Greetings all, this will be my first post, and I wanted to make it separate from the Patch discussion as it touches upon wider issues than just that; but the latest patch is indeed why I cannot forsee myself playing the game at all in the long run.

But let us start at the beginning; I came to Spiral Knights, like so many others, via snowball Steam achievements. Of all the games I installed during that season, and there were many, the only one I kept installed and kept playing for a while was Spiral Knights. I adored the setting and graphical twee-ness of the world, there's just something indelibly charming about a cute steam-punk Zelda-esque adventure. The music fit Spiral's style perfectly too, so much so that I've got the game running in Haven now (to cross check data for later in this post) just so it can keep playing as I type. The lore was interesting, and coherent, and the gameplay, once you stepped away from the PvP where the Steam achievements were, was relaxed and open ended to some degree...

By which I mean that like any good MMO, you could log on and partake of events at your own pace and still feel progression; if you weren't advancing further within the arcade to see new levels, you could pick an easier set of levels and help other players, heat up weapons you wouldn't otherwise use, or just have fun. Later, the Rank Missions would be added, which expanded this concept further; if you wanted, you could push your own content solo. Operation Crimson Hammer added massive team effort missions. It was a game that wanted you to love it, and it was so tempting to do so.

There were serious problems however. Some were and remain core parts of the game; I found the graphical confusion when higher powered weapons were spammed extremely disorientating... I only started to notice it when more developed characters came into my teams, but as someone who thinks Knights should have a sword, it threw off a lot of the skills needed to use my own weapons correctly. Visual and Sound queues would be missed in the effects malestrom. However when solo, I would later find that there was a sudden difficulty cliff around level 18 which made it impossible to continue solo with my not-as-perhaps-as-good-as-once-they-were reactions. This was exaggerated further by the extreme damage-type model, which meant that if you had the wrong armour and weapon set you would be slaughtered. Not a problem as such for those who purchased a lot of energy with real cash, but for myself it meant earning Credits to craft them through gameplay.

And it was there I thought the main problem with Spiral Knights lay; the Elevator system and death costs. At the time I played, and at the current time in fact, the exchange rate was around 8000cr to 100 energy. I could make that reasonably, unless I died a lot, in which case it ended up costing me negative progression. On some maps, like OCH L3 this dying would happen constantly as the gear I'd chosen was not really suitable. On some Rank and Prestige missions, especially those with Gremlins, I'd also face endless death. This meant that in the end, I found that I'd have to grind the same map over and over again to raise credits to eventually craft 5* gear to move on the Hall of Heroes at Rank 8.2; it was either the same Arcade rooms or, if I could find a team, Jelly King runs. So ... much... jelly. Again, at first it wasn't a problem, I was happy Heating up the lower star items I did have, so I could build wider damage/resistant sets later, and occasionally swapping to challenging myself to do the one try, no death achievements.

It got increasingly old though unfortunately, as I started to see the same levels again and again, often with a bad team or making a good team a bad one myself I'd see the same levels and go backwards with regards to item progress overall. In the end, I got as far fully heated 4* gear, a Level 6 5* Grey Owlite Shield and had idly heated a 4* Ascended Honor Blade to L9. But I could see months more of grinding to purchase and equip the 5* Armour and Helm. And then having to do it again and again to get different sets to go to different rooms. Around the time I started to lose interest, the Guild update came in. I stayed a week or so just looking at what people were doing with their halls, considered applying to some, but realised as a mostly F2P person, and being unable to justify (and now no longer able to afford) purchasing Energy, I'd likely be a drag on those whilst still grinding the same things in the short term.

So I drifted away from the game. A shame, as I mentioned, because I retained a lot of fondness for it overall. Recently, I noticed the new expansion, and thought "Maybe this is the one I've been waiting for" The Pet idea was cute, I love digital companions, but removing elevator and death charges meant that perhaps now I could look forward to progression in a more meaningful amount of time.

How very wrong I was. After a day playing, the changes are a complete disaster for a casual.

