4 Reasons Spiral Knights is getting dumbed down

So I am going through this game for my second time on my "alt", and I am shocked at how non-social it has become, and how decisions about armor are so much easier.
Reasons why SK is gettin' dumbed down:
Reason number 1 - Missions
>>Basically, missions ruined the arcade. Some people think that this is best, but missions are so limited on what you do. We have the best way of getting crowns down to a single button then "BAM" you are in FSC. The arcade used to offer things that changed it up every now and then -> You would have to possibly go through fiend stratums to get to Vana. This is allowing a much wider playerbase to get to and kill Vanaduke, as there is no other challenge before you reach the Citadel.
Back in the Arcade, there were many more ways of making money that people would pay attention to. Arenas, for example. Although you are going to sit there and say "well I still do look for Arenas"... many people do not anymore, and have resorted to just spamming Vana since there isn't a big button that says "CLICK ME! Go to arenas!". Because of this, you will have a much harder time finding a group in the Arcade. The population of each gate can barely hit 100 anymore. That kinda sucks, since the trailer used to make this game sound so much cooler than it is nowadays, how it is (was) "always changing".
Now, I am aware that we can still do the Arcade nowadays, but so many less people are / feel the need to.
Reason number 2 - Supply Depot and Hall of Heroes
>>This is just cutting off player interactions. We still have things like UVs and accessories to sell, gladly, but both of those examples are mainly for the rich / occasional lucky player. A large amount of recipes have been cut off from being worth it to buy, and unbinding regular 5 star gear to sell to people is no longer desirable: instead, get it from the inanimate "supply depot" that sells 5* items even less than the unbinding fee. We are being way too self-sufficient nowadays, and it is way too simple to find a non-boss recipe.
Reason number 3 - Arsenal Stations / Missions (again) / Making all monsters deal special (piercing / shadow / elemental) damage.
>>When dinosaurs roamed Cradle and things used to deal a ton of normal damage, we eventually added more special damage types into the game. There was still use for armor that had great normal defence even then. Recently, they just got rid of the pure normal dealing monsters so we had no use for some armor. For example, trojans deal shadow, scuttlebots and gremlins deal elemental, etc.
In addition, Arsenal stations and missions are eliminating thought put into what gear would be best for a specific stratum of the arcade and the optimal arsenal, since there is no point to have certain general-purpose gear.
PLEASE don't stop reading and say "adurrrr arsenal stations require more gear" because I am not done explaining that.
It used to help to not only have each of the specialty defenses, but to also keep split special defenses incase the arcade threw both piercing and elemental at us, for example. It also was nice to have an ancient plate shield around for gremlin heavy stratums. We would maybe even take a look at status resistances, since the Arcade had a wider variety of status-themed monsters / stratas. We would also have to get stuff for certain bosses.
Now the most arguable thing here is Arsenal Stations. You can say that it made this game demand all three types of defenses instead of just one all-around set of gear, but seriously this game demanded all three types of defenses even before the arsenal stations. In order to optimize your arsenal, you would get all three types of defenses even before the arsenal stations. The same people who finally realized that this game demands a wide arsenal AFTER the addition of arsenal stations are those people that would whine about devilites being too tough against their Vog armor pre-arsenal stations.
Arsenal stations made the "optimal" arsenal no longer include Ancient Plate Shield / Dragon armor / silvermail etc. etc. Want to know why people will no longer whine about Devilites once they added Arsenal Stations? Because it made people wake up finally.
And then missions can let us go "poke button - vana time", so some of us can dumb our gear down to only items useful for Vana, for example.
Reason number 4: Nerfs lolol I love complaining about these
>>If anyone has seen some of my other posts then you'll probably be annoyed to see me say this again: The game is too easy. The nerfing of monsters has made people go "oh, wolvers are even easier now and can't track me, why get piercing defense gear if I don't get hit?"
Nerfing monsters has made people not think about getting certain gear to save them money regardless of having an arsenal station.
Nerfing the Jelly King, for example, increases the amount of people that have killed the jelly king. It makes a new player feel not as special when they down Jelly King for the first time. Nerfing the Jelly Tokens required to buy an antigua or a sealed sword, reduces the excitement of a new player when they get their first antigua / sealed sword.
Valiance used to be THE gun for Gremlins, when they used to dodge. Now, the gremlin dodge was nerfed, and we can just forget getting Valiance for that reason, gunners :)
Other general dumb-downings:
1. Module trinkets. "Damage vs. type of monster" is no longer as effective.
2. Please help me add more if you can think of any.....
__________________________________________________________________
So, PLEASE stop dumbing this game down.

