General General Feedback and Longevity of the Server

I agree with a lot of the points brought up in this thread and hope that the staff seriously consider big changes for the longevity of this server. I just wanted to share my personal experience from Royals on the points provided.

Lack of Player Retention

I started with a core group of 15 irl friends who were high off the nostalgia of the Maple we played 10+ years ago. We all grinded 12-16 hours daily playing our new characters by grinding, PQing, participating in events, or searching for maple weapons / scrolls. Things took a downturn when we quickly realized that we all needed to remake our characters in order to fit into the meta Royals has developed. This ended up in all 15 of us creating mages/hs mules/bishops and leeching our own characters with int equips and base int. It was painstakingly obvious that we were no longer enjoying the game like when we first started grinding and PQing together. Even the friends we met through these PQs as noobs ended up asking us to add their new 'main' due to washing... only to find out that they quit 1-2 weeks later. Hell, I've made three fucking nightlords. RIP OG Skumbag



The lack of player retention is a serious issue. I believe hp washing and the trading of APRs contributes to this ever growing problem on the server. Another issue that @Johnny brought up is the fact that ban appeals are unforgiving. Why were people permanently banned for hate speech/harassment? If the server actually wanted to keep players, a chat filter or chat restriction could be put in place. Why are people banned as a person vs not just their accounts for vote abuse? (They're only vote abusing because of the vote2win system from APRs/gachaing). At the end of the day, only ONE other irl friend besides myself still play Royals and countless of friends I've made on this server have quit.

Nerfs and Controversial Changes

1. Event Nerfs (ex. untradeable never melting snow, untradeable anniversary candles)

The untradeable etc event items were not enjoyable for my friends and I. We felt forced to participate in these events for earning untradeables or income, but it was overall not an enjoyable experience for the untradeable etcs. I do really enjoy the new egg PQ and this easter event with rare NX so I applaud the staff for the new refreshing content.

2. Spawn Nerfs (ulu, duku)

Many of the most hardworking people I know quit because they're unable to keep up with the mesos hackers / RWTers inject into the economy every day. The nerfs to legit players makes it extremely demotivating for all legit players who want to reach end game equips. Farming and selling skele/petri leech only amount to ~160m an hour on average. How are these discussions and nerfs to legit players being patched before an autoban is put in place?

3. Summon Farm + Pet Loot

Players are used to having an abundance of cheap attack pots (primarily heartstoppers) due to this and this may be contributing to the aging of the server. People are just hurricane farming in toy room now with multiple clients so I don't understand why that's not nerfed if summon farming was nerfed previously. If anything, this is more braindead afk than the previous summon farming.

4. Shifter Nerf, Potion Price Increase, Star recharge costs

This sucks as a new player, it doesn't effect or nerf end game NLs at all. It just further promotes the idea of make a mage before you play the game!

5. Total Crash Implementation/adjustment

I agree that this skill should be completely scrapped. When I joined, I asked myself why is this even a thing? It just promotes muling and made my friends miserable that they had to make yet ANOTHER mule.

Auto Ban Priority

It's extremely disappointing/discouraging that autoban wasn't even mentioned in the recent GM blog. How much longer can players listen to the staff saying "soontm"? I know I'm sick of seeing hackers and botters run rampant on this server. I've pretty much decided to take a break / play extremely casually until auto ban is in place.

Content that doesn’t fit or make sense on MapleRoyals

Auf Helmet is just disgusting lol. Auf isn't even harder than HT at the time being. It requires less attack pots and is easily done with a duo/trio.

At the end of the day, I do love and enjoy playing Royals despite all the negative things I point out. I'm pretty sure everyone here on the feedback thread just want to see the server thrive. I mean why else would we care so much?

 

Hopefully I can offer some insight on something that hasn't been mentioned yet.
Content that doesn’t fit or make sense on MapleRoyals

I think auf helm is a bit too good. Yes I know it takes a lot of work to get the perfect clean helm and even more to gather all the resources to finish it so I do not want to discredit the amount of work people put in. However, I think the reward is over-tuned for the effort put in.

I'm a jMS player who did Auf a couple times back in the day (pretty much as an HB mule though . I couldn't afford to HP wash like some really invested players). I know this game is based off the general feel of gMS, but Neo Tokyo was originally created for jMS with a different mindset and meta to gMS. The helm was definitely not intended to be finished with WS (though you could say that about every other item but from jMS's balance perspective hopefully I can explain why I think this way). Our Zhelms were +4 all stat and you had to do a quest line involving killing BGA and some other stuff to upgrade them to +6 all stat then finally to +10 all stat. I believe jMS came up with the ele wands to buff arch mages, but with mismatched elements having a heavy damage nerf and gMS re-released these wands but with no nerf (I am not sure if they had the nerf at some point, I didn't play gMS that much). We didn't have NLC until after Neo Tokyo so no MoN, FS, SCG, and other NLC stuff. My memory is a bit fuzzy on this part, but CS/WS were pretty much confined to mushroom gacha shrine and were extremely expensive and pretty much only sold through MTS while in gMS I remember CS/WS being rare (at least before they were a common mob drop) but not on similar scale.

