Bug fixes are probably usually not talked about.

Considering a few hours of playing T3 prestige missions and arcades on Elite netted me rougly 20 5* orbs, I would assume they were decreased.

QUOTE-As you play, you will find over time that you have (more orbs than you need) for the upgrade of your initial choice of weapons, and that you have the resources to build a broader arsenal of gear. This, in turn, will make it easier for Spiral Knights players to experiment with more varied equipment and gameplay styles.

It may have been a day, but I don't think so. You just decreased the drops for these things (July 31st patch). I was honestly saddened when I saw that we needed THREE of these things to make a new weapon. Why three and not just one? You just created a new alchemy system. If the drops were lowered and the requirement was just 1 orb, then that would be okay. Besides the compensation I got for being my rank, (Which is actually just the missed mission rewards from the update, which is in turn nothing compared to what we would get by going through those missions again), I have gotten only 1 Eternal Orb since patch, and I got it before the 31st. I'm making my way down the Arcades for the clearance and during my travels, I haven't seen any orbs of lower level. (Which has been unchanged since 31st)

I really push towards doing something like making the alchemy requirement 1 Orb or increasing the Orb drops again. You can't account for us spending an extremely long time on the game. It's summer and we all have some more free time but later that's not gonna be the case. Why were you so quick to change this and so afraid of us having too many Orbs? ***Wasn't that the point?*** Or is this just a way to get us to buy CE?

Another thing I'm concerned about now. The minerals are now part of creating food for the sprites, or rather, 3 kinds. Now nobody's gonna put them into arcade chutes. Everyone's gonna go for Luminite, Crimsonite, or Dark Matter. By laws of probability sure, we'll pick up some Valestone and Moonstone when nothing else is there, but this just means the stratums will be either default or Freeze. ***I hope that you scrap the gate construction mechanic and come up with something new and release new sprites for Valestone and Moonstone.*** (I know this could take a long time.)

I'm not okay with this heat crystal thing. The requirement to get 100% is freaking high. When you told us about these crystals I thought they would replace heat, not add an extra step that could possibly fail because we can't afford the 100% all the time. The first option with 30% is just silly. I understand an excess of Heat Crystals would be pointless, unlike my stance on Orbs, but ***couldn't you add one that has a high chance of level up with none of the bonuses?***
(OH MY GOD I LOVE Gear-Storm's forge idea on page 2)

This update has been really fun overall, but I feel like I'm stuck where I am. I was about to finally enter a Shadow Lair and achieve my ultimate goal my busy life has let me set for this game, but now with this update I don't see that happening with my education coming back around the corner. My weapons are stuck at the level they're at and I can't make anything new because Orbs are rare and I don't have enough Heat to level them all if I did.

I know some people will agree and disagree with me. But I want someone to see this. I want them to see this so that I don't feel like writing this all down wasn't a waste of time. There's a high chance that it is, and that none of the Dev's will change things to be less grind heavy. I feel like this update was cut in half and we didn't get all the changes.

Considering how much you would have to farm crowns to trade it for energy before and the small amount of orbs required per item now, it's fine.

I thought the overall intent was to encourage players to craft more equipment and use them.

As of this update, let's use an example: a pure sword Vanguard who wishes to try out an effective bomb set for fun now that he's beaten the main game and wants to try to get some Bomber gear because he wants to try something new.

Let's say he somehow already has a Super Blast Bomb, Rock Salt Bomb, and Elemental Hood/Cloak (all 3 star). Obviously he wants to get to a Nitronome, Shocking Salt Bomb, and Chaos Hood/Chaos Cloak, so he can run around spamming happily in the Clockworks with max CTR. Maybe he wants to challenge himself to beating Vana with pure bombs one day. He has to consider the following:

• Obtain 132 Glowing Fire Crystals (@33 to max heat each, we can assume no double level. it doesn't happen often, and not a reliable way to reduce cost) to level 4 equips to max level.
• Craft to 4 star--Obtain 12 Elite Orbs of Alchemy. Buying with CE is fine because it's a one time cost to get a whole new weapon, whereas buying 50 fire crystals to get a marginal weapon damage increase is a different story.
• Obtain 1248 Shining Fire Crystals (@312 to max heat each)
• Craft to 5 star--Obtain 12 Eternal Orbs of Alchemy. Just buy with CE, that's fine.
• Obtain 1812 Radiant Fire Crystals (@453 to max heat each)

He will get between 6 to 20 Fire Crystals in an Elite, 3-floor mission (so average 2 to 7 Fire Crystals per floor on Elite).

He will start wondering if all the grinding is worth bombing "for fun" or if that effort was better off spent getting ASI Very High on his Final Flourish or getting Shock Resist Max on his existing Skolver gear for PVP instead.

So, they decreased it. What happened to the "get more orbs and craft multiple sets" things. Also the orbs are bound so we can't trade them to other players and help them, instead they have to buy crystal energy and get it from the supply depot -_-

Can I smack all the people who are complaining about the low drop rate of orbs? An eternal orb of alchemy is 233 energy, and you're getting it for free. FOR FREE. Sheesh. If you're so upset then just buy energy with crowns and craft your weapons how we used to craft them.

Algebraic Explanation of the Ease of Crafting
A = Buying CE with crowns grinded to craft a 5 star equipment (pre-patch)
B = Buying Orbs of Alchemy with CE purchased with crowns grinded (post-patch)
C = Crafting 5 star equipment with Orbs of Alchemy found (post-patch)

A = B
A ≠ C
A < B + C
A > B + C + Ungratefulness

TD;DU
Finding Orbs of Alchemy is not supposed to be a complete replacement for crafting with CE. You're supposed to buy Orbs of Alchemy from the energy depot, spending the same amount of energy as was previously done. The Orbs found in the clockworks is just an extra gift, a gift which some people are extremely ungrateful of.

You're absolutely right Hexzyle. I never thought about it that way. Maybe it was just the wording of the update that got me upset. I guess the Dev's should have mentioned they took into account that we were supposed to use the energy depot and then we would have surplus.

"Finding Orbs of Alchemy is not supposed to be a complete replacement for crafting with CE. You're supposed to buy Orbs of Alchemy from the energy depot, spending the same amount of energy as was previously done."

And that's the problem.
The old system was extremely restrictive and it chased many players off as soon as they realized how awful it was.
Nick made it out to be more or less a replacement for the old system, saying the game would be giving you more orbs than you would actually need for crafting.
It's the only reason I even bothered returning to this game, thinking I would actually be able to craft equipment I want without having to cough up money or grind FSC for HOURS.