Party Quest is dumb now

For an Old School Maple Story server, party quest is the main way for beginners to level up and make friends. Nowadays, the amount of new players is lower than the number of old players. To be able to make a 6 ppl party is hard because of it. I like the idea of the Token of Teamwork to encourage ppl to join party quests. BUT, idk why restrict skill exists. The advantage of a high-level player is they have more skill and power than a low-level player. The only reason high-level players back to do party quest is to help low-level players get through. Somehow admin decided to restrict high-level player skills to punish them?? Or for some other reason that I don't understand. Rich ppl just leech all the way to 135 level, and no one is helping new players to do PQ.

About LudiPQ ( idk if other pq does this or not ). Why it dispels my buff every time I go into a portal? I hope this is a bug and not a feature because some stages require Haste to move faster when climbing the rope.

For a new player that just joins this server. How can they level up fast without buying leech??? For an old player, how can they help new player to do party quest??? Normal hit all the way in party quest is not fun at all. I highly disagree about the restricted skill on party quest. This is no point at all to restrict skill and make high-level player cant use their own skill on party quest. This makes no sense at all. I hope this restrict skill thing changes back. Or else the new player will quit the game very easily after they realize have to buy leech to be able to level up.

 

The game has quite some flaws no doubt. It’s difficult for new players to start too. The simplest recommendation is for you to create a magician and level to 15, vote for maybe 2 months ish. At level 50 sell your APRs for leech. Once you get this magician to a bishop, life will be much easier.

Second option really is to grind mobs everyday. This will take some time maybe half a year?

 

This is way too boring for a ppl who just want to enjoy maple. Ppl who choose to play private server and not GMS is because they want to have some nostalgia time. But after joining this server just everything depends on money. Cant do anything without money. All I want is just to make party quest "Normal" again. Let ppl enjoy their PQ and level up normally. Try to tell a beginner: "Hey, you should vote like 2 months and sell apr to pay ppl leeching you. Party quest? Nahh no one do that no more. The only thing you have to do is pay ppl money and afk to level up. That's all this server about."

 

I know, which is why i went the second route and grind. I've done most of the game content incl quests and PQs. And Yes I've waited over 6h in one session to find a party for pq before. So I am quite sure I know what you mean about making PQs fun, but what I'm saying is that it is not likely to happen if at all.

After a year of grind, I kinda regret not choosing the first route. Maybe should've switched in between would be better.

 

I highly disagree with these statements that you're making. True, most high level players have little to no motivation to return to party quests, even with the current token system. However, why are you so against the skill restrictions? The reason why they are put in place is to keep the PQ's balanced, since they were originally designed for specific level ranges and have had that restriction lifted. The skill restriction is anything but a punishment, and should've been in place since level restrictions were removed from certain PQ. Before the skill restrictions, one could use mage ultimates in KPQ, for example. Kind of stupid.

Who says you must level fast? I think many people here seem to have a warped perspective on the game. Just because leech exists, doesn't mean we should use it as a baseline measurement for progression. Leech is a premium service (I know, washing exists and is technically required, therefore requiring leech, but that is another can of worms.) You don't need to level fast, and I would argue that progression is fairly easy without leech. This is coming from someone who grinded a bishop and a shadower through PQ, quests, and regular training (I did receive some leech from friends/myself, but this accounted for less than 5% of the total grind.) Of course experiences may vary. I did OPQ after the skill restrictions on my bishop, and I did not feel any inconvenience aside from maybe adjusting my keyboard layout slightly (you can still use appropriate job skills.)

Releasing skill restrictions will not solve any of the issues you brought up.

 

In 58 days i got my bucc lv 0 to 151, i Begin with 0 itens and 105 base int, and i never find some1 to do PQ with..
i got pretty nice friends that bring me to zakum and i got a zh, all the Other thing i got by myself, so here my 2cents:

some quests are easy to do and give u nice mesos (like lv 25 cape, scroll quest, etc), some quest level u alot, is easy to get 1-4x only farming quest.

at Begin i sold alot of apr, got mesos for a gear to level and int gear.. then i save it by myself to use to reset int/wash.

U can see apr, u can do quest with valuable things, since u can grind in fog/mp3 u can get much in mesos, that u dont get if u just leech,
anyway, mages help a lot, but if u dont like mage, other jobs are good to farm too, just need know what u wanna farm

 

Restricted skill didn't solve the issues also. This is not a balance, this is just nerfed and making things worst. Sometimes when I bored, I will just go kerning or ludi to do PQ. I would like to help some new players too because I can do it easily without hitting the mob 1 by 1. After restricted skill, I just don't feel like doing KPQ because I can only normal hit the whole PQ. Yes, I can use 2nd job skills but it is just the same effect as a normal hit. You should go try KPQ and LudiPQ and not only ObisPQ.

