[WARNING: CONTAINS READING]

Hi Ya'll,

I've been on vacation from Spiral Knights for almost a year (reinstated my tenure a couple weeks ago), but I've also had tons and tons of random ideas for gameplay, aesthetics, weapons, and whatever the heck I can come up with. After all, I have to entertain myself with something while loading screen gears turn.I've backed up all my ideas with as much tangible research, correct naming conventions, and uh, other science stuff, but don't quote me on everything. I haven't finished fleshing out everything, but let me know what you like and I'll expand on that ASAP. I'm also working on getting a new drawing tablet (I left my old one in storage at college) and am currently trying to piece together stuff with Photoshop. Anyways, without further ado, let's jump in:

Table of Contents

1. The Harpy
2. Seraphs
3. Cannons
4. OverHeat
5. More Shields
6. Prismatic Weaponry
7. NPC Affiliation
8. More Cities/Terminals
9. TBD

1) The Harpy (Finished!)
So I initially wrote this with the intention of fleshing out a Scythe type weapon. However, upon tons and tons of research, I instead came upon a Greco-Roman war weapon called the Harpe-- essentially a sword with a sickle-like protrusion on one side of the blade, for hooking and parrying. I ended up liking this idea lot more, and sticking to the sword aesthetic of Spiral Knights, decided to keep it. The Harpies come in 3 flavors, Normal, Shadow, and Elemental.

EDIT: Because of the flinch/stagger effect of these lines, they would do less damage than other weapons. I would say that they deal their respective pure damage types around the same level as the Brandish line more or less

★★☆☆☆ Harpy

★★★☆☆ War Harpy

The Harpy is the base line for this weapon. Each hit deals normal damage, with the third hit dealing extra damage and having a MODERATE chance of staggering an enemy and stopping their attack. (Essentially a Brandish/Calibur combo with no knockback on the third hit). It's charge attack is a wide range slash that has a HIGH chance of staggering enemies. The three star iteration has a larger reach than the two star.

★★★★☆ Savage Harpy

★★★★★ Cullaeon

The Normal line of Harpies. The name Cullaeon comes from one of the three harpies, Calaeno, who was supposedly the stronkest of the three, and also the word "cull" which is essentially another word for "slaughtering lots of animals". These sleek blades are defined by their curved, sickle-like protrusions used for hooking into enemies before gutting them (^o^). Like the 2 and 3 star iterations, these blades have the same attack pattern and charge attack. These two blades have protrusions that slightly stagger at the end, resembling feathers. The five-star variant gives [Damage vs Beasts: Very High].

★★★★☆ Fury

★★★★★ Pluton

The shadow damage line for the Harpy introduces the Fury and the Pluton. In Greco-Roman mythology, the Harpies carried bad children(lol?) and evil people to the Three Furies, who would then bring them to Hades, who would proceed to stab them with his three-pronged pitchfork while his three-headed dog watched. As a result, the Fury and Pluton would not have one curved hook on a side of the blade, but three straighter spines at an angle. It has the same three-swing attack combo as the rest (illuminati!), and the charge attack deals shadow damage and has a HIGH chance of staggering enemies, and the five star variant has a MODERATE chance of Cursing enemies and also MODERATE chance of inflicting one random status ailment at a random degree.

★★★★☆ Titan

★★★★★ Kronos

The elemental damage deviants of the branch are the Titan and the Kronos. Per original Greek mythology, Gaia created a huge blade out of stone (the original Harpe) and gave it to her son Kronos to castrate and depose his father, Ouranos. He then became the major villain in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series and is enjoying the fame. Anyways, this blade features chains wrapped around near the base, as well as a longer, more sickle-shaped protrusion. Same attack pattern and charge, but the five star variation gives [Attack Speed Increase: Medium] [Charge Time Reduction: Medium] and grants a brief boost to speed when executing the charge attack. However, this line trades off a chunk of damage for these bonuses (only deals approx 4/5th damage of the other two lines). Cause uh, Kronos is the Lord of Time... and I guess that means he's faster than people? dunno.

2) Seraphs (WIP)
I have yet to flesh out this section, but I got the inspiration from a forum post the other day involving Sleeper Weapons, which I thought was really interesting. I don't remember the post right now and I have no internet, but I'd like to give credit to whoever posted that. CREDIT 4 U!!! Anyways, I slapped on a RPG-esque name (Coincidentally, Seraphs are labeled as the highest of the Christian Angel Hierarchy, but I am going to separate religion from Spiral Knights so we won't talk about that ok) and called it a day. A while later, I thought to myself: what else? Basically the idea was that every Shadow Lair level completed (and maybe the last Rank Mission involving Sanctuary or whatever) would also net a Sanctuary Crystal (Name Pending, like everything else in this section), and would essentially be crafting material for Sanctuary Alchemy Machine Weapons.

"But Exp!" you might say, "What about the 5* materials that already drop at Sanctuary?"
"NOT ENOUGH", I'd say. We're talkin' ANTI-SWARM weapons, dude. Stuff that, if not nullifying swarm stuff, negates it for long periods of time. Or whatever. I'm still putting it together. Anyways, this part is a WIP until then!

