Spiral Knights - Concerns About Recently Approved Maps

Concerns About Recently Approved Maps

9 replies [Last post]

Sat, 01/10/2026 - 12:36

Nurr-Rus

(We have zero intention to harass players, promote toxic criticism and exercise offensive behavior towards any mapmakers. Any map is part of Spiral Knights community history and has the right to exist and be published. The only thing we aim to subject to criticism is the decisions made by Grey Havens, and we do so only for the sake of healthy debate and improvement of the Spiral Knights)

As a founder and representative of Coliseum Crucible Workshop (CCW), I am writing this post to raise the concerns voiced within the community about the recently added Lockdown maps and hopefully initiate a polite discussion on ways to address the situation.

If I understand correctly, on January 6th at least two Crucible maps were approved and added to Lockdown rotation — Rustbelt and Starfield 5CP v2.

Rustbelt, although reportedly highly unbalanced, is a map with high-quality artistic design and many novel decisions unseen in any other creation. It adheres to rules of SK level design, and with proper revision and testing it could indeed be considered a level meeting the original Spiral Knights standards.

On the other hand, the map "Starfield 5CP v2" is a baffling sight to see in official Lockdown rotation. I must reiterate that there is no problem with the map being playable within the confines of Test Mode, but having it be officially added without any explanation is extremely concerning on multiple levels:

- Compared to Rustbelt, the standards and quality of Starfield are disparaging and don't paint a clear picture of what is acceptable. The Coliseum Crucible Terms and Conditions specifically state the following:

"Review for your level will take time, so please be patient. If your level is accepted, it might one day make it into the game. Acceptance is not a guarantee that you'll see it in game, only that it meets the current guidelines and standards."

Every single official level within the game, including Lockdown maps, follow strict design rules set by Nick Popovich & Ian McConville: proper skyboxes, presence of edge tiles, smooth ground transitions, pleasant lighting, overall coherent theming. Starfield follows none of these and it is apparent at first sight. The base-to-arena bridge transition is botched; there are no trim tiles around the walls and edges; the "Day" skybox does not fit the dark-lit theme; there are no edge-cliff tiles — the map ends with low walls; the map is completely flat with practically no interactable/dynamic elements whatsoever.

- No explanation was provided to the community as to why these maps were selected. Their addition was not mentioned in the patch notes. The most recent patch notes themselves are broken as well: the 01/06/2026 post within the Announcements links to the November patch notes, while the actual patch notes were... published in an edited 12/11/2025 update post?

- The only reason the community learned about the addition of these maps was because the map creators shared the contents of the letters sent to them. These letters consisted only of a single sentence and no further elaboration. The map creators were not in any way rewarded for their effort. While this part is not mentioned by the Terms and Conditions, it is a concerning development alongside the inadequate patch notes — not even a token reward like Purple Spiral or some kind of a new medal was provided.

We request clarification from Grey Havens on the decision to add these maps to the official rotation and the circumstances around it. With the current atmosphere of silence and incoherence, this development currently causes only concern about the preservation of the original developers' vision of the game, as well as the original standards.

Sun, 01/11/2026 - 13:33

Nurr-Rus

Screenshots of Starfield

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1437846181433704529/14600085326...

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1436652958619144294/14596088500...

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1436652958619144294/14596089030...

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1436652958619144294/14596090408...

Sat, 01/10/2026 - 13:22

Spark-Of-Kill

Absolutely nothing against the creator, but the overall quality of Starfield 5CP v2 is not to par with Official Lockdown maps. Even compared to some of the more polished Crucible maps, Starfield just looks unfinished

Sun, 01/11/2026 - 13:00

Carbon-Jm

Adding Starfield 5CP v2 to the official rotation is a baffling decision. It doesn't even have an official-sounding name.

Sun, 01/11/2026 - 13:30

Fangel

Starfield certainly feels empty

Starfield certainly feels unfinished. It also feels like an early concept for a map - something someone who's toying with the editor but really does want to try to make work in the game, however it should remain as a prototype instead of be official.

Along with the cosmetic issues Nurr pointed out, the map's actual gameplay design is extremely lacking. No breakable blocks anywhere means there's no way for the map to change as the round goes on. Despite being a 5 control point map, you can get view 5 control points on your screen at the same time by using the built-in lockdown zoom out camera - those points are far too close to each other. You can also striker boost from one spawn to the other spawn in a single boost. The only part of the map that you can interact with are low walls that don't provide any strategic advantage besides spawn camping - which is one of the few things people will stop participating in a LD match over. There are health cleansing pads outside of the spawn areas and just 9 tiles under each spawn, meaning you can spawn camp with little to no risk and the typical method of polaris spamming from the spawn room to clear people gets cancelled out.

The map is too small for the assets it includes, doesn't fit the cosmetic criteria for a map, and doesn't promote good gameplay for Lockdown.

This map does look like it would be fun to play with a handful of friends - for example, get a bunch of players together and play a fast, striker-only battle where you don't have to do anything but fight, with the control points being secondary. But for an official map that appeals to all 3 classes? This one isn't it.

Rustbelt looks fine - the narrow pathways can play out awkwardly, but the map certainly feels like an old industrial plant, the map can evolve over time as the blocks are broken, each point has its own designated "fight zone" with the bottom two points having slight overlap if you use guns, but that means you can't actually block the capture of point 2 while defending point 1. Spawn camping is impossible with the long spawn room, etc.

