Orange Mushroom's Blog

Yesterday, the Alpha testing of MapleStory 2 took place! Sadly, I don’t think they were allowed to take pictures or videos (because I can’t find ANY) but there was a ton of information that users posted which I have translated below!

In addition, closed beta testing is confirmed to begin in September! Exciting~

The alpha testing took place in Nexon Korea’s headquarters, and lasted about two to three hours. It begun with the tutorial of the game, followed by a boss fight with Griffon, then a minigame called Trap Master, the building system (although this was short) and a small demonstration of the customization.

STORY

The origin of the world’s life, time, and space are kept in balance by three wise men called Sages, in Lapenta. But dark forces (Balrog is shown) have broken the balance and put the world in crisis! Empress Ereb and the Sages, as well as many heroes tried to fight them but they could not win, so the Sages sacrificed themselves to seal away the power of darkness in Lapenta. Together with Empress Ereb and the heroes who fought with her, fight to protect Lapenta!

CONTROLS

Use your arrow keys to move around and climb ladders. <C> is used to jump, <Spacebar> allows you to talk to NPCs and use portals, <Z> is to loot. Items are required to be picked up but mesos are looted automatically.

Skills and items can be put on <Q,W,E,R,A,S,D,F/1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8>. To crawl, you can use <. + arrow keys> and to sit, you can use </>. You can change your point of view by pressing <[>.

STATS

• HP: also known as hit points or health points, when this hits 0 you will die. However, MapleStory 2 has a new Tombstone system. When you die, you drop a tombstone which if other people destroy, you can be revived! However, this can only be done once with a grey tombstone, the next time you die you will have a black tombstone that cannot be broken.
• SP: stamina points replace MP in MapleStory 2, are consumed when using skills, and are fixed at 100 for any job or level. Some jobs have skills that restore SP but you cannot heal it with items, you must wait for it to regenerate over time.
• EP: a separate stat that is used up when avoiding attacks or using things to move (e.g. wall climbing).
• Speed: your movement speed, default is 100 (150 speed is about 1.5x faster)

Of course there are the four stats: STR, DEX, INT and LUK. Warriors (Knight/Berserker) use weapon attack, STR and DEX, Archers (Ranger/Heavy Gunner) use weapon attack, DEX and STR, Rogues (Assassin/Thief) use weapon attack, LUK and DEX, and Magicians (Prist/Wizard) user magic attack and INT.

Attack speed can be raised by items or decreased by penalties, but the base is 100. It seems like there is a special formula as getting 200 attack speed is not 2x your base attack speed. Accuracy returns, and can be increased with DEX. Critical chance is also back, and can be increased with LUK. Critical damage is the damage done when you hit a critical, and it can be increased by levelling up (I think).

Defense reduces damage taken when enemies hit you. Physical resistance is a new stat that reduces damage taken from physical attacks (additionally to defense), it can be raised by STR and DEX. Magical resistance is the same, except it reduces damage taken from magic attacks, it can be raised by INT. Avoidability returns and gives a chance to completely ignore the damage of an attack, it can be raised by LUK. Critical resistance reduces damage taken from critical hits (by bosses and in PvP).

SKILLS

There are three types of skills: active (which use SP), passive, and action (which use EP). To learn skills, you must get to certain levels. There is no more SP (skill points), but instead you use Crystals to level up your skills.

I read that Assassins are similar to those in MapleStory, and Wizards have skills that deal with fire, ice and electricity.

ITEMS

Items have ranks: Normal (white), Rare (green) and Elite (blue). Each item is also given a star rating, normal has 1, rare has 2, and I guess elite has 3.

Items have a variety of options that they can add: attack speed (one item gave 40, so the system is different from MapleStory), each stat, %HP healed when attacking monsters, damage increase to skills with (dark/ice/fire/poison/etc) property, avoid, resistance, movement speed.

BOSSES

The boss raid against Griffon was said to be really fun! As its HP got lower, its battle patterns changed. And sometimes it starts to charge up a flying attack that will do massive damage, but if enough people climb on to it using the <spacebar>, it will cancel the attack!

If you die, you are revived in a nearby place with an Eagle that can take you quickly back to the boss as well as an NPC that cures the curse that is put on you (your HP and SP are reduced if you die). Boss item drops will be instanced.

ETC

• When you enter the water, a ducky tube will automatically be equipped.
• There is an auction house available to sell your items to other users.
• The Trophy system is the achievement system of MapleStory 2, such as walking a certain amount or picking up a certain amount of mesos.
• Minigames will randomly begin in various maps at different times.
• Hair and eye customization will be similar to MapleStory in some ways, with an NPC to give you a random hair and one that lets you select a hair.
• Parties can now hold 10 people.
• The current time and your mesos will be displayed in the top left.
• Potions that instantly heal you have a cooldown, but herbal potions that heal you over time do not.

One person (stealthily) took this picture of the login screen. It is very simple, some users said that it reminded them of the old MapleStory login screen.

There was also a video released titled MapleStory 2 Supporters’ Day #06: Goods which shows a bunch of the merchandise they are making to promote MapleStory 2! I want a mug *~*