I'll add another thing I think is missing in most MMO's of now: a room/scene camera! Now you're mostly limited to looking from behind your character's back, from a point more-or-less in his head (The character himself is invisible in this case) or from his front (The only way to see his face, actually).
What I'd seriously like to see is a free camera to take a spot from where I can get a comfortable view of all the characters' faces. Also a decent first-person view where I can control the look direction without turning (Only turning the head) and actually see my character's legs. And if he's wearing a helmet, understand why it's pretty hard for fighters.

It seems somewhat strange to me, actually, that this feature is still missing in MMO's. You can see the cockpit of whatever you're piloting in simulators, after all!

177

(9 replies, posted in Saga of Ryzom)

Since some of our characters are illiterate, this gives me an idea: vot abut rolplaing haf-litirasy? I sink it kan be fun and indrestin and giv oportunitis for misanderstendin, wich lids to gud rolply!

We'd also better find as much info on the Atysean language or start making it up for better studying roleplay.

178

(1 replies, posted in Saga of Ryzom)

Our prayers have been heard! Now Ryzom supports "custom emotes"! The command to do so is "/em", followed the text you want to display. Also it can be used to just play the standard emote animations without text (/em drunk none) or with custom text (/em drunk can barely stand!).

Note that this, along with several other aditions, is yet to be implemented in the next patch, which must arrive soon.

Could this mean that Ryzom is now in the hands of a good owner?

179

(25 replies, posted in Steambaths)

Oh hey look, a cute cacodemon! Wish I was any good at graphics (And had the software)!

Another semi-obvious thing: naming code. Nothing wrecks immersion like a character named 1337/\/\@57@|-|5YK05\/\/0|2|)Y, even if it doesn't talk and just hang around. And lots of Legolases and Elendils are nothing good, too.

I'd add, more wits-checks versus skill checks. I.e, to "win" something, you must, for example, convince more people or find a way to, not just repeatedly succeed on die rolls. Plain and obvious.

>>voice chat would ruin imission imo... People would easily be able to hear my rather weird sounding english... what if i wanted to play a person with no language problems at all?
If it doesn't go international, it's alright. The bad part is background noise that tends to be involved in voice-chatting, and huge amounts of traffic it generates. I doubt my channel can handle it now.

>>Anyway, the point with having explanations for everything in-game is actually pretty good
Seed's the best game in that aspect so far. Even if not explained by the developers at the start, we players figured it out and agreed on a single way of working for things. And everyone coming to the game would see that way and roleplay accordingly. But that's really a common effort by the game's authors and players.
Thinking of this all makes me want to add another point that I thought is really obvious, but oh well. The game/server should have an open relationship between players and authors, so no things contradicting the players' decisions are made by the authors.

I've been pretty interested in MMORPGs (As opposed to other kinds of MMOGs) for quite a while, and can make out several things:

1. Whatever there is in the game, it must be explained by the gameworld. Private/guild channels? Resurrection? Explain why it's possible and how it works, doh. And if you can't find an explanation for something, well, ditch it!
2. Character customizability. And I'm not talking just faces, hats and suits (Which are fine, too), but also their game-mechanic stuff. Like not being a level 20 scientist, but having vast experiences in biochemistry, but being nearly unable to operate a simple computer. Think creative!
3. A plot with some problems characters are supposed to solve. Even if it's not a player-driven plot, it does create opportunities for roleplaying.
4. No pre-dominant feature. I. e. fighting in most modern MMO's, where whatever you do, you do to enchance your or someone else's fighting ability.
5. Political gameplay, where not every problem is solved by die-rolls. The simplest way, even in fight-based games is to make some resources only available to certain people. If the people don't like you - no good stuff for you!
6. Emotes that multiple characters share. It isn't much, but it's a great cosmetic feature.
7. A /me feature, G-ddamnit! And emote parser. I.e. if I use a ":)" smile, I want to see a "Wheri smiles" text line instead of just ":)".

That's pretty much it. If the game has all of the above, it's up to the GM's and the community to make it a roleplaying one and keep it that way.

As for the "issues", well... you can say I have some issues. But they don't prohibit me from using voice-chat. It's more like I prefer to think on my character's words or actions.

184

(7 replies, posted in Saga of Ryzom)

Also, finally another Tryker! Hope you do appreciate a good portion of rum and the special Tryker humour!

185

(7 replies, posted in Saga of Ryzom)

Hello and welcome to our... [death]fine... community[/death]

186

(15 replies, posted in Saga of Ryzom)

Oh well. Back to grinders for me. Well, expect new arrivals. What should I crash first?

187

(15 replies, posted in Saga of Ryzom)

Even if it's [death]All[/death], by the end of this month, URU will be running.

188

(15 replies, posted in Saga of Ryzom)

Hey, it's going to be a fun month, even if it means fighting goo by eating it! GOO MUSHT FLOW!

189

(15 replies, posted in Saga of Ryzom)

Hey, I'm the guy with the [death]Karma[/death], so they better pay me not to join!

190

(15 replies, posted in Saga of Ryzom)

Just my [death]Karma[/death]. Just as I find a game that interests me, be it an MMO or a tabletop one - it just disappears! Either the DM falls sick, the game turns out a lot less interesting, the players quit and so on. Same goes with MMO's, as it can be perfectly seen on the examples of Seed and Ryzom.

