No. Because without the Forge, F2P players would be forced to grind FSC to play more than an hour a day. Now you can explore for fun and stuff. I know, blasphemy, right? And the Forge came with Battle Sprites, and Alchemy Orbs, and free first revives, and new pickups...

It makes the game feel incomplete, as we're still waiting on the Gunner update in which Nick 'promised a "land filled with Radiants!" [citation needed]'. But I still have fun.

the game itself isn't less fun. you can still do everything you want. it's just objectivly bad that a thing needed in such high amounts drops so little (and costs so much to get).
then on the subjective plane, it depends if you want to heat weapons: the champions out there will find the game less fun because before it was way simplier to get weapons stronger; people like me that are expanding their arsenal don't find useful to upgrade to 5*; ect.

Surprised the first couple of posts here are No. This is an easy Yes for me.

Considering how shinings weren't that rare in the past, it only took a day or less to fully heat a 4 star weapon. Now you have the awful decision to make--whether to advance to 5 star and deal with less damage output until Level 7 (while sacrificing the CTR Med bonus you got with your max level 4 star weapon) or not progress at all.

I had plenty of fun making a variety of new weapons but with radiant scarcity now I have to limit myself to heating only essential gear, not ones for fun.

Devs get money regardless of whether you buy radiants or not. Supply depot promos have triggered so much CE purchase influx that it wouldn't compare to how much people spend on radiants.

Regardless of what their reasoning for changing radiant drops, the end result is that it's simply frustrating and annoying to the endgame player.

You decide between endless grinding for handfuls of Radiants or spend absurd amounts of CE for crystals when you know they're not worth it. As the player, you lose either way.

Doing D1-29 runs for money to buy crystals is annoying.

OOO's problem seems to be doing things in the opposite fashion as most companies out there.

They should have started out with a lower drop rate for everything, and increased it to the optimal drop rate, rather than have a super high drop rate at the start and cut it steeply. Not too well thought out...oh well.

Well, think of it this way:

Spiral Knights had a facebook-game-style energy model that was probably making a steady amount of income purely by its nature (if you want to play more, someone's gotta pay). And on top of this, people were paying real money for things like elevator passes and promos (guys, nothing wrong with promos).

Now, for some business reason undisclosed (maybe new players were quitting after running out of energy for the first time - or retention for newer players was low), they decided to do away with the entire energy-to-play system, meaning they now need to find a new large motivation for players to pay.

Someone higher up probably thought "well, instead of the energy-to-play paywall, item crafting was a pretty significant reason for people to pay for energy", so in the same update, they introduced Fire Crystals, purchasable by Energy. But was it selling? Were people buying Radiant Fire Crystals?
Oh wait, the drop rate was too high, so let's see if people are willing to pay for them if we really squeeze.
> set RFC droprate lower.

Are people buying them?
Are they motivating users to convert and start paying moneys, and are people using that energy to level up their gear?

I can't answer those two because well, I'm not the one with tracking data. I'm also a F2P user (though I was really REALLY about to pay now that I have a time-forgiving job and wanted to drop my thanks for the good times), but as a never-have-paid player, I'm also more thrifty and realize that RFC price vs requirement vs collection time (with current drop rate) is a huge ripoff in comparison to the 800CE + 25kcr requirement that we used to have, and refuse to pay for RFC [still have about 2.5 more items' worth of RFC left in my inventory].

If low RFC droprate is doing something positive for the game monetarily, they'll keep it. If it's doing something negative, they'll definitely change it and pursue a different avenue for income.

i used to be rich with radients but now im at 14 :(

Oh how I missed using this classic video.

I can now focus on actually getting more stuff, not getting better of the same stuff.

Anyways,

Modified Rank Mission Campaign
The Rank Mission campaign is going to be receiving an update that continues the story of the Artifact and introduces a new primary antagonist for the Spiral Knights. The framework for this story will allow us to further expand Rank Missions post-Vanguard.

Obviosly, these missions will:
a) Have rads rewards.

b) Have rads in them, If they are post vanguard, they will be post vanaduke, hence post d28.

c) A and B are sufficent.

http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/89218

Yep it is less fun for most people to be honest..

But hey, making another similar thread that has been discussed to death is also make forum less fun. Am I right?

I dunno. I've been working on getting all the craftable gear in the game ever since I started playing. I find the lack of Radiants annoying as the non-levelled 5 star stuff just gathers dust at the bottom of my Arsenal chest (Doesn't make sense? I care not!). I wouldn't mind buying Radiants with Energy if they weren't so freaking expensive, especially if you consider the amount we need to fully level a 5 star piece. inb4 "ermagherd you like the game but you don't support it? booo!". I do like the game and I do support it by buying Energy every now and then, when I can. I just don't use said Energy on Fire Crystals.

