Nostalgia of Pre-BigBang Maplestory

[Declaimed]

What ruined it for me, personally:

-Pay to win nature of potential and other stat-altering items that weren't available pre-Big Bang. Especially potential, as the gap between players who pay and players who don't is so immense that its near impossible to even begin to compare the two without saying "One is weak, one isn't".

-The first half of the game basically ceasing to exist as people rush through it without taking advantage of things such as party quests, which were great ways to meet new people and generally made the game much more fun as a whole. Most low level content isn't experienced by the low levels, as all the low levels focus on is grinding as fast as they can to fourth job. (Skeletons --> Scarecrows --> Jesters/Mp3 --> LHC --> Stronghold --> Finish, and repeat on next class of choice)

-Expanding upon the last point, the fact that party quests were made obsolete by Big Bang's new exp curve (Why do PQs when training is now easier?) Even with Jump/Ascension's help, party quests continue to be in extremely low demand in Windia. At least from what I can tell; And I check whenever I'm on.

-In my opinion, damage overall doesn't need to be as stupidly high as it is. I preferred the lower numbers of pre-BB.

-I remember the events being better when I was younger, but it could just be the nostalgia in me talking.

-I hate the oversimplification of the game world in general. I feel like there could've been a way to simplify navigation while still allowing players the extra maps to explore, if they so chose to do so. I wasn't a big fan of the fact that half of Victoria Island got chopped off after Big Bang.

-GPQ's removal and APQ/Amoria's oversimplification/nerfs (No more [true, non-unripe] Onyx Apples. Havn't found any baskets, etc there as of late either). Hate the new Amoria town layout. I HATE the removal of wedding ring effects. The entire wedding system is a joke to me at the moment.


In a nutshell: Pay to win, removal of maps and features post-Big Bang such as those that were removed from Victoria Island, not enough focus on party quests anymore.

[Arcana27961]

Actually I just remembered my favorite part of pre-BB Maple: there was no town lag!

[MuscleWizard]

i remember getting like 9x exp at galloperas on my dual blade at level 70 and blasting my way through levels and being all WHAAAAAAAAAAT WHAT IS GOING ON WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT

[CrazyForDex]

I remember having a level 36 hunter training on shrooms and my friend who was a sin reached level 5x in the span of only a few weeks. I was beyond stunned that he managed to do that so fast.

[Justin]

Slime tree and horned mushroom tree were my favorite pineappleing places to grind, man. God damn. SINGLE TARGET MAGIC CLAW. Levelling was slow as pineapple then, and felt like a chore on some days, but at least back then it god damn meant something.

I'll just list a few random things that come to mind.

yeti and pepe parties. (GETA AND THORNS, ANYONE?)

That weird rock in the 50+ area in El nath. (The one you could jump into at juuuust the right angle and get stuck floating inside of? You know which one I'm referring to. )

The old Sauna disconnect glitch. (Man, I had to come up with some really pineappleing fancy way to get out of that situation...)

FOREST OF GOLEM. This place alone really changed how quickly people levelled from 50 up until 80ish. Especially for bowmen. dat eruption/arrow rain.

Zakum runs with meso exploding shadowers. Even with 4 or 5 of these guys going at it the entire run, it still took an hour on average to down the damn boss. And we typically did DOUBLE RUNS every day. No one has that kind of patience for bosses anymore....

The thanksgiving rollback 'event'. 4x for a looooot of people, 12 hours a day. Holy crap I grinded from 90 to 120 with that event. Was incredible.

Camping Jr.Balrog for level 60/70 weapons. People deeeeeefinitely don't have this kind of patience anymore. We'd sit for god damn 10 hours a day waiting on these pineappleers to spawn.

[ShinkuDragon]

i liked managing zerk when training. don't ask me why.

i also liked being able to use basilmarket's market function. i mean really, now if i want to find specific items with the potential i want, i have to browse the FM, not even owls will save me.

[byakugan]

Favorite thing about pre-BB? it was the tighter comunity back then. It was probably because the playerbase was smaller but, despite hackers, rankings and levels mattered so if you trained and positioned yourself high you'd be recognized. My best times in game were actually before 4th job, training at Grims, then at Gobis, then Skeles with a party.

It's not been the same for a long time though. The easier the leveling becomes to attract more players and CS becomes a way to baypass any challenge in game, the less any hardwork you do in game means anything. Maplestory has become a casual game.

