I am a huge fan of Spiral Knights, with well over a thousand hours of game time logged. After reading the reveal and details of the upcoming Battle Sprites update, I've found myself deeply concerned that the game I've come to love so much will be changing in fundamental ways, ways that will alienate older players like myself and muddle the experience for newer ones. On top of this, I've discussed my concerns with a number of other players and found several who echo my sentiments.

In this post, I will first be providing a detailed analysis of what I consider to be the ways that the Battle Sprites update has potential to negatively impact Spiral Knights, its players, and OOO's profits. My range of knowledge of what the update will look like is as large as it is currently possible to be without inside information. Basically, I've read everything that Nick has said about it on these forums. I'm aware that there may be critical pieces of the picture that no one in my position can see at the moment, and yet the information that Nick has provided thus far shows me enough of the picture for me to feel that I can write a post about it that's both substantive and appropriate.

My second order of business in this post will be providing alternatives to the Battle Sprites' current design that aim to eliminate the potential for negative effects, increase Spiral Knights' appeal to players, and increase cash flow to OOO.

So then, my list of concerns is as follows.

1: Battle Sprites may constitute a huge change to the combat due to being influential and non-optional.

Allow me to clarify what I mean by both of those adjectives. The are "influential" because they will require an extra button to be assigned for their actions and because they can have a significant impact on how battles are fought. As for "non-optional", well... Technically they will be optional, but apparently only in the way that shields are optional: You're not required to bring one into battle, but you're at a disadvantage if you don't and there's no downside to equipping one.

This could be a problem because what if there are players who don't want to have to deal with these sprites? Too bad! Gotta get one and evolve it just like your armor and weapons if you don't want to be at a disadvantage. This sort of thing can alienate older players who enjoy Spiral Knights' combat as it is.

Now you may ask why a player wouldn't want to have to "deal with" sprites. There are a handful of reasons why a player might object. One is the sprites' actions requiring a new button to be pressed, impacting ease of control. Another is the player disliking the gameplay and/or theme changes the sprites could herald (which is something I discuss in detail later in this post). And the last possibility is the player longing for challenging gameplay in Spiral Knights, yet the sprites ending up making the game even easier.

I'll say more about that last one right here. It's easy to see from following these forums that many players are complaining that the game is too easy. This has been a growing concern for quite a while. If a considerable step is made to make the game even easier, I would expect most of those players to quit playing altogether.

2: Battle Sprites may make the game less user-friendly.

There are a number of ways I see them having the potential to do this. First off, newbies are saddled with choosing just one of the three before they can possibly have enough knowledge of the game to know which will suit their playstyle best, even after trying out each one. Most newbies who care about pets will probably even make their decision based solely on aesthetics, opening the possibility for them to become resentful if they find out the one they chose is underpowered or doesn't suit them.

Secondly, the sprites sound to me like they could add a dangerous amount of complication to the game's combat. Nick has said that they will require another button to use, which is already risky for Spiral Knights at this point with the number of buttons it has currently. And on top of that, well, fights in this game even now can get quite chaotic with four players. With Battle Sprites, potential for chaos increases at the same time as adding yet another element that players have to keep track of and think about in battle.

Spiral Knights is currently a game that in my opinion qualifies as "easy to play, difficult to master." This is great for both new and old players, and the sprites may disrupt it. This section of my post was about their potential for impacting the easy-to-play half. The difficult-to-master half will be covered in the next section.

3: Battle Sprites may change the overall focus and feel of the game.

Band together with your friends and overcome impossible odds! Or travel alone and meet your glorious fate with naught but the sword in your hand and the shield on your back.

Where are you going, silly knights? You forgot your pets!

To be clear, I'm not saying that players shouldn't be allowed to have pets. I'm just saying that it will constitute a considerable theme change for the game if everyone has one at all times in the Clockworks. I could talk more about this, but, as this point could be argued to be subjective and/or a matter of opinion, I'll keep this post's focus on how I think gameplay will be affected.

I used to think Spiral Knights could use more strategy in its combat. But as I played the game more I realized that it actually has very deep strategy under the surface, involving the usual MMO elements like aggro and DPS, but also with things like picking off more dangerous enemies first, crowd control, and teamwork involving both weapon selection and coordinating attacks.

Battle Sprites don't sound to me like they'll deepen the strategy in the game. From what I can tell, with their current design, they're more likely to dumb down the game's strategy by opening the door to more abusive tactics and easier combat. Also everything will become even more chaotic if players don't know what they're doing. Overall it seems more likely to reduce the number of viable strategies than increase it.

One of the biggest reasons for Spiral Knights' success is its arcade gameplay. No, I'm not talking about the Arcade in Haven. I'm referring to Spiral Knights' very skill-based gameplay style that's reminiscent of old arcade games and similar games like the original Legend of Zelda. It may be dangerous to go alone, but with practice and perseverance any player can build their skills enough to best the most brutal bosses. This is something that sets this game apart from others in its genre on the market these days.

