Notice GM Blog: January 2022

Hello Royallers!


First Things First
We need to apologize for the delay in posting a GM Blog. As most likely with the majority of you, our staff members were also quite busy celebrating the holidays and spending important time with friends, family, and loved ones.
We want to close off the 2021 year and start 2022 fresh with a few changes.
As you all should know by now, Joel has stepped back from his staff position. To say that we are thankful for all he has done for this server is quite an understatement. He worked with steadfast dedication across the board on staff duties from development to banning hackers, working on organizing the forum and staff Discord, upgrading and increasing productivity internally with the staff team, and so much more. We are also so gracious for all of the graphic design he worked on for the community. He was an inspiration in the Ironman group. I'm very sure the community will join me in wishing him all the best and offering an open welcome back should he wish to return at any time.
As the GM Blog was one of the many projects he pioneered and nurtured, we feel it is best to keep it going albeit at a slightly less often interval. Our goal is now to post quarterly GM Blogs, one every 3 months and more often as we can.

A Yearly Recap
How do you put an entire year of the server in just a few paragraphs?
2021 saw the addition of LionHeart Castle and it's Party Bonus EXP system which seems to be quite popular after a few tweaks to balance how the system works. Ellin Forest and a correlating Party Quest added in. We brought back an old event with The Mysterious Artifact Hunt and introduced new ones; the Deep Sea Gorge, Rising Tides, and numerous other GM Events! There was the ever-popular Anniversary over the summer months and that was followed almost continuously by the seasonal holiday offerings, which has brought us to the New Year.

There have been some less than stellar times as well. We are aware that abuse reports are getting behind and it's something that's actively being looked into. Actively like right this minute as I'm typing this. We are also aware of the limitations our current GM staff members have when dealing with some of these reports. See the last section for more information.

We have also begun posting and pinning Feedback threads for specific events looking to see how they can be improved and balance. It was very pleasing to receive valid and candid feedback about the Christmas events and we hope to continue this in the future for other seasonal and limited time opportunities.

Forum Chatter
And sadly our Discord server was abruptly removed along with many other private servers', with no warning or explanation given. But not to fret, we still have the trusty Shoutbox! With the Shoutbox as our primary method of chat communication we have also had internal discussions on what can be done to improve on that medium, and to our forums in general. Xenforo 2.0 has been talked about for quite some time but we are hoping to make progress on that as a big overhaul and upgrade for our community members usage.
In the meantime staff members will be working on reorganizing some of the forum to make it easier for players and staff alike to access information and supply Feedback. Much of this will be behind the scenes but if there are any ideas to make the public layout better please do tell!

Coming To A MapleRoyals Near You!
We have many exciting things on the docket for this upcoming year. With the addition of Kenny, Inugami, and Yeehaw on the development side of things we are hoping to unleash the lion on you all soon! These hard working staff members will also aid in progressing through programming work and challenges faster, with experience and dedication helping to push for some positive updates and changes. Along with a pathway to release new content the developers will be aiming to fix some of the many little issues we have been meaning to tackle. This will leave our lead developer available to work on the nitty gritty backend stuff.

 

bon voyage joel. i love the gm blogs, happy to see them continue on

 

2021 was great, nice events, good updates. Now we need our library to top it off!

 

amazing , amazing , amazing ,
Long ago I thought about being part of the staff but, I no longer have time, it will be for when I am on vacation

I only play three or four hours and go to sleep ,
the same, I love how you detail everything, thanks

 

So with Lionheart coming out as a boss, are we going to expect a gear change progression since the lionheart gear is much better than anything in the game currently? I feel it's important we clarify to the player base as end game weapon items, are very long term goals. I've saved up about 4 million NX in the last 2 years to afford a perfect weapon, (clean version), and now I have to grind for the white scrolls. Obviously I don't want to make such a long term investment on an item that will be progressively surpassed, so can we get some details on the lionheart weapons/equipment?

EDIT: I haven't been as active either so I'm not sure if the gear is available with the new changes since lionheart/ellinia. Just want to make sure I'm not dumping my funds onto something that isn't worth lol

 

As for gear balancing, we always try to do our best to make sure any new items introduced to the game do not impact large investments players have made.
I think one such suggestion previously has been to try and figure out a way to add in shoulder/pauldron equipment.
There might also be some simpler ways to balance, such as putting a much higher level requirement on to the weapons.
When it gets closer to being able to add in the boss we will have to figure out the best way if we are adding in new equipment.

 

unless royals retcons the von leon gear they sold in cs as covers, it don't think they will add the weapons. the armor maybe. von leon shoulderpads/amulets (honestly call that slot anything you like, and make up any gear, but shoulderpads are available) were my guess, and a very decent item choice as they're their own item so they'd be a bonus no matter what, especially if scrollable.

im pretty confident timeless/reverse will be the only next set of new weapons and I'd love to talk about how to implement them any time, i have lots and lots of feedback. an intuitive, non-economic impact transition of power is important, and there are ways that won't destroy your hard earned dragon weapons and still make them and pb a challenge, and not make power creep an issue, let me link you~

https://royals.ms/forum/posts/1183179/

 

or they could add shoulder pads and amulets, and with each time you kill von leon, you can update it, I explain shoulder pads with 7 slots, a scroll can be created that destroys with the capacity of the scroles that are known 10/30% with 3 all stats and 60% with 1 all stats, so something new and novel is included, in fact I had this in mind for ellin's ring pq , since it would be more competitive to do ellin pq and we would bring a new of improved objects,

I understand the hard work they do, but that is a suggestion that I make, I hope in the future to be able to help more

 

Keep it simple, 1 stats all 1wa average shoulders thats affected with godly system with 7 slots.
Add in a goldensoul shoulder to troll as well cause why not.

 

I introduce myself, I am an old school player and I have almost 6 years in this maple to say this to you admins. I speak for all the Nighlords who gave us a very bad nerf and also who see us with the face of millionaires that something really has, but they should not have changed the skiles because a lot of effort is made to play this JOB and nothing comes out for us free as the power that gifted buccaneers have.
I speak for all the Heroes that was my first 200 and I want to tell you that we have one of the most unbalanced hits and well everything is perfect unless you can change the coma consumption for an orb.
RECOMMENDATION- IF YOU WANT TO MAKE A CHANGE THAT IS TO INCREASE THE STATISTICS OF THE VERY WEAK JOB BUT NOT WEAKEN THE OTHER JOBS
With this I make known all my complaints