I feel sorry up to the point that these are people who have feelings and such and it probably hurts them all this flame and rage they are getting. That is why I tried to keep mine to a min while still voicing that I'm pretty upset about this patch.

First of all, they didn't spend 4 years 'creating new content', they spent 4 years creating the engine to contain that content. No knowing for sure, but I'd say probably only the last year or two was spent adding content really - although hopefully artists and designers were at work for the whole four years and so new content is just waiting on the developers to implement relatively swiftly.

Mass crafting, well, I kind of agree with the designers view, but the only way to get rare weapons that you can't just up and buy would be to have equipment have been entirely untradeable from the start. If you can trade it, people will buy it. People are still selling UVs anyway, just -only- on low-star equipment. Unbinding is on its way too, which means you'll be able to buy high-star equipment again, with or without UV, for a premium. So it'll be more expensive... so what? You can still buy it by dumping enough RL money into the game. (Then again, -not- allowing items to be sold in-game only creates an external black market for accounts, catch-22 there, I guess.)

Anyway, supposing that increasing crafting costs for high star items is a good idea... the -CE- cost is really the last cost that needed increasing, creates an impression of a money grab (because CE -is- real money effectively, only comes into the game by someone spending real money). I would have said to increase the crown cost, but given the effect the giant crownsink of the auction house is having, maybe increasing materials required would be better (especially considering the near-zero value of most materials with less than 4 stars). Either would have been better than increasing CE cost anyway.

Of course, in judging impacts it's important to realize that the auction house is still settling out - it is filling up with a -lot- of listing fees that will mostly be refunded, perhaps revolving but not likely continuing to grow too much (although on high level items, the listing fee and the sale fee is the same and simply a sink). And there are a lot of knights who finally have a way to unload their accumulated materials without the horror of /2. And auction fees may (probably will?) get adjusted regardless of crafting costs.

i dont really sympathize.

the only reason people are breezing through the content is that there is very little of it. and besides, the people who "buy their way through the game" probably dump as much money into the game for that one week they play than someone who would stay for 3-4 months buying a bit of ce at a time. so it isnt really the mass crafters fault.

what they did was to apply two band-aids to problems which were their own fault. the first being the speed which people go through the game was addressed by making us pay them more money to get to that endgame. second, they prevent top tier item sale and now have effectively killed a very lucrative slice of the player base. realizing this, they make an unbinding shop so that they effectively end up getting MORE MONEY out of the process.

the saddest part was they could have solved the entire problem by adding something simple; repeatable (not repetitive) content in the form of PVP. they took it out of beta for "rebalancing" when they coulda left it in and balanced it as the game grew.

this would mean that the people who bought into the end game have something to do until the next content update, while the ones that actually grind it out and pay a bit of CE at a time have something to work towards after they amass their gear.

It was a patch that made sweeping changes without any warning. It was nice that they saw people distraught about items they were crafting for others and gave them a chance to get them to the people they were crafting them for (though it still left people crafting them to sell to others SOL IIRC). It also seems a bit odd that they made the option available several days after the patch; more than enough time for them to give up and just start using the item themselves but won't let them transfer bound 5* items.

I think that the patch served to disquiet people in a couple different ways. One was that it seems like an obvious grab for money to increase the cost of crafting so drastically after people had become used to the costs that the game launched with. Another is that a fair number of item lines start at 3*, which just got its ce cost doubled, making it twice as painful trying to get a UV for it (and much more painful trying to get a UV for anything that starts 4* or 5*). A third is that the argument that making anything all ready bound stay bound severely limits people that have been crafting items to sell with the laughable explanation that it makes items rarer. The idea that they thought any item that was available from a vendor you could reach every 25 minutes or so would be rare seems pretty absurd.

Basically it's a fun game, but it isn't hard to get through everything in it pretty rapidly. I have been playing it f2p and have outfitted myself with 5* gear and killed Vanaduke. Even playing leisurely it won't be too long before the only thing you haven't done is kill Vanaduke. Paying players are able to advance much more rapidly than f2p players. The patch made the game a bit less pleasant to play in a lot of ways, and made it so that the CE that people buy is worth less by increasing the crafting need for it. The patch seemed like a big patch, but didn't add anything appealing to players into the game (especially not any new content), which served to rile up players hungry for something else to do in the game. I don't think it should be expected for people that are paying for the game to be understanding that the company put a lot of time into it if a bunch of changes are made to the basic manner in which the game functions.

Jeburk and spookas. You both presented well thought out, big picture perspectives of the reality of the situations. I dare say, half of those in direct opposition to those posts don't' actually even understand what you guys are saying, as they clearly state:

i disagree, and here is my argument for disagreement that only tangentially contradicts you at best.

