Ryzom

I would like to play an MMO that makes casual grouping easy, effective, and fun.

Is Ryzom such a game?

I want grouping that can be casual. I want to be able to join or form a group of stranger players that can engage content to advance their characters meaningfully. I don't want to spend an hour trying to get a group going or waiting LFG.

I don't want to have to wait until I am high level to enjoy grouping with players.

Does Ryzom favor group play for character leveling? Does Ryzom have the interface and the player base to make finding a group easy?

I am becoming aware there are no character classes in Ryzom to restrict sets of abilities from players; every player character has access to every ability. Does this cause player groups to be homogeneous? Does group play in Ryzom consist of six players all using the same abilities until the mobile is slain? Or are there mechanics distinct from player classes that force a group to divide the standard tanking, healing, support, damage, and control roles among the players?

I appreciate any information or advice a more experience player would be able to provide to me. I have downloaded the free trial and have been exploring the Island Silan as the Zoraïs Biot.

smithal wrote:I would like to play an MMO that makes casual grouping easy, effective, and fun.

Is Ryzom such a game?

I want grouping that can be casual. I want to be able to join or form a group of stranger players that can engage content to advance their characters meaningfully. I don't want to spend an hour trying to get a group going or waiting LFG.

I don't want to have to wait until I am high level to enjoy grouping with players.

Does Ryzom favor group play for character leveling? Does Ryzom have the interface and the player base to make finding a group easy?

About the only thing really that will make Grouping difficult is the time of day you play. Being that the player base is mostly in both Europe and North America, the peak times are dinner times for them.

As far as an "interface" to find groups, the best one right now is getting to know people. There is nothing like the 'Looking For Group' search that games like WoW and CoH have.

smithal wrote:I am becoming aware there are no character classes in Ryzom to restrict sets of abilities from players; every player character has access to every ability. Does this cause player groups to be homogeneous? Does group play in Ryzom consist of six players all using the same abilities until the mobile is slain?

In terms of availble Stanza's, (the building blocks for actions), yes all would be homogeneous. However, due to individual playing styles, and the multitude of variations on skill set up, no 2 players will ever really be exactly the same. And because of variations in Gear resulting from the fairly Uniqe Crafting system that SoR has, the gear can set some further diffrence, but ultimatly it comes down to the Player's actual skill at playing the game.

smithal wrote:Or are there mechanics distinct from player classes that force a group to divide the standard tanking, healing, support, damage, and control roles among the players?

Its rather difficult to answer this question I think, at least perhaps how it is worded. But if I am understanding the question correctly... Most of the time in combat, each player will be playing an individual role rather than multiple roles like in WoW, (eg such as the Pallys in WoW are both tanks and healers at same time in combat, where as here in SoR, you will be generally Just the Tank or Just the Healer, or what ever the case may be.) Now that is not to say that the tank in an emergency cant heal anyone, just that the way the game mechanics are set up... not usually advizable as they take major penatlies in their heavier armor for casting their spells.

The most common kind of Multiple role usage during combat you will see is things like the Elementalist also doubling as a cross healer to keep the healer full of Hit points and Sap during an extended combat.

You will find also that those that with to raise certain skills, especially Healing... Will have to Team to raise that skill.

I hope I answered your question here.

smithal wrote: I appreciate any information or advice a more experience player would be able to provide to me. I have downloaded the free trial and have been exploring the Island Silan as the Zoraïs Biot.

Welcome to the Giant RootBall Biot!

Hope to see you stay here with us

Dont be afraid to Use Universe chat to ask questions. It is what it is there for.

I am a new, low-level, player and I can always seem to find a group.

Soloing in Ryzom is much slower and more difficult than grouping. Grouping is the main levelling technique.
Grouping is much easier in Ryzom than some other games I have seen.
The open skill system means that someone can almost always cover any required role in a party.
Experience earned is reduced by the number of people in the party but your ability to kill harder mobs, and speed of XPing , more than compensates for this.

The basic hunting party will be melee tanking/pulling, magic nuking, and more magic healing. Magic can be used to pull, both magic users and melee have crowd control options. Debuff is covered by afflictions in Ryzom.

You can have parties of all melee, or all spell casters, but it is much harder without using a dedicated healer. Healers cannot cast their spells on themselves, so benefit greatly from another player 'topping them up', or just a second healer in the party.

A melee will benefit from better defensive armour and more hitpoints, provided by that armour, a magic user trying to use that same gear would be penalised (called Malus ingame) with higher spell costs, reduced range, and longer casting time.
Melee are hard and tough, Magics are soft and squishy -but all you need to do is change your clothes and weapon.....
So what defines the role you fill in a party, is the gear you have equipped.. change your gear, do a different job.
Damage comes in different types eg slashing, blunt, piercing, and all the different types of magic, with mobs resistant in varying degrees to them, so the weapons and spells useful against one may be completely ineffective against another. You need to be versatile

I have not discussed ranged combat here, firstly it isnt available on Silan, secondly its up for a major revamp ( at present it doesnt fit well with existing party dynamics), and thirdly I have not mastered it myself

iwojimmy wrote:
I have not discussed ranged combat here, firstly it isnt available on Silan, secondly its up for a major revamp ( at present it doesnt fit well with existing party dynamics), and thirdly I have not mastered it myself

Rifle and pistol are outstanding "pull" skills- assuming your prey isn't social.
Ranged can tank in a pinch if you don some heavy and go easy on your stanzas/credit consumption.

But that being said, ranged lends itself very well to soloing as well.