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MapleStory 2 – The public alpha test


Hello there. It’s been a while since we’ve met, haven’t we? I’ve been posting a lot of information on my Tumblr blog.
But I feel like I should give my WordPress blog another shot, because it is something I cannot let go.
You all have heard about MapleStory 2 by now. Almost six years ago, I first published news about the development of MapleStory 2. It’s shocking that almost six years have passed by now… The development team behind MapleStory 2, projectMS has decided to let users test their game in alpha state. The game was first developed by NSquare which was a collaboration between Nexon and NCsoft, but that team has been disbanded and projectMS came to life. That is also why you see NSquare in the cinematic trailer, but projectMS in the later videos.
In this blog entry I’d like to give you my review on the alpha test that was in progress from September 17 till the 21th.
Be warned that there is a lot of text. I am looking forward to your questions and opinions.

kMS ver. 1.2.222 – Black Heaven: Second Chapter!


MapleStory Black Heaven Second Chapter
A new patch has been released! This one includes the second chapter of the Blockbuster: Black Heaven, along with a new chatting system and Halloween events.
In addition, Nexon Korea has released Maple Hands 2.0, an updated version of the mobile app they created previously!
Black Heaven Second Chapter
A new chapter in the story about the Black Mage and his plans to take over Maple World has been released.
Black Heaven Entrance
Like before, you can access it through the Black Heaven icon or by talking to Moko in the Maple Alliance HQ.
Blockbuster Black Heaven Acts
This time, they’ve added in Act 3 of the Blockbuster: Black Heaven content.
Black Heaven Map
Once again, here is the completed map. They said they are planning to finish off the rest of the Acts by the end of this year!
Act 3 Clash in the Skies
Act 3: Clash in the Skies: The appearance of the gigantic ship, Black Heaven, shocked the Maple Alliance, who could not compare to its size. Fortunately, Francis, who came to Crystal Garden in order to rescue Orca, had the plans of Black Heaven in his hands. The Maple Alliance’s counterattack begins.
Act 3 Special Features
Like the others, Act 3 has many special features in its gameplay! It has monster battles, rescuing, and most of all, a new type of combat: side-scrolling aerial shooting!
I will be uploading videos of this Act in my Black Heaven playlist on YouTube, so check back!
This one is the most important, the defeated Resistance! It was so sad… the subtitles start at around 2:00 so you can read along with what’s happening.
Maple Talk
Something new called Maple Talk has been added to the chatting system. Basically, before, to talk with a group of people, you’d have to open the Maple Chat and invite them. Then to keep talking, you’d have to keep the window open. But now, you can create a Maple Talk group in the chat at the bottom of your screen!
Click the arrow on the top right to open the new UI, where you can choose to use the ‘regular chat’ window or create a Maple Talk group. The Maple Talk chat groups will appear as a tab in your chats, just like the all chat, buddy, guild, etc. There can be up to 6 people in your Maple Talk group.
Star Marvel Showdown! Typing Defense
For Star Planet, there were some changes to Star Marvel and Battle! Typing Defense to make them easier to play and more popular, but I won’t be going over them (sort of boring haha).
Korean Damage Skin
Last post I mentioned the Korean Damage Skin, and I finally figured out how to get it (or receive it?). I logged on MapleStory this week and received a message that my Damage Skin had been changed, and this is what I got.
I’m still not sure why they did it, but the Damage Skin changes all the numbers to text haha.
Hangul Damage Skin
Someone posted this on the MapleStory Facebook page, can you guess what the numbers are? :P
Maple Hands
Maple Hands is MapleStory’s mobile app which was released a while ago. It let you access your account’s Monster Life and see ongoing notices, events, and updates.
Maple Hands App
Now, Maple Hands 2.0 (a large update) has been released! This update comes with a fancy new UI, and some new features. At the top you’ll see your main character. You can click on it to download your character’s image, change your main character, and see your rankings.
Then there’s the Monster Life button which of course lets you play Monster Life on the go. Beside it is a new button, Maple Talk! Like I mentioned before, this is a new feature in MapleStory which allows you to create group chats, and now you can talk to them through your phone as well. This feature lets you talk to your friends while you’re offline. You can also chat with your buddies, guild, and more.
And a new feature (along with being able to check notices, updates, and events) is to open up MapleStory’s new mobile website which looks pretty cool.
Chameleon Pets
In the Cash Shop, they have released the Chameleon pets once again.
Hello Halloween!!
The Hello, Halloween!! event has begun and will run until November 13. This year, the Halloween events are based in Star Planet.
Becoming Halloween
Star Planet is becoming Halloween! The whole area has been updated with a spooky Halloween theme for the holiday.
Free Costume
Each day, if you get 10 Star Points by playing minigames, you’ll get a Halloween Costume Box, which gives you one of 3 different costume sets. These sets expire in on day.
However, if you open 5 of those boxes, you can get a New Halloween Costume Box, which when opened will give you a permanent set. This quest can be completed 3 times per character (so you can get all 3 sets!).
New Customizing
You can also get some new Halloween themed customizing. The first is for Star One Card, a Petite Halloween Pumpkin card set, which you can get by playing Star One Card 20 times.
The second is a Halloween Pumpkin set for Star Yutnori, which you can get by winning at Yutnori 10 times.
Let's Dance, Halloween Party
Finally, the last event is Let’s Dance, Halloween Party! Every XX:40 in Star Planet’s Central Plaza, the Halloween Party will begin.
If you join, you’ll have to follow Aming’s dances for 20 rounds. At the end, you’ll get Star Points based on your performance.
Halloween Party Rewards
If you can succeed at 18 rounds or more in a row, you’ll get some Action Skills (the ones used in the dance party).
If you participate 10 times or more, you’ll get the 2014 Halloween Damage Skin!
Renewal Event
To celebrate the renewed Star Marvel and Battle! Typing Defense, you can get double Star Points and Mileage on the above dates at the stated times.

