Notice Staff Blog: January 2023

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Account Security
Let's kick the blog off with a reminder of account security. Please review the following thread: Account Security: A Reminder. In that thread you will find our stance on compromised in game accounts, as well as tips and information that can keep your accounts secure. It is imperative that players take initiative and be proactive about their account security. Over the last year, and more recently this month, we have observed a spike in compromised accounts both in game and on the forums, usually in the form of spam for the latter. Having your account compromised may not only result in a loss of in game wealth, but may also be detrimental in other ways if the hacker is dubious enough to impersonate and use your reputation. It is important to note, a hacked forum account is far from harmless. For example, there have been instances of compromised forum accounts requesting self-bans or account recoveries for the user.

That being said, we'd appreciate if all our players took some time to enable two-factor authentication on their forum accounts, as well as review the account security tips and ensure their information is secure. Thank you!

Von Leon Design
We are glad to see the mostly positive and strong reception to the new end game boss implemented in 2022, Von Leon (VL). This content presented many challenges on the development end; one can imagine this is the case for retrofitting a post-Big Bang boss. We hope to shed some light on these challenges to help our players better understand them from our perspective.

We've worked to fix a server-side bug involved with queuing mob actions. This bug caused mobs to become 'muted' if enough players simultaneously attacked them. This was most noticeable in boss runs with 10 or more players, and one can watch videos of 30 man boss runs to see the bug in it's extreme form. As we planned for the VL expedition to have significantly more attackers than the current metas, it was imperative that we find a solution. After many tests and tweaks, we are satisfied with the current fix. One may notice that other bosses attack more consistently as a result of this change; we view this as intended gameplay. It is our understanding that this bug existed in the original game.

Much client work was needed for some of VL's attacks and skills. For example, due to a limitation in the client, modifications were required so that VL's golem dropping attack could reach the entirety of the map. It is interesting to find these limitations when implementing new things to the game; there were no previous cases of attacks of the same type being used in a map as wide. Modifications were also needed to make VL's blood absorb skill work properly to absorb summoned Mini Golems, ensuring that they display the proper 'die' animation and the proper amount of HP is absorbed. Lastly, VL's teleporting skill required a tweak to the original implementation, which caused memory usage issues (seen from long Ephenia runs.) We are fortunate enough to have fixed the mechanic, as one can see how imperative the teleport mechanic is to the overall VL fight. These and many other edits were needed to release a functioning boss fight.

Finally, we'd like to mention that we implemented some custom features to VL. Specifically, the vulture shout and golem dropping attacks are both custom attacks made and implemented by staff. Further, while VL had a jail banish mechanic in GMS, we determined that it was too simple, and we designed versions which cater to the abilities of each class branch. While a lot of work goes into these custom features, we often have fun with them. Have a look at some of the, erm, professional sketches from some of our staff members.

Spoiler: Design Sketches

As we've noted before, we are open to more ideas for different jail maps (see here.) We are currently looking to implement another jail map which can be completed by any class as a means to add more variety. However, any cool ideas are more than welcome!

Behind all of these client and server issues are hundreds of hours of developer work, investigation, testing, and player feedback, most of which is nontrivial. This is without mentioning the design of the content itself; countless debates, outlines of proposals, calculations, the amount of ideas which do not come to fruition… We are happy with what the content has achieved at a base level. Team communication and planning have never been more relevant, and defeating VL is something to be proud of. We hope that through community feedback and time, it will grow into an activity players can enjoy for the long term.

Recent Client Issues
With significant changes to mob behavior and the client, as well as new client features, new issues may arise, or such changes may accentuate previously unknown issues. At this point in time we are happy to announce that we've fixed some issues which have caused the majority of recent crashes. Memory usage of the client was also improved. We'd like to extend a thank you to the players that have helped us get to the root of the issue.

Terms and Conditions
We've made some small edits in the Terms and Conditions (T&C) in hopes of clarifying existing rules. Some of you may have noticed an inconsistency in rule enforcement in regards to multi-client in periodic events such as Winter Dash. Our stance has always been that this is not allowed and it is behavior to be discouraged. However, we've fallen short in publicizing that information and ensuring that people obey this rule via in-game checks consistently. Going forward, we will enforce the rule strictly, and any player found in violation of the rule will receive a 14-day ban. Attempting to or successfully subverting any multi-client checks for events is considered glitch abuse. To make players aware of this rule enforcement, we will be highlighting it in the main T&C thread, along with statements via event NPC dialogue in game. It is important to note once more: this is a statement about rule enforcement, as this rule is already in place and linked in the T&C thread under Glitch Abuse.

We appreciate everyone's cooperation moving forward.

