Cats: To be or not to be

[iceaxe68]

((I can only wish that I had enough free time to have a "daily experience" in Ryzom.))

Personally, I'm allergic to cats, developing a nasty rash on my elbow when I use them. So I don't.

OK, I used to use them, and just lived with the rash, but then I realized that I was going too fast and gaining skills faster than knowledge, so I cut it out.

I've been much happier ever since, and my elbow doesn't itch.

Recently, my little sister ((new alt account)) arrived at the refugee camp at the ruins of Silan, and once she finished her studies there she joined up with my guild and has been happily consuming the excess cats from our guild hall without any ill effects, so I guess my allergy doesn't run in the family. She must be smarter than me, because she seems to understand things much more quickly than I did.

((OK, in case that was too "in character" to get my point across - I've found that cats can be just fine if used in moderation and with a care not to let the acquisition and use of cats to maximize your "XP per minute" override the actual enjoyment of the game. YMMV))

EDIT:
((P.S. highest skill 229 after almost 3 years, so I can't say yet whether I'll cave in and live with that "itchy elbow" after 245, if I ever actually get there.))

[ishark]

I love cats. I have two of them

I find this discussions on cats/exping somewhat surprising.
On the one side, people say that in this game, player skill is more important than character skill, i.e. while you can grind any skill to 250 "fast" this won't advance you one inch in being a better player, since you won't know the actions/combos/recipes/etc. For these people the leveling speed should be irrelevant. Actually, the LEVEL should be irrelevant, all chars could be 250 at creation time and the good players would be good and the bad players would be bad.
On the other side, people talk about leveling "too fast", that cats should be taken away, that the leveling process should be long, etc.

I think that this cat/no cat decision is irrelevant: what should be decided is if Ryzom is player-skill or character-skill based. After this is decided, then everything follows:
- if it's character-skill then cats should be removed and leveling should be slow: high-level then becomes almost identical to "good player", since it's someone who has been around a long time and knows the game well. Note that in this case "fast-grind-korean-mode-on" of skills should be IMPOSSIBLE, with cap on exp gained per day, etc.
- if it's player-skill driven then the character leveling should be of little importance, so it can go a lot faster, since in this case high-level means absolutely nothing: it's the person's skill which will decide if the player is good or not.

One area where this matters a lot is crafting: the leveling of crafting is horribly easy: as long as you craft anything at all, even the worst crappy item with the most lousy stats, you will level. It's just clicking a button and having the mats. No need to think about recipes or final product, which is the interesting part. Problem is, the requirement to grind craft before being able to produce useful items (= high level) kills the interest in the craft skill itself: I had started some coding on a program to design jewel sets, but I stopped almost immediately: even if I manage to be able to craft great jewels, my crafts will still suck since they are low-level and I need to grind the skill to produce something useful to the current (high-level) population. What do I have to learn from the leveling process? In what way this process is interesting to me? I already know how to press buttons....

BTW in my opinion the leveling right now is too slow, or more exactly, the problem is that the ONLY way to level is pure grinding, alternate approaches would be nice (there aren't many, unfortunately). Cats are just a way to reduce the grind time, so they are welcome, and I never have enough

[iceaxe68]

Cats, no cats, fast level, slow level, no clue, deep understanding, learn everything, learn one thing, fight, hunt, dig, craft, been everywhere, stayed in one place, grind, do missions, explore, know everyone, know only guildies, keep to yourself... One thing I love about Ryzom is that you can do any of those things. Whatever suits you.

I don't know that it needs to change to make it more of one thing or another. I liked it the way it was, I like it the way it is, and unless something really odd happens, I expect I'll like it the way it will be. I don't need to decide what sort of game it is. I don't need to figure out what sort of people like it or don't.

I like it. It's my sort of game. There are other people like me, and people very unlike me who also enjoy it. I guess it's their sort of game, too.

The only thing I'd change is to have more people try it, and some of them will like it. And some won't.

[chibiarc]

Excellent closing words, Sasi!

[habiff]

In terms of politics cats are awesome. The story has the Kami and the Karavan at war, and battling for resources. With that in mind, the dominate party "controls the spice" so to say. In that frameset, I am definitely pro-cat.

As for the current population, I think arguing about cats more counter productive than cats to begin with. If you don't like them, don't use. Others love them. So be it. Those that power level and leave don't upset any real balance in the game, so why focus on it?

[murmadog]

+1

if remove drugs we loss big reason for op-wars... 50-100 homins at op-war for be flowers-ownership?..

[jwenting]

Cats are nice to get people up to speed. Iala got some from a friend who's in a guild when arriving in Fairhaven and is using those to get her skillpoints for Tryker crafting where she arrived with only Matis crafting (and to get her skills in lake forage to the level she has in forest forage).
Now that that's just about complete, she sees no further use for them.

She and her friend aren't interested in selling high end gear for now, we just want to have a good time and hopefully become fully self sufficient in our little corner of Atys, maybe in time joining some others on a trek to see far away places of marvel and beauty.

Of course if you're looking to quickly generate a high level pvp toon you're going to need to use a lot of them and focus on only combat skills, but how many of those are there on Atys?