MapleStory's Future

The problem with MS is that nexon doesn't really care about this game anymore, if you look at E3 they didnt show anything about maple story and mabinogi but they showed something from vindictus, dragon nest and DFO, they are doing this because they know that MS is dying and mabinogi too(the content is very slow) about combat arms, it is another FPS ruled by hackers, so they now care about OMFG games like vindictus, dragon nest and DFO which are only restricted to NA and Australia and ,if MS dies, MS2 is more likely that it's going to have IP block so don't get very happy if you aren't from NA or australia

mabinogi too(the content is very slow)

The same can be said about Vindictus. The main point with Mabinogi and Vindictus is both games are for their storylines. Plus people are saying Vindictus is getting close to being done with its storyline, supposedly 10 episodes with an "Epilogue" episode at the end.

For the time I have been playing maple it has changed into a more NX centered game (mainly with cubes). I do not know how maple will be in the future, but if current trends hold expect more cash shop centered gameplay.

For the time I have been playing maple it has changed into a more NX centered game (mainly with cubes). I do not know how maple will be in the future, but if current trends hold expect more cash shop centered gameplay.

yeah this is true actually there isn't a "real Balance" of damage and another things without the cash shop, for example i have a 10k damage range pre cubes it would be a great damage range at 120 but right now is a poor one and this is because i only have "normal" gear no potential.

a new instant map crash was just released to public by the way, guess i won't be going near the FM for awhile.

what?! Vindictus doesn't even have constant updates to tie over its current base and when you reach the level cap its over.

Vindictus gets very frequent updates, and it's an extremely fast growing game. The level cap increases faster than you can reach it. I was level 44 when the cap was 44. I'm 57 now and the cap is at 70. Not to mention the game does not end when you reach the cap. You still have all those titles you need to earn, and the amount of money you get per run goes up, so you can work harder to craft that perfect equip.

How many of you know players who have played the last 3 years? Let alone 5, I'm sure that list isn't that big anymore.

True. I've been playing since right after beta, though. A lot of my rl friends, too. Just throwing that out there.

The same can be said about Vindictus. The main point with Mabinogi and Vindictus is both games are for their storylines. Plus people are saying Vindictus is getting close to being done with its storyline, supposedly 10 episodes with an "Epilogue" episode at the end.

This is somwhat true. Yes, Vindi's storyline of the Heroes classes will end soon. However, just like in Maple, there will be different groups of classes that have different storylines. Not to mention they said they were planning on adding other story lines for the Heroes classes once the main one ends.

For the time I have been playing maple it has changed into a more NX centered game (mainly with cubes). I do not know how maple will be in the future, but if current trends hold expect more cash shop centered gameplay.

Very true. They went from stating that they won't sell 2x cards to making certain jobs require the use of NX. Cubes are the only way to become godly. And even if you're buying NX with mesos, the fact of the matter is someone is still buying that NX in the first place.
Yes, the main point of almost any company is to make money, but this is taking it a bit too far. :/

Not true. If the client of a game, it's files, and hack prevention program with it are done properly you won't see hacks in a game. The game Nexon recently moved to their site Atlantica Online has been around for about 3 years, and the Korean version about 4 or 5. Not a single hack exists for any version of the game.

What do you mean not true? Prevention takes many forms... Hiring more GMs, a better client, server encryption, etc...

What do you mean not true? Prevention takes many forms... Hiring more GMs, a better client, server encryption, etc...

Exactly. One of the solutions to hackers and many other problems this game has would be.. well, rewriting the entire client. It'd probably be a time-consuming and expensive process, but it'd be worth it. Maybe, finally, MapleStory would become free of all those hackers who are taking over the game.

Hell, even Nexon would earn something from this, if that's what you're going to ask. Remember that, because of the hackers, many people quit the game. If they finally put an end to the hacking era, then I'm pretty sure many would come back (= more customers for them).

I know that rewriting the client would be a REALLY long and difficult process, though, and I'm not even sure if the best programmers they have could do it. To make sure everything goes as it should, they should call those who first coded the first MapleStory client, as nobody better than them (or.. him?) can know how it should be structured to make sure everything works. Obviously, these people should come up with new measures to make sure that the client is coded in a way that it's almost impossible to use stuff such as PEs, and also remove the annoying memory leaks.

Or they could just as well have some very experienced developers carefully study how the client is coded and come up with a new better structure. But, again, that's no easy job.

