The increasing gap between players and bosses.

[Teigri]

Nexon shoots themselves in the foot by making the game 100% free too imo. It's overrun with beggars, cheaters and hackers who have nothing to lose if they get caught; they are the equivalent of stereotypical people on welfare choosing to stay unemployed yet 100% able to work all sorts of jobs; and receiving benefits for doing basically nothing irl. Do those people deserve to be closer to the average or funded players who play fair? If they were to require a person to pay 5 little bucks per month, I guarantee the disparity wouldn't be so huge.

Obviously I can't speak for your experience but from my own personal experience most of the cheaters, hackers and beggars I've met in game are in some way connected to or comfortably placed in that top tier 1%. I know many people personally who scammed and hacked their way to "godly" funding. And the greed doesn't magically stop once they are on top. It just gets worse... Every time something new is introduced to the game these same people are in a rush to find a way to cheat or scam their way to the top again. So it should not be a question of whether or not these people deserve to be closer to average or funded players. From what I've seen more often than not, they are already miles and miles ahead.

And to address what you said in your other comment about the gap between the rich and the poor... Yes the rich arguably contribute a lot to the game but there's a massive pool of "middle class" players that contribute to the game too. They may spend just as much as the rich players but perhaps they don't spend on the same sorts of things. From personal experience I've spent thousands on this game through my years of playing and I've never had my range on any character reach over 70k. The majority of my money has gone to cosmetics, pets, and shops. I've gotten what I've paid for and I'm not complaining about it but with that said, I wouldn't see it as asking for a handout if I wished Nexon would do something to close the gap a bit. I've contributed enough to show my loyalty to the game. The least they can do is consider this request. I don't think it's asking too much. Overall closing the gap between the rich and the poor in maple can and will help players who deserve it. It may even encourage more players to spend to support the game.

Perhaps this is slightly off topic but sometimes I wonder if the people who create and publish this game ever tried to play it themselves. I'd be curious to see how far anyone from Nexon (GMs included) would get without taking out their credit card. I wonder if they'd see this game as balanced and fair if they knew personally how much it can cost to fund a character to the extent that late game bosses require for participation.

[Bribery]

Nerfing potential is obviously not going to happen unless Nexon wants a pomegranatestorm from their most loyal customers.

Potential is such a big part of the game now so I think it's only fair to make regular Miracle cubes available through in-game means. I think that making them as guaranteed rewards for quests and party quests would be a great way to help the unfunded and give new life to these neglected areas of MapleStory. Make them available as rewards through Azwan as well. This would encourage people to continue going to Azwan after they've obtained their desired Inner Abilities. Keep Super/Enlightening Cubes NX only. This keeps it fair in my opinion. Everyone has access to potential this way, but those who want to be godly can use NX to get to Legendary potential. Shielding Wards and Shield Scrolls should also be made available in a similar fashion.

Also, every boss equip that requires a SOK/PSOK should be tradeable until equipped like Empress equips are. Skill Books should not require SOKs at all. This would encourage people to actually kill lower level bosses like Zakum and Horntail. Currently, it's not even worth SOKing most skill books or Zakum Helmets because of how expensive NX is.

[IImaplers]

[FONT=Arial]Obviously I can't speak for your experience but from my own personal experience most of the cheaters, hackers and beggars I've met in game are in some way connected to or comfortably placed in that top tier 1%. I know many people personally who scammed and hacked their way to "godly" funding. And the greed doesn't magically stop once they are on top. It just gets worse... Every time something new is introduced to the game these same people are in a rush to find a way to cheat or scam their way to the top again. So it should not be a question of whether or not these people deserve to be closer to average or funded players. From what I've seen more often than not, they are already miles and miles ahead.

You're highly speculating when you say "most". A good indicator would be: If you look at the ranked dojo lists, most of the names I see in GAZED are not known hackers. If players can hack/cheat/scam to become godly, they wouldn't need to buy a dime of NX in the first place (unless using it as a cover to get away with what they're doing, even so, the amounts to be bought would be minimal). If players can hack/cheat/scam and get away with it, there's no point for them to buy NX at all (again, unless as a cover). The cheaters, regardless of how godly or poor they are, are not to be included in the thought process of how wide the disparity between the rich and the poor is. Alleviate cheating and hacking, Nexon, before you think about lowering the gap. And if you can't do that, make the game pay-to-play with at least a manageable 5 dollar monthly fee or something to that extent. And making the game pay-to-play should within itself alleviate hacking and cheating because real money comes into play.

