This is a complicated situation

I’m sure it is deeply saddening for most of the people on the forums, to see many 'end game' players who have contributed so much of their time and effort into the positive development of this game, in not only assisting others but have overtly provided intrinsic feedback for the developers and the greater good of the game. But has this all come in vain?

Already, just through inspection of The Bazaar's front page reveals two players who have come to the conclusion that their efforts and ‘340 hours’ have been wasted in hope of something better. Both 'Knightydood' and 'Aedium' were positive contributors to our ever-expanding soceity and I would like to wish them all the best of luck in their endeavours. I’m sure there are many others who have come to similar conclusion but wish to hold their items, just in the slightest chance, that Three Rings would not only listen to our feedback, but would contemplate, review, inform and implement their decisions before the continued decline in 'paying' players. Already, a large crowd of protestors against this new update has been formed and a petition already started. Is there any further need of indication to Three Rings that drastic action is needed to prevent a collapse in its player satisfaction?

As developers, I believe you need to ‘develop’ .

Personally, I can count myself as one of those 'end-game' players coming to the conclusion that there will be no more accessible content, that we have yearned and demonstrated so hard for, and I am ready to release the reins. I admit to purchasing energy in my journey to become the Spiral Knight that I am today, in fact, a great deal of my money has been spent on 'limited edition' costumes such as Rose Regalia, Bombhead Masks and I have paid dearly for Maximum! UV's on my equipment in hope for something that would relinquish my taste for MORE. But I was wrong, and for an extended period of time, I was so enraged (and bored) with various aspects of the game that I put it off for an extended period, and here's why:

PERSONALLY

- I live in Australia, far away, in fact, half-way across the world from the American servers that I never get to experience connections greater than two bars. Speaking on behalf of all the countries that are outside the better connections of America, it be great if you could notify us that you are even TRYING to an Oceana server that would bring a wider audience to your game and ultimately, profit.

-The result is excessive amounts of lag which is at times can be impossible to deal with. This includes jumping and skipping frames, swinging swords twice when you only attack once, impassable terrain, but most of all cases of 'how did I get damaged by that swipe when I was standing halfway across the room'.

-Battle Arena's have turned into 'spam my weapon and pray to god I hit something' often coupled with excessive amounts of epileptic flashing, a ridiculous amount of projectiles and damage indicators that arent even removed once you hit that monster, often making it impossible to judge whether a monster is coming to attack you or has just been hit. They have become more or less, a test to see whether we can withstand the 'spamfest' rather than a test of skill and judgement. And this is going solo in Tier 2! Dont get me started on T3. To top it all off, a party of four with a variety of bombs and swords can result in so much going on at the same time.

- I don’t know if this is just us Australian's, but some of the three hit combo swords including the Leviathan does not register the third hit, and often the result is getting hit and a lot of rage.

- A lot of the game is based on 'waiting'. Whether this is for Mist to regenerate or gates to rotate. Often i find myself waiting up to 10min for a gate to rotate 1 spot to in either direction which is of course RANDOM. Three Ring's plays on our inability as players to 'wait' and allwos us to fuel our addiction by allowing us to progress further by paying real money, thereby increasing the profitability. If you could reduce the amount of 'waiting' a player has to do you would attract a wider player base and hence more people willing to pay for new promotions such as costumes etc which are rare opportunites.

- Devilites, Kats, Howlitzers, Greavers, Menders...enough said

It would be nice to even know that SOME of these issues are being addressed, and this is not the first time these have been mentioned, there are many forum topics that hit these same issues.

Coming back a month later, alot has changed, such as PvP and now lockboxes and shadow lairs, new monsters, maps and events which provide both positive and negative aspects which has once again fuelled my interest in the game. Lets start with the Negatives:

LOCKBOXES

But to introduce a system where you have to pay 750CE to open a lockbox where it will give you a RANDOM accessory, in a RANDOM colour, is simple scandalous. In fact the whole game is a matter of probability, unique variants, tokens, love puppies and basil are all a matter of chance. Many have often compared the lockboxes with 'crates' found in TF2, but unlike Spiral Knights you actually know what you are throwing $2 worth of CE into...leading to my third point. To date, about 10% of all accessories found which actually look good, including side blades, wolver tails and aura's cost in excess of 500 000 cr in the AH, which in my opinion is way to much for something that only adds aesthetic qualities. The only accessories that actually seem worthwhile in the preview image are the auras (apart from ghostly) and angelic wings which have NO DOCUMENTED SIGHTING as of yet. And IF someone does find a pair of angelic wings, how much do you think it will fetch? 2mil? 3mil? No doubt far...far beyond the reach of any newcomer.

SHADOW LAIRS

I will not offer my opinion on this, as there are enough threads already which reflect my opinion

POSITIVES:

DARK HARVEST FESTIVAL

The only good thing to come out of this update, this will actually be beneficial to the greater community, as candies are very easy to find, which encourage grinding and ultimately a drop in CE prices as more demand for CE to explore drives the prices down. I am overly satisfied with this part of the update especially with your new masks (especially the Spookat which looks awesome). My belief in Three Rings has been revived. Cost? A lot more than 10CE.

TL:DR: this update has provided both negative and positive aspects which has evidently resulted in reactions in opposite ends of the spectrum, but most have found the idea of Shadow Lairs as an inappropriate grab of money, resulting in numerous players leaving for good. Three Rings must IMMEDIATELY recognise the implications of their decisions, their impacts, and address the negative issues quickly before things get out of hand.

If you live in Australia, or any other part of the world experience the same amount of issues I would dearly like for you to share your opinion