Although im a bit upset with this decision, we can live with it. I have paid out my rear end to get the gear and accessories I have now and have never regretted it. I think we should be happy and give our support since everyone has begged and pleaded for new content.

O WOW LOOK THERE ARE MISSIONS. Now that the content is there they (OOO) can expand upon it, whether you pay for it or not. I may not know too much about their intentions, but I do know that...

I'M GETTIN THAT SWIRLY BOMB THINGAMAJIG!!!!!

I (rant)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this is not optional content.

Thing is, this is a part of what the overwhelming majority of the playerbase wanted, and it seems to me that (if it is indeed exactly how you described it) it's essentially a shadow lair with a door that only opens with the swipe of a card.

There was an oversight here on Three Rings' part.

K guy, go watch Echoez's youtube vid on the first part of the expansion mission

look at the dmg that a pure elemental weapon is doing on gremlins that are resistant to elemental damage.

390 dmg per hit

PER HIT

holy [crap].......i cant wait to see this thing 1 hit zombies in FSC.......

It truly pains me to see this new p2p content push away great players like nicoya kitty. But even more so, it hurts to see a true magical aspect of spiral knights being taken away. Before this patch, nearly EVERYTHING in SK was some how attainable using f2p methods. Now with this new patch, that 100% free to play tag is gone. It was how SK really stood out from all the other generic mmorpgs. Along with with its unique artworks, gameplay and alot more. I think the 100% f2p tag actually encouraged the growth of p2p players, because they had a choice of whether or not to purchase ce. They purchased ce with real money because they WANTED to, not because they were forced to. Now with this new patch and its OP weapons...... 'sigh'

bye bye nicoya, you will be greatly missed

A person who wants to widen the gap between p2p and f2ps? i hope that was sarcasm.

I just... caught up to this news now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5EPmAxvkyc

I guess saying something like "trust" was broken is ridiculous because I don't think OOO ever promised to KEEP this game as a F2P forever to begin with.

Except that SK's status of being a F2P is what bought me here to begin with and *indignant sputtering*

I'm just scared that all the decent people as well as a large majority of the playerbase is going to leave, leaving me alone with credit-card warriors who are utter numskulls yet outclass me at everything in this game even when they cannot grasp concepts like grammar and "SLIMES ARE RESISTANT TO PIERCING STOP HITTING IT WITH A FLOURISH ARE YOU STUPID". All while I still haven't gotten my five-star stuff and still haven't reached Vanaduke.

I guess if I want to see the future I have to imagine a boot stamping down on an F2Per's face, forever.

At least step back and see that expansion missions aren't necessarily the future of the game. They're optional (sure they're "too good"), but still not the main game... at least in my eyes.

If there's official word that the Arcade will never be updated with new F2P content from this point forward, then I'm with you guys.

Nothin stopped them from adding Sonic costiumes as CE Purchase, as well as available with purchase.

THEY JUST IGNORE US. Dont care, ignored pages of suggestions and explanation. And most They completly sold their souls to STEAM allowing only steam F2P players to get a chance to trade for those missions.

Also with those new weapons LD has become P2P only playground.

Well, to chime in, this is what I have to say on the issue. Did OOO promise to never have things that only cost money? No. But it seemed implied, also

@Asukalanforum
They definitely shouldn't offer CE Purchase for accessories and promtions because the current situation allows players who buy it twice or something to sell them at a reasonably high profit which incentevizes people to buy more of them.

As for these missions... I don't know what to say. I want to say that they should be "sellable" (as in you get a consumable to use and sell for access). Anyway, I'm not sure P2P only content is a good idea but whatever I guess, they can do it but I feel like that's going to cause a significant decline in F2P players.

