All of this writing below is based on Reboot server
Giving another point of view regarding Kanna teleport farming and KeyWeight. *Thinking out of the box*
One of the other reason that some people are doing and why does byebye kanna farming + keyweight tele farming is so famous and so many people are doing it is because some or probably most people are busy in real life and can only spending little time in game. In another word, a lot of casual player in game. I have done my own surveys. And here below i put it into my Explanation. Hopefully it can become consideration into what Maple can do in the future update.
Explanation :
Maplestory players consisted of people from different countries, resposibilities, jobs /daily activities and even age. Some people are working. They spend around 9 hours of work almost everyday, and some even working 30 days with only 2-3 days off a month. After getting back home, they still need to cook for food, doing laundry and other stuff. considering poeple have 24 hours a day, minus 9 hours of work, 1 hour travel time to go to work and back from work and 8 hours of sleep, people only have 6 hours left in life. If we add housework, cooking, cleaning, dishes, eating, shower and all other stuff, it will probably takes around 3 hours perday, leaving working people with 3 hours time perday to play.
This is still not counting if people need to go shopping to buy daily stuff. 3 of the people i asked, they said, they have kids at house that needs to be cared and Wife too. But they still love playing Maplestory and trying to get some time for it. Eventually leaving them only around 1-2 hours time to play everyday. Sometimes they even sacrifice their sleeping time for Maplestory. 1-2 hours of gameplay, is not enough to do bossing, grinding, mesos farming and all necessarry stuff in Maplestory. And so some of them said they just keyweight while taking care of their children or while cooking while watch over their char every 10-15 mins. They said, it is not like they hack or gaining an enermous amount of mesos from it. They just need some mesos per day so they can improve bit by bit everyday. Otherwise with the little time they have, they barely can barely do dailies, and so farming mesos to improve is almost impossible. They are not trying to abuse the system and gain too much advantage, they just want to improve a bit and can enjoy Maplestory.
Some people are students who are concern with their study. But they still love Maple too. So sometimes, they still do keyweight farming while they are finshing their assignment. or while studying. Interestingly, other people, playing while in class listening to their tutor. This is shows how much they love the game, but because of daily life activities, times is limited.
Interestingly, small amount of the working people can also play at work. They can still keyweighted while doing their work.
I myself can play at work, but i don't need to keyweight farm since my 9 hours work only requires me to work when i have some important customer come by. So i still can farm once in a while eventhough not long hours. So i have several hours total to play a day.
So if you want to improve your player base, you need to find a way to facilitate those players who are busy in real life, while they still can decently maintain their char. Anyway, 99% of people are working or studying. Only probably 1% are unemployed or have a lot of free time everyday or can play while working.
Summary :
In short, because of the lack of time to play, some people hardly can farming in game to improve their char. So they sort out to use this keyweighted farming while doing their daily activities, eventhough the gain is not as big as the other players with much more time to spend to play the game.
Suggestion :
Some players, or i would say most players, in need of certain ways so they can still improve with their busy life. I believe, there are a lot more people who works / study compare to people who have more free times everyday and not working or studying. So I would say to create a legal system that doesn't against the TOS but still can help players semi pasively, to improve their char while doing their daily activities. This system mostlikely giving lower rewards than people who is actively playing, but still can allow them to improve. The current event that give certain amount of mesos / mesos bag is way too low and it still takes time to do them.
It would be good if there is a system that still can earn players mesos eventhough they still have to go back and forth checking the PC or cliking or pressing button every , lets say 15- 30 mins. We can say it semi farming. Not quite farming, it probably will only gain probably 25%-50% earning of active farming or probably limited perday, but busy players can still improve through the game. As the amount players can get through this, have to be calculated based on what players need to improve.
Such as, currently, in Reboot, to get a single 21 stars, people need around 10 billions for each equips. so to get 15 equips to 21 stars, they need 15x10 bill = 150 billions of mesos. This still varies depends on rng/luck. but more or less around that. Each legendary potential requires 2 billions average. So to get 20 equips to legendary requires 1x20 = 20 billions. This still not counting flames and fund reuqires to find the right potential we need.
Another thing, with the event that giving mesos around 10-20mill perday, it is way too far from 170 billions+., you requires 170 billions/20mill perday= 85.000 days. 85000 / 360 days = That is around 25 years.