It's not the client that needs rewriting, it's the server.
Or rather, the relationship between them.
The problem with MapleStory is that it was apparently written as a mostly peer-to-peer game, with the server doing extremely minimal duty as switchboard. With time, the server took on more functionality, but the clients still do a lot of the work that, logically, should have been in the server. And the server lazily accepts whatever the client says is happening, without question, not realizing that the client is "in enemy hands", on the user's computer, and can be made to say whatever the user wants it to.

This is what needs to change, the basic architecture, if we don't want to see new hacks appear with every new skill or event. And this is what I can't see Nexon putting effort into. They'd much rather create fancier sprites for old and new skills (while still not fixing memory leaks and other fundamental flaws, which obviously makes the game laggier and glitchier with every new version), add worse bosses and then more OP classes to fight them and then revamp the old classes to balance with the new, and so on ad nauseam.

One can only hope that MapleStory 2.0 will have a saner architecture.

Exactly. One of the solutions to hackers and many other problems this game has would be.. well, rewriting the entire client. It'd probably be a time-consuming and expensive process, but it'd be worth it. Maybe, finally, MapleStory would become free of all those hackers who are taking over the game.

Hell, even Nexon would earn something from this, if that's what you're going to ask. Remember that, because of the hackers, many people quit the game. If they finally put an end to the hacking era, then I'm pretty sure many would come back (= more customers for them).

I know that rewriting the client would be a REALLY long and difficult process, though, and I'm not even sure if the best programmers they have could do it. To make sure everything goes as it should, they should call those who first coded the first MapleStory client, as nobody better than them (or.. him?) can know how it should be structured to make sure everything works. Obviously, these people should come up with new measures to make sure that the client is coded in a way that it's almost impossible to use stuff such as PEs, and also remove the annoying memory leaks.

Or they could just as well have some very experienced developers carefully study how the client is coded and come up with a new better structure. But, again, that's no easy job.

If everything still is like Nexon said before in 2009(?), there already is a team rewriting MapleStory currently. We don't know how long they have been developing/planning MS2, but I have high expectations for it, when/if it comes out.

If everything still is like Nexon said before in 2009(?), there already is a team rewriting MapleStory currently. We don't know how long they have been developing/planning MS2, but I have high expectations for it, when/if it comes out.

I'm sure they're working hard on it, just like Block Party.

MapleStory will be around as long as it turns a profit, which it will into the foreseeable future.

If everything still is like Nexon said before in 2009(?), there already is a team rewriting MapleStory currently. We don't know how long they have been developing/planning MS2, but I have high expectations for it, when/if it comes out.

If I recall, big bang WAS the rewrite? I'm not sure I just remember that being the case

Funny. I remember this same topic in 2007. "Hackers have taken over! Nexon just wants our money! Meso buyers have KILLED the economy! This game won't last another year!". Where are we now? 4 years later and the game is as strong as ever. It has more players than ever, and though it's declining, Nexon has gotten a good enough cash shop that for the most part they make much more money per person than they used to. Things aren't great, but I can't see 'maplestory 2.0' fixing things unless it's a full replacement of ms with character and item transfer. Nobody that has played an mmo wants to just drop their progress and every hour they've put into a game and just move on to ms 2.0. The more likely scenario is that ms 2.0 is just a rewritten version of the same game with better security. Aka, big bang 2.
What's really needed is validation checking on inputs, packet checking, and better software than hackshield. 99% of the exploits we see now are simply "record packet 1, change value, spam new packet", or some variety of that. If they did simple things like validating input, scanning packets for abnormal values, or replacing hackshield with whatever that old one was that fixed hacking for a few years we'd be much better off.

It's not the client that needs rewriting, it's the server.
Or rather, the relationship between them.
The problem with MapleStory is that it was apparently written as a mostly peer-to-peer game, with the server doing extremely minimal duty as switchboard. With time, the server took on more functionality, but the clients still do a lot of the work that, logically, should have been in the server. And the server lazily accepts whatever the client says is happening, without question, not realizing that the client is "in enemy hands", on the user's computer, and can be made to say whatever the user wants it to.

This is what needs to change, the basic architecture, if we don't want to see new hacks appear with every new skill or event. And this is what I can't see Nexon putting effort into. They'd much rather create fancier sprites for old and new skills (while still not fixing memory leaks and other fundamental flaws, which obviously makes the game laggier and glitchier with every new version), add worse bosses and then more OP classes to fight them and then revamp the old classes to balance with the new, and so on ad nauseam.

One can only hope that MapleStory 2.0 will have a saner architecture.