Nom nom nom. I thought you would provide us with cheese too with this whine.

There is a difference between whining and criticism.
Just because you don't agree with someone's argument does not mean you can disregard it.
On Topic:
The alpha wolver's should have their lock on bite attack. They used to be feared by all knights.
The arcade is still useful for those who want boss recipes. But the hall of heroes did hinder the recipe market.

"and unbinding regular 5 star gear to sell to people is no longer desirable: instead, get it from the inanimate "supply depot" that sells 5* items even less than the unbinding fee."
Unbinding fee is 800, Supply Depot sells 5* items for 3500. Unless my math is off, that's much more than what the unbinding fee is...
Games of this nature are subject to change, a lot of the time. Several MMOs I've played (PS, Spiral Knights is not technically an MMO for the same reason PSO is not an MMO) have overhauled everything to the point where it took half the time to grind to the level cap, getting items that I spent literally months searching for was as easy as defeating a boss once due to quests and mission supplements...
You can't expect a game to stay exactly the same from inception to the end. They try new things, see what works for the general audience, hoping to not only keep their current players, but also find new people who'd enjoy it. If they lose one whiner who can't appreciate the work being put into everything, they're gaining even more who see there's a new patch making the game accessible to them.

and buying one from the depot is 3500 CE. Unless they changed it....
I know that everyone is entitled to their opinion. However, what happens when you repeat the same content day in and day out. Do you not get proficient with it? Yes, well you should. So you are right, it is easy to those who are constantly running the game with the right gear and who have memorized enemy spawn points and attack sequences and various other things to quickly traverse a level. However, to the handful of people who are new and do not have current gear and who have not memorized the levels to the point they can do it blind folded, it might not be easy for them. So. I would really relax on this point
As was already mentioned a while back, things are on the go to create a more difficult experience for those who live, breath and eat Spiral Knights. Maybe just take a break from the game if you think it is too easy and wait for updates to happen. Find something to do with your time. If that isn't possible, have a friend switch your controls around and try to figure that out during and FSC run with a random pick up group and then have someone cotninually cover your eyes with their hands, then try it with an invert control set up or do something like darken the screen to your computer so you can barely see what is coming. There are ways to make things difficult, but you are choosing not to try or get creative with it.
Also, perhaps another reason why the levels are easy or enemies are easy, is that it is creating more room for the developers to create difficult content and create a bigger contrast of difficult and easy so that it will calm people down with how easy the current difficulty is, or it will allow for deeper depths in the game and newer enemies and weapon upgrades or armor upgrades.
Seriously tho, just relax at raging about how easy the game is "to you". You are not everyone on Spiral knights. What is easy to some, is difficult to others.
Rubix Cube? Nuff said.

I pity you, poor sir. I still enjoy the game a lot. I have been playing since August.
You act as if you are being FORCED to use the best gear, FORCED to use tried and true clockworks strategy, and FORCED to play this game in the same way every time. Like Mercury said, if you really want to keep having fun with the game, try new things and 'dare' to get a known 'bad' set of gear, and try some new, crazy things, and laugh with your crew when you die horrid, quick deaths. Have FUN.
Or, if you can't bear to be that non-leet, quit playing and go find something else to do for a while.

