Senja

A seemingly insignificant bonus at first glance, but you're right in that it would give more freedom in terms of AP builds. For example, with HP washing disabled on Phoenix, the extra AP could be allocated to HP if needed. HP Priests would also have a way to earn back the AP they spent on HP earlier on.

As much as Phoenix is a hardcore server, there are players who thrive on social interaction in-game. Events are a good way to bring players together, both new and seasoned. New players who are otherwise "hidden" (they either keep to themselves or overlooked by other players) can be sent guild invitations and/or meet other new players to play together with during events. I understand that a lot of time and manpower from the developers will be required to host events on a consistent basis. Which is why I am suggesting that automated, time-triggered events be added to Phoenix. These events should be "newb" friendly. The first type of event that comes to mind would be jump quests (JQs). I reckon custom JQ maps are unnecessary, at least in the short-to-medium term from the time of its implementation. There are existing JQ maps that can be used - be it from past events, Sabitrama's Sleepy Wood JQ, Sumi's Subway JQ, etc. These JQ maps can be in a pool in either a fixed or random rotation, which will be entirely up to the developers' discretion. The second type of event that I came up with is hunting events. Keeping in line with the idea of keeping these events newb-friendly, an instanced map where all players inside will be limited only to melee auto-attacks with the same damage output regardless of level and weapon type can be implemented. In this instanced map, the monsters will have low drop chance items in their loot table, which will be required to turn in the event quest. Again, existing game assets can be used. Maps such as Henesys Hunting Ground, Ant Tunnel Park, Land of Wildboar, Excavation Site (1-4), Cloud Park, etc. can be used in these instanced maps. These are some examples of maps that can accommodate numerous players at once. In terms of the frequency of the events, I propose for them to be held twice a day, seven days a week. Both times, the same event with the same rewards. The aim of holding the same event twice in one day at different times is so that they happen as close to every time zone's prime hours as possible. The first event can be held at 9AM UTC. At 9AM UTC, it will be between 4-5PM in SEA and 6PM KST. The second event can be held at 9PM UTC. At 9PM UTC, it will be 5PM ET and 11PM CET. It will be 2AM and 2PM PST during the start of the first and second events respectively. While these are certainly not considered prime hours, the above event start times can be further optimised. The event rotation can be done in the following way: Monday - Jump Quest Tuesday - Hunting Event Wednesday - Jump Quest Thursday - Hunting Event Friday - Jump Quest Saturday - Hunting Event Sunday - Jump Quest The event rewards can be limited to only the top 3 players, i.e. first 3 players to finish the JQ and the first 3 players to hand in the required items during the hunting event. The rewards should be attractive enough to make it worth while for players to forego other in-game activities in order to participate in these events. The rewards can be tiered in the following way: 1st - 1,000 NX/Maple Points 2nd - 500 NX/Maple Points 3rd - 250 NX/Maple Points One thing for sure is that MapleStory players from any version love chairs. Perhaps unique chair rewards can be limited to only 1-2 days of the week (e.g. Saturdays and/or Sundays). Whether or not these chairs will be tradable is again, entirely up to the developers. In summary, having automated events can indirectly help introduce new players to other players. It also provides a method to gain NX/Maple Points within the game. And in the event that unique and flashy chairs are added as occasional event rewards, I reckon just about anyone in Phoenix will be incentivised enough to participate in these events.

Or has it already been binned?

