Allright, long enough I´ve ranted on and on about things that should change but be consistent enough with Ryzoms background to not delude its perceived “uniqueness”.
As we´re discussing this right now on all servers I´ve decided to put my money where my mouth is, so to speak, and collect some ideas and come up with some possibly new ones. Probably some or most of them can be found throughout these boards in one or the other form, made by several players again and again, but for the sake of the argument and order I´ll collect them here.
I´m doing that here on the Arispotle board because I suspect the new owners and Devs for that matter might be more comfortable reading English than German
One thing that matters for all of the later mentioned proposals is that they need to involve as many players a possible, to have an as small as possible amount of people complaining that they weren´t involved.
Proposal 1: True interaction with and impact on the Kitin. Other than them or us going *splat* from repeated interactive impacts.
At the moment it´s almost like in any other game, Homins kill Mobs, Mobs respawn after a given amount of time has passed. “Almost” because the exception from the norm in Ryzom is, that Aggro-Mobs kill Non-Aggro-Mobs and vice versa too and so a certain dynamic is achieved. One can never be sure if the mob just killed was the last one and will cause a respawn that may spell doom for the team.
Players already noticed by experimenting that if Aggro-Mobs are killed extensively the Non-Aggros will multiply up to a certain amount and if left alone the Aggros will eventually respawn and reduce them again later, creating a certain state of balance. All great and good so far.
Up until now its just the same with Kitin. But, what if, as proposed on the original sales box, we would be able to completely eradicate the Kitin in a certain region, and they´d only respawn if we left them alone for too long and not right after a few minutes.
With normal Mobs filling the niche left by the insects for the time being and later being driven of in turn by the returning Kitin. If now this circle would go on for a certain non regular amount of time an invasion could be triggered by the GMs. Simply for the reason that the Swarm desperately needs this region (or any other) back to survive.
A variant of this theme would be the ability to cut of the “supply lines” of the Kitin.
In certain areas, Kipee can be watched wandering along in a kind of trek from A to B stoping at both points to munch at the grass a while. Why not have them wander all the way to the Nest and then return, to “gather and deliver resources” as is their prescribed role in the Kitin Hive. Homins could then try to cut of these deliveries and cause the hive to dwindle in numbers. If these Kitin treks would be protected by some Solider Kitin, all the better.
If these more or less frequent attacks by players would cause the hive to somehow react to them in turn, wonderful! Maybe it could work a bit like the Kami Tolerance of a region. If X amount of Kitin was slain in Y amount of time then Z happens
Would certainly be quite a bit of programming, but the groundworks are already laid.
Proposal 2: Goo interaction. Come and get some gunk…
The Goo was promised as one of the deciding factors of the game and one of its features that was to be an antagonistic force even less controllable and far more sinister than the Kitin. Invasions of Goo infected animals or primitives are simply a variation on an “old” theme so we´ll leave them out here.
It´s potential lies in its virulence and contagious nature.
What would be far more interesting than just defence from its symptoms is a less direct way for the goo to impact the players game and the “homins daily life”. Its some kind of disease, so why doesn’t it infect Homins?
What if a Goo infection somehow hit the homins, with a contagious effect transposable from homin to homin, for example reducing their stats a bit for a certain amount of time until a remedy is found by a concerted effort of all Homins. For example Stamina could be reduced to simulate the homins system fighting an infection. Through life events or even NPCs word of a cure could be spread, but it could only be reached by a concerted effort by many, many homins. Whatever that may be, ideas can range from gathering herbs to killing certain animals for their glands or whatever. Best solution would be multiple ingredients that have to be gathered by players in both PvE (maybe even PvP) and RP ways. If this is achieved the sickness is stopped.
Another way to more interaction with this threat is its actual spread. Why does the Goo lie relatively dormant at the moment? That alone is a quest worth seeking an answer to, but what if it suddenly starts spreading again? How to stop it? What will be its effects on the animals surrounding its fields? What will be its effects on the Kitin? Or as said above, on homins?
So for example, what if a Goo pustule suddenly popped from the bark right in the middle of Yrkanis or Zora and would start spreading. This would be a perfect opportunity to send homins on diverse “quests” to find the cause and the redemption from the threat. Did something or someone place it there deliberately? Did it spread underground? By air? By birds droppings? Whatever, the homins have to find out. And, how to stop it? Burn it? And risk burning down the entire city with it? Risk a new Coriolis? Dig it out? Let Yubos loo on it?
Whatever the solution, it again needs to involve as many homins as possible and for that it needs to have at least two variants, one with more action one with less
Proposal 3: Undiscovered country, for rent or just to look at.
