How do you do, fellow Royallers? One year ago (time flies, doesn't it?), we published the first GM Blog, and had the following to say: "Over the past few months, we've seen an increased amount of feedback from the community, asking for more transparency and open communication on the Staff's end. As part of a new effort to do better on these fronts, we are launching a new initiative that we'll call GM Blog. In these update posts, we will try our best to outline what we are currently working on (without spilling all the beans, of course) as well as what we are hoping to accomplish in the future. You may think of them both as our way of showing you all that we are constantly working on new exciting things, that we are taking your feedback into account, and that it affects our decision-making." Since then, we have tried to fulfill our promise, partly through these blogs, but also through community feedback threads, polls, restructuring of the Feedback subforum, and lengthier patch notes. How do you feel about this? Do you have any preferences among the aforementioned formats? Is there anything we should do more of? Let us know in the comment section below! Community Q&A #3 Additionally, if you have any other questions related to the game, you are welcome to post them in the 3rd Community Q&A session! Alright, on to some other stuff! We are continuing to work on what we consider cornerstones of stability and functionality that will pave the way for the introduction of fun content in the future. We have mentioned these before, but we believe you should at least be aware that we are actively working on them. The Autobanner While we can't give an estimated time of arrival, for reasons related to potential unforeseen obstacles, and also because it doesn't make sense for this non-binary, ever-improving system, we can say that each step forward with the autobanner is a real improvement for the game. The betterment of each part feeds into the effectiveness of other parts, and the completion of one system not only improves the game in and of itself, but may also unlock a missing puzzle piece for the next system. Although you cannot see, and mostly do not hear about, these improvements, we have made considerable upgrades to our back end logic for detecting malicious users. These systems are already working on the live server. Improvements to Game Stability As you may be aware, we recently had some troublemakers attempt to cause a commotion in order to gain attention. While this was a nuisance, it ultimately led us to make several improvements and patch some holes to future-proof against further similar attempts. The Staff members collaborated well to solve these issues in a swift and timely manner! Changing The Way We Work Before We Expand On the topic of the Staff, we have mentioned before that we want to make some back end changes which will allow our GMs to work more freely. As it stands, the Administrators have decided that they wish for these new tools to be made available to the current GMs before hiring new GMs. This is because the bottleneck is not really the number of GMs on Staff - they are doing an excellent job maintaining the majority of the things that keep the server running - the bottleneck pertains to a select few issues, which require Admin intervention. Giving the GMs the tools to deal with these issues is a current top priority, alongside the autobanner. In the meantime, whilst we iron out these fundamental building blocks, we are also contemplating the feedback from recent updates. Taking Your Feedback Into Account Recent game changes have sparked a thoughtful debate, and we have been keenly listening. The changes to Castellan Toad, Meso Guard and Soul Arrow in particular, have spawned many thought-provoking interpretations and questions. As it stands, based on the current feedback and observations, we are mostly satisfied with the change made to Meso Guard, with the caveat that that we are looking to address the difficulty this put users of Assassinate in. We are discussing various ways to remedy this, whilst retaining the effects of the change to Meso Guard. Valid questions of how to approach the other skills that negate 1/1 have been asked. We are discussing these as well, but have not reached a definitive answer yet. We thank you for your patience as we weigh the various factors and sides involved in this important matter. The change to Soul Arrow also sparked a great discussion, and we are leaning toward trying a different implementation that we hope will retain more of the functionality that people may expect of the skill, when they join a v0.83 server. Concretely, we are looking at the option of reverting the skill to its original form, but retaining the buffs to arrows, as well as significantly increasing the carrying-capacity for the high level arrows. Although this won't allow Archers to expend arrows for as long (per stack) and benefit from the attack buffs, it will grant them the flexibility of not using up their precious arrows in scenarios where they might not need the extra attack boost. Furthermore, as you can tell from the Update 74 patch notes, we had been discussing the change made to Castellan Toad, and agreed, after listening to the feedback from the community, that a reversion of the nerf to the EXP was fair. We thank all those who partook in the discussion and shared their thoughts! Von Leon - Still In The Works Some of you may have expected or hoped for the King of the El Nath Mts. to arrive in Update 74, but this mighty foe is not yet ready to see the light of day. This boss, being taken from after the Big Bang patch, has statistics which do not mesh with pre-Big Bang gameplay. As such, every statistic and point of balancing needs to be re-visited and revised. Additionally, some features simply do not exist in this older version of the game, and alternatives need to be carefully considered. Upcoming Seasonal Events Lastly, we are preparing events for the coming season. Last week, we released the Autumn Events, and we hope you have been, and will continue to, enjoy them! The Autumn Events are perhaps not the flashiest, but we still felt it would be nice to celebrate the changing of the seasons with something thematic and special! Enjoy this time while we continue to chisel away at the upcoming Halloween Events and further server improvements! We hope you are as excited for the cozy times ahead as we are! That's all for now. Happy Mapling! - The MapleRoyals Staff
I look forward to the change of soul arrow a very curious question Why does the diamond arrows ask for a minimum level of lvl 120 to use it?