[FONT=Arial]And to address what you said in your other comment about the gap between the rich and the poor... Yes the rich arguably contribute a lot to the game but there's a massive pool of "middle class" players that contribute to the game too. They may spend just as much as the rich players but perhaps they don't spend on the same sorts of things. From personal experience I've spent thousands on this game through my years of playing and I've never had my range on any character reach over 70k. The majority of my money has gone to cosmetics, pets, and shops. I've gotten what I've paid for and I'm not complaining about it but with that said, I wouldn't see it as asking for a handout if I wished Nexon would do something to close the gap a bit. I've contributed enough to show my loyalty to the game. The least they can do is consider this request. I don't think it's asking too much. Overall closing the gap between the rich and the poor in maple can and will help players who deserve it. It may even encourage more players to spend to support the game.

This "middle class" of NX spenders is basically the engine which keeps maplestory running. I'm not excluding them from giving just as much of a contribution as the highly-funded people who've spent as much as hundreds of thousands on NX since 2006. One group is not more important than the other at all in this case.

Perhaps this is slightly off topic but sometimes I wonder if the people who create and publish this game ever tried to play it themselves. I'd be curious to see how far anyone from Nexon (GMs included) would get without taking out their credit card. I wonder if they'd see this game as balanced and fair if they knew personally how much it can cost to fund a character to the extent that late game bosses require for participation.

I'd bet that most of Nexon's management (middle-to-upper) are more concerned with how to further their profits from the cash cow which is this game, than to poke slimes.

[Stereo]

\Also, every boss equip that requires a SOK/PSOK should be tradeable until equipped like Empress equips are. Skill Books should not require SOKs at all. This would encourage people to actually kill lower level bosses like Zakum and Horntail. Currently, it's not even worth SOKing most skill books or Zakum Helmets because of how expensive NX is.

I'd take it one step further, make SoKs work like this:
Unlimited trades: regular items, SoK items with no/rare/epic potential, PSoK items with no/rare potential
1 trade per SoK: SoK items with unique/legendary potential, PSoK items with epic/unique potential
1 trade per PSoK: PSoK items with legendary potential.

If an HTP drops with no potential, it's fully tradeable. Cube it to unique, and it needs an SoK. They protect the use of scissors because people will eventually want to trade items, but they also make cheap gear cheap - a 3%/6% HTP is not an extra 180mil depreciation to pay for the SoK, so you have a hope in hell of selling it for close to what you paid for it.


Skillbooks should either be untradeable common drops (<5 runs to find), or tradeable rare drops. It's ridiculous the way it is.

[Alloy]

Skillbooks should either be untradeable common drops (<5 runs to find), or tradeable rare drops. It's ridiculous the way it is.

Account shareable.

IS IT REALLY THAT HARD?

[Stereo]

WTB permanent account-tradeable sharing tags that work on any untradeable item, including PSoKables.

[Lance]

I think we can all agree, that something needs to be done lol.

And YES THANK YOU. Soks are stupid.. so are PSOK's

Honestly, if i wanted to quit my char and level up say, a paladin for whatever reason. I could transfer 1 piece of my gear without soks/psok. It would require me to spent 50k NXto transfer, and then even i still have like 2-3 completely untradeable things.

But back on the topic, the damage shouldnt be nerfed, i feel the lower level peoples damage should somehow be raised with an adjust in the formula. Or create some sort of balance, There are runs now where 1 player can kill a boss faster than a group of regular unfunded people can even if they take 12 people. That just shouldn't happen. And with Unlimited, its just going to raise the cap and create an even bigger spectrum for the diversity of damage ranges.

[Words]

And then they released Tinker...
Poor>Funded>People who poops money.
I spent 600m on a 9att tempest shoulder and 10 cubes or less to make it 12%luk, and 1b and two or three cubes on a 10 att belt to make it 9%luk the day before they released update notes. I'd say I'm pretty funded, but I'm nowhere near top tier players because I don't poop money and I actually have a limit on how much I'll spend.
I'm not mad because I could've spent my mesos/nx otherwise, I don't have the money to marvel machine anyway. But it bugs me that even if you spend some money you're nowhere near the range to do some content. I've been really lucky with my cubes and purchases in mesos but it still required funding that someone who doesn't spend money in nx wouldn't get.
All I'm saying is I've spent 400k nx in 4 months, I'm way ahead compared to average/poor players but nowhere near top tier players. And most of my friends who have spent similar or a bit more feel the same. It doesn't matter if we've spent a considerable amount of nx in our gear, we need to throw insane amounts of money at every piece of equipment to get there. Later this month I'll purchase the last piece of gear I'm missing and I'll be reaching my limit 500$, my range will be great but I'll still feel like a leecher. I'll be leeching boss runs from people who have spent 500$+ per equip.