Spiral Knights has a winning formula. Why try to fix what isn't broken? Knights already have plenty of tools for dealing with enemies, enemies which, by the way, fight fair. We don't need a tank class that can take hits while other players deal damage. That clashes with Spiral Knights' design, changing it into something very different from the game I love.

To anyone who might be wondering why I'm talking about classes, if you're doubtful that sprites can have so much of an impact on a party that they become what defines each knight's role in combat, please read the quote a couple lines below.

4: Battle Sprites may be the face of a hidden (or not so hidden) class system.

"[Battle Sprites] are also intended to provide players with the ability to specialize their role in a party. The choices you make for your Sprite will act like a class for your Knight, augmenting your choice of weapons and armor. For example, you may choose a Sprite that deals direct damage with attack enhancements or instead choose a Sprite that bolsters your parties defenses." -Nick

The way I see it, a class system would violate one of the essential qualities of Spiral Knights: freedom. Right now knights are free to mix and match their armors, weapons and such to fit whatever fighting style they please. With enough resources, any player can acquire and use every single item in the game. But it doesn't look like this will be the case with the sprites, since players can only have one at first, and there are many different final forms of each! It would probably take a fortune to which extremely few players can aspire in order to get a complete set of all final forms, and that's if knights are even allowed to have more than one of each type! I don't think I need to go into more detail explaining why this is such a big deal.

Also I'd like to add that making the pet define a knight's playstyle takes focus not just off the player but the player character as well. I don't want my biggest defining feature to be which pet I have! Also this is exactly the type of shift in focus that I'm saying this game doesn't need.

-Recommended Solutions-

Now that I've voiced my concerns, what is it that I think should be done with the Battle Sprites? To be completely honest, I wouldn't mind the idea being scrapped altogether, but at the same time I'm aware that it isn't for no reason that they're in development.

Nick has made it quite clear that fan request is the reason Battle Sprites will be put in the game. I commend him and his team for being receptive to fan feedback, and at the same time I have to add that taking suggestions from fans can be a tricky business. The team needs to be aware of who's asking for a change and why before going ahead with it. Otherwise they risk alienating currently dedicated players (as I've said a couple times already).

As far as I can tell, players who want pets want them because they've seen them in other games and want Spiral Knights to have this feature so it can be more appealing to them personally. A pet can be cute. A pet can be a project. A pet can be a status symbol. A pet can be a companion.

I have not seen players asking for a huge change to the combat, nor for pets to be such an integral part of the game.

With all this in mind, I have a few suggestions for how Battle Sprites can be implemented with minimal changes to their current design and without them having negative effects.

The main thrust of my suggestions revolves around the intention to make pets a thoroughly optional part of the Spiral Knights experience. For instance, to start off, I recommend not even making Rank missions about them. Tie their acquisition entirely to the Lab instead. If players see other players with pets, and they want one of their own, they will ask where to get one (or at least make some sort of effort to find out).

My next recommendation is for them to be weak. If they have a large effect on battles, there will be a large incentive to get one even if a player wouldn't normally.

Lastly, I recommend they be expensive, and I don't just mean expensive to acquire and evolve; I mean expensive to use as well. My initial idea for making them expensive to use is for them to require 5 extra energy from the player at elevators, with this fee not covered by Elevator Passes. That's just off the top of my head; I don't know how exactly that would work, but it's this sort of thing that would balance their cost versus their benefit.

They need to be balanced, you see. Adventuring without sprites needs to be just as viable as adventuring with them, and of course the sprites need to be balanced against one another. This way, they can be truly optional and benign additions to the game.

If the team still wants to make Battle Sprites significantly useful, perhaps a minigame could be added that involves them. Perhaps a new PvP mode. This would be separate from the Clockworks and therefore not take focus away from the arcade gameplay (similar to how the new guild halls are a big and welcome addition that doesn't affect combat in the slightest).

The goal here is for pets to function not as a game changer, but as a carrot. Players want pets? Fantastic. Let them work to get them like everything else that's worthwhile in this game. This will provide further incentive for new players to continue playing and to perhaps plop down some dollars so OOO can make a profit.

If implemented poorly, a huge portion of Spiral Knights' player base (of which I am a part) may jump ship. I personally would be heartbroken to see that day come, as Spiral Knights is, from my perspective, the only good game that has come out of the video game industry in years. I earnestly request that the dev team completely consider the ramifications of their actions before tampering with the formula that has won them so many fans.

To all readers, feel free to ask questions and offer feedback. If any of my points are unclear, I can provide clarification. Also, while I have put a tremendous amount of thought into this, I'm aware that additional perspectives can be highly valuable in creating more solid arguments. I'm very interested in this being a discussion.

To any Spiral Knights fan who agrees with my arguments, please post your support. The more voices OOO hears speak up, the more likely they'll take our concerns seriously.