[2023] What happened this year to Rayque?

Another year's end, another summary.

This year marks the 13th summary on this blog. As always, the Rayque3 Staff wishes you a great 2024!

To me, 2023's been a rough year. Despite my best efforts, I was unable to prevent several major setbacks that makes me unable to leave this godawful place. For the past 25 years I've been working myself to the bone trying to become a LEGO Product Designer and live a better life. But in every step of the way I keep receiving the short end of the stick.

Due to being born with abstruse health issues our government can't provide the necessary aid I need. I'm physically too disabled for a job, let alone self-sufficient. But as they can't identify what I have, they can't classify me as such, despite observations acknowledging that there is "at least something". On top of that, our government has been cost-cutting for decades on health care, which further makes it difficult to receive any aid at all. I've become stuck in a rather impossible situation to get out of, caused by an implausible scenario to begin with.

The worst part about it, is that this status quo will not change unless either they adjust the law or my health recovers. The latter is completely out of my control as the only person that is able to make any meaningful changes to my health and get me out of this mess is also the one that knowingly condemned me to this fate and chose to feign ignorance.

Despite all of it, I'll do whatever I can do. Earlier this year, I did receive some financial aid from the government. It's not much, but it's better than nothing. I'm not allowed to sit on it, but it's good enough to invest in my future. But aside from that... this year I've exhausted the last options I had left. It's going to take several miracles to get out of here, and it's clear that I still have a long journey ahead. Dangit, I really can't catch a break now can I?

Anyway, let's get to those statistics of 2023.

[Lego] Spybotics!

Only at a place like Bricklink can you casually grab a complete set of sealed 21-year-old LEGO products... Insane.

I initially planned to get the remainder of the 12V train accessories, but I came across a much better deal. In my never-ending quest for collecting all kinds of (niche) LEGO products, my favorite chapter in the company's history is the time they went nearly bankrupt with a 800 million dollar unpaid debt: the Ploughman era. It's the gift that keeps on giving.

During this time (late 90s to early 2000s) lots of unique products were released, even more so were not. It was the time of great leaps in technological advancement, so much in fact that toy companies were threatened to become irrelevant. In response and an act of desperation, LEGO gave carte blanche to their development team. As a result, their unchecked expenses went through the roof and every LEGO theme except for Bionicle was running at a loss*.

*I'm currently reading the book "Brick by Brick" by David Robertson. It goes into painstaking detail on precisely why the company went nearly bankrupt under Paul Ploughman's leadership, and how Jørgen Vig Knudstorp dragged the company out of it. It's a fascinating read. I might eventually write a blogpost about it once I've finished reading it.

I've made it no secret that I firmly believe the company's most interesting and fascinating products come from this era. Any of these products have the same quality as any other LEGO product. It's just many older LEGO fans find that these products strayed too far from the traditional brick. It's easy to make the argument that unconventional products were the reason for the company's downfall, but the only reason why LEGO got out of troubled waters was by sheer discipline, planning, innovation and a bit of luck with Bionicle catching lightning in a bottle. Not just the traditional brick.

But enough talk about that - what are Spybotics? It's a short-lived offshoot of LEGO Mindstorms, aimed at a lower price point. Released during a time before adults were willing to spend a lot for LEGO products, Mindstorms (like the monorail) were priced exceptionally high. This was also before computers were readily available and user-friendly, let alone asking a child to program a toy was a tall order. Spybotics however, seemed to aim to address these issues.

Spybotics were priced at almost a quarter of the retail price of Mindstorms, it simplified the building experience and provided an easier entry to programming robots through play with missions on its CD-ROM. Released during the middle of a resurgence of the spy genre, it like many other products on the market, hoped to piggyback off of it.

However, Spybotics never saw success. Like how Galidor and Knight's Kingdom II met its demise by competing against Bionicle, the unexpected rising success of (hacking) Mindstorms blew the wind out Spybotics' sails. And like many other LEGO products at the time, Spybotics still couldn't sell even at large discounts. But unlike themes such as Galidor or Bionicle, Spybotics has almost no following - only a handful of fans*. It's a niche within a niche, if you will.

*As is common with many LEGO products, it's well researched and analyzed by fans and thus what is on that PCB board, how to run the CD-ROM on modern computers and connect the Spybotics through serial is well documented.

What we're left with, is a perfect encapsulation of the Ploughman era... or is there more to it? Aside from the coolness factor with these toys having a strong visual presence on a display shelf, Spybotics genuinely has things going for it.

