Reducing "tediousness" in MapleLegends

While I'm all for changes, I'm for good changes. I disagree with quite a few things you've mentioned:

I agree with possibly reducing waiting time between rides, but specifically for the Ellinia - Orbis route (and vice versa) because it's 15 minutes; the others are mostly 10 minute waits, at most, I think? That's not such a big deal to wait. Also, as for riding, people have debated and discussed and I'm pretty sure the consensus was to keep rides as is; plus, having a short break is not that bad. Additionally, some people also, in particular, enjoy the Victorian-Ossyrian trip because of the CRog spawns (some ample time is probably needed for lower levels trying to kill it - and by "lower" I mean anywhere from 80-11X), and if you're a fan of HP warriors, you actually have to make use of all the current time available in order to kill 1 CRog. Thus, I don't think that, overall, having travel time is too bad.

As for your proposal concerning EXP and VIP coupons; I agree in some ways, but disagree with others. I, personally, would definitely like to get my hair that I want, whenever I want. But, some people like to play the game of chance. Moreover, you could also look at the argument this way: you choose the hair you want in the first place, therefore you should accept the fact that the one you want is up to chance; you could, stressing the could real tight here, just pick another hair choice. It's not optimal and personally, I don't know if I'm up for that, and I do know people spend quite a bit of NX on random hair, but I'm not sure if this is even really a necessary change. Beyond tediousness and difficulty, I think it's also important to consider: is change really needed?

Similarly, I think that passes on to the other things you have mentioned: Item Slots, Dark Scrolls, and Owls.

I personally endorse the idea that things stay as is, and here's why. I'll mention Item Slots and Owls first (because they're both NX).

I think that Item Slots should not be a requirement. We already have HP Washing as a "requirement" of sorts (it is at least heavily supported and people - administration and players alike - have resigned themselves to accepting it as a part of their necessary careers). Expanding item tabs is something that affects your gameplay, yes, but not as large as it would unless you were on a farmer, or, you choose to collect a lot of items. Either way, I feel that you choose to fill your inventory, therefore you should spend (a reasonable amount) to get more space. And 4 spaces is no joke; it essentially implies that 1k NX : 1 slot - which seems perfectly reasonable to me. If you lower it by that significant a margin, it basically forces everyone to expand inventories because it's too cheap not to - much like the upcoming AP Reset price reduction (which I heavily disagree with, partially because I've washed, but also because it makes it so that you must reset. Yes, it's still a choice, but the benefits are so lopsided that it pretty much flashes in your face how much you should do it, and it has immediate gameplay impact).

Likewise, Owls, I feel, are something that people can choose to buy or not - when I camp the FM, I usually check two or three times through the whole thing - people want owls to be run on mesos or free, but the former would put everyone who lacks a farmer or super DPSer at a huge disadvantage immediately (really bones new players) and having it for free feels like you're just making life easier for a rather poor reason. Owls are not that expensive in the first place, them being 700 NX for 1 and 3k for a pack of 5, and are accessible to anyone who votes or wins events because they are NX. Having free owls, to me, implies that you shouldn't have to explore the market; and I feel that defeats the purpose of actually having the free market. I can obviously see the benefits of them being free because it makes shopping quite easy, but it feels like you give yourself less time to spend in the FM.

Moreover, my biggest, biggest bone to pick with free owls means that, again, from my view, there will only be sniping wars and people are not penalized just for camping and sniping without any real investment on their part. I find that to be distasteful.

Last, but certainly not least, is the unfair balance of how dark scrolls drop: yes, I know, certain 30%s are rather cheap or at least easily obtainable and that is quite unfair. I fully acknowledge that, but I think that this change to add dark scrolls in would specifically be a change to make the game easier, not to reduce tediousness. The reason I say that is that you quite literally up the tediousness and make the game easier because it gives you even more incentive to make a farmer. The more and more stuff you can find from drops, the more people are pressured into "choosing" to make a farmer.

Also, given how many people play the game, you see a bunch of gach and drops infest the market daily, or at least be repriced.

