My Opinion on the State of AriesMS

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everynmn

Active member
Feb 18, 2021
65
126
33
Australia
Hi.

In my opinion, it seems that nowadays the problems in aries have been stacking up but there has been little to no express of interest from any of the staff to fix these issues. Even issues which have been promised to fix are extremely slow-moving and had no real progress updates on.


Some of these issues are:

  • Long time bugs (some more than 1-2 years old) that have existed but just ignored by staff and not even been addressed (a simple, “we are not fixing this”/”this is low priority for us”, would be better than nothing).
  • Permanent, significant, advantage (more on this below) that old players have over new ones. I am a paragon player myself which means I am benefitting from this, but for the health of the server as a whole I do feel like this needs to be tweaked somehow by either reducing the benefits which paragon provides (which GMs do not want) or making level 300 easier to achieve so that new players can actually have a chance of reaching paragon?
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This is my projected timeline if I (10T~ exp per hour) were to go for level 300. I know the top mobbing classes like kanna and such have better rates and I have asked other mid-late game kannas who can 1 shot at ecoral 4, their best map, for their hourly exp rates (13T~) and this is what it would look like instead.

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We also have to take into account that current new players do not have access to paragon stats/medal, nor paragon boxes which means it is not feasible for them to actually farm at the best maps, which leads to even lower exp rates and a longer time required to reach 300.


I forgot to mention but these rates are with maxed out EXP stacking (VP 2x green coupon, 2x legion/vp, mvp atmospheric, holy symbol, pink bean buff, kishin ++). I am actually required to spend resources to level and it is easy to see how much resources/investment are required for these exp rates.

I don't think that many people who play private servers for faster progression are willing to spend 750-1000 hours (more without maxing out everything I have listed above) just to reach the level cap. We can see from the website rankings that the top 5 players are at 289-291, and top 6 is at 286. Barely anyone is interested in spending those hundreds to thousands of hours just to reach level cap as things are.


Regarding the advantage of paragon, since most of the paragon enabled players are around p40-60 (including myself), I have tried inputting my stats into a stat calculator and the difference between having paragon stats and not having them is about 14-15% final damage.

This is an extremely important amount of damage in a game like maplestory where everyone is trying to min-max every way possible and funding large amounts for incremental gains (every 3% dex for me is only 0.2% final damage increase).

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I hope the information above shows how antiquated a system paragon is and that something needs to be changed in some way.

I indeed understand that paragon was designed for post max-level content, and that there is no easy way to fix this “without sacrificing the original idea of Paragon”, but the game has updated and changed, and there is no reason for Aries to stagnate when the system clearly needs to change alongside the base game.


  • Slow implementation of bosses(and content). From my knowledge,it seems that aries’s developer(s) require accounts to access the content in gms so that they can use their data collecting software(?) to actually implement them in aries? (which is why they ask for accounts which can access that content or get it themselves). In the past we understood and accepted this slow uptake on bosses. However, for those of us who are well informed on the ecosystem of maple private servers, it does not seem like this is really required. The data for these bosses/in-game content are already in the files and there are other servers which have implemented all/most of the bosses, and in some cases even before their release in GMS (looking at Seren and Sacred force dailies like Hotel Arcs and Cernium).

While I understand that this is not valid criticism since different servers have different ways of doing things, it really sets Aries more behind when players are anticipating these bosses/content to be added but have been waiting months with no progress updates or news from the staff while other servers have had them for a long time.



  • Slow address of pressing issues. The first part of this is related to paragon (again). Currently, with the nerfed SF success rates (see below), getting past 15 stars is already more expensive than GMS is, and for new players without access to paragon boxes, the only option they realistically have to go from 17 or 18 stars to 21 stars is paying 6k dp for a pass and not everyone has that option due to the high price.
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I understand that this is getting reviewed and fixed in p3 but there is no date in sight for revelry phase 3 and new players are getting stuffed because of no real way to progress after a certain point. If we expect new players to wait 3-4 months or however long that future update will be, how many players would we lose (and how many more can we really afford to lose)?


The other issue which has not been addressed is the high price of super scrolls, and more important the time gating it has been placed under. Revelry phase 2 patch notes mentioned that they wanted players to explore/consider/use other scrolling options, but the thing about that is that eventually players will have to move on to super scrolls at a certain point and the prices of these scrolls will still remain high (relative to previously).

The other issue with this is that players using suboptimal scrolling options will still have to starforce them (likely to 17 stars for the attack boost) and then scrap those equips later down the road and inno them/buy new ones to use super scrolls on which further burns their resources on the progression road forward.

The last issue is that the newly added pink scrolls do not even exist for certain class weapons and equipment and they have to rely on even weaker options which doesn’t really make much sense to me.

It feels to me that the people making these decisions do not fully understand the progression paths in aries, or simply don't care because it now feels worse to try to progress past the early game after nerfs over and over again for new players and effectively making it harder for them to want to stay in the server.


  • Little effort put in. The last verification was about 10 months ago, and we have been asked to “wait and wait” for the next time it opens. Now instead of doing that, they are further limiting the discord market time and time again due to a small number of bad actors (leading to the latest rule for verification).
The recent addition of the rule which disallows verified discord users from helping other posts advertisements for sell and buy trades just seems like a lazy way of dealing with things where it could have been fixed by having more frequent verifications or dealing directly with the people who are abusing the system? I'm sure everyone knows the player base is at an all time low so verification would not take as long as it has in the past and the players that still play would love to be verified instead of waiting for months on end to be slapped with an announcement like this (again, with no promised date in mind for the new verification system).


