When you report a bug, it goes in a queue which is handled by the customer support staff. They look into the issue described to see if we already know about it or not. If we do, they use the details from the bug report to make the description we already have richer, as it helps to identify what's wrong and to find good ways to reproduce it. If we don't, the CS guys transfer the request for consideration.

The queue of the transfered requests are first handled by the test team, which tries to reproduce the bug. That's where the richness of the descriptions and the number of different reports is important, since if we can't reproduce the bug, the developers won't be able to fix it. If testers are able to reproduce the bug, the request is prioritized and assigned to developers to look into the issue. When there is a fix for the bug, it gets included in a ''branch'', is verified by the testers and the fix makes its way to the live patch using the patch release process I described last week, and finally the bug get squatched from the game. :-)

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Tenwos are special mounts, which are more resistant and eat less than the mektoubs. They are normally only used by GM and SGM, but some escaped from the GM island last week - that's why you were able to buy them from unscrupulous merchants which captured some. But everything went back to normal quickly, as we replaced them by normal mounts shortly afterwards.

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Currently, there is only the NeL engine which is released under the GPL. Basically, NeL is an MMORPG toolkit; when you use it, you get all the basic materials you need to code an MMORPG, but you still have to glue them together - pretty much like a Lego construction. On top of that, you have to add the game mechanisms and rules, art, and leveldesign. These elements are proprietary, and different for every game. We wanted to release more of the game under an open-source license (such as the complete client for example), but there are a number of reasons why we haven't been able to do this yet (for example, the code and documentation would need to be adapted for external reading, otherwise it wouldn't be simple to get a good overview of the project). So that's still in the queue, but not for the near future.

The idea behind releasing NeL as open-source software is to build an architecture which could be shared among different MMORPGs, to avoid duplicating efforts which are common to games of the same genre. And for you to be able to influence development, if you have the proper skills.

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It's worth taking a look at the glimpse of production article I published on Friday. A dozen rites are currently tested internally and on the ATS, and if everything is ok, at least some of them should be included the next major patch (see the patch release process to see how we work to bring it into the game).

Even if it doesn't reflect on the current version of the game at the moment, rites are one of the major works being performed : the main body of the leveldesign team is focused on it. But we want them to be good. So, when we spot issues with them, we delay their introduction in the live version. That's what happened after the release of chapter II, as reports from both ATS testers showed us issues we wanted to fix first.

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The fact is that Atys isn't a safe place to wander in right now - the kitin war against hominkind is just calming down; hostile creatures have taken over the place in the meantime, without being too disturbed for the last years. So it has to be realistically implemented into the game : what feeling would you get if you could always wander anywhere at anytime ?

And, from a less roleplaying point of view, what challenge would it be if you could explore the whole world immediately ? Every game has some way of limiting acces to content : an instant access to every part of the game would kill an important goal and motivation : discovery.

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It's true that, at higher levels, you can accumulate more money that you need. We are aware of the problem, and about to add elements which will give you content in which you will be able to spend your extra money. There are different options for beefing up your defenses depending on just how warlike you're feeling.

In the mean time, you can enjoy the rare pleasure of having the same issues a arabian sheik can have : "what will I do with all this money ?" :-)

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We can give a general overview of future features - this has been my main task for several weeks now, have a look there - but we can't give every detail.

Why ? As briefly explained in the patch release process document, we use a dynamic development model, an adapted subset of the Extreme Programming technique, which allows us to constantly adapt and react to in-house and players feedback. This is extremely positive, as we are able closely stick to your and our needs, but it also has a counter-part : schedules and priorities change over time.

We do not want to make promises that we won't be able to keep afterwards - we have done it in the past, and we learned our lesson. So, to not disappoint you by describing you details and giving you dates that can both change, we usually only communicate on elements when the release is approaching.

One good and current example is the outposts. I gave you a general overview of their features, so you could understand where we are leaning towards. But you also probably noticed, as described in the first glimpse of production, that I don't enter specific implementation details for now on. These details will be given only when the first implementation is about to reach the ATS, and progressively as we improve it.

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Yup, we already have something in mind. :-)

As David Cohen Corval said earlier today, after the chapter III, there won't be the chapter IV, but an extension - even if it will be quite an usual one if you compare it to other MMORPGs...

It will be targetted at bringing more freedom to you, so you can better influence the world of Ryzom. Hum, you have already heard that somewhere, right ? In fact, this is no surprise, since what will come next is the missing piece of what we intended to provide you from the start - it just required the game to be at a certain stage of maturity.

Stay tuned - the E3 should be fun this year.

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Xavier.