The Future
Von Leon was certainly a large piece of content released this year, but by no means is it our final chapter. We have many things in store for 2023; here are a few things we are continuously working on:

• Class skill balance - We have been diligently working towards implementing the changes discussed around forums, and particularly here. The big challenge for this project is that some of the popular requests require heavy or tricky client work to implement correctly.
• Party Quest Changes and Token Improvement - This has been on our to do list for quite a while. It is clear from feedback that there are many quality of life improvements that could be made for PQs. In addition, there are other proposed changes that would serve to motivate players to PQ more often, whether that be new token rewards or buffs to PQ rewards themselves.
• HP Gain - We have come a long way in terms of giving players additional options to increase their maximum HP. Reuel's HP quest allows players to increase their health directly through fetch quests. Several untradeable equips have been changed to increase health. We are still exploring ways for players to increase their health.

There are other projects, big and small, that we are also working on. We are always combing the feedback section for ideas, and player feedback is always factored in when designing content, so keep it coming!

Happy New Year
We can confidently say that 2022 was a highly impactful year for the server. We look forward to what 2023 brings, as MapleRoyals approaches it's tenth anniversary.

-The MapleRoyals Staff

 

LAVA BAD

 

Thank you staff team!! Can’t appreciate you enough

 

Thank y'all for continuing to make this server fun!

 

the time will come where the heroes will rise again.
Thanks to the staff for putting in all the work :3

 

what happened to Q&A?

 

Please don't be afraid of gradual Skill balance changes or a "Part 1" if they don't require as much work as others... *cough* Total Crash range *cough*. Would also love to be able to climb ladder/rope faster that other servers were able to do.

While veteran/top players might only be interested in DPS/4th job balance, I think it's worthwhile to make pre-4th classes more satisfying to play through or changes that make a class more fun to play overall vs straight damage increases that only benefit bossing/4th job play.

Also, don't be afraid to ask players questions in the Skill Balance thread (i.e. how they feel about certain class/pre-4th climb, clarification on skill suggestions, etc)

I can tell Royals Staff might not want to lose to the other server's attempt to introduce alt HP gain. The competitiveness is a good sign for me I hope you guys take the opportunity to plan out more alt HP gain that's satisfying and non-intrusive to people who washed before (i.e. not punished for washing like the other server is doing). I was able to encourage a number of newer players to do the HP quest and they were happy to learn they could gain HP without needing to HP wash or start over. I have a buddy that has taken his time to do the daily HP quest on his old NL that he almost gave up on in the past and has reached ~18k after months of effort. So the work done so far is appreciated.

Just remember that although some veteran/top players may be against (further) alt HP gain for reason(s) such as "if I had to do it the hard way by gathering & spending 6b+ washing to enjoy my attacker then so does everyone else!", it doesn't mean that no alt HP gain should be added/improved upon. They are part of a bigger community rather than the sole community. I consider HP gain that everyone can acquire as a net benefit for everyone and helps with new player retention as well as retaining older players that aren't interested in spending 6b+ just on only HP washing their new character to a satisfying amount before they even buy gear. Whatever decisions you guys make, I hope it's good ones that consider older and newer players in mind rather than one or the other.

 

look forward to it thanks for the work

 

alrighty, how can we nut be thankful for this rielley great work? cheers

 

The update blog is much appreciated. I'm looking forward to what staff has in store for the future!

 

Looking forward to another great year on Royals and can't wait to see what this year has in store for everybody!

 

said there was going to be Q&A in December

but didn't

 

Really happy to hear that the staff is introducing more ways to get HP.

While we have the current Reuel's HP quest, one thing I do not like about it is that it takes up additional of our time to complete it everyday. It might not take long for each quest. But for some of us who is working or just dont have much time for Royals, it is still a considerable amount of our time everyday.

It would be nice if players are rewarded for playing the game's content. Ex. Getting HP from doing quest/farming cards/doing PQs. Of course, the staff can decide themselves the amount of HP rewarded. I feel this would be much better than the current Reuel's HP quest. Apart from getting rewarded for playing the actual game content, PQ would also be more lively. And staff would also not need to spent time creating a whole new quests. There are some great suggestions by other players and I do hope staff takes them into consideration. I especially like this two:
https://royals.ms/forum/threads/add...-completed-monster-card-set-completed.208928/
https://royals.ms/forum/threads/hp-elixirs-and-better-nx-for-teamwork-tokens.198169/

On a final note, thank you staff for all your hard work. Looking forward to the upcoming updates!

 

Thank you guys for all your hard work!

 

Thanks for the hard work!
I play since 2019 with some breaks but I finally reached lvl 200!
Can't wait for the 10th year anniversary event!