I'm a former Ryzom player and I have this perspective on the game.
Yes, it is definitely a good game. It kept me interested for a year and a half.
PvP: Ryzom has dueling, arenas, open-PvP areas, and faction-PvP. It also has outposts that guilds can battle over. Battle for spires is coming out soon. If you enjoy PvP (I personally don't), Ryzom has lots to offer.
Crafting: Can be a bit of a grind, but valuable in game. Good crafters are highly sought after. You typically have to harvest your own crafting materials. Different materials give you different colours and attributes; blending the materials just right can be a fun challenge. The economy is a bit broken, so selling through the NPC vendors is hit and miss. Crafting (other than level grinding) is mostly done for guild members, or on special request.
The graphics are great and the scenery is exquisite. Turn your graphics up as high as your CPU will allow. The animations are great; each plant and animal in Ryzom has unique behaviours, most of which are terrific.
Engine: I rarely had problems. A bit of lag in a couple of the major cities, but overall not a problem. The raid engine (used for monster invasions) was broken a while ago, but they may have fixed it.
If you develop your magic, you have various types of spells that you can use, some of which are better against various monsters (Kitins resist acid). You also have to keep an eye on your health bars (hp, stam and magic) and self-heal if you don't have a healer or he's not doing his job well. Other than that though, it is basically click and spam. Battles are fast and furious however, so they can be quite exciting, especially if you or your team is at the same level as the monster. Fighting monsters is not as easy as in many mmorpgs, and can be quite challenging.
Ryzom also has a small but great community, terrific support staff, and won mmorpg.com's story of the year in 2005. Because Nevrax is a small company, new content can be a bit slow in coming, but some interesting additions are planned for the near future (eg. spires and the Ryzom Ring).
Definately a good game, if you are an SWG refugee you will be in good company. Their are entire guilds, Team Spirit for instance *wink* *wink*, that are comprised of old SWG guilds.
A beautiful world with lots of ways to customize your character's playable class and skills. Everyone is very friendly and helpful - even those of the opposing faction.
My only complaints are:
1) no crafting of items that have nothing to do with combat. 2) small world. - don't get me wrong lots of different places to go and things to do, but I was spoiled by the SWG huge worlds. You can run/swim from one corner to the other in 3 hrs (2 if you don't stop for any reason).
Other than that there is a rich and beautiful crafting environment and a rich and beautiful world!
I just got this game downloaded and gonna do the 7 day trial. I to am an SWG refugee and I have tried so many games since the NGE killed the game. This game does however sound like it has a lot of the features I miss from the old SWG.
no musicians, and no dancer skills. However, there are some dance emotes if thats what you want. I would very much doubt any further stuff like musicians would be coming in the future, maybe more dance emotes tho you never know.
Comments
I'm a former Ryzom player and I have this perspective on the game.
Yes, it is definitely a good game. It kept me interested for a year and a half.
PvP: Ryzom has dueling, arenas, open-PvP areas, and faction-PvP. It also has outposts that guilds can battle over. Battle for spires is coming out soon. If you enjoy PvP (I personally don't), Ryzom has lots to offer.
Crafting: Can be a bit of a grind, but valuable in game. Good crafters are highly sought after. You typically have to harvest your own crafting materials. Different materials give you different colours and attributes; blending the materials just right can be a fun challenge. The economy is a bit broken, so selling through the NPC vendors is hit and miss. Crafting (other than level grinding) is mostly done for guild members, or on special request.
The graphics are great and the scenery is exquisite. Turn your graphics up as high as your CPU will allow. The animations are great; each plant and animal in Ryzom has unique behaviours, most of which are terrific.
Engine: I rarely had problems. A bit of lag in a couple of the major cities, but overall not a problem. The raid engine (used for monster invasions) was broken a while ago, but they may have fixed it.
If you develop your magic, you have various types of spells that you can use, some of which are better against various monsters (Kitins resist acid). You also have to keep an eye on your health bars (hp, stam and magic) and self-heal if you don't have a healer or he's not doing his job well.
Other than that though, it is basically click and spam. Battles are fast and furious however, so they can be quite exciting, especially if you or your team is at the same level as the monster. Fighting monsters is not as easy as in many mmorpgs, and can be quite challenging.
Ryzom also has a small but great community, terrific support staff, and won mmorpg.com's story of the year in 2005. Because Nevrax is a small company, new content can be a bit slow in coming, but some interesting additions are planned for the near future (eg. spires and the Ryzom Ring).
Definately a good game, if you are an SWG refugee you will be in good company. Their are entire guilds, Team Spirit for instance *wink* *wink*, that are comprised of old SWG guilds.
A beautiful world with lots of ways to customize your character's playable class and skills. Everyone is very friendly and helpful - even those of the opposing faction.
My only complaints are:
1) no crafting of items that have nothing to do with combat.
2) small world. - don't get me wrong lots of different places to go and things to do, but I was spoiled by the SWG huge worlds. You can run/swim from one corner to the other in 3 hrs (2 if you don't stop for any reason).
Other than that there is a rich and beautiful crafting environment and a rich and beautiful world!
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Kibs
Avatar by Ema
Playing: The Saga of Ryzom since march 2004