Oct 16, 2018

Whirligig Media Player - Whirligig

And here comes another beta. Work on different rooms and a new shortcut menu added. Probably some other stuff as well. Details below.

Rooms

Rooms menu has been redesigned. Lots of new image based Rooms added. Check them out under settings/projection/rooms. Basically 15 new rooms have been added. These are based on stereo 360 degree images so aren't as dynamic as the orginals but they have been lurking in Themes for too long and needed to be properly used.

Explorer Update
'images', 'Video' and 'other' options have been added to the right so that you can limit what is displayed. Just click on each to show or remove from selection. These selections are saved and will remain the same the next time you load Whirligig.

Optimisation in all menus
Hopefully this should fix the progressive slowdown that was occurring. I'm also hoping that this will improve dropdown menu speed.

Shortcut menu

This is a new feature that allows you to bring up a shortcut menu to user defined options. This has been created to add functionality to the Oculus GO/GearVR version and improve usability overall. The shortcut menu can be mapped to the controllers like other options and the Shortcut menu buttons can be mapped in the inputs menu under settings/other/inputs. I've also updated the default options in the gamepad, keyboard and touch controllers so if you want them to be mapped to a standard key simply go in and hit default on each of the control options.

Plugins and SDK's

All the plugins, SDK's and Unity3D versions have been updated to the latest release.

I’m sure there is a load of other stuff I’ve missed and if I think of it I let you know. There has been quite a few changes in this update so if you run into bugs please let me know.

Spanish and Chinese language support
Change the language under settings/interface/languages.

This is still at it's early stages so expect it not to be perfect and some translations to be missing. I've asked my brother and a friend to do the translations so far. These will be updated more on the final release. Please let me know what you think of this, is it worth it and how I can improve it. I want to support multiple languages but it's a long process to update everything so it's taken me a while to implement. Hopefully once things slow down I'll be able to properly finalise it and increase the number of translations.

How to try the Betas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0g9ICfaxbU

Note on replying to this message

In discussion you get a notification if someone has replied to a post but if you post at the bottom of a news feed then you don't get that notification so it can be easily to miss a reply. I check these news post regularly (mostly). If you do post here with an issue or suggestion please check manually to see if I've replied to your comment. I don't want people to think I'm ignoring them :)

And Finally

So this is a continuation of the updates that I've wanted to include. Some are still work in progress but I hope each time I update I add more features and improve the overall experience of Whirligig. I'm currently working on a version for Oculus Go and GearVR which has guided a few of my updates recently. This hasn't stopped me from added features though so I will try and update them parallel. If you're interested in trying the Oculus Go beta email me phileday@yahoo.co.uk,

I hope you continue to enjoy Whirligig and happy Watching :)

Oct 16, 2018

It's Ghoul Hunting Season!

MapleStory - Eosst

PDT (UTC -7): Tuesday, October 16, 2018 5:00 PM - Wednesday, October 31, 2018 4:59 PM
EDT (UTC -4): Tuesday, October 16, 2018 8:00 PM - Wednesday, October 31, 2018 7:59 PM
CEST (UTC +2): Wednesday, October 17, 2018 2:00 AM - Thursday, November 1, 2018 12:59 AM (CET)
AEDT (UTC +11): Wednesday, October 17, 2018 11:00 AM - Thursday, November 1, 2018 10:59 AM

The door between the world of the living and the dead has opened, unleashing a horde of ghosts and ghouls upon Maple World! Hunt them down to restore peace to Maple World (and earn spooky rewards along the way) in our Ghoulbusters event!

To start hunting ghouls, players over Lv. 33 must first accept the "[Halloween] Ghoulbusters" quest from the star event notifier on the left side of the screen. Then, you'll start to encounter ghouls while you're out hunting monsters within your level range (20 levels below and 20 levels above)!

