MapleLegends' priorities

1. New content AKA LKC
2. Hero buffs
3. Investing resources in end game rather in early game

 

#1 HP Challenges

There are a lot of characters, especially amongst new players, that are going to be waiting on the HP Challenges. It also opens up a lot of content for a lot of people.

#2 Single Attacker Balance

The prestigious coins system was a great update to help attackers and single-client players get more consistent sources of income. I think there's more to do to on this matter to ensure that single-client attackers, especially those with only one account and one character to meaningfully participate in end-game content.

#3 Class Balance

Class balance will always be an ongoing topics, but ensuring that all classes have end-game viability is important for long term player satisfaction.

 

Priority 1: HP Challenges

I think a lot of the HP challenge doomsayers are almost all minmaxers when the average player is much more casual and this will keep them from leaving the game as they progress. If they decide to also minmax then they can swap to washing on their follow-up characters.

Priority 2: PQ Revamp

New players will almost always go to PQs on their first character. However, PQs are in an absolute trash spot and give a horrible impression of the server which causes people to quit. I did one run of LPQ on a new Pally for nostalgia and then promptly logged off. The party I joined had 2 people doing nothing because they were int lords and since we didn't have enough for 6 people, we were running with 5 people. That means 3 people were effectively doing the PQ for EPM that is HALF that of grinding. GPQ is also worthless and needs to be revamped.

Priority 3: Relevant End-Game Cleave Content

The introduction of more relevant cleave content (with good EV or else people just won't do it like Auf) beyond just CWKPQ would actually fix the point and laugh at heroes problem that everyone has. I wouldn't mind a buff on rage range to match that of SE or SI though since someone always misses the buff.

 

#1: Nerfing Heroes
#2: Nerfing DKs
#3: Nerfing Shadowers
#4: Buffing Buccs

 

1. HP Challenges
2. PQ reworks
3. Non-NX equipment covers PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEE

 

#1 Stable client
Opening maplelegends can be a nightmare sometimes, at least in win10

#2 Visual and audio clutter in bossing
It's just awful sometimes: can't find yourself, can't see boss animations, sounds on with a lot of people can make your ears bleed

#3 Class balance
It's almost there

 

On a high level as opposed to individual updates:

#1 Long-term player retention: e.g. balance updates, content reworking/additions, additional forms of progression (especially post 200), anything to reduce burnout and loss of motivation
#2 New player retention: overall, the community is pretty mediocre at welcoming new players and encouraging them to stick around (obligatory s/o to Krythan for carrying that effort), but the server dies without a good flow of new players
#3 Class diversity and individual expression: beyond simple class viability, more distinct class identities and avenues for the individual player to make their character unique in some way - hp washing is an interesting (albeit unhealthy) way the server has achieved this so far, but as everybody finishes washing to 30k or settles for challenge hp, endgame will look more and more monotone. I think individual expression is crucial to overall longevity in an MMORPG, even if it's relatively minor or partly cosmetic, but more ambitiously, endgame subclass specialisations could be so interesting for this game

 

1) hp challenge

2) dojo + medal to give casual players more hp

3) lhc/lkc

 

What I think the priorities should be:
1) New content releases (HP challenges, Lionheart castle, elin forest bosses)
2) Game balancing
3) Events

What I currently think the priorities are:
1) Events
2) Game balancing
3) New content releases

 

Personally, I don't even like events, I'm less motivated to play when they're out and it doesn't have any nostalgia for me. Just wondering, am I the only one who feels this way?

 

Its hit and miss. I like the current one because I can participate without losing my forward progression, so even when I self leech I can participate in raffle and get a little ev boost with the 888 mob quest, and still upgrade rings.

The grindy JQ/PQ events that force me to devote all time to it are what bother me the most, because I either grind at an event (or pq) that I don't like for the meso or favour progression and give up on the event entirely. I did snowman pq maybe 10 times before I left because the difficulty (for me) was so high for a PQ I found extremely annoying and unengaging. So while my friends burn themselves out farming 1-2m nx I couldn't be bothered, instead I did 3-4x the amount of HT runs because of high Mw20 prices.

Seconding what akashsky had to say.

I have had probably 4-5 friends quit the game in the last 2 months because they were first time chars, unwashed and started into HT/endgame only to realize how huge of a disadvantage they had, and after dying over and over realized they're playing the game on hardmode by not voting for years before they joined.

For the health of the server, personally I think challenges should be the #1 priority, not because I'm biased being unwashed myself, I manage, but because every new player that joins is making a failed character until challenges fully release.

2nd Early/mid game experience/Player retention.

Do I feel like that has been the primary focus? Yes and no. Its hard to say what the staff is focused on when they have such limited resources/manpower. If it were a team of 50 devs all on the payroll it'd be easier to discriminate.

Personally I largely disagree with many of the changes that have been done/how things have been addressed however most of it doesn't affect me, and I try to keep an open mind as to what the goal was when the change was made, so I withold my judgement from the staff.

Early game/mid game remains in a pathetic state/borderline non existent and morale is often carried through into mid/end game through a few hospitable guilds/groups of friends. New player retention/experience I don't think has been addressed once (aside from tier 1+2 challenges) since I started this server a year ago. My wife recently started the game and I couldn't even give her an option as to what character to choose because shad is the only one capable of most end game content without washing/heavily relying on HB. How can I tell my wife okay great you want to play? Vote for a minimum of 3-6 months for a warrior then come back so you can actually play.

