Ryzom

I've been trying to get into this game for quite a while now, because I really wanna give it a fair shot. I'm burnt out from WoW and from what I've read and played, Ryzom sounds like the game for me. I'm intrigued by the "sandbox" philosophy, I'm smitten by the great community, I'm impressed by the attention players receive from Developers and Staff, and the "system" doesn't really daunt me all that much - I'm pretty patient, so I don't mind experimenting with it. Even the lack of music doesn't bother me that much, it's actually pretty nice.

However, there are parts about the game that just feel really choppy, unfinished, or just overall lacking much needed polishing for me.

My goal is to make a magic affliction character, probably a defensive affliction kind of build. I see terms like "mind lord", "illusionist", and "summoner" in the skill trees, but when I look at skills, it seems like all we get is Fear, Stun, and Sleep. Is that really all there is to that branch? Would it be spreading myself too thin to go down the two afflction trees at the same time? Maybe I'm just missing something because I'm new.

My main gripe, however, is spellcasting. It seems that there is a disturbing hesitation between the time I command my character to cast a spell and when he actually starts casting it. Furthermore, I can't exactly tell when it is set to actually go off; does it happen when the spell reaches the end of the arrow? It seems like it happens right before that? What are the ways that I can be interrupted? Sometimes it seems that just panning my screen around interrupts me even if I don't move. Does anyone else find spellcasting in this game overall choppy and just...not smooth? I'm not expecting to go running around and casting at the same time, but it feels like magic and mobility are just mutually exclusive altogether Is melee combat like this too?

And what's the deal with buying equipment? Even when I sort it to just Basic, I get a xxxxx of 200 or so different pieces to choose from, with no way to further organize it or even filter out certain slots.

Oh yeah, and even at lvl 5, downtime is pretty ridiculous. Ususally MMO's don't make you sit thirty seconds to recover health at level FIVE!

Maybe it's just because I'm still on the newbie island, or because I'm not too familiar with everything yet. If you have any insight, or feel like clearing up any misconceptions I may have, I'm very open to opinions. I do want to like this game, I just don't know if it's really finished enough for me to get into it yet.


Editied for language - Shadowwe

daperez wrote:And what's the deal with buying equipment? Even when I sort it to just Basic, I get a **** of 200 or so different pieces to choose from, with no way to further organize it or even filter out certain slots.

You can filter what you want by quality, slot, etc.


Don't look this skills like WoW ones. What you see are stanzas that you have to combine by yourself to make your own spells. If you use this skills "as they come", you will die a lot.

g3n0m4 wrote:
Don't look this skills like WoW ones. What you see are stanzas that you have to combine by yourself to make your own spells. If you use this skills "as they come", you will die a lot.

Well, yes, but are Fear, Sleep, and Stun the only "building blocks" other than speed/cost/etc modifiers that the tree would give me access to?

Dap... I think what you are seeing as "hesitation" is probably your casting time. Any action takes until the END of the arrow filling up to complete executing. This fill up process takes longer if you have "casting time" penalties in your spell.

Now, the casting time penalty that comes by default with many new spells is there to balance the "good" parts of the spell (you need to balance the good with the bad to make it come out even for all skills, including spells). But you can replace that with other penalties. Try getting the "use HP" and "use stamina" stanzas from the skill trainer if you don't have them, and replace any casting time penalties completely, so there are none. Then get a nice set of amps (amplifiers) which should also speed up casting.

Try that and see if your casting speed seems more like you'd expect. I bet it will.

C

I hope you arent trying to cast in heavy armour, although at level 5 thats unlikely.
But if you want to do magic, get good Amps. The starter Amps are quite frankly, crap. as bad as it is possible to have. If you can survive to the point you can use the quest reward ones, you will notice a massive improvement in speed and effectiveness of your spells.

Defensive Affliction is very limited in its choices, and about the hardest combat skill to master. However Stun and Fear are two of the most useful spells out there. (verdict still pending on sleep - used to think it was a total waste of space, but it does have some very limited utility )

As for downtime, the solution is to team with a healer, and to be able to heal others yourself.

wait till you have to sit and regen 6000 points of health...hehe

dollly wrote:wait till you have to sit and regen 6000 points of health...hehe

Ugh...sounds lovely...

daperez wrote:I've been trying to get into this game for quite a while now, because I really wanna give it a fair shot.

So, welcome on Atys

daperez wrote:My goal is to make a magic affliction character, probably a defensive affliction kind of build.

First of all: forget this! There are no fixed classes in Ryzom, and it would be a good idea to improva all skills up to a certain level.
It helps to get more HP in the beginning to do some melee fight and not spent your magic skill point for HP improvement. And why not use regeneration time to forage? You could forget about crafting, but its the best way to make money on Atys.

daperez wrote:Is that really all there is to that branch? Would it be spreading myself too thin to go down the two afflction trees at the same time? Maybe I'm just missing something because I'm new.

There will be others at higher levels, not the kind of spell (you don't neeed others I think) but bomb or spray effects or range.

daperez wrote:My main gripe, however, is spellcasting.

Try to get Amplifiers with a good casting time bonus and you will be surprised.
Do the Quests from the Zorain in the Ranger camp, he will give you some good Amps. Or try to buy some...

daperez wrote:Oh yeah, and even at lvl 5, downtime is pretty ridiculous. Ususally MMO's don't make you sit thirty seconds to recover health at level FIVE!

There are self heal spells or just go digging

The best thing you can do is to do all the quests on the island and to listen to others and try to learn from them.
You will have to group with others for the advanced quests (not for all quests where it is said "find a team") so esp. the recreation time will not be longer to be discussed when there are some healers in the group.

And don't forget to take a closer look on your actions, you can edit them

At low levels SP is tight... make sure your not only bumping your Constitution, but also your Metabolism for HP (Wisdom - Sap, Balance - Stam, Will - Focus) regen. Each boost has the boost ceiling AND a regen boost that matches. If you are soloing, regen will always seem slow tho

Glad to see you like the game and have patience... it will payoff.

Your amps make a big difference, as well as spell tweaking.
Filters at merchants are invaluable, just don't forget to change it back when looking for less specific items.
Afflictions are always tough and best done in teams.

Other useful tidbits:
Your Con will determine what armor you can wear.
Your Strength will determine the weapon you can wield (even if not fully benefit from).
Your Intelligence will determine the Amps you can use.
Your spell level (sap req.) determines the Amps needed to cast it with amp bonus.

Enjoy Atys...