On the 24th, Maple Story general director Kang Won-ki reviewed the last update and explained the future direction of Maple development through ‘2022 Maple Vision Talk’. The keywords revealed through the Vision Talk were ‘growth, skill, boss, item, story, convenience, IP expansion’. There are 7 in total.
Before the full-fledged start, Director Kang said, “Recently, the number of interactions with users has increased and the development of MapleStory has also been positively affected. We promised to continue and develop through user-friendly communication methods.
First, I mentioned ‘growth’. The MapleStory development team has been steadily reducing the time it takes to grow through updates in the first half of the year. Many experience points were provided through events and contents. In addition, in order to reduce the deviation due to play time, it has been reorganized so that a large amount of experience can be obtained in a short time through daily content.
Director Kang promised to keep the update in the first half of the second half of the year and gradually alleviate the difficulty of training by improving the hunting ground structure and hunting system. Director Kang said, “As a result, the goal is to reduce the time invested in fostering so that more users can enjoy various contents.”
There is still not a lot of users over level 250
Next is ‘skills’. Director Kang emphasized, “Skill is the most basic and intuitive experience among the elements that make up Maple’s battle.” He added, “We will approach it with caution because we know that it is a topic that users consider important.”
Director Kang reflected, “It had to be accompanied by verification that the experience of using the skill was justified. In retrospect, that process was not enough.” To compensate for this, he said that in the first half of 2022, rather than adding new jobs, it was said that the current skills such as Adventurer and Cygnus Remaster had a period of checking and modifying whether they gave an experience of positive interaction with combat elements.
After Cygnus, he thought about remastering other professions, but he said, “I decided that the need to reorganize other professions at once like the previous adventurer and Cygnus was not high.” Regarding the future update direction, Director Kang said, “We will improve the structure and effects necessary for each job through job-specific reorganization rather than job group reorganization.” He continued, “There is no right answer to the numerical balance,” he said, emphasizing that he plans to continuously check and improve in the second half of the year.
In the occupational group unit reorganization, the unit reorganization by occupation will be carried out.
Third, we shared an update vision for ‘boss content’, which has the role of confirming the character’s growth level and suggesting challenge goals. Director Kang said, “In the first half of the year, the update focused on three points: gradual arrangement of boss difficulty, reorganization of battle patterns and content convenience, and presentation of a new boss difficulty layer.” In the second half of the year, it was revealed that the task of verifying and correcting whether the difficulty of the boss is appropriate, whether there are inappropriate patterns, and whether the convenience is sufficient, he said.
Next, I mentioned ‘items’. Director Kang said, “In the first half of the year, we tried to gradually increase the equipment and reduce the difficulty gradually. In the case of gradual growth, Todd’s Hammer reorganization and the Dawning Boss set were added. Also, there was a difficulty relief cube and a great soul reorganization” .
Still, he emphasized that the most important part of the item patch is that “the value of the existing price does not change.” He said that in the second half of the year, it will continue to ease the difficulty of growth in stages without changing the direction. Regarding the specific content, he said, “As it is closely related to the market economy, it is difficult to comment on specific details right now.”
Emphasis was placed on preserving item value.
He also explained the story behind the expansion of IP. Director Kang said, “As MapleStory has been serving the story for a long time, the volume has grown and there are many areas that need improvement in setting, plausibility, and directing.”
He said, “In the first half of the year, we focused on improving the existing story, such as adding Kao’s memory and reorganizing the story to fit the job remaster, with the intention of refining the shortcomings little by little.” He also revealed that in the case of a new story expansion, he aimed for organic connections and rapid development like ‘Hotel Arcs’.
He emphasized that he will continue to make improvements in the second half of the year. As part of that, it said that it will introduce a story organization and replay function soon. In addition, in the case of the new story expansion, by showing organic stories in ‘Karote’ and ‘Odium’, we plan to present a clear goal to users, materialize unclear settings, and present a full-fledged narrative about the opponents.
Regarding the convenience reorganization, Director Kang was satisfied, saying, “Unlike the past, which was bundled with the Bombom project and improved once every half year, the current convenience improvement is progressing almost every month.” He said, “I felt that Maple, which has been in service for 19 years, has accumulated a lot of inconveniences. .
Director Kang also emphasized the promise with users. He said, “Currently, MapleStory is steadily keeping its promises with its users.” In fact, it was mentioned that among the 504 suggestions from users, it was actually reflected, and there are currently 349 items that are currently being improved or scheduled within 2022, accounting for about 70% of the total as of August 24. However, he said, “We will do our best to continuously complete the matters under review.”
More than 70% of the proposals were carried out
In addition to this, MapleStory is currently making various attempts outside of the game, such as IP expansion. Offline events such as Maple Orchestra and Balloon Festival and alliances such as Maple Story Bread and Sulbing are all part of it. Director Kang said, “I will do my best to make Maple Story a story that the whole family can be proud of so that the whole family can enjoy it with Maple Story in the second half of the year as well.”
Users who have been waiting for the occupational remastered have a somewhat disappointed response, but overall, the reaction of users is positive. “Thank you for your hard work in communication these days. Please make more interesting Maple in the future”, “It’s great to see Maple that continues to develop”, “I came back after seeing how hard I work in operation”, “I can see a real change”, etc. I praised MapleStory and looked forward to further development in the future.
※ 2022 Maple Vision Talk Summary
1. Grow
– Continue to improve the difficulty of growth and hunting grounds while maintaining the current trend
– Continue to reduce the time required for fostering
2. Skills
– Change of route from occupational unit to occupational unit
– Instead of a major remaster, long-term improvement work for each job is carried out
– Numerical balance will continue to be monitored and corrected in the second half of the year
3. Boss
– Enhanced reward experience and improved growth feedback
– We plan to continue the work of verifying and correcting whether the difficulty of the boss is appropriate, whether there are no inappropriate patterns, and whether it is convenient enough.
4. Item
– Focus on the preservation of item value
– Maintain the direction of gradual growth and gradual difficulty relief in the second half of the year
5. Story
– Story replay function will be applied in the second half of the year
– As we do now, we will continue to work to compensate for the lack of settings.
6. Convenience
– We do this every month, and we plan to continue doing it in the future.
7. IP extension
– Offline events, promotions, charity projects, etc. are all part of it
– Operate a game that the whole family can enjoy under the motto
Choi Eun-sang, reporter for Hankyung.com Game Talk