The Saga of Ryzom

seriously, I've seen SOOOOOOO many people running around with Magic Amps it is ridiculous. like 8 out  of every 10 players I see is a Magician of some sort.

very rarely do I see a Melee character, and I've never seen anyone else besides me holding a Gun.  but I understand about the Guns...

ammo weighs too damn much, it costs too damn much,  and it is really a ton of work that a Ranged character has to go through just to be able to use his weapon on a regular basis.

Melee and Magic characters don't HAVE to do any other activities *if they don't want to*. while it seems that Ranged characters are pretty much forced into both Harvesting and Crafting.  I understand the want for realistic game mechanics like this, but it's still pretty imbalanced that a melee character can just go, and go, without a regard to much, while Gun-wielder has to worry so much about harvesting and crafting his ammo on the fly(because he can't carry a decent amount of ammo without being locked into place).  if the Ammo were weightless this wouldn't be a problem, a character could just dedicate some time to crafting a ton of ammo, and then take it out on a hunt, and then craft more ammo when he gets back to civilization. 

are my gripes out of line here?

Right now, I'd say that grinding ranged fight is a real exercise in masochism. But the reward is that, once you master launcher or autolauncher, you truely become a weapon of mass destruction. Ranged fight and magic afflictions are those skills that very few people bother to go after, but those who do master them are really something to fear at outpost battles. They are eviiiil ! 

Elemental and heal are just so heavily sought after that almost anyone will get to level them at some point. And casters generally master at least one melee branch for the higher constitution (HP) and metabolism (HP regen) bonuses. Once they have it, it doesn't mean that they'll necessarly use it afterwards, though. Also, people have taken the habit of ALWAYS carrying a pair of amps with them, even if digging or meleing. Switch to amps, heal, switch back to whatever you were doing.

You could challenge yourself in playing a character that doesn't practice any magic whatsoever, if you feel like it. Most people just wouldn't deprive themselves from training those skills just because they are useful and the game allows them to.

Originally posted by JMadisonIV

seriously, I've seen SOOOOOOO many people running around with Magic Amps it is ridiculous. like 8 out  of every 10 players I see is a Magician of some sort.

very rarely do I see a Melee character, and I've never seen anyone else besides me holding a Gun.  but I understand about the Guns...

ammo weighs too damn much, it costs too damn much,  and it is really a ton of work that a Ranged character has to go through just to be able to use his weapon on a regular basis.

Melee and Magic characters don't HAVE to do any other activities *if they don't want to*. while it seems that Ranged characters are pretty much forced into both Harvesting and Crafting.  I understand the want for realistic game mechanics like this, but it's still pretty imbalanced that a melee character can just go, and go, without a regard to much, while Gun-wielder has to worry so much about harvesting and crafting his ammo on the fly(because he can't carry a decent amount of ammo without being locked into place).  if the Ammo were weightless this wouldn't be a problem, a character could just dedicate some time to crafting a ton of ammo, and then take it out on a hunt, and then craft more ammo when he gets back to civilization. 

are my gripes out of line here?

You have to consider some things:

1. most of the people, when they don't do any melee, just stay always in LA and with amplifiers. They are the most social clothing used. Someone can use Medium Armor too but they are fewer.

2. Despite the freedom around the skills, there are always conseguences in a choice or another choice, in the same way if you decide to stay neutral and even when you choose a faction (altars are in differen locations, so sometime a faction,one or the other,  is more lucky than the other considering the altar position).

The skills are logically linked in some way so, if you wanna be only a mage, you still can raise your constitution but a bit slower than a melee character. I think this is logical.

3. If you think as a solo player, then it will appear a bit unfair, because, despite soloing is doable, Ryzom is clearly team oriented, even for harvesting (and even for crafting, if you wanna do some rite and don't have the related crafting skills). With friends and teaming any choice is affordable.

The same thing happens very often in other MMOs too, when forming a team requires specific class. In example: if you are a melee only character, obviously, you can't duo very well, not being able to heal back your teammate.

But making a team of 3 people, with 2 people able to heal, have no drawbacks at all and works affectively as any other kind of team. The point is: know what you can choose and what will be the conseguences of your choice.

4. Most people will tell you that you 'have to' skill healing at least even if you want to do melee only. That's not true.

Skilling is not mandatory, just requires a different approach to the game. And, of course, skilling more different skills requires a lot more time than skilling only one skill (i know this is obvious, eheh).

5. I understand what you said about ranged skills and that is the only skill i totally agree with you being very hard to play. Probably it's too hard.