[DarkNightSyndrome]

Nexon should start thinking of ways to rebalance the game internally. They've been "solving problems" by slapping on cash requirements on everything.

Untradeable equipment? They invented the SoK (and PSoK). And then they got addicted to it and simply made everything require SoK instead. What should have been reserved for special equipment (associated with the storyline and such) has been simply slapped onto the default equipment. Aren't Empress Equipment just the "LV140" series? What makes it so special that once it is equipped, it becomes untradeable? Those things can't level up (and besides, even some leveling equipment can be traded).

Bosses too difficult? Potential (and every other equipment-boosting tactic that came along/after it). They overdid it, obviously, resulting in our current state of problems.

Its not totally beyond salvation though. Remember that once cash were just used to save time, not to render certain aspects of the game "playable". 2x EXP cards just saved time, and anyone could just do that same by spending twice the time. So, the whole issue lies in making "cash-exclusive" stuff accessible in-game, the game will then reorder itself and balance back after some time. You could literally give each player an untradeable Miracle Cube per day and the game will fix itself in a few years. Impatient people will still buy cubes.

[Lance]

I still think cubes/scubes should drop.

[inSAMMIty]

I still think cubes/scubes should drop.

Then botters would win?

[Lance]

Then botters would win?

****... your right ;(.

[See]

Then botters would win?

Hackers will always have the upper hand in essentially any/all areas in this game. It's the sad truth..

-----

I agree potential should have been much less of a gap and legendary was completely unnecessary..
Sure it would be nice if it was nerfed to make funded players better, but not as crushing as they are now, but now that it's been introduced this way, there is no way in hell they're changing it.

Root Abyss was a big step up, I think. With items that have special abilities to ease cubing and scrolling, the unfunded can band together, beat the bosses, and gain the special items. The new cubes made it even more friendly. I think they're going in the right direction with normal mode RA.

They are going in the wrong way with other bosses. All of the unlimited bosses, empress, and Chaos RA are all ridiculous. If there is a boss even the most funded players in the game cannot beat then obviously you're doing something wrong.
I've always thought they needed to focus on party tactics for bosses. (Like CWKPQ or PB) Force the party to have an ice attacker or a magic attacker or a fast hitting attacker to trigger things on the boss or area leading up to the boss or something. Make different classes have uses like pushing or stalling instead of just crashing and damage.. Bring skill into the equation. Magnus for example was amazing if he had less HP.


New bosses come out>funded can't beat>new NX is released>funded use it>boss is beatable>funded gains the drops>kills more>gains more funds

New bosses come out>unfunded can't beat>?>GG

[inSAMMIty]

@See: Definitely.

@Lance: It was a nice thought though. Maybe they could make it like occult cubes and make them rare drops from bosses.

[SaptaZapta]

@Lance: It was a nice thought though. Maybe they could make it like occult cubes and make them rare drops from bosses.

From bosses? You mean, those monsters that the unfunded can't kill? Yeah, that makes sense...

I still think that normal Cubes should be craftable, or possibly drop from normal mobs, and in reasonable quantities. I think non-NX-users should be able to get good Unique potential on all their items, and not by slaving two months on each item. NX-users will keep their Legendary edge, that's more than enough.

Pre-BB, the funded had double the damage of the unfunded. I think that gap was reasonable.

You say that botters will "win" if normal Cubes are available in-game? So? As far as the damage gap is concerned, it doesn't really matter if they do - they have to sell all the Cubes they farm (or sell the gear they cube with them), thus increasing the overall availability (and lowering the price), making it easier for the unfunded to get better gear.
Note that I'm not saying "botters are good for the economy" or anything of the sort. I'd be very glad if Nexon figured out a way to do away with them. But I am saying that the fact they exist is not a reason to put everything nice behind an NX wall.

