It'd also be cool if you guys rewrote your network code to include lag prediction/interpolation. It'd fix like a billion problems with people getting hit by things that aren't anywhere near them.

Also fix issues with player commands being executed out of order on the server... that's just a terrible design oversight. For example if you shoot a gun, then spin, your projectile will fly off in a new direction instead of the direction you were aiming when you fired.

Moving my mouse cursor while I'm in another program or on the desktop and SK is open but minimized is a big no no. Triggers often when CE is bought/sold on the market.

And if you want these in your bug report system, you can put them there yourself, it is not our responsibility to fix the game for three rings.

What does this mean for players who got to 5* before missions, but never decided to do them? Do they have to go back to proto now?

That...made me cringe pretty bad. Tis' is quite a punch in the face for those retro players out there.

Maybe knights which were created before the mission update should get a special artifact that allows them to wear whatever the please? One thing which I like about this is that now players can't get Seerus items ahead of their time like they currently can.

What worries me is how we can't test this new limit. What if something is wrong with it!? D:

I for one welcome the crafting changes, as it will likely make newer players more likely to stay and play the game. We pointed out that awful statistic to them, and I'm sure they've seen it. You know, the one where like 50 something percent of people quit at or before reaching Haven. So perhaps this is their response?

except these crafting pods require ce, so it just adds another regulation to crafting and guess what, party members cant revive others? = another energy sink, aka players will get angry that their mist is lower and TADAAA quit the game.

This is ridiculous, for every good decision these guys make, they make 10 bad ones

I think you can use your LS (Life Spark, which I am calling them because SL is already used) on other party members if I'm right.

Wait, what about that Revive Party! button? Will we need a lot of sparks? Also another issue this might cause is because players will no longer be willing to pay energy to revive, instead sitting until the elevator.

Another issue: How much are sparks on life going to cost? (I didn't get to check) If we can get them with mist and they last forever, in theory then we can hoard them and then be super man with energy revives. (Or maybe you don't buy them? Maybe I misread? Maybe they just drop from stuffs? I'm not sure. '~')

Yes, but due to SoLs being more rare than CE, which can be bought in billions, less people will use them and prefer saving them most likely. I'm going to guess that multiple revives will cost increasingly more SoLs so probably a ton for party revs. You can't trade mist, so it'll be bought with CE/cr like any other item I think. They do drop according to the notes. Cost will depend on rarity.

My drakon was only able to shoot down, and upon returning to the lab after the second stratum of A Revelation in Flames, the game froze. I had to restart my computer.

I played through the Royal Jelly Pallace on the hardest difficulty, and the jelly minis were dropping loot. It was great! Then I realized the respawning minis and even the minis during the boss fight were also dropping crowns...

In the end I made well over 9000 crowns with a RJP run...

the only flaw i see is that you have to go around picking up all of the CR once someone else kills something, just use the current method everyone gets it once someone picks it up but with Materials now also

I haven't seen my pet successfully use Heart Attack fellow Knights I am teaming with in Rabid Snarbolax don't see any hearts dropping, my Kat is maxed level and still nothing. Bug or just bad odds?
- Divine Crusader of Over Powered Noobs and Sword of Skylark

I'ma echo what others have said...

The new party mechanics are irritating. Yes it makes a bit more sense and lets you feel more selfish... but it's outright annoying. Same with the rev system.

I liked the old revive system and felt that it already gave you incentive to work with others. This new rev system does the exact opposite of what was intended. It gives you all the resources you need to revive yourself. Before it was a choice between a quick but costly rev, or wait for an ally to help you. Now it's either spend your own money, or spend your allies' money.

I agree the new revival update is nice but shouldn't we Knights get the option to use a Spark of Life or Health revive? I am sorry but it seems like to a lot of us solo FSC/SL artists is that these new updates are more leaned and favored to the Tier 1 - Tier 2 noobs that can't do anything and keep dying due to lack of skills plus the health reviving is killing their survival NOT the Tier 3 FSC runners like I said. Again I apologize for my bluntness but it needs to be said, WHY DO WE ALL HAVE TO SUFFER FOR DUMB NOOBS NOT KNOWING HOW TO PLAY AS A TEAM OR WORSE LACK OF COMMUNICATION. To end this comment I think you should have these options when a Knight die
1. Return to Haven
2. Health Revive
3. Spark of Live
4. Team Revive

Thank you for your time, God bless :)
- Divine Crusader of Over Powered Noobs & Sword of Skylark

Battle Sprites:

• For the most part, pretty good, but the intro missions don't give you a very good idea of the sprite's abilities. The enemies die too fast?
• If there's a picture of the sprite next to our knight's portrait, why not have that be how you access the sprite menu? It seems more intuitive that way to me.
• Realizing this is still in beta, the harnesses need descriptions.
• The appearance of the sprites themselves is pretty awesome. The only thing that seems weird is the floating animation- they glide almost too smoothly. A little bobbing would make it seem more natural.
• When allocating skill points, the items (for seraphynx's Ray of Light, it's Focus, Magnify, and Enduring Light) need descriptions. It's probably in the wiki, but it should be available IN the game, too.
• I like how you integrated the player's personal color in the designs! Could there be ways to maybe change the color scheme, the way you choose Cool, Fancy, Military, etc. during character creation?

