Everyone else is going to break this down into bits and pieces, so I won't bother.

But I will say I've been around for awhile and this is the first news of an update that seems to be disappointing me before its even released. However this plays out, I'll try to just stick to my usual philosophy that this stuff doesn't change my normal gameplay and I'll just make do with the path I've chosen. I am disappointed that it appears Mercurial Demo will probably be out of reach, but I never knew that armor was going to exist anyway so oh well...

EDIT:
Although I am now a bit more suspicious at the restricted level fix from a week or so ago. It doesn't just seem like that was to stop looping now, with this in place, it would prevent a single person from getting a key then inviting a bunch of friends for free so they could legitimately make their way down. Because now if the levels really are hard, its going to be hard to convince people to split their parties.

+1 to Taintedmeat's suggestion

Make it per person & time limit it to allow retries.

Let's see diablo 3 will cost US$60, one key costs US$2.50.

I can either open 24 lockboxes and if I'm lucky have 4 shadow keys to go try the new revamped content 4 times.

Or I can play diablo 3 forever and even resell my loots for real money and earn some $.

That is definitively a tough choice...

I like Khamsin Idea ^_^ too bad the entire party would have to buy the DLC though...

Rarity of the equipment is meaningless. I just wanted a challenging level to have fun again with this game, since I'm already bored of the current content.
But it seems I can't have such a thing.

PS: Time for comics
PS2: GOD DAMMIT BOSWICK

"A significantly greater number of players are currently sporting accessories than have ever actually opened a lockbox. There is no reason that Shadow Keys will be any different."

"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA06Z5e1ZFc"

But after testing this content its nearly impossible to actually complete

It's good to have attunement quests like WoW (even if everyone has to do it individually), and if the actual "raid" is hard it's ok.
But if I read correctly, computer lag is still a problem in Ultimate versions of ICMF and FSC.

I won't mind a challenge in my no UV gear, but if majority of the challenge comes from the computer locking up then that's not a good way to present challenging content.

I just realised something; no matter how bad the feedback is, even if they loose 90% of their player base, their sticking with this. it will always be there, because they know that even if we all quit because of the content, 90% of the people who leave will come back. you'll be trying to get accessories, get the keys, and give it a shot. and we can even IGNORE it, because the majority of the game is still free. sure there will be "adjustments" but i garantie that within a month all of you who are complaining will be telling the newbies who complain to shut up about it because there's no reason to get rid of it.

in short, OOO is going to go through with it because 90% of the threats are EMPTY THREATS. thy'll go through with it, because we're all a bunch of complacent b&$@#^%&s with all bark and no bite.

now the only question is, how many pages will this reach by morning. *maniacal laughter fading as i go to bed*

If what I'm hearing about the way you gain access to this place is true, than I'm with this boycott I'm hearing about. Normally I'd support OOO because I really enjoy the game but that's ridiculous. Even as an end-game knight it still takes ages just to create and upgrade weapons, let alone open a million lockboxes hoping to get 1 Shadow Key and shoveling money down the toilet. Only those SUPER rich players would have a shot at getting that gear while the rest of us sit in frustration. No thanks folks, not buying CE again till things are fixed.

Also in response to the post before mine I agree, I have a number of other RPGs, even less fancy flash based ones I'm perfectly happy to return to over Spiral Knights and pay for, I don't NEED to play this game that badly.

Will we have to get pumkin keys for that too? -_-

Advice from Bank of America! http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/05/news/economy/bank_of_america_moynihan/in...

@Gunn
They already said keys were used every time you went into a gate

I.E. they aren't

I am pretty sure the "greed" problem it's not all fault of OOO, remember that SEGA it's the publisher and they takes a lots of desitions, OOO mostly develops the game.

Back to the main topic, yes, all the community complaining, yet once again.

People, about the business model of SEGA and OOO we have give our feedback before about another updates, and mostly we have been ignored about how much the content of this game costs but things won't change, they have never changed before and they won't be. Still we have the choice to just stop paying if we disagree how the stuff goes, YES, you paid and supported a lot before, you could have spend $500 but still you paid for what was released before, you have the freedom to choose what are you fine with.

Once you create an account you agree with their terms of service, legaly we have no right to ask for something but you can choose what to do.

And dont' worries, lots of wealthy players will pay for it or other not that wealthy will still pay for it for the hype of the new update, remember, "it's shiny and it's new, I DO WANT"

I think there is a OOO internal marketing contest on how to make a free game turn into the most expensive game ever...

Sadistic personality disorder is:

A) A pervasive pattern of cruel, demeaning, and aggressive behavior, beginning by early adulthood, as indicated by the repeated occurrence of at least four of the following:

Has used physical cruelty or violence for the purpose of establishing dominance in a relationship (not merely to achieve some noninterpersonal goal, such as striking someone in order to rob him/her).
Humiliates or demeans people in the presence of others.
Has treated or disciplined someone under his/her control unusually harshly.
Is amused by, or takes pleasure in, the psychological or physical suffering of others (including animals).
Has lied for the purpose of harming or inflicting pain on others (not merely to achieve some other goal).
Gets other people to do what he/she wants by frightening them (through intimidation or even terror).
Restricts the autonomy of people with whom he or she has a close relationship, e.g., will not let spouse leave the house unaccompanied.
Is fascinated by violence, weapons, injury, or torture.

