Release mushmom in maple island

I think it could be interesting if you released the mushroom boss in maple island.
You could say something like: "islanders killed so many mushrooms so their mom got angry and came for revenge" lol
She could spawn in some well hidden map (so that new players won't suddenly see her) in just 1 channel maybe and will probably require a party of islanders to beat.

She could be like the HT of maple island lol, being a difficult boss (you'd need high accuracy, HP and damage to properly damage her) with exclusive drops (like glove atk scrolls)

I don't think it would break the island in any way as her exp isn't that high and her drops aren't overpowered or something but could actually help the community grow by promoting parties and encouraging people to get strong to beat her.

 

That sounds like an interesting idea.
Do you have any maps in mind where it might be spawned in?

 

Maybe she can drops an islander equivalent of a zakum helm?

 

Maybe here?


It's a pretty uncommon map that isn't easy to find and is full of shroomies and the name is mushroom garden too (maybe change some of the mobs to orange mushrooms though).
She could spawn in the bottom here
Also there's a warning sign saying danger outside of the maps so new players wouldn't normally come here, and you can make it in some random ch like 13 or something (usually new players would be in ch1)

Another choice is the map "Dangerous Forest" in the bottom where islanders usually kill orange mushrooms (would be fitting to spawn there, and kinda fits the name dangerous forest too)

 

Could be fun.

Could be dangerous.

Just thinking out loud.

 

I no see before this boss
And the hat. ^^

 

I like the idea, but the hat could be a mushroom hat.


^Some models we have in NX.

 

Would it be possible to have a poll on the matter, in which actual Islanders can chime in?

It's generally understood that many Islanders want to preserve the original state of the Island, and not let it be impacted by new or foreign content. Granted, past events have brought items to the Island that would not otherwise have been there, and that do affect gameplay. There seems to be some indecision, so a poll would be nice in my opinion.

 

I agree with Joong.

We have spoken with @Chokladkakan privately on this matter since he is an Islander, and the following was what he said:

 

no thx, i'm fine with only normal mushs maybe a mano, its easier to kill.

 

Since you mention an alternative boss to Mushmom, I feel it's important to point out that mob stats, loot droptables and other details can be modified, and do not have to reflect already existing content.

 

A Mano at tomato field would be amazing! You can change the scroll and remove eqs and maybe buff hp?

 

For the record, I would ideally see written feedback from actual Islanders on their stance in this. Without such feedback, it is my understanding that no radical changes such as this one are likely to be implemented any time soon.

Points to consider are, at the very least (feel free to add your own, if you have any):
- The stats of the mob (HP, EXP, Avoidability, Damage etc.) All of these have a big impact on how the Boss is fought, and the purpose it serves. Would it be a simple Area Boss, like Mano, Faust and others that are easy to solo? Or a tougher one, in terms of HP and other stats?

- The drops. Would a boss mob introduce new drops to the Island? Whether that be new potions, scrolls or equips, any new addition can potentially alter the meta, or render previous achievements (scrolled items, for example) less impressive. Could perhaps a special drop from the mob create a situation in which people camp the map for respawns, leaving those who miss it salty or feeling left behind or at a disadvantage?

- The location of the boss map. Depending on the placement of the boss mob on Maple Island, it could create an imbalance in terms of which end of the Island is more viable. (This was a point brought up by Chokladkakan)

- The promotion of a superior stat build. This is a point that concerns me personally. I am however not an Islander myself, so I am not in a position to comment on this in great detail. Anyway, in essence: regardless of which AP build an Islander settles on, they will likely begin to 1-shot most mobs on the island (if not all). Right now, there is no AP build that is strictly better than any other. If you introduce a Boss mob however, that is no longer the case; a boss with high HP and low avoidability may favour those with high STR and high DPM. Alternatively, a boss with high avoidability may favour those Islanders who went with a DEX build, for stable damage output. You could argue that there could be a middle ground which can appeal to both sides, but that would likely benefit Islanders who went for a mixed build the most. Now consider that some Islanders who have invested countless hours prior to this hypothetical implementation did not go for a mixed build. Even if the Staff did its best to balance the stats of the boss to please as many as possible, the problem remains that we are introducing something that deviates from anything else the Island has had before, and may negatively impact players who have already invested hundreds or maybe thousands of hours into a niche build.

