I have seen many games with wasted potential, and many games that have made me want to throw my computer in the raging fires of the Underworld, but none like Spiral Knights.
It's riddled with so many design flaws it's depressing to think about. Not a single session goes by without me noticing them and quite often, raging over them. I'll try to list a few. Just for discussion and informational purposes, because as I see it, Three Rings has no intention of fixing much, but rather adding new content [scarcely] over the already flawed one, when not making vanity items.
Now, keep in mind this is all personal opinion. I am by no means attacking Three Rings. I am merely exposing their flaws.
Energy System
Just kidding, this one's fine. I personally like it, despite the fact that it may have been abused a little. I think it's okay to limit play time, after all, most people won't run worth more than 100 mist in a day, anyway. Crafting costs however, may be a little high. And the amount of systems that use CE. But this fades compared to other flaws.
Latency
Perhaps the biggest, and most irritating flaw is the absurd latency. I understand this is a MMO, but for crying out loud, it gets RIDICULOUS sometimes. I'm an EU player from the Eastern region, with a decent internet connection. It means I should be fine, no? Not exactly. I feel as though I'm playing on the most sluggish server possible, located on Mars. I can't even imagine how bad it must be for Australian folks.
Poor Programming medium
Let's be honest- Spiral Knights is nowhere near a legit browser game. It's not the game you can just pick up at work and play in 15 minutes. It may have been intended to be this way, but it hasn't really worked out. The Java platform is nowhere fit for a game this size, and I believe it is the main source of lag- both latency and frame rate. It's a shame- Spiral Knights will stay Java, I reckon. I figure it would be extremely tedious to translate it to a more appropriate medium.
Equipment Balance
Obviously, there will always be certain sets of armor to outshine the others, but you should still have a choice.. right? Not in Spiral Knights! If you aren't in full Wolver, you're doing it wrong. Recently Chaos has worked its way up there [overpowered indeed], but there are still several sets which are COMPLETELY useless. They should have something to them- which would complement different play styles, such as extreme defense but slow attack speed [don't say Plate- you're dead if you choose it over Wolver, it has no bonus whatsoever], poor defense but extreme speed [both movement and attack]...
Different Damage types
This in itself, is a brilliant idea. But it is applied horribly. Normal damage is COMPLETELY useless, both on weapons and armor, and should be removed in favor of offering every armor and weapon in every damage type, so the players can actually choose, not be forced to use a Flourish if they want to deal piercing damage. Is it REALLY that hard to create new weapons and armor? REALLY? Apparently, yes.
Weapon Preference/ Forced Choices
You want to be a bomber or gunslinger? Sure, but you'll be more useless to the final DPS than if you had a sword! The situations in which bombers and gunslingers are favored or even useful are so scarce it's ridiculous. [but for one, which is implemented so poorly it's a design flaw, will talk about it later] Really, there isn't much to say here, just that you're a fool if you want to choose your playstyle. Flexibility and choice liberty is not something the developers ever thought about.
Camera Angles
You're just chilling in the upper side of the screen, killing some mobs, when suddenly you find yourself cornered by a Trojan with NO warning and then murdered with no chance of escape! Fun. So much fun.
Trojan Dash Cornering
It's so bad it deserves its own section and it's the definition of bad game design. Sure, you can say, just don't get cornered, but it can happen. And if it does, you just CAN'T escape. Because you'll most likely be stunned and with your health halved, too shocked to figure out which weapon will knock it back faster, and even if you did, he'd attack you faster than you can push him away.
-Vanaduke's Balls Dash
In Phase 3 and 5, if Vanaduke dashes with his balls all hanging out like that, the radius which can hit you is RIDICULOUS. With how fast and unpredictable his dash is [really, why does he dash when you're RIGHT IN HIS FACE. Talk about stupid], you just don't have time to go anywhere far enough to avoid it. And you can't always be half a screen away from him. And even if you are, you're not safe if he dashes your way. This isn't challenging- it's impossible.
Unresponsive Crew
I can understand OOO not chatting with the players on unimportant matters, but blatantly ignoring feedback, which is quite important, such as they will ignore this and not give any answer or motivation for some flaws which could really use a reply, now that's just plain disrespectful and unprofessional. Is it that hard to give a little yes or no on some questions the community has?
Vanaduke Fight
Talk about forced choices. You only have two here- either spend an eternity, or use a Blitz. This is perhaps the worst and most limiting forced choice in this game. I personally dislike the Blitz, and you won't believe how much bull' I have to go through and how much rage I have to face just to use a weapon of my choice, which should even be viable, the BTB. The only messages this fight gives me is: NOPE GO TAKE A BLITZ, HOW DARE YOU MAKE CHOICES!
Fiends
They would be great, challenging enemies if not for the latency mentioned before. Getting hit by a lightning speed projectile before even seeing the enemy raise their hand to attack you is no fun.
This isn't nearly half of the things I could say, but I think I'll stop here. This was quite pointless, but at least I know I got this off my chest. Time to play something that isn't nearly as annoyingly flawed!
I'd be the happiest person if OOO stopped creating new content and instead focused on fixing the already existing one BEFORE adding more. :\
Pretty big post, so I'll respond to the ones that jump out...
Unresponsive Crew - I would disagree here. OOO has been more responsive and transparent about upcoming content than most other MMO's I've played. They give us a 6-month snapshot at upcoming features, and relatively regular updates every month or two. They also -do- take the feedback from other players into account. The whole Guild Hall upgrade thing? That was a massive thread in the Suggestions forum for ages, and they made it happen. Same with buffing gunner armor to offer medium damage bonuses. I'm sure there are many, many others that I'm also not listing here.
I'd challenge you to go find three MMO's that are nearly as transparent and active as the team is here in SK. When you consider how small the SK group is compared to bigger teams, it's even more impressive.
Vanaduke - This boss is designed to be very difficult to fight melee in his final stage. That's the whole point. Before Blitz, we used to use the Argent Peacemaker to take him down - you should try this. It's not that you don't have choices, because you have a ton: just don't try to use a sword, unless your team is pro at throwing water. I think it's great to have some bosses that make you think a little more than just: "swing sword, go go go go!"
Fiends - Connection plays a big part here. If you're on 3 bars or less, you'll want to get used to shielding in advance of their throws - otherwise you'll take damage while the shield is up. It's frustrating, I know, and I get it too. But the trick with fiends is to play defensively, corner them, and then take them down.