I don't get why people are viewing map simplicity so negatively

[ZeekFox]

Okay, I get that a lot of the CWK complaints are because instead of adding to it, Nexon replaced a lot of it, meaning removal of old content.

But beyond the memories of exploring those areas, how many of them were genuinely being used? Outside of pre-nerf Bigfoot and pre-BB Windraiders (back when standing in one spot and sniping 2-3 fast respawns of something was good EXP...lol), all you really have are tedious quests and a big long walk to CWKPQ that most people used Mystic Door or Teleport Rocks to skip. Masteria in general was pretty much gathering dust from what I could tell, so why mourn the loss?

[Worthyness]

Straight maps bore me. Variety makes things different and more interesting. What's the point in "exploring" if all you explore is a line of monsters? I guess you can explore the background by looking at it- that's always fun. don't even have to press the jump button; just hold the left or right arrow key and you have soooo much fun exploring! It's almost as fun as taking ships from Victoria Island to Ossyria!

Simple is not always better. especially when you take out key things for your exclusive content (I'm looking at you Taos and android gears and crimsonwood weapons). By taking out the "complex" maps, Nexon essentially took out everything that there was to do in the place, i.e. taking out some of the fun things that people actually enjoyed. They took out not only the maps, but the mobs that spawned on them. Yes they weren't the best monsters to train on, but they were fun to have. Now the headless horseman and Bigfoot don't spawn anymore. Now there are no elder wraiths or Typhons. Instead of changing their exp:hp ratios to make them more viable for training, they decided the easier thing was to take them out. The jump quest was FUN. Do you remember when the place just came out? How many people had fun trying to complete all the quests without dying to bigfoot or the pillars? How many people enjoyed the storyline that came with the area? That was probably the most interesting place to go to because it was different. Now everything is more or less the same. It's like getting a new game where every single mini game is the same thing except with a different background music. Not so fun is it?

[Onion Knight]

Okay, I get that a lot of the CWK complaints are because instead of adding to it, Nexon replaced a lot of it, meaning removal of old content.

But beyond the memories of exploring those areas, how many of them were genuinely being used? Outside of pre-nerf Bigfoot and pre-BB Windraiders (back when standing in one spot and sniping 2-3 fast respawns of something was good EXP...lol), all you really have are tedious quests and a big long walk to CWKPQ that most people used Mystic Door or Teleport Rocks to skip. Masteria in general was pretty much gathering dust from what I could tell, so why mourn the loss?

How many of them are being used *now*? Training is now dominated by Jesters 2.0.

Also the quests in CwK were far from tedious because they had a good background story to them.

[CarrionCrow]

Navigating big maps and trying to find the best route for your EXP is so much more fun than the total bore rape that is Lion king's castle and its likes. It might as well be two different games.
Not to mention what it does to the game making everything smaller and much more linnear.

[Flonne]

Okay, I get that a lot of the CWK complaints are because instead of adding to it, Nexon replaced a lot of it, meaning removal of old content.

But beyond the memories of exploring those areas, how many of them were genuinely being used? Outside of pre-nerf Bigfoot and pre-BB Windraiders (back when standing in one spot and sniping 2-3 fast respawns of something was good EXP...lol), all you really have are tedious quests and a big long walk to CWKPQ that most people used Mystic Door or Teleport Rocks to skip. Masteria in general was pretty much gathering dust from what I could tell, so why mourn the loss?

You have no idea how much training I did in those hidden street maps full of elder wraithes, even post nerf they were still fun and the repeat quest gave good rewards. Also, the map on the left above WRs was really fun. Hell, so were typhons.

How many of them are being used *now*? Training is now dominated by Jesters 2.0.

Also the quests in CwK were far from tedious because they had a good background story to them.

Also, this; I loved the CWK questline, because it was by far the most REWARDING quest line, in my eyes. The perfect example of how to do quest chains right, and one of the only examples I can think of in MS in particular.

