Filed under: Ryzom

One Shots: And the moon looks down

by Krystalle Voecks Oct 16th 2009 at 2:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Screenshots, Ryzom, One Shots

While they say that life is tough on Atys, it certainly is very eye-catching as well. This alien science-fantasy shot from within the world of Ryzom shows off both terrain and something strange in the skies. It almost resembles an eye to us. That said, we'll let Vendayn explain the scene: I'm Vendayn, otherwise known as Vendeyn in Ryzom. The visuals continually impress me in the game. The planet can be considered one giant plant. Here you see the planet with a ring around it, with the planet's roots going overhead. [There is also] a peaceful view of an island.

We love to see MMOs from small to large, but we need you to send in screenshots of your adventures! Try as we might, we just haven't perfected that time machine so we can play everything we want to. If you'd like to help us out (with the screenshots - unless you have a functional time machine, in which case we'd take one of those too) send your images to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com. Be sure to add in your name, the name of the game, and a quick description. We'll post it up here and give you the love.

Gallery: One Shots

(Of course, if you send a functional time machine, we'll meet you last week and buy you a round.)

Ryzom deploys patch 1.6, extends web applications system

by Seraphina Brennan Oct 13th 2009 at 11:30AM

Filed under: At a glance, Fantasy, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Patches, Ryzom, News items

Ryzom has moved forward with their interactive web application goals, and with their newest patch players will be able to check mail both in-game and out of game.

While Patch 1.6 cleans up a few bugs, adds a few more tattoos to the game, and tweaks the GM's event creation tools, it also opens up the Ryzom player developers project even further. Beginning with the mail and notes applications, players will be able to log into the game's website to send/read their e-mail as well as review their in-game notes as long as they retrieve their API key.

One Shots: Happy 5th anniversary, Ryzom!

by Krystalle Voecks Sep 17th 2009 at 2:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Screenshots, Events, in-game, Ryzom, One Shots

While we work very hard to bring you tons of excellent daily MMO coverage, occasionally something will slip by that we don't catch in time. Thankfully we have some truly excellent readers who send us tips - or occasionally will drop us a screenshot from a celebration! Take, for example, this great image captured by our friend Petter Mårtensson, who writes over on Gamereactor Sweden and is a huge fan of Ryzom. Here's his note:

I thought I'd share this lovely picture from the 5th anniversary event which took place in Ryzom [yesterday]. The GMs set up a race in the Zora jungles, but gave it a bit of a twist and shrunk all our Mektoub mounts. (You can see some ordinary sized mounts loitering in the background.) It felt quite silly to race through the jungle on a mount almost smaller than yourself, but it was a lot of fun. The event ended with some giant monster slaying and a party in a secret oasis which normally isn't available to players. Everyone there had a wonderful evening, celebrating the birthday of a great and very different MMO!

If you know a game we don't get to look at often - or happen to catch a celebration - we'd love to see some screenshots from it. Just email them to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a quick blurb about what's going on. We'll post it out here and give you the love for sending it in.

Gallery: One Shots

Code something for Ryzom's new API, win cash!

by Seraphina Brennan Jul 21st 2009 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Contests, Culture, Game mechanics, Launches, Ryzom

If you're bored, have some free time, and enjoy coding programs then do we have the contest for you! The team over at Ryzom have put together a brand new API for their game, and they're celebrating its launch with a contest for budding developers! Even better, the prizes are all monetary!

What the Ryzom team is looking for is people who can utilize their new API for whatever gadgets, tools, or websites they can dream up. The winning use of the API will be the one that displays innovation, usefulness, ease-of-use, multilingual support, validity and completeness, and optimized coding. Popularity, stability, and availability will be taken into consideration as well with all coding entries.

The winning entry will receive 3,000 euros (approximately 4,200 US dollars), second place will receive 1,000 euros (1,400 US dollars), and third place will be netting 500 euros (700 US dollars.)

So what are you waiting for? Get coding!

[Thanks, J3kyll!]

One Shots: Hey guys, over here!

by Krystalle Voecks Jun 25th 2009 at 2:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Ryzom, One Shots

One of the things we really like to do with One Shots is to show off worlds that we don't get to look into very often. Take, for example, today's interesting screenshot from Ryzom that was sent in to us by Prisemy. It's certainly a surprisingly good-looking game for having initially been released in 2004! With a few of his own thoughts, here's what Prisemy had to say. I decided to give Ryzom a try after reading on Massively about the new update and whatnot. I have to say this is the most gorgeous MMO that nobody is playing. These Kami look as perplexed as I feel as I head off newbie island for the mainland. Where is everyone?! Don't they know there is a free trial?

If you're playing in a small game that you feel is really underrated by the general MMO populace, why not find a great screenshot of the game and email it to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com. Add your name, the name of the game, and a brief description - links to trials are handy too! We'll post it out here and who knows - you may interest people in coming by to check your favorite game out!

