Ryzom

Heavy armor for melee. Light armor for magic.

And it doesn't really make a difference. You can be everything you want in this game at any time. Just takes some time to build up a character but there is no penalty.

Unregistered wrote: I'm confused by the prospecting skill I took in foraging. When I try to use it, I sometimes find something to forage, but other times, there is nothing there. Is the effectiveness of this skill just random, or are there particular places I should be using that skill, such as a change in the landscape feature or some other sort of clue?
Thanks in advance for any help!

There is an amount of materials in the ground that can be depleted, you must find another spot when that happens. By trying you can find your own harvest places..

You can get craft and magic with no penalties, but you will have to use fight or harvest skill points to buy the starter skills.

Some of the windows open with ctrl+key or shift+key. I don't know if this is your problem, but it's worth a try. If that doesn't work, right-click on the system bar and you can change it to menu mode. From there select the "more..." option and all available windows will be listed. Also, some functions don't have keys associated with them. You can use the "new key" button on the top right of the key window to explore which kinds of actions are available.

When prospecting you should get a message in your system window explaining what the problem is. If "no raw materials were found," you should go somewhere else. Later on deposit tracking stanzas will help you find the general area of mats (deposit tracking is anything but exact, it may say there's a deposit at less than 1 meter when it's actually 20 meters away). If some materials were "found nearby," that means you're close. Prospecting is a real pain at first, because you have a tiny range. When you get 10' range and 40 degree angle it should be easy to find things. I could never successfully prospect at all until I had 5' range and 20 degree angle. Those options are a must. "Found nearby" seems to mean within 20-40 meters.

If the source is depleted, that means you'll have to wait a bit for the materials to regenerate. If nothing of the correct type was found, that means your prospecting stanza is missing an option needed to find the source. By default you can only find basic materials, if you want to prospect choice and fine sources (and higher), you'll need to buy the appropriate options and add them to your prospect stanza.

Heavy armor is usually best for a fighter. The disadvantage of heavy armor is that your actions cost more than twice as much. The advantage is that you take roughly 1/2 damage from mobs. Since fights go quickly and mobs do a lot of damage, that protection is almost always worth the extra costs.

For a few tips on using the various keys and interface of Saga of Ryzom, may I suggest my own new thread :

http://www.ryzom.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7155

Quick Tips to Ryzom UI for Noobs.

It may help some. It even covers more than the UI by now. Hmm, it's a cancerous goo spreading across the world of Noobs, my guide. Can it be stopped? Can it be helped? You be the judge, I'll be the jury. Oops. Sorry got carried away there.