Adding dark scrolls as drops (whether they be 70% or 30%) basically negates the existence of Gachapon; imo, the Dark Scrolls we have in the game are enough. Let's take a look at the ones I know personally drop: Claw ATT 30%, Xbow ATT 30%, Spear ATT 30%, 2H Sword ATT 30% - these items can be farmed and players for those classes can get a bunch of scrolls, and a lot of them are for fairly good classes. If you look at the prices of these items, I'm pretty sure you'll note that the most expensive one is probably the first I've listed, and even that one isn't too high of a cost (currently; this year, I have seen it gone down from 20m to what it is now). While the all-time-low prices are "great," I also feel that it makes it hard to secure mesos by selling items, which would loop back to Owl concerns, I suppose (I guess I'll have to dodge that bullet for now or think on it some more), I feel that an addition of 30%s would drop even more prices overall and make the game far too easy because we are going to be able to scroll items much more easily (note, an additional thought: I'm not even talking about perfect 7/7s or anything like that - having more scrolls quite literally means more chance to just make better items).

Personally, despite me playing a Paladin, I can admit that I do not think that these 30%s that already drop should be dropped. In my opinion, having more incentives to make farmers purely for the sake of farming unfair items (i.e. no equal distribution of 30%s like you suggest) is bad, but I don't think that simply adding more drops is the panacea to our poison.

 

Here's my opinion for your post:

- dark scrolls are too readily available now days as everyone uses gachapon. I personally do not think we need a larger supply of dark scrolls
- I personally like the amount of inventory slots each character has because it promote users to have good inventory management. In other words, people will be more forced to sell the item, or use the item for its purpose. If we live in an economy where people would prefer to save and hold their assets, instead of using and selling them, there would be an inefficient market.

 

Part of the problem with extremely cheap products is the illusion of choice. Yes, you choose to get half-priced items; but your gameplay actually will be hampered by not getting them - really cheap owls, inventories, and APs make it so that you almost need to in order to keep up with the standard level of gameplay.

 

Eventually, people will get annoyed about it and make a push for the change - don't know if you were here for the Hunting Gach update that was a bloody disaster. The nightmare happened where there was a huge inflation of drops (of the ticket) and gach rates (Hunting ONLY) and then people complained (I was one of them) about how RNG-lopsided it is; for gach items in general, that would be ridiculously bad because then people would have to farm.

Again, this reflects back on the illusion of choice: farmers then become necessary, rather than an addition or choice.

 

You're pretty much asking to reduce nx sinks, while inflating an already decreasing market.

I consider inventory expansion, exp hair and hp/mp washing nx sinks, as they can be done on any char and used to collect a majority of a players nx.

 

free appels

 

I am against removing or changing boat rides.
- it makes the Maple world feel big, you can't just jump between continents like they don't exist
- it makes people think carefully about where to train or take quests
- planes, airships, trains, a wide variety of transportation, why remove these pretty levels?
- the beginner's awe of adventure who travels for the first time to an exotic place
- you can take a toilet break, make some food or check the forums, 10 minutes isn't gonna kill you
- it gives teleport rocks a purpose

I am also against the idea of making Owls more accessible through mesos. As someone else said this creates snipe situations,
rare/uncommon items will be even more rare as more people use Owls to find them. And let's say these Owls cost 100,000 mesos,
what if someone is looking for an item that is not even worth 100k, Like random quest stuff or a couple ores? Rich players will buy a ton of Owls through mesos and search for all the valuable stuff like a vulture. Owls should be NX only because you need to weigh the risks, buy a couple Owls or save for Gachapon/AP resets?

Don't start with max inventory either. People need to learn to categorize and store their items efficiently,
not hoard everything just because you can. More circulation in the market is a good thing.

Most of your proposes are horrible ideas because you get rid of NX sinks and can have serious economic consequences.
You're suggesting to make Legends more easy and casual... well if you want everything handed to you on a platter, there is another server that does exactly that!

One of the reasons I left Royals is because everything there is too easy and streamlined. The downside is that everything feels less rewarding and satisfying. I don't want Legends to follow the same footsteps. Why not remove dice rolling and increase EXP/mesos rate as well? Because that's where the 'make things less tedious' argument eventually leads. Don't destroy the nostalgic and unique atmosphere that Legends has over its competitors.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

Interested to see Kim's response to this. A majority of this was discussed 2 years ago and you can tell how that turned out.

