I would first like to point out some things before I begin. I am using official files provided by MapleRoyals. I have not edited anything. This does not affect gameplay. It only changes how the game looks. (and it's only on your end) Seriously. This does not affect gameplay. So I was wondering if we could implement a new policy where certain .wz files, such as UI.wz, can be edited and shared across the forum. I know several old private servers that have since closed had very popular .wz editing communities which produced amazing stuff. Seeing as there are a lot of creative people at Royals, I feel this would be a pretty cool opportunity to show off their skills. I await your criticism.
I think for the future if the staff have the time to confirm certain files as safe this could be really fun.
I feel like this would be more community run, i.e download only if you trust. Staff approving files would take too long imo. Also but there used to be a server called FarmerStory (it's closed now) that my sister and I used to be major .wz editors on and we eventually broke off from the forum community and launched our own website; it became fairly successful and we were able to push our new .wz updates weekly. This is why I feel it should be more community based rather than any staff involvement. (more freedom without having to wait for staff)
Well depending on which .wz file they edit (also with the trust and download), certain wz files, such as UI.wz. have nothing that affects the game. It only controls the user interface. Also, if staff were to test every file, such as a skill.wz, it would take ages for them to check if all classes skills were untouched. This is why I suggested UI.wz as a beginning.
The other issue I see with allowing customized WZ files is when someone posts a screenshot for say a Report Abuse claim. How do we then know if the screenshot is a legitimate one from MapleRoyals and not a photoshopped screenshot or one taken from another server? I think it is much better to have uniformity and ensure everyone has only one set of WZ files. Additionally, this is a nostalgic server. A Hello Kitty (sorry Cyndy) UI is not nostalgic.
A simple way to verify whether or not this is Mapleroyals would be using the ~mapowner and ~uptime command. Granted the possibility for photoshopping still exists but this is possible with the default UI as well. Additionally, most other private servers that allow .wz editing typically have major edits that one can immedately tell is not Royals. For the nostalgic part, this is only your view. I don't see why someone can still have a nostalgic MapleStory feeling while sprucing up the UI a bit. (Personally, .wz edits was a huge part of my earlier Maple days since I quit GMS a long time ago) If someone wants to keep their nostalgic default UI then they aren't forced to change it while people who would like something different have the ability to do so.
The main issue I see with this is when we get a working launcher/patcher that checks for correct WZ files. (Which of course is something we will want to have), the only way to continue using the modified UI.wz would be to bypass the launcher (if possible), but this could jeopardise your account if any other new WZ files are released that you could be skipping.
Would it be possible to create a checklist in a settings feature that would allow the user to check certain files they do not wish to be updated?
Yes. Unless they don't want that. That being said I'm 100% for this suggestion. Like you said before Ui.wz doesn't affect the gameplay so it's safe. About the argument that it will make it harder to tell if an SS is edited or not, that doesn't really make any sense. Anyone can try and recreate a mapleroyals-like server to make fake SS in at any time. Even if the UI is edited, that should be the least concerning thing with SS edits.
Why would you not want to update your files? .wz files are updated by the developers for a reason, are they not?
Because as Matt said, the launcher/patcher would check your files against the server's files. So if you have an edited UI.wz file, even if it's the most updated one, the patcher would check it as outdated and replace it with the server's version. In addition, unless the staff plans on releasing custom windows inside the game (which I don't believe is possible due to client limitations), the UI.wz would never be updated.
Or maybe the staff can create a different UI.wz for each update and will last till the next update so we can have diversity and they can control what gets changed?
This would eliminate the community's involvement in creating custom skins for the UI and having what they like on there (and eliminates the community's creativeness and input). Additionally, I doubt the staff has time to do this.
If we allowed the editing of UI.wz, wouldn't people then want to be allowed to edit Effect.wz, Skill.wz and other files to change other appearances in the game as well? Some of those files can indeed affect the gameplay and get people banned. In fact, UI.wz can cause problems to gameplay too, it's quite easy to mess things up when wz editing and then cause some buttons to not work when clicked because they are incorrect placed. And if people start sharing modified UI.wz's to players for them to use, I wouldn't want players to start posting reports about stuff in the game not working because of modified WZ files they are using.
I also forgot to mention that if you were to not keep your UI.wz up to date, your client would crash if the server tries to load new UI images that have been added in a UI update that you don't have in the older UI file. I would also be against people making youtube videos or streaming MapleRoyals when using the wrong wz files as it could give people the wrong idea of what the server is like. Therefore I think it's very unlikely that we are going to decide to allow players to customise their wz files any time soon, sorry.
