Spouse Aggro

One of the benefits of the new Ryzom patch is the ability to see farther than before. My feeling is that they had this ability as “officials” of the game, being that the load in screen shows some shots that made you say “How’d they do that?”

It could also just be the freeing of the ability to adjust the sliders that far. There are some camera options that can be tweaked in files in the Ryzom folder that will allow your camera to zoom out farther than normal, but any altering of that file voids your “warranty” as far as the code is concerned. The officials always maintained “If you break your game by messing with that file, we cannot help you.”

This is common in MMO’s: many engines are more powerful or can do more than we know, but the developers might hold back on standards so that performance, for most, is pretty good. In Vanguard, the setfog command let you see for (what seemed like) miles and miles, but they took away that ability for (I think) more uniformity in performance.

I would bet it is still there and tweak-able, but not officially talked about anymore. Could be wrong. I talked to Silius at Fan Faire about the setfog, and he had expressed concern back then at some players use of the ability. I had also heard from players, telling me they thought it was unfair that a player with a better machine could run it at the max limits, and see further, than a player that ran the game at it’s default.

I feel that it is up to the individual, but can see how a developer would want to be much closer to a constant for all.

Back to Ryzom: now, if you turn everything all the way up, you can not only see scenery at a greater distance, but NPC’s, players and mobs as well. Ryzom is well known for it’s mass-mob engine, that, by drawing some mobs at a lower detail setting, allows for more mobs to be on the screen at once. Massive battles run smoother this way;  watching migrations of many many animals is a pleasure.

I ran up on a hill soon after I loaded the game, and sure enough, I could see a player standing far, far away. I could even hover over them and get a name, and was able to click on them and send them a /tell.

Immediately the game felt more realistic. Being that the distance was so great, you could sneak up to a hill, creep over it and actually see an enemy down the way. Below are some screenies taken by Arcueid. Many thanks! If you click on them you can see a larger version. Enjoy!

Keep in mind that Ryzom is still free, for now. Go to http://www.ryzom.com for more information.

The Lakelands at night: (More textures on the Roots! (EDIT: Branches! )  WOOT!)

Zorai buildings:

Karaven meanies:

Some of the rare, lower roots:

Beau