Future of MapleRoyals

Dear @Matt ,

This is not a thread to put down you or @Karven . I promise, this is not me trying to smear you. This is something that I want you to take 100% serious.When I first joined MapleRoyals, I would hear rumors about "New Source", the best thing to ever come to MapleRoyals. We all cant wait until new source comes in the future where everything will be perfect. It was a dream haven, and everyone loved the idea. I heard that it was talked about for over a year before I joined and was still rumors after I joined. However, after 3 months, a quarter of a year later, the server is in what most call the worst shape ever. I don't deny, you guys have great intentions, that is true, what you have on paper, is truly a great plan, but putting it into action just isn't a feasible task anymore.

Let's be brutally honest, it is a quarter of a year later and we have what? Bugs so bad that the game is unplayable for some. Incorrect parameter that plagues anyone who has an IOS of windows within the last 7 years, and most features unavailable. Like I said, I don't deny that you have good intentions and that you are working hard as hell to get things fixed. However, I honestly think it would be more beneficial to the server as a whole if you reverted the server back to old source and just gave up on new source all-together or postponed it at least another year.

I know exactly what you are thinking, "We simply can't." I know it would require a rollback of immense magnitude, but in all honesty, I think trying to keep MapleRoyals at new source will kill the game. I thought for the first 2 months, well, they had a rough start, but they will get things going and the loyal MapleRoyals will come back. But you need to wake up and realize that is happening, you are losing a large amount of players to other Private Servers. Private Servers that literally are a copy of old source MapleRoyals and opened when MapleRoyals converted to new source and have a player base of hundreds of people. Your own admins play different servers, your own GM's play the servers. Also, people are getting fed up and just quitting. Its been 3 months and the only real big progress that has been made was some PQ's are opened, and krex and zak became available, but upon that release, was game breaking crashes which makes bossing nearly impossible. My point, you implement 1 thing, and 100 bugs pop up. Its a never ending process. I could go on and on about what is wrong with new source, but you already know what is wrong. The thing you need to think about, is bringing MapleRoyals back to its glory days. The server back then was a little buggy in some aspects, but from what I see now, it is heaven compared to what we are experiencing now.

The people that support new source are those who are optimistic. I used to be one of them, but then I read a post by you @Matt about how you don't have funds to keep the server up much longer. You plan to bring back cash shop in hope that people will donate. However, you need to bring in more new players, those people are the ones who are looking to donate. Me, i'm an old fart who has already donated multiple times and I already have everything I need. If I need to donate to keep the server alive, I will, but for personal use, I don't need it. If you revert to old source, most old players will come back, maybe close to all, I know some might have quit permanently, but most will come back. This will bring MapleRoyals back to the top of the MapleStory private server list and more new players will join, thus expanding the player-base. Old source was simply better, yes you had to gfx. and some issues and balanced was needed, but it was things that people loved on MapleRoyals.

I know this may be a lot of work, but you need to think about something, if we do bring back old source, where do we even start for what to be done? I know that the only option is a rollback to December 31st 2016. However, even if you do that, compensate people for the exp they lost and the NX they voted for. Not that many people have been leveling so the numbers may be high, but it will be limited. Im sure other things may arise to be compensated, but some things just might have to lost like mesos, or items gained. heck we cant scroll or anything so items isnt a problem. Yes, people are going to lose a crap ton of heart stoppers, but they might just have to lose out. Myself included there. I can only make suggestions on how to compensate, and compensation is needed if there is a rollback, prob exp/lvl is most important. Maybe some 2x events included, idk. It wont be pretty, but it needs to be done.

You need to look at the big picture and be pragmatic. New Source was a mistake, You can't deny that, no one can. The only option is to look to the future and think what we can do better, and reverting to old source is a must. New source is just too much work for Kevin alone. The future is not going to be pretty, but sometimes ugly truths must be told, and some things must be done before its too late.

