A new player's experience with the trial

[cjpetri]

Last night, I hit my max melee/max crafting levels of 21, with 17 magic and 17 foraging. I had finally finished the Red blades #2 quest, got what looked like an awesome sword, but found that I couldn't use it because I didn't have the points to gain an extra 5 strength.

So last night, I uninstalled.

This game, in my opinion, is not worth paying 15/month for.

Things I liked about this game:
Very nice graphics that run well on my less-than-spectacular machine.
Arrow key movement.
Overall, a very immersive experience. The npcs, the creature behaviors.

Things that ruined it for me:

The combat system as a whole is horrible. When I was using melee weapons, half of the time my weapon swing animations weren't playing at all. My character would just stand there and I'd see the creature's hp dropping.
It was even worse when I was trying to cast spells! I probably spent half the time fighting with spells just trying to get to max range and get the spell to successfully cast before the creature moved out of range. Also, spells get interrupted way, way too easily. Plus, you can only chain up 2 spells at a time? Wtf, why? Just keep casting the same freakin' spell! Why is that so hard?

The quest system, in terms of variety, is decent. But often the system is annoying; they don't update so you're forced to remember how many things you've killed, or how many things you've made, or you have to guess as to if there's a certain way you're supposed to kill a monster to get quest credit, etc.
Example: There's one crafting quest where you're supposed to make 5 pairs of boots and 5 pairs of trousers of quality 10 or higher. Well, I didn't have the mats to do it all in one shot, so I made some, and sold them to the npc once I had made them. Then, once I had finally made 5 and 5, I find out that the next step is to actually sell 5 pairs of boots and 5 pairs of trousers to the npc. Well, I had already sold them, so I had to make more just to sell them again! It would have been nice if they put the next steps of the quest below the current step so you can see what you're getting into.

When I tried to alt-tab out of the game to read the documentation, then tried to bring the window back up, it wouldn't show. I had to kill the client with the task manager. In fact, I had to kill the client with the task manager every time, even when I quit the client using the ingame exit button, because after the game closed, the ryzom .exe still stayed in my process list.

Where are the potions? This is the only rpg I've ever seen that doesn't seem to have any potions.

Things that you aggro but then need to run away from chase you WAY, WAY too far.

And in general, every fight seems to be the same old hack and slash. See a creature, turn on an autoattack you've already set up, and sit back and watch the computer play the game for you.

Granted, I know this is a trial, so I didn't get to see the majority of the game. But, when you're making a trial, don't you want to put your best foot forward, to get me to reach into my wallet and hand you 15 dollars every month?

[sx4rlet]

Originally Posted by cjpetri

Granted, I know this is a trial, so I didn't get to see the majority of the game. But, when you're making a trial, don't you want to put your best foot forward, to get me to reach into my wallet and hand you 15 dollars every month?

That could be a reason.
Or they try to show the game and how it works, so when you don't like the trial, you can be (almost) sure you don't like the game. Sounds like its just not the game for you. That happens. Other people might like it. That happens too.

[johntf]

Games not to everyones tastes, bye.

[fiach]

Originally Posted by cjpetri

1. The combat system as a whole is horrible. When I was using melee weapons, half of the time my weapon swing animations weren't playing at all. My character would just stand there and I'd see the creature's hp dropping.
It was even worse when I was trying to cast spells! I probably spent half the time fighting with spells just trying to get to max range and get the spell to successfully cast before the creature moved out of range. Also, spells get interrupted way, way too easily. Plus, you can only chain up 2 spells at a time? Wtf, why? Just keep casting the same freakin' spell! Why is that so hard?

2. The quest system, in terms of variety, is decent. But often the system is annoying; they don't update so you're forced to remember how many things you've killed, or how many things you've made, or you have to guess as to if there's a certain way you're supposed to kill a monster to get quest credit, etc.
Example: There's one crafting quest where you're supposed to make 5 pairs of boots and 5 pairs of trousers of quality 10 or higher. Well, I didn't have the mats to do it all in one shot, so I made some, and sold them to the npc once I had made them. Then, once I had finally made 5 and 5, I find out that the next step is to actually sell 5 pairs of boots and 5 pairs of trousers to the npc. Well, I had already sold them, so I had to make more just to sell them again! It would have been nice if they put the next steps of the quest below the current step so you can see what you're getting into.

