Notice Staff Blog: September 2022

Wouldn't say it's ironic. Just a small typo.

The calculation and explanation are still correct, but the base stat of STR was not. Should be fixed now. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

grats to @Rielle and other new staff members on their new positions #makedrksgreatagain

 

Truly thankful for all your dedication and hard work! @Yan @Muff @PaddysPub @Dasha

 

littt

 

Looks amazing. Great job guys!!!

 

I tho Nut was a girl, since her/his profile says Female

congrats!

 

first

 

@nut thanks <3 The rest of the explanation was really well done

 

Grats new GMs especially Dong and Rie!! And new whatever you do now Nut

 

1st off: congratulations to the new GMs. I hope you learn somethings, polish your skillset, and network. Dev team, lead them well.

2nd: good work team on active development. Von Leon is a big content update and I pray to god that the release is a success. Celebration is in order, but be vigilant. I would hate to see a repeat of the end of Extalia MS.

• Fingers crossed for no server crashes, unforeseen bugs, and other disasters. Well, that is what hot fixes are for. I hope the update is well received by the player base. I do foresee tweaks to be implemented from live community feedback. The extra data will be welcome and necessary for game balance (a pleasant user experience in mind).

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3rd: I think those proposed changes to eye accessory scrolls and bosses are smart and insightful. I was impressed by the attention to detail.

4th: ah yes, let us discuss and debate the skill changes. Glad the team compiled a list of what the community has suggested. Many people wonder what others think and what ideas they might have, including myself.

Spoiler: Comments on proposed skill change ideas

* Let’s be realistic. There is no way all of those skill changes are getting implemented. At least not immediately and after some play testing.
* in the end, not everyone is going to get what they want but the most important changes should be addressed.
* I believe the proposed marksman/crossbow master , Corsair, and warrior skill changes are very important to the end game community royals has right now.

Spoiler: What I disagree with

* I do not agree with having multiple summons out at a time such as both bird summons by bowmen and both dragons by clerics. Lag/performance drops/fps drops and sprite work may have a significant effect on users. The concept is cool and many would like to see those changes. At the end of the day, it is not my decision or responsibility. If the majority of the community really wants their multiple summons, then I will survive.
* attack buffs like meditation, rage, enrage, and dragons blood stacking with attack potions can help to increase damage. It is nice to have, especially for grinding at the lower levels, but I don’t think it is worth implementing. You see, having those changes implemented seems like breaking a rule in maple story. I don’t think that line should be crossed.

Spoiler: changes I agree with

* I agree with many quality of life changes like the changes to being able to cancel darksight with itself or any attack over the current methods.
* Having buff/status icons for bowmen puppet, priest mystic door, and class summons would really be a nice QOL addition that feels vanilla. Less guess work when the duration will run out. I don’t know if the work to cancel the buffs is worth it, but I could see it having a niche in damage reflect situations. (Is it really worth it to keep a summon out when DR is up? I think the risk is still too great.) Amongst other situations of course. If door is cancelable, door trolling becomes much easier to do. Reading those proposed skill changes notes/subpoints/bullet points can really be confusing without context.
* buffs to raven weapons. I agree with a buff to the raven eye crossbow. A big problem with the raven weapons is actually obtaining them. It takes work and some luck to get one. Accessibility to raven weapons or a buff to raven weapons would make them a lot better in general.
* enable skill in LHC. Makes sense. Easy changes. Fix issues if any come up.

Spoiler: Warrior

* if there is going to be a crimson spear, there better be a design competition. Just saying.
* 100% on board for buffing sacrifice. That move has so much potential for single target damage.
* big agree on increasing blast damage cap over 200k.
* I like the current crash. The royals team worked hard to come up with and implement the current crash. It shows the ingenuity of the team, it is functional, and is elegant in simplicity. An elegant and simple solution, masterfully crafted to address a complex issue. Why change it?
* For the love of all that is holy. Please fix the threaten skill. Deus vult.
* 2Handed blunt weapons are going to need more than a 10 to 20 attack increase to be viable compared to all the other options that the paladin has access to. The slow speed, for starters, automatically makes it a huge turnoff. Then there’s animation calculations. To be honest, axes and blunt weapons ignoring a % of a monsters defense makes a lot more sense to me. Plus it is what was implemented on official servers in a revamp.
* I hope we change to the revamped version of final attack. I have seen too many people who do not know about it’s long animations in old school. Also helps bring up damage numbers up. Also not a fan of useless skills.
* agree on increasing power stance success rate to 95%
* paladin shield mastery is useless. Can we buff it? It became an amazing skill after it was revamped in official.

Spoiler: Mage

* General consensus in the community is that, at least to those whom I have spoken to or seen voicing their opinions, among those who know about the arch mage nerfs agree that the nerfs were overall a bit too severe. But! the balancing to archmages needs to be handled very carefully. Changes to chain lightning in particular will have dire consequences.
* I do not agree with elemental composition giving bosses a poison weakness or seal working on bosses. There could be a lot of issues with the coding. You would need someone exceptional to implement that.
* shining ray doesn’t need a damage increase. However, it would greatly improve the leveling/grinding experience in 3rd job. Not getting leech from levels 110 to 120 is really painful for most priests (and most classes to be honest). It also helps them contribute to parties. I think a buff to Big Bang cast speed and end lag/duration in 4th job would be more meaningful though.
* agree on increasing bless duration. Please make it match another one of clerics skills in duration.
* ice and fire demon could use buffs. Those attacks are soooooo bad and slow.
* paralyze could use damage increase. But the damage needs to be rebalanced properly as it can become too strong easily.

