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merging of paid servers

psiPpsiP
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edited April 2020 in Suggestions, Feedback, and Requests
to optimise players' gaming experience please merge all paid servers
it is quite evident that most paid servers apart from bera are losing active player base at an alarming rate
if over population is going to be a problem with having a single merged server consider creating more than 20 channels
darikWONDERGUYanubis42Football5BBQTimeKuronekonovainnncgNicholasBKaiser4EverSuperSaiyan3and 7 others.

Comments

  • AersAers
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    Agreed 100%, it would also make the maple community easier to connect with each other rather than sticking in their own worlds. New players and returning players would also be more willing to join their friends since there will be no "what server do you play in?" issue if there is only 1 server.
    WONDERGUYanubis42BBQTimeNicholasBKaiser4EverSuperSaiyan3Cadena91Mercedes4Ever31Gomenasaicheezburger85and 3 others.
  • FuhreakFuhreak
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    edited April 2020
    Off patch season player numbers are always low. After the Winter patch players continue to drop off until the summer patch drops.

    https://steamcharts.com/app/216150

    We can't see Nexon's numbers so this is the best we got.
    Currently the number of players on steam suggests that there are more players than average for this month. Now reboot is absolutely full so it could be that.
    But we should at least give the merge a full year before we start jumping to conclusions about how it's failed.

    http://maplestory.nexon.net/news/49523/world-merges-are-coming-this-august
    Aers wrote: »
    Agreed 100%, it would also make the maple community easier to connect with each other rather than sticking in their own worlds. New players and returning players would also be more willing to join their friends since there will be no "what server do you play in?" issue if there is only 1 server.

    New players should be able to join their friends no problem. Returning players might not want to abandon old characters but depending on how long it's been and if they have CS items or not, it shouldn't matter too much if they abandon their characters.
    The biggest problem facing MapleStory isn't the number of servers. It's the lack of in-game communication.
    There's no way to connect to people outside of joining a guild or paying money for megaphones.
    Sure you can talk in town, but there are several hotspots across 20 channels.
    What we need is some free cross-server form of chat to allow people to actually connect with each other.
    The best way to kill a community is to make sure they can't talk to each other. This is effectively what Nexon is doing.
  • TerrorStreakTerrorStreak
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    edited April 2020
    Come full circle...? hmm, yes we shall.(yoda voice) . 1 paid server, 1 reboot server and more channels for both!
  • AKradianAKradian
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    edited April 2020
    Optimize player experience by making everyone suffer lag, crowding, ks'ing, and spam together?
    No, thank you.
    Penguinz0FoodKuronekonovaJacaru
  • WONDERGUYWONDERGUY
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    edited April 2020
    from non-reboot servers to paid server lol . trends changes badly
    merging/transfer its good but wont change or fix the losing active player base at an alarming rate. the issue needs to be dealt not mitigate in other way

    lets see next micro site share/click event numbers
    kinda bad to watch all the bugs,nerfs,p2w,hackers last few weeks from other side while in other game
    this was supposed to be period full of players and many that return

    but oh well enjoy maple or whatever game you do
    stay home & be safe
  • HHG1HHG1
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    edited April 2020
    And what is that alarming rate, exactly? How many people per day are each of the separate servers losing? Show some numbers if it's so evident.

    I can tell you right now that merging every regular server would not optimize anyone's gaming experience. At the very least leave Bera out of it. Even then, the new server would see a huge increase in botting activity and instability issues, just as Bera has. Yes, that's Nexon's problem to deal with (or not deal with), but you should be aware of it before casually choosing population over stability.
    I'm not exaggerating when I say Bera was unplayable for several months due to the sheer amount of people and bots on the server. Even basic inputs were excruciatingly slow. To the point where people were seriously hoping to move back to their old servers if given the chance, just to be able to play the game.

    I'm not against a merge down the line if it's needed, but I think we should be very careful what we wish for.
    Fuhreak wrote: »
    The biggest problem facing MapleStory isn't the number of servers. It's the lack of in-game communication.
    There's no way to connect to people outside of joining a guild or paying money for megaphones.
    Sure you can talk in town, but there are several hotspots across 20 channels.
    What we need is some free cross-server form of chat to allow people to actually connect with each other.
    The best way to kill a community is to make sure they can't talk to each other. This is effectively what Nexon is doing.

    I disagree. There were always several hot-spots, there were always several channels (I don't see why you'd go anywhere but ch1 to find hot-spots unless you're trying to barge into someone's guild HQ or private conversation, in which case they're not likely to want to talk to you either way).
    The difference now is that many opt to connect via discord or other platforms instead of in-game. Why? Because they're more reliable in case the person is afk (since most of us are adults now, that's often), they offer more features and privacy, and you have an easier time finding people with mutual interests that way. Discord is only built for chatting, MapleStory isn't, and that's how it should be.

