Dev Blog: The Age of Heroes Class Rebalance

Eh? How do you figure that?

I'm a programmer. I've worked on all sorts of software, from warehouse management to air traffic control. I know very little about either field, or any of the others I've developed software for. Requirements/design and testing were always done by experienced users, though, which is something sadly lacking at Nexon (Korea and America, both).

In the quote i just posted she/he said "other maplestory developer" so it is safe to assume that eurydice is a developer.

Experienced users? So when nexon figures out how to fix a glitch i guess they dont have any experience users huh? Also worst problems could arise while they are testing that don't make it to the live servers.

Also I didnt ask for your whole ego trip buddy about what you did in your life. Save it for someone who actually cares.

Yeah, BUDDY. Save it for someone who cares.

Jeez.

This thread depresses me in more than 2 ways.

In the quote i just posted she/he said "other maplestory developer" so it is safe to assume that eurydice is a developer.

Experienced users? So when nexon figures out how to fix a glitch i guess they dont have any experience users huh? Also worst problems could arise while they are testing that don't make it to the live servers.

Also I didnt ask for your whole ego trip buddy about what you did in your life. Save it for someone who actually cares.

I know she's a developer, I was just saying developers don't necessarily know anything about how their product is really used. And I gave my "ego trip", as you call it, to explain how I know this about developers.

And no, to fix bugs does not require experienced users. To reproduce it sometimes does, which is why we sometimes see -Hime- or her friends post something like "this one proved quite a stumper for our programmers". But to fix them usually requires, well, programming knowledge. The ability to use a debugger and find your way around a core dump, that sort of thing.

And to test... some things can be tested by any part-time college student with a sheet of instructions in the form of "press A. observe that B happens. press C" etc. And some, as we know, only come to light in Tespia or in the live servers, because only experienced users with an actual feel for the game can tell "this isn't right!"
I believe one of the requirements to work for Nexon, definitely as a GM, possibly also as QA, is that you did *not* play their games previously. That's to avoid you being a double agent and leaking stuff to the community, or whatever other paranoid reason they've got. Whatever it is, it's shooting themselves in the foot, repeatedly.

Yeah, BUDDY. Save it for someone who cares.

Jeez.

God Sarah you just don't understand how important it is for Aspies to be right.


Most of the bugs in Tespia seems like things that could really be written into an automated testing suite. Adding a new item that requires players to interact with it? (refinery) Spawn a couple characters, give one the item, let them click it, enter a price, then the other player clicks it too. When both players' games crash, something is evidently wrong...

Since when does "most" mean "all"?

I have no idea whether a Jump! for thieves and pirates is in the works, but this Dev Blog does not prove there isn't.

You seem to have missed the words "major changes".

You seem to have missed the words "major changes".

"Most tigers are not white." -> "A minority of tigers may be white."
"Most classes won't see major changes" -> "A minority of classes may see major changes."

Or, if you consider "most" to be necessarily "not all", then
"Most tigers are not white." -> "Some tigers are white."
"Most classes won't see major changes" -> "Some classes will see major changes."

By the beginning of 2010 it was clear that we were going to have to make some serious changes. Big Bang was on the horizon and the addition of PvP was becoming more likely. Big Bang would change the leveling curve significantly and seemed like the perfect time to bring some unity to the classes so we did! The Big Bang class rebalance was a great start, but in truth you just cant balance classes on paper. Players will always find ways to surprise you and use skills in ways you havent thought of, and as soon as Big Bang was released in Korea, we knew that more class changes were imminent.

Really?...players have like, 2 skills in MapleStory, and there's not exactly a lot of game mechanics to balance for.

"Most tigers are not white." -> "A minority of tigers may be white."
"Most classes won't see major changes" -> "A minority of classes may see major changes."

Or, if you consider "most" to be necessarily "not all", then
"Most tigers are not white." -> "Some tigers are white."
"Most classes won't see major changes" -> "Some classes will see major changes."

Think what you wish.

