Nexon still delaying.

Up to the same tricks, Nexon released another teaser portion of their "Erinn Walker" magazine, this time 'revealing' what most already knew: Giants and Elves as playable races would be coming out. They also stated the next release date for more teasers as the 10th. When do we get the meat, already?

They also began another 'event' where you could win a free Giant or Elf character card if you posted on their forum claiming a side as better. What follows is what I wrote there.

When I first discovered Mabinogi, there were three major things that immediately caught my eye: the music skills, the ranged combat, and the ability to play elves. My character, Elrei, was based on a character I had made elsewhere who was an elven bard. I haven't heard a definite answer on whether or not humans will be able to rebirth as other races, but I'm not sure it matters at this point.

While I still like the fact that there is an outlet for musical expression in the game, I am deeply disappointed with magic music. I'm sure anyone who cares to know why can find my other post in the last event forum thread. As for ranged combat, I have to say it's pretty good, as long as I don't miss. It can be very frustrating, though, when I will let my aim meter run all the way up to 99% and I still miss the dead, immobile target three or four times. Also frustrating is the constant tossup between bows and crossbows. I like being able to run while loading a shot, but I can't help but feel like I miss more often with a crossbow. Further, I prefer the aesthetics of a composite.

I tend to run dungeons with another person who has put a lot of AP into the Smash skill. Despite the fact that I can make more shots in less time, my hits tend to be significantly weaker, which means that I still take longer to kill things, even if I hit with every shot. Meanwhile, my partner can run in with Smash loaded, one-shot a monster, load Smash again while running to the next monster, one-shot that one, lather, rinse, repeat. And she doesn't have a miss chance. True, I could Magnum and one-shot things, but then I still have to aim at the slower speed, meaning I still kill things slower. And I could still miss.

Although I originally wanted to create an elf character when I first started, and was rather disappointed they weren't out yet, I'm beginning to think that I might prefer a Giant instead. If nothing else, then I wouldn't have to worry about being disappointed with Elves.

To be honest, I had no idea that Giants were an option when I first started. I learned about Mabinogi by seeing someone whose work I greatly admire mention it on their Livejournal page. I'm intrigued at the inclusion of Giants as opposed to Dwarves, since the latter are typically the ones pitted against Elves in most fantasy settings. I would very much like to know more about why the Giants and Elves are at odds with each other.

I was rather surprised to find myself more aesthetically drawn to the Giants than the Elves, looking solely at the pictures in the Erinn Walker pages. However, I'm very particular when it comes to Elves, and I personally do not care for the over-extended ears that they are given in most animated styles. Further, while the female face and hair choices shown could be decent, the males on the opposite page look rather clueless, which hardly fits with the 'intelligence' stereotype they're claiming. As for the Giants, while I can't say I'm particularly fond of the aquiline nose and pointed brow of the males (I thought the Elves were the one with the Falcon transformation, after all), I have to admit that the females look absolutely exquisite, as well as exotic compared to the Elves (who could almost be mistaken for human, if it weren't for the ears). And, of course, we can't forget about the addition of beards. I think it's something that's been missing for humans. Maybe allow a choice for stubble to form for them past a certain age?

Skill-wise, I don't really see the ranged advantage everyone says Elves have. Yes, they shoot 2 arrows at once. Yes, their skill loads faster, but they also aim slower. Yes, they can move while aiming, and ride while aiming, but their accuracy suffers for this, and I already miss too often. Further, they don't get Arrow Revolver, so pretty much everyone who has it is already better than an Elf is going to be for at least a while. Mirage Missile does sound nifty, but the one skill that intrigues me most is their ability to Hide. And as I understand it, that can't be used in combat, so I'm not sure about practical uses on that yet.

Yes, an Elf will have a ranged advantage on a Giant, but I think Humans are still going to win in that regard. Meanwhile, speaking of ranged attacks, the Giants have access to a rather nifty device called an atlatl. It's a rarely seen weapon, but very ancient, which uses basic principles of leverage to throw a javelin with much greater distance and force. Basically, a slingshot for javelins. I've only seen it even mentioned in one other game, and that was old 1st Edition AD&D. Chances were good most people didn't know what it was, since there weren't good descriptions given for it there. And most people didn't bother taking it as a weapon due to sheer munchkinism and number crunching (simply, it didn't do enough damage to be popular), so it was phased out in later editions. But it is a very cool weapon, and to actually see it implemented in a graphical game sends a thrill through my cranium.

