I've just been looking at the site for Roma Victor. As both a roleplayer and a historical wargamer, it looks to be a VERY interesting game. It requires purchase of an initial subscription before play, but after that, you pay nothing to play. Instead, you can convert real money to game money to finance your character, though someone who spends a lot of time in-game could theoretically do without and pay nothing.

The game has been intended as a historically accurate version of 2nd Century Europe under the Roman Empire. Currently, Britannia is the only province on the map, but this will be gradually expanded.

If the site blurb is to be believed, then it has all the elements that should be present in Ryzom and are missing- none-military player controlled groups, the ability to construct buildings, player-owned structures with variable access settings, and the ability to employ NPCs as servants and bodyguards. PvP is present- it would hardly be a realistic depiction of the Roman empire without combat. But the damage and injury system seems more like the Seed medbay injuries than hit points, and there are more serious consequences to death than just respawning.

I'd advise people to take a look- I'm going to give it a try.

http://www.roma-victor.com/

(Strangely enough, the best description of the game features is in the "status" section.)

"Dark Chest of Wonders" by Nightwish. One of my large collection of Nightwish songs, and possibly my favourite.

Guild apartments would be good, but the idea is that we can also meet people who don't join any guilds we might form in the future. The campfire meetings drew in several people who'd never played Seed but saw the RPing and joined in. We won't have anything like that happening if we only meet in Apartments.

I'd not have any objections in principle to PvP, but it'd be quite a way off, as we're all fairly weak right now. And like Darkhawk said, I'd do it if there was a good RP reason for it but not just for the sake of it. Most PvP seems to be between the followers of the Kami and the Karavan, and we're out of that simply because we're neutral.

I a reason does come up, I'd be willing to march to war. As long as I agree with this reason.

Regarding the Magical communication system skill values that Darkhawk gave, I'd suggest that while the concept is good, the numbers could be a bit high. The system as it is would mean that nobody who isn't a magician and not just a magical dabbler could communicate effectively IC. Given that this is what a large number of the people posting here seem to want, this may be acceptable to people. But personally, I'd split 1-50 into 1-20 and 21-50, and move the catagories down one step.

The main concerns regarding this seem to be that many people are, strange as it seems, having trouble separating what their character perceives and what they perceive. In Seed, everything you saw on the screen was visible to your character as well. In other games, this is not the case. A lot of posts seem to imply that people think that anyone who uses something your character doesn't have is ruining the RP experience for everyone.

I don't find this to be the case. I can filter what I see on the screen into what my character perceives without difficulty. But then, I'm a veteran pen-and-paper RPGer who's used to translating notes on a sheet of paper and the results of a dice throw into a game world inside my head. So using the "Radar" around the compass and telling myself that my character in the game is just hearing the sounds of their movement or following the creature's tracks is second nature to me. I fail to see how this mindset can't apply to everything in game, as long as we're not talking about game stats or real-world events around the campfire.

Are there people who feel violently opposed to this point of view?

As far as in-game excuses for number 2 go, I have the following suggestion which I came up with after considering the Mystical background of the setting:-

Atys is a living world. It has streams of life energy that flow through it, connecting the various living creatures at some level. Exploitation of this fact is common amongst Homins of a mystical bent- Magicians learn to channel the primal life energy of Atys, the "Sap" of the World-Tree through their bodies to power their spells. Harvesters can tune into the flows of the great branches of the canopy to locate resources and call thyem to the surface.

Is is too much of a stretch to accept that a form of empathy can connect the Homins of Atys?

Many Homins find that those close to them- their friends and family- will share some level of empathic bond. Thye will recieve flashes of image and feeling at times, and can learn to communicate their purpose and actions to these people. The communication has no words, it is trancendent of them. A Homin simply knows that this is happening. From an early age, people learn to shut off their bond, to avoid hearing or receiving when they do not wish to, but any who wish can send brief snatches of consciousness to those they call their own.
((Messages can be PMed to those on your friends list. The message is obviously in text form to us, but not to the characters. You might say "I'm killing some Javings in the ruins" and the character who gets the message gets a brief image of you doing this. When you say "I've respawned in the Karavan enclave" the characters who get the message feel your life-essence slowly rekindled in the direction of the enclave. So in this version, the words are OOC but the messages sent are not.))

Homins can also voluntarily lower their mental defences to listen in to the flow of thoughts and feelings around them. Normally this simply results in a flood of empathic noise that slowly erodes the Homin's mind. However, a determined Homin can sometimes glean information concerning the surrounding area's inhabitants, though the annoyance factor means few will do so on a regular basis.
((You listen in the the Realm/Universe chat channels.))

These two factors have been known long enough that many Homins have discovered ways to take advantage of them. Rituals have been devised that will allow Homins to mimic the bonds between close friends, and form their own empathic bond-groups. These rituals are conducted as a blessing for those who intend to work together, so that they will act as one. A more permanent version is enacted when a new organisation of comunity is formed, to bind the members together.
((The forming of Teams and Guilds, and the unique channels thereof.))

What do people think? I feel that it gives an excuse to use the chat channels fully whilst staying in character, and that it fits in with the Ryzom mythos. Add your comments and criticisms of course, they will be welcome.