The Future of MapleRoyals - Changing things as they should have been made.

Hello everyone,

This post aims to spark a discussion about aspects of MapleStory that, while iconic and longstanding in Maple Royals, could use improvement to enhance gameplay.

Much like how class balance was addressed by reworking weak and overpowered classes, there are other areas that don't quite make sense and could be revisited. I’d love your input on these ideas—if you’re partially on board but don’t fully agree, please suggest adjustments rather than dismissing them entirely.

1. The Almighty Mage Class
   • Mages are Mules, Not True Classes: The solution is to change how their skills work and nerf/buff some of them to make them a DPS class (Except for Bishop, maintaining them as a support class). My idea is to put a cooldown on the all screen skills (Genesis, Blizzard, Meteor Shower) of 25 seconds so they can still use the cool skill to train or dps bosses with a lot of parts like Zakum, but not to make them a leech class.
   • Staves Have No Real Place: We could bring staves into the game by creating a new DPS mage class that can only use staves, or by making mages a viable DPS class it would be worth to fund an Auf Helmet to get to the staves luk requirements.
   • Obtaining End-Game Weapons: It feels lackluster to get powerful endgame weapons from Gachapon. Instead, gaining the Elemental Wand through a challenging questline would be far more rewarding and fitting.
     
     
2. The Leech Meta
   • Leeching your character from 0 to 135 is the fastest way to train your class. I don’t want to start using my class at 135 (or more), I want to play my class from lvl 1 to 200. Leeching should be a thing that people do when they want to turn off their brain and still get exp, but by NO MEANS it should be the best way to level up. Training should be your character killing monsters in high level places just like we’ve succesfully done with Lionheart Castle.
   • Leeching + WP Washing is still the most time/cost effective way to train a character from 1 to 135 with a good amount of HP. Shouldn’t be this way. It should be faster and give more money to level up a character by its own and get the HP from quests.
     
     
3. Warrior Class Balance
   • Class Roles: Currently, only Paladins are favored in group settings due to superior damage, Weapon Cancel Crash, and tankiness. Dark Knights, for instance, do similar damage to others but are much squishier and lack a valuable buff in the late game.
     • Proposed Differentiation:
       1. Paladin – Provides Weapon Cancel Crash (Maybe a def party buff?), but is the weakest warrior.
       2. Dark Knight – Highest damage potential, offset by fragility.
       3. Hero is in the middle damage wise but has no buff to the party (Or maybe make Rage stack with Att Pots?). Also for Hero, it would be a cool rework to make the rotation of Brandish → Max Combo Attack → Panic/Coma to be the rotation that deals more damage (By a liiiiitle bit but still better to reward active dpsing).
          
          
4. Jump Quests
   • MapleStory’s Jump Quests are a classic aspect, and the game could really benefit from more of these challenges across Party Quests, bosses, towns, and more. It would be fun to allow players to repeat completed Jump Quests on demand.
     
     
5. Medals System
   • Medal Stat System Overhaul: Rather than chasing a single “best” medal, it would be more engaging if medal stats accumulated with each one you collect. This way, completing a range of achievements would boost your character. Medals could stack bonuses like +3 WA, +10 MA from the Legendary Collector, +10 STR/DEX/INT/LUK from the Explorer, etc., allowing players to create their ultimate medal while choosing their preferred aesthetic.
     
     
6. More Content Like LHC
   • LHC (Lionheart Castle) was a fantastic addition that made training engaging and social. Replicating its party play and boss mechanics in other areas, such as Pink Bean and the Temple of Time, could enrich endgame content.
     
     
7. Use Regular Equips as Cosmetics
   • There are many great-looking regular equips (e.g., level 15 Hunter set, level 60 Thief set) that players would love to wear cosmetically. A system allowing players to convert regular equips into cosmetics, perhaps through class-specific quests, would be a welcomed addition.
     
     
8. Timely Event Releases
   • Halloween is in october and ends on october 31, it’s not in november. Christmas is in december and ends on december 25th, not in january 15th. I want to feel these festivities in real life + in-game, and what better way of doing it that actually having everything around you themed as it when it should. Right now I feel like events are like (Oh shit we forgot about this thing, let’s launch it asap). They are freaking cool with everything they bring, but they should be more on time.
     

Please share any thoughts or additional ideas—let’s collaborate to make Maple Royals even more enjoyable!