WARNING: The Burning and The Cool incoming in GMS

Artasi(Nexon MapleStory Community Manager) said:
Hey Maplers,
Get ready for some fiery fun next week!
What do you think it could be?
Posted Image
Posted Image

kMSt ver. 1.2.513 – ‘Black Heaven’ and More Skill Balancing!


Android Factory (activated)
Hey guys! After a long dry spell for MapleStory 1 news, a new patch has been released in Tespia! Although it’s really big (almost 600MB!) the patch notes only talk about 7 jobs’ skill balancing and some other stuff. Sadly, no Resistance revamp or ’32 jobs’ of balancing. Maybe this will come in future Tespia patches.
However, inside the data are a bunch of images, monsters, and NPCs for something called Black Heaven. It’s definitely the new content coming in the third summer patch, so read on!
Hekaton Alerts
Hekaton’s rewards have been changed. The chance of getting some rewards has been increased when you successfully defeat Hekaton. If you are in the top 50% of players, you can now get 1.5x Experience Coupons.
Kritias Shop
The Hekaton and Kritias coin shops have been changed a little bit. New items like the Unquenchable Flame, Eternal Unquenchable Flames, Chaos Blades, Strong Chaos Blades, Scroll Traces, and advanced personality trait items have been added. The price of Damage Skins has been decreased.
Medal of Honor
Medals of Honor from bosses have been changed. Now, bosses only drop Boss Medals of Honor, which give 20 times the amount of Honor as regular medals. The higher the difficulty of the boss, the more Medals you will get. Boss Medals of Honor are used immediately when picked up.

