Budding off another thread about how to use surplus materials.

The concept is to open a new arena in conjunction with King Krogmo's Coliseum to allow Spiral Knights to customize a Mecha Knight and enter it in AI battle contests.

There are 2 potential battle modes. Endurance Challenge & Gladiator Arena. Endurance pits the Mecha Knight against 3 waves (rounds) of progressively tougher enemies (monsters that snuck into the resort, or didn't pay for the buffet). Gladiator arena pits 2 or more Mecha Knights in a battle against each other (possibly including smaller monsters to mix things up). Prizes will include Krogmo Coins, special tokens for upgrades and prizes, as well as regular materials.

The Mecha Knight will be controlled by the game AI, but will allow the player to set behavior and activate abilities through hot keys.

Up, Down (Charge, Retreat), Left/Right (change target), Shield (Defend mode), Item slots (Attack, Charge attack, Controlled Malfunction, Special Technique).
Other ideas, Waypoints, click to target,

Charge attacks: Mecha Knight pauses momentarily and unleashes a powerful weapon attack.
Controlled Malfunction: Sacrifices a small amount of MK's health and immobilizes it shortly to unleash a powerful AOE attack that usually inflicts a status effect.
Special Technique: Gives an offensive or defensive boost

Customization will work through combinations of equipment modules to set defense, status resistance, weapon properties and special abilities (like charge attacks, special techniques and "controlled Malfunctions"). Still working on details on how should modules work... I'm not completely happy with the current concept. May be too complicated, or not flexible enough.

Current concept:

-Basic Modules: modules installed on a MK control defense, resist, damage type and status that can be inflicted/resisted. Modules have 3 basic properties, Damage type, Status type and Monster type. They also have a synergy/conflict system similar to minerals/gates in determining bonus or penalty effects. IE: 2 of the same type results in a high value of that type. Synergy between 2 types results in a special bonus. Conflict results in a special penalty or unusual effect.

-Special Module: Special modules are a 3rd module that can be installed into each gear category along with the 2 basic. Special Modules determine operational aspects of gear, like weapon attack patterns and charge attack, controlled malfunctions, special armor bonuses, special techniques, and are often influenced by properties of the basic modules they are installed along side.

-Armor, Weapons & Shield: The MK has slots for 3 modules for each piece of equipment. 2 Basic, 1 Special. See above. Weapon determines charge attacks, Armor determines Controlled Malfunction, and Shield determines Special Technique.

There are 3 ways to obtain modules. One way is through trading Tokens with Bosco, who has a catalog of parts for your mecha knight. The second way is crafting them using materials. The third is rare drops in the Coliseum. Some modules are exclusive, and can only be obtained through a certain method.

Binding rules on Modules: Undetermined.