@Aquila-One & Fangel:

The gremlin family like the Darkfang Thwacker has a shield and a weapon. It's just used differently then the shields the knights use because the gremlins were not made for player use but redesigned as a monster we encounter. The gremlins also do have long range weapons like the Pulsar or the Catalyzer both have gremlin origin. Also not to mention that the bomb called Heavy Deconstructor has some gremlin origin connections sense some of the robotic monsters that we find in the clockworks were said to be made by gremlins and so it's natural to make a bomb to dismantle unneeded dysfunctional products. Therefore, it make sense to connect the bomb from gremlin tech or used by the gremlin family.

This means this highly advance intelligent family has many secrets that we do not know about and so it's highly possible concept wise for the devs to be able to create a separate faction with playable characters that players can play as and oppose the spiral knight order. Like star wars where the spiral knight order is the republic and the darkfang gremlin faction would be the Empire and the separate faction from the empire of herex group would be like dark vader or something.

Also, just because players would play as gremlins, doesn't mean that gremlins would only be fighting the spiral knights. The gremlins are still enemies of undead, jelly and beast monsters. Just because you see them not fighting together when where exploring the clockworks, doesn't mean lore wise they get together. So again concept wise, this is very possible, but that would only be possible if this game was not called spiral knights. The same way in the anime show called naruto, it's mostly all about the character naruto and things going around him. That show would not randomly stop and move to a whole other continent to show something that is happening that has nothing to do with the main character.

So, in spiral knights the game, it's all about lore wise the knights trying to get off the planet cradle and return to help their home planet morai and at the same time finding out dangers, new beings and other things along the way in cradle. Though i digress that we will ever get further then cradle in the spiral knight lore, but that is a discussion for another topic. The point is, if the game had a different title with that allowed a bit more freedom in changing how the player encounters/plays the game, then this concept would be very very possible. But in the depth and distance that the game has reached with its very linear story line, it makes it impossible to grow a new branch of play ability on the line of this concept.

Imagine the story of spiral knights like a tree that is growing. From the root of the tree to it's growing point, the tree can create an almost infinite strands of branches where it can grow and have possible buds and leaves to sprout. But once that tree passes a certain point along it's growth period, it cannot go back to grow a branch from near its growth point. It's the same way this game has already passed that point in it's lore concept where it can deviate into more possibilities.

Though this concept is not possible at this time, it does not mean that there are no specific great points/ideas that we can take from it and add unto the game. These specific points in my opinion could create a much more interesting game play heeh.

- First point:

First point i took from this idea that i think would be a great addition is having a way players can encounter other players inside the clockworks and fight it out as enemies. This point though would need an interesting back story. Something like having evil traitorous knights who believe that we will never get off cradle and has lost hope. Therefore, they have started to deviate from the main goal and started to work with herex/fiends to take out some knights who have gained a lot of prestige this way they can have it easier to take over control of the knight order and create a permanent base on cradle. I say permanent because haven is still being described a temporary base that we will abandon when we get off cradle with the energy supply for the ship. This deviation could create good interesting stories where when a knight reaches rank 3 star which would be a knight rank where they can chose to be on the side of the righteous knights that aim to save there planet morai or the corrupted knights who wish to abandon mrai and make cradle their new home. This split in allegiance does not change the story all that much , all it would do is add 2 to 5 missions that the corrupted knights would only have from fiends and herex gremlins and where they righteous knights would also get an additional 2 to 5 missions where they would get missions from the commander himself to crack down against the corrupted knights.

These missions would take place in the clockworks and would not have specific scenario points. It would just be missions that determine encounters from righteous and corrupt factions. These missions can vary from killing the corrupt/righteous knights and retrieving some kind of info packet from their corpse that the mission could generate after it confirms you killed the target. It could also be a mission to just scan the target with a new device where they just aim and shoot and wait for bar to fill and escape alive from target after scanning basically means scan then run to the exit (doesn't mean you can;t just kill him and then leave casually to the elevator lol). Anyway, having thse kind of mission would greatly increase play ability cause players would have pvp interactions where it's not a predetermine match like ld/bn but a surprise match. Players who wish to stay away from any pvp would have the option to just not take those missions. Basically non predetermine pvp interaction in the game would be a a big plus for me where the game kind of throw surprises at you that you did not expect.

- Second point:

Faction lobby. The way i see this faction lobby working out is it would not actually be something entirely new. I imagine something very simple liek a guild hall that has exclusive features for one particular faction. This guild hall would have weekly/monthly meetings where the time of the meetings are sent via mail where players of one particular who can loggin at that time will join npc's and get a briefing on some new type of goal. Like each mission done by each faction will add to a big roaster where it will lead to a big mission from one faction that will last from weeks to months. This big mission when launched will affect one particular faction. And if that mission is successful, this mission will change the layout of cradle. Like how cradle looks, having more gremlin/fiend npc's walking around then spiral knight order patrols, having more discounted price items for one faction, the prices can range from guildhall rent, to specific small item purchases, more luck for that faction members to run into rare materials in the clockworks like 5 star items, or bigger size mineral (rarities not included, meaning no rad increase or spark drop increase). Also that faction that is winning over the other would get more missions to be more aggressive to the other faction like receive more loot from killing other opposite faction members where this loot would be remove from that other faction's guild hall treasure room (this treasure room can accept donations, though it's is mostly run by npc's). And many more other possible incentives to fight against the opposite faction.

