Ryzom

Forst off, this is not a flame thread. All mods who were thinking about deleting this thread, don't. I figure this game needs a few more things, as well as a few things that shouldnt be there.
Suggestions:

1. MMORPGs (and any RPGs for that matter) are all about SPECIALIZATION. In plenty other MMO's you will see that as characters get higher lvl, they get more and more specialized IN ONE AREA ONLY. Setting it up so that anyone can be any level at any time really kills the feeling that you can do some things other people your lvl cant.
--
Possible Fix: Set it up so that every level you get in your highest level lowers the maximum level you can reach in everything else. If, for example, you have lvl 25 Offensive Magic, your level cap for the basic (Fight, Craft, Harvest) skills will be 20; your level cap for Defensive Magic will go down each level you gain in Offensive. The level cap for anything stops at 20 (for basic), 35 (for specialized level 1), etc. If you reach the cap and then gain a level in something else, your lvl doesnt drop. If someone tries to get by this by levelling them all at the same time, they should have an exp penalty.

2. More items. This game has a very very short supply of items, and the ones that do exist are almost all mats as far as I can tell. Don't be afraid, devs, to put a few "useless" items in the game. It serves as a great way to make money, because you don't need to hoard them like you do mats. Also, there are no "regen" items, like the traditional "Potions" of most other RPGs. What happens if I'm soloing and my Self Heal still has the timer going? I die. And that sucks.
--
Suggested Fix: throw the aforementioned items into the game.



STRONG POINTS OF THIS GAME:

-very, very customizeable characters.
-lots of character slots.
-superb graphics for an MMO, good job
-excellent animation, every spell and most basic attacks are all different and flowing.
-skill creation. very cool.
-AI is excellent, much more that just "move random direction,attack you,repeat."
-Item creation: every item has the potential to be different.

Overall, the largest problem with this game is it's lack of specialization, and for that reason, I'm not going to reactivate my account. It's a fun game and all, and those of you who don't mind it's quirks, keep playing, I would hate to see it go off the market due to a lack of players. It's just not a $15/month game for me.

Adios,
piman

@specialization: don't know how far you've played, but beyond lvl 50 you usually get a fair amount of specialization. yes, you can reach lvl 250 in all professions, but it would take ages as things split up more and more, and it won't stop there as nevrax plans to extend the current skill trees too. another thing that is coming: specialization bonuses, in one of the coming patches they'll introduce a system that gives you advantages if you specialize in one area and makes those advantages less and less pronounced as you raise other areas.
in short: even if the system seems quite open, only an insane 24/7 power player could max all skills in a reasonable time.

piman wrote:1. MMORPGs (and any RPGs for that matter) are all about SPECIALIZATION. In plenty other MMO's you will see that as characters get higher lvl, they get more and more specialized IN ONE AREA ONLY. Setting it up so that anyone can be any level at any time really kills the feeling that you can do some things other people your lvl cant.

I personally love the lack of the standard class based system of other games. I would be very much against an overall level cap such as they have in SWG. The sheer number of levels required to max out everything will cause some amount of specialization. Yes, there are people that will spend day and night leveling and end up with 250 in everything. But this isn't really different in a class based game. All that happens with classes is those people create one of each character and get them maxed out.

The only real difference in this game is, instead of people saying, "i'll switch to my healer character," you get them saying, "ok, i'll get out my magic gloves and light armor." I think it'll be the same end result, you just won't have to switch characters.

piman wrote:2. More items. This game has a very very short supply of items, and the ones that do exist are almost all mats as far as I can tell. Don't be afraid, devs, to put a few "useless" items in the game. It serves as a great way to make money, because you don't need to hoard them like you do mats. Also, there are no "regen" items, like the traditional "Potions" of most other RPGs. What happens if I'm soloing and my Self Heal still has the timer going? I die. And that sucks.

I do think there needs to be some unique items you get through quests and such. I think this is starting to appear with the encyclopedia rites. I'd also like to see a lot more customization available in crafting so everyone isn't wearing pretty much the same armor. It'd be great to have a lot of cosmetic options available in crafting tha don't necessarily affect stats but just appearance.

As for potions, I don't really have a strong opinion on that. I suppose it would make solo hunting easier and that's not a bad thing. I think this game is still a bit too group focused.

piman wrote:Setting it up so that anyone can be any level at any time really kills the feeling that you can do some things other people your lvl cant.

Unless the game is severely short on players, there will always be dozens of other people specialising in the exact same thing as you are, who can do all the things you can.

piman wrote:Also, there are no "regen" items, like the traditional "Potions" of most other RPGs. What happens if I'm soloing and my Self Heal still has the timer going? I die. And that sucks.

Hmm, matter of preference I guess, in my opinion that's what makes the game challenging. When I first played I was pleasantly surprised that there were no healing potions in Ryzom, and implementing them would be the fastest way to make me leave again. I like having to be carefull with my lifemeter, not just pressing the potion hotkey over and over until the mob is dead.

xenofur wrote: another thing that is coming: specialization bonuses, in one of the coming patches they'll introduce a system that gives you advantages if you specialize in one area and makes those advantages less and less pronounced as you raise other areas.

What are they going to do with the people who are already 200melee/magic/craft/forage by the time this may ever come to pass? Going to log in one day and find you are screwed because shown dedication to the game and played from day 1?

I realized about day five of open beta that this game would NOT do for all players, it did not deter me from finishing the beta testing, nor did it deter me when I had to search MOST of Dallas Ft worth to find my copy, and a week later, repeat this for my daughters copy.

The MMORPG market is wide enough that if Ryzom is NOT your game...you will find one that better suits you. I would hate to encourage someone that HAS to feel super special and unique to play a game that is more open and freer than that.

Go in peace.

Simple math and observation of other games show that "Unique" characters are really only possible in open skill games.


Take "Standard MMORPG" - Level 100 is the max. Blue Angel Toast armor is the best. Sword of Uber Hacking is the best. -- Guess what, you get X^n copies of level 100 tanks, with Blue Angel Toast armor, weilding a Sword of Uber Hacking. If you are "Unique" it's because you are not uber, and don't have that gear setup yet.


Mix in the math, and the possibilities are endless, limited only by the number of hours in a day/month/year that a character can be leveled. What about a tank that can heal, nuke, but not debuff. A healer that can nuke, and <gasp> tank. The chances of identical toons in this game is slim to none. Even if 5 people actually obtain lvl 250 in ALL skills, you are still in the position of other games. It's not until that a cap comes into play that you start getting cookie cutter toons. An open skill system assures me that I will be unique.

If it was really unique, there would only be one, on the entire server, otherwise it is just rare/uncommon/hard-to-get/...
That's what I like in this game, if you want to, and through effort, you can become and achieve your goals. No artifical restrictions are imposed on the player beyond game physics.

At the moment, a level 250 swordsman and a level 250 axeman are basically identical. That's frustrating. I agree that different branches need to be heavily differentiated.

But locking people into a single static role isn't a way to encourage specialization. On the contrary, it creates a finite number of these roles and prevents true specialization.

As for uber lewt, that's what I'm trying to get away from in this game. More items would be great, but I firmly believe the best items should all be player-created.

Please dont take the advice of the original poster. That would make the game like all the others. I like rysom because its the way it is. If you guys start making it like EQ then we that like Rysom would feel jipped for trying somthing new and differant.

This game is unique among mmorpgs. Please keep it that way.