Pretty much all of Ramune's suggestions seem to be based around wanting to be immersed in a single-player action roleplaying experience.

Might I suggest Legend of Zelda?

There are plenty of those. And this technically is one. However, I'd really rather not see even a second of the dev's time wasted on NPC dialogue when there are gameplay issues, new content, etc. to be added instead.

In fact, lore as a whole can go bite it until the game itself is worked on appropriately. I gain no gameplay enjoyment by being given some meaningless reason to go do something I was going to go do anyway.

Read books if you want story. MMOs are not exactly a rich tapestry, save for WoW, which got that way only due to having several years of single-player story-driven games coming before it.

My dad plays WoW, and he constantly has to skip content because he out levels it.

On topic tho; I think Overworld would be a nice place to slot larger scale areas.
You may have noticed, but most of the clockworks, aside from the boss areas and the big gremlin areas are little rooms connected by walkways.
A few Big 8-12 player maps would be a welcome addition in my book.
(cmon, you WANT to fight 50 devilites at once, right?)

Think of it as an extra gate if you must.

Why not a free opne world on the right of Haven?

@MintnHoney

The game hasn't been out long enough to expand. They may add more gate hubs later, maybe even fluff areas for people to hang out in to get them out of of the arcade. However, that's still another thing entirely from what's suggested in the OP.

If you want to just walk into another area and be charged energy and greeted by monsters like a dungeon floor, close your eyes for the elevator segment of a dungeon floor.

Problem solved. Literally zero difference.

I absolutely adore the idea of overworld exploration too. Something that's constant, but expansive enough to still be interesting. It adds to the immersion of the game, and this had been discussed during Beta. I came to the conclusion, from those discussions, that the East Side would feature something to do with this. We're gonna have to keep waiting though, this kind of thing takes a LONG time to make to a decent standard. By a long time, I mean it's like adding another game to the game. All the while still working on keeping the old elements fresh. With the limited staff team, though bigger now presumably because of Sega's new interest, there's a lot to do. And a lot more bug testing. In the meantime I'm expecting Guild Hall improvements and maybe some new weapons to come.

Immersion is a massive point on keeping players PLAYING the game. Check Portal, another puzzle-themed game [Yes, that is what SK is.] which has a clear storyline too. This storyline is a major factor to its success. While some people, I call them CoD people, enjoy games where they mindlessly kill everything for no real objective other than to win, which is fine, other people enjoy games where there's a clear plot that they have to follow. The style of this game as a cutesy MMO puts it at the same kind of age as the original Spyro games. You need a story. Other MMO games include storylines, for example with Runescape; many quests are part of arcs featuring storylines. A lot of people don't bother to look at these, but a LOT of time is put into it because it's interesting. When there's nothing much else to do except the same, people look into the details of what they're doing.

So basically, Nothingxs, there is the point; keeping YOU interested when you inevitably get bored. And if you don't get bored with Spiral Knights, great, but everyone else will eventually if nothing much is added. Try to empathise.

And neither is it meant to be boring. Play longer, you'll get it.

If I have, then the solution is for more dungeons or for people to actually start properly creating strata.

An overworld is unnecessary and most likely outside of the scope of the intended design of the game. It's not going to happen -- waste your breath on something else.

IronianPage. I love that idea. You MAN/woman.

I really like the idea of an overworld to explore eventually as well. I see no problem with it being eventually implemented after some of the other issues with the game are looked at. When I think of the overworld the first thing that comes to my mind is this:

http://www.games-wallpapers.in/wallpapers/spiral-knights-unique-weapons-...

It would be pretty cool to be able to explore areas on the planet, in fact there could be an area for each element:
-Mountains or arctic for cold
-Jungle for poison
-Desert or volcanic for fire
-Ancient clockwork ruins for electricity

These areas can be chosen to travel to at some sort of hub or terminal, possibly there could be other Stranger cities for player usage instead of 17 haven instances.

Well food for though anyway,
Quiiliitiila

Unless someone makes one (I could attempt to make something up, I have a map maker :^D), we'll have to wait for the dev's to bring something to the table.

I was also thinking further on the topic and I came up with the idea of other cities (briefly mentioned in my last post). The history of the game says that we have crash landed on this planet and begun adventuring into the clockworks. Well, why haven't we moved horizontally as well? Wouldn't it make sense for us to set up camps around the globe to access other areas of the clockworks? I suppose this could be used for major new content (areas, and stuff) but getting to these new camps would require a trek across the overworld to get there.

Any thoughts?
Quiiliitiila

One of the things I like most about Spiral Knights is how intuitive the story is.
The story isn't meant to be a massive exposition about how you are the Chosen Knight to find the Core or something equally derivative:
It's told in the Strangers' presence, and the layouts of the dungeons and subtowns, with hints of something more.
But again, not everyone likes subtlety or gets the idea behind it.

What I'd like to see is something like this:
People are saying Haven is too crowded, and the instances are always full.
Why not have a couple new cities?
I realize this is a substantial amount of work, but we're all speculating like crazy here so let's be charitable.

You could have four cities including Haven, each with a different style, linked by criss-crossing paths.
The paths themselves would be just like dungeons, but without the elevators and across wide expanses of ground, mixing old assets with new areas. You'd party up and make your way across the wilderness. The 'terminal' would be a small outpost in the center of the four cities where the two crossing paths meet, from which you could then head on in any direction to the city you'd like to go to next.
Functionally, the cities would all be very similar (Bazaar, Arcade, Plaza, Guild Center). Guilds would be able to select a home city for a bit of customization flair.

Of course, I have no idea how elevators and level selection and etc would even out.
But then I'm just venting here.

That way the overworld doesn't dominate the game and it just makes the world feel bigger.
There could also be energy or crown cost to teleport from the square of one town to the next.

EDIT: I suppose you could just have all the elevators be the same in all towns, explain it away as the fact that the Clockworks under the surface are HUUUUGE and would easily cover the area below all the cities.