Greetings, one and all. The following message you are about to read is in no way whatsoever a joke, a hoax, a prank, a thinly-veiled threat, or anything else other than what it is -- a simple "thank you" message from one member to other members.

Now, on to the subject at hand. I'm a long-time member of Spiral Knights, and I just want to thank the GMs, developers, and the many users I've met over the years for making the in-game experience for me and many others as memorable as possible. Truly, this is a great game, and I have high hopes that while certain things about it may change, certain other things will more than likely stay the same. In fact, considering what the leader of my guild (name withheld for privacy reasons) is planning for the 5th year anniversary in April, I (along with the handful of other users in our guild) happen to be counting on absolutely nothing being changed.....otherwise, we just might lose a bet he has going with us.

Thing is, he believes that despite what's been going on recently with the game, certain things will voluntarily change on their own, or be changed as the result of an update, before the actual date of the game's 5th anniversary (April 4th) arrives. Not to sound malicious or deceitful, but some of us are actually hoping he loses the bet. He's promised that if he does, he will willingly donate 1,600 CE to each member of the guild, from his own energy reserves he's built up over the years. Fortunately for him, there's only a small handful of us in the guild (18 members in total), so the cost to him is almost negligible.

Of course, if we end up losing the bet, then we each have to purchase a $5.00 energy pack (1,600 CE, if I'm not mistaken) and go through with his original plan, which is to hold a flash sale of sorts for CE on April 11th, with the buy price going no higher or lower than 4,500 crowns per every 100 units. Needless to say, none of us are particularly bothered by agreeing to making this bet with him or throwing away $5 to aid this game's future development, but all the same, we're not all that interested in losing, either.

The terms we set for this little wager, albeit almost totally and completely unreasonable as they seem, are as follows.....

- OOO has to stop selling prize boxes that don't include CE (I know it'll never happen, but that was one of our guild leader's terms..... :/ )

- The current price of CE in the Energy Market has to drop to around 5,000~6,000 crowns, and stay there for a full month (and yes, this essentially means that the price of CE has to stay at a fixed value all throughout March)

- All recipes readily available in the Hall of Heroes have to be permanently removed from Clockwork Terminals, so that users actually have an actual fair chance of finding recipes they need that can't be purchased in the Hall of Heroes

- All Fire Crystal drops have to be restricted to dropping only in their respective stratums (i.e., Cracked Fire Crystals can only drop in Stratum 1, Warm Fire Crystals for Stratum 3, and so on)

- The drop rates for Eternal Orbs of Alchemy have to be lowered somewhat further than what they are at now (for reasons that essentially involve encouraging users to buy more CE to get these particular Orbs)

- Add recipes to the Mysterious Alchemy Machine(s) for ANY prize box and/or randomly dropped weapon, armor, or shield (i.e., Darkfang Shield, Celestial Shield, etc.)

- Add elemental-defensive & shadow-defensive swordsman shields, and also add a new line of shields with elemental/piercing/shadow defense made specifically for users who prefer handguns and/or bombs over swords

- Remove the "minimum deposit and minimum withdrawal" requirements from the "Energy Well" items in Guild Halls

- Add Fire Crystal crafting recipes to the Mysterious Alchemy Machine(s)

- Remove "caps" from Attack/Defense/Speed Orbs

I know it's a bit of a lot to take in, but that's what we all agreed on. Our guild leader is highly doubtful that any of this will actually happen, but that doesn't mean he isn't hopeful. The rest of us, on the other hand.....like I said, our winning this bet is dependent upon the above terms not happening, and we're all just fine with it if anything doesn't (especially if it helps us).

With that in mind, I'd just like to say thanks yet again to the staff for making this great game, and to all the users -- active or inactive -- for helping to maintain the current status quo. We're counting on ALL of you, so don't disappoint us! :D