[RedRaven16]

Typhons so much fun

[MariettaRC]

FOREST OF GOLEM. This place alone really changed how quickly people levelled from 50 up until 80ish. Especially for bowmen. dat eruption/arrow rain.

Aaaaa I grinded forever in that place. And speaking of Forest of Golem... the Golem pit on the way to Sleepywood. Every newbie's nightmare. Heck, as soon as I got to level 35, I jumped down there because I felt I was brave enough to take one on. I even took a screenshot of the moment.

[案山子]

Pre-Big Bang pineappleing blew.

There weren't any decent training maps anywhere and it took decades to level up a single time. The game had almost no decent content in general to be honest. You either grind that same map for hours upon hours or don't do anything at all except stay in Henesys. I remember always thinking, ''Man, I'm gonna get to 120 and become a Hero!''. SEVERAL times I'd get characters to around 70-ish. By that point the game became the most boring piece of pomegranate of all time. When I finally got a character to 120 I didn't even give a rat's ass anymore. I was basically like, ''About pineappleing time.... '' and took a break for months. Reaching higher levels wasn't even remotely an accomplishment because leveling up didn't mean ANYTHING back then. So what if you got to higher levels? You had almost nothing to do except wander around and continue to grind if you were bored.

Pre-Big Bang was the very definition of tedium. Grueling tedium.

Sure, some pay-to-win was introduced from then on but I'm glad they at least made everybody stronger in general than they used to be. Much, much stronger. There's no class that just flat-out sucks anymore. You can get by EASILY without any scrolling or potentials, and it's far easier to fund yourself now than ever to at least give you something to shoot for. Before most people had pomegranatety ''normal'' gear, barely scrolled, and getting scrolls was also a HUGE grind that had little to no reward to speak of. You were better off buying duped/exploit gear back then because it would give you a noticeable difference in damage, unlike most other stuff you'd find. Stuff like +8 more damage on a weapon was just a novelty accomplishment. Yeah, good job, you did it! Now look at how little it added to your range! Don't you feel accomplished?! No?! That's right.

There was no middle-ground. You were either crap or you were rich. At least now you can gear up fairly well without even having money, and your base stats and skills hit harder and more enemies allowing you to grind faster regardless.

[Alilatias]

The one thing I really miss the most is the Visitor event.

Nexon designed what was one of the most elaborate PQs ever (well, last time I really played was like fall 2011, pre-Legend patch), only to remove it later just because it was part of an event. It saddens me.

(How's Windia these days, anyway? I feel like I might want to return when the Wind Archer changes get here, but I somehow feel as if I might be better off starting over entirely in a newer server, despite having like 5 level 100+ characters...)

[Necryllex]

I sort of get teary listening to this.

...Cannot hold back those feels

[Celan]

Oh jeez, I remember.
I had no idea, and somehow, ended up making an Archer with 16 Luk and Int at level 11, because ALLROUNDER-CLASS FTW.
And the Pig Beach.
OH THE PiG BEACH.
Everybody flipped their pancakes when an iron pig spawned.

[Kubi]

Even though there were some drama and KS wars pre-bb, I agree that it had a tighter community.
Got to admit, leveling up was really something in pre-bb. You'll feel more accomplished leveling in pre-bb than you do now. Not much of challenge, but it's just tedious.

There wasn't much of a huge power creep and these duping issues back then. Passing ~5/7 60% scrolls on a piece of equipment made it decent, and passing at least 2 10% scrolls with the rest 100%s made it considered godly. People would just get impressed just by seeing that and didn't care that much about damage as they do now. No white scrolls or any of those things.

It might have been more grindy back then, but it felt a bit more pleasant if you trained/grinded with the right people. Remember Jr Newtie and Skele parties? I remember doing that on my squishy sniper. It took a while to level up, but I met some real nice people in the process so in some ways, I didn't care how long it took. We had a close-knit sniper/marksman community in Windia just because there were so few of us, and I had most of them on my BL . Partying in LHC isn't the same as that if you know what I mean.

(How's Windia these days, anyway? I feel like I might want to return when the Wind Archer changes get here, but I somehow feel as if I might be better off starting over entirely in a newer server, despite having like 5 level 100+ characters...)

Windia is just like every other server. They all have their fair share of everything; egotistical jerks, drama, market crashes, and whatnot. But they also have their fair share of nice people (once in a while). Feel free to add me if you feel like returning, just send me a PM. I remember having you on one of my BLs on another character.

