Make PQs Great Again!

Definitely agree, it needs to be on par with grinding exp wise. I remember it was a good way to make friends too!

The leeching is a bigger issue, but unless we are willing to take out the whole mechanic there isn’t much you can do about people that prefer leeching, which imo is a bad mechanic

 

Agreed! <333333

 

Enjoy the progress not the goal, but the progress too dayum long haha.

 

I support this idea as long as it doesn't make rare scrolls TOO easy to obtain... Personally I still like the challenge of grinding and the satisfaction when the scroll finally drops (For example, CFA 30% from Nightghosts).

Another idea that can maybe revive PQs is to add some kind of queue feature. Like, if you come to Orbis PQ ch1 and there's nobody there, you can talk to Wonky and "register" your name, then go about your business. Basically it's like leaving a message with him that says "hey, I'm interested in OPQ, hit me up".
Later, when someone else comes, they can talk to Wonky and check who registered. If that person (or people) is still online, they can whisper each other and arrange a party. Perhaps there could even be a notification sent to all players that registered, once there's 5 or 6 of them and they're all online.

It's just a general idea, and it may not be perfect, but I think it's way better than coming to ch1, seeing nobody, and just leaving.

 

Wouldn't it still be fine if the rate was really low, but the possibility exists? And yeah even if one user creates a lot of mules other people could still join his/her party... buuut it's not ideal and I agree with your sentiment that it'd be broken. Or perhaps the untradable rewards could be buffed a bit, i.e. Wonky's glove being 5 att clean... but I don't know too much about that.

I haven't liked the idea of an FM queque when something of that nature was discussed before, but it's really starting to appeal to me. Maybe the idea of registering with the NPC and being able to play freely, name being displayed on the FM board for the next hour/until you log off. I know it's not easy to add, but that alone could increase the incentive.

 

I agree with the untradable rewards, the only thing I can think of that would be annoying is getting scrolls for another class, but in that case maybe the reward is something like a 30% scroll coupon then you go exchange it into a untradable 30% scroll of your choice? Now I think about it people can still abuse that too!

Anyway for the queue idea: something like the boss party finder thing in gms where you can start queuing, once the party is filled, everyone gets teleported into the pq map?

If that is a lot to implement, maybe just send a global message that someone is looking for group for x pq. Sure people can buy their own megaphone for that but this makes it easier for the low level players saving their cash for other stuff.

 

One of the reasons why I always do KPQ and LPQ regardless of how tedious they can be towards the end (LPQ...) is that they have good rewards:

1. Slime Shoes and Broken glasses are something that I can use for a long time until I get my end-game gear.

2. KPQ rewards you occasionally with some overall scrolls, and LPQ drops gear, which could be great money for low-level characters.

3. Both PQs give decent exp too.

It would be great to see similar things like that for the other higher level PQs. I love how the official Maplestory has these theme dungeons throughout your levelling journey, perhaps if we can balance all the PQs to be more viable levelling/rewarding activities, we can have something similar, where players would play a PQ for some levels, go grind/quest for some more levels, then go to another PQ, vice versa, we already have this progression from lvl1 to lvl50.

 

I tried to solo Ludi PQ before (the longest PQ in my opinion) with 4 mules and made it to boss stage, sadly all my gears are trash so 3 mins for Alisha Boss is impossible LuL

 

Adding my two cents to farming PQs,

Even if there is good rewards from farming them and people do it together with guild, doesn't that promote party play and a more social environment?

Also, in the case of a solo player, it's probably more worth it to sell leech instead of risking RNG for a potential scroll to abuse.

Furthermore, even if everyone actually does "abuse" the pq to farm 30% scrolls, I would argue that that's a good thing since it hugely increases the supply of these scrolls and thus making them more affordable even to those who aren't interested in PQ

 

In all honesty, it really depends how hard you are going to buff the rewards of the PQs. If it is a small buff (like adding in gacha as a global reward at a small chance), I don't think muling is even an issue.

However, if it is a large buff, like every other PQ gives you a GOOD reward (1m+), then muling could become problematic.

