A bit of a rant first about how this current KMS director is trying to destroy the game's growth with making every new player immediately quit with:
~ Leveling to quickly with things like FORCED terra blink, hyper burn, hyper burn max, hyper burn max+, etc.
~ Being overwhelmed with information overload with to much text, menu prompts everywhere, cluttered UI elements, taking control away from the player with a to linear experience (things like terra blink experience), etc.
What a new player needs for every game:
~ A natural way to teach the player about BASIC controls, like how to move, jump, and use portals (Maple specific). Nothing more than this is truly needed since you run the risk of information overload. A new game is an overwhelming experience as is, so need to take things slow so a new player can get personal experience and properly comprehend what is happening.
~ Give character control early on and freedom to explore to actually experience the game. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild does its opening wonderfully with a brief opening cutscene, into a one direction hallway, and into a very small open world relative to the size of the game that teaches the players all the basics the game has to offer without a single text prompt (for the most part) to do so.
- MapleStory had this with the original Maple Island - on a conveyor belt at the start that you can only go in one direction and Maple Island is a very small open world the player can freely explore before entering the greater Maple World.
~ For MapleStory, slowly introducing skills via Job Advancements 1, 2, and 3 coming one at a time before being thrown into Job Advancement 4 and beyond is actually a fantastic way for players can learn their class properly and having an experience slow enough for the player to utilize the very few skills introduced to them at a time before moving on to the next advancement.
- But also not have the experience be to slow for the player is not able to grow bored and a permanent faster experience than what we had to go through as a way for new and returning players to catch up into late game quicker.
SOLUTIONS TO CREATE A BETTER NEW PLAYER EXPERIENCE (and experience for everyone):
For Heroic Worlds:
~ Return the original Reboot monsters back to their original HP and EXP values, before the HP value reduction, the higher HP values.
- This made every area viable to train on for the leveling experience pre-200 which made it fun to explore and viable to train on any map to level up in a timely manner. The current experience sucks, this part of the game being the most fun is very important for a new player as it really helped grow GMS ever since Reboot launched.
~ With the original Reboot monsters HP values and EXP values, the final damage you deal to monster between your character level and the monster level is partially reverted back to how it was for character levels 1-199 to promote fighting monsters near your level which is the intuitive thing to do and intuitive is very important for a new player.
- For character levels 200 and above, the final damage you deal to monsters is unchanged to how it is now to not disrupt the experience of when players can fight certain bosses or remove the ability to fight certain bosses.
~ The Final Damage passive gets adjusted and increased to better smooth out the new player experience to be able to solo earlier bosses for important progression equipment like Chaos Root Abyss for their Fafnir Equipment.
- Which this is also needed to close the damage gap between Interactive and Heroic Worlds so that Heroic Worlds is not so extremely behind in damage compared to what Interactive Worlds can do.
: Recommended Suggestion for a Heroic's Final Damage Passive change:
- At character level 0 (base), gain +10% Final Damage.
- Every other level (every even number level), gain +1% Final Damage, including going past level 300.
- Every 50 levels, gain +5% Final Damage, including going past level 300.
[Example Value: at level 270 the character will have a total of 170% final damage from the passive.]
- This also helps players have the damage to kill the very durable original Reboot monsters' HP values.
For The Overall Game / All Worlds:
~ It be nice if a job's starting area we can more properly explore and really experience and less about being forcefully teleported from place to place as text on the screen appears as "story". Let me create my own story by truly experiencing these worlds for myself with player control with some told story via cutscenes and the like.
- This will also allow the player to see, play around with, and experience their 1st job skills and get some of their desire and itch to explore these mini worlds out of the way immediately. There should still be, to some degree, a guided story experience for that first 30 levels, but have a good balance of player control and freedom to explore the starting mini world and having that told story experience.
~ Less instant leveling and more permanent new character improved leveling experience with EXP curve reductions for lower levels. New players should never have the option, and especially be forced to, to do things like terra blink and hyper burn with their very first character as these things level the character way to fast and completely overwhelm them with way to much information and just give up on the game and quit forever.
- I will list off rough EXP curve reductions for level ranges of what I find are fun experiences to be at with less of a reduction and areas where it feels somewhat like a drag to get through with greater EXP reductions to better help the player get to 260, but with one earned level at a time.