Yes, you can grind or doing quest to level up. I did not negative any other 1000way to level up. But not everyone likes to kill a mob repeatedly until leveling up. Everyone has their own way of leveling up but most people will choose to do PQ because it is fun and no money cost. My bs and shadower are leveling up by doing PQ and not buying leech. That is before restricting skill. My main problem here is to make PQ better and not discussing which other 1000way to level up.

Using large range skills (example Genesis) on PQ is not stupid at all. Not every stage is required to kill mob. Some of the stages are puzzles that Genesis can't do anything at all. Using Genesis to kill mob is efficient, not stupid. Even though you still feel like "not balance", it is just one stage of mob killing. How unbalance can it be?? If somehow still think that Genesis is not fair and ruin the "fun" of PQ, then just ban the certain of skill and not ALL skill. So then I still can use Multi Target skill to kill mob instead of normal hit.

Restricted skill didn't bring any BALANCE, only more and more ppl don't like to do PQ.

 

totally agree with this man

 

Restricted skills are not supposed to solve the issues you brought up though, so this statement leaves me confused. I have done KPQ pre and post balancing. People now have to hunt their tickets in stage 1 instead of a mage solo ultimate, what a tragedy. To be honest, I'm not deliberately opposed to your points. For example, LudiPQ is quite difficult to organize, while simultaneously offering a desirable eye accessory. But that is the only case I see here.

I don't understand your point here. You are the one that brought leech into the conversation as a comparison. Money cost, in my opinion, has absolutely nothing to do with people's motivation to PQ for the ones you mentioned (aka the cost of potions, lol.) You make significantly more money grinding. But fine, let's indeed focus on PQ.

Yes, not every stage requires killing mobs, which is exactly the reason why we should not allow mage ultimates. They trivialize these stages.

Quite honestly, I think your focus on the skill restrictions is overzealous and a waste of your time and energy (besides perhaps LudiPQ). The recently released Tokens of Teamwork seem to be a step in the right direction, but as we can see there is more work to do there.

There may be other ways to drive higher level players to PQ, but unless they offer some "game changing" rewards (CWK, for example), it's going to be quite difficult.

 

I don't think u understand anything at all.

For you to easier to understand, I will write it as a sentence.

1.) Party quest is already hard to gathering ppl, because new player is lesser than old player.

2.) When the Restricted skills release, high-level players are more uninterested to do PQ. Even though there is a new feature "Token of Teamwork" ( << i like).

3.) When less and less ppl doing party quests, new players lose the main way to level up. The other option will be Grinding , Questing , Leeching and more.

4.) Party quest is the best way to leveling up and enjoy the game. To motivate high-level players to join PQ, "Token of Teamwork" did a good job.

5.) BUT, restricted skills are bad for high-level players. Because they lose the advantage as a high-level player and have to use low-level skills to pass the PQ. ( some of the jobs can only single target the mob )

6.) Restricted skills do not bring any good advantage to players at all. It is not a balance, just suffer and pain. For every PQ member I meet till now, everyone is complaining about this restricted skills stuff.

7.) To further improve the problem, I suggest (1) canceling restricted skills. (2) restricts certain skills.

8.) There is a bug/feature that every time I go into a portal, my buff got dispel. I hope this is just a BUG and not a feature because this just unnecessary at all.

Every action has its consequence. When you out of the option to PQ then you will consider another option. That's why I bring out leech. But the main problem is still about PQ, not hard to understand at all.

I don't know what your irony about. All my statement about PQ is free, somehow you misunderstand that PQ needs money to buy pot.

 

Okay.

We agree, gathering people for PQ is difficult.

I disagree here. restricted skills, in my opinion, are a minor inconvenience at best.

Who went ahead and decided that PQ is the main way to level up? They are a great way to level up, and for some level ranges the best exp, yes, but not there isn't any main way.

This is your opinion. I'm sure many people share this opinion. But let's be honest, PQ's, just like grinding and questing, can get incredibly boring after many repetitions. I think a healthy mixture of everything is the best way to enjoy the game, but that's my opinion I suppose.

See my response to 2.) High level players still have the advantage of having a significantly higher range than intended for specific PQ. Don't get me wrong, it is nice to have higher level classes fill in for missing specific class requirements (like needing a long distance range class). Again, I think the motivation for higher level players to PQ is much less about the skill restrictions and more about what they can gain from doing those activities outside of helping their friends.

