Ryzom

First off, Do NOT leave Ryzom for WoW!
I was at a friends house last night and he was so overcome with emotion (j/k) that he decided to show me his new toy. A big Diablo 2 fan, it was like all his birthdays had come at once when his wife got him WoW for Valentines day (yep, some girls will do that for their bloke ).

He showed me a bit of game play and I created two characters, a Warrior and a Druid, both Night Elves.
The Character creation screen is very basic compared to Ryzom, The end result being a character appearing to look very cartoonish. As you enter the world, it is in a woodland area very reminiscent of Matis, but not as wll presented, the graphics are sort of cartooney and blurry, sort of like a PS 2 game. Anyway, I see a guy across from me with a "!" over his head, so I run across to him.................. the run animation is so rubbish, the character is a female, the animation when she runs makes her look like Raziel in Legacy of Kain with his big claws waving and swaying as he runs, it's hard to describe better than that, so, I'll leave it at that.
Anyway my first quest, kill 7 Boars and 7 Mangy (somethings), no problem, I like killing stuff , I saw a mob a bit away from me and clicked on it, whacked it a bit and it was dead, no real animations on the animal, as it attacked, It looked rubbish graphically none of the flair in design you get in Ryzom, so I did the quest and went back for my reward, I got a sword that was worse than the one I looted off the animals, I did a bit of levelling and bought some skills, Charge, you click on it and you run towards the mob and fight, then there were a couple of other things that Stunned or caused Bleeding, but it was very basic, compared to the Stanza system in Ryzom.

Next up the Druid, this character can use melee and certain spells, but most are for out door use. Anyway, I enter the world and do all the same quests again and I have to say that while more interesting than the warrior to play (you can use the spells as a ranged attack and then melee the mob), The spells are graphically fairly rubbish and cant be tailored like you can in Ryzom.

Next up, the much lauded "all ready implementd" Quest system. You do a bunch of quests (FedEx stuff) to get off newbie island, they are too mundane to list here, but the Final Quest is so laughable I have to mention it. The manual tells you the story so far OK?, So anyway you go to the local Lord and he gives you a flask, he tells you a bit of the "story so far" (SSF ) and says go to the fountain and fill it and bring it back to him (this is a fair bit of a distance to travel, especially whe you are getting a bit bored). You bring it back and he tells you a bit more of the SSF to keep you on tenterhooks and says bring the flask to the next town. You get there the guy to whom you give the flask tells you some more of the SSF (WOW! cant wait for this to end) and sends you to the next town with a flask to fill and bring it back for some more of that yummy SSF.

I eventually got to the main town, but had lost all interest as to why I went there in the first place Suffice to say it was a cool looking place, sort of Greco/Roman style thing going on, you get trainers and merchants etc. One thing though which was interesting, you buy your skills for cash. I also noticed that you get more XP for quests than for fighting, that made the game very unpalatable for me.

Basically the game is Diablo 2 in 3D (I'm probably doing it a great disservice describing it like that, but that is how it appeared to me). My friend loves it, I'm going to send him some screenies of Ryzom to let him see the difference. Does anybody know if the free Buddy accounts are still valid?


Valda.

fiach wrote:First off, Do NOT leave Ryzom for WoW!

Had no intentions of doing so

For some reason, WoW/EQ2 etc just have no appeal for me, not the way Ryzom does.

I know this game isn't perfect, but the stuff like customisable stanzas and so on just makes all the others seem very banal and plain to me, plus the fact the game itself looks so good. Even after a year or so I still find myself ooing and ahing at the sunsets in the different lands.

Having said that, I got a trial key for EQ2 from FilePlanet and I'm going to give it a whirl at some point. At least, I keep telling myself I will, but I seem to have a real problem finding the "quit" button in Ryzom, can't figure out why...

I think Ryzom and WoW cater for different playstyles. SoR seems to be very open-ended and community-oriented, whereas I picture WoW to be in the lines of Eq2 - a game for the mass market, without challenges and with quests holding you in the hand most of the time. Eq2 has a 6-digit number of subscribers but I couldnt find the community - the orgs I looked into was small with quite forums on their web pages, there were no hangouts in the cities, global chat channels were mostly dead.

I will try out WoW but I doubt I will stick to it very long.

I bought WoW and although I only played it for 5-6 hours I decided to come back to SoR for pretty much the same reasons as mentioned above.

