Notice Staff Blog: 2023 Recap

by @Inugami​

As we bid farewell to another exciting year in the pixel world of Mapleroyals, we reflect on the myriad of adventures, updates, and milestones that have shaped our journey. The year 2023 marked the 10th Anniversary of MapleRoyals and has been nothing short of extraordinary, filled with memorable moments that have brought joy and excitement to our beloved community!

New Features and Contents
Throughout the year, the Mapleroyals team has been hard at work, introducing a plethora of new features and content to enhance the player experience. From rewarding quests to innovative gameplay mechanics, our commitment to delivering fresh and engaging content remains unwavering!

Lionheart Castle Part 3 - Rose Garden
One of the most enchanting chapters in Mapleroyals' journey unfolded with the spectacular expansion of the Rose Garden in April 2023 Update 84. Amidst the breathtaking landscapes and flourishing flora, we introduced the custom-design bee-catching mechanic, adding a delightful layer to the gaming experience and further blooming the allure of our virtual realm. In a whimsical addition to the Rose Garden experience, the player uncovered the secrets of a hidden vault guarded by mystical creatures.​

More Reuel's Elixir of Life rotations
In response to the insatiable thirst for power among our dedicated players, the alchemist master Reuel introduced a series of captivating Elixir of Life rotations. These rotations not only added a strategic layer to character development but also kept the gameplay experience dynamic and engaging.​

An Adventurer's Assignment
We introduced a groundbreaking questline known as "An Adventurer's Assignment", "Olaf's Quest", or "HP Quest" in May 2023 Update 85. This innovative system aimed to reduce the reliance on traditional HP washing, by offering alternative paths for character growth. Through a series of engaging assignments and challenges, players had the opportunity to earn valuable rewards and HP. This feature not only simplified the process for newcomers but also provided veterans with a refreshing take on advancing their characters without the need for complex stat manipulation. Check out the new HP guide posted by @Zancks! Adiós hp washing!!

Party Quest and Token of Teamwork Revamp
Recognizing the diverse preferences of our player base, we prioritized convenience and enjoyment in Update 87, aiming to simplify party management and empower players to embark on quests with ease. A few notable examples are:

• Separate spawn points for APQ reward room
• Level restriction removed for PPQ and Ariant PQ
• Smaller party size requirement

In addition, the Token of Teamwork system underwent a noteworthy transformation, presenting not only more enticing rewards but also an expanded array of options in the Token of Teamwork Exchange. In addition to traditional items, adventurers discovered exclusive custom-designed chairs that showcased thematic beauty and personalization. These chairs became sought-after symbols of collective achievement, allowing players to express their dedication!

Spoiler: New chairs!

Custom-designed town theme chairs by @Becca

Von Leon Balancing
We continue to seek different methods to draw increased attention to Von Leon (VL). We've introduced VL's bonus room and enhanced shoe stats to boost profitability. Additionally, we've implemented a range of VL-normal scrolls for individuals who prefer to avoid the risk of boom-ing their belt. We've also made some adjustments to the crafting materials requirements to enhance the overall quality of life. We are also looking for creative jail map ideas to diversify the rotations here.

We are aware some of the issues player brought up. The future balancing includes but not limited to reward revamp, boss mechanic and HP balancing, and more! Certainly, that's not the conclusion of our efforts. We value your feedback and are open to making changes based on your input. Your support and ideas are essential to further refine VL!
​

Major Updates

New Website
We are delighted to share that we recently launched our new website, characterized by a modern and stylish design that reflects the latest trends. The revamped look not only enhances the overall user experience but also underscores our commitment to staying current and user-friendly.

Furthermore, behind the scenes, we are working on expanding our library. This exciting development holds the promise of additional features and resources that will elevate the overall functionality of our platform. Stay tuned for a more enriched and dynamic user experience!

