Hi all,

I’d like to make a clarification to the below message in case it wasn’t immediately clear. I may have mentioned this in our live stream discussion, but the item we’re proposing will activate the same effects as the newly revamped Kishin skill that will be introduced this June. My apologies if that wasn’t immediately clear, however I wanted to make sure there was no misunderstanding about that part.

Thank you,

Dennis

Hi everyone,

Today we’d like to briefly discuss a few things, including one very important topic I know a lot of you have been waiting to hear about.

Channel Reduction

First, I'd like to discuss our intentions regarding the reduction of channels in Bera and Reboot worlds back down to 20. When we first decided to increase the channels in these two worlds in October, we did so as a measure to alleviate some of the server issues we were experiencing at the time. In that same maintenance, we also made large changes to our server structure to address these issues we were facing. We increased the channels in these two worlds specifically to help mitigate any potential issues with the large influx of players who would be logging in for the then-upcoming Black Mage updates. After several months of monitoring and gradually improving other parts of our server structure (and now that the player population has stabilized), we believe we are more prepared at this point for any new server issues that may arise. So after reviewing our entire server structure, we decided that the additional resources used to maintain these additional channels could be reallocated to better serve the entire game.

Kanna Changes

Another measure we have been actively discussing to address these server issues was the adjustment of the Kishin skill’s mob respawning ability. Many of you have been patiently waiting to hear news of our plan, and we’ve been deliberating between several options and ideas, weighing those against the extensive feedback you all have provided regarding this topic and considering how those options fit within our long-term plans for the game and content being developed.

As I mentioned in the memo at the beginning of November, in addition to the server issues, we also wanted to address the disparity between Kanna characters being played, primarily by illicit players abusing several of Kanna’s skills. We also wanted to look for ways to mitigate any potential loss players may feel as a result of reducing Kanna’s Kishin ability to decrease the time in which monsters respawn in maps. Through these discussions and investigations over the past few months, we have found that the excessive ability of the Kishin skill has been negatively affecting the overall health of the game.

As result of our discussion, we are planning on making the following changes to the Kishin skill specifically as part of our overall Kanna skill revamp:

• Currently, using Kishin once provides up to a 50% decrease in monster respawn time, and using it one more time can stack to provide up to a 75% decrease in monster respawn time. We would like to adjust this ability so that the skill effects do not stack—meaning the skill will only provide a max of up to a 50% decrease in monster respawn time.
• Changes will be made so that if Kanna stays in the same spot and casts the skill a certain number of times, the skill will not function until the player has moved.

In addition to the above changes for Kishin, we are also making overall changes to a large number of Kanna’s skills as part of a wider Kanna revamp. Exact details for all these changes are yet to be finalized, and may still need to be tuned upon testing. However, our direction remains the same as what I said in November: We want to emphasize the strengths and unique features of the class, while addressing some of the overall issues that both our team and our players have identified. Those changes include increasing the character's basic combat abilities and effectiveness, adjusting the Haku system to be more streamlined, improving survivability, and adjusting certain skills that are less effective than others. We also plan to make changes to her movement and teleport abilities to mitigate player abuse, and to develop new abilities that differentiate the job more from other jobs in order to make Kanna characters more useful and unique overall. Furthermore, we also plan to make changes to parts of Kanna’s questline where progression was difficult or information was missing or unclear. These improvements should help reduce any unnecessary time spent trying to progress through Kanna’s early quests. As we start to finalize these details regarding the skill and quests, we will be sure to let you know.

For the part I mentioned above about the loss players may feel as a result of these changes, we plan to introduce a new item that all characters can obtain in-game through multiple avenues, as well as in limited quantities from the Maple Reward Point Shop. This item will grant players the ability to activate the same effects of Kanna’s newly revamped Kishin skill for a limited duration. We decided that this was necessary in order to provide all players an alternative to using the Kanna character itself.  

Many players will also be wondering if there are going to be any changes made to the existing Frenzy Totem as a result of the Kanna changes mentioned. Our plan at this time is to not make changes to Frenzy Totems since there are a limited quantity of those items in players' possessions.

Another question I know all of you are asking right now is, “When will these changes be implemented?” At the moment, we plan to tune the skill efficiency of several jobs and reinforce the uniqueness of each of those jobs with our summer patch in June. All of the items I mentioned above, including the changes to Kanna and the items being planned, are scheduled to be included in that patch. If there are any changes to that plan, we will update you all.

Now, I also know that many of you may have a lot of questions regarding these changes, and while there may not be much more information available than what I’ve already mentioned above, I’d like to take the opportunity to join our CM Ghiblee on stream today to discuss these changes with you all and to take any questions you may have.

As we always encourage you to do, please feel free to provide any feedback you may have.

Thanks,

Dennis “SavageAce” Bernardo
Producer – MapleStory