Totally agree with you Chase. There is no good reason to do T3 other then trying to get drops from those rare monsters. Lowering the time for T1 is bull, players pay the same amount of energy to be in T1 as they would in T3, so its just not fair.

What's not fair is that t3 players should be punished by giving all three tiers the same payout!
Lowering the time in t1 means overqualified players can't just farm double the tokens for less work!

Lowering the time in t1 means overqualified players can't just farm double the tokens for less work!
His point was that people in T1 and T2 have to pay 10 energy now to play for tokens within a restricted time limit. It's bad for the lower tier players, though, and not reallt for the T3ers.

Thimol, I haven't played this game for as long as you have. You're starting a pissing contest here, and I'm not about to join it.
Ha. That's funny. You want to screw the game over more just because you can't kill a Devilite. I'd like to keep my game from going further down the crapper, thanks.

Honestly, i don't have as much of a problem with greavers and devilites being unfair as them being really horribly balanced against most weapons.

The flourish line is really the only viable set of swords you could use, as all other swords aren't as damaging, aren't as fast, aren't as wide and far-reaching...

Fiend fighting guns either do terrible damage or have annoying mobility issues (Or both, callahan.), and mobility is something you want as a gunner, especially with the high speed projectiles devilites launch. A lack of guns with a wide areas of effect (like the flourish line) makes it difficult to do anything against greavers once they get within melee range.

As far as bombs, i've heard that the DR, a *shadow* bomb, is more effective at interrupting greavers than the DBB, which is the only bomb most people would even think of using on fiends. If you're using a DBB and your charge is even the tiniest bit slower than it could possibly be, you will fail and you will get hit.

Basically, i think they could have come up with a mission that allows more gear diversity, considering it's a holiday event.

Well, how would they go about altering the token grant? Would each green present be worth half of a token, maybe?

I was rather thinking of adding more tokens on the higher tiers. Keeping it as it is on Tier 1 seems reasonable to me.

Skelly shield don't matter none if you're a bomber, since you can't shield before attacking...

I go alone to tier 3, I just set my DBB, shieldpush Grievers once, they eat the first DBB and then the 2nd... and they are out! I think with more people it may take one more, but they aren't that annoying in this mission as it may seem. Just don't panic with Grievers, ever! Also make use of the invincible doors and turrets : )

Though, being a battle against GRINCHLINGS and only seeing them when picking up presents... you know, the first time I went down there with Shadow damage+ Elemental resist, it wasn't nice. AT ALL. At least now Tier 3 has that Stalker once in a moon. So yeah, OOO, how about changing the enemies to, you know, ACTUAL GREMLINGS? Why Fiends? I don't find them hard - because I am used to them by now - but please, don't say that we fight Gremlins and pit us against Fiends...

Also, about p2p with elevator passes: costumers can access unlimited content, they paid, they get that... is as fair as this game is really. I have my energy tank, and can get quite a lot of Winter Wishes per day... and I just want one (OR ALL) Scarfs. Token payout is the same in all Tiers because what wouldn't be really fair is people starting off not being able to get their Boxes/Scarfs like anyone else. So I think they made the correct decision - if you want to exploit Tier 1s with your Passes that is your call, I will try to get many more Humbug Hats~.

Again devilites are not that hard. I run devilish drudgeries all the time and normally get hit 1-3 times the whole level.
Whenever I do an infernal passage level I do 1-4 times because greavers are horrible.
I use a voltedge.

Please speak for yourself, not the community. I disagree with every single part of your letter except maybe number 3, but even then that's debatable.

There is no reason to do the Tier 3 mission when it doesn't even pay off more than a Tier 1 run. To increase incentive they should have just increased token payouts. I don't even see how cutting the time in general was even an idea to begin with. Just increase token payouts. Tier 3 runs netted about 30 tokens at most while tier 1 runs netted over 120 with a good party. The idea of cutting the time is just dumb.

