2012-08-07, 02:02 PM
Massive wall of text below, feel free to skip it if you want.
Spoiler
I hate to be the party pooper here, because in some cases I do agree with what has been said, but I feel like I need to say my opinion on all this. The potential system made the game far more pay to win than it was previously. The change in the community is also very apparent and is definately a significant and quite a sad change. Some of the changes to classes, such as the Bowman dodge skill that someone else mentioned, are strange and don't fit with how the class used to be. And of course how bosses used to be more about skill that needing tons of potential to kill them.
However I disagree with a lot of other things. The main reason Maplestory has changed so drastically now is because leveling is far easier than it used to be. This isn't for a "skill" reason. It just means you need to do the same thing over and over less than you had to before.
Since it was much harder to level back then it meant that a lot of people didn't really see much point to it, or if they did they usually met people who were also leveling solely due to how longer it took. I mean...1% an hour for higher levels was considered good, or at least it was considered acceptable. With less point to leveling it lead to more exploration, it lead to silly things such as the Perma Beginner, or doing the best ways to level up...which happened to usually be party quests meaning that meeting more people was just inevitable.
You can look back and claim how hackers were shunned by the community...but the community has no problem with auto-clickers. The community didn't really have a problem with rushing kPQ over and over to prevent others from getting in. They didn't have an issue with glitching Orbis Party Quest for EXP. EXP still mattered a lot back then and people would do some pretty dirty things to get it. And this is without the monopolizing of Horntail and Zakum for pure profit.
Classes do still have diversity, it's just far more downplayed than it used to be. Corsairs have a ridiculous amount of summons, Warriors are still easily the slowest class but do a ton of damage, Archers are still a ranged class that, Mages are still good at mobbing but weaker at bosses. It's mostly the new classes that cause the blur in class diversity.
I do agree that every class doesn't need flash jump, rush, and some kind of ridiculous ranged skill...but really some classes back then HAD ridiculous ranged skills or ways of getting around range disadvantages. Bandits were a close range class but they had Boomerang Step. Warriors were a close ranged class but they had rush and monster magnet to easily get closer to mobs. Archers had Blizzard and Inferno. Then there's issues such as Mages were TOO good at mobbing but fairly useless at bosses because ultimates could be spammed over and over, which lead to leeching and people using..mostly Bishops to KS others. Archers were considered to be fairly useless and unheard of unless they were 4th job. Buccs were considered a joke class that was fun to play but ridiculously weak. Corsairs were known for being hard to train up to 4th job, and no one ever talks about them in 3rd job or below.
I know I'm being a joy kill, but I feel as if Maplestory wasn't this perfect game that everyone seems to remember it as.
It had issues back then and it still has issues today, along with new issues such as the community that drastically changed due to old community leaving, the increase in leveling speed, and overall class power increase from the revamps. The new classes are usually ridiculously overpowered then nerfed hard after a short while. The sense of exploration is downplayed now that everyone goes to specific leveling spots and nowhere else, the game even suggests to go to specific leveling spots and nowhere else.
However I disagree with a lot of other things. The main reason Maplestory has changed so drastically now is because leveling is far easier than it used to be. This isn't for a "skill" reason. It just means you need to do the same thing over and over less than you had to before.
Since it was much harder to level back then it meant that a lot of people didn't really see much point to it, or if they did they usually met people who were also leveling solely due to how longer it took. I mean...1% an hour for higher levels was considered good, or at least it was considered acceptable. With less point to leveling it lead to more exploration, it lead to silly things such as the Perma Beginner, or doing the best ways to level up...which happened to usually be party quests meaning that meeting more people was just inevitable.
You can look back and claim how hackers were shunned by the community...but the community has no problem with auto-clickers. The community didn't really have a problem with rushing kPQ over and over to prevent others from getting in. They didn't have an issue with glitching Orbis Party Quest for EXP. EXP still mattered a lot back then and people would do some pretty dirty things to get it. And this is without the monopolizing of Horntail and Zakum for pure profit.
Classes do still have diversity, it's just far more downplayed than it used to be. Corsairs have a ridiculous amount of summons, Warriors are still easily the slowest class but do a ton of damage, Archers are still a ranged class that, Mages are still good at mobbing but weaker at bosses. It's mostly the new classes that cause the blur in class diversity.
I do agree that every class doesn't need flash jump, rush, and some kind of ridiculous ranged skill...but really some classes back then HAD ridiculous ranged skills or ways of getting around range disadvantages. Bandits were a close range class but they had Boomerang Step. Warriors were a close ranged class but they had rush and monster magnet to easily get closer to mobs. Archers had Blizzard and Inferno. Then there's issues such as Mages were TOO good at mobbing but fairly useless at bosses because ultimates could be spammed over and over, which lead to leeching and people using..mostly Bishops to KS others. Archers were considered to be fairly useless and unheard of unless they were 4th job. Buccs were considered a joke class that was fun to play but ridiculously weak. Corsairs were known for being hard to train up to 4th job, and no one ever talks about them in 3rd job or below.
I know I'm being a joy kill, but I feel as if Maplestory wasn't this perfect game that everyone seems to remember it as.
It had issues back then and it still has issues today, along with new issues such as the community that drastically changed due to old community leaving, the increase in leveling speed, and overall class power increase from the revamps. The new classes are usually ridiculously overpowered then nerfed hard after a short while. The sense of exploration is downplayed now that everyone goes to specific leveling spots and nowhere else, the game even suggests to go to specific leveling spots and nowhere else.
tl;dr: I agree Maplestory has been hurt in a lot of ways due to how the game is now, but it never used to be perfect in the first place. /endrantpleasedon'thateme