 Skill Changes

Dual Blade
Dual Blade’s skill damage are very high already but they don’t have many utility skills for survival. We increased the damage on damage-focused skills but we changed Chains of Hell to give invincibility.
We corrected an error in Final Cut and decreased Asura’s cooldown in order to make gameplay smoother.
  • Chains of Hell Chains of Hell: other skills can now be used while this skill’s invincibility frames are active, a cooldown of 45 seconds has been added
  • Blade Fury Blade Fury: damage has been increased from 165% to 195%
  • Phantom Blow Phantom Blow: damage has been increased from 200% to 210%
  • Final Cut Final Cut: distance moved after using this skill has been decreased, fixed a bug where using Final Cut with a pet would disconnect users from the game
  • Asura Asura: cooldown has been decreased from 90 seconds to 60 seconds
Viper
Viper’s field battle is highly effective but their bossing capabilities are low. We increased Fist Enrage’s damage and increased the effects of Ultra Charge and Counter Attack to give greater merit to their melee fighting style.
We also gave Unity of Power’s damage cap increase a boost by increasing the maximum number of stacks.
  • Fist Enrage Fist Enrage: damage has been increased from 270% to 300%
  • Ultra Charge Ultra Charge: stance effect has been increased from 98% to 100%
  • Counter Attack Counter Attack: chance to activate has been decreased from 40% to 25%, duration has been decreased from 45 seconds to 30 seconds, damage boost has been increased from 15% to 25%, now in addition to existing effects when hit there is a 25% chance to reduce the damage taken by 30%
  • Unity of Power Unity of Power: cooldown has been decreased from 20 seconds to 15 seconds, maximum number of stacks has been increased from 3 to 4
Captain
In our previous balancing, we wanted Headshot to be a good skill but its efficiency was low due to its skill delay, so we decreased it.
  • Head Shot Headshot: skill delay has been decreased from 1260ms to 1050ms
  • Counter Attack Counter Attack: chance to activate has been decreased from 40% to 25%, duration has been decreased from 45 seconds to 30 seconds, damage boost has been increased from 15% to 25%, now in addition to existing effects when hit there is a 25% chance to reduce the damage taken by 30%
Mercedes
Mercedes was changed a lot in the last balancing patch, with a large focus on linking skills. However, starting off with Charge Drive created many problems, with awkward skill delays and moving you too close or too far away from monsters. We tried to fix this by changing some skill ranges.
Legendary Spear also created some unusual situations when used in the air so we disabled that.
  •  Charge Drive: can now be used in conjunction with the Down arrow key in order to cancel the knockback part of the skill (only performs the knockup), skill delay has been adjusted
  • Strike Dualshot Strike Dual Shot: damage has been increased from 240% to 260%, can now be linked with Wrath of Enril
  • Highkick Demolition High Kick Demolition: skill delay has been decreased from 870ms to 630ms
  • Leap Tornado Leap Tornado: damage has been increased from 215% to 235%, downwards attack range has been increased
  • Unicorn Spike Unicorn Spike: can now be linked with Wrath of Enril
  • Gust Dive Gust Dive: can now be linked with Wrath of Enril
  • Legendary Spear Legendary Spear: can no longer be used in the air
  • Rolling Moonsault Rolling Moonsault: downwards attack range has been increased, delay has been decreased from 810ms to 540ms
  • Lightning Edge Lightning Edge: in addition to existing effects Lightning Edge now passively increases Gust Dive’s damage by 50%, can now be linked with Wrath of Enril
  • Advanced Strike Dual Shot Advanced Strike Dual Shot: damage has been increased from 288% to 300%
  • Wrath of Enlil Wrath of Enril: this skill’s cooldown is now decreased by 1 second whenever skills are linked together
Demon Avenger
Demon Avenger’s HP boosts from the Star Force enhancements were not as efficient as other jobs.
A new passive skill was added that increases the efficiency of enhancements. In addition, using Demon Strike will no longer reset Exceed stacks, and Forbidden Contract’s maximum HP boost has been changed to a damage increase due to the existence of the HP cap for characters.
  • Conversion Star Force NEW! Conversion Star Force: Based on your currently equipped Star Force enhancement count, gain HP for each Star Force. Gain 150 HP for each Star from 1~30, 925 HP from the 31st, and 175 HP for each star from 31~40.
  • Demon Strike Demon Strike: using Demon Strike will no longer reset Exceed counts
