DISCLAIMER: I am posting this feedback thread as a player, NOT as a Staff. Anything that I said in this thread should NOT be regarded as an official statement. It has been about 5 days since the Christmas patch, which means the Lounge is about 5 days old! So I've been in and out of the Lounge for quite awhile, and realised that at any time, there's < 5 people in the map (as I am typing this, I'm in Channel 1 Lounge and there's literally no one else here!). The only time I see the Lounge occupied by, maybe, more than 20 players in Channel 1 was when the patch went live! So it got me thinking; "what could be the cause of the lack of players using the Lounge? Is the user experience that bad in Lounge?". For this, I have setup a poll! Select the answers that best represent your feedback/concerns. If it's not listed, feel free to make a respond! Remember, a key to a good feedback, lies in the details! For those who do not know about Lounge, it's basically a social map where you can: Chat! Play mini-games (Omok & Match Cards)! AFK? But you can't: Trade/drop items. Use movement skills. So your speed and jump is down to 100%. NPC your drops in it since there's no NPC inside.
I don’t like how I can’t even use my mount inside. Makes travelling to the (nicer) lounge in the portal such a hassle. P.s. just wanted to add on that I love how we have a lounge, and (oh believe me) I understand the huge effort in implementing it. But yeah, it can be better. Hopefully the Staff team won’t see this thread as petty criticism, but proper feedback from the player’s point of view.
just readd the FM button, and make the lounge something you can access via FM or atleast allow FJ/tele/mounts etc there
The same as I said when we were discussing about the idea of this place, Most people wanted a place to meet people without the need to leave their grinding maps in order to make a fast trade, such as sales from forum posts. I noticed that we can open mini-games, but if anyone wants to do a bet-game (many people do), they can't, since can't trade after. And also the movement skills. I noticed that we don't even have our passive speed inside the map. Walking slow like that is boring as heck.
The ironic thing for me is that having a “lounge” button and room is way less nostalgic than just having a warp to FM button. I think the most noticeable reason why it’s so empty is because you can’t do basically anything, not even use Tele or FJ. However, in the end people just want to go to FM, not a social room. Not that people would be against it, but people prefer the FM. That’s why I voted “no” in the Social room feedback thread.
I like this whole idea of the lounge as a place to focus on social interactions but I think it should be better designed (and I don't mean in a cosmetic sense). The first thing you ought to change is allowing item drops in the lounge. While disabling item drops is a well-intended design mechanic, it on the contrary works against encouraging social interactions in the lounge. When people go to the lounge just to drop items to their mule or their buddy, chances are that they might bump into someone else who they know and end up chatting with him/her there. This small tidbit can be used to facilitate some accidental social contact. A bigger thing to consider is making the map smaller. Like what others have said, moving around is a pain in the ass. Additionally, there are 20 channels and it doesn't make sense to have the map so big when you're trying to get people to talk to each other. If you're trying to encourage people to interact, do you want them to just talk to their friends or to people they don't know? If it's the latter, making the map small enough that people end up butting into other conversations would be a good step. If it's the former, these people can always go to another channel. Another point i'll make is that the staff should think about studying the maps or occasions where people end up congregating in. Did you realise that in the Halloween themed FM, people hung out in the huge pumpkin area rather than outside the portals for FM1-20 (the lounge has platforms that are similarly far apart)? Did you also realise that some people hang out at that place with the stack of hay near Henesys Taxi? Have you seen the boat ride maps? I'm cherrypicking some maps but these areas are either small or have platforms where people can sit close to one another. And this is interesting because this mirrors human behavior in real life. People sit far apart from one another in huge places. Occasion-wise, did you also notice the countless times people gather for item drop parties? Or for monster sacks? My impression is that the staff were expecting people to sit down and chill out to chat. That's just one type of social interaction. Not everyone is going to do that and the lounge needs to reflect that thinking. You also should try holding some events (E.g Hide and Seek) in the lounge to get people used to it.
