Pioneers of Iria (g4-g6)

yea you read that title of today blog it seems that we are getting 3 gens worth of content in Feb....

This is from Warcry:

Mabinogi: Pioneers of Iria Fact Sheet

New Map

Iria is a new continent, about three times larger than Ulad, which is the original continent in Mabinogi. Iria features three areas which will be released in the Expansion Pack.

The first area is called Rano, which has plains, desert and rain forest climates. There are mustangs and ostriches which run through certain routes and players can ride like subways trains to go different places. This would be considered a human area and is where humans arrive in Iria. Look out for monsters, such as the Desert Dragon, Plains Dragon, or giant sandworms.

The second area is called Connus and this land is mostly desert. It's Longa desert is filled with sand storms. Here is where players will find Filia, the first Elf town. This town is where players who create an elf character begin in Mabinogi. Another special feature from this area would be the underground maze, or ant pit, which lies underneath Longa desert. Players will need to find their way out of this maze and can find hidden doors which can only be opened by special requirements. Players will be able to leave this dungeon by using teleport items like Wings of Goddess or Waxen Wing, but players who look around enough might find a room filled with treasure boxes featuring rare items which are can't be found anywhere else in Mabinogi.

The third area is called Physis and the entire area is filled with snow and can be quite windy. The Reus River is often frozen and surrounded by valleys and mountains. Giants can stomp the ground near Reus River and break the ice to go ice fishing. This is also an area where the field bosses, Mammoth and Yeti appear, so players will need to be alert..

All of these areas are connected through Mana Tunnels. Mana Tunnels are teleporters that work during the morning. Unlike the moongates in Ulad, these tunnels will take players to any other tunnel.

New Races

Elf - While their appearance looks similar to humans, elves have pointy ears and usually pale skin. Their fashions are elegant and swift compared to any other races. As a main choice of weapon, they use bows. The best thing about elves is that they can shoot monsters while riding horses and shoot two arrows at once. They also run about 1.3 times faster than human or giant. They live in Connus and if they spot a giant or their supporters, they will attack without mercy.

Giant - Giants are gigantic, muscular and bare creatures. They are used to the cold weather of Physis, their homeland, making their choice of clothes thick and padded, though not so sophisticated. Their strength allows them to knock down some type of trees with bare fists and carry the log as a weapon. Fists are a giant's main choice for a weapon, to be used with martial arts or giants will also use blunt weapons. Giants who choose a weapon will often use heavy pole arms or even two maces at once (blunt weapon duel wielding) making their strength even more deadly to others. Giants are so strong, they can carry a human character over their shoulders. If they spot an elf or their supporters, they will break that elf's puny spine

Exploration

 

Over 600 Exploration Quests are being added.
Players can obtain exploration EXPs by finding relics, statues, hidden dungeons and monsters. There are various ways to do this. Players can sketch them, get a piece of them, and find them by changing the land shape or using an L-Rod. These EXPs will be accumulated to count the exploration level, and per one exploration level up, players will obtain one AP just like a normal level.

The whole continent of Iria is filled with hidden artifacts and relics. It's the player's job to explore them!

Items and Titles

Three new Armor sets and other clothes for Human characters are available. There are new titles related with exploration and Iria such as "Friend of Horse and Ostrich."

There will be weapons, clothes and titles exclusively for Elf characters.

There will be weapons, clothes and titles exclusively for Giant characters.

Dungeons

There are three discoverable dungeons and instead of passes, players can drop a part of the monster. Players get these pieces by hunting monsters to enter high level dungeons. There are more than 30 different types of drop parts players can get, which make the diversity of dungeons much deeper than the usual dungeons found in Ulad.

Ant Pit - This is a static maze-type dungeon which has areas only accessible to certain people who meet the requirements. This dungeon is accessible by using an L-Rod and finding a hole on the ground in the Longa Desert which players can fall in. There are valuable treasures and the raid field boss monster within this area is Ifrit.

New Action

Throwing Stone - Players can throw stone to agro monsters or object. No damage.

Play Dead Action - Players can fake death and not get attacked by monsters. However, players will be unable to move.

Hide - Elf Only. Elves can appear half transparent and not get noticed by monsters.

Land Maker - Players can change the shape of land in certain area in order to find something buried under the ground.

