Do you have a date for the prom?

If bombs in real life are far more powerful than swords, how come they're weaker in-game?

Double posted. Derp.

Do you think it's weird that OOO didn't fix the double post?

You've done exactly what you told me not to do. I have now lost all faith in the more intellectual SK players. GG.

Krakob, I find heavy swords the most fun, and I like the technique of purposely missing the first stroke and then landing the second stroke. I really liked using DA on the zombies in FSC, before the zombie AI was changed. Now their jumps are a little too dangerous (although their swipes are less dangerous of course).

Fehzor, I like the artwork best. The characters and other graphics are adorable and retro. I like that the game doesn't take itself too seriously. The devilite humor, particularly in Heart of Ice, is great.

Aplauses, Fehzor always refers to me as female, and I don't care one way or the other.

Yes, my swords question was a joke.

But serious question time:

What is your opinion on Armour of the Fallen? Do you think it could be useful when paired with BKC for universal Damage + universal ASI, while still retaining somewhat good defenses (Normal + Shadow, +2 Fire and Poison, +4 Freeze)?

If you had to choose, would you rather use Valiance or Neutralizer in a serious situation?

Would you recommend Venom Veiler, or do you think a different bomb would be better in its place (e.g. Electron Vortex).

Which Sprite of the three do you prefer, if any? Why?

Do you think the secondary Kat Cowls have their places for pure swordies/gunners/bombers, or does BKC outshine them.

What is your opinion on the Crest of Love from the Supply Depot?

Fehzor, I never listen to video game music (although I've heard that SK's music is quite good). I listen to a wide variety of music while playing, including orchestral, jazz, bluegrass...but mainly indie rock/pop from the USA.

Jenovasforumchar, I have never belonged to Lancer Knightz, although I have contributed data to them. Glacies, Zeddy, Exasperation, Antistone, Skepticraven, Kalaina-Elderfall and others have also done good studies. There are several reasons why you see me posting the Lancer Knightz data. (A) Donkeyhaute (who leads the project) seems extremely methodical, reliable, and committed, so that I can trust the numbers themselves. (B) They present their data clearly, so that I can understand them and present them to others. (C) Unlike Glacies, Zeddy, etc., Donkeyhaute doesn't frequent the forums, so I take it upon myself to mention his data in relevant threads.

And now back to discussing SK itself, with Dibsville:

* Something needs to be done about Fallen's fiend penalty. It makes no sense on a shadow armor, right? Especially since fiends are the nastiest monster family. And let's not even compare it to Chaos. I never use Fallen anymore.

* I don't have Neutralizer, but Biohazard is fun and effective in solo fights against big enemies. Valiance is much more "dependable" for me, especially in a party. But if I were more of a gunner, I might get really bored with Valiance and start using Neutralizer.

* Venom Veiler is very effective in support-bombing, although not especially fun. The vortex bombs are probably better overall, but VV is nice for variety, and not at all useless.

* Maskeraith is my only sprite, so I don't have informed opinions on sprites.

* The secondary kat cowls are weak because their odd-numbered buffs are hard to work into an optimized set. Maybe they should be given a little more offense, at the cost of some defensive penalties? Or maybe MSI+1, which doesn't solve the problem but makes them more attractive anyway?

* Crest of Love is an accessory? I don't know anything about accessories.

Fehzor, I'd rather not list my equipment specifically, because I don't like talking about myself and I don't like giving away information that can be used to identify me in-game. My privacy is valuable, and no one should particularly care about Bopp anyway.

Because it is relevant to the authority of my sword guide, I'll just say that I have all of the 5-star swords except for Triglav and Voltedge. That includes near-but-not-exact variations such as Fearless Rigadoon and Furious Flamberge. It does not include exact reskins such as the cleaver and the candy poker.

Okay, I'll work on getting Triglav. But don't hold your breath. Once I do, someone will say "But you don't have Voltedge?! How can you say that Combuster is better?" Well, by observing other players I can. But okay I'll get Voltedge too.

As far as I can tell, UVs fill two game design roles. The first is to add an ingredient of gambling, just like the prize wheel, lockboxes, etc. I don't like that aspect of Spiral Knights, because I worry that it preys on addictive personalities. The second is to make it extremely difficult for a knight to acquire the best possible equipment. I mean, even once you make it to 5 stars, you probably don't have CTR+4 on your Acheron and Storm Driver. And once you do, you want to get ASI+4 as well. And you need shock+4, fire+4, and maybe freeze+4 on your Snarbolax set. Then Three Rings disturbs the equipment balance, and you have to do the same for a new set. In this way, even very advanced players can keep theoretically striving for improvement, even though the returns diminish drastically. That seems like good design, mostly.