Suggestions on forums are not even acknowledged by the staff and in the off chance that they are replied to, it's often 1 sentence answers for rejection with no justification as to why and no address of the arguments that users make despite the large effort put into these suggestion threads. There has been 1 page (about 20) of suggestion threads in the last 3-4 months, surely some could get better replies (or even a reply at all), especially those with large amounts of traction from other users signifying that it's an issue that means a lot to a lot of the active player base?


Suggestions on discord usually end up with little to no reaction as they tend to get ignored despite being asked multiple times by different people.

In the case that they do get replied to, it ends up being condescending for some reason despite the suggestions coming from a good place/genuine concern? I'm sure people who have gotten their suggestions on discord replied to can understand what I mean. It almost feels as if they just reply for the sake of shutting discussion down and not try to understand where the concerns are coming from.


I have talked to a bunch of people I know regarding these issues and it seems that I am not the only one of these opinions and concerns. I decided not put this in suggestions because this tackles more than 1 aspect of the game and each suggestion thread only allows 1 issue, but I really hope something can be done about the state of affairs in and outside of the game because I really enjoyed the server over the past few months/years and it pains me to see it dwindling like this as more of my friends in the server continue to leave due to discontent.


I guess this is more of a rant post because I don't expect most of the staff to see this, or to acknowledge it even if they did see this. I had a sliver of hope that something could have changed but with the current trajectory of where things are going, it doesn't seem hopeful which led to me making this post after some deliberation.
 

e900003

Active member
Jul 19, 2018
939
195
43
Taiwan
i agree this server need change some system.

1. Change access Paragon Level system and overall revamp Paragon system, and i have post suggestion for this (can click here to look suggestion).
Reason: Paragon system need level 300, and player can looking level 300 exp requirement now,
i know this suggestion will change original idea for Paragon,
but can thinking Level 300 is too hard now (Level 275 total EXP just have <1% total EXP of Level 300),
now other player only suggestion to change level to access Paragon system is cant resolve this issue,
since Paragon EXP gain system is same as Regular Level system,
so my suggestion to overall revamp Paragon system (include Paragon EXP system) and change Regular level to access Paragon system.

2. Reduce Super Scroll cost in Revelry Shop, and i have post suggestion for this (can click here to look suggestion).
Reason: Its too hard to getting Super Scroll for new player, since Super Scroll can getting from Monster Park in past,
i agree Super Scroll move to Revelry Shop, but Revelry Point cost is too high for new player,
so my suggestion to reduce cost from Revelry Shop.

3. Add some new scroll in Revelry Shop, and i have post suggestion for this (can click here to look suggestion).
Reason: Since Aries doesnt have some good scroll now, and Revelry Shop still have less item to exchange,
i know there is already have pink scroll and spell trace in game,
but you can thinking Super Scroll can getting from Monster Park in past,
now Super Scroll move to Revelry Shop, and Revelry Point cost is too high for new player,
so my suggestion is add some new scroll to Revelry Shop.

About new boss, think its not easy to access, since most boss skill is from server side, not client side,
and some boss has some issue or buggy in past (Example. Magnus, Chaos RA, Lotus, Damien, Lucid, Will, Gloom, and some new boss.)
 
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Spyro

Well-known member
Jul 17, 2018
4,869
892
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Dragon's Cave
I'd like to see the opinion of past and/or current GMS/Reboot players on this before I'll provide a full response.
 

Konada

Member
Jul 21, 2018
58
43
18
Singapore
Having been on and off on this server, these are my observations over the past few years. Whether they will be construed as a personal attack on the leadership or not, is an entirely different topic.

#1 New players have a hard time getting started on server nowadays due to the gating of super scrolls. The economy has deflated and low-mid tier boss drops are entirely worthless. (even naked tyrants). How is a new player supposed to get funding to super scrolls? Even bonus potential stamps sell for nothing nowadays, much less being able to do gollux. While I understand that super scrolls were OP, I would suggest relooking at the scaling of elite monsters to make them more doable by new players (scale down hp so new players can at least get somewhere with their non-SS scrolled gear). Seems like the only fast way to get to a decent level to kill elite monsters is either to donate DP, have funded guildmates spoonfeed you or grind MP more than ever.

While a private server still offer good rates, the idea of good rates is relative compared to the average player rate here. No new player is going to be satisfied being stuck hitting normal monsters while they know someone with 30k-40k stat (with pre-nerf gears) can easily 1 shot ecrillas. The gap between funded/non-funded as actually widen as a result of this oversight.

Given that new players now, in comparison to previously, have objectively more shit gears with little to no resale value (because nobody actually wants to join a server that is not newb friendly), new players are wasting even more resources to eke out a tiny bit of progression which stalls once they hit lv 230+.

#2 Leadership seems to be treating this as a cash cow than passion project. Minimal updates are done to keep the server running.
- Red Leaf High
- Seasonal Events
- SSB rotation
- Porting over of updates from GMS
All of these events are repetitive in nature, which require little to no thought after the first round of implementation, just a recycling of past event concepts. I don't ever recall monthly competitive events for newbies/oldies with rewards given out. (e.g. first to 250 with noob gears etc). Lack of creativity and effort, nearly all events are just re-implementation of past event concepts.

#3 (most controversial point) Discord is a cesspool of circle jerking and sucking up to leadership/GMs. Newbs get passive aggresive replies for asking questions. Disagreements/counterarguments/complaints are either met with a mute/ignorance/condescending attitude. My personal experience previously with Spyro isn't very good, maybe he has gotten better since last time, IDK. The general vibe I still get is that player opinion is rarely valued, unless its something that the leadership wants to hear/requires minimal effort to complete.