[Rinax]

Many things I remember were already posted in the thread, but most that I miss are my friends. We were all in a guild and even though the majority of us didn't know each other outside of MapleStory, we felt like family. Some time later, when many had stopped logging on, I ended up doing the same.
A couple or so years later, I came back just after Big Bang and none of them had logged on in forever. I then realized that the game I used to know and love had gone downhill while I had left. And yet, I still play this game. Where has that great community gone? (I know there are people who still think that same way, but it seems like less people do now.)

[PSAssassin]

I didn't really play much after Big Bang, but I was feeling pretty nostalgic today and wanted to share some of my fond memories of the Maplestory I remember.

Facing high level monsters that would kill you in one hit, while you had no chance of even hitting them. The iron pig in pig beach, venturing as far as you could into the Sleepywood dungeon, and staying outside on the ship to Orbis for a chance to see Crimson Balrog.
The thrill of getting into PQs, the rewards and bonus box hitting, and then the even bigger thrill of rushing back inside the PQ.
Grinding a specific monster because of the rare chance that they would drop the rare event item or awesome equipment you wanted. (I actually created my main character, PSAssassin, because I found a set of steelys at red drakes on my Dragon Knight that I wanted to be able to use).
Participating in the holiday and seasonal events and collecting all the limited time items from them. Finding the unbelievably rare yellow crow from Blue Mushmom.
Going to a high level training map and partying with new people you just met there. Having fun talking and training together for a few hours and maybe making new friends.
The butterflies in my stomach before some of my first Zakum, Pap, and HT runs and the great feeling of accomplishment after finally succeeding in defeating the boss after previous failed attempts.
The small, but closely knit high level community, where people knew each other. Level and ranking were points of pride and leveling was a cause for congratulations and celebration.
Then the more personal reasons like my guild, my friends, the community, and everything else that make me wish I could go back and experience it all over again.

[holycow]

training at coolie zombies last time... *-*

[Skylit]

Splitting grims as a CB with a DK and priest.

yolooooo

[CarrionCrow]

I miss the Maple that was not so dang dumbed down and streamline, when maps were allowed to be huge and complicated and explorations felt rewarding.

I miss the old Night Lord, the revamped one is so bad and have such ugly skills.

I miss the incredible awesomeness of the original Masteria.

I miss hunting Big Feet before they dumbed it down and finally took it out completely with the dumbest revamp ever made to an area. When you had to time your jumps to jump above BFs feet, and later when they increased the hitbox, use dark sight to avoid it. Pinning it was almost impossible and you knew you were a heartbeat away from being stomped dead if you messed up. Fun times. Now damage reflect and other ultra retarded systems kill you at bosses, allthough root abyss is a step in the right directon, it is not nearly enough.

I miss times when upgrades was made through luck and good planning and instead of the current combination of real money and exploits.

I miss the community back then, now most of the people I come across play to compete with other kids to get some kind of feeling of superiority. It feels like most of the explorers and RPG people have long since abandoned ship.

Just some thoughts on the topic.

[FangelXIII]

As much as I still enjoy Maple in the state it's in now. There is one thing I do miss in how the game was designed.

Originally when you played your character was...basically yourself. Just some lone adventurer with no past leaving their home to travel and explore an unknown world. You struggled with the most basic of enemies, even something as weak as a mushroom with a green top, and you needed others with you to take out bigger threats; even if they were just a bigger slime. This was partially because you were a new player, sure, but the world itself was designed to be explored. As you grew as a character, you grew as a player, you made friends. You learnt about all the hidden areas. You got better gear and learnt how to upgrade it with scrolls. You gained more money, which gave you the means to explore when you wanted or to simply use taxis to get around. You became somewhat of a hero, as shown by how the quests build up from...running an errand to preventing a floating island from crashing to the ground and potentially ruining countless lives. You fought more challenging foes and strange creatures, but now you were more prepared. Your skills were stronger, you were able to afford better potions, you had friends you could rely on, you had better gear to deal with them. And that was something I always loved.

Now...everyone starts as a hero. Or a character with their own story to tell. And you, as someone who has already played for a long time, have the mindset of a hero too. Phantom alludes to this often in his quest dialog. Such as how he is surprised there has been no one who explored and found his stash. About how much quicker leveling up is. About how much more forgiving the world is. You're already powerful. You're already able to get good gear and money. You have no need to explore, as there's not much left to see. Enemies provide far less challenge than they once did.

No longer is strength and heroism earned, but it is given. It is expected. And that is where the game has fallen short for me.