keep players hooked on the game. Unfortunately, opiates are addictive and their removal could be quite a shock to those who have come to depend on them. They are also ultimately destructive. As others have noted, capping comes faster with crystals and so they will only feed the demand for higher caps, higher level regions, etc. - the very things that the developers didn't have time for in the first place.

And so I say, go ahead and use them all you want, but I pray for the day that Nevrax has enough confidence in their game to remove them, at least back to special reward status as petej has said.

[lexi44]

Petej and Richky both hit the nail right on the head. I "voted" to entirely remove crystals from the game. I have used them, and I even have a couple stacks right now for helping me level jewel crafting (only when I'm overcrafting - to help me get the skill points a little faster so I can produce better *sets* of jewelry a bit sooner). So even though I have used them for my jewelry crafting, I would gladly give them up in a heartbeat.

I was a bit disappointed early on in this thread that so many people want to turn every issue into a factional one. Although I don't agree with the original poster that crystals should be craftable and everyone have them (that wants them)...I saw no reference to faction in his (her?) post.

I nodded my head in agreement as I read Richky's post...crystals are kind of a "sign" that even the devs are unconfident with their design...to include "grinding for levels". Petej's suggestion that they be made a more rare reward is spot-on for me...and would give the appearance that the devs didn't feel they were *necessary*...but more like just a "cookie" for something well-done.

So what *could* take their place to keep owning an Outpost desireable? Here's a "crazy" idea: How about allowing Outposts to "occassionally" (not a constant supply) produce materials to build onto the outpost....to add structures to the outposts. Such as a structure that would house a Hawker, or even better, a teleporter for the guild owning the OP to use. Or some sort of portal between GH and Outpost. The structures would require different types of materials that could only be drilled on-site, one resource type at a time, during different times of the year. This would keep production time slow - and of course if the OP was to fall into another guild's hands...all work done on the structure would be halted until the new owners resumed it.

Back to the actual subject of crystals, I think they should be reserved as Event rewards or something along those lines. There should *not* be a steady and endless supply of them, IMO.

[lathan]

Well, I've never used an XP crystal, and I can't imagine I'm going to start any time soon either. All the levels I have I've worked hard for and got, mostly with friends levelling with me along the way. I try to see levelling as its own reward... a large proportion (some would say too large) of this game is levelling, and if you don't enjoy that, then you should probably look for another game, imo.

The only reason I can think for anyone wanting to use XP crystals to level faster is, sadly, PvP/leetness related. If it's just using them to finish off, say, the last couple of levels to 250 (which, in some disciplines, can be a real pain) then I think they're ok. To that end I'd like to see them available (as petej suggested) to homins as part of events only. And not always pvp events either. Imo no-one needs a steady stream of crystals, except perhaps some that don't play as often. And if every member of a guild with an outpost who plays often holds back all their crystals for those who don't have as much time to play, then I guess that would be a valid argument for them

[iphdrunk]

Good points raised here. Why would one want to increase the speed of levelling? Why would Nevrax give us the possiblity of leveling faster? - faster as in noticeably faster; of course, other factors like proper gear, knowledge of the xp and mobs system etc. are an advantage and do have a miiinor impact as well - (just my thoughts, subjective and biased, of course) to me it's simple: when levels themselves become players goals and not a consequence of players actions or when levels are requirements for players goals, and we are impatient to fulfill these goals. For example, lack of other things, a player may define his goal as crafting q250 armor, or a PvP player may see being high level mage as a requirement to take part in faction PvP, and it simply "takes too long"

Like it or not, global PvP, outposts and spires are one of the most cost-efficient ways to extend Ryzom given low budgets, reduced number of developers and financial problems. Other than the Ring, still under development, we have mostly seen PvP oriented new game features - despite the "Some of you don't like PvP at all. Period. End of Story (snip) we'll see more PvE, kitin behavior (snip) " letter we had months ago -. It's somehow Nevrax bet. Extending Ryzom in other ways and in a timely manner to keep a fraction of the playerbase busy and happy requires a lot of resources.

So, with PvP content (ultimately unlimited and reproduceable) the speed of leveling becomes important -- one may say that in a pure PvE environment, with a large population, and without other players to "compare to" speed of leveling may not be a concern? -- since a fraction of players liking PvP may not be willing to level up taking the time that it used to require. During early stages, we were said that the planned time to get a lvl 250 was 6 months of regular play - 20 h /week, iirc- allowing players to take part in this "high level pvp only content" requires players leveling faster. Crafting and Harvesting, unfortunately activities reduced to backup fighting skills, need to level faster too, directly and strongly tied to fighting.

Crafting: it seems to me that we were supposed to be "Master Boot/Gloves/... makers" not "Light Armorers", players would specialize in a piece of a set, rather than a whole set (just think of this, on one hand, and before the jewels were revamped, if a crafter exclusively crafts 'sets' his levels will diverge, on the other hand, truly high level crafters able to craft high quality sets without overcrafting are hardcore/dedicated players, some after even 1 year of crafting regularly). The use of crystals reduces the insane amount of hours and mats required to equip the high level fighters, and it is required when leveling faster.

