Embracing Power Creep: Gear Progression and Scroll Crafting

Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. How the system works
3. Potential Problems
4. Final Words


Introduction

Power creep is inevitable in RPGs, what was once average will become below average in time. This is very true in MapleLegends, where the average power level in 2018 is lower than what it is in today’s Maplelegends. However, with the bar raised to what is considered to be average, the floor and cost to reach and progress to enter the end-game also goes higher. This is a concern to many of the players who reached, are reaching or wanting to reach the end-game in a server that has aged and matured to what it currently is.


I previously suggested that Mr.Do needs an upgrade in his craft and be able to craft 10% and 60% scrolls as well as the inclusion of pirate-specific weapon scrolls. This introduces a way for players to get scrolls without relying on extreme levels of RNG either from hunting mobs for a small chance to get a scroll, kill area bosses or through gachapon and its pool of hundreds of items. Odds range from uncommon to rare and this makes buying or selling a more reliable way of obtaining these scrolls, not that trade is bad, but for the sake of getting things your way without relying on others, that is what some players may want and have expressed in the past and currently in the present. However, the suggestion of Mr.Do’s craft getting an upgrade does not solve the problem for mid-game and end-game players.


The main problem for many mid-game players is the supply of some 30% scrolls and 70% scrolls that are gachapon locked. As for end-game players, the issue is the demand for end-game commodities such as White Scrolls, Chaos Scrolls and to an extent, glove scrolls 30/70%. The solution to this problem is lowering the demand of these scrolls by giving the players the option to craft 10% and 60% scrolls to 15% and 65%.


How the system will work:



Talk to The Glimmer Man to upgrade your 60% scroll to a 65% scroll by providing him:

Spoiler: 65%

60% Scroll [5x]

Subani Ankh [1x]

Wisdom Crystal [2x]

Dark Crystal [2x]

Mesos [2,500,000]

Talk to The Glimmer Man to upgrade your 10% scroll to a 15% scroll by providing him:

Spoiler: 15%

10% Scroll [5x]

Subani Ankh [5x]

Wisdom Crystal [10x]

Dark Crystal [10x]

Mesos [15,000,000]

This will make the suggestion of Mr.Do have more value and importance, as well as increase the value and significance of doing the new Crimsonwood Exchange as it was critiqued to have a feast-or-famine-like reward system with most of the rewards being bad or having no value.


Potential Issues

With the upcoming Prestigious Coin system as well as the scrolls shaking the market there is a sense of uncertainty as to how it all plays out. However, with an ever increasing amount of meso being made on a daily basis, whether it comes from multi-mage farmers or single mage farmers, this will undoubtedly mean prices will gradually increase (whether that is a good or bad thing, is another topic). In the case where White Scrolls and Chaos Scrolls reach the 300m threshold or higher, it will push more people to start caving into sweaty ways of farming meso as a single character (mage or melee) will start to feel tremendously slow.


The introduction of these scrolls in conjunction with the Prestigious Coins will definitely lower the demand (and also increase the supply) needed for White Scrolls overall, as you statistically need ~3.333 less White Scrolls to pass 1 slot with 15% scrolls. However, with Subani Ankh being an item needed to upgrade scrolls, this will ultimately rely on the supply of the ankhs, their market price as well as the market price of the other materials. This will encourage players to do the Crimsonwood Exchange for the Ankhs, which will also cause an increase in the supply of White Scrolls as a result of the two being tied under the same prize pool. This may cause the price drop of White Scrolls, and perhaps the price of Chaos Scrolls as the two scrolls are tied under the Prestigious Coin system, which is either good or bad depending on how you see things.

Final Words

Thank you for coming to my TED talk about embracing power creep and addressing some issues regarding progression and how some systems currently feel terrible.

thanks to fartsy and Skuire for helping refine the idea and look at it uwu

 

But its 5 ankhs for the 15% also 10%s are used in the crafting process so they're not entirely obsolete.

I won't declare my numbers are perfect (cause they're probably not). Overall, suggestion just adds more player agency in terms of progression and I think that is something that is lacking since you're relying almost entirely on RNG.