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Better idea:
Same sort of restrictions maybe - same reforge rank, same item type - but instead you use high-level blacksmithing/handicraft/tailoring/alchemy/whatever to do a horrifying fusion of one item into another, using some high-cost materials. Same result, has some more time investment than just buying an item, you destroy the fused equipment in the process - maybe with a chance to lose a line or two of the reforge just to add that RNG element that everyone loves. Win for Nexon if they sell an NX item related to it (like some 'fusion success increase' item,) win for whoever wants to get their preferred rank 1 reforge on some new equipment whether or not they pay NX.
Another thing to note, which I learned the hard way: The Warm Energy only drops *once* per day. So if you fail to open the chest in the first shadow mission you do, you won't get another chance next SM. If you open the chest but fail to pick it up, ditto. If you disconnect after beating the SM, ditto ditto.
Honestly they should've just copy-pasted the code they use for the VIP SM crystals (expiring at 12 AM PST) and let the warm energy drop more than once, and mixed in something like a "You can't pick up another Warm Energy today" message when you've already used the one you had for the day, or something to avoid weird accidents like the above. I d/c'd when I blew up the SM boss fight and crashed Mabi on Saturday morning, and I lucked out Sunday when I d/c'd before even getting to the boss. If the game's stability stabs me in the back two more times after the chests spawn, I won't get all 3 pets from this event...
So - I have my game volume turned down a good amount, since some parts can get pretty loud - killing like 30 enemies at once, or leveling up 40+ times in one EXP drop, so on. But consistently, whether the volume is at max or otherwise, the music for the talent videos is murderous on my ears and my speakers. Ever since the talent system was implemented, the talents with video function have always been kinda ear-wrecking when selected. I've been kinda like "okay fine whatever just get through it" for a long time, but. The Pet Trainer Talent video. aaaAAAAAA
I do audio work professionally, and I have heard some absolutely horrifying noises come out of my speakers that I made myself through experimentation or by mistake, but the initial sound that the pet trainer video makes is like smashing a glass bottle while a cat attacks a chalkboard piped through a megaphone in one single startling burst. EVERY time I select that talent, my ears are left ringing for like 10 minutes after if I don't turn my computer volume to near-zero. I don't wear headphones usually when I play, I have my speaker volume set to around -10 dB, so my playback is genuinely dialed back a bit; but that video and a lot of the others just are SO MUCH louder than the rest of the game that they basically peak my computer's output. Even turning down the game's sound volume does not help very much, unless I want to play the game on mute.
So yeah. yeah. I legit just picked the talent just now and forgot to turn my speakers down and there's no reason why something like this in the game should cause hearing damage with moderate volume settings.
The game is still worth a spin, and the community is still pretty welcoming in my experience.
If you're looking for other players, there's an official Discord server floating around. Otherwise the forums and even in-game you'll usually find people willing to point you in the right direction if you ask!
Edit: in case you drop onto the Nao server, my character is Kalxbroc!
A lot of this could have been avoided if Nexon's NA team actually changed the 'recommended' server over the last decade. They did it for like the first two years, and then as soon as the Alexina server was added there wasn't any change whatsoever to that list since. Because of that, a lot of new players likely went straight for the 'recommended' server, and the other servers atrophied. And it was like a domino effect from there: people jumped servers because the population stopped growing - I remember a lot of friends of mine from Mari and (especially) Tarlach eventually quitting or jumping to Alexina due to the lack of people in the server.
Seriously, I remember there was a point where seeing a new player in Tarlach was like finding a five-horned unicorn, while on Mari you'd run into like a small handful of new players each month. The state of Alexina sounds uncannily like what happened with the original three servers - and I'm pretty sure it's because the 'recommended server' thing is funneling players into Nao, new and old. I mean, a new player or a returning player won't have a lot of bearing on why the server is recommended, and the most they'd know at a glance is the relative population of each server... sooooo they'd probably just roll with the recommendation seeing as there's no obvious difference in the choices.
If they don't do a server merge, they should at least switch up the 'recommended' server every so often to keep the number of new/returning players joining both servers with a more even distribution, so they don't just starve Alexina like they did the original servers.
