A couple of days ago, a new test world patch was released and unfortunately, it had basically nothing lol. There was a new (very basic) event but no content or even any substantial QoL changes. On the bright side, Wonki did another one of his post-patch livestreams and revealed some information about the winter update, including that the Winter showcase will take place on December 15! Also had a pretty good time at MapleStory Fest this year (my first time going)! Since there’s nothing else to do, I’ll be messing around on GMS Reboot and playing Pokemon for the next month MapleStory LIVE | Director Wonki In this livestream, Wonki talked about a few different things. Here’s some of the more interesting points mentioned. Although they talked about how they wanted to do more frequent balance patches before, they realized that doing so had a lot more effects than they expected. Multiple changes for multiple jobs every month made it difficult to properly balance the classes. In this respect, they have instead been aggregating data since September and looking at it more in-depth to prepare for the next balance patch, which will be in December at the earliest. They want to make more stable balance patches with smaller changes. The Winter showcase will take place on December 15. He mentioned that some players have wanted improvements to Monster Life, which they haven’t been paying much attention to recently, and so they will look at it soon. They expect to improve the Star Force variance this December. They won’t be dramatically changing the amount it takes to reach 22 stars, but they do want to lower the variance that it takes to a more reasonable rate. They will be expanding the maximum number of Mannequin slots this December. There will be another GS25 collaboration with more products other than Maple Bread. There are no plans to release the Gold Hands packages again for now. They already made improvements to the Seed in September so it is not a priority right now. The next patch might adjust classes that have 200 second cooldown skills. An important part of the winter update is improving the growth experience for level 220 and higher. Many players have a harder time starting at that level so they’ll be working on it and also making improvements to overall growth. He apologized for this patch having little to no content and admitted that their event scheduling was a bit lacking. Many players also couldn’t enjoy Haste as it was during exam periods and next year, they will rearrange events to fit better. They are preparing for the peak season so there wasn’t much content for now. It’s difficult to prepare players for what to expect in advance while still keeping the element of surprise. They are preparing a fun showcase so please look forward to it. No 6th job this winter. The Open API for probability-related items is almost ready, and could be released around December. First, they are planning to provide Maple Hands’ cube usage history feature. Some players have been asking for the Monster Life app to return but it was extremely underused and so it’s difficult to bring it back. Overview Convenience Improvements Improvements Quests Items NPCs Maps UI Dimensional Library Error Fixes Skills Quests Items Monsters Maps UI Etc. Raising Stone Spirits! Convenience Improvements The stats of the items given from the Premium PC Room Weapon Boxes have been improved. When you are revealing items’ potential in the inventory with the Magnifying Glass, you can now press the ESC key or press another button in the inventory to cancel it. When you are locking items with the Green PC Lock, you can now press the ESC key or press another button in the inventory to cancel it. The Item Sort Lock feature has been improved so that you can use it consecutively. When you use the Item Sort Lock feature, it will now be maintained until you press the ESC key or press another button in the inventory. The Item Sort Lock cursor icon has been changed. When the Enhancement UI is empty, you can now right-click an item in your equipment window or inventory to place it in the UI. When you have an item in the Enhancement UI’s Star Force and Scroll section, you can now drag and drop other equipment into the UI to replace it. If you are an Account Buddy, when you are using Buddy Chat or Group Chat, the buddy’s memo nickname will now be displayed. When logging into the game, the intro page will now only be displayed on the first character you login to 1 time per day. You can now choose to display pets in the Cash Shop preview window. When using the Maple Guide, if there is a confirmation window open, the other functions of the Maple Guide window will be disabled to prevent accidentally pressing another button. Improvements Quests Fixed an issue in the ‘[Cernium (After)] Special Person’ quest where the NPC moved awkwardly. NPCs The Ship to Victoria Island NPC Puro’s description has been changed. The Tenebris daily quests’ start and completion guide text have been simplified. In the Seed 39F, when you have answered all of the quiz questions, you can no longer use the ESC key or End Conversation button in the chat window. The Meisterville NPC Noboom’s speech patterns have been unified. Maps Fixed an issue in the Military Camp 1 map where monsters moved awkwardly. The following maps’ minimap ranges have been adjusted. Dragon’s Nest Stage 1: Entrance to Dragon Forest Dragon’s Nest Stage 2: Dragon Forest 1 Dragon’s Nest Stage 6: Dragon’s Nest Canyon of Souls Stage 3: Canyon of Souls 3 Canyon of Souls Stage 5: Canyon of Souls 5 After Monster Park Extreme automatic matching is complete, you can no longer perform any actions other than moving left and right while waiting for other players to accept the match. UI In the Enhancement UI, the description displayed for enhancement methods through Spell Traces has been changed to be more accurate. Dimensional Library The readability of the text in the new dialogue windows has been improved. In ‘Road of Vanishing Chapter 2’, Kao’s awkward movements in the cutscenes have been improved. In ‘Chew Chew Island Chapter 1’, fixed an issue where the video was missing from the replay. The