Troubled beginnings and a leap of faith

I bought Saga of Ryzom on a whim. I didn't have overly fond memories of the "open beta" between April and June, which felt rough, unbalanced and very incomplete. Unsurprisingly, the game wasn't released early in the second quarter, as planned, but went back to a closed beta mode for 2 months. However, no matter my feelings about the beta, there are elements about Saga of Ryzom that appeal to me, notably in the background story, the character progression system and the living, breathing world there for the players to discover.

So I went back to Ryzom to discover how things had changed since the beta. This article gives my first impressions of the game. Consider it a mini review after 10 days of play. I intend to write a full blown review in a few weeks, giving me time to see more of the game and Nevrax to release some much needed patches.

Welcome to the saga. We've got plans for the next 8 years of your life...

Here's, in a nutshell, the knowledge of Ryzom background you'll need to make sense of the game world. There is more and some of it is intriguing.

The game takes place on a planet called Atys where 4 races: Fyros, Trykers, Zorai and Matis, known collectively as homins, have lived in sometimes uncertain harmony (including fighting and slavery) for a long time. Atys is made up of no, or very very few, metals. Plant life rules. Life could have continued pretty much unchanged if explorers in the Prime Roots (maze like tunnels under the surface) hadn't unleashed hordes of insectoids called Kitins that pretty much decimated the homins. There is more to the story; suffice it to say that, by the time you join the game, the much diminished survivors of all 4 civilisations are tentatively regaining their old dwellings after the retreat of the Kitins and trying to rebuild their world, preferrably with their own civilisation in a dominant position.

The setting is not purely a fantasy one though. It has sci-fi elements like the mysterious Karavan - masked outworlders with advanced technology who keep an eye on the homins - or like the rocket launchers that are part of a homin's arsenal against Kitin attacks.

The races are quite distinct but mainly from a background, graphical, architectural and setting point of view. Otherwise, characters can progress in pretty much the same ways along the same skill trees whatever race they belong to. Nevrax just released an announcement mentioning race differentiation for Patch Two, but what this means is not known yet.

One of the game plans, if I got this right, is that we'll get a major update introducing new races, major gameplay elements, situations, ... every 6 months and a brand new planet every year. Apparently, the game will evolve in such a fashion for 8 years.

As for the goals in Ryzom, there are several of them: levelling up the 4 profession trees and their numerous sub-trees, repulsing Kitin incursions in Starship Troopers like battles with lots of participants, discovering the story behind Ryzom and unravelling its mysteries (Jenna, the Karavan, the Kamis, the Kitins, ...) while filling up your "encyclopedia", forming a guild, acquiring outposts as a base, adding your own buildings and defending them from NPC's and players alike, embarking on guild only major quests (not offered to unguilded players), ...

In the beginning…

Let's start with character creation. This step is simple enough: choose your race, looks and your mix of «starting packs» between (F)ighting, (M)agic, (H)arvesting and (C)rafting . Those packs give you starting abilities in the relevant skill tree. You get 3 packs to pick as you see fit. You could go for "F:1 M:1 H:1 C:0" (giving you the ability to melee with a bit more precision than without, cast a heal spell and harvest resources) or "F:3 M:0 H:0 C:0" (giving you more melee action but no magic or ability to harvest) or "F:0 M:0 H:1 C:2" (for a crafter only). The more packs you pick in 1 category, the more basic abilities your character is born with in that category.

While there are no inherently wrong starting choices and you are free to develop your character in different directions while playing, I soon discovered that there are some inconvenient ones (more on that later). I picked up "F:0 M:1 H:1 C:1" since I knew from beta that it takes no base skill to hit mobs (and when you have hit enough, get the ability 1 fighting pack would have given you from a trainer) while the other skills require you to at least know how to perform basic actions to use and progress in them (you can still purchase a base pack in a skill tree you didn't train at creation in-game but that costs a fair few skill points).

My character was born with a smidgen of magic and the ability to do some basic harvesting of resources and crafting. I'll come back to the interface and gameplay in a moment. Let's look at the skills first.

So you want to be a hero?

In Ryzom, the 4 basic skill trees mentioned above split up into multiple sub-trees that you can start specialising into once you reach the required skill level. For instance, after 20 points gained in Fighting, you can start specialising into melee and ranged fighting. If you go down the melee route, you can then focus on 1 handed or 2 handed, then on specific weapons, and so on... In magic, do you prefer offensive or beneficial spells?

