I really enjoy the early game in Maplestory, such as leveling at ant tunnel, doing KPQ, and so on. However because of leeching, it just seems like a waste of time for me to bother leveling new characters at these places, especially since I won't be able to find a party. More importantly, it creates a bad experience for new players and strongly motivates them to buy leech, since they can't find any friends to play with near their level. I'd like to propose a solution that I think will fix these problems, and create a better experience for both new and old players. I think we should have a "pseudo ironman" type format. I'm going to call it "strongman" for simplicity. You can opt in as soon as you create your character. The rules are simple: - No partying or trading with anyone more than 9 levels above/below you. - No partying with anyone of a higher job. - No trading with anyone that isn't a strongman. - No access to the FM. - Upon reaching level 120, strongman characters will be converted to normal characters. In addition, you'll receive a free stat reset: Mage: LUK reset Thief: DEX reset Archer: STR reset Buccaneer: DEX reset Corsair: STR reset So to be clear: - Non-strongman characters (such as new players) can still party with strongman characters. They just have to be within a 9 level gap. - Strongman characters can only trade between each other if they are within the 9 level range. This is to reinforce group play and prevent higher level characters from hoarding items to give to new ones. Finally, for each type of character you reach 120 with, you'll acquire a permanent stat buff to your account. This can be done in one of two ways: - An account bound upgradeable item given by an NPC - A passive skill like "Empress's Blessing" in GMS (if possible to implement) Character types: Beginner Mage (INT) Thief (LUK) Archer/Corsair (DEX) Warrior/Buccaneer (STR) So basically, you choose one of these characters, get them to 120 with these restrictions, permanently upgrade an item tied to the account or receive an upgradeable passive skill. Each upgrade I can imagine giving something like 1 atk & 3 m.atk, for a total of 5 atk and 15 m.atk (this might be slightly too high, but you get the idea). What do you all think of a mode like this? I think it would bring a lot of players back and give players something to work towards in the end game, as well as inject life into the early-game areas that have been kind of dead. The only possible downside I see is players who already have 6 characters on their account. This can be solved by either increasing the amount of character slots, or allowing players to link accounts together so they don't have to delete characters they worked hard on (which I think is quite doable). It also shouldn't affect leeching too much, as leech will still be the optimal way to level new characters. The whole point is to give new players more people in their level range to party with, as well as giving established players something they can do to upgrade their account (and give them more of a reason to create new characters in the first place).
The inherent issue that caused leeching to grow and pqs to die out, is that for the most part, this community in terms of gameplay time, has vastly more veterans than new players. A veteran, with one or more high lvl attacker, usually has access to ways of making progress effectively (exp or meso), this gives them the power to skip lvling with leeching, and keeping on playing their main. That massive difference needs some far more aggressive changes to cause a noticable change in the low level range. Its worth noting that your suggestion's reward for clearing the strongman path is very reminiscent of the legacy system in GMS, which was done exactly to expose players to all the classes, and make them replay early game (probably to extend playtime). there's a fine line between giving incentives, and making it meta mandatory, and should be done with care.
It doesn't necessarily have to give a stat boost. It could give "tokens" that you can use to purchase items, which can also be obtained through other means, or just something cosmetic and fun. I don't think leeching meta is a big deal, at least since it's far too late to change it. I agree with the fact that the community is mostly made of veteran players, but I still see completely new players all the time and they often end up buying leech because they feel like it's what they are supposed to do. I think it would be nice not just for something for higher level players to do but also to help those new players that are kind of lost and not sure what to do. I think part of the problem is that there's not a lot of content in the game that forces players to interact with each other, especially early on. Other than a couple of PQs you're pretty much on your own and the quests really aren't enough, especially in a private server where most of them are not worth doing. In my mind, slowing the progression of experienced players that choose to participate is a good way to ensure that new players have a chance to meet and party with others so they feel like they have more options. I guess the other solution is a new server, maybe a seasonal format where everyone starts fresh and some of your progress is transferred over to your non-seasonal characters. Again, something like tokens could be used. In this case, I think the opposite measure would be taken and we'd give players some incentives to not play the seasonal format, to reduce the risk of dividing the community too much. There could also be long breaks between seasons, for example. I'm sure there's plenty of ways to freshen up the game and provide new players with an opportunity to be on equal footing with veterans, even if it's a timed event. I think as you say the main issue stems from the fact that the gap between new and old players is constantly increasing and this means there is higher risk for new players. They have to be very committed to reach the same status as a veteran. The issue is not whether or not they can do it, it's just whether or not they get scared off by the fact that there's so much they need to learn and do. HP washing comes to mind, since there isn't really a lot of information about it in the game. I suppose that is a bigger and more obvious issue to tackle, though it's becoming harder and harder to do that.
As a newer player i think people leech because the shine is kind of off the apple after playing through the early game once. If you want to attract people to the early game content you would need to introduce new game modes that don't effect current content but could still be fun. Like how RuneScape does leagues with different settings and hyper inflated exp gain to make it quicker. For maple a pvp mode could be cool but if that's not possible you could do many competitive game modes like a giant tag server or a server that lets people test builds quickly or treasure hunts could be added in that take you to different lower level maps and reward knowledge and exploration.
I guess it depends a lot on what you are nostalgic for. My fondest memories of MS were training at pig beach, killing mushmom, hunting GFA at mateons, KPQ/LPQ, and climbing down orbis tower myself because I was too poor to buy scrolls. I'm not saying any of that should be forced on players, but all the required content is already in the game and it seems wasteful to me that a lot of it is never seen or engaged with. I just think it would be nice to be offered some kind of mode or setting that rewards players for low-level content so that everyone can spend time at the maps they enjoy, even if the reward is purely cosmetic. It could be as simple as a medal that you can gain by playing through the game without being in a party. It would just feed my passion for collecting things and also encourage more players to interact with the content they want to instead of being governed by the meta. I think the quests such as the HP quest and gachapon stamps are a good start, as they require you to hunt non-meta monsters. I basically just think we should have more of that, and maybe a little bit of a slower early-game progression for the players that enjoy it.
I feel like there just needs to be a higher xp rate at low lvls. Like 8x from 10-30, 6x from 30-70 4x from 70-120 and then normal. It would lower the amount of leech as xp is higher at low lvls and people would be more inclined to train themselves.
