Oh, I'm sure there's plenty of ideas (and writing off your own suggestion as "possibly the best" is obnoxious). The problem is that OOO is extremely slow.

Putting placeholders everywhere is pointless, too. Why not just finish it beforehand and THEN post it?

Releasing stuff.

OOO reads all threads, it's just that OOO doesn't reply to them that makes us think they don't read them

Just want to say, Danger Missions took about 1 month each to make. Each Danger Mission was 2 well designed (and UNIQUE) combat floors with 1 floor full of loot. So lets round that down to 1 month per 2 depths of good content. Assuming 5 depths per each of these 6 guardians (as you suggested), and about about 2.5 months per guardian, plus another 2.5 for the Swarm Core, then we're looking at about 17.5 months of development time. According to Extra Credits, you should then add on an additional +50% on top of that because nothing ever goes to plan.

That brings us up to about 26.25 months, or over 2 years of development!

The real nail in the coffin? I would probably get through all of this in about 2 to 4 days, at most. Maybe a week if the update comes at a bad time. If the missions pay less than FSC or are too hard to grind, then I'm probably only going to run each level about 3 to 4 times. Being generous, that'll probably keep me entertained for about a month. If it does end up paying more than FSC, then I'd give it two months before I grow bored of it.

Don't get me wrong, I'd LOVE if this became a reality. However, I really don't see it feasible.

EDIT**

If we compare this to something like the Apocrea...

The Apocrea had 1 unique combat level, and 2 special non-combat levels. So by the previous metric, that'd be about 2 weeks of development time, plus another 50% brings us to 3 weeks (Admittedly they did throw in a patch or two during the event). The Apocrea kept me entertained for about a week, even when grinding it. Admittedly, it did start to get boring by the end.

I hate to bring it up, but the Kataclysm is a more extreme example of the same. The Kataclysm was literally 2 new enemies, 1 "new" room at the end of the prestige mission, and 1 new armor line with 3 reskins (plus the Black Kat Cowl which is another reskin of the 5*). That still kept players playing the game for the entirety of the event, even if it was mindlessly grinding the same levels.

But do you see the incentive for stuff like the Apocrea and the Kataclysm over your idea? It takes far less time to produce, yet can keep people entertained for quite a while. We want something deeper, but, from an economical point of view, that'd be less practical.

Well... how about not having 35 unique levels? I'm just saying; asking for THAT many new levels at once is just not practical.

IMO, brute forcing more and more new levels is not really the best solution. Just look at Lockdown. When was the last time you heard someone ask for more Lockdown maps? Not in a while, last I checked, and most certainly not as often as people ask for more Clockwork levels. That's because each Lockdown match is a different experience, driven by the players involved, rather than the level itself.

If they want to make content to last, it needs to have incentive for players to replay it, and/or include a method of experiencing existing content in a different way.

My first thought would be something like Wh40k Dawn of War II's Last Stand mode, or Halo's Firefight mode. You and some friends go up against waves of enemies, and get rewards based on how far you get. You can even have something like Striker Racing. I believe OOO mentioned a challenge mode sometime that could also work.

In a less appealing direction, they can expand content by just making it harder to progress. That is what the Radiant Crystal shortage is doing in a way: It now takes more time (or money...) to get the same equipment. I don't like that direction, but it is one they *could* go further down.

There's just one huge problem with your idea.

The core is only roughly half a kilometer in diameter, which includes the material used to construct the core. Seeing as Skydomes have a 130 meter diameter, that's barely enough to fit three Skydomes side-by-side if they're just "sitting" in the core, or one or two skydomes with a series of Clockwork Tunnels/Deconstruction Zone around its perimeter supporting the actual dome (as evident by the setup of the Shadow Lairs: Sanctuary Skydome in the centre of the core, with the Unknown Passage running around the edges)

The only way you'd be able to fit in more levels is if you retconned Cradle's size and made the distance between the core terminal after depth 28 and the core itself far larger (larger than just a ~20 meter drop) allowing more Skydomes to be crammed in between. But then again, if the driveshaft extends all the way down, then you can just access the driveshaft elevator to continue on from depth 28

Spiral Knights is too steampunky to use cheap science/magic like that.
Just make this another Shadow Lair.

Yes, more response posts....because you kept on making placeholders.

Opening of the Core?

First of all, if we did this the game would be over, but still choosing to read.

It'll be worth the wait. Trust me

Aighty then.

this as this is probably one of the best ideas ever.

Alrighty, alrighty!

Oh yeah, and this is supposed to be endgame. Like after Vana.

Right, to end the game. Three Rings would pretty much be pulling the trigger on Spiral Knights.

science/magic
Biotechs/Magic Set+Owlites

But I see what you mean, but of course, there could be some sort of explanation.

Myyy two cents. Not sure how this is supposed to not end the game. But I'll keep an eye on this. :3

Note: I see what you are trying to do, one epic final battle that will put all your stuff to the test, but is this really the ending players wanted? Is Tinkinzar really the final boss everyone wanted? Coz I don't, he is far too obvious... The story below is how I whished the story to end. My end game, a life well lived. (This is a copy and paste from another post core dicussion thread)

Cradle was once a star, after years of dwelling in the universe, it gained a consciousness. The star became an entity known as Inceptron, whose only
wish is to expand across the universe, but to do that, he needs to convert his energy into beings, living beings that can help him expand his influence over the universe. So he created a planet with his own enmergy, materialized into matter. This is why the planet is called Cradle, the cradle of his desciples.