- Improving the off-seasonal gameplay is important since new players can come on and try MapleStory at any point through out the year.
: EXP CURVE REDUCTIONS Suggestions:
~ Levels 1-100: About 50% reduction.
[To help players get through their job advancements quicker, only need to do one theme dungeon of their choosing (if they go this route) to go from levels 30 to 60, and reach 4th job advancement quicker so they can experience the basics of the job and slow enough still for them to actually experience the job.]
~ Levels 100-200: About 65% Reduction.
[This will be a lot healthier leveling one at a time rather than 1+2 levels at a time to 200, and has a more fun gameplay experience of seeing the EXP bar move faster with each level since the EXP required to level goes way down.]
- This also doubles with helping new and returning players to build out their link and legion characters faster than what we had to go through. And it is important for players to actually play other jobs so that they try them out, experience them, and may be surprised that they like certain jobs way more than what the initial splash art showcased to them.
~ Levels 200-210: About 45% Reduction. Most of this reduction should be getting to level 205.
[This is to establish their post 200 experience faster by getting to Chu Chu, their 2nd Arcane Symbol, quicker since only having the one daily is quite a lackluster experience and helps unlock more slots for the V Matrix quicker too.]
~ Levels 210-215: About 55% Reduction.
[Yum Yum is a fun area to be in and getting their is a bit of a drag.]
~ Levels 215-220: About 15% Reduction.
[Mostly to help smooth out the exp curve.]
~ Levels 220-225: About 40% Reduction.
[For some reason this always feel like a painful level range to be at.]
~ Levels 225-235: About 15% Reduction.
~ Levels 235-240: About 45% Reduction.
[This just feels like a slow and painful level range and this gets you into Sellas faster which is such a fun and cool area to be at.]
~ Levels 240-245: About 10% Reduction.
[Once you hit Sellas, the leveling experience feels very fast for these 5 levels.]
~ Levels 245-255: About 50% Reduction.
[This entire block just feels very slow to get through.]
~ Levels 255-260: About 33% Reduction.
[Players are excited to see their 6th job advancement by this point.]
~ Levels 260-265: About 20% Reduction.
[Just to help get that 2nd Sacred Symbol quicker.]
~ Levels 265-270: About 25% Reduction.
[To get the first 3 Sacred Symbols quicker.]
~ Levels 270-275: About 15% Reduction.
[Shangri-la is a neat area to look at and train on.]
~ Levels 275-280: About 5% Reduction.
[Just to smooth out the curve a tiny bit right before the true super grindy levels.]
Comments
EXP resets every time you level up, so once you passed a level, then you already passed that level and nothing affects you for being above a level that got an exp reduction.
In terms of being on a level that gets an exp reduction, your current exp remains the same, the maximum exp to level is reduced, and your % changes based your already earned current exp vs to the maximum exp required to level. If your current exp is higher than the maximum, then you will be at 100% exp and you need at least 1 exp to level up and all overflow exp will be added into the next level.
Exp curve reductions basically only benefit new, future players since you already got your characters past those level points that got affected by the reduction.
Theme dungeons are good to have around, but there should be viable options for the player to do whatever they want and not just have one real "option", but have multiple options to level up.
Then that player will have a good first experience with the game and stick around. Currently the leveling experience sucks and is not fun, unlike back in the Reboot days when we had the stronger monsters with better rewards, it also made the game more fun as result - both the HP and EXP is needed, as well as fighting monsters near your character's level for 1-200 training!
Disagree. First of all, Terra Blink isn't forced on the player, it is an option. Why are you forcing new players to miss out Tera Blink that is meant to help new characters into the game? Some players get bored if they aren't out of the tutorial and are forced to follow the game's slow intended or in your case, forced scenic route. Just leave Tera Burning/Blink in and let the player decide whether they wanna blitz through or take it slow. Guides exist and Spiegelmann is already guiding the player. There is nothing wrong with having an option to fast track your character to 200. There is still time to learn your character afterward and many 1-3rd job skills that aren't passive or growing lose relevance regardless if you play scenic or accelerated. All this does is hinder established players playing on new accounts or new players who can pretty much handle themselves with the internet/peers being a viable teacher. Also getting characters to 200 faster allows faster establishment of Link Skills and Legion which makes future characters easier.
1. Read first.
2. This involves recent KMS changes, which you would know that if you actually read things first.