Not sure what else to say other than suggesting to be a decent human being and being honest about what the server is to you guys. At least it saves the effort for players who do care about server, I'm pretty sure you can do without them as your bottomline won't be affected much since whales are so heavily invested in the server.

#4 Lack of transparency of whats going on. Is the team facing resource constraints or challenges that players do not know about? Im sure there are definitely supporters of the server that wish to help out if it helps the server. Get their help, the server is as much as of the responsibility of the leadership team, as is the players.

Some observations I have made over time. Honestly, I do hope that the server can be revived, but I do acknowledge over the past times I have observed, alot of players have been driven off the server by bad PR. Not sure how the server can recover when the perception of the leadership has been cemented as authoritarian.
 
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starboy46

Member
Jul 19, 2018
277
23
18
Taiwan
(Some background: Old player started 5 yrs ago. Quitted 2 yrs ago and just got back recently bcos of COVID. It is sad feeling the server being much less active than before. My old guild is gone -- that's somewhat expected. Yet, even my new guild is shrinking at an unbelievable speed.)

The above posts have highlighted many concerns so I won't make the list longer. I agree -- that the staff/owner got a life out of this server, and private servers like AMS can/shall be for profit. So, I only got one question here: REVELRY PHASE 3 -- will it address some of the concerns above, and how is a practical timeline like considering the resource limitations (time, energy, budget, etc.)?

I have been looking around for the answer but it seems information available now is very limited with not even some rough dates. Having this being communicated efficiently, both the old and new players can be more hopeful and may regain the strength and patience in dealing with challenges at all stages.

To be honest, the changes over the past few weeks/months/years don't necessarily impact old players like me. However, I am unsure about the impacts (and seems very negative?) on those who recently joined.

COVID, while unfortunate to the world, offers a great opportunity to introduce new players. However, **if** the majority of those are students (15y-25y), the summer is almost over and this window may only last unti the next school term begins. Should we fail to establish a healthy inflow of players, no one is gonna be happy.
 

damrider

New member
Sep 21, 2018
16
5
3
Israel
as someone who just returned from 1 year hiatus, I was shocked to find out how hard it is to make money nowadays. my character is at +40k stat and I still struggle to find ways to make money, a lot of things that were reliably sellable are now worthless. Seems like a lot of measures were taken place to make sure it's nigh on impossible to increase your wealth in the game.
 

MellowD

New member
Jan 27, 2021
17
9
3
israel
im ex gms player paragon level 300 is insane people here come to private server since its easier to level
i left gms since its ridiculous to level to 300 if your not sitting and play like 10 hours a day
came here made a kain and guess what paragon is level 300 which isnt possible with the current maps and the exp we get per mob.
and then people like me that have nice gear that we made but paragon is what blocking us from doing hard bosses while other people can do them easy with paragon tier 100 or tier 50 while players like me having hard time to survive in the server since we dont do any hard bossing.
being an gms player means you spend money to make your items better coming into ams means i want a bit easy server didnt say make level 275 super easy or level 300 in 2 days but people not leveling up since its 1% for 1h in 290 while gms highest level now is 285 6 levels lower then ams in terms of private server its not much of a difference people need this changes to get back into playing ams and understand that the staff doing the best so they will have fun
 

Alienished

New member
Jan 3, 2019
19
15
3
Thailand
I agree, I know it is hard. Making and coding stuff. We understand all these things takes time.

I think we can agree that there is too little transparency. Too little interaction between the developers and the players.

Like what above post says, simple things like acknowledgment of bugs that people have posted can make a huge difference. Now it’s like people post bug reports and we don’t even know if the developers read them a not. At the very least I think a monthly update regarding these reports would be nice even if you guys are prioritising other stuff at least we won’t feel ignored.

I also agree that convos on discord are sometimes, too passive aggressive. People play games to enjoy themselves. Not everyone knows everything about the game. If someone new ask a question just answer them nicely I’m sure most are asking politely anyway.

Regarding game progression, yes paragon is a huge boost for players. If there is no way to make 300 easier to achieve, then we should go back with 275 paragon. If not it is really unfair to new players. And when people realise this they will feel like it’s not worth to invest anymore time and money in this server and just leave for another game/server

Arcane symbols also a major progression problem. It is even slower than official server. It will come to a point, about Lv15 morass/esfera where people see the climb to higher levels will take forever. It’s a huge turnoff. That is also where people get tired and feel like giving up.

Some things that the staff do like increasing HP of end game bosses will at first glance look like a turn off to players. It is when we see hard enough or heard from other people the reason that we understand it is actually good for the server. However this was not explained. Or maybe it was explained but I don’t see the information anywhere. Which brings to the next important point. Transparency. I think it is important to let the players know why certain things are different from official server or why certain things are done. If not people will just see things at face value. And misunderstanding always leads to a bad ending. Eg, till now I still don’t understand why all jobs iframes are intentionally nerfed or disabled. It is a core gameplay of maple story a lot of classes can’t bring out its full potential, full fun without it. Maybe there is a good reason. But I can’t find the information anywhere. I think transparency is the most important.
When people experience 1 unpleasant problem usually they will brush it all. But when the unpleasant stuff starts stacking on top of each other that is when they just give up.

Really hope there is more interaction with the staff and player base and more transparency is given to us players.
 