It's been mentioned before but when there is a large lack of transparency, it is often easy to point fingers and play the blame game. We only see the result but not all of the work that goes into it, so when someone's class gets nerfed/changes we don't like all we see is the nerf, not the 2 months of behind the scenes work staff was doing on content/challenges.

 

When events with temp gear come out im bummed my to-be attackers aren't ready to engage in most of the content yet. Wish i could get the rings on my bishop and transfer them to my INTshad or something

Shoutout to bossmanKrythan O7

 

1. Quests should give better rewards.

A lot of quests have very disappointing rewards. I have really tried to complete most of the quests, but the tasks for some quests are so dreadfully long, and the rewards so pitiful, that I have stopped doing most quests now. Grinding is almost always the faster way to gain levels and mesos. The server has a 2x exp, 3x quest rate. This is equivalent to a 1.5x quest reward. It's not enough. Quests should give more exp, more mesos, more consumables, more equipment, scrolls, gachapon tickets, more of everything. Grinding levels gets boring. Quests give me something to do.

2. Better job and skill balancing.

As it stands now, all jobs are not created equal. There are 3 main reasons for this:
First: HP/MP gain from AP and level ups is broken. Washing is technically a bug exploit. It's far too ingrained in this server to end washing, and washers still have an advantage over the HP challenge system. If the AP system and HP/MP level up gains were properly balanced, we wouldn't need washing or HP challenges. Putting AP points into HP, without washing, should be a viable build.
Second: Skills are unbalanced. Some are literally useless and broken. A few examples: Final Attack and Holy Arrow. Any player that chooses to max either of these is just throwing skill points away. Final Attack is easily fixed by removing it's damage divisor. Holy Arrow is easily fixed by making it multi-target and/or raising it's damage to at least as much as Magic Claw. Please balance job skills.
Third: Equipment is biased heavily in favor of some jobs more than others. Compare warrior equipment to magician. The current mage meta is Luckless mage. That means the vast majority of magician equipment is literally useless. But warriors can use all their equipment. Removing the LUK requirement for magician equips would fix this. Another example is swords vs blunt weapons. Swords are objectively better in every way. This has been mentioned numerous times in these forums but has been ignored. Removing job requirements for equipment may also be a good idea, especially for odd jobs. If my cleric has enough strength, let him use a hammer. It's a traditional cleric weapon anyway.

3. Do more to bring in and KEEP new players.

This server has a very "private club" mentality. The world feels empty and lifeless. Players ignore each other and rarely talk. I have tried talking to players in game and almost always get the silent treatment. Silent mules and AFK bots abound. Party play is strongly discouraged, both in the attitude of players here, and because of the fact that being in a party has little benefit for players, if any. (Besides single player multiclient parties.) Even now, with 2 of my characters at level 30, neither one has ever been accepted in a party. I've been playing modern Maple, and as much as I dislike all it's modern problems, Legends also has it's problems too. I would not be too upset if I quit playing Legends, but I intend to continue playing. I have simply accepted that I must play solo until end game or so. A great idea would be a "Newbies" guild. All new players are immediately added to the guild and it would give us a sense of community. Currently, I feel isolated from your "elite club".

 

1. New cosmetics
2. New gameplay content
3. QoL and technical improvements

 

Reading through replies I see a lot about "class balance" and "HP challenges" which I don't think should be priorities. This isn't really surprising but I want to explain why I don't put them on my list at all.

HP washing doesn't make my list because HP washing isn't a problem for basically anyone on the server. OK, it's a small problem for everyone on the server because it structures the economy and the way people engage with the game, but it's not a big, existential problem for anyone on the server right now. People who are strongly opinionated against HP washing are not on MapleLegends to begin with. These players have no reason to come here if HP washing was completely gotten rid of and HP washing won't be completely got rid of, anyway. It's not going anywhere and everyone who plays this server either accepts that or doesn't care. It's not a big problem anyway, most bosses are clearable on most jobs with no washing at all. I reckon that very few players are actually in the position where they are geared and leveled to clear end game bosses, have cleared everything they can without HP, need more HP to clear a few last bosses, and are liable to quit or lose interest in the game as a result. We know that challenges are coming, I'd rather staff take their time on it rather than put it at top priority.

Class balance doesn't make my list because good MMORPG design makes balance elusive and hard to define. Most people would agree that mages are unbalanced simply because their ability to farm far exceeds all other jobs. Mages are designed, however, to specialize in farming (except Bishop which for some reason also gets to be one of the most important support jobs, but let's focus on arch mages). They bring NOTHING to most boss content. This is how RPG balance works: some classes excel in certain situations or bring certain abilities to the table, others excel in other ways. No two classes are tied at any given activity. So what would balancing mages look like if it was top priority for staff? I'm guessing it would look like mages' AOE farming ability getting nerfed and tweaked every patch and their single target abilities getting buffed repeatedly until it was on par with other attackers. What exactly would the end goal here be? Should mages single-target damage be better than any other class, or should they just see nerfs in their AOE with no buffs in single target damage? Should other jobs get their own full map attacks? Should bosses be redesigned to favor cleave and full map attacks? I really can't think of a good way to prioritize balancing the game without totally redesigning how multiple jobs function. I think the better approach is to put balance on the backburner and focus on the stuff that actually is fun and exciting, namely new content and cosmetics.