New Client
Credit goes to our stellar developer @yeepog, for reconstructing the client! In other words, we can now incorporate additional features that were previously limited! Some new features (unless there's more? ) are:

• The client is automatically updated when you open the client, so there's no need for a patch to update new client features! And more importantly, this feature will later on be extended to the entire game! So this will effectively act as a patcher
• Resolution.ini is gone, and you can now change the resolution in-game in system options with our cool new dropbox. It will update the resolution live for you, so you don't need to restart!
• The player's Speed stat now affects how quickly ladders and ropes can be climbed. Pretty self-explanatory.

Monster and Reactor Drop System Revamp
Behind the scenes, we also improved our drop system! This fixes a long-standing issue with quest monster drops where they would continue to drop after gathering the required amount for the quest, and quest reactor drops which would drop even if you didn't have the quest in progress. For example, the boxes in Amherst will no longer drop screws and wooden planks if you don't have the quest in progress; Orbis boxes won't drop the glass bottles, etc.

More Tools against RWT
We're pleased to announce significant developments in our backend moderation tools. Our team has made substantial strides in fortifying security measures against Real-World Trading (RWT). Through the implementation of advanced tools, we have significantly heightened our ability to detect and prevent RWT activities. This proactive approach makes it increasingly challenging for any such activities to go unnoticed, ensuring a fair and secure environment for all players. We remain committed to continuously improving our system to uphold the integrity of the game! ​

Community Engagement
The heart of Mapleroyals lies within its passionate and diverse community. In 2023, we have continued to foster a sense of camaraderie through community events. The support and enthusiasm of our player base have been instrumental in making Mapleroyals a thriving and welcoming online haven!

MapleRoyals 10-Year Anniversary

It's incredible that Mapleroyals has reached the milestone of a decade and is now approaching its 11th year. We aspire to continue delivering enjoyable adventures for many more years to come!

Spoiler: Matt's message

"It's hard to believe that it's MapleRoyals has now been around for 10 whole years. A decade of leveling up characters, questing, bossing, PQ'ing, exploring, and most importantly building friendships, some of which extend beyond the borders of our game. This has been such a big milestone for us, and I hope you have all been enjoying the recent 10th Anniversary events.

From the bottom of my heart, I want to extend a massive thank you to every single one of you who has been part of this journey so far. Whether you're a seasoned veteran who has been with us from the beginning or a fresh-faced newcomer just starting out, you've all contributed to making MapleRoyals what it is today. Together, we've built more than just a game; we've created a enthusiastic community that's truly one-of-a-kind.

I'm truly grateful for all the feedback, suggestions and invaluable discussions that have been had throughout these years. They've helped shape the game into the unique experience that it is today. Your passion, dedication, and love for the game never ceases to amaze, I am thrilled to see the game still thriving after such a long time. This is your achievement as much as ours, and this anniversary is not just a celebration of the game but a celebration of you, the players who have made it possible.

Looking forward to the future, we promise to keep the spirit of MapleRoyals alive, with many more adventures, challenges, and surprises waiting for us in the years to come.

Once again, thank you for an amazing decade of MapleRoyals, and here's to many more!"

Spoiler: MapleRoyals 10 Year Timeline

Thanks to incredible @Joong 's amazing art piece

Forum Events

Valentine's Card Contest 2023
(Re-)create your MapleRoyals Memory <<< Kenny's favorite event!! so many good submissions!!! (◕▿◕)
Halloween Costume Contest 2023
Tree Decorating Contest 2023 (ongoing!)​

Forum and Discord Moderations

Thanks to the triumphant return of our one and only forum/discord moderator @Dave Deviluke, we are fortunate to once again benefit from his invaluable contributions and dedicated efforts to the overall moderation and management of our platforms!


