ForPain

AKradian wrote: »

If you just want to see what was released, watch a video.

It makes no sense to have the whole plot of "you are the only one who can save Maple World" play out while you've barely started 5th job and have no Arcane Force to speak of (which the story tells you is absolutely essential). If you are to defeat the Black Mage, where the famous heroes could not do it, and Cygnus (who is practically a transcendent at this point) can't do it, you have to be at the pinnacle of possible power.

Yes, the Arcane River content is extremely grindy and the low symbol drop rate makes it time-gated with dailies - but that's a different issue that many others complain about and push Nexon to improve on. That's not a reason to allow people to just skip the whole thing and empty the story of meaning.

They did have the event to allow everyone to participate in the widely hyped final battle against the Black Mage. If you couldn't find the time to participate in that, or joined the game after it ended, well, watch a video. Trust me, playing through this content as a Blockbuster is much the same as watching a video, with occasional breaks to "kill 50 of these mobs".

This is just a terrible explanation. If the process to reach this so called "pinnacle of power" involved an actual experience that would be meaningful and memorable for the characters like other very successful MMORPGS that vastly outmatch Maplestory, maybe you would have some basis for your claim. But again - when the Maplestory Content progress is highly unfavorable and NOT player-friendly, requiring spare time that is essentially impossible to have as a functional member of society, then we have a problem.

This is the problem - with things as they are now, the Black Mage content you've created, with guarantee as you can already see, misses a very big part of Maplestory's target audience in order to reward a very specific portion of the community. This is not a financially beneficial decision, and especially not a decision that comes to appeal to your customer base when the game is already very unfriendly.

Make a Blockbuster, make it for level 200, make it so it's only available to those who finished the 5th Job Advancement, make it in a year or so after Maplestory's plot has already moved on to Grandis or Magus and his Master and the level cap is already raised to 350 or something and 10th Job Advancement is available. That way it wouldn't look like Maplestory degrades the biggest showdown of their own game. This is a wise decision.

Back in the day when Maplestory came out, and I was there, the BIGGEST SHOWDOWN OF THE MAPLESTORY GAME IN HISTORY WAS ZAKUM. There was nothing even remote to a thing called "The Black Mage" or Cygnus Knights and no plot foreshadowing to suggest a mastermind pulling the string behind the Zakum. ZAKUM WAS THE END GAME BOSS. 40 Maplers would hide inside a dimly-lit room in the ship from Victoria Island to Orbis so the Balrog pirate doesn't murder the hell out of them and the all-powerful level 70 players would march out and throw down. You would take a month to reach level 30, not even talking about level 70 with the mysterious cloaked NPC tutors in El-Nath, and seeing a level 120 player was like seeing the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. THEN HORNTAIL CAME OUT AND BECAME THE NEW END-GAME BOSS and the cycle continued as the Maplestory experience changed.

Now if I create a new character I can reach level 70 before I have to eat dinner and solo Zakum daily when I wake up before I brush my teeth. I'm saying all of this not to complain but to make a demonstration.

"THE PINNACLE OF PLOT" is subjective to change. As time passes the "Black Mage" will STOP being the pinnacle of Maplestory's plot, and then you will have no basis whatsoever to make the claims that you're making now. I would humbly suggest to prepare for that because the market is moving and you can't stop it. Maplestory and NEXON will generate new content to increase income and market value. "The Black Mage" questline is bound to fall behind.

HuskyDM wrote: »

ForPain wrote: »

HuskyDM wrote: »

AKradian wrote: »

The Black Mage content was available to all characters of level 200 and higher, over the winter (December-January).
If you missed that, then yes, you're going to have to grind to 245 and above to see the story to its completion.
I think it's only fitting that in order to defeat the ultimate boss of the game for the past ten years, you need to get nearly to max level.

I don't think it is fair to say "you snooze you lose" to something as big as the Black Mage, and I wouldn't find it surprising if a lot of people who played MapleStory in their childhood came back to play when they heard the Black Mage is finally available only to find it behind layers upon layers of tedious grinding. Perhaps at this very moment a Blockbuster might not be the best thing to do as its still very fresh, but a year or so down the line making a Blockbuster so people are able to experience the story without having to spend months of Arcane Symbol and level grinding might be a good solution.

I'm one of those people. Last time I played Maplestory was in 2015. I first started to play the game before even the Cygnus Knights came out. I was at the Second Maplestory Anniversary. I heard the showdown with the "Black Mage" finally arrived and just couldn't resist the urge to see it through but I just had all those quests shoved in my face the moment I invested enough time to finally reach level 200, that I've completely lost motivation and I'll be damned if I'm the only one.

I personally missed the big showdown because I only got to 200 in August 2018 and I had a lot of recent problems during December and January that didn't allow me to play. Being told that you just missed the whole party and ALL of its content because you couldn't play during the month and that you now have to go and take the really long path just to see the story you were promised a decade ago is nothing short of a slap to the face to anyone dedicating their time and money playing. Besides Black Heaven and Heroes of Maple already allows you to experience a story in the pace that it needed and for you to defeat the big enemies in the plot with the benefit of accessing stronger versions of those bosses and equipment if you wanted later on. You can have all the satisfaction of bringing down the Black Wings and then fighting a super-boss Lotus if you want. For me all I want is to see the story, and the Arcane River already does it partly, there are story mode versions of all the bosses who are beatable without having to pay for cubes and scrolls, but you have to grind for months to see it (I don't care if it was content that was available ages ago, the sheer amount of grinding that the Arcane River requires is nothing short of poor game design). So didn't they put them all into a story mode the way they did before and that has proven to be something people enjoyed? Beats me.

