Spiral Knights has a rich lore and a nice way to tell it, casually while playing, however this may have left some (including me) unsatisfied although it's certain that more lore is to come I've come to propose a new way to deliver it. Through missions playable by using artifacts which are now more numerous but not more common. Right clicking an artifact will now transfer you into a lobby, you may only invite people into the lobby, no random match ups will be made. Inside the lobby will be four pods with the different roles you will be playing as engraved into each pod and a bench to change your arsenal.

When entering a game your appearance will change to fit your role, usually with armors that are not available to the average every day knight.

Along with your appearance your arsenal is also changed. All the following weapons (exuding the bombs) do not have a charge attack and will keep firing if held.

Primary weapons is what you should be using the most often, it is your most powerful and dependable weapon. They are a little less than the size of a knight and are carried with both hands.

Secondary weapons are carried normally and are used like the current weapons.

Shields are now a "sprint" button.

The vials are now replaced with three boxes of all the ammo in your weapons, the fourth one being your stamina for sprinting.

Primary weapons:

Vesuvius:
Vesuvius a shotgun-esque tool named by a volcano. Notable for it's short range (twice the range of a flourish) and multiple projectiles fired that scatter (much like the snarble barb's projectiles but spread less quickly). It also has a notable push back, used to keep enemies away from your allies which are more vulnerable at close distances or those who cannot move whilst firing such as the Dragoon and , it can shoot three times before reload and move whilst shooting at a very low speed penalty, make it reliable when in danger.

Dragoon:
Dragoons were the name of a french cavalry, today it passes it's name onto this pixel gun. The dragoon must perform a short reload between every shot, which may be dangerous and must stand still for 0.4 seconds before firing, upside? The bullets from the dragoon pierce numerous times and, the first thing hit receives very heavy damage.

Picatinny:
Is a bracket on firearms, although I'm not a big fanatic of guns I've deducted that it's used to place attachments onto a gun, likewise the picatinny is a fully-automatic gun which can fire for four seconds straight without reloading, much better than real guns. Dealing moderate damage with a rather accurate blast, letting you move with the current movement penalty of shooting, dependable, yet lacks very heavy knockback so you may find yourself overwhelmed.

Stringer:
Out of the blue name, it's a very heavy machine gun, able to rip anything apart (hence the name) unfortunately one cannot move while firing, the stringer fires in burst of three seconds unless the mouse is held, which then it's fully automatic. Also, after letting go one must wait 1.5 second of continuing fire, unless ammo goes dry.

Secondary Weapon

Spitfire:
The spitfire was the name of an aircraft, Spiral Knights takes the literal interpretation. The spitfire fires flaming bullets with flaming status effects, but the range is very limited, and there's a chance you might even set yourself on fire from others and floor flame! However, this can be used to block off areas.

Thunderbolt:
Nope, not a electric alchemizer, this is your run-of-the-mill pistol because switching to your secondary is faster than reloading :3. It is more reliable than your spitfire, it also has more ammo, so you won't find yourself attempting to actually SLICE them any time soon. For people who think they will be loyal to their primary weapon.

Carpenter:
The carpenter quickly creates a "wall" that pushes anything away from it's core, including projectiles. Could be a easy defense from bullet hell or a swarm, the sacrifice is great but the defense is greater.

Bomb:

Explodondemand or EDD:
After placing it down the EDD will explode when you press the attack button again, this can be used to block off area of explode people that are following you.

The Wolf:
A standard proximity mine deals less damage than EDD and has a slight delay before explosion, so it can be avoided with an unintentional dodge, advantage of EDD is that you can place multiple ones.

FAQ.
Q ~ Whistle, these, all feel very military they aren't right for spiral knights!
A ~ That's right, I wanted it to make it feel like it's been a while since these have been recorded and things have changed, before the Spiral Knights were introduced by the Strangers the art of Sword and Shield they mainly used guns, you're already learning lore!

Q ~ Whistle what are these artifacts?
A ~ I imagine them to be either journals or camera footage from inside the knight's helmet, but I think it would be interesting to see if a gremlin had stolen a helmet and playing as him for a while.

Q ~ Are there rewards or are they just for you lore lovers?
A ~ Yes there are rewards! Finishing a certain series of artifact missions will result in receiving a message that says, "you've found the location of long lost artifacts go to the excavation bot to retrieve them" and of course, some golem to fill up the east side of haven will come to let you reclaim your rewards.

Q ~ What are the rewards
A ~ I was thinking they would usually be costume armor, but they could even be a recipe for the old two handed guns. Or even minigames you could have found, how cool would it be to play Spiral Knights tower defense, defend the core from knights?

Thanks for your time, consider this idea if you wish. I'll probably revise this in the morning, but I am currently, very, very tired.