Improvement of New Player Experience

[Kradia]

Being around for almost 4 years, it's quite frankly mind boggling to me that we haven't seen any form of promotion of the server (beyond gtop), or changes specifically targeted at new players for improved player retention. Phoenix provides an old school MapleStory game experience and while that's all fine and dandy, I think the majority would agree that this version of MapleStory is a game that hasn't exactly aged very well. Especially in a private server setting. 

The players around the private server community today, who decide to jump back on their favorite childhood game are often met with the reality, that the game was much slower and more difficult than they remembered.

Such is the case on Phoenix. Player retention is in an absolutely awful state because of the discrepancy between low level and high level players. 

When new players join, they are met with the hard reality that the majority of the player base is already mid or high level, increasing the difficulty of getting party quests, as well as regular parties and the world feeling very empty in general. This is partly the reason why I have been so opinionated and very against "catch-up content" that Nexon released with later patches (Ariant, Magatia, Singapore & more). These areas do more harm than good to a private server, with such a limited playerbase. It was different for GMS and other official services, because they had thousands of players. 

So, if I'm against the idea of new low level areas being added, what am I here to propose?

I suggest to look at the core of the problem instead of looking for "band aid" fixes. Ask yourselves questions similar to these:

Put yourself in the shoes of a new player. What is it like?

Website:

• What is it like when a new person visits the website?
  1. Is there any familiarity to MapleStory?
  2. Does the website clearly communicate what it has to offer (i.e game features)?
  3. Are new posts clearly visible and does it catch a person's interest?

Game:

You are an old player who has decided to play Phoenix many years after you've last touched the game.

• What is the tutorial (Maple Island) like and can it be further improved?
  1. Does it get the player through the tutorial at a pace where said player doesn't get bored?
  2. Does it set the player up with enough guidance for success after the tutorial?
   
• What issues do new players of the level range 10-30 usually bump into before they quit?
  1. Do quests offer enough potions to enable the player to play the game without the use of idle recovery?
  2. Are there enough side-objectives for players to enjoy while leveling up (i.e item/weapon crafting, monster book)?
  3. Is the aforementioned side-objectives feasible for the new player to do in a timely manner so they don't absurdly outscale it?
  4. What can be improved for side-objectives?
  5. What level does a new player typically quit based on data?

These are the kinds of questions I ask myself before I form any ideas or suggestions. The key is to invent with purpose, and not to invent an idea just for the sake of it, or for personal benefit.

With that being said, the following are my ideas on how to both attract as well as retain new players.

New Player Registration Event

Spoiler

Host a 14-day registration period specifically for newly registered users. Advertise this on gtop with text and on the gtop banner.

For first time visitors of the website, maybe a pop-up should appear, blatantly advertising the new player registration event.

Newly registered users from exact time of account registration have a 14-day time limit to reach certain milestones in order to obtain in-game rewards.

• Reward player with a pet (Snail) and pet equipment (Meso Magnet, Item Pouch) with an expiration date of 14 days once they reach level 15.
• Reward player with 1,000 Maple Points once they reach level 21.
• Reward player with additional 2,000 Maple Points and 2x 1 hour exp/drop coupon once they reach level 31.
• Reward player with additional 5,000 Maple Points and 2x 1 hour exp/drop coupon once they reach level 40.

Potentially, the pet reward could be placed even at level 10 to immediately set the player up for success. But if the gtop advertisement and post for this event is properly advertised and explained, I think level 15 works just fine.

The 2x 1 hour exp/drop coupons are strategically placed there to specifically target the players who usually quit after KPQ. Level 31-35 are considered "hell levels" for many.

The 2x 1 hour exp/drop coupons for level 40 are placed there because this is usually when the game begins to become very grindy.

Kerning City Party Quest

Spoiler

This Party Quest requires 4 players. In a server like this, sometimes it can be a struggle to even find 4 players for this level range. It's an obvious solution to decrease the requirement to 3 players to enter the Party Quest.

Additionally, we have reached a point where I think it's time for a slight rebalance of the Party Quest.

• Buffing the stage clear exp is a good solution to promote party quests. The farther the party goes, the harder the clear exp should scale. Stage 1 should give very little exp, but last stage should give a significant amount of exp.
• Significantly buffing exp on King Slime: 800 exp to 1,500 exp.
• Adding additional safe rewards: Overall Armor for INT 10%, Overall Armor for LUK 10%, Overall Armor for STR 10%.