    I don't think Nexon discourages in-game communication. They even tried to introduce those chat-channels that turned out to be awful (even if they did work properly it was absolute cancer), we used to have another group-chat feature which nearly nobody used, people abused the mailing system to the point where it had to be removed.
    There's also Crossworld PQ where you can already meet up and chat/play with your friends in other servers, if you have any. They've made improvements to Maple Chat and general chat windows too, external chat and item-linking among other things.
    But they also focus more on bringing the community together via other platforms now than they ever have. Art contests, puzzle/riddle games, streams...
    The rigid chat-filter is really the only thing that Nexon is responsible for, which you could say discourages in-game communication, but it has always been rigid and it didn't stop people from chatting before and they've made some improvements on it.

    I don't think it's fair to blame Nexon for people's preferences or say that they're effectively killing the community by not implementing cross-server chatting options when they already exist in other forms, and the community's demand for such a feature is probably much lower than you think.
    Even Star Planet, which a large chunk of the playerbase visited every day, was not the end-all-be-all hotspot for connecting.

    I think what you really want is more opportunities and incentives for the community to gather in-game and make connections directly, not chat-features that people may or may not use.
    A case can be made for how the death of PQs has decreased social activity in-game. But chats are not part of that problem. People are not going to flock to something unless there is significant reason for doing so.
    You could say that people might have more reason to do Crossworld PQ if they were able to chat across-servers to organize it. But that's not how it works; if Crossworld PQ was made more attractive to people then they would go to the lobby and party up. There is no real need for an in-game cross-server chat, because you're not able or encouraged to do much in-game with them either way.

    MapleStory used to be a glorified chat-program, but now it's so much more than that, and actual chat-programs now have more features specifically for connecting with people than any game, often as an extension of the game. There are many things that can and should be improved in MapleStory, I don't think adding in-game communication options is the way to go.
    In fact, I think they should improve the Blacklist's functions more. It's inadequate at best.

  • FuhreakFuhreak
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    edited April 2020
    @HHG1
    Being able to connect with someone in-game is still vastly different from using discord.
    What about those that just wish to connect with other people in the game world? How about connecting with people who don't use discord?
    What if you use fullscreen so you can't easily alt-tab into a discord window? Just because alternatives exist is no excuse for lack-luster in game chat options.

    Sure they try to get people to connect outside of the game world. But that's irrelevant to the point.
    You shouldn't have to jump through hoops to talk to people, regardless of how low to the ground those hoops are.
    I don't think Nexon is "killing the community", but there are clear areas in need of improvement.
    I believe communication in-game is extremely lack luster, and thus, one of these areas.
    "Cross-server" in my original post was a brain fart, what I meant to say was "Server-wide", sorry if that confused on what I'm asking for.

    What I am asking for is not "more opportunities and incentives", what am asking for is server-wide chat. What you suggest is an entirely different issue.
    There are plenty of games where players are allowed to talk to a larger portion of the server at once.
    These games allow the community to come together in the spot where it matters most, the actual game world.
    I'm not saying this is the most important feature we need. But it's one that's been back-burner for a long time in Maple.
    Nexon has made some attempts to fix it, I'm just reminding them that some players still want this fixed.
  • HHG1HHG1
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    edited April 2020
    Fuhreak wrote: »
    I don't think Nexon is "killing the community", but there are clear areas in need of improvement.
    Fuhreak wrote: »
    What we need is some free cross-server form of chat to allow people to actually connect with each other.
    The best way to kill a community is to make sure they can't talk to each other. This is effectively what Nexon is doing.

    Eh.

    I don't think the in-game chat options are lack-luster though. That's why I mused about the opportunities to use them being the real issue behind the lack of connections being made in-game, since you mentioned hot-spots being too spread out in your opinion. Can you explain how the current chat options are inadequate in that sense?

    People who wish to connect with other people in-game can definitely do that. Nexon isn't discouraging that in any way that I can tell, and have made efforts to improve on it over the years in addition to nurturing the community outside of the game. Which is why I disagree with your take that Nexon is somehow keeping players apart by not having additional chat-features and thus killing the community.

    Again, a lot of players just prefer using discord as an extension for chatting because it's the sole focus of that app and can make sure your message comes across even if the person disconnects, among other things. People aren't forced to use the app over in-game chat when they are online, aside from when voice-chat is required. I used in-game chat exclusively for many years and had no problem making connections in-game.

