Orange Mushroom's Blog

The second set of discussion topics’ discussion period has ended and the developer team has posted their thoughts. This time, the topics were the ‘Necessity of Party Play in Hunting and Improvement Direction’ and ‘Maple Guide Reorganization to Help New/Returning Players Settle In’.

Hello. This is MapleStory.

We have confirmed that many players participated in the two discussion topics from August 18 ~ September 13 and gave their opinions.

We would like to thank you for your valuable opinions and share the development team’s thoughts on the discussions that took place. In addition, we will show the top 10 opinions of the topics and the comments about each opinion.

1) Necessity of Party Play in Hunting and Improvement Direction

To improve the negative experience of hunting in maps caused by boredom, the development team thought about how to use “party play” to add fun, and selected the topic of the necessity and direction of party play.

We have reviewed all of the opinions sent through the discussion board. We were able to look at the variety of players’ pro/con opinions, from the positive opinions that the community could be revitalized by enhancing party play rewards to highlight the fun of being together to the opposing opinions that party hunting should not be forced as it does not fit the current trend and that we should utilize existing content or give party elements to new content.

As players said, the reason why hunting has become boring is because hunting is the only choice for growth and the time it requires is very long. It seems difficult to solve this fundamental problem by enhancing party play, and we also sympathized with the expected problems mentioned in the various opposing opinions. Therefore, instead of simply making the hunting experience more fun, we will add options for growth so that the growth experience itself can be more enjoyable.

The development team has decided that the diversification of growth routes in the form of reinforcing content for growth other than hunting is currently a more appropriate direction, rather than making a big change to the current growth pattern through hunting.

On the other hand, an important point that players had in common in the pro/con opinions was the need for ‘having fun together’. We, the development team, deeply sympathize with this need, and will consider ways to enhance the fun of being together in various parts of the game other than party hunting.  We will try to add content that can create positive interactions between users in the form of events, and ultimately develop them in the direction of permanent content/systems.

2) Maple Guide Reorganization to Help New/Returning Players Settle In

Due to the vast amount of content that has been accumulated over a long time in MapleStory, we selected the topic of the Maple Guide reorganization to ease the hurdles experienced by new/returning players and help them settle in to the game.

As a result of reviewing the various opinions given by players, the most necessary points for the Maple Guide reorganization have been summarized as the following three.

1. Improve the efficiency of quest-based growth routes below level 200.
2. Provide various rewards to help settle in to the game.
3. Organize scattered/difficult-to-check information and present the organized information in an easier and more effective way.

We will take the above three points as our core direction and prepare to introduce the newly reorganized Maple Guide this winter.

In addition, apart from the Maple Guide reorganization, we confirmed opinions about the difficulty of character growth. For the stable settlement of players, improving the convenience and reducing the difficulty of character growth are areas of interest that require continuous improvement. Over time, we will check and improve the things that provide unnecessary stress to character growth.

<Top 10 Opinions>

Necessity of Party Play in Hunting and Improvement Direction

[Go to Page]

We are not talking about making hunting more difficult. / Maple now is different from the past. (same topic)

Add new content or re-use removed content that lets us level up in addition to hunting.
Reorganize existing party content or add new party content.

• Pros:
  
  • I hope you diversify content rather than considering the combination of parties.
  • Even for Union growth, we need a variety of level-up options.
  • I think that improving party content should be prioritized over improving party play in hunting.
• Cons:
  • It’s not right to add simple content because the boredom of solo play can be alleviated with party play.
  • There are concerns of repetitive bad-mannered behaviour.

We want “Frozen Link” instead of party hunting. / [Maintaining the single player hunting system] Party hunting improvement plan. (same topic)

A reorganization of maps to change them like instance dungeons where people can enter and hunt in hunting-only maps.
A reorganization of maps to change them like certain theme dungeons where after a certain number of monsters are defeated, a map event is activated.

• Pros:
  • Positive opinions that ‘KS wars’ will not happen in popular hunting maps.
  • If party play is improved, party play using illegal programs may increase so individual hunting maps are required.
  • Opinions that it would be a good way to solve the lack of hunting maps.
• Cons:
  • If appropriate countermeasures for illegal programs are not taken, it may be difficult to provide service.
  • The idea of ‘my channel/KSing’ is a culture created between users and I don’t think the development team should be involved.
  • Opinions that the essence of MMORPGs may be blurred.
  • Party hunting could become forced, so you need to take appropriate measures to prevent this.

Party hunting is a basic part of MMORPGs.

A reorganization is necessary since the need for parties in hunting is low other than for bosses, and the community is not being engaged.

• Pros:
  • Opinions that the more solo play continues, the more boring the game becomes due to the low need for parties.
  • Opinions that there is no motivation for character growth to enjoy boss content consisting of party play.
• Cons:
  • Opinions that if coercion is necessary, there may be differences  in character growth due to the population gap between worlds.
  • Concerns that it would be inconvenient to have to repeatedly recruit the right party members for party play.

Why are you making us play the game alone…?

The rewards are decreased in party play, you need to increase these rewards to motivate character growth for party play rather than solo play.

• Pros:
  • Opinions that you can’t have fun together if the rewards are decreased.
  • You need to provide untradeable goods as rewards to prevent effects on the economy.
• Cons:
  • Concerns that if the rewards weren’t reduced, it would contribute to meso inflation.
  • You could acquire a large amount of goods by using multiple accounts, which could adversely affect the economy.

