I feel like this is actually a pretty good free MMORPG, why does the game feel so dead except for the town? When I go around to grind, I can never see anyone else.
I know that back when I played in Ragnarok Online every corner I turned , there was a party. I miss that feeling, that alive world feeling.
With me?
First because building is really difficult. There aren’t many places to check out builds. For example since re:build almost everything is now outdated and forum is “mildly” dead. ToS community don’t even use this to share information about the game anymore.
In second place comes the fact that leveling is weird. If not by some guilds and players, new players would be really lost inside the game. Some rates require players to kill mobs and some requires players to do quests and sometimes both together. Linked to this: leveling dgs are dead (just 330+ works well).
Then we have grinding spots and raids and to be sincere I haven’t done many of them to discuss about, but what I can say for sure: where the hell would new players know where to grind, what do grind and more related to that if everything is so “messy”.
Well, these are some personal explanations about the game x new players.
The charm of tos is it’s a mess.
And its a solo game most of the time… sadly. 
Am i the only one who played RO til many maps were virtually empty too?
When i was active, popular maps like ice dungeon, thor’s volcano, magmaring map, anubis map, moscovia were full of “people”, but most other maps, especially the overseas maps like kunlun, amatsu etc., are just like maps on TOS - there’s normally no one there, just a soul or two questing or gathering mats that specifically drop there.
Anyway, to be on-topic, one big thing TOS doesn’t really do is advertising. Look at how other games advertise themselves. You can see a facebook ad every now and then for them. I haven’t seen this on TOS.
I think it’s because the launch was really, really bad and leave a bad impression on everyone that tried the game. If they had launched the game in the state that he is now I am sure it would have more players now.
I remember even the Korean version having an in-game protest of the original Token price (~199 TP) upon release, which they felt was a rip-off.
Even to this day the synergy between IMC and the playerbase doesn’t seem to be 100% there, since they keep introducing new systems (Example: ARTS) with RNG components with the Korean community immediately fighting back which forces them to change it. At least they listen now and change it in a quick manner.
Because…
I thought the reason this game is good is because of no bot and no gold seller. The limited population helped on farming as well.
Once this game has more players, things may change.
but u can’t get more players if the service is awful and P2W with a total abandonment on the PVP department and one of the worst enhacing systems ever seen in any mmorpg full of RNG after RNG which pushes u to grind/farm for equipment to the point u have no time to enjoy ur gear unless u are a whale p2w
The first months of Tree of Savior release, there would be people around maps questing and grinding. I even was in party with some guys who never logged back in since then. Those were nice times. But most gamers complete endgame quickly until they got nothing else to do and go migrate to another game to repeat that cycle. There’s still veterans playing, but what’s the point on rushing things in a game you’d end up leaving once you are all maxed and repeat that cycle on another game?
People have their reasons to leave and stay, so yeah. Besides, nowadays games are made to be cleared quickly without the need to think deeply about it. That’s why people ignore the game’s lore, too.
From what I’ve seen, this game, like all games has a limited end game. There will be an eventual limit to how powerful you can get - then that’s it.
However, ToS lacks proper PvP or miscellaneous things to do to keep veterans around.
Maple Story 2 and Dungeon Fighter Online have the same formula as ToS when it comes to endgame. You level at a decent pace. There’s roadblocks to keep you from progressing too absurdly fast. Then you hit the end game… Then you get all the gear… Now what?
Maple Story 2: fishing, collecting, every map has 3 mini-missions for “exploration”, doing many mini-quests (that actually have entertaining dialogue half the time), house building, farming/collecting, crafting, MUSIC CREATION THAT CAN BE SYNCED WITH UP TO 10 OTHER INSTRUMENT PLAYERS (not class locked), PvP arena building, guild house building, CONTENT CREATION (outfits, furniture, etc). So you hit the max cap stupidly fast, but then got all this stuff to fool around with for hours upon hours.