"Glad to join back Royals team to help out with Discord and Forum moderation! I will do my best to assist players with various matters (Discord/Forum questions)"
​

Terms and Conditions

We want to emphasize the importance of due diligence in our community.
This rule was put in place to make it more difficult for real world traders to launder their goods, and to prevent players from profiting off of 'cheap' real world trade deals. See below for specific details about this new rule:

1. Handling real world trade goods - The act of orchestrating high value trades with suspicious individuals for large profits without doing your due diligence on their background.
   First offense also includes the removal of the goods or total of the equivalent value that was traded for. You will not get your original items back.

Spoiler: more details

For the purpose of this rule 'High value' is considered 5 billion mesos or higher. You're expected to do your due diligence on any trade you plan to make that's valued over 5 billion mesos by utilizing questions like the ones provided below:

• What is their forum account?
• Who are their main characters?
• Can they contact you from those accounts?
• Around how long have they been playing?
• Why are they selling what they are selling?
• Does it make sense for them to have these goods comparatively to their MapleRoyals progress?
• Is there a forum thread on this item to get the best offer? If not, why not?
• Any of these points not making sense? inform staff prior to trading

Any of these points not making sense and something feels off? Do not make the trade and feel free to report the user on the forums here.

Players knowingly and repeatedly making suspicious trades with suspicious characters and/or making a single extremely high-valued suspicious trade that had garnered them a significant amount of mesos and/or advantage are still subject to this rule.

You risk the chance to get temporarily banned and have your goods removed without getting anything back if there's no sign of you doing your due diligence and the trade you made was too good to be true with a real world trade related character.
You will not get banned or have goods removed if you made legitimate effort in your due diligence and proceeded with the trade where later on the person you traded with turned out to be a real world trader that had you fooled.
This rule does not include items sold in free market merchants since the limit is 5 billion mesos. Additionally, this rule does not include leech services (pending the service was actually provided).
Staff reserves the right to permanently ban you for your first offense depending on the severity of the trade(s) and their value.

Staff Change
We have an unfortunate staff announcement to make. Staff member @Dong had to be let go due to GM Abuse, and we issued a ban on all of his accounts. Since the abuse was contained to his own accounts, the rest of the game economy wasn't majorly impacted. Despite that, we still want to thank him for contributing to the team in discussions, handling Ban Appeals and Reports, and helping us with testing. It is sad to see him go on these terms, but nonetheless, we wish him the best in his future endeavors.

Some Mapleroyals Statistics (for the nerds)
The following things took place in the year 2023 for MapleRoyals:

• 15688 bans were issued
• 80902 characters were created
• 688 characters reached the illusive maximum level of 200
• Of the characters created in 2023, most of them chose to become a Bishop (1264), followed by Shadower (510) and Night Lord (485). Not many players wanted to be a Corsair (107)
• Love was in the air, or at least the desire to APQ burned vigorously as 2743 marriages took place
• We're nearing a total of 9000 guilds to house players with the same mindset
• the player with the highest amount of NX on a single account has surpassed 32 million NX
• 2276218 transactions took place as items traded owners by hired merchant, those NPCs sure put in the work
• Number of players who accidentally dropped a valuable item and had a heart attack: too many to count

The Future
As we step into the future, the Mapleroyals staff team is dedicated to building upon the successes of 2023. With a keen eye for your feedback and an unwavering commitment to quality, we are excited about the adventures that await in the coming year. Whether you're a seasoned veteran or a newcomer to the realm, the journey continues, and we invite you to be a part of the unfolding saga! Here are some areas we are working on:

• Patcher: You might have observed the absence of new RP/NX items in our recent update. This is attributed to the installer reaching its capacity limit. However, we are actively developing a patcher that will effectively eliminate this limitation, allowing for the seamless addition of new content and RP/NX items in future updates.
• Class skill balance: We have dedicated considerable effort to incorporating the class skill balancing discussed across the game, notably here. The primary challenge faced in this endeavor is that certain popular requests necessitate intricate client adjustments. Additionally, a substantial amount of testing is required before release.
• New GM event:

​

• Spoiler: Pink Bean?

