There was no need to mules. Official MS had WAY MORE of a population than this server back in those days. Finding party members were easy because there was a huge pool to find. We have mules now because its hard to have reliable people on all the time. Most of us are not children anymore when we first played this game. Washing was a thing back then too. It wasn't as prominent because it costed real money and a lot of money in fact to wash effectively. There were actually a lot of HB mules back when i played. From what I understand, you need to find a server that makes washing even harder then. Because you will not have a nostalgic feeling from servers that make washing easy. ITs sort of contradictory in your case. Lmao though, do you talk with your party or with your BL? Because if thats the case, you can remove zak completely and still have the social aspect. Dunno I never had fun zaking with the party XD. Only once when FrozenYogo was hacking because I was there when he was banned and his shit equips doing 50k lines LOL
Also I want to point out, There no game with reasonable exp/money rates (this means 999x pservers dont count) that have end game come easily. Its sad truth. The deciding factor for people between MMORPGs and other game modes is essentially the grind. So if you don't like grinding, stop playing MMOs. They have been the same cookie cutter style gameplay since ever. Theres never been an MMORPG that is EASY.
No one is denying veteran players worked hard to achieve their status. You may also be right that physically speaking, it is as easy to get funded now as before (as long as new players are willing to sell leech). However, you neglected two crucial factors. First, as I said in a previous reply, for new players that aren't willing to sell leech, it is much harder to get funded now due to unbalanced inflation (i.e. CS/WS/APR inflating more than other scrolls / mob drops / zhelms / gen20). Second, I would argue that mentally speaking, getting funded now is much harder than before. When the veteran players started, they were leading the race, and it was much easier to motivate oneself to keep going. However, for new players now, it is really hard to find motivation when they are already years behind other players to start with. The widespread damage and HP discrimination right now doesn't help either. Back in 2014 or 2015, it was probably easier for the veteran players to join boss parties even if they were unfunded then. But now, new players are seeing R> duo krex, R> trio zak, R> HT PM range and HP. @Buccaneer himself has publicly said several times that he only accepts people that are 2/3 above their max class range in his HT party, which means 60B+ mesos on an NL. You are certainly entitled to do that, but when all other veteran players do that, it creates a very unfriendly environment for non-veterans. In the end, if administration and all veteran players want a competitive server where they are years ahead of any newcomers, they will get such a server. Meanwhile, new players will just choose other servers. This is already happening now. Half of my buddies switched to a new server, and I am seeing a lot of Royals figures on that server too. Of course, if this is what you want for Royals, then forget everything I said.
You're proving me exactly right that your perspective is biased. You phrase everything as though it's a competition or a job, like the real world, and not as if it were a game that's supposed to be for fun! People aren't asking to get to the top, they're asking for the game to not have such large barriers to entry because right now it's not even fun for many and new players quit. This discussion is about MapleRoyals straying further from the original casual experience of Maplestory to become more of a competitive game. To me, that is the bigger picture of this discussion. To you the bigger picture seems to be limited to your gear. Also, I'd like to raise to you this question: 1. Would you be willing to make some sacrifices of your current progress in Royals for the sake of making the game better for all in the future? In all games, new updates roll around rendering past accomplishments or gear less relevant or even completely obsolete. Players don't get a choice. But here, we do have a choice. And, I think the choice is to do something. I would personally be willing to sacrifice all my "accomplishments" in this game over 20 months for the sake of making the gameplay more fun for all, but that's just how passionately I feel that something is wrong. I'm not asking you to do the same and I'd find it quite unreasonable to ask that of you. An example of that would be completely removing HP washing. But, I think there is a middle ground somewhere, there is something that could be done to make the game better. Refusing to give an inch for the sake of maintaining your accomplishments seems quite selfish to me, when there is a problem out there.
Zak can be fun cause you can meet new friends when you join random parties (I met most of my friends from things like that lol) and chat with them. In terms of challenge there is no challenge aside from avoiding stun/trying to white a lot of parts (unless you solo, but solo is too long and boring). I used to do Zak a lot before I was level 200 to level quickly but now I only join one when I'm really bored, it isn't really worth it in terms of money. HT is more fun, especially on bishop cause there is some challenge and you can also chat all run and not lose damage (cause you don't do damage lol)
Honestly, if you dont enjoy playing a game, stop playing it. It is exactly what I, and plenty of other players, did. Why waste time playing a game for recreation and only get stressed and bored.
I feel fortunate to get 2+ free APR daily instead of spending thousands at Target on NX lol. All about time and patience. You literally get nearly 3 million NX, valued at 15 billion mesos, equivalent to roughly 900 AP Resets... for free in just one year. If you’re a new player and the time/challenge of selling leech or merchanting to fund APR is too much for you, disappear for a year and when you return you’ll never have to worry about affording them again. Problem solved. Tl;dr: game shouldn’t be altered to cater towards those who can’t/won’t put in the time/work. Countless others, new and old, have found a way to succeed with the current system and you can too.
Here's my opinion as a lowly noob: I think there are two things turning new players away from the game. The first thing is the discovery of HP washing and what it means for the job they picked. Discovering that you won't be able to fight later bosses as your favorite class unless you restart from lvl 1 turns a lot of players away. I say this regretfully since I actually like HP washing for adding an extra challenge to early-game. The other thing is leeching. People like me came to experience PQs, social activity, an active community, bossing, etc. What leeching does is create a passive community, and waiting for people in a PQ is disheartening when your smega is lost in a sea of "S>Petri leech partner HAVE HS". I don't think the economy is the reason new players aren't sticking around. I think its the reasons above. The only reason I've stuck around is because I like pqing enough to wait a long time, or jump on an opportunity when I see a smega.
