Whats in it for me?

shukes33

Hello there all! i have been looking into this game a lot recently and was wandering if anyone vets can give an overall description of the game to us who are looking into it. What type of games are similar. What style of gameplay can we expect and so on. Is there much char creation? can we explore?

It's more of a thread to draw players in really. So what can i expect and any clue on when i can try?

DonnieBrasco

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/188318

Only a couple of posts down....

DB

Arremus

Can you explore? Oh yes. The world is massive.

And a lot of the exploration will mean teamwork; which may sound divisive, but goes hand-in-hand with Ryzom.

It's all about community, working together and exploring together.



Character creation is (was) pretty limited, but there were several armour styles from different races, and the colour amour your crafted depended on the mats you dug up and used to craft it.

THEN there's the standard, fine and really nice versions of each armour (going from memory here, but the top quality stuff looked really swish).



The world itself is so, so, so vibrant.

The seasons change, it snows. The animals migrate.

The carnivores hunt the prey animals; you can literally sit back and watch the ecology hunt, eat, round others up, hunt in packs etc.

It might sound a small thing to some, but think of those MMOs where mobs just pace back and forward on a set path (WoW, EQ2 etc etc). All you do is watch and learn the path and then attack/pull etc.

In Ryzom, stuff is moving all over the place. You can be attacking something and a wild dog will come from nowhere and suddenly be savaging your healers etc.

It's a very, very dynamic world. By far the most dynamic I've ever witnessed.



Overall game style.. Well I didn't play in the last 6 months of the game or so due to health issues, so I'm not sure how much things changed, but when I was playing:



The majority of combat was melee and spells ('Mages' and Healers).

There was ranged in the game but it was expensive and not often used.

Someone will hopefully write a long post on how skill compositiion works, cos that's a thesis unto itself.

In short, you learn 'blocks' which you can stitch together to make skills.. I guess that's a good way to explain it?

Essentially you can add a bleeding element, a big damage etc to a melee hit, countered by 'stamina' or health or time; you have big control over how you make a skill and what it costs to use it.



Same for spell casting - which was my domain (healing) - which is very impressive.

You learn you basic heal, which you can then 'bomb' (hits multiple people) or splash or spray or bounce from one to the other.

This can be used for damage and healing.

As well as that, there's really fun crowd control. Fearing mobs in circles while your comrades bomb them to death etc.

And this is necessary, as the mobs are not easy, not like some pull-nuke-repeat MMOs.

It often takes a lot of skill to hunt.



One of the BIG things about Ryzom that is so damn awesome is how much the mobs freak you out!

Honestly!

Those big kitin (I think? The big ones in the Roots?) with their squeal noise. Just the noise gives you goosebumps, I kid you not.

You explore and hunt by noise as much as by sight, and it's simply awesome.



Keep in mind this is from someone who wasn't able to play in the later part of the game before, so there may have been things added or changed etc.

Politics and PVP were things I didn't get to experience much of, so others will have to comment on those.



I seriously recommend giving it a go though.

Ryzom is still by far the most 'completel' MMO for me that I've played to date, in that the world feels so alive and interactive.. which to me is what an MMO should be all about.



Oh man! I didn't even start on crafting! Digging and the like, I simply loooved this.

Someone else can continue on that rant haha.

Arremus

Wow yeah and go read the post DB link for a more 'nuts and bolts' look at Ryzom.

Brilliant!

rturja

Originally posted by Arremus


Can you explore? Oh yes. The world is massive.

And a lot of the exploration will mean teamwork; which may sound divisive, but goes hand-in-hand with Ryzom.

It's all about community, working together and exploring together.

 
Community is a big asset of Ryzom - gameworld is big but not huge.


Character creation is (was) pretty limited, but there were several armour styles from different races, and the colour amour your crafted depended on the mats you dug up and used to craft it.

THEN there's the standard, fine and really nice versions of each armour (going from memory here, but the top quality stuff looked really swish).

 
Only way to get good stuff on higher levels was getting a crafted weapon/armor/jewelry - no ingame mechanic handed over that usable gear.


The world itself is so, so, so vibrant.

The seasons change, it snows. The animals migrate.

The carnivores hunt the prey animals; you can literally sit back and watch the ecology hunt, eat, round others up, hunt in packs etc.