    But yes, a server-wide chat is more reasonable to ask for than a cross-server chat. Your post read as cross-server, not just because you used that term, but because you were quoting and replying to a person who had that very idea in mind.

    Then again, we tried server-wide chats and it was awful all around.
    I'd be interested in seeing chat channels implemented with heavy restrictions on post frequency and level requirements though. That's if they can get it to work without the extreme lag we experienced with it. It didn't even keep people connected to the channels and you couldn't really opt out once you were in.
    And blacklist would need to be heavily modified to work with the new chats, and they'd need to add filtering options. Even then I think it would be cancerous. Surely you've seen what happens when we have free megaphone events and that's often just one per player per day.
    Not opposed to them trying it again, but not as optimistic as you are.

    If your point is that the seemingly less populated servers would seem more active, and in turn could keep players sticking around, if they had a server-wide chat then I can see that. But I don't agree that Nexon is somehow keeping these players from connecting in-game with the current options available.
  • Penguinz0Penguinz0
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    edited April 2020
    psiP wrote: »
    to optimise players' gaming experience please merge all paid servers
    it is quite evident that most paid servers apart from bera are losing active player base at an alarming rate
    if over population is going to be a problem with having a single merged server consider creating more than 20 channels

    lol u sure u want that? All of them "DC hackers" from all the servers are going to come for u, u know.
    PS: nice work on Triumph btw. Never fails to disappoint
    WONDERGUY
  • TwinArrowyTwinArrowy
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    edited April 2020
    That sounds like a way to pretty much make the game server laggiest as possible; I know some parts of AUS internet won't able to handle that, let alone the game server itself. The game is much better than before on how it is in terms of population spread after the world merges. Moreover, whats the point? Have more crowded training areas? More KSers and hackers etc? Or maybe you have multiple characters in one world and want them to be all in one world? Not a chance, just sit and wait for the world transfer event which won't come anytime soon. If you want to play in a maple server that consists of only one world, I suggest playing in EU (Luna).
  • anubis42anubis42
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    edited April 2020
    psiP wrote: »
    to optimise players' gaming experience please merge all paid servers
    it is quite evident that most paid servers apart from bera are losing active player base at an alarming rate
    if over population is going to be a problem with having a single merged server consider creating more than 20 channels

    Thank you so much for bringing this up! I agree 100%!
    WONDERGUYNicholasBKaiser4EverKuronekonovaCadena91Football5
  • Football5Football5
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    edited April 2020
    AKradian wrote: »
    Optimize player experience by making everyone suffer lag, crowding, ks'ing, and spam together?
    No, thank you.

    "everyone lag, crowding", no offense but speak for yourself please, not every single player lag, most players I know, atleast 95% of them got no issues at all.

    But even if some of what you said is true, the lack of people in Bera is just much worse... bera is completely desolate...

    Merge all paid worlds into Bera right now please! we want it now!
    WONDERGUYinnncgNicholasBKaiser4EverCadena91
  • WONDERGUYWONDERGUY
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    edited April 2020
    so selfish to say no to merge/transfer and call it crowding or blame on lag
    players that remake to active worlds its fine or new players to make acc in those worlds its fine ? but transfer/merge its not ?
    just because few players want to move from dead server to active (what happend to MapleStory is a free-to-play, 2D, side-scrolling massively multiplayer online role-playing game )
    its not their fault that they are in server that its not taken care of



    the one that gave nexon hope to change and stay active in worlds that are dieing face 3 option
    1 .quit
    2. remake in other world (kinda same as quit)
    3. voice out and hope to get transfer or merge (again kinda same as quit stay alone untill change )

    crowding/ks mostly come from if not only from the 50k-1m bots each week (remove extra 10ch was mistake too)
    http://forums.maplestory.nexon.net/discussion/27464/ban-data-from-04-02-2020-04-08-2020#latest
    server lag is allready there when player base its at lowest ever been




    BBQTimeAlantinoNyonginnncgNicholasBKaiser4EverCadena91Mercedes4Ever31
  • FuhreakFuhreak
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    edited April 2020
    HHG1 wrote: »
    Fuhreak wrote: »
    I don't think Nexon is "killing the community", but there are clear areas in need of improvement.
    Fuhreak wrote: »
    What we need is some free cross-server form of chat to allow people to actually connect with each other.
    The best way to kill a community is to make sure they can't talk to each other. This is effectively what Nexon is doing.

    Feel free to take that as hyperbole. I don't think Nexon is doing it on purpose or that it's "killing the community", but rather it's holding it back.
    I don't think the in-game chat options are lack-luster though. That's why I mused about the opportunities to use them being the real issue behind the lack of connections being made in-game, since you mentioned hot-spots being too spread out in your opinion. Can you explain how the current chat options are inadequate in that sense?