Other:

• I still don't understand the new alchemising method, with the orbs. I don't understand your reasoning for switching it.
• I also don't understand your reasoning behind changing the revive system the way you did. It's one of the few things I've heard people complaining about. Now dying isn't a big deal at all... I think you should only change either no more using energy for it, or no more escalating cost. Have it like, T1, always 5 to rev; T2 always 10 to rev; T3 always 15 to rev, or something like that. OR make it so you have to use more Sparks of Life to rev each time.
• I think the new material distribution is going to go over like a lead balloon. Again, if instead of going all the way to everyone gets everything, I think having certain items go to everyone and others only go to random party members would be better. Someone also mentioned that having everyone need to walk though every mat would be annoying. I agree.
• I don't want to see what I look like without my costume whenever I go to examine my character, I want to see what it'll actually look like! Could you maybe make that an option? You could change it back to the way it was before, if you'd make it so that the battle sprite's menu would come from clicking its mini-portrait...
• Ha ha, I like the way you're preventing overpowering by newbies! The way it's worded is a little confusing; in the official announcement, you might want to specify that once someone has clearance to use a certain level of gear, they can use it in any mission level.

In conclusion:

The battle sprites are awesome so far. A few unfinished things, obviously, but other than that, they're great!

The other changes... not so awesome. The reasoning behind the overhauls isn't there. Please explain it to us, other than making something up about parties. The changes to the mat distribution and revving system do nothing to affect the likeliness of people joining parties, good or bad.

It seems to me like you're shooting yourselves in the foot by making it so that energy isn't the core of the game any more (make sure to get rid of all the Energetic Knights). Isn't that how OOO makes its money, by selling CE to players for real money?

I can't think of anything else to add right now, and I've already got a pretty impressive wall of text, so anything else I think of, I'll make a new post.

My favorite character to play missions at the moment, is an up and coming 'Knight' named Fe-Tarkus. I am trying to go 4-5* non-HoH playthrough and gain 5k+ prestige at 'Knight' rank for the challenge of it and somewhat roleplaying... Perhaps I could be a 'Knight Elite', but I find just being a 'Knight' to be more satisfying.

Black Iron Tarkus was no 'Champion' or 'Vanguard', he was a mighty 'Knight'.

Please make some way for people to have Equipment clearance through an alternative route other than through completing missions, or allow me to change my rank-title to 'Knight' or some other title.
Perhaps if I surpass the prestige of a Vanguard who only did story-line missions, could I have 5* weapon access? /begs

I'm not a part of the preview, nor am I going to be, but I certainly can't wait for this update. I don't give suggestions out on many new things that are added to the game, and this is one of the first times I've done so, so here goes.

Battle Sprites

Maskeraith sounds fun, Seraphynx's Heart Attack sounds like it could use some reworking. I'm also worried about the Drakon's fireball disappearing if one is backed into a wall.

New Items

I am so glad the crafting system is changing. I had all this CE stockpiled for upgrading my 4* gear once it hit level 10, and now I'm going to have the perfect opportunity to use it for absolutely nothing. Additionally, everyone who stockpiled CE to craft will suddenly rush to spend it on Orbs of Alchemy, so I don't forsee any problems whatsoever there. In fact, why not just remove CE in general? Make the game mist-based, perhaps.

Health sharing revives are removed? Finally! I was sick of friends stealing my heat, which I didn't need anyway due to having 5* gear, to place on their measly 4* gear that they desperately needed to heat. Brilliant. Now I can just spend my own money to revive myself, or they can spend theirs to revive me, instead of continuing with gameplay as before, like back when revivals were so ridiculously convenient. I mean, seriously, why go back? Surely no one enjoyed simply being able to drop half their health to keep gameplay flowing smoothly. Now it should be much better, when one knight can attempt to 'purchase' a spark of life to revive a teammate and get killed in the process. No forseeable issues there.

Difficulty Modes

All sarcasm aside, I'm pretty excited about this. The one shining strong point in a rather disheartening update. Don't screw it up.

