AzureMS Closed Source Development History
This is an on-going project to document AzureMS history, primarily maintained by KOOKIIE.
Note that all dates are +8 UTC unless otherwise stated.
Every reasonable effort has been taken to verify the contents of this wiki page, and all statements are known to be true as of the time of writing. As such, we will not be liable for any special, direct, indirect, or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data or profits, whether in an action if contract, negligence or other tortious action, arising out of or in connection with the use of the contents of this wiki page.
We (the maintainers of ElectronMS) understand that SoulGirlJP has publicly expressed their displeasure with our documentation of AzureMS history. We, nonetheless, view this task as an important step in preserving the history of this server's development for posterity, regardless of SoulGirlJP's opinions. Furthermore, given that this is an open-source project, SoulGirlJP is more than welcome to either speak with us or submit pull requests to correct any perceived inaccuracies. As such, we will continue to document the history of AzureMS as it continues to unfold, in spite of SoulGirlJP's public spite.
AzureMS is a KMS-based private server that had managed to reach some success during its v316 phase.
Despite the intention of making a WonderKing-MapleStory hybrid, this goal was never actually achieved (at the time of writing).
SoulGirlJP (Discord username then: SoulGirlJP#7859; Discord username now: SoulsJP#3857), the then owner of AzureMS, initially purchased the source code for a KMS v284 private server (ArielMS) from a server owner-developer Suho. Notably, Suho helped advertise AzureMS in the ArielMS Discord server, thereby helping to seed AzureMS with some initial players.
SoulGirlJP later went on to purchase a KMS v316 server emulator source code from their Korean contacts (at a significant mark-up) as part of a new source deal. During the v316 phase, there were numerous notable developers that either worked with or mentored SoulGirlJP, including (but not limited to) Asura (mentor), Wolly (developer/mentor), Brandon (developer), Dipi (developer), as well as Desc (WZ editor/developer).
Riding on the success of v316, there was interest in upgrading (yet again) to v329. This was in part driven by claims that the new v329 source code would not have the same set of bugs that plagued the v316 project, and in part due to the release of a new class (Adele) in v329. However, the former premise would later turn out to be false, as the v329 source code turned out to be in a worse state than the v316 project. During the closed-beta testing phase the astronomical numbers of breaking issues discovered meant that the team simply could not respond fast enough to keep up (see here for full bug list). In fact, most of the portals in the game did not even have portal scripts associated with them, leaving players stranded in many maps, and needing to rely on teleport commands/NPCs/rocks to move between maps. The fact that there were developers whose entire job was to deal with these scripts resulted in a number of PortalScript inside jokes (in reference to the JavaScript language used for writing these portal scripts). In this phase, the team grew even larger, with Rob (Discord ID: Min#4235) and Anxiety (Discord ID: Anxiety#7971) helping out as well.
At this point, SoulGirlJP (who thought the v329 source was too riddled with bugs to be worth fixing up) decided to switch gears and attempted to create a v337 source from scratch with Dipi, relegating Brandon/Desc/Rob to handle the v329 project. However, the v337 endeavour turned out to be too arduous at the time, due to changes in the KMS authentication system by v337. This caused the development focus to return to v329, until SoulGirlJP managed to nail the new authentication system (with the help of various different industry contacts).
Editor's note: There was a v334 intermediary phase, which we can no longer recount due to the loss of AzureMS Discord messages.
After sorting out the new authentication, SoulGirlJP set sights on v342, since that was the release of a new class: Kain.
Soon after starting the upgrade towards v342, SoulGirlJP decided to migrate versions again, due to the new content (i.e. training areas, etc) that was slated to come in the subsequent v343 patch: Hotel Arc.
Some time later (with v343 still not ready for testing), SoulGirlJP elected to upgrade yet again - this time for a new class, Lara. Lara was released in v351. SoulGirlJP, however, had learnt from previous mistakes, and chose v352 over v351 this time, which was the last of the Maple LIVE trilogy of updates (the trilogy which contained Lara-related content). This is the version that AzureMS is currently at (at the time of writing). AzureMS v352.3 was initially expected to conduct their pre-Alpha testing from the 1st of October 2021 onwards, marking the first time that AzureMS is re-opening to the public since its v316 days.
This date was brought forward to the night of 21st Sept 2021 (Korean time), in line with the chuseok holidays.