 

This post should really moved to Feedback, not General Discussion btw.

How to Piss off the Whole Server:
Flip the way bonus party EXP works. If a party member doesn't eliminate a mob within 1 minute (unless in a PQ), do not award ANY exp so you literally just can't leech without being active. If you can't even do damage to the mob you're being leeched on or need to afk for 2 mins, tough luck. I can already sense the count of active players dropping to zero.

 

Regarding leeching, what is the benefit of forcing a player to play to lvl 135 again if they’ve already done that once? I just don’t see a benefit in that, plus leeching is quite expensive to do if you do it from lvl 7. let’s take a real life example, if someone is unhappy with the degree they just completed, do you ask them to repeat everything again from preschool? We don’t, we go straight to uni for a second degree

 

I like a lot of these suggestions, unfortunately this server has been around for a while and changing core gameplay mechanics would probably alter the game in a way that would piss off a lot of long-term players (those who have already invested a lot into HP washing, Paladins, etc).

I agree that Hero/Drk could be changed in some way to make them more viable for bossing, but making Rage stackable with buffs would just turn Fighter/Hero into another mule class. And arguably Drk already has the highest DPS potential among the warriors (albeit at high levels of gear/funding and at the cost of Zerking).

I'd also like for jump quests to be added to Olaf's Adventurer's Assignment (as an alternative to hunting area bosses), since the only 'mandatory' JQ for most players is ZJQ. Many players would prefer jump quests to attempting to hunt down a Blue Mushmom >.<.

The medal system change sounds like it would be a good idea to increase content engagement overall, as the lvl 200 medal is already superior to Quest Virtuoso and equal to Legendary Collector (minus the HP/MP bonus) for most classes. Currently there's not much incentive for players to acquire these medals (apart from completionists).

Some people enjoy training their characters the old-fashioned way, as that was how OSMS was originally designed. The lower levels made up the bulk of the content in OSMS so simply being able to bypass all of that with leeching/Orbis etc is anti-nostalgic for some players. Not everyone is in a rush to do end game bossing as soon as possible, and instead choose to enjoy the lower levels.

The degree analogy is not quite exact, as players will typically start a new class, with a different set of skills and training locations usually. Leveling an FP mage through poison training is a much different experience than using heal, for example. Although I agree that late 3rd job grinding is a painful experience for most classes.

 

I thought of many ways to respond, but in the interest of political correctness, I will just say this. For even more players, reaching 4th job and then being able to bring in enough mesos so they don't have to go through the process of killing wild boars again by pressing the ctrl key but this time, instead of 2 magic claw animations coming out, 2 stars fly out of their fists, is equally nostalgic to them. Or they aren't invested enough in either camp and just wants to do the meta thing to get to end game content as soon as possible without having the devs play a game of whack a mole to nerf the next best thing, until one particular subset of players can finally play in a way that feels most nostalgic to them. If leech has been around since the beginning and largely remained unchanged, it's probably not that big of an issue.

 

1) Mages

• Mages need content, 1999 magic fix and damage cap increased, not a complete rework to become a D-Tier Single Target DPS Attacker
• Staves are fine for End-Game Mages. Lack of content and reasons to deal 200k damage even harder is why you see no End-Game Mages. I rather see a something like a lvl 100 shield with some base INT and LUK to ease getting to the high requirements than staves getting a complete rework. Its a grind I don't see the need for to radically change anything of. If we'd want to reward Mages a bit for going the extra mile, a slight buff to either their TMA or their % Damage Boost so we can deal 200k damage even harder is something I am fine with.
• Staves have recently been added to Toad. Iirc some other changes buffed his drops a bit as well. I have seen slightly more runs going since. More content, increase/Removal of Damage Cap and the hard stat-cap of 1999 magic could increase amount of Mages and therefor interest in Toad.

2) Leeching

• I am 100.000.000.000% fine with leeching leaving as is. Please, let me just throw money at my problems. The other half of the story. Sure, buff leveling content. I keep repeating the same story but making an Ironman had me fall back in love with the game again. It took me 2-3 weeks to get to 120. 120-150 is basically free with Ellin and Papu. At that point you can pretty much do whatever the fuck you want. (Like LHC)
  If we wanted something to change, my vote would go out to buff quest exp and rewards.
• There are so many viable way to gain HP now that HP-Washing is already completely optional. I won't be complaining about getting more HP content. Allthough it's not very high on my list for Xmas.

