It's 2 Feb 2015 and I have finally completed much of Old Story as well as a Trailer and a Behind the Scenes Development video, both of which I made for fun.
Trailer
Gameplay Footage
If you prefer to read up more information of Old Story, you can view my previous two posts about it:
part 1:
http://yyzproductions.blogspot.sg/2015/01/oldstory.html
part 2:
http://yyzproductions.blogspot.sg/2015/02/old-story-part-2.html
Project ITV
Monday, February 2, 2015
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Old Story Part 2
Old Story Part 2
For part 1, please refer to:
http://yyzproductions.blogspot.sg/2015/01/oldstory.html
I had been working on OldStory for about 3 weeks now. Progress has been remarkably great, considering I did not intend for this to be a game in the first place.
I added more content over time, and added features to make the game more playable and fun!
New Equipment
The game's first build had 6 equipment:
- Helmet
- Topwear
- Bottomwear
- Gloves
- Shoes
- Weapon
I have since expanded the game to hold over 10 equipment.
The new equipment are:
- Ring
- Pendant
- Shield
- Belt
- Cape (added in latest version)
- Earring (added in latest version)
You get new equipment as you progress through the game. I didn't add the new equipment at one shot. It was more like I gradually added them over time because the game was slowly expanding bigger and bigger and equipment was a game-changer to make it more rewarding and fun to play.
I also tweaked and rebalanced the stats provided by the equipment.
I received comments that HP was useless. The trend I noticed from testers generally were that they rather spent 400k mesos upgrading their weapon, than spend a few 10k upgrading their armor.
Weapon was overpowered and 1 attack was more valuable than a 1000 HP.
So I buffed the armor to add special stats.
Helmet: It increases your Mastery, which stabilizes your damage by increasing your minimum damage.
Topwear: Doubled the HP boost. It gives the most HP compared to all equipment, making it worth double its value.
Gloves: It now gives 1 attack per enhancement. I noticed immediately that my testers upgraded glove as the next priority after the armor buff patch, along with Helmet because of the new inherent damage boosts.
Shoe: It now adds to your movement speed, allowing you to move faster.
The new equipment all add unique stats that make them extremely useful.
Ring: Increases your critical rate and at a high enough level, adds to your critical damage.
Pendant: Increase your EXP and Meso gain. (+farming speed)
Shield: Increase your defense (a favourite because at high levels, makes bosses deal 1 damage to you)
Belt: Increase your Buff duration (another favourite among my friends who played)
Cape: Increase your cap damage (apparently addictive feature because it increases your farming speed)
Because of how special this last equipment was, I devoted a few days to implement the condition to get it. You have to fight an epic "shadow" boss which looks like you. He drops a very powerful skill and the final equipment.
Relic Upgrades
The Healing Relic in the game is a unique skill I made personally. I drew the graphics for it, and at one point, you get to upgrade the Healing Relic to Lv. 2.
I drew a new graphic for that, and here is its design.
I also added a multi-relic feature, so you can plant Multiple relics on the map after an upgrade.
New maps and Monsters
The game soon hit its limit content-wise.
I added a brand new area after Time Temple, mostly end-game content. I named the expansion "Fields of Nostalgia" because it includes some old monsters and nostalgic music.
Summarized Patch notes (23 Jan ~ 31 Jan):
- Added new expanded area: Fields of Nostalgia (unlocked at NGP15)
- 6 new maps were added, inclusive of 2 bonus areas
- 8 New monsters (2 big bosses, and 2 mini-bosses)
- 4 New skills were added (Combo Atk, Dark Thirst, Dark Synthesis, Mystic Door)
- Many skills are now upgradeable (Dragon strike, Crusher, Sacrifice)
- Equipment give huge stat boosts at E50 and E100
- Added perma rewards at NGP50 and NGP100
- Scaled up monster stats from NGP100 onward.
- Plenty of bug fixes (e.g. Items falling thru floor)
- Plenty of exploit fixes (e.g. cooldowns no longer refresh when switching save files)
- Plenty of rebalancing changes
I found it a hassle to repeatedly enhance my equipment and I had to do a lot of clicking. So I added the auto-enhance feature. Ever since when I test my game, I always use it to enhance my equip.
Miss
If the level difference between you and the monster is too great, you can 'miss' them. It works at a 3%~4% rate per level difference.
Pianus
Currently, the last boss you unlock is Pianus, the gigantic fish boss. It's currently the second most toughest boss to defeat and drops a special skill for you. It also drops skill books to upgrade your skills!
Pianus is capable of summoning BOOMS, which heal him if you don't kill them fast enough. If you are too weak to kill the BOOMS faster than Pianus can spawn them, then Pianus simply heals himself to full health before you can damage him. It's the first boss I implemented that has summoning and healing abilities.
Stat Window
I designed and implemented a stat window so you can observe your stats without having to go to the Shop. The stat numbers turn red when they are increased or affected by your current buffs, which is really cool, plus it updates real time.
Pet Feature!
My first Pet in MapleStory was a Panda. Till now it is my favourite pet because it's just so iconic and cuddly. So I added this in my game, simply for nostalgia purposes. I considered adding the Pet because I knew it would be challenging and tedious to make it work, and true enough it was.
The pet feature was one of the most challenging because it took me a few days to get the pet AI working correctly. The pet has 5 states and it automatically transitions between them under appropriate conditions:
- Follow : Follow the player and ignore all loot drops
- Loot : Go to the furthest item within the pet's looting range
- Buff : Buff the player
- Guard : Protect the player from an attack
- Free : To buff or guard, the pet must be in 'free' state, aka not doing anything else.
Pet skills improve your pet, such as increasing its walking speed, looting range, auto-buff interval and such. The last skill is 'Kung-fu Panda', and it is unlocked after a special requirement.
The pet's debug mode: White box represents its looting range, and red box hovers over the loot it is currently trying to get.
Facial expressions?
Statue Boss
As I was working, I began to conceptualize an epic boss that was capable of inflicting status effects and debuffs on the player. This boss was going to be extremely annoying but challenging to defeat. I think it worked really well in the game and you will definitely get a shock when you fight this boss for the first time.
To the left is my original concept of the Final Epic Boss map. (That black thing in the middle is the portal)
Some of the statuses it inflicts on you are not even in the original MapleStory, and they are really unique. I went to brainstorm the ideas and took the most creative ones and added them to the game. I think this boss really is a boss that isn't just a sitting dummy for you to just defeat.
Instant kill effects
I added a new ability: Instant Kill, which activates at a chance. An animation also appears when instant kill is successful, though your eyes are probably focused on the 999999 numbers to notice it.
Ludibrium Maps, NPCs, Quests System, Item drops
I managed to code in quests just recently. This brand new area is part of the "Fields of Nostalgia" expansion. Quests took me about 2~3 days to code and implement. It was not as problematic as pets, but challenging to make it bugless and seamless nevertheless.