As for Giants being melee powerhouses, I'm not sure I agree with that, either. As I understand it, they don't get Final Hit, so once again I think Humans are going to have the upper hand here. I don't know. I'm not too interested in crunching numbers at the moment.

Culture-wise, it's about equal. I'm curious how being desert-dwellers will affect the stereotypical image and history of Elves. I'm also intrigued by the possibilities inherent in playing a race that comes from a land completely covered in snow and ice (I'm seeing very Nordic themes from that, which is cool since the vikings played a role in early Celtic culture, and the game is, at least in theory, based off of that). The two are polar opposites, if you will, so I suppose it's natural they'd conflict, although I can't imagine what it is they fight over. I doubt the Elves, used to the blazing sun and heat, would really want to go anywhere near someplace as cold as where the Giants live.

Despite my original intentions, then, it seems I'm more likely to play a Giant than an Elf. At least until the novelty of being able to bash things with trees and use an atlatl wear off.

Mabinogi is releasing G4!! Soon! Yes? ... Maybe?

Mabinogi is gearing up for its next big generation release, and pretty much everyone in-game is chomping at the bit. Unfortunately, while a lot of people thought this patch was coming in just 2 days, on Feb 5, it seems that it may just be the release date of another teaser. This comes as a disappointment to many, myself included. You can only build up suspense and excitement so much before people start wondering if anything will ever happen at all.

I think that Nexon's decision to release another teaser rather than the real deal is ultimately going to demoralize their playerbase rather than heighten the excitement, building more irritation than anything. And that's not the kind of tension you should be going for.

I'm personally hoping that G4 will see the release of something a bit more "worth it" for bard characters. At present, the skills Composing and Music Theory have been capped at rank 9 (rank 1 being highest, and F through A being below). This meant a person could get their Instrument Playing skill to rank 7 fairly easily, since you could create scores that would give you skill experience for playing.

At rank 7 playing, however, in order to advance you must resort to playing 'default' music, stock music created by the game designers. When playing default music, the song you play is completely random, so you cannot choose to only play one song, or even songs of a specific difficulty. Despite this, I managed to spam my way to rank 6 of Instrument Playing.

The reason someone would put so much into these skills is that once you have Composing and Music Theory to rank 9, you can create score scrolls that have magical effects. Some regenerate HP, mana, or stamina. Some give boosts to a single stat, such as Strength or Luck. Some of them have other effects, such as charming animals or giving direct combat bonuses. The better you are at Instrument Playing, the better effects you can do, and they affect all party members within a rather large area. Sounds nifty, right?

Problem One:
The type of score scroll you get is determined by random, and it seems that some types are more likely to be generated than others. Furthermore, whether or not your score gets a magic effect (which is determined at creation of the scroll) is also completely random.

Problem Two:
You need to be at least Rank 5 in Instrument Playing before you can use any magical music aside from stat boosts or regen. So I'd have to spam my way with default music through yet another rank. Not so big of an issue, since those types of scores are harder to come by anyway.

Problem Three:
There's only a handful of scores that are actually useful below Playing rank of 5. Strength boosters are good if the party is heavy with melee fighters. Dexterity is good if you have a lot of ranged fighters. Intelligence might be good if you were in a party full of spellslingers (not common at all, even individually) but is otherwise only useful for a quick boost when trying to enchant something. As far as Will and Luck go, the questionable bonus received from a boost to these is hardly worth mentioning.

The regen scrolls, at first glance, seem much more worthwhile. Instead of being a single temporary bonus (that seems to end an amount of time after the song ends roughly equivalent to the length of the song), they would regen the specified amount at regular intervals throughout the playing. Unfortunately, only the mana and stamina regen scores seem to be at all useful, and even then only minutely. The majority of the players are simply too impatient to wait for a slow regeneration effect. Potions already exist that will restore HP, mana, and stamina, and these are both quicker and more plentiful than score scrolls anyway, not to mention bards who can play them. Regen scores are much harder (it seems) to produce than stat-boosters, as well.

Problem Four:
Another reason that the magic music is so relatively useless takes some explanation. The numeric potential of the stat-boosting and regen scores is determined by your Playing Instrument rank, and you need to be at least rank 9 to get any effect at all. No matter what rank you are, however, the value you get is determined within a set range which always starts at zero. If it's zero, then you get a message saying the music seems to have no effect.

Rank 9 playing grants 0-1 for stat boosts and 0-2 for regen, according to information available. When I was rank 9 playing, more often than not my score would work, and I'd get a value of 1 regardless of what type I played, and I figured that was fair enough.