Gallery: One Shots

Ryzom's patch 1.5 also brings a brand new roleplaying website

by Seraphina Brennan Jun 12th 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Culture, Events, in-game, Forums, Launches, Patches, Ryzom, Roleplaying

Roleplaying is on most MMORPGs, but it can be hard to find. Sometimes the greater roleplaying community all flocks to one server, leaving you in the dust if you happen to make a character on another server without knowing it. Sometimes they're spread across all servers, only holding events at times you can't make because of your schedule. And still other times there are just very few roleplayers in a game, and that's how it is.

Well if you were looking for roleplay, look no further than Ryzom. Accompanying patch 1.5 is a brand new area of Ryzom's website -- a whole site dedicated to the roleplaying community. Roleplaying is pretty big business in Ryzom, so it serves the company well to create a whole series of tools aimed directly at roleplayers.

The big part of this announcement is the integration of the animation team with the roleplaying website. The community will be able to work hand in hand with the animators to aid their events and create things that the roleplaying community desires.

To celebrate the launch of the site, an event will be held to gather the community tomorrow, June 12th, at 7 PM GMT (2 PM EST.)

[Thanks, Petter!]

Ryzom reverting to paid subscription

by Krystalle Voecks May 12th 2009 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Business models, Ryzom, News items

Ryzom, originally slated to be shut down, was saved from going offline by Winch Gate Property, Ltd. From there, there have been two large updates to fix bugs and add new features to the game over the last 8 months. Now, the team behind Ryzom have let us know that they're ready to move the game back to a subscription model. By doing this, they hope to be able to fund further development on the game for the community, and also allow for more events.

The subscriptions will start at $10.95 per month, with a discount for multiple-month subscriptions. Added to that, they're also planning to offer a three-week free trial for current Ryzom players to hook their friends in with! The new trial also doesn't restrict play or levels, allowing any interested new players to really see what Ryzom's 'science-fantasy' world is all about. We're glad to see another MMO staying online, and hope to hear about more exciting things happening in Ryzom's future.

Ryzom switching to billing 'soon'

by Krystalle Voecks Mar 29th 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Business models, Ryzom, News items

While the players of Ryzom have enjoyed playing for free for the last while, it appears that the time is approaching for that to end. An announcement on the Ryzom forums indicates that they're working on changing the game back over to being under a pay-to-play monthly subscription. After initially seeing the game taken offline last year, then bouncing back, It's been a hell of a ride for the Ryzom faithful. While this most recent reincarnation seems to be doing well, only time will tell if the move back to a monthly subscription model will help it grow further in terms of new content and players or not.

That said, if you've wanted to check out Ryzom, you'd better get on the ball. From what their forum message indicates, you only have a few weeks left before its free-to-play status is history. Who knows, you might find yourself enjoying it so much that you roll to a monthly subscription when the time comes too.

One Shots: Sand-free drinks are important

by Krystalle Voecks Mar 24th 2009 at 2:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Screenshots, Ryzom, One Shots

We've often discussed how much we dig the idea of user-generated content, and while there are some MMOs making inroads into it, Ryzom has had user-generated content for some time. Today's lovely and tropical screenshot (perfect for the warm weather of spring) comes to us from Petter Mårtensson, MMO fiend and fellow games writer, who writes in: Thought I'd send you a screen from Ryzom, a game which truly deserves more attention these days. It's my fyros Anioo in her new set of heavy armor, standing outside the bar in Thesos. The bar itself is owned by the barkeep Pecus Cegrips, who always make sure that the drinks are free from sand. Which is a good thing, considering Thesos is located in the Burning Desert in the northern parts of Atys.

If you're playing an MMO we don't see often - or even one we see regularly - we want to see your screenshots! Who knows - you may recruit some new players to check out your game. Just email those screens to us at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the game, and whatever you'd like to say about the screenshot. We'll post it out here and give you the credit for sending it in.

Gallery: One Shots

Ryzom going to monthly subscription

by Krystalle Voecks Jan 6th 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Business models, Ryzom, News items

Ryzom has been up and down, with changes in models, cancellation, and being re-launched. Recently, it's incarnation has been a free-to-play game, but word has come down the wire that to continue running Ryzom, they need to reinstitute some type of fees.The good news for those who loved Ryzom before, or who perhaps are newish to this world, is that the fee structure will be less expensive than previous incarnations. The better news is that they will continue the current free-to-play model until the end of January, in case you were considering checking it out but hadn't yet.

For month-to-month, you will pay $10.95 (7.95 €, £ 7.75); for three months at a time you'll get a discount down to $10.25 per month (7.50 € of £ 6.98 per month); 6 months will cost you $9.49 per month (6.99 € or £ 6.63 per month); and finally a year's subscription will discount furthest breaking down to $8.83 per month (6.50 € or £ 6.15 per month). With as many folks who are opting to give up on extra MMO accounts due to the cost, the price break may well keep Ryzom afloat - or even attract some players who want to try out a visually exciting new world for a bit less than the $15 many MMOs charge these days.