This suggestion is very self-explanatory. I would like to add, with the addition of more scroll rewards, the chance of obtaining the scrolls should of course be adjusted accordingly, due to the fact that there now would be more good scrolls to get.

Finally, some of these additional scrolls are only available through quests or already very difficult to obtain. It's time they become more available.

Rebalancing of 1st job Skills

Spoiler

It's quite evident that some classes have much better early game scaling compared to others.

With Lucky Seven and Magic Claw existing, the other classes have a much more difficult time getting through 1st job.

Perhaps better scaling of the skills is in order?
Perhaps some skills should get slightly buffed?

Job Instructor Quest Rewards

Spoiler

The most common issue that new players seem to experience, is that they lack mana potions to get going. Maybe instead of the small beginner potions, job instructors should give the standard red and blue potions instead.

Maybe the amount of mana potions should be increased as well for some of the job instructor quests.

Website

Spoiler

The website is in dire need of a redesign. It needs personality and it needs to SCREAM MapleStory. Currently, the website doesn't resemble much of MapleStory, other than the Leafre banner. The design is dull and boring, and sometimes even confusing to some.

 

Edited July 28, 2022 by Kradia

[akash]

I think one thing that could help is if the job instructor quests allowed for remote completion, and had their level requirement removed so that they could be 100% done in succession (sometimes a quest doesn't level you up and you cannot accept the next one).  For some classes like thief that ask you to kill stumps, the best map to do so is in perion / elinia, and you cannot afford to take the cab between that town and kerning, so you are forced to slog away at worse maps.

 

These quests would usually give you enough potions to carry on until you can self sustain.

Edited July 28, 2022 by akash

[manfroy]

hard agree. The website is DOGSHIT. dont see it changing anytime soon tho. Designing your own from scratch is very annoying and idk if theres a template out there that does fit the bill. definitely suggest design edit to the websites, adding some maple images(however cringe it might be) is a start.
i think arnah did want to try to advertise on places like facebook but it wasnt possible to for him to do so and stay anonymous(and i dont think anybody offered to help there)

Theres one thing that is clear to me now and that is not being able to find parties (especially outside the level range of the majority of the playerbase <120) basically makes you want to kill yourself. even at what can be considered mid level it is an extensive chore to find groups to train with without incurring a severe meso drain and im sure most players feel like shit if theres nobody to play with. for me 51-90 are hell levels for a myriad of reasons (bad exp spots, no pq, weaker job scaling, exp tnl scaling).

another thing that really kills people is gear progression, going to the fm to find scrolls to power up their gear and seeing scrolls that cost well over 10mil a pop. gfas being 7mil a pop. even finding weapon 60%s is a struggle(and it never should be). zakum helmets existing. im sure theres a good chunk of people who quit trying to get or after getting a zhelm.

15 hours ago, akash said:

I think one thing that could help is if the job instructor quests allowed for remote completion

this does get added in one of nexons updates, but given who knows when the next penis update is coming out, is better to add it now as opposed to push it off later

 

 

On 7/27/2022 at 9:36 PM, Kradia said:

The key is to invent with purpose, and not to invent an idea just for the sake of it, or for personal benefit.

 

no offense but theres definitely times where it feels like you suggest something because of the latter(personal gain, mostly nerfs to features you utilized quite a lot then ask for). if arnah scrubs this part of the post i wont even be mad i think itd be pretty funny

Edited July 29, 2022 by manfroy

[GreenHornet]

5 hours ago, manfroy said:

no offense but theres definitely times where it feels like you suggest something because of the latter(personal gain, mostly nerfs to features you utilized quite a lot then ask for). if arnah scrubs this part of the post i wont even be mad i think itd be pretty funny

I got my comment scrubbed for pointing the same thing out last night.

Anyway, Kradia we know you would like peenix to have some more players, we all do. But certain FEATURES aren't going to drastically change a playerbase or retain players. It is all about the content that is out and people accepting what they have to deal with for the coming months; this is an "OLDSCHOOL SERVER" after all and we all know we're up here for hours of grinding and repetition.

