(Thanks Teddie for helping with ideas for this post) It's apparent that GS2 is so overpowered that we get endless complaining about the lack of GS2 maps. I don't know the exact statistics, but to me it seems that nearly half of the threads in the report abuse section are regarding KS'ing at GS2. It is clear that people think GS2 is the only good training place. What are some of the other places to train? Many of these places were popular at some point in GMS, and are worth consideration. This is aimed at level 4x, 5x, 6x, and 7x characters. Victoria Island: Perion Skeletons (Camps), Wraiths, Maladays, Red Drakes Sleepywood Dungeon: Forest of Golem, Drakes (all types), Wild Kargos, Tauros Orbis: Luster Pixies, Lucida, Nependeaths, Colour Gardens El Nath: Jr Yetis, Hectors, White Pangs, Yetis, Pepes, Yeti/Pepes, Zombies Ludibrium: Teddies, Buffies, LMPQ Korean Folk Town: Samihos, Tigers, Blins NLC: Gryphons*, Voodoos, Hoodoos, I.AM.ROBOT Mu Lung: Straw Target Dummies, Book Ghosts, Peach Monkeys, Bears, Pandas Herb Town: Pirates, Bellflowers, Mr Ali *I think their spawn is a lot lower here than it was in GMS, perhaps that needs addressing How can people be encouraged to train at them? One possibility would of course be to nerf GS2. However, I think this will end up upsetting people. So a more positive approach is required. A problem with the patch design in maplestory is that to make the new content appealing, Nexon always made it more overpowered than the existing content. Many of these places were the GS2 of their version. This server has different goals to Nexon though, and thus it is okay for older content to still be relevant. What I propose is that some of the other places are buffed a bit in order to make them exciting and worthwhile compared to GS2. This can only increase the nostalgia, as it is making old places people loved in earlier versions relevant to v.62. In particular, victoria island, sleepywood dungeon, orbis, and el nath which were the earliest maplestory content and have been all but forgotten in V.62. What possible ways can we buff training places? Spawn rate increases: We've already had some of these, and they're great EXP rate increases: Some places have an EXP:HP ratio so far from GS2 that even with 10 times the spawn they won't be perceived as better. In these cases, they might need EXP increases in order to allow them to compete with GS2. Interesting drops: In some places this could be good, although it needs to not be game breaking. Possibilities could be EXTREMELY RARE untradeable chairs/nx items, that people will be willing to spend several levels trying to find. It also needs to not attract too many higher level players farming
All in favor for this, but why are you for untradeable drops? Wanting them will force people, even high-levels to hog the map until they find it.
My reasoning was to not let this affect the economy, and I thought that higher-levels might view it as a money making source. But you could be right, tradeable might be better.
#1 If it was tradeable, farming classes like Bishops will hog them to farm the said items to sell. #2 If it's untradeable, as you've said the farming classes might also hog them to get the item. But personally, I think #2 is not so bad since they will eventually leave once they find it, whereas there's no telling what #1 will lead to. In addition, I'd like to add that most of these training spots are unpopular or even completely dead to begin with, so I think it's highly unlikely that it will ever get to the point where all channels of the map are flooded. If the drops are to be distributed evenly among all the different regions, the farmers will be distributed as well.
If a character may trade one of those items per, say, 2 months, the maps will not be hogged by resellers.
Wild Kargos wuld be a very nice spot IF in 'Wild Kargos area' Kargos would spawn like Cold Eyes. Or even faster. Unfortunately they dont drop high selling stuff. And its a rather long way down. I tried to get a GS2 map(after checking hidden-street), but its so annoying that I returned back to Saminho and Pandas. Its still good exp, the equip droprate is good and its good to NPC it. And a Boss spawns there!!
I personally don't see the need to buff the spawn of other maps just because other players are too obsessed with hunting at GS2 only. If we were to buff the spawn, who is to say that people would go over to that map? Furthermore, if the spawn were buffed TOO much, the pendulum would drastically swing in the other direction and everyone might hunt on the newly buffed maps rather than at GS2. As others have said, other maps are available and just as good as GS2. It's not an issue the staff should handle, as it is purely the personal preference of the players as to where they choose to hunt.