That said, I find it more annoying to find Elite Orbs of Alchemy to craft the few 4 star items I'm currently missing :P

"Shinings are too rare! Radiants are too common." ~ Everyone when Fire Crystals were released
"Shinings are too common! Radiants are too rare!" ~ Everyone when OOO adjusts the rates for future updates.

Sorrys for being late guys! <3 Responses for EVERY SINGLE POST! Or at least the ones that I can argue with.

@Sandwhich Potato
You have an adorable name and I like it. I would certainly agree that the things you listed make the game quite a bit better, but the developers are excluding a large bit of content by making radiants so rare- all of the end game missions are going to be a lot harder on the players that want to get to them, and I don't see many of them getting through C42 in their 4* armors. I would take this over what the game was before, but I'm done with my gear and newer players aren't. If I was newer, I probably wouldn't want to bother with Spiral Knights once I got to 4*.

@Seiran, Thunder and Samurot
Like you said, retention is king. The players, or at least the unattached ones that are 4*-5*, are being blocked by a paywall. If they see me coming in with my fully made 5* gear, they know that I didn't have to really work for it. I didn't have to farm all those shadow lairs- and I'll always be better than them in terms of gear. Thats the kind of thing that'd make me want to leave.

Like Thunder said, the game itself hasn't changed at all, but does the concept of a paywall hinder those looking to complete the game in a reasonable amount of time? If the community is to be seen as a form of content, and the community is being hampered by this, is the game changed?

Even if it does make them money- is it right for the game? Could a better model be found? As the OP states, it certainly (in my opinion) doesn't make the game any more fun for the players.

@Dibsville
Indeed you have your 5* armors and weapons, but you cannot use them until they are heated properly- especially bombs and defensive items, which require the heat more than others. Further- "Cannot kill things faster!" is invalid when things like grinchlin assault come out. 5* items are needed for things like that- even if you've got some serious skill in game, not having valid 5* gear hurts you and your chances greatly.

@Avenger of Troy
Even if that is the developers plan, a smoother transition would be necessary to maintain the community, which is/should be an integral part of the game itself. The drop rates should change at the next release of content. Even telling the players that this is what was going down would be a nicer "fix"- the link tells us of something that might be a fix, but could be next to nothing. Not doing so will make players leave the game, which is unhealthy.

@Blue Flood
I don't want or need any more 5* weapons or armor. I want a larger player base. To see the game flourish, you know. How do I work towards that? I really don't think making a youtube video or promoting the game would help much, when there is a pay wall preventing players from using 3/4 of the 5* gear in a reasonable fashion. Nor is it really my job to make the game flourish-- as nice as that would be.

@WhimSicality
Or you know, the developers could just make the rates reasonable, where shinning crystals are found after "normal" T3 content, and radiant crystals are found after "dangerous" content, like FSC, danger missions, the gauntlet, you know. Or they could just start them at D25, or they could do it any other way... you know.

And the problem is once again surfaced. OOO only appeals to brief complaints, because that's all they ever do, rather than well elaborated and proposed plans, and/or certain positive ideas. QUANTITY overpowers QUALITY, this isn't what the forums are supposed to be about.

No.

Making a far larger fortune buying Radiants from the Depot and reselling on the AH.

Since the radiant drought is intentional... Could OOO be trying to make the "dream loadouts" endgame content? The game is not much challenging and there is no endgame content, and OOO is not making money. Radiant drought could be the answer to all of those.

1- Endgame content

Well... It has been months since you became Vanguard, you crafted all the 5* items you like to use and- where to go now? Craft more Sudaruskas? Do all Shadow Lairs? Remember, you need to replay the content that you already went through in order to get them Sudas and do the SLs. Without spending a single cent, that is. Doing all of those would take one 100-170 hours. Then you ask yourself again, where to go now?

Solution: Make pre LVL7 5* weapons weaker than LVL10 4* weapons. Make heating near impossible. Watch 4.5* players try to get that ultimate endgame sword LVL10 Acheron in despair. All the SLs and the shiny 5* weapons they want to use effectively will keep them busy for quite a while! Another good thing is that some 5* weapons don't need much levelling to be effective, so players won't ragequit.

