I've been having problems with the performance of the Spiral Knights game client degrading over time. Usually after an hour or two of gameplay I can expect that the client will start getting periodic (10-30 second) fits of either epically low frame rates, or outright 2-3 second freezes.

Today, for example, I was running the yellow sun gate (whichever it is, the one with FSC right now). I was doing a T2 trying to catch 4 arenas to make some mad loot. By the time I got past basil things were starting to slow down, and once I was in the third arena it was completely unplayable. I'd charge up an attack, then come around behind an enemy to unleash it, and the game would freeze for two seconds, after which I'd find myself on the other side of the arena missing half my health because my character had just continued walking through a giant melee. *Twice* I died in just one arena from the game freezing on me. I ended up running out of energy for (frankly BS) revives and had to head back up.

I should note, very clearly: THIS IS NOT NETWORK LAG. The entire game interface is freezing. No animations occur, no UI updates take place, nothing. I'm quite familiar with what network lag looks like in the game, and this isn't it.

To continue, once I was back in Haven and selling off stuff in the AH, the performance continued to degrade to the point where it was almost impossible to just navigate the AH interface. The game was freezing up or bogging down every 2-5 seconds at this point. Nothing else was going on with my system to cause these issues. No AV scan in the background or updaters running or anything like that. The only cure I've found, and it always cures it instantly, is to quit and restart the game client. This restores performance 100%, but obviously isn't an option when I'm half way through a gate.

This performance degradation is killing the game for me. It's just not fun if I'm taking hits while the game is frozen solid.

I'd love to try to make an attempt at getting "cradle and all" or "dauntless delver" achievements, but if the game grinds to a halt after less than one tier what's the point of even trying?