Ryzom

I've read this question in a few forums, and although I can't give a definite answer I'm afraid that without a significant change, starting from scratch would be painful (caveat emptor: I have invested a significant amount of time and I am high level). I have gone through a few wipes and rerolls myself, and I am not as attached as I used to be to re-invest again. Only a major change (like a second planet, although this is clearly not the case) would eventually convince me to.

It's hard to imagine exactly what it means to start from scratch, not just in terms of having to create a new character. When the whole server starts from zero it's a completely different thing. It might be a cliche by now to say that getting from 0 to your first 250 is where most of the fun was. I speak for a few people here after dropping everything and starting over completely before. For the first 6 months of Cho opening I had much more fun then the couple of years before. It's not easy to explain, and you might question why I might say it would be fun when it is so restrictive for a long time until the "economics, politics, infrastructure" of a new Ryzom server comes into place.

It was satisfying knowing we had to level our harvest to dig the materials needed to craft quality 120 weapons to level our 110 skills, for example. Knowing that nothing above that quality existed on the server until we created it.

Fighting for a level 200 outpost against just guards when you are a guild of level 170's, the challenge was incredible and rewarding. You understand why they put Cats in as a reward for outposts, because they are utilised perfectly with a guild full of players who really need them in a server that has nothing yet. The grind isnt the same as when arispotle was a new server, so those thinking they have to put in all that hard work again don't have anything to worry about.

i think your right there final. i started late but i tried the self sufficient thing with an alt and i enjoyed it tremendously. starting from scratch would not bother me in the slightest infact i would openly welcome it. in all the time i was playing ryzom i was never concerned that my lvl was lower than others. and tbh i probably wud still enjoy it just as much if i had not mastered anything ( only got 1 master now).

getting from 0 to your first 250 is where most of the fun was.

I agree, but I've already done that. Doing it again on a new character will never be my 'first' anymore.

It was satisfying knowing we had to level our harvest to dig the materials needed to craft quality 120 weapons to level our 110 skills, for example. Knowing that nothing above that quality existed on the server until we created it.

Agree again, but only those who lead the way get to experience this. For those who can't keep up, it doesn't make a difference. And even so, it's only a few months before q250 exists on that server too. Should we then start up a new server again and again?

And anyways, starting again on a different server, with the option to return to your old characters remaining open to you, is not the same as loosing everything and being forced to start over.

look ik from this way, maybe lots of new players will come in now, if we have our full skilled char and everything, what will be the fun for them? starting back from 0 isn't that bad... i think we should just be happy that ryzom would come back up again. its the people in the game who make the game fun, also the skills a little but that comes second.

Guys come on, be serious now - who is this new target audience that didn't exist for the previous four years and is now suddently large enough to support Ryzom?

Subscription has been a failure for Ryzom in the past and without radical changes to the game (that most of us would hate) it's not going to work for the future.

Most of my IG friends are playing LOTRO or AoC. My RL friends are playing WoW or looking forward to WAR. Those are today's standards that everything else must be judged by. Even with next-gen graphics, Ryzom would still lack 'progress'.

If Gameloft had applied their web-game strategy (e,g, in ogame, ikariam) then all of us would have paid the sub for extras (and for loyalty) plus we'd have a load of free-players increasing the population and occasionally paying for things themselves.

But Gameloft messed up.

The way I see it, history repeated itself with Gameloft. True they cut costs as much as they could, getting rid of CSR and moving servers, to the detriment of the game. But subs still didn't cover things. Same old story as for Nevrax.

Spiderweb need to try something new. Here's the best thing you can offer new players: This game is free.

I challenge anyone to come up with something better that a genuine new player would find attractive. Solutions are better than opinions on why something "wouldn't" work anyway

Free to play models

There are two models that could work here:

1) Pay a sub, get an enhanced game experience. Things like an xp multiplier, guild management tools, right down to the ability to add waypoints on the map. Basically all the conveniences we had previous for our sub, but now it's optional.

