Bellocringe

There are a lot of good answers for this, but hardly any best answer besides something obvious like GM hat being BiS headwear, whether that's attainable or not is not the question. The universally good items you have already mentioned include Icarus and saunas, as well as bone helm and snowshoes. Attack work gloves are also commonly among the best items, especially for classes that don't have accuracy concerns. I think your question is far more broad than you initially thought, and is not possible to answer objectively.

Yes, having a visible face is bannable, please put the bag back on.

This used to be a desirable change to the game. It was achieved by deleting default fonts until Windows used the one you wanted, usually Lucida or Verdana to differentiate I from l. Based on what you have posted, Arial is not present as the default font on your pc, and Windows used its italic variant instead, which is a separate ttf file. Try putting Arial back on the problem pc if it is not already present. If it is, see what you can do about default font selection, as this is occurring at the OS level and has nothing to do with Phoenix settings.

I have some questions about hardcore and ranking that I don't feel like testing to find out the answer to. If a hardcore dies and gets deleted, do they lose their ranking? And, if so, is the name available again for use by others? I guess that's all really.

I'm fond of restrictions that change the way you play the game, like the ones we have now, sans .5x exp which just drags out how long you have to stay in a training spot. Event restrictions probably would have made sense when they were just added, because the red envelopes, for instance, are so blatantly more helpful for fresh noobs than higher level players. That said, 2x damage received restriction when? Or, a brown teddies locked ironman, where the game mode ends when you get a 3 int golden pride.

He seems to be talking about aggro issues with 2 people on a map.

So, I found out a few days ago that the v-day quest that helps noobs out with 800 exp boosts and gives fame isn't possible with 4 slots. I think I'll have to very carefully consider how and when to do certain quests, or if they are even possible, before wasting time collecting stuff. This extends to the rewards, too, of course, as most scrolls are going to be completely worthless, and the useful ones have to get used up fast to free up precious inventory space. Still only level 23, so it's not too bad yet, but I could see this being pretty torturous by 40s-50s.

Post progress on your ironman characters here, or share tips, advice or request help. I've just gotten started on mine, named Plague, who is currently a level 8 magician with the 4 slot and ironman restrictions on. So far not much different from a regular unfunded character I guess.

I agree that changes are fine, as long as they trend downward from vanilla, so for instance NLC comes out and boomers don't multiply or the % potions are not present, or gachapon comes out but the only possible prize is a photograph of the Nexon staff taking a dump on Maplestory's integrity and giving you the middle finger. Challenge modes fit quite well I think. Good to hear about the possible expansion of options later on, it might be fun to start something silly like a character fixed in aqua road.

Region lock sounds kinda not cool in the current iteration. Would be cooler if you could either start somewhere at a minimum level with a given job to hit some of the enemies and work up from there, or maybe disable access to Victoria after it is no longer deemed necessary for job adv. purposes. E.g., start a Nath locked bowman that comes equipped with a shitty bow and high enough level to hit, say, Letty at a 1-2% rate. Of course, make it so these characters can't use fame or storage to prevent abuse of such a feature. Maybe just force region lock to be tied to Ironman (btw).