 

NX should not be treated as a primal source of fundings, hence the "NX sink" theory is just not correct.
So, if you want to speed up the pace of the HP washing, it would lose it´s meaning.
Like someone said before, HP washing and such are technically NX abusing.
Remember also, none of the reasons are drastically game breakers so either you deal with them or just quit like many people did already.

 

People's experiences change, people's opinions change. Just because a discussion went nowhere 2 years ago, doesn't mean it can't lead anywhere now. There isn't a person out there who knows everything and can make the right decision 100% of the time. You learn from choices you made in the past by gaining new experiences as a result of that choice.

From Kim's thread that was linked in the opening post, I can clearly tell that she doesn't think the same way anymore as she did 2 years ago when she was very inexperienced as a server owner, as this is her first time being a server owner. This is also reflected by recent choices and how we've slowly been letting loose of the strict mind-set of being completely and 100% GMS-like.

 

I was the main developer for what, 2 years? And it was never about being strict gms-like. It was about giving that old experience. I believe there's a huge difference in that. One is where you mindlessly follow what others did. The other is where you try to solve issues in a way that feels authentic. Change doesn't have to be bad, but it should belong in the big picture you're trying to create.

Usually this boils down to what is considered tedious. There are just better ways than lowering the price (which inherently doesn't solve anything). I disagree with changing the price as a solution because washing doesn't feel like it belongs in the game to begin with, it's a broken mechanism. I truly think this is a perfect example of where being gms-like doesn't have to mean just copying an old game (there have been numerous suggestions that feel more in line with the original game). But if that's what you want to do then your call.

Of course things change. But you don't give people the finger one day before the patch. That's why I suggested to at least retroactively refund people if you change the price. It still doesn't help for those who were discouraged to wash because of high prices, but at least you show some thought towards those who did it before.

Ultimately I feel like the goal of MapleLegends has changed simply to become the biggest. And there's arrogance to that simply tastes bad.

 

Maybe instead of owls being meso based, you can just have like 3 daily for free.

Not everyone can camp FM and slave themselves to the FM. Most of us play because we love maple back when we were kids. I'm 26 .. I can't just stay at home n maple all day, sometimes I need to go to the market and pick up what I need. If you can't search the market, and with the increase in player base and shops .. it becomes more time consuming just to buy what you need ..

Free Owls, 3 or 5 of them per day, non-stackable ( meaning they disappear if u dont use them within 24-h ) is ideal. Gives people what they want, what we deserve really. Who should have to pay to go to a market to buy what they need ? This aint north korea. Maplstory created Owls to take people's real cash in exchange for the covenience factor. The NX we obtain and use isn't making anyone money, therefor the reason it existed back then is different from how it is now - back then it was created to take advantage of people's eagerness and necessity to find what they need and make money off them. We're playing on a private server, you don't have to hussle us for dat sweet nx cash, you can give your community a way to do business that is healthy for the economy.

If there is a limit in how much you can use per day, and if they are free, yes people will use it, but they wont abuse it. It will be the middle ground between the people who say we need free / meso based owls, and those who basically are content because they either run FM like slaves and don't want competition from people who are on ch 6 fm fuckin 3 so they resist it because they want that ego of being ch 1 fm 1 homies.

3-5 free owls a day, refreshes daily, non-stackable.

Ideal.

 

Every server should have a clear goal and something that makes it unique. MapleLegends stopped being strictly GMS-like quickly, however, it kept the nostalgic challenge and feel that so many servers lack.

There's a huge difference between changing your route slightly for the better and completely getting rid of the original essence of the server.

MapleLegends has no clear goal or vision right now. There are so many things that admin was originally against that has been completely changed, Cashshop, royal hairstyles, AP resets, etc. This isnt necessarily bad, but it is also becoming clear that most of these things are to acquire possibly a greater population. A population similar to one of our competitors.

In February, Kim publicly wrote this in https://forum.maplelegends.com/index.php?threads/the-future-of-maplelegends.10108/:

Spoiler

"Can't please everyone
In end I can't please everyone. Some may actually like the server being extremely GMS-like, and some may not. In end however its important that I (as owner) like the server as it is."