This is the door to the new expanded area. You can't enter the portal unless you meet its requirement.
One of the quest rewards is a Red Potion recognizable from the old Maple:
- Gives you a huge amount of experience :)
Sleepywood Jump Quest?
Although this will not be in my final build, I did accidentally create a jump quest map full of monsters and floating ropes / portals. It was funny to play around with the map, killing monsters as they fall from the sky.
Buffs
There are currently a lot of buffs in the game. In my latest build I coded them to actually form a second row if they get too long, as you can see in the screenshot below.
Boss HP Bar and Icons
Math and Rebalancing
As the game got huge, balancing the game became a big issue for me. I sometimes overlook game design and balancing, and poor balancing in a game can break it.
One feature in the game is 'Spores', which increases your character's stats permanently. I accidentally coded them to give 5% HP each instead of 0.5%. And because I discovered this pretty late, it was difficult to rebalance the entire game.
If I reduced their HP boost, I would have to adjust all the monsters' attack values so they aren't too difficult. This type of rebalancing at this late in the game is really difficult to do. There are too many things I need to tweak. The large HP boost means that the value of buffs that give HP is effectively decreased.
I wanted buffs to be essential, so I tweaked the HP formula. I inputted my current and new formulas for the game. The Blue line in the graph is the old formula where HP buffs work additively, and the Red line is my new adjusted formula (multiplicative buffs so that a 60% buff means x1.6 instead of +0.6). I wanted the results of the two formulas to be as close as possible, and thanks to the graph, I am able to fine-tune my values such that my formulas don't make one particular stat/buff too overpowered or underpowered.
In the graph, I also nerfed the new HP values because the game was getting too easy. The graph lets me view how slight changes I make to the game affect values at later levels (at the start, 50 spores don't make a big difference, but as you get further, the more spores you have, the larger the difference)
Multi-Save feature
One of my most favourite latest additions was Multiple save slots. I can't put in words how useful this is to me as a developer and tester. I often realize that changing one small thing in the game can often lead to very different results later on. When I realize a monster is too easy for a high-leveled character, I increase its HP and make it tougher, and sometimes I overdo it and it becomes too hard to gain experience for lower leveled characters.
Having multiple save slots means I can create a low level save slot, and a high level save slot, and I can test both content simultaneously instead of wasting time inputting commands to reset my progress or power-level to the level I want to test.
For part 1, please refer to:
http://yyzproductions.blogspot.sg/2015/01/oldstory.html
I had been working on OldStory for about 3 weeks now. Progress has been remarkably great, considering I did not intend for this to be a game in the first place.
I added more content over time, and added features to make the game more playable and fun!
New Equipment
The game's first build had 6 equipment:
- Helmet
- Topwear
- Bottomwear
- Gloves
- Shoes
- Weapon
I have since expanded the game to hold over 10 equipment.
The new equipment are:
- Ring
- Pendant
- Shield
- Belt
- Cape (added in latest version)
- Earring (added in latest version)
You get new equipment as you progress through the game. I didn't add the new equipment at one shot. It was more like I gradually added them over time because the game was slowly expanding bigger and bigger and equipment was a game-changer to make it more rewarding and fun to play.
I also tweaked and rebalanced the stats provided by the equipment.
The 12 current equipment in the current game build.
I received comments that HP was useless. The trend I noticed from testers generally were that they rather spent 400k mesos upgrading their weapon, than spend a few 10k upgrading their armor.
Weapon was overpowered and 1 attack was more valuable than a 1000 HP.
So I buffed the armor to add special stats.
Helmet: It increases your Mastery, which stabilizes your damage by increasing your minimum damage.
Topwear: Doubled the HP boost. It gives the most HP compared to all equipment, making it worth double its value.
Gloves: It now gives 1 attack per enhancement. I noticed immediately that my testers upgraded glove as the next priority after the armor buff patch, along with Helmet because of the new inherent damage boosts.
Shoe: It now adds to your movement speed, allowing you to move faster.
The new equipment all add unique stats that make them extremely useful.
Ring: Increases your critical rate and at a high enough level, adds to your critical damage.
Pendant: Increase your EXP and Meso gain. (+farming speed)
Shield: Increase your defense (a favourite because at high levels, makes bosses deal 1 damage to you)
Belt: Increase your Buff duration (another favourite among my friends who played)
Cape: Increase your cap damage (apparently addictive feature because it increases your farming speed)
The final equipment is the earring. It adds something new each level you get. One of my friends really liked how special it was.
Because of how special this last equipment was, I devoted a few days to implement the condition to get it. You have to fight an epic "shadow" boss which looks like you. He drops a very powerful skill and the final equipment.
Relic Upgrades
The Healing Relic in the game is a unique skill I made personally. I drew the graphics for it, and at one point, you get to upgrade the Healing Relic to Lv. 2.
I drew a new graphic for that, and here is its design.
The old relic on the top left and new (upgraded) relic in the middle. On the right were some of my discarded previous wing designs.
I also added a multi-relic feature, so you can plant Multiple relics on the map after an upgrade.
New maps and Monsters
The game soon hit its limit content-wise.
I added a brand new area after Time Temple, mostly end-game content. I named the expansion "Fields of Nostalgia" because it includes some old monsters and nostalgic music.
Summarized Patch notes (23 Jan ~ 31 Jan):
- Added new expanded area: Fields of Nostalgia (unlocked at NGP15)
- 6 new maps were added, inclusive of 2 bonus areas
- 8 New monsters (2 big bosses, and 2 mini-bosses)
- 4 New skills were added (Combo Atk, Dark Thirst, Dark Synthesis, Mystic Door)
- Many skills are now upgradeable (Dragon strike, Crusher, Sacrifice)
- Equipment give huge stat boosts at E50 and E100
- Added perma rewards at NGP50 and NGP100
- Scaled up monster stats from NGP100 onward.
- Plenty of bug fixes (e.g. Items falling thru floor)
- Plenty of exploit fixes (e.g. cooldowns no longer refresh when switching save files)
- Plenty of rebalancing changes
General Improvements
If the level difference between you and the monster is too great, you can 'miss' them. It works at a 3%~4% rate per level difference.
Pianus
Currently, the last boss you unlock is Pianus, the gigantic fish boss. It's currently the second most toughest boss to defeat and drops a special skill for you. It also drops skill books to upgrade your skills!
Those big numbers somewhat remind me of the boss fights in the old MapleStory.
Pianus is capable of summoning BOOMS, which heal him if you don't kill them fast enough. If you are too weak to kill the BOOMS faster than Pianus can spawn them, then Pianus simply heals himself to full health before you can damage him. It's the first boss I implemented that has summoning and healing abilities.
