Brainstorming alternative ways to obtain "vote" cash

You're forgetting the idea behind voting in the first place.

Websites like GTOP and TopG provide easily accessed marketing. By letting users vote, you vote for your private server being "the best" which in return gives you NX because servers want to be high on the gtop (and topg, but like.... lmao) website(s).

Getting rid of voting also means getting rid of that marketing outlet, which means MapleLegends would need a new outlet for marketing efforts in order to reel potential new members in. It needs to be an accepted outlet that seems (semi-somewhat-ish) trustable.

Users love NX and we can gate it behind anything or nothing at all, but the NX is not necessarily the issue. Could even do a login, get a quest to talk to an NPC for the NX. I'd argue it needs to be consistent and provide a benefit to MapleLegends as well. Or, if possible, no user-generated ML marketing benefit anymore. And just provide users the NX without worry through "free" methods like you mentioned above.

 

I feel like moving away from voting virtually has to go hand in hand with additional marketing strategies for ML.
This is probably way beyond what we as players should focus on, as marketing and advertising are staff's task and nobody likes backseat gamers.
However, cutting off 'our' position on topg/gtop (no matter how lovely it sounds) would currently harm the influx of new players.

Edit:

Fk u

 

Just wanted to say big thank you for starting this thread and having the community help us brainstorm ways to get vote cash while we work on our more long term solutions, we love ya'll

 

This might be a very stupid idea (as I can imagine a lot of people aren't fond of it), but perhaps it's an interesting train of thought to continue on in some other way, shape, or form.

Clearly there's a symbiotic relationship between the server and the players; the server wants to attract more new players and the players want NX. Building upon this concept, I feel like there's a fairly straightforward and logical solution.
Would it not be an idea to reward players for spreading the name/links/whatever?
I personally wouldn't be particularly jumpy by the idea of "like us on facebook to receive x NX" per se, but I feel like similar options might be possible. (Twitter, liking the other MapleLegends socials, perhaps ML could even start a youtube channel where in-game content is avoided and we could perhaps seek to have trailers/event announcements that don't risk any DMCA's)
This, naturally, wouldn't so much be a solution to replace voting, but it could help in a transition towards a GTop-free world.
I'm just rambling, please don't flame me too harshly~

 

Interesting idea, but that would be a major bummer for the people who do not like to use social media. As players of ML, I feel we have the power to improve the retention of the new players that join (rather than bringing in the new players), as we definitely can positively influence that with our actions in game.

 

Gtop seems pretty useless as I'm pretty sure the entire audience of gtop already knows MapleLegends exists. I doubt it does much other than promote smaller/newer servers as past a certain population everyone interested already knows. It's probably never caused a spike in population like the advertising campaigns did.

I think a good system would involve being able to easily gain ~5k NX in <3 minutes, with an additional ~1-2k NX possible with some sort of effort involved, like a task that takes >10 minutes. This lets people gain decent NX on their less-invested alts while giving an option for more invested characters to gain NX more quickly. Maybe tie it in to playing a game of Omok/matchcards with someone, along with killing those games in the FM to force people out into towns more.

 

I got to know MapleLegends through Gtop. Back then I was just looking for a private server and needed a list to choose from; Gtop provided one and ML ticked most of the boxes I was going after.

 

IMO, I think a daily reset quest (Can be hunting quests or just travelling across towns looking for random NPCs) is the best way moving forward, forcing people to play the game.

 

I dont think switching entirely to gain NX ingame is a great idea. I have been on and off with Legends for about 2 years now, and the voting really keeps me in the game, I like it when I come back I have plenty pf NX to design my new look, owl and stuff as well. I surmise having to log in to earn Nx through a quest would burn out players more than ever (usually I only binge thro events). It’s something I dont think should be exclusive to active player since we already remove the vote2win factors. Not to mention HP washing already requires 3 years worth for NL, I think limits Nx to strictly ingame only make the HP washing even more complicated than it is right now.

Despite GTop being a toral d, I believe most players still find us from that site. GTop has been around for at least a decade, people like me still go to GTop to look for a new private server, and to be honest, it is the easiest option right now. I think that exposure still benefits us one way or another.

I like the Twitter campaign and the promo code. But honestly I cannot think of any good methods to move further away from voting ._.

 

If we are going to remove nx gain from voting on a third party site, and instead shift it over to an in-game source, I'd like to see it rewarded based on actually playing the game.

-Make monster nx drops function with the party play system for points (if you loot a nx coupon, active members of your party should also get some nx)
-Make PQs reward nx upon completion or increase the drop rate of nx from the bonus stage(s)
-Make expedition bosses drop 5k nx coupons
-Make quests reward nx upon completion

 

Constant influx of new players is partially what keeps our bossing economy sustainable. So it's worth considering how to maintain that. That being said, it's probably more efficient to just run dedicated ad campaigns on FB/google etc. Put some dev hours into adding more donor outfit / chairs into the game, so whales can fund the game for the rest of us. Donor exclusive events with max FOMO for new rotating limited edition outfits and chairs.