There are three different types of ghouls, each of which gives out a different reward once you defeat 10 of them:

Frankenbalrogs give out EXP based on your level. The 10th and 20th gifts grant extra EXP!
Pumpkin Zombies give out mesos in amounts of 100 million, 500 million, and 1 billion mesos!
Halloween Pumpkins give out 3 Ghost Coins! The 10th gift gives out 15 Ghost Coins, and the 20th gift gives out 30 Ghost Coins!

To receive your Ghoulbusters rewards, select the quest "[Halloween] Let's Collect Ghosts!" from the star event notifier on the left side of the screen. You can claim rewards 20 times from each type of monster per day (the daily reward limit count resets at midnight UTC each day).

You can also take the Ghost Coins earned from Halloween Pumpkins to NPC Hallowkitty to exchange them for exclusive rewards! NPC Hallowkitty is located in Henesys, Leafre, and Nameless Town, and is open for business at the following times:

PDT (UTC -7): Tuesday, October 16, 2018 5:00 PM - Sunday, November 11, 2018 3:59 PM (PST)
EDT (UTC -4): Tuesday, October 16, 2018 8:00 PM - Sunday, November 11, 2018 6:59 PM (EST)
CEST (UTC +2): Wednesday, October 17, 2018 2:00 AM - Monday, November 12, 2018 12:59 AM (CET)
AEDT (UTC +11): Wednesday, October 17, 2018 11:00 AM - Monday, November 12, 2018 10:59 AM

You can purchase a variety of ghoulish costumes and masks from the Ghoulbusters Coin Shop:

Halloween Mask: Costs 100 Ghost Coins. Untradeable.
Venezia Dream: Costs 100 Ghost Coins. Untradeable.
Hat of a Masked Man: Costs 150 Ghost Coins. Untradeable. One of a kind item.
Red Ball Mask: Costs 50 Ghost Coins. Untradeable. One of a kind item.
Special Halloween Costume Box: Costs 150 Ghost Coins. Untradeable. Open to receive one of the following permanent rewards. Note: these equipment items can’t be transferred to the Cash Inventory.
- Ghost Mask
- Ghost Costume
- Jiangshi Hat
- Blue Jiangshi Costume
- Angel Halo
- Angel Costume
- Paper Bag
- Paper Box
- Cow Mask
- Cow Costume
- Tiger Cub Hat
- Tiger Cub Costume
Halloween Pumpkin Suit (male and female versions available): Costs 250 Ghost Coins. Coupon has 7-day duration. Untradeable. Use coupon to receive permanent item.
Hallowkitty’s Witch Hat: Costs 1,000 Ghost Coins. Coupon has 7-day duration. Untradeable. Use coupon to receive permanent item.
Halloween Dracula Mask: Costs 200 Ghost Coins. Coupon has 7-day duration. Untradeable. Use coupon to receive permanent item.
Halloween Frankenstein Mask: Costs 200 Ghost Coins. Coupon has 7-day duration. Untradeable. Use coupon to receive permanent item.
Halloween Skull Mask: Costs 200 Ghost Coins. Coupon has 7-day duration. Untradeable. Use coupon to receive permanent item.
Halloween Werewolf Mask: Costs 200 Ghost Coins. Coupon has 7-day duration. Untradeable. Use coupon to receive permanent item.
Halloween Mummy Mask: Costs 200 Ghost Coins. Coupon has 7-day duration. Untradeable. Use coupon to receive permanent item.
Halloween Cat-O-Lantern Mask: Costs 200 Ghost Coins. Coupon has 7-day duration. Untradeable. Use coupon to receive permanent item.
Worn Ghost Cape: Costs 60 Ghost Coins. Coupon has 7-day duration. Untradeable. Use coupon to receive permanent item.
Worn Messy Wig: Costs 60 Ghost Coins. Coupon has 7-day duration. Untradeable. Use coupon to receive permanent item.
Worn Ghost Suit: Costs 60 Ghost Coins. Coupon has 7-day duration. Untradeable. Use coupon to receive permanent item.
Worn Witch Hat: Costs 60 Ghost Coins. Coupon has 7-day duration. Untradeable. Use coupon to receive permanent item.
Worn Witch Outfit: Costs 60 Ghost Coins. Coupon has 7-day duration. Untradeable. Use coupon to receive permanent item.
Worn Witch Cape: Costs 60 Ghost Coins. Coupon has 7-day duration. Untradeable. Use coupon to receive permanent item.
Worn Skull Hat: Costs 60 Ghost Coins. Coupon has 7-day duration. Untradeable. Use coupon to receive permanent item.
Worn Skull Outfit: Costs 60 Ghost Coins. Coupon has 7-day duration. Untradeable. Use coupon to receive permanent item.
Worn Skull Gloves: Costs 60 Ghost Coins. Coupon has 7-day duration. Untradeable. Use coupon to receive permanent item.
Worn Skull Mask: Costs 60 Ghost Coins. Coupon has 7-day duration. Untradeable. Use coupon to receive permanent item.