B) The behavior in A has not been directed toward only one person (e.g., spouse, one child) and has not been solely for the purpose of sexual arousal (as in sexual sadism).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadistic_personality_disorder

??????(off topic)????

Just a reminder to everyone that the other new content (Punkin King) is likely not under the same "difficult to access" situation as this content.

http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/29733

Okay.

I play-tested your new levels this past weekend and short of going through them with some UBER-ninjas... they're going to chew through CE due to multiple player deaths.
Given the escalating cost of reviving as you descend tiers... what are we going to start with... 15, 20 CE for first death and go from there?

Accessories are broken, first hand experience (bug reported) and a large number of bug posts to boot.
Note: Not even one single acknowledgment from OOO that these are broken or a fix is coming.

Yes, a number of players have accessories. I've opened some lock boxes to get them. I've also paid under 10K CR for some that I want.
Simple fact is, most people aren't going to buy them through the AH for 45K CR.
This means silver keys are WAY over-priced. Realistically - OOO - you're still going to make a whack of money if you price them at 150-250CE.
Suggest you do that a.s.a.p. or you're going to find that people aren't going to shovel money at you for long, shadow keys not withstanding.

You will have a number of players who will try your Shadow levels, ONCE.
Once they have their collective behinds served, they likely won't go back.
You'll likely have a couple of cadres of people who survive, get good at it and then sell the new goodies to the rest of the masses.
You might make some money, or you might just find that who has the money in game, gets redistributed.

This is really nothing but a cash grab using recycled content - shame on you.

Jacobey

The problem with a 30 day duration is that it affords players too many opportunities to try to clear the stages during a given month. That's unfair to OOO. Skilled players would find what they want and never have to make another 30-day access purchase again.

I have no doubt there's a happy medium, but it isn't by implementing a 30 day duration on shadow access.

1. Lockboxes - I think the current lockbox set-up needs a huge revision. Currently we only have 1 type of box which could contain any 1 of 250+ items.
I think this is way too large of a random selection for 1 item. If I am a tier 3 player and I am aiming for a shadow key and I spend 750 CE to open a box I should not have any chance at all of getting somthing terrible like a maid headband. Boxes need to be divided into tiers with different keys for each tier.

Tier 1 - Bronze Lockbox - requires basic key 250 CE

can contain:

any current accessory except for: pipes , maedate, glasses, vertical vents, bomb bandoliers, sideblades, auras, wolver tails,

no shadow keys

Tier 2 - Iron Lockbox - requires silver key 600 CE

Any accessory currently available . small chance of shadow key

tier 3 - Shadow Steel Lockbox - requires Divine key 900 CE

only accessories contained are: pipes , maedate, glasses, vertical vents, bomb bandoliers, sideblades, auras, wolver tails,

medium chance of shadow key

this is just a really rough draft I came up with while i'm typing this out but I'm sure all you can understand the value of a tier system

2 - Accessories - Looking at these new armor sets I'm sure 90% of the accessories wont look good on them at all. Instead of having RNG as to which color we get there should be an alchemy machine which we can change an accessory to any color we want. ( we need some sort of scrap metal / bronze bolt material sink) An alchemy machine would also allow them to introduce new colors when new sets are released instead of adding more RNG to lockboxes.

3 - Shadow keys - 1 time use just isn't acceptable. You could enter it and lose your internet for 5 minutes and lose your chance to run the levels.
instead of 1 key for 4 people I think you should get something like 2 shadow gems that when used give 24 hour access. so you could bring along 1 friend and both have 24 hour access.

just my random thoughts

I was happy to see Three Rings is releasing new content.
I then learned the details needed to access this content and I was sad.
Next, I saw the Beautiful Snarby armor and I almost cried of joy before feeling sad again
because i'm an f2p player and this content and armor will be hard for me to enjoy
until prices come down a little more for specific things.
Though I am a little disappointed with this, as are many of you, I don't see why
everyone's hating on Three Rings. This content hasn't even been released yet and
everybody's jumping to conclusions about how things are going to turn out and not
being able to enjoy this update and it's all Three Rings fault etc. I'm sure a lot of you
won't agree with what i'm saying but I think we should (a) wait until the content is
released (b) allow some time for prices to change and reviews of the content to be put
up on the forums (c) post suggestions to Three Rings about ways to improve it.

If you agree with me, great......If you don't, fine.

The one and only, Guardianknight
Officer of the Iron Dragon Guild.

Also, dont forget to PREPARE yourselves

:)

Okey... now OOO just trolled gunslingers again..

Jelly king armor = Ice Jelly Queen.
Swordsman = Snarbolax Coat
Skolver ? Azure ? = Crusader Armor.
Bombers = Mercurial Demo set.
Lizards = Arcane Salamander.
Heavy armor = Heavy iron armor.
Gunslingers = ????????????????

just *@#& OOO...

smur buddy, there's no point in preparing something that's gonna last 30 mins and happens maybe once every blue moon