Howdy. I've been trying to find a current thread detailing what exactly is in this server, what's new, what's changed, what version it technically runs, and the only thing available is a three year old thread. If this is by design due to the nature of it being a private server of a game nobody running it owns, understood. If not, it should be on the homepage and easy to find, and up to date. It should include all differences from its gms server version, and all current known glitches (skills that don't work), so players are aware and GMs are accountable. This would cut down on a lot of clutter in the forums, making gm's work less. As far as the upcoming library, you should just link to bbb.hiddenstreet, and everything else that's original or different, make pages for, seems a lot easier. But again, I'm not even sure where this server version actually runs and what is custom to it. Speaking on versions and nostalgia, its obvious we love the pre-bb stuff. That being said I think there is a lot of future content that would still be fun and viable to inject: -Giant balrog pq -Hoblin pq -Ultimate adventurers -Safari? -Arans were pre bb and had 4th job skills as well. Cannoneers, I only bring up because they fit easily into the pirate class and aren't Edelstein classes (wild hunters, mechs, battle mages), and had early 4th job skills before the complete classes overhaul. Evans were pre bb and really didnt do much to the landscape of classes imo. -mushroom kingdom is also a great pq that could be injected somewhere in the awesome end of a deep hennesys street And as far as the classes as they exist in the bubble of the server, and with the many feedback threads and talk of balancing the classes, id like to start a discussion here to try and think outside the box about them as they stand. If you read any guide, and I read them all out of curiosity (some are more in depth than others), you get a few takeaways. 1. There are commonly accepted beleifs that most skills are entirely useless 2. They almost all mention being x-less, and hp washing Before I go into detail about these two points, I have to mention that this isn't really any different in terms of discussion as when they were current. People always tried to maximize their most important stat, and when you could reset ap points, washing was a thing, and most guides said the majority of class skills were useless for training, or, they eventually would, which reflects the mapleroyal guides. So having said that, in regard to class balance and feedback, and the dps discussions each class has a thread on, I'd like to throw a few considerations out there, starting with the idea of useless skills. 1. "Useless Skills", SP Dumps, and "artifact skills" A lot of guides on here just say to max one or two skills, and put the rest of the points into literally anything else. Doesn't feel very fun or adventurous or customizable, when your class is mostly a cookie cutter linear path, which of course will happen if you hit level 200 eventually, which needs to be said was an arbitrary cap and there were no plans after 4th job. There are a lot of skills that were given to classes that ultimately never payed off or were entirely axed later on. I'll use the bandit class as an example. Steal? Endure? Shield mastery? Endure and sm were later entirely axed. We have them. So they are most def considered useless on this server. I love them, they reflect what nexon was thinking at the time and where the chief bandit and shadower class were going. Nexon made a badass level 120 shield that you could even level up, but then the d. Khanjar came out and also completely made shield mastery even more obsolete because it has like 6. Def. If you ask me, I dont think shield mastery should add w.def ( or att% for that matter) doesnt make much sense, unless its really significant, but they never followed through with thief shields, and the trend to attack shields and att gloves overtook the direction of the game, and power creep became power spike, and eventually all skills were scrapped. Anyway what I'm saying is, without making ridiculous changes to core elements like making shield mastery improve w. Att just because d.khanjar merely exists, why not just give it some passive buffs for people who want to use "useless skills" and round out and add robust tweaks to what was an abvious work in progress game that was never finished and later scrapped due to power creep. Shield mastery could add like passive avoid %, like 6% at max, or stun blocks, or small element or status resist, any of these would be fun. But anyway, the real discussion is late game damage and dps and bossability for everyone. I think a few changes could simplify w/o severely changing the landscape. Using bandits as an example, maybe when you level skills, other passive skills get boosted. Maybe at level 5/10/15/20, chakra also boosts stats in endure? Also steal mobbing up to 4 monsters was pre bb, js Maybe the 4th job mastery adds more stability and some more raw att, maybe adds int, str( more on this later) and hands. Everyone complains about assassinate and how it should be tweaked since it is a strange but unique skill and it should stay that way, just improved. I've posted in the shadower feedback thread a bunch of ideas to consider (like holding down nate puts you in dark sight, and you can release it when you need to) One of them was that assassinate always inflicts disorder, and depending on your current level of disorder, could improve upon it as well. You can also buff nates damage depending on your level of disorder, while nate also brings disorders stats up in unique ways as well. Just small synergistic things that build upon the skillsets already given in the class without making outright power creep necessary. Hey, maybe at like level 160 you can use magic potions in dark sight if you have max nate? Small QoL buffs that slightly bridge the huge level 200 skill gap and also embellish the server bubble And touching on synergy, i think there should be small increases in damage when using skills in concert. That could mitigate power creep alone, it scales, and encourages varied builds, as well as late game dps. And since there is so much time in 4th job (which was not considered back then) maxing 4th job skills should boost additional permanent stats and additional skill boosts elsewhere. Sounds really fancy and silly but I think it says a lot there is even a private nostalgic maple server and giving life to artifact skills and synergizing classes is what would have happened if there wasnt an entire broken system that had to be scrapped. Anyway... 2. AP points, and hp washing. The power creep was also affected by monostat chars and gear and formula exploitation within the flawed but wonderful system. I think another way to, not balance it per se, because it should be worth it if you commit to being monostat, but round out AP is to give all AP points value in each class, not just a primary and secondary. A few reasons for this. It could remove the need to hp/mp wash, and would reward adventurous ap builds, as well as a bunch of subclasses that are in this bubble such as str bandits, axe/hammer warriors, normal/good/high accuracy chars. Ex: -adding str as a bandit should improve hp, maybe it effects stun times, maybe it has small improvements on hands stat, w.def -Adding int improves mp, m.def, maybe it increases potion drops or raises slightly crit dmg every 10 points. This would all be without gear, only natural ap the player has added. -Adding points in hp improves hp *based on job and level* and not like 15 hp... Maybe it adds .1 in str, meaning adding 10 ap in hp gives you 1 str. Maybe it increases passive recovery? -adding mp, similar to hp^ addendum: adding points directly to hp/mp should also be rewarded, because obviously youre sacrificing some damage. Every five points of each could add 1 point of a main/secondary stat? These things could exist along with the same formulas, and they arent intended to be *better* than monoststting, but could possible balance out or be near equal by the time 200 levels of ap has been allocated, and gives customization and life to characters if they want to try something inside of the bubble as it stands. Sounds radical, but I think it's worth considering if we're playing in a bubble that had so many flaws and "useless" aspects that would later be scrapped or ignored completely. I think it woukd give a lot of replayability and life to the current bubble without changing anyone's current play style, not to mention, more custom classes are super fun. Anyway thanks for reading this idea dump. (edited for some spelling)
