Extremes of Ryzom: Favorite vs. hated

[mitijea]

I've been playing for a couple months now and have been drawing some pretty strong conclusions about the game, both good and bad (which is normal), that I finally feel I have enough experience to trust. One thing though I haven't done is ask for other opinions so I thought it might be a good idea to put up a query here on the forums.

Basically, it's simple:
I would like to know two things,
1) What is the one thing about this game that is your favorite (yes, just one - I know it can be hard to pick, but pretend your life depended on it :) Or some other extreme reason to force you to take a stand).
2) What is the one thing about this game that you hate (same as above, just one. Note: I know hate is a strong word, but no other antonym really exists for favorite that isn't too weak... least favorite, dislike the most... just doesn't put it exactly into words. I hope you all get what I mean.)

Please also, if possible, explain a bit why you chose your answer. Sometimes a three word blurb might seem self explanatory, but most of the time others will read into it all kinds of things you never meant. Usually it is better to be specifc then have others believe something that might be the exact opposite.

One other request - please do not argue with others about their picks. Remember I am only asking for opinions, so please respect the posters enough to allow them their own. If you don't like it start another thread (they are free).

The main reason I ask is to see if I have missed something important, or misjudged the mood of the community. By reading through the forums here I have seen certain trends rise and fall, but everything seems pretty timely. What I am after is more of an overall thing, not just the concerns of the moment. I'm hoping that maybe a few might arise that haven't been talked about because they might seem trivial when viewed against other more immediate concerns that others have, or just given to be part of the way things are. Also, sometimes the best things are taken for granted, and that should never be.


Now to start it off, I will put up mine:

Favorite: The community. I have not found another group online that can even come close to equaling the friendliness, care, helpfulness, and concern that I find here. I still am amazed that almost everyone ingame treats each other with respect and kindness (yes, you can probably tell I've played other mmog's....didn't prepare me at all for Ryzom - kind of scary at first, thought I was being conned into something until I realized those high levels in the newbie areas where actually genuine about helping out).

Hated: The lack of good quests. I am not a fighter by nature, only do so if compelled by reason. Leveling isn't a good enough one for me. Now if there is something to actually fight for I might be more interested. But until then... Specifically though, I hate that there are a lack of story driven quests that do not seem random (like the missions seem to me). I would love to see quests involving something besides fighting/killing that actually mean something besides a way to build up a fame number.

Well, those are mine, now it is your turn.

Disclaimer: For those of you who feel any need to point out that this has been done too many times in the past, please note I do understand... but it's not like there are an abundant of topics flooding the forums and really, I would like to know how people feel now, not then. Things have changed, both in game and in mind. Okay? Thanks for understanding. :)

[lupine04]

I've been playing for a couple months now and have been drawing some pretty strong conclusions about the game, both good and bad (which is normal), that I finally feel I have enough experience to trust. One thing though I haven't done is ask for other opinions so I thought it might be a good idea to put up a query here on the forums.

Basically, it's simple:
I would like to know two things,
1) What is the one thing about this game that is your favorite (yes, just one - I know it can be hard to pick, but pretend your life depended on it :) Or some other extreme reason to force you to take a stand).
2) What is the one thing about this game that you hate (same as above, just one. Note: I know hate is a strong word, but no other antonym really exists for favorite that isn't too weak... least favorite, dislike the most... just doesn't put it exactly into words. I hope you all get what I mean.)


This should be very easy for me...

1. Loved: The graphics, the world, the unique flora and fauna. The lore - or at least what can be read on this website. The people who play this game are, from my experience, among the most mature and level-headed of any MMORPG I've played, with few exceptions.

2. Hated: The lack of quests. The lack of variety of quests that are available. And especially, the absurd difficulty of those damn Ragus and Gingos.

Nevrax, for the love of all that's reasonable - please turn down the difficulty of those damn things outside Yrkannis, will you? I just had one knock me from 1200HP down to 0 in almost nothing flat, actually closer to 1600 because I used a self-heal in there, too - and I'm at 40 offensive magic. Why? Because of the following pattern which, yes, did happen to me yet again just now..

I see a Ragus off in the distance and it's still more than far enough away for me to get at least two hits off on it before it reaches me.

I hit it with the spell once - resisted.
Cast again - resisted.
Now it's on top of me..
I try casting.. interrupted.
I cast again.. interrupted.
I cast again.. resisted.
continue that for a few more rounds..
I manage to land *one* cast before finally I decide to hit self-heal and run... it continues to hit me and finally kills me while I'm running.
I landed one successful cast in that, and I'm using Poison 4 on the thing.
Meanwhile it's hitting me 100% of the time knocking off over 100HP with each hit. That is, to be completely blunt - utterly and stupidly horrible difficulty balance.

