Ryzom

A bit of background first. I've been accepted into beta in February, but due to various issues like no 'invert mouse' and the problems with ATI cards I only logged in like 10 minutes of game time back in the day. I didn't read anything about the lore and game features on the web, because after your first game you know never to trust these things, and everything I read before that phase of beta is long forgotten.
So it's a total noob to Atys who went to Micromania last Friday and bought a shiny new game box (not that noob in the MMORPG sense, I've played them all but SB and CoH).

The afternoon at work was spent reading the manual (yes, I know, shame on me). Not the whole afternoon, mind you, more like half an hour for the whole thing. I wish it had more info on the background.

OK, I am home, the game is installed and I'm in. First thing: I had to ask people how to redefine my keys. Bad thing, it should be in the Game Configuration/Controls/Keyboard menu. I'd never have thought that I had to press 'K' to get a list of keys, I don't even know where this information can be found. Second: put the 'invert mouse' option into the Mouse config menu.

With these problems sorted I could finally look around and wow! These are the best graphics I've ever seen, both technically and atmosphere-wise. Wow again. And again. Still wowing a week-end later.

Ok, time to leave my mark in this new world. At the beginning you automatically get a small quest from the Welcomer NPC that takes you through the important NPCs around the noob village, then he teaches the basics of combat, casting, harvesting, etc.. Nice touch that unfortunately didn't last. After this you are on your own, which, in my newbiness to the world of Atys I didn't really like.

You get to see some NPCs that would give you various tasks, from forage this, kill that, loot this, bring X to A, etc. This is a nice way to raise cash, more effective and fun than camping mobs from what I've seen so far - good. In the meantime I reach 20 in Fighting and decide to go to the mainland.

I end up in Pyr the big city, and I'm on my own. There is the Welcomer Kami NPC who gives me some similar kill/loot/harvest missions, on the same 4 types of mobs out of the couple of dozen available in the vicinity. There are a few armor/weapons/materials vendors, player and guild housing vendors, and that's it. What am I to do?

Will I spend the next 230 Fighting levels doing these menial tasks? Where is the Big Epic Quest(c)(tm)(r)? Any smaller quests (besides kill X and fedex), to get to some place, defeat boss mob X and receive item Y in reward? I found a Leviers village to the NE of the Fyr Northern Gates and was pretty excited, but guess what, same kill X/carry Y/harvest Z tasks available there. There is a faction window, what does it mean? Why should I work for faction, besides not being KoS to whoever these factions represent?

I wish that noobs like me, in the face of the upcoming competition, be kept firmly in hand. The Fyr Welcoming Kami looks like the main man in the capital, his location should be my main reference point in the city (and not only because of the nearby respawn point ). Like for instance, the teleporting Kami on noob island should tell me to look for X (the Kami Welcomer) in Pyr. Then that X would fill me in about the services and important NPCs of the city (that was in Morrowind already), inform me about the situation, hint about a few things I could do.

I may have missed someone, I don't know, I think I have explored the city throughly. I am not trying to slam the game or anything, heh, I am taking a day of vacation tomorrow . I am genuinely trying to find out what makes this game stand out from the rest, for a 35 Fighter 29 Harvester, besides the gorgeous graphics. I've been doing menial tasks and have been mindlessly slaughtering mobs in every other game out there. Why should I do this in Ryzom instead?

[I have been thinking of starting a crafting career, but a GM told me that the only way to sell/buy goods is to spam the region with shouts of /WTS or /WTB, but that we may have a trade channel soon. Needless to say that every other game went out of these dark ages of gaming years ago and we have the EQ bazaar, the SWG terminals, the DAoC housing zone, the FFXI Trade Houses, the Horizons Consigners, etc., so I won't bother spending my limited gaming time shouting about my needs and wares as if we were 5 years ago.]

I suspect there is much more meat to the game than what I have managed to find so far. So please put me back into the fray, help me find a purpose or an NPC that would give me one.

One short answer to this will be that you need to Right click on people you see around .. supliers, journajmans, hunters, corporal, messagers, ets all give missions if you cannot get missions from some it is becouse they are giving missions later when you are higher level. Main thing you need to look after is FAME press CTRL F to see your fame.. as your fame grow you are more well know in community and you will get better and better "missions " and later "quests" dont know if this is implemented jet but was planed.

silverio wrote:One short answer to this will be that you need to Right click on people you see around .. supliers, journajmans, hunters, corporal, messagers, ets all give missions if you cannot get missions from some it is becouse they are giving missions later when you are higher level. Main thing you need to look after is FAME press CTRL F to see your fame.. as your fame grow you are more well know in community and you will get better and better "missions " and later "quests" dont know if this is implemented jet but was planed.