Zeddy's idea is nice in that it creates variety by simple combinatorial explosion, instead of requiring variety to be custom-programmed by the apparently overworked Three Rings. It's derivative of other games, but so is our current system, so that's okay. My one problem is that it might create too much symmetry, in letting any weapon acquire any damage type and any status. Design often benefits from a mixture of symmetry and asymmetry. For example, Neuschwanstein would be much uglier if all of the turrets were identical. For another example, the asymmetry between DVS and WHB is surprising and interesting.

I don't know what you mean about the beta Arcade, but I'm happy to discuss it.

Why was this thread created by Fehzor and not you?

just curious :P

So you won't expose who you are. I would have asked but I guess there's no point in that.

How about the Purple Spiral? What do you believe it is awarded for/should be awarded for? Is there anyone in particular you think should get one? Do you think you're one of them?

Apparently Dogrock has the Purple Spiral. I don't know what he did for it. Whoever sent Three Rings that SK-themed cake deserves it, although copycats would not.

People who massively edit the wiki may deserve the Purple Spiral. This is really Three Rings' job, that we do for free. I edit a fair amount, but other players (Sir-Onox, Trying) have edited more. My sword guide is arguably a strike against me, because it's not community-owned, it steers people away from trying certain weapons and armor, etc.

People who organize events (Lockdown tournaments, short story contests) might deserve it. But they would have to do several of them, to earn such a special award. People who massively help newbies, in-game and on the forums, might deserve it.

Three Rings probably has no interest in rewarding the data collectors and reverse-engineers (Zeddy, Exasperation, Donkeyhaute). In some sense they diminish the game's mysteriosity and casualness --- words I just made up.

Yes, I forgot Katmint. For what it's worth, I do acknowledge him/her for wiki edits on my wiki page. It's not surprising that he/she would get one.

Fehzor, that was an interesting thread, although I still don't get how the gates worked and how it was different from the post-launch gate construction. The post-launch system was not much better than what we have now. The obvious answer is user-generated content with a rating/voting system, as others have suggested many times. By running it like the test server, Three Rings could even create a new revenue stream from it.

Pipipipipi, I like the Swarm as an enemy, and the Unknown Passage is great fun. I've always wished that Three Rings would take a few days to come up with some sensible backstory, and then start revealing it to us in bits and pieces. A well-done plot could really enhance this game. The plot would ideally tie up all of the mysterious super-powers: the Swarm, the author of the Echo Stones, the Apocrea, Tinkinzar, Vog, etc. Oh, and the weirdness at the end of Ghosts in the Machine.

Like anyone I'm itching for new content, but it doesn't have to be the core. When the core is opened, I'd like to see one or two new tiers (4 and 5), possibly with weapons and armor going up to 7 stars. There's no reason not to go beyond 5 stars. If Three Rings wanted to stick it to us, they'd make the Blitz Needle, Acheron, Combuster, and Chaos upgrades weak.

I'm pretty sure the author of the Echo Stones IS the core itself, (or at least some creature who is what the core is locking) and the Swarm is trying to get into the core for reasons unknown (to get to the author of the Echo Stones most likely)

Yeah, radiants aren't exactly generous to anyone. Then again, that's a given.

Where and how exactly would you start if you were to rebalance the equipment? I personally may start off with the Acheron (being the most complained about weapon), giving it the damage as Obsidian Edge + Poison debuff on enemy. Unless that's how much it is already.

If you could add one thing to SK, (not balance or Radiant Drops or anything like that, more like weapons or enemies) what would you add?

Why can't I Bopp it? Seems like false advertising

you get it now?

Hi, Procorus. I don't have many thoughts on this topic, but here's a shot.

The specialist equipment I see at the Zebulon page is all armor and shield. Armor is in need of massive rebalancing, as I've described above. Some of the armors with monster-specific bonuses is a holdover from the days when blanket bonuses were harder to get. Some of the armor may even be a holdover from before the damage types were set; for example, Volcanic Salamander's elemental defense doesn't line up with its slime offense. (On the other hand, the same criticism applies to Arcane Salamander, which was introduced long after launch.)

Dead-end alchemy paths such as Deconstructor, Cautery Sword, and Winmillion should probably be extended to 5 stars or removed altogether. There is another option --- specializing them to Tier-2 Lockdown --- but that would probably destroy any semblance of variety in Tier-2 Lockdown. That's kind of like your idea of making Cautery Sword outshine Nightblade. I'm opposed to that idea, because it would just make Cautery Sword even worse as a trap for newbies.

Ultimately, there is already room for greater variety in swords (post #40). There's probably also room in guns and bombs, but I'll leave that to other people. There would be room for greater variety in armor and shields, if more of the game forced us to adopt defensive postures (post #40).

I'll add one more thing about armor. Arsenal stations made it easy to hyper-customize one's equipment to the level. But recently there have been movements in the other direction, toward greater variety in the threats you'll face: compounds, more random monster boxes, most danger missions, Shadow Lairs, etc.

And if so, is he named Twistt, Pulll, Flickk, or Spinn?