Wondering about opnions

[tr808]

Hi all,

I was wondering how u all felt about the patch that made every capital open for any race coming from the starter island, it has been in effect some time now and some of u must have some feelings about it.

My opinion, based from playing on Cho, this must be different on Aris where there are more people then on Cho, is that thou it has his goodsides, i also see some bad ones. It used to be i would see at least 4 or 5 new people in Yrkanis every week. After this patch i hardly see any, they all get adviced to go to Pyr thru uni channel. No offence to that, i can see why u advice it, but on the other side i think this makes a lot of new Homins without knowing their roots ;) Choosing sides with the Kami guilds since they are mostly the ones in Pyr and making the imbalance that is happening on Cho only bigger. I believe for every Karavan folower there are 4 Kami's standing on the other side atm, nothing wrong with choosing Kami, but it seems thru this patch ur race gender doesnt matter anymore. And thats where it is going wrong imho.

Please dear Kami friends on Cho dont take this as a flame, it is just something i noticed over the past 2 weeks ;)

Am i the only one thinking thru this patch they nerved races down to something visual and nothing more? I really wonder.

Regards Mok.

[d29565]

I was against this patch when it was suggested. I've been on Aris a lot lately, but your concerns were my main concern when I first heard of the patch. A little warning from the powers that be is not gonna stop homins from going where they think most players are.

I can especially understand how this would effect the factional imbalance on Cho, and I do not see this as looking good for the Karavan faction unless the Karavaneers on Cho begin to "camp" Pyr streets.

[setstyle]

it seems thru this patch ur race gender doesnt matter anymore.

This is exactly how I felt when they put the idea up for discussion and still sums up how I feel about it. If one starts in his own homeland there's a much better connection to his history, and though some players may not give a crap about such a thing, remember that story is a hugely integral part to this game. It really isn't that hard to get a trek to another continent if you've friends there, but I guess Ryzom is supposed to be even easier now anyway, at any cost.

[hazira]

I am still on Silan, not really in a hurry to leave either, but when I do I had my sights on Zora and not Pyr. I've been to Pyr a year ago very briefly and I'm not that big of a fan. I really wish people in Uni chat did not recommend every newbie to go to Pyr it will create such a big imbalance. Unfortunately I've noticed some of my new comrades seem to like to have everything handed to them..

Due to good advice on the forums I am going to start in Yrkanis however and see where things take me from there, but my first idea is to get my early training done there, do some missions in town, earn money for an appartment and then trek to Zora when I am ready. This make take some time :p

So at least for a time there'll be me in Yrkanis! And hopefully a few other young Matis, hey guys, yes? :D
Please let's try to think for ourselves and carve a world of our own on Cho, not simply try to follow breadcrumbs, I highly doubt that will bring any satisfaction and joy of playing Ryzom.

[acridiel]

Thing is again, as with so many other issues, Nobody is forcing the newbes to teleport to a certain location outside their homeland.
Ok, some guilds may "seduce" them to, but thei choose on their own free violition to `port to another land.
Be it for friends, be it for easyness, whatever.
Not GF is to blame IMHO, its those that choose the easy way and those Guilds that are to "Member-greedy" to realy care about their Members background.
And before you now say: But GF made this possible with this Patch.
Remember before... some guilds would always camp at Teleporters and catch newbes.
Some would always send Twinks to Silan to recruit.
Nothings realy changed.
Itīs only that sadly many newbes donīt seem to care about Background anymore and let themselves be sucked into the next best Guild to be with those who say they are the best.


Second and most important:
Universe Channel is to HELP with Questions! It says so in the BIG Window we all aknowleged when we first used Uni. It should NOT be tollerated to recruit there, nor should it be tolerated to "advice" people to a certain location.
Strangely almost none of these things happen on Leanon. And IF ,GMs step down upon it.


Just my two dappers

CU
Acridiel

[hazira]

Itīs only that sadly many newbes donīt seem to care about Background anymore and let themselves be sucked into the next best Guild to be with those who say they are the best.


CU
Acridiel

Yup there you have it, if most new people are going Kami just because they are going to Pyr to train and find the most guild options, are they thinking why they want to be Kami? Or is the why no longer relevant? Though Cho is still really young and faction division isn't exactly to the par of other servers.. Or at least that's my limited impression of it.