You haven't really read my post, have you?

Of course I know that I can get 'quests' by right-cliking on NPCs, how could I be speaking about kill X/collect Y/bring Z stuff otherwise. These aren't actually quests but more like menial tasks, and it didn't say "sign up to become Atys' janitor" on the box. Is there anything bigger than this? Should I mechanically keep clicking on every NPC everytime I gain 5 levels in order to see whether they have anything more important for me, or there is a grand scheme, a great plot that I have missed? Is there something like the Blades trainer in Morrowind, an NPC that nurses you through the subquests of the main plot, then passes you onto another NPC, etc.
So far this has been too much like the mindless grind we've ran away from in other games, and I wont be killing "adjective+1" kipees 'till the end of the free month for a few dappers for sure.

I know about the Fame/Faction window too. But where are the *in-game* explanations as to what it is, the meaning of the factions, what factions do what, why should I follow this one instead of that one, etc.? The days of us playing mechanically just to raise a few counters are long gone, I'd need more involvment into this world's affairs.

Most solo quests in the game right now are the mindless tasks you have already identified. Interesting quests, those that actually affect the game world, are reserved for Guilds. It sounds like you need to create or join a guild very soon to keep up your interest in this game.

Thanks Mekos. Would any official care to comment please?

I felt the same when I first signed up with Ryzom back in beta. I was lost and confused and basically not sure what I was ment to do. Now for me this wasnt really a problem as I'd been playing alot of Eve-Online. Eve is very much a sandbox game where you're let out into the world and the rest is up to you. I found Ryzom to somewhat similar. At first you feel lost but then as you make freinds you very quickly start making your own missions. Being in a guild is very important in SoR as you'll find helping your freinds to achieve things quickly becomes a full time job.

I used to think the lack of quests would be a bad thing but after playing EQ2 beta for a few days (while waiting for SoR to arrive) I've come to the conclusion the too many quests is very bad for the sence community. If everyone is doing quests it becomes hard to work as a group as chances are your mates are doing different quests. So I actually find the open ended nature of SoR at the moment rather refreshing, give you a chance to team up with friends at almost any opertunity and go big game hunting without the "sorry but i need to go do these 12 quests first".

More quests and the big storyline are all in the works I'm assuming the Nevrax are going to wait a few weeks for more players to join before starting the ball rolling. So for the moment were kind of in "sandbox mode" go forth and fiddle with the world.

This is just to reinforce what zebidie has said really, - hope you don't mind another input from a fellow player.

Maybe its just down to what type of players we are? In a couple of years in EQ I was never 'quest-driven'. Never had the slightest inclination to 'do my epic'. I find this game to be the biggest sandbox I've ever played in - I really like that. Morrowind is a good example of this type of game where you are given every opportunity to make your own way and fulfill a higher 'destiny' ie bigger plot at the same time. A few people hated it. I liked it.

I can't wait to get back in this morning to try out some more harvesting, crafting, killing and wondering who I might run into, but I have to say 'wonder what quests I can get today' hasn't really entered my mind - each to his/her own, I suppose - I imply no criticism at all here, I just don't think I'll have time for quests what with experimenting with the skill trees etc.

I'm really looking forward to the 'big picture' revealing itself over time so I can pop in and out of it when I can fit it in with all the other things I want to do. Agree guilds (and maybe races?) are likely to be important in the overall story (and hopefully in future expansions) and so for bigger/better quests. I think the nature of the game will make collaboration & co-operation advantageous rather than forcing people into groups & guilds etc - this is quite a hard balance to get right and so far Nevrax seem to have done pretty well on that score for me.

You're right about the graphics and the world of Atys - wow!! so I will also plan in some time to stop what I'm doing, enjoy the view, stroke the Kitin and 'smell the roses'. Hey, maybe I could make a living organising Safaris in the deserts, jungles, forests and lakes?

Just my 2 cents - hope it helps...

Thank you guys, but I'm still lost .

Philhous, you brought up Morrowind, which is incidentally my favourite SP game. But don't tell me that in MW you spent all your time wandering around just to kill everything in sight for the exp? In MW we had a main plot (agree, difficult to make one person change the world in an MMORPG), but you had plenty of houses and guilds to join that would give you stuff to do. You always knew where you stood, where to go to get new stuff to do, you had enough reference material in-game to learn everyting about the houses and guilds and choose what to do next. 99% of my time there was spent doing quests all over the map.

