Information The future of MapleLegends

~This is a very long post and I've warned about that~
~Notice: this is 100% wrote by myself (kim) so expect grammar mistakes~

Dear Maplers,

As mentioned on the latest maintenance thread (here) I will be making an announcement regarding the future of MapleLegends, as well as what direction I would love to move the server to.

When it comes to MapleLegends I think about this server a lot. During the almost 2 years there were up and downs, mistakes and accomplishments. MapleLegends to me is still the very first major server that I ran, besides Administrating a GunBound server for about 4 years that reached 1400+ users at one point, I never ran/owned that though.

The initial goal of MapleLegends was to be a GMS-like server. 'GMS-like' is a term often used in Private Servers to show that the server, or the feature works exactly like it did in the official servers (GMS being Global MapleStory). So if you are a GMS-like server, you basically point out your server works like it did in Global MapleStory.

Over the past months especially lately, I've been trying to improve the server that some may seen as not exactly GMS-like, or v0.62-like (our game version)

Why?

Over the server lifetime there's more that is bothering me about vanilla v0.62. While I want stay a 'GMS-like' server, the issues that grow over the course of year bothers me more.

Feedback of users

While it may not seem like I do, I actually moderate feedback a lot. This means that I look what users think of server, when users quit see what their complaints were, or observe other servers what the complaints are there (known by users as 'she lurk every server!').

Can't please everyone

In end I can't please everyone. Some may actually like the server being extremely GMS-like, and some may not. In end however its important that I (as owner) like the server as it is.

So what do you think should be improved? What do you think people complain about?

The most things people complain about over the course of years is how slow progressing the server is. This doesn't reflect to difficulty (and low rates), but more on how tedious some things are.

What's difficulty and whats tedious?

Some people view difficulty different than other, but to give some examples, this is my view on what I see as difficult, and my view on what I see as tedious, as well as pointing out the usual complaints I receive regarding tedious things*

Difficulty:
-Requiring to actually do all the 4th job tasks is difficulty
-Needing to do bosses such as Horntail and Zakum to get their items is difficulty

Tedious:
-Forced boat rides - there's no difficulty in this. You are only waiting, which slows down your pace of playing
-Getting specific hair styles from EXP coupons - once again there's no difficulty in this, its all about luck
-Rolling the dice - once again you are tediously rolling the dice until you finally get the roll you want
-HP washing - this feature has mixed opinions for a lot of people, but in end you need vote for months to buy limited AP resets, and there's no way to speed this up
-General Gachapon or Gachapon exclusive items

*The things I've listed are for listing purposes only, and not meant for things that will be addressed

So with that out of way you probably think 'yeah, the things you listed in tedious is things I really dislike about Legends', or actually quit due to that. However, it could also be 'huh? That's actually the things I love about this server! I know by feedback alone that forced boat rides is easily the black sheep of the server, which is why I did put it at the top. There's many people that left the server due to it being slow and tedious, and together with the server being difficult in general it just gets too slow

Addressing the issues

As I've mentioned earlier I can't please everyone. However, some of the things that people have been complaining for long time are starting to bother me a little too over time, so I want to slowly tweak things up away from GMS-like.

How far do you want get away from GMS-like?

The goal of MapleLegends is something I want keep. I want keep the core gameplay GMS-like, which means that things like Zakum, Horntail are staying how they are. Also, when we add content we want make sure it functions close to like the original game, so the dialogue is genuine and functions are very similar, while applying minor tweaks that we believe either don't fit on our server (due to less users) or simply because we don't agree with how GMS did it.

The things I really want improve over the coming time is making the server less tedious, while keeping the difficulty of the server, in hope to find a sweet spot for majorly of the users that look for a hard server, but still a fast paced one.

The recent skill changes

There's no direct information about the context of the skill changes that were recently done, but let me try address it here for communication purposes. My goal on the skill changes is to bring usability on jobs, as well as skills that are seen as 'handicapping the user' if they use the job, or skill.

My intention on the skill buffs are not to buff jobs or skills that are already strong, but buff the skills and jobs that need it, for balancing purposes and to bring in 'content'. By content, I mean it brings more options for users and not 'placeholder' skills that literally has no use.

Like I've mentioned in the skill change topic my intention is to buff a few more skills that are either underpowered, or plain useless. I won't give information on which skills though, since it need be thought deep about, which isn't what I have done yet.

I love this server

Even with the up and downs, there's no doubt that I personally believe this server has one of the best communities I've ever seen. No, I don't just say this because I am the owner of the server, its because I mean it. There's countless friendships I've made, users made, and even actual relationships to actual meetups users made. This isn't just MapleStory, this is for some a home for many friends, friendships, and I hope I can provide this experience for users longer. In end nobody is perfect. I've made my mistakes, big mistakes in fact, but in end you need push through those mistakes and fix the mistakes up. I can't thank you long enough for sticking around, accepting these mistakes, and continue supporting us.

Concluding

As always with all my posts they are way too long. I don't blame you if you haven't read everything, but thank you if you did. I won't provide a shorter version of this post simply because I can't express myself in short posts. Hopefully however this post is clear enough in what direction I would like move it to and I try my best to make changes that are better for the server. I may forgot to list stuff, but I hope I did at least list the core things.

Got feedback?

While this topic stays closed for purpose of people just reading it, you can direct message me anywhere really regarding the feedback of this post, or any concerns. Do note that your feedback may be discussed within the staff, unless you explicit mention its feedback just for me.

Thank you for sticking around for the time you did! <3

~Kim - Administrator of MapleLegends