XP is gained in the appropriate category for your actions. Fight a mob with magic only and you get magic XP. Whack it with your sword as well and your XP will be split accordingly between magic and melee. Harvest a resource and you get harvest XP, craft something and you get crafting XP.

So far so good, except that magic and fighting are considered combat disciplines. So you only get XP in them after winning a fight.

And this brings us back to my "F:0 M:1 H:1 C:1" fighting pack choice. You see "M:1" gave me the heal other 1 spell. That's it. 2 packs would have added acid damage 1 to the mix but here I was, unable to gain a single magic experience point until I grouped with another player and contributed only heal other spells to each fight (to avoid diluting the magic XP gained into fighting XP). I met a friendly player and had fun grouping, but this is still a strange design decision and not very newbie friendly.

Ryzom is a game without overall level. A level 250 fighter with 1 level in magic will not be able to do more than tickle many mobs by waving his hands. It's up to the player whether to create a balanced character or one focusing on 1 skill path only. There is no skill points cap. So if you have way too much free time, you could conceivably master every sub-tree over time.

Once you have started progressing in the skills, character development becomes a simple matter of stanzas.

Stan-what?

Glad you asked. :)

Stanzas are "building blocks" and probably one of my favourite aspects in Ryzom. Consider an action which causes your basic melee attack to cause Extra Damage. That action is made of building blocks, known in-game as stanzas.

The total beauty of the system is that you can learn either individual stanzas or new actions (made of several stanzas) from your trainers. You pay for those in skill points (which you get when advancing a level in a skill). Once you have learned any action, all its stanzas are known to you. You can then put them to use to create your own customized new actions. Simply mix and match those compatible building blocks you acquired to make new actions that fit your playstyle better.

Don't like the heal spell you got? Create a new one. For instance: more powerful but costs more sap (mana) or costs 0 sap but very slow to cast and has a very short range or costs some of your life to give to others or ... These are just made up examples but I think you get the idea.

If you know the stanzas to create an action, feel free to. Want a melee attack that is both more precise and causes more damage? No problemo. Ryzom makes sure that the benefits and cost stanza scores are balanced before you save your action. So you will need, for instance, to add a larger endurance cost or pay with a bit of life every time you run that new action.

Even raising your attributes is achieved by buying stanzas. Your char will not automatically gain more HP or regen them faster at every level. But if you spend points buying a constitution (HP total) or metabolism (HP regen rate) stanza, then the corresponding attribute is enhanced.

Less than the increase of HP's, it's the way you can use what you learn and buy new building blocks to create your own custom attacks spells, harvesting actions, crafting modifiers … that is a big strength in Ryzom. But it takes a while to build your toolbox of stanzas, so to speak.

Money makes the world go round

I would be remiss not to mention the economy in Ryzom.

First of all, several people will be glad to know that items in Ryzom decay and disappear. Item decay is dependant on item quality (ie life expectancy) and use. If you get hit a lot your armour HP diminish, if you are not it stays at full HP. It is not possible to repair anything. In practice, you usually are in need of new, better equipment by the time your old one starts to wear out.

Secondly, crafters get a nice enough system with lots of customizations possible. All the raw materials you mine or quarter have variable sets of attributes that define their qualities for all the types of items you can make from them. So you can carefully select your components to max out the lightness of armour or its armour rating, to max out the damage or the speed or the durability of a melee weapon, or the range of a ranged weapon, or a mix of the above. Simply mix and match the appropriate raw materials and each crafter will basically obtain slightly different end products.

The trading system, however, is currently a very unwelcome jump back about 5 years in time. There are no bazaars or consigners and a chat channel is only a project right now. So be prepared to shout WTB (want To Buy) or WTS (Want To Sell) to initiate a trade. Hard to imagine nowadays.

The recent patch announcement by Nevrax does mention the introduction of NPC vendors in a couple of weeks. That change will be welcomed by the crafters. Right now, they have no market tools at their disposal.

Erm… You were going to tell us whether the game is worth playing, remember?

Oh yeah, I got sidetracked a bit here.

Graphically, Ryzom is very distinctive. None of the usual races are here. The birds, insects, herbivores, … are all quite different from what you see in other games (no recycling of yet another Orc). Spell effects range from great to superb and the sound effects are generally very appropriate and well done. The landscapes are sometimes bordering on the surreal. So far so good.