1.
but still, on of my suggestion is to provide player semi farming ways that can give decent amount of mesos. It still requires player to semi active farming while doing their daily activities such as taking care of family, studying, cleaning house or other stuff. It can be similar to the current legion system which provide players legion coins semi passively. You still need to collect the coins and can even hit the boss once in a while to get more coins. But, too bad if we convert the legion coins to mesos, the amount of mesos is ridiciliously low. Harshly says, stupidly low, useless amount and noone would bother doing it. This semi farming will provide players enough funds to improve daily basis.
Furthermore you can also make it not only giving mesos, but also other needs such as Droplets and some other stuff that doesn't get provided by dailies.
If not, you might lose a lot of busy working or study players.
2.
1 of my best suggestion is to change the rule and let keyweighted as not against the TOS. But you can limit as for how long certain skill that is prone to be abused. Such as limit the kanna teleport to 15 mins. After it is going for certain times, lets say 10-20 mins, it will stop working. So people can still earn mesos, while doing daily activities, but they still need to take care of the char every certain times. This is actually easier. You just need to announce that keyweight is legal.
I have asked around, that most people against keyweight because it is against the "rule you have set". Not because of another reason. You just need to make it legal and not against TOS, but you provide a limit so players can't abuse it by leaving computer open 24 hours a day. You can limit skill to operate after several seconds and obviously you can makes it stop operating after every certain 10-20mins. Let people get a bit of advantage of it, but not too huge of it.
Anyway, there are also runes to limit players from overdoing it.
Regarding runes, you can make it instanced for each individual. So other players can't pick up others runes. So players can't abuse it. Anyway, people still need to pick up the runes.
EDIT : i have realised i put wrong number, 1 legendary potential requires average 1 billion. so for legendary, it it will cost 1 billion x20 equips = 20 billions. I have changed the numbers above.
Comments
I don't think that's the way to make a healthy game.
You do realize that players on autopilot mode will eventually match (or even eclipse) the progression of active players?
If an active player gets 600m/hr on reboot in say 8 hours of the day, they get 4.8b. If a player on 24/7 autopilot gets half that amount on average (300/hr) they get 7.2b on a full day. That's about 1.5x more mesos with virtually no work.
And even if that autopilot rate were to be reduced even further, you'd still have to account for the fact that players don't usually play at set times and often take long hiatuses. This is how botters can seemingly accumulate so much, automation is a wonderful thing.
We already have this. It's called Legion & Monster Collection. If you're playing Regular servers I think Monster Life counts too.
You already admit that this is a system in the game. Why not just suggest these methods give more Mesos?
Again, If you do not have the free time to spare, stop playing an MMO.
Focus on your life where needed, spend your free time when available.
Priorities man.
But i have going through a lot of debate with people who are doing it. Even 2.5 years ago, i had a debate with a player who is a Doctor in real life and a Maplestory player. He decided to afk farming and so i tried to stop him. But at the end, he said, whatever, if i get banned then so be it. I know he is wrong. But here, i just tried to give a point of view of people who are doing it and let Maplestory knows. Maplestory can also gather their own data and survey coz i would say, 50% or even more of those players who farm at byebye with kanna are keyweighted farming.
My suggestion is not a mode to reach end game within short of time. But if i use shadEight words, this is an "autopilot" that still give players a little bit of mesos so players can still improve little by little eventhough they have very little time to play. A lot of players quitting the game because they have very little time to play but actually still want to play. This "autopilot" will not give a lot more benefit/advantages compare to players who is actively playing, but at least to those player who are busy, they still know that they can improve through time.
If you are working for 9 hours a day, still have real life activities to do, you will know how little time we actually have to play. Except for people who doesn't work, unemployed, or have nothing to do instead playing games all day. But not everyone can do the same. Most people work or study.
Example, lets say players can ussually farm for around 600 millions mesos perhour, but this "autopilot" still can earn them around 100millions-200millions mesos perhour. But they still have to come back every 10-15 mins because the system will shutdown / stop every 10-15mins. They still can do daily life activities while semi-playing Maplestory. And probably the system can be made limited to the amount of hour perday.
This system will of course not let players just open their computer, start the semi farming system and then come back after 24 hours and see they have gained over 5 billions + mesos in their inventory. They still need to keep activating the system every 10-15 mins and stay in touch with the game.
@Fuhreak
Yes, those people who barely have time, at the end they decide to quit the game. That is why through this thread, i want to suggest Maplestory to consider to see the point of view of people who only have very little of time but still want to play the game.
