First of all, I'd like to emphasize that I'm new to the forums (though not the game), and I'm sure this is a really noob-ish idea to begin with. Please don't be too harsh with your responses. I'm a little reluctant to even post this, but I've already written too much not to, so there's no turning back now... If you don't like the idea, feel free to ignore it, as that would help bump this farther and farther from the front page. I'll post my current, basic ideas, and if anyone takes any interest in them, I can expand upon them a little more.

Ever since I first started playing Spiral Knights, I've wanted to be able to play as a Gremlin. This has been suggested several times, usually with very little though or effort put in. Lots of people have (rather bluntly) pointed out all the many reasons why it's a stupid idea and will never work, but I feel like that's more a result of a lack of thought put into the idea than anything else. I'm here to try and remedy that, but I feel that I may have overdone it, and made it every bit as stupid for the exact opposite reasons. :/ Or, maybe I'm just making the same mistake as the others, which would be even worse. :(

I don't particularly expect this (or anything similar) to be implemented soon, if ever. Again, I feel like I may have put too much into this to be practical. Of course, I feel that ideas like this would get a lot farther if other users helped improve upon the ideas rather than just shooting them down. -_- So, any suggestions, ideas, or help would be great, as I'm already running out of ideas very quickly.

There are two ways this could be done. One is simply aesthetic. This is the version that's been suggested previously, and would simply be making Gremlins playable without changing the gameplay much at all. Although this would take the least effort, it would also be kind of a waste, as it wouldn’t really benefit OOO much, if at all. This has been mentioned time and time again, every single time the possibility of playable Gremlins has been brought up, and it's been shot down left and right. The next possibility would be Gremlins almost being their own class, having certain special abilities, along with adding some extra stuff for all players, Gremlin or Knight.

This could take either the form of features implemented directly into the game, free for all users, or paid DLC, such as Operation Crimson Hammer. Based on the amount of content, paid DLC may be a preferable option. This may raise some of the same complaints OCH raised when it was revealed to be paid DLC.

So, here are my ideas. They may not be all that great, but they are what they are.

First of all, some Background:
Playable Gremlins would be from Emberlight. The Knights have formed an alliance with the Gremlin refugees, promising freedom from the tyranny of King Tinkinzar, either by escaping the planet or forcefully removing him from the throne. Gremlins must venture out of Emberlight and into Haven. In order to prevent arousing the suspicions of the Colony Gremlins, the Emberlight Gremlins must take a makeshift route through a disused part of the clockworks that has been saved from deconstruction by the Knights. From Haven, Gremlin missions are basically the same as Knight missions, but the Gremlins would have different abilities than the Knights.

Gremlin Abilities:
It may be too general to call them abilities, as some are minor weaknesses added to balance out the abilities added for Gremlins.
• Faster base movement speed.
• Ability to temporarily disable certain constructs at close range.
• Ability to make disabled enemy Mecha Knights friendly at a cost of 5 energy.
• A new type of item: Dash Packs. Allows a short, rocket propelled, forward dash. Only available to Gremlins. Have the disadvantage of occupying the shield slot, leaving the user defenseless. Stuns any enemies the player collides with, and provides the possibility of a dash attack if a carefully timed attack is properly executed at the end of the dash. Charges like a shield.
• Can be knocked back and bowled over by strong attacks, requiring them to stand back up. This takes a moment, and leaves them briefly helpless.
• Wear shields on their backs. When shielding, they crawl in order to move, reducing their movement speed to slightly less than a shielding Knight.
• Are vulnerable to the "Sleep" status affect, which enemies have not been able to inflict for some time. Knights would be unaffected by this status affect.

Unlike the Knights, which are mostly featureless and are distinguished mostly by their armor, Gremlins are a somewhat diverse race of furred mammals that come in all colors, shapes, and sizes. Gremlins can be found with several different combinations of eye and fur colors, with various types of markings as well. This is where player customization comes in. It would include all the basic features the Knights have. You would choose from various pieces of armor, a few optional accessories, height, personal color, and name (almost all features that didn't exist when I created my first and only Knight). However, there would be a couple more features that would be unique to Gremlins. They are fur color, and fur markings. These additional customization options, though seemingly insignificant, present a whole world of customization options (which I had a lot of fun with while creating the concept images for this thread). These added options could potentially be used to attract new players, as they allow for more unique and expressive characters (see the examples for markings below, which I had lots of fun with).

Fur color is self explanatory. I feel like the choices for fur color here are a bit random/arbitrary. There was no real process for choosing them, I just sort of created a list of all the colors that I though may look good. :| For the markings, two types of markings can be chosen, each with its own color chosen from fur colors. Gremlins would be able to go without headgear, though this would not be even remotely practical in a combat situation.

