Yay more nubs! Also some questions(tm)

[fuzzles]

Hi all. I'm checking out the trial and am having a lot of fun. The graphics are just overall so vivid and stylized, and building your own skills was really a "hey wow" thing for me. I've played L2 for a couple of years, and also a few months of AO, CoH, and SWG before that (RIP my SWG pikeman).

While the game seems very promising overall, I'm not seeing or hearing much about PvP or clan politics. I am a huge fan of pvp which is why L2 is my most played mmo. Can you pvp for a "purpose" or "reward" in Ryzom? Or is it just GW/CoH-style with the "mostly just because" type pvp?

My favourite role in mmo's is being the specialist. Being sub-useful 95% of the time, but really being in my forté that last 5%. I avoid fotm's like the plague.
This is why ranged combat seemed appealing to me, altho I can't check it out in the trial. I hear it's tough to progress in but "can" be very powerful in "certain situations" which seems to be right up my alley.
What's the general take on ranged weapons in ryzom? Are they flat out underpowered or broken or anything?

And a last question. While on the newbie island I noticed that matis light armor looks like matis light armor looks like matis light armor. Are there any different types or even graphics higher up? Or does Q120 matis light armor look like the stuff I've already seen?

Edit: Also! While on the newbie island, I noticed that shuffling my training points was a bit tricky. For example, I could get more fighting skills if I foraged/crafted, and learned the common skills (HP boots, Metabolism, self heal, etc) in crafting and foraging instead. I brought this up and got mixed responses. Some said this is important to know if you want to make a good build, other said that eventually you get so much skillpoints that you couldn't spend it all if you wanted to.
Do I need to start bringing out my spreadsheets and plot out my character before making him, or doesnt it really matter?

[sprite]

While the game seems very promising overall, I'm not seeing or hearing much about PvP or clan politics.

Well, all the talk about pvp on the forums is usually referring to OPs (outposts) in a bad way - plenty of bickering in the General forum in the past few days. Other than that, the "politics" usually goes on either ingame or on private forums.

I am a huge fan of pvp which is why L2 is my most played mmo. Can you pvp for a "purpose" or "reward" in Ryzom? Or is it just GW/CoH-style with the "mostly just because" type pvp?

PvP in SoR is very purposeful - there are a few kinds of PvP...
1) The most usual kind (or at least talked about these days) is Outpost PvP - basically a 2hr period of PvP, if the attackers win then wait 0-22hrs (determined by the defenders) for another 2hrs of PvP. If the attackers win again then they take the OP from the ppl who had it before.

2) Tagged FvF - once you have aligned yourself with a faction, you can turn on an FvF flag and fight anyone who has the opposing faction's flag up. In theory you get faction points for this, but I don't think that's active atm so its mainly for the "glory of your faction" or whatever you feel like fighting for

3) Zoned PvP - (this is Guild-v-Guild I think) this is only in one area of the Prime Roots and is mainly concerned with fighting over supreme materials.

What's the general take on ranged weapons in ryzom? Are they flat out underpowered or broken or anything?

Well I don't use ranged, but my impression is that its best use of them is in PvP (how handy for you ) but they're very hard to level.

[qoute=fuzzles]And a last question. While on the newbie island I noticed that matis light armor looks like matis light armor looks like matis light armor. Are there any different types or even graphics higher up? Or does Q120 matis light armor look like the stuff I've already seen?[/quote]All items have 3 plans (low, medium, high) which look different (shiny/different colour highlights/more detail/etc). Check out BallitixMystix Dressing Room to see how they all look.

Do I need to start bringing out my spreadsheets and plot out my character before making him, or doesnt it really matter?

Well I've never been a fan of "planning" a build, and SoR is made so that you can "be anything/everything", but if you feel better planning it all out, there's no harm in it

[dcrispo]

SWG before that (RIP my SWG pikeman).

Edit: Also! While on the newbie island, I noticed that shuffling my training points was a bit tricky. For example, I could get more fighting skills if I foraged/crafted, and learned the common skills (HP boots, Metabolism, self heal, etc) in crafting and foraging instead. I brought this up and got mixed responses. Some said this is important to know if you want to make a good build, other said that eventually you get so much skillpoints that you couldn't spend it all if you wanted to.
Do I need to start bringing out my spreadsheets and plot out my character before making him, or doesnt it really matter?

First, off as a former Master Pikeman from SWG let me say HI! and you can be that once again here as well! Its a very skill lvl in the melee tree but, it is there. When you break into 2 hand smashing,2 hand slashing and 2 Hand Piercing train in piercing which is the spear/pike tree.
The Metsbolism, Constition etc you mentioned are all stat upgrades which are keyed to either magic or melee so yes you can earn those upgrades using either of those skills. Balance and Dexterity are strictly Craft/Forage skill upgrades.
So Have Fun Homin and hope to see you on the mainland once you feel your ready!

[fuzzles]

Sweet, thanks for your responses all, really helpful

Yeah I loved the SWG polearm animations. AoE knockdown was the awesomest thing ever. It was really cool running up to a teammate being beat up by 2 player jedi, and knocking them both down. That's also a perfect example of why I enjoy having that one forté where you can do something nobody else can.

The ryzom polearm anims are quite good as well. Many cool points to them for having proper spear animations, as opposed to Lineage2 where you slash with a Pike as if you're whacking a piñata.