A new notice has been posted on the homepage. Following the apology from last week, Nexon has released a summary of the discussion they had with the user advisory group about the first three topics selected. Note that the information here is entirely the opinions of the user advisory group and is NOT a preview of what will be added to the game, it’s simply a summary of their thoughts with no input from the MapleStory development team. That post will be coming within the week. Also this one was really long and a little bit complicated/hard to understand in certain parts, so I might have made a few mistakes while translating. If you guys see anything that’s wrong, please let me know and and I can fix it asap. Hello, this is MapleStory. We would like to notify you about the activities of the user advisory group over the past 2 months. Before the full information, we would like to apologize once more for not keeping our promise of organizing and disclosing the content of the user advisory group’s activities once a month. A free discussion took place with the user advisory group in the online space provided by the development team where the user advisory group discussed the 3 items which were listed in the [1st Discussion Topics], including a presentation of their opinions. In this process, the development team provided only the minimal guidance to minimize their intervention in the discussion process. Due to the nature of online discussions, we decided that there were concerns that if the opinions were summarized and shared in the middle of the discussion process with the user advisory group, the content could not be fully conveyed, and also the opinions of players about the same 3 items being shared through the discussion board would be affected. Since the discussions with the user advisory group and the current topics on the discussion board have both ended, we will now provide a comprehensive list of the opinions given by the user advisory group as well as their pros and cons. The opinions given by the user advisory group will be reviewed together with the opinions given by players on the discussion board and we will give the opinions of the development team in the form of developer comments by June 30. User Advisory Group Opinions Final Summary Boss Rewards Reorganization 1) Boss Rewards Status and Reorganization Direction There is a feeling that the higher tier a boss is, the lower the rewards are. High-spec users are not motivated, and mid-spec users don’t feel the need to become high-spec. Higher tier boss rewards need to be increased to motivate each group. The core of the current boss rewards is mainly based on the price of the Intense Power Crystal which always drops. This creates a strange structure of ‘CRA mules’ having excellent investment efficiency where they are more advantageous than challenging higher tier bosses. Therefore, it is necessary to show a willingness to adjust boss rewards, even symbolically by increasing the price of the Black Mage’s Intense Power Crystal. 2) Provide Different Rewards Based on the Number of Participants Soloing a hard boss requires a lot of time, effort, and investment but it feels like the rewards are not enough. In particular, as the number of party members increases, the rewards are actually decreased because the same reward is divided by 1/n and so the higher tier bosses have lower rewards. Lower tier bosses are relatively easily to clear so you can clear them alone and receive all the rewards yourself. Higher tier bosses are difficult to clear so you have to party play, but then the small base reward is divided by the number of party members. Therefore, we think that it would be more reasonable to provide rewards that reflect the difficulty of clearing the boss, which changes based on the number of party members. For example, a reorganization so that a person who clears a boss in a party of 1 receives more rewards than a party of 6 because it was more difficult. 3) Party Recruitment System Reorganization A reorganization of the party recruitment system is needed to make it easier to find party members. In the current boss queue, you can’t create the party you want because party members’ jobs or specs are not considered. Since a party member’s specs are most important when forming parties, create a boss-only spec measurement number called ‘boss damage stat attack’, and allow us to see that directly in the party recruitment system. └ (Concerns) If this number is added, there is a possibility that party members will be evaluated entirely by a numerical value without considering other aspects such as mastery of patterns and clearing. 4) Pitch Boss Set Reorganization The highest tier rewards, the Pitch Boss set, are items that are very difficult to obtain, but if the hurdle to acquire them is lowered sharply at this point, it may be reverse discrimination for users that have already acquired them. Nevertheless, there are very strong feelings due to the deviation in acquiring them currently, so it is necessary to supplement players whose desire to challenge bosses has decreased due to not acquiring the items for a long time. (Reboot World) Due to the nature of Reboot World where you cannot trade, it is difficult to change your main equipment to the Pitch Boss set while taking the risk of them being destroyed when enhancing them. Therefore, it is necessary to reorganize them so that after you obtain them, you can no longer obtain another of the same item (like the current Genesis weapons), and the Star Force enhancement costs are greatly increased to eliminate the risk of destruction. 