His first desciples are the jellies, then they evolved into multicellular organisms such as wolvers, soon enough, Almirians are made, Inceptron designated one of the almirian, named Vanaduke, to be his civilization's architect. The almire empire flourished for about four hundred years thanks to vanaduke and the fact that he was gifted with eternal life by Inceptron. But unknowst to Vanaduke, Inceptron wasn't happy with how the almirians turned out (they kind of stopped after the invention of 'cold' (melee) weapons). So Inceptron decided to turn Vanaduke into a monster, and used him to destroy the empire he once helped to create.

The ruins of the FSC is Vanaduke's prison. He is forever trapped in the eternal sorrow of killing his people. Inceptron now started his new project, the Gremlins, whose intellect should surpass the ancient Almirians. He designated a new architect, whose name is, you guessed it, Tinkinzar. Tinkinzar was much batter than vana, he actually expanded Cradle, adding additional layers to the planet, making it bigger and better. Inceptron was impressed, so he happily laid back in the centre of the planet, awiating the good news from Tinkinzar, but Tinkinzar had other plan. He knows one day Inceptron will wipe out his own people once they reached their peak, so he trapped Inceptron deep beneath the core and drained him of all his energies. Tinkinzar created a metal sphere to contain his former master, who is now his slave.

Inceptron, enraged, but is now powerless due to Tinkinzar's new invetion, the Swarm. A field of extreme negative energy that can dissolve Inceptron if he tries to escape. After 4000 years of waiting, Inceptron suddenly sensed a disturbance in the space, a large space cruiser was orbiting the planet once he owned. It was Skylark, he knows the people inside will help him in his escape. Yes, we are his ticket out of Tinkinzar's prison. Once Inceptron is freed he will devour the planet and revert it back to his control.

The core is now opened, Inceptron is released, he killed Tinkinzar, cut Feron in half, chocked Desna and made Kozma spontaneously combust(hell yeah!). It is now up to Midnight, the divine valkyrie templar to save the day! He takes the tearium reactor core from the wreckage of Skylark and installed it into his suit, the energy core has an energy rating of around 7 trillion units worth of CE. With this much power, Midnight lunges Inceptron into the outter space and began their final battle! At the end Midnight triumphed over Inceptron and dissolved both their bodies into energy, at his last breath, Midnight channeled all the energy, both his and Inceptron's back to the core, the planet is saved, at the cost of a great hero...

I dreamed...
A planet without control...
The brave men and women that have fought and died...
It is now up to them to decide what to do with this great power...
I won't allow, Vanaduke, Tinkinzar or anyone else to decide their fate, their destiny is in their own hands at last...
I loved this planet, I loved my people, I loved you all...
Goodbye...

-THE END-

I did read the lore, but is it really bad to imagine?

Hex stop! Your catch phrase is an obvious rip-off. -.-

Monomi is a statue, the end.

Agree with above comment. SK could seriously do something like that. :D

We discover an entire new universe and a black hole sucks us in, after we arive try to study it, uncovering it's many secrets including a wide variety of colorful monsters that, as usual, try to kill us.
Use your IMAGINATION :D

So....Vanaduke's ancestors were all jellies?

Awesome concept. I couldn't help think Unicron while reading the opening paragraph of your idea.

discovering an entire new universe with lots of colourful monsters that wants to kill us is not the solution cause is not cradle. cradle is what the whole game focuses on. we might as well do a SK2 with your idea.
:)

sorry, if the core has enough power to jump us into hyperspace, we are at Isora already.
ah yes, archknightdelta, I almost forgot you. other than the core can contain 2 more depths (unless hexzyle is wrong), it would be silly to say "door open! but there's another door inside!" OOO might as well add content on depth ??? and not open the core.

"Let's say the Core opens. Sure. The Spiral Knights fly off. Sure. What about the newbies? Will they just randomly stay on Cradle while their superiors do something else? How would they get to them?"

I'll promise to send a post card, with a X mark the spot map ;)

@ Doom

I read the OP, and I don't really have any feedback cause that's how I roll. Other than picky bits about your background lore :P Namely this part.

"The core probably a prison built to trap the swarm."

If you read the Echo Stones, they imply that the deity in the Core is hiding in there to hide form the Swarm or something like that.

Also, "READ THE FRIGGIN FIRST POST, IDIOTS!" Yeeeeeeh not really the best way to get people to read the friggin first post.

Well actually i do have some minor feedback on your bosses.

Vog: Having a Vog is always nice, although he's sorta the God of Almire or something, and it's hard to kill gods, amirite?

Oiler Baron: Yes. More Royal Jelly things are always great :D

Exterminator Drone: Concept is interesting. For some reason I think of some kind of epic version of the Collector for this boss. Perhaps a more fancy
name though.

King Tinkinzar: No comment.

Phantom Howler: +1 for Wither-like monsters. Perhaps a more fancy name.

Arkus MkII: Perhaps a more fancy name.

I assume you'll be talking about them in more details and stuff (lore, appearance, battle abilities, ect) in the stuff you'll be putting into those placeholders.

@Everyone else

I say the Core is a fortress for the deity inside the Core, who him/her/itself is emitting all that Energy that the SK are picking up readings of. Energy-based lifeforms, anyone?