ThegreatSam

Member
Jun 16, 2021
62
18
18
Canada
As a old GMS Reboot player I suggest the below needs to done(just my opinion):
- Take Bug fixes more seriously, some bugs relate to not proceeding into questline/skills issues these are serious bugs that could halt progression and gameplay.
-Make Paragon accessible from 275.
-Enable Arcane River Express pass.
-Make a "How to maple" channel on discord. where maplers can ask anything from simple to complex maple enquiries(relates to in game things only)

the exp grinding here is fine in my opinion it shouldn't be more faster. but the serious issue you have is fixing bugs i know this might sound insane, but there must be a follow up on reports ch on discord to atleast get directly from developers the progress of certain bugs.

All The Best,
Mapler
 

Mokotana

New member
Aug 17, 2021
1
3
3
US
As a player who tried out AriesMS in the past and recently started playing again with friends, it's honestly a bit discouraging how difficult it is to progress as a newer player these days. With how inaccessible super scrolls have become, I feel like I've been gated from a lot of things that I could be working towards. Progression seems soo blurry to me, as I could only really go to suboptimal maps to farm and pray that I get carried in bosses like hellux and others. Now, hearing about this paragon thing being also gated, it really doesn't entice me the play on the server aside from just leveling jobs to see what they're like.

Of course this is coming from a relatively new player that doesn't have a whole lot of experience knowing the ins and outs of every system in Maplestory, but I was initially attracted to this server because it seemed more friendly and easier to progress without it mainly being just p2w. I know my opinion doesn't really matter in the long run as I just wanted to play and try enjoying the game, but I do notice that there's a huge disjoint and gap in the new players versus the veterans/end game players.
 
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triangulum

New member
Aug 29, 2021
2
20
3
Canada
I made forum account just to post this.

It is sad that how the server is declining. I've played this server for 6 months and was lucky to get carries and help from old friends. During my time - I met a lot of new players who would just quit. The server is not friendly for new players. I haven't played the server since Dec,2020 and Just don't feel like logging on. I ended up going back to reboot. I'm a very Casual Player, I play around 6-10 hours on weekly basis. I understand you have to make the server unique, But There are possibly 100's of casual players like me.

The improvements I'd like to see -

1) I Hate Monster Park, I can't stand how someone can farm for hours and hours. It is tooooooooo boring. The Only way to make the jump, I have to do countless hours of Monster Park. In Reboot - I can do ursus, Daily Maple Tours, Events. This gets me ahead.
2) MVP Status - Why do I have to wait 30 days?? This is so outdated, This forces me to purchase mvp buffs, Big meso sink for new player. Old/Veteran players will just not dent their wallet when purchasing MVP's. In Reboot - Its Instant, Currently MVP silver-gold.
3) Leveling - Either Ban Dual Computer Log-in or allow us to Multi-client. It is so unfavorable how someone with multiple computers can get ahead of someone who only has one and having to purchase Kishin and HS Symbol. I understand in reboot multi-client isn't allowed but This is a private server and the rules should not be enforced equally.
4) Legion - I'm not sure how Legion is now. This was the main reason I ended up taking break from server. Limitation on character limit. Why? Why?. Old Players who have played for years, Can have 8k legion and I have to wait years and years.
5) Enable Arcane River Pass.
6) Starforcing is hell in AMS. My point #1 stands and Having to purchase 6k DP Per Box?? ($60 USD) late game. Why in the world would I spend $60 USD on one box?.
7) Donation - I don't mind donating on regular basis but It seems my choices are either do #1 Monster park countless hours or Donate to get little ahead and still do Monster park.
8) Paragon - Why can't we have Paragon start at lvl 250 and keep it at that. This will help newer players alot and its new content to explore. I understand people are requesting lvl 275 but I feel like its too far off for a casual player.
9) Arcane symbols - Someone above mentioned this already.
10) some of the Staff is rude and gives one word replies, Expects me to be all knowing entity.
11) EXP GRIND - Exp Grind is okay but I hate that others could purchase Kishin or HS and get way ahead at faster pace. Why can't we have totems.
12) Discord Verification?? Others have already mentioned this.
13) Staff communication improvement.

Fun fact - I played for 6 Months and didn't even get to explore paragon system because the limit was lvl 275 in Dec?. I guess I was far too focused on MP.

Spyro asked for opinion of current reboot players. Please note - This is my personal opinion and I have Played reboot for about 8 months now and Played aries for 6 months. Spyro and staff has to understand - Majority of us are adults and no longer 13-14 year olds playing Maple & are here for the Nostalgia. If we turn to private server from Reboot, We are hoping for more ease in playthrough, Less headaches and Friendly Staff.

I've spent more $$ on reboot on cosmetics than AMS Donor points. I understand Its a for-profit server but Admins should find other ways to make more $$ rather than making the server p2w. AMS is the first server I've played after my long break since BB and I would love to come back to the server one day.
 

everynmn

Active member
Feb 18, 2021
65
126
33
Australia
Leveling and starforce rates.
There have been a few ex/current GMS/reboot players' replies on these topics and more in the current thread.
Hopefully that gives you and the staff team more insight on how you're planning to make changes regarding the difficulty, time and resources required for level 300, paragon, paragon boxes and starforce rates.
You've already seen the reply by Seal by I'll leave it here for clarity's sake.

I've also included the replies of a few known GMS/Reboot players who have also played Aries for a fairly long time (and reached paragon) so they can give a more informed input on what they feel about these topics.


There has been also a fair number of newer and older players alike talking about the issues with progression and while I do agree some of them have been alleviated with Revelry P1 and P2, there are some which are still existing/new issues (like price of super scrolls mainly) which I hope can be further looked into along with the existing scrolling options.