EQ was not quest driven, still there are now thousands of them, for every level. Like your race-class trainer taking you under his wing and making you do stuff 'till you get all your newbie equipment. In DAoC I had this class trainer that would give me a new quest every few levels for me to get some fancy piece of equipment. Not nearly enough of these, but they were still more immersive than constant janitorial tasks. And I'd rather not get into the issue of pellets, that may or may not make you want to grind for a bit more exp.

What I am seeing right now in SoR is a gorgeous Diablo 2 but with no phat lewt drops. Group missions don't work, if I take on a solo mission I must remain ungrouped or the kill won't be counted, and I can only solo kitins for so long. I need a meaning to what I do, just hunting around to increase counters is passé.

I am hearing that some actual content will soon be put in-game in the form of Guild Missions. So the trial period hasn't started yet, has it? . But seriously, how was it in beta, were these guild missions different from the solo ones? Or will we just gain the ability to group with guildmates to do the same "kill 2 kipees, it's very urgent" missions?

PS: Zebidie, would you let me finish those EQ2 quests for you?

Hi again Neo,

Morrowind has been a very mature game for a long time now - look at the number of mods out there that have been brought out to extend the content (in many cases very successfully) and yes, you were able to follow your journal as a roadmap that gave you clues and prompts as to how to make your way in the world or 'win'. I don't think SOR is about winning or 'completion', I think its about 'playing your part'.

I dunno if you ever played Daggerfall, MW's predessor, from Bethesda? Fantastic (and huge - much bigger than Morrowind) game for the time, that despite the many crashes & bugs again split players who tried it right down the middle - those who stood and said 'what the heck am I supposed to do' and those who said 'great - I can do anything I want'. So actually, yes, I spent a lot of time in Morrowind doing exactly what I wanted to do - e.g. swimming the river to get to the coast rather than taking the stilt strider or 'yomping' along the road etc. In the tradition of Daggerfall, I was delighted that Morrowind also allowed me to 'take the road less travelled' - I still play from time to time just to try different things and experiment. I suppose the bottom line to all this is while I appreciate clear goals, I don't want to be led too much... I need a certain degree of 'open-endedness' or freedom. I think (hope?!) Nevrax have a deliberate policy to keep an air of mystery and reveal stuff in a drip, drip, drip sort of way.

In contrast to Morowind, SOR is clearly immature. I accept that because, I dunno about you, but this is the earliest I've ever entered into a games life-cycle. The goals (especially the end-game) are less well-defined to the players (and maybe even the devs at this stage - this doesn't really worry me). What I've seen so far gives me enough confidence to trust them to keep me enjoying myself for some time yet. We need to find info from whatever source we can - its just there aren't too many great sources yet, excepting DoubleTap's excellent guide to harvesting, for example. I'm sure more great stuff like this will reveal itself soon enough. I've always had to search the web for fan sites etc regardless of whatever game I'm into. I don't expect this one to be any different.

As for guilds etc - the goals there seem quite clear and by no means trivial. I'd like my guild - if I was in one - to:

1/ In the early days stick to one race.
2/ Build enough strength to establish an outpost to 'make our mark on the world' & be able to defend it against challenges from other guilds & kitin invasion.
3/ Establish trade caravans/expeditions etc to the lands of other races - no trivial task either.
4/ Use 3/ to extend the guilds influence in the world by 'enrolling' players from other races and establishing other outposts in other lands.
5/ Prepare to play our part in the 'big picture' as that picture begins to reveal itself - I kinda like the air of mystery that surrounds this at the minute.
6/ Be careful with 'fame' i.e. faction when doing 1-5.

Meanwhile, the guild should of course do the guild missions which will, I would hope, provide the major clues to the 'big picture'. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out there will be some sort of 'technology' (Karavan) vs 'old world magic' (Kami) thing going down here. Your choice of race and strength of guild etc. will obviously influence your likely role.

I reckon that'll keep me going for at least the first month's trial period

Don't get me wrong - I loved EQ's phat lewt as much as the next man. I suppose that was the real driver for the game. The loot here is craft-oriented as you know - I think that's healthy. It'll be interesting to see how the economy develops with the player vendors etc.

As you know I'm a total newb here so please apply the customary large pinch of salt to all the above...

Whew - sorry for the ramble - just noticed your response as I logged on. I'm off to the jungle - these Zoraii are veeerryyy interesting...