How are new countries, regions, landmarks discovered?
By exploration. What about those parts of Atys that (apart from natives that don´t officially count) no homin has seen before? So, what if for example a new animal was discovered somewhere on Atys? Homins might just wonder where it came from and thus search for it and in the process discover a recently opened crack/portal/hole in the rim wood that leads to a new country full of new mobs. Or maybe even to the base of a branch of Atys, leading up to the canopy. (Dreaming a bit here
)
Anyway, with the Ring-Tool present the groundwork is again laid for such a scenario.
A “Ring Portal” may technically take on every shape the programmers want to to, so it must not even be this glowing orbs thingy, it could well be a portal such as we know already, or a crack in a wall. And combined with the normal load trigger used in the usual portals it need not even be triggered by clicking anything, players would just be transported to a Ring-Scenario instead of to a “normal” part of known Atys.
In such a new land everything should be possible. Apart from new mobs to kill, a raised level cap it could well bring with it a logical and feasible way to (re-)discover the means of for example building personal houses, or new items, new spells, new skills, whatever.
Same goes for undiscovered Prime Root regions, portals to witch could well be placed somewhere down there in some tunnel or ravine, there are more than enough of them. The hotly anticipated “Kitin Nest” is such an example. For whatever reason its entrance is on the event isle doesn´t matter here and now, but I think it could just as well be placed for example at the deepest end of the Abyss of Ichor tunnels. (But my technical guess is that its actual placement has something to do with the already set code of the world and the massive changes that would have to come with implementing such a change of landscape taking up valuable Dev. time again
)
A new land would lead to the normal initial rush of course, but on the long haul it could well bring new enemies and allies to the homins, or as some proposed even a new or bring back an old faction (Elias Trition). New races of course figure largely here, both playable and non-playable.
What it shouldn´t bring would be a land suddenly chock full of “quests” that are contained to that area. A few new missions or somesuch would be ok, but to implement quests in such a way and leave them off the known lands would be a serious blunder. Implement them everywhere or nowhere at all. If at all.
Even if it brought no such change in gameplay, an interestingly designed new country could easily give players new “contend” for weeks by simply discovering new vistas (no pun intended). All known lands derive a large part of their fascination from their unique design and the great job those designers did back then. I pull my hat to each and everyone of them for coming up with such a unique look.
A new country must keep with the general theme, but be unique in its own way, as in not using parts of old designs and just mix them in a big bowl.
Proposal 4: The quest of the questing scone, or whatever…
Quests, a thing of dread for one half of the players, a thing to wet the lips for the other.
The big Quest-Monster in the most literal sense would be the implementation of Quests that worked “as usual” and as known from everywhere else. Quests that don´t differ much from the Missions that are already implemented or are known so well to us from other games.
- “Go to that village and kill some unsuspecting trolls, 10 would be ok, if you do that I´ll have something for you. Come here again when you´re finished.”
- “Ah, good. You returned. So you killed 10 of those trolls. Ok, now I´ve got a new mission for you, go and kill 20 of them. – What?! I said I´ve got something for you. Off you go now, then Ive got something really good for you.”
- “Ah back again, aren´t we? You look a bit ruffed up. Doesn´t matter, now go and kill their Village elder, a tough bugger he is, so be carefull. Might bring some buddys along… What!? Isn´t that a good enough request for a hero like you? Thought so. Now bugger off and if you return I´ll give you a present.”
- “Man, you look quite beaten… But a good job it was. – Here you go, a cool sword of Troll-killing for you. - What?! You´ve already got a better one? Dropped by the Chief?
Not my problem pal, get outta my sight, there´s others standing in line to go off and kill some more villagers for this crap.”
As has been said time and again on these boards and as it has seemingly accepted as a common consensus between the two opposing factions, “quests” in Ryzom should really have a true impact on the world and be only repeatable in a justified and logical way that makes sense. I know that this is extremely difficult to implement, but at least the “illusion” of such an impact on the world would possibly suffice.
To bring the head of the Disco King time and time again to some Watch-Captain simply gets boring over time, apart from making no sense at all. If he´d at least be called “Rongur the infinite headed” or something…
Anyway, “Quests” in Ryzom could relay well be interwoven with the above proposals. Meaning that, for example the “powers that be” could very well be on the constant lookout for “Kitin Hunters”, “Goo disinfectors”, “Explorers” or even “Herb Gatherers”. The Halloween Invasion showed that this does work quite fine. Only that this time the quests would not be available for only a limited amount of time, but on a semi regular basis. Of course, going out each day to hunt Kitin would become boring too, but if the quests would have logical follow ups and even a true impact on the world, players could really boast of their deeds, rather than sheepishly admitting that each and every one of them has at some point slain one and the same old senile dragon that doesn´t seem to want to stay dead for some obscure reason.
