Definitely worth playing Starlight Cradle at least once. Its level design is excellent, and the Sleep rebalance works (you can't regen from it anymore, but you can't get Sleeplocked either because Sleep doesn't refresh on you like other statuses and, when waking up, you get the Alert state for four seconds that blocks it). I particularly liked the use of keys (similar to how they're used in the second floor of Royal Jelly Palace; one is mandatory, another can be found to get treasure) and the one battle room with the toggle switches was pretty neat.

"Just checked back and saw a content update!?"

I was shocked when I found out about this too. Too bad other mmos have a content update about once a month or less. Spiral knights took several years for a content update. Gray havens is gonna have to try harder.

Back to my hiatus where I wait for a year, suddenly remember that SK exists and go see if SK is dead yet. I wonder how long it's gonna stay in this stagnant state before it kicks the bucket?

Depends. This is the first clockwork content update we've had in some time (excluding the slime casino). This could be the start of something cool, but the PvP community has been getting some love in lockdown with a handful of neat additions. We've also seen guildhalls get a number of updates since Grey Havens took over, as well as a large number of bugfixes and behind the scenes changes, so we have been getting a number of updates.

Now I wouldn't say we can expect the game to become some huge platform, however if it does I'll be pleasantly surprised. It's an old game with a bright future. It won't always have something new to it, but if you enjoy the gameplay then hop on back! Never too late to make some new memories.

Just checked back and saw a content update!?

Calling it a content update is pushing it, it would be like calling new reskins 'contents', while theoretically they are, that doesn't mean calling them as such is any less insulting to the intelligence of the players who had to put up with this for years.

The 'update' is simply bringing back levels that already exist, and some new reskinned armors with sleep resist, with the only one worth the investment being the padded bomber suit. At least it is a pierce resist bomber suit. Sleep got a work over, this really begs the question: if it is so easy to fix sleep, why didn't they lift the invincitik of the shards?

Are things finally beginning to move forward again?

Judging from the updates from the recent years, I think GH is going for a more all rounder type of update, which means instead of focusing on one aspect of the game, they do a little bit of everything over time. So maybe the story will move on after, another 2 years?

@Fangel

It's an old game with a bright future.

Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment.

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It is the 3rd Millennium. For more than 7 years Spiral Knights has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of JAVA. It is the foremost of MMO by the will of the OOO cheerleaders, and master hundreds of whales by the might of their inexhaustible wallets. It is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with a MMO monetization strategy done better by other games from the early 00's. It is the Carrion Lord of the MMO scene for whom a thousand of precious human lives are sacrificed every day, so that it may never truly die.

Yet even in its deathless state, Spiral Knights continues its eternal vigilance. Mighty prize boxes cross the mirco transaction infested miasma of the internet, the only route between distant playerbases, their way lit by a paypal, the legal manifestation of the Spiral Knights's will. Vast armies of fanboys give battle in Spiral Knights's name on uncounted websites. Greatest amongst its soldiers are the community managers, bio-engineered to not tell the players anything. Their comrades in arms are legion: the brainless whales and countless useless cosmetics, the ever hopeful newbies, and the fan artists, to name only a few. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever-present threat from better MMO, their own self assurance, Chinese pirates - and worse.

To support Spiral Knights in such times is to spend untold thousands. It is attempting to stop the most crushing causality imaginable. These are the tales of those times. Forget the hope of returning health share revive and clean old UI, for so much has been forgotten, never to return again. Forget the promise of DLC and future updates, for in the Grey Haven HQ there is only silence, timed events and weapon imbalance. There is no fun amongst the clockwork, only an eternity of paying and grinding, and the laughter of former players who left SK to play better games.

Need to be evil? Oh you Fangel, I mean, you are after all the person who wants to be GH's greatest little cheerleader ever and have Chronus be your knight in shining armor. Oh how you must wanted to be so special as to kindle the hope of others, should I tell them about the one time you think it is okay for thousands of people to die so long as you can live in Pandafishie's little thought experiment?

All jokes and condescending comments aside, we both know one day SK is going to run out of steam and kick the bucket, like all MMOs. It is only a matter of when. I am not claiming doom, it is going to happen no matter how much you want to prevent it.

One day the passion will burn out, even for someone like you. SK will then shut down, it is end of the story as we know it. And I will be there, just as you shed your last tear.

ps. return my rocket boots when you are done smashing your head against the ceiling

I've seen enough MMO's with barely a player base left still linger around, long forgotten by developers. I think that's the worst case scenario SK may have to face.

*slow claps* trust me, as a Navyfield player (yes, that game is 12 years old) I know how that feel. And that is the future I fear SK will end up in.

I think calling SK a decaying corpse is fitting, while indeed it is well preserved like a Mummy. But it will DECAY and it will one day fade away, call me pessimistic, but that is how it is.

When you said "Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment.", you were technically correct, I guess?

Technically, I didn't say that. It is a quote from Warhammer 40K, a tabletop games that is suffering similar problems in the past with the company keeping radio silence with its player base. Although in the recent years they are definitely earning back some of the respect. So there is some hope for the company that is known for its ridiculously expensive model price. Really, if GAMESWORKSHOP, a company known for its silence against the player base, can make a come back with some actual PR. SK can definitely do better if the developer is willing to come out of their shell.

Either way, I just can't share the undying optimism that Fangel presents anymore, but I'm not willing to succumb to being a doomsayer either.

I don't see why anyone would, except for Fangel of course. I am simply laying it out what is written on the wall, but regardless, now that you see both sides of the extreme, I will respect your decision, play well.