5) Existing System Reorganization and New System Additions Add a New Base Reward ‘Intense Energy Crystal (tentative)’ Add a new item called the ‘Intense Energy Crystal (tentative)’ as a drop from bosses like Hard Suu and higher to enhance the sense of rewards from higher tier bosses. You can equip them on to weapons, secondary weapons, or emblems to give them certain stats. The type and effect are different for each boss, so users can attach and detach them according to the situation. They can be set to grow by clearing the corresponding hard bosses every week or by trying to enhance them at a certain rate with the collected Energy. Profession Fusion System Utilization If the profession Craftsman and Meister ranks are removed and it is reorganized so that all characters can easily acquire additional options through equipment fusion, then you can prepare an environment where boss accessories and boss armor are used up. The demand for boss accessories and armor will be increased, and as boss reward items are used up through the fusion system, the supply of items in the market will decrease, leading to an actual boss reward increase. In addition, if you temporarily adjust the equipment fusion rates through Sunday Maple, you can significantly increase the number of items used up in a short period of time, so the item prices can be adjusted flexibly. In addition, if Rebirth Flames are added to higher tier boss rewards, high-spec users will be able to see more substantial benefits. └ (Concerns) With the introduction of the profession system, if Rebirth FLames are added to higher tier boss rewards in the same patch, the profits of users who clear higher tier bosses may actually decrease. To get the top-tier additional options that the current top-tier users want, a larger number of Rebirth Flames than the supply currently in-game is needed. If the supply of top-tier additional options for lower boss rewards increases with the fusion system, it will lead to an overall user spec upgrade so the number of users who can challenge higher tier bosses will increase and the supply and demand of Rebirth Flames will also increase. If this happens, the supply and demand of Rebirth Flames will be greatly increased compared to currently, and measures may be taken to reduce the supply of Rebirth Flames from events. Then, the act of adding Rebirth Flames to higher tier boss rewards will be overshadowed and may have the adverse effect of reducing the profits of top-tier users. It is necessary to set the Crystal prices per world based on the other equipment items, while considering that the amount of mesos that users can obtain in each world does not cause a large difference in the prices of items in each world. Add a Star Force Equipment Collection System Like the achievement system, you can make it possible to collect Star Force enhancement experience or destruction experience for each item type and give different effects based on the enhancement value. This can promote using mesos on items that aren’t necessarily used, to help curb meso inflation using equipment items as material. Permanent Boss Coin Shop Operation If you provide a certain amount of tokens to boss rewards that can be used to obtain growth items, rare enhancement scrolls, or cosmetic items, you can increase boss rewards while reducing the effects of meso inflation. By providing a different number of coins based on lower/higher tier bosses, you can better maintain higher tier boss rewards. Soul System Reorganization Change Soul Fragments to be tradeable material and add the ability to use your collected Soul Fragments to reset or strengthen your Soul item’s stats. By increasing the demand for Soul Fragments, the value of boss souls will be increased and the expectations of base rewards will be increased accordingly. Add Arcane Stones to Rewards If added in the same way as Intense Power Crystals with set amounts and guaranteed drops, Arcane Stones filled with experience could be used directly or sold. This can motivate Arcane Stone sellers to hunt, and provide buyers with an alternate ‘way to get desired achievements instead of taking time’ rather than proxy growth. Add a Certain Amount of Experience to Rewards Since one of MapleStory’s core goals is to level up, providing a large amount of experience based on the difficulty of the boss can also be a way to increase the sense of rewards. Reboot World Due to the nature of Reboot World where you cannot trade, in most situations where you cannot obtain items dropped at a low rate, the sense of disappointment about boss rewards is relatively bigger than in regular worlds. Therefore, a reorganization with minimum base rewards is required for the Reboot World environment. Reorganize it so that you can you can exchange Phantasma Coins or Arachno Coins by only using a number of core materials such as certain Droplet Stones or Butterfly Wing Droplet Stones. If you get an item for another job, you cannot use it or trade it, so remove the group reward system and reorganize it to a direction with individual rewards. It is necessary to increase the ‘3x drop rate of boss rewards’ to 5x, which was mentioned to be under review during the Reboot related written inquiries. Provide an alternative for items with a low acquisition rate such as Black Bean Marks, Papulatus Marks, and Ruin Force Shields so they can be crafted using specific materials (Primal Essence, Chaos Fragments, etc). Character Growth Reorganization 1) Measures to Lower the Hurdles of Initial Growth Improve the visibility of the Maple Guide’s missions to encourage players to challenge themselves more than they are currently, and increase the mission rewards to decrease the difficulty of character growth that new and returning players feel due to the initial complexity. Create videos rather than text to explain the difficult enhancement systems so that users who are unfamiliar with MapleStory can easily learn about how to use them. Recommend the videos based on the situation so new users can settle into the game more easily. For new users only, it is necessary to add rapid growth items support such as Mega Burning Boosters when reaching level 200. For beginner users’ efficient hunting, diversify hunting maps and add party quests to give them an experience where they can feel the fun of the game. 2) Improvements to the Problem of Focusing on Specific Hunting Grounds It is necessary to solve the hunting ground shortage, by simply improving the terrain of unpopular maps below level 200 and increasing the monster appearance rates. Lower growth difficulty by increasing movement terrain and hidden portals in hunting grounds to allow players to move freely through the maps and in the Maple Guide, by limiting the level range, enhance the convenience to move around areas more freely than it allows currently. 