Starfield needs more work, and should absolutely be pulled down from the official map rotation. Looking at Wuundz's maps that are published, Starfield 5CP v2 is literally just an earlier 1v1 map repurposed as a 5-point map.

While these are some harsh criticisms, I believe they are important. Wuund'z map is an excellent 1v1 map for players who just want to duke it out, but it falls flat as a lockdown map. It could work as a Super Brawl map due to how that gamemode works, but for lockdown it misses the mark.

If you do see this message Wuundz, definitely keep at it! Most players won't ever touch the editor, much less submit a level. If you spend more time in the editor, I'm sure you can make a level that you're proud of and that the community will love.

Sun, 01/11/2026 - 13:56

Azuresh

+1, but just to make this clear:

just to make this clear:

we that care a lot about the crucible, and any associated community centrals, do not wish to create an elitist environment, very much the opposite. We dont want to dictate what is or isnt allowed, be overly critical of anybody, or anything of the sort. we fully believe people should make whatever they want and not be insulted for it. Nobody creating maps here should be put over others.

I (we) just genuinely believe that the Starfield map is just way, way too lacking compared to all sorts of official LD and SB maps, it doesnt belong in the official pool, nobody is actually pleased when they see that map is showing up next when they queue for LD.

we arent saying the bar is supposed to be very high: We would be perfectly fine if an approved map had some visual flaws, breaks some pre-established rules here and there, etc, if its a genuinely nice, effortful/creative map with interesting gameplay and/or visuals. But Starfield is really mostly a completely bland flat space with nothing interesting going on, and just has way too many eyesores. Its a net negative for everyone playing LD

Wed, 01/14/2026 - 13:26

Nurr-Rus

No response

New update comes and there's still no official or even semi-official statement. Why?

Thu, 01/15/2026 - 10:04

Gyre-Of-Guile

Developer

semi-official response

I approved both of these levels. I made the decision that approval should be about: does the level work? Not about whether it's decorated in a particular way.

Perhaps I was too generous. At the time, these levels had been sitting waiting for review for a while. I decided to act. We can change our minds...

Things I probably shouldn't say:

- There's a secret admin "star rating" for levels we approve. I gave rustbelt 5 stars and starfield 2 stars originally, but lowered it to 1 star. That rating weight how often the level is picked. Starfield should be a lot rarer. It would be rarer still if there were more approved levels.

- The real long-term answer might be player ratings, and then the average is used to rank levels for picking. However due to the small size of our team, doing that now would mean not doing other things. But player ratings is on the list for things to add to the Coliseum Crucible, along with some UI improvements and new options... everything takes time. For now we have the secret admin star rating.

I hope this answers your questions.

Thu, 01/15/2026 - 10:44

Fangel

Might I suggest

Short term, might I suggest that only maps considered 3-star or higher on the secret admin scale be accepted? Once the long term solution is implemented then 1 or 2 star levels would be accepted by the wishes of the greater community. Until then, having a baseline higher standard will ensure the maps that are added are better received by everyone, including those who may not even know the editor exists.

Fri, 01/16/2026 - 04:46

Mtax-Forum

@Gyre-Of-Guile

When I think of problems in Lockdown, what I think is: The lack of a playerbase, the class/gear/economy balance and the cheating. In that order. Nothing related to maps ever comes up, which means two things. The first is a good thing, because not thinking about maps means the existing ones just do their job and function well. The other one is that maps have no bearing on the gameplay of Lockdown. The same strategy, gear and players will dominate on every single map, which defeats the point of having a new level in a video game. It makes them a visual novelty at best and it is why people will be upset about the looks. It is also unlike Super Brawl, where how a map is designed changes a great lot about what the player can and cannot do, actually promoting creativity and having a game plan for every single of the maps. This is simply not the case for Lockdown, the balance of which makes its gameplay simplistic enough to condense into two players poking each other with a toothpick and maybe shooting a bullet from time to time. The maps you will see being popular in Crucible are the ones that reduce the fluff existing in between the player respawning and toothpicking another player. Players who use Crucible often, but do not design maps themselves, use it for utility, not to "vote" for maps, because frankly there even is not a way to ask for or provide feedback using this system.

I do not understand the haste, either. The tool just came out, is being expanded and people are in process of learning how to use it first and foremost and then about actual part of game design. Since the map pool was not the issue to begin with, you have all the time in the world to wait for more creations to come and bring the absolute top of the crop into the official pool. This is absolutely how you would behave during times when Nick Popovich was around and it is just odd you do not now.

Lastly, beginning to resurrect this game with updates to PvP is also weird and counterproductive at best. It only makes sense as an introduction of the toolset in a low-risk environment before expanding it to have it work in the Clockworks, which would mean the PvP is not even the priority here. Because it cannot be when it simply is difficult to experience it with no players to even have a match with. There may be some in the USA region, but seeing anyone queue in the EU daylight is a rarity. And no wonder, because the entry cost to do well in PvP is the highest among all functional things in the entire game, but the payout is almost non-existent for the winner, and a NET LOSS for everyone who lost due to the entry fee. The payout for beating 6 other players in the Beta was over 16k crowns. I do not expect it to be this high in a released game, but right now the winners do not even gain the total of what other players paid as an entry fee.

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Concerns About Recently Approved Maps