Stat Window
I designed and implemented a stat window so you can observe your stats without having to go to the Shop. The stat numbers turn red when they are increased or affected by your current buffs, which is really cool, plus it updates real time.
Pet Feature!
The pet feature was one of the most challenging because it took me a few days to get the pet AI working correctly. The pet has 5 states and it automatically transitions between them under appropriate conditions:
- Follow : Follow the player and ignore all loot drops
- Loot : Go to the furthest item within the pet's looting range
- Buff : Buff the player
- Guard : Protect the player from an attack
- Free : To buff or guard, the pet must be in 'free' state, aka not doing anything else.
Facial expressions?
One thing that I think some people would agree on is the ugly character in the game currently. The character was actually taken from one of the projects I had to work on for my friend, who wanted a bear-like face for his character.
Some doodling of character faces I made for fun (NOT FINALIZED). Note that these faces may not be the faces I will add to the game.
Statue Boss
As I was working, I began to conceptualize an epic boss that was capable of inflicting status effects and debuffs on the player. This boss was going to be extremely annoying but challenging to defeat. I think it worked really well in the game and you will definitely get a shock when you fight this boss for the first time.
To the left is my original concept of the Final Epic Boss map. (That black thing in the middle is the portal)Some of the statuses it inflicts on you are not even in the original MapleStory, and they are really unique. I went to brainstorm the ideas and took the most creative ones and added them to the game. I think this boss really is a boss that isn't just a sitting dummy for you to just defeat.
Instant kill effects
I added a new ability: Instant Kill, which activates at a chance. An animation also appears when instant kill is successful, though your eyes are probably focused on the 999999 numbers to notice it.
The special 'instant kill' animation isn't in this screenshot because it was from an earlier build
I managed to code in quests just recently. This brand new area is part of the "Fields of Nostalgia" expansion. Quests took me about 2~3 days to code and implement. It was not as problematic as pets, but challenging to make it bugless and seamless nevertheless.
It was also my first time working with and implementing NPCs in games.
One of the quest rewards is a Red Potion recognizable from the old Maple:
- Gives you a huge amount of experience :)
Here's a snippet of my NPC class. When you complete a quest, the NPC says some random chat. Even though I'm no director, I enjoyed writing the dialogue for the NPCs. ^^
Although this will not be in my final build, I did accidentally create a jump quest map full of monsters and floating ropes / portals. It was funny to play around with the map, killing monsters as they fall from the sky.
Buffs
There are currently a lot of buffs in the game. In my latest build I coded them to actually form a second row if they get too long, as you can see in the screenshot below.
Boss HP Bar and Icons
Some icons for the bosses in the game. The HP bar feature was added because bosses often had too many damage numbers above them which blocks the normal green HP bar they have.
Math and Rebalancing
As the game got huge, balancing the game became a big issue for me. I sometimes overlook game design and balancing, and poor balancing in a game can break it.
One feature in the game is 'Spores', which increases your character's stats permanently. I accidentally coded them to give 5% HP each instead of 0.5%. And because I discovered this pretty late, it was difficult to rebalance the entire game.
If I reduced their HP boost, I would have to adjust all the monsters' attack values so they aren't too difficult. This type of rebalancing at this late in the game is really difficult to do. There are too many things I need to tweak. The large HP boost means that the value of buffs that give HP is effectively decreased.
I wanted buffs to be essential, so I tweaked the HP formula. I inputted my current and new formulas for the game. The Blue line in the graph is the old formula where HP buffs work additively, and the Red line is my new adjusted formula (multiplicative buffs so that a 60% buff means x1.6 instead of +0.6). I wanted the results of the two formulas to be as close as possible, and thanks to the graph, I am able to fine-tune my values such that my formulas don't make one particular stat/buff too overpowered or underpowered.
In the graph, I also nerfed the new HP values because the game was getting too easy. The graph lets me view how slight changes I make to the game affect values at later levels (at the start, 50 spores don't make a big difference, but as you get further, the more spores you have, the larger the difference)
Multi-Save feature
One of my most favourite latest additions was Multiple save slots. I can't put in words how useful this is to me as a developer and tester. I often realize that changing one small thing in the game can often lead to very different results later on. When I realize a monster is too easy for a high-leveled character, I increase its HP and make it tougher, and sometimes I overdo it and it becomes too hard to gain experience for lower leveled characters.Having multiple save slots means I can create a low level save slot, and a high level save slot, and I can test both content simultaneously instead of wasting time inputting commands to reset my progress or power-level to the level I want to test.
And also upcoming, a developer's video I am working on ...
Saturday, January 10, 2015
OldStory
10 Jan 2015
For about a week now, I have been working on a side-project, a game that is a simulator of a famous MMORPG called MapleStory.
“Dragon Roar” and “Dragon Crusher”
This is a Maple Simulator which features the skills and simulates gameplay of a Dragon Knight in the old days.
I added my favourite skills, Dragon Roar above, and Dragon Crusher below.
I even made my own skill, which doesn't exist in the real game. It's actually inspired by Dragon Nest where you summon a relic to the map which heals you and damages nearby monsters. I also added a tooltip that appears when your cursor hovers over skill and buff icons.
It was coded with FlashDevelop and Flixel along with BannedStory
for monster & skill sprites and tiles. I also used TexturePacker to consolidate all the individual sprites from BannedStory into a usable spritesheet. Not all the art assets are from the actual MapleStory.
Edit: Updated this with more stuff below...
More Changes from 11 to 15 Jan
I started updating the game with more stuff because of positive comments and decided to invest more time into making this an actual game than just something nostalgic for myself and friends.
Much like many people, I wanted more high-level content and end-game content. Previously, the game pretty much ends at Level 200, but there is no reward or any sort of Congratulatory message to tell you that you beat the game.
Now, I added a new map, new monsters, as well as Level 200+ skills and unlockables. Now, level 200 is just the beginning of the most exciting part of the game, and I find the Level 200~250 journey of the game incredibly fun.
To make the new map more interesting, I coded in a simple feature, which functions sort of like Quests, giving you a reward for killing 200 monsters.
You also can get a new skill as a drop from monsters in the new map:
Look at the number of buffs I have activated on the character.
I also added a tutorial, with classic MapleStory slimes to help those who don't play MapleStory and to introduce properly the mechanics of the game, especially Flash Jump, a new skill I coded, and is also a skill that can easily go unnoticed.
When you reach Level 250 in the game, you unlock New Game Plus, which resets your level back to 1 and resets all your money and equipment. However, you gain additional rewards like more skills.
I added new equipment, the belt, shield, ring and pendant that each give different stats to the player. They can be enhanced. What's interesting is that the maximum enhancement level increases with every New Game Plus, so this game can basically go on infinitely. You also gain passive bonuses, such as inheriting skills at Level 1 without needing to unlock them at their respective levels (eg Level 100 for berserk, level 200 for Beholder)
A new item drop was added, the Fire Gem.