While you can't add motors or sensors to these units, they are arguably the most compact remote-controlled LEGO unit, jam-packed with functionality. It includes all of the components found in the original Mindstorms kit: it reuses the same internal components found in the 9V motors, the light sensor and touch sensor. All of it is just integrated directly onto the Spybotics PCB. Furthermore, it includes the pinnacle and bane of Ploughman's carte blanche: the fiber-optics unit. And not only can you directly remote control the Spybotics without having to program it, because LEGO reused the base code from the original Mindstorms in all of its offshoots, you can let the Spybotics communicate with any of these (not just only other Spybotics), and vice versa. Spybotics is just a wonderful toy full of untapped potential.

Icing on the cake for these sets are the many exclusive recolors for parts, found nowhere else. It's stuff like this that comes from the Ploughman era that's never going to happen, ever again. Because remember: LEGO lost money for each single Spybotics produced. It's insane how that went. But like I said: it's the gift that keeps on giving. It's a rabbit hole you can spend your entire life digging into, and it's something I'm probably going to end up doing out of love.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS] Level 279!

Ding! One more level to unlock the next milestone: Arteria! 

6th Job is here! I've done my 6th Job Advancement on the night of release. Raging Blow VI is unlocked tonight. 

I'll write my in-depth 6th Job blogpost for the first wave of 6th Job skills next year. I want to have the Destiny blogpost out first, followed by Crest of the Solar to wrap up my coverage on 5th Job. If I'm able to have the Destiny blogpost released this January, expect Crest of the Solar in February, and 6th Job in either March or April.

Speaking of the Destiny blogpost: it's the final stretch. I still need to complete 9 GIFs, 10 images and one video. For most of the GIFs I already have the footage - I would just need to convert it into a GIF (which is most of the work). After that, it's just one more time to proofread all of it (again) before publishing. I'll definitely keep you guys up to date.

However, as December is one of the busiest months of the year, I'm not expecting to have a lot of time to work on it. Next week I'm having one of the most important legal proceedings in my life. One that's going to decide my future, so I have to make preparations for that one. I'm also going to publish one more LEGO-related blogpost mid-December, and during the last two weeks of the month I have to work on my year summary to make sure it's out on time. 

That and I'm also trying to wrap up this LEGO proof of concept for one of my projects. One I've been trying to get to work for eight months (!) now. It's easier said than done. But after almost one hundred Bricklink orders trying all kinds of approaches, I might have figured it out... Maybe I'll be able to share something at the end of the year. Who knows.

Anyway, that's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[Lego] Bionicle Retail Flags

With #8989 Mata Nui for scale. Y'know, the small yellow thing on the right that's hardly visible, standing there, menacingly!
Eventually, the Barraki retail flag is somehow going to be relevant to my journey in becoming a LEGO Product Designer...

In my never-ending quest for collecting all kinds of (niche) LEGO products, this is my first time getting my hands on retail flags. Earlier this year, I've hinted at a Bionicle parcel that was stuck in customs limbo, which were these two.

When it comes to product design, there are parts in this process that is often overlooked. Engineering, advertisement, package design, to name a few. When products are about to be sold in stores, stores have the option to decorate their interior to drive sales. There are many ways a store can do this, as there are all kinds of items to fulfill that purpose.

The world of LEGO-themed store decorations is a bottomless pit. Each time LEGO releases a new product, there's an entire industry of its own, dedicated to produce all kinds of promotional materials. When it comes to collecting and cataloging these items, three categories are common: retail flags, product displays and other decorative objects.

What are retail flags? Large, printed cloth banners designed for halls or rooms, specifically designed to be hung from tall ceilings. In stores, you would see these from far away, marking the location of the corresponding toy isle. If you've ever been to a large toy store or convention, you've probably seen one of these before.

As store decorations continuously comes and goes, all of it is treated as disposable. After products are removed from shelves, related store decorations are destroyed. There's simply too much of it; store owners don't think twice about it. Although, as with everything, there's always some that eventually finds its way on the aftermarket. To obtain specific items however, is not as easy as it sounds. It takes a lot of patience, a lot of digging, and they aren't cheap.

So, what about the two retail flags I've obtained? In particular, I was after the Barraki retail flag on the left. 2007 was such a fantastic year for the franchise, it is by far my favorite. Consider this retail flag to be the one I wanted the most. In order to purchase it however, I had to throw in another retail flag to meet the seller's minimum purchase threshold. By coincidence, the seller also happened to have another retail flag I was interested in: 2009's #8989 Mata Nui.