A flashy website isn't going to do anything. People care about gameplay, not about a website which they probably visit once a month.
A maple island tutorial change isn't going to do anything. If people can't make it to level 10 through the tutorial they were never meant to play here and then there's other servers out there better suited for them. The same goes for not making level 30.

However your KPQ and Quest rewards are actually a decent idea. I'll give those a +1.

In the end, phoenix has been around for years now, just accept and embrace the active players here, those won't change much. Sure there's some hopping around from one oldschool to the other but that means people end up playing here too instead of just leaving to another oldschool server.
Accept you won't ever see 300+ online here anymore, and I'm not sure we ever did. (Also the playercount is already quite inflated due to mules)

[Kradia]

4 hours ago, GreenHornet said:

It is all about the content that is out and people accepting what they have to deal with for the coming months

If all content in the world was available in Phoenix right now, it wouldn't matter for new players. It's not about content that is available but engagement of existing content. If current content is boring or too slow, the engagement level will be low and players will quit. You improve the player engagement and motivation to retain players.

4 hours ago, GreenHornet said:

A flashy website isn't going to do anything. People care about gameplay, not about a website which they probably visit once a month.

If you open up the MG2 website and Nexon's official MapleStory website (https://maplestory.nexon.net/) to compare with, which one do you think attracts an audience more based on visuals? It's called digital marketing. It's about catching a visitor's attention and curiosity. Saying it isn't going to do anything is plain ignorant.

4 hours ago, GreenHornet said:

A maple island tutorial change isn't going to do anything. If people can't make it to level 10 through the tutorial they were never meant to play here and then there's other servers out there better suited for them. The same goes for not making level 30.

This goes back to keeping players engaged throughout their journey.

I wish I had the data to back up my claims but I don't. I can only imagine what the data looks like, so here is my assumption of it.

- Excluding mules, a good amount of characters don't make it to level 10.
- Few characters (assuming new players) leave Maple Island too early and get stuck not knowing how to get to level 10 to job advance.
- A good chunk of new players between levels 10-21 probably quit either because of the lack of potions or the slow pace.
- The level 31-35 range probably has a similarly high amount of quitters similarly to the level 11-21 level range

@Arnah perhaps you can share some data regarding this?

Edited July 29, 2022 by Kradia

[manfroy]

35 minutes ago, Kradia said:

If you open up the MG2 website and Nexon's official MapleStory website (https://maplestory.nexon.net/) to compare with, which one do you think attracts an audience more based on visuals? It's called digital marketing. It's about catching a visitor's attention and curiosity. Saying it isn't going to do anything is plain ignorant.

i feel like its kinda unfair to use MG2 as an example when they literally do not do any first party advertising(afaik all the advertising is done BY THE PLAYERS), but a more apt comparison would be OSM. Their website was absolutely one of the best, and i think peenix website should follow in that style. They also had advertising outside of GTOP and streamer benefits(however marginal)

As far as the job instructor quests go, i think your suggestion on top of a potion drop rate increase for lower level mobs(lets say up to level 40) in addition to ALL potions being able to drop in stacks of 1-5 would help a lot.
 

44 minutes ago, Kradia said:

If all content in the world was available in Phoenix right now, it wouldn't matter for new players. It's not about content that is available but engagement of existing content. If current content is boring or too slow, the engagement level will be low and players will quit. You improve the player engagement and motivation to retain players.

There is definitely some effect to seeing certain content not being available. Because of peenix's current version, people will come in with the expectation that certain areas will be available, such as singapore or magatia. I feel like one aspect that is being completely ignored are quests. Questing in most RPGs helps a lot in making the game not feel stale, but in maplestory they are just dogshit, and are not consistent across all level ranges. I would love to see questing get a buff, and for MORE quests to be available. Why is this relevant to my comment about certain areas not being available? New areas come with new quests. By not having those quests there is less variety, eventually making the current places feel stale. I personally like to roam around, explore and do the random bullshit that the world has to offer. if only min/maxing mentality wasnt so strong...