In all honesty, I forgot it existed because I got distracted by the chaos of the Christmas event. There's a lot going on. Give people time!
I think it's a habit that we just like to chill at fm. It's like in a mapler's blood. To use the lounge maybe need some more time to be comfortable with it. I mean the lounge idea hasn't implanted in our head although it's a very good idea! Maybe can come up with some activities, purpose or event just to force players to access the lounge then only we will start to use it
Hmm I think we can have some simple ones like true false QnA. Or something like hangman. Ma_l_r_ya_s. first to reply mapleroyals is the winner. And then some prizes too haha!
My suggestions to improve the lounge: - Add an NPC who sells Omok and other mini-games - Make some kind of ranking ladder for who the best mini-game players(?) - Enable skills - Enable trading - Make the lounge button change your channel to channel 1 and teleport you to the map. I don't see the point with 20 different channels for the lounge. Extra: - Make some kind of jump puzzle at the top of the first map. Could be fun?
Maybe you can do Hide and Seek, summon monsters (like the jr necki with high accuracy) or run around and drop items like nx coupons so that everyone chases you. Or you can have an event where the first one to die in lounge wins
Yeah honestly there are so many parts to this Christmas event like so many maps and items to it and also Horntail not like I'm even going to do it any time soon because I'm a naked level 142 ranger and I'M SO OVERWHELMED BY EVERYTHING AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Like I think I at least subconsciously knew that the Lounge was implemented because I've been keeping up with the patch updates but also I was gone for a month and a half and when I logged in the other day I didn't even know what button I put my Genesis hot key on so I died like four times at Wolf Spiders and
Yes, I agree that the map is too big. A place where people would sit closer to each other would be nice. I liked this idea, although if this map becomes really used, might get too crowded.
I'd make the lounge like this: 1st map (Main): Would be a small map, with some small platforms for people to sit all around, socialize and such. This map would have Albert (the version that doesn't buy things from us only sell the smega/tele rocks) and the Storage guy. This map would allow Movement skills (haste, teleport, mounts, etc), trade and drop allowed. There would be two portals for secondary maps: 2nd map: Mini-game map. There wouldn't be allowed to use skills, trades, drops, etc. Only being able to open mini-games. There would be the Mini-game NPC to craft them. This map would be Channel1-only (means whoever enters there from any channels will be sent to a single channel) 3rd map (Closed map): Events Portal. This portal would be a way for GMs to bring people for mini events.
Allow us to at least trade items. Would also suggest putting the nex item seller from FM in there. The one who does fast travel tickets and so on. Would be nice for npcing our drops while grinding as well.
Honestly a waste of time implementing something we all should have known no one would use. The reason FM button was so popular was because it was a multi-functioning design. You would not only be able to leave a grinding map to relax and hangout with people, you could also trade, drop things, buff characters, look through stores, use storage and buy stuff from albert. Fm button was honestly the most convenient feature that was implemented. Nothing will ever compare, wasting time on such a shoddy feature just takes away from more important things like for instance Amoria PQ. I have a pretty good idea for a lounge and its called the goddamn FM button that was previously removed, that also a large majority wanted to keep in the game.
They disabled trading and such so that the map wouldn't serve as a place for people to npc/move items to avoid returning to town while grinding. This is part of why it's not just a straight warp to fm button. Ditto on not allowing skills in the map. Tell that to the people who voted here: https://royals.ms/forum/threads/proposition-for-a-new-social-map-warp-button.106871/ This was supposed to be a compromise for the people who "claimed" to want a social space they could reach more easily than the FM. We'll see if player behavior changes, but either way, wouldn't call it a waste of time. I personally didn't vote on the thread because while there was a social component to the fm button, I also used it as a spot to keep HS mule (and planned to keep SI mule there as well.) I can do that with the CS now of course, but I don't like the risk of getting stuck. It's also messier...makes party grinding more of a pain than it needs to be. I do afk in the lounge though when I happen to be online, so I'm at least open to using it for it's intended purpose if people show up.