Apologies for the long post; consider this post mostly a mix of my own thoughts as well as some points brought up by Chokladkakan. Perhaps you think this is unnecessarily dramatic; that's okay. This does not necessarily reflect the official stance of the Staff as a whole.

 

As an Islander, I really do not like this idea.

The point of being an islander is to be resourceful within the limitations of Maple Island. That's the challenge.
By continually adding to the island it becomes less challenging and less unique. It feels less segregated from Victoria Island.
If you're getting bored of the island, then it probably isn't for you. Play a beginner on Victoria Island and kill as many mushmoms as you please.

 

What if it had the same drops as other stuff on the island (so no new items are introduced), gave the same or less EXP than other monsters on the island. All it did was sit there, be hard to kill, and be somewhat dangerous?

No benefit, just difficulty. Just curious if that would be amenable to islanders. I think it would be kind of cool, add some variety. I always got the impression that the island was more about... limited weapons/items/skills/mobs, as difficulty really isn't a thing.

 

You'd be surprised what @Joong can whip up, and all together it's a rather small... thing (I believe) overall to add it. The biggest concerns is maintaining the feel of the island. There is no intention to change the meta, which is why we want input from Islanders, as it's you guys this content would be for!

 

As an old player and an islander who is playing this server I can say that the island could be a little upgraded.

In what way? having a boss of our own could open a new route to new players and old as one in a way of bonding better.

As @Evan said

we dont seek for massive changes. we dont seek for new mindblowing items.
having something new is blessed in anyway and we are thankful for anything we get. therefore we don't mind of having nothing dropped or obtained from the boss ,all requested is the feeling of having a boss.

adding a boss could also be a "test" like we had with the old version of maple island maps (which was reverted back to the current maps) , the increase\decrease of mobs spawning ,having us taking part in different events, adding an option of us entering to the lounge and having fun meeting players outside the island! - most of the changes were a success , so why not try doing so again? I see no way of it fucking up the island.

with love, danny <3

 

yeah this ^^^^^^^^^

 

I no longer play maple, but I have a level 70 islander on here. Here are my thoughts:

This idea has been brought up many times in the past. In the form of Mano, King Slime, Stumpy or Mushmom.
I think the addition of a boss on maple island would be very risky and difficult to balance, here are just some of the concerns (some of these are similar to what you said, but you said you wanted to hear from an islander, so here goes):

1. Drops - There are a few possibilities here, each with it's benefits and risks.
   1. Same drops as offland
      This would introduce new drops to the island. Some people may dislike that, but that's not my biggest concern with this option. My biggest concern is that offlanders would create islanders just to farm valuable drops, and transfer them off of the island.
      Depending on which boss would be implemented, items that weren't scrollable before can now be scrolled, and scrolls that we didn't have items for can now be used. This could create a huge inbalance between people who threw/gave away such scrolls, and those who saved them. (I know @IoIzor has/had 10,000 scrolls on his mule.)
   2. No drops, or drops that already drop on the island
      This would avoid the risk of offlanders farming the boss on island. However, this option also begs the question what makes it worth it to kill the boss? It could be EXP, or maybe a quest requires you to kill mushmom, but there should be something. (More on this later.)
   3. New custom drops
      This one is very risky, because if an item is only available in one place, offlanders will farm it, even if the items isn't very good. This could be fixed by making the new drop untradeable, however, if the item is useful offland, people may still stay on island just to get the item for themselves. What if the boss is very hard to kill, then offlanders would need to grind a lot to be able to kill the boss. Well, yes, but what could also happen is that an entire new economy will emerge wherein offlanders pay islanders to kill the boss so they get the item.
      The only workable option in adding new custom drops is an item that disappears whenever you go offland. In that case it doesn't matter how good or bad the item is, it's impossible to transfer it offland. Other islanders can brainstorm about what this item can be, (and I will give some suggestions later on too) but it would have to be something that doesn't change the meta hugely, since this could upset a lot of people who don't have the right stats to go along with said new meta.
2. EXP - Should the boss be the best place to level-up? equally good or slightly worse than grinding? Or should this boss not be worth it in terms of EXP?
   If this boss is the best place to level, or an equally good place to level as grinding, this would change the core of what islanding is, I don't think this is what we want. So the boss should not be a good substitution for grinding.
3. Stats - This is a big one. How can a boss be balanced for people who went full dex and full str?
   If the boss has a high HP, DexLanders would take ages to kill it, if the boss has high avoidability, STRLanders can't even hit it. Either way, a lot of islanders are gonna be frustrated about their build. The only way I can see this being balanced is if everyone hits the same, however, then anyone can kill it, and in the same amount of time too, that takes away the challenge of killing it fast. Besides, this would still upset STRLanders because the fixed damage would likely be lower than what they can hit on other mobs.
4. Incentive - I briefly mentioned this in point one; what makes this boss interesting to kill for islanders? Is it EXP, Drops, quests maybe? Maybe a ranking system for who can kill it fastest? Or who has killed the most? All of these come with their own problem.
   1. EXP. As established in point 2, the exp should not be better than grinding, so this can not be the primary motivator
   2. Drops. Risky, as explained in point one, but still possible if the drop is not transferable to offland.
      