[NixMar]

been asking for PQ buffs for a long time but instead it gets nerfed evertime ( no hs in kpq). 

anytime peenix had the chance to do a "wipe" or start over event ( not really a wipe but where old player where somewhat forced to restart for alittle bit) people where more infavor for custom changes to not do that. think of CPQ neckless. that shouldve been tradeable within account only. and ofc pirates leech ( not custom but should have not been allow)

anyway the i told you so or tried to tell you doenst help anyone so ideas for the future:

- add a fix for buff mules ( in flyff you had buff peng npc that gave you free buffs that should be here too. its kinda dumb high levels get rock buff but prop dont even need it cus they all have mules anyway. 
- 2x pq exp. 
- lpq glasses (only ones in the game) make the only tradable within account ( if you dont wanna make a mule its not a big deal missing out on the 3? stats)

- cpq to give mobs exp again

-update pq's rewards. mainly lpq and opq for scroll farming so people can mule and help new player while still getting a reward

- pick a few nostalic maps on victoria only and buff them like CRAZY (spawn rate) to keep players close togeather
map that come to mind:
pig beach: remove the snails and iron hog and make the spawn insane 
ant tunnle 1
wild boars
fire boars
hot sands
drakes hunting ground + remove horny mushrooms
golem temple more spawn + remove noob mobs
FOG remove noob mobs

some maps for cleric
jr. wraiths subway + b2
wraiths subway + b3

idk prop a bunch more
some 35-50 maps in ludi so people will be in ludi for lpq
some 50-70 maps in orbis/el nath for opq

- add fast travel
- etc gachapon exchance trade ins
- add MP back to lith harbor chair so its usable for noobs
- remove sandboxie for multie client. needing 3rd party poop for something everyone does may scare new players
- add 100% scrolls so new players can get some gear since WG market is dead. legit had 2 new grindy players quit after they found out there 8att wg is not close to the cost of making it

Edited July 29, 2022 by NixMar

[Rykbi]

On 7/27/2022 at 9:36 PM, Kradia said:

This Party Quest requires 4 players. In a server like this, sometimes it can be a struggle to even find 4 players for this level range. It's an obvious solution to decrease the requirement to 3 players to enter the Party Quest.

Additionally, we have reached a point where I think it's time for a slight rebalance of the Party Quest.

• Buffing the stage clear exp is a good solution to promote party quests. The farther the party goes, the harder the clear exp should scale. Stage 1 should give very little exp, but last stage should give a significant amount of exp.
• Significantly buffing exp on King Slime: 800 exp to 1,500 exp.
• Adding additional safe rewards: Overall Armor for INT 10%, Overall Armor for LUK 10%, Overall Armor for STR 10%.

I think the kpq suggestions are definitely a good possibility to make it more attractive, but doing all these buffs and changing it to 3 players might just result in 1-2 players solo pqing since 3 is the approved multi client number. This would clog up the channels causing potential lockout, depending how popular this would be.

[WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW]

I agree that the website is and has always been dogwater.
I also agree that it makes a difference especially for a new user's first impression.

Being around for almost 4 years, it's quite frankly mind boggling to me that we haven't seen any form of promotion of the server (beyond gtop), or changes specifically targeted at new players for improved player retention

I thought it was obvious why... the owner doesnt care lol. I thought everyone knew that... or at least it becomes obvious after a couple months of playing.

(either doesnt care or is not able to handle the workload with such a small staff)
(this shouldnt be interpreted as an attack on the owner... it is his decision on how he wants the server to be run)

Edited August 3, 2022 by WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
add

[Rykbi]

After speaking with some of the new players who join our server, it seems like there's a really steep hill for them to climb when they end LPQ lvls. OPQ is not popular enough to run consistently, and with mini bosses becoming such a big source of scrolls now the scroll prices have plummeted. This creates a probelm where the low level player has to farm more big drops/scrolls for mesos for pot funding. Now that steely is so low cost, it's not nearly as big of a jumpstart to their potential funding than before from leprechauns for example. Pretty much all the LPQ scrolls have dropped in price a fair bit, and almost all the scrolls worth anything are from high lvl mobs.

Part of this is due to the lull in player activity while waiting for new content, but that is also the low pop problem and the ones who will come back at new patch will be mostly end game players.

I feel so bad for these new players, feeling like they can't enjoy grinding when making meso is such a roadblock. This issue is only circumvented by classes like cleric who are able to start grinding at mobs while not using hp pots. The majority of new players hit that post-pq era and need help from the higher levels, but then it seems lonelier with so few new players to party with at a time. 