On the other hand we had stuff like eye and face accessories dropping from regular mobs at mushroom shrine. I remember the economy in jMS was a lot healthier/lively than gMS's so higher attack weapons were a lot more accessible to the average player.

 

It is time

https://royals.ms/forum/threads/server-wipe.131920/

 

Doesn't matter, this is boomer logic. If you make an actual progressive, helpful change, it doesn't matter if old players already did it harder or longer. They already did it no matter what and you can't change that anyway, you're just doing your job to improve the way it's done, you ignore the buttholes who want other people to be punished the same way they were. Its the same thing as people being against student debt or paying for college, just because they did they think everyone else should suffer, instead of everyone being able to benefit (and to be clear what I'm not saying is just give everyone free hp or whatever. I'm just saying if staff feels they struck a middle ground that achieves what they were trying to accomplish better for new players and think it's fair, do it, it doesn't matter what the people who already did it think. Its not punishment, people need to stop throwing that word around.)

I essentially agree with everything said here so far. Except I don't think staff is trying to punish players when they make changes to the meta, these are just normal server growing pains, they are trying to be progressive and do the right thing. The server has to change and develop, this will never stay a nostalgia server, it's just a prebb server that will over time make 1000s of fundamental changes as if the classes and server and maps continued through time. This is why I make so many "useless skill' suggestions, for longevity, not just to be different or niche and not to "change" or "challenge the meta or nostalgia". I'm actually really mindful of all the implications and consequences of the changes I suggest and try to look down the road at them before I talk about them, and I never want them to have direct meta involvement, they just simply would improve naturally over time because this server isn't planning on wiping everything out all at once, so all these skills, even the useless ones, grow along with the server and deserve there function and utility to be reconsidered, since they will continue to be a part of it forever (or subject to completely change, like total crash.) More importantly it's a million times more fun to have skills you invested in that aren't sp dumps, that have some value to you the player and fits the class. These are all changes that would have, or literally did happen over time originally, there's no reason to have or keep them if they're just totally useless or never saw their intended potential, and I think a lot of the skills tell you what they are and could become.
Its just a beautiful untapped aspect of the game that would make it even more rich and engaging and fun for each class, maybe people wouldn't be so desperate to just get to 135 asap (leeching), but also rewards them even at 200, too.
Non-linearity and customization is a huge aspect of RPG style gaming (and your Maple story). I mean look at the beginner and ironman population here, they are quenching that same non-linear thirst by playing the game completely differently than intended or handicapped. If anything reg players should be rewarded for slight build deviation, those skills should be worth your time and investment.

Phew ok sorry. Maybe one day this will make sense to someone besides me lol

 

The need to HP wash really limits the server. It's a big deterrent to making any more characters because it really is needed if you wanted to have those characters go to end-game. It can also explain the inactivity in low-level PQs because characters HP washing are very weak or would rather leech than switch between main/int gears.

The HP quest should be overhauled to replace most (if not all) washing required to get to an optimal HP for your class and level. I think it'd be nice if the quest got progressively slower (less rewarding as your HP grows), as a way to not be OP. So it can get characters to an optimal HP in a reasonable manner and still let people use it as a slow way to reach max HP.

 

You do know most of your "useless skill" suggestions are actually pretty useless right, for longevity? Most of them implement wouldn't even be used by our players.
Elemental composition to hit 2 lines? Do you really think players will use that skill over ice strike/explosion understanding that grind rushing up to lvl120 should be any archmage 70-120 goal?

Suggesting royals into a super custom server trying to remove them from its original theme, making archmage class into the ultimate class? If a super custom server is actually what you hope Royals to become, do make another feedback thread, maybe emphasize on your demon skill buff there in the meantime and how it would miraculously fix all these problems other players have generously listed.

One thing I can confirm, the current game skill balancing is not the problem.
The game's economy and hacker situation is.

Look here, there's a limit of accusation that should not be done here in forums, and you sir are crossing the line.

 

As a player with a washed character with around 1m nx and 12b mesos invest just in washing it I won't be mad if new players and my guildies (who are mostly new cleric mules now to fund their third character) doesn't have to pass through all that shit I had to go in order to play a NL. Make it hard to get like the alternative zakum jump quest where people decide if it worths doing it or just make a bishop.

 

Ooof, it is a risky comment to make in forum here...