I agree with your Reasons 1 to 3, but I feel those are lesser influences of the larger root problem causing the decline in the social aspects and fandom of the game.
Your Reason 4, monster nerfing, was discussed much back when they nerfed the zombies, wolvers, and such. I think the most valid conclusion that was discussed back then was Players didn't want monsters to be more difficult by being "cheap" but more difficult fairly. So while I agree with the nerfing problem, I don't want to see more cheapness....like the current zombie double attack jump that hits you in mid-air and landing.
One final note about the larger root problem. How long did it take for you to think up and write your original post? I'm thinking 30+ mins. Don't get me wrong, it's a well thought out post and you bring up some really good points. But how long did it take the 3 or 4 people to come in here and accuse you of whining or raging without considering if your points were valid or not? I think the community's changed, and I don't think reasonable discussion is going to do much.

+1 I'll agree with this. But mostly because I think the game can be made better if we all sit down and think about it.
For example I'd like to see defenses made more important in this game. Right now the only gear worth having is offensive gear. But if defenses were more important then running around in defensive gear (or gasp even defensive trinkets) wouldn't get you laughed at. I'd like to see the decision between wearing more status defense or wearing a damage boost actually be difficult.
How I see this happening is by increasing the damage of all enemies while at the same time increasing the effectiveness of all defenses (while leaving health the same). If you have the correct defenses you will see little to no change in damage to yourself - however if you are not properly geared you will be severely punished for it.

For those who didn't read Rawrcakes uber wall of text:
TL;DR -> This game is starting to suck Heavens to Betsy, more every day.
Social Interaction is down
The arcade is dead
Recipes are far far too easy to get
5* items can be bought cheap
Needed weapons and enemy tactics
I remember a time when Vanaduke was hard as hell: tons of shadow fire, very high damage, very sexy. But that changed when people started complaining about it-nerf 1
Jelly king had tons of minis and cubes surrounding it at all times, and had a lot more health. More Dmg too. People complained -nerf 2
Slag zombies used to possess a Norris-worthy swipe attack that was the only challenge in FSC- now the zombies are mentally challenged and couldn't hurt a proto nublet.-nerf 3
Tortodronez-taken out due to supposed OPness- nerf 4
Lots of others too...this game is becoming a pathetic excuse for a game. It isnt fun for F2P players starting, extremely difficult for intermediate players (3-4*, or new 5* players), and boring as heck for older players.
That leaves no one...so who's really having fun?

I agree with the alpha wolvers re-obtaining their triple locked-on bite attacks.
The whole beast family is a joke without it.

I agree with Mooserz on player choice, what you are asking for is essentially forcing players to play the way you want them to play. Right now players have the choice of interacting with other players in the arcade and trading with them or playing missions and buying from the AH and Supply Depot. You are asking to remove that choice, forcing people who otherwise prefers the latter choices into only the ones you want. I just cannot agree with that.
I don't see the problem you are getting at with your third point, not everyone has the time or wants to grind up several sets of 5* gear. Some people are fine with only one set, and I don't see why you want to go out of your way to penalize them for it. You have already grinded up several armour sets probably during a time when CE was not 8k CR, so don't talk like its some simple matter of people deciding whether they should get another armour set for certain stratums like armour costs nothing.
Honestly, I'd like the challenge back as well, but only in tier 3, keep tier 1 just as easy, maybe increase the difficulty in tier 2 a bit so the jump in difficulty to tier 3 isn't as steep but make tier 3 actually challenging. Though I have to say a lot of what removes the challenge is knowing all the tricks to beating a level or a kind of monster and there is really not much to do there except add more monster types in.

