Hi Maplers,

Now that the Journey of Destiny has started, our team is excited to see everyone’s feedback on the new content and events that are being unlocked. I wanted to talk about some of that feedback along with a few other issues that are being looked into.

Moonbridge Expedition Feedback

There has been a lot of very useful feedback from several sources regarding the Moonbridge Expedition quests. It’s good to see some players are enjoying the need to work with other players to better efficiently gain Determination. But on the other hand, your feedback also shows that some players feel that it may be too difficult to gain the daily limit of Determination along with the other daily quests in the game. While our teams understand the feedback and have reviewed it from multiple different perspectives, ultimately the consensus from us is that it may be difficult to support making changes to this specific limited-time event due to needing to keep our focus on ensuring the overall stability of the current and future content and events.

There have also been reports recently of players that may be crashing due to Soot Glares spawning in the new Moonbridge maps. This is also currently being looked into, so more information will be provided once it is available.

5th Job Skill Names

Based on the results of the survey Aru conducted last week, the following are the new 5th Job Skill names for their respective Jobs:

Arch Mage (I/L) – Spirit of Snow

Luminous – Baptism of Light and Darkness

Mechanic – Full Metal Barrage

Cannoneer – Monkey Business

Marksman – Surge Bolt

Mercedes – Irkalla’s Wrath

Thunder Breaker – Lightning God Spear Strike

Some of you also asked if other names would be up for consideration. As mentioned in last week’s memo, it may be difficult to accommodate any additional changes like these for this upcoming update and for future ones. Our intent for this survey was to provide you all a unique opportunity to vote on the names that generated the most feedback.

Dark Lords Totem in Marvel Machine

I’ve also seen speculation that the Dark Lords of Darkness event was intentionally left out of our plans, only so that the totems could be included in Marvel Machine. While the totems have been a part of the Marvel Machine lists for a few runs, I also mentioned in a previous livestream that the Dark Lords of Darkness event was simply not a part of our planning for this year due to us trying to promote other events and content. However, I can actually confirm that the Dark Lords of Darkness event will be brought back in February of 2019.

Botters and Lag

Next, I wanted to discuss the issue with botters and lag that some of you have noticed is slowly returning. A heavier focus for us has been placed on investigating illicit activity and the lag they are causing, so that this issue can be mitigated. This past week, multiple teams have been working together with our developers to better identify possible illicit activity and enact policies to ban those accounts. You can continue to follow the ban data that Aru has been posting on the forums here to see the numbers on our progress. In addition, action has also been taken – and will continue to be taken - on the player reports that you have submitted.

New Website Events

Lastly, while I do think it’s important to discuss ongoing issues and concerns you have, I also want to take the time to highlight some of the content and events recently released on our website. A new update has been added to our Black Mage microsite featuring Verus Hilla art, along with a new round of Maple Missions. In addition, if you play MapleStory M you can also get rewards for that game by simply registering on the event site and completing your daily Fairy Bros in MapleStory. And finally, a few weeks ago our Recruit-a-Friend system was launched to help you gain rewards for inviting your friends to either come back to MapleStory or create a completely brand-new account. Various internal teams worked very hard on all this content, so I hope you take the time to check them out.

I think that just about does it for today’s update. Please continue to let us know your feedback and what other topics are important to you. Our goal is to continue to provide you as much information and insight as possible.

Thank you,

Dennis “SavageAce” Bernardo

Producer - MapleStory