There are also a number of creepy chairs and bone-chilling damage skins available for purchase, as well as a very witchy mount!

Black Cat Camper: Costs 500 Ghost Coins. Untradeable.
Halloween Candy Hoard Chair: Costs 300 Ghost Coins. Untradeable.
Elite Pumpkin Pal: Costs 300 Ghost Coins. Untradeable.
Ghost Ship Chair: Costs 150 Ghost Coins. Untradeable.
R.I.P. Chair: Costs 150 Ghost Coins. Untradeable
Halloween Pumpkin Chair: Costs 150 Ghost Coins. Untradeable
Halloween Damage Skin: Costs 200 Ghost Coins. 7-day duration, tradeable within account.
Zombie Damage Skin: Costs 100 Ghost Coins. 7-day duration, tradeable within account.
Witch’s Broomstick Mount Coupon: Costs 300 Ghost Coins. 7-day duration, tradeable within account.

Defeat as many Ghouls as you can and celebrate Halloween in style! It's time to get Ghoulbusting!

This event is also part of Maple Missions! Participate in Ghoulbusters and complete Maple Missions to earn extra rewards! More information on Maple Missions here.

Oct 16, 2018

Producer Blog - State of the Game Week 1

Community Announcements - ColonelPanic

Dear Maplers,

We had a fantastic first week thanks to our great MapleStory 2 community. MapleStory 2 was ranked the #6 title on Steam during North America peak hours, with an even larger community forming on Nexon Launcher. The game was generally stable, aside from a few server issues during the weekend which increased latency on the North America East server, but the team here acted quickly to resolve the issues.

We saw the community grow in Europe, Oceania and South America. Oceania actually surprised us with a huge population, which required us to look into adding more channels! North America also showed growth every day and has consistently been the most packed.

While we have been seeing great success with the Official Launch, the team here has worked hard to get a few bigger items sorted out with our developers. I would like to use this chance to share what kind of changes we are planning to make.

Style Crate

We further reviewed the design of the Style Crate and after looking at posts on Reddit, the Official Forums and the Steam Community, we decided to make some additional improvements. The team has identified two main issues:

Set items in the Style Crate which aren't in the shop require too much investment to complete
Selection in the Premium Shop is too limited, due to the fact that most items only exist in the Style Crate

Because our intention is not to force players to purchase Style Crates, and MapleStory 2 is very unique with its visuals and customization, we will be taking the actions below:

All outfits that Dismantle for one Style Coin will now also be sold in the Premium Shop. The price will be higher than regular vanity items in the current shop, but you will be able to Dismantle these items for Style Coins.
- When we remove items from the Style Crate, we will also remove those items from the Premium Shop, and add a new batch of items based on the current items in the Style Crate.
All outfit items that Dismantle for 3 Style Coins and Style Crate Weapon Boxes that Dismantle for 2 Style Coins will now also be added to the Style Coin Shop
- Above items in the Style Coin Shop can be Dismantled for 2 or 3 Style Coins
- Coin pricing will include the value of items after Dismantling (2 or 3 Style Coins)

The end result of these changes will be that every item within the Style Crates can now be obtained without relying on the roll of the dice. This change will be applied with the October 18th Halloween update. The team here and at the Development Studio have been working day and night to make these changes, to ensure we are providing the best service possible.

