Important New System for White Scrolls (Feedback Thread)

Hi MapleLegends~

As mentioned in our Balance Road Map, the Staff Team fully recognizes the disproportional rate White Scrolls & Chaos Scrolls prices are rising compared to the rate at which the general community can make mesos, especially factoring in the huge disparity between bossing and farming we've noticed the past few years.

Last year, we floated an interesting, but controversial idea related to removing the 'one-of-a-kind' label for boss equips in this thread in an effort to create a new market that could potentially revitalize bossing.

After lots of discussion, yet again, the team has come up with a similarly interesting and similarly radical idea that might solve the concerns over the bossing and the availability of White Scrolls in the MapleLegends economy.

This isn't going to be implemented until we gauge what the community feels about it, but it's an idea and we would appreciate the community to chime in.

Proposal (note: this is IN ADDITION to the bossing revamp mentioned)

1. Introduce a new item called "Prestigious Coins" (tradeable)
2. Introduce a new NPC that buys & sells Prestigious Coins
   • NPC would BUY White Scrolls in exchange for 'X' number of Coins
   • NPC would BUY Chaos Scrolls in exchange for 'X' number of Coins
     
   • NPC would BUY various boss drops in exchange for 'X' number of Coins
     • (Eg) Bring the NPC Rocks of Time and receive Prestigious Coins
     • This could would serve to future boss runs from the supply & demand issue as more end-game players don't need said item
     • Other boss drops are being considered, but won't be publicly mentioned at the time
   • NPC would SELL White Scrolls in exchange for 'X' number of Coins + something else
   • NPC would SELL Chaos Scrolls in exchange for 'X' number of Coins + something else
     • (Eg) Bring the NPC 'X' number of Prestigious Coins + something else and receive a White Scroll
     • Currently uncertain at this point whether 'something' should be mesos or another ingredient/item
3. Have bosses drop Prestigious Coins directly (as a physical drop that can be picked up, sold in a merchant, and traded)
   • Bosses that already have items that can directly exchange with the NPC for coins (such as Pink Bean with Rock of Time) will be excluded from this
   • Area bosses WILL NOT be dropping Prestigious Coins
4. Make all White Scrolls & Chaos Scrolls untradeable (applies to existing and future scrolls)

Examples of how this system would play out:

• (Eg) A player earns a WS from raffle. They don't care about using the scroll and just want to earn money. They exchange the WS for "X" Prestigious Coins . Afterwards, they can:
  • [If they want mesos] Trade the "X" coins to another player.
  • [If they want CS] Use some of the "X" coins to get a CS & sell the remaining coins to another player
• (Eg) A player has 5 bil spread across multiple characters. Rather than keep it in mesos, they would rather keep it in some "alternative" currency. As WS & CS are trade blocked, they would resort to the Prestigious Coins instead.
  • Unlike WS, where a trade occurs between just 2 people, this Prestigious Coin system would promote trade between many different people (people who have left over coins from the exchange, recent WS/CS pullers, people who have gotten it from bosses, etc).
  • This would allow for more equal meso distribution & curb the wealth disparity (rich get richer, poor stay poor).

How We Got Here
To come up with this proposal/solution, we looked at the various causes for why White Scroll & Chaos Scroll Prices have increased so dramatically in the past.

1. RNG-gated (Gacha and CWK Exchange exclusive). Resulting in limited supply.
2. Lots of end-game players want WS. Disproportionate ratio of those that WANT vs those that are WILLING TO SELL, which results in higher demand.
3. High # of WS used per player (that's actually trying to use them and not hoard as currency). Each player needs between 40 - 90 WS EACH, which means 40 - 90 of this item (with its already limited supply) disappears into the void each time. Thereby causing even more limited supply.
4. Used as a payment method (as it avoid taxes) for things priced 1 billion mesos+. Anyone that has lots of mesos on hand would prefer to hold it in WS than pure mesos. Leading to highly liquid players purchasing these WS. Adding to the demand.
5. Used as long-term investment (eg. like how one would invest into bonds/stocks/crypto/gold and wait to see the price 'inevitably' rise)
   • Players who get the item might keep it instead of selling it, in prospects of it rising in price. Contributing to limited supply.
   • Players who have mesos want to invest in it, so they can get more gains passively (like stocks) and sell at an opportune time. Contributing to the high demand.
6. Player bans contribute to price rises. Lots of end-game players have a number of WS on them. When they get banned for various reasons (account or permanent), this means less available WS on the market, constricting the already limited supply.
7. Inflation. As the server grows older and more mesos are printed and injected into the economy, prices will eventually rise.
   • Note: This proposal doesn't tackle inflation. But it also doesn't contribute to it, as everything is made to revolve around player-to-player trade.