Without going into much detail in this reply on it, the existing option of spell trace scrolling + shield scrolls can easily vary from 120-400mil mesos per scroll passed depending on the type/level of the equip being scrolled. This makes it easily become very expensive/comparable to super scroll prices while being not nearly as cost efficient when considering such scrolled equips have to be innocence-scrolled or would otherwise have no resale value. I hope more can be done to further review the cost effectiveness of all scrolling options when taking into account such variables (resale value, miraculous chaos scrolling before regular scrolling) for future patches. Otherwise in my opinion, it is still hard to not recommend super scrolls as the best option when factoring in overall account/character progression.

Other players have already listed their views in this thread on related topics as well so I believe the staff team have more views and input to work with when deciding on further adjusting anything with regards to these aspects of the game.

I'd also want to implore any other players to give their input here on anything related to anything with regards to improving the overall player/gameplay experience if you feel strongly enough about it so that the staff have more data and opinions when making decisions for future changes/patches.
 

sprooties

Member
Feb 18, 2020
86
29
18
South-east Asia
I can't help but thinking there's a conspiracy behind these revelry projects - to force players (old and new) to opt into buying DP more than before, when it comes to character progression.

Revelry Project - Phase 1
Highlight:

1. Mesos and NX
- Adding mesos drops to Arcane River maps, increasing mesos multiplier and NX acquired per line. But at the same time, it also kills the low level ways of obtaining these resources. Namely Elite Ant Tunnel 2 for NX and Wolf Spiders/Elite Wolf Spiders for mesos/NX (there were other good low level maps too). These were the go-to maps for low level players who didn't opt to run Monster Park. This limits the option for low level players, to either force their character to Arcane Regions farm ready, buy Donor Points to exchange with other resources or quit. But then again, to be honest, the only viable maps in Arcane Regions are ecrilla and ecoral 4. Sure the others do offer some decent amount, but in my opinion, eAT2 offered better with less effort. With easy ways no longer viable, the faster route is to buy Aries Points and sell to already established farmers.

2. Low level bosses entries reduction and account-bound adjustment
- This straight up condemning the playerbase all around. Players utilizing multiple characters to farm Reward Points is never the playerbase's problem, but the server's revenue. To quote Spyro, "The adjustment of boss entries to be account-bound serves to tackle the issue of players utilizing multiple characters to farm for Reward Points and/or certain boss drops." Honestly no one cares about those boss drops, people run those bosses for the Reward Points, and the only viable item that can be purchased with the RP is Violet Cube (which will totally be removed from the Cash Shop in Revelry Project - Phase 3), that can be traded with other resources, and the only other way to obtain it is with Aries Point in the Aries Point shop. Vcube is an end game item, so if there's a way to farm it without the need to use Aries Point, that's good for the players right? But it got nerfed nevertheless.


Revelry Project - Phase 2
Highlight:

1. Super Scrolls
- Affects both farmers and buyers. Low level farmers who farmed them for their characters no longer have the option since the only way to obtain it is through the Revelry Shop which is time-gated in oppose to 'effort-gated'. High level players don't have problem collecting 40-50 Revelry Points a day, but for low level players, it takes them 2 days to even afford 1 Super Scroll unless they choose to hitchhike other people's runs which can be exhausting sometimes due to the difficulties of finding 'boss runs carries'. Not everyone offers to bring noobs to their daily boss runs everyday. In addition, SS is also competing with Rebirth Flame and Violet Cube in the Revelry Shop. With Vcube no longer obtainable from the CS in Phase 3, the competition is expected to be higher as prices for these items will remain high as the increase in demand.


While some players appreciate what the project brings, personally I think the loss outweighs the gains. But at the same time I also understand the cost to maintain servers like this, as well as the benefits to the people who runs them. At the end of the day, changes should benefit both the players and the server. As a player who doesn't have control over these changes, I can only hope that the owners'/GMs' greed to not overcome their wit.
 

June

New member
Aug 18, 2021
5
16
3
Canada
I will just be totally honest, and straight up.

  • Aggressive community. I know it could he arguable but it is really important for this kind of private server to have nicer look on discord - supportive and friendly community, as the new/incoming players will most likely be joining and looking at discord for some help starting ams. But this is not done properly as in some players help a lot, but some players/gms can be quite aggressive sometimes. This is just as stated above in the other users' posts. I personally experienced being called out 'silly' for trying to help someone. And now I honestly don't feel like trying to get help or give help on discord anymore, as more and more times I get help or give help, the more bad stuff and attitude from some users I get. This is bringing very negative effect on discord and community, especially like I said, new users who are seeking friendly and supportive community won't be happy to see something like this.
  • In addition to this, everyone was being so harsh on people who were having their own opinions on Super Scroll price increase. Some players just did not quite get the reason behind, or some are just confused. the people there commenting on them had little or no respect towards those players. And this happens all the times, not most likely it is the same level of the aggressive-ness, but along the same line. Users in discord most of the time have no respect towards new players, in other word, have such a bad attitude. This is not being controlled at all, too. Which makes it 'feel' like gms either support their behaviors, or just do not care how they are being treated. I appreciate all the users and that they are trying to help, but if it's handled in such ways, it won't do any good on AMS losing players. There are so many people leaving because of such outlook on AMS community.
  • I am being treated like I am a fool who doesn't know everything that I am supposed to not know, treated like I'm a crybaby. It does not feel good. As long as I keep playing this server I will have to face problems and I will want to seek help from discord community, as it's more accesible and could find faster replies from gms. But if it's always going to be like this...
  • Bugs/crashes. I know it cannot be fixed so easily, but people have been keep crashing constantly, and there is still no clue or update on why. This can affect a lot of daily progressions such as PQ - Arcane, and others. It gives such frustrations to people and it just feels like getting blocked from playing. Just give us a little update or something on how it is being handled.
  • And RESPONSES AGAIN, are most of the times aggressive. They already feel like they're getting blocked from playing this game, and this unsupportive community is no better than giving them more troubles. This does not mean they will definetely quit right away. It is just one huge contributing factor of some people quitting.
  • However, this does not mean that everyone's like me or is handling it like me. This is just one person's honest opinion. I know some of my friends who feel worse or better than me. But I think it is proven that many people find seeing this or encountering this feel uncomfortable.
I am focusing on the community as other problems mentioned were all described by other members.