3)Cannons (WIP)
I had this idea a while ago (around last Chinese New Year, while rolling around in all the cash money that I got from red envelopes). Have you ever seen Ancient Chinese War Rockets? Basically, those dragon head thingies in Mulan that they use to wreck the Huns with an avalanche. Those are sick. Imagine firing a dragon-head shaped mortar shell at a group of panicked Gremlins. Anyways, I've come up with two ways this could work: either a cross between a handgun and a bomb (requiring a charge to launch a mortar shell or cannonball or whatnot), or having limited firing magazines (1's and 2's) with extremely slow firing or reloading or movement speed decreases or something. Again, another WIP. Let me know what you guys think.

4) OverHeat (WIP)
I actually have had this idea sitting in my head for ever since I started playing. (I grew up with Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, so this makes sense to me). Desperation Attacks are all the rage nowadays. Anyways, I remembered this when I saw this post on the forum:

Sky's Post about Weapon Charging Levels

Anyways, Sky has a really great thing going, but going back to my original idea of Limit Breaks and Desperation Attacks, here goes: At any arsenal, you are able to switch between two items: an Emergency Quick Revive Kit (which is what happens right now when you die), OR a Heat Density Module(name pending). At less than 15% Health, ONCE PER FLOOR, you gain back 25% of your Max HP, become briefly (like 3 seconds lol) invulnerable, recover from all status effects, and deal a devastating attack with the weapon you are currently holding. But why would you trade survivability for meager HP and some cool flashy effect? That's where OverHeat comes in. In this "Limit Mode" (name, again, PENDING), you attract Heat from all sources, increasing Heat drop rate by 25-100%, depending on the version of the Heat Density Module you use. Great for leveling gear!

For (Pending) Example: You're holding trusty Leviathan in an arena, when suddenly, you get boinked by a Lumber. At one bar of health, your Heat Density Module activates, cleansing your stun, making you able to stand on a spike pad without losing health, and unleash your fury onto the hapless tree dude. Oh, and the concept for the Leviathan OverHeat is a rapid spinning slash while moving in a linear direction (basically a continuous charge attack while dashing at the same time, dealing increased damage 9 times and pushing enemies back). Call it the (name pending) Tidal Wave, because hey, in Final Fantasy, the monster summon Leviathan uses an attack called Tidal Wave. So sue me.

[Leviathan OverHeat: Tidal Wave]
Charge at your enemies with the fury of a voracious squall.
Three full 360-degree spins while dashing in a linear direction. Deals damage up to 9 times to stationary or heavy enemies and has a greatly increased range (about 2x radius as charge attack)

5) MOAR SHIELD(WIP)
MOAR SHIELD!
SHIELD THAT HURT ENEMY WHEN BUMP INTO THEM!
SHIELD THAT REFLECT PROJECTILE!
SHIELD THAT U CAN USE BUT ALSO CLICK UR GUN!!!!
WIP (;-;)

6) Prismatic Weapons (WIP)
Have you ever seen Arkus and was like, "damn, I could rock that Pink Leviathan way better than he does?" Well what if there were (gasp) PRISMATIC WEAPONS!!!??? I mean, OOO could make a huge profit by feature auctioning them and they'd be like "Prismatic Leviathan Blade" and so forth? Like literally easy money, OOO. EASY MONEY. Like obviously they wont work with like stuff that's meant to have colors, like that golden wolver sword noone uses and stuff. But like, weapon skins bro. Idk if you guys are noticing my lack of fluid loquacity as this post goes on. I think I'm going insane.

Side Note: I remembered this because when I played for the first time, I kept pronouncing "Prismatech Alchemer", Prismatic Alchemer, and etc. "WTB Prismatech Wolver Tail!" dude, what?

7) NPC AFFILIATION (WIP)
I've thought about this for a while too. Back when Recon Ranger gear first came out, I immediately wanted to give my knight the Recon Ranger aesthetic... except I was too poor back then. Now that I'm not poor anymore (actually I spent my entire fortune on a prismatic rose set and accessories T.T), I still think about the times...

ANYWAYS: I'd like more integration of lore-based equipment. Like, you get to choose factions to join (Recon Rangers, Scarlet Scouts(who will never, in my eyes, be as cool as the Recon Rangers), Knights of the Rose, and so forth), And each faction has a particular mission set that grants tokens in which you can get gear, equipment, and accessories based on the faction. You can only join a new faction once you have completed all the quests in the old faction, and must wait a probationary period before joining a new faction.

(this is to mitigate token farming and crashing the economy of SK. For example, if you have access to all the Recon Ranger Missions but also wanted to farm Scarlet Scout stuff, you wouldn't be able to do it quickly because of the probationary period. Just a balance check)

And with that, we can have an overhaul of equipment, costumes, and so forth, as well as maybe exclusive bosses? And not even that exclusive because you can change factions to try to beat them all or something, I dunno.

8) More Cities/Clockwork Terminals (WIP)
Haven gets boring sometimes. There's plenty of habitable space in the Clockworks-- from Emberlight to Moorcraft Manor, places with less monsters and whatnot. Why not make them cities? Why not make them a permanent hub with fully stocked merchants, Auction Houses, and etc? Idk, just a random undeveloped thought.

9) TBD
Like I says, TBD. Will Edit In future. For now, too tired.

Pls leave feedback. Hope you guys actually read. Fingers sleepy, goodnight

-EXP

EDITS

5/25/15

Changed Harpy Line from Normal to Piercing Damage, added Damage values (sort of) to description

Added Detail to Leviathan OverHeat

Added NPC Affiliation

Added More Cities/Clockwork Terminals