Sooo.... I, in my noob days, Ran around with horrid gear. Horrid in comparison to the Optimizer gear.
A Khorovod, A Swifty, Seraphic Armor, and whatever random gun I had on me...
I soloed FSC, my first time... In that, by getting my friend to Glitch me through the Gate... This was almost at the end of November, and everything was still challenging... In comparison to now.
You know what I did? I soloed all the way up to Vanaduke, and died horribly Via a mace in the 4th stage. That was me as a noob. Its FAR easier now: we don't need a dumbed down game, We need a tougher game with more balanced gear.
That doesn't mean make everything DAs and Brandishes, It means bring the game to a challenging level, and bring ALL the gear to the same level: some buffed, others (GASP!) nerfed.
RESPONSES! \o/
@Blitzwing: Yes, No cheapness, but challenging. Take those zombie breaths: Not cheap per say, but quite effective... whether Fire, poison, or any other status. We need more things that can cause problems, but aren't silly cheap. (No matter how awesome a Zombie leaping at you is.)
I grew up in the time where Vanaduke could still drop the ceiling on you, you had to dodge, and predict where to move... That was not cheap. Fire SPAWNING on you? That is.
@Mercury: Repeating must be what makes it easy? See my first little bit of this post.
Also, I like to try to understand the game, and contribute to its production the best I can, not sit idly around, waiting for them to do it all by them selves. I'm almost sure that the majority of the nerfs that affected gameplay so drastically are cause by players why are not the best at the game, but still legitimate players, that probably have some sub-par gear, and thus have a harder time. If the gear was more balanced, then they wouldn't be at more of a disadvantage and could see that they CAN do well, if they work a little harder. Not come against horrid walls that they feel can't ever be surmounted, and demand nerfs.
One last note: He isn't doing this for himself, He is giving his opinion on a feeling that is held by many. Me, and others included. It SEEMS to me that that is an attempt to dismiss this, though I may be wrong.
@Moozer: its not that we're being FORCED to use the Best, its just that the Best is so good that it makes EVERYTHING a breeze. I HAVE a Boltbrand that I can solo the entirety of FSC with. I need no other weapon, And I can do it in proto gear. And That's an unfinished weapon line taking down the "last Boss" in the game. after that its to the HoH and honors. I have it, But I dont use it. Yeah, I have a challenge, But If the game is to easy anyways, whats the point?
I have some of the hardest to use without dieing gear in the game, even going in areas that I have NO defense to... And I waltz out just fine. Ergo, game=too easy.
@Realnight: Yep. Optimizers should be Glass cannons that are well worth being made of glass. Not Tanks AND nukes. =.=
But I as far as I can tell, that doesn't solve the gap between Optimizers, and not. Its like the Weapons buff recently: The Blitz AND the Volcanic Pepper both get better... But the Gap between them is still there.
@Fehzor: Yes.
@Nodocchi: Well, when you can solo FSC, there is no need for being social... and even then, just find a guild when you get lonely... PUG? Heh, only for the noobs and such.... thats the way it seems to me.
Also, we should only have a few sets because its cheaper, and the game goes SOOO slowly any ways, right? -.- /sarcasm
... and the economy is not this thread. This is about the game being easy, and simple minded in general.
I do agree with you on some points though: T1 is just about right... Made an alt with the Latest Update... and its just about right. T2 needs more challenge, and much more near the end of strata 4. You should be cautious nearing the end of a strata, not blazing trough it because you are a tank with a nuke launcher. T3? stratum 5 should be an introductory for new 4* knights, but stratum 6 should quickly grow to be a hell hole no matter which gate you go to.
Needless to say, the Arcade would then need to be buffed payout wise, so that its more profitable then missions, but only if you make it and can survive in the last stratum o f a tier. Then most missions would be safe, reliable sources of income, while the Arcade is a murderous, shifting Hellhole where the monsters are made of crowns.

I agree with Rawrcake. The game is still enjoyable for me, but that's because I was lucky enough to join friendly Guild and I've learned ropes long before Missions. Some random facts:
- Nowadays you can often meet a 3* players not knowing what Arcade is, and that he/she actually can do anything apart from missions. I value Missions as a sort of tutorial and game guide. But game should be focused on Arcade and ever-changing world. I think reducing Rank/Prestige Missions payout to 10 - 25% of Arcade payout wouldn't hurt.
- Monsters nerfs are facts - game becomes easier with every nerf. Player's experience and knowledge about spawning points has nothing to do with it. I don't mind balancing by reducing damage/health but changing mechanic (removing tracking from Zombies or Alpha Wolvers) is not fun. I don't like cheap challenge that comes with increased health, damage, protection. But Alpha Wolvers weren't challenging because of their over-pumped stats, but because their smart design. They forced player to think, not just to buy better gear.
- Supply Depot and HoH removed large part of social interaction. I've been never engaged into recipe market at AH, but recipe hunts were social events I miss much. Arriving at Basil and asking on guild chat if anyone needs anything was part of the fun as well.