I bet this is also the worries of Maplestory team for a long time (1-2 years) before they decide to change the kanna tele farming. Because there is a chance they will be losing players. Why not just find a method so Maplestory can still keep this players, instead of letting them quit the game, without giving them too much advantage, accomodate them and they still can progress in the game slowly.
If you ask me, my personal opinion of decent amount of mesos in reboot perhour is around 100-200mill perhour. so far, from i know, best players can farm around 1 billion perhour.
Oh, and also this system will apply to all players, so it is not giving benefit to certain players. so everyone will have access to it. Everyone can benefit from it. If it only benefit certain players, i would disagree. But it has to be avaialble to all players
My hope it can keep players ,who have very little time to play, keep playing instead of quitting the game. I believe Maplestory want to keep every players keep playing the game, but also without reducing the fun part, by giving a massive advantage.
Regarding Legion and monster collection, Yes Fuhreak, it is also a good method to let it give a decent amount of mesos. for legion, so far the amount of mesos is way too low.
People will always find an excuse to cheat.
If the system requires them to check in every 10 minutes, then they will figure out ways to circumvent that. If the system can get only 100m meso per hour, they will keep cheating because they "need at least 500m to progress".
If you can only play an hour a day, then you can progress at the rate of an hour a day. It's not impossible to play Maplestory as an IRL busy person, it's just slower. And as long as people feel that their "need" to progress faster justifies cheating, they will keep doing so.
People who are that busy IRL shouldn't be playing Reboot, anyway. Reboot was intended and promoted as the world where you spend time instead of money. If you don't have the time, why are you playing there?
In regular worlds, you can use the money you earn at your job to take shortcuts to progression. Alternatively, you can merch for meso - which is something that can be done semi-afk since your items are sitting in Auction House and getting sold even while you're not watching them.
But probably coz they can't spend a lot of money. Busy in real life doesn't equal rich. But in reboot, you only need to spend cash for cosmetics, so that is the amount that some players can afford. And probably, just probably, some people unwilling to spend cash too much in game.
I'm not sure how is the current merch for mesos will help normal server players in progression. And how much time required to get the amount that consider as "decent" in normal server. Can player buy Red and Black cubes in normal server as many as they want without spending cash? Can players progress in normal server until end game without spending cash? Can they get all what they need without spending cash?
I would like to discuss something about this topic.
I think you have noticed that the amount of mesos required to do enhancement in GMSR is quite higher than that in KMSR. Have you ever thought about the reason of it?
The meso obtain rate in GMSR is fairly high compared with KMSR, and it is quite easy for players to boost up character in GMSR simply by using AFK or keyweighting while KMSR nearly block away all the boters by enhancing the in-game security program and applying LIE DETECTER function. The difficulty of boosting up a character in GMSR is not as that in KMSR where we can hardly find players whose main stat is above 20k before Lv.230.
The purpose of playing game is NOT reach the endgame faster but gaining happiness via farming, chatting with other players. And I think GMSR doesn't have this kind of environment. It's like a burden. Not Like KMSR which is more likely a game.
Boting in game is meaningless. What we should do is to PLAY the game not being controled by the game. Endless farming CANNOT bring us joy.
Regarding boters, they broke the balance of the game and should be blocked away from the game. There is NO reason for us to make that kind of behaviour legal. It is NOT FAIR for players who NEVER use KeyWeight or AFK.
I strongly support the revamp which will be apllied to Kanna and hope there can be a better gaming environment of MapleStory.
Thank you!
Sincerely,
EnRonG
Which brings us back to my initial response to this thread.
I'm sorry, but Maplestory is an MMORPG which requires spending either time or money to progress. If you can't spare either, you'll progress slowly.
If you want auto-play, try Maplestory M, the mobile game.
Yes. Since the establishment of the Meso Market, one can convert meso to Maple Points, and use those Maple Points to buy Red and Black (and Green) cubes, 2x EXP coupons, scrolls, and just about anything else the Cash Shop has to offer.
One can also use meso directly to buy equipment from other players, sparing oneself the time of doing prequests and dailies to earn that equipment. And of course buying such things as scrolls and flames to improve said equipment.
So just play the damn game. I only play about 2 hours a day average.
I don't do dailies regularly, I just get on my character and do whatever I feel like that day.
Never been carried, don't use Kanna, I actively avoid certain GMS content, I've never really farmed, etc.
