@Shoebox
"For one, the level design tools allow for situations in which only people of specific classes (or a single person) would be able to get through, removing the need for 'Split Party Buttons'. So I find that entirely redundant."

Please excuse my ignorance, but I'm not quite understanding what you're referencing here. Could you give me an example of such a situation?

"Not only this, but choosing a class before deployment and making that class permanent for the duration of the mission goes against the nature of the equipment in Lockdown as well as the freedom of weapon selection in Spiral Knights. If somebody beats you to choosing Striker and you're not geared to take Guardian or Recon, you're not going to want to play."

This issue was what I had intended Split Party Buttons to address. As with current party buttons, all members would have to be standing on a part of the split one. The way I envisioned it was that each class-specific "locker room" would have one part of the split button in it, and once the buttons are all pressed, a set of gates and one-way force fields would prevent members from entering different locker rooms. Since everyone has to be stepping on part of the button in order for this to happen, everyone has to generally consent to a class. In other words, if people have already taken Striker and Guardian, and you're not equipped for Recon, you can refuse to step on the last part of the Split Party Button until you work things out with your party. I hope I've made that a little more clear now...

I was recently considering the placement of Arsenal Stations within these locker rooms, should the situation arise where everyone in the party is equipped for Striker in a Team-Style Mission.

Regarding balance/difficulty, the best I can offer you is that shields break and cloaks expire. A Guardian probably wouldn't be able to tank forever because his/her shield would eventually break in the face of all the enemies he/she hasn't been defeating. Another thing to note is that it seems everything that would deal damage within a Guardian Shield's radius does damage to the shield. Place enough traps and/or turrets and the shield will be down more quickly to prevent overuse. As for the Recon Cloak, it's still tough to figure out how exactly this would work without massively changing the enemy AI. Right now when enemies don't see knights, they wander randomly. Perhaps upon receiving a Recon Mark, enemies in the radius could just stop and attack if they aren't already focused on another knight? Maybe the cloak could break if its user runs into an enemy? Maybe the cloak's duration could be short enough that the very act of applying a Death Mark is similar to using a bomb in terms of placement and timing? Just throwing some other balancing ideas out there. Then again, if the party members work well enough in a team, not a whole lot will be able to hold them back for very long. This goes back to the idea of more teamwork in Spiral Knights, but I guess with enough practice a party of complete strangers will be able to rip through Class Missions with ease.

I like the idea of Free and Restricted Missions. Free Missions would require players to make more thoughtful decisions on which classes to use based on their equipment and challenges. Restricted Missions are like Single-Class Missions, but with broader potential (obviously).

The Resupply Room idea sounds great. Like you said, they would allow the Lockdown equipment to be used in PvE while staying contained within specific, optional segments to avoid some of the imbalance.

I agree with you on the lower-tier equipment. Despite the fact that higher-level stuff gets nerfed in lower tiers, they still blow through lower-tier enemies like no one's business. Having fully-fledged Lockdown gear would be no different.

Finally, thanks again for the support and contribution. I'll try to update the OP to reflect this discussion at some point.

@Little-Cloud/Powpowpowpowpow
Seriously man, no need to follow this so closely. Front page or not, I'll get around to it eventually, since this is like the one halfway-decent idea I've come up with and I'd like to support it.

I guess your scenario idea works well enough. It's a little vague, but I'll work with it and add it to the OP when I find the time.

I think what's more important, though, is that you brought up something I hadn't really thought about - rewards. As with all missions, it makes sense that Class Missions would provide some amount of prestige. I do like the idea of having crests for each class, though. Perhaps there could be some kind of series of Single-Class Restricted Missions that goes over the basic usage of each class, and rewards these crests upon completion? I might work on some concept art for these...