For Players Who Purchased Existing Style Crates

To show our appreciation towards players who purchased Style Crates before the October 18th update, we are going to grant one Style Coin for every 5 Style Crates purchases in the past. Since we are going to update the Style Coin Shop regularly, you can use both your existing and newly obtained Style Coins to purchase items in the future.

For players who bought 1 - 4 Style Crates: No Coin
For players who bought 5 - 9 Style Crates: 1 Coin
For players who bought 10 - 14 Style Crates: 2 Coins
...
For players who bought 100 - 104 Style Crates: 20 Coins and so on

PvP Update

This has been a hot topic since the first Closed Beta, and we have been discussing this with the MapleStory 2 studio. I am happy to provide some high-level updates in regards to the direction we are going to pursue.

Bottom line: we will be updating PvP gear and reactivating PvP in early December.

The current version of the game has a completely different balance, and we agreed to work on releasing the PvP arena with an improved PvP gear system in early December.

Please stay tuned for more updates around the 3rd or 4th week of November.

Workshop Template

We have been seeing a large number of requests from players wanting to see a greater variety of weapon templates.

Working on new weapon templates takes a significant amount of time, but the MapleStory 2 studio wants to work on new templates that players want. We will work towards releasing a different variety of weapon templates one by one, and we hope to get your feedback on which templates have the greatest demand.

Please participate in the poll here!

After the survey, we will work with the studio to provide more information on any new weapon templates.

Upcoming Halloween Update

We released a short teaser yesterday on Twitter, and we have some more info to showcase today.

This year's Halloween content was actually developed for the global version of the service! Although Korea and China will be getting the same events at around the same time, the MapleStory 2 studio made a special effort to create new, limited time content specifically catered towards our community!

Please spread the word about these events, and jump in to collect exclusive, adorable looking Halloween perks this weekend! Lots of really cool things will be provided as event rewards for you to earn, as well as some limited time packages full of spooky items!

Other Issues

The team here is working day and night to review and monitor all the feedback from players. Please understand that we cannot leave replies on all the postings from the community, but you can assume we are reading most of the feedback you are providing the community and social channels.

We are taking care of high priority items, and we will eventually get to some of the topics we haven't mentioned yet. As a company, we can only discuss things which are confirmed, to prevent miscommunication and evolving designs from creating confusion. We appreciate all of your feedback and insights, and we will work hard to make the best decisions for the future of MapleStory 2.

A few things I would like to share for visibility purposes:

Dungeon Cap Discussion: We are going to make an official announcement on upcoming changes to the Dungeon Cap this Friday or next Monday. The plan is to share Friday, but depending on the situation after the Halloween update, this might be delayed. Our target date to apply the changes is early November at the moment.
Game Launch Errors: We have seen three different types of errors players are going through: stuck at Nexon logo screen, game freezing at the MapleStory 2 logo with loading bar getting frozen, and the game not responding after clicking "Play" on Steam. We are deploying a potential fix for the freezing at MapleStory 2 logo screen issue. We will work towards fixes for all the technical issues soon.
10053 Disconnection Issue: The MapleStory 2 studio is working on the solution for this. We don't have an ETA yet, but we will try to get this fix in place ASAP. Once we have more news, will provide updates.
Meso Sellers & Bots: We are rolling out new measures to ban meso sellers and bots from the game every day. Meanwhile, please make sure to stay away from purchasing mesos from these sellers. Based on the Terms of Service, you can get banned from the game if you engage in the trade. We have learned how sellers are transferring mesos to the buyers and we will be taking more aggressive measures. So far, we have banned over 6,000 farmer accounts, and we will continue to fight back against meso sellers.
Fairfight: This is still being discussed, and we don't have any information we can share with you yet. Since this has been one of the biggest topics, I am mentioning this to let you know that we have heard what players are saying. We're still working on this issue, but there is some good news: the upcoming Chaos Raids won't have Fairfight applied.