@Matt I beg you, please take this seriously, I am begging on my knees, not as a whiny bitch, so to speak, but because I have spent hundreds if not thousands of hours on this server in the past year and I love it so much, It hurts me like you cant believe to see it die like this.

 

OLD SOURCE HYPE! #Bring us back, please!
Anyway, I'm absolutely agree with this thread. However I'm really thank you guys for putting effort for new source. Almost being 3 months, the server are so dead. Let me tell you, everyday when I wake up, I'm just open my lappy open forum website, and praying for the new update.I believe that everyone who playing this server are doing same thing with me. I'm not blaming, personal opinion! ^ +1

 

@Seductive Love,
You have my respect.

 

With you on this 100%.

 

As tough as it is might be for Matt/karven to admit. The best option moving forward is without a doubt to rollback to the old source, if transferring the current database to the old source's database isn't possible.

At the rate the new source is progressing, royals will be dead sooner than later. Rolling back 2.5 months is of course risky but I think it gives royals the best chance at survival. I don't think royals will ever return to it's former glory. But it might be able to stay for a little while longer.

 

Note: This post is being written as a player giving player feedback and not as a staff member giving any official foreshadowing of what's to come in the future. This is strictly my personal opinion.

If not impossible there is honestly nothing I'd like more than this. Ignoring my status as GM, I've been an active player without breaks for nearly 3 years now and although I will continue to support the game as best I can on whichever path it ends up on, it greatly saddens me that I have no motivation to play right now. Majority of my friends/guildmates have either quit or are patiently waiting for something big to happen to motivate them to come back. In my perfect world we'd be playing on old source while beta testing new source the way I suggested in 2015 since at this point we are looking to fix specific things rather than just looking for bugs.
https://royals.ms/forum/threads/open-beta-to-do-list.44001/

I just want to see MapleRoyals succeed in whatever way makes it the most possible.

 

JUST DO ITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

 

You have experience running and owning a server, I don't. I was just expressing my honest concerns and possible solution because after 3 months, we haven't really achieved that much, if looking at the big picture. I just want MapleRoyals to succeed in any way possible, like I said, I love this server like you couldn't believe. If you honestly think this is the best course of action, then i'm behind you until the end.

 

Good things come to those who wait, and this is a prime example.

The game is a lot more stable and the issues are being fixed. Prior to the new source there was a lot that couldn't be fixed. If some people are perfectly okay reverting to a subpar source because of little patience, that's their prerogative.

However, I along with many others, don't feel this way, and we don't think that's what's best for the server. Nothing worth having is easy to get and people need to look at long term potential over short term gains.

Also, at 73 days, we're talking 1/5 of a year, I know you're rounding but please, round down, not up.

 

Totally agree with you, server is dying. New source is a mess at this point. Prioritizing Cash Shop instead of working on game breaking bugs like the party exp bug makes me even question the decision making of the staff. If I recall correctly shadowers still doesn't have mesos explosion...
It is just a mess.

But there already been so much work and time put into it. I honestly feel like the v83 has potential to be better than the old client.
It really pains me to see the server in such pity state. It's boring, unfair and sad. But I still believe it is the right call to continue with new source.

 

The reason to prioritize cash shop is so the server can bring in income again, that's why. Plus I believe it's also because the CS is the largest chunk to get working, after that the rest of things come easier.

I've said my opinions on this whole thing a few times over to the other staff, repeating it back here wouldn't help much - but trust me when I say I wish it wasn't like this either. I only can hope for the best, and continue to do whatever I can to help in the mean time.

 

I'm sorry but I invested too much time on this server. It's brought me peace beyond your comprehension (something to do with some other issue irl long story) as I keep going back to the things of old that I used to do when life was less mad.

Basically I ain't going nowhere. I'm sure there are others like that. I will whine like a and I don't give a fuck but I'm loyal as shit. So if it takes threatening to spank you Matt I will do it F5 but you have my unwaivering support. We've come so far now you HAVE to deliver new source.