 

I don't see how they're useless for longevity, most players stop playing the game before even getting to end game. As such those "useless skills" probably have more impact on player retention than the economy, since you really have to first reach end game before you really start caring about the economy. Thing is, once a player reaches end game, you've already achieved the result of player retention for that player. While they are still problems, the lack of content and attention towards early levels is an even bigger one in regards to player retention.

 

Contents namely the EggPQs, compass letters for this particular event we’re enjoying is designed catered towards new players.
If buffing skill left and right into some super custom content to lose its nostalgic state is a good idea of player retention for them to play to 1-120 to only be affected by the economy after then by all means.

A new feedback thread should be made & not diluting in this one if anything.

 

Ele comp 2 line was just a suggestion, nothing crazy or super custom about it, it should be a better 1v1 skill than your mobbing skill, and I believe that was the intention of it, that's all.

And what I said isn't crossing the line at all, it's something that happened, was exposed by ex staff, and affected a lot of people, even of they weren't directly involved. Sorry but it was a huge blow to the integrity of the server, and it's been a mess staff wise since then. And that's being more fair than I need to be.

 

@Cooler Can we focus on the main points of the thread instead of these baseless accusations with no substantiated evidence?

 

I'm not advocating for buffing skills, I'm saying if your goal is specifically player retention, you start at the most relevant issues. There's a concept in marketing called the Marketing Funnel which applies to the server's longevity:


The way this works if you start at the top, and you always lose interest from the public as you go down the funnel, Royals is optimized pretty well for Awareness and downloading, being the top of Gtop & having an installer, however once you get into the game that's when Royals quickly starts to lose players along the way. There are way more steps than what I provided for Royals but it gets the general idea across, more players experience the issues that are higher up in the funnel, as those things come faster as barriers to entry. "Fixing the economy" only affects players who have already slogged through making mules, grinding their characters up to bossing, and have HP washed a character to a decent degree, even if you fix the economy, the amount of players that matters to in regards to player retention isn't very much.

If your goal is specifically to help player retention and the longevity of the server, you start at the top of the funnel, not the bottom.

 

I believe the economy generally affects the whole example potions & star recharge prices, but more of my concerns still belongs to unnecessary/ randomly buffing 3rd job skills that do not require changes.
Any other idea perhaps new contents is generally welcomed in our server example fixing several issues such as buffing HP quests.

Also submitted a report on cooler for dropping harassment in this thread with no substantiated evidence.

Edit : Croosade Maplestory private server just shutdown several hours ago. Can we make the anniversary update ready and start making some advertisments for more playerbase lol.

 

The server seems to have a problem with new player retention? I see the reason people think the reason this is, is because of HP washing making unknowing players remake/reroll or quit, and early game being dead because of leech meta due to hp washing. I would like to propose an idea of implementing max hp gains into the general gameplay loop of the server.

Party Quests
-Upon full completion you gain max hp
-In party quests with bonus stages you have a low chance of getting a Max HP potion. When used you gain max hp, the item is also tradeable. Or maybe since not all PQs have bonus stages this item can be given out randomly at the end of the PQ instead of on the bonus stage.
-There's a daily system that gives a bonus of max hp upon completing a party quest. There's no limit to how many times you get this bonus and it rotates randomly daily. This is to hopefully encourage people to regularly play different party quests instead of the meta sticking to one "best" pqs.

General Quests
-Upon completion of a quest you gain max hp.

I'm just throwing this out there just to get the ideas floating around. If it sounds good to the community it could probably be more fleshed out with further discussion. The aim here is to keep unknowing new players from getting discouraged from the hp washing meta and to have some hope of playing their first character from simply playing the game rather than quitting or turning towards the leech meta.

 

Echoing what another member shared below, @staff what more can the community do with all of these ideas and comments shared? How can we as the community support to drive forward some of these changes and translate them to tactical next steps? This is a great opportunity to include your vocal and engaged player base in deciding on changes for the betterment of the server, rather than springing forward surprise changes in the next patch.

 

Orbis exchange quest killed moon bunny pq and kerning pq, not sure why it's still in the game when someone with funds can get to lvl 30 so fast. Low level pq's help retain players and contribute to the overall enjoyment of the game for new players as they are the most nostalgic.

 

Original post edited, woops, confused some folks together.

I said plenty of other things, wasn't talking about just one thing, but it's fine, it woulda been ignored either way

 

I begin to play few days ago..
I begin with a brawler and it took to me 21 days to get lv 120, never get leeched or something that give me exp advantage (unless event).
I leved with base int since i know how wash works (105 int base).
I almost lv 130 and doing it in my time, having a lot of fun.
I like this server sistem.
And my 2cents are: the server is balanced alot, rpg games don't have it in usual.
Is possible to have fun, obv that rich ppl or 2nd char will be faster