I think the quest system in WoW is far better than that currently in SoR as it leads you on through a story and does not allow you to repeat every task endlessly until you die form boredom. It also says 'Thanks for completing my quest for me <username>' which helps personalise it and gives a feeling that you have helped the NPC. The NPC will then give you another quest if they have one.

The problem with WoW for me is the graphic and animation. Almost without fail when I jumped I went 'Weeeeeeeeeeee - look at me ma I can fly' - Sounds la little odd ? You should see the animation on it - he sticks his arms out like a kid pretending to be an aeroplane. I laughed out loud every time I saw someone jumping and spend a while jumping around people just to make them laugh.

The overall style is very cartoonish which for me just doesn't allow me to associate with my character. The spells at lower levels certainly have absolutely non of the graphical appeal of those in SoR.

As the first poster said there is little character customisation and so everyone of the same race looks the same except for the clothing which I guess would make the person unique - but soem variation in height in the characters would be good.

I think SoR still has some way to go but it has far more potential than WoW. SoR has the graphics and animation sorted out where as WoW will always be stuck with the child friendly like graphics - that can never change. SoR on the other hand can implement a questing system that works well given time, it’s just shame it didn’t do that from the outset.

Anyone want to buy a copy of WoW ?

klogger wrote:I bought WoW and although I only played it for 5-6 hours I decided to come back to SoR for pretty much the same reasons as mentioned above.

Same here..
The game is just so fake!

I purchased WoW and I like it - It doesnt mean I will stop playing Ryzom - just means I will play both. It helps to switch between them when I get bored of one or the other.

I found WoW to cater for different audiences than Ryzom. WoW is for playing and having fun without having to think too much, it's mainstream stuff.

I find Ryzom to be the thinking players game as it has much more complexity in the gameplay.

WoW graphics are merely ok - Ryzom graphics are stunning !

xorte wrote:I purchased WoW and I like it - It doesnt mean I will stop playing Ryzom - just means I will play both. !

As I said, my friend really likes it, I just couldn't get into it, especially after coming from Ryzom, But I would like an opinion as to why some people do like it, from a balance point of view. Maybe I missed something or didn't play long enough (9 levels for each character).


Valda

xorte wrote:I purchased WoW and I like it - It doesnt mean I will stop playing Ryzom - just means I will play both. It helps to switch between them when I get bored of one or the other.

I found WoW to cater for different audiences than Ryzom. WoW is for playing and having fun without having to think too much, it's mainstream stuff.

I find Ryzom to be the thinking players game as it has much more complexity in the gameplay.

WoW graphics are merely ok - Ryzom graphics are stunning !

Totally agree, just spent 2 days playing it and its a completely different game to Ryzom tbh.
Im not going sit there making comparisons because its pointless. I shall be playing both and enjoying both games, tbh it will help the wait until chapter 3 and the outposts I have been waiting for since release.

borguk wrote:Totally agree, just spent 2 days playing it and its a completely different game to Ryzom tbh.
Im not going sit there making comparisons because its pointless. I shall be playing both and enjoying both games, tbh it will help the wait until chapter 3 and the outposts I have been waiting for since release.

Im also now trying to play both. WoW will get priority atm cause its all new and shiney

Somethings I see coming back when WoW is discussed:
- Graphics. Blizzard always says they make game for most players, so likely they tuned down on stuff to enable lots of players to game with reasonable fps. Unlike Ryzom, where I spend (so far) 250 Euro on hardware to get 18-22 rather goodlooking fps (lower when teaming).
- Quests. Personally, I hate quests! I dont like prefab stuff that require me to do things, I like the freedom Ryzom offers me, even though I keep getting the feeling I should quest some, just to lower my prices at the mercs a bit .
- Actions. Are you now telling me the modular action system is unique? tbh, SoR is the first MMO I really dive into (AO for two weeks doesnt count imo) and I really have little to complain about. No really, I like the game, the looks and the people. Yes, I even rather like the devs and events people, even thought they make mistakes sometimes.
- Community. SoR community is great, havent heard anything from WoW, except fear for the b.net kiddies
- Costumer Support. Guilds are kicked? People banned for playing hard against a GM once? I read WoW forums and the players *fear* GM's! Huh?!? Ehm, no, I cant even start to comprehend or compare this.

So without having played the game once, I am hooked on SoR. I would really like to thank Aina for ruining my life like that . Yes, you now have you revenge, we are evened out once more (I introduced her to AO, then didnt see her for 2,5 year).

Grtz,