Economy Changes to Diversify Play Styles

How does the economic system affect player behavior?

Players need resources such as EXP, equipment, scrolls, materials, etc. to progress in the game. For example:

• Players will hunt Zakum in order to obtain Zakum Helmets.
• Players will participate in APQ in order to obtain Onyx Apples.
• Players will farm Veetrons at ulu1 or ulu2 in order to obtain Red Cravens.

Neckson originally designed this game for them to profit.

Players will have to spend NX to buy Gachapons in order to obtain end game materials (CS/WS, 30% scrolls, PGC, etc.).

MapleLegends originally retained the gachapon available for purchase with NX. However, NX no longer needs to be purchased with money, but can be obtained through voting. This will encourage players to vote.

In 2018, shortly after I joined, MapleLegends decided to remove Vote2Win, which I think was a great decision. So gachapon became only available as drops from monsters. Obviously, this is to encourage everyone to grind or farm.

Under these conditions, some smart people found a way to maximize efficiency using multi-mage farming. It's now well known to most people, and dwarfs single-mage farming.

Although it has been nerfed several times, it is still the most efficient way to obtain resources.

Later, some other changes were made, such as:

• 30% scrolls can be obtained from CWKPQ.
• Prestigious Coins (material to craft CS/WS) can be obtained by defeating high-level bosses.

These are good changes that effectively makes CWKPQ and boss hunting an alternative to farming.

But these gameplays have high barriers to entry. For newer players, they still need to rely on farming to reach this threshold.

What is the problem?

Not every player likes (EDIT: mechanically repeat the mage ultimates for) farming.
The efficiency of farming varies greatly between classes. A player needs to play a mage in order to farm efficiently, even if the class he really wants to play is an archer. To make matters worse, now he may need to play multiple mages.

This discourages many new players. And we need new players to join to maintain the existing community.

Are there any alternatives?

Yes, but not much. Such as APQ and Event PQ.

The great thing about APQ is:

• It provides a consumable item (Onyx Apple) that endgame players need.
• It’s an exclusive item, you can’t farm apples nor gacha for it.
• It requires active playing in the reward stage (prevents muling).
• Its entry barriers are relatively low.

However, It is still possible to multi-client in APQ in multi-channels.

Event PQ has been changed to be better

For example, it now requires some skills and active playing to defeat the snowman quicker in snowman PQ, making muling no longer an advantage.

How can we change?

The following proposal is just a demo to illustrate my ideas.
It will need community wisdom to be more mature.

Guidelines

1. Give lower level players more access to end game consumables.
2. These consumables should not be farmable elsewhere.
3. Require time and effort to obtain such items.
4. Encourage active playing, prevent muling.
5. Encourage trading between players.
6. Encourage class diversity.
7. Enforce a daily and weekly cap, to prevent abuse.

Proposal
Since we already have custom systems like

CS/WS = 40 Prestigious Coins + 30 Prestigious Diamonds + 30 Prestigious Crystals.
These names are just to distinguish different materials.

Prestigious Coins (High level Boss)
Obtainable from: Pink Bean, Horntail, Neo Tokyo, Toad, …

These are the coins we are already familiar with.

Prestigious Diamonds (Low level Boss)
Obtainable from: Ravana, Papulatus, Zakum, Krexel, …

The lower the average level of the squad, the higher the drop rate.
(mules and buyers should not be counted, but how?)

Prestigious Crystals (PQ)
Obtainable from all party quests (including CWKPQ, GPQ)

Party quests will have their level caps unchanged.
Higher level players are welcomed to create new characters to join low level PQ.
To prevent muling/soloing, Reward stage should be in LPQ style, not KPQ style.

How to set the cap?

PQ without caps will drop (untradeable) Prestigious Crystal Ores.
Players can refine Prestigious Crystal Pouch using Ores by a daily quest.

Estimated Result

For a level 50 player
He can sell P.Crystals to level 200 players, and afford zakum helmets.

For a level 100 player
He can sell P.Crystals to level 200 players, and afford some leech.

For a level 150 player
He can sell zakum helm service to more level 50 players (previously unable to afford).
He can also sell P.Diamonds to level 200 players.
He can buy better bossing gears from level 200 (whether it’s retired or clean boss drops).

For a level 200 player
He won’t need to farm using multi-mage as much as before to perfect his gear.
He could spend more time bossing and sell gears / services to lower levels and buy materials from them.

Final Words

I’m borrowing some ideas from other MMORPG games.

The core idea is to let players in different stages work for different resources and trade with each other. So making progress is no longer so mechanical.

Any thoughts?



EDIT 1: Reward jump quest also?

 

First of all, it's not locked, CWKPQ and GPQ are availble for end game players.
On the contrary, I'm preventing end game items to be created merely from low level contents.
If we just let LPQ drop P.Coins, people can just repeat LPQ to make CS/WS.

Besides, we are lacking new contents. But some lower level content is being wasted, such as OPQ, MPQ, PPQ.
End game people can create new characters to enjoy that content and get their end game materials.
It will also make new players easier to find a party.

And most importantly, people get to know each other from party playing.

 

Fair enough. I may need to change the way I phrase it.
It's not that these people don't like grinding their characters.
It's that they don't want to create a mage and mechanically repeat the mage's ultimates for farming.
They prefer party playing and socializing.

 

They can still play the game in the old way if they don't sell these items to other players.
If they sell, they create supplies for end game players. Exchanging their effort of playing with an old player.

Besides, It's not all about new player experience. It also adds content for end game people.
Sometimes I miss the low level party quests but feel like it's not worth playing.

 

The rewards you get from it are so poor compared to other ways to play.
That's why we need it balanced.

We have already fixed some of the design flaws in the original game (skill changes, prestigious coins, hp wash challenges).
Why not fix more?