[Leaves]

You know, not everything in MapleStory is training. Some people actually enjoy well-designed maps that may be more difficult to navigate but thereby provide an actual challenge.

[y0y0y0y0shi0]

If I want to play a sidescrolling game in which I only go to the left/right with no real terrain or warps, I'll play Mario or Sonic, not Maple. And yet, the funny thing is, even Mario and Sonic have diverged from the sidescrolling era.

Or Megaman. I guess. For that matter. ....considering Megaman is like the epitome of sidescrolling.

[CroM]

When phantom forest first came out, it was new and everyone swamped to it. I must admit that it was only in the recent couple of months that I started to remember how to navigate my way through the forest to get to certain maps. I, though, do not visit that place very often. Being an average drk means hunting bf pre bb was going to get ks anyway so I stayed the hell away from it (businessmen are ruthless).

Bb was meant to simplify exp curve and change the world... that meaning maps get simplified. Still remember back in the days we have to go to ellinia to catch any boat. These days its a central hub to everywhere, almost (barring any wonderful glitches, of course).

And you also gotta look at things from the developer's point of view. Nexon Korea finally released a nuke on Nexon America's code and took over + integrated their code. Not sure about the spider cavern, but the wolf spiders outside doesnt seem to have glitched hit box anymore. I'm guessing they can't fix it for bf so its RIP for the ancient mythical creature. And to be able to release a remake of Masteria which everybody demanded, they inevitably have to take out a lot of maps to reduce the scope of their tasks. That boring jq and confusing phantom forest might put new maplers off the game, so they removed it altogether to save pain and dev time.

Disclaimer: I am ambivalent to the new Masteria.

[Sephie]

Pre-BB, the devs that made NLC did add other things to make it appealing:

NLC sold the best potions in the game at the time (Toast, Sorcerer Elixirs, Honster/Ginsengs, and Gingers were a biggy; Warrior Elixir was the highest ATT pot at the time).
The quests gave out extremely good rewards (GFA, buffs, meso, exp).
The HP/Exp ratio in the training areas were stupidly good (robots, Gryphons, and Wolf Spiders were the Jesters of today).
The mobs dropped a bunch of valuable items like Ilbis, Blue Screamers, etc.

-

I think of the entirety of NLC as a creation/vision made by a few individuals that went against many of the things the original MS would abide by. NLC made life a whole lot easier (and a lot more interesting) back in the day which was a concept KMS hadn't adopted until BB.

With this new "revamp", I believe that original vision of NLC is gone and NLC is now conforming to the rest of Maple.

[CroM]

Nlc was appealing because it was developed by Nexon America, not Nexon Korea. That is half the reason why the monsters in nlc sometimes behaves differently than the rest of the maple world e.g. hit box glitch, monsters temporarily stunned a little after getting hit. And also, not sure why, but cwkpq was and still is undoubtedly the most popular pq ever.

Nexon America made NLC based on a high level understanding of maplestory and what they think it should be like, and yes Sephie it was a step ahead of what Nexon Korea had back then. They integrated the code into the rest of maplestory created by the Americans, and its an educated guess that no one in Korea wanted to touch the American's code until very recently when Nexon once again ran out of ideas on how to attract players. Hence they did this to Masteria... completely destroyed it, Kim Jong Il style.

Having said that, we can now expect more updates on NLC, which is all along what all maplers wanted... well, sort of.

[Alex123123]

At least what bothers me about this change is that Masteria provided more than just training, it provided a decent quest line and a world designed to go along with it. Simply put, I valued the ambient and the story tied to the area more than its usefulness as mere training maps, and it provided a change from endless grinding in flat maps (which seems to be the only thing people care about nowadays). You know, immersing yourself in the game and whatnot.

If on top of not having any kind of story, you rip out every other thing that defines modern gaming because "it's not useful", you might as well go play pacman. Or tetris.

[Loose]

Even though their map wasn't linear or easy to train on, it was a challenge, it actually made me play and kept me focus. Typhons were the only reason I got to 4th job... I'll miss those bastards.