It is a rare drop from monsters and when looted, gives you a permanent stat boost to your character until the next New Game Plus.
I also added skills that would add value to the game. Skills that are situation-specific are what make Dragon Knights interesting. Although I could add many skills into this game, I didn't want to add obsolete skills which the player rarely use. So I tweaked some skills to fit the game.
I made Sacrifice a very powerful bossing skill, but it is costly and weak in training.
I made Dragon Roar a very good AoE skill for training, but has a long cast time.
I also added a bonus skill called Dragon Strike which deals high damage and has high range, but has long cooldown, as opposed to Dragon Crusher which has shorter range and lower damage but can be spammed. Both skills can be intermittently used for maximum damage output.
Additionally, I drew a popup which appears when you get a new skill. Previously, my friend wasn't aware he got a new skill, even though I added a message saying so at the top of the screen. But I don't want to rely on players having to read messages to be informed of important events.
Notes
Just some notes of some of the changes I made to the game over the past few days. I kept these so that I know the significant changes to the game versions I am sending to my friends. These changes were all made after the basic game has been completed, which basically means that the game was sort of 'finished' before I added these, which are additional stuff to make the game more fun and playable.
Changes 11 Jan Part 1:
1) Manon boss now drops a skill book when killed for the first time, giving u a new skill
2) Flash jump given at Level 1
3) You now get stance at Level 110
4) You get a new skill at Level 200
5) You unlock a new map at Level 210
6) You unlock a new skill in the new Level 210 map
7) You get a new skill at Level 220
- First time players will be asked to play tutorial. No longer brings up keyboard settings page
- Tutorial now introduces Flash Jump properly
- New boss and map: Balrog / Cursed Sanctuary replaces Manon
- Manon moved to Level 250 boss
- Final boss map now unlocked at Level 240
- New Game Plus option added (but not working)
- Meso graphics now change based on how much mesos are dropped
- Roar now displays damage with a 1 second delay like the real Maple
- Using roar now shakes the screen when the damage appears like the real Maple
- Bosses now have attack animations when aggro-ed and can cast magic attacks onto player. However, magic attacks have infinite range currently.
- Monster AI improved: They now move toward you when aggro-ed
- Mixed Golems now cast attack up buffs when provoked
- Fixed Bug where non-critical hits appeared red if the first line is red
- Fixed bug where goby houses could spawn on top of each other
12 Jan changes
- New feature: New Game Plus (NGP), unlocked at Level 250
- New weapon graphic in Shop
- added tutorial transition from login
- UI changes to golden at level 250 (super cool)
- Added the HS as a 1% drop rate from mobs
- Monsters now move back smoothly when knockd back, no longer has jerky movement
- New equipment: Ring (dropped from Manon)
- New equipment: Pendant (obtained on NGP)
- Enhancement prices have been adjusted:
- Weapon is now 2x more expensive to enhance
13 Jan changes:
- You now spawn at the correct portals when traversing through maps
- New Game Plus(NGP) now supports infinite New Game Pluses. Previously capped at 6 and had no rewards thereafter.
- Added new skill: Mesos UP (awarded upon 2nd time reaching lv 250)
- Added new equipment: Shield
- Updated info panel with new stat: Defense
- Finally added Music
- Added Menu button
- Monster knock-back distance has been lowered
- Enhancing has been sped up at lower levels
- Fixed display bug in Shop (for new equipment)
- Lowered KB value on slimes
- When knocked back, monsters now turn to face you
- OldStory completed.
Changes 14 Jan:
- Added new item drop: Fire Gem
- Added mute button
- Oblivion guardian HP has been increased (420,000 -> 450,000)
- Monster stats now start to increase from 7th NGP (new Game plus) onward
- You now get a permanent 20% HP bonus from 7th NGP onward
- When hit by magic attacks, the effect now shows on the player
- Shield is now required to be re-obtained every NGP, and it only adds to player's stats only when the shield is in possession
- Added new equip: Belt (buff duration +3s / level)
- Added new stat: Buff duration
- Camera bounds is finally working properly
- Monsters hit by skills with delay (eg Roar) no longer freeze at their HIT frame but their STAND frame (like the real Maple)
- Monsters' magic attacks previously had infinite range. But not anymore.
- Exitting to Menu now saves the map you were previously on
- Manon EXP and Meso reward has been increased by ~20%
- Damage displayed over Manon now does not exceed the height of the screen (for tall monsters)
- Player HP bonus per NGP decreased: 20% -> 10%
- Pendant and Shields have their enhancements capped at 28 + 2*NGP
- All equipment's max enhancement level now increase with every NGP
- Added two new levels of equipment graphic sprites (+16 and +17 enhancement graphic)
- Added 200ms delay to rush to simulate real maple's rush
- The delay for buffing on ropes has been reduced to 200ms
- Fixed various bugs and issues:
- On NGP, SE and HS no longer drop when u have it
- Fixed max enhancement display error in Shop
- On NGP, some messages were changed / removed
- On NGP, you can no longer re-obtain holy symbol if u have it
- on NGP, messages telling you to unlock a new skill do not display if you own that skill
- On NGP, bosses no longer drop skills that you own
- Some messages now only appear once in a lifetime
- First message now changes based on your NGP count
- Fixed 0% success rate on 16+ enhancements
- Fixed bug: Your health got reset to base max health if you switched states instead of your real max health (if HB is on)
- Fixed a minor display bug with buffs that overlapped each other in the UI
- The login page now saves your username
- Entering different states in Lobby reset your map to mixed golem
- null success rates and upgrade costs for equipment past 15 enhancements
15 Jan:
- Belt has been buffed (buff duration per level: 3s -> 5s)
- Added Dragon Blood char animation effect (super cool)
- Added new skill: Sacrifice (320% damage to one target)
- A popup now appears every time you gain a new skill
- Added a new equipment graphic at +18 enhancements
16 Jan:
- Added new skill: Demolition
- Added new Map: Someone else's House
- Added new monster: Mushmom
- Added hit animations for Crusher, Roar, Demolition, Dragon Strike
- Manon's damage has been doubled
- Spawn rate in Goby Dungeon greatly increased:
- Spawn limit is now determined by num of enemies alive rather than total enemies in map
- Fixed bugs:
- Dragon Blood effect did not wear off even after end of buff
- Closing skill popups now cancels immovable status caused b skills
- There was no return portal from Mushmom map if level is below 15
17 Jan:
- Added F1 shortcut key to shop
- Deactivated buffs now have their shortcut keys colored red and to make it more obvious, a '!" icon will appear over expired buffs
- Username now saves across newGamePlus
- added double confirm before deleting save
- When u reach the top of the rope, there used to be a bug where u jump. This bug is minimized, but not fixed completely.