- To everyone willing to pay a sub there is no change.
- To people who can't afford a sub, you get to carry on playing for free.
- It brings in so many more people, each of which may convert.
- This is the standard web-game model.

2) Pay for items. Health/stam/sap potions. DP removal. TP tickets. XP crystals. Mektoub food. Sap crystals for enchants. A crafting consumable that guarantees success.

- Most of these are already in game so it would be easy to code this up to a payment system.
- You may find yourself paying more than 8.99 per month, so a cap would be nice.
- This is a slippery slope, why not start offering items that give superior crafted goods? Kitin larva, uber potions... This is the dark side can turn into a contest to see who will spend the most.


I just want Ryzom to survive as it is but with full servers. I've played games with different payment methods and am willing to try anything different that keeps the game afloat.

Ultimately this is down to the new owners. Whatever they do I'll embrace it, I just want the game to live.

Well lots of opinions here on this long thread - so I will give mine.

Fun is always great to reach your first masters etc etc etc.

Ive already re-rolled Twina as a new toon and worked her fast to masters. If I want to re-roll something else then thats cuase I want to make an alt for fun.

Having to go through a long bash of doing the same leveling will not be fun again - as I dont think there will be any changes made - it will just be revived.

Running from land to land is no problem at any level - I just would be bored **** of leveling up major skills again when Ive done it twice already and was happily enjoying working different ones after.

As for paying 18.99 pounds - you gotta be kidding - thats what 24 euros a monthe. Ryzom might have been an amazing game but I am not going to pay a lot moe than I would for anyother game - just to repeat the same thing again.

If it is a case of starting from scratch and there is no major changes then I will leave it this time I think.

As for newbies joining and not having fun - if the game launches well and there is a market there should be lots of newbies - so they will be able to have fun - and at same time have the occasional boosts and world events by us masters.

I've played Travian for some months in such a "free" environment, it left me one of the worst aftertastes ever. It is not a dumb game, mind you.

Your proposal is a contradiction in terms.
Ryzom addresses a certain market by complexity but also by the most important consequence of this complexity: quality of the community.
The games where you pay RL money for xp and success in craft build up a _very_ different community. Go for yourself in such a game and have a taste of it.

So this method of making Ryzom produce money will work against the game itself. It will encourage a population that by definition doesn't enjoy games like ryzom and discourage the stable population who likes slow advancement and complexity of skills/craft/harvest.

boinged wrote:Guys come on, be serious now - who is this new target audience that didn't exist for the previous four years and is now suddently large enough to support Ryzom?

It always existed, it just wasn't reached properly.

Having seen this game go through two bankruptcies, I still say the nature of Ryzom and its community should not be sacrificed just so a ******* shadow of it can "survive."

I've played Travian too for about a year, sometimes paying for bonuses, sometimes not and this never factors into guild life. I'm part of a friendly, supportive guild who I'm really enjoying the end-game with.

The Ryzom community is so strong because it is so small. For Ryzom to survive more money needs to come in, more people need to play. We shall see how strong the community is if this game ever gets popular again. Any profitable suggestion is going to be contradictory because the community has flourished because of the game's failure.

My main proposal is that everyone who pays a sub gets the same game experience we were getting before. Everyone that doesn't want to will get something watered down, but they can still play. I can still log in and have people to RP with and level with.

PS. I think chars should be wiped too, even after 1800+ hours playing.

boinged wrote:Subscription has been a failure for Ryzom in the past and without radical changes to the game (that most of us would hate) it's not going to work for the future.

Subscriptions work but the player base of Ryzom isn't big enough to pay 20 developers. And that was the case for Nevrax and for Gameforge who guaranteed the old Nevrax staff employment for one year.

But Ryzom's subscription numbers can definitely provide enough money for the servers, a small developer group and some advertisement.

So the financial failure was not the subscription system but the number of people to be paid.