Personal colors, fur colors, eye shapes, markings, and starting gear are listed below, along with concept images of fur colors and eye shapes. Sadly, I forgot to make textures for some of the eye shapes, and some didn't turn out properly as a result of the way in which Gremlin eye textures work, in spite of the fact that I tried to modify them to work. The ones that didn't really work will be marked with an "*". This could be fixed if this were ever implemented, but it may take quite a bit of time and effort. Another unfortunate issue is that I'm not too familiar with item stats to any reasonable extent. That could explain why I die so much. :/ For standard issue gear, let's just assume the stats are the same as the starting gear for Knights.

Fur Color:
• Ruby
• Gold
• Silver
• Ebony
• Ivory
• Charcoal
• Walnut
• Umber
• Sand
• Ginger
• Sapphire
• Forest
• Lavender
• Amber
• Mint
• Ice
• Pearl

Personal (Eye/Armor) Color:
These are just the current basic personal colors. No real reason to list them, but this may be handy for someone who wants to know what they are, but has a strange, irrational fear of the Spiral Knights Wiki.
• Magenta
• Lavender
• Crimson
• Lake
• Red
• Vermillion
• Orange
• Amber
• Yellow
• Chartreuse
• Lime
• Emerald
• Green
• Aquamarine
• Turquoise
• Viridian
• Cyan
• Sky
• Cobalt
• Ultramarine
• Blue
• Indigo
• Violet
• Purple

Markings:
• Nose Stripe
• Ear Tips
• Streaked Hair (No image. See Razwog for an example.)
• Cheek Stripes

Eye Shape
• Normal
• Almond*
• Cheeky
• Closed
• Determined*
• Dot
• Exed
• Happy
• Jolly*
• Pill
• Plus
• Minus
• Angry*
• Sad*
• Sultry*
• Shifty*
• Sleepy
• Spiral
• Squinty*
• Vacant
• Starry
• Delicate*
• Stranger (-+)
• Heart
• Snarbolax/Triclops

Starting Armor:
• Emberlight Cloak (Gracken's Cloak)
• Emberlight Cuirass (Blue-gray/Personal Color Thwacker armor)
• Emberlight Scrap Armor (Armor made of bits of junk)
• Emberlight Wraps (Nonna's Clothes)
• Emberlight Rags (Clothes made of worn rags)

Starting Helmets:
• Emberlight Hood (Gracken's Hood)
• Emberlight Kettle (Blue-gray Gremlin Demo/Mortafire helmet)
• Emberlight Scrap Helm (Helmet made of bits of junk)
• Emberlight Muffler (Nonna's mask)
• Emberlight Cap (Blue-gray cloth military cap)
• None

Accessories:
• Gremlin Tail (A kangaroo-like tail, similar to the ones often seen on gremlins in fanart, which matches the player's fur color)
• Nose Ring (Similar to the one worn by Razwog)
• Earrings (Similar to the ones worn by Warmaster Seerus)

If you're not facepalming yet, I'm quite surprised. I'm starting to run out of ideas, so don't expect things to get much better. :/

Then there's the matter of other new items. Most of these would probably be weapons and armor used by enemies, such as Gremlins, Grinchlins, Devilite Overtimers, and things like that. A lot of items would be either Gremlin or Knight exclusive, with a small overlap in the middle. This could create an incentive to have both a Knight and a Gremlin filling two of the three character slots, as the combination of different items and different abilities could make a lot of difference depending on the situation.

On a mostly unrelated note, I was also considering the possibility of some sort of gun that heals other players. To prevent it from being overpowered, it would restore a low amount of health with each bullet, have a long cooldown time, do no damage to enemies, and only fire charged shots. Probably an idea for another thread, but I felt I'd mention it while on the subject of items.

The only other thing I'll go into any particular detail about, at least in terms of items, is the Dash Pack idea. They would be Gremlin exclusive, as stated above, and would basically be the Striker Dash from Lockdown, but with less control over the player's direction. Different Dash Packs would propel the player in different ways, at different speeds, and for different lengths of time. Some may leave a trail behind that inflicts a status affect on enemies, or inflict a status affect on enemies in the way of the dashing player. Some might send the player in different directions or movement patterns. One may send the player backwards, another could cause them to bounce off walls, and yet another might send them around in a spiral for a short time. Lots of possibilities there.

I could post a list of possible items, but that could take a while. If anyone actually takes an interest in this idea, I may add the list. If not, this thread will end up under hundreds of pages of better ideas, so it doesn't matter.

I'm starting to run out of ideas, but there's one more I'd like to mention. A new boss, King Tinkinzar. I don't have much more than that, to be honest, but I feel like it has the potential to be one of the most epic battles in the game for a well-equipped player. If this were to be a paid DLC, the boss and the levels leading up to it could be expansion missions that come with all the other Gremlin related nonsense in this thread.

Please help me with this. It's something I've wanted for a long time, and I feel like it could happen if we just polish up the idea a bit.