Took the words out of my mouth. Can we get an Amen here Nexon?

HuskyDM wrote: »

AKradian wrote: »

The Black Mage content was available to all characters of level 200 and higher, over the winter (December-January).
If you missed that, then yes, you're going to have to grind to 245 and above to see the story to its completion.
I think it's only fitting that in order to defeat the ultimate boss of the game for the past ten years, you need to get nearly to max level.

I don't think it is fair to say "you snooze you lose" to something as big as the Black Mage, and I wouldn't find it surprising if a lot of people who played MapleStory in their childhood came back to play when they heard the Black Mage is finally available only to find it behind layers upon layers of tedious grinding. Perhaps at this very moment a Blockbuster might not be the best thing to do as its still very fresh, but a year or so down the line making a Blockbuster so people are able to experience the story without having to spend months of Arcane Symbol and level grinding might be a good solution.

I'm one of those people. Last time I played Maplestory was in 2015. I first started to play the game before even the Cygnus Knights came out. I was at the Second Maplestory Anniversary. I heard the showdown with the "Black Mage" finally arrived and just couldn't resist the urge to see it through but I just had all those quests shoved in my face the moment I invested enough time to finally reach level 200, that I've completely lost motivation and I'll be damned if I'm the only one.

AKradian wrote: »

The Black Mage content was available to all characters of level 200 and higher, over the winter (December-January).
If you missed that, then yes, you're going to have to grind to 245 and above to see the story to its completion.
I think it's only fitting that in order to defeat the ultimate boss of the game for the past ten years, you need to get nearly to max level.

This isn't appropriate anyone who wants to enjoy the game for what it is. Newcomers and returning veterans who aren't familiar with the new game systems and have their own commitments outside of the game will find it nearly impossible to invest as much time as it would require for anyone to reach the necessary requirements to finish the plot.

"Black Haven" and "Maple Heroes" were very good examples of content being available in a more user-friendly format for weaker players who are level 120 regardless of their skills and equips, while in reality they had their own specific theme dungeons - Haven and the Dark World Tree Theme Dungeons, which are more suited to players above level 200 with adequate damage and time to achieve that damage.

If I were a level 120 player who just stormed through both "Black Haven" and "Maple Heroes" Blockbusters, just to realize that if I wanted to continue the plot I would have to reach all the way up to level 250, complete a ridiculous amounts of quest, farm the necessary requirements for a duration that would, without a joke, extend well over several months considering a huge part of it is consisting of content that is limited to "once-per-day" or the like - I would be very frustrated as a customer.

MMORPGS should learn to promote a user-friendly experience to showcase their good values and strong points. Maplestory's plot is a very strong point and an amazing value that it has. The fact that there's a whole section of the target audience that can't enjoy its main plot to the fullest because of its absurd requirements as parts of the "grinding and equipment farming meta" is just a mistake that eventually impacts the game's public relations. And there is a lot to talk about regarding the "Maplestory Experience Meta".

TLDR: Black Mage content is currently available only for players after levels 200-250 as a series of very long quests that involve grinding. I suggest making a "Blockbuster Content" of the "Black Mage arc" in the same format of "Black Haven" and "Maplestory Heroes".

Let me begin this post by saying hey! I have a great suggestion!

We all know the plot of Maplestory is very extensive and a lot of great thinking had gone into planning the world, the setting and of course - the characters.

The plotline of the Black Mage, which had been going on for a decade since the patch "Maplestory Big Bang" (literally a decade ago), had finally come to a close and with it some closure had been provided for anyone who had stuck with the game for SO MANY YEARS (though I believe few had).

Currently there is an existing problem which I found myself experiencing - the Black Mage content is only available if you had the luxury to grind, quest and force your way through months and months of farming content to increase your damage range, equips, etc. That is because the Black Mage content is only available as a part of the Vanishing Journey questline which is only unlocked after level 200. And even then, you have to really put a massive effort to go through all the obstacles until you really reach the juicy pieces of the plot you've been waiting for as a fan who finally wants to receive some closure and see the Maplestory saga come to a close.

Personally, I am still stuck in "a vanishing journey", grinding my way through hordes of erda.

There is a thing in Maplestory, which isn't very new, called "Blockbuster Content", allowing the players to experience the epic Maplestory quests of "Black Haven" and "Maplestory Heroes", really bringing out the plot in these two. Personally I really enjoyed it. The fact that it's also unlocked in level 120 and requires the bare minimum of clearing the stages also gives you quick access to the content in a very simple and enjoyable format like an action movie.

I would really love to experience the Black Mage content but currently I can't. My level is not high enough, and it would take time for me to get to such an ideal point with my account if at all. I suggest that the Maplestory "Black Mage" content, from "A Vanishing Journey" all the way to the final act of defeating the Black Mage, be available to players from level 120 and over in "Blockbuster Content" format. Saving the fans who really just want to see the content MONTHS of setbacks.