Tag patching

Trekking is dangerous business, obviously.

A couple of days ago I got tired of digging on my own outside Pyr, so I quit my Ryzom-guild. My old guildies were very understanding and I quickly found myself a new, more active, home. The game changed character instantly, suddenly I found myself surrounded by people to do things with, and I also got to go on my first trek from Pyr to Zora (where our guild hall is located) that very night. Moving between cities in Ryzom is not something you usually do on your own, considering the amount of creatures that want to eat your face on the way, and without the security keeping me safe I would’ve never made the trip in one piece.

Ryzom has also seen some developer love during the last couple of days. This Monday saw an event where the players were gathered up to kill a demonic kitin, then the game got a nice patch which saw the starter area getting a revamp and crafters now being able to tag their stuff (Beau has written a bit about it at Spouse Aggro, I haven’t had time to check out Silan yet), and last night a new event took place where the kitins planned to avenge their fallen comrade. The various races were told to meet with their leaders in their respective capitals, so me and a few members of my new guild gathered in Pyr.

One of the fights against kitin patrols in Under Spring. The colors!

After getting a speech from the Fyros emperor, the gathered players teleported to Dyron from where we trekked up to the portal to Under Spring. It was my first time in the Prime Roots, mostly because my level in fighting is 52 and the mobs there are level 200+, and the area was really impressive. Once there, we were attacked by wave after wave of kitin patrols – I tried desperately to heal the people in my team without much luck, mostly because my healing sucks compared to the massive amount of health some players have. We wiped three times in Under Spring, while we were getting reports from the Zoraï about them also having some troubles standing up to the kitin advance.

In the end, the area had been cleared of kitin. We took a breather until it was time to move to the Wastelands, where the final boss of the event had spawned. Some of us, me included, had never been to the Wastelands before, so we had to make the short trek from Zora, luckily without incident. When we arrived we met with the other three races and our combined forces – after a chaotic wipe to a major kitin patrol – managed to fight their way to Middle Point, where one huge kitin awaited our arrival. That fight, the final one of the evening, was truly epic and the whole battlefield lit up into one giant display of fireworks as everyone nuked all they had against the boss. I kept healing, but the few experience points I should’ve received were all eaten up by the death penalties from the four wipes.

The last boss of the event. Look, mom, I'm healing!

It was a spectacular fight. I don’t know exactly how many of us that were there, but with the combined forces I am guessing around 100 players in total. I am not sure how much fun I actually had, after all I didn’t make any difference and I couldn’t do much except spamming my pathetic heal during the whole event, and the writing and acting from the event team were hardly top notch. But it was great to see something like this happen in the game and that the new developers are trying to push the saga of Ryzom forward.

With the new guild, the new patch and the current storyline – with the increased presence of kitin patrols in the Prime Root-areas – it’s hard for me not to fall completely in love with Ryzom. The game that at first seemed like nothing but a giant grind fest is slowly becoming so much more. It is still free to play, so I recommend that you download it and give it a try. It’s totally worth it and since Silan seems a lot more friendly to newbies these days, it’s the perfect time.