The State of Ryzom #1
Interviews

Daniel Miller: We don't have any plan for the possibility of growing hair or beard, as going to the hairdresser simply answer to that question. Concerning the alteration of a character's look based on its age, you might see that one day, with the implementation of the possibility of having children. Characters would then age after the birth of their children. But don't expect to see that in the near future, as is it not in our priority list at the moment.

Daniel Miller: Note: Question answered by Sabine Flier, Event Manager
Since the launch of Ryzom the in-game events have been underlying an ongoing process of evolution. The different community management teams, working for Nevrax, MDO, Jolt and Themis Group, have been running both their own independent events and the larger events supplied and coordinated by the Nevrax teams. This model will develop over the months to come, with an increase in the depth and complexity of the independent events and an increased focus on storyline progression for the coordinated events.
Through the last months of 2004 the coordinated events were relatively minor, lasting anywhere between a few hours to a weekend. Since the beginning of this year we have run the first of a larger type of event, which invaded significant portions of all main land maps and lasted for over a week. This event pitted the civilisations of Atys against a powerful invading force and introduced new concepts, rallying characters of all orientations to help in the effort. Craftsmen and foragers strove to supply the civilisation outposts with the materials that they needed to equip NPC guard groups. These in turn provided support to the foragers and combat players as they sought the raw materials that the craftsmen required.
On the subject of communication, the way in which we communicate depends on the event type. In a nutshell, there are hints and announcements leading up to 'predictable' events, but there also has to be some room for surprises. For instance, if the Kitins plan a sudden attack on a city or village, you won't see communication on it beforehand, since you can't force insects to announce their attacks on Hominkind. On the other hand if the council plans a gathering in Pyr, you will read about it, also about reports of the scouts of the different continents, if there are Kitin and Goo movements. In the general way, events are communicated in advance, during the event itself and after the event. There are teasers in the game, communications on the "Chronicles" section of the website and announcements in the "The Saga" sections of our official forums.
As to rewards, these vary from event to event and can range from money, fame and special titles to recently integrated items. Of course not every event can provide items which are more powerful than the ones players can get in normal play. This would unbalance the game and disadvantage players who weren't able to participate in events. It depends more on the difficulties players have to face during an event, which leads to your next question.
Fairness in events is a huge point. The races are all different. There are variations in the numbers of characters who can be mustered, the skill sets of these characters and equipment that they have. There are also big differences in the landscape. On some shards there are large scale migrations of players from one map to another during events. On others the different races are left to fend for themselves. All of this said, we are taking a particular look at the Trykers and at what can be done to improve their fun for the events to come.
There is a large number of new event features in the development pipeline at the moment. There are new chat channels for improved coordination and access to event information, modifications to the death penalty system to allow invaded zones to be death-penalty-free throughout the duration of long events, and more...
So look forward to improved events, as we are doing our best to balance and provide more information and help on the upcoming events.

Daniel Miller: We cannot give you much information at the moment on chapter 3, as the developers have their hands full working on it, but we can give you a hint about its major content. Chapter 3 should greatly please players, as it will include something that has been expected for a long time, the outposts...