Who knows maybe in a few months there will be an influx of Karaveeners.

[putterix]

Its up to all homins to choose how and where they wanna be, isnt that
intergration of races. If i could choose 2 years ago where to start, i still
choose Pyr even if im a tryker at heart.

Fyros lands really have the cool huntspots, easy to solo up to lvl 200 ;)
without travelling too much.

So, imo this patch was perfect done, now new players can play together
as any race :)

[danolt]

I am not opposed to the option of choosing a starting city. Silian was when the powers to be made the choice to make the differences in the races graphical. Perhaps GF will try and give the players the tools to create national cultures, something I felt Jolt never actually tried to do.

I think the vast majority of the national events we have had have pushed the community to be as homogenous as possible. There are and have never been any national leaders. Every top executive of the four races has had basically the same exact platform.

Silan, coupled with the new ability to pick a starting city, is snuffing out what little nationalistic identity that is left. The framework to revive nationalism is certainly there, I just hope it gets used someday.

[jamela]

...they all get adviced to go to Pyr thru uni channel. ...
That's cause for concern, if true. The patch was simply intended to allow a group of friends to stick together, which is a great idea for a group of newcomers. Noone should be advising over Uni channel simply that Pyr is the best place to go to, they ought to realise that such advice damages the future of Ryzom worse than the possible loss of players getting separated from their Silan friends.

[ark014]

I have Ryzom chars in all 4 Homin homelands.

I think the Matis land is the most challenging, most interesting, and most aesthetically appealing of the Homin homelands.

Perhaps a "Saga of Ryzom" char could receive a bonus or advantage of some type if he or she is operating in the homeland of the char's race (+10% bonus for all racial Fame gains, and +10% XP bonus for all skills of level 100 or less?).

Thanks,
Amphiaraus

[setstyle]

Perhaps a "Saga of Ryzom" char could receive a bonus or advantage of some type if he or she is operating in the homeland of the char's race

There's already something of a benefit regarding fame; if you play a Matis character and start out in Pyr, you're going to see a noticeable disadvantage as opposed to starting in Yrkanis. More and more refugees, however, see fame as nothing more than another thing to grind and, as Acridiel pointed out, a strong (and nowadays catalyzer-possessing) guild as more important than one's player background and beliefs. As others have expressed, I truly wish GameForge would bring meaning to the nations. Perhaps someday a homin declared as a Matis citizen could directly take part in governmental affairs, pay taxes for a standing army, and so on, and Matis-born citizens could hold higher offices and make game-changing decisions on behalf of their civilization? Ah we can dream...

My largest fear regarding the Saga of Ryzom is its degradation into a game based solely on levels, not story. Sadly, the distinction between civilizations are taking such a turn for the worst, a fate beginning with the opening of Silan and now accentuated by the dissolution of both RP events and one-race-to-one-capital teleportation.

[hazira]

Aren't RP events coming back though?

[jamela]

... Perhaps someday a homin declared as a Matis citizen could directly take part in governmental affairs, pay taxes for a standing army, and so on, and Matis-born citizens could hold higher offices and make game-changing decisions on behalf of their civilization? Ah we can dream...

My largest fear regarding the Saga of Ryzom is its degradation into a game based solely on levels, not story. ...
The former is something I dreamed of long ago, when I read the Matis lore (http://www.ryzom.com/game-lore/races/matis) - "Only the best can reach the higher spheres of our society" - though I remember well that it read a little differently then. The latter is something which many long-time players seem to have changed their mind about, which must bear fruit eventually, surely!

[acridiel]

Aren't RP events coming back though?

Iīd say yes. As soon or as late, as there are enough volunteer CSRs that will act them out. It all depends on the Community and their willingness to volunteer, just like before. And I still donīt get why so many of the Arispotle Volunteers "left" after Jolt was released of their contract.
The workīs the same, the gameīs the same only the company name changed.
Them leaving actually left a big hole in the support and not the Jolt thing.
Jolt was in the Background, the volunteers were those that did the Events.