But please don't ban me if I threaten to spank you.

 

Another fine case of the entire community coming together on a single issue, even gm's support this idea, and as always the admin's just shut the idea down
Imagine having a server where the staff actually listend to what the player's wanted insted of taking game changing decisions on a server they havent played for 2 years

The Feedback section (In this case GD but this should be in feedback imo) is a fucking joke and literally everybody thinks so.
I cant understand how you guys (the admins) can run a server that you dont even play and not take any feedback from your players? This new source might be a huge mess but in my eyes the game being broken itself is not the biggest issue that the new source has brought. It is that we can now see how the Admin's run the server and what they prioritize and how the dont care what the players want?

If this post isnt within this topic you can move it to wherever you want (let's move it to feedback and get shut down within 2 hours ) But i know that i do not only speak for myself, but most of the people i know feel the same way.

 

why are all the GM in Oblivion. this is a conspiracy

 

I know I read the first post. I still don't think that leaving game breaking bugs to be out there just because you are running low on funding is the right thing to do. (also Matt has saved up money for advertisement he could use instead to keep the server alive)

Matt claims this is a non profit server (iirc). Yet no transparency is shown, I would personally donate to the server if Matt made an official post saying that the server is in need of money to afford another month of service, also show some degree of transparency. What also baffles me is there no transparency on how server hosting costs and how much the community is donating.. We just have to take your word for it which may just be a flat out lie.

It's fairly easy to see whats happening
Money > Game.
At least that's how I see it, I might be wrong.

 

I don't like you.

 

Matt has given out some details about the funding of the server in the shoutbox. If I recall correctly it was the following:
The game server runs on two E5 2620 V3 processors and a 128GB SSD
There are three servers, game, forum and another I forgot. Together they cost $1200 a month to host.
The total monthly cost (this includes DDOS protection) is $4000 a month.

He has contacted the server host about the transition to the new source and has gained a significant discount for the past two months.

 

Yes lets do wat the players want! O wait... that would turn into one big mess.
This is not the problem here. in every single mmo i played i have seen posts about how the team focuses on the 'wrong' thing, and how they should do whatever the community wants.
In the end we don't know wat we want, community's are always split about it, and there will always be people that disagree with the decision that has been made.
Thus in the end its up to the admin, game dev or wat ever to cut the rope and make an decision.

In this case i think it is good to see that Matt stands by his/their decision. The staff clearly had one maybe more talks about the state of the server and wat to do with it. In these talks they have come to an conclusion and decided to roll with wat they have now, even tho a hand full of players might disagree with it. Nothing is more worrying then having someone run the place that isn't sure of itself and changes his mind on things the moment a few people oppose his/her decisions.

If you read Matt's reply carefully you will notice that for one he is talking about a loan, something which is quite different from saved up money (this one has to be payed back, which requires donations).
Also you mention he should use that money to keep the server alive instead of putting it into advertising, once again if you read carefully he says in case the do not have enough income (aka pay server cost) and/or require advertising.
So the things you mention here are already confirmed by Matt to be the case.

As for the transparency, I am pretty sure Matt has thrown the bill for server costs in the sb once, tho i agree it wouldn't be a bad idea to get a topic of some sort with more of an overview of wat the money goes towards and how close to reaching the goal for next month we are. Also isn't there an annual return you could look into for details?

 

When I said transparency I meant the following:
How much money was saved up each month
Costs as you mentioned
Advertisement bills
How far each week the server is from paying its bills.

There was another private server had complete transparency on how they handled their money. They usually also made a public notice when they were falling behind in payments to keep the server running. Sadly that server died long time ago.

Well I guess transparency doesn't really matter I regret bringing this topic up because its deviating from the from the original topic, for that I'm sorry.

As I said in my second post, "I Might be wrong" starting to see that now.

edit:

read my post carefully and you will notice that I talk about transparency.
Official transparency, not stuff said in shoutbox.