Suffice to say, these retail flags are huge. Given the purpose they were designed for, both are two meters tall and 90 centimeters wide, each. Both ends have a small channel, just large enough to fit thin rods or strings inside, so you can mount them on a wall or ceiling. Unfortunately, I don't have space for these in my room. Too large. Once I move out of here, I'll definitely find a spot where they can be admired - as they should be. Heck, finding a method and location to temporarily hang these up for this photo was a challenge in itself! That's why it took me this long to write this blogpost.

There are still a handful of other retail flags I'm specifically after; mainly the other Barraki retail flags. You see, some retail flags are designed as a set. While the one I have is the main one, three others exist. One is the same but without the Barraki (which is a fantastic backdrop of Mahri Nui), the other two (example 1, example 2) are thinner retail flags depicting three of the six canister sets each. Unfortunately, Bionicle retail flags specifically target canister sets, so retail flags of the larger Bionicle sets do not exist. A shame, really. Some of them would've made great retail flags.

Aside from retail flags, am I after any other store decorations? Yes, there are some. I've always wanted to obtain a product display. Preferably one of 2007 Bionicle, but any theme I'm fond of is fine, as long as the display is visually interesting. Bricklink isn't an exhaustive list of the many store decorations out there - for instance, at a convention I once saw a large product display of #6979 Interstellar Starfighter with lights and sound. One that I'll never forget was during my childhood in Tokyo, where there was this massive display of the 1998 Ninja theme at our local Daiei. They built a deep ravine out of BURPs, about two meters tall, and had the sets displayed in them. Honestly, it was amazing for its time and awe-inspiring. It's that kind of ambition and passion that makes this never-ending hobby so great.

But that's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS] Level 278!

Ding! Two more levels to unlock Arteria. I'm almost there!

New Age is around the corner, so the reduced EXP curve and higher EXP rewards from dailies come into play soon. While I'm expecting to reach Level 280 before the end of the year, both Arteria and Carcion are scheduled for mid-December. It's too early to say if I'll reach Level 280 before that. I have to see the post-New Age daily EXP yield first.

As for the Destiny blogpost, I'm expecting to wrap up 3rd Job later today. That also means the most time-consuming chapters are done - the remaining GIFs won't require as much. I'm aiming to have 4th Job and Hyper Skills done next month, and to wrap up the remaining chapters in December. However, whether that's possible is uncertain, as until the end of January I no longer have a say in my own schedule. If that situation stays relevant enough, I'll write about it.

By the way, our latest episode in the High-Dex Hero series is out! We should have another video later this year...

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS] 16 years of Rayque!

Basically, my second birthday for the year.

Hi guys! Today's the 30th of September, which means I've been playing EMS for 16 years daily on Rayque!

It's been a very productive year in terms of levels; the changes introduced with the Ignition update (which was released at the end of 2022) has been absolutely fantastic. Whereas previous years didn't see many level ups on Rayque, all of that changed with Ignition's introduction of substantial daily EXP rewards and Monster Park Extreme.

To give you an idea, here's a breakdown on the levels-per-year:

• 2007: Level 2X (started on the 30th of September)
• 2008: Level 4X (2nd Job Advancement in Q1 2008)
• 2009: Level 11X (3rd Job Advancement on the 19th of April)
• 2010: Level 14X (4th Job Advancement on the 23rd of January)
• 2011: Level 161 (Level 154 before Big Bang) 
• 2012: Level 189 
• 2013: Level 200 (reached Level 200 on the 29th of December)
• 2014: Level 206 
• 2015: Level 210
• 2016: Level 216 (5th Job Advancement on the 15th of December)
• 2017: Level 226 (reached Level 220 on the 18th of February)
• 2018: Level 237
• 2019: Level 247
• 2020: Level 251 (reached Level 250 on the 12th of April)
• 2021: Level 260
• 2022: Level 266
• 2023: expecting to reach Level 280

As you can see, the amount of level ups saw a decline around the early 2010s, due to the general changes introduced with Big Bang and the first level cap increase from 200 to 220. This decline grew worse with the level cap increases to 250 and 275, where the amount of grind multipliers (which used to go up to 32x in EMS) were reduced drastically, the EXP-per-mob couldn't compete with the steep EXP-required-per-level, and the amount of HP per monster has been inflated (read: overcorrected) since Big Bang in order to balance out the power gained from Potential/Enhancements. 

Then, with the introduction of Level 300 and Arcane/Grandis symbols, symbols are locked behind level milestones all the way up to 285. The amount of hours required to reach these milestones puts Pre-Big Bang levelling to shame, and the inherent value of symbols makes reaching these levels more important than ever. Players have been starving for better EXP gains, and Ignition saw to remedy that. I've said this before and I'll say it again: Ignition might be one of the most pivotal updates to MapleStory's history, because it fundamentally changed the landscape by addressing one of the largest hurdles in the game: levelling. New Age will become the Chaos update that followed Big Bang, where it'll refine the groundwork that was laid before. The traditional power-grind of old has been surpassed by daily EXP bursts.

