I don't think its a bug, and I don't think that they're ever going to change it.

And LMAO at the radiants question. So innocent. To get radiants, you must either complete somewhere around 30-50 runs per item to get them off of D28, or otherwise run 6-7 shadow lairs. Or you can open your wallet, and tell OOO "Yes! Yes! Take my money! Yes!"

Remember- They need to eat too, so its OK to pay them 20 bucks to heat a single piece of gear after paying them 10 bucks to buy the gear off of the supply depot.

@Iamnoone

No, I don't have to pay to finish the game at all. I have already "paid" and am now a functional player, with full 5* gear.

But it isn't about me, its about the betterment of the game-- I don't want to be the only 5* knight out there, that would get old quickly. Believe it or not, this IS a step further than the energy system, but is it all the way? Most certainly not. Think about it like this:

1. New knight comes to game; is willing to play solo a bit, you know.
---Under the old system, the new knight would have presumably left here after seeing the energy prices+elevator fees+lack of updates, you know---
2. New knight advances through the game, meets people, becomes 4*
3. Unable to heat gear, the knight slowly peters off, or-
3. The knight stays for a while, and collects a massive amount of 4* gear, without upgrading due to expectations of 5* gear returning.

So is it progress towards Spiral Knights being what it deserves to be? Definitely. Is it good enough? Of course not! I still believe that Spiral Knights has the potential to be something greater- it might take time, a lot of time, but is Spiral Knights done for? No.

I'd also like some form of evidence for some of your claims-
"OOO isn't stupid and knew this act would push out half of the player base and all of those who were paying for the site in the past."
"ENTIRELY the fault of the users and the big mouths on the forum."

So... all of the pay to players left? And they all left because of the mist removal whatnot? Because elevators were made free? Not because their precious rare accessories were sold to the populace the other day?

And OOO was like- "WELP- these 5 loud people on the forums want this, so we'd better comply..."? As nick said- "The much maligned energy system." was not just disliked by 2-3 people, it was for the longest time globally regarded as the biggest factor holding us back. Then, we got tired of discussing it and you saw many people wanting to change or remove it getting bashed by these same "vocal forum members".

For instance- http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/67678

There seems to be this widely held belief that the addition of forging is to balance out removal of mist and elevator fees. I tend to believe that they were merely incidental to each other much like the release of the battle sprites.

The mist+elevator combo resulted in a HUGE tax on the poor. Clearly this was a turn off for retaining new players if they find themselves unable to be self sufficient. If mist was created for the purpose of boot-strapping a player into the pay as you play method of consuming the collective CE stockpile then new players had to figure that out for themselves. A poor player had to manage what little money they have very carefully which includes being conservative with your gear acquisition - an issue that was specifically mentioned in the patch notes that accompanied the energy system rework. The tax issue itself was very easy to work with once you understood it (always keep at least ~10kcr so you can buy another 100ce) but for all the newbies that did not pick up the game because they never knew this, the damage was done.

The previous heating system was highly one-dimensional. Apart from forcing DRM, I mean unbind tax on higher star gear, it added very little to justify its existence. A leveling system for the sake of having a leveling system. While that's still pretty much true, the forging process at least gives the illusion that all the levels up to 10 have purpose. The chance of receiving a prize box as well as the other bonuses is at least an attempt to convince you that its a worthwhile system.

If the 5* crystal drop rate 'gets fixed' in the near future, would that strengthen or weaken the hypothesis that the forge exists to counter balance removal of gameplay tax?

they did say you could play Spiral Knights for free. buuuuuuut...nobody promised you could be the bestest most highly geared knight in all the land for free....or at least without some serious 'free' hours of gameplay.

but, back on topic....my DA always bothered me, in that its charged sword shots would disintigrate into nothingness and with no effect sometimes. sometimes when i am near spikes, other times when im near a wall...i dunno. that always made me kind of uneager to use my Divine Avenger and a bit let down when i did use it.

@Thunder-The-Bright
I assume you mean slow down mission access, because FSC is and has always been accessible to 4* players through the arcade.

exerpa, slow down progression. crafting requires heat levels, now you are slowed down by the forge and not by the fact that you have limited energy to heat a weapon.