L-Rod - L-Rod is used to detect the hidden relics and artifacts. It'll make beeping sound as players get near to hidden things. Closer players get, it'll beep more, up to 4 times.

Sketch - Players can now sketch monsters or artifacts. There are a lot of exploration quests that requires players to bring the sketch of monsters. These sketches tell players the location, so it can be a good reference if used right.

New Skill

Ice Spear - The Middle Level Magic Skill for Ice is now finally released. If players wanted something else than Fire Ball or Thunder, Ice Spear is the skill players love! This skill freezes the monsters that are on the way and have splash freeze attacks after the first impact until there's no monsters left to be spread.

Final Hit - This human skill allows warriors to hit the monster infinite times without normal delay for a limited skill time. If a person is holding two swords, (dual wielding) he'll be able to slash the monster as much as he wants. If a person is not dual wielding, every time he hits a monster, the monster will be knocked down, making it impossible to fight back. Also, this skill is highly beneficial at PVP for warriors, as if a person uses this skill, he can instantly teleport to the enemy within certain distance, still shorter than the range of an archer but very effective against archers.

Stomp - Giant Skill. Bashing the ground to attack multiple monsters and make them freeze for a short period of time. Players can use this skill on the Reus river at Physis to break the ice and do ice fishing or even plow the snow on the field to discover something.

Mirage Missile - Elf Skill. Shoot the arrow with Mana and periodically decrease their HP. It works like poisoning the enemy and spreads to nearby monsters once attacked.

Full Swing/Elven Magic Missile - Special attack skills to be used when transforming from Elf or Giant.

New Contents

Wedding Between different races - Human and elf or giant can marry each other. While Elf/Giant can't marry, all other combination of marriage is allowed in Mabinogi. If human, don't forget to support spouse's race.

Humans can hold two swords at once while Giants can hold two blunt weapons at once and elves can shoot two arrows at once.

UI Update

Exploration Chronicle - This window tells players what relics have been found so far and the record of who found it first.

Login Screen Change - From Statue Image to Iria Relic Image

New Logo - New Mabinogi Logo. Pioneers of Iria

Character Creation - Includes Giant and Elf and their looks

That is alot of things in one patch. A few people are wondering why its happening why you mae asked.

Gamasutra - MMO Publisher Nexon Closes Vancouver Studio

Development studio Nexon Vancouver, also known as Humanature Studios, has been shut down by Korean parent company Nexon (MapleStory), which focuses on free-to-play MMOs.

The story was first reported by weblog Kotaku, and was independently verified by Gamasutra with development sources close to the company.

All 90 employees at the studio are said to have been let go -- the latest in an ongoing string of game industry closures over the last several months.

The Vancouver-based group had not released any of its own games, although it was involved in Klei Entertainment's forthcoming PC online title Sugar Rush, which has been Beta testing and is published by Nexon North America.

Humanature served as Nexon's Canadian development headquarters, and was headed up by Alex Garden, known for co-founding successful PC game developer Relic Entertainment (Homeworld, Company of Heroes). He had already been a Nexon advisory board member for five years before joining the studio.

In an interview with Garden posted on Humanature's website in 2008, Nexon said that the Canadian studio was aiming to become "North America’s leading center for online game development, with a focus on products that speak powerfully to the North American audience."

Nexon still retains a North American office in Los Angeles, which is primarily focused on localization and creating Western-focused content for Nexon's existing games.

[UPDATE: In a statement to the press, Nexon spoke about the decision to close the Vancouver-based studio, crediting the "rapidly changing economic climate."

"This was a difficult decision, particularly given the hard work and dedication of the staff," says the company. "However, it is a necessary decision, given today’s economic landscape and the need to secure Nexon’s core business for the long term."

"Nexon remains committed to publishing high quality, free-to-play online games for the North American market and our Los Angeles-based teams will continue to work on our existing titles as well as upcoming titles for 2009."]

 

people are worried about the main branch of nexon Na going but the very last thing on there shows any game they have now they will keep but still this with the biggest update in mabi history the questions are being asked.

However if its only to try to catch up with Jap or other version of the mabi that great :)

In other news...Called Dell again about the "while playing games will shut down computer thing" They will be here Monday to fix that with a new motherbaord, heatsink an new keyboard for this notebook computer...its bad enough that this computer is shared and half my playing time is cut but I have to deal with the computer shutting down while playing...no more come Monday..I hope.

Well till next time folks :)