Party hunting system / Increase the number of level-up options. (same topic)

Separate the goals of acquiring experience and items, and based on that, allow us to freely use party play or solo play.
A reorganization so that the efficiency of solo play and party play is adjusted appropriately so one is not better than the other.

• Pros:
  • Opinions that it would be good to have the freedom to choose between solo and party play based on our play preferences.
  • Additional opinions that hunting ranges can be expanded by adding dungeons in less popular hunting maps that require party play.
  • Opinions that it would be good to limit the amount of damage you can deal to monsters.
• Cons:
  • Concerns that if there is a difference between acquiring experience and items, there could be side effects due to coercion.
  • Opinions that it would be good to set level limits for each area instead of capping character specs.

Party hunting should be a ‘fun option’ instead of being ‘forced’.

A reorganization to make less popular maps into party play hunting maps.

• Pros:
  • Additional opinions that it would be good if you had a method where if hunting maps and story progress overlapped, they would not affect each other.
• Cons:
  • If there is no difference in acquiring experience and items, ‘leeching’ could be possible so you need to take appropriate measures to prevent this.
  • Opinions that it is unnecessary to simplify hunting maps since party members can indirectly experience other jobs through various hunting methods.

The age of party hunting is already over.

There is a lack of motivation for character growth and item enhancement, so you need to restructure storylines to enhance their rewards.

• Pros:
  • Opinions that it would be good to use cosmetic items based on bosses that appear in stories as rewards.
• Cons:
  • –

Maple Guide Reorganization to Help New/Returning Players Settle In

[Go to Page]

About how to use storylines in the level 1-200 range.

Reorganize the level 1-200 storylines and rewards, and improve the understanding of game systems with required quests.

• Pros:
  • Additional opinions for a system reorganization that lets you choose if you want to see the story.
  • You need to restructure existing content to reorganize experience efficiency and growth routes.
  • Opinions that if story quest rewards are given based on your level, you could access the story more naturally.
• Cons:
  • I think that the story content below level 200 is sufficient.
  • The story is often skipped for fast character growth, so you need to consider whether adding to the story below level 200 is meaningful.

Requests for the Maple Guide reorganization and wishes to the management team.

Reorganize the theme dungeon rewards based on level and when you complete a theme dungeon, give a guide on what content is available.

• Pros:
  • The reward efficiency is low compared to the story clear time, making it difficult to access.
  • Additional opinions that you need to support the settling of new/returning players by enhancing basic rewards on the growth route itself rather than limited-time content.
• Cons:
  • Opinions that the quests themselves can be accessed for fun rather than with the goal of rewards.

Apply the Step-Up missions from the Burning server to new users. / Make what we do more rewarding + attendance board. (same topic)

Organize step-up missions for new/returning users that support them settling in to MapleStory.
Reorganize attendance check events and settlement support items.

• Pros:
  • You need to restructure rewards from content/systems to match the levels they are used at.
  • Additional opinions that it would be good to provide equipment required for growth from Maple Guide quests or the storyline.
• Cons:
  • Concerns that it would be discriminatory if they are not provided as basic rewards to existing users as well.
  • Opinions that it would be difficilt to settle in to the game if repetitive actions such as the story clear time or area exploration can’t be simplified.

Barriers to entry felt by users introduced in Glory (added information) / Required alerts about quest routes and minor improvement details (same topic)

Reorganize the intuitiveness of the Maple Guide’s features, make improvements to highlight the importance of events/certain systems, and basic rewards.
Increase the intuitiveness of the Maple Guide and quests’ detailed routes and emphasize the importance of essential systems.

• Pros:
  • Additional opinions for rewards that increase the Charm personality trait.
• Cons:
  • Emphasizing the importance of current essential systems would be inconvenient as it would cover the screen and it is unnecessary to apply it in various ways.

How about writing achievements for new users???

When you get certain achievements, provide item support as (untradeable) rewards to help new users’ character growth so they can settle in to MapleStory.

• Pros:
  • Additional opinions that agree with providing motivation through achievements, but it would be good to have cosmetic rewards.
• Cons:
  • Opinions that experience rewards would be more reasonable than regular item rewards.

Please let us select and craft specific trio Enhancement Cores.

The barrier to entry of getting trio Enhancement Cores is high which can cause people to leave, so a reorganization is necessary.

• Pros:
  • Opinions that the burden of character growth for Union can be reduced.
  • Opinions that the V Matrix should be reorganized to improve its visual convenience so it is easier to find the required Enhancement Cores.
• Cons:
  • Opinions that the usage rate of Core Gemstones would be decreased which could affect the economy.
  •  Concerns that if you could choose which trio Enhancement Cores to create, it could cause problems of lack of equality with job skills/common skills.

How about theme quests/dungeons for each continent?

Add special theme dungeons/quests for level 60~200 like the level 30~59 theme dungeons.

• Pros:
  • –
• Cons:
  • Opinions that there is already sufficient diversity of theme dungeons, but their accessibility is low due to low experience and rewards, so they need to be improved instead of adding content.

Individual disadvantages caused by the Maple Guide reorganization.

Reorganize the Maple Guide items so that existing users are not disadvantaged.

• Pros:
  • Additional opinions that it was fun to play with the goal of collecting Maple Guide stamps, but it would be inconvenient if they are reset with the reorganization so it would be good if they are maintained. 
• Cons:
  • –

Thank you.