Spoiler: Bowman

* Highly agree to give a 5th line to strafe at max level. I could swear it was in official maple story around the Big Bang patch. Also helps out marksmen not be a liability.
* agree with fire DOT on bow master phoenix. Royals team added that change to inferno. Might as well finish the job and update phoenix accordingly.
* rechargeable craftable quiver/bolts/arrows. I like the idea. Not sure if it is worth the effort to implement in the game though.
* thrust is omega useless. Please change that or get rid of it. Plenty of ideas on the forums such as increasing avoidability or making it a party buff like haste.
* I hope we get the revamped version of final attack. I have seen too many people who do not know about it’s long animations in old school. Also helps bring up damage numbers to be more competitive with night lords. On top of that, I hate skills that actually hurt more than they help.
* I would like an increase in avoidability for focus, but is it really a worthwhile change? Should we change Thrust or Blessing of Amazon instead?
* big fan of giving concentrate stance%. Not a fan of giving concentrate increased crit rate though.
* anyone cool with the idea of snipe removing weapon cancel? Or piercing arrow applying the effects of threaten? Let’s give marksmen/crossbow masters more utility at least.

Spoiler: Theif

* if bandits cannot get flash jump, then can we make assaulted a teleport that works even when there are no monsters? Similar to advanced teleportation skill to mages from the revamp long after Big Bang on official servers. Big fan of reducing its end lag and increasing drawing distance by the way.
* not worth changing, but how does everyone feel about increasing the range of double stab? Double stab, disorder, and savage blow already have terrible range. Veterans opt for lucky seven almost always.
* personally I would like it if steal hit up to 6 targets. Ranged Mobbing ability please. Plus, more people will remember the changes the royals team made to the move.
* assasinate. The idea of striking from the shadows is a cool concept. However, Everyone who has played a shadower ever wished they didn’t have to go into dark sight. It is a pain in the butt, especially with high ping. Royals doesn’t have advanced dark sight implemented, but there is an idea of throwing the % chance of not breaking dark sight into assasinate.
* taunt dealing 1 maximum or fixed damage is an amazing idea.

Spoiler: Pirate

* I like all the proposed buccaneer changes. I side with those as of the community that really want those changes.
* transformation and super transformation duration has confused the heck out of many players even in official. The royals team made great changes going in the right direction such as with the magic rock change to address inconsistent duration and skill usage cooldown issues. The proposed changes to make duration more consistent and easier to understand seem almost necessary for improvement.
* can we make double uppercut in 2nd job better than it currently is, please? Why is this skill worse at it’s role than a first job skill. The stun effect is such a nice touch too.
* agree on increasing demolition damage cap. But to what?
* I have not played Corsair on this server. However, I can see how each of those changes can greatly improve the Corsair experience as I have experience back in the OG official servers. If the ship is what the class is centered around, it would be incredibly nice to allow the use of most of your kit.
* big agree on reducing recoil shot end lag.
* I still want invisible shot to hit 6 monsters at max level. Please.
* please make camouflage success rate very high, like 95% chance not to be found. The move should rival dark sight in functionality. I never liked how unreliable the move was and currently is.

5th: rhetorical question(please don’t answer). Everyone is wondering. What’s the next big content that dev team has planned or looking into/considering?
Answer: Keep up with the dev blogs, fools! The mystery is part of the fun.

 

Corsair avoid buff?
Battleship hp nerf?
Recoil shot CD reduction and other QoL?

 

Apparently discord link is invalid or expired. Or is it just me?

 

Some of the drop changes are bizarre... why add 100 belt scrolls as rare drops to NT monsters when many of us have 50+ of each from the pig event? They're worthless. Removing face avoid (now DEX) 60 from Afterlord is just sad, there's no point farming there anymore (not only was the drop rate low in the first place, very few classes could farm there efficiently anyway). Same for the unique drops from ninja castle.

 

Uh oh, I gotta go delete some pictures from my desktop if this is true

 

Are the drops from Von Leon going to replace the current end game perfect weapons? Starting to worry if getting that perfect Kanzir wasn't the best idea

 

Pinkbean

 

Congratulations to those promoted, definitely a good bunch

Thank you to those who are stepping down/retiring, your efforts do not go unnoticed

 

thanks! ninja-fixed

 

Q&A Questions

* The server's population has been getting lower in the past year for various reasons. In staff's opinion, has this changed the game at all, or made it less enjoyable? How does the game feel now compared to pre-pandemic?
* In the last Q&A, staff mentioned offering alternatives to HP washing, and the next patch saw a significant buff in the daily HP quest. The recent patch also added the HP stat to eye accessory equips. Are staff happy with the state of HP gain? Are there more alternatives planned?
* Is staff planning to work on the library after Von Leon is released?