It's kinda already bad enough that the whole 'event' for the holidays is just a repetitive boring mission. I was talking to Biznasty the other day about this, this just isn't how you handle an event. Then again OOO hasn't been too promising with holiday events lately. Although if anything this whole downhill thing started when SEGA bought the company, now SK is just a way to milk money as opposed to... well, an MMO. Sure most MMO's tried to milk your money but at least there was usually a sense of satisfaction? Or fulfillment? My guild and I have been mostly sitting this event out for the sole reason that it's mostly a waste of energy. Now they try to win players over with a recoloured hat that apparently already goes for only 5k cr.

GG

"P.S. Community, if you have anything you would like to add, please feel free to do so in the comments of this thread."

Yeah, I have something to say. I don't remember saying that I support this. If you're trying to speak on behalf of the entire Spiral Knights community, maybe you should wait until you're sure that the entire Spiral Knights community agrees. You and your guild make up a very small portion of the community; you have no right to speak on behalf of others.

1) They changed the time limits. That doesn't punish anyone; it fixes the terrible balance between tiers that existed before today's update. Before, T3 players were "punished" for playing in their own tier, while T1 players got rewarded with a brain-dead easy holiday event. People were making alternate accounts for the express purpose of playing in T1; that alone should signify that there is a problem that needs to be fixed.

Just like T3 players could be invited to T1, T1 players can be invited to T3. Nothing has changed. T3 is a huge leap in difficulty compared to T1, and now that it has the most time and the chance to drop special loot, players now have a reason to even bother playing T3 Winterfest. They did everything right.

2) "Well geared player" does not mean "skilled, experienced player". Anybody can whip out their credit card, buy themselves 5* gear, and then jump straight into T3 Winterfest; however, you can't buy yourself competence. I've done T3 a few times already, and it's not hard at all. It requires a bit more mob management and cautiousness, but it's easily beatable. You need to find better partners and/or practice to get better.

3) No. Just, no. NO. Fiends are the only monster type left in the game that actually requires me to be half-awake to kill. I started playing a year ago; back then, all the monsters were about as difficult as the Fiend family. It was fun, extremely fun. I loved the combat and skill based gameplay. If you didn't have any idea what you were doing, you didn't have any chance to survive. The difference in skill between players was much more apparent, and levels like the wolver dens actually provided a challenge.

Then after about a month and a half of playing, I take a one year break and come back to find that nearly everything in the game has been nerfed to oblivion. I can just sit in the middle of a group of mobs, not even attacking, and dodge every single attack they throw at me by moving one step to the side. That's how bad it is. Fiends are like the only enemy type that haven't been nerfed to complete uselessness, and nerfing them would remove nearly any challenge this game still has.

If anything, I vote for OOO to buff all the other monster families to be on-par with Fiends. I'd be back in the arcade in an instant if that happened.

"Hello, I know I speak for everyone in the SK community, hence the official label, when I say that we are all overly-entitled buckets who can't handle things more difficult than walks in the parks because the scenic route MUST be more worth it, or else."

YES

~Sev

In complete agreement with Laraso here.

Wolvers too, i recall they used to track players while telegraphing and attacking.

In short, I haven't noticed that the other monsters have been nerfed.

Either you must be really good or really bad.

-Retrode/Zombie slash has been slowed dramatically.
-Retrodes/Zombies/Wolvers can't change direction while attacking (they used to be able to freely rotate on the spot while attacking).
-Giant fricking four-second pause when monsters spawn.

Also there may have been a general nerfing of stats, like HP and attack power, but that's likely wrong.

Not a big fan of the Humbug hat. The scarfs are nice touch but not enough incentive for me to go back to farm more Winterfest.

You know what will get me back to Winterfest, OOO? Beast scales. I'm disappointed that none of the chromas in the Winterfest levels drop mats.

All you need to do is, allow monsters in Winterfest to drop items other than hearts, so people can farm those hard to get mats for GH trophies. Map? Reuse. Mechanics? Reuse. Timers? As is. Hack, even the token payout can be kept as is because people will farm Winterfest (at all levels). T1? As is. T2? As is. T3? People will just wait for non-fiend level (e.g. beast) and farm like any CW levels.

Fiends and greavers aren't very big problem. It becomes a problem when at T3, your teammates (e.g. PUG) panic and keep hitting the switches. Then it is the biggest turn off for Winterfest.