3) Warriors

• As a DK Main, my very objective reasoning is that I really don't care. Whatever ways people come up with to buff Warriors has been said a million times at this point. DK's cannot triple wield Tinder, their diner and this game for some end-game content and I am fine with that. Imo DK's are one of the best first mains for new players for various reasons. I am fine with not being S-tier for all content in the game.
  
• For the Crash-Situation. Yeah, it's dumb as fuck. I am not sure what the fix will be or if I care enough to come up with a solution myself. Yes, I am very fine with the game as is.
• Heroes and their damage. Fair enough, they do suck and there is little means to optimize their play. I don't care and neither seem the Hero-Mains I know.

I am very much against inflating everybody and their mom's damage. These things only really start to matter when you're at a point in the game that you can "just make that shad" if you don't enjoy whatever you're playing now.

However, I don't mind people asking for Staff to give their actual feedback on the dedicated Class Balance Feedback Thread.


4) JQ

• I read JQ and think "Please, No"

5) Medals

• PLOT TWIST - Sure Buff Medals!
  However, from the reading the comments on the gazillion other posts asking for the same thing. It didn't seem to be a thing people wanted. Idm asking again.

6) More LHC content

• Another plot twist. Imo LHC and all its content has been a massive success and I would enjoy seeing more like it.

7) Transmog

• You are asking for Transmog? Who am I to tell you if this is something you want or not. I really don't care tho.

8) Consistency of Events

• Fair complaint. I don't think I have to tell you whether I care or not. Regardless, it's has been a trend that feels unprofessional.

 

A major part of this server is being a nostalgia server - the server as it is currently is definitely not entirely what old maple was, but there's still the vast majority of it that's consistent with it. There were many things that were completely unbalanced with old maple and several of those things had to be addressed but I think many of the quirks of old maple are what made it unique and are worth staying true to.

1.a. no. I think the identity of mages as they are is fine. If you try to force mages into more of a bossing kit you err towards modern maple where every class starts to lose their identities.

1.b. no. Maybe if new classes are balanced to be at the same overall DPS and quality of life as other classes that might be interesting but otherwise no. One of the things I hated about official maple is that they kept making old classes obsolete by introducing new classes with amazing mobility and kits.

1.c. no. Gach is one of those unique quirks of old maple that I don't think we need to reinvent. We don't need to constantly add layers of complexity like original maple keeps doing.

2. I agree to some extent - I think it's unfair that leveling on your own often takes longer than leeching, and I think adding incentive to actually playing low levels would increase participation in low level pqs or party training to make low level content more enjoyable and less desolate. However, I think having leech as an option is good for those who have already played through the low level content and want to move onto higher level content which often makes use of multiple high level characters. Overall I think it's good to leave leech as it is but have other content that can provide greater (or at least comparable) exp if playing actively - trying to level a white knight through 90-120 without leech is especially soul-crushing when you see how fast leech can be in comparison.

3. no. Pally's have higher damage than DrK?? Idk about that. Maybe heroes could use a buff but otherwise I think pally's and DrK's are good where they are. Even if pally had the highest damage output they still have to suffer with their tiny attack range.

4. no. JQs *are* a unique feature of old maple but I think the current amount is more than enough.

5. potentially interesting, can provide more achievements for maplers to explore.

6. I think a system like this for lower levels (that only works if all players are active) would be great to make lower levels less like pure leech-story.

7. I agree, there's a system in original maple for this which I think is worth replicating.

8. I get the idea but does it matter? It's the same duration either way. It's not a great look but I mean everyone's got lives to attend to, I can't fault staff for not running this cozy PS like a big corporation.

 

To be honest, i disagree with everything except more jump quests

 

Give us deep sea gorge GM event as a quest!

