Graphical updates take a ton of work, because for every little thing that gets changed, a lot of other things have to too. For example even if they just updated player or npc sprites, they then might look out of place compared to everything else around them. You also have to consider that there are probably still a lot of people that may be running Maple on older or less powerful PCs. I'm not saying that developer decisions should be made based off of these older players, but visual updates would cost quite a lot of development time, and increase the system requirements of Maple. There are already a lot of classes with skills that look great and flashy, but with these flashy skills comes some lag, or stutter. 5th job is just around the corner now, and from what we've seen of 5th job skills, they're even flashier than a lot of hyper skills, and those already cause some fps drops at times, so could you imagine how it'd be if the graphics looks even flashier?
I'm not saying I wouldn't want the game to look better, because it'd be great. But I'm sure Nexon have much more important things to focus on than making the game look better. I'm happy with Maple's current graphical style anyway, it's somewhat unique. There aren't really many other 2D MMORPGs out there with the same feel as Maple, where you can zoom around defeating dozens of mobs in seconds, throw giant fireballs around the screen, fire missiles everywhere, or even whack things with a giant pink hammer. What I'm trying to say is that Maple is already unique with it's current graphical style, and I hope it mostly stays this way,
You may be better off starting a new character again to get used to how everything works now, and it'd give you a chance to try out one of the newer jobs that's been released since you last actively played. As for all the notifications, if you're getting them from the quest list (lightbulb) or the event list (star) on the left side of the screen then some of those are likely just npc dialog that will introduce you to a lot of the newer systems, and they do a pretty good job of it.
Getting back to level 30 or 70 shouldn't be too difficult now. It's probably much easier to level than you remember, especially as a player from so far back. With theme dungeons and all the flashy aoe skills most classes have you can probably get back to level 70 in a couple of days, depending on how much free time you have.
Edit: It's also worth mentioning to make sure you're using the correct account, and that you're checking the Europe world Luna. Our old Kradia & Demethos worlds from EMS got merged and are now Luna.