The v352.3 pre-alpha launch brought many new features to the table (courtesy of external contributor Brandon), including the use of Auth Hook, Discord RPC, and auto-registration upon login. Nonetheless, the launch was marred by numerous critical issues plaguing the gameplay. This included a faulty damage calculation system that prevented players from killing monsters (unless the player has SP put into a mastery skill, has a working weapon (numerous weapons were not working properly), and can one-shot the monster all at the same time - this was further compounded by the fact that players started at level 1 in Henesys making it impossible to progress past level 1 without GM intervention), numerous improperly-handled weapons/equipment, lack of methods to obtain equipment, lack of methods to obtain potions, numerous unhandled portals, lack of mobility options (hyper teleport rocks were not coded, warp NPC was not coded, and at initial launch the taxi only had Henesys and Hotel Arc which was level 270+ content), as well as obvious signs of memory leaks. As a consequence of the latter issue, the game gradually slowed down and grinded to a halt (i.e. players could no longer log in) in less than 24 hours after its launch. This was later circumvented by SoulGirlJP specifying the process to utilise more memory.
Within a week of the pre-alpha launch, SoulGirlJP made the announcement that AzureMS is once again upgrading versions. This time, it is a migration to v354.4 for the 64-bit client, as SoulGirlJP "(is) 95% sure the upgrade will fix all launching problems". Most notably in the announcement, SoulGirlJP mentioned that the new client would mean "no unnecessary crashes (if there's too much [sic] mobs in 1 map, leveling to [sic] fast, etc.)", whilst also noting that they are "currently upgrading/fixing (their) tools because of the 64 bit client".
On the 30th of September, SoulGirlJP announced an upgrade to v354.5, rather than the previously stated v354.4, for "better performance in the loading of the characters". The upgrade to 64-bit is supposedly meant to give "more performance in every way", and players "will see a very big difference of performance, (and their) client will go faster no lagg at all"[sic]. Sadly, this update was not without its own set of issues as well: along with the new client came several reports of infection from the Sality family of worms. In spite of this, SoulGirlJP maintains that they "never had that problem nor (they) ever seen this Sality", and that "only thing (they) modified is a plain ol [sic] dll that KMS uses and thats [sic] it" so players should simply "just exclude it in window defender [sic] the folder [sic]". It should however be noted that various different anti-malware engines all gave the same analysis results, and that using commercially available anti-malware tools to sanitise the client was observed to be efficacious at stemming the worms whilst preserving playability (despite not being the recommended course of action by the staff).
On the 17th of October 2021 3:28pm PST, SoulGirlJP unveiled a new AzureMS launcher alongside various critical bug fixes that were teased a day earlier. Notably, it was announced (rather paradoxically in the same set of patch notes) that "(players) won't be able to open the game without opening it with the launcher", and that players "will now need to open the game with the new launcher else (they) won't be able to login". The new launcher was unfortunately DOA - likely a result of incorrect IP address configuration - and none of the players could get into game. This was resolved the next day at 6:46am PST, on the 18th of October 2021.
For posterity, a VOD was taken to demonstrate the state of the game on the 19th of October 2021. Note that at this point, many server sided tasks were synchronous, resulting in long queues that made for a noticeably lag-like experience for players.
Subsequently, SoulGirlJP continued adding packet headers (opcodes) for various classes on v354. This went on until the 16th of December 2021, following a massive deletion MapleStory private servers' Discords, of which AzureMS was also affected. It is speculated that the top 50 on GTOP100 was affected, considering that the Discord servers for most of the top ranking servers listed on GTOP100 had vanished, with the owners saying that they received the same notification from Discord regarding deletion due to ToS violations with regard to illegal activity. SoulGirlJP mentioned in the fallout that they "(did not) want any of it anymore [sic]". SoulGirlJP was noted to have changed Discord accounts from SoulGirlJP#7859 to SoulGirlJP#3857, and announced that they would release the v354 source. Later on the 28th of December 2021, SoulGirlJP made clear that they had changed their mind with respect to the release of the v354 source.
The 16th December saga would mark the temporary ceasure of AzureMS closed-source development, with the development staff shifting focus to work on Nora World, a 2D side-scrolling MMORPG inspired by MapleStory and Wonder King. SoulGirlJP expressed the desire to code the game from scratch in C++, as well as write their own game engine(s) for it. The development team has also revealed that Unity is being used in development (although it's not clear how exactly the C++ and original game engine part ties into this). Also worthy of note is the inclusion of NFTs as part of the game.