Harvesting: for either a) economy b) craft-feeder or c) exe and sup hunting. One would want to increase level to get higher quality mats faster, dig required supremes and overcraft at an optimum delta, also tied to the aforementioned points.

So I agree with previous posters, with some exceptions, crystals are proposed by devs to reduce the time it requires to hit cap, and the risk is new players not enjoying the trip.

Personally, I usd them when I can get them, since I have enjoyed the trip, and as crafter, once the recipees have been found, the lands have been mapped and filled with flags and it's just the grind to meet a demand, it becomes boring.

Edit: Soooo,, with all this dissertation I really don't know what to vote. I use them and enjoy them specially when the gameplay becomes less enjoyable. But if I had to say something... I'm aware that op rewards need to be worth it, but regarding crystals, I'd go for something like Ep2. Give crystals as a reward for something that took time to do and, to some extent, compensate for that, allowing more flexibility: if I hate digging but I love crafting, doing something more enjoyable for me like killing beasties in an invasion, although I mastered that branch and then trading honor points for mats and crystals is a good example of how I'd like them to be used, and in a macroscopic view, with the same impact and rate of leveling I would have had if I had spent the time digging. The craft levels I got when using crystals bought with honor points I could have got them digging craftable mats rather than temple ones.

[oldmess]

So, with PvP content (ultimately unlimited and reproduceable) ...

Not to nitpick such an articulate post, but as the war is designed atm (outposts and eventually spires), it is possible (and some are saying inevitable) that one side will win this war. Whether that's good or bad depends on what comes after the war. If the idea is to simply let PvP be the "unlimited and reproducable" method of extending content, then they should have designed it to be unwinabble in some way. Otherwise, it will end. As any war should.

The optimist in me wants to hope that they planned for us to actually win or lose this war one way or the other and have a plan for the next part of the story. And while I wouldn't want them to spoil the story, it would be lovely to hear some confirmation of that thought before my inner pessimist re-asserts itself.

[tylarth]

The nice thing about ryzom is there are rewards for victory, a genuine reason to fight, to use those grinded skills. I hope that the kami-kara conflict is not just another perpetual world of constant conflict without resolution, like all other MMO stereotypes. If the crystals serve to act as part of the reward for player led conflict and interaction then that is a good thing, a balanced world is a dull world ultimatly, a utopia of uniform banality.

[iphdrunk]

The optimist in me wants to hope that they planned for us to actually win or lose (snip)

Your optimism is commendable, and I wish I'd share it... but I'm afraid I don't Disclaimer: rest of the post is one of them "I got the blues" post... aaaand way offtopic. Not specifically ranting, but... you have been warned

What you mention would be truly affecting the world, one of the major selling points and one that got me interested in the game. But it seems very hard to do... And manage 3 different shards with 3 different outcomes? change things completely? remove spires once one faction has got them all?... *skeptic* manage 3 storylines? and how can we really get rid of one faction?


Gameplay-wise... well, what to say? a few months ago, I asked what other things they had in mind, and all I got as answer was "other than Ryzom Ring, there are several things we are considering..."

I (I wish I was wrong) have grown to not dream anymore, and that's in part my fault, yes - and I tend to think that long term planning isn't happening. There are no incredible additions that they have been developing and they will magically add soon enough. Look at the "under consideration" and "under development" parts. With some fond memories, I remember old FBTers asserting 'outposts are disabled during FBT, but they just need to enable them'. Then the "they are taking their time to make sure Outpost really rock !"

Despite an executive producer letter detailing the patch system with nice Gantt diagrams, look what's happening with patches - must admit things have improved, tho -. I can enjoy a bit of PvP, but the "dropped team bug" and bugged faction channels are annoying, and it's a sign of developer reactivity. Look how Ryzom development seems to have stalled while they focus on the Ring -- for those who don't know, Ring is to be released 2nd qtr, with spires short after, with minor bugfixes and interfaces improvements only in the meanwhile. Pessimistic players are giving september/october as date for a tweaked implementations -

Details like unimplemented 1h weapons, title excel sheets, long known bugs, ranged revamp, or even mentioned features like cosmetics, children, etc. new skills / new branches? who knows... they can be frustrating to a part of the payerbase.

5% of Atys? 99 Prime Root levels? unless those things are past the planning black board stages, these are meaningless numbers to me (they could have said 1% and it would be the same).

Bottom line: enjoy Ryzom as much as you can ! I still do ! and it *is* a good game, and a game a player can enjoy for long with an excellent community and a very good support, a game that can give you a nice gamer experience specially if you are just starting but also after almost 2 years with it. But I take it as it is: a decent MMRPG developed by a small company. But I tend to think it is/was an evolution in MMRPGS, not a revolution.

[oldmess]

Your optimism is commendable, and I wish I'd share it... but I'm afraid I don't Disclaimer: rest of the post is one of them "I got the blues" post... aaaand way offtopic. Not specifically ranting, but... you have been warned

Great; now my inner-pessimist has taken over again. Actually he didn't just take over; he took my inner-optimist in the back room and beat him like a red-headed step-child.