- Third point:

Neutral faction members who do not wish to participate in any faction event/ pvp battles, can be a neutral and not pick a faction. Though you can choose a faction when ever you like while being a neutral member. But once a faction is chosen, it will shut the door to chose the other faction. Though, players who are in a faction, can always go back and forth between neutral and their previous faction choice. These players will be named independent and can choose to run their own mini faction by forming a guild. These guild small factions can have an effect on haven, but not as powerful as the corrupt or righteous factions. The effect these small independent factions can make in haven can be more npc's from their guild that they gained from increasing their guild size will populate haven advertising that guild while moving about. An example could be those backpack carriers could walk slower and players who interact with them will learn that this guild is looking for new members and the guild master could put a small line custom message in there that the npc's could repeat like a mail. Also these mail guys could just be portraying that guilds badge (if we ever get individual guild badge creator to create and wear around). Also, independent guilds would get small missions to reduce their weekly rent from spiral hq to have one of their members to go defeat this monster, go find this material, retrieve this mission created item from a boss, or ect. This would create an incentive form guilds to have active members and where small guilds can grow by having active members who can contribute directly to the guild without having to pull from their own grind time pockets. These missions would also be sent to righteous and corrupt factions, just not as often as the neutral faction independent guilds. Also, just wanted to make sure i mention that you do not have to be in a guild to join the corrupt or righteous factions. Anyway, the point of this paragraph is that independent guilds who grow large enough and does missions regularly would have ways to affect haven for benefits for their members, ways to point out their guilds more to the general community of sk players without having to send emails and guild shouts, and forum announcements all the time and even some cosmetic changes to small parts of haven.

- Fourth point:

More gremlin and fiend interactions! Things like having a special interaction when a gremlin mender meets a gremlin pit boss. Like the boss transform into a scholar professor. The professor draws in fiend devilite monsters like school children going to school instead of chasing after the small devilite like the pit boss do to make them employees of a company. The devilites that reaches the scholar professor has a 33.3% chance to become 3 types of monsters.

The first type of devilite is a chemist devilite that throws random status vials, set temporary field traps that disappear or smack the player close up with a chemical acidic swab that does small knock back, minor small damage (like 10) and poison the player.

The second type of devilite is a gremlin engineer that can launch non-homing rockets at players, summon small scuttle bots or other small robot similar to scuttle bots half the size of the original that explode near player for minor damage, and when 5 to 6 engineer devilites get together like the linchen slime colonies get together, summon a big robotic monster called Devil bot that is a as big and slow as the lumber, but also has the wide area effect of a trojan. This monster would have twice the health of a linchen colony or almost as much health or more as a battlepod. The defenses of this monster would be the same as the battle pod where it is not weak not resistant to any form of damage, but it would also have the revolving shield of the stationary battlepod. Though this shield only last the first 3 to 5 minutes from when it was summon. The machine is still in it's prototype stage so it's defenses/functionality degrades as time goes on.

The third form of devilite monster that could summons is a devilite chronostar. This devilite is a close up melee fighter throughout that can teleport side to side like how the wolvers teleport, but move around side to side like how devilites move when dodging bullets. When chasing down a player, they also randomly teleport forward, though not often. This devilites when close to a player throws quick jabs in two quick combos of one two fist jabs. Each jab acts as if an explosion that knock backs the player the amount of a blaster bullet knock back, but each punch packs a power of a troika swing. And if both of those punches hit, chronostar will launch a teleportation kick where the devilite teleports behind the player and kicks the player. I do not know how the developers would animate the small feet of a devilite kicking, but i get this devilite would have a graphical skin overhaul so it would have more noticeable feet. This kick would have the power of a charge attack winter grave. This kick would have high knock back also, and the old animation where the player falls on his/her but tocks after firing guns like Callahan or iron slug. The animation of this kick can be similar to the troika's charge animation where an explosion happens after the hit. Also the last ability of chronostar is after it's health drops below 30%, it splits to 4 to 8 shadow clones of itself and throws it around the field. These shadow clones would survive 3 hits and move around in front of the player to distract him or her. These shadow clones would have none of the abilities of the original, but the original would be able to switch teleport to any location where its shadow clones are. i was going for a heavy fighter all melee devilite. I know we already have 2 pure melee fiends like the greavers, and the gorgo, but i feel neither of them are heavy hitters like this chronostar devilite.

These are the pointers i grabbed from this concept which i think would be a great addition for the game. Also the interaction between the gremlins and devilites can be more or less then what i showed, but i wish there to be an actual way they can interact in the game system besides just cooperating and fighting on the same team.