3) Provide Experience from Content Other than Hunting It is necessary to provide a variety of sources of experience so that Union character growtht is not just repeatedly hunting. Provide experience as a reward when you clear certain floors in Mu Lung Dojo so that you can play content and grow your character at the same time. Add higher level sections of Monster Park, and in Monster Park maps, use the characteristic map gimmicks of the Arcane River terrain to reduce clear time. Using each area’s map design would be sufficient to express the atmosphere. Add a method to disassemble Arcane Shade equipment to receive experience, which will provide an option to obtain experience while defending against the drop in price of items. By adding experience to boss rewards, you can avoid the play method of clearing bosses only for money, and provide more motivation to increase specs. With this, if you defeat a certain number of monsters with your level range, weekly bosses’ experience rewards can be added as a supplement, and excluding boss mules, the experience benefit can be focused on characters that you are actually growing. 4) Enhance Hunting Motivation Add a social feature like a ‘6 Person Adventure Squad’ similar to the past ‘Family system’, providing additional incentive for monotonous hunting by adding rewards such as certain buffs when you reach set goals. To provide motivation to use various maps when growing Union characters, you can add a ‘Maple Guide Additional Mission’ which rewards things like Rebirth Flames for hunting in specific regions, once per world. 5) Enhance Level Up Motivation In addition to the benefits of entering new areas, add achievements that can be cleared naturally while playing the game and provide small rewards to give a visible motivator (ex. clear a higher tier boss, achieve xx levels). 6) Reorganize High Level Growth There is a big burden where the higher your level, the more time it takes to level up. Currently, there is no motivation to reach level 280 or higher, so it is necessary to stimulate this by adding new maps to high level areas. In the NEO update, the level 250 section hunting grounds have been neglected, and additional reorganization is needed. 7) Enhance Party Play Elements to Increase Enjoyment While Hunting Add a system to hunt together with users like party hunting. Add content that supports 2-3 person parties like the past Lion King’s Castle parties where you had to join together to fight powerful monsters. However, by matching the experience efficiency of party hunting and solo hunting to a similar level, low-spec users can hunt quickly in a party while high-spec users can hunt alone to acquire a larger amount of experience. Promote party hunting by increasing the size of the current in-game maps, allowing players to create parties and hunt in different areas. Add daily party quests to all level sections. However, there are also opinions that you should not burden party quests by setting daily experience limits. 8) Lower the Difficulty of Union Growth The recent Extreme Growth Potions have been good for Union character growth, but this comes with the disadvantage that simply levelling up a character doesn’t improve character understanding. It is necessary to provide opportunities to directly experience and understand the skills of each class at the same time when adjusting union character growth difficulty in the future, by adding an instance dungeon method with high experience efficiency. Add a system that uses Union characters like the past ‘Union Arena’ to motivate growing other characters. └ (Concerns) There is concern that this may feel like ‘homework’ from the users’ point of view and be an increased burden. Alleviate the difficulty of union character growth by added a skip feature for quests that you have already experienced once with the world. 9) Enhance Hunting Convenience It is necessary to standardize not only job performance but also fatigue by adjusting the number of buffs or skills used. If it is difficult to standardize the skills used, it can be supplemented just by allowing users to set the existing ‘skill macro’ shortcuts to the pet auto buff. 10) Monster Collection Reorganization There are situations where monsters cannot be registered because they don’t appear in-game such as the Ghost Pixie, and certain medals cannot be acquired because there are not enough monsters in that area such as Aqua Road. Provide motivation by adding rewards for registering more than 600 monsters in Monster Collection. There are other requests for improving convenience such as changing the Expedition Box rewards to be ‘tradeable within the world’, adding a monster search feature, and adding a cancel expedition feature. 11) Growth Support for New Reboot World-Only Users Reorganize the Reboot Gift Box’s rewards for new users only. Add a guideline document that explains the characteristics of Reboot World, provide Mega Burning Boosters to support Union character growth, and provide a certain amount of Strange Cubes so they can settle into the game better with better specs. It is necessary to add Power Elixirs and Core Gemstones to alleviate the problem of supply of beginner potions and Core Gemstones. Enhance marks for beginner players (ex. pioneer medal) to create an environment where existing users can voluntarily help new users. Add a time limited title that gives % damage to regular monsters to give new users a foothold to adapt to Reboot World. 