And I want to say, I have been playing maplestory on and off for a long time, playing kms, gms and finally aries. I love MapleStory, and I love AriesMS, but it doesn't mean anything anymore nor it holds me back from leaving when I am being treated like nothing more than a cow. The only reason why I am not leaving is because of my guild and possibilities/hopes that AriesMS will slowly get to solve the problems that it has. Especially my guild members helped me so much, and a lot more factors that I could face in supportive community has brought me back to be in AriesMS. It's just so sad that we cannot see that on discord or in-game unless you can find yourself a very nice and friendly guild, which can be hard sometimes. My friend is having trouble staying in his guild as some members does not possess an ability to be friendly or just to be kind at least. Supportive community always brings better opportunities for people to hop in, and most likely they will be willing to support Aries more than any others.
I really hope this problem can be fixed...
 

wetDolphin

New member
Jan 10, 2020
22
9
3
london
Coming from me, arguably the most toxic person on Discord.....


In addition to this, everyone was being so harsh on people who were having their own opinions on Super Scroll price increase. Some players just did not quite get the reason behind, or some are just confused. the people there commenting on them had little or no respect towards those players. And this happens all the times, not most likely it is the same level of the aggressive-ness, but along the same line. Users in discord most of the time have no respect towards new players, in other word, have such a bad attitude. This is not being controlled at all, too. Which makes it 'feel' like gms either support their behaviors, or just do not care how they are being treated. I appreciate all the users and that they are trying to help, but if it's handled in such ways, it won't do any good on AMS losing players. There are so many people leaving because of such outlook on AMS community.

Sure the price of Super Scroll had increased and it has became a big impact to new player's growth, it is worth to be looked into and reconsider.
However, a lot of the opinions are express in a form of frustration and anger of demands, completely disregarded the system is just newly introduced and still at the stage of testing the water.
On Discord, we enjoy a good discussion, sensible debates, and/or constructive opinion. Those active on Discord are smart and helpful, but at the same time also very protective of Aries. I have not seen anyone post a legitimate point of view opinion got treated badly, if anything, it always turns into a full on discussion(which also catches GM's attention).

I am being treated like I am a fool who doesn't know everything that I am supposed to not know, treated like I'm a crybaby. It does not feel good. As long as I keep playing this server I will have to face problems and I will want to seek help from discord community, as it's more accesible and could find faster replies from gms. But if it's always going to be like this...

It comes down to how you ask your question. There are things such as Basic Functions and Fundamentals how Maplestory operates, those type of questions are best to look up Youtube or search engines for better answer.
There are times answer seems to be straight sarcastic but (in truth) relevant. (I am guilty of this)
If you presented a statement of you tried to science/find the answer yourself, people are tend to be more helpful instead of having to understand the situation from nothing. There are also times the question's asked so vague, there could be too much answers to even bother.

In conclusion, if you don't express where you do not understand, no one knows what answer you seek.

Bugs/crashes. I know it cannot be fixed so easily, but people have been keep crashing constantly, and there is still no clue or update on why. This can affect a lot of daily progressions such as PQ - Arcane, and others. It gives such frustrations to people and it just feels like getting blocked from playing. Just give us a little update or something on how it is being handled.

Game crashing/disconnection issue may be the result of network.
Players in North America tend to have better connection due to where the location of the server is located.
There's also due to Anti-Virus in the background, blocking and stopping anything it deems dangerous. However, players are not recommended to disable their protection just to play.
Varies of reasons cause unstable connection to players is outside of control-able elements GMs can control.


And RESPONSES AGAIN, are most of the times aggressive. They already feel like they're getting blocked from playing this game, and this unsupportive community is no better than giving them more troubles. This does not mean they will definetely quit right away. It is just one huge contributing factor of some people quitting.

Angry comments gets toxic replies.


Aggressive community. I know it could he arguable but it is really important for this kind of private server to have nicer look on discord - supportive and friendly community, as the new/incoming players will most likely be joining and looking at discord for some help starting ams. But this is not done properly as in some players help a lot, but some players/gms can be quite aggressive sometimes. This is just as stated above in the other users' posts. I personally experienced being called out 'silly' for trying to help someone. And now I honestly don't feel like trying to get help or give help on discord anymore, as more and more times I get help or give help, the more bad stuff and attitude from some users I get. This is bringing very negative effect on discord and community, especially like I said, new users who are seeking friendly and supportive community won't be happy to see something like this.

Fundamentally I(strictly personally) believe it comes down to how the question is presented. However this issue depend on varies of situation.
- Age
- Nationality
- Personality

Age:
internet is where everyone knows everyone but does not truly know anyone.
Compare to real life, an educated person would and will assist older/younger of age because it is possible to see the struggle or inexperience physically. In contrast, on internet, we do not know anyone due to lack of physical visual, therefore, it is easily assumed that anyone and everyone is at decent age that's capable of independent thinking.

Try imagine this example:
In real life, a child asks you how to cross a simple intersection.
A stranger on Discord asking how to cross a simple intersection.

You will find you would answer the child much willing than a complete stranger online.

