Before any type of solution may be proposed, it is inherent that the problem is both present and identified. Spiral Knights is facing a crisis. Looking through numerous threads on the Spiral Knights community forum shows signs of the problem, from discussions about guns and swords to the uses of bombs for kiting through entire maps. There is an immediate problem that has been ignored and danced around, one that neither the developers nor the community mention, in fear of discrimination. Only winking nods of the problem show themselves.
Numerous threads on the forum and comments made by those who play the game reveal that the many of the weapons in the bomb category do not match up to swords in terms of strength or skill level, even going so far as to assume that those who carry any other sort of weapon have only recently started playing Spiral Knights or lack a level of competence for the combat aspects of it. There are many who discriminate against the users of bombs specifically due to the bomb's ability to kite. This has led to the unfounded opinion that users of bombs are not as skilled as others in combat. Those who judge gunners with certain bias note the gun's inability to damage as quickly as other swords of the same tier, while comparing them to bombs for kiting purposes. Now that the origin of the problem has been brought into the open, we must determine whether or not it can be rectified.
For the longest time, I was in dismay. If bombs became a short range weapon, many bomb users would complain about becoming nerfed. In order to rebalance it, swords would also have to be weaker and guns would follow. This would lead to no one's happiness and many players would simply stop playing. Likewise with guns, if they were to receive damage that rivals a sword, swords would eventually become stronger in a rebalance, leading to the same cycle as before. I was led to believe that there was no solution. Now, months later, I have come up with a viable solution for the problem that should satisfy most in the community.
By removing all guns, bombs and high tiered items in Spiral Knights, we can ensure that the game will become equally balanced in the respect that people would no longer be much stronger than each other, unless in terms of pure skill. The forum community has long agreed that guns are the most useless weapons due to low damage. No longer will sword users be plagued by a gun user arriving in their party!
The community continuously agrees that guns are a weapon that are below standard, some even going so far as to remove gun users from their parties when they see them. It is obvious that guns are, by far, the most useless weapon type to have ever been added into a game. Any person who uses guns is considered to be very new or does not know how to fight, and thus relies on the guns to fight for them. By removing guns, we are ensuring a stronger community of fighters who are adept at using their own skill.
Bombs are, by some, considered extremely powerful, even to the point of being too powerful. As such, they are often relied upon, instead of letting one's own skill increase. Many people on the forums say that those people should either learn to play or quit. Discrimination against them, along with balance issues, are apparent at every turn. "How does one perfectly balance a weapon that works completely different than the other two?" The answer is that it is probably impossible to achieve perfect balance between these weapons. The only option is to remove them.
As for high-tiered items, many people have noted that at higher tiers, weapons specialize to a point where some are completely different, take the (Divine Avenger's Charge Attack compared to the Gran Faust's, two different weapons all originating from the same path). As was said earlier, balancing weapons with different types of attacks becomes difficult and, in the end, not worth it. Many weapons, such as the Spur line, have been said to be useless because it does not reach the maximum tier. If weapon tiers were to stop at three stars, the weapon would be similar to each other, thus easier to balance.
I believe I speak for the community as a whole when I say that the removal of these weapons will only help to solidify Spiral Knights' gameplay. Gun and Bomb users will switch to the more respected Sword and the users of Spiral Knights will no longer need to kick a person for being a user of a mediocre weapon again.
Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts on the problems of Spiral Knights. We can all hope to make the community a better place!
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