Hello, Maplers.

First, we'd like to apologize for the unexpected issues and gameplay disruptions that occurred when the v.255 update went live. We understand the severity of this situation, and will learn from it to improve our processes. We remain committed to supporting a stable and high quality play experience.

Below, we will outline the primary issues that occurred with the v.255 update and summarize the current state of affairs.

1. Extended Maintenance

There were several issues pertaining to new content and system updates. The main issues were as follows:

• Extended maintenance on the day of the v.255 update: Parts of the game that worked as intended during internal testing suddenly became unplayable when running on live servers. The maintenance was extended beyond what was initially estimated to investigate, fix, and retest these issues.
• Crashes and additional maintenance: There were several crashes after the v.255 update went live:
• Server crashes when generating certain rewards upon defeating an enemy. Due to the frequency of the crashes, a maintenance was required to implement a quick fix.
• Server crashes when the Guardian Angel Slime would finish a boss pattern and then vanish.
• Client crashes when Shade used Soul Splitter while fighting Ursus.
• Aside from crashes, there was also an issue where a long quest was being finished quickly due to Black Mage Remnants erroneously remaining on a drop table. Separately, many rare boss rewards that should not have been affected by the drop rate increase were affected. Given the effect these issues would have on game balance and fairness to our players, it was clear we needed to take urgent action.
• Aside from the issues noted above, there was also an additional maintenance done to address the unintended functionality of the Frenzy Totem, rewards not being generated when Zero characters defeated a boss, and other issues with the new Ride or Die content.

2. Content Issues

• Removal of certain Page of Memories mini-games:
• During internal testing, we discovered that the Spirit's Memories and Spirit's Emotions mini-games were causing extreme lag in most Global MapleStory service regions. The lag was severe enough that normal gameplay was being adversely affected. In these mini-games, a new sync method called "Lockstep" was used. However, this method was not well-suited to some environments with the network ping conditions of regions where Global MapleStory is serviced. Considering the limited time the live service team had to address the issue, the decision was eventually made to remove the affected mini-games for the sake of stability. To compensate, the EXP Vouchers that would have been granted by these mini-games were instead added to the Ride or Die Inspector Boxes. However, we overlooked the fact that the Ride or Die reward is given a week after the patch, and that players weren't made aware of that fact. We apologize for the confusion this has caused, and will strive to be more clear in the future.
• Please be aware that EXP Vouchers will also be obtainable from the Burning Express event and Dark Maplemas mini-game in the v.256 update.
• Changes to the Intense Power Crystal:
• A change was made to the number of Intense Power Crystals that can be sold each week. However, the proper price adjustments were not made, causing a dip in some players' meso earnings.
• We are actively considering additional changes that will be applied during maintenance on Dec. 5, 2024. We apologize for the delay in confirming these changes.
• Other Issues:
• We are aware that there are other issues not listed here. We will do our best to fix as many as we can in the upcoming maintenance on Dec. 5, 2024.

To apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced, we've prepared the following compensation package for you.

Server Maintenance Compensation

• Claim Period: Wednesday, November 27, 2024 1:25 AM UTC- Tuesday, December 10, 2024 11:59 PM UTC
• How to Claim: Talk to the Maple Administrator NPC in the Event Hall map, and select Server Maintenance Compensation to claim. (Limit once per account.)
• Package Contents:

We know many of you were excited for this update, and we apologize once again for failing to meet your expectations. We will redouble our efforts to prepare and review our work so we can provide better service in the future. Thank you for your understanding.

Thank you,

The MapleStory Team