Defend it all you want. Explain it away all you want. Tell me I don't know what I'm doing all you want. There is *no way* a creature that close to a starting city should be that powerful. About 1600HP gone in a matter of moments and I was lucky to knock it down by 1/3 of its health... even with a 2 cast head-start. I'll say it once again - the Gingos and the Ragus are absurdly over-powered for where they are located. They were only *minutely* fixed after the infamous Chapter 1 patch. I'm 20 levels over the recommended level to leave the starter island, 10 levels from moving on to my next magic specialization -and I'm still being *annihilated* by creatures no more than a couple hundred meters from a starting city. You should either tone them down further or move them farther away from the city and place something more reasonably difficult in their place.

They're talking about expanding on the world of Atys and even to the point of adding additional planets, and they can't even get it right with a single zone of creatures outside a starting city.

Difficulty is supposed to steadily increase as you move farther away from a starting city. Not go from a steady increase to a 90-degree wall. I should not go from overk-killing Bodocs or Caprynis with one hit to being destroyed by a ragus only 10 meters away. It's completely irrational to think that was a wise design decision. It's a residue from Chapter 1 that Nevrax never bothered to fully correct.

If anyone wants to argue that I'm wrong, please, here is an official challenge: Find me *one* other successful game, MMORPG or otherwise, followed a similar design pattern - placing creatures that are capable of wiping the floor with players who are 20 levels above the recommended level for people to enter the area they're in (as is the case for entering Yrkannis from the starting isle). And remember.. *successful* game. A game that has gotten good ratings and continues to maintain a large playerbase of loyal players. You won't find one. Why? Because every successful design company out there understands the fundamental concept that a new player should not be presented with creatures that are that difficult to kill that early on, much less someone 20 levels higher than that.

Challenge is supposed to increase steadily and predictably; *especially* at lower levels when people are still learning the game. But again... prove me wrong. Name me one successful game that receives consistent praise that has followed the same pattern as Ryzom in this case and I will humbly concede to being wrong and apologize. Again, you won't find one.

[micrix]

Only one like and one dislike ? Thats impossible. Both are always one side of the same medal. So i post my two highest ranking medals ;)


1) I like the coherence (graphics, design, skills, gameplay). But this is ending at about lvl100. After lvl100 there is a lack of any common sense.

2) I have met the nicest players ever in this game. On the other hand there is absolutely nothing to support a playerbased and selfregulating society.

[akm72]

LIKE; The community, 'nuf said by the previous posters.
DISLIKE: The rate of fire of the nukers. I don't mind the power per shot that they achieve. As a melee'er fighting face to face with some ugly monster that just refuses to die, seeing them knock a chunk off it can be very welcome! But when they can churn out that sort of damage so quickly, they kill too fast for PvE to be a challenge, and PvP becomes a nuker/healer-only event, with melee almost an irrelevance.

That's what I think, anyway!

[micrix]

Nevrax, for the love of all that's reasonable - please turn down the difficulty of those damn things outside Yrkannis, will you? I just had one knock me from 1200HP down to 0 in almost nothing flat, actually closer to 1600 because I used a self-heal in there, too - and I'm at 40 offensive magic.

Not interfering with your two points, but a suggestion about your Gingo/Ragus Problem.
The magic word for your problem is: RUN

1200HP with lvl40 magic is a lot. But lvl40 with one of those is to low. So only two choices. Run or team.

I went on saturday all the way from Yrkanis to towerbridge. I was too lazy to fight them ;) and decided just to run. With 2800 HP i had up to 6 of them on my butt, but i made it with 800 HP up to towerbridge.

[sofiaoak]

1) I like the friendly player community in Ryzom and the games general atmosphere. Graphics is nice and game is pretty stable. World is unique with many strange creatures. Economy seem to work also fine at the moment.

2) I dislike the leveling systems in general, because levels limits players ability be together. Most of the time, You character has to be in certain level range to be with others, when they do someting. If You belong to guild, there is never enouqh players online with same level range in same guild.

[myseren]

1) its gotta be the community, although the mob behaviour and overall prettiness comes a close second

2) *eating a lot of words said over a long period of time* the boredom factor at higher levels. I know we can make our own content, and that is wonderful, but it would be nice sometimes to just log on and do a quest which doesnt punish you for trying it (youve just spend 30 mins doing this part, the rest of this encyclopedia entry doesnt exist :P) and unfortunately, although there seems to have been loads of cool events strting up recently, ive always been on at the wrong times (yep, my fault entirely but i dont have to like it).

[vinnyq]

Like: The story.

Dislike: the slowness of updates.

