Does this have any changes from the Testing Server's iteration, or should I be disappointed again?

all these people complaining about steam not working
even though that happens every update from what I've heard

reminds me of the dual wielding threads sort of

So SK Team.. when this game start working?

Stop finding things to whine about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3ALwKeSEYs
This is awesome. Christmas comes three times this year: november 21st, december 3rd and normal Christmas. Although what about the new danger rooms? Anyway this is amazing.

*looks at the update*

*looks back at my USN battle cruiser*

*looks at the update*

*looks back at my USN battle cruiser*

*looks at the update*

*looks back at my USN battle cruiser*

ARGHH!!!!

I'm getting that same first time playing Spiral Knights feeling again. Steam isn't working but I don't mind waiting....lol!

This is what Spiral Knights needs. Please OOO focus on smaller updates in the future.

feedback, yay feedback. let's see.

catalyzer is now 10 times as fun. it's a bit unsettling to deal that much damage at a time with the charge attack, but I'll either get used to it or ask for a number tweak. for all who wonder what's the "aura" mentioned in the patch notes: the charge can simply graze the target and the charges will explode.
science required: is there a cap on how many tags damage the target? I'm curious.

didn't feel the difference on speed on either pulsar or supernova, but someone in my party has. definetly felt the difference in damage, now it doesn't feel OP.

antigua hasn't changed. until you get mad and try the charge attack and discover that it's actually more viable thanks to the reduced reloading time. we can now spam owls with more ease.

blitz needle, oh blitz needle. no nerf, still a bosskiller, but the normal attack is now completely viable.

overall, I find that the changes make all the guns viable. I don't have a magnus line so I can't say for that. great job OOO, you effectively increased variety in the game.

Polaris Line
- Increased bullet speed
- Reduced the damage for all versions

Might want to change that to "Pulsar". ;)

Seems Three Rings has fallen into the trap of calling pulsars polaris now. I don't blame them, as most everyone else does too.

Yeah they aren't Anti-personnel Spikes, in fact I believe the armor look was designed before that accessory, these are the same armors from the testing server long ago. Sacred Firefly Shade Armor and Helm

It would appear that several confounding things have occurred:

1. Nothing seems to have changed since the testing period.

This begs the question- Why not release it sooner? T
There were tons of times it would have been good for them to release it if they were done.

This begs the other question- why was the armor not changed?
They said that they were going to change it, and then didn't? What up with that?

And of course- why wasn't anything (or much) changed based on feedback from the testing server?
There were suggestions made there and there were good suggestions made there.

It feels as though something is amiss here, to say the least-- though we'll likely never know.

2. Around half of the armor in the game are now iterations of gunner armor.

This is something that cannot easily be undone, and I'm not sure that it's something that should have been done, especially when it only applies to gunners.

We now have: shock + shadow/normal, shadow/normal + fire (that doesn't suck against fiends), monster bonus armors for every single family that go for handguns.... basically everything. The only differences between these new armors is that they have different perks per armor piece. In essence, gunners now have a sort of "skill tree" for their armor, which lets them fight anything they want... except it's built on top of the existing armor system and balanced accordingly, which means that a lot of the perks are actually kind of useless while a lot of them are far too amazing. You have things like "damage vs gremlins" stacked onto elemental and freeze defense, as well as the incredible shock+shadow/normal type stuff that prior to this had no coverage at all.

Meanwhile, bombers still don't have any feasible (non-event) means of resisting piercing or shadow, and compared to gunners, sword related armor is entirely lacking in coverage as well. This means that one of a few things must happen- the bombers and swordies will receive some huge update as well, the gunner armor will be changed, or the game will forever remain as it is, with crazy guns and little to no support for other weapon-users. If they do go down the path of everyone getting every bit of coverage... well, that's going to be quite a journey.

The other aspect of this is that it kills the idea of collecting everything, because it's just not practical to craft all of the new armor pieces. It's not that huge of a deal for some, but it's a part of the game that I was always into, ever since I joined. Get all of the things, use them, have a fun time... more gear is more fun.. but this changes that, because they're all the same and the cost to craft em all would be enormous.

3. Every single handgun was buffed massively except polaris

So I've always thought that gunners were the strong class in Spiral Knights. And now they're REALLY the strong class.

Was this necessary? The knight was already strong, since the game didn't get much harder and the knight was given battle sprites and instanced loot meaning pills. Handguns were already mobile, as you could use them at a distance, and the reload period- designed to get you hit to help make up for this extended mobility has been shortened and made considerably less painful. I'm not quite sure why they decided to buff handguns.

Every single handgun happens to include the blitz needle. I would argue that blitz needle is balanced, or was balanced, before the patch. Most people disagree and say that it's OP because of that crazy damage. The reason I would argue that blitz needle is balanced is because of the reloading period and lack of mobility when firing- if you mess up, you get hit. With this patch, I'm not so sure any longer. Everything written about it in the patch notes seems to tell us that it has lost a chunk of its glaring mobility problems.... it has been said before that one of the key aspects of balance is weakness, and without a weakness, the blitz needle has free reign- especially now that there is a shadowy alternative to the blitz needle.

