Dear Developers of MapleStory Classic World,
I'm just an ordinary player, but one who truly loves this game. MapleStory was part of my childhood — and when I say "my," I mean "ours." Exploration, socializing, fashion, boss fights — this game gave me so much joy. When I heard you were rebuilding it, I felt the same gratitude and excitement that I know many other players share.
And I really do mean gratitude. Because I love this game so much, I also hate its flaws — and I'm sure you're well aware of what those are. I've been following the remake closely since it was announced (though I didn't get into either CBT). Now that CBT2 is over, I'm genuinely looking forward to the official release. If you'll allow me, I'd like to offer a few suggestions. Of course, whether you take them into consideration is entirely up to you. Among these, I believe Points 1, 2, and 3 are more fundamental to the game's long-term health than skill tweaks or class balancing.
1. Economic System: The Game Needs Ways to Sink Mesos
A. Crafting System — I'd suggest adding some attribute variance to crafted items, so they're not all identical. Also, could we add a Chef crafting branch? Using materials (from monsters or Party Quests) and mesos, players could produce special consumables — some restoring more HP/MP or temporarily raising HP/MP caps, others providing critical damage bonuses. These items would be useful for boss fights (especially since Classic World bosses have potion cooldowns). A daily sales cap could prevent merchant monopolies and give everyone a fair shot at profit. Not everyone enjoys bossing — some players prefer trading or socializing, and that's fine.
B. Equipment Durability — The more scrolls you pass on an item, the more likely its durability is to degrade. After repairs, the max durability gradually decreases until the item is permanently destroyed. Repair materials should come from Party Quests or destructible plants in places like Ellinia or the swamps — not purely from grinding mobs.
C. Guild Wars (see 3B), along with guild leveling and guild-wide buffs.
D. Housing System — Decorations, furniture, and personal display walls would all serve as major meso sinks, and could give rise to a new crafting branch: Architecture.
2. Slowing Down the Game's Pace
A. Limit leveling, or give players reasons to stay at their current level. Slowing down progression or increasing death penalties would give the economy and social environment time to stabilize. It would also give you more breathing room to polish details and innovate — just like opening new maps gives players that sense of exploration again.
i. Defeating monsters 5 or more levels below your own yields no experience or gold.
ii. Increase death penalties. The penalty could be heavier at higher levels, even including de-leveling. Alternatively, upon death, apply an "all stats -10%" debuff and trigger an "experience debt" — say, owing the system 100,000 EXP. The debuff is removed only after paying a meso fee or earning that EXP back. If the player dies again while the debuff is active, they de-level.
iii. Regarding reasons to stay at current levels: I haven't found a perfect answer yet. But if RMT is prohibited, overall progression would naturally slow down quite a bit.
iv. I'd suggest restricting each player to only one account.
B. Combating bots and scripters — those who benefit from automated, hands-off gameplay.
i. Identity verification and IP anomaly detection are necessary, but they alone won't stop bots.
ii. Introduce activities that only real players can do, and tie important resource drops to those activities — more on this later (see 3B, 4D).
iii. Establish a Reputation Channel — only in this channel can players access boss maps. A certain reputation score is required to enter. Reputation is tracked by the system: violations deduct points, while good behavior gradually increases it. Player popularity could also be factored in.
iv. I just learned that you'll be prohibiting real-money purchases of in-game items and accounts — honestly, I didn't think this would happen, since most official teams don't have the courage to go that far. This is the right call, and it's critical for the game's long-term health. How well this is enforced will directly affect how effective most of the suggestions in this letter can be.
3. Multiple Game Goals
A. Boss Hunting (e.g., Zakum) — with the goals of avoiding high boss output, preventing strategies from becoming too formulaic, and allowing everyone to participate.
i. Each character can enter boss maps 7 times per week, up to 3 times per day. Combined with the Reputation Channel (2B), effective boss attempts would be further limited.
ii. Increase the cost of entering boss maps and remove all boss drops — to narrow the gap between top-tier and casual players. You might ask — then why would anyone fight bosses? Please keep reading.
iii. Introduce monthly bosses tied to Maple World's storyline: 12 months a year (or at a lower frequency), each month a boss appears. If one party defeats it, the boss is considered "cleared" for that month. If no party succeeds within the month, a random village is destroyed — players can still enter it, but it appears in ruins, with NPCs and quests changed; monsters in surrounding areas drop more and give more EXP. If the month is successful, a random village is restored. Each month's boss could have only slight stat changes, but its attack and defense patterns could be dramatically altered with AI assistance, keeping each challenge fresh. Based on the year's wins and losses, the official side could determine the direction of the following year's storyline. This way, every player truly participates in protecting the Maple World. And because the boss's stats don't change much, new players won't fall hopelessly behind veterans. On the contrary, with each pattern shift, players must adjust their skill builds, equipment choices, and party compositions — which greatly enhances replayability.
iv. Set up large screens in major towns for boss live streams (without showing party chat), allowing every player to enter spectator mode, learn strategies, and discuss.
v. The party that defeats the monthly boss is enshrined on the Honor Roll, with no material rewards (or only minimal symbolic rewards that don't affect damage output). The top 10 parties could also be recognized — ranked by the percentage of boss HP they dealt, even though only the first party actually lands the killing blow.
vi. At the end of the year, record each player's contribution to boss challenges and grant a permanent honorary title (no stats, displayable on profile).