Edit: $50 pufferfish pet pls

 

*I'm not going to focus on an exact change with numbers and all that but a layout on how I believe the nx system should evolve in Legends*

INTRO
IMO changing the nx system shouldn't be something that is taken lightly or look for some fast easy replacement. Legends is still one of the few servers that rely heavily on HP washing & have a good amount of players that are actively saving a large amount of nx for a big wash or already have a character with a large amount of int/mp in the works waiting for more NX/resets. If implemented poorly this can be the type of change to push a lot of people to just jump ship. At the same time, you have the opportunity to really change the system of which people have obtained nx in servers for many years.

MY CONCERNS
The entire private server community is use to getting NX with 0 effort/0 time played. In Legends the average daily voter could expect to be obtaining 7k nx a day (7.5k max when voting on blue twice) on one or more accounts. I believe that no matter what type of system is implemented, you have to keep this effortless/No time spent way of obtaining NX. Otherwise I fear that many people will give up on their long term char projects/future mains, ultimately quitting. But at the same time this is a huge opportunity for Legends to add a lot of incentives to parts of the game & iron out some of the issues plaguing Legends over the years that could just be wasted by slapping some meaningless website button for NX. So I believe the new system should be something encompasses both passive/effortless rewards & action rewards (Finishing X task gives you nx).

THE NEW SYSTEM
I believe something similar to the event point system should be implemented. NX replacing points & account bound instead of character bound. The point system seems to work well will encompassing multiple ways to obtain points, so I believe it should equally work as well with implementing multiple NX methods together as well as still managing an upper cap.

I believe the ways people should be able to obtain NX is both passively & work based. I will list many different ideas that involve other concerns in previous feedback threads, other additions some servers use, & incentives for weak/less rewarding parts of the game. Note that I'm just listing as many as I can come up with, no matter if I agree or disagree with how good they are/if they are something worth implementing. Each method can have their specific nx output controlled, to ensure something passive for example doesn't overshadow work based.

*Passive* (I believe these passive methods should still ensure the player 7kish NX daily)
-Continue to have voting on GTOP/TOPG - I don't believe getting rid of GTOP/TOPG completely is the right choice for Legends just because of how poorly its implemented or our egos being hurt for dropping a few ranks. GTOP/TOPG are still some of the main ways people find private servers & I believe removing it completely will just distill doubt in current/future players minds on if Legends is worth the grind moving forward and what kind of future does the player base have population wise.

-Login Reward - Accounts being rewards x amount of nx for logging in for the day. (Note account based and not character based).

-Invite System - Other servers have implemented invite systems where people sign up with a player's assigned code and when said new player reaches x level, the person who invited them obtains an amount of nx. This idea can be expanded further through multiple level milestones such as 30, 70, 120.

-Town Activity - It has been mentioned before about making Henesys more active or other towns. A system that involves obtaining a VERY SMALL amount of nx for being in Henesys. Could also be expanded to the AFK FM stores/other towns?

*Work Based*
-Grinding - Continue the nx dropping from mobs.

-Bossing - Have larger amounts of NX cards that drop from INSTANCE bosses.

-Partying - Reward 'active' party members a small amount of nx after x time of consistent activity. Prob would be a pain to implement but I believe it would be a nice added incentive to encourage party play.

-Quest - Have a NPC that rewards some type of flat amount of NX after having x amount of quests completed. (Ex. every 10 completed/every 30 completed/every 50 completed, IDK) Could also be separate from the capped nx to give more rewarding amounts of NX.

-Party Quests - Have PQs give a flat rate of nx upon completion. Each PQ can be balanced in the amount of nx they give vs time it takes to complete.

-First time Job Advancements - Reward a decent amount of NX for first time characters on new accounts for reaching 1st, 2nd, 3rd, & 4th job advancements. Could be separate from the capped nx as it is a one time thing that can help boost new players' nx pools.


Conclusion
I believe with a system like this there can be a nice balance with the ease of the current system as well as well as adding additional incentives to other parts of the game. Additionally I believe that the nx cap should be a good amount above 7.5k to ensure people are still able to obtain their 7k nx with ease. With a higher cap I think AP resets can be removed completely from events. This will enable staff to control an exact amount of AP resets obtained as well as allow players to make less sacrifices on whether they want to go for event items or pure resets. Therefore the disparity of the amount of resets you obtain per event doesn't become an issue anymore that results in utter chaos.

 

Hp washing is known to be tedious.
Introducing more options to gain nx is good, removing options is not.

Grinders & afk voters alike should be able to gain nx in their preferred way.
I agree with Chris that both work based & passive method should be there.