I'm still glad for the update, I just really hope that there is some method to this madness.

A lot of these changes are pretty sweet. Callahan and slug are now AWESOME. The antiguas got an enjoyable boost in power. The piercing guns that were added are going to be appreciated a great deal. Catalyzers are easier to use and now offer a good deal of promise. The lesser autoguns were buffed. The polaris changes aren't terrible, and could possibly be appreciated in lockdown.

Awesome. We got the Gunner update finally, to bad this has no effect on me at all. I really only use bombs, and as Fehzor said, the lack of coverage for Bomber armors is terrible. Gunners now have coverage for pretty much everything, not to mention the one gun I used as a Bomber which was the Polaris because it is amazing for Puppies seems to have been nerfed, by how much I don't know since I currently can't get on, I can deal with like a 10 damage nerf but anything more and I'm probably gonna start going pure bomber.

The Catalyzer buff looks awesome to me as I remember using a Catalyzer previously and it was probably one of the worst guns imo, now it looks like it could be one of the best. This honestly is however the most underwhelming update for the amount of development period it had that I have ever seen in any game that is not being supported by patches anymore, honestly, I'm serious. They released a crapton of re-skins of the same armors pasting different stats on each, and as for the weapons, more re-skins, albeit needed re-skins for some lines (Blasters, Piercing Antigua should have been there from the get-go) there is nothing specifically new though. I was assuming that since this update took over a year to do that they had merged the final parts of the Arcade Redux and maybe even the Mission expansions with it, but nope, so instead of actually new stuff to really sink my teeth in I have another 300 hours of Orb/Crystal farming to make the 5 star variants of these items, of course only after I finish my current 300 hour grind for those same materials.

And if what Thunder said is true... what... seriously?... like every 5 star recipe is going to double in price that is basil only because the drop pool was flooded with a bunch of armors that should have been HoH stuff... seriously?... what... wow...

Someone pinch me please, I think I'm having dreams about the gunner update coming out.

It doesn't seem like the changes they made were substantial (or their attention to the feedback posted), then, since there's still some issues left over from testing, most notably the armor, which was even mentioned to be up for revision, iirc.

My posts run on run-on sentences.

They did make one change though! Try firing your gun and switch to another weapon without shielding. There is quite a big delay between that happening right ? Well guess what. It is not dependant on ASI and it happens for EVERY gun now which is essentially nerfing the use of guns with other types of weapons or just nerfing them in general when used with each other(in instances when you do not have a shield that is, such as being a striker in Lockdown)

they said there would be a new primary antagonist and boss
and arcade redux
in the September "whats in the development" thread

they didn't hint, they stated

yup, but you could have just looked into it instead of having someone need to explain it to you

Stress and finals. I'm dying over here.

@Cronos The other stuff comes in the Arcade Redux Part 2, coming 2016

Well how about that?

Obviously very long overdue so can't help but to feel both somewhat excited that it's finally here as well as disappointed that it took so long. Two years now? I don't mind the wait as much as it may sound but the lack of communication, player testing, and content is a bit discouraging though we have seen some good in several seasonal events.

Bugfixes: always glad to see them (well, most of the time).

New guns: good, simple branching. Odd that it took so long.

New armor (what I presume to be gunner-specific): an odd choice. Haven't seen their stats yet but doesn't seem entirely necessary. Balance becomes a question but we've yet to make our conclusions.

As for the changes: well. Like the new armor this is where a lot of balance-related and other issues come into question. I can understand the hesitancy in pushing things too soon but this could've been solved with more player testing instead of silently contemplating it for over a year.

Pulsar-series change: I'm thinking I don't like it. Seems less like a grenade launcher. I'd normally say, "Eh, what do I care? I never planned on touching them," but increased speed means more rapid lights flashing about. I don't think I'm liking it.
Catalyzer-series change on the other hand, I think I'm loving it. Encourages using it like a catalyzer instead of just another gun but slow, weak, and that has this nifty feature if you're facing Menders or you're just bored out of your skull.

Autogun-series buffs. Why? Wasn't there a problem with them in the near-opposite direction?
Pepperbox-branch buffs though: yes.

Glad to see the Magnus series buffed at all though I still would've liked to try simply increased range and damage. Actually, for all the guns I'd rather just see greater range and greater damage. Boost the strengths instead of patching up the weakness. I want something that's more like a gun, I don't want something that's just... mediocre at everything.

-Windsickle

So yeah, the Spitfire doesn't seem to inflict status with its normal attacks. Hopefully this was an oversight.

Also, the Spiral Soaker's sound effect reverted back to the Blitz Needle one, was this intentional?

Not going to lie, tears were shed this morning. Joyous tears.

The Gunner Update isn't all that great when put into perspective, just a couple new sets of armor and weapon lines, but the reason I've been looking forward to it is to see people actually start joining the game again.