You're not wrong, but this is not entirely true either. Yeah, you'll have the players who are not familiar with HP washing, CS/WS Scrolling, Etc. These are generally the players who are playing for nostalgia or just to have fun. These types of players usually do stay for a good amount of time, but they never stay as long because their goal is to have fun and relive the nostalgia of MS. Its possible for these people to either quit or remake and try to make attackers to reach end game. Though, these people usually do not complain because they were not familiar with it before, so they do not have any previous experience to complain about how it is unfair. In this case, they usually DO NOT CARE and they either adapt or they leave. The people who come with prior knowledge will understand how to play and will not waste their first character on a NL or BM. They will make a bishop/AM or at least research. These guys will most likely complain that the server is too hard if they came from a server that was easier. And if they came from a harder server, they wont complain either. tl;dr Newcomers will all come for their own reasons, they will stay if they enjoy the game and they will leave if they don't. People do not play games if they do not enjoy it. And its apparent that the only people who complain about a VIDEO GAME being too hard, are the lazy people who don't like to try at anything. Its an MMORPG, not minecraft mini games, what do you expect. Don't @ me im out.
But we don't have to hp wash and leech, we can level at LMPQ and Wolfspiders by waiting 1-5 hours to form a party<-- The thoughts of many of the veterans here.
LOL this is just the beginning of it. Even if the very new players stick through that phase and actually start funding their attackers, they are still likely to be discouraged due to the reasons mentioned above (inflation and the big gap from veterans). This is why a lot of people who started in mid-2017 are quitting now. They already have LV135+ characters and started bossing, some of them even sold many hours of leech to acquire decent gear. But even with all that, they are still far from the bar of many bossing parties. At some point, the "catching up to veterans" game becomes pointless and boring. It is much more desirable for them to switch to new servers with smaller gaps and a less competitive mindset. Edit: https://royals.ms/forum/threads/make-afk-players-not-recieve-exp-from-party.117089/#post-659544 As I said earlier in another of my post, I found a way around this "catch up to the veterans" mindset by developing an internal sense of accomplishment (i.e. only comparing against myself). However, even with that, I don't know how long I will last when most of my friends are gone.
I whole heartily disagree with the bolded part. The game is fun if you do what you want. The problem is people are led to believe that what you want to do is boss and that's the end game goal. As for nostalgia, it's subjective, but having the 5 basic classes, boats, a working FM, a relatively low EXP/Drop/Meso rate, are all true of the original maple. Victoria is what it was before Big Bang. To me, that is what is nostalgic to Maple and so it's perfectly in line with what I remember. This is very VERY largely due to the fact that I cared little about what other people did in GMS, and what people do here. When we start telling people the only way to have fun in a game is ______, you completely remove the fact that people can, and should, decide for themselves what they want to do to have fun... and if that means extensive HP washing and min-maxing, then that's the path they make, but it's by no means required.
People generally use the quickest route to achieve their goals and if the server itself is promoting certain journeys as quicker and more appealing that's what most people are going to do. No one can completely ignore what goes on around them as much as they want to just "Focus on their self," Because almost everyone subconsciously does care about what others are doing and it shows in the server. That's why the developers continue to patch and change the game and not just leave it the way it is and have people figure out their own paths. We have leeching being a much faster leveling tool than grinding at lower levels and people feeling the need to hp wash so they can't even train in particular. I'm going to emphasize "People feel the need to hp wash," because when you say "You don't have to hp wash" It doesn't change the fact that most people are trying to hp wash and being unavailable to participate in other aspects in the game which also affects me. I party quested and trained in parties all of my levels from 21+ in 2015. It was so easy to just walk in Ludi and see a group of people lined up ready looking to level with others. Wolf Spider's were also popular and it was easy to get a party of 6 to kill the whole map. I was even able to find people to duo with deep in Temple of Time easily, now I just flip through all the channels and I have trouble even finding afkers. This isn't like the old Maplestory for me, but it doesn't have to be because that doesn't matter. The game just has to be approached in a way that most of the content is appealing for people to participate in.
My "internal sense of accomplishment" doesn't change the amount of people at PQs. And that argument could also be used to justify hacking/cheating your way to lvl 200. "Don't worry about how I play the game! Just compare against yourself!"
LOL in that other thread we were talking about how other people leveling fast via leech diminishes your own sense of accomplishment. That's why I threw out the concept. But yeah, it doesn't help you find PQ partners. This is why I also suggested buffing PQ EXP in the same reply. As the posts above said, even if you "care little about what other people do here", it still doesn't solve the problem of having no PQ partners. That NEEDs to be addressed by the administration, not by the players themselves. Specifically, the EXP of PQs desperately needs a buff. Same goes for the unbalanced inflation, and the gap between new and veteran players. I myself don't care about it too much, since I can find an internal motivation. But the fact that many other people care about it, and that they are quitting / switching servers because of it, made me believe that administration needs to do something about it.
In my opinion the best way to make the game better is to make all or at least a good amount of the content appealing. It's much more difficult to do activities that were much easier back around 2015 since leeching and hp washing is very common and strong. Plenty of times I have seen newer players ask about hp washing and when given an answer they become very disappointed, not because it's expensive, but because they did it too late and they feel it's better they remade their character. Now should they have just sucked it up and made a new character or keep playing? Idk, but in the grand scheme that's a player that may quit the game.
This is because of the the New Source changes. It simply killed these type of options. PQs got heavily nerfed and now that low level leech (which is generally pretty slow) is actually faster than them there is no real incentive for doing them. The WS map got it's spawn greatly reduced as well, it was the main map people from lvl 75-90 go to and today it's pretty empty. ToT also got killed due to the removal of FM button, good luck finding someone with a Bish mule who would walk it all the way over there.