Case in point: I'm currently breezing through levels that would've otherwise taken me years, weren't it for the Ignition update. Around the year 2020, I could only expect a handful of level ups, even though I've always been diligent with my dailies (even Pre-Big Bang). I was one of the first in EMS to have maxed out on Arcane Symbols, and this was before they drastically made Arcane Symbols easier and gave out daily EXP rewards. 

So you can imagine, that once they slapped EXP on dailies, levels went like a hot knife through butter. Before Ignition, 

I was only Level 265. In less than a year I've hit Level 277, and I'm expecting to reach Level 280 by the end of 2023! We are talking about 130 trillion EXP in just one year, without changing my habits whatsoever. It's been the exact type of change that continues to be a huge boon to my progress, and it's going to be even better with the New Age update. Now, if only they could do something about gear progression in a similar manner to what they did with levelling...

It's hard to imagine, but at this rate, I might even reach Level 290 in 2025. Anyway, milestones! Stuff that happened this year: I've completed Hyper Burning twice, maxed out my first Grandis Symbol, obtained my second and third

Legendary Additional Potential, and I've reached my long-awaited 10.000th Commerci Lith Harbor Voyage milestone. 

The FallenAngel Guild Castle has been opened, and I can't wait to have my 6th Job Advancement later this year.

So yes, there's still plenty of fun left on this never-ending train ride, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Cheers! 

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post. The journey continues!

[EMS] Level 277!

Ding! Three more levels to unlock Arteria. Speaking of which, I still haven't done the Shangri-La story quests...

I've had to take a short break from working on the Destiny blogpost to sort out some unrelated stuff, but I'm expecting to get back on it starting next week. I did manage to grab a good recording for my next video in the High-Dex Hero series, and I'm aiming to release it somewhere next month (just in time before 6th Job is out) - so look forward to that. 

It's not the video I've hinted at back in June; that's an entirely different one. I haven't forgotten about it, I just haven't gotten to editing yet because I prefer to prioritize on wrapping up the Destiny blogpost. Same applies for that Bionicle parcel and the other subject matter that I haven't posted anything about, but I'm saving those for the inevitable drought once levels are no longer monthly occurrence. There's also going to be plenty to write about my other LEGO projects.

Also, I should probably give a shout-out to the short bump in viewership to my blog, which was caused by a Reddit post last week. It did not go unnoticed, as there were a couple of thousand viewers that visited my blog. This doesn't happen often, so thank you! To all of my new readers: welcome aboard! Hopefully you all will find your time here worthwhile. My only regret is that I didn't have the Destiny blogpost and the next High-Dex Hero video out in time...

But that's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS] 10.000 Lith Harbor Commerci Voyages!

Hi guys! Today, after over seven years of daily Commerci runs, I've hit my 10.000th Lith Harbor Commerci Voyage!

From what I understand, I should be one of the first (if not, the first) in EMS to have reached this milestone. While there are players from other versions to have already achieved this milestone, keep in mind that EMS received Commerci three years later compared to GMS. In case of EMS, the first 10.000th Lith Harbor run would've been legally possible since last month, although that's also highly unlikely to have happened for several reasons.

You see, Commerci is one of the most unstable content in the game, as it's effortless to let the game crash mid-run. There are so many things that can cause this, such as events working with Commerci, having an unstable connection or lag(spikes), opening almost any interface (i.e. whisper, stats, skill tab), using too many skills simultaneously, or any skill that causes heavy strain on the client. Even starting a Commerci run itself can cause the game to crash. And your run count will only go up after you've cleared it, so crashing or disconnecting before that means you lost a run forever.

If you're a frequent reader of my blog, you know I'm diligent with my daily efforts. Weren't it for the dozens of lost runs and the infamous "15 minute day", I would've had this milestone on the earliest date possible. As far as technicalities go, I've entered my 10.000th run several weeks ago. But as far as the game is concerned, it only counts starting today. Honestly, I'm surprised that Commerci is still in the game, or that Nexon has rarely updated it, because this spaghetti coding is far worse than the likes of Jett, Captain Vaga or Monad. Even Veracent and Supreme were better than this.

Anyway, if you ask me, I believe that Commerci has been on the chopping block for several years now, because of how unstable the content is. The lack of updates to Commerci is a red flag. When they reduced all the daily boss and Party Quest entry counts many years ago, there was none for Commerci. The recent removal of early 2010s content, such as Evolving System Lab, Cross Hunter, Aswan and Dimensional Invasion doesn't bode well for Commerci either. 