I did find the initial screen lay-out to be a mess and the key mappings to be unintuitive. However, this is completely customizable. So, 15 minutes later, I had a display and controls I felt comfortable with. The nice touch is that you can create 4 "desktops" and switch between them with a key combo. Want a different desktop for fighting and crafting? Of course. Want a 3rd one with no HUD at all for screenshots? With a bit of effort, you got it. Want the 4th one full of various chat windows all over the screen? Easy. Personally, I only use 2 desktops, but having the ability to reconfigure the screen at the press of a key is nice.

The game seems to support both solo and grouped gameplay styles. But I have no doubt that the benefits of grouping will only become clearer as players progress and specialise.

But it’s mostly gameplay wise that some cracks appear in the good looking façade. This game is out for retail with the following issues / missing elements:

• Some quests (including beginner ones) are bugged. They can't be completed.
• The quests that work, at my level at least, are limited to basic Fedex and kill X blahdeblahs type quests. Not very original.
• More interesting quests should be available later on the main continent but I don't think any player has verified that the higher level quests were working properly yet. I wouldn't be surprised to find missing / bugged high level content.
• Monsters still have pathing issues. Having a simple small tree between you and a monster means it will sometimes get stuck trying to run in a straight line towards you. Silly.
• The "encyclopedia" (a quest book where your discoveries about Ryzom are recorded, giving you access to special rewards) that was supposed to be there at launch will not be in before Patch Two, after the end of the free month.
• The ability to have children which are a genetic mix of their parents was one of the nicely original features in the game design but has now been delayed to a future patch.
• Large scale battles using the RAID engine haven't been seen in release yet so I can't comment on how they will work. But then again, it is too early for a Starship Troopers like bug invasion since players are still busy finding their marks, not organising the defense of the world.
• There are some annoying interface bugs when crafting.
• There is no in-game music at all yet. It will come later. It's true that music can get repetitive but I miss having the choice.
• No bank. If you want to get more storage, buy a mount or, even better, a mule. But, as I understand, those are quite expensive. Bank storage shouldn't be that expensive and hard to get. It should be available from the start.
• Team missions don't exist yet. If 2 players group up, each having taken similar missions, only one will get credit for fulfilling mission objectives. Basically, the game treats it all as solo fighting. This is most disappointing in a massively multiplayer game.
• The stanza system is not perfect since several stanzas you can buy right now are not very useful. So you can in effect spend your points on worthless skills, which some players will see as gimping themselves. This can all be rebalanced over time though so I don't know whether it's a lasting negative or not. A better description of the effect of some stanzas would help as well.

All in all, you get the idea. This is a game which doesn't have the polish of the World of Warcraft Stress Test yet. Blizzard is really setting the bar high with their current beta. Nearly finished released games just don't impress much in comparison.

So, you see, I'm a bit torn on Ryzom. The graphics are really nice and distinctive, the back story intriguing and immersive. The stanza system a superb way of letting each player not only level his char but also create his own set of customised actions. No need to rely only on what the devs thought your char should have. The game has come a long way since the beta that left me unconvinced. Fighting is more exciting and gratifying than it used to be.

But the game still feels a bit unpolished, incomplete and the devs would better deliver on all the promised content, or Ryzom won't last when EQ2 and WOW come out. Fortunately, GM's are friendly, easy to approach and helpful.

Scores

If I had to give it a score right now, it would be around the 70% mark, because I personally like the premise and some of the mechanics but there is still quite a bit of work to be done. If Nevrax can deliver the content promised in Patches One and Two while addressing most of the current annoyances or holes in the features list, I have no doubt that the game could easily reach the 80% mark or more. The developers no doubt keep in mind that promises will need to be acted upon to keep lots of players from migrating to the latest big thing once the next big online contenders are released. Tune in in a few weeks for our full review update to see how Saga of Ryzom is evolving.

The Saga of Ryzom is worth:

• 70% in the current state of the game. Interesting concepts but still a bit bare and rough around the edges.



• 80+% after Patch Two if the devs deliver all they are promising without any major mishaps. Can they do it? Stay tuned to find out.

Additional Information: Patch One and Two announcement

Patch One includes:

• Player Vendors (NPCs you can offer your goods for sale through)
• Theme Music
• Magician Glove
• Mounts for the GMs
• Tuning and balance for magic users – less expensive spells, a refund for certain spells, will need to redo some purchases & stanzas to adjust.
• The world becomes a more dangerous place. Creatures have their own agendas. Be careful. They just got a bit better organized!