I don't think anyone has mentioned that there are maps "as good" as Ghost Ship 2, there are JUST alternatives that are only 10-20% slower. I wouldn't even say Ghost ship 2 is a map I enjoy, but I would (and have) go there on almost all jobs from mid 50's to mid 70's, just because it is by FAR the best map (exp wise). I think this suggestion could turn out really well if it is done (calculated) WELL, not even to be BETTER than Ghost Ship 2, but only 5% slower, opposed to 20%+. However, I also think that this suggestion is one of low priority. (I would rather have HT fixed, the v83 skills that were promised, more maps such as Temple of Time, etc). However, I do agree that later in the future, if the server grows this is a MUST! Especially if we are keeping to eight channels. Because it's kinda ridiculous that we survived with eight channels with 80 online, and we are still with eight channels with 300 online. Another easy solution would be to fix Mysterious Path 3 (And Truckers), which WAS ALWAYS the alternative in Maple Europe, but the spawn on MapelRoyals is horrible. I know that these were buffed slightly here, but there are still no where near what they were on MapleEurope.
Mind if I point out that the spawns in maps in Ludibrium (Buffies, Soul Teddies) and El Nath (Coolie Zombies) were buffed quite a lot about 3 months ago...
Still doesn't compete against Ghost Ship 2. And i'm pretty sure that was ONLY during the chair event? (I might be wrong), but the spawns were decreased after the event.
The coolie zombie spawn is still good. I don't know how the spawn in ludy dungeon was before chair event because I wasn't around back than, but now it's not slow but not exactly fast either.
The spawns buffs were permanent to encourage more training spots, the chair event was to encourage people to actually try them out.
Zombies is great for most ranged/mage classes levels 50-60. It slows down quite a bit around 60 but once you can one-two hit it picks up pretty decently. Even better if you have a mob attack (like clerics, I/L mages). Truckers isn't bad for 40-50, especially with someone to split the map with. Spawn isn't as crazy as GMS/EMS was, but still pretty good. Voodoos/hoodos are a common alternative to GS2 for ranged 50+, maybe to 60? 70 if you're stretching it IMO. Close/melee such as warriors, FoG is a better option. Again, split the map and the exp is much better. Soul teddies are pretty darn good for level 60-70 too. I've been out hunting for other places because GS2 is so boring. I completely am all for the idea of buffing the spawn rate of MP3. I loved training there in GMS and maps like that encourage partying, which really benefits the social aspect of games like this. I dont think anything other than an increased spawn rate for some maps would be needed. No other incentive is needed. No higher exp than normal, no special drops. Just a better spawn rate for some maps (Such as kargos- 99% of the spawn is cold eyes. About 3 or 4 kargos spawn in the entire map even after clearing out all the cold eyes. Tauromacis/Taurospears are the exact same, except you can't just CC in that map- it sends you back about 5 maps.)
I've also seen threads where people complained about gold teeth drop rate. Maybe gold teeth could be added to coolies as a drop, so there's more incentive to train at coolies. Miner zombies have terrible spawn and flyeyes are annoying, wheres coolies are great for mobbing and ranged classes.
The whole point of the zakum pre-quests are to be annoying and tedious. The gold teeth are part of that IMO. As much as I absolutely HATED that Jump quest, even that's a necessary part.
Soul Teddies are not a good comparison point for Ghost Ship 2. At level 70 (Priest), I was getting around 50% of what I would get if I were to train at GS2.
And were you soloing it or with a party? My friend and I worked together on the map and got pretty good exp there too, plus it was fun and we completed a quest. It's an alternative- maybe not as equal, but it's still good and fun.
What about Wind Raiders! Many people would train there the second they were close to hitting 3rd job. Wind Raiders also have storm breakers which drop OA Int 60, but sadly the spawn there is just plain horrible. If Wind Raiders was spawned that would get rid of many of the high lvl 60s people and low 70s people from GS2. Also Wind Raiders give 1.6k exp which is pretty insane.
Wind raiders were buffed not too long ago. Lower ascent is a great place (and you just reminded me I need to go there) but I think not many people realize that. I think if we had crimsonwood keep that would be a more viable place for people- there was rooms with only WRs, or only storm breakers, etc. The tornado corridor was a very popular training spot for a while.
http://royals.ms/forum/showthread.php?p=30770&highlight=windraider#post30770 Thats what I was referring to