Nationality:
It should not come as a surprise Aries players are from all over the world as long as they have access to internet.
However, their resources they could get to are limited, and I mean it by the website they can get on to view. Quite obvious there are also language barrier but it could be easily overcome.
Some regional government will block IP/VPN for whatever reason, this cause people unlikely to view creditable sources to find their own answer, then they decide to ask... But how would any of us know their restriction/limited resources?

Personality:
The one I'm the most guilty of.
I tend to reverse asking questions, in attempt to guide a thinking process, there are times I do step out of bound from time to time, however it's never my intention to belittle or discriminate those who asks questions.
There will always be those who reads replies and takes it up the butt, and those who will take it to heart and understands true meaning beyond words' face value. Of course, sometimes answer they get hold nothing more than face value. If this is complicated to understand, then I'm sorry... communication is this complicated.

To sum up, if you can treat everyone like a 1 year old on daily basis, the patience and heartfulness you have, you might as well as be a saint.
I hardly seen any harsh language used in Discord General chat, if you still think the community is unhelpful and toxic... There is nothing I could do to convince you. Communication is a two way thing, you have presented your post automatically assumes those who asks questions and express their 'opinion' are victim to the bullying and toxicity. But... will that always be the case?
 

June

New member
Aug 18, 2021
5
16
3
Canada
Sure the price of Super Scroll had increased and it has became a big impact to new player's growth, it is worth to be looked into and reconsider.
However, a lot of the opinions are express in a form of frustration and anger of demands, completely disregarded the system is just newly introduced and still at the stage of testing the water.
On Discord, we enjoy a good discussion, sensible debates, and/or constructive opinion. Those active on Discord are smart and helpful, but at the same time also very protective of Aries. I have not seen anyone post a legitimate point of view opinion got treated badly, if anything, it always turns into a full on discussion(which also catches GM's attention).
Yes I cannot deny there were a lot of expressing anger and frustration towards the new update. However, there were also people who were genuinly concerned and asking, what was this update for. And evenif it's just newly introduced - testing the water thing, it cannot pass the stage of where we see how will people react to this and such. So whatever that's said in the discussion cannot be just ignored and said as just 'anger and frustration.' Think of why this anger and frustration came from.
And yes you guys might enjoy a good discussion between players who know each other and has been there for a long time. Sensible debates and constructive opinion do go through, but some people are somewhat still passive aggressive towards those comments. If you say it was never like that, I would recommend you to go through the discord chat again.
"Those active on Discord are smart and helpful" Not always. I agree on the part where you guys are very protective of Aries. Which I don't think it's a good thing to have. All games need constructive criticism from the point of many other players, from many different experiences of such and such. Even if you really love Aries and want to protect it does not necesarily mean that you can help Aries go forward and fix existing problems. You need to look into that problem, face it and try to fix it.
I have not seen anyone post a legitimate point of view opinion got treated badly... I don't know if we can determine that so easily. I have seen lots of comments going through, but since they were really emotional they didn't seem to explain fully of what they were knowing of. There were a lot of people going on complaining about the new update about SS, and I did not understand the 'aries protectors' side. Because yes it will benefit old users since resale price of fully SS weapon will go up. And it is easier for them since they might already have tons of resources to buy fully done ss weapon or even making themselves since you need around 1-2k to SS one gear. And that's not too expensive for high-level users I feel. That is good, yes but only for one side. You guys just said just use 50% and mcs, but... I mean it is described in those posts up above so I will say no more. And that time it didn't seem to catch GM's attention, only thing that mattered was that you guys didn't want the users to complain, at least that seemed like it.

It comes down to how you ask your question. There are things such as Basic Functions and Fundamentals how Maplestory operates, those type of questions are best to look up Youtube or search engines for better answer.
There are times answer seems to be straight sarcastic but (in truth) relevant. (I am guilty of this)
If you presented a statement of you tried to science/find the answer yourself, people are tend to be more helpful instead of having to understand the situation from nothing. There are also times the question's asked so vague, there could be too much answers to even bother.

In conclusion, if you don't express where you do not understand, no one knows what answer you seek.
If they don't know or haven't read basic guides, basic functions and fundamentals of how maplestory operates, link them the youtube link or guide link. Some people might also find it easier to ask people if they understand better when people tell you. There are so many different questions that are answer-able. And if you cannot explain better than youtube, then also just link it.
It is more than discouraging when people find out that in fact older users will be playing sarcastic when you need legitimate answer.
And if it's too vague, or too much answers, just let other people answer. It is just easy as that.
All people are different and their understandings are different. People come from different view points and like I said, sometimes people find asking users is better than finding themselves. If you don't want to answer, leave it to someone else.
I personally have so far only posted questions that were not to be found anywhere, and seeking technical and other stuff that cannot be reached by normal users. I still have got answers from some users saying this place is not to ask anything, and else. And if the questions are stupid, GMs will delete it for sure. There is no need to scold people who are just seeking help.

Game crashing/disconnection issue may be the result of network.
Players in North America tend to have better connection due to where the location of the server is located.
There's also due to Anti-Virus in the background, blocking and stopping anything it deems dangerous. However, players are not recommended to disable their protection just to play.
Varies of reasons cause unstable connection to players is outside of control-able elements GMs can control.
Thank you for this information. Unfortunately, I am in North America, have no Anti-Virus, always disable my real-time protection and others that might block aries from launching.
And if it's just me I will just be okay, accepting that I will keep re-login, but it is not just me, so many people who never had this issue before have been saying that they keep being disconnected. And this was certainly after the last two updates, never happened before.
I am just asking if the team is working to find it out, or if there's anything going on to fix this problem.