If a certain point was reached (x amount of mobs killed in Y time for example) the NPCs could simply stop to give these particular quests, because the danger has been hemmed in for the time being. If the effects of these quests would wear off over time, they could just as well start to ask for heroes again. If the time it took for them to do this was also variable inside a reasonable timeframe it would be a great way to make “Quests” more real.
In the intermediate time other tasks could be offered by these guys. It´d be better than to have them standing at the gates declaring everything’s ok while some young homin is eaten alive by Gingos just a few paces away and coincidently
just out of reach of the watchmen.
Proposal 5: Outposts for rent, renovation costs go to new owners.
Outposts are a great idea and have much potential left to exploit on the side of the devs.
At most they´d just have to go and read what the initial manual said. OPs should be available by diplomacy as well as brute force. They should be a much more interactive part of the game, with other means to earn them than just PvP.
For those that like PvP nothing much will change as they still get to attack an OP and fight over it with its current owners or defend it from attackers.
But what if it became true what was proposed in the original release, that tribes would play a far more developed role in the OP-Wars than just being the first people to kill to get it.
For example it was said that it could well be a possibility that if your Fame was high enough you could hire mercenaries of a tribe to help you in defence and even in an attack. On this note, isn´t it quite strange that the tribe whose members you killed to get the Outpost in the first place now supports you with troops to defend it? Hey, grudges don´t carry long on Atys it seems.
It would be great if a guild could initially gain an OP by interacting with the tribe, fulfilling “quests” or missions for them to gain their trust so they´d give you the OP on loan or for rent.
The upkeep for an OP should also involve some form of renovation cost, or as is suggested by the empty plots on its premises, some other form of “building cost”, for new buildings that in best case would fit the Ops initial description and produce something of value other than more Catalysers or weapons grade plutoni… err materials.
Proposal 6: Two tribes go to war… or more.
The deeper interaction with the tribes could just as well lead to other implementations that impact the world in one way or the other. Fame is again groundwork to be built upon. Not just better sales and reduced costs in buying things. True impacts could involve special stanzas learnable only from specific tribes through a rite, available with enough fame.
Tribe members helping you, or attacking you based on your fame we´ve already got, Tribe-Patrols attacking unprovoked is a difficult thing, because there´s too much potential for exploiting it in OP fights or others. But, them helping in defending their lands from the Kitin menace would be great. We already can see how it works from the Dyron Guards who seem to constantly battle the beasts too close to their oasis. Why isn´t that the case in other areas of Atys? As can be seen in Virginia Falls Oasis two groups of NPCs battling each other is also possible, so why only there?
And why do tribe-patrols walk idly through the greatest battle against the monsters when it’s their lives as well that are at stake? Ryzom is extremely immersive, but behavior like that just makes me wonder what exactly the “Siblings of the Weed” are cultivating in their backyard.
Proposal 6: A Guild´s gotta do what a Guild´s gotta do
A lot of people love the idea of customizable Guild halls, or at least some customizable extensions to them. In fact it would be a treat to have such. The Ring again could very well make that possible if (HaHa) extended to encompass such things as walls and furniture for example. Only trouble I see is that this solution might be a considerable strain on the servers. I don´t know but maybe a server just for that might help. If at all possible.
As they are most guild houses are pretty bleak at the moment, a little more clutter inside of them would add more flavor to gaming.
And those “Guild-Trainers” standing around in their little alcoves like those famous “women of negotiable affections” in Amsterdam, well they´d better either do their proper job or get thrown out real quick.
They were supposed to give new teachings to the homins, so why don´t they?
I don´t think it´d be that hard to make them earn their stay in our Guildhalls by letting them teach finally.
Other things a guild might just want to have is a purpose for its fame. At the moment its just numbers added up. So what about giving some meaning to them
Maybe a guild with proper nation-fame might be able to buy an expansion to their hall, or entrance to a customizable zone, respectively. Or even an additional storehouse?
Anyway, these are my proposals for now, feel free to discuss, but please abstain from just stating your dislike of any of these ideas. Instead give input, add your own proposals or collect more from other threads. Built upon these ideas and extrapolate to unknown reaches.
CU
Acridiel
Edit: Uh and GET THOSE D*** MOUTH on the Charakters MOVING!!! *lol*