Honestly, from a "the developers personal investment vs what they got back--personal and monetary rewards" i think we should and could all be a bit more sympathetic. To those who think these posts are to say: they were correct and fair in their implementation of this last patch with no forewarning to anyone......well, i think you miss the heart of the issue altogether. Thats an entirely different subject and only remotely touched upon by the OP.

It's human nature to find an exploit, and then use it to its maximum potential. Fundamental logic also indicates that as the population density increases, the chances of finding an exploit increase, and the abuse of that exploit becomes rampant. In other words, "Why should I play 'honest' when everyone else is 'cheating'?"

Game developers try to design out as many exploits as they can, but not all exploits are readily apparent until they've passed through the crucible of actual gameplay. When faced with an exploit that differs from a game developers "intended vision", they have two choices. One, they let the exploit become part of the game, this is usually only done when the developers feel that the exploit is helping the game. Two, they close the loophole because they feel that the exploit is bad for the overall health of the game. The second choice is invariably, unpopular with the playerbase, because they've become accustomed to playing the game a certain way. In the case of mass-crafting of 5-star items and love-puppy farming, they clearly chose to close the loophole. In someways I applaud OOO for having the guts to close the loophole, since they had to have known how much flak they would be getting over it.

4 years?
Yes, the game started with two people and currently has a dedicated seven person development team. The first playable instance were seen in 2008.

@OP:

Except that they were paid to "craft" Spiral Knights. We pay to craft pixels.

I agree with Siopao's statements, although I don't think PVP was/is the solution. The solution is more PVE content. Think about it--the majority of players go for the same gearsets because they are obviously superior in the significant content.

I'm not advocating this, because I think it's lazy, but one way around all that would've been to make bosses take on strata themes. IE--Vanaduke can be Ice or Fire or Fiend or whatever. Same level, different element mobs...and suddenly people have a use for those other endgame armors/weapons that aren't in favor, currently.

Not the ideal solution, but it would artificially inflate content while they make more content. And that's just an idea. The bottom line remains the same--the problem is a lack of content, not that players go through it too quickly. Who wants to stay in T1 forever? You can barely break even in the CE/CR market doing T1.

@ tgreyfox

Either you misunderstood me and/or you just didn't comprehend what I wrote. Either that or your just a troll because someone can't be this stupid.
The whole premise of this tread was: We should have sympathy for OOO. I already explain why I did not have it for OOO. They belong to the customers.

I did not say:
++++++++
OOO shouldn't get paid for their services.
OOO should give their services for free (but it's marketed as such with micro transactions). Still customers are required. It's not free. Yes, I know how business works. I also know a bit about software development. They FUBAR it big time.

"Do you have ANY clue how a business operates? Tell you what. You go to your employer and tell them whatever product or service they provide should not make a profit, and see how loud they laugh at you."

If MacDonalds said real beef is in their hamburger then started shipping out dog patties - which customers had ordered already and without warning them before hand;
If the water company told me the water is clean, then one day started pumping dirty ass water - which customers had ordered already and without warning them before hand;

Most customers would want their money back.
Same goes for this game.
They don't deserve money when they **** over the customers. Too bad you can't get refunds in this game.

Moral of Story?: Have some respect for people who buy your service and don't treat them like sht? Make good service get good money? Boy O boy, that was some hard Thinkin.

@time4dan

"Add a Crafting level. 2* requires about 50 1* items. Then 100 2*, then 300 3*, then 1000 4*.
Items unbind upon upgrade.
Items can be Alched for 25% of their CE back."

I agree with the last two, and hell, the last one is brilliant. The first one, however, only really benefits people who make equipment to sell or give away. Lets say you have a person who prefers to solo their way through a game or make their own stuff and that's it. That person is likely to make 5-10 armor pieces give or take, and somewhere between 5-15 weapons. That wouldn't even be close to reaching level 2 of crafting level. I like the system they have now, and I definitely like it a lot more than the random crafting systems in certain other MMOs. Granted, I think they need to lower the CE cost back to what it was, but that's another discussion for other threads.

It took me ~7 days under the old crafting system to get my first three 5* weapons.
Under the new system it probably takes longer, but in addition to the lack of content, it only made the game even more boring for those who already have one or two endgame sets ready and only crafts for entertainment.

what the change did is essentially make the game longer lasting for people who don't spend a whole lot of time on it, but it didnt change the fact that the game revolves on a limited number of levels with a limited variance of monsters and bosses.

the amount of time developers spent in the past doesnt guarantee the operating quality of the game. If contents are added regularly, simple games like angry birds can be successful as well. on the contrary, making the same game more grindy doesnt work that well in customer retention especially ones who've completed most if their achievements.

However, OOO's PR strategy seemed to worked, 1 month later everyone will forget bout the crafting changes, or learned to deal with it, not many people will remember about the unbind option, and those who does wont make much of an impact.

+1. Perfectly said.

90% of statistics is made up on the spot.