Acridiel

[katriell]

Perhaps someday a homin declared as a Matis citizen could directly take part in governmental affairs, pay taxes for a standing army, and so on, and Matis-born citizens could hold higher offices and make game-changing decisions on behalf of their civilization? Ah we can dream...
Problem with that is that unless good checks were in place it'd be possible to end up with officials who are...how do I phrase it...semi-literate idiots who have no idea what they're doing?

IMO, if such a possibility were to exist, it should be a requirement that all player-officials be capable roleplayers.

[slay13]

I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, when myself and Beefy fist arrived on Atys, we about gave up after being stuck in the jungle for a week and could count the actual number of players we met on one hand during that time. The games just simply no fun without anyone to share it with and I DO think that at least on cho...this was a needed "evil" as we were losing players to this problem.

Of course you can always be "trekked" or what not, and Beefy has always loved this, but honestly it can just take a day or two of uneventful gameplay to lose somebody's subscription, and if this helps us keep even a few new players ingame, then i'm for it.

People can't shout in universe that they need help finding groups, or needing to be trekked, how are they to get assistance in a region chat thats constantly vacant if they choose a city thats not very populated such as zora? Nobody's forcing anybody to go anywhere, as I see it, if someone cares to go to a more populated town, then they have that option now, otherwise, they can just ignore it and go where their race generally starts. I would advise just starting in your races own start city, and then getting trekked later on...but to each their own.

It used to be i would see at least 4 or 5 new people in Yrkanis every week. After this patch i hardly see any, they all get adviced to go to Pyr thru uni channel...

This is IMO an imbalance in gameplay and the zones in general. Dyron/Thesos is simply the best place to dig in the game for anyone < lvl 200..period. I'd be more than alright for them moving some of the easy dig spots right in town further out..or making more of the city digs in the other regions more comparable to Dyron, but until this is done, people will continue to flock to these towns as long as there is an imbalance in gameplay here.

I LOVE the jungle areas, they are easy on the eyes...have great xp camps...and have aggro that doesnt make you want to claw your eyes out...but they're more vacant than Yrkanis is on any given day of the week IMO friend. If you think your being neglected as a matis in the forest, then re-roll a zoraii in the jungle and see how many people are sitting around in Zora at any given time....its not just Yrk., Zora is far worse off IMO.


Choosing sides with the Kami guilds since they are mostly the ones in Pyr and making the imbalance that is happening on Cho only bigger...


This is just silly. Mok...I love you man, but you seriously need to get out of the forest more my friend and check out the rest of the server. If you think that Pyr is just swimming in Kamis, thats simply not the case. NO place is swimming in players anywhere period...regardless of faction/race ect. There isn't any guild currently that has more than 20-30 actives altogether right now, its not a faction problem, its just a population problem.

My guild (EoA) is firmly neutral, always has been, and always will be. We are "kami" alligned in the fact that we use kami TP's, and thats it. Our guild are a bunch of crazy digging/crafting fanatics....and if there were neutral TP's or a 3rd option for digging in PR, then we would have taken it.

We have no alliances...we help those we want to help on a individual player or guild bases. The only PvP we've ever had thus far is with a kami guild, and have helped many karavaneers (yourself included) in winning OP's, as well as trading and trekking. Its the way we love to play, and we'll continue to do so as long as myself, Beefy, Fasi, Wezzy,or any other of the HO's/Officers are around.

The only other semi populated guild on our server other than your own, is DoK. I'm not speaking for them nor do I really know about their FvF allignment all that much, but their pretty much to my knowledge the only mid/large sized kami guild on our server. So we're really not talking about a whole lot of people here. It's not like (from what i hear or can tell) theres this HUGE gap of hundreds of players choosing one side and not the other...we're really talking about 10-30 players as a difference of population between the kami/karavan in any major guilds on our server. If thats too much of a number to be get to sign up for either side...kami or karavan...then saddly it doesnt bode well for our server, or Ryzom in general.

[rushin]

Dyron/Thesos is simply the best place to dig in the game for anyone < lvl 200..period. I
*coughs* Kipee Mull :) we used to queue at the stables with all of AoA littering the area :D

[tr808]

Beefy, in a response, yes i come out of the forrest, actually i think i spend more time in that jungle of yours then u do yourself. But thats not the point, i think with this patched there is no point for me in being Matis and for u to be ZoraÏ, it is only the colour of ur skin thats different, nothing else.