PS. Also, I'm also worried with how easy it is to get these weapons and they're reported OPness.

this expansion mission requires a direct purchase with real money rather than payment via energy, just like a elevator pass

About Expansion missions unlockable with CE

Did you noticed how sumilar expansion missions are to Shadow Lairs? You start at elevator, your party is restricted to those who didnt unlocked expansion, floor numbers are ???. Expansion missions are very similar to shadow laris but to play shadow lairs we need to buy key from vendor with CE to unlock them while to unlock expnsion missions we need to do $$ purchase.

The easiest way to make Expansion Missions unlockable with CE is to use Shadow lair system. Make Vatel or other NPC sell an ITEM bound on purchase for certain amount of CE that used unlocks you acces to Expansion Missions. How make it unlock expansion? Same as Shadow Key unlocks shadow lairs. You can ride down to lobby but without that item elecator dont work.

Stupid post is stupid ._.

OOO needs money to keep spiral knights running, and this is just one way to do just that. I will gladly accept the expansion pack for it's a lot of fun, a good source of Crowns, and it's not that expensive. I fully support this (Just as long as there is still plenty of F2P content)

So basically, P2P content is fine, as long as it doesn't take over the game.

Originally posted by Nick on 02/27/2012

[...]You will be able to gift them to others via Steam and we are looking in to the possibility of doing the same with the official client as well.

So, after you guys had more than a year to look into it, could you think of any way to allow everyone access to that particular content and further updates that might use a similar business model (thinking about the Battle Sprites here)? If you have a hard time coming up with a solution (other than ignoring the issue and refusing to give a statement all this time), I'm certain some bright people in the community are brimming with ideas on how to make this happen.

I'm aware this thread hasn't been posted in for quite some time. Still, it drew quite a bit of attention in its time and contains those broken promises, valid criticism and several suggestions that in my opinion are not yet ready to be left to rot.

The solution seems simple: Make the expansion purchasable as a gift item that can be activated from the inventory, and make it not bound to the account. That means the expansion must still be purchased to be sold for energy/mats/stuff.

Another solution is to sell the expansion well above the associated cost of the same amount of energy, say 2x or 3x. People wouldn't feel as cornered in, but they would still have an incentive to purchase it with $$$; The only people who would save up the energy would be people who wouldn't ordinarily buy it in the first place.

None of the items from the expansion are truly overpowered, but they do have unique properties which are not found in any other item in SK. The hammer gives you a large swing weapong with knockback, that also gives the ability to dodge, but is pure elemental damage. The bomb can hit multiple times, but accross a fixed path with large blind spots and it only does shadow damage. The mask is nice, being one of the best helmets for ranged users, but people still tend to recommend other weapons for PvP and Vanaduke/prestige runs. Some people aren't even willing to do vanaduke runs with hammer users!

Personally, I think OOO seriously insulted their f2p players by originally claiming to have it CE purchasable and then changing their minds. The fact that it's been a year and there's still no way to trade it besides through steam is utterly ridiculous. These "professionals" apparently can't figure out any competent CS major could in a matter of weeks at most. That and I here rumors of it being possible on an asian server, which I doubt but would be seriously disappointed with should I find screenshot evidence.

The bigger problem to me is that this expansion model was supposed to fuel new content. One year later, besides the winterfest/Kat events, there hasn't been any new content save for danger missions. Which are a pretty sad excuse for new content. Zero new expansions. Way to be like the politicians and fail to deliver OOO

Yes that completely true and moreover we can buy ele-passes, Expansion and as well as Special prize boxes which come time to time on Asian and cost arorund 1300 ce each and thats not it , there are like 8-9 events every month, the most recent was GH decorating Contest and GM in LD

"Unsealed, Brandish and Flourish lines still rein supreme as melee weapons in PvP."

It's not like they're not some of the most ubiquitous lines in LD since the release of OCH, but the Hammer is a juggernaut of a contender in those if you have ASI on it - as any 'skilled' hammer player will usually take a poop on other Guardians and Strikers, with a great mobility boost, pure Elemental damage (Vog is less common than Skolver, and probably less than snarbolax as well), and a mechanic that is hard to follow when your attacker uses it properly, I find hammers are more difficult to fight in LD than any good striker with a sealed or flourish.