    I can't use hotspots while grinding. I can talk to my guild or alliance sure, but that's extremely exclusive. I'd like to be able to talk to anyone anywhere in the game.
    If you use Henesys as a hotspot, you'll be able to talk with lower level players just starting the game. That's fun.
    But you'll miss out on those who just hit 5th job and decided to hang out in Nameless Town. There's also some people that use leafre.
    My issue isn't really with there being multiple hotspots, but what I want is a "center" to it all. Server-Wide gives me that.
    But yes, a server-wide chat is more reasonable to ask for than a cross-server chat. Your post read as cross-server, not just because you used that term, but because you were quoting and replying to a person who had that very idea in mind.

    Yeah, my mistake. Sorry about that.
    Then again, we tried server-wide chats and it was awful all around.
    I'd be interested in seeing chat channels implemented with heavy restrictions on post frequency and level requirements though. That's if they can get it to work without the extreme lag we experienced with it. It didn't even keep people connected to the channels and you couldn't really opt out once you were in.
    And blacklist would need to be heavily modified to work with the new chats, and they'd need to add filtering options. Even then I think it would be cancerous. Surely you've seen what happens when we have free megaphone events and that's often just one per player per day.
    Not opposed to them trying it again, but not as optimistic as you are.

    These are basically what I'm asking for to make a return. The lag issues and other bugs do need to be resolved, but the idea is what I'm asking for.
    I'm fine with the "cancerous", it's fun. If Nexon has a problem with it they can crack down on it. If you have a problem with it just ignore it.
    Blacklist might need an upgrade to allow you to do so, but I don't use it so I can't comment on that.
    If your point is that the seemingly less populated servers would seem more active, and in turn could keep players sticking around, if they had a server-wide chat then I can see that. But I don't agree that Nexon is somehow keeping these players from connecting in-game with the current options available.

    Not entirely my point, but it's a good benefit from having it yes. I want all servers to feel more alive, not just the low pop ones.
    I think that these players would feel less "alone" if there was a chat that was constantly being used.
    New players also won't know about other options outside of the game at first, or if they do they won't know what to ask or where.
    MapleStory as an MMO is going to be confusing to new players. It helps if they can connect to someone in-game who can help them out instantly.

    Again, I don't think Nexon is "keeping players from", but rather just "It would be easier if..." If that makes more sense.
    As far as just using other programs to chat while grinding, it's more annoying to have to alt-tab, especially for those in full screen, just to talk.
    It's much easier to just hit enter, type a message, hit enter again, go back to grind. Alt-tab brings a few issues with the "flow" of talking to someone.
    The same thing applies to programs that use overlays.
  • HHG1HHG1
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    edited April 2020
    In that case I understand what you meant to say.
    I still think it should be heavily restricted though, especially the chat channels with specific purpose like trade and party search.
    It's one thing to ignore cancer and not being able to use the channel for its intended purpose with all the garbage inside of it, but I'm also concerned about the chat flooding and causing lag. Especially when the mesoselling bots find out how to use it.
    One solution might be to allow players to make a list of filtered words and phrases for their own use. Don't know if they'd be able to implement something like that though.
    Blacklist only fits a total of 100 people, and I already have 84 spambots registered from the rare instances that I visit Henesys.

    But I think it's a suggestion worth discussing, we've gone a little off-topic here maybe. But yes, I'd rather see them try chat channels again than jump straight to a server merge.
    FuhreakNyong
  • AaronHuskyAaronHusky
    Reactions: 2,485
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    edited April 2020
    psiP wrote: »
    to optimise players' gaming experience please merge all paid servers

    Absolutely not. I don't want to be competing with people from Bera, Scania, and Aurora for a map. Plus have you seen how many people complain about lag in Bera?
    it is quite evident that most paid servers apart from bera are losing active player base at an alarming rate

    Citation needed. Going off the discord server and steam's metrics, more people appear joining the game than leaving.. For non-bera servers I can't speak, but players likely aren't leaving at an alarming rate like you suggest.
    if over population is going to be a problem with having a single merged server consider creating more than 20 channels

    This one I'll give you. But it still wouldn't help that much with overcrowding and lag.
    Football5 wrote: »
    "everyone lag, crowding", no offense but speak for yourself please, not every single player lag, most players I know, atleast 95% of them got no issues at all.


    I don't lag either, but that doesn't mean it's not an issue/concern. If Bera and Scania do have lag issues, then jamming everybody into a single server would definitely amplify them.
    But even if some of what you said is true, the lack of people in Bera is just much worse... bera is completely desolate...