The overall utility of WS (a way to perfect weapons, a way to avoid taxes, and an investment) are the major causes for the consistent price increase over the years. While everything drops, based on the current system, WS (and CS) prices will continue to go up.

So what options are there to curb demand?

• Slow down end-game progression = not feasible
  • We're already a top heavy server with lots of end-game players. Slowing down does nothing in the long-term, as there's already so many people in end-game status.
• Reducing the # of WS needed per player = not desired
  • This would result in power spike/creep and would be detrimental to server health.
• Therefore, it seemed tackling the other sources of demand (use as a payment method & long-term investment product) should be what we primarily look into.
  • To do so, we would need to introduce an alternative item that can be traded between players, that will have innate value
  • The item must also have even more utility & versatility than WS/CS, or else it wouldn't be used (eg. a 1 billion coin would still be inferior compared to WS/CS, hence not an appropriate solution)

Why Is This Good? What Does It Achieve?

Wealth Distribution & Bossing
First off, this doesn't perpetuate the "rich get richer, and poorer get poorer" issue. With tying WS directly to bossing, there's always the concerns over mulability or catering only towards end-game players.

• If anything, due to how coins can be spread out between various people, it promotes MORE trade with MORE # of people (including lower level players).

Acts as yet another way to make bossing more rewarding.

• Big issue with a large number of boss drops is that it is entirely dependent on player demand & in an aging server, player demand will always be low.
• Creating artificial demand was one way to save these drops (and therefore the bottom line) of runs.
• Allowing the boss drops to be exchanged for coins creates that artificial demand.
• While PB isn't at that state yet, it's very realistically possible that in the next 2 years, it could end up where HT has ended up (and there's a realistic concern for that). Therefore, by having it tied to WS/CS directly makes things much easier to balance out.

Providing Equal (or Potentially More) Utility
Coins provide more utility than the current WS (as they can be swapped to CS or held in its normal form). It can easily become the new "go-to" currency for high end sales. The major point is the fluidity of this exchange. Being able to transition from boss drops to CS, or WS, and back.

• That said, it might not have the same long-term investment capabilities as current WS.
• But, speculative markets are unhealthy, and prompt hoarding or mass selling (which is exactly what we're trying to get rid of).
• To prevent this, we'll make CS/WS untradeable. It'll forcefully push coins as the new currency.

Does not completely invalidate the existing supply of WS and/or their net worth.

• A big problem with any radical change (aka tradeblocking of WS or implementing expiring WS) was that existing WS hoarders would be severely penalized.
• But, with this suggestion, people will still be able to "invest out" of the WS and into the coins.
• The exchange is fluid, so you can easily change ur WS into coins, which allows people to continue to keep things as they are (even if WS prices drop).

Equitable Solution for All
Server does not get punished for the banning of end game players.

• Banning end-game players with a huge stock of WS, currently means the available WS on the servers disappear into the void and diminish.
• As this suggestion shifts the focus away from WS as a physical item and transfers it into a fluid coin, the server wouldn't feel as if they're being punished when a WS hoarder/whale is banned from the server (or quit).

Another major concern we've faced is that WS prices are so disproportional to the amount of mesos earnable by players. The suggestion:

• Essentially puts a soft cap on WS prices.
• Raises up the minimum value of some of the (nowadays) useless or valueless drops.
• Provides a safety net for things that could decrease significantly in value in the future (eg. Rocks of Time from PB).

Potential Concerns

1. Could be perceived as overly custom
2. A number of high value items (WS & CS) will have their prices tied together
3. Would mean the introduction of a new "currency" that might be confusing to players

What We Need From You
MapleLegends balance changes aren't based solely on what the staff thinks. Much of what the staff decide on is inspired by ideas and discussion from the community. Your suggestions, feedback, and personal experiences are all things we find to be very important and closely consider. For a change of this magnitude, we want to gather feedback and to hear the community’s opinions on this suggestion.

Like last time, we'll first collect players' thoughts and initial feedback, so people can form a proper opinion in their heads. Later, we'll add a poll to the thread to see where the player base sits.

Note: The outcome of the poll is for reference and may not directly dictate whether or not we will implement the idea.

Edit #1: Elaborated on how the coin will drop from bosses.
"(as a physical drop that can be picked up, sold in a merchant, and traded)"