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Check out the v.256 - The Dark Ride: Limbo Patch Notes
here!
Closed not Frequently enough Asked Questions
We often see players, new and old alike, make comments that reveal big misconceptions they have about how Maplestory is run and maintained. The purpose of this thread is to dispell these misconceptions.
Here goes:
- Nexon America is a publisher, not a developer
Everything in the game, whether KMS, "Overseas content", or GMS-specific, is coded at Nexon Korea (in Seoul, Korea) and then sent over to Nexon America's team, who test it and, if it works, install it on the game servers. If it fails during testing or after going live, the team in Korea has to be given as much information as possible about the problem, and work on a fix. Then the local team receives the fix, and tests it again. If it's not properly fixed, back to Korea it goes.
Note that Nexon's Corporate Headquarters is in Tokyo, Japan. This is probably because Nexon stock is traded on the Tokyo stock exchange.
- Nexon America's Headquarters is in El Segundo, California
Don't try to call them or go there, though. Their front desk knows nothing about your issues, and will only transfer your call (or let you in) if you can name the person you want to talk to and that person OKs it. They also don't accept complaints through the Better Business Bureau or any other "Third Party", short of legal action. Note that if you threaten legal action, Customer Support will stop talking to you except to direct you to their Legal Department.
- Wizet is part of Nexon.
Wizet, the developer of MapleStory, is a subsidiary of Nexon Corporation. It's still developing MapleStory and MapleStory 2.
- GMS patches are planned months in advance
Because of the way major content moves down the pipeline from KMS release through localization to GMS, all content and events are planned out on a big roadmap calendar to ensure everything happens in the correct order and adapted as needed. Which means that if you want to suggest a new event or change to existing content "for X holiday that's coming up in 2 weeks", it really can't be done.
- Development happens while the game is online
The development team in Korea works on new content or bug fixes to old content on their own development system that is independent of the game servers. They then send it to Nexon America for QA (Quality Assurance) to test on their test servers, which are also independent of the game servers. Only after that, the game servers are taken down and the patch is applied, and re-tested on the game servers. The actual time it took to create the content or find the fix for a bug, is not directly related to the length of time the servers had to be down to apply the patch.
- Maintenance vs Game Update
A scheduled maintenance is when the servers are taken down for things like Windows updates, backups, database cleanup, etc. They generally occur once a week, on Thursday morning (Pacific time). Most weekly maintenances also deploy some fixes for the game, primarily those that don't require a client update.
An update or patch is when the game receives a new version and the launcher needs to download updates to the game files. Major game updates usually happen on Wednesday morning (Pacific time), presumably to give more time to fix any unexpected bugs before the weekend.
Unscheduled maintenance is when the game servers need to be taken down unexpectedly to fix an urgent issue with the game. By their nature, they could happen at any time.
- GMs are not Developers
GMs are Customer Support agents. As such, they can:
- Patrol the game to deal with suspicious activity
- Run certain in-game events
- Respond to tickets and live chat requests by searching an online knowledge base for the approved response or procedure to handle the issue.
- Forward issues to the development team.
They cannot:
- Make any changes to game code or hardware
- Answer questions about the game (e.g. "does diligence affect clean slate scrolls?"). They have only basic knowledge of the game itself. If they do give an answer it may well be wrong. You're better off asking on these forums, the official Discord, or fan sites.
- Community Managers are neither Developers nor GMs
The community manager (currently: Ghiblee) has two main roles: PR and ambassador.
As PR, the CM can use social media, videos, live-streams, web events, contests, etc, to entertain the community and help generate interest in game content.
As Nexon's ambassador to the community, the CM collects player feedback and passes it on to the people who can actually make decisions about the game. The CM then relates these decisions to the players (or the players just find out what was decided when they see what got implemented).
The CM cannot:
- Make any changes to game code or hardware
- Force the developers to make any such changes
- Ban or unban any player from the game
- VFMs are not Nexon employees
VFM ("Volunteer Forum Moderators") are player volunteers in the community team. They therefore have even less power than the CM, but assist the CM in his or her duties.
The VFMs can:
- Moderate the official forums
- Moderate the official Discord server
- Collect player feedback (bug reports, suggestions) and pass it on to Nexon
- Help run events and streams
The VFMs cannot:
- Make any changes to game code or hardware
- Force the developers to make any such changes
- Ban or unban any player from the game
- Client and Server
The portion of the game that runs on your PC is the client. The portion that runs on Nexon's computers is the server. The client can do some things on its own (like walking around the map) but mostly sends commands to the server about what you did, to make sure all users see the same things happening.
Issues with the game can be purely client-side (game freezes, graphic glitches), purely server side (channel crash), or due to a bad connection (most forms of lag and disconnect).
- "Glitch" vs "Hack" vs "Bot"
A glitch is a bug, an error in the game. The error can be in design or in coding, of the client or the server. A glitch can be positive (to the players) or negative. An example positive glitch would be Kishin and Frenzy stacking for mad spawn rate. An example negative glitch would be players being skill-locked after dying and reviving at Lucid. Taking advantage of a positive glitch is considered "exploiting" or "abuse". It doesn't matter that it's Nexon's fault the glitch is there. It's your responsibility to not intentionally trigger it.
If you're not sure whether something is a glitch or intended, use your head. If it's too good to be true, it's probably a glitch. Will you be punished for exploiting it? Nexon's track record is inconsistent: sometimes they do nothing, sometimes they ban everyone. When considering taking advantage of something you're not 100% sure is intended, always think: "Is this worth risking my entire account over?"
A hack is when someone uses external tools to get things to happen in-game that would not happen without the tool's action. This can be editing the game files, using a packet editor to tell the server things that the client itself would not, or any number of other methods. Regardless of why or how they're done, all hacks are against the Terms of Service and generally lead to permanent bans when discovered.
Botting is when the server is fooled into thinking there's a person playing the game, even though there isn't. Keyweighting your attack key is botting. Using a programmable keyboard to repeatedly issue a set of commands is botting. Using a program that runs a dozen fake clients to collect meso is also botting, in addition to being hacking. All botting is against the Terms of Service and is punishable by bans.
Happy Mapling!
and 7 others.
Comments
ok well he is but still
Traps are Hay!
or at least the white hair looks like it after it was bleached out so many times ;D
If we are using a KMS system, I can see why investigations and fixes into the false bannings are proceeding incredibly slowly.
GM looking into a mass banning: Guys?.... The squiggles are back... I'm looking into the banbot banning some GMs and the reason are squiggles and round squares with lines through them.
If they are known for months, why we can't get specified patch notes with a week anticipated, or at least 2 or 3 days for big updates? Sometimes we get it in middle of maintenance, and other ones, are just incomplete, and we have to test 'em in-game, or read them on related pages, like reddit.
No.
The place to report hackers is the Customer Support site: http://support-maplestory.nexon.net
and ill delete the other topic i just made on reporting ETA since i was un-aware to jsut go there.
Sorry and thanks!