Ok so I thought about this and was thinking about Slayeronline and how everybody on the first village was a newbie and when you got to the 2nd village, people started to get their **** together.
So I was thinking: Why not make a 2nd Haven (or village) that you CAN join whenever you have defeated SL Vana (or maybe just done SL Snarby).
Like a nice little town with Brinks hanging out next to the AH with Punch and Vise, talking about minerals and stuff. A little niche place that has everything close.
Or course I was thinking about the: Why would it be there and where would it be?
Why: A place for advance knight to chillout. Spiral Knights need a 2nd home for advance player to be/trade/relax and hangout with others 5*. D2 is a good example of this. In Act IV people had already 20 to 30 levels and are much more experienced than those lvl 10 you see on Act II.
Where: Defending/watching the core with a nearby "made to go" village with the essentials: Brinks, Vise and Punch with AH and a Crafting machine.
The Pros:
- A spot for advanced player to hangout.
- New area for future promotions (example: World Event, The core has broken loose and a group of brave Knights has to contain the breach of invading monster while X/Y/Z persons arrives with a plug/spell/thingy to fix it, with a special loot in there)
- Will promote interaction between higher Tier knights and create a smaller community of skilled knights
The Cons:
- Create a bigger gap between newcomer and older knights
- Another spot to be empty whenever the population is away on Vacation or whatever
- Have to fit the story-line which I has no clue what it is
Last note: I wish there was a 2nd village in SK, maybe not for "only people who has beaten Snarby SL" but maybe another home for 8-2/9-1 rank Knights... Or Vanguard knights...
Haven is nice and all but it's getting as old as the UI -_-
Oh wait we haz a new UI, Haven is getting really old o.O
Covers everything you just mentioned.
If you want to spice up Haven, try this.