Really?...players have like, 2 skills in MapleStory, and there's not exactly a lot of game mechanics to balance for.

I love how these blogs make it seems like Nexon does anything but copy and paste, I wonder how someone can actually sit down and write something claiming someone else's hard work down months ago is theirs, such little integrity at Nexon, its like they are pretending they are the tooth fairy, but everyone is already old enough to know they aren't real.

I love how these blogs make it seems like Nexon does anything but copy and paste, I wonder how someone can actually sit down and write something claiming someone else's hard work down months ago is theirs, such little integrity at Nexon, its like they are pretending they are the tooth fairy, but everyone is already old enough to know they aren't real.

Only for Maple can we get such facepalm worthy stuff.

I love how these blogs make it seems like Nexon does anything but copy and paste, I wonder how someone can actually sit down and write something claiming someone else's hard work down months ago is theirs, such little integrity at Nexon, its like they are pretending they are the tooth fairy, but everyone is already old enough to know they aren't real.

I like that a majority of their community is so ignorant that they can get away with it.

I like that a majority of their community is so ignorant that they can get away with it.

Tis a bit sad, ain't it?

I love how these blogs make it seems like Nexon does anything but copy and paste, I wonder how someone can actually sit down and write something claiming someone else's hard work down months ago is theirs, such little integrity at Nexon, its like they are pretending they are the tooth fairy, but everyone is already old enough to know they aren't real.

But she never claimed it to be hers..she said it was a group effort of all the developers.

Sorry thieves, pirates.

kMS has been revamping each class in Jump! update one after another, not all at once.

Pirates and Thieves will be receiving changes in due time. They only mentioned the first three because those are the only ones that kMS has done so far, so gMS doesn't know exactly when the Pirate and Thief changes will come.

Just read the update notes for Chaos Age of Heroes. It is beefy. A link coming soon!

Must...have...beef...

I actually like Euradyce's posts quite a bit. BS or not (debatable), they show a competent view of the game.
Unfortunately, this isn't reflected in what we actually see when patches role out.

I know she's a developer, I was just saying developers don't necessarily know anything about how their product is really used. And I gave my "ego trip", as you call it, to explain how I know this about developers.

"Developer" is a vague term; we don't know what exactly his role is.
His posts would indicate that he has an good idea of the overall scope of the game, which would make his job the inverse of yours.
He could easily be the one telling the programmers what their code needs to do.

Also keep in mind that video game development is generally a more specified field, especially when your job focuses on a small number of games (and possibly just one).

Really?...players have like, 2 skills in MapleStory, and there's not exactly a lot of game mechanics to balance for.

What class has only 2 skills that they use?

I actually like Euradyce's posts quite a bit. BS or not (debatable), they show a competent view of the game.
Unfortunately, this isn't reflected in what we actually see when patches role out.

That is what people call "being all talk".

Also, did no one else find this line odd?:
"Resistance and Cygnus classes will also undergo changes"

There hasn't been a revamp that specifically singles out either of these branches.

This is what people call "being all talk".

Persistent pessimism?

You can only bullpomegranate so much without actual knowledge of a subject.
Of course, having knowledge of something and having the authority to change it are two entirely different things.

I do agree that there are some bits that are either outright lies, signs of poor decision making, or demonstrations of NxA's impotence.
The main bit would be about them having "a serious discussion about whether we should hold back the Resistance classes."

The most reasonable decision would have been to include the balance from KMS in the initial release of the class.
I don't remember when the original Resistance were released, but GMS got Mechanics some time in January.
Meanwhile, KMS got the first part of Chaos on December 16th. That's plenty of time to adjust the skill tables.

Of course, there is the serious possibility that they don't have the authority to make such adjustments.
Look at Big Bang; the DevBlog said that they were looking at GMS and seeing if there were any changes that would need to be made to suit this version - no changes were ever made.

Unfortunately, we don't have a good window into GMS' development process so these DevBlogs are the best we have.
I certainly prefer them to Hime's guesses of how the game she represents works.

Persistent pessimism?

Hi. You must be new here?