Rank 8 playing grants 0-2 for stat boosts and 0-3 for regen, again according to available info. Once I got to rank 8, the biggest difference I saw immediately was that my score scrolls had zero effect more often than they had before. I very rarely got a value of 2 from a stat boost, and even more rarely a value of 3 for regen.

Rank 7 playing, in theory, grants 0-6 for stat boosts and 0-4 for regen. By this point, I was getting zero effect from my magical scores more often than I got any effect at all, and the majority of the time I was still getting 1's and 2's. Occasionally I got 4 from a regen. I still have never seen anything above 4 from a stat boost, and usually only got 3 at best. Most of the time, if the party needed hp or stamina regeneration and didn't want to use potions, the Rest skill would regen them faster than my music could, anyway.

Rank 6 playing is supposed to give 0-10 for stat boosts and 0-5 for regen. I've only been rank 6 a short while, but so far it seems my success ratio (success being any value above 0, failure being 0) is about 50%, which is an improvement on rank 7 (but still not as good as I remember rank 9). I'm seeing more 3's and 4's from both stat boosts and regen, though not reliably. As I said before, I've never seen anything above 4, which is a shame because a bonus of 10 to a stat like Strength or Dexterity could be a major boon.

So Problem Four is actually two-fold: 4a) The range of the bonus, regardless of playing rank, always starts at 0. 4b) The value you get doesn't seem to be based on anything you can effect. It's not entirely random, or else you'd see more high numbers than now. I suppose you could call it semi-random, erring on the low side with higher numbers being exponentially less likely.

With weapon damage, you have an attribute called Balance, modified by the weapon type and by your Dexterity, which determines where in the damage range of the weapon you're likely to have your hits fall. On average, a damage range of 10-20 with a Balance of 50% will generally mean 15 damage each hit.

With spellcasting, there is Magic Balance, modified by Intelligence, which determines where in the damage range of the spell you are likely to hit.

There does not seem to be any apparent equivalent "Music Balance". If there is, I'm completely at a loss as to what effects or modifies it.

As far as the regen scores go (at least so far), HP is pretty much worthless, both inside and outside of combat. Inside of combat, the Healing spell and hp potions are much faster and more reliable. With a roughly equal chance of getting any effect and no effect at all, chances are your music won't do any healing the first try, and if it does, it's too slow to save anyone's life.

Stamina regen scores are marginally more useful. It can be easy to run out of stamina (which is used up by using skills) in a long fight, and sometimes you don't have the time to quaff a potion, or maybe you didn't realize you were low. Having a constant regen of stamina, regardless of the amount, could actually save someone in combat. Outside of combat, it's pretty much useless. The Rest skill regens faster.

Mana regen is, arguably, the most potentially useful effect below rank 5 Playing. Since mana regen is naturally very slow (faster at night, but still fairly slow), it can be nice to have another method of regenerating it. Again, however, potions are plentiful, especially if you have the Herbalism and Potion Making skills. And like with the HP regen, you're not going to get enough benefit out of it during battle that it's likely to make a difference. Outside battle, it's more useful.

So: HP regen? No use. Stam regen? Potentially useful during combat, but otherwise not. Mana regen? Potentially useful outside of combat, but otherwise not.

Problem Five (What, you thought I was done?):
The musician is rendered immobile while playing. Now, the area of effect is pretty big. I can stand in one corner of a normal dungeon room and reach party members almost in the opposite corner. But stat-boost effects will end early if the song ends early. So if the party wipes out the room and starts heading on to the next one, the bard either gets left behind to finish the song (if it produced an effect worthwhile enough to continue) or to cancel it and catch up so that he can play it again (possibly getting a worse result) in the next room.

Further, because the bard is immobile, and because monster spawns in a room are random in their location, it's quite possible one will aggro on the bard and hit him, ending the song prematurely, before the party can assist. This means a wasted attempt, and the bard has an instrument in hand instead of a weapon to defend himself with, if he's still alive.

So, half the time (or less) you make a scroll, it's magic.
Half the time (or less) it's magic, it's something useful.
Half the time (or less) it's something useful, you can get it to work.
If you get it to work, half the time (or less) it's actually worthwhile.
1/2 of 1/2 of 1/2 of 1/2 = 1/16
So... I guess 1/16th of the time (or less) it's worth playing a bard?

I swear, I'm going to de-rank Music Theory.

Overall I think the biggest problems are the abundance of potions and the impatience of the majority of players, followed by the unreliability of the effects. These are the main factors that make playing a bard so frustrating and, quite frankly, useless.

Funny... I guess I expected bards to be more powerful in a game called Mabinogi.