Developer’s Note – MapleStory Reboot Update Introduction #2 and #3!
Two more Developer’s Notes were released, one very early today and one very recently! One covers the new 2D skeleton animations and Kinesis while the other talks about the new Reboot server.
Hello Maple users.
It’s SY.Today we will be talking about the introduction of 2D skeleton animations and also a bit more of the new class Kinesis which we have mentioned before.
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1. 2D Skeleton Animation
SY: MapleStory’s 2D graphics are definitely part of Maple’s signature, but it does have limitations. In order to fix this, we will be updating to a new graphics engine which will allow better 2D graphics scenes.
Kobo: Hello! I’m the designer in charge of concept art, Kobo. The introduction of a new graphics engine is very exciting to a designer~
Our current sprites require many resources in order to create realistic animations and movements, and it is hard for us to make what we imagine, but with the introduction of this new graphics engine, we will be able to create more natural motions and use our character illustrations better. For example, making wind swept grass and trees, fast moving vehicles, and other moving objects. Overall, this will allow us to make movement much more vibrant.
Kobo: You can expect MapleStory’s graphic style to evolve.
Sutber: Hello. I am the designer in charge of pixel art, Sutber.
In the past, skeleton animation was used in 3D games and more recently, online games, console games, mobile games, and a variety of different platforms. With the addition of skeleton animation to MapleStory, monsters’ animations can become much more natural and vibrant.
Sutber: In addition to monsters and some of the new job’s skills, NPCs, items, and other categories of art will be able to be more visually pleasing to all the users playing MapleStory.
2. New Job
SY: When you hear Maplestory and summer, the first thing you would think of is a new job. But for the past 1 year and 6 months, we have not released any! This summer, the new job you have been waiting for is coming.
MapleStory has 35 jobs but other than their effects, their combat patterns tend to be similar and not very unique.
Taking this into consideration, rather than actually hitting enemies, the new job “Kinesis” will use the weight of objects and monsters around them to showcase an exciting battle.
Wave: Hello, this is my first time speaking with you. I’m Wave.
After the last Developers’ Note was released, many users have been curious about the new job and as many of you have guessed, the new job will use telekinesis.
Kinesis uses telekinesis to pick up or throw monsters, lift themselves up, and after collecting a certain amount of Psychic Points, they can use powerful ultimate skills which use giant objects. This will create a different play pattern than other existing jobs.
This will also be the first job which begins in Friends Story. Starting in the modern background of Friends Story then moving into the huge Maple World, we would like to give a movie-like experience to users.
This summer, armed with new skills and a new story, this new job is coming to find you.
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The things we have shown today are still prototypes and we are working hard to develop them more in order to meet your high expectations.
Please look forward to it and check back tomorrow for more information about the new content.
Thank you.
Those animations look beautiful! I can’t wait to see what new things we’ll be getting with the new graphics engine. And the new job Kinesis sounds cool as well, starting in Friends Story is a bit weird though.
Hello, it’s SY.
Today, we will be talking about the identity of the “Reboot world” which a lot of users have wondered about.
1. Reboot World
In this summer update, the new Reboot world will be born. The Reboot world is a server focusing on the fun of an RPG’s natural growth, collecting items and becoming stronger. This is done through the removal of selling items which significantly affect strength and reducing the reliance on Cash items through mesos.
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Wonky: Hello, I’m Wonky.
In the Reboot world, in order to bring back the RPG’s original fun, game play will be significantly changed. Sufficient items and money needed in the growth process will be acquired through regular gameplay. This reduces the burden of keeping track of money, allowing you to relax and enjoy the RPG. In addition, we will be simplifying enhancing equipment in order to reduce the gap between equipment items. We also want to make levelling up more fun and not just killing monsters repeatedly, so we will be making significant changes to monsters to make battling more interesting.
All trading will be blocked in the Reboot world. Currently, in MapleStory, you can buy all the equipment you need through regular trading or the auction house. Although collecting money through trading is an important factor in MMORPGs, we think it is more important to fight against monsters and collect your own equipment and items. By acquiring equipment through your own gameplay instead of through a shop, we think it will make it a more fun RPG.
