I'd like to start out with saying that I am a paying customer and when you pay for games like this its kind of like investing in a company so I feel that my opinion should be greatly considered as I am part of what keeps you running.
Aside from that the latest patch has pissed me off a bit and I'm not just going to say that and leave it there. I don't think that the recipe cost increase was a great idea, incrementally change it don't almost TRIPLE the cost of an item; more importantly there is a mismatched price increase to the quality increase between 4* and 5* items. My idea to change/fix this is to not increase the price of the max so that you're falsely injecting content into the game but to increase new content. Here is my proposal: create 5 star bronze, silver, gold and platinum items. It continues with the current scheme for the level system and it would create a further goal to shoot for increasing the length of the game without slapping the paying customer in the face. Obviously the core is mildly disappointing right now and in the future you'll change it and obviously this will take a while to do as theres a lot of work involved, however if you create more content then you will end up with a better game, more recognition and more customers. The last thing the mmo market needs is another medicore game.
I understand why you removed the basil port ability but I don't like it, it would be a much better idea to just attach a player controlled fee to being invited to a dungeon. I know that sounds weird/unorthodox but the whole point of having a fun game is being able to do things that you normally can't do. As soon as you start taking away freedoms from the player you're destroying the illusion. This also applies to being able to buy items on shop floors. If you're going to allow people to sell recipes there is no reason to prevent them from being invited to buy them.
Finally, and potentially most importantly; crafting costs. If you're going to change something in a semi-player run economy, don't increase the cost by more than 100%. Incremental changes make sure to stabilize and more importantly see the player response. Personally I don't think this should be even entertained because 300 NRG + 5000 cr (effectively 400 NRG) is extremely expensive for such a slight performance gain, sure the aesthetics are generally great but not everyone cares about that and now that we have costume creation it doesn't matter. Related to costume creation I think it would be peachy keen to allow people to have shield costumes, I HATE the way owlite looks but I prefer the stats.
The auction house is great and I love it but the other changes to the game economy are awful considering how long and arduous the task is to get 5* weapons/armour. Please spend more time creating content, not limiting our ability to obtain current content.
Fellow players I urge you to post a response/encouragement so Three Rings can see how much we care about this game and how much we want it to be the best game it can be. The more support this thread gets the more they'll pay attention to it. If you disagree with me I urge you to respond as well and explain your reasoning. This is a push to create something truly great, like my favourite MMORPG, EVE Online.
Like the original poster, I am a paying customer and have enjoyed Spiral Knights up until now but the recent update has raised a few issues with how I play. While I agree with the original poster completely I feel there is one thing that was not mentioned concerning the new update and that is crafted items being bound to the crafter for higher level items.
I play Spiral Knights with a friend and up until now we have had a system where we would go in the clockworks together, gather resources and then I would buy all of the recipes and make all of the items for us. Now, we have only just got to the stage where we are crafting 4* items and before the update I reasoned that i would just level up two of each item and upgrade one for me and one for my friend but now that's not possible, everything will be bound to me.
The reason this is such a big concern for me is that If I can’t play with my friend if I level up past them, the game is no longer fun, it loses that social aspect, I may as well play a single player offline game because there is nothing we can do to help each other out... people should be rewarded for playing together and helping each other out, not punished for it as that goes against what makes an MMO great.
I am a games design student myself and I understand the main function is to make money, understandable but the best way to do this is to have a great game that allows people to come on, socialise, have fun, be able to do what they want and not feel limited. For my particular problem there are three solutions I can see;
1: Don't bind objects to the crafter.
2: Allow the trade of bound items but not the use of them.
3: Akin to World of Warcraft, in the trade window add in a "craft slot" This allows someone you are trading with to put an item there that someone can then use as a craft material.
I Hope that Three Rings reads this thread as I want spiral knights to be a great game, and you don't do that by limiting people, once I have paid for energy they have my money, I should be able to spend it on what or whomever I choose.