Maple Chronicles – Book of Grandis’ chapter title colours have been changed. Error Fixes Skills Fixed an issue where certain keydown skills’ durations were shorter than intended, except for the first time they were used. Bishop: Divine Punishment Pathfinder: Ancient Astra Kain: Dragon Scale Fixed an issue where Mercedes’ Elemental Knights’ Frost Spirit did not recieve the V Core enhancement effects. Quests Fixed an issue where the ‘[Theme Dungeon] Once an Operator, Always an Operator’ achievement’s description was displayed incorrectly. Fixed an error where the subsequent quests could be completed without the ‘[Cernium (Before)] Stars Above, Continent Below’ quest. Fixed an error where the ‘Second Information Collection’ quest in-progress and completion tabs’ information was awkward. Fixed an error where the ‘Fourth Information Collection’ quest start tab information was awkward. Fixed an error where the ‘Letter Delivery’ quest item could be claimed repeatedly. Fixed an error where the ‘Lunch Delivery’ quest item could be claimed repeatedly. Fixed an error where the ‘Breakfast is Sandwiches’ quest item could be claimed repeatedly. Fixed an error where the ‘Strange Dream’ tutorial image was awkward. Fixed an issue when starting the ‘Yeonwoo’s Worry’ quest where you could move to Seolhee’s Room even in teleport-restricted maps. Fixed an error where the ‘Chief Stan’s Request 1’ quest in-progress tab information was awkward. Fixed an error where the ‘New Beginning’ quest completion tab information was awkward. Fixed an error where the ‘To Mu Gong’ quest completion tab information was awkward. Fixed an error in the ‘Catch the Shadow Warrior’ quest where you could defeat the Shadow Warrior repeatedly. Fixed an error where the ‘Victoria Island’s Seal Stone’ quest item could be claimed repeatedly. Fixed an error with the ‘Person who Remembers’ dialogue window where hte images displayed were awkward. Monsters Fixed an issue in Watcher Kalos (Chaos) where sometimes the Eye of the Abyss missiles sometimes passed through characters without hitting them. Fixed an issue with the Ice Mix Golem, Fire Mix Golem, Dragonica, Von Leon, Awakened Mu Gong, and Frightened Lion monsters where the images were awkward when hit or bound. Fixed an issue with the Wild Kargo where the background was visible behind its eyes when it died. Fixed an issue where certain monsters in Twilight Perion, Cheong-woon Valley, Cernium, and the Seed did not play output sounds. Maps Fixed an issue where Lara’s Dragon Veins were created in awkward locations in the ‘[Borderless] The Answer is In There’ quest’s ‘Esfera: Deep Merrior’ map and the ‘[Cernium (Before)] These Things’ quest’s ‘Cernium: Sword Graveyard’ map. Fixed an issue in Mirror World’s Temple of Time dungeons where the map background displayed awkwardly. Fixed an error in Cursed Temple’s Endless Hallway map where you could climb on an invisible rope. Fixed an issue in ‘Sharenium Underground Culvert: Arcanus’ Altar’ map where using certain skills in the corner appeared awkardly. Fixed an issue in ‘Root Abyss East Garden’ where the character would be located in a place other than the portal when entering. Fixed an issue in ‘Cernium: Royal Palace Main Hall’ where using the portal would not move you to the connected map. Fixed an error in ‘Clocktower Bottom Floor: Passage of Time’ where a red cross image was partically displayed. Fixed an error in the following maps where the background appeared awkwardly. Maple World Horizon Masteria Horizon Grandis Horizon Fixed an issue in Monster Park and Moonbridge areas where the map mark was displayed incorrectly. Fixed an issue in ‘Leafre West Forest’ map where using the hidden portal to ‘Shinsoo’s Shelter’ would not display an information message when the portal was not available. UI The Authentic Symbol growth value gauge has been changed to be more clearly visible. After using a Return Scroll, when using the Display Differences button after using a scroll, the change in damage range has been changed to be more clearly visible. In the Maple Auction, fixed an issue where certain Star Force enhanced items were displayed as items that had Miraculous Enhancement Scrolls applied to them. Fixed an issue when changing worlds in the character select window where the last played character was not automatically selected. The special character input window will no longer be displayed when trying to input Chinese characters if text input was not active. Fixed the typos in the Seed weekly ranking bulletin board UI. The Maple Guide UI’s Deepening Tragedy Forst 1 image has been changed. Fixed an error when accepting party invites where occasionally, a person other than the one who requested to join the party would join as the party leader. Fixed the typos in certain UI, tooltips, and system messages in-game. Fixed an issue in the Shortcut setting window where registered consumable items’ shadows appeared darker. Fixed an issue where the arrow keys would function even when the game window was not active. Fixed an issue in Maple Auction where the current lowest price would not be updated when there were no other items for sale due to them being cancelled or sold. A notification message has been added when you try to enter the Raid Battle or claim coins from the Union UI while a shop or storage is open. Fixed an issue where if you had the chat window timestamps on, long messages would look awkward if they had multiple lines. Fixed an issue where if there were new guild join reueqts, guild members that did have permissions to accept them would not see the alert. Fixed an issue where if you had the Afterimage effect applied, your character would appear awkward in the Maple Auction preview. In the profession UI, you can no longer press the Disassemble or Fuse buttons if you cannot use those features. Fixed an issue where the Soul Effect sometimes did not appear to other characters. Etc. Fixed an issue on certain keyboards where Windows-only keys or shortcut keys would activate unintended keys. Alleviated an issue where using a mount that had the High-Flying s kill quickly would cause the client to freeze. Source: Orange Mushroom's Blog