Hi Royals, Talking to players who have quit after a good 3 years of playing, I was wondering what their main reasons were. Those players I talked to varied between level 175~200 on multiple accounts. They all had the same conclusion. End game. See, the only type of end game ''excitement'' they have to look forward to is make their 19 attack cape a tiny bit better by saving for months and months. This is a little discouraging because you spend so much for so little return. It is all the same ball game. Nothing changes after you sold 500 hours of leech, and 120 Horntails later. This genuinely made me wonder why? Why wouldn't the server push the limits with the options they have open. See, I understand very well that this is supposed to be GMS-Like but what's the point if you're going to lose your genuinely passionate players? I'm not requesting for this server to add anything like miracle cubes or Chaos vellum or anything obnoxious, but at least give well respected players something to look forward to. The players with genuine love for this game end up quiting because there's just nothing new left for them. Horntail is fun, but listening to the same song a 100 times fades off eventually, and that's why we need a new song, or at least a remix. My suggestion: Rather than ''adding more events'' or ''removing options to feel more nostalgic'' how about adding some light end-game motives that will actually push players to achieve new things that they can look forward to? I don't want to give definite options because this staff has their own philosophy towards this game, but I want to give some ''advice'' of things that I would consider to be fitting. High end bosses with increased stats. (e.g. hard mode (chaos zakum) for enhanced stats Zakum Helmet) Revamped Gachapon with custom (or different) items Miraculous (-10 / + 10) Chaos scrolls to enhance possibilities. A new job (e.g. Aran/Evan) Really really difficult quests with unique rewards such as Vicious hammers Item sets with bonus (e.g. 140+ LHC gear) Anything that could encourage level 175+ players to keep playing and have something to look forward to Side note: I want to add that even though my suggestions may come off as incredibly obnoxious, ''game breaking'' and ''not nostalgic'' I genuinely don't see other options to keep the true passionate players to stay. If this servers goal is the opposite of that, then so be it. But I just personally wanted to share it because I wholeheardetly agree to those who have quit for those reasons that this server needs to push the limits within its current boundaries as it is slightly discouraging to play just for the sake of doing the same thing over and over. There's needs to be a change if this servers wants to remain enjoyable for all of those that reached those levels. PS: Please don't take my suggestions seriously, they're just examples.
I agree with this. More end game stuff is always the best way to keep the long players playing and not having to do the same things everyday on 5 accounts. I Vouche for this!
why not bring a new boss, like Pink Bean? And what abou a CPQ, but for high level characters? I dont think that need to make any difference at that rate, but small changes like those can make everyone anxious to get high levels and play!
For the real end game CWKPQ is a bit too easy. But honestly, the timing of this thread is not ideal since a lot of people are busy getting new end game gear after CWKPQ changed the meta Wouldn't Pink Bean be the most natural boss to be added at this point?
Because just adding Pink Bean isn't enough to solve all the issues unfortunately. I don't think that this will bring all the players back. There also needs to be a form of solo farming where players are still encouraged to keep up the grind.
They don't seem like they want to ever make new bosses or make a stronger version of an original one so there can be some end game challenges where you fight 2-3 bosses in 1 map which would be pretty challenging depending on the boss choices and map you're on. If they won't do any of those 3 things then Pink Bean is the only boss left that can give a challenge. Most will disagree, but since there's plenty of bosses around and we get 3.2exp it would be nice to raise the level cap to compensate.
It feels like Royals is stuck with the same mentality, if the server doesn't improvise it is not very surprising that high level players eventually leave, which obviously is happening slowly but surely.
I mean.. there's gotta be an end to something eventually. It has been improvising like cwkpq and stuff. High level players will eventually leave no matter what. You posted this like week or 2 after cwkpq came out. Can't satisfy everyone.
I don't believe there has to be. There are many ways to evolve the game, it doesn't have to be game breaking. For example Pink Bean (timeless weapons) or Vicious Hammers would be a good enhancement to stretch things out.
The problem with making stronger bosses that requires stronger players is that the rest of the already existing content will be lacking. People will easily solo ht and so on if we're going to reach a point where the players can kill pinkbean within 1h, rendering the whole game useless except that one latest boss. There's been some new end game content in the form of bosses and equips lately, compared to earlier periods of the servers life span at least from what i can remember there were almost never any new gears or bosses. But I honestly don't think that this is the only reason people quit or even the main reason people quit. People are not going to play a single game for ever, eventually they move on with their lives no matter how much new, better and more exciting content you throw their way. oh and i guess i have to say that these are my personal thoughts and opinions it has nothing to do with the rest of the staff and their opinions on the matter.