I'm a good example of an extremely casual player. Despite how little I actually play the game I've made good progress.
I have a level 241 character, with a maxed out arcane symbol, with another about 70% to lv 19. (990 force total)
Maxed out traits. Empress's Might + Oz's Flame Gear (Only level 1 but still.)
Nearly 6000 Legion, Four 5th job characters, about to be Six 5th jobs. (Two characters at 192/190)
If you want to advance in the game, no matter how little time you have, you can do it.
All you have to do is actually play the game instead of whining about how little time you have.
If I can do this while only playing a few hours at best each day, what's stopping you?
Isn't that what happened with Zhong? And didn't he come right out and say exactly that, and that he knew he screwed up?
But for those pepole who are busy and can only play 1-2 hours a day, practically can either do their daily such as Arcane symbols dailies, a few bosses run or farming for an hour or two and have abit of chat with friends in game. The farming itself will only net them around 700mill -1 billion if they already have a steady farmer char. With the need of hours of farming, dailies, other activities such as collecting herbs/crystals and socialising with others, there are a high chances players will quit the game.
Some might get it wrong, I'm not suggesting an afk system that will net players a huge amount of mesos like 1 billion perhour., that will beat active playing. But instead a decent amount of mesos which still will give players a bit of progress and they will still keep play the game instead choosing to quit because the game took much of their time. I know several game that have provide this method. But this method will not beat the active playing farming. And also this system will also open to all players. So it is not making a disadvatage towards certain players. It simply will make active player gain more while people who only have little time to play, not quitting, but instead still can play the game while still getting some gain while they are doing daily real life activities such as Eating, Washing clothes, cleaning their house, etc.
Regarding poeple will find cheat way, if the person have intention to cheat, even without this sytem, they will cheat away anyway using various of method, either hacking or using some application to bot. But by providing this semi afk system to players, that available to all players with not giving a massive advantage over players who actively playing, you stil can keep a huge percentage of your players who still want to play this game, but they don't have much time coz of working, studying or daily lives, but probably only 1-2 hours of their time perday or even less. Instead of kicking / having them quitting the game, why not just make a system that is beneficial for everyone? This system will also be available to everyone.
And if you have a huge player/ customers basis, some of them might even don't mind spending some of their cash/ dollars to support the game more.
At the end, if Maplestory decide to apply this, you need to plan it ind etail. It doesn;t have to be afk farming mode. possibly similar to Legion or monster collection systems, but providing more mesos supply. The afk farming system itself have its own disadvantage as they will crowded over famous maps with good mesos rate. It ussually pisses me off when i saw people afk farming whole day on the best mesos rate map, while i can't find a good map to farm actively. So, it generally is not good unless you provide an instanced map for this. But instanced map might also create more trouble.
Another way is to provide semi afk mini game similar to legion. But it is all come back to Maplestory team. All i can is provide suggestion. Or you can provide more mesos from legion as the amount of mesos supply from Legion is ridiculously low or in a harsh word, it is a trash amount of mesos. Probably only 0.001% of players base would buy the mesos provide by the legion shop.
One of your biggest threat in this game is a huge numbers of people play and quit the game because of their little amount of time to play the game. As if you ignored this threat, you will never grow big as a game. As people who pay your game are mostly working people who have little time to play. Even some players who are rich because they have rich parents, mostlikely they also have to focus on studying at school or universities.
As i, myself as player, i don't mind of this system as long as I can also access it / available to me. If I am free, i will just active farming and gain a lot more mesos. If i am busy with real life, i will just doing this semi mesos gain system. But for busy people, this will help them tremendously, as they rarely have time to play. As if they are chatting in game or not, it is still better than having people quitting the game. Either way, they still need to do dailies such as Absolab dailies, arcane froce, etc.
But if you hear to this suggestion, you might accomodate them as they can still play a bit while doing their dailiy real life necessarry and still keep playing the game. As i say might, because this is purely my personal experience and suggestion. Might be true, might be wrong.
I will repeat myself again here, I only play around 2 hours a day on average (Probably closer to 3 due to event.) I'm making good progress.
If I can do it, being a person who actually avoids easier routes available to me, you can do it too.
This is not a MapleStory problem, it's a mentality problem. Should the game be easier? Debatable.
But I don't think this is a good answer to this problem.
Fixing party play to be more appealing is a much better idea than feeding further into the meta of "solo story".