And then there's the gradual decline of Commerci's appeal: Cube Fragments were removed from the loot table, then they removed all Master/Meister Cube drops, and then there's the missed opportunity to add Undying Flames to the drop table when they were added in late to EMS. Nowadays it's far more lucrative and rewarding to do fifteen minutes of Elite Monster surfing, than it is to do the daily four Lith Harbor Commerci runs of three-and-a-half minutes each.

Even so, I still do Commerci for the same reason as anything else: because it's fun. Sure, even by today's standards the content sits at the bottom of quality control, and there's not much incentive even if you're selling the rewards, but as long as the boat hasn't sunk, my run count will continue to go up. Captain (or, Hero?) goes down with the ship.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS] Level 276, and a lot more!

Ding! Time for this month's news roundup. Trying to fit all the milestones into today's title would've made it too cluttered, so I had shorten it! There's a lot to talk about, but as I have a lot on my plate now, I'll keep it short...

I've hit Level 276 early this month, and I'm still on schedule to 280. I'm expecting to hit Level 277 mid-September.
My second Hyper Burning is also done! Like last time, it's another Ice/Lightning. I've job changed the previous Hyper Burning into a Bishop, and this one to a F/P. With the next Hyper Burning during New Age, I'll do Ice/Lightning one more time to have the complete set (and a second character with 6th Job). After that, I'm considering Viper next.

In terms of how easy it was to grind out this season's Hyper Burning - it was slightly easier. Out of curiosity, I've tried to incorporate the daily EXP into Hyper Burning to see how significant the EXP rewards are from doing the Arcane River daily quests. While this approach is slightly more costly due to Symbol costs, it has a much faster EXP yield compared to traditional power-grinding, and you'll avoid being low on Arcane Force requirements for later maps. Conclusion: it's a viable alternative, and it's going to be even better after New Age with the many upcoming changes.

After saving a bunch of mesos, I finally got my hands on a Source of Suffering! Even with the current trade restrictions, I'm always looking for workarounds that fall within the rules. You see, Nexon has enforced their trade restrictions very literal to what is described, meaning that anything that falls outside seems to be fair game. Player housing and the Guild Castle have proven themselves to be essential*. Now, if only we still had Duey for sending/receiving items...

*Going into detail on the many ways to circumvent the trade restriction will have to be for another blogpost.

Additionally, I've also managed to get my Source of Suffering straight to Legendary Additional Potential with a well-timed Double Miracle Time! I still had my stack of Additional Potential Cubes left from the Savior event shop, and that seemed to do the trick. Now, while that's my third item with Legendary Additional Potential, there's still a lot left...

What is perhaps the biggest milestone of the month: my Amaterasu's Glove has 22 Enhancements! At last, my first item to have reached that milestone (it would've been Ribgol if Nexon allowed me, blech). With the Sixth Star event, I've took a bit of an unusual gamble that I probably wouldn't have tried, were it not for the event reward. After buying the Source of Suffering, I still had more than enough mesos left to give it a shot. I did boom the Amaterasu's Glove a couple of times, but in the end I still managed to get it to 22. For now, it's back to saving up mesos for 6th Job.

Last but not least: my obligation to report on my progress on the Destiny blogpost. Out of the 98 chapters, 17 chapters are already done, 22 chapters are confirmed to not require a GIF (which saves a lot of time), and I have the material ready for at least 4 chapters. To summarize: work is going decently well. Not as fast as I'd like to admit, but it's going somewhere nonetheless. It's easy to forget how deceptively time-consuming working on a few proper GIFs are...

The chapters and my work on the GIFs are in chronological order of Job Advancements, so I'm expecting to wrap up 2nd Job and parts of 3rd Job in September. Flash Slash and Aura Blade are the chapters with the most amount of work, because they'll need multiple GIFs per chapter. Every other chapter will only have one, if not two, each.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS] Level 275! Second Legendary Additional Potential GET!

Ding! Level 275, the old level cap! That means one thing: Odium!

More symbols, more daily EXP! And not only that, I have my second Legendary Additional Potential! As I still have all of my Additional Potential Cubes left from the Savior shop, there's a good chance to get my next item to Unique.

Now that I've hit Level 275, I'm aiming to reach Level 280 before Arteria hits. Currently, I'm at an average of 2% a day, so it is very likely to happen as 6th Job is a three-month update. Arteria isn't released until the second update, so there's still plenty of time with one entire month of Shangri-La dailies, a reduced EXP curve and higher EXP rates for pretty much everything. I'm definitely not going to reach Level 285 before Carcion hits, but I'm more than happy with the prospect of having two of three symbols unlocked at release day. Much better than what happened last time.

