A Newbie with some Questions...

[michaeas]

Greetings and Felicitations...

I am a new player to this game having come over from Final Fantasy Online. Before that I have played World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Dark Age of Camelot, and Everquest I and II.

I really like the feel of this game and although I am still on the newbie island, I think more and more that I am going to really enjoy this game. So many MMORPG's turn into jobs rather than just being fun as they should be.

I created a Matis player based off of the Instruction manual I downloaded as it said that if I believe in the nobler quailties of homins, I should be a Matis. However, I did notice that upon my incarnation on the newbie island that I have no fame with anyone at all, even fellow Matis. It has been explained to me that I start neutral to everyone and must work my way up, which is a good idea in my opinion. However, after reading a bit more about the history of Atys, I am somewhat confused, so I would like to pose a few questions without opening a big can of worms hopefully...

Since I start out nuetral, does this fact mean I can declare my allegiance to any of the homin species? Say, for instance, that I felt the Zorai were the ones to join, would they let me?

If I do declare allegiance for another race, does this mean my home countrymen and women will despise me and kill me on site? Will I be barred from visiting my race's home lands and cities?

The Matis are supposed to be allied with the Karavan. Do I have a personal choice as to which side of the Kami/Karavan struggle I take side with?

If I do choose the Kami over the Karavan, will the Matis despise my character for doing so?

I have been told on the newbie island that the Karavan followers far outnumber the Kami followers. However while I see several sites about the Kami Alliance and even links on this site for it, I have seen nothing about the Karavan which leads me to believe the Kami followers are more numerous. Is the balance between the two really so one sided or are they pretty much balanced?

Is Jena the really hot babe that I see on many of the displays for SoR with the blue eyes and the white armor? Or is she as enigmatic as Ma-Duk?

I know that many of these are going to be personal decisions. I am not really looking for decisions to be made for me, just some information so that I can make one. In WoW and EQ II it was a bit simpler as the good and bad sides were explicitly designed and choices were easy to make. Despite what the newbie people are saying I doubt that the Karavan or the Kami are good or evil in the ways we think of such. Thanks in advance for any responses. Any and all information will be appreciated.

[cloudy97]

Welcome to Ryzom

During the temple wars several Karavan based guilds came together and formed the Karavan Alliance. After that episode came the Outposts and since the Karavan guilds already were more organised than the Kamis, they dominated the outposts. And there are probably more Karavan aligned characters in the game, Matis seem to be the most popular race and Zorai the least popular.

The Kami Alliance is a reaction to the Karavan Alliance.

If you swear allegiance with one civilization the others will be affected. I can't find the news-posts since the web engine changed. Matis has good relation with Tryker, to some extent friendly with Zorai, but enemy with Fyros. There is nothing stopping you to work on your fame and swear to whatever you see most fit your character.

Cult and civilization are not connected in the game mechanics, other than the initial values (and background story). A Matis Kamist is definately possible. There is no need to choose civ/cult early in the game.

And many prefer to stay neutral throughout the game.

[jamela]

Welcome to Atys, Michaeas

You can choose whichever nation or faction you'd like to, but as a Matis you will already have some positive Fame for Matis, Tryker and Karavan, some negative Fame for Fyros, Zoraï and Kami. There's a sticky in this forum explaining this in detail. Note that when you leave Silan you will go to Yrkanis because you are a Matis and you cannot change that. As a neutral your Fame with every nation, faction and tribe is capped at 50, once you declare allegiance to anyone that will change. You will not become KoS to any nation but you will to some tribes - take Matis allegiance, for example, and your Fame with the First Deserters will cap at -60 making you KoS (or maybe that was Karavan allegiance, I forget exactly, sorry). Tribes only control their own little villages, but friendly villages are life-savers when you're being hunted

...I have been told on the newbie island that the Karavan followers far outnumber the Kami followers...

Uh oh. I am sure there are more Matis and Tryker than there are Zoraï and Fyros, but I wouldn't say that there is a great disparity between Karavan and Kami followers. There are many more guilds on the Karavan side, though, that have survived since release and have plenty of well developed characters and teams.

Is Jena the really hot babe that I see on many of the displays for SoR with the blue eyes and the white armor?

Yes, that's Jena

...I doubt that the Karavan or the Kami are good or evil in the ways we think of such.

Oh definitely Evil. K is for Killer

[katriell]

No one will kill you on sight until you have -60 fame with them, I think.

EDIT: Jamela beat me to it, and explained much more thoroughly.

[vguerin]

You can be any race or faction alignment you choose, some choices will mean more work for you in raising fame is all. Unless you plan to RP a race stoicly, your options are pretty open.

The game shows two sides but very little in the mechanics force anything. For the most part if they took away the factions, the alliances out there now would remain as they are people you trust and want to play with. The lines in the sand merely made it more obvious...

[michaeas]

Thank you very much to everyone that posted replies!!

[dakhound]

The game shows two sides but very little in the mechanics force anything. For the most part if they took away the factions, the alliances out there now would remain as they are people you trust and want to play with. The lines in the sand merely made it more obvious...

not so true, maybe for you my friend as you have always been a little on the karavan fanatic side. Some players like myself would cross the boundries of faction and assist the other if nothing was at stake. There are many karavan I really respect and like despite my semi RP stance of wiping your lot of the face of atys and feeding the gimp masked ones to the kincher.

If there were no set in stone mechanics for factions I would probably still be in TnE