this thread is a dumping-ground for random ideas I've had while playing, I'll get right to it.

costume shields:
there's lots of shields out there, but not all are useful for whatever role you are playing, and some don't fit with the ascetic of your character. adding costume shields would work pretty well to deal with that, maybe you think the two-star version is cooler-looking than the five-star one, or whatever. the way the shield mechanic works means that it doesn't matter what the shield looks like anyway, so why not?

Bigga gunz, Giant Thwakaz & the liberal application of More Dakka: a few weapon ideas.

first-things-first, the guns. all the guns in the game currently are only barely competitive, with little to offset the disadvantages of using them.
before anything else, I'll say that the gunslinger sets are awesome, but would be far more useful if they increased reload speed instead.
secondly, damage potential. before you say anything, having personally tested most of the guns considered 'Decent' by most, they direly need some buffs. either greater range, more damage, or higher status effect chances etc.
If I unload a Fiery Pepperbox's charged attack right in the face of a tier-one slime, it should DIE, dammit, not survive long enough to hit me while I'm reloading. which brings me to my next point, Dual-wielding!

I put a bit of though into this, and the best solution would be make dual-wielding a Crowns thing, to add a crown-sink lots of people will use all the time. now the dilemma was, with the already busy interface, where to put it? then a conversion with a friend provided the answer: the shield slot!
this kills two theoretical birds with one metaphorical stone: the GUI remains uncluttered by legions of icons, and imposes a penelty to offset the dual-wield bonus, namely, you're a bit more squishy due to not being able to block.

I then took this one step further:
what about truly Colossal weapons, that are so big you need two hands to operate it? halberds, pikes, even more exotic things like scythes or massive swords! or the other way, schlepping around a cannon that does massive damage but requires two slots? miniguns, mining lasers, an actual cannon, the sky's the limit!
hell, since schitzo tech is clearly in force, why not energy or steam weapons? (read: FLAMEthrower)

I've also had some boss ideas:
how 'bout the frelling gremlin king? be a good tier-two or tier-three encounter aye?
or a big ol' wuffy? the tier-one peeps need a boss encounter too methinks...
or and 'arena of Doom' type fight, a relatively weak boss that wears you down with minions before joining the fray himself (perhaps atop some sort of clockwork contraption that fights you as an 'arena champion' for the first boss stage, then gets destroyed/incapacitated to allow direct attack on the mastermind.)
or even a level-one encounter with a big bad where the goal isn't to kill him, but rather to get hit to plummet off a platform to (presumably) his doom, only to discover (later, in tier two or three) that he survived after all and now you've got to kill 'im for reals. kinda and abortive 'kill the aspiring heros before they are a threat' moment, where the Big bad is so confident in his ability to "crush you puny insects with barely an effort" that the heros (that's you, by the way) can outsmart him. (yes, I spend hours on Tvtropes.com, why do you ask?)
oohh! make it Vanaduke, using some charge attack like the Trojans do! essentially you win the fight by getting him to charge off the platform somehow.
perfect time for a Big NOOO too...
it'd certainly be interesting...
maybe as a unfarmable bit...
OH! have him show up as the end of the Rescue camp => Haven commute! that'd be perfect!

some crown-sink ideas to increase the demand and keep energy prices somewhat stable (or: why economics is a requirement in high-school now)

my fist idea came to me my second day of playing, (when I spent three hours hoping for the stupid randomized shard drops to give blue shards for my autogun,) a service that, for a small fee, (say 1500 crowns) converts one unit of minerals into, say, three shards of the corresponding color. this would add a real choice: do I get reimbursed for minerals, or do I convert them? note that in order for this to work, the service must have a limit per transaction, so converting equals a net loss on the player's part, preventing people from turning around and selling the things at-profit. this would drive up the demand for crowns (along the same line of thinking, perhaps a way to find more tokens, like a mini-game or mission reward ("kill 30 dust zomms and ya gets a token kinda thing) that charge crowns could help balance that equation...) and help the busted economy (as, once again, we're about to crack 5000 crowns per 100 energy again...)

the second idea is simply a costume store, unique costume items like those already in circulation, spiffy hats and such.
the third would be to inflate the currency, but that only works short-term and never ends well.

and lastly, simply imposing a price ceiling on energy.

I'm sure more will occur to me at some later date, in the meantime, I'd like to hear your opinions!