- Added mushmom spores
- Shop mesos text size is now adjusted if u have too much mesos
- Added commas to shop meso text
- Updated the mushmom spore display in shop.
- Spores now carry over New Game Plus
- OCD: Centralized hidden portal in 'Forest of Golems' to map's symmetry
- Rolling over shop button and New Game plus now displays tooltip for shortcut key
- Sacrifice popup only appears on the 1st and 2nd NGP
- Demo popup only appears when below 5 New Game Pluses
- Zombie Mushmom has been added
- Reduced font size of stat description in Shop (16 --> 13)
- Updated stance description "99.99% to prevent KB" instead of "90%"
- Level font size decreased if level is above 1000
- New Item drop: Poisonous Mushroom
- Added poison status effect
- Messages added for collecting 120, 150, 170, and 200 spores
- Added small bonus for getting 100, 150 and 200 spores
- Item drops do not fall through the floor anymore
- Zombie mushmom can now be damaged by Heal
- Fireworks fx appear over a successful item enhancement
- Getting Holy Symbol as an item drop now saves when u change map
- Added shortcut key to toggle music: M
- Added 2x EXP and Meso coupons
- Insufficient mesos buying coupons will cause meso text to flash red
- Fixed a bug where cancelling Beholder didn't cause Beholder to disappear
- Fixed bug:
- Level 200 text no longer repeats after every level
- Ring enhancement cost was 0 past Level 16
- Demolition no longer drops from Mushmom wheen you possess the skill
- Slightly increased Manon's mesos reward (40000 -> 50000)
- Relic can no longer be summoned out of level bounds
18 Jan
- You now get popup if u loot shield, ring, belt and cape (only on first 3 games)
- Added new equipment Graphic at E21, E25, E30 and E40.
Additionally, sparkles will appear on E41+ equipment
- Weapon cost now increases by 50k per Enhancement after E15
- Armor cost now increases by 25k per Enhancement after E15
- Added new equip: Cape *unlocked after 2nd new game plus
- Added new equip: Earring *unlocked under secret requirement: when all equipment reach E20 (cannot be enhanced or obtained yet)
- Demolition now gives you invisibility and invulnerability
- Spores' damage cap boost now only take effect from 1st NGP onward
- Added new skill: Booster (to be unlocked after 5th NGP)
- Added new skill: Shadow Partner (to be unlocked via secret)
- Cooldowns are unfortunately saved
- Added ability to jump to platform below (DOWN + Jump key)
- Added hyper jump (shortcut: jump while pressing UP midaire)
- Increased gravity (800 -> 900)
- Increased jump power (400 -> 500)
- Increased flash jump power (400 -> 450)
- When in air, hold down to fall faster
- Added popups when choosing New game plus skills to carry over
- Updated New Game Plus screen with the advantages of NGP.
- Removed the "U gain meso UP at lvl 250" message at every NGP screen
- 1st, 2nd NGP will have rewards displayed on NGP screen.
- Miss rate has been doubled (1% per level below mob lv -> 2%)
- Goby level increased to be in line with Bone fish (55 --> 60)
- Manon level increased (200 -> 210)
- Buff exclamation mark does not appear if skill is still on Cooldown
- Buff durations no longer reset when entering Shop or entering portals only for Booster & Shadow partner :)
- Fixed bugs:
-Fixed major exploit where you could spam skills
- Your hp could become 0 if ur HP was at the exact Hp requirement of roar
- You could previously use the shortcut key F2 to start a new game plus even at Level 1
19 ~ 20Jan
- Belt and Shield popup now indicates they need to be recollected every NGP
- NGP level requirement increases by 20 from 10th NGP onward.
- Increased earrings to max 15 enhancements
- Keyboard settings now only allows alphabets, and supports the same special characters that maple supports
- You can now customize all the new skills (except Sac and Demo)
- Added new map: Shadow's Lair
- Added new boss fight at NGP10 (is it too early?)
- New boss drops special equipment and skill
- Added Stats Window
- Updated tutorial with the new abilities
- Added new map: Pianus' Cave (unlocked at NGP20)
- Added new boss: Pianus
- Added new skill: Maple Warrior
- Game now saves your mute preferences, and your current map
- Added messages for first time purchasing 2x EXP/ mesos
- Added buff overlays (timer) for certain important buffs
- Added shortcut key to enhance eqp: ENTER
- ATk bonus per NGP decreased (25 -> 20)
- Shoes now give up to 75 move speed (but player base speed decreased by 20)
- You can no longer push stationary monsters (pianus, goby houses) sadly, it was fun watching pianus get pushed across the map
Bug fixes:
- Booster and SP durations were 4x longer than expected
- Black overlay inaccurately conveyed buffs' time before expiring
- Added messages for first time buying 2x meso/exp. Buff descriptions are now more informative and reflect durations accurately.
Balancing:
- EXP tnl formula revised for Level 251+ onward
- It is now much harder to level up from 250 onward. This is because new update made it too easy to reach Lv 4k, and level accounted for 90% of player's damage (my normal att was hitting max dmg) *see screenshot*
- Excess crit rate over 100% now adds to Crit Dmg
- New stat: Crit Dmg
- Ring now gives 1% crit rate per level after E15
- Damage formula revision scrapped
- Each level was going to give 2% ATT instead of 4% (but made early game too difficult)
- New Game Plus no longer gives 10% HP bonus each (pianus needs to do 400k dmg to be of a challenge and that is too high)
21 Jan
- Pianus now summons Bloody Booms
- Fixed bug: Goby houses did not return to stand frame when KB-ed
- Added Pet button in shop as well as ability to purchase pet skills, but skills do not work currently
- Fixed bug:
- Fixed a bug where unlocking the last pet skill required the state to reset to update
22 Jan
- Added Pet:
- Added 5 Pet skills: Can walk, loot, buff and heal you
- Pianus boss fight made more challenging: Pianus' summon booms can heal him, and heal amount increases with bloody boom count. However, at high NGP it is still too easy to beat him
- Fixed bugs:
-2x meso and exp counted down wrongly
- IdleBot is officially working
Personal
(Warning: The following is more personal and less to do with my work.)
Unfortunately, even after doing all this, I am unable to relieve the original experience of what it felt like to be playing with some of my old friends, training and bossing together and having so much fun with them. It was at a time when we were all young and innocently playing together. Those times of a simple childhood are long gone…
This nostalgia is indescribable. It makes you want to
go back, back to when monsters took 6 or 7 hits to kill, back to when doing
5000 damage made you a pro, back to when Level 100 actually meant something, back
to when you’d loot everything on the floor, back to when partying with your
friends and having fun formed the main purpose of the game.
I remember wanting MapleStory to be a single-playing game because I didn't like the multiplayer aspect, but I have come to realize that it's not just the game that made it memorable, but the friends I made in the game.