Mind Reading Robot: Hello, I’m a mind reading robot.
To reduce the burden of Cash in the Reboot world, a new Cash Shop will be utilized. Because this server is designed to give you the items and money you need as you hunt and level up, there is not as much need of various item strengthening systems and thus, related Cash items will not be sold at all or will be available through mesos. Cosmetic items which do not affect game play will be sold for Cash like usual. These changes will reduce the burden of Cash items and allow you to enjoy the game whether or not you spend money on Cash.
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Through the implementation of the Reboot world, we want to show our true Maple’s original intentions, and because of various limitations in existing worlds, we will do it with the Reboot world. We will continue to develop Reboot world based on these policies and listen to the opinions of users to make more changes.
Please look forward to it.
Thank you.
Wow, this seems like something a lot of users have been asking for! Are you guys looking forward to the Reboot world?
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BTW: the reboot world sounds interesting… too bad it’s too late, i quit already, haha. (and i doubt something like that will ever get to GMS, greedy bitches won’t give a “free and fun” server just for the fun of it.)
awesome
Oh my god this is the best update ever XD
The new animation looks awesome, I’m excited for Kinesis, and REBOOT WORLD IS THE BOMB. Wait, some cash items are sold through Mesos? Are x2 EXP tickets Meso items now? Even if it isn’t, no Pay2Win is amazing.
(No but seriously when I first saw Reboot World I thought they meant a Pre-Big Bang Rollback Server XD but this is cool too)
Me too I thought it meant something like pre-big bang
Am I looking forward to Reboot world? HAH!
Thank you Nexon, thank you a million. :’)
Uh kinesis now reminds me of veigas from grand chase???
Lol anyways reboot world sounds like a terrible idea, trading isn’t what killed the game. It’s untradeables that did in my opinion.
(Like exp tables and all that sort of stuff (and tradeable old gladiuses/gladi???) Uh also maybe reduce the damage output of all chars for the reboot world :0)
Oh dang I forgot to mention, the 2D skeleton thing is SO DAMN PRETTY
*fangirl squeals*
Pretty sure those tables are related to kinesis
The Job kinesis is similar to Marvel Scarlett witch/Magneto where moving objects with mind and using kinetic energy? Is it a mage/Warrior hybrid or is it a pirate/thief like xenon?
Anyway animation looks awesome and I hope they make a maple world where all users can at least get to fight bosses. unlike now Maplesea is only intrested in cubes more cubes and that the mileage shop ability to buy normal cash item has ceased only mileage items which are only about 10-20 variety. So sad that I cant play global due to IP Block
*shrugs* that’s maplesea for ya
Wonder if maplesea would ever get the reboot world.
Yep, not even beast tamer is out yet.
more than likely it will be a mage class seeing as in all areas telekinesis has been shown it is do to a heightened intellect
I have a feeling it will be another Mage class. But oh man. If this game ever got a Warrior/Mage hybrid, that would so be my new main.
So about those “2D skeleton animations”
They didn’t mention what software they were using to make them but I wonder if Live 2D (or Cubism Editor) was used because they just looks like it (especially the Pink Bean one)…I dunno if other softwares are capable of achieving that effect.
Most likely a custom engine, most games out there use custom engines.
1. I don’t think that the new animation will be favored by all players. Won’t the new animation make the game lag more?
2. I like the fact that Nexon is trying to be more creative. However, they should have done it earlier. I heard from some of my friends in South Korea that MapleStory is not really famous anymore in their parts. If Nexon does not recover from their loss in player base after the Unlimited patch the survival of MapleStory would be uncertain.
3. No problem with Reboot world, but perhaps they can consider the idea of a world without a currency, since you no longer require to trade. Perhaps all Cash Items can be obtained from purely NX and that there would be no such thing as a meso.
EXTRA. They should focus on making leveling from higher levels more fun instead of plain old grinding. It’s a pain to sit in front of the computer for 18 hours a day trying to obtain EXP.