Flaw: 5* armor sets without heat can make a 4* weapon almost on par with a LVL10 5* weapon w/o bonuses. The solution could be to buff the 4* sets and nerf the 5* sets slightly. A full set of 4* armor could grant an additional buff (full Sunset=ASI +3) to the player or something more unique (full Miracle=2 hits before death when on sonic mode) , while 5* armors won't have +2 buffs and +4 resistances until LVL5.

2- Challenge

The game will of course be easy if you are spamming Dark Retribution and your friend is slaughtering those zombies who are strong to DR with his/her Acheron.

Solution: Now degrade all the 5* things on screen to 4*. You both are left with Miracle sets, there is no 4* variant of Dark Retribution and your friend has a Silent Nightblade which is not so hot against zombies. Now you only have your friend's Silent and your fists to fight the living dead. Shadow resistance? What shadow resistance? That would make a good zombie apocalypse scenario!

Flaws: That's artificial difficulty. There are pets to compensate. Still, it is not as comfortable as it is with Chaos set+OP 5* weapon+pet combo. Many players have the right to disagree, and many players don't. Seems fair.

3- Moneys

OOO is not selling CE. Devs are starving.

Solution: Nerf crystal droprate to the ground. Players who love the game and eager to get an arsenal of LVL10 5* stuff will of course pay for the crystals...

Flaw: ...but only for a fair price. Not when heating 5 pieces of 5* armor costs the same as a videogame. 6352 CE, that's how much it costs to guarantee LVL10 on a 5* item. You have to pay 100 dollars to heat 7 5* weapons to their fullest, and that's only if you are heating only weapons.

4- Balance

There is not much imbalance between 4* weapons. Not much.

TL; DR: Radiant drought is a good, easy, yet not flawless solution to the game's problems. It won't satisfy veterans and players who get bored of replaying content over and over. Looking forward to the Arcade redux.

Note: Radiant drought depresses me as well, my post only goes for new generations. I already said that it is not a good solution for veterans. My point is, radiant drought is/can be a good long term solution.

Or you could make 450 CE and run around Haven asking random guys to take you on a shadow lair.

I hate the drought, I won't craft ANYTHING until it gets fixed. Radiants on D24+ plz.

It denies me the chance to get 5* gear and stop dying a lot.

> How does that have anything to do with how much fun you're having? :D - do you feel like DYING on first arena? Or during quite frustruating freeze siege wheel sections? And dying is never fun

Farming for overpriced (700ce for 50. And that's barely enough for first 2-3 levels) items in not exactly safe areas on Elite (why do I have play on Elite to ACTUALLY GET STUFF?) in underpowered equipment is not a lot of fun, you know. Especially since game demands you to use non-renewable (Good luck getting those sparks on mass. Considering that I also kind of lost interest in SK, I have left 2 sparks) item and denies you loot (even if you killed damn thing yourself after it dealt killing blow to you) when you are down (Including boss tokens. Goddammit). Try for yourself running around in 6th Strata in Lvl.1 5*, especially with beauties like Levi, DBB, BTB, haze bombs, vortex bombs, Valiance, AP/Senteza/Obsidian whatever-gun. Yeah, it's fun. Not for me.

Also, pointless shout time!

> Yeah, it makes things harder, but it's still fun. - NO, IT'S NOT, IT'S FAKE DIFFUCULTY. Consider it that when you pull a kitchen knife, game pulls AK
> Obviously, dying constantly is never too fun - EXACTLY
> Grinchlin Assault was a good challenge - NO, IT'S NOT
> and it was fun to play - NO, IT'S NOT
> (even through the constant deaths) - EXACTLY. ESPECIALLY WITHOUT HEALTH REVIVES.

I'd be satisfied if they just upped the amount of rads we got from the supply depot per purchase :c

50 isn't even enough level a 5* weapon up at certain levels... 800ce is quite a bit to pay for such a scarce amount ;~;

The Grinchlin Assault challenge is ironic because it's mostly difficult without fully heated 5* gear.

Even if the event lasted 2 months, newly 5* players would have to spend a month alone grinding to get the money/crystals needed to heat up their 5* gear before they could take on Grinchlin Assault.

If you knew about the 5* problem in advance and stay with max heat 4*, sure that works--except you most likely have no idea how hard it is to get Radiants until you actually start looking for them. Then your problem is you regret having upgraded to 5* too soon, because now it is actually weaker than what you used to have. Yay.

Even with 50 mist energy in the past, you can level up up to 7 weapons and armor simultaneously from lvl 1-5 through a single vana run... now it's 15x more expensive for less than 5% of efficiency when leveling up your gear.