Angry comments gets toxic replies.
Non-angry comments also gets toxic replies. But I would state it differently. I wouldn't say toxic since it sounds more serious to say that. And it depends on the person who receive or reads the comment to determine whether is toxic or not, so I would say it is ignorant or disrespectful answers. Such as sarcastic answers which has an intention of disrespecting a person would fit in that category. If you knew that person really well and take sarcastic as jokes, sure. But these are strangers and new to community. Some might accept it as a joke but most of the times people find it disrespectful.

Fundamentally I(strictly personally) believe it comes down to how the question is presented. However this issue depend on varies of situation.
- Age
- Nationality
- Personality

Age:
internet is where everyone knows everyone but does not truly know anyone.
Compare to real life, an educated person would and will assist older/younger of age because it is possible to see the struggle or inexperience physically. In contrast, on internet, we do not know anyone due to lack of physical visual, therefore, it is easily assumed that anyone and everyone is at decent age that's capable of independent thinking.
Since everyone does not truly know anyone, you should be more respectful to each other. Just that it means you might never meet these people in real life does not mean that you can say whatever.
And no matter even if it's real life or whatever, you should realize an educated person would still assist people no matter what age or physical condition, since even in real life you cannot completely see from that person's point of view, what that person went through and such. Saying you cannot see physical stuggle or inexperience should not be the excuse to ignore that person's not physical side, mentality side of it anyway.
We assume that they are at decent age that's capable of independent thinking that's fine, but that also applies to you cannot say whatever. If they are capable of independent thinking they know what they are writing, thinking,

Try imagine this example:
In real life, a child asks you how to cross a simple intersection.
A stranger on Discord asking how to cross a simple intersection.

You will find you would answer the child much willing than a complete stranger online.
That depends on what that 'simple intersection' is, and there is so many other factors that affect that person we do not know, that make that person not know that simple intersection. If you think it's stupid, just pass and leave it to someone else to reply.

Nationality:
It should not come as a surprise Aries players are from all over the world as long as they have access to internet.
However, their resources they could get to are limited, and I mean it by the website they can get on to view. Quite obvious there are also language barrier but it could be easily overcome.
Some regional government will block IP/VPN for whatever reason, this cause people unlikely to view creditable sources to find their own answer, then they decide to ask... But how would any of us know their restriction/limited resources?
Since we do not know their restriction/limitied resources there is two things that you can do.
You can either,
  • Ask if they could access the forum or the resource by linking them and saying this is the guide that you can go through,
  • Or if they cannot lead them through the process.
It may not be simple to some people but I personally think it is really easy to do. Since old users will already know that there are 1. resources for that problem, 2. The process - information on yourself that you have already experienced.

Personality:
The one I'm the most guilty of.
I tend to reverse asking questions, in attempt to guide a thinking process, there are times I do step out of bound from time to time, however it's never my intention to belittle or discriminate those who asks questions.
There will always be those who reads replies and takes it up the butt, and those who will take it to heart and understands true meaning beyond words' face value. Of course, sometimes answer they get hold nothing more than face value. If this is complicated to understand, then I'm sorry... communication is this complicated.
I am not the one who was answered by you so I do not know how that person would have felt whether you had that intention or not. Tbh, thanks for saying that.
And "There will always be those who reads replies and takes it up the butt, and those who will take it to heart and understands true meaning beyond words' face value." ... I am sorry to say this but this has nothing to do with understanding the true meaning beyond whatsoever. I am pointing out at the attitudes that can be seen as disrespectful enough to get people offended in different variations.
No that was not complicated to understand, communication is not that complicated. For some people it can be though. ;)

To sum up, if you can treat everyone like a 1 year old on daily basis, the patience and heartfulness you have, you might as well as be a saint.
I hardly seen any harsh language used in Discord General chat, if you still think the community is unhelpful and toxic... There is nothing I could do to convince you. Communication is a two way thing, you have presented your post automatically assumes those who asks questions and express their 'opinion' are victim to the bullying and toxicity. But... will that always be the case?
You might not be treating everyone like a 1 year old on daily basis but instead treat them like an independent person who can think, feel and get offended. I don't feel like I got bullied, I just feel offended. I see you think that there is no harsh language used in Discord general chat, but you need to include the tones, context and different factors of the sentences and words that make it disrespectful. Saying that "Oh, I completely understand!" Can bring totally different feelings considering different factors.
And I already said that they are not all 'victim to the bullying and toxicity"... I said it is different all people what they feel and how they want to take all the comments provided by some users on discord. But my friends and I, many of us have felt the disrespect, ignorance, annoyance and such that make them did not want to talk in discord general chat anymore. This is not my assumption, anyhow.

Thank you so much for sharing your side of view, hope I didn't get you too offended as this is just an opinion whatsoever from a user who does love the game, AriesMS and have passion to protect it.
And if you want to laugh at me, you can do. If you think it's all false, you can also laugh it off and move on since you think the community is fine right now.
But you need to realize that other posts have mentioned this problem where community seems aggressive toward the other users who is seeking help.

And this is not to degrade Aries if you thought so, I want this to be fixed and so more people can join and enjoy the community.

Thank you for reading my really long essay tho.
 

triangulum

New member
Aug 29, 2021
2
20
3
Canada
Angry comments gets toxic replies.

This is the mentality I'm talking about in my post. Instead of choosing to ignore the Angry comment you tend to flame more? Very Mature of you sir.

I read through your whole post and it is contributing nothing to the original question. All I got from your post is how you're so good and things should be expected the way they are.

If you think AMS staff cares - Why don't they have a separate support channel in discord which could help out new players? Often times I've asked questions in the General chat and I've been ignored or told to google.
 
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