That's it. MapleStory 64-bit version, gogo!

If I recall, big bang WAS the rewrite? I'm not sure I just remember that being the case

Could be, cause I remember spadows blog post along these lines:
"In this conference it turned out that MapleStory 2 is actually a seperate project from MapleStory 3D"

Then again here:
http://news.mmosite.com/content/2009-12-...58,2.shtml

That article was about the same conference as Spadows blog was about. I think Spadow meant MapleStory DS with the "MapleStory 3D". Why would they have a "team MS2" just for Big Bang? Huge patch =/= sequel and it wouldn't require a special team, just the typical update team for MS.

Funny. I remember this same topic in 2007. "Hackers have taken over! Nexon just wants our money! Meso buyers have KILLED the economy! This game won't last another year!". Where are we now? 4 years later and the game is as strong as ever. It has more players than ever, and though it's declining, Nexon has gotten a good enough cash shop that for the most part they make much more money per person than they used to. Things aren't great, but I can't see 'maplestory 2.0' fixing things unless it's a full replacement of ms with character and item transfer. [SIZE="4"]Nobody that has played an mmo wants to just drop their progress and every hour they've put into a game and just move on to ms 2.0. [/SIZE]The more likely scenario is that ms 2.0 is just a rewritten version of the same game with better security. Aka, big bang 2.
What's really needed is validation checking on inputs, packet checking, and better software than hackshield. 99% of the exploits we see now are simply "record packet 1, change value, spam new packet", or some variety of that. If they did simple things like validating input, scanning packets for abnormal values, or replacing hackshield with whatever that old one was that fixed hacking for a few years we'd be much better off.

I do.

Really, the Big Bang exp curve already took that progress and hours "away" from me. No one is going to remember or "respect" how much we old players used time on training. We were supposed to have fun training or getting levels, if we didn't, then we can only blame ourself.

And it's not like MS1 would be gone after MS2 comes out. The characters would still stay there safe.

I don't agree with just making a new game to revamp the old one. They just need, as sapta said, rebuild the architecture.

In case anyone needed this:
http://www.southperry.net/showthread.php?t=37477
That is the newest article about MS2 that I know of.

only way they're rebuilding the architecture is to rebuild the game basicly. The entire client needs to be rewritten, servers expanded and recoded.

Fact of the matter is, typically in a game like this only 20% of the players put any signifigant money into it, and as long as those players continue to buy their 90-day outfits all the time, GMS will exist.

The hacks becomming public faster is a good thing frankly, it forces nexon to do something about it NOW as opposed to a week later when its gone too far and they're forced to roll back.

All this aside, theres a simple reason why GMS will continue despite how badly nexon messes things up. "A fool and his money are soon parted"

It's not the client that needs rewriting, it's the server.
Or rather, the relationship between them.
The problem with MapleStory is that it was apparently written as a mostly peer-to-peer game, with the server doing extremely minimal duty as switchboard. With time, the server took on more functionality, but the clients still do a lot of the work that, logically, should have been in the server. And the server lazily accepts whatever the client says is happening, without question, not realizing that the client is "in enemy hands", on the user's computer, and can be made to say whatever the user wants it to.

This is what needs to change, the basic architecture, if we don't want to see new hacks appear with every new skill or event. And this is what I can't see Nexon putting effort into. They'd much rather create fancier sprites for old and new skills (while still not fixing memory leaks and other fundamental flaws, which obviously makes the game laggier and glitchier with every new version), add worse bosses and then more OP classes to fight them and then revamp the old classes to balance with the new, and so on ad nauseam.

One can only hope that MapleStory 2.0 will have a saner architecture.

I see. Well, actually, my biggest hope is that they will change the current game's architecture in better. Let's hope for that, even if unlikely. They are more likely, as you said, to make MapleStory 2's much better than the current one, and to leave the current game intact.

If I recall, big bang WAS the rewrite? I'm not sure I just remember that being the case

I doubt. The main client-server structure didn't change, nor did they fix the main issues with the client itself. They just revamped the server's code to make it better for THEM to add new-content and manage everything, but it doesn't seem they changed the main thing (and maybe the most difficult one) which they should have changed: how the communication between client and server works.

I don't agree with just making a new game to revamp the old one. They just need, as sapta said, rebuild the architecture.

I agree with you. Or, at least, if they really want to make a new game and they plan to let the current one go, then they should allow dedicated players to somehow "transfer" their characters (and their work) to this new game, even if it's REALLY, REALLY unlikely that'll happen.