I want to settle down on Legends, but I've got some questions

As another former-royals player, I hear you.
There's a good number of design decisions this server has made that both affect community attitude and game "feel".
It's different to the point where I'm sure you'd find a nicely unique experience.

However, I don't think it's too productive or good-spirited to frame a conversation in the context of what another server does "wrong", negative experiences notwithstanding.

The best way to form your opinion on what Legends/Royals does right or wrong is by seeing it for yourself!
Figure out what design philosophies and community traits you like in a server and judge with ur own eyes :^)

There's a cool newbie charity you can find here:
https://forum.maplelegends.com/index.php?threads/mis-charity-foundation.24006/
And the discord you can find here:
https://discordapp.com/invite/XytSU72

 

Any server that heads towards end game will end up like royals. If you have a sea of nightlords available to you, why would you take a paladin or lower DPM class when there is a nightlord available? Likewise, when there are no nightlords available, you are willing to just take what you can get.

IMO, legends is slowly becoming like royals, but is still at that point where the community is more friendly and willing to take pretty much all classes to boss runs. HP washing isn't the expectation
here (yet), and pretty much all horntail runs that I have been on have had at least 1 DK per party.

Anyways, the expectation here isn't to make a mage first and use that to fund a DPS character (there are plenty of really strong players here who don't have a mage). But, you shouldn't expect to be able to compete (damage wise or level wise) with someone else who did make a mage first. They can just outfarm you and outleech you. But don't let that discourage you because the bossing culture here is a lot more inclusive than royals. People let my shitty 200 base int corsair on zak runs and cwkpqs so the community here really is friendly and nice. I personally have never seen anyone "rejected" from boss runs because they weren't "X" class (besides maybe cwkpq), but in the future I do think it will happen.

Also, compared to royals the gap between classes here are not as large (all of the gear is inherently weaker due to no godly system, we don't have any permanent attack shoes yet, chaos/white scrolls are much, much, harder to obtain). So if you want to play legends and play an off meta class go for it.

 

Everything trends towards decay but I don't think Legends will trend towards that mindset. I've only ever known this community to be inclusive and I've been here since the start of 2017.

 

my experience with MapleRoyals is threefold:

1. a while ago when i still used Windongs, i tried playing 'Royals and had trouble with my MAC address being banned for no reason, which is not only a tad irritating but also really doesn't make any sense since MAC bans are useless (spoofing one's MAC address is completely trivial)
2. i can't play their server now anyways since it decidedly does not work through Wine
3. vote-to-win is almost as bad as pay-to-win. sorry 'Royals

that's good. unfortunately, without some elbow grease on the part of the server creator towards making the game interesting and also balancing it thoroughly (which, imo, means disallowing HP washing and requiring players to spend AP on HP and/or to wear HP equipment and/or to use defensive skills instead), maplestory is just not a very good game to be playing for this kind of RPG experience. the fact of the matter is that pretty much no servers do the former (make the game interesting), and finding servers that do the latter (thorough balancing) is like panning for gold with a kitchen sieve

the reason that almost no servers make the game interesting is because, let's face it, most people are still playing this (excusez mon français) dumb fucking game because they have nostalgia for it from playing it as a lil kiddo, so there is basically zero incentive to change it in any significant way. the reason that almost no servers actually balance the game is for the previous reason, but also another reason: people who play maplestory have their heads stuck so far up the asshole of Neckson/wizet's shitty game design that everything just looks dark and they think that the only way to balance the game is to tippy-toe around the game and hope that little tweaks will magically undo the curse that has been placed upon their heads

all of this is not to be too critical of servers like MapleRoyals and MapleLegends (itself a more sane version of 'Royals, it seems). there is absolutely a place for nostalgic & lotophagic maplestory servers and i think they're great, if perhaps a tad clueless about how to balance the game

 

As far as bossing goes, I don't feel like bossing groups in legends are too selective about their members. Its not particularly difficult to get in HT runs at all, usually sign up sheets are available to anyone over the minimum level requirement. Furthermore, its not like all the NLs/BMs around are that strong, you can make up for being a sub-optimal dpm class by being higher level or having better gear (and also not having 200 base int XD). So if your concern is picking an non-top tier DPM class and being unable to get into boss runs, that shouldn't be an issue in legends.

 

Haven't really played royals, except maybe a little bit years and years ago. So I can't say anything about how it is now.

But about design issues, yes I'd agree the original maplestory was poorly designed. It took players years of experience to figure this out, and lots of guides, and power creep. But now we are to the point where most people know all the important mechanics and nuances of the game, they know the "most optimal" way to play, and quite frankly it isn't fun.

 

We can Nerf mage, Nerf leech, Nerf/change hs, make nx and ap resets harder to make/get/access and SO much more
Don't see why u say nothing we could do
If u want I can make a list of things we could do to make the server better

 

i feel the same about hp washing. its making many problems, and unbalance the classes and players so much.

the things that good about legends:
stable, good balance of skils(maybe just paladins need change?). good community. good staff.

the only bad things i see:
hp washing,multiclient/leech.
you need to make hs mule/you cant start with the class you want(or its hard).

i think that what bad about royals is the rates. too easy.

 

Agree.
Just what's wrong with pala? If anything too op with Shaolin and neo Tokyo now.
Also there is no balance in skills when lvl 150 mages do 20mil dpm with no attack pot while grinding when other classes do 5mil.

 

i see it like this:
mages get op mob skills. so they shouldnt be on boss fights.
as for all other classes, every one need to have party skill. exept NL and sair(cuz theyhave the highest dpm) although they have some too.
if m not wrong paladins is the only class that do nothing for the party.
i think in later versions they made treathen better skill. but im not sure if it work on bosses

 

paladins train as fast as mid gear'd 14x to 15x mages on this server though.