But both 275 and the rank-up happened last month, actually. I was planning to release this blogpost several weeks ago, but I've been so busy lately that before I knew it, it was already the end of the month. Now, I have been working on the GIFs for the Destiny blogpost, but as I didn't have much time, I only have completed a handful of them.

To give you an idea: one GIF takes between one and three hours to create after I've recorded it. I've mentioned that my Destiny blogpost would be under 50000 words. It's well past that now. Here's a perspective on how much it is: the completed works has a total of 98 chapters, and each chapter is about the size of this blogpost you are reading now. So yes, you could argue that the Destiny blogpost is worth one hundred monthly blogposts: that's eight years, in fact.

Certain chapters will contain multiple GIFs, some will not. It's safe to assume that I'll need over 70 of them, and with my ongoing health issues, I can only produce a handful a day. While I want to have this thing out as soon as possible, I'm currently facing the reality that it might take until the end of the year, in worst case scenario maybe even next year. I'm not even sure anymore if I can have this and the Crest of the Solar blogpost out before 6th Job arrives.

Right now, Maple's been exceptionally loaded on dailies because of several overlapping events. I'm currently playing between five and six hours a day now because Hyper Burning and Guild Castle are very time-consuming. This hasn't really given me much spare time to work on said blogpost, but thankfully most of these events will end early August. So I'm expecting to be able to pick up the slack next month. So, let's assume I'm able to produce at least ten GIFs a week - that would still require up to three months. Either way, I'll do my best to deliver on it. Speaking of delivering...

I do have good news. After messing around with my blog's source code, I've managed to add a table of contents feature to my blog. I have already updated several older blogposts to include one. You can see them for yourself:

• All of the published seven (of eight) 5th Job skill waves: V, Beyond, Nova, Ark, Black, Glory and Awake.
• Other blogposts: Upper Charge & Leap Attack, the Enrage 1/3 Split, Blink and Adventure Rings 101.
• Examples of blogposts without, but are planned to have one later: Ryude's Ruling, LEGO Inside Tour.

It might not be perfect, but it does the job. If it works, it works. And that's all I really need, to be honest.

Of course, the Destiny blogpost will have it now, too*. This is also why I haven't been able to get much work done on the GIFs. It took several days to find the right table of contents that suited my needs, to figure out how to get it to work, and to keep it from interfering with Blogger's core functionality. I went with this one. I initially tried the code as it is, but after I had an incident, I had to modify the code and define new headers for a cleaner environment. That did the job. Apparently, headers such as h1, h2 and h3 are already occupied by Blogger's source code for the blog's template, so these can't be used with the suggested code as is given by the tutorial. It will mess up the blog's appearance if you do.

*Yes, I'm implying here that the Destiny blogpost would've originally been without one, if it weren't for this. Pain.

But now that it's working, I think it's a great addition to the blog. I've wanted to have one for a long time, and for some reason, Blogger doesn't have one by default. The main reason why I picked this code in particular, is because it allows me to hyperlink immediately to chapters of choice (example), as seen with the hyperlink ending with #point(number). It's a very handy feature, especially in case of the Destiny blogpost, where I'm constantly referring to older blogposts. I'll update older blogposts to incorporate chapter-based hyperlinking where appropriate, in the future. And while there are several other features I'd still like to add (i.e. picture slideshow for LEGO posts), I'll leave that for another time.

Anyway, that's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS] Level 274!

Ding! Level 274! Should have Odium unlocked around the end of the month. Next week will be the showcase for the New Age update. Of course I'll be watching it live. Always interested to see what the madmen at Nexon are up to next.

Now, here's some good news: I've wrapped up writing the Destiny blogpost. Since last month, actually. It's close to fifty-thousand words, but the total word count is going to be lower after I've cleaned up and streamlined the text. 

I have yet to start on the GIFs though, and that's mainly because I've been busy for the past couple of weeks. I'm trying to get a proof of concept for a LEGO project to work before the end of the month, so most of the past couple of weeks have been spent in that - I haven't had much sleep. I've also been casually working on a short Youtube video, so expect that somewhere during the Summer, after Destiny's blogpost. But that's it for now, time to get back to work...

I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS] Level 273! Cernium Symbol MAX!

Ding! Two levels left to unlock the next destination: Odium! Just a few more months...