~Sev

Exactly this kind of indifference is why OOO will be able to pull off something like OCH again. To be honest, I expect them to do so somewhere along the Battle Sprite update. They said that Battle Sprites, skills and harnesses would be available to everyone, they never said that all of them will be though. I wouldn't be surprised to see another set of expansion missions that reward those who fork over the money with a special Battle Sprite not available by any other means.

Originally posted by End-Of-Input

[...] Make the expansion purchasable as a gift item that can be activated from the inventory, and make it not bound to the account. That means the expansion must still be purchased to be sold for energy/mats/stuff. Another solution is to sell the expansion well above the associated cost of the same amount of energy, say 2x or 3x. People wouldn't feel as cornered in, but they would still have an incentive to purchase it with $$$; The only people who would save up the energy would be people who wouldn't ordinarily buy it in the first place. [...]
Those are just two of many options OOO could consider when tackling this problem. There might be problems with redeeming the expansions on Steam, but I'm confident there are solutions for this as well.

[...] None of the items from the expansion are truly overpowered, but they do have unique properties which are not found in any other item in SK. The hammer gives you a large swing weapong with knockback, that also gives the ability to dodge, but is pure elemental damage. The bomb can hit multiple times, but accross a fixed path with large blind spots and it only does shadow damage. The mask is nice, being one of the best helmets for ranged users, but people still tend to recommend other weapons for PvP and Vanaduke/prestige runs. [...]
I've come to understand that the bomb was quite overpowered when it was introduced. I appreciate the efforts made by OOO to reduce that imbalance. As far as I know the hammer is wildly popular in LD. Both weapons have unique properties and for that reason alone should be available to everyone, no matter if those properties are beneficial or not. I don't have that much of a problem with the masks which can be crafted and traded like most other items. Making OCH available to everyone might even anger those people making a living by selling those masks.

[...] Some people aren't even willing to do vanaduke runs with hammer users!
I have mixed feelings about that. I assume people do that for a variety of reasons, be they out of ideology, solidarity, frustration or plain envy. Those people basically exclude others like OOO excludes those not willing or capable to climb their paywall. It remains to be seen if that course of action has any positive influence on our cause or just pisses people off.

Originally posted by Tin-Foil-Hat

[...] The best weapons in the game are already in the game without the expansion. The Hammer, Bomb are more soo cosmetically appealing than anything else. The main reason i bought the expansion was because i saw a player with it when i first started playing and i HAD to have it. Its also note worthy that The Bomb DOESNT hit mini slimes. Unsealed, Brandish and Flourish lines still rein supreme as melee weapons in PvP.
Those items are certainly a kind of status symbol. I wouldn't go so far as calling them mostly cosmetic, at least not to the extent of costumes or the rewards during the Homecoming Celebration (and even those made people rage for not having access to all of them.) Those are two fully functional additions to the game that are not available to everyone, even if they might have shortcomings. The 5* hammer purportedly sports one of the highest DPS values in the game, is the only slow sword with a three-part combo and has unique movement mechanics not found in any other weapon.

Originally posted by Koffin-Kat

[...] On the other hand, as long as the Crimson Hammer expansion remains the only thing available only with cash, that's fine by me. [...]
As I said earlier, if the community's outcry against business decisions like this is not loud enough, nothing will keep OOO/Sega from doing it again. The lack of interest in this particular topic is almost as disheartening as the lack of response and intervention on the part of OOO. I'd really like to see OOO actively denying any further paywalls but I don't expect that any time soon. And even if they did, we know what their promises are worth by now.

Go fig.

Ok, I will be inclined to agree that the hammer is slightly overpowered.

What the heck. Looks like OOO is getting greedy because of "Business".

Yeah... a business doing stuff to make money.... so stupid of them >.>