Though I don't see a word about the game actually closing down - they will be active for at least a month and it is not known what happens next. It seems someone is re-buying the game and keeps it running.

In any case, the month is enough for us to see URU while Ryzom's still how it is now.

191

(57 replies, posted in Saga of Ryzom)

I mostly agree with Frakel, with the addition of one thing: the more two Homins have in common and the closer their relations are, the better they can communicate. Experience in this communication helps too, as well as any activity that has something to do with Sap (Namely magic and material prospection).

As for the guild channel, I'd say that it adds another thing "in common" for it's members, and generally makes it a lot easier to "talk" telepathically. Those who have experience in telepathy will find they can communicate with the entire guild almost effortlessly, and those otherwise limited to simple feelings and images will be able to project thoughts (Although that may still be hard for them).

Something like that.

192

(5 replies, posted in Saga of Ryzom)

Can't we hold it a bit earlier? 2300 GMT is 0200 where I am, and it is quite probable that I will be sleeping at that time.

193

(0 replies, posted in Saga of Ryzom)

This is a small description of the crafting system for those of you who don't want to do it yourself, but want to be useful by providing the crafters with materials. The system seems complicated at first, but it's easy once you've got the hang of it. That's pretty much game mechanics, so I'm not going to write it IC.

First of all, every material in the game (With a few exceptions) can be used as two components. For example, you can use fiber for clothing or gripping material in weapons. They also have a variety of stats that affect the stats of the finished item, a grade defining these stats (A fine material has higher stats than a basic one, but lower than a choice one) and a color.

To craft an item, you need all the components - for example, a light vest requires 3 "clothes" components, 3 "linings", 1 "stuffing" and 1 "armour clip".

When you craft an item, it has the stats of the materials (I.e if you used materials with a high protection factor but low durability to craft armour, it will have a high protection factor but few hitpoints), altered by the quality (I've noticed it affects absorption of the armour a lot). Note that you can't tell the exact stats of an item until you craft it - you know if it'll be high or low, but not more.

As far as I know (Although I'm not sure), every component has an equal effect on the item - in the example of the vest above, every component offers 1/8 of the stats, so all of them are equally important.

The quality of the item is capped by the lowest quality of the material used and the crafter's stanza. Even if one material out of 20 used is Q20, the resulting item will be Q20, no matter the rest of the materials are Q250. Same goes for the stanza: if the crafter can't make items above Q130, even if all the materials are Q200, the item will be Q130.

Higher grade items (Choice and up) always belong to an ecosystem and can only be used for items of "their" race. Lake materials for Tryker items, Forest for Matis and so on. Prime Roots materials can be used in any item.

The colour of the item (Only armours have colours) is defined by the majority of materials. Not sure how equal numbers behave though.

Also, items have requirements based off their quality and can have life, sap, stamina and focus bonuses based on their quality. Basically, the bonus the crafter can add is +5 points per 10 levels of quality. Note that these don't work so good if the crafted item's quality is not divided by 10 - so a Q50 item can have better bonuses than a Q59 one.

There are "medium quality" and "high quality" items available at higher levels: they require a bit more materials, tend to have higher stats then their simpler counterparts and look better. Aside from the higher material cost and the skillpoints spent, they don't have any drawbacks.

Hope that covers it. If I missed something or explained it not clear enough, feel free to correct me or ask about it.

194

(57 replies, posted in Saga of Ryzom)

I wouldn't. But for some things it would be better to use the in-game one. Crafting lists are an example - it's not always good for our hunters to alt-tab between the game and the forum just to see what items you or I need. Also, important announcements (Like meetings) should be posted both on the in-game forum and the community forum. As I said, a lot like TAU terminals.

195

(57 replies, posted in Saga of Ryzom)

Another topic to discuss: the in-game forum. As I see it, it's pretty much information available to all guildmembers, wether it is written somewhere or spread by word or whatever. Thus, I think it should be used for all kinds of announcements, but not for discussions - much like the TAU terminals in You-Know-What.

The big question is, should it be kept as IC as possible, or are some OOC remarks be possible (I.e, in case of crafting lists, quality and grade of items and so on)?

I've found a streaming radio, conveniently called Radio Ryzom. So far they have a good playlist consisting mostly of game, movie and anime soundtracks.
It's all here: http://radio-sor.no-ip.org/

197

(34 replies, posted in Sava's Garden)

Can't add anything. Well, maybe I could make a couple articles for the site - I like writing articles.

198

(33 replies, posted in DVI-Net)

The password reminder is a bit buggy. In the mail it sends, the activation link for the new password is wrong:
http://seedthecommunity.org/seed/profile.php?id=****
instead of
http://seedthecommunity.org/profile.php?id=****
Took me 3 minutes to figure out :)

199

(9 replies, posted in Saga of Ryzom)

There's a small dialogue that has occured between the Capricious Cousins:
http://img420.imageshack.us/img420/9739/screenshot016ry8.gif

200

(26 replies, posted in Steambaths)

Moscow, Russia here.