    What are you smoking? Bera's the most populated server outside of Reboot. If you really want to see "desolate", come to Elysium some time. We're not even that barren either.

    Merge all paid worlds into Bera right now please! we want it now!

    As you said...
    Football5 wrote: »
    speak for yourself please
    HHG1Kuronekonova
  • AggraphineAggraphine
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    edited April 2020
    I like how we're all ignoring the only real point of importance made in this thread:
    AKradian wrote: »
    Optimize player experience by making everyone suffer lag, crowding, ks'ing, and spam together?
    No, thank you.
    FoodKuronekonova
  • BBQTimeBBQTime
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    edited April 2020
    Aggraphine wrote: »
    I like how we're all ignoring the only real point of importance made in this thread:
    AKradian wrote: »
    Optimize player experience by making everyone suffer lag, crowding, ks'ing, and spam together?
    No, thank you.

    Hey, I've read your posts before and for some reason which I know and won't mention, you're always, but always against good things and ideas for the maple players like me...

    Also I believe a few people has already answered AKradian.... so please if you disagree, you don't really have to bother people and spam, we understand that you're against this amazing idea.

    The amount of upsides that can come up along once all paid servers are merged... I'll finally be able to find some active friends instead of AFK friends who never talks...
    and I'll finally be able to buy some decent amount of maple points for a fair price instead of paying 100mil mesos for 200 maple points...

    I say merge all paid servers as soon as possible, so we can make all of us (90% of us for sure) happy again...
    AlantinoWONDERGUYinnncgNicholasBTrystarrCadena91Mercedes4Ever31
  • AggraphineAggraphine
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    edited April 2020
    BBQTime wrote: »
    Aggraphine wrote: »
    I like how we're all ignoring the only real point of importance made in this thread:
    AKradian wrote: »
    Optimize player experience by making everyone suffer lag, crowding, ks'ing, and spam together?
    No, thank you.

    Hey, I've read your posts before and for some reason which I know and won't mention, you're always, but always against good things and ideas for the maple players like me...

    Also I believe a few people has already answered AKradian.... so please if you disagree, you don't really have to bother people and spam, we understand that you're against this amazing idea.

    The amount of upsides that can come up along once all paid servers are merged... I'll finally be able to find some active friends instead of AFK friends who never talks...
    and I'll finally be able to buy some decent amount of maple points for a fair price instead of paying 100mil mesos for 200 maple points...

    I say merge all paid servers as soon as possible, so we can make all of us (90% of us for sure) happy again...

    So you want to force everyone to deal with bera's bot problem? And the lag during 1.5x/2x event periods? You want everyone stuffed into 20 channels? 30? 40? It won't be enough. Merging everything into a single server doesn't account for seasonal influxes of players. A single server would be nigh unplayable during the summer and winter updates.

    But none of this matters to you, because you don't think of anything but "I wish I didn't miss my chance to move to bera too" or "I wish elysium/aurora wasn't so dead".
  • AlantinoAlantino
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    edited April 2020
    Aggraphine wrote: »
    BBQTime wrote: »
    Aggraphine wrote: »
    I like how we're all ignoring the only real point of importance made in this thread:
    AKradian wrote: »
    Optimize player experience by making everyone suffer lag, crowding, ks'ing, and spam together?
    No, thank you.

    Hey, I've read your posts before and for some reason which I know and won't mention, you're always, but always against good things and ideas for the maple players like me...

    Also I believe a few people has already answered AKradian.... so please if you disagree, you don't really have to bother people and spam, we understand that you're against this amazing idea.

    The amount of upsides that can come up along once all paid servers are merged... I'll finally be able to find some active friends instead of AFK friends who never talks...
    and I'll finally be able to buy some decent amount of maple points for a fair price instead of paying 100mil mesos for 200 maple points...

    I say merge all paid servers as soon as possible, so we can make all of us (90% of us for sure) happy again...

    So you want to force everyone to deal with bera's bot problem? And the lag during 1.5x/2x event periods? You want everyone stuffed into 20 channels? 30? 40? It won't be enough. Merging everything into a single server doesn't account for seasonal influxes of players. A single server would be nigh unplayable during the summer and winter updates.

    But none of this matters to you, because you don't think of anything but "I wish I didn't miss my chance to move to bera too" or "I wish elysium/aurora wasn't so dead".

    I'd like nexon to merge paid servers, and WONDERGUY said it all.

    "what happend to MapleStory is a free-to-play, 2D, side-scrolling massively multiplayer online role-playing game".
    WONDERGUYNicholasBCadena91