Ryzom

boroshi wrote:Just to let you all know, though I'm sure it's become obvious by now; due to the current situation I'm relaxing the rules on "no advertising other games" a little bit. In this thread only, you can post stuff about other games - in any other thread it'll be treated as it would have been before.

We all hope Ryzom survives, but I know a lot of you are interested to know where other players are/will be, so that's why I think it's only fair to give you an outlet here

Thank you, Boroshi, this is just another fine example of why we don't want to leave.

First off: Atys will be back again, we just have to wait a bit

In the meantime everybody is welcome at the fan-forum of WELL online
were 100 atysians have already found a new hang-out

We have a new update today:

Energy melee weapons

Stay tuned for more

I'll be playing the open BETA of Cabal Online with some guildies. They're almost all addicted now...

The thing I dislike the most about that game (Cabal, that is) is that only North American people can play it. It blocks people with European IPs... and that really blows.

That and I sometimes play F.E.A.R. on Exodus Syndicate's dedicated server. The joy of being used as target practice cannon fodder... (well, sometimes the target fires back and actually kills )

kalindra wrote:I'll be playing the open BETA of Cabal Online with some guildies. They're almost all addicted now...

The thing I dislike the most about that game (Cabal, that is) is that only North American people can play it. It blocks people with European IPs... and that really blows.

Cabal has a European version under a different publisher.

I tried Cabal, but the graphics were so horrid... =/

Which is why the Europeans can't play on the American version, legal reasons. It's still absurd, in my opinion. And for graphics, well... Ryzom's originality is really hard to beat. What is worrying me is the static class system and the fact that healing in that game is almost totally worthless. Potion spamming... humpf... It's annoying. I like to heal...

Great Googalamoogaley...

I´ve tried LotRo now for three days and man... impressive graphics!
The landscapes are amazing and some reflections on water are just this short of stunning, even with DirectX 9.
Clouds do look like a movie taken from the actual sky,
but weather effects are medicore at best though... strangely enough.
Snowflakes falling from a darkened sky on blossoming cherry trees are ok,
but if these snowflakes look like they´ve been taken from a bad 80s cartoon... *sigh*

Some nice Ideas in "packing the usuals Quests into a interesting story".
Some nice Story-Events.
But, overall... nothing special.
Typical Questgivers should be read like this:
"Hey Man you saved the day/town/province/my house/my socks/my whatever.
You (and of course YOU alone) are the hero of the day!
- And now move over, here comes the next dimwit I have to tell that crap."

I hate the way the Mobs move in this game... like puppets on strings.
No natural movements of the limbs or anything. Wolfs tend to mostly scurry about like their legs have been tied together.
And just like in WoW sometimes can´t refrain from breaking into howling or scratching their ears,
right in the middle of a fight, whilst still doing some serious damage to you.
Maybe they´re giving you giant fleas, or a splitting headache from their badly sampled howl.

And well, the way some of the races "run" is funny to say the least.
Even the famous Fyros hobble, looks more powerfull than the strange gait of elven or human males...
Dwarfs however, well, they roll about, and that´s quite fitting if you ask me.
And for not being able to "play female dwarfs, well... how do you tell them apart anyway?
Could well be a female under all that armor and beard.

Some environmental soundeffects are realy strange...
While hearing birds and owls, squirels and insekts is nice, some "Battlesounds" are realy.. well,.. strange...
Bow shots sound like Whipleashes, clubs use the same sounds as sword hits and dying boars (no not the german GM )
do sound like Lumpers! It´s realy the exact same sound!!! *LOL*

Another point on the negative side for me was:
Extremely annoying speech paterns from the NPCs and some very strange text messages from some of them...

Example: You come up to an NPC Farmer, after burying his son, to finish the quest and in the Questbox,
he´ll tell you how heartbroken and thankfull he is blablabla...
but the Voice-Output if you even dare to click on him is an extremely annoyed sounding:
"Mind your own business, stranger!"
I mean How rude is that?

My first reaction was: "Ok, then I´ll go back and dig up the corpse again.
The wolves sure need some meat, maybe the´ll stop atacking your sheep then. Or your other sons, A$$***e!"

Or the Elven Guy, who you just delivered his long lost scriptures to, wich he was desperately seeking for God knows how long.
Instead of a "Thank you! You did well." He´ll tell you in a whiny voice:
"Oh, my suffering knows no end!"
I mean, what? Hey, I just brought you your stuff and you act like I´ve just hit you with a softball in poetry one o´one?

NPCs designated "Wanderer" standing around, with pretty mean looking wapons, in a town,
telling you time and again of, how they are planing to visit their relatvies in blablawood...
MAN! Move! No dawdling allowed here!

Bard-Teachers standing around in a marketplace, right next to the waponsmith,
strumming the same three achords on their lyra, day in day out...
or playing the same goofy tune on a flute... day in day out... right next to the Hunters teacher, equiped with a bow...
Bard-Players standing around, trying to get the hang on their instruments, playing... tunes...
or using them in combat to "strum" enemies to death with lyra riffs...
Ok, Alice Coopers probaly would be proud but... well... Naaaaw... the Nazgul´d never stand a chance against his makeup.

