Alright, I feel like I'm baaaasically done with my big Suggestions Forum project, a new Tier 3 boss called The Petrode Pack. You can find all the details here, but I'll discuss all of the Spiral-Spy stuff here and post links, so you don't have to go read the text wall for the suggestion if you don't want to. That said, I expect I'll be making a giant wall of text here too - I put a lot of work into all of this.

Simply stated, the concepts I made for The Petrode Pack combined everything I've learned about Spiral-Spy. Most of the pictures in this album were created using Spiral-Spy alone. I changed around a couple of the Retrode helm textures, but everything besides that was just a lot of finding/exploring models, then scaling and positioning them. Nothing too spectacular.

Where I started getting really involved, though, was the concept for one of the token reward items - the Petrode Protector line of armor. Given this preliminary concept by Alphastevo, I set out to realize the armor sets in Spiral-Spy.

Of course, there's no model for something like that in Spiral Knights. So going off of Alphastevo's description I decided the first step in making my model was to mesh the Skelly Suit model with some Proto-level armor. Being a fan of variety and of the Spiral Cuirass itself, I decided to go with that as the mesh - I felt like the Spiral Culet was just at that point where it was a little different from the Skelly Suit model, but not different enough for my tastes.

The next step was getting rid of different parts of each model. When it comes down to it, this process is nothing more than editing the textures for the models, but it was something I'd never tried before. I had a sort of vague knowledge of the fact that it could be done. The first time I looked at the Skelly Suit model in Spiral-Spy, I found it strange that there was only one model for all of the variants, since the 2* version seemed to be a different shape than the 3*-5* versions. Upon looking at the texture files, I noticed that the 2* version was simply missing certain parts, and my theory was that that was making those parts not show up on the model. I was able to confirm this theory by looking through a couple of the Spiral-Spy threads in the forums, and from there I decided to put my knowledge to practice. I began taking parts off of the Skelly and Cuirass models.

After I did that, I recolored the textures to fit the scheme of the Perfect Mask of Seerus, giving me this for the Skelly model and this for the Cuirass.

On their own, those textures obviously don't account for the entire concept. I needed a few attachments for the hand guards, the shoulder guard, and the spine, all of which were part of the Retrode model. Since the Retrode model doesn't exactly come in parts, I had to do more removal and recoloring on the body texture for the shoulder guard, the spine, and the little spikes on the hand guards. I also had to recolor the head texture.

Finally, I ended up with this.

Since this wall of text isn't as large as I expected it to be, I might go more in-depth later. I also might try to package up the model nicely and upload it somewhere for you all to enjoy.

EDIT: Alright, I've zipped up the Petrode Protector models. Here ya go. In order to use it, first unzip the folder (derp). Move the folder to /rsrc/item/gear/armor in whatever Spiral Knights directory you use for Spiral-Spy. Now simply use model_compound.dat in the Armor slot on any of the player models. Enjoy!

EDIT 2: I'm just now figuring out how to make a compound armor model, so I should be able to upload an easier-to-use version of the Petrode Protector model. If anyone cares...

EDIT 3: Changed the link and information regarding Petrode Protector download/usage.

Also, I've decided on my next project: Spiral Suits. Interpret that how you will.

This is where you find the files. Now you can just use model_compound.dat in the regular Armor slot on normal player models (for example /rsrc/character/pc/model_level.dat). I hope that answers your question.

Here, take them.

Description, etc. pending.

It seems that in my infinite wisdom I replaced my Spiral-Spy resource folder with the newly patched one, meaning a lot of my custom things got deleted. It will be a while before I have any suit or antenna models available, I'm afraid.

In other news, have any other Spiral Spies seen what the "explosive" update might contain..?

Don't post any specifics (I think that's against the rules), but answer with a simple "yes" if you think you know what I might be talking about.