Hi there, kids. Presso here, and today I’m going to drop a few brainstorming bombs on you guys. I’ve recently picked up Spiral Knights again (I stopped right before Blast Network came out), and I’ve been thinking…

So, without further ado, I’ll list out the stuff that I brainstormed over the last week or so.

1) New Status Conditions?
2) Prestige Bosses
3) Ignition
4) Early-game weapon rework

1) NEW STATUS CONDITIONS

Lifesteal
Okay, here we go. So first of all I’d like to implement a few features found from a wide variety of other games. Many games such as League of Legends, DOTA, or Torchlight implement a sort of HP-drain/give back mechanism to enhance survivability. While the absence of that in SK does make the game more interesting and require more skill, implementing a version of life drain would prove incredibly useful. (And before everyone groans at the overpoweredness of lifesteal, let me clarify first).

My idea of Lifesteal implemented in SK would be as follows:

A) Lifesteal would only proc on target death with lifesteal weapon. This means that your chance of lifesteal only occurs after you deal the killing blow WITH the weapon with lifesteal.
B) Power balance would be in place—weapons with lifesteal would have significantly reduced damage outputs and/or other penalty.

Airborne
No, I’m not just pulling status conditions from other video games, I believe there is a niche for this status condition as well (and plus, it helps for my Prestige Boss section). Airborne is more of a niche status condition in SK, if implemented. I got the idea after seeing certain 5* weapons’ charge attacks (namely the pulsar and brandish lines) leave a sort of a “tornado” looking effect after detonation ( I’m not crazy, I swear). Anyways, weapons with Airborne would suspend enemies midair momentarily, cancelling their potential attack patterns and rendering them helpless (however, enemies in midair cannot be hit by attacks). Sending an enemy Airborne would allow for quick repositioning or escape.

Idea of Airborne in SK:

A) Only charge attacks from certain weapons can send enemies Airborne. Airborne cannot stack (meaning that an Airborne enemy cannot be thrown Airborne again whilst in the air).
B) Certain bosses (or even hazards) would be able to send knights airborne.

2) PRESTIGE BOSS

The idea of Prestige Bosses stems from the lack of a pure endgame in-game. You can only Vana and do Shadow Lair so many times, right? And people do get bored of only having 4 bosses (8 with shadow lair and 9 with seerus) in the game. So why not set a boss at each Prestige Rank as a test to reach the next Prestige Level?

Aeolus

This has been my favorite thing by far to think about (and doodle). I have a few preliminary sketches on this thing, but I’m afraid to show them…

ANYWAYS. Aeolus is a Boss concept. It started out as a doodle of another character (I didn’t draw these, these are the things I tried to draw) …

Thanatos from Puzzle and Dragons

http://static3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130620040430/pad/images/5/53/Pet... > Thanatos Second Evolution

http://static1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131024201932/pad/images/7/76/Pet... > Thanatos Ultimate Evolution

So anyways, just imagine that, but without the purple coloration and more feathery wing things, and you’ll get to what I’m thinking of. Aeolus, if you don’t know already, is the Greek Lord of Wind (God, Master of, etc. who cares). Essentially, he’s this nasty dude who wears a nasty bird skeleton mask (which is what those pictures kind of depict) and is essentially super badass. He’d be classified as a Beast, but have unique weaknesses (slightly resistant to piercing, slightly weak to elemental, neutral to shadow).

Basically he swoops around the battlefield leaving little bombs that explode and knock Knights Airborne and summons various other beasts to do his bidding (OH, THAT REMINDS ME, CAN WE HAVE A FLYING BEAST PLS? PREFERABLY A BIRD THAT GOES WELL WITH THIS GUY). After doing enough damage, he turns super badass-y and stops flying around and grabs a sword made of freakin feathers and he tries to chop you up like Cloud Strife etc. etc. etc. Finally he goes super crazy and turns like into this feral half-bird thing and whatnot and tries to kill you but you beat him and get tokens or something. If we want to go further with the Greekness of this think make Boss rewards out of the 4 compass winds (Boreas, Notus, Eurus, Zephyrus idk swords or something).

Can you feel my sanity draining out with each idea? I’m dying here

3. IGNITION

You know that heat you get that’s only used for level up? What if there was another purpose to it? For example, you have a bar on your HUD that shows say, every 100 units of heat you acquire. At 100 units, you are able to use IGNITION, which is a unique attack (well, unique per weapons line) and increases your attack/defense/movement speed etc. for a brief duration of time.
For instance, say your weapon of choice is a Leviathan. Your IGNITION attack would be say, a huge 9-square charge that knocks back all enemies in your way and grants your invulnerability during the dash.

OR

Sort of a Desperation or Limit Break (think Final Fantasy) where at less than 20% of your HP enables you to do the above. Something super flashy, I guess.

4. Early Game Weapon Rework

Finally, almost done. You know those Static Edges and Frost Guns you sold to the vendors at like Tier 2 for extra crowns? I feel like early game should branch off a bit more on weapon choices. I mean, we have a bunch of 1* and 2* weapons that no one buys, and that sucks cause they’re literally just arbitrary and forgotten. We could, for instance, upgrade the proto weapons INTO 1* gear just to let newbies try out crafting. OR, we could have paths that branch off the 1* and 2* stuff (Static Edge and whatnot).

Also, can we get a Winmillion 5* upgrade… (Winbillion…?)

TL;DR bunch of rambling from a confused guy, thanks for reading