For about a week now, I have been working on a side-project, a game that is a simulator of a famous MMORPG called MapleStory.
I used to play Maple as a kid. It is more like a
childhood game to me where I think of the friends I met in 2006/07. I played as
a legendary dragon knight.
Upon returning to MapleStory, I read that in their latest
job revamp patch, they had removed two of my favourite skills from my Dragon Knight:
“Dragon Roar” and “Dragon Crusher”
I remember using Dragon Roar many years ago and the
feeling of killing 15 monsters in one swoop was really satisfying. But my Dark
Knight was revamped with new skills with nothing unique about them and my
damage had inflated into the millions.
Long gone are the days where doing 5k damage made you a
pro. And long gone were the days of Dragon Roar and the old Maple.
Being a very memory-inclined person, I kept thinking back
of those old times. I lay stuck in nostalgia for a long time. I looked up old
screenshots and videos and wanted to experience the fun of using Dragon Roar,
but the new MapleStory made that impossible.
Then I decided to make a game. So I made this – a game I
promptly titled “OldStory”.
This is a Maple Simulator which features the skills and simulates gameplay of a Dragon Knight in the old days.
I made the map resemble “Forest of Golems”, one of my
most memorable and favourite training grounds.
I added my favourite skills, Dragon Roar above, and Dragon Crusher below.
I used 'hit boxes' to determine the range of a skill, and these hit boxes can be controlled to appear only when the skill reaches a particular frame because skills like Crusher have a delay between when you first press the skill button and when the actual damage appears.
Hit box
I even made my own skill, which doesn't exist in the real game. It's actually inspired by Dragon Nest where you summon a relic to the map which heals you and damages nearby monsters. I also added a tooltip that appears when your cursor hovers over skill and buff icons.
When I was confident with my codebase, I expanded the game and made more maps. The other map I made is “Deep Gorge II” that spawns Sotongs. Aquadungeon has always been my favourite training place – the music, the gobies, they all bring back old memories playing with my friends, spending hours just trying to gain one stupid level that can now be reached in far less time.
I wanted to feel how it was like to play my old Dragon
Knight from 2006 again. MapleStory had been ruined by its new updates,
and I can’t do anything about it.
But what I can do…. Is to make my own simulator.
A game where
I set the rules, and where I can relive my old memories. It took me 3 full days
carrying on from a scrapped codebase I had from one of my abandoned games. I
modified its Physics, controls and the toughest part was re-coding MapleStory’s
skills from scratch and trying to resemble them as accurately as possible. I
actually went to analyse videos at 0.25x speed to see the skills and to capture
the way MapleStory works, e.g. the way the damage lines stack above the
monsters. But finally… I had done it. The graphics were terrible and there were bugs here and there though - but what can you expect out of something done in 3 days? After that, I proceeded to clean the game up, added features and gameplay elements like Ropes to climb from platform to platform, and there it was.
OldStory was created. And I had a lot of fun making this.
The backgrounds are mine, using existing
art assets which were inspired from MapleStory itself.
A background I had previously drawn
An original background scenery for a possible Ellinia-like map, but was never used.
I also drew the damage numbers myself because I couldn’t find
the original. It impressed my friend because he thought I ripped the numbers due
to the fact that the ones I drew looked so alike it fooled him.
The damage skin graphic I drew and used in my game
I got ambitious and added a ton of other stuff to make it
like a real game – an XP and levelling system, map unlocking, monster drops and
even a final boss, along with buffs and skill delays and a shop to upgrade your
equipment to improve your HP and damage using mesos. It's not the most polished thing, but it was really fun trying to implement all that.
This is the shop I made. It's a place where you can spend the money you looted to upgrade your equipment, raising your damage, your maximum health, as well as Mastery - a stat that increases your minimum damage.
The screenshot above is actually the shop in its early versions. It is not something I followed MapleStory in. I had no plans to draw proper graphics for a simulator, but when I started to get positive comments, I decided to put a bit more effort to make this game more presentable.
So tadda! Above is the look of the new shop. I actually spent some time drawing some simple UI boxes to just beautify the look of the game, including a slime I drew for the fun of it. I also did some rebalancing.
I shared it with my old MapleStory friend as well. He said that it was really fun, which made me really happy, considering that this game was only supposedly meant to relieve myself of my nostalgia.
Though it was supposed to be just a small side project that honestly I spent too much time on, I did learn new things, such as custom keyboard configurations which I didn’t know how to code before, so maybe it was worth it spending so much time on it after all. It was also my first time using bitmap number graphics instead of actual fonts (for the damage numbers).
It took me HALF A DAY (it was a weekend somemore) to figure out how to code this. This was an idea by my friend who gave me this suggestion.
Edit: Updated this with more stuff below...
More Changes from 11 to 15 Jan
I started updating the game with more stuff because of positive comments and decided to invest more time into making this an actual game than just something nostalgic for myself and friends.
Much like many people, I wanted more high-level content and end-game content. Previously, the game pretty much ends at Level 200, but there is no reward or any sort of Congratulatory message to tell you that you beat the game.
Now, I added a new map, new monsters, as well as Level 200+ skills and unlockables. Now, level 200 is just the beginning of the most exciting part of the game, and I find the Level 200~250 journey of the game incredibly fun.
To make the new map more interesting, I coded in a simple feature, which functions sort of like Quests, giving you a reward for killing 200 monsters.
You also can get a new skill as a drop from monsters in the new map:
Look at the number of buffs I have activated on the character.
I also added a tutorial, with classic MapleStory slimes to help those who don't play MapleStory and to introduce properly the mechanics of the game, especially Flash Jump, a new skill I coded, and is also a skill that can easily go unnoticed.
The new Jr. Balrog monster
This new skill, Rush, is a totally hackish skill in this game, which is what makes it really fun to play. In the real game, it had quite a significant cooldown to prevent it from being spammable and the distance was too short to be fun. But in here, I made it really useful.
Death sprite and falling tombstone, just like the real Maple
When you reach Level 250 in the game, you unlock New Game Plus, which resets your level back to 1 and resets all your money and equipment. However, you gain additional rewards like more skills.
You also get new equipment.
I added new equipment, the belt, shield, ring and pendant that each give different stats to the player. They can be enhanced. What's interesting is that the maximum enhancement level increases with every New Game Plus, so this game can basically go on infinitely. You also gain passive bonuses, such as inheriting skills at Level 1 without needing to unlock them at their respective levels (eg Level 100 for berserk, level 200 for Beholder)
A new item drop was added, the Fire Gem.
I also added skills that would add value to the game. Skills that are situation-specific are what make Dragon Knights interesting. Although I could add many skills into this game, I didn't want to add obsolete skills which the player rarely use. So I tweaked some skills to fit the game.
The skill above is Sacrifice, and deals huge damage to a single target by sacrificing health.