Dungeon Fighter Online: dungeons have gimmicks that require certain party combinations so you’ll be busy with those for a while. There are time challenges. There are many different play styles, even characters with the same exact skills (and just different genders) have varying playstyles that are intended. There are 20+ character slots. But the biggest draw? The absurd PvP that is extremely well balanced for how chaotic the skills are and how numerous the class choices are. Lastly, they lack the customization of Maple Story 2, but damn is their fashion/costume selection hella nice.
So… ToS could go either route. Great PvP or soooooooo many “OK enough” things to keep people around. Currently they have neither, but I assume they are working on that. After all, ToS isn’t really that old.
Maple Story’s team has nearly 2 decades of experience and funding to play around.
DFO has a decade of experience and the game was built from the ground up - PvP balanced side by side with PvE. But of course, in turn, that means there we huge and spaced out updates instead of micro-updates like how ToS has been doing things.
What ToS DOES have:
Huge amount of classes and then more than 1 build per class depending on what you like ofc. Then they take it a step further and allow us to smash 3 classes into 1 character instead of making us choose just 1 class out of 30+ classes at a time •side eyes DFO•.
Some semblance of PvE balance, so everything can work if you put in the time. Sure it won’t be top-dog-meta, but it is viable and that’s all that matters in the end. Maple Story 2, despite having so little class types, can’t even say that lmao (RIP Heavy Gunners, Knights, Assassins). Oh. And. Despite having a naturally buggy base for development, they still somehow manage to NOT break super important features that can make/break a class. So that’s nice. :^)
This game doesn’t have a lot of players because the engine the game runs on is absolute trash. It’s literally the root of the majority of problems this game has. Fix the engine and a lot of bugs and glitches will be resolved.
Just check Art, wiz gonna have 50% shield when take ppl shadow while scout have 100% dmg increase endless link shock count hit when they link someone. Is take someone shadow really that easy compare to link shock? Such gg patch
oh hey, my troll post was tagged
I think there are 2 main problems:
1st) The so called “endgame” once you reached lvl 400+ is gained too fast and too easy.
It’s something afaik too many MMORPGS do -> the further the gear tiers and level of the characters go, the less meaning do lower levels have.
I mean what is there to gain for later(endgame) during the level 1 - 329?
Seal of Space (not that important for most stuff)
Some accesoiries as crafting materials (e.g. Wizard Bracelet, maybe Sissel and BB)
Collections which are still to weak (imo)
[still] Field Bosses (which are too much and to tedious to deal with for a beginners, because of other players)
Extra Stats (which are perhaps the most important point BUT only for characters you plan to invest much time into and shops)
Too many maps do not have a use beyond collections and quests during this leveling process. Heck they even removed materials and recipes to be able to further ignore them (which ofc is also convenient from another point of view).
This results in people wanting to rush through, wanting to ignore stories and quests, ignoring many maps which is sometimes a shame since there are some really beautiful ones (e.g. I really like Yudejan forest, but barely any of my chars ever went there)
It would be so much nicer (and maybe less stressful?) if one would take his/her time or is even forced to do so to some degree (I mean, yeah sure after the 3rd char this would be perhaps boring too, but come on, really the first char you create gets so much stuff to help level fast? I am not a big fan of that tbh). And that would be no problem if there would be more stuff one the way that matters more.
Well ok, that’s maybe not quite right…Since when you are new there is too much stuff to do to upgrade your character. Well it is TOO much as a beginner and takes TOO MUCH time in most cases and since one is compelled to get to higher levels really fast there you have it. You invested little time ignoring stuff which could be nice to get know the game and it’s lore but you didn’t do so because the you were encouraged to level fast and since there is not too much worth doing during your level process it is perhaps the right thing to do.
It’s kinda sad imo, I started the game over 3 years ago and I am still playing plus I enjoyed the chaotic ride back then when level 280 was max. If I didn’t have this nice time back then I doubt I would still play this game. Or nostalgia just got the better of me, who knows…?
don’t hide it, u know that’s how the game is, from people who can’t pass from +10 to whales with +50