TL ; DR. let monsters in Winterfest drop mats.

BTW this is now a suggestion thread. Eury feels free to move this thread.

" I'm disappointed that there are 0 wolves or chromas in the Winterfest levels. "

Eltia, there are only six different varieties of monster in the winterfest mission, i believe, and i'm fairly certain one of those is a type of chromalisk...

I agree with Laraso. Fiends are the only family that provides a tough fight with ALL its members; Greavers chase you and chase you and give your bomber hell, Devilites track you while chucking projectiles at you, Silkwings will heal things so fast you basically HAVE to kill them first (or use Poison), and Trojans are big and get in the way while their allies pelt you. Heart of Ice is a perfect example of Fiends working in tandem with each other and with other tricky enemies like Howlitzers.

Sure, some monsters are tougher than most of their family, such as Mecha Knights (especially Volt Knights) and Rocket Puppies for the Constructs, or Toxoils (assuming you're not running around in Dragon Scale) for the Slimes. But all the non-Fiend families could still use a buff; Wolvers are a prime example, going from a menace (especially the Alphas) to a joke. Anybody with a Spine Cone can decimate the suckers now.

Anyway, how often are you guys seeing the Humbug Hats drop? I've done four T3 runs and haven't seen one drop quite yet.

"So yeah, OOO, how about changing the enemies to, you know, ACTUAL GREMLINS? Why Fiends? I don't find them hard - because I am used to them by now - but please, don't say that we fight Gremlins and pit us against Fiends..."

[Blessing] This!

I was like, oh those darn Grinchlins! Imma bash their heads in.

*Walk in with inappropriate gear.*
Fiends: Sup?
Me: Oh...well this might not go well...
*One run of presents later*
Me: OH THIS IS BAD, THIS IS VERY BAD, TOO MANY FIENDS HARGHLGABLBBAAAAAAABL *ded*

I was expecting to fight Grinchlins to keep them from stealing presents. Fiends don't get holidays off! I'm sure a certain Pitboss on the forums would agree.

You have snarby Yet you cant kill devilities?

I disagree with the The Official letter
first it isn't official because lots of People Disagree with it. So please change that.

If you want to have a good and fun Christmas event, to keep your players logging back into the game, and spending their money on your company, why would you make your events beyond difficult, and un-fun for everyone?

Its difficult because people will keep on rage reving and wasting there Crystal energy and crowns. Once they run out they will be urged to buy more ce and Spend $

Devilities dont need a Nerf Since most of the monsters were nerfed.

There are two categories of players here now:
the "I want monsters STRONGER!!! I'm BORED!!!" category: please just find a harder game to play instead of forcing a harder game on everyone else. I, for one, find the balanced monsters a nice touch to the game. No longer I need absolutely minimal latency to avoid getting hit across the entire room just because monster did an instant swing and hit me while on my screen I was FAR away at that moment. No longer I need to improve my internet connection infinitely beyond reasonable limits all thanks to "nerfed" and "weakened" monsters. I can ENJOY the game now!
You want to break the game for me? Please, find a harder game!
The second category of players - ones who actually enjoy the game - please provide feedback, I'm sure developers will listed to it and at least try to figure out what went wrong with simple, boring, repeating and absolutely unrewarding event like this year's winterfest.

PS: I love feeding the trolls, they're fun to watch, but I really hate doing so on Spiral Knights forums - more than once developers misundertood fat-fed trolls for actual players with actual desires to make the game harder (more "entertaining") and simply made it worse for everyone else. Again, if you find this game too easy, please switch to something harder, there are numerous games out there that won't tolerate as many mistakes as SK does.

*insert confession bear meme here*

I rather'd see deviliites get nerfed.

Though I would like beasts to get buffed

"All your reasons that you list of why you are able to "ENJOY the game now!" can be basically summed up by saying that you have a terrible connection and you want all the monsters to be extremely easy so you don't have to get a better connection."

I do know that bad latency can bring bane to your monster hunting trips, especially against devilites when they throw stuff at you in less than a second. The fact that I could not react fast enough has brought to me new tactics to hunting devilites. Such as shielding until they finished throwing their stuff, then go super saiyan and poke them to death.