3. When I tried to alt-tab out of the game to read the documentation, then tried to bring the window back up, it wouldn't show. I had to kill the client with the task manager. In fact, I had to kill the client with the task manager every time, even when I quit the client using the ingame exit button, because after the game closed, the ryzom .exe still stayed in my process list.

4. Where are the potions? This is the only rpg I've ever seen that doesn't seem to have any potions.

5. Things that you aggro but then need to run away from chase you WAY, WAY too far.

6. And in general, every fight seems to be the same old hack and slash. See a creature, turn on an autoattack you've already set up, and sit back and watch the computer play the game for you.

1. I never have any missing animations, so I cant comment, regarding the spells, all mages are weak at the start and uber at the end, Ryzom is no exception, if you want to two shot mobs, pick smaller mobs, but come level 125 and you get Racial Spells....WHOAH MOMMA!!!!

Regarding the creatures movement....thats the great thing about Ryzom, its eco system animals have a little stroll now and again, some migrate to other areas, personally I like it, they dont ALL move at the same time y'know, pick a different one...

2. I dont do Quests, so no comment,

3. If you already have eg a web page open, you should be able to alt-tab in and out successfully. Another thing I do if I have nothing open is CTRL ALT DEL and when the task manager comes up, you can access your Start menu and open a folder/page and alt tab away to your hearts content.

4. We have healers, in fact Ryzom is the only game I have played, that makes healing interesting.

5. Dont piss them off then they wont chase you, you can buy Speed run and Invulnerability to use if you need to run away.

6. You can use auto attack, sure, but come back to the game and your character will be dead, you have to use your skill stanzas effectively, but I dont think/imagine you could have played long enough to learn how important that is, being only 21.

Seeya.

[greymage]

I don't know about the boots thingy, but it definitely does look bad that the counters don't update for some of the kill quests. Gives people a mistaken bad impression about game quality.

[jamela]

It does sound like your client had serious trouble running if you couldn't see your own animations and it wouldn't quit cleanly. I've never experienced the former and rarely the latter. My own platform is almost 5 years old now so I imagine hardware is not your issue, sorry.

It also sounds as though you come here with very many preconceptions from other games - about spells and potions, for example - expecting these otherworldly things to be the same here. Preconceptions should be expected but it is no cause for any complaint, in my opinion. It is your own fault if they spoil your game, not Ryzom's.

[jamela]

Actually, I think cjpetri's post makes it very plain that level 21 does not allow enough game experience to make a good impression on a trial player. Just as many other players like Chessack have said. Just when the game is about to start opening up, with a decent mission sword, for example, it locks out. How frustrating is that? I don't believe I would subscribe at that point either.

[blaah]

Originally Posted by cjpetri

Where are the potions? This is the only rpg I've ever seen that doesn't seem to have any potions.

Things that you aggro but then need to run away from chase you WAY, WAY too far.

these 2 make Ryzom the best game ever.
potions are silly, and too little chase distance is silly. in other games, you take 2 steps back and mob leave aggro... whats that ?

btw, you forgot to add that there is no jumping or diving (2 completely useless things in Ryzom btw)

[cloudy97]

When I started to play I had lots of "butt attacking" mobs (like gingos running towards me backwards and starts to attack) on this same machine. This never happens anylonger. Does animations (and the lack of in cjpetri's case) get smoother after a while, like with some kind of cache-system?

And the few missions on the mainland has very little to do with the trials tutorial-quests. So I agree, Ryzom doesn't sound like your type of game. Good luck in your search!

[ajsuk]

Originally Posted by blaah

btw, you forgot to add that there is no jumping or diving (2 completely useless things in Ryzom btw)

Your too funny dude

Yeah, I'm afraid this isn't WoW and thank goodness...