 

1. Sure , buff mages , could be interesting to see more endgame mages
2. I support that, leveling on your own is so much better experience, even tho leech is still necessary because sometimes i would rather just buy leech to level a char, but buffing quests exp, and even better rewards, can add another aspect to the game other than bossing/farming.
3. Yes, warriors should be buffed, in no way paladins should be the weakest amongst them tho. Paladins is the only class that only hits 1 targer, unlike hero and dk, so they should be stronger. In the nostalgic maple , warriors were S tier, heroes were the strongest pretty much, so i think the easiest fix is just buff their attack %.
the other day i duo attacked dunas v2 with my 200 shad and 186 hero; hero had perf flame sword, 18/4 shield, 44 cgs, while shad had 10 att gloves, 121 kanzir and 29 khanjar, and my shad whited, so it just goes to show how unbalanced it is.
4. Yikes
5. Sounds good
6.i dont think ive done LHC once even so i cant say
7. YESSSS
8. YESSSS

 

"Buff Hero and Paladin" @skete

 

Hello, I think the game as it is now is very good.
I played Maplestory Europa from 2008-2011, Mapleroyals is pretty much the same as before BigBang (+ additional content)
Have a hero level 200, a paladin level 200 and a night lord level 197.
These all play very differently and have their respective strengths and weaknesses.

There's just one thing that bothers me:
The hero's combos, it would be better if they were more transparent or smaller!

 

Interesting point about hero orbs, i ultimately chose a hero over other warriors because i think the orbs looks awesome

 

You're right, they all have their strengths and weaknesses, but warriors nowdays have way more weaknesses; they did leave warriors just as they used to be while buffing other classes; bucc transformation doesnt have CD like og maple, making them OP, shads bstep is 650% dmg unlike 500%, and assa is 950% unlike the 600% it used to be. Buccs, shads, NLs, are good everywhere, they shine at every content, while warriors shine only at like zak hands (even then shads, and bucc can deal heavy dmg cause they hit multi targets). in 2008~2011 maple heroes used to be the best class, so maybe we remember things differently lol. Anyway we're sliding off the subject, but i do agree on the orbs lol.

 

once again everyone forgets about archers


crying with my useless royal quiver in hand

 

I can't say anything about Bucc and Shad. But NL is not strong everywhere. In my daily solo content Rose Garden, my warriors are significantly stronger than my NL.

 

True, RG was one piece of content where warriors fared well compared to other classes, but that got nerfed. However, Buccs + Shad are also good at RG (in addition to everything else). NLs have flash jump which means they can hunt area bosses much more efficiently.

Sure, leave leeching as it is. But solo grinding could at least be buffed to make it a viable option for those who prefer leveling their own characters over leeching. Party grinding is an option, but requires recruiting and I don't see many people doing that.

DK may be a good starting class, but then again so is Bucc, while suffering none of the late game disadvantages. Unfortunately, I think the attitude of 'the game is imbalanced, but who cares? Just make a shad lol' is not one that will satisfy most players. I'd like to be able to main a class that is actually optimized and balanced in the end game, and not just toss away a character as an echo mule after reaching 200.

 

Thanks everyone for your thoughts on these topics! They have actually helped me understand how everyone sees the game and change some of my thoughts.

If I could rewrite the post I would definetely divide the things that I consider more important than others, and also change the things I said about some topics. So let's get to it.

The most crucial changes I believe should be made:
1. Mages should find a way into being useful in lategame content / Bosses. Taking away the 1999 Magic and increasing the damage cap is a great way to do so (Great suggestion).
2. 4th job Mage summons are obviously in the wrong place. Put the fire summon in the fire mage book and the ice summon in the ice mage book.
3. It should be faster to level up by doing the world content than by leech. Don't nerf leech, buff low lvl quests.

Mid importance, but would make a great impact:
1. I will change what I said about jump quests. I understand many people hate it, so don't put it in PQs, bosses or any mandatory content. But there should 100% be a part of MapleRoyals dedicated to jump questing. My suggestion is to make JQs repeatable, make them give daily or weekly exp, and to create a lot more of them. Maybe even make them give you a special use item or etc item that can make us JQers money.
2. Transmog. It just doesn't make any sense that I can't wear my class clothes.
3. Medals. No one is going to die if this change isn't made, but I just think it's a GREAT suggestion and people would interact with the Maple World A LOT more if this was done. FarmerStory/SidneyMS made something like this back in the day when private servers had people staying in FM 99% of their time and it 100% worked.

 

It's probably already been mentioned here: increase the damage cap,
my Pally would benefit from this, which does 199999 damage in a row with Apple.

 

I agree o. This and why dont limited the mules for bossing? I mean im an old player and i can understand this when we have like 400-600 people onlinne, but now? Last day i saw more than 2k persons onlinne.
So many people cant join on boss rubs because someone have a mule of their job.