I would like to hear more opinions on this. Why does it have to bring a good advantage? It's, once again, a balance. I don't see the pain and suffering, but I can understand and recognize if there is a majority of players that do.

Perhaps there can be a case-by-case approach taken. I'm not entirely against the idea of some higher level skills being used in lower level PQs.

I didn't respond to this part, so I don't know why you're responding to me with it. I agree, bugs should be fixed. I don't remember this being a feature.

Yes, but I was just pointing out that your main comparison of leech was not genuine, and you should have mentioned all the alternatives.

My statement about money was in response to your statement:

In sum, I don't think it's skill restrictions that turn people away from PQing, but rather other metas surrounding the game in addition to insufficient rewards compared to time spent doing PQ (at least, for high level players). Take my comments for what you will, but the main points are

1. I don't think skill restrictions are the reason why PQ are dead, and they were dead long before restrictions were put in place.
2. More work needs to be done along the lines of Token of Teamwork to give people motivation to PQ.
3. There are more deep rooted, underlying causes to why it's difficult to find people to PQ. Perhaps focus on those, or brainstorm better ways to revive PQ activity.

 

@nutleafcity
The point is to make PQs likeable to highr level players. Restrictions just discourage them im my opinion.

If theres no fun and no reward what is the point of doing it? Also theres small bonus to that because u make new players stronger faster (faster xp,mw20 etc) and you can showoff so people are more interested in your character/skills which creates more interaction.

I must admit that doing kpq as bs makes me sick fast. Lpq is better but still kinda meh. Would taking down restrictions help that? Idk, but i think it wouldnt make it more boring.

 

Thank god finally someone understand

 

Imagine you are killing a low-level mob. Example: jr. wraith. And then someone tells you: "Hey you cant use Genesis on this mob, this is not balanced because this mob level is only 35, and you are using 4th job skill to kill it. You should have to use only 2nd job skill to kill it or else you are trivializing these mob."

Restricted skill may have or may not be the main problem of the cause of PQ inactively (it is one of the problems). But it is a no-point restriction. The exist is no necessary at all.

 

Agreed 100%. Blows my mind some of the "balance changes" the staff implements from time to time. They never make any sense and always take away from the experience.

 

I agree, I used to opq, lpq, and kpq for fun on my high level characters. After the skill restrictions haven’t touched them even with the token of teamwork. What was the problem that the skill restrictions were meant to solve? Ultis in KPQ gators for ticket farming / leech? Who cares? People who want to accelerate these levels will do so by buying zombie teeth. High level skills only make the PQs marginally faster. OPQ, KPQ, and LPQ have puzzles that slow the party down agnostic to 4th job abilities and the bosses are trivial to a high level character even if forced to use first and second job skills. While an argument can be made for mimicking ‘GMS-like’ conditions, please revert the high level skill restrictions in PQs for the sake of game enjoyment

 

I never understood why they placed the skill restrictions. I was planning to take my new char thru KPQ and LPQ but then when I realized I could just only normal attack and haste, I asked what's the point? I had fun using Flash Jump/Shadow Partner and the new players didn't mind since they had a person to play with and a full pt to go thru the PQ. I instead just took my noob to go self-leech with MW because I won't be in a situation without being able to MW my high base int char.

I distinctly remember a player who took their washing char to host LPQ for a long time. They'd give everyone and their INTnoob MW20 and would help newer players get thru the PQ. No one complained about their Bishop one-shotting the Bloctopus with Genesis or killing Alishar in like two hits with their 4th job skill. Now, there's literally no point for anyone if they're washing their char and need MW20 for extra MP to do the regular PQs since you can't use MW.

Is the teamwork of token supposed to be an equivalent exchange for being penalized? It kills the fun and doesn't incentivize anyone to join the PQs just for variety. I honestly don't know what the Staff were thinking. The Staff members who overseered putting no skill restrictions had a better idea of fun than the ones who placed it. Do any high levels even host the PQs anymore? lol

 

I find it shocking there is a server lounge but no party quest hub...

 

I'm ambivalent to whether the skill restrictions are in place for PQs. If I want to join a PQ, I would do so regardless of whether I can use the higher level job skills. I rarely do PQs these days because of the hassle of trying to organize, and there are so much content that brings more enjoyment

 

When I was a newbie asking people for help with some party quests I've had high level friends who are willing to give me free leech and help with disgusting prequests say that they're not willing to do PQs because of the skill restrictions.

So clearly it's a heavy disincentive.