 

Yeah I agree it's hard to balance due to the mule problem (as we all witnessed in 2017 summer under da tree...and certain guilds gpq rank hahahaha) But apq is balanced out nicely after a couple tries after people don't bother bringing their mules and doing it due to Apple drop rate not being so high and the pre quest ticket being a bit of a drag. Good items so people are willing to do if friends ask, but lowrates for it to be worth not selling leech over.

 

What I meant about buffing the untadable rewards is the OPQ and MPQ equivalents of slime shoes and broken glasses. Most people go through the 35 LPQ's to get the broken glasses, which have good stats and occupy a slot you wouldn't otherwise occupy.

But OPQ's reward for just 40 pq's is a 1 atk glove clean. Because it's untradable, most people see no use for it when they can get a scrolled glove relatively easily that they can also sell later, rather than waste gfa scrolls on something untradable for only a bonus of 1 atk.

MPQ rewards you after 50 pq's with a necklace that's SLIGHTLY worse off than deputy star, which every funded and semi-funded character will have, or can be acquired eventually. The only thing it has better is the (relatively high) chance to get more HP than a deputy star.

I won't even talk about PPQ's hat reward, which is sorely outclassed by a zakum helmet, but at least PPQ has an extended level range and less players required, so it's easier to get together.

 

Love the idea, want it 100%.

 

From my experience with kpq these past couple of days: smega is the best way to get a group together, ch1 is pretty dead. I am guessing some players would want to kpq but don’t want to park a character at the entrance, so it could be something as small as a global message (like free smega with a set template) or something more elaborate as npc registering a list (assuming that would be a bit more code change)

 

Free smegas is a huge no, those things are annoying as hell, and a smega usually doesn't make someone magically appear. It would also still require the player to stay at the place of the pq while waiting for people to show up, which defeats the purpose of the solution.

The best solution imo to help pq'ers unite is to transform that huge currently-useless notice board in the fm (and other towns) to a list of potential party members. More code, yes, but if anything that's the best solution because FM is accessible from anywhere so if you want to grind while waiting for a party to come together you sign your name on the board (ie a command that adds your name and lvl/desired pq to the list). Then you could check back every once in a while and see if others added their name and make a party, or be PM'ed by someone else when they notice the quota has been filled.

This, or buffing rewards as I mentioned, or both.

I do think the bigger issue IS finding others to PQ with. They could be in the game, but nobody is willing to go actively looking because it takes so long.

 

Would adding the dimensional mirror be an option? It was placed in a few locations like henesys, orbis and ludi and connected to the PQ lobbies in an attempt to make PQ with friends and guilds easier.

 

To make PQs great again, for people to go back to them, it's time to increase the EXP reward from a run.
I'm sure no one in their right mind at lvl 75+ would go to PPQ ( if not for the hat ), because 150k exp per run + let's say another 50k from killing mobs ( 200k for experimental sake ) is just shitty.

Does anyone in their right mind go do a PPQ for 4/5 mins for 200k EXP per run?
GS2, Voodoo, WindRaider, WolfSpider and much more give 3m+ EXP per hour ( let's keep for calculation sake 3m ) , that's 3m / 60 = 50k EXP per minute
So with the 4/5 minutes you already made ~200k to ~250k exp in the same time the guys at PPQ take for a run.

Plus with the mobs said above you'd be able to get equips, etc and stuff that can be used to gain back the mesos to buy another bath of grind pots.

I'm not sure about the reason that made LMPQ die.
It was perfect back in 2017 ( when I played my Hunter / Ranger ), got it from lvl 51 to 71 in like 40ish hours of LMPQ, that because the EXP was great, from the summer event, and there were tons of people there, because the EXP was delicious compared to GS2.

 

I 100% agree with you Motto. Although personally I take my sanity in mind, therefore I prefer to pq, but if others need a bit more incentive I think that makes sense. Also, I think the addition of EPQ (while great) added a bit to the division of pq's at 51+, perhaps there was also a resurgence of OPQ's popularity around that time... I really think FM should generally be used more to recruit/ find pq's.