I agree on the part that there is a major flaw in the game balance with regions, but simply saying: Pyr, with no clarification about your fame and other stuff to go with it, why should u even ask further about ur raical backround? The problem for Cho is the people screaming on universe chat that the server is nonpopulated, first thing i would do is turn around and go Arispotle.... as that is the answer when people ask where should go? Pyr or Aripostle :) I forgot about that one....

Now for the other thing u commented about, it was merely a example ) and i think a scenario u also dont wishes for this server..... maybe Siobhan is right and i should go camp Pyr... only problem is, i dont like the way the dessert is designed..... and pyr is one big lagfest... i.e. u wont see me there to often ;) i wasnt talking about hundreds of people, but i think the ones coming over are getting misinformed in some way... and again i used the Kami thing as a example that wasnt really overthought to welll, but it brought over the point on wich i didnt see u comment, the reason i started the post and what was my final question.

Do u think that with this patch race is getting nerved down to nothing more then a nice visual feature?

[ashling]

I like the change. I started Ryzom with friends and one of them did remake his Tryker as a Fyros so he'd be with the rest of us when we moved to the mainland. For other new players that don't do that being split from friends might make it so the first steps onto the mainland isn't as fun as it would have been for them if they were exploring and learning the game together.

Apart from that I don't think starting in your races area encourages learning more lore about your race much, a player that is intrested in that will learn it either way. Also I like that there isn't any differance in game stats between the races and it's just the cosmetic looks, culture and lore that is different. Certain races making better warriors or better magic users gives me bad flashbacks to other MMOs.

Having said all that I always recommend that any player intrested in crafting start in their own races starting area. If they aren't intrested in crafting I used to say what I think the advantages and disadvantages of each area are and leave them to make up their own mind without telling them where I'd begin using that information.... but I must admit I hadn't thought of everyone picking one area or heard the 'Pyr or Ari' advise as I turned universe off a few months ago so I might stick to just the start in your races area for crafting advice from now on.

I also hadn't thought about the faction implications ... I can understand why someone might join up with the guilds more active in the areas they are in when they start when they don't have a strong prefereance on factions but if your talking about it from a PvPer balance view then the players that want to be karavan and seek a karavan guild out might be more dedicated to PvPer and a more dedicated member of your guild, quality over quantity? Also the Kami aren't one big united front againts you and other Karavan followers Mok, I'm as happy helping a random Karavan follower with something as a random Kami follower :)

[tr808]

Well tbh most of my time in game i spend lvling with a certain Kami :o but from the PvP point of view there is imbalance.... u can say EoA is neutral but when they tag up they are Kami ;)

Again i want to stress out i didnt ment to flame anyone with my first, second or tirth post.

[ashling]

Well tbh most of my time in game i spend lvling with a certain Kami :o but from the PvP point of view there is imbalance.... u can say EoA is neutral but when they tag up they are Kami ;)

Again i want to stress out i didnt ment to flame anyone with my first, second or tirth post.

Yes and I can't speak for EoA but I know DivA wouldn't automaticaly side with another Kami guild in PvPer just because they are Kami, not that the prospect of us doing that is likely to have anyone losing any sleep :p

[d29565]

In regards to the regions and being able to pick where you wanted to go:

The most fun I had on Cho was before there were any high levels and I had to sneak to get to Yrkanis (which is where Siobhan has made her home) from Pyr.

[hazira]

Is there even that much PvP happening on Cho?
From what I've gathered about people leaving Silan, and I've seen a few :p People are either going to Pyr or Yrkanis, with Faihaven in third and of course poor old Zora in last. Isn't that the trend on Ari too?

I think the major difference I see is that now people who absolutely want to start in a certain area regardless of race can now do so whithout the newbie treks. Which might be a little sad, especially if there are people that really enjoy doing this for newbies.... I know I would be, my favorite part in FFXI was escorting new people to Jeuno, that's part of the fun really when there are places you simply can't get to unless you are very used to sneaking or have a guide.

For balance it's really hard to say because we have such a low population, but the more newbies we get to stick around I'm sure eventually it will all fall into place.