[Thanks, AterNox]

A five-hour look at Ryzom

by William Dobson Dec 21st 2008 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Classes, Game mechanics, Crafting, Ryzom, Opinion

Ryzom certainly has a very shaky time-line, changing business models, being canceled and then saved. This sounds like a bit of a disaster, but in reality, it's proved that it can survive in the often-harsh MMO industry. A huge part of this resilience is the game's loyal fanbase, and in a recent first-impressions piece over at Eurogamer, it looks like the single server's community is still going strong -- in fact, it might be one of the reasons to give Ryzom a try.

The author of the article documented his first five hours with the game, reporting on each hour's experiences. He learned about the lack of restrictions with class choices, the stanza system (which allows players to customize their abilities), and discovered that Ryzom is definitely a lot more hardcore in terms of the hand-holding gameplay hints that most MMOs offer these days. Luckily, he found a lot of real people willing to help him out in learning the ways of the world.

This all sounds fine and dandy, but there are a lot of negatives too -- chief among these, the unintuitive crafting system, the grinding to raise different levels, and the harsh penalties associated with failure. These things are apparently bad enough to turn a lot of folks away, but for some, it's easy to look past them and enjoy what is there. We'd be interested to know where our readers stand on this title at this more peaceful stage in its life.

Tabula Rasa: Saving the game

by Tateru Nino Nov 23rd 2008 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Business models, Culture, MMO industry, Ryzom, Opinion, Tabula Rasa

Between desperate battles against the Bane, about all anyone can talk about in Tabula Rasa right now is the impending shutdown of the game service. Website efforts are being touted to solicit ideas for rescuing the game from shutdown, people are discussing the operating costs for the game, some are hoping that Richard Garriott might rescue the game from NCsoft, while others blame him personally for the game's shutdown.

Some are hoping that a player consortium can raise enough capital to buy the game assets from NCsoft itself, much as was attempted with Ryzom (and very nearly worked, until they were outbid by another company which resurrected that game anyway).

Low signup rates have largely been balanced out by attrition from a lack of ongoing endgame content. The focus on trying to improve early and midlevel experience, which caused uncertain, multiple rebalancings of the game six to eight months ago left top tier players, well, falling off the end a bit. "People had done it all," says level 50 player Paddy Oshea, "I know I was one of them."

One Shots: The unchanging desert

by Krystalle Voecks Oct 14th 2008 at 2:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Screenshots, Ryzom, One Shots

It was here, it was gone, now it is back again. No, we're not talking about the seasons -- we're talking about Ryzom! We're glad to see that it was brought back online, and as of August, was allowing new players to check out the world again. Today's One Shots comes to us from the very strange lands of Ryzom, and was sent in to us by Zxy of Arispotle. Zxy tells us more about the above screenshot: Desert is always the same. Summer or winter, rainy or fair weather - you always have sand, wind and sun mixed in a constant proportion. Locals will never understand what we, raised in the Forest, feel when a sudden glimpse of green emerges from behind the nearest dune. For a second you put away your digging pick and dream of home.

We love seeing worlds that we don't get to see often, so if you're playing a game that hasn't gotten love (or even if it has) we'd love to see your screenshots and hear your tales. One Shots is a great way to discover interesting looking games -- or to show off the cool games you love to play. Just send some screenshots to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name/server/guild and a brief description -- or a more in-depth story about the image. We'll show it off to the world and give you the credit!

Vanguard vs Ryzom: Is "harder" better?

by Shawn Schuster Sep 23rd 2008 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Game mechanics, Ryzom, Opinion, Vanguard

Ryzom is a game that has surely seen its fair share of peaks and valleys throughout its lifetime. It has closed and reopened several times, but the reasoning for this is up for debate. Is the game too hardcore or just too "hard"? Over at the Voyages of Vanguard blog, Beau Turkey (former host of Ryzom Radio) takes a comparative look at the two games he knows the best: Ryzom and Vanguard.

In this comparison, Beau explores the idea of Vanguard utilizing some of the difficulty of Ryzom. That's not really to say that Ryzom is a particularly difficult game in terms of gameplay, but as Beau points out, many of the game's mechanics make it more hardcore than others. This includes no real definitive class structure, map travel options and non-repairable loot that deteriorates over time. Would Vanguard players be able to handle a Ryzom-type world, or would Vanguard itself benefit from being more "hardcore"? Check out the complete article for Beau's prognosis.

Ryzom devs describe plans, promise free play through October

by Samuel Axon Sep 18th 2008 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Ryzom, News items

Ryzom (or the game formerly known as The Saga of Ryzom), came back to life a little over a month ago. Rumors of its death had apparently been greatly exaggerated. Now the development team has published a document detailing its plans for the immediate future.

The first item on the agenda is "to get profitable." Good plan! Money will surely be helpful. The second item: "To get all our new Developer Teams up to date with the Ryzom code," a task that is apparently quite difficult because there are millions of lines of code to get used to. Finally, the team is putting together a development schedule for adding new missions, content, and features to the game.

Our first impressions of the re-launched game were positive. It's a bit laid-back compared to other titles. We're glad to see that some clear goals are being set for the game's future, but of course until the dev team manages "to get profitable," that future will remain uncertain. If you want to give it a try, though, the devs say it will remain free at least through the end of October.