Free to play MMORPG Ryzom launches on Steam with Linux support

I'm glad it is on Steam now. This is an odd game. IIRC you can host your own server freely.

If you make content for it, however, the "official" server can use it and profit from it .. again this is from memory so might not be current info.

If I understood correctly it's an open source rerelease of a 2004 MMORPG. Had someone tried it before ? How good is it ?

Quoting: psyminI'm glad it is on Steam now. This is an odd game. IIRC you can host your own server freely.

If you make content for it, however, the "official" server can use it and profit from it .. again this is from memory so might not be current info.

Not sure about self hosting, but I think I remember you could design your own instances, including quests and NPC actions and share them with the community. That open scripting of world internals is in contrast to the personal user interface scripting available in the better popular MMOs out there.

I'm intimidated to give it a spin and check how populated the servers really are after all those years.

Does it have a good roleplaying community? I can give it a try, but if it's all about grinding, I wouldn't be so interested.


Last edited by Shmerl on 6 May 2016 at 5:20 pm UTC

This game has the best community I have ever seen. People are helpful and mature

If anyone has any of the mouse sensitivity bugs left, like FPS deepened mouse bugs, and different sensitivity between camera-drag and normal mouse-cursor sensitivity. Give me a shout. This means they still didn't apply the patch I provided.


Last edited by Qantourisc on 6 May 2016 at 6:19 pm UTC

Do they provide a 64-bit client for download? I remember checking it a while back, and they didn't have it. I guess other way to get it would be building the source of course (and replacing the binary / libs from the official client).


Last edited by Shmerl on 6 May 2016 at 7:59 pm UTC

Quoting: toorThis game has the best community I have ever seen. People are helpful and mature

But is into roleplaying or into mindless hack-n-slash / grinding? For instance WoW is the later.

Quoting: Shmerl

Quoting: toorThis game has the best community I have ever seen. People are helpful and mature

But is into roleplaying or into mindless hack-n-slash / grinding? For instance WoW is the later.

When I played it was quite roleplay heavy with events frequently hosted by players. There were also a number of high level players just hanging around the starter area to help new players out.

There is quite a bit of grinding though, but not of the WoW-like variety (ie, repeating dungeon runs/raids to get gear drops etc.). It's more because the economy is player-managed, all gear is crafted, materials have to be gathered etc. It's grinding, but of the more leisurely variety.

Quoting: rustybroomhandleThere is quite a bit of grinding though, but not of the WoW-like variety (ie, repeating dungeon runs/raids to get gear drops etc.). It's more because the economy is player-managed, all gear is crafted, materials have to be gathered etc. It's grinding, but of the more leisurely variety.

That reminds me of PlaneShift. But I don't mind that kind of activity, since it can fit with roleplaying well.


Last edited by Shmerl on 6 May 2016 at 8:30 pm UTC

This game has the best community ever, or at least had since I last played one year ago.

The gathering, crafting and skill system are VERY REALLY VERY much deep and complex. You can create any skill you want from compatible 'effects'. You add negative things such as mana cost and cast time, and add positive things like damage, conditional effects, hit rate, etc. Insane really, since you can create any skill.

Gathering is largely dependent on regions, seasons. Very deep vein searching. No equipment dropped from mobs. All is player crafted...

Also liam, the things you mentioned (bloom, FXAA, Depth of Field) were already in game for a few years. They are not new to this steam release (even on the native Linux client for at least one year we had those).

However, Ryzom is OLD. Many players have maxed absolutely everything (which should take 3 years of gameplay or more). This is the reason why I quit. There were new players, lowbies, people with alts leveling BUT there are also many with gear which is almost impossible to craft unless you play for yeeeeears (such as the golden sets).

The only second negative point about the game I think it's worth mentioning is that I felt very little mob variety. There were some 20 models of monsters only. They change in colour, shape, size, behaviour, texture, but still only those few models. The world is so rich in other things, however, that this was not a big issue for me. Maybe for younger players used to games with 20GB or more of data it could be.

The AI is insane as well. Mobs are seasonal, migrate, move in packs, etc.

Highly recommended. Take it with open mind. It's not a sandbox, but rather THE sandbox MMORPG. Only comparable to SWG in terms of depth.