[tr808]

With more people getting higher lvls pvp is bound to get more action soon imho... but that isnt the discusion :p

[tengheau]

Howdy Folks,

Thanks for the question Mok, it gave me the chance to think about something related which was bugging me. I think the issue is a lot bigger than the single crap-shoot choice you get when leaving the island, I think the choices made by the developers regarding travel and storage are poor choices. I want to spend more time in the rest of the world but the mechanics of the game are hostile to that game experience. The whole system seems designed to inhibit players into acting in ways which are contrary to their social instinct, it feels like social engineering on the part of the devs. The interaction of these two limits is the only aspect of the game which sours my experience playing.

When I go looking for games my search always includes the word "pretty". I want scenery and weather all sorts of other eye candy. Ruins of Sylan were pretty, but as a Tryker I went to the Lakelands. Then, in joining EoA I am now centered in Dyron. So, as you can imagine, I have seen lots of sand. Sand and often-or-sometimes water. To be fair there was big change in sand color when moving to the desert, but though you would expect me to be a connoisseur at this point, it doesn't really grab me.
Occasionally I travel to the Matis lands or the "jungle" (which starts out working hard at being jungley but pretty much gives up on it's way to the Void. There are real seasons in the Matis lands which are beautiful, and it looks like the snow accumulates a bit in the winter which I love. It also snows in the Jungle, and also accumulates a bit, both of which make no sense whatsoever. Lakelands has snow but tragically the lakes don't freeze, still I guess it's nice to know it's supposed to be winter.

The point here is that regarding game-experience I want a world pretty much exactly like the Matis lands. Before this patch I had no choice, at least until I got trekked. And for many reasons, social and economic, I end up spending my game time looking at one of two colors of sand. Yay sand.

Before I say anymore let put in here that I love trekking, that for me it is the most challenging and rewarding part of the game (along with responding to requests for rezzes) and that at the same time it's game-ruiningly unpleasant to be a young player totally dependent on the sizable time and effort commitment of the highest level players to get you to someplace other than your starting lands.

The starter cities are only populated with higher level players because that's where the apartment and guildhall entrances are, everything else about them is designed to push players out into to the outer cities, meaning time or expense to go back to the larger storage spaces. The three packer limit means you set up in one place and there is a great deal of pain in moving.

So here are a few ideas:

All those spare teleports in guildhalls should be put to use by allowing guilds to buy a guildhall in each starter city and allow you to transport between them. A quadrupling of guild storage space wouldn't be terrible either, four times the number of item IDs can't be a huge database hit.

You should be able to buy apartments in multiple cities in the same zone and transport between them for free with the same storage shared between them. You should be able to have apartments in multiple zones, but only transport between apartments in the same zone.

The three packer limit is fine but I want the totally unrealistic option to access packers from more than one place, even to take them out of the stables in more than one place, besides some realism pretense, why not allow them to be useful?

A once-per-real-week tp should be allowed between starter cities for a sizable cost. There would still be a reason to trek, the respawns and teleports, but no one would get stranded for a nearly game-quitting amount of time in a scenery and a hunting ground they have grown to despise, as happened to me in my starting Lakelands.

I am sure there are a lot of better ideas about all this, but those are mine.

Calevin

Edit: As I read back over this and read other people's posts I realize that race and faction relations do not begin to enter into my view of the game I am playing. I am working to get more powerful in a hostile, naturalistic world, and that's it. A part of this has to be that I began just after Halloween last year. I am Kami aligned because 1) I want the tps, and 2) the Karavan are all Matrix-ooh-scary looking while the Kami are on the whole adorable and clap their hands when I walk up to them. What's to choose?
At any rate I am sure that there were all sorts of back-story reasons to have other opinions, but none for me since I have been playing. Looking at it from this side of things it seems like someone sometime was desperately trying to create a backdrop wherein Romeo and Juliet stories would spring up like cratcha, but at this point, it's just a collection of random mechanic annoyances. I am sorry for that, but I still would like to either make the annoyances be worth it, or make the annoyances go away.

[slay13]

Beefy, in a response...

<====Very much not beefy.


Do u think that with this patch race is getting nerved down to nothing more then a nice visual feature?