[b00ster1]

1.
a) Arispotles 'atmosphere' at game start (mature and friendly).
b) World.. Graphic, AI

2.
a) Players attitudes change last months
b) After some point - no meaning dig/craft/grind (with or without XP)
c) Nevrax's implementation of some features and allowing exploits instead of fix problem (storing at merchs, 1 person guild - instead of increasing bulk, stackable tickets but with bulk, etc)
d) Unfinished work on skills/weaps (eg. No difference between sword and axe, nothing new after lvl 150 (and nothing at all after 250) in armour/weaps craft, )

[trenker]

LIKE
The open-ended approach to class, activities and exploration.

DISLIKE
The speed at which the open-ended becomes dead-ended due to missing features, lack of skill/quest variety and bugs.

[iphdrunk]

Likes

* Most of the game, otherwise I wouldn't be playing :D
* Did anyone else mention "the community"?




Dislikes

* Having to admit that I am an addict, and realizing I've changed a few aspects of my real life around playing ryzom. Knowing that I play way too much.

* The high level blues: I tend to think the game ends at 150, you become a more powerful copy of yourself, game gets into 'scaling mode': it should be trivial to extend the max lvl 250 to 500.. just find suitable names 'great, very great, extremely great, extremely very great', skills are 'accurate attack/acid 31' optimized for mobs of level l.

* The fact that there is little incentive (other than the fun :) ) to work on several trees other than keep you grinding, e.g. working from 151 sword to 201 sword if you are already 201 pike.

* The fact that the "hybrid team" with players of all levels mixed in and having fun is hard to balance.. either you cap or you miss a lot, that's the holy grail I guess. In this line, the hard time to level towards your 250 in big and fun groups unless chaining nameds -- being fixed --

* The messed up rite system (not the rites, their implementation) I was expecting this for xmas, snafued rite release, spagetthi rite code, having to check on a list / web page if the rite can be completed or not, and finally, reading that the rite system is stalled (as per Xavier post), what makes me think that the core system is sooo messed up that needs a complete rewrite from scratch.

* The lore decoupled from the game, and the inconsistencies.

[kashius]

Hello all.

Like:
The environments are some of the best I've seen. (Except the fact that water is just a plane with no depth)

Dislike:
Melee on a whole is unfinished and fairly bland. Weapons don't have any differentiation.

Won't go into a thing about melee AGAIN, so I'll leave it at that.

-Kash-

[rushin]

likes very very much the world - all the parts of it; graphics, mobs, style and of course community. The thing that got me hooked was sitting on a hill on the starter island for an age watching ragus hunt.

dislikes the lack of balance in skills and 'optimal' characters which its very difficult not to gravitate to at higher levels. After nearly a year at retail combat should be balanced and rewarding whatever skill u want to use. nuff said ;)

[larwood]

Like:

Wide variety of... everthing. Although as some have said past 150 in any level you are just repeating yourself, I like how there are so many things i can do and the intricate nature of these things... and crafting... well, findind different cominations, and recipies for amps, armor, weps.... i think its very insightful.

I recently was at a friends home, who was playing Lineage 2... He had a mage character, a healer, a melee... etc etc... seperate toons for different skills. How annoying!

Dislike:

Unfinished buisness... broken TP's, Rites, Outposts, etc...

[vguerin]

Like: What the game was supposed to be...

Dislike: What we are still missing after all this time...

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[pure2000]

LIKE : comunity

DISLIKE : the game NO FREKIN UPDATES.. same stuff over and over again

[tylarth]

likes: the concept, the difference from conventional fantasy/SF mmorpg. Both in story background and character development.

dislikes: The reality of gameplay and its relation to the story. There is a rich story that rarely is shown in gameplay conditions, thus history, rites, politics, racial and faction prejudices have just the basics of content/story. The plotline for war for example really seems to be just another event, as kami/karavan fame is of little consequence. tp ticket prices don't even change.

[madnak]

I like the creativity and community. I hate the lack of content.

[akicks]

Here's one that gonna make your head twist aroud it's socket:

I LOVE Foraging.

I HATE Foraging.

Work it out :)

[sprite]

Here's one that gonna make your head twist aroud it's socket:

I LOVE Foraging.

I HATE Foraging.

Work it out :)
You love doing it, but you have *having* to do it? *shrug*
You love doing it in a team, but hate doing it solo?
You lo... meh, sleep time :rolleyes:

[rrwfreak]

MY FAV: The community and gaming world.

MY DISLIKE: No freaking kitin raids.

Ryzom's got the best dang mmorpg community I've ever been apart of and the prettiest and kewlest gaming world to boot. I would like to see some major kitin raids more often. I mean we bug the hell out of the kitin and hardly ever get a raise out of 'em. The last raid I was a part of was in January and even I was a low level noob, it was loads of fun.