  • Forbidden Contract Forbidden Contract: HP boost has been changed to a 10% damage boost, cooldown has been decreased from 90 seconds to 75 seconds
Demon Slayer
Demon Slayers tend to use only Devil Cry due to its high range and low Force consumption while hunting. We think its a very boring hunting pattern and so we have added an effect where Devil Cry’s Force consumption increases when the skill is used consecutively.
We know this will greatly impact Demon Slayer’s hunting efficiency so we are compensating it with better movement and increasing Demon Explosion’s efficiency as well as increasing Demon Impact’s damage to bosses for better boss fighting.
  • Demon Trace Demon Trace: this skill can now be used in the air, skill delay has been decreased from 810ms to 600ms
  • Dark Thrust Dark Thrust: skill delay has been decreased from 900ms to 720ms
  • Devil Cry Devil Cry: when this skill is used consecutively, the Force consumption will increase by 40 for 15 seconds (stacks up to 4 times)
  • Demon Explosion Demon Explosion: Force consumption has been decreased from 50 to 25, skill delay has been decreased from 900ms to 690ms
  • Demon Impact Demon Impact: damage to boss monsters has been increased from 30% to 40%
  • Metamorphosis - Enhance Metamorphosis – Enhance: now 5 seconds before the Damage Reflect ignore effect wears off, an effect will blink over the character’s head to inform them
Angelic Burster
To help Angelic Burster be more efficient, we are increasing the functionality of 2 buffs and allowing Super Nova to ignore damage reflect.
  • Lyrical Cross Lyrical Cross: accuracy boost has been removed, Lyrical Cross now increases attack speed by 1 stage and maximum HP by 1500
  • Super Nova Super Nova: this skill can now ignore damage reflect
  • Soul Exalt Soul Exalt: 100% Recharge chance has been removed, Soul Exalt now gives the ability to ignore Damage Reflect, 20% boss damage, 30% defense ignore, and increases Soul Seeker Expert’s chance to activate by 15%
Android Factory
Now, let’s talk about Black Heaven!! It’s not mentioned in the patch notes at all, and it’s not available in game, but this huge patch added a bunch of things behind the scenes! I’m trying to piece it together from just images and what we know of beforehand, so here’s what I have:
Black Heaven
I’m assuming the Black Wings have activated a giant airship called Black Heaven. This airship is going to attack… somewhere. Maybe Edelstein? Maybe Ereb? I’m not sure.
Act 1 Black Heaven MapBlockbuster
This patch was said to use a new blockbuster system, and I think I know what that means. There are 7 acts in the data, and this world map above, along with a blockbuster UI. I’m pretty sure this entire story will take place over 4 acts, with each one possibly having a different sort of game play.
I’m so excited for this patch you have no idea.
Maple AllianceCygnus
What I do know is that the Maple Alliance will join together to fight this huge threat!
Black Heaven BackgroundLeben MineBlack Heaven Defense Weapon
Grinder
There will probably be some part where you have to infiltrate the Black Wings headquarters in Leben Mine, and face giant monsters. They’re probably the ones seen here.
NineheartPio (2)Pio (1)Cygnus ShopBlack Wing Carrier
There’s a bunch of ships added in this patch, along with NPCs (such as the Cygnus Knights, Kyrin, various knights and Resistance members) all fighting. Maybe it’s a co-operative defense mode, sort of like a better Aswan.
NineheartMISSING0196CrosswordBlack Heaven is ReadyBlack Heaven is Ready
There’s also some interesting cutscene images! Who is that missing Knight? A creepy crossword with answers like Black Heaven is Ready
Cygnus Nineheart Dulpy Guppy Leapy Athena Claudine Orca Gelimer Baroque
Like they said beforehand, this new content will be using a new type of storytelling, similar to Zero and the new Mushroom Kingdom, so it comes with its own set of NPC illustrations!
Francis Hiver Phantom Aria
Even Francis and Hiver (wow I thought they forgot about that guy) appear! And there’s an NPC for Aria, as well as an enraged Phantom. This one’s probably from a flashback since the patch is subtitled [Orca & Suu] but still, very interesting.
Flying Transformer Orca & Suu SigmundOrca & Suu Belle Orca & Suu Brighton Orca & Suu Checky Orca & Suu Airship Battle
I’m also pretty sure this patch will involve aerial battles! There were some monsters added that are in flying ships and they released these other images in a preview last week.
There were some BGMs added as well (thanks to SlipySlide!). One of them is named the Doll Master, maybe Francis will play a bigger part in this patch than we thought.

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