2020-01-18, 04:12 AM
So I compiled a list of issues I have with the Phantom Forest, excluding the story changes:
Everything Wrong With the Phantom Forest
- Dailies and Quests
There are 6 daily quests given a day to earn coins: 3 normal monsters, 2 elite monsters, and 1 elite boss (or field boss, whichever you prefer). This means you have to hunt a few specific elite monsters and one specific elite boss, the latter being far worse. For reference, there are 3 elite bosses that can spawn, and it's completely random. You get a total of 9 Raven Ninja Coins and 8 Shadowknight Coins per day. The Raven Ninja Coins can be used to purchase collector's items, as well as Ginger Ales (10 for 3 coins, which is a ridiculous price). Ginger Ales are also no longer sold by Miki in NLC. It's really saying something when even MapleSEA, a version that outright removed NLC after not updating it since Big Bang, actually moved Miki and her Ginger Ales to Henesys Market (despite it being more expensive there).
One of the quests for the Level 190 questline actually requires you to have one of each class to complete it (Warrior, Magician, etc), which is a one-time deal, and a bigger hassle for players in low-population servers than it needs to be.
- Sanity
As you travel through maps in the Phantom Forest / Crimsonwood and kill mobs, you start to lose your sanity. The sanity will create additional visual effects on screen, causing lag, memory leakage, and screen shaking / flashing (which is horrible for people with motion sickness, epilepsy, or are prone to seizures). These effects, ESPECIALLY the memory leakage, become unbearable when an Elite Boss spawns. At some point you will barely be able to survive because you will start to see phantoms that attack and cast potion lock on you. You can only restore your sanity up to 3 times a day, meaning that if you run out of sanity while trying to find that last elite boss, you're not completing it for that day.
- Equipment
Before the patch hit, our director advertised the set as "powerful equipment", and given Nexon's track record a majority of us were skeptical. When the patch hit, we were able to see the stats of the equipment set via the Pet Item Ignore tables (since it wasn't accessible in-game for about a month as it was postponed), and players calculated that it would be Best-in-Slot, so some people got their hopes up in regards to a new set replacing Gollux. However, the equipment set was nerfed when it was released, replacing the critical damage with critical rate while reducing the IED and Boss Damage. The equipment requires 100 Shadowknight Coins and 500m mesos each. The scrolls can be purchased from Mo's coin shop for 10/20 Raven Ninja Coins OR 400m/200m mesos. However, we also learned that to Star Force these items, you need both mesos AND Shadowknight Coins, in increments of 5 (0->1 = 5 coins, 1->2 = 10 coins, all the way to 125 coins for 24->25). Keep in mind that the success rates are unchanged compared to normal Star Force. As Astrum in the Maple Discord calculated, and I quote:
"On the model where you take advantage of 5/10/15 events you would also spend 7,356 hours grinding in Phantom Forest, assuming you spend two hours doing dailies each day. Which is actually a lowball based on how long it's currently taking people... Keep in mind that's on top of the time-gating which spreads those hours out over 10 years."
In conclusion, the Phantom Forest is in an incredible state of disarray. Not only has Nexon went out of their way to make it not viable to train at or do dailies, but I have little hope that Nexon will address any of these concerns.
- Dailies and Quests
There are 6 daily quests given a day to earn coins: 3 normal monsters, 2 elite monsters, and 1 elite boss (or field boss, whichever you prefer). This means you have to hunt a few specific elite monsters and one specific elite boss, the latter being far worse. For reference, there are 3 elite bosses that can spawn, and it's completely random. You get a total of 9 Raven Ninja Coins and 8 Shadowknight Coins per day. The Raven Ninja Coins can be used to purchase collector's items, as well as Ginger Ales (10 for 3 coins, which is a ridiculous price). Ginger Ales are also no longer sold by Miki in NLC. It's really saying something when even MapleSEA, a version that outright removed NLC after not updating it since Big Bang, actually moved Miki and her Ginger Ales to Henesys Market (despite it being more expensive there).
One of the quests for the Level 190 questline actually requires you to have one of each class to complete it (Warrior, Magician, etc), which is a one-time deal, and a bigger hassle for players in low-population servers than it needs to be.
- Sanity
As you travel through maps in the Phantom Forest / Crimsonwood and kill mobs, you start to lose your sanity. The sanity will create additional visual effects on screen, causing lag, memory leakage, and screen shaking / flashing (which is horrible for people with motion sickness, epilepsy, or are prone to seizures). These effects, ESPECIALLY the memory leakage, become unbearable when an Elite Boss spawns. At some point you will barely be able to survive because you will start to see phantoms that attack and cast potion lock on you. You can only restore your sanity up to 3 times a day, meaning that if you run out of sanity while trying to find that last elite boss, you're not completing it for that day.
- Equipment
Before the patch hit, our director advertised the set as "powerful equipment", and given Nexon's track record a majority of us were skeptical. When the patch hit, we were able to see the stats of the equipment set via the Pet Item Ignore tables (since it wasn't accessible in-game for about a month as it was postponed), and players calculated that it would be Best-in-Slot, so some people got their hopes up in regards to a new set replacing Gollux. However, the equipment set was nerfed when it was released, replacing the critical damage with critical rate while reducing the IED and Boss Damage. The equipment requires 100 Shadowknight Coins and 500m mesos each. The scrolls can be purchased from Mo's coin shop for 10/20 Raven Ninja Coins OR 400m/200m mesos. However, we also learned that to Star Force these items, you need both mesos AND Shadowknight Coins, in increments of 5 (0->1 = 5 coins, 1->2 = 10 coins, all the way to 125 coins for 24->25). Keep in mind that the success rates are unchanged compared to normal Star Force. As Astrum in the Maple Discord calculated, and I quote:
"On the model where you take advantage of 5/10/15 events you would also spend 7,356 hours grinding in Phantom Forest, assuming you spend two hours doing dailies each day. Which is actually a lowball based on how long it's currently taking people... Keep in mind that's on top of the time-gating which spreads those hours out over 10 years."
In conclusion, the Phantom Forest is in an incredible state of disarray. Not only has Nexon went out of their way to make it not viable to train at or do dailies, but I have little hope that Nexon will address any of these concerns.