I made Sacrifice a very powerful bossing skill, but it is costly and weak in training.
I made Dragon Roar a very good AoE skill for training, but has a long cast time.
I also added a bonus skill called Dragon Strike which deals high damage and has high range, but has long cooldown, as opposed to Dragon Crusher which has shorter range and lower damage but can be spammed. Both skills can be intermittently used for maximum damage output.
Additionally, I drew a popup which appears when you get a new skill. Previously, my friend wasn't aware he got a new skill, even though I added a message saying so at the top of the screen. But I don't want to rely on players having to read messages to be informed of important events.
Just some notes of some of the changes I made to the game over the past few days. I kept these so that I know the significant changes to the game versions I am sending to my friends. These changes were all made after the basic game has been completed, which basically means that the game was sort of 'finished' before I added these, which are additional stuff to make the game more fun and playable.
Changes 11 Jan Part 1:1) Manon boss now drops a skill book when killed for the first time, giving u a new skill
2) Flash jump given at Level 1
3) You now get stance at Level 110
4) You get a new skill at Level 200
5) You unlock a new map at Level 210
6) You unlock a new skill in the new Level 210 map
7) You get a new skill at Level 220
Changes 11 Jan Part 2:
- Added tutorial: New ellinia map and slime monsters- First time players will be asked to play tutorial. No longer brings up keyboard settings page
- Tutorial now introduces Flash Jump properly
- New boss and map: Balrog / Cursed Sanctuary replaces Manon
- Manon moved to Level 250 boss
- Final boss map now unlocked at Level 240
- New Game Plus option added (but not working)
- Meso graphics now change based on how much mesos are dropped
- Roar now displays damage with a 1 second delay like the real Maple
- Using roar now shakes the screen when the damage appears like the real Maple
- Bosses now have attack animations when aggro-ed and can cast magic attacks onto player. However, magic attacks have infinite range currently.
- Monster AI improved: They now move toward you when aggro-ed
- Mixed Golems now cast attack up buffs when provoked
- Fixed Bug where non-critical hits appeared red if the first line is red
- Fixed bug where goby houses could spawn on top of each other
12 Jan changes
- New feature: New Game Plus (NGP), unlocked at Level 250
- New weapon graphic in Shop
- added tutorial transition from login
- UI changes to golden at level 250 (super cool)
- Added the HS as a 1% drop rate from mobs
- Monsters now move back smoothly when knockd back, no longer has jerky movement
- New equipment: Ring (dropped from Manon)
- New equipment: Pendant (obtained on NGP)
- Enhancement prices have been adjusted:
- Weapon is now 2x more expensive to enhance
13 Jan changes:
- You now spawn at the correct portals when traversing through maps
- New Game Plus(NGP) now supports infinite New Game Pluses. Previously capped at 6 and had no rewards thereafter.
- Added new skill: Mesos UP (awarded upon 2nd time reaching lv 250)
- Added new equipment: Shield
- Updated info panel with new stat: Defense
- Finally added Music
- Added Menu button
- Monster knock-back distance has been lowered
- Enhancing has been sped up at lower levels
- Fixed display bug in Shop (for new equipment)
- Lowered KB value on slimes
- When knocked back, monsters now turn to face you
- OldStory completed.
Changes 14 Jan:
- Added new item drop: Fire Gem
- Added mute button
- Oblivion guardian HP has been increased (420,000 -> 450,000)
- Monster stats now start to increase from 7th NGP (new Game plus) onward
- You now get a permanent 20% HP bonus from 7th NGP onward
- When hit by magic attacks, the effect now shows on the player
- Shield is now required to be re-obtained every NGP, and it only adds to player's stats only when the shield is in possession
- Added new equip: Belt (buff duration +3s / level)
- Added new stat: Buff duration
- Camera bounds is finally working properly
- Monsters hit by skills with delay (eg Roar) no longer freeze at their HIT frame but their STAND frame (like the real Maple)
- Monsters' magic attacks previously had infinite range. But not anymore.
- Exitting to Menu now saves the map you were previously on
- Manon EXP and Meso reward has been increased by ~20%
- Damage displayed over Manon now does not exceed the height of the screen (for tall monsters)
- Player HP bonus per NGP decreased: 20% -> 10%
- Pendant and Shields have their enhancements capped at 28 + 2*NGP
- All equipment's max enhancement level now increase with every NGP
- Added two new levels of equipment graphic sprites (+16 and +17 enhancement graphic)
- Added 200ms delay to rush to simulate real maple's rush
- The delay for buffing on ropes has been reduced to 200ms
- Fixed various bugs and issues:
- On NGP, SE and HS no longer drop when u have it
- Fixed max enhancement display error in Shop
- On NGP, some messages were changed / removed
- On NGP, you can no longer re-obtain holy symbol if u have it
- on NGP, messages telling you to unlock a new skill do not display if you own that skill
- On NGP, bosses no longer drop skills that you own
- Some messages now only appear once in a lifetime
- First message now changes based on your NGP count
- Fixed 0% success rate on 16+ enhancements
- Fixed bug: Your health got reset to base max health if you switched states instead of your real max health (if HB is on)
- Fixed a minor display bug with buffs that overlapped each other in the UI
- The login page now saves your username
- Entering different states in Lobby reset your map to mixed golem
- null success rates and upgrade costs for equipment past 15 enhancements
15 Jan:
- Belt has been buffed (buff duration per level: 3s -> 5s)
- Added Dragon Blood char animation effect (super cool)
- Added new skill: Sacrifice (320% damage to one target)
- A popup now appears every time you gain a new skill
- Added a new equipment graphic at +18 enhancements
The shop screen as of 15 Jan, which looks more awesome than it was at first.
16 Jan:
- Added new skill: Demolition
- Added new Map: Someone else's House
- Added new monster: Mushmom
- Added hit animations for Crusher, Roar, Demolition, Dragon Strike
- Manon's damage has been doubled
- Spawn rate in Goby Dungeon greatly increased:
- Spawn limit is now determined by num of enemies alive rather than total enemies in map
- Fixed bugs:
- Dragon Blood effect did not wear off even after end of buff
- Closing skill popups now cancels immovable status caused b skills
- There was no return portal from Mushmom map if level is below 15
- Added F1 shortcut key to shop
- Deactivated buffs now have their shortcut keys colored red and to make it more obvious, a '!" icon will appear over expired buffs
- Username now saves across newGamePlus
- added double confirm before deleting save
- When u reach the top of the rope, there used to be a bug where u jump. This bug is minimized, but not fixed completely.
- Added mushmom spores
- Shop mesos text size is now adjusted if u have too much mesos
- Added commas to shop meso text
- Updated the mushmom spore display in shop.
