Preparing a disaster kit and time capsule

Does anyone know of any post-BB training guides? Any class will do, I just want to see what new popular spots arise.

You Lie. 5 Years. 1 Main. Level 130. Mostly a Loner. Minimal Inactivity. Still found things to do.

There are many aspects to the game other than leveling. Questing, Exploration, Collection, Party Quests, Aspiration to next equipment set (granted this is dependent on leveling){which is more or less dead now anyway thanks to common equips/potential}, and Social interactions are some. The primary problem is that NEXON kept promoting stat-whoreism to the point where people started believing that was in fact the purpose of the game and rushing past a majority of the "content" that was developed for the game for the sake of power. This has been a lingering issue for too long so now everyone just believes it as a fact that to do anything in game you have to be 140+.

BB only gives us further cause to believe in this misconception as it only aids in rushing people to the end. I have yet to experience it myself, but beyond the maps, from what I've heard they've left holes in the quests and didn't take the opportunity to revamp the "Maple World" to coincide with these changes. Since it would be too much work to re-do the entire lineage of quests since the origin of the game or even the monster book, they just decide not to.

To me that isn't professional. That isn't even a game anymore.
"Hey, if you keep pressing this button over and over again for a few years, you'll get to see bigger numbers next to a prettier picture!" If I want art, I'll find it online. If I want big numbers, I'll use a calculator. When I play a game, I want an engaging environment with a decent back-story. It being an MMO takes away some of expectation, but there is still some.



Going back on what I said earlier though, my complaints are going off of hand-me-down information. I'd love to be proven wrong.

EDIT: And no, having expectations from an RPG does not make us Heny Hoes.

The game is about leveling - you can't argue that, sorry. It's not the only thing you can do, but the basic premise is that you kill monsters and/or complete quests to attain a higher level. They want to encourage social interaction, but that's not a part of the game. What I'm trying to get across is that you can't quantify or facilitate or retard social interaction (well, you can change how they go about it, but that's different). I talk to people while playing Maple, League of Legends, Team Fortress 2, Monopoly, and Tic-Tac-Toe. The game itself doesn't propagate social interaction, we do! You don't have goals like "talk to __ people today!"

Horrid as in, "they moved things around without fixing the graphics and now there are a bunch of visual problems in every town".

Horrid as in, "they moved all the job advancement NPCs farther from town, and united the class-distinct gates of dimension into a single one in Balrog's chamber".

They moved the towns closer together, so now the majority of maps on Victoria island are not between towns - they're on stubs that shoot out of the towns in random directions and don't go anywhere. If you're exploring Victoria, you don't end up at another town - you end up at a dead end, and have to walk back through the 10-15 maps you just visited.

Instead of going to the top of Ellinia to get on the boats to Ereve and Orbis, you have to go 4 maps outside any town. Instead of the portal to Leafre being in the map outside Ellinia, it's about 6 maps away, at the top of the tree that grew. They made navigation easier for people who can't afford the taxis, but made everything else, that can't be reached by taxi, much harder to get to. One step forward, 3 steps back...

They also did cool things like:

Putting shops in towns closer together for the sheer ease of shopping.
Got rid of that stupid corridor in Orbis when going to the boats. Now you just talk to the girl and end up by the platform.
They added NPC and Quest information to the Worldmap, making things infinitely easier to locate.
They put the job advance portal in ONE place, and it's listed on the map. No more running around wondering "where the hell was the specific portal for my job again?"
Reduced the amount of junk required to get Orbis tower scrolls (used to be 45,20,20, now 15,15,15).
They changed monster levels in certain areas, making old monsters a challenge again, and other old monsters getting nerfed to end headaches (looking at you jr. boogie).

There's a million other neat things they accomplished, but it's easier to be a pessimist, especially when referring to Nexon.

Zenkat's response is pretty good, but I'll add a bit of my own thoughts:

Game aesthetics are nice and all, but last time I checked, you spend very little time in town. Maybe you "henehoes" like to sit around all day, but towns are just convenience points for me - I gather quests, buy pots, and use them as beacons to meet people at. The ONLY town that brings any nostalgia for me is Ellinia and that's only because of its unique horizontal design and tree-theme. Walking through Henesys gives me nothing and I've been playing since closed beta.

Given a choice between faster leveling, monster level changes, skill changes, and three new classes or map aesthetics, I choose the first one.

I'd also like to add that they're not done re-doing everything. Chances are towns are going to get another facelift.