"Difficulty:
-Requiring to actually do all the 4th job tasks is difficulty
-Needing to do bosses such as Horntail and Zakum to get their items is difficulty"

"How far do you want get away from GMS-like?
The goal of MapleLegends is something I want keep."

And it seems that a lot has changed since. Maybe its time for an update.
At the end of the day, MapleStory is a tedious game. So by how much do you want to change that?

 

More people having owls = less chance of finding what you're looking for, since chances are someone searched & bought it before you.
Giving everyone free owls is going to make searching for something harder, not easier.

Supply will decrease and demand will rise.

The reason why owls are valuable now is because not everyone uses them (plenty of other stuff to spend NX on).
This gives owl users an advantage over those that window shop. By giving everyone free owls you're destroying the purpose of them in the first place.

Sure it's convenient to be able to type in what you're looking for, but what good will it serve if the item you're looking for doesn't exist or is overpriced?

 

No man, that's wrong. There are a ton of shops right now, so only the cheapest items will be bought. Maybe. Just because someone searches for an item with an owl, there's no guarantee they're going to buy it for the given prices.

Oh, well it's unfair that the cheapest owl was taken before you could have it and rabblerabblerabble? Too bad! It's the same thing if you searched through the whole FM by hand, but the process of searching takes merely seconds rather than hours. I should also point out that people trying to sell items could use this feature, so then they could undercut other players, which would make their items more appealing and more likely you will buy them.

Free owls will not create massive undercutting wars. Nor will they create shortages. All they will do is facilitate trade and stabilize pricing.

The problem isn't that we need more resets. The problem is the game design and the community. Community-wise, this server has gotten quite elitist when it comes to bossing. Only like two top guilds currently do HT runs, and they're not only picky about their members but picky about their rosters. Why bring an arch mage when their DPS is 1/10th of the leading NL and their ultimates will wake up all the body parts? What good is a lowish level bowmaster if they're dead? Why bring a 14x NL who needs HB when we could take another who spent ridiculous amounts of time and resources washing?

And probably the most fundamental, crippling aspect of the game, community-wise, is the drop system. I think all of us who have been on a zak or HT run know what I am talking about. It's trust. When the boss dies, you aren't supposed to touch anything, the whole map is locked down like Fort Knox, and the "leader" of the run is supposed to delegate who can pick up what. If you pick up anything without permission, you're dead meat and will never boss run again. I'm not implying I agree with looting the drops, but I am saying there is a real risk of it happening any time a dedicated group adds a new person for additional help.

So they don't want to bother with the risk of drama or having a book that sells for over 100m on the market being stolen from them, all to reduce the time of their run by only 5-10 minutes, so they keep to themselves, and people who could also go on boss runs couldn't. Also, aside from the slight reduction to a boss run's time, the main group gets nothing, and it's just one more person to share the pie with.

I think what we actually might need is a complete overhaul for boss rewards. If you guys could program a giant snowman to drop an item right on top of somebody on a map, and only if they put in so much effort, then why couldn't we do the same for bosses? You could singlehandedly solve the issue of players stealing and also grant more rewards when more people are on the run, which would at the very least not make the whole environment so exclusive.

As for game balance as a whole, you really need to see this thread: https://forum.maplelegends.com/index.php?threads/scroll-for-hp-gain-increase.11671/

Some players need more HP. But there are only 4 ways they can get more HP.
1) leveling up
2) hyper body
3) washing
4) HP gear

HP gear is an interesting angle that no one has really considered. If we made the use of scrolling gear for HP more viable, players could simply make gear for HP instead. I understand this isn't exactly "GMS-like" but neither is everyone running around with ultra-washed characters.

It's not like improving HP gear would be totally broken either, because a cape that is scrolled for HP means it's not scrolled for your damage stats. So in this way, players who gear up for HP can potentially survive a boss run even without HB, but their damage will be reduced. I think it makes it more fair as well, as the warriors (and usually mages) wouldn't need the HP gear, so they won't get their damage reduced.

 

if improving HP scrolls actually goes through, would existent gear scrolled with HP be improved as well? or is that too difficult to implement. (Some people have actually "decent" HP gear, as in scrolled extremely well but still not worth using over regular gear as HP scrolls just suck)