So if I got it, about Soul Arrow, we will have a choice to make. 1 - We use Soul Arrow and we have infinite arrows, without using any, and we do not have any attack buff. 2 - Or we don't use Soul Arrow, we don't have unlimited arrows but we get the weapon attack bonus. Am I right ? Can't wait for the new Meso Guard too. Glad to see you're listening to the players. Cheers.
That's how soul arrow used to work before the change. From the sounds of it, that's what they're going for as well.
Are you sure that it worked this way before the change ? Always thought I had a better range when I was using red arrows ( +4 WAtt bonus ) than normal arrows, under SA. Anyway, I would be pleased if they do this change / revert.
While using Soul Arrow the bonus Atk bonus was shown in your range but not affecting your damage So it was kinda Fake
I haven't been active in the last few months so it may not be my place to comment, however it would seem the volume of feedback / commotion / whatever you like to call it has dwindled progressively this year in line with a number of veteran players quitting the game. I suspect a lot of this has to do with community advice consistently falling upon deaf ears, the rate at which changes are being implemented, the lack of support we have as well as internal staff drama - which has persisted in the background. It's hard to extrapolate information without data, however anecdotally a lot of known community members have quit. Is this because people move on from a mushroom game as they progressively age? Maybe. I genuinely think a greater proportion have left the server after continued disappointment regarding how staff have handled both internal and external conflict in the last two years, and I think it's worth reflecting upon the following issues: - Staff abuse continues to be an ongoing concern. - Players are poorly, if at all, compensated when gameplay issues occur outside of their control. - It's been 9-10 months since the large staff exodus and yet workflow issues persist. - There is a general effort to be as defensive as possible when issues related to staff and their work are raised. - I am seeing a trend of staff members blaming others - including, but not limited to, ex-staff, current staff and players. In addition there seem to be some aggressive attempts to prove things are being done and it does raise the question of whether this is more histrionic behaviour rather than genuine altruism for the betterment of the server. The former is suggestive of cluster B personality complex within the staff working environment and I do not believe this should be encouraged. The direction this server is heading probably needs some clarity. I think it is retaining veteran and endgame players poorly - whether it attracts new players is unclear, since MapleStory is close to 20 years old and the world has probably moved on for the most part. The current target seems to be the middle ground - players who enter the server and play casually and have a low threshold to quit and move on. This is not necessarily a bad thing and it probably means there is overall less RWT/hacking since less competition for the endgame - it is just a little sad that there is little effort being made to keep the more dedicated branch of the playerbase enthused about the game. For what it's worth, I commend the effort on new GM-led events, more diversity in seasonal events and the continued efforts on the new source autobanner which itself is heading towards its 5th anniversary. I'm grateful that the game is still running, albeit with much fewer players than I've ever known it, and for the opportunities I've had in my hiatus in running the various guild activities alongside @Doo, @Ray and @Momo .
LOL I didn't even know that. However I felt stronger using red arrows than using normal ones. So, actually, it seems the new change will make everyone happy and that's great.
so when is auto ban? i miss seeing people getting banned for dropping mesos or the mass bans cause of pierre
impossible! It is thanks to hackers that the economy has not yet collapsed. For instance: * nependeath honey * black ore crystal * scrolls * item quest: shoes crystal, blackbull scroll, silver mane, etc *godly items you will say that I am in favor of hackers. The answer would be NO, but right now it is a necessary evil. Administrators have taken a long time to fix the problem. To the point that we have already learned to live with them. Once already implemented the autoban. There should be a new beginning, yes, I mean WIPE !! Sorry my english
The detection system is already in effect as mentioned by Staff a few times, but the suspects aren't being auto banned yet as the detection isn't 100% Supposed if the detection is only 90% accurate, 10% of the innocent players would have to submit Ban Appeal and wait for the Devs (not GMs) to verify their case and they would only be unbanned only after being proven innocent Hope this clarifies your doubt about why the detection is running but the auto banning isn't
The detection system is already But I keep seeing hackers. I keep seeing items that they farm on the FM. I think you are wrong, accuracy is 10% Spoiler
What I wrote is "Supposed if" Not "It's exactly" You may wish to read what I wrote again - insert MushDerp emoji -
The fact that it seems like almost nobody cares about GM blogs and Q&A threads now should be very alarming. People are beyond frustrated, they just gave up hope for real change. All those soon™s need to actually start happening, especially because neighboring servers seem to get them done so easily.
