G M E R C

Bowmen use Soul Arrow after they get the skill... probably starting somewhere in the 40s at the earliest. What you're describing doesn't change that your arrow suggestion is a severe (debilitating even at lower levels) maintenance cost increase to bowmen prior to that point in a suggestion that is meant to address perceived early-game money issues. It "fixes" a "problem" for 4 of the game's classes and ravages the remaining one just for existing. This doesn't change or mitigate any of the problems this creates because you can just buy these needlessly-discounted potions using a mule. People starting out just need to actually use basic attacks sometimes, they're in the game for a reason. If you can't afford to spam your skills early on that isn't a sign that the game needs to accommodate wasteful play, it's a sign that the player needs to spam less until they hit the boiling point where their monster drops and other money sources let them afford it.

Doesn't doubling the price of bowman ammunition simply push the budget problem over to their arguably more at risk early-game? Everyone's a little poor early on and needs to be conservative with their MP rather than replace their attack hotkey with a skill the moment they start out, but that probably isn't a bad thing. Even assuming you meant to say from 200 to 100 with the cost of Blue Potions, this is still probably not a great idea. MP restoration has a consistent price floor of 2 mesos per point, and while arguments could be made that carrying around small value MP recovery items in large quantities would be taxing on a player's Use Item tab, there's almost no way this wouldn't still end up being like what happened with Sorcerer Elixirs in some fashion, where a particular source of that recovery is objectively better value than every other one in the game and, no surprise, everyone who realizes this starts using them. If anything need be done about a player's early money supply vs their potion stores, it should probably be in the form of those "Beginner" potions being given out in slightly higher amounts. But I don't know if that's even necessary, really.

It would still potentially be preferable to make KPQ more accessible and simply make multiboxing an entire party quest roster against the rules.

I believe the intention behind percentage-based recovery being excluded is explicitly so that larger unit healing items have value without being inherently trivialized by scaling sources of healing with a fixed price tag (with standard Elixirs and Power Elixirs not being available for purchase anywhere, this also gives them their own value not undermined by arguably better equivalents for sale at an NPC). One could, however, make arguments in favor of making the particularly dense recovery items, like Melting Cheese, Reindeer Milk and the Dews somewhat more cost effective, possibly even as much so as the low-recovery basic red and blue potions, as the threshold for warriors and mages respectively being able to non-wastefully consume them is high enough, not to mention that it's impossibly high for bowmen and thieves to ever really be able to exploit that cost-efficiency. The outcome of such a thing is enriching existing, more "classic" elements of the game rather than bringing back two of the four potions that killed basically every other recovery item in the game. (Though I recognize and can appreciate that there is a certain nostalgia for the NLC potions, I feel that the decision to exclude them from Phoenix was probably a healthy one to make.)

I am inclined to agree with this. Not having spoken to staff and being a relative newcomer, I can't be sure that this is the intention, but I believe the thought process is probably something along the lines of NX being scarce enough that every single person doesn't vote for a week and have a modern, cash shopped outfit they wear until the end of time, leading to voting for NX being less valued, Phoenix dropping down the topsite list, and the eyes on the server dwindling. The reality, however, is that I think some of the scarcity creates "quit moments" for new, less patient players... especially some who might do the Amoria Hair Salon quest, get a hideous haircut, then realize they will need to vote for NX for two whole weeks before they can un-ruin their character's appearance, much less begin saving for a basic pet to ease up on their Z key (which, as you stated in your original post, is itself setting yourself up for an NX tax down the line on top of any other expiring cosmetics they have any interest in). Yes, I understand valuing delayed gratification, but an already low population server with an admittedly niche appeal of genuine low rates doesn't need to lose players that could get invested in being here to things that are this avoidable and admittedly trivial. It's fine, good even to not want every person in the universe to look like an NX whale, but I think it would do a lot to keep people from seeking "greener pastures" to have some elements of character personalization, especially hair and face options, be more readily available. Consider, if you will, if a player could afford to get a new hairstyle off of a single vote's maple points. Then, the next day, they can change their hair color. The day after that, their face. Then their eye color. That's four votes across four days of playing, four days of, presumably, developing minor investment in being here. Each of those votes for the server will have resulted in a tangible improvement to their character day after day, and the fact that it isn't this huge investment means they're freer to make further changes to their character to better express themselves as their vision of their character changes. It might be for the better if a lot of cash shop items and upgrades (like the inventory expansions) were cheaper, the way it was likely seen as a totally obvious decision to reduce the prices of setting up and running FM shops. Adding on to your feelings on this, I think another solution to this perceived problem of unaffordability and weeks of fruitless voting could be to simply not have cosmetics and pets expire in the first place. Like, if the point is for these to be significant weighty investments rather than cosmetics you splurge on it would probably be best if they didn't disappear a month or three after you can finally afford anything. Minor addendum, though I may make a thread of my own for this sort of thing. I think a new player with certain expectations might run screaming the moment they don't see pet function-equips in the cash shop because it just plain is not an obvious conclusion that these items are for sale organically within the game world. I think with a, let's say quiet playerbase, more needs to be done to inform the player of such changes so they aren't just completely lost on their own.