Loot Distribution

Fantastic! I love running from one side of a level to another, just to hear the satisfying "clink-plunk" of 5 crowns falling into my inventory, if they haven't disappeared already because my teammate killed a monster too soon. In fact, here's a suggestion. Why not make it more interesting, and put the crown/heat despawn on a random timer? I'm thinking somewhere between 10 and 30 seconds. That should keep knights on their toes. And I would prefer the old system, when mats/items were given to only one knight. It seemed the right thing to do. Seriously, if a partied knight finds a Darkfang now, suddenly there's 4 Darkfangs running around the economy. Vitapod distribution, I like, though. Keep that. It'll fix the ridiculous previous oversight of not making vitas droppable.

Equipment Limits

"We think it's in the best interests of the game."

I hope you realize something.
-Out there, buried in your playerbase, there are 5* knights who hold gear they earned before the mission system was ever released. These knights are proud of their apprentice-ness, and flaunt it with flair.
-There are also 5* knights who quit once and will return to check up on the game and give it a whirl again.
-There are knights who challenge themselves by trying to reach 5* from obscenely admirable low ranks. Mr-Hex was mentioned earlier in the comments. Ever heard of him? He's in your playerbase. Go find him at the Rescue Camp. He probably has some strong opinions to share with you about this equipment limit thing.

ALL of these knights will be given 2 choices, and it won't look good for you either way:
1.) They will be forced to advance through the mission system, abandoning their high-level gameplay and items for a forced gear level that will then need to be crafted, WHICH COSTS A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF CROWNS, into 4/5* gear all over again. This forces the player into a particular way of playing the game. Essentially, you're telling them "You'll play OUR way," which is a huge turn-off. They will dislike you.
2.) They will simply abandon the game for the aforementioned reason.

Heck, I have an alt who remains a high-prestige squire with 3* weapons, and he will no longer be able to use them. I'm a bit annoyed.

Summary

Okay. So you feel these changes are in the best interest of the game. We'll see. But a phrase comes to mind when I think about what you're proposing to change: "If it ain't broke, don't fix is."

Here's what I like about the change; you're fixin' what's broke:
-Materials now drop for erryone, yay
-Vitapods are fixed at last
-Difficulty will (hopefully) make endgame players happier
Here's what I dislike about the change; you're fixin' what ain't broke:
-Equipment Limits
-Loot Distribution Changes
-Health Sharing Revives

I have some rather negative opinions about these proposed changes. However, I suppose I will wait to try it for myself, and perhaps it will not be as bad as I imagine. I hear you say "It's for a larger plan we can't announce yet," but I imagine this will be released sometime in Spring of 2014. I'm going to play this update as a loyal knight, but it will have quite an impact on your game that I hope you've considered heavily.

My hopes are not high.

Lux out.

The Controls
Are unresponsive. After I use a Sprite ability I immediately hold down my attack button so I can continue charging bombs. However, I do not start to charge bombs at all. Instead, I need to wait for the animation of sprite commandment to be done before thinking about pressing the attack button, otherwise I can hold the button all day with nothing happening. This gets me killed and needs to be fixed.

Caustic Quills
Don't stack up. Your announcement said they would. If this is a deliberate limitation to make me spread the effect out, the spread of the attack needs to be much, much wider.

Heart Attack
Does nothing. Now, I've only been playing on Elite, and I recognize that Elite basically just removes heart drops, but Heart Attack should be able to make heart spawns regardless. You can't have 1/3 of a sprite become entirely useless on the highest difficulty level, that's absurd. You're telling Seraphynx players they made the wrong choice for their battle sprite, and there shouldn't be a wrong choice.

Hexing Haze
Does not get its time extended when enemies are tagged. If it does, it's by a very imperceptible amount. I tagged the entire central courtyard in D25 of Firestorm Citadel and the duration did not feel any longer than when I experimented by tagging just a single enemy. If there is some kind of arbitrary limitation on how high the duration can go, remove it.

The ability also works on shielded enemies, even on the side that's shielded. This is okay in my book; please don't "fix" this "bug" and also make Catalyzers behave the same way.

Maskeraith
Is the best. I thought he'd be the strongest and turns out I was entirely right. With his evil magics he runs my foes through with dark, piercing shards of poisonous death. He can make people explode with his lethal flatulence, and he can make me faceroll traps with his defence buff.

I named him Muffins. All hail Muffins.

The Missions
Are okay I guess. I don't feel like I got to give Seraphynx a fair shake since Heart Attack was really awful for the brief time I tried it. I tagged a dozen enemies and never saw a single heart. You might want to max that particular ability for the test run.

That Last Mission
Was fun. I liked the boss a lot, even though his weak period was not very conducive to bombing. That's common in this game, though, so I'm used to it.

The Evo Thingamajigs
Should be explained. I read every line of dialogue from every character involved and not one of them could tell me where to get one. Biscotti and that other guy both mention the Evo thingies, but neither have a dialogue option for "where can I get one of those?".