Thank you for being an awesome community, and making the Official Launch so successful. We will continue to work on the game with the community and our developers, to find what's best for MapleStory 2 long-term.

Sincerely,
Jungsoo Lee

Oct 16, 2018

Achievements & Halloween 2018 Event

Masters of Puzzle - Belleal

Halloween is coming and with it nears our first special event. We are releasing our first purchasable puzzle boxes in a special edition format. All such DLCs are and will be made with illustrations by talented modern artists in a variety of styles. As we promised before, we will try to expand our selection of puzzles with images for different tastes. One thing will remain a constant though - you will see only high quality and unique content in Masters of Puzzle.

Halloween 2018 Event

The special event will start on 18th of October with the release of the first puzzle box Pumpkin Garden House and will end on 10th of November. During that time enter the game and play your favorites or any of the new puzzles in order to earn special rewards. In addition, for the first time since we launched, you will be able to play the new 1500 and 2000 tilesets for a greater challenge (available only for purchasable puzzle boxes). For your convenience, there will be a new widget in the game's dashboard that will allow you to keep track of the remaining event time and how many challenges you have completed so far. While currently these are only displayed in Steam, once we roll out the room customization upgrade you will also gain special trophies that you will be able to display there. Start gathering the limited achievements now because you are going to regret missing the opportunity later! ːsteammockingː

For the full list of challenges in this event see the list at the end of this post.

Achievements, Achievements, Achievements

As you've probably noticed, recently we started to roll out the finished achievement icons in Steam. It's been longer than we anticipated, but now we are finally ready with this task and we are also equipped to create icons for the new ones much faster. Apart from new icons, we've also added over 50 new achievements, including an increased number of puzzle box completions in all tileset variations and the full range of completions for the new 1500 and 2000 tile tiers. The locked achievements will always display a closed box with a question mark on it. Once you achieve it, the icon will change to display its actual image. While this is not the traditional approach used by Steam, we feel that it makes for a much more interesting and engaging mini-game while hunting for our achievements.

The achievement icons are divided into 3 types:

Brown ones are the regular ones which you can get at any time while also knowing what exactly you need to do to unlock them.
Orange icons signify hidden achievements and while you can also get these at any time, you are not exactly aware of how to unlock them.
Blue icons represent the new special form of limited time achievements or challenges. These you can get only under special circumstances and usually only inside a limited timeframe (like events). Once the opportunity to get such an achievement passes, it might not come again for a long time or ever! We will announce all such new achievements early on so you have time to prepare your strategy to get as many of them as you can. Keep an eye on the updates and the game news in order to stay informed.

For those of you, who have already completed one or more of the old puzzle boxes which did not have corresponding achievements at the time, don't worry. As long as you keep a saved game from that playthrough, you only need to load it once and the game will reward you with the new achievement.

Event Challenges

These are only obtainable from 18th of October until the 10th of November.

Play the game during the Halloween 2018 event
Complete Pumpkin Garden House puzzle box in any tileset configuration before the 10th of November 2018
Complete Chess on Halloween Eve puzzle box in any tileset configuration before the 10th of November 2018
Complete Sing Me a Pumpkin puzzle box in any tileset configuration before the 10th of November 2018
Complete any 3 puzzle boxes during the Halloween 2018 event
Complete any 5 puzzle boxes during the Halloween 2018 event
Complete any 10 puzzle boxes during the Halloween 2018 event

We wish you the best of luck in chasing these!

This is it for today. Don't forget to follow our social channels for regular news and some exclusive information about the game: