New player, long comment.....

[suib0m]

Originally Posted by ishark

Ok, since the thread on DP, I think that you could use some more flamefest material.... ops, sorry I meant constructive comments from a new player. I have no idea if my character name shows up on the forum, in case it doesn't I'll let you guess who I am (it's not that hard ).

Really, if the post is meant to be constructive, why start it like this?

Not to sound nasty, but reading at that DP thread I get the feeling that a lot of old-timers are emotional about the game, and are completely incapable of imagining what a new player arriving on Atys sees.

The DP thread is not a good thread to judge things by. Much of it plays off as well placed troll fodder. Dumbing down of the game (which DP removal would contribute to) is one of the things that has contributed to players leaving.

The game is old. 5 years in internet time is long, and it shows. The character's running animation is horribly bad (it looks like it has a pole stuck up his.... let's say back ). (BTW this is a weird contrast to the amount of emote animations, which tend to be a lot better).

Each race has it's own running animation. Are you referring to a specific race, or do you feel this of all races? The amount of emote animations is a particular clue as to what the direction of this game once was, which is much different than the points of this and some other threads lead to. When I first learned of this game, back in beta, it was in a context of a living planet and an evolving story. Sadly, due to a handful of bad ownerships, this never came to be. Recent activity seems to show that we might be moving back into that direction though.

This is a lot easier to solve than the previous one, just make windows/fonts scalable.

This might already be available. We'll see after next week's patch.

A weird inconsistency is that on one side it says that you don't need to mess with actions, but at the same times you keep getting walls of text about the customization of actions.

I guess I don't understand this. You don't need to mess with actions to use them, but there is much you can do with them so learning how is essential. I don't get how this is inconsistent. ?

A lot of them are ready to chat, providing more information and help, even when unrequested (are they nice or bored to death? a troubling question....).

Now, this one is an interesting point. The Ryzom community has almost always been very helpful. In fact, part of the population problem is due to this. The community has a habit of giving everything to the new player, smothering the excitement of a challenge. It's also fostered a gimmegimme sense where players expect to be handed greatness and get bored at the lack of challenge or angry when it is not given.

but soon enough it's clear that while very complex, the action/stanza system in combat is a lot less important than it looks.

Really?? I think I need clarification on this one. While it is true that actions are not as unique as one might think they can create upon first learning how to use the stanzas, with most players generally having the same actions built into their hand bars, this does not mean they are less important in figuring out how to most efficiently use them. And sometimes you even discover that efficiency isn't even the best route.

digging: my favorite activity to relax, but an honest analysis is that it's mindless grinding just the same. Digging requires no skill whatsoever. Sure, you may need to fiddle with the actions ONCE when you get new stanzas, but then a bot would do a job as good as me (actually better, since it won't get distracted).

This kinda falls back to your statement about inconsistency using default stanzas vs. creating your own. Sure you could just settle with fiddling with the actions once when you get a new stanza and leave it at that, but I don't figure you're digging as well as you could. Starting at around lvl 150, in order to gather maximum mats you start needing to use multiple actions during a singular extraction. Each prospection can use a handful of usually very tweaked actions. Mixed with self careplanning (if you're solo), there can be alot of work involved. I tend to find combat much more boring than digging. But, it is a matter of play style; you could take a safer stanza setup and just start extracting and chat away with little threat of death.

- too much mob density. For a "real world" it feels a bit too often like a crowded bus, with tons of mobs piled one on another. I understand that otherwise it'd be too easy to dodge aggro, but having more "aggro patrols" and less "tons of zones with static aggro" would be better.

This is partly a problem of low player population. It's also quite different for different areas. For example, what you bring up is quite pronounced in the lakelands since the mobs can have very little space to wander. Where are you seeing static aggro? For the most part, the mobs have resting and eating zones and will migrate between the two until killed.

About the CDs: it's completely idiotic that they don't reset on respawn (note: respawn and not death). It basically means that after a failed try I have to do something else for around 30 mins before trying again. Result: I do something else,

Part of the lore of this game is that toons do not die. They go unconscious and are protected and transported by the Kami or Karavan for protection. That lore backs up that the toon would not be "reset", just protected from true death. In that, it doesn't make sense that the cooldowns would be reset. Also, those cooldowns that are very lengthy are not meant to be used too often, and they are really not essential to gameplay. It is possible to trek the world without ever being hit, and this can even be done at level 1 (not likely, but possible). It is not necessary to wait for the cooldowns to return, you can always restrategize (or, in the case you are trying to attack something much bigger than you, you can return to more appropriate prey).

People say it isn't, it still looks dead. Ok, maybe suspended animation.... or zombie Is there ANY developement going on? Bug tracking? In the meantime, I'll probably join a guild to see if it adds to some activity (note that I'm no PvPer, I just don't see the point, and in a sparsely populated world I see the point even less).

The owners have recently started using twitter and a blog as means to offer information. Since then we've seen a bit of stuff going on. The new patch has been mentioned (coming next week) and some of the updates have been shown. Also, the event teams seem to have been hard at work recently. There have been many events, including information offline at the RP forums, and even the introduction of a player run government (Fyros). I've been away for a while due to RL, so I don't have much info on it, but I've been trying to keep up with this stuff as I can using the forums and asking around.

fame/reputation/faction: do they serve a role? They just look irrelevant and I didn't bother.

It's a difficult question that, I think, is largely mired in the history of this game and its ownerships. However, it seems racial fame is showing more importance lately with the implementation of the governments.

TP pacts: why these things must take up a slot in the inventory (and bulk space, even if it's not indicated on the item's info)? Can we just make so that when you visit a new TP it gets 'memorized' in a separate tab of the inventory window and then I can use it whenever I want with a payment of 10k green-thingy? No effect on gameplay except cutting away idiotic micro-management.

It does affect gameplay, but you'll learn that as you move along. At one point there was a concept called Spires in which regional ownership could change through battle, this would definitely affect pact usage/purchasability. As far as I know, though, Spires is currently shelved (but that doesn't mean other similar concepts are not underway).

Anyways, those are some of my thoughs on your post. I'm in the middle of that RL thing, so it was written over time when I had moments to, so it may seem disjointed :P

Peace,
- Sui