I agree entirely with with Rawrcake. Although, there is still shadow lairs.......................

Both made the game and screwed it up very very badly. And no fun rare monsters dropping fun stuff. Even if it was useless stuff, it would be fun to have rare monsters dropping things. Now it is only the darkfang shield....
Good post rawrcake.
As for the replies roughly 50% are complete garbage. Of the people disagreeing, it's close to 90%
The problem is essentially that everything can be done optimally with a click:
* Want crowns? A 3 stage mission pays out better than any Tier 2 run you'd spend an hour on.
* Want recipes? Going to the HoH is cheaper than recipe running or haggling with players
* Want defence? Copypaste everyone elses choice. Since missions are static and mob AI is a joke, you just need damage bonuses anyway.
The problem isn't that the game is easy, it's that investing time to carefully plan your play isn't worth it.

Here's what's going on: The game is developing challenge in a linear fashion. Player skill and gear grow in an exponential fashion.
What I mean is, from the beginning of the game to about jelly king stage, the gear provided and skill level of the player is usually less than the challenge provided, making the game an actuall challenge-person dies a few times.
The linear challenge growth of the game and exponential player growth intersect at Jelly king, or end of tier 2. Player is skilled enough to clear end of tier 2 stages with up to 3*-4* equipment, and they know enough about the monsters to know their tactics.
At tier 3, the player becomes very skilled, and knows enough about tactics to surpass the linear challenge of the game, leaving them bored as heck. The bore only gets worse and worse, and the tedious nature starts to kick in, making the gme feel more like a chore than a game.

I'm pretty sure almost every game is experiencing this. The world in general is getting dumber. If you've been playing long enough, the new stuff has had little affect on you, but I've seen some new players that should not be where they are. The missions are fine as a tutorial, but after that it becomes a source of free stuff for less energy. HoH is just wrong. Maybe just reduce benefits of missions? The point was to get prestige anyways, remove the crown and material benefit.
If the problem is lack of difficulty in playing/progressing, just add more.

Well, it would be nice if
1: Alpha wolvers got their homing bite back. (And that they couldn't buff themselves >.>)
2: Arsenal stations would be a random thing in lower tiers. You don't always see them. Instead, you feel lucky when you see one at a lower tier.
3: items in the Item Dept. would be much more expensive than the unbind and craft price combined. I.e. the you need 50 + 200 + 400 + 800 + 5000 = 6450 energy to create one of these 5*s, plus the mats and cr needed. With this Item Dept. you can buy it for 3500. This is 2950 less than the Dept. You keep nearly half the CE needed to make a 5*. So if you wish to make such a 5*, you either have to lose money selling to compete with the outrageous low price, or you have to have a UV. (Which means madly rage crafting and/or madly UV trolling.) You sell things to get a profit, but a good market was swiped with this new Item Dept., just like a good recipe market was swiped with this new HoH.
4: Lag needs to be decreased and efficiency need to be increased.
Why are there so many complainers that don't bother to read the facts of this game?
Fact #1: HoH does not have every damn recipe. Token recipe's? ARCADE OUTPOSTS. WHERE DO YOU THINK BTBS COME FROM?
Fact #2: Making 5* items 6450 energy when everybody crafts theirs would be [silly], and ruin the game even more.
Fact #3: If there's lag, lower the quality. Still lag? get a new computer.
Fact #4: The price in the depot of 4* and 5* are MEANT to be like this. It can encourage lazies to buy CE and just get it from the depot, supporting the game, allowing the devs & Nick to bringabout bug fixes, features, and less lag (Not related to fact 3 in anyway coughcough...)
I could make a whole list. If you dont like the game dont play it.

I love these guys saying: "If you dont like play, so dont play it"...kkk its good for laugh
This is not how things works buddy...look around and ask for yourself:" If everyone in this world say to quit when there is something they don like it?"
Grow up... This "free players" are also the only way to OOO make money...