Not the pets, as such; That seems well designed, the level up food is frustrating but the appetite it gains seems generous... 1 blob per level and it seems there's a time component too so when I came back today to check my facts, he was hungry again and ready for food. It also gives a reason to stock up on specific ores required for that particular pet type's level food... I'm not so sure on that, as it means giving up on donating to the mines if you stay solo; it's taken a little of the versatility from gameplay now, as only in team runs will you get enough other ores to work the donation Achievements. But it's not a heavy cost, especially as it gives genuine progression from alot of the drops I'd otherwise have spent hours putting on the auction house to make Credits. Overall, I really like my new pet dragon, Grrtan... even if the name won't accept 3 letters in a row, Grrrrtan was right out apparently. Bah.

No, the disaster lies in the new Heat/Forge mechanism. I understand something had to give to allow us to have less disruptive energy costs. Except in doing so they've absolutely killed forward progression for the casual within a few minutes of logging in. Let me explain...

When I came back to the game, I did a few runs of the Arcade with random teams, just to get a feel for the play again. They were low levels, so I didn't see my Heat rise much at all. Then I went and got a Drakon, and took him for a solo run to see how he bounced around. In doing so, the long idle L9 4* honor sword completed it's rise to L10. Except now I needed to heat it. Ok, to the Forge... I was awarded gifts which gave me 46 of the relevant Flame Shards. This gave me a maximum chance of 70% success. Hmm, ok. Luckily it went through first time. So I went back to the Arcade, and the Owlite Shield made it to L6. Now I need to do it again. Only I have no shards at all, so I can't. So the shield doesn't Heat up, and I see no progression what so ever until I can find or purchase some.

Now for the maths.

To buy and make an item PREVIOUSLY, I would spend let's say 25,000 cr on the recipe, then 500 crowns for crafting and 800 Energy. I'll use 8k per 100 Energy just as a baseline. That meant that I would need to spend a total of 89,500 cr... but once done, that was it. The shield heats up, I can see the little bar move, I'm happy.

To do the same NOW, I have the same outlay (so it seems), however I also need to buy Radiant Fire for all 10 levels, which looking at the Auction House now are going for 16k/22k per 10. Let's say I need 50 for every level; there doesn't seem to be a way to predict how many I need per item if you no longer have the Fire Crystals... it may be much more as the Owlite is a 5* and the Honor was 4*. Let's just assume for now though. So that's (22,000 x 5) x 10 = 1,110,000 over the life of the shield. That's now nearly 13 times more expensive and it also prevents you progressing any further on that item until it's Forged.

And the forging can fail, even at maximum chance.

That's a staggeringly worse gameplay set up. Remember, this Forging is not only multiplicative over the Star rating of an item, but over every improvement step prior because you need to heat to L5 to upgrade an item too. Now, you could say "But you can play with your Pet instead", but for a casual like me, you run into the prior issues again, only with a vengeance now. You have to play the same levels again and again and again to grind Credits. Sure, the Pet is nice, but it does very, very little to make you more useful, less dead in team matches. It's a small side perk, even if a cute one. However, even if you don't die constantly, your chance of progression is now based not just on price fluctuations of Energy Cost, but also random forge failing.

Worse still, soloing is possibly out because you need the energy for the item forging even more than before; and spending Crowns on replacing the tokens which allow you to return to life at ALSO pushes you further away from being able to heat the items that keep you interested in the short term.

Now... in theory it should be possible to pick the items up through genuine play. Except in a 2 hour session I didn't see any of the life ones, and from what I've been reading, no one seems to know where the 5* Flames are... or at least, they aren't telling perhaps to manipulate the market for themselves whilst they can. But I can say there don't seem to be anywhere I can play solo. If they're somewhere harder than I currently can handle, I need the items in the first place to be able to get there to... it's a true Catch 22.

I don't begrudge OOO needing to make money, but the reality is as a casual I simply can't go any further now, except by restricting myself to gameplay I've already seen a hundred times before, and extending it out to a thousand times more. That is simply bad business practice as it doesn't make me want to stay and do so. The alternative is to go hardcore, or really, really splash out the cash I haven't got and can't justify for the game. Again... it's a shame, Spiral Knights has such a promising set up; but the structure doesn't leave anywhere for me to fit in.