   3. Quest. There could be a new quest on island that requires you to kill a boss. This just shifts the problem though; what makes the quest worth it? Some people do quests for the story only, but it's no secret that many people only do them for the rewards. So if this quest is to be interesting it needs to have a reward, which basically brings the same considerations as drops. Another point to consider is that once the quest is over, the boss would lose people's interest, so a regular quest won't do, a repeatable quest may work though.
   4. A ranking system for who kills the most / the fastest. This would heavily favor STR builds which would upset people with other types of builds.
   5. Lastly, no real incentive; a boss that just sits there, is hard to kill, and is somewhat dangerous. Some people might say that this is enough, and while I think it would fun be for a few days, maybe weeks, it would quickly become boring. The most fun you could have with it might even be to lure noobs into it and see them die.

So EXP is out, ranking system is out, no incentive seems boring. Custom drops and repeatable quest have potential. Let's look into them further.
As seen in earlier points, it's undesirable to change the meta too much, since people with different builds could get upset. I can see a few options:

1. The safest option for a reward is one that does not affect any stats. This could for example be something cosmetic like a hair change, nx equips or smegas.
   This brings in the risk of offlanders getting interested in the boss again though, since NX is transferable.
2. Another option is an equip that doesn't change the meta.
   This should probably not be a weapon, unless it is a joke weapon (like pumpkin basket), since weapons can change the meta in a big way. The safest equips are probably the ones that we currently don't scroll a lot. Imagine the devastation if a 10 speed shoe was released after people spent hundreds of scroll to get a 10 speed shoe, all that effort would be rendered worthless. Capes come to mind as an item that we don't currently scroll, because we don't have any capes on island, however, that brings the risk mentioned in point 1.1; some people have stacks upon stack of cape scrolls lying around while others would have the start farming from 0. A better option would be earrings. We don't currently have any scrolls for earring, so no one starts with a huge scroll advantage. In order for those earrings to be interesting though, it would need to have some interesting stats. While they would be the most interesting stats, we should be cautious with attack, speed and jump, since these can have a big impact on the meta. The introduction of attack buffs on weather effects has even made the 22 attack, attack speed 3(!) fruit knife potentially viable, allowing dexlanders to one hit with it at about level 36. Similarly, speed and jump can also have a huge effect. People currently use x-mas lights to achieve max speed. If another item gives enough speed to no longer need the speed of the lights, people could shift to surfboard, or the other way around in the case of a new item with a lot of jump.
   Something to be noted about equips is that if they are not affected by the godly system (which is often the case with quests), the hype is quickly over once everyone has the new equip. However, if the item is affected by the godly system, people can keep trying to get an even better equip. (Even more so if the items has two or three different stats, since the chances of all of them being perfect is exponentially smaller.)
3. The third option would be scrolls. Like the equips, they should be non-transferable to offland to prevent offlanders from farming them. Scrolls could stay interesting for a long time. Again, it's risky to affect weapons too much, but earrings, gloves or shields could maybe get a new scroll.
4. Lastly (though there may be more) is fame. This would only apply for a quest that requires the boss. Fame could get a bit risky again concerning offlanders, but it would keep people interested (though some people don't care about fame at all, or even want defame).

Another point to consider is that the incentive should not be too high either, because that would cause people to camp the boss, leaving others without opportunity to kill it.
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So, in conclusion. If a boss were to be added it must:

1. Not give a lot of EXP
2. Have some incentive to be killed (drops, quest or otherwise)
3. Not drop offland-transferable items
4. Be killable by different AP builds (while keeping the fight interesting)
5. Not change the meta in a big way

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