It might sound a small thing to some, but think of those MMOs where mobs just pace back and forward on a set path (WoW, EQ2 etc etc). All you do is watch and learn the path and then attack/pull etc.

In Ryzom, stuff is moving all over the place. You can be attacking something and a wild dog will come from nowhere and suddenly be savaging your healers etc.

It's a very, very dynamic world. By far the most dynamic I've ever witnessed.

 
Three modes, herbivore which is docile by default, carnivore which attacks by default and social which attacks if it sees a "friendly" nearby target attacked. What is missing though is some carnivores/herbivores being territorial and attacking only after giving a fair warning to get out of their range, bit like some mobs behave in LotRO. The seasons and time of day have impact on which mobs are in which areas and which material nodes are available. Weather also affects resource gathering.


Overall game style.. Well I didn't play in the last 6 months of the game or so due to health issues, so I'm not sure how much things changed, but when I was playing:



The majority of combat was melee and spells ('Mages' and Healers).

There was ranged in the game but it was expensive and not often used.

Someone will hopefully write a long post on how skill compositiion works, cos that's a thesis unto itself.

In short, you learn 'blocks' which you can stitch together to make skills.. I guess that's a good way to explain it?

Essentially you can add a bleeding element, a big damage etc to a melee hit, countered by 'stamina' or health or time; you have big control over how you make a skill and what it costs to use it.



Same for spell casting - which was my domain (healing) - which is very impressive.

You learn you basic heal, which you can then 'bomb' (hits multiple people) or splash or spray or bounce from one to the other.

This can be used for damage and healing.

As well as that, there's really fun crowd control. Fearing mobs in circles while your comrades bomb them to death etc.

And this is necessary, as the mobs are not easy, not like some pull-nuke-repeat MMOs.

It often takes a lot of skill to hunt.

 
Here I digress, hunting was just setting a camp somewhere and doing pull/kill, pull/kill routine over and over. Fun maybe for the first time, then on the next skill less... Only situations needing real skill were the surprises of a boss mob sneaking upon you.  In addition the progress on last few levels is pretty much limited to certain group sizes only hunting certain set of mobs.
The stanza - action system is neat but basically it seems to give more freedom that there practically is. In the end most characters just end up having pretty similarly setup skills due most of combinations not being that practical. Of course, having illusion of freedom can be in some cases very convincing


Keep in mind this is from someone who wasn't able to play in the later part of the game before, so there may have been things added or changed etc.

Politics and PVP were things I didn't get to experience much of, so others will have to comment on those.

 
A mostly carebear community was slapped with a very badly thought of (although it was in the lore!) factional warfare, added with similarly half baked outpost GvG mechanics (the GvG vas that in name only, the outposts are basically faction vs. faction playground). The game force you picking a faction, well in theory you can stay neutral. That means player not being able to buy teleporting tickets to high level regions making for example hunting the best mats a real pain for neutrals.


I seriously recommend giving it a go though.

Ryzom is still by far the most 'completel' MMO for me that I've played to date, in that the world feels so alive and interactive.. which to me is what an MMO should be all about.



Despite my negative points above, I agree - Ryzom is definitely worthwhile of testing.

 

Gilgameesh

I think one of the most important info to specify about Ryzom is that it is sandbox, classless and not quests-for-items driven.

So, it is different from most of MMOs around. Don't expect to be guided by hands by quests till your masters.... this is a virtual world more than simply a game, and you are free to do anything you want. There are no restrictions apart of the dangerous wildlife....

Crafting and Harvesting is the strong part.

Mobs don't drops items, everything is player made. So crafting skills matter.

Harvesting can kill you, expecially at low skills, there is no other game around with this kind of harvesting.

Once you get experience in it, you'll feel really satisfied. And all the materials are used for crafting, so harvesting skills really matter.

Hunting the worse, evil and nasty animals for the superior materials (that can be harvested too in the most dangerous regions underworld) is a hard team job, so hunting and healing matter.

Other than that, what other said: the living echosystem is unmatched even in the new mmos released.

Get a look and see for yourself.

The game still need some feature, but with the new ownership, we all hope they now will go to do them.