- Spores now carry over New Game Plus
- OCD: Centralized hidden portal in 'Forest of Golems' to map's symmetry
- Rolling over shop button and New Game plus now displays tooltip for shortcut key
- Sacrifice popup only appears on the 1st and 2nd NGP
- Demo popup only appears when below 5 New Game Pluses
- Zombie Mushmom has been added
- Reduced font size of stat description in Shop (16 --> 13)
- Updated stance description "99.99% to prevent KB" instead of "90%"
- Level font size decreased if level is above 1000
- New Item drop: Poisonous Mushroom
- Added poison status effect
- Messages added for collecting 120, 150, 170, and 200 spores
- Added small bonus for getting 100, 150 and 200 spores
- Item drops do not fall through the floor anymore
- Zombie mushmom can now be damaged by Heal
- Fireworks fx appear over a successful item enhancement
- Getting Holy Symbol as an item drop now saves when u change map
- Added shortcut key to toggle music: M
- Added 2x EXP and Meso coupons
- Insufficient mesos buying coupons will cause meso text to flash red
- Fixed a bug where cancelling Beholder didn't cause Beholder to disappear
- Fixed bug:
- Level 200 text no longer repeats after every level
- Ring enhancement cost was 0 past Level 16
- Demolition no longer drops from Mushmom wheen you possess the skill
- Slightly increased Manon's mesos reward (40000 -> 50000)
- Relic can no longer be summoned out of level bounds
18 Jan
- You now get popup if u loot shield, ring, belt and cape (only on first 3 games)
- Added new equipment Graphic at E21, E25, E30 and E40.
Additionally, sparkles will appear on E41+ equipment
- Weapon cost now increases by 50k per Enhancement after E15
- Armor cost now increases by 25k per Enhancement after E15
- Added new equip: Cape *unlocked after 2nd new game plus
- Added new equip: Earring *unlocked under secret requirement: when all equipment reach E20 (cannot be enhanced or obtained yet)
- Demolition now gives you invisibility and invulnerability
- Spores' damage cap boost now only take effect from 1st NGP onward
- Added new skill: Booster (to be unlocked after 5th NGP)
- Added new skill: Shadow Partner (to be unlocked via secret)
- Cooldowns are unfortunately saved
- Added ability to jump to platform below (DOWN + Jump key)
- Added hyper jump (shortcut: jump while pressing UP midaire)
- Increased gravity (800 -> 900)
- Increased jump power (400 -> 500)
- Increased flash jump power (400 -> 450)
- When in air, hold down to fall faster
- Added popups when choosing New game plus skills to carry over
- Updated New Game Plus screen with the advantages of NGP.
- Removed the "U gain meso UP at lvl 250" message at every NGP screen
- 1st, 2nd NGP will have rewards displayed on NGP screen.
- Miss rate has been doubled (1% per level below mob lv -> 2%)
- Goby level increased to be in line with Bone fish (55 --> 60)
- Manon level increased (200 -> 210)
- Buff exclamation mark does not appear if skill is still on Cooldown
- Buff durations no longer reset when entering Shop or entering portals only for Booster & Shadow partner :)
- Fixed bugs:
-Fixed major exploit where you could spam skills
- Your hp could become 0 if ur HP was at the exact Hp requirement of roar
- You could previously use the shortcut key F2 to start a new game plus even at Level 1
19 ~ 20Jan
- Belt and Shield popup now indicates they need to be recollected every NGP
- NGP level requirement increases by 20 from 10th NGP onward.
- Increased earrings to max 15 enhancements
- Keyboard settings now only allows alphabets, and supports the same special characters that maple supports
- You can now customize all the new skills (except Sac and Demo)
- Added new map: Shadow's Lair
- Added new boss fight at NGP10 (is it too early?)
- New boss drops special equipment and skill
- Added Stats Window
- Updated tutorial with the new abilities
- Added new map: Pianus' Cave (unlocked at NGP20)
- Added new boss: Pianus
- Added new skill: Maple Warrior
- Game now saves your mute preferences, and your current map
- Added messages for first time purchasing 2x EXP/ mesos
- Added buff overlays (timer) for certain important buffs
- Added shortcut key to enhance eqp: ENTER
- ATk bonus per NGP decreased (25 -> 20)
- Shoes now give up to 75 move speed (but player base speed decreased by 20)
- You can no longer push stationary monsters (pianus, goby houses) sadly, it was fun watching pianus get pushed across the map
Bug fixes:
- Booster and SP durations were 4x longer than expected
- Black overlay inaccurately conveyed buffs' time before expiring
- Added messages for first time buying 2x meso/exp. Buff descriptions are now more informative and reflect durations accurately.
Balancing:
- EXP tnl formula revised for Level 251+ onward
- It is now much harder to level up from 250 onward. This is because new update made it too easy to reach Lv 4k, and level accounted for 90% of player's damage (my normal att was hitting max dmg) *see screenshot*
- Excess crit rate over 100% now adds to Crit Dmg
- New stat: Crit Dmg
- Ring now gives 1% crit rate per level after E15
- Damage formula revision scrapped
- Each level was going to give 2% ATT instead of 4% (but made early game too difficult)
- New Game Plus no longer gives 10% HP bonus each (pianus needs to do 400k dmg to be of a challenge and that is too high)
21 Jan
- Pianus now summons Bloody Booms
- Fixed bug: Goby houses did not return to stand frame when KB-ed
- Added Pet button in shop as well as ability to purchase pet skills, but skills do not work currently
- Fixed bug:
- Fixed a bug where unlocking the last pet skill required the state to reset to update
22 Jan
- Added Pet:
- Added 5 Pet skills: Can walk, loot, buff and heal you
- Pianus boss fight made more challenging: Pianus' summon booms can heal him, and heal amount increases with bloody boom count. However, at high NGP it is still too easy to beat him
- Fixed bugs:
-2x meso and exp counted down wrongly
- IdleBot is officially working
Personal
(Warning: The following is more personal and less to do with my work.)
Unfortunately, even after doing all this, I am unable to relieve the original experience of what it felt like to be playing with some of my old friends, training and bossing together and having so much fun with them. It was at a time when we were all young and innocently playing together. Those times of a simple childhood are long gone…
The screenshot above was taken in 2011 (read the message banner at the top).
MapleStory was more than just a game to me, it was a
place I formed some of the strongest friendships I have and created unforgettable
memories. And just looking back at some of the screenshots I have, it’s just
nostalgic.
It's like going back to your old school, and thinking of the times you spent with your old classmates and friends.
I remember wanting MapleStory to be a single-playing game because I didn't like the multiplayer aspect, but I have come to realize that it's not just the game that made it memorable, but the friends I made in the game.
But well, it's all just memories now.
The End.
---
For reading till the end, here's a bonus...
This is a Cherry Boss I drew in the past. It was an unused asset. I didn't use it in the game because I had no interest in making anymore maps.
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