B. Guild Wars (requires a significant meso fee to register).
i. Two guilds of similar level compete in the same special instance — either on separate maps or on the same map.
ii. Instance variants: tower defense (whoever holds out longer wins), siege (whoever kills the boss faster wins), etc.
iii. Same-map contest: for example, destroying the enemy's crystal — while true PvP isn't possible, PvE-style competition is. Jump quest segments could even be added to let different types of players shine. Or it could just be a jump quest leisure contest within the same map.
iv. In any guild war format, the guild leader can spend mesos to summon allied monsters or place obstacles.
v. Rewards for the winning guild could include special scrolls unobtainable from monster drops (whether tradable is up to you), week-long guild-wide buffs, or blind boxes. The quality of rewards scales with guild level — top-tier rewards could even include rare untradeable scrolls or materials that cannot be crafted. (The guild leveling system — member count, contribution points, gold expenditure — is already a mature system with plenty of room for innovation.)
4. Diverse Side Activities
A. Jump Quests — these are well known, but more complex two-player or even multi-player cooperative jump quests could be introduced. The official side could also run periodic jump quest events with rewards.
B. Luck based mini-games — similar to the Bean House in the regular server; more types could be added, such as slot machines. This provides a low-barrier way for casual players to earn some income (though highly uncertain and not cost-effective) — and let's be honest, a lot of people enjoy the thrill.
C. Expand the variety of mini-games — beyond just Gomoku and Memory Card.
D. Party Quests (Accompaniments)
i. Their importance goes without saying — but could Party Quests drop important materials for the crafting system, such as catalysts or accelerants, and could these materials be obtainable only through Party Quests? This would give ordinary players more room to thrive, rather than letting all important resources come from grinding — otherwise bots would inevitably monopolize them. (Note: each player should have a daily entry limit for the same Party Quest.)
ii. Regarding level restrictions: personally, I think there doesn't need to be a hard level cap, but rewards should scale with the party's level composition:
· All members over-leveled: EXP and drop rates reduced to 20%
· Mixed party (over-leveled + appropriate-level): over-leveled members get 40%, appropriate-level members get 80%
· All members within the appropriate level range: EXP and drop rates at 100%
This allows high-level players to gain more resources by bringing new players, while new players trade a small portion of rewards for a faster and smoother dungeon experience. In the mid-to-late stages of the game's operation, low-level Party Quests won't be deserted, and new players will still be able to find parties. Meanwhile, low-level players' output from low-level Party Quests is higher than that of high-level players; over time, these outputs become rarer, becoming an important source of mesos for new players (which is also one of the reasons for restricting each player to one account).
iii. Allow solo entry to Party Quests, for players who prefer to go alone (though less efficient).
iv. A Party Quest Honor Roll could also be added (e.g., fastest clear times).
E. Could branching questlines be introduced?
By "branching questlines," I mean: after completing Quest A, the story guides you toward a new Quest B, while Quest C becomes unavailable. Players' choices lead them toward different NPCs and different endings — similar to the design philosophy of Detroit: Become Human or Baldur's Gate 3.
MapleStory's quest system has long been linear, lacking meaningful divergence or emotionally compelling storytelling — even though the game actually has excellent lore. As a result, players have no motivation to complete these quests, or rather, they have no desire to slow down and truly immerse themselves in the stories and emotions MapleStory has to offer.
I'm not opposed to keeping traditional linear quests. But if a portion of quests were made branching (including hidden branches), with unique rewards — permanent appearance effects, untradeable equipment, special death-related choices, or even a new skill that doesn't break balance — then every player could enjoy the story while giving their character a truly unique identity. And if these quests had level caps, that would give players another reason to slow down and savor the game.
This would undoubtedly be a massive and difficult undertaking, but I believe it could be a transformative factor for MapleStory.
5. Fashion System
MapleStory's fashion system is, in my opinion, exceptionally strong — rivaling any game out there. Although I haven't seen Classic World's cash shop outfits yet, I hope this aspect won't be too "nostalgia-bound," but rather evolve with the times, continually releasing beautiful, cool, and highly personalized outfits. The Royal Hair and Royal Face coupons are also very popular activities. Trust me — even if you don't directly sell items that boost damage stats, doing this well will ensure you have no shortage of revenue.
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If you've read this far, thank you. I believe you love this game just as much as I do. I'll keep watching over Classic World, and I look forward to its arrival.