 

if its true the server is more balanced than i thought.

 

Agree to this post 100%

I was a former Royals player and came to Legends a couple months ago, and even though it is nostalgic for me, the only thing I can complain about is the HP washing system. On the original maple I didn't have to worry about it and could just play any class I felt like (was a sin main) and just enjoy my time and not worry about anything, but because HP washing is a thing on this server, it "scared" me away from playing my once lovely sin like the old days, so iv gone to Bandit as it doesn't require HP washing due to Meso Guard, but its just not the same. Its fun don't get me wrong, but I guess trying to accomplish a successful sin on the original server was a goal for me that I never finished and wont be able to unless im funded asf and HP wash.

And yes they say making a mage first is the way to go so you can farm mobs with AOE, sell leech, make money etc, I got my mage to 40 and gave up due to the fact I was getting bored and its not what I wanted to do, never did it in old maple, I just want to play the class I want with no consequences

 

I made a HUGE list of quest bugs and other game anomalies that plagued MapleRoyals. The only credit I was ever left with was here:

Spoiler

https://mapleroyals.com/forum/threads/updating-the-known-bugs-list.6034/

Why would you start a server knowing how many bugs you had? Why would players have to spam the NPC chat button in order for an NPC to acknowledge you've completed a quest? The workmanship was shoddy and they didn't seem to concerned with it, either. They just assumed "real" players only grind and don't do any of the quests. They couldn't even get the Ariant quests to work because they failed to code Byron's quest for touching the water.

On top of that, when your level goes up so fast at the beginning with (what is it, x4 or x6 exp?) you miss out on all the lovely features of the game at the lower levels.

Where Kimberly did right with MapleLegends is that with a x2 exp rate, we're all playing GMS as if we had 24 hour x2 cards on all the time, which is PERFECT! Kimberly thought through the problems of GMS and has made (and continues to make) the game what it should have been.

People who play Royals do so because they want to grind, get an OP attacker, and do the bosses from their childhood only to later quit. Why not play a x20 server and get the whole thing done and over with faster? It's basically a cheating mod - and if you've played with cheating mods before, you know the feeling of achievement is underwhelming...because you really didn't achieve it...you cheated your way into it. It's not satisfying.

MapleLegends satisfies!

 

I played Royals from May 2015 - Summer 2016 and made a 16x corsair and a 14x bishop.

I quit Royals for a couple reasons:

- HUGE gap between rich and poor people. When I first started in May 2015, it wasn't so bad. As the server grew, more and more high atk equips started popping up. I suspect this was due to the high availability of iTCG items, chaos, white scrolls, etc from gach & voting. What I like about Legends is that gach doesn't give a huge competitive advantage because honestly gach here sucks, and you don't see too many high atk equips floating around.

- High pressure to HP wash because AP resets are so easily obtained. Right before I quit, I started making a high INT bowman to have at least 9k HP. When I realized how much time and money it'll take to HP wash and reset out the INT, I got overwhelmed thinking about all of the time and mesos that would be required before I could actually play the character. HP washing is a thing here, but most people aren't going for ridiculous goals like 12k HP on a ranged character. I think this is because NX isn't tradeable here, so you'll be voting for a long time if you have a high HP goal.

- Royals removed the FM button. Dumbest move ever. How else am I supposed to hang out with my friends

- Bossing runs were pretty exclusive. Need: high range / attacking class and minimum HP for HT. I've only ever went on 1 HT run as a 16x corsair there because I felt like a liability since a ton of runs didn't have HB.

- The EXP rate there is 4x, so it's pretty quick to get to endgame. One consequence I felt with 4x EXP rates was that a lot of my friends felt more inclined to make 4th job buff mules (SI, SE) because it's easier to level. Don't get me wrong though; there are 4th job buff mules here as well. However, there definitely isn't as many 4th job buff mules here.

Things I like about Legends:
EXP rate is slower, so I spend more time talking to people and doing PQs. From what I've seen, damage range isn't that big of a deal here, which I personally really like because I don't feel excluded from having shit damage because I chose the smokescreen mule class. HP washing isn't that big of a deal here yet. This could soon change with the new ability of multi account voting where people stock up NX for AP resets on a mule account.

Summary: Royals feels like it has a high barrier to entry while it doesn't feel like it here.

 

pretty much this right here. i've played a server before (now defunct lmao) that actually bothered to balance the game and it was great. they got rid of leeching entirely (thank god) and instead buffed party-based play. the classes were rebalanced so that they used the original skills from v62 and everything, but all the skills actually had clear uses (except final attack, heyooo) and the classes had clear utility in terms of what they could offer to a party... this actually involved nerfing some mages (priests/bishops) and buffing others (I/Ls and F/Ps, although probably not in the way you'd think). AP resets were fairly "easy" to get (relatively speaking), but HP washing was completely disabled and you also couldn't reset in or out of HP or MP anyways (you had to put points into those things yourself, with no resets involved)

like you say here, there's lots of things that you can do to make the game balanced & fun/interesting, many of which i've seen before

HP washing and leeching are definitely the enemies of fun & balance, but i dont think multiclienting is part of that. you can't prevent people from multiclienting anyways so the only way to """balance""" that is by making multiclienting as easy as possible for everyone. and i agree that people should be able to start with any class they like to play (which makes more sense once the classes are actually balanced)

this is one of the balances i've actually seen, that server buffed threaten by at least an order of magnitude or something. it was fairly powerful and they made it affect bosses as well, making paladins actually quite useful in parties

this seems to be one of the strengths of MapleLegends, seeing as this server seems to take a stance that questing actually matters (thank god), making the experience and rewards somewhat appreciable, which i like a lot as someone who likes to do mostly quests