 

Gilgameesh

Originally posted by rturja


Just to point out some thing:
Three modes, herbivore which is docile by default, carnivore which attacks by default and social which attacks if it sees a "friendly" nearby target attacked. What is missing though is some carnivores/herbivores being territorial and attacking only after giving a fair warning to get out of their range.
Your description here is a bit superficial, because not all animals are social, some are low social, some other helps only same species, some other helps even different mobs.... It's not so schematic as u said. About the warning, that's true, but i can tell you that the sounds are your friends, and they matter as it should be. Hearing a howl on your left can save you from a gingo and so on.... i can't list all the times my ears saved me from some nasty mob, expecially in PR.


Here I digress, hunting was just setting a camp somewhere and doing pull/kill, pull/kill routine over and over. Fun maybe for the first time, then on the next skill less... Only situations needing real skill were the surprises of a boss mob sneaking upon you.  In addition the progress on last few levels is pretty much limited to certain group sizes only hunting certain set of mobs.
Yes, if you play well at the end it's just pull/kill. If you know how to pull well... Anyway, mobs are unpredictable, and i can't count all the times ie: shallas go crazy and the team need a very good job to survive. Anyway, sure for experienced players, danger can be managed well. I agree with you that last levels have few choices.
The stanza - action system is neat but basically it seems to give more freedom that there practically is. In the end most characters just end up having pretty similarly setup skills due most of combinations not being that practical. Of course, having illusion of freedom can be in some cases very convincing
I can partially agree. I have my handbars full of actions (that means 20x10 actions, each 'bar' dedicated to a specific situation. It's true there are some combination really not practical, but there a lot of choices. And I even decided to postpone some stanza for the future...

In general, you have not said anything totally wrong, tho maybe not much in deep. Anyway, the first thing to understand to play Ryzom is that you need a different approach if you want enjoy the game.
If you want a game to rush to the cap, then Ryzom will be just a grind.
Ryzom must be played in a sandbox style, because it's sandbox. Join the community, explore and learn the world, hunt for your needs and the needs of your guild, not for your levels.
This is just my suggestions.

Gilgameesh

Originally posted by shukes33


Hello there all! i have been looking into this game a lot recently and was wandering if anyone vets can give an overall description of the game to us who are looking into it. What type of games are similar. What style of gameplay can we expect and so on. Is there much char creation? can we explore?
It's more of a thread to draw players in really. So what can i expect and any clue on when i can try?

 

I described the game a bit in the previous post.

Considering the game was released in 2004, the character creation is not as the last mmos, but still good.

You can explore everything with no restrictions. Travelling in Atys is, tho, one of the most challenging and fun thing of the game (and very dangerous).

For more info, here is a wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Saga_of_Ryzom

 

shukes33

I love the sound of difficult exploration and dangerous. I remember the early days of EQ when everyone wanted to discover new area's and risked death and loss of everything just to find that new area!

Tuyet

Originally posted by shukes33


I love the sound of difficult exploration and dangerous. I remember the early days of EQ when everyone wanted to discover new area's and risked death and loss of everything just to find that new area!

 

Although EQ and Ryzom are different games with different mechanics, the feel of trekking from one place to another is much the same for me.

 I remember fondly trekking from Halas to Qeynos the first time and then the across continent trek to Freeport.

Ryzom's trekking can be much more interesting though and I still refine routes and find new creases between the herds that crack open occassionally. This in areas I have been thru 6 times or more.

It took me like 48 hours of gameplay to trek an alt to all the Kami TPs the first time I did that, and of course I had max DP very early on in the process.

randomt

Once the doors are re-opened, the tutorial island should give you a decent idea of what the game is like, what the environment is like, how the skills and harvesting/crafting works, etc.

Just note that all the quests on that free-to-play newbie island are just there to teach you how things work, and to give you some gear to start out with.. on the mainland there is no such questing/rewards, for the most part..

As for freedom of movement.. the one thing that annoyed me was not being able to go over that lower than knee high fence (for instance) A jump that takes all your stamina (so you cant spam jump which annoys people) would have been nice for such a situation

Gilgameesh

Originally posted by shukes33


I love the sound of difficult exploration and dangerous. I remember the early days of EQ when everyone wanted to discover new area's and risked death and loss of everything just to find that new area!

 

Well, one of the most important skill in Ryzom (even at master) is the sneaking. Something u cannot learn from a trainer, but just with your experience