Disclaimer: I have not done a single LPQ on Phoenix and the EXP numbers I used were entirely from research. LPQ requires 6 players between level 35 and 50 in order to participate. The current total LPQ EXP gains from completing 9 stages assuming the player does not kill a single mob during the PQ: 30,300 EXP. An LPQ run ranges in time taken, and can take anywhere between 20-45 minutes depending on party composition and individual party members’ proficiency and experience in running the PQ. Taking the average time to complete an LPQ run (32.5 minutes), the average EXP/minute from doing a single LPQ run is 932.30 EXP. *Note that this does not include downtime from things such as needing to look for a party, replacing party members that left and replenishing potions. CPQ requires 2-6 players between level 30 and 50 in order to participate. Coincidentally, CPQ fills the level 30-35 gap that is absent before LPQ (this is assuming the player goes the route of reaching level 30 through KPQ and intends to continue levelling up through PQs). The EXP gain from CPQ varies, depending on the amount of Carnival Points (CP) the team accumulates over the course of a run and on whether the team wins or loses the “match.” Each CPQ run takes 10 minutes. Not accounting for EXP gained from killing mobs during a run, the EXP rewarded from each run is as follows: WIN -500+ CP (Rank A) : 30,000 EXP (3,000 EPM) -300-499 CP (Rank B) : 25,500 EXP (2,550 EPM) -100-299 CP (Rank C) : 15,000 EXP (1,500 EPM) -1-99 CP (Rank D) : 7,500 EXP (750 EPM) LOSE -500+ CP (Rank A) : 10,000 EXP (1,000 EPM) -300-499 CP (Rank B) : 8,500 EXP (850 EPM) -100-299 CP (Rank C) : 7,500 EXP (750 EPM) -1-99 CP (Rank D) : 1,000 EXP (100 EPM) *EPM - EXP/minute Notice that should a party win a single CPQ match with Rank A, even after disregarding the EXP gained from killing mobs during a match (it’s a ridiculously high amount), it easily trumps over the EPM from LPQ. Not to mention that it takes half, if not less of the time it takes to complete an LPQ run. It is only when the player loses a match with Rank B that the EPM from LPQ even comes close to being comparable. Again, this does not take into consideration the copious amounts of EXP gained from killing the mobs during a CPQ run. One of the biggest concerns for the addition of CPQ into Phoenix is the potential emergence of hard leeching. This is due to how the maps in CPQ are designed to facilitate players AFK-ing and the fact that CPQ can be done with only 4 people (2v2) instead of 6 for LPQ. Another concern is that the addition of CPQ back in live MapleStory servers killed the viability of LPQ. In order to prevent LPQ from being obsolete, I would like to propose the following adjustments for CPQ: -Remove EXP gains from killing mobs -Reward EXP only based on accumulated team CP -Adjust the EXP rewards from CPQ to be significantly less than LPQ The Spiegelmann’s Necklace in and of itself is enough incentive for players to participate in CPQ. With the release of CPQ, it will be the only obtainable pendant for players up to obtaining a Horntail Pendant. In many cases, the EXP gained from killing mobs can be more than the EXP gained from winning a CPQ match, thus why win trading was rampant back in live MapleStory. Winning was simply seen as a nice bonus. The caveat here being that the EXP gained from mobs have many variables tied to it such as the types of mob summoned, the time it takes to summon the mobs, buffs/debuffs and the players’ speed in killing the mobs. By removing EXP gains from killing mobs, it will encourage all players to participate as only winning with Rank A would make a CPQ run worth the while compared to LPQ. One could argue that high-level or well-funded players will consistently beat low-level or lower-funded players. A system could be implemented by the developers to level the playing field and make it so that damage in CPQ scales only with level and not items. This way, a player in CPQ can only gain an advantage over others through levelling up. I am unsure as to the technical difficulty of achieving this, but this is the only viable solution I can come up with at the time of writing this post. I read in one of his replies to this thread that Arnah had an idea on rewarding EXP based on individual CP and not team CP in order to discourage AFK-ing players and mules. I reckon with appropriate adjustments made to the EXP rewards, it could be enough of a deterrent for players looking towards CPQ to gain EXP while idling. My proposed EXP adjustments is as follows: WIN -500+ CP (Rank A) : 7,500 EXP (750 EPM) -300-499 CP (Rank B) : 6,375 EXP (637.5 EPM) -100-299 CP (Rank C) : 3,750 EXP (375 EPM) -1-99 CP (Rank D) : 1,875 EXP (187.5 EPM) LOSE -500+ CP (Rank A) : 2,500 EXP (250 EPM) -300-499 CP (Rank B) : 2,125 EXP (212.5 EPM) -100-299 CP (Rank C) : 1,875 EXP (187.5 EPM) -1-99 CP (Rank D) : 250 EXP (25 EPM) *EPM - EXP/minute These EXP adjustments will ensure that LPQ is still superior to CPQ in terms of EXP rewards. This way, the main incentive players have to participate in CPQ would be to obtain the Spiegelmann’s Necklace and/or other rewards. These adjustments would still provide a viable avenue for players to level up between level 30 and 35. LPQ will still be the premier PQ for EXP gains in the level 35-50 bracket. Furthermore, with these adjustments win trading will carry significantly less EPM than LPQ (750 EPM from winning CPQ with Rank A vs 932.3 EPM from LPQ). In summary, with these changes, CPQ’s main purpose in the game would be to provide more valuable rewards while also providing a viable EXP avenue to players in the level 30-35 bracket. LPQ will still be the go-to PQ when it comes to levelling up between level 35 and 50.