AHing, merchanting, random Havening, Vanaing (with a full party), RJing (with a full party), etc...

Often people will want to run a party with only friends or guildmates, just solo (like me), or have a full party.

(Also, I keep seeing new players. Often I see newbies doing the mission that introduces the to the Advanced Training Hall, and I saw lots of knights in the Rescue Camp when I started playing, deleted my knight and restarted, and when I started playing on my forum knight.)

So what happened? Is this game dead now?

The game isn't dead, nor is it alive (unlike what our most optimistic Bopp would suggest). Right now SK only has about 500 players online on average, at least according to Meroka. It will be alive, for now, you either leave now, or play long enough to see every shred of your efforts get wasted away.

Am I selecting the wrong options so as to accidentally disable partying with others?

At the start of the mission in the waiting room, click your portrait on the top left (useless IMO) and a menu should pop out where you can customize your party joining filters.

Has scattering players among the arcade, various missions, and three difficulty levels diluted the player base to the degree that there are too many boxes and not enough balls fill them?

The lack of content is what really is killing this game ATM, I haven't played any of the new missions yet because most of them are cheap spark sink that only to serve to piss me off more knowing that this game could have been so much more if the player progression isn't completely broken.

@Bopp

I see new players all the time in Haven. My guild continues to fluctuate in membership, just as it did years ago.

I hope you told all of those new players how to farm orbs.

most players don't play arcade, and don't bother with 4* equipment because elite orbs. that's the formula that makes you not get many parties in T3. those that do run T3, probably speedrun levels to get to basil.
new players are coming in, but the progression curve of T3 is so dam steep.

It's simply because getting full 5* is much easier now. When players get 5* they are essentially done with SK...

I blame the Orbs. Much easier to get than paying the Energy fee prior to the Orb update.

What you say is largely true, but there's some missing nuance.

When players reach 5*, they pretty much *are* done with SK. All that's left is socializing with friends, trying out different loadouts, and PvP. That's true of other MMO games as well. Of course many players would go elsewhere.

In my experience, players often quit prematurely. For example, they beat Vanaduke (or now Dreams and Nightmares) and decide that they have mastered the game. But they balk at joining me for a shock fiend level, because it's too hard. And they've never tried Heart of Ice or a Shadow Lair or a Stratum 6 danger room.

But requiring an elevator fee limited free-to-play players to only a few runs per day. I, for one, would simply have discarded the game after a only few days and gone elsewhere. I would never have stayed to reach 5* rank.

Remember that you could always buy energy to play longer. For example, when energy was at a typical price of 7,500 there were 21 missions that paid more than they cost, letting you play forever. Of course, buying energy cut into your profits, which slowed your progress. And those missions are mostly Sovereign Slime and higher. But I used to play several hours per day without spending any money.

With the removal of elevator fees, you see a lot of veterans running profitable missions, newer players running profitable missions... Basically just profitable stuff. That's pretty much boss levels (typically open parties), Sewer Stash (typically solo parties, elite orb farming), Dreams and Nightmares (I typically run this solo but not sure on that).

Arcade is a bit empty, but you'll find players running it on occasion. I remember joining a tier 2 arcade run a while back so I could try to help out a few lower leveled players and it was fun, but I have to not think "I could be running Dreams and Nightmares and getting radiants right now".

For the most part, the new vanguard missions won't have many people playing them because they are fairly difficult. Only on veterans are running through is the final 10-2 playable mission, "Dreams and Nightmares".

And now for a quick snippit at Smalltownguy - mastery of a game isn't being able to run through a specific level alone, it's to be able to overcome any situation the game throws at you despite the circumstances. I've seen plenty of people in other games not know basic fundamentals of the game despite being able to run one area almost flawlessly (good example of this is Payday 2 players that can run into a fairly difficult heist [Hoxton Breakout] no problem, but don't understand the doctor bag-restoring-downs system the game has). I remember having a rigadoon and a piercing shard bomb and someone opened a danger room in tier 1. It was the gun puppy room. I don't think I've ever had something that should be so simple become so difficult so fast - was a lot of fun, not gonna lie, but not something I would volunteer to do again.