[manfroy]

after playing non-reboot gms for a while from scratch, i can see some similarities and differences.

1)events boost progression by a LOT. a major event especially(such as peenix christmas or the recent Savior update event in KMS) jumpstarts growth so much faster that it's honestly a retarded idea to play off event. retail compensates for this by having mini-events that boosts progression but are not game-hanging. I believe phoenix needs this sort of system. sunny sundays, gm events, literally anything. But IT HAS TO BE CONSISTENT(MEANING IT DOES NOT HAPPEN JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE FEELS LIKE HOSTING A MINI EVENT).  And of course, it should help new players more than old players. Even growth milestones/achievements would help(Get X items for hitting Y level or get X items[in addition to Y medal] for doing Z task).

2) Mules are mandatory in retail, and in peenix they can make just as much of a difference in player perception starting from the tail-end of second job. This is a problem in the innate game design rather than something intentional, and a fix is nigh impossible without changing how buffs are accessible(maybe decent buffs like the ones introduced in 5th job?). removing mules would not have the positive effect that may be intended.

3)Gear progression. In reg, you still get to scroll items, but the spell trace system guarantees that you can scroll your item. Even if you get dumped on by RNG, starforce still guarantees that your gear can be strengthened. Even then a new player is recommended to get a second copy of their weapon later on once they have the resources to gamble with an upgrade.
In pre-bb it's all or nothing. 100%s are either too fucking rare to farm for or so expensive that players might just as well go for the 60% that is slightly higher in price. There are no guarantees, which makes or breaks progression. Using 100%s to have a starting point for gear isn't even viable beyond the weapon and overall.
I'm not suggesting something like white scrolls or clean slates, but make 100%s guaranteed to obtain in a reasonable time(less than 48 hours per piece) somehow, such as with npc vendors or through quests/exchanges at a very common rate.

4)Community activities. The problem exists for both the retail game and this server. IF YOU DO NOT PLAY WITH A COMMUNITY OF PEOPLE, YOU ARE STUCK PLAYING THE GAME SOLO. this is double compounded for reg servers, which have a pitiful population. This is something that doesn't have a solution that can just be fixed as this requires people to play consistently. If there are no consistent players, there is less(or no) community to join, which further discourages players. Honestly, this problem is caused by many things, including some of the problems listed above. This problem is also partly caused by the next issue.

5) public perception. The last main point that I will bring up [that holds new players away] is the reputation of the server. GMS Reg servers have a (rightfully deserved) reputation of being a slow, P2W confusing mess to new players. What phoenix's reputation is can be left up to the reader(as I am rather biased in my own opinion about this, but I believe that even objectively people do not like this server as much as others?).
This is something that is entirely dependent on the server owner(and any gms they might not have). The concept of a 3rd job server has very much fallen out of favor with a lot of people, and even more so if the server is past v62.

6)The ability to implement desired fixes. In retail changes occur very often, and are carefully processed by a dedicated team of people before being implemented. Here there is just one dev and a very small group of Tespians. Even if the tespians do their job perfectly and squash out the bugs fast enough that custom features can be added in, the fact that there is only one dev ultimately bottlenecks(by a lot) what, and how often, changes get put in. Just look at the update schedule to see an example of this issue. Version updates occur now close to once every 3-4 months, with most custom changes being added with new versions. That is an UNREASONABLY LONG time to be waiting for something like a small PQ buff. Honestly the only good solution is to have others help in the implementation process but that is basically off the table given the server owner.

tl;dr
Introduce more mini-events that are consistent in between major events that keep players engaged(they should be automatic so that there is no GM interaction needed, GM interaction can be a bonus, and the events should be well communicated both in-game and out of game).

Reduce the effect of mules by introducing buffs elsewhere that any player can access

Add guarantees to gear progression through easily obtainable 100% scrolls(think that a casual player actively grinding 1-2 hours a day will get their pieces 100% geared out within their first week of playing)

The problems that are difficult to deal with is keeping community engagement high and changing public perception of the server.  Ultimately there will always be another server that people will want to play in, and if the server owner is ok with the state of the server then theres not much that can be done here.

 

That's all the time I've got. I gotta get back to playing Fortnite and GMS and all the other games I want to play.

Edited March 14, 2023 by manfroy