By the closure on the 16th of December, the server was still in a pre-MVP stage, with most of the classes not implemented yet, and no monster drops nor shops in-game. Testers/players would still have to use beginner equipment to kill monsters, and would have train without access to potions.
Following the shift in focus to Nora World, SoulGirlJP started working on AzureMS again after experiencing burnout from Nora World development. This was a notable departure from their previous stance of not wanting "any of it anymore" (see above). For the comeback, SoulGirlJP elected to upgrade versions to v360 for the Explorer revamp, and created a new AzureMS Discord server under the Discord username JenaWK#2682.
On the 6th of March 2022, SoulGirlJP put out an announcement in the new AzureMS Discord to provide updates on the current state of the server. In the announcement, SoulGirlJP repeated claims about the server being in development from scratch for about 2 years, as well as introduced the plans for the development efforts. Notably, SoulGirlJP mentions that the team will be working on one class at a time, starting from Hero (and all other classes will be disabled until Hero is coded to "perfection" with "no issue's [sic] at all"). Considering that the next class to be dealt with following Hero would be Paladin, it is assumed that SoulGirlJP is going in order of Job ID.
On the 22nd of March 2022, SoulGirlJP released the test client, and opened the server to testing.
On the 24th of March 2022, potions were finally obtainable in-game, and players no longer crash when entering maps that already has other players in them. The following day, players could now pick up mesos and combo orbs. A further 5 days later, item pick-up was now possible.
On the 11th of July 2022, SoulGirlJP clarified that only Explorers will be available on release, and that they were "almost done working on the explorer classes". This is allegedly such that SoulGirlJP can "concentrate on doing gameplay [sic] and working on the essentials".
On the 19th of July 2022, SoulGirlJP announced the porting of AzureMS v316's additional damage system (now called "bonus damage") and buffed channel system, alongside other bug fixes. By this point, the server had a GTOP listing, and had amassed 187 members in its Discord server.
At 10PM EST on the 31st of Dec 2022, staff member Loki streamed a preview of the game.
On the 15th of January 2023, the server was made open to public for alpha testing. The launcher provided had numerous issues, such as failing to work if run as administrator, and not being able to log back into game after disconnecting due to the server not sending back the required strings (which meant that after DC-ing, players needed to wait for a server restart to log back into game). This new launcher was coded by Dipi in Rust, and would prove to be a source of continual frustration as players complained about having issues with it despite multiple attempts at fixes all the way till the 25th of January 2023.
On the 19th of January 2023, Explorer Mage (Fire/Poison) was added to the game, marking the release of the second class-family in-game (following Explorer Warrior).
On the 25th of January 2023, Ice/Lighting Mage and Bishops were also added. The launcher issues were finally declared fixed after multiple tries over the past 2 weeks - players are now advised to close and completely exit the browser if the game crashes, and re-open the launcher to be able to log in again.
In April of 2023, SoulGirlJP finally put the nail in the coffin, not just taking the test server down (before the game ever got fully up to speed or released), but also deleting the AzureMS Discord server entirely. SoulGirlJP claims to be shifting focus to Nora World entirely, with the Nora World project being the spiritual successor to AzureMS as a combination of MapleStory and WonderKing game design elements. This is a significant departure from their previous Java & JavaScript tech stack, onto a Rust & Unity solution.
284 -> 316 -> 329 -> 337 -> 329 -> 342 -> 343 -> 352 -> 354 -> 360
Note: There was a brief period of v334 development but it was short-lived, without significant surviving documentation, and is thus left out of this timeline sequence.
Azure v316 and v329 were based on commercially-available projects, sold by Korean developers. Whilst TomatoMS staff were using certain tools built for/by Azure/SoulGirlJP, there is no other evidence to suggest any relationship or plagiarism between them, since TomatoMS could well have just purchased the source code and/or tools. TomatoMS staff did, however, consult with Azure/ex-Azure staff like Brandon and attempt to solicit code (e.g. via interview scams) - as much as their owner would like to sweep these incidents under the rug. Granted, Tomato claims that these actions by individual members of their staff do not reflect their team.
!["(did not) want any of it anymore [sic]"](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/848969543166722128/920835693960364152/91445274f5968966e2a005126bfb14f9.png){kind=link}
