Edit:: For those that vote no, please reply with why you believe it shouldn't be. The only REAL negative I could possibly see is that it would lower the cost of leeching (by giving early players easier access to level their character) which in turn would affect those that make their money by preying on lower level characters. If you do not provide a reason why, I can only assume you are a bot. ______________________________________________________________ I know I'm new, so my input probably doesn't matter.. But I'll try anyways. I believe the server would benefit greatly from transforming the Lounge into a centralized hub where all Party Quests (PQs) can be started. The Lounge is easily accessible with the click of a button, yet currently serves little to no functional purpose. Repurposing it into a PQ gathering area would not only breathe life into underused content due to player count, but also significantly improve the overall player experience and community engagement. Right now, man of the PQs are heavily underutilized—especially the level-specific ones meant for early and mid-game progression. Most players either grind alone, leech, or skip straight to bossing PQs like Zakum, simply because the other PQs are so scattered and dead that they’re not even worth attempting. As a result, players often don't engage with content appropriate for their level, not due to a lack of interest, but because there's no central place to find others or see what PQs are available. By placing all PQ NPCs in the Lounge, the server would finally have a dedicated space where players of all levels can gather, form parties, and actually do PQs together. This would help solve the issue of dead PQ locations and bring back some of the social, cooperative gameplay that made old-school MapleStory so memorable. Players would be more likely to attempt the PQs designed for their level range, diversifying the leveling experience and making it feel more interactive and engaging. Additionally, this change would be a massive quality-of-life improvement—especially compared to the server's current emphasis on leeching or HP washing. While those systems might appeal to some, they alienate a large portion of players who are looking for meaningful, level-appropriate content to enjoy with others. Centralizing PQs would give players a real reason to group up and play the game actively rather than passively watching their character get leeched. It would also provide a refreshing alternative path for progression that’s fun, social, and skill-based. Given the server's relatively low concurrent player count, anything that helps players converge in one area to interact and team up is invaluable. Making the Lounge a central PQ hub wouldn’t just make better use of existing assets—it would foster a sense of community, encourage gameplay diversity, and offer a better overall experience than most current QoL features in place. TLDR, this change would revive a core part of the MapleStory experience, give new life to forgotten content, and improve player retention by providing a more fulfilling and engaging way to play, as well as assist new players. https://royals.ms/forum/threads/introducing-incentives-for-ludibrium-pq.221570/ https://royals.ms/forum/threads/party-quest-qol-balance-sugggestions.211875/ https://royals.ms/forum/threads/party-quest-improvisation.218769/ https://royals.ms/forum/threads/does-magatia-pq-romeo-and-juliet-run-often-in-mapleroyals.211941/ https://royals.ms/forum/threads/no-one-is-doing-krening-pq.214355/
The reason PQs are dead has nothing to do with their locations. If the PQs were rewarding enough people would easily go out of their way to do them, CWKPQ is a great example, corner of the world, sees plenty play.
Downside: Maple Island Characters have lounge access, so lounge may not work, or extra protection may need to be set so Islanders can't PQ (Though that would be fun to give an islander LPQ Glasses xD, they would have to be careful about trading/etc.) Devil's Advocate: Why would people not just wait ch 1 in the lobby of the PQ in question As a PQ'er: Yeah this would be nice, sometimes people want to PQ, but need to be convinced, I know some people looking for LPQ, go into CPQ lobbys to ask people to join. It'd be nice. The biggest revival of PQs was when they had double XP for PQs
I fail to see the downside, it'd give a fun and IMO harmless little boost to maple island characters. In my experience, channel 1 of those PQ lobbies are usually dead. LPQ and LMPQ are always dead, yet are very rewarding it seems. Can't understand why it's so dead in those two. KPQ is easy to get to so it has players. CPQ is easy as well which makes it attractive. I feel like the ones out of the way are just not worth the travel effort to many players.
PQs are one of my favourite parts of the game, especially KPQ nostalgia. As someone who loves PQ/Dojo on Bucc/Bish, and who also has an islander who would benefit from maple island having access to PQs, I absolutely love the idea. +1 If the aim was to generally make most party quests accessible to all, there's potential for adding Dojo access later also, to make it easier for people to find parties. If the lounge is truly a problem because of islanders, the FM is a good alternative.
Couldn't a simpler solution be a free world wide prompt ( similar to a smega ) that players could active when recruiting for a specific PQ? It would need likely need a global cool down though. EG: xLust is looking for party members at Channel 1 Ludi PQ.
Implementing that would be very difficult as no system exists within this version of Maplestory that could even do something like that. Also, it would get very annoying very fast taking up the entire chat. You know how many people try to start PQ's in towns and the like? Centralized would definitely clean it up and put less strain on the servers IMO.
I'd love to have a PQ hub and an NPC feature to send a recruit smega. tho the biggest problem with PQs are the lame rewards and the PQs themselves. everyone hates stage 8 of LPQ and nobody wants to do R&J due to needing all players to clear a jump quest stage (the exact opposite of that portal stage in Ellin PQ). here's some suggestions: Ludibrium PQ change stage 8 to be an actual puzzle instead of a guessing game. enable jump down on magician stage and change Golem's 8k touch damage to 1/1 Romeo & Juliet PQ change stage 6 so only one person has to finish the jump quest for the whole party to clear the stage. Rewards add Max HP potions to Cody's list of token exchange. add a very low chance to obtain a chaos scroll or white scroll as party quest rewards
I like the idea of changing PQ's RNG stages to skill stages. That's a very good idea. Removing the class requirements is beneficial as well. This would be a very welcome change. Once you get to the end, talk to an NPC to "clear" it and another NPC at the bottom will warp you to the next stage. I'll interject with: a low, not very low, chance to obtain those items at least one time per PQ per day or week. This would ensure that people would move to another PQ after they get the scroll they want, which would give more incentive to playing different PQ's.
I have suggested on Ludi PQ that the Stage 8 be locked to a static solution previously they have expressed clear intention that they do not plan on changing the PQ itself. https://royals.ms/forum/threads/party-quest-qol-improvement-static-box-values.231065/ I have also suggested that Max HP Potions get added to tokens of teamwork and it was rejected https://royals.ms/forum/threads/add...-pots-from-rg-into-tokens-of-teamwork.233697/
That's not completely true, travel does factor. Some are out of the way and most people don't dedicate the few tele slots available to pqs or near them, and people also don't usually waste rocks unless they know people are running, so two factors stop people even initially interacting with the content, time/travel and then rolling dice hoping people are around. Spending time traveling to an empty pq 100s of times in a game that is so fickle about initiating parties bc they all experience the travel/let down. You can't say that's not why people don't go. If traveling and waiting are greater than time available and times ran, then players will and do just get burned out and give up, it's called waiting for nothing. If that time is > pq time/reward, people won't go, meaning even less ppl run it. Most pqs reward well enough if you get a good party, but you can't say time/travel/waiting are not why people are turned off by them. Ht is more profitable if you solo, but who has the time for that. I think pqs are generally rewarding enough, they could certainly be finer tuned if staff tried, but that's not the point of the thread I've floated a general recruitment room like (in the lobby) before. Bossing/pq/etc, a centralized place that doesn't allow trades or dropping items. Adding npcs to warp aren't necessary imo, just knowing ppl are currently looking for others and content is enough for someone to buy a rocks, and it saves seeing/buying recruitment spam. I think making this hub require like, 300 quests completed, or having completed all party quests once, etc, is a good incentive and gate ideas as barriers of entry to the space as well