Last edited by khalismur on 6 May 2016 at 8:54 pm UTC

Would you say role play is the only way to truly enjoy this game? If most of the experience is based on crafting and exploring for drops, what is there to get from Ryzom that you couldn't get out of, say, Minetest?

Also, Winch Gate sure know how to advertise hooooooooo boy!

Quoting: AnxiousInfusionWould you say role play is the only way to truly enjoy this game?

If it's on-line RPG, I expect roleplaying to have the major focus :) Otherwise it's not an RPG, right? That's the reason some on-line multiplayer games drop RPG from the title and call themselves MMOs.


Last edited by Shmerl on 6 May 2016 at 9:24 pm UTC

Quoting: AnxiousInfusionWould you say role play is the only way to truly enjoy this game? If most of the experience is based on crafting and exploring for drops, what is there to get from Ryzom that you couldn't get out of, say, Minetest?

I played with moderate active role playing and it was a blast for some four months. Didn't play Minetest (am I missing much? ) Since many players are maxed out in everything or mostly everything (3+ years of play), they help newbies and are active in guild RP, which is why the community ROCKS. It's definitely a good experience for the sandboxer, maybe not for the younger crowd used to insta-reward and easy mode everything like in WoW retail.

I quit because of RL changes but the game is truly deep and complex and engaging. The skill system is so unique I cry with little customization of other MMORPGs, where usually the 'Talents' are made as a way to customize skills. In Ryzom you CREATE skills in any way you want.
Want a magic bolt with ultra range and ultra hit rate, special effects? Will need to compile the skill with lot's of mana use, cast time, low damage, etc.
Fast close range blast spell, heavy hammer crushing hit, etc etc. You can do it all. No classes, so you can even mix that things to have a true hybrid character. That's why the very old players were so powerful. They mastered all schools of combat and gathering and crafting (gathering is divided by gathering in lakes, forest, deserts, jungles, etc...) and are just too powerful. But since there is almost no PvP, there is no direct competition. The focus is really PvE.

I'm going to give this game a shot down the road but right now I only get 30-45 FPS when maxed out on my R9 390 so I will shelve it for now. Looks very interesting though.

Hm, judging by the comments here this really sounds like my kind of mmorpg. I just hope such an old game have been properly visually upgraded along the way.

While I enjoy Runescape, I'll give this one a shot too...

It's a week free2play for all (with all features).

Though, if you subscribe, be aware that if you drop subscription you can't play anymore. You can only play freely if you don't pay at all, once you paid you can't go back to free2play.

Quoting: BeamboomHm, judging by the comments here this really sounds like my kind of mmorpg. I just hope such an old game have been properly visually upgraded along the way.

WoW wasn't either and is still up and running :D.

Sounds Really interesting. Tell me, I've never done an online game, is this something that you can play semi-casually (Not sure if the right word - play for a short period of time every once in a while), or does it require a rather large time commitment to really enjoy?

I ask as I only have a few hours a week of time to myself for R&R and if you need a continuous session to be a few hours long (before you can save/quit), I might have to skip it until I get more free time!

Thanks!

Just a general note: It's mostly open-source, but the audio assets and the story/gameplay scripts are not. Still a great pool of open source assets though.

It's just such a shame that this never really took off in open-source development. Sure, it got some improvements and works quite well on modern systems... but it's still essentially the same game with little custom made content or alternative open-source game servers etc.

I guess it is mainly due to the fact that it is just sooo outdated by today's standards that improving it in your free-time seems like an uphill battle :( Maybe a Android port and a VR version would help, as for those the relatively low-spec requirements actually help getting a larger community intersted.


Last edited by Julius on 8 May 2016 at 3:43 am UTC

Quoting: Julius[...] I guess it is mainly due to the fact that it is just sooo outdated by today's standards that improving it in your free-time seems like an uphill battle [...]

Graphics, models, textures, shaders, etc. are outdated, I agree.

I read the server coding is quite advanced though. The UI is also fully modifiable.

I just wish modern RPGs had the same 'outdated' skill, gathering and crafting systems of Ryzom. There is A LOT to be learned from this game.


Last edited by khalismur on 8 May 2016 at 7:04 pm UTC