But more importantly, I've finally maxed out my Cernium Symbol! Kinda like with the Arcane Symbols, I maxed it out the "old way" before they'll drastically reduce the difficulty. With Savior, there's going to be double the symbol rewards for Cernium and Arcs, and in KMS, they've announced that tradeable symbols will drop from monsters in a few weeks.

Honestly, I much prefer Grandis Symbols over Arcane Symbols, and that's mainly because it is what Arcane Symbols used to be: the late-game tutorial. They had to reduce the difficulty of Arcane Symbols in order to accommodate for MapleStory's shift towards Union; that makes sense. But having high symbol requirements in order to proceed with the game is something I find more fun and rewarding. Y'know, having goals to work towards. And a truckload of STR.

Anyway, from all of MapleStory's progression systems that I've experienced over the past 15,5 years, I much prefer the symbol approach above anything else. It's guaranteed progress, divided in digestible chunks of dailies, that also provides a bunch of EXP. If only everything else could be more like this... but then the game would go bankrupt lol.

It'll still take forever until my Hotel Arcs Symbol is done, though. For the time being, I will continue the Cernium dailies for the EXP reward. At Level 273, it's still way too much, for that little effort. That, and I occasionally need event fodder.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS] Level 272! Super Yeti x Pink Bean Medal GET!

Ding! Time for this month's news roundup. As I've hit Level 272 early this month, I'm not too far away from Level 273. That should happen next week, alongside finally maxing out my Cernium Symbol!

I've also managed to obtain the Super Yeti x Pink Bean Medal, which is a reward for reaching Level 220 on either a Yeti or Pink Bean character. Last year I've mentioned that I would give the next Yeti event another swing to claim a second Yeti Incredi title, as I've had to exchange my previous one for the Yeti x Pink Bean title. Which of course, I did.

As Level 200 was as effortless as last time, I was curious to see how challenging Level 220 would be. To my surprise, those twenty levels were arguably easier than the first two-hundred. You see, the event is incredibly generous when it comes to post-Level 200 support. You'll receive more than enough 3x EXP coupons, a free Arcane weapon, a billion mesos and hundred Arcane Symbols to start out. Even better, after Level 210 you'll receive 5x (!) EXP coupons, free Arcane gear and even more mesos/symbols. This kept the EXP rates consistent all the way to Level 220.

To make the grind even easier than it already was, the current Rock Spirit growth event gives everyone enough EXP to go from 212 to Level 220. As Yeti and Pink Beans are located on a separate world, it would not sacrifice the rewards on your main account. I planned to take the daily approach, where I would kill 3000 monsters each day for twenty days to max out on the Rock Spirit EXP coupons and hit 220. However, I reached 220 in considerably less time.

That was how effortless Level 220 was for the Yeti class. I ended up with everything in spades: lots of unused items, lots of unused EXP coupons and with minimum effort, one-shotting everything with Yeti Smarts skills was pretty much guaranteed. If you are aiming for Level 200, you might as well give 220 a shot... Free 250 Growth pot if you manage.

Anyway, I'm close to wrapping up on the first draft for the Destiny blogpost. I'm expecting to have it done towards the end of May, where I'll then be cleaning up the bloat and streamlining the text. Creating all the GIFs required will take another several weeks, so I'm currently expecting a June or July release. Whether if that's possible will depend on how many breaks I'll need, or how many distractions I'll have. Because remember: blogging is just a hobby.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS] Level 271!

Ding! It's been a busy month, so I haven't been able to work on the Destiny blogpost as much as I'd like. In fact, I was hoping to have this month's blogpost to be either a Bionicle-related blogpost or something entirely different, but my Bionicle parcel has been stuck at customs for five weeks and I felt too tired to write about the latter.

Had to travel several thousand kilometers this month, and because of a renovation I haven't been able to sleep well. Being tired and having a declining health doesn't give the best productivity. Progress on anything lately has been slow.

But I did manage to wrap up the first three chapters of 5th Job though, which is about half of the work. I doubt I'll be able to finish the blogpost before June, as there's just too much stuff left. The current draft is nearing 40.000 words.

I'll see what I can do next month. I do believe it's possible to at least wrap up the 5th Job chapters in the next coming weeks. Also, it won't take too long until I reach Level 272. But that it's for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS] Level 269! Level 270!

Ding! Time for this month's news roundup. With the Ignition event wrapping up, I took the remaining Maximum Growth Potions to speed through these two levels. That means I'm now Level 270, which hits another important milestone, as it unlocks the next Grandis symbol from Hotel Arcs. Next milestone: Level 275! Should be possible this Fall.

