- Explore and observe. Ryzom has diverse locales, five different ecosystems including the eerie underground Prime Roots, many details, spectacular environmental effects, and none of that bland terrain-generator land you find in some other games.
The animals behave realistically, with migrations, packing/herding, carnivores hunting herbivores, some animals defending each other depending on species, etc. Non-aggressive animals graze or sleep, and when a player is near they eye them from a safe distance, or come up to them and even follow them for a short time. The Yubo, which is like a rodent or a small dog, will beg at you or pee on your shoe.
There are seasons, weather, and a day/night cycle. All of these affect what crafting materials can be harvested where, as well as the locations of animals.
There are no stealth mechanics, so navigating Atys is a challenge which can be taken on solo for thrills, or in group. Sometimes trekking groups are quite large, spanning multiple teams and traveling between all four capital cities.
- Participate in events. A couple years ago, Ryzom had many live events which contributed to the ongoing storyline of Atys in various ways and on varying scale. Some were tiny events in which some mysterious NPC passed through, some were festive activities like fashion shows, some revealed fragments of Atys's past and present or hinted at things to come, and some were massive invasions such as
this and
this. There was once an election to replace the Tryker governor Still Wyler (NPC) who was assassinated in an earlier event. The outcome of that election differed between servers, as did the outcomes of some other events.
Instead of each player doing static quests wherein they save someone or retrieve something and get handsomely praised and rewarded while in fact their actions were utterly meaningless, players in Ryzom participated in events en masse and received+created unique, influential experiences.
We don't know if the new owner will resume events, but it can be hoped that they will.
- Experiment. With the stanza system, you can customise your attacks and other actions. With the deep harvesting and crafting systems, you can optimise your material gathering and discover better crafting recipes. In these three areas, as well as others (i.e. finding good trekking routes in each region for each season), experimentation is key, and it can be very fun.
What I've listed is not all you can do. I've merely described some things I've found particularly enjoyable, and welcome others to do the same or elaborate further on these.