[Dudewitbow]

If the possibility of botting cubes be a problem, why not make a new cube thats sort of like a modified occult cube with the following traits:

1. Can go from rare to unique only(no legendary of course)
2. Can move down a tier(similar to occult cubes)
3. Make it "One of a Kind". It will basically lock out mass farming on it and requires the user to use it before they can actually pick up another one. If a botter wanted to effectively use it, they would have to constantly check back on their bot.
4. Whether or not it would be tradable would be up to nexon.

I mean, with a one of a kind cube, the amount of cubes being generated from making it unlimited to making it one of a kind would probably be a gap in botters terms.


I mean, I like the step that nexon had done with the occult cube sort of, but it needs to be readily available to the masses. I can probably say that if nexon threw the cube into an event coin shop e.g Tempest Shop/Sengoku Shop, more people would actively play to try to get coins on their endeavor to cube some of their lower end stuff. I do appreciate nexon more actively pushing for the 100% epic gear and giving out 100% epic potential scrolls during hot time increasing the number of Epic Tier clothing and all, but I still think mass marketed occult cubes would be an interesting add. if people can get their hands on say, 6%/9%/12% main stat epic stuff, a lot of people would be content. It would also bring upon a new middle class market as well. Certainly, some time in the future, nexon might be nice enough to give out the Unique Potential Scrolls which will make the game much more interesting.

Of course as well, I think bosses should be seperated between normal and hard mode like they have been doing, though I think nexon should turn down the normal difficulty on some of the bosses for the low end masses and keep the hard ones hard, as they are hard enough. Make lower end bosses like Zakum, Horntail actively drop occult cubes more often(increasing the amount of users who may want to do those bosses) and leave the high end stuff for high end user content(Chaos Root Abyss 150 armor).

I liked Nexon's approach with Root Abyss(before drop nerf with less potions and crusader coins). The bosses actively dropped pseudo Zakum helmets(with vellum having a tier 3 one) that had automatic Epic potential while the bossess arent super impossible with a decent team of 6 or less depending on users, while the chaos versions have 150 armor for the highest tier users(albeit no one can really kill it at the moment effectively). What I think made the zone special was nexons addition of the armor boxes that give you the durability armor with the added super bonuses(100% no boom, 100% Tier Potential Up, 100% all Scrolls work etc) and would like to see that implemented in more parts of the game.

[SaptaZapta]

I think one-of-a-kind cubes are really mean. Would you cube away from, say, 6% mainstat, if all you had was one cube and no knowing when you'll get another?

Also, I don't think lowering the potential level is necessary. Cubes are enough of a gamble with all the useless stats they give, at every level.

[Stereo]

Really what cubing's done, compared to how MS was a few years ago, is make monster drops 100% worthless. I've never had a unique item drop from a regular monster (got one once in monster park, where all items have potential, and a few from RLH, where all items have epic potential). Unlimited, or whatever, with the extra stats, kinda fixes that, except then they apparently made it so only bosses can drop the nice items (which is back to... you need to be funded to hunt for the items the funding would buy)


Equips as cubes might be interesting - like item fusion, but where you kept the stats & rank of one of the items, and the other got consumed to reset the potential lines. If equip prices in shops were raised, along with the cost of the 'catalyst' item, it would be a decent meso sink too.

Cubes are then still useful for hard to get items, but lower level players can endlessly cube their level 31 sneakers to get 12% stats.

[Captain Wax]

Root Abyss was a big step up, I think. With items that have special abilities to ease cubing and scrolling, the unfunded can band together, beat the bosses, and gain the special items. The new cubes made it even more friendly. I think they're going in the right direction with normal mode RA.

Out of curiosity, how many occult cubes have you gotten from the root abyss boxes?
I have been opening shoes/glove boxes for almost a month and I have only seen one cube come out of them.

[valhala556]

If we are talking about lowering the gap between funded and unfunded in the context that the unfunded can be in parties. Why not add party only skills. As in you need a hero +paladin to uses this super uber-damage move. or have like a skill that reads out " if you have 6 party members increase your Matt & att buy 300 or +10% resistance for every party member" or something ridiculous like that. It promotes partying a lot of people and creates an atmosphere in which unfunded can take down harder tier bosses because they gain damage or class survivability they need to survive. As unfunded players dont care about being stronger than others but simply being able to complete the task.