@Dalektardis You are honestly the most idiotic poster I have encountered on the forums so far. Get your head out of your butt before you read this:
Fact 1: Only fact I agree with, be it an obvious one.
Fact 2: Instead of being a 2 year old about it, why don't you explain WHY 6450 is a [silly] price, instead of calling the suggestion [silly] without no backing evidence.
Fact 3: You probably had your head so far up your butt you couldnt see the keyboard when you typed this. Don't be so narrow minded and tell people to just get a new computer. Not everyone has the money, or the means to do this. Not everyone is some middle class kid who gets spoiled with anything they want.
Fact 4: Making weapons available from the depot takes the novelty out of crafting and just makes it too easy to get basic weapons. The price only heightens the barrier between F2P and P2Pers yet again, which isn't good.
Next time you post in this forum, use your head. Don't post like some stuck up 5 year old.
Hi. I had quitted Spiral Knights for 8 monthes, just started back with a lot of things to catch up.
Just one point I quite disagree with: monsters nerf; when I battled my first JK in ages, I was extremely surprise it would hurt me just if I happened to touch it. It just felt like I did JK for the first time all over again, and it wasn't easy. Monsters like devilites are still hard as hell. Devilites danger rooms in T3 are a total pain down somewhere in my back.
Other thing. I just couldn't believe after 8 monthes how few players seemed to have outstanding UV's. It seems everyone is more fond of covering their knights with flowers and bracelets or whatever, rather than becoming more powerful. Kinda weird...
I feel mission enables something developpers decided to banish from the game long ago: looping. Maybe you remember how one could loop T1 arenas (for example) to farm crowns like hell. Now it just seems possible all over again. I keep looping JK to buy Sealed sword, roll an UV on them with the crowns earned, over and over.
I think you have a few points there, OP.

@Pieda: Nobody's looking to buff Devilites at all. They're just fine where they are. It's mobs that are a joke, such as Beasts and Slimes, that we're after.

So far, my favorite point being brought up is made by Tsubasa (I literally almost called you Suda before I had to backspace).
We need to get rid of these... uh.... "steel" cannons. Wolvers and gunners and certain bombers in their gears need to be glass cannons for at least ONE status themed stratum.
The best way to do it, is to do something like this:
Vog Cub / Nameless / Volcanic demo each receive negative poison resistance, half of the full bar each piece
Justifier / Skolver / Mercurial Demo each receive negative fire resistance, half of the full bar each piece
Snarbolax / Shadowsun each receive negative shock resistance, half of the full bar each piece
And to those of you going "OOooooh, my little shorty wolvery set only needs like... a SMALL amount of negative status resista...."
NO!!!!! Shut your mouth. There is nothing that will make me want to explode on anyone more than hearing that. There are NON-wolvery armors with HALF of the full bar of NEGATIVE. STATUS. RESISTANCE. IF NOT MULTIPLE NEGATIVE STATUSES. I am pretty sure your shorty wolver armor can handle it.
All it is is one freaking status. It makes you actually have to watch out for something for once. I don't care if swordsman are meant to "be able to take more damage since they are up close." Oh yeah? Get a more DEFENSIVE armor if that is your problem. Issue with that, wolver IS the defensive armor currently. That's gotta change for at least ONE status themed stratum. So, middle finger to you if you were going to try that crap again.
Okie I'm done my apologies sry
Reason that I did not include Bombastic or Deadshot is because they aren't "Steel" cannon armors.
Reason why Mercurial Demo MORE than deserves the negative fire, is because it has to be set apart from regular Mercurial.

""BAWWWWW THIS GAME SUX"
So, why are you here then?"
Listen to this dude:
Saberyoko said: "I love these guys saying: "If you dont like play, so dont play it"...kkk its good for laugh"
"This is not how things works buddy...look around and ask for yourself:" If everyone in this world say to quit when there is something they don like it?""
Grow up..."

Lol, I B SUDA NAO!
...And I not only mean that minor kind of fix you have up there, I mean increasing the Defensive bars of non-optimizing armors, and decreasing the defense of the Optimizing armors. As well as Bringing the Not used weapons to balance, because they are not used for a reason.
That's a lot of time spent whining...