12) Reboot World Additional Improvements In regular worlds, Core Gemstones are mainly obtained through trading, but in Reboot World, it is unreasonable to rely only on hunting and event coin shops. To increase the supply of Core Gemstones in Reboot World, they can be added to the list of items sold in event meso shops. It is necessary to improve the situtation where even level 270-280 users take a penalty to train in Limen and lower areas because of Cernium’s high monster health and Arcane River Droplet Stones which can only be acquired up to Limen. 13) Other Opinions For quests where you must go to a wide range of maps such as Magnus and Cygnus prequests, it is suggested to reduce unnecessary travel time for quest completion by immediately moving characters the maps where they need to go. In the conference written inquiries, it was said that balance would be adjusted for jobs with big differences in hunting ability, but we need guidance on how these balance adjustments will be done. Since the number of chairs and medals are increasing, the number of inventory slots for chairs and medals need to be increased for collectors. It is necessary to provide the convenience to easily manage Hyper Stats for bosses/hunting by adding a damage to normal monsters stat, adding Hyper Stat presets, and allowing you to increase Hyper Stats by multiple levels at the same time like skills. Burning maps are useful for character growth, but the standard that ‘Burning stages are maintained/only decrease/do not increase from 10PM ~ 8AM the next day’ specified in the homepage guide is applied unfairly to users who play at night or early monrings and needs to be improved. Events like Blooming Moment and Maple LIVE STUDIO GO! which provide buffs at specific times need to be extended to nights and early morning times. It is necessary to provide an environment where users can flexibly manage play patterns by unifying the times when things in the game are reset. For example the weekly boss reset time and guild content reset time are different, which causes confusion and limits play. The daily reset time also needs to be adjusted based on users’ play patterns. The problem of bad manners in cross world party quests (afking or sabotage) has occurred for multiple years, so it is necessary to change the daily limit to be based on clears like Monster Park or take separate action. Since Elite Monsters drop Rebirth Flames, their duration should be changed from 2 minutes to 5 minutes. It is necessary to provide an environment where the supply of Rebirth Flames is greatly increased. A request to add the ability to exchange lower-level areas’ Arcane Symbols to higher-level area’s, to provide a way to use surplus Arcane Symbols after reaching level 20. └ (Concerns) Reaching level 20 on an Arcane Symbol is meant to be taken as being able to move on from that area, so providing this benefit would require adjustment so that it does not become homework. Discussion Board 1) Enhance Background Information of Selection of Discussion Topics It is necessary to give the background information of the discussion topics and the current state of the development team’s thoughts to provide an environment with more meaningful discussion. 2) Enhance Development Team’s Communication It is necessary to show the development team’s direct reactions to posts from users. Through this, the development team can show that they are listening to the opinions of users, and express their friendliness by giving more opportunities than right now to communicate with them. For concent that is discussed a lot on the discussion board, it is necessary to notify us on what criteria the developer comments are selected based off of. 3) Rewards for Users with Presentations on the Discussion Board A suggestion to add a system where users can suggest discussion topics and the development team can select and reward them, so that more meaningful discussion topics can be selected. 4) Measures to Prevent Duplicate Posts To prevent duplicate posts, separate the opinion request board and the discussion board. Reorganize it so that on the opinion request board, instead of UP/DOWN, add a ‘New Opinion UP’ option that lets users clearly see if there are opinions they want to discuss. On the discussion board, add the ability to press UP/DOWN on comments so that users can see the response of additional opinions posted as comments. 5) Author Identity Verification To prevent anonymous authors from suggesting inappropriate discussion topics or affecting the atmosphere of the discussion board, it is necessary to add a system that lets us clearly see the author’s identity. └ (Concerns) Conversely, if the author’s identity is clear, it could become a popularity vote so it would be necessary to remove the current popularity ranking. However, it is necessary to supplement this with measures like not being able to search for previous posts so that people don’t track them excessively. 6) Suggestion for Additional Communication Methods It is necessary to add a page that tracks error fixing progress and shares error fixing plans in advance. There is a confusing problem when balancing is only done for certain jobs and other jobs don’t know when they will be patched. Balance patches and convenience patches’ plans should be shared in advance. 7) Others Posts with a large number of recommendations take up most of the attention as they are the most visible on the main page. So if a post receives a certain number of recommendations, they should be separated into a different board and managed there so a variety of topics can be created. The discussion board needs to be separated based on Reboot World and regular worlds as the concerns and considerations between them are different. It is necessary to provide an environment where discussion can be conducted actively by letting users read and write their opinions through an optimized discussion board on the Maple mobile homepage or Maple Hands. Thank you. Source: Orange Mushroom's Blog