Spoiler

all you really have are tedious quests and a big long walk to CWKPQ that most people used Mystic Door or Teleport Rocks to skip. Masteria in general was pretty much gathering dust from what I could tell, so why mourn the loss?

Tedious? Tedious quest? Are you kidding me? You want a tedious quest? Go kill that Galacto-drill 300 times with a restriction of 5 times per day.

[Whut]

Because the phantom forest was one of the few unique areas, and this "revamp" made it as bland and uninteresting as every other maps. Now all Masteria is good for is nebulites, MoNs (assuming cwkpq still works) and the haunted house.

[RedRaven16]

Even though their map wasn't linear or easy to train on, it was a challenge, it actually made me play and kept me focus. Typhons were the only reason I got to 4th job... I'll miss those bastards.

Spoiler

Typhons where amazing back in the day. I mean they where actually FUN to train on.


Also Lower Ascent was a pretty good map to farm wr badges at which actually did get you decent mesos.

[Combattente]

I think I explained in several other posts of mine why I hate this Masteria update and why I don't agree with the path of map simplicity they started to take. But I'm going to add some few things to that.

First of all, it's not even just about map simplicity. It's about incompetence and lack of imagination. Why am I saying that? Simple: the new "update" proves that. As others have already said, many objects in these new maps are placed wrongly and others re-used. The old Masteria NEVER used ANY already-existing objects, making the new areas truly look unique. Also, most of them were placed correctly. This makes me believe that it's NOT Nexon Korea making all the content as most think. Either the development of GMS-exclusive content now happens in a different department there, or it happens at Nexon America. Nexon Korea doesn't seem to ever make such coarse content with such obvious mistakes.

Secondly, after a thorough search, I was able to find NxProse's LinkedIn.

And I realized why Masteria content was so awesome.

He has been a professional writer for the past 14 years, majored in Journalism and worked in the game industry for the past 7 years. Apparently, he made close to everything in Masteria. From writing quests (obviously), to making concept art for items, monsters, NPCs and maps, to even directing music (and there's the explanation of why the new BGMs have a completely different feel than before). He basically did everything BUT the technical stuff.

I never knew that. He's truly a genius. Nexon America really lost a great staff member.

Back on topic, I agree on what most said about short and simple maps being boring and just ruining the whole concept of Masteria as an unique area different than the rest of Maple World. They might provide good training spots, but many old ones did, as well, and they were pieces of art compared to this. I'll say it again: ANYONE could easily make them with little to no effort. Can't say the same about Prose's.

Typhons' map was difficult to navigate through and you had to avoid being attacked by monsters not to fall. But there was a safe spot and you just needed coordination (something which this game rarely requires) to be able to train there safely. It was great.

The new maps, on the other hand, seem to be made by a 10 years old exactly like the new quests, so I'll assume it's one person doing most of this like NxProse was.

So yeah. I'll never accept this. They definitely ruined the only place in the game which had something different than the rest.

[0shikuru]

The Masteria quest line was the only quest line I did on every new character I made, because they were ALL interesting even after doing them a ton of times, and not just for a couple GFA scrolls or something. But yeah, that's done now from the looks of it.

I guess we can't get Deputy Stars now either? Don't want to make another new character to check if Nexon reworked that quest chain or not..

[Loose]

I never knew that. He's truly a genius. Nexon America really lost a great staff member.

And even after all that, he had the time to get on Forums to provide a Q&A session and mess around with us by dropping some riddles.

Nexon disgusts me even more now, taking all of past Masteria and taking a pomegranate on it.

[Locked]

This new Masteria actually makes me feel bad for Prose. A lot.

[TugboatWilly]

This new Masteria actually makes me feel bad for Prose. A lot.

same. they COMPLETELY ruined nlc. well not yet but i imagine they'll finish up with the next patch.

[DragonsMirth]

Combattente basically summed up all my woes.

Secondly, after a thorough search, I was able to find NxProse's LinkedIn.

But, who was he and where/what does he work now?