Anyway i know a lot of players that have mastered it. The reason you don't see many of them going around in ranged (apart when leveling) is because the skill (expecially the launchers/autolaunchers) is played better in solo than in team (despite i've teamed sometime with ranged people) considering it is the only skill that allows you to kite, secondly, ranged is mostly used during Outposts War, where the ranged is very effective, and it is the main reason why people master it.

About being forced to craft your ammo (at least after lvl 150), I agree with you, but you can still trade for them. The reason why people naturally go to craft them is because Ryzom's main feature is crafting (and harvesting). Imho.

I am not saying that you are wrong, I'm just telling my opinion about what Ryzom is and why it works in this way. You can like or dislike and you can post your opinions.

I don't know if things can be changed or not but your opinion is valuable and, if you have any other concerns about the mechanics of the game, it could be a good thing to post them using the ticket system in game (in the suggestions section) directly to the devs.

Anything can be good to improve the game and playability and your gripes are not illogical and point at something that can be discussed deeply.

Anyway, apart of these concerns, I hope you are having some fun in Atys. :)

I'll be honest,all the magic users in ryzom pissed me off. It made me feel like casters were unbalanced that's why all the older players prefered that style.

I play 2h melee. I just hope by the time i get to 250 i won't be a gimp bitch because I didn't level pew pew magic.

No, you'll be using Magic Protection Aura, with special PvP jewels and wack thos casters on the head, interrupting and stunning them repeatedly... but if there is one thing that is deadly to a mage, it's a max range/speed gun (launchers or auto-launchers, I don't remember). Rangers can run while shooting, and shoot while out of range from casters, while casters can't move during casting or their spells will be interrupted. 

I've only played for a year and even I can know those things. But if you don't try to learn, you can't get to know. Melees are useful, mages are squishy glass cannons, because casting their ubernukes costs a LOT of stat credits, thus casting while getting hit makes you die faster if you can't kill your opponent fast enough.

Originally posted by metalhead980

I'll be honest,all the magic users in ryzom pissed me off. It made me feel like casters were unbalanced that's why all the older players prefered that style.

I play 2h melee. I just hope by the time i get to 250 i won't be a gimp bitch because I didn't level pew pew magic.

 

The thing you may not be grasping is that a large number of those people you're assuming are "magic users" may actually melee a lot more than they use magic. Ryzom's class system is wide open. Consequently, most people have a mixture of talents, rather than essentially gimping themselves by completely foregoing one or the other. My strongest suit is 1H melee, but you'll see me running around in my red dress and amps a lot because my guild needs me for healing duties.

Anyway, don't worry. I seriously doubt you'll get anywhere near lvl 250 in 2H melee before you start leveling at least defensive (healing) magic, because you won't get anywhere near lvl 250 without grouping and you'll be the odd man out of a lot of groups if you can't heal. Then, once you start leveling heal and acquire the gear to be decent at it, you'll discover that you can't melee 2H  effectively in LA or MA and it's far too cumbersome to constantly be switching your armor set back and forth when you're grinding. So you'll learn some offensive magic just so you can fight without changing clothes. And so on and so on.

Don't be a hater. You're going to be running around in amps one of these days in spite of yourself and some newb is going to turn up his nose at you, too. :)

odd, I often get told "omg I dont recognise you in light armour"

remember when considering "everyone is a mage" that many people are in harvesting gear and just put some amps in their bag to allow for the odd bit of trouble, its a bit harder to do that with range/melee gear considering weight issues etc

melee in my opinion are king

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Originally posted by jackoba
odd, I often get told "omg I dont recognise you in light armour"
remember when considering "everyone is a mage" that many people are in harvesting gear and just put some amps in their bag to allow for the odd bit of trouble, its a bit harder to do that with range/melee gear considering weight issues etc
melee in my opinion are king

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Indeed, I spend most of my time these days foraging and crafting, so I'm equipped with light armor (with focus boosts) and jewels (with focus boosts) and the appropriate foraging or crafting tool, and no other unnecessary anything filling up space in my bag that I could otherwise fill with materials I've foraged or items I've crafted.

Note that I said "unnecessary". You should never leave town without some way to defend yourself. Atys is dangerous. So my magic amplifiers stay equipped unless I am actually foraging or crafting. Why amps and not my trusty axe? Because in focus gear I need to kill that evil mob before it gets to me, not after it's had a chance to gnaw my squishy legs off.

However, until yesterday my highest level was in a melee skill. Now I'm forced to admit that my offensive magic capabilities have exceeded my melee abilities, by 2 levels. Time to work that axe again...

"Hello, Void, Mini-tank 226 LFT"