Eventually I asked Qwote and he told me they were in the supply depot.

The Difficulty Modes
Are alright I guess. I didn't notice any difference apart from the lack of hearts.

Is the ultimate Evo Catalyst for ultimate skill?

If so... lvl 90 is a bit much for ult attack o.O

And like many people mention, D25 of FSC, people always divide to conquer rather than taking the long time to go in a squad...

Edit: Dem perks o.O LOVING IT!!!! :O *GASP*

There's a lot of downside and a lot of crown/mineral/mat sink but it has great potential! Don't screw it up! I have a lvl 89 Maskeraith, will have the same for Drakon/Seraphynx by tomorow :D

Edit 2: New charge bar = awesome
Pills inside heart box = new change, love it
minerals inside boxes (found 2 red minerals) = best idea of all time

I will say this, I'm liking the Battle Sprite but at the moment Seraphynx's Heart Attack doesn't seen to work, as many people have pointed it out. However, this is still just a test and this can be fix/patch. I also like the ideal of including the difficulty setting.

I could say about the issues with the revive system and loots but then again, everyone have already voiced their opinion and I would say the same thing myself.

I was thinking behind the reasoning and if spark drops are rare enough, but common enough, then removal of team health revive might not be an issue.
Only problem is if they're too common then it's essentially free revives.

I like most of this patch.

Well, except I would now rather solo everything unless a friend asks for help.

Although we don't have a real picture of drop rates for sparks of life so maybe it won't be that big of a deal after all.

But really, the sacrificial nature of a health sharing revive contributed a lot to a party mentality.

It seems silly having the difficulty sliders on missions-those are supposedly not meant for replay anyway. So shouldn't those sliders be saved for the arcade where they can enable them to be profitably viable relative to missions?

Changes to Loot drops:
Making each person have to pick up each individual crown and heat drop is plain stupid, especially on floor like Charred Court, where they'll despawn before you can get to them. The system is perfectly fine.

Changes to crafting:
I haven't played any t3 to see the drop rates, and seeing as I can't actually see the prices in the supply depot I don't really have much of an opinion on this

Combined these two changes effectively kill all uses of using alt accounts to mist craft or farm more crowns per run. Add the restrictions for equipment and alts are useless. Not. Happy.

Battle Sprite Positives:
Variety - The variety in skills and roles that they play are excellent, and will make the game more interesting. Can't wait to see ultimate skills.
Aesthetics - they're all so purdy <3

Negatives:
Global CD - Silly. Please remove.
Having to be exactly facing an enemy to activate abilities - Stupid. Especially with aoe or defensive abilities such as heart attack or that flame barrier thing

New Missions:
Loving the new missions and the levels in them - I hope we get some of the modules in the missions in the arcade as well. Special mention goes to the collector - I hope to see more storyline for him.

The Lab:
Very nice, although biscotti seems out of place. Are we going to get any storyline for how we recovered the artifact, or did it just magic back there?

Navigating the battle sprite info seems hidden. I had to actually think through the menus rather than mindlessly find my way.

I'd recommend simplifying options and removing elements of sprite control so we don't get buttons thrown at us that act like a magic box for the sprite. This is a mindless game, not a spreadsheet game (yes I know even with sprites it's not a spreadsheet game, but people don't like planning on minutia).

I like grinding as you can take it non-seriously. It allows you to plan it out as well as go on for hours on end without repercussion for lack of such. To throw various UI elements at a player with non-immediately clear effects, this will require players to second guess themselves and start a forced process of planning he or she may not want to deal with.

So does this now mean that item drops like swords, armour, bombs, etc. is given to everyone if it drops?

Now that I have had time, these sprites are a great idea definitely. Although I have to be facing an enemy to use an attack, its understandable. Point in the direction the enemy is. What slightly pulls me back is that the ghost type sprite, his needle attack is sent out in a quick and wide pattern, and apparently designed for larger enemies and groups? If that is the case, also understandable. But these are sprites, technology the Knights have that are advanced, maybe make the spikes home in on enemies in case if in a frantic rush there is no chance to focus and get it right? One last thing, besides the Seraphinx having a health shield attack thing that does nothing, and the cool downs being very long, could we give our sprites the ability to fly in or about the area and earn us our Materials and shinys if we miss some, or maybe send them out to fly and pick up hidden stuff?

Now, sending out the sprite to fly about and get us items could work in tandem with the new loot system, as in send it off to fly for a certain amount of time, leaving you to get you your items while your teammates are all spread about. This would be sacrificing time and damage output, but makes up for balancing the negatives people have in the update.

In Elite mode:
- no heart drops whatsoever
- FSC+Vana granted me 9k+ cr

In heart boxes: chance of getting pill/pills
In red (maybe also in green?) treasure boxes: chance of getting minerals