It's not a client issue, or Luna would be suffering as well.
Nexon assures us that it's not DDoS.
The problem is in establishing a connection between a client and a channel server process. Game channel, cash shop, auction house, monster life, all the same issue. Once the connection is established, gameplay is usually quite smooth.
My first guess was that it's an issue (hardware/firmware) in the Nexon NA network, but I would assume that it wouldn't take a week to determine which box is malfunctioning, and replace it.
Nexon's people suspected it was the giftbox system, and they disabled it, and it completely eliminated the issues. This would make some sense if, in the last patch, they put in some new mechanism for checking that you don't claim the same reward on multiple worlds, and this mechanism was sometimes taking way too long to ask all the servers about it, causing your client to wait (on the black screen) long enough to end up disconnecting. This would explain why Luna was unaffected, being the only server in its region. But it doesn't explain why the issues only started Saturday, and not immediately after the patch on Wednesday.
When Nexon re-enabled the giftbox mechanism, the connectivity issues almost immediately returned. But when they disabled it again, the issues remain!
This is quite puzzling. If they are quite sure that it's not a DDoS trolling them, then the only thing I can think of is that the second "disabling" of the giftbox was not done right. The first one must have stopped the server from even checking if you have anything waiting for you, but the second one only blocked the icon from appearing, but still allows all the checks to run. It sounds like a dumb thing to do, until you realize that there are probably several people/teams working on this issue, and the ones who "disabled" the giftbox the second time, might not know exactly what the first one did.
Anyway, not much point to us speculating or offering advice without any actual info. Hard as it is at this point, we have to trust Nexon's people to fix this.
That's not the second job advancement.
That's the Cygnus Knight mount quest. Which is (or used to be) available from level 50. You might not have checked your lightbulb before level 60. http://maplestory.wikia.com/wiki/Quests/15/Knight's_Dignity
I kinda get the feeling they knew this patch would be a nightmare and that's why they opened the PTS
The PTS was for testing the content.
The issues we're having are network/connectivity issues, that can't really be tested on a single-machine test server. Even right now, Luna is not suffering. Which means that it's not something inherent to the patch.
Furthermore, the connectivity issues only started Saturday, 3 days after the patch.
My guess is that it's either a hardware issue with one of the NA data center's network components (router, gateway, etc) or a service quality issue with their ISP. Either way, not something that a test server could predict.
I'm pretty surprised some people voted no... if they weren't trolls, I would like to see why they voted for "NO". I'm intriged to know why.
TBH, your poll is very badly worded.
If you want to make a fair poll, just put "Yes" and "No" answers. Putting in "Yes, because everything you said is right" and "No, because I'm an idiot", or words to that effect... well, it's very tempting to vote NO just to spite that kind of bias. I didn't, but I can understand those who did.
Permanent Safety Charm is an item that prevents your character from losing exp when dying, forever.
These items were offered for sale five years ago, around the same period as the permanent Hyper Teleport Rocks and Permanent Pendant Slots.
The latter two have made a return through random-reward Cash events.
Permanent Safety Charms have not, probably because one-time Safety Charms can be bought with meso (from NPC Matilda), so people's willingness to spend hundreds of dollars to try to obtain a permanent one, is not high.
However, I feel that, despite the fact that Safety Charms can be bought for meso, some people would be willing to pay a reasonable price in NX for the convenience of not having to bother keeping track of their Safety Charms and constantly stocking up. I know I would.
So, my request is to offer Permanent Safety Charms for direct sale in the Cash Shop.