1. The new animation is supposed to help Nexon with the new blockbusters they’re going to make. I have to say Black Heaven looked kind of cheesy with the current graphics, so I’m really looking forward to the update.
2. I agree with you on this, but I don’t think MapleStory has deteriorated to the point of “uncertain survival”. I do agree that it was wise of Nexon to fire Oh Han-byeol (the lead developer who was in charge from 2010 to 2014 and developed Big Bang, UNLIMITED, etc)
3. “Perhaps all Cash Items can be obtained from purely NX and that there would be no such thing as a meso”? The whole point of this server is to get rid of NX and make a non-Pay2Win environment, and you’re coming up with the exact opposite.
EXTRA. They did say that the main objective of the Re:Boot update was to improve gameplay between levels 100 and 180.
By making everyone weaker it seems lol
Anyways for the new graphics it’s probably because maple’s graphic system is pretty old I guess
Well, I’m assuming they’re going to add more content like theme dungeons and even 5th job advancement. I don’t know about everyone else but I personally enjoy playing theme dungeons, even if the leveling is slower than just grinding. I think they’re good breaks from just mindlessly pressing the attack key.
Because the game initially wasn’t designed to be a grind.
It’s mapleSTORY for a reason
(Well that’s my take on it at least ouo)
MapleStory was always made fun of (at least in Korea) before the introduction of Cygnus Knights for being “all Maple and no Story”. That’s why they introduced the Black Mage for the Cygnus Knights and developed the decent storyline they have now. Nexon actually planted the seed for the Black Mage back in Magatia with a really subtle quest, and they implemented the Black Mage in the Pirates’ initial storyline, but it wasn’t until the Cygnus Knights that he became a big deal. I think MapleStory was pretty much a grind game before story classes started to come in, which I believe was a change for the better.
It was YOUR story where you should explore the world and write your own diary before bb, yet now it became a fixed storyline where you should just follow the same path of everyone else to take down black Mage. Though I should admit that I can’t see the future of maple if it didn’t went through bb
Yes, but “your story” wasn’t very interesting either when 90% of it was grinding. What was personally really annoying about Big Bang was the fact that they turned Victoria Island into a lump of generic, flat platform-filled maps replacing the lively, characteristic maps like L Forest that I loved. Each and every map felt different in pre-Big Bang Victoria, but now the maps are so small and simple that they all feel the same. And I feel like Nexon hasn’t been putting that much effort into their maps after Ludus Lake. Victoria Island (pre-Big Bang), Orbis, El Nath, Ludibrium, Omega Sector and Korean Folk Town all had interesting maps, but after that… I mean, even in maps like Ariant, Magatia, and Leafre, you can already start to see Nexon getting lazy with the map design.
(same guy)
I should say i have dam lots of fun even if i was spamming kpq almost a year to get to level30 (really lol). Grinding in that time was fun, but not now. As you said, BB sucks, i really loved those old maps before. Now all the maps are the same, it’s so boring. Btw, i hate Friends Story, because you are still needed to “grind”, fk.
“Won’t the new animation make the game lag more?”
Well, actually, it depends on how they put it in the game.
Lag is mostly due to connection issues, so if they maintain the map animations client-side, it -shouldn’t- lag because of that.
Reboot world sounds incredibly fun!
I really hope GMS will eventually get it too.
Oh. My. Glob.
I hope the new engine doesn’t increase the requirements to play the game by a lot. Sme users complain that they lag due to memory usage even tho they can play other recently released games smothly. Hope this new engine helps with this.
Skeletons uses way less memory, because you don’t need a billion images to animate a character. It will use a bit more CPU though. Overall it will have a higher performance.
That’s great to hear ouo
we dont need a new job or new animation. 5th job as in hyper skill 2.0 and gtfo
Reboot world eh? Interesting. This new server is really making a loud statement. Very interesting.
I see java coding, about time flash animation take over.
Hopefully in the reboot, Shadowers get assulter again. RIP ASSULTER
I fking want assulter back aswell holy shit
Maplestory: Reboot for the best summer update?