Thank you for being a part of the Mapleroyals family. Here's to a fantastic 2024, filled with even more excitement, challenges, and camaraderie!

Happy Mapling!

- The MapleRoyals Staff

 

ty for the hard work and love the stats !!!!!!

 

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Thanks for the continual efforts in improving the server, here's to another 10 years! MOO!

On a side note, interested to see if there're stats for rose garden, like the amount of bees captured or sold to npc. The trillions in mesos generated since the release of rose garden must be astronomical!

 

Thanks for not being vague about 'Staff Change' part, it helps stopping some speculations from circulating.
It's very sad to hear about.

As for the rest - great blog!
I really want to believe the feedback part

 

Oh damn, I've just seen the blog.

First of all, I feel sad to see what happened to Dong, but hey, if we quote newton on this one - for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Glad to see some changes, and I can't wait to see new RP/NX items, would make my inner stylist really happy.

Really cool chair designs by Becca as well, Great modeling by Kenny.

Noice blog, nice to see the amount of effort everybody gives towards the server

 

for the community

 

Finally , News this dream will come true !



I admire those who make the effort, they have a lot of time dedicated to this, there are many things that we have experienced this year, and from now on we can say happy new year 2024! uwu

 

Whos holding 32m nx lol. Thats insane if they decided to go all in gacha. May take more than a day.

 

did dong pull a charlie? damn, so disappointing smh.

 

Long Live Royals

 

Hi Kenny, thank you for bringing this blog update. If it's possible, would you be able to answer some questions? (please understand that I'm just trying to be serious and not trying to attack you or Staff...)

I mentioned it before but I'll say it again: What stops Staff from doing a multi-part skill change update rather than a single skill change update? For example, introducing the more simple (and agreed upon) skill change edits in a "Part 1" and then doing the more elaborate/intensive skill changes (maybe more class focus changes) in a "Part 2" later on?

[-] Is Staff taking the time to go over the identity of certain classes (and also vs other classes) when it comes to the Skill changes? (note: I know there's a limit to what changes can be made on a non-rebuilt pre-bb server) The Skill Change feedback thread is very generalized and doesn't really go into specifics beyond just people posting their ideas for changes. On another server, there was a specific Class thread that had prompt questions to gather people's extended thoughts on the class, allowing for varying views to be chipped in. On the skill change thread, besides some comments, there isn't much indication showing Staff wants thoughts besides submitting suggestions.

[-] Will Staff (Matt) give more leeway to the Game Balancers to speak in the Feedback subforum? This is with knowing the Golden Rule of "be tight lipped on future content/spoilers/changes". We have no idea what Staff's thoughts are on public content with either being receptive to ideas or rejecting ideas. Some of the Staff members enjoy posting their balance thoughts on the shoutbox rather than the Feedback forum, knowing full and well that it'll most likely be lost and players can't make a critique of or even support their sentiments. This is highly annoying! Game Balancers should be granted the responsibility of giving the general thoughts of Staff regarding something or being able to explain why something went the way it did while respecting the Golden Rule on the feedback forum.

Additionally, I think it'd go a long way if Game Balancers had the ability to ask the community questions on content to get specific feedback (without hinting on future stuff of course) and have discussions going along that Staff can't gather by themselves. We need this gateway in discussion with Staff because right now we have GMs who are participating in Game balancing but don't share/talk to the community. Let the Game Balancers be the bridge... aka BUFF GAME BALANCER (Buff Zancks & Rielle)!!!

 

By the community

 

I knew it, corsair mains are all cheaters!

 

thank you for everything!

 

15688 bans. That's roughly 43 bans a day. BRUH!

 

great post! the info is just nice hehe

btw, new tech/client means we can (eventually) have a damage counter at bossfights?
would be cool to brag/compare total damage and so

 

And somehow there's only one ban appeal a day ( on average )
Must be a ton of player's that don't even bother appealing.

 

True. I guess the other 42 banned players don't have a brother to blame for the hacking