Idea for a new restriction "Nightmare" (working title)

[days]

Can be called "Nightmare" or some other edgy word.

The idea behind the restriction is to make the world of MapleStory more treacherous, difficult, and time consuming.

 

There are two main parts to the restriction, the first being the player will be weaker, and slower at progressing, while the mobs are stronger. The second part is making death much more punishing.

 

All stats the character has, and all items the player interacts with, will be reduced by half in a negative way. Max HP halved, HP gained per level halved, max MP halved, meso drops halved, damage halved, drop rates halved (drops take twice as long to attain on average), inventory slots halved and unable to expand your inventory (combining this with 4 slot restriction would leave with 2 slots). Amount of HP/MP gained from food and potions halved, success rate on scrolls halved, amount of weapon attack, base stats, armor that gear gives, halved, stack size for potions, stars, rocks, any other consumable, halved. Basically everything will be halved to negatively affect the player. This will include exp gained, a player could combine this restriction with half exp to gain 0.25x exp. I think the only things I would personally exclude from this would include halving movement speed (base movement speed would be 100%, however items like speed pills, Bone Helm, etc, would increase your speed by half their normal values), and halving AP/ SP gained per level. 

This idea could be expanded further to double values which negatively affect the player, such as doubling damage received, double the requirements for quests, doubling exp required to level (if combined with half exp, you would essentially be getting 0.125x exp... lul) , doubling the cost for potions, equips, scrolls, travelling tickets, recharging stars, etc. This could potentially be avoided by having a player (or mule) buy the items for you, then trading that player (mule) for the base value of the item. I can't really think of a potential fix for this exploit besides giving this restriction certain ironman restrictions, such as unable to receive items which can be found in shops from other players. But I don't want to add any ironman type restrictions into this restriction. If a player does want to exploit this loophole, more power to them I guess. They have much more to worry about with this restriction then having to buy their potions for double the price. The only thing I would exclude from this rule would be doubling the level required for job advancement, and doubling the stats required to wear items. 

 

The second part to this restriction is permanent afflictions upon death. First off, safety charms do not work, and exp lost when dying is doubled. Secondly, whenever you die your character will be teleported to Lith harbor, and will lose 5 max HP and MP permanently. Finally, and in my opinion the main punishment, when you die, you will permanently lose 1 slot of your inventory at random. This slot could be an Equip, Use, Set-up, Etc, or Cash slot. Keep in mind, this restriction halves your inventory slots, and does not allow you to buy expansions. Not only do you lose the slot forever, you also lose the item which was in that slot forever. You could lose something as harmless as a snail shell, or something as important as an Ilbi. This will happen for every death, until you have 2 slots remaining in each inventory. If you combine this restriction with 4 slot, you will lose inventory slots on death until you have 1 slot remaining in each inventory, except for Use. The Use inventory will not go below 2 slots to allow classes like Hermits and Outlaws to use stars/ bullets along with potions. Once you reach the point where you are unable to lose any more slots from your inventory, your deaths will become MUCH more punishing. You will begin to lose your equip slots, and the equips in those slots. It will be any slot, chosen at random except for your weapons and shield slot. You could lose an eye accessory slot, which at this point in the game is meaningless, or you could lose your 15 attack glove, and never be able to equip a glove again. Once all your equip slots have been lost, and all that remains is your weapon and shield, any further deaths will delete either your weapon or your shield, but not the slot. I don't want players who make it to this point being unable to play their character, if a characters weapon slot is gone, they can essentially no longer play that character besides FM hoe purposes. 

 

If these ideas sound dumb/ annoying/ too hard, its because they are, that's the point. Maybe this restriction is too over the top, and no one would use it... but there is always someone crazy enough to try, right?

If you don't like the ideas or restriction as a whole, that's fine, not everyone has to like everything. This is simply an idea I had while grinding and wanted to share. 

This should be your expression after reading this post: 

if you can think of other ideas to make this nightmare of a restriction even more... nightmarish? Reply to this post!

 

 

EDIT 1: Idea by Dusteh "Incentivize risky play". This could be implemented Increasing the exp / drop rates when fighting monsters high above your level. These rates will never exceed 1x. 

Edited December 6, 2021 by days

[Sphereless]

I think you can simplify this and split it up into smaller restrictions so that people can pick the parts they like. Otherwise I don't think anyone would play this mode.

- "Cursed": Nerf to everything RNG based. Halved drop rate, dropped equips more likely to roll bad stats, halved scroll success rate, always gain the lowest possible HP/MP when you level, maybe quests/exchange/crafting have a 50% chance to give no rewards.

- "Punishing deaths": Safety charms not allowed and lose stuff when you die. I wouldn't make it take away slots because the 4 slots restriction already exists for that purpose. Instead make you lose a random equip (either currently equipped or from your equip tab), a random stack from your use tab, or half your mesos. Or maybe all three of those. If this mode is made too punishing then you might as well just pick hardcore instead.

- "Nightmare": You deal half damage and mobs deal double damage. You don't need to halve EVERYTHING as it effectively becomes a 4x or 8x nerf in some areas. For example if you deal half damage then it already costs twice as much in MP pots to deal the same amount of damage. Then if you also make pots cost double and heal half as much it's like an 8x nerf. I would not include exp, inventory slots, or stack sizes in this restriction either because half exp and 4 slots restrictions already exist for that.