How I imagine Kinesis
I see spam XD
Soon..
The Touhou hijack may start slow, but now it’s time to prepare for the inevitable. I am.
http://maplestory.nexon.net/rankings/overall-ranking/legendary?pageIndex=1&character_name=LadyRemilia&search=true
Are you?
TOUHOU HIJACK
Both Kinesis and Sumireko are humans with telekinetic abilities, are from a modern world and enter a fantasy world filled with magic and monsters
Sounds more like a private server O.o?
To clarify: Reboot is a new server, not a change to the game structure on existing servers? So existing servers can still trade/etc as before?
Yes existing servers will not receive these changes.
Thanks. In that case I very much like this idea.
I think those animations are ugly and unfitting for Maplestory’s theme. How unfortunate that it’s coming to this game.
I find that very unfortunate. As a beta player of GMS, I’ve watched the game morph in every aspect imaginable. I’ve seen every hacker outbreak, every game update, every map design change, every class nerf, everything that’s ever happened. While I do believe that Nexon America is a money-grubbing garbage can of a company, Nexon Korea has something here with the grass animations.
These animations make the world feel more alive, make your character feel like it’s actually there instead of the generic 2D platformer you’ve played in for the past decade. I think it’s an amazing idea. Is it a perfect animation set? Maybe not, but the idea is sound, and so far their implementation test seems solid. I think you’ve either not played for long enough, or are not old enough to appreciate how making the world feel more vibrant and alive can really improve a person’s play session.
I agree wholeheartedly. I’m greatly looking forward to new blockbusters (like Black Heaven) utilizing the new animation system.
I agree, I remember when I first started playing the game and started in perion. I made my first character and it was a warrior. Playing in perion just felt surreal, and seeing that skeleton map is close to bringing that feeling I first felt playing the game.
Sumireko is that you??
Reboot World sounds really good. Might actually get back into MS properly instead of sitting around doing nothing in Bera.
Also, Friend Story confirmed. Maybe it IS the White Mage teacher.
Wow! Okay I’ll admit Ive been a very cynical shit to this game for a long time since the ruining of Gachapons, Cubing, 250 Cap, lvl200+ content, and Impossible Hard Bosses with OP end game gear, but
this…. Reboot update looks promising 🙂
DAT ANIMATION of the grass and trees in Henesys… VERY NICE!
Kenisis from Friends Story?? hmm that’s interesting…
Well I hope the revamped areas like Korean Folk Town and other content in Reboot will be stellar!
I’m stoked for this now. Good on you Nexon
2D bone animation/liquify is the absolute EASIEST style to produce in the world. Look at how you’d go about it in a program like spine;
They wouldn’t-have even needed to make multiple frames for these animations…and that grass is just one animation that they duplicated tons of times then slapped onto different parallax layers. Maybe I’m just incredibly cynical; but accomplishing what every shitty mobile game has done for years is not impressive to me.
So.. is Reboot a new world, or a revamp of current MapleStory systems?
A new world.
Oh my, these maps look marvelous *-*
Looks good so far and I love the way the new graphics and interactions and….I love that Pinkbean.gif
MS graphics are kinda weird. The characters and NPCs are too pixeled compared to the scenarios, that have a way better resolution. They don’t even look like part of the same game. With this new animations it’s even worst! I liked them, but I think they should change character animation and resolution too. Does anybody else feel annoyed with this?
I hope they change it someday
l am so excited to hear about this, the Reboot server is basically their version of the “Pre-BB” server so many people ask for. The Kinesis job also sounds really interesting and l’m so happy they realized they were generalizing all jobs to be exactly the same as one another.
l welcome this update and can’t wait for it to hit GMS (which is going to probably be a lonng time)
“we would like to give a movie-like experience to users”
maplestory confirmed for ps4
Dang it, I joined when the Big Bang happened. Put many people have talked about the Pre-big bang to be very important, I was hoping to see which I prefer.
Believe me, pre-Big Bang was a nightmare… the only thing better about Pre-Big Bang was the community.