Man, I can´t wait for the day when they annouce a new free addon:
Revenge of the eternaly annoyed!
Flayed Bards everywhere!
Especialy their Teachers, nailed to some wall with their flutes and some arrows stuck in for good measure,
or strangled with the strings of their lyras... Yeah!
And all other NPCs standing around, whistling innocently...

But, come to think of it, wouldn´t it be cool to someday be able to say:
"Eh, Sauron! Eat hot Rock´n Roll!" and then go into a crazy flute solo with taps... Uriah Heep be praised!

Another, very annoying, but somehow funny fact I noticed is:
Whatever you´re offered in as a quest reward for killing humanoids,
you´ll loot the exact same item from one of the guys you kill!
Be it a nice new pair of trousers, or a ceratin axe with +1 to hit, or a sword with 10% plus in crit chance, or simply a nice hat with a feather stuck on it, for us RP fanatics. You can bet all your Silver on it, that one of the 10 Bilwiss, or Bandits, or Orks, you´ll kill carries that item! The color may vary, but the stats are exactly the same! This happend in about 4 out of 5 "Go & Kill" quests for me.

Edit: The Fun part was, that those items you looted mostly looked either only marginaly better, or even worse than those wou were offered as a reward. I mean, after about 2 hours of play my new Human Blademaster, a realy tough guy supposed to be the groups Damage Dealer, ran about in an outfit that made him look like a friggin parrot!
Why the hell do evil bandits, completely clad in black and dark browns btw., carry with them spare pairs of trousers that are MAUVE colored??? *
And why, by the gods, does the captain of the watch offer you a similar pair of trouser in return for killing these guys, only its MINT green?
And that guy you got his "stolen sword" back from the "evil Bandits" for, gives you a pair of PINK leather shoes?
But I think I get it... Come to think of the storyline slowly developing, with the watch second in comand and others involved being "traitors" and all that... a definite shortage of women in that particular village, looking at the surrounding NPCs...
That "Bandit Camp", out in the dark ruins of some old fort... can it be any more obvious?
Those guys want to get you over to their shore. A strong, rugged, manly fellow like you ... hraaawrrr....

A very clumsy UI and chat, and extremely annoying giant tooltips, that don´t go away even if you check the box that should make them go away, make this a Game I won´t think of purchasing...

If only Ryzom had such amazing graphics... *drools at the thought of seeing Yrkanis or Pyr in a quality like that*

*sigh*

Anyway.
This was my intended "short" review... *cough*
Got a little longer... sorry

CU
Acridiel

* (and why do "Heroes" loot the trousers of guys they just killed anyway???)

True, LOTRO has great graphics, but it seriously lacks fun. Although it is technically a lot more sophisticated, it can't get anywhere near Ryzom from gameplay.

If you play every evening, you hit level 50 after about 2 weeks without trying hard. And then, that's it. There is nothing left to do except raiding.

The crafting system is deliberately handicapped, allowing only 3 skills, 2 of which are not compatible with another. It's one big stupid automated grind (have it make 100 items, and walk away for 30 minutes), and the items you can make are usually worse than what you get from doing the quests.

And then, LOTRO (especially at higher levels) is entirely black and white, to an extent you get the impression it was designed by a bipolar.
Apart from being good guy vs bad guy, there are basically two kinds of mobs, one is ridiculously weak, the other is ridiculously strong. There's nothing in between, nothing that is challenging and rewarding, but doesn't take an army to take down. And of course EVERYTHING in Middle Earth is hostile towards you, even deer. There's no way something could possibly NOT attack you (except if you're too high level).
The dread system is another example of the "black and white" scheme. The bad guys can dread you just because they're the bad guys. You can kill this sucker hillman with 2 arrows, and while he drops dead, he shows you the finger. So because he is such a big bad-ass, this frightens you so much that your will drops by 200 for the next 2 minutes. I'm sorry, but that's just ridiculous, and it certainly doesn't contribute to your game experience.
Player vs. Monster-Player is entirely black and white too. One side is always seriously overpowered and can easily wipe off the other side with one-hit-kills. At every update, Turbine gives the side that was complaining loudest more power (or nerfs the other), so the one-hit-kill tide turns...

The "whoever taps first gets all xp and loot" rule is great too, it doesn't encourage abuse at all...

LoL ..Acridiel

/Agree to it all

I totally agree with both posts about Lotro alas...

But why don't you guys come and check WELL online
Open beta is scheduled for June 2008 and we will havу some beta keys for the international community aswell.

A lot of Ryzom folks are hanging out on the WELL online fan forums where I constantly update the info. Come and take a look

This game is nothing like LOTRO - original technomagic world, dynamic ecosystems, skill-based system and tons of other unique ideas.

There is more info at the fan forums then the main website in fact so drop by and you won't be disappointed ;D

Been keeping an eye on that allready
But January 2008 is allready gone... so, where´s the Beta

CU
Acridiel