Sadly I think races have been nothing more than a "visual feature" for most players in this game long before this patch was ever implemented. Gameplay wise the only distinguishing characteristic is the starting fames, which are far too easy to grind up to be on par with their opposing races in a few days.

If the majority of people really cared about things like this more passionatly than OP's, Cats, Range changes, ect...then we would see far more RP guilds/players on both servers than we currently do. To most people, the lore/story in game is largely spotty at best, as well as unfinished. The ring was a big silver lining to these types of players who thought they would be able to finally create their own content, but it also was found lacking without any worthwhile hosting support whatsoever. Whether it was a finantial decision or otherwise, these have been left by the wayside for quite some time.

My advice for rectifying this at all is to finish the content in major cities to be something more than a bunch of half baked unfinished lore/encyclopedia quests. I'm not trying to knock the old scenario staff either...but alot of the old events were few and far between...and rarely engaging enough to keep anyones interest. Hence the lack of turnout at many of these when they actually were run.

Wouln't it be nice if there were GM run racial scenarios? Ones that were zoraii/matis/tryker/fyros exclusive that would delve into the backrounds of each individual race, and the way they live? Saddly before anything like this ever has any chance of coming to pass, we'd have to get SOME sort of events underway, and there hasnt been one murmur of their return anytime soon, player-run or otherwise.

[danolt]

I do not want this to come across as a criticism of anyone's ideas, because it is not. It is a criticism of the game's direction I am wanting to address.

Atys is no longer considered by many, (if not all) to be a dangerous and hostile place. The factions are becoming completely taken for granted and are absolutely meaningless for most players. How many people know Ma-Duk has only been known to the Kami for less then 50 years or that the Zoari have only been wearing masks for a couple generations? Is there even a reason to find these things out?

The races have become absolutely lovey-dovey in stark contrast to the game mechanics. If you declare citizenship for one region your max fame becomes 0 for it's racial enemy. There is no friction between the races, none. Why the penalty for declaring support?

Homins are still basically in the stick age, we have nothing that has not been handed down by the factions and there is nothing in the game that reflects that we are on the brink of complete annihilation. In fact it seems to me that almost everyone thinks Homins are the major power players.

Of course that was the past and there is really no telling what GF has planned as far as storyline. I hope they build from the history and go from there. I understand the fact that there is a pause in the story line right now, i am glad they took a breath and looked around.

However, what I would like to see is some sort of indication on which direction the game is going to go. Are the mechanics and NPC's going to push for world peace and flowery meadows or are we going to continue the Atys growth cycle, from rhizome to bloom to rhizome?

Pero

[tr808]

Wouln't it be nice if there were GM run racial scenarios? Ones that were zoraii/matis/tryker/fyros exclusive that would delve into the backrounds of each individual race, and the way they live? Saddly before anything like this ever has any chance of coming to pass, we'd have to get SOME sort of events underway, and there hasnt been one murmur of their return anytime soon, player-run or otherwise.


This, Slay ;) , is something i deffently agree with, i started this game to be able to RP and PVP, it seemed the perfect game for that, to bad that on the RP part i only wittnesed the Senator Dios story, that even is left behind without a ending.....:mad: I am really scared at this point RP and racial differences to RP at/with are left behind by GF in trying to dumb the game down..... and for all ur opnion when subs where down i was the only one in the Matis lands for much on the times i play. And calevin, i totally agree with ur post.

[tr808]

However, what I would like to see is some sort of indication on which direction the game is going to go. Are the mechanics and NPC's going to push for world peace and flowery meadows or are we going to continue the Atys growth cycle, from rhizome to bloom to rhizome?

Pero


i think after 2 months of being in control we can almost demand a sort of clarification about this! To me GF has been very silent about everything.... maybe to silent even.

[tengheau]

And calevin, i totally agree with ur post.


the Karavan are all Matrix-ooh-scary looking while the Kami are on the whole adorable and clap their hands when I walk up to them. What's to choose?

*gives Mok a hearty welcoming handshake.*

Great Mok! We are doing a Kami fame run later today, give a tell and we will invite you!

Calevin

[tr808]

:D :o


hehehe, they call that oops i think :)