I can fathom 100 needs every hour. I want a chat addon so I can filter channels into separate windows. I want a health bar addon so I can see how much health JK and other various large baddies have left. I want a map addon that recognizes levels and gives me a popup with a quick layout so I can see what turns I sometimes still screw up. And that just took 11 seconds. There's plenty of things that could be done, but I don't think it will be. Browser games aren't that conducive to addons...

Spiral Knights isn't a browser game, it's a Java application. That's different from an applet which is run exclusively from inside of a browser. There are ways of patching Lua and Python into the Java runtime by way of JNI interfaces. There are even XML readers built into the basic Java libraries. They COULD add mod support, but honestly there's no need to really besides chat segregation, and even that's something they could include native.

It's impossible to have boss health-bars as an addon since you can't see how much damage your party members deal to an enemy.
Could work for soloing if you had the monsters hp formula, which we don't.

It's not about necessity, it's about optimization. Sure, I can find the elevator without a map addon, but if I have a map addon it saves me 7-8 seconds checking out to see if there is a gate or a crystal room.

The other things WOULD be better put into the game itself. The point is they AREN'T. That's why it's called an addon. You do know that it's fine for a developer to incorporate an addon into the game later one? Nothing stops them from doing that.

It's not about being helpless. As I said before, it's about optimization and decision making. I would use a boss addon, and then I would be a better player than you. Period. You can't mentally keep track of every point that all four players take off the health points of a boss; but a person with a health addon would be able to and properly predict phase changes sooner than the visual indicators of a phase change.

Personally I think this game is not that conducive to addons, and that they are not necessary. But that doesn't stop me from wanting specific ones so that I can improve my playing, shave seconds off my map run time, more quickly send mail with numerous attachments, separate out and color chat to my liking, and various other quirks that I want to customize MY way.

With a boss that regenerates and has a sea of goons hindering your path, it can be difficult to actually keep on him without subjecting yourself to reckless endangerment, which makes the nearness of his death a mystery even if he's in his Rage Phase.

Addons are actually helpful to 3R and players, not harmful or degenerate. Instead of 3R having to implement new mechanics into the game (like an auction house, or merging trade channels, etc. etc.), they can actually leave it "open for development" (which is pretty much free labor) and is what addons do for 3R. For players, it allows us to change the layouts/UI the way that makes US feel comfortable (personally, I would like to have my health as a circular gage under my characters feet, so I don't have to look far from the action to see if I need to use a pill).

Yes, some of these things 3R could just implement into the game and patch it....but that makes it permanent, and not everyone wants the same thing. A patch is a permanent fix, where addons can allow you to have a specific layout/ability even after further future patching. Plus...have you ever tried auctioneer for WoW? I'm sure 3R will probably make their AH simple and boring, but having the ability to see on-the-fly statistics of items over a length of time can give players an edge on market prices (we all want to get our crown's worth right?). You can argue that it puts unfair advantage on those with addons....but they would already have an unfair advantage on you anyway, it's called paper and pen (but addons at least give everyone a chance to have the same advantage, leveling the field).

Making comparisons to subscription based games like WoW are pointless. They are designed around completely differently business models.

Subscription games are meant to be played in long sessions. They are designed around complexity so that players will continue to play as the game evolves. The appeals come from players wanting to dissect every little detail and figuring out how use this information to their advantage.

Spiral Knights is meant to be played in short sessions. You have the option of playing for longer spans of time but that requires getting deeply involved in the CE market. The appeal comes from exploration and experimentation.

What is so important about rushing through all of the current content? Bragging rights in an online game are fleeting. A map addon might be convenient, but it doesn't actually make the game more fun to play. Once you are familiar with a map layout, you already know where everything is in subsequent runs.

New players are very important for microtransaction games to function properly. The moment new players feel too intimidated by a casual game like Spiral Knights, the system falls apart. New players don't want to feel like they are at a huge disadvantage because they didn't use an addon to track the statistics of the auction house. They don't want complex damage formulas thrown in their faces at the outset. They just want to have some fun playing the game without feeling like they were "playing the game wrong".

I disagree with the following statement:

"A map addon might be convenient, but it doesn't actually make the game more fun to play."

How can anyone dictate what is and is not fun? The answer is they cannot. "Fun" is very abstract and subjective, not limited to what any given person describes it as. I for one believe a map addon (or at the very least an option to use the minimap more than we use it now) would increase the amount of fun I have by a great amount. I don't take the time to memorize the layout of every level and it's at least slightly annoying when I walk down a god-awfully long passage at a fork only to find out it's a party button, and that the treasure chests lie back down that path and up an equally long one.

For the most part, though, I agree with you. I don't think addons are completely needed as this is a game that is very oriented toward casual players. But, being one of those people that plays for long periods of time, I'd like the ability to shave time off my runs or give me something new to play around with.

addon for "move" lot item with 1 mousse slide , because clik 500 time on my mineral for make a door , it piss me off ! and i think its same for everyone.

wait 3R do that in patch ? we can wait looooongtime , they would have done at the base, if this is not done from the beginning, they never think.... but addon can make per particular , it change everything !

I am going to have to try it for trades. It has been a patch or 2 since I did a big trade, but last time I did I know that didn't work. Might have been stealth patched.

~Gwen

!!! I didn't know about this! Oh man, awesome trick. I'll definitely try out this the next time I trade stuff. Fingers crossed that it hasn't been stealth patched. ;o

;c Just tried it, and it doesn't seem to work. At least, not for the auction or mailing.

Just tried shift+click for trading, doesn't work.

~Gwen

@Endymion plz to be adding it to the auction house. Pretty much all the mats I sell are in stacks of 10.