I see where you are coming from but don't you see the pseudo science in that? Right now any boss could be deemed useless opposing to Horntail. As you stated that you could kill x in one hour. Right now we are at a point where people can solo Krex and Zak under an hour. Does it really matter whether X or Y is the ending target. Also, I'm fairly sure even Pink Bean could not be killed even with timeless weapons within the time you have. So with that being said it really isnt that simple, and even if that were to be the case then it would be a minority to wield those timeless weapons. I personally don't see a problem whether X or Y is the final destination if that calls for extending the game its duration. But this wasn't really my point either. End game doesn't have to be a different boss. Even adding a job could extend the time. Perhaps farming quests for rare equipment or cosmetics? The new HP collection quest is great. It really doesnt matter as long as there is something old strong players have something to enjoy other than Horntail for a 178th time.
I think wanting difficult end game content is in the minority even among the high levels. It feels like a lot of people kind of just wanna kill bosses that aren't difficult or annoying so they can focus more on faster killing since they invested so much on equipment. For a single boss Bodyguard A is a pretty effective killer and it's hard finding anyone who wants to fight him. There's just so many bosses where people measure their entertainment on how much faster they can beat them down compared to the last time. Would be nice to have a boss or two where it's the other way around.
Ill press the same key, so sorry: why not bring CPQ, but for higher level players? The prizes dont need to be exactly equips or scrolls, but chairs, or cosmetic cash items, IDK but something that makes everyone want to challenge the others! The possibilities are imense, and everyone that I met on Royals remember CPQ with so much affection, that they miss it!
As much as i enjoyed CPQ but it is only lv30-50 and that can be surpassed real quick. I rmbed theres this PVP content which has no cap on lv limit. Rewards random skillbooks，random eqs, set accessories. But i thk its a pbb content. Doubt it will ever be on royals
I think the best thing that can be done is an increased level cap, doesn't need to add more stats (by 200 you have your main stat maxed anyways though, so probably wouldn't hurt anything if it did). New items and weapons have to be carefully added to avoid powercreeping too much, I don't think the right way to do this is vicious hammers. Its literally meaningless for people with means because they can easily afford the ~20 white scrolls to scroll the last two slots. It doesn't add difficulty in obtaining. the PB weapons are a different story, and I think the last time it was brought up in a thread, Matt said he liked the idea along with keeping the weapons leveling up. Sure, itll make current max weapons "less good", but that is better than just making current stuff stronger.
The problem with pb is that you have to make everyone much stronger, or release a nerfed pb for us to be able to defeat it (i think). If that is the case then i think the best nerf would be to have a longer timer than one hour.
What is wrong with releasing a boss that is "too strong"? I don't mind if something is added, that I have no chance defeating even together with my strongest friends. Isn't this the purpose of this thread? To add something that actually makes it WORTH It to work for some extra attack, to level a few times more. I'm pretty sure 30 of Royals' lv200s should be able to defeat a non-nerfed PB after some practice?
If this is true, then I agree with your statement, however, if even with 30 of the best lvl 200 players it's clearly impossible, then PB will need a nerf. I agree with Hampa that a longer timer is a good idea for a nerf.
I agree with most of the thread on pink bean. At this point the server has been around long enough the vast majority of players have defeated all of the end game bosses and content the server has to offer. One of the appeals of the old school MapleStory was the massive amount of endgame content that had not yet been reached by most players. For example, when first released almost no one had access to 4th jobs skills which made all of the skills that much more special. Adding a hyper strong boss is something that would help with player retention rate a lot I think and it would do a couple of things: It would drive characters to start gearing up more (causing them to play more) Would drive a massive amount of people to work together pulling back online some people who left royals (just look how large the first pink bean raids were even when they failed) Even if the players fail a few times to defeat the boss it gives players that “server first” goal. On top of pink bean, adding the old version of the maker skill along with the timeless weapons /MW 30 gives people a reason to “solo grind” for ect items. Having a sizable reward makes the struggle of defeating pink bean worth it. Essentially right now for a large portion of the player base the only endgame content they have progress their character is to spend hours grinding or getting leeched to get +5 of their main stat or to save up nx/leech money for months to try a random chance of getting slightly better gear. Having worthwhile items/skills that are only obtainable by having a certain strength character would probably be very beneficial to players trying/working towards that new content imo. For example, if pink bean dropped a chaos scroll every time it died players would probably be better off not playing saving up nx and attempting to get one at a gatchapon. But if defeating pink bean unlocked the Cygnus knights you bet your butt every player would be attempting to try and reach that end game content. Where the balance is between rewarding/challenging gameplay and too much power creep is I’m not sure.
