I know this idea has been suggested a few times and that no one has really ever been to fond of this idea as it would seem hard to add to them game, or change the simplicity and game style of the game. I've been modeling a design in Rhino 3d using some textures from the game, keeping in mind how the game plays and how the clockworks work, to come up with a design that fits the game. It's not done yet, since all I have to work with is the texture wrappers of the ground and walls and some small other items, and am having to guess dimensions and tile mappings values to make it look decent. This is only semi open since making an open world area would be a crazy amount of change to the game. Here is how I vision this to fit into the game because I actually do find this a very good concept for Spiral Knights, since it would add a lot of content and story. Keep in mind though, this is still a work in progress for me so a lot of the following description is subject to change.
First off, here is my idea of how the system for a semi open place would work. Best and easiest way to describe this is if you have played the old Zelda games on the gameboy. I'm not saying we use that, its just a reference so it won't cause copyright problems. Anyway, in those games you notice its free roaming, but it slides between areas so it can load the map correct? Well my idea is one main exploration room a little smaller then haven (including bazaar, arcade ect.) but with no loading screens. That sounds large, but its not since it will be similar to arcade where a small party is there it wont take a large load. Where my reference to the zelda mapping comes in is that there will be entrances to other (small) rooms. I have envisioned areas for certain type of enemies.
One area, that will have an entrance and transition similar to traveling between haven areas would be a cave. I will add art later so it makes more sense. This cave room would have ghosts, and phantoms and ect. This type of area would be similar to that of a depth in the clockworks in the way it plays. But no end elevator, it would just be a explorable level., which means you'll have to find your way back to the entrance. I will explain the point of this later of course.
Area two, which will also have a entrance and a transition screen, will be a small camp site of spiral order knights. Again the point will come later.
Area three, will just be a type of area in the main room where the terrain changes, it will be a small grave yard. Obviously there will be skellies here. (more for other monsters too of course, like a meteor site for lichens)
Area four, will act like a normal elevator with only one depth. This is the abandoned elevator, home to a camp full of rouge gremlin. Some that are enemies and will attack and others that at neutral.
Explanations.
One issue, I think brought up by sev and a few others, is the point of this area? If there is no large drop, what would be the point of this area besides wasting time? Well I have an idea including my areas. Someone recently mentioned quests, but I didnt think that would work with the clockworks. So i came up with a compensation. This area can be free to enter, and mobs will appear where they are suppose to and blocks and shrubbery may drop small crown amounts same with enemies, but to have a larger point we can add a quest board at the entrance. If you activate the quest board it will load a list of tasks available in the exploration areas. Each quest will interact with the areas in it. For example, a quest to supply the camp with information, which will require a item from another area, like the cave maybe. This quest would start with you having to find and talk to the camp, figure out what they need and where. In this example, a cave. It will require to to explore to the cave and find an item placed in there "Activated" by the quest. Each quest will cost a small amount of energy or maybe even crown so its not just free rewards. You can die in these missions, and revive will be just like the tiers. I also think that maybe rare cases of exploring treasure boxes may appear, it is more likely to appear if a quest is activated in that area.
Quests- Will add these after i get most of the model done and a map added.
(I will be revising this entire post eventually when i get the model done, I posted this now so people can input ideas on how to fit this in better, or what type of quest they would like to see and also what they would like to the area to look like. Right now I'm using the textures from the grassy areas. I need help with maps maybe and also of course crown and energy values)
I guess this is kind of a cool idea, but I question whether it belongs in Spiral Knights. When I first played this game, I too was reminded of the general feel of 2D Zelda games. That's as far as the comparison goes for me, though - just a reminder. Spiral Knights is a different game, and it would take a lot of work for this to be implemented as you've outlined it. So let's see if we can answer my question.
There's a sort of workaround for the room transitions, and that would be to simply connect the rooms with long pathways, similar to the Clockworks Tunnels-style levels. Those levels can get pretty large themselves, so perhaps your idea wouldn't be a very significant increase in map size/server load. Your suggestion of different room types within a single quest actually seems to sort of fit the idea of the Clockworks - a place where multiple worlds have collided and connected by the massive construct of the Clockworks. Granted, some new models would have to be generated for your quests, but the idea seems to generally work.
As for the idea of quests themselves, we already have one example: Charred Court in FSC. You're required to bring at least 6 of the cursed sprites back to the Sacred Circle of Anti-Status or whatever (right? >_>). The point is, there is already some kind of system in place for a retrieval-type scenario.
I think the biggest obstacle this idea faces is the fact that we already have the Mission System. After the rationalizations I've made for myself, I've come to see it more as a new type of mission, rather than an entirely new system. Whether they were part of a new system or not, I'm not really seeing where these quests would fit into the game story-wise, since missions already cover that. Either way, this makes them seem like more of a little extra thing to do, like Prestige Missions - not a whole lot of content, but still maybe fun to do.
Well, those are my thoughts. I wish you good luck in supporting your idea!