Prototypemind

Okay, seems they just didn't include it in the notes. Steel drops from level 90 raids as well, and I'd assume 95 also, and the special dungeon bosses as noted above. Good news for those who don't have the gear or mats to step into 100 stuff just yet.

@BOK_CHOI

It's a server issue. Happened to me when accidentally joining a ghost boat as well as trying to join a newly created boat. Game is borked right now and the issues seem pretty bad considering that they just did server upkeep.

@BOK_CHOI Sadly there's no telling. The Director has taken a hard line on a lot of things, only relenting weeks to months later in some way or another, and doing it in a fashion as if to pretend no mistakes were made. For instance, taking away the ability to fail twice on high enhancement. Sure, put in permanent lock after restoration, by why not allow players to do that twice? It dramatically devalued the effort players put into farming items, knowing that it's one and done, and replacing the old system with Destruction Runes that reduce unbind counts and still decrease enhancement on failure.

They finally implement changes to take the game to a place players wanted things to be literally years ago--finally in line with the systems of games like TERA and BDO that have had some sort of failstack system for years, and from inception of the game in some cases--then on a few weeks after release nerf it. And just like the release of +20, the removal of 8-man, and things like the Karok and Lann changes, they rush them out with no regard to player feedback. Worse, in this case they don't even mention it to players ahead of time to find out their thoughts.

It seriously amazes me, actually amazes me, how poorly they weigh the decisions that they make. The server mergers and population issues are proof without doubt that decisions game wide and especially for NA like the forced launcher and Rise have utterly destroyed what the market in the west wanted from this game. It is without doubt the best action combat-style game on PC, with arguably the worst management behind it. It's like they actually hate money, or simply are so obsessed with dictating how the game will be played that they do so to the exclusion of maximizing profits. The massive layoff speak further to how poorly they're taking care of their titles, as well as JP's host company not choosing to renew their licenses.

Here's hoping they right the ship before they cause another mass exodus in KR and the rest of the servers again.

If you haven't been following, Nexon's major focus for PC here is MapleStory 2. Not a fan of the company anymore, but it's probably going to be a huge hit for them. Aside from that their big push is their more recent titles on PC, and the roll out of more mobile games. They actually have two different mobile action combat titles that they're quietly pushing right now, and seem to like the minimal effort they have to put in for pretty good returns. Vindi/Mabi Heroes only has one season left, so I doubt they'd ever expend the resources needed for an engine update. Keep in mind that Nexon also just had a round of layoffs, so they aren't going to put money towards a title that's meh for them even in KR. Mabi Heroes has been out of the Top 50 there for quite a bit AFAIK. They're releasing Atellia, Mabi Mobile, and a few other titles, but no mention of Mabi Heroes anywhere.

TLDR; Vindi doesn't bring in all that much either here or in KR. Maple Story, MS2, Mabinogi Mobile, Dungeon & Fighter in China, AxE, and other games are a priority.

http://pdf.irpocket.com/C3659/axM2/oYEi/jPQz.pdf

You can look at the latest financials there and google if you want more in-depth info.

http://www.pixelberrystudios.com/ -Nexon's major growth contributor for the NA region. Is it any surprise community interaction here has gone to zero? Vindi is on life support so they're milking it while they can since the whales just can't say no.

BabyDani wrote: »

oh, it's this thread again, hehe

6-7 years ago, we were all confined to a small area (Colhen), with relatively few dungeons...so the game seemed nicely populated. Now, we are spread out all over the place. we would need probably 20,000 more regular players to fill things up again.

i dunno, i mean, yes, we need LOTS more new players but...market is filled with stuffs for sale...you list things and they sell...you make a s3 raid boat and it fills quickly. we're still doing ok

You used to be able to hop on and run S1, S2, and later S3 content and get 8-man boats mostly full almost any hour before the Direct Launch fiasco and the region locking killed off a pretty healthy bit of the game's population. It's not nearly as active as it was, and the temporary surges that happen with things like Miri's release and Blute are just blips that make the troughs that follow even more noticeable.

We have no active community manager or GMs interacting anymore--it seems the ones we had got hit by the Nexon layoffs and it's down to minimal support staff-- so there are no longer any streams, we don't get complete patches, events, or even cash shop items, and lately it might take days to see events go up on the main page. Even the volunteer forums mods are gone. The game is most certainly just limping along for NA/EU/AUS now.

Yes, the mergers have pushed enough players who have too much money and time invested to feel like they can walk away together so it's not as bad as it otherwise would have been, but there's a reason that they had to do those mergers to begin with. I'm sure the game will continue getting content pushed from KR until it ends after S4, but with the way NA is run I doubt the population will ever be anything great again.

As to letting it die, again, the whales will keep on whaling until the doors close, and with the staff cuts, heck, a few of the whales might be all that's needed to fund the whole NA team at this point. Vindi will limp along until KR shuts the doors on the whole thing, I don't think there's any worry about that.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/161984837 We're going on a year since the last stream. Rip in pepperoni Vindi community team. That's pretty telling about the state of the game.