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The Saga of Ryzom - R2 Overview Feature

Jon Wilcox

09/09/2005

Nevrax describes the R2 scenario creator in the second part of our look at the MMO Saga of Ryzom extension, the Ryzom Ring...

Continuing our look at Nevrax's Saga of Ryzom expansion "Ryzom Ring", David Blanchard introduces TVG to the R2 scenario creator...

Introduction
In this article, we are going to leave the description of R² tools to one side (for a while) and more generally focus on the âserviceâ provided with the Ryzom Ring extension. Here, the word âserviceâ encompasses all the peripheral features provided alongside the tools for creating and running scenarios. In this article, we will focus on the concepts of collaboration and sharing between pioneers.

We will, of course, come back to the description of tools in coming articles. This overview of the service is intended to give a more general idea of our ambitions for R².

Now, we will follow the adventures of a pioneer â“ we will call him Matthew -, from his discovery of R² to his first successes of creator. Here, the aim is not to be exhaustive, but to illustrate with examples some of the possibilities of the service.

Getting into R2
First creation and first run of the scenario
Matthew is not a âhardcore playerâ, but a regular player of SoR. Reminded of his days as a Game Master in Pen and Paper RPG, he decides to test R² and to create a first scenario (players with very different profiles from Matthewâs can, of course, exploit R² in different ways, but Matthew serves us well for todayâs example).

After a quick overview of the Ring tools, Matthew knows what he wants to do: he enjoys the journeys across Atys (scouting out the land ahead, skirting past dangers, pausing to regroup and admire the awesome scenario, â¦.) and decides to recreate this experience by developing a convoy escort scenario: the players will have to help an NPC to escort a herd on a perilous trek to their desired destination.

The scenario is created via the editor tools (we wonât go into the workings of the editor tools here as they have already been introduced in previous articles and will be revisited in the articles to come) . Negotiating the various pitfalls and ambushes in the terrain, the final objective that Matthew sets for the player is to reach the end of the adventure with as few losses, within the herd, as possible.

A first version seems to satisfy him, so Matthew decides to propose it to some of his fellow guild members with whom he gets on well. Matthew contacts them ingame and agrees with them on a date. When the moment comes, Matthew launches the scenario and opens an access to the players. Those players are warned ingame and via their personal space on the R² website (see frame n°3) â¦ and the fight for the survival of the mektoub herd begins.

Editing scenarios with the aid of other players
One of the participants -we will call him Olivier-, particularly appreciated the way Matthew animated the scenario. He has developed a component which he called âambushâ, in which the players must counter waves of increasingly aggressive enemies. Olivier thought he would use it for his own scenarios before diffusing it via his personnel space on the R² website. But after participating in Matthewâs scenario, he estimates that for a first use, his component would fit in here perfectly.

He contacts Matthew to make him aware of his idea and he also thinks that the component would have its place within his scenario. However, he would like to have the assistance of Olivier to integrate the component, so he loads the escort scenario up in the R² editor and uses the âinviteâ feature to give Olivier the possibility to log in and join him. Together they set up the âambushâ and fine tune certain elements of the story.

When dealing with players...assisance can be useful

Planning a play session for a punctual adventure
Bolstered by the positive feedback from his fellow guild members, for his first run of the escort scenario, and by the addition of the "ambush" component, Matthew reckons that the scenario is ready for the player community. He decides to run the scenario for anyone interested from the Ryzom-playing public. Matthew posts a âplanned sessionâ on the R² Web, specifying a date, the number of player places available and the rough level required to participate. He adds a general description of the scenario giving a little story background to set the scene. As soon as Matthew hits the âDoneâ button, players can see the session listed on the R² Web and in the R² interfaces ingame. They can sign up to play the scenario, as long as there is an open player slot. As players sign up, Matthew can keep track of his list of players in real time.

Scenarios with multiple game masters
As the planned date approaches, Matthew runs a few test sessions with a few friends. It becomes clear that the combination of an elaborate scenario and a bunch of players splitting up and running off in different directions is more than Matt can manage on his own. To prevent problems, he decides to invite Oliver, with whom he clearly gets along, to help him run the session.

The session was a big success and, although Matthew had initially only called on Olivier for security (in case the players split up and things got out of hand), he had actually played a big part in making the session truly memorable for the players. It became clear from the feedback at the end of play that, above and beyond the quality of Matthew's story telling and of Olivier's ambushes, the true strength of the session had come from Olivier and Matthew's collaboration. While Matthew put words in the mouths of the escorted NPCs to warn the players of the dangers ahead, Olivier played out the role of a prowling Gingo boss looking out for opportunities to dispatch his minions to go after the escorted animals.

Is this only the beginning?

Sharing in editing and in running scenarios
Following the first run, the scenario starts to live a life of its' own. Any pioneer who wants to run it themselves can go to the scenario's dedicated page on the R² site and schedule their own run with just a few clicks. At the same time, pioneers who want to not only run the scenario but also modify it and add their own ideas can find download links on the same web page.

TVG would like to thank David Blanchard for his overview of Saga of Ryzom's Ryzom Ring.