To my pleasant surprise, I ended up liking the Hotel Arcs and Kalos storyline a lot. When they were revealed back in early 2021 and 2022 respectively, I kinda shrugged them off and felt indifferent to it. But after seeing these chapters in-game myself and going in spoiler-free with no expectations, and a weird instance of perfect timing where the original Korean voice acting happened to be included when I did these, I found myself having enjoyed it. Kudos, Nexon.

Unfortunately I can't say the same about Neo Tokyo 2, as I really did not enjoy the story direction post-Core Blaze. That was the turning point for me. I'm not going to write an entire blogpost about it because that's currently too much to write about, and I'd rather wait for the full release of NT2 before I jump to conclusions. But man, I find myself asking where it went wrong. The original Neo Tokyo is perhaps one of the most important updates in Maple's history, as it laid the groundwork for almost everything that is still relevant today. That cannot be understated. It was Nexon's magnum opus, and they've always treated it with an adequate amount of care. Not when they developed NT2, apparently.

When every major World Tour and mainline content adheres to the foundations that Neo Tokyo laid, it says a lot about the consistency, attention to detail and the quality of writing. The production quality of recent World Tour content has only gone up, with that jaw-dropping Phantom Forest makeover, the gravitas of Asura War and its ability to give even the flattest of characters some meaningful development and growth, or Showa Town's revamp being actually useful when it comes to maintaining Wings of Fate. It says a lot about the barren state of NT2 when it fails to adhere to the mere basics of its predecessor, when all other content made it look so effortless. NT2 has even less content than when Asura War was just an event, and it has less content than Neo Tokyo fifteen years ago. It then also destroys all the good writing and characters the original had. But I digress, I'll save this dissection for another time.

Anyway, an update on that Destiny blogpost. After spending weeks on that damned Power Stance chapter, I've just wrapped up the initial 4th Job draft. There are still three chapters left: Hyper Skills, 5th Job and my closing thoughts. That's all I have to say about it, for now. Hopefully I'll receive my big overseas Bonkles parcel next month...

But that's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS] Level 267! Level 268! Hyper Burning: Level 250!

Ding! I've decided to consolidate this month's three blogposts into one, in order to prevent overloading the homepage. Level 267 happened the day after I've published my year summary, which would've been too soon for another post. 

But as is somewhat of an unintended tradition on my blog, here's the annual "start the year with a level up in January".
And not just one, but two! The daily EXP from Monster Park Extreme and (Burning) Cernium are fantastic, topped with seven (!) Maximum Growth Potions spread out over this season's event schedule. I haven't claimed all of those, so I expect to hit 269 next month. I can't wait to unlock Hotel Arcs at 270, for that next symbol and even more daily EXP.

Now, I've also managed to complete the Hyper Burning event on my I/L. In 2019, I've participated in the Breakthrough event to grind an I/L to 220 from scratch for Maple Points. After that, I threw most of the leftover resources (over a thousand Arcane Symbol selectors, Growth Potions and hundreds of Master Cubes) on this character for over two years. As a result, my I/L started at Level 231, decked out and was more-than-qualified for a serious grinding session.
This was the sole reason I was willing to try out the Hyper Burning event, as otherwise I wouldn't even have bothered. 

With Hyper Burning lasting over two months, I took the slow-but-steady approach of grinding 10% every day during the event. My I/L was more than capable of one-shotting anything at any given level with Chain Lightning, with either two or three ticking mobs with Ice Age. At Level 231, getting 10% was manageable within half an hour. This continued until I hit closer to 240, where it started to become 45 minutes. Before I knew it, the last stretch was more than an hour every day, for over a month. This was without any spawn modification, but was done with as many non-exhaustive EXP boosters that I had. With the current trade restrictions, I wasn't allowed to buy bonus 50% EXP coupons off Auction House, but I probably wouldn't have bought them before Level 246, anyway. Either way, I got my I/L to 250.

That said, I'm not planning to fully participate in the next Hyper Burning event, that comes with the Savior update. The next character would be my Level 220 Bishop, but that one doesn't have the same level of preparation as my I/L, and neither will it have one in time. You see, the next Hyper Burning is definitely not going to be as easy as this one, due to the lack of the Clover Guild event (20 EXP Nodestones a month should not be underestimated), and next time you can no longer claim any milestone rewards below your starting level. Even with the softening of the EXP curve post-Savior, it's just not going to be as easy to hit 250 as it was this time (let's not also forget Savior's complete butchering of the Elemental Staves classes). I'll definitely aim for the low-hanging fruit, but I'm not quite sure just yet whether if I'll leave my Bishop at 230 or 240. I guess that by then, I'll just start without much of a thought and see where I'll end up with.

But that's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!