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Stradden 1/04/07 11:03:09 AM
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Managing Editor
Joined: 7/08/05 |
In the return of our At A Glance feature, Donna Desborough takes a look at Ryzom's "unlimited trial area", Ruins of Silan.
You can read the whole article here. |
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Clattuc 1/04/07 12:48:05 PM
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Novice Member
Joined: 4/04/05 |
Silan is a good starter area and the missions there give you some items that are useful for the Mainland. Also, the grind for a low level player is much more gentle than it is on the Mainland.
As far as using it to learn the lore and how to play, all I can say is that Ryzom (formerly Nevrax, now Gameforge) could and should do a better job of documenting the ins and outs of the game online. There is a lot of stuff from beta days (two years ago) and very little since. There are very few reliable external sites with guides and such. There is too much of the "well, just get in the game and ask someone, they will help you" thing. Lore shouldn't have to be pieced out on some other player's dime. The business with Stanzas and Actions, for example, is elegant, mathematical, has a structure to it and can be understood... but it takes a little work. Guides are much better for that stuff than the chat room. Ryzom is gorgeous and fun and I'm not knocking it, but I would love to see some more support materials emerge. |
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Beery 1/04/07 1:12:18 PM
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Apprentice Member
Joined: 7/05/06
"Dear Buddha, please bring me a pony and a plastic rocket". |
I agree. The lore is one of the biggest disappointments with Ryzom, and a tutorial would be a good thing. Personally I never saw anything to draw me into the game - no lore, no backstory, and my favourite race was the least popular in the game, so I was afraid to join and go to the mainland in case I found no one around. The starting area is a good fun experience, but there's a lack of depth - the sort of depth that lore can bring to the game. Also, although the combat and crafting systems are good, there's really very little to do apart from killing creatures and crafting - this also comes from a lack of attention paid to the lore aspect, as a bit more attention to the history of Atys might have prodded the devs into spending some time developing a real culture for players to roleplay, but there's nothing. It's a shame really because the game has tons of potential and good solid gameplay elements, but from a roleplaying perspective it just feels flat. Maybe the starter island is different from the mainland, but somehow I get the feeling that the mainland suffers from the same problem.
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GRIMACHU 1/04/07 1:17:17 PM
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Novice Member
Joined: 4/02/05
Purveyor of filth |
Er? Huh?
There's tons of lore... http://www.ryzom.com/game-lore |
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| Postmortem Studios |
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Kostika 1/04/07 1:20:51 PM
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Staff Writer
Joined: 4/02/05
Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character. |
Go play the Ruins of Silan area with a new char. The missions are the tutorial. If you actualy read the message windows that pop up then you'll get detailed instructions and explanation on how to do all of the skills and how to handle things like stanzas.
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| Donna Desborough Notice: The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com or its management. |
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Beery 1/04/07 1:25:47 PM
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Apprentice Member
Joined: 7/05/06
"Dear Buddha, please bring me a pony and a plastic rocket". |
There's tons of lore in the sense of stuff written down, but I guess what I meant to say was that none of it means anything in the game. The races have no culture - nothing for a player to use to develop gameplay-strategies or roleplay character. What I mean is that the lore doesn't affect how a player plays the game - it's the same no matter what race a player chooses. The only effect is in terms of the accessible missions, but there's simply no culture - the races don't worship, they don't have any rituals or rites and we can't even own a home, play music, eat food, or do any of the day-to-day things that make a game seem like a living world. It's even hard to get together in-game to just shoot the breeze with one's fellow players. Everything is geared to the hunt, and it's just too one-dimensional.
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GRIMACHU 1/04/07 1:27:13 PM
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Novice Member
Joined: 4/02/05
Purveyor of filth |
Then you're missing something. All of that sort of thing comes from players, it could be better supported in some instances (food, clothing etc) but players DO do all those things you mention and taken from the lore.
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| Postmortem Studios |
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Kostika 1/04/07 1:29:38 PM
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Staff Writer
Joined: 4/02/05
Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character. |
Have you actually played Ryzom?
A majority of my days are spent RPing and talking to my fellow player. We have worship, stories, culture. The difference in Ryzom is that it isn't spoon fed to you. Go read the site's lore. Then go play. If anything, Ryzom is the least combat heavy MMO I've ever played. No raids here. |
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| Donna Desborough Notice: The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com or its management. |
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Beery 1/04/07 1:36:04 PM
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Apprentice Member
Joined: 7/05/06
"Dear Buddha, please bring me a pony and a plastic rocket". |
Yes, I have actually played Ryzom. Roleplaying stuff only comes from players if it has at least SOME support from the software. In Ryzom there's none. You can't expect players to roleplay eating a meal together if there's no way to show a table, chairs and plates with food, or a picnic laid out on the ground. There's just nothing to work with in Ryzom. Imagination is all well and good, but I think it's a bit futile to try to use your imagination when you're pretending to have an evening in a tavern and you're hampered by the fact that there's no tavern, no chairs, no tables, no food, no drink, no entertainment and no way to provide entertainment even if a player wanted to (okay there's one dance move, but do it more than a few times in a row -as you'd have to in order to look like a dancer - and you could get booted for spamming the message that's tied to the move). Similarly, I'm sure some worship goes on, but what there is is severely constrained by the fact that there are no real temples that feel the part. I mean sure, we COULD pretend to do these things without support from the devs, but I don't think it would be much fun - and that's why it's so rare to see such things in Ryzom. Players can only supply so much in terms of imagination, and it soon loses steam if the devs don't choose to build support structures for such playstyles. If Ryzom is the least combat heavy MMOG you've played then you've never played SWG. It has a class (entertainer) that's entirely non-combat and mostly non-crafting. Sure, SWG may have a bad reputation, but for non-combat playstyles it's way ahead of the competition. |
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Tymora 1/04/07 1:58:47 PM
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