WARNING! HUGE POST!

Image on Imgur:The Forge of Finesse UI: Basic Idea
I'd like to have a full preview experience with any outfit, not just proto ones!
Image on Imgur: Table
Yes some acc that are avail in the new starter setup are not accurate on the table, I just could nae remember.

• TL;DR

• The Forge of Finesse

• Explaining the UI image

• Thoughts

TL;DR

For TL;DR people:

1) I want better previewing
2) I want to know what accessories come out of boxes right away
3) I want to see more outfits in Haven
4) As an old player, I should have access to whatever new players have access to, too.

Slightly Longer TL;DR:
General Desire 1) Better Previewing
The last three paragraphs of "explaining the image" describes my desires on this subject.

General Desire 2)
I'd like to see detailed images of accessories. The things shown in greyscale (on the righthand scroll menu) would show what the accessory is, and the border would indicate what style it is, as seen on the icons in the left scroll menu in my image. The images on the right have no style indication for the Forge of Finesse, since these automatically fit into the style chosen, so there's no need to distinguish "fancy bolted vee" and so on. The greyscale accessories in the image are just a generalization of the idea, of course.
Reasoning: I am tired of about three milliseconds of excitement when I see an armor back pop out of a box, but alas, it is a side blade, not wings. I wanna just know, please! I feel like they might be working better accessory icons anyway, since they did such a nice job on the other item icons.

General Desire 3)
More sexy people, via the Forge of Finesse. Players new and old deserve to look their best. The words of the Forge of Finesse go as follows:
"A warrior seeks lengends, and in doing so becomes one. Let your enemies remember your face, create for yourself a lasting image that none will forget."

General Desire 4)

Hey, older players should have access to everything new players have access to! Now, it's another story for older things...As much as I'd love groundbreaker, I appreciate the meaning of that special set. There's enough things in this game for a person to make a unique combination with at least a little effort, so being an individual based on limiting proto items is silly imo.

The Forge of Finesse

• How it Could Work

About the Forge of Finesse:

The Forge of Finesse is a special transmutation machine that creates proto outfits - that's right, two items at once! These sets are basically clones of the proto you start out with, and, like the proto, are obtained permabound. Absolutely no unbinding or trading. Once created, you can remove or add accessories like normal at Bechamel.

The Forge of Finesse is much like the design screen new accounts go through to create, but without Modifiers, and with several more accessories. More popular or rare accessories are unlocked as a knight progresses through the game. Hence, we get to the name...
Finesse. Yes, this machine creates weak armors and helms. But a true warrior can battle with any object, or just fists and feet, even when naked. In addition to this, it takes much in-game "finesse" to fully unlock the entire Forge, hence, the name Finesse.

Using the forge can be very cheap, or very costly, depending on the number and type of accessories you add to the proto set.

Once transmuted, the items will be named [Style] Helm X of Finesse, and [Style] Armor Y of Finesse. For example, if one were to make the outfit in the posted image, the items would appear in the arsenal as: Fancy Tailed Helm of Finesse, Fancy Culet of Finesse. This naming is arbitrary. Having "finesse" in the name would make it easier to find these creations in your arsenal. Fundamentally, something needs to distinguish sets created in the Forge of Finesse from Spiral (proto) sets. You must always remember your first items, the things that carried you to the sancturary above the Swarm that is Haven.

As with any transmute, there is a chance of getting UVs (on either helm or body, or both). The resultant armor is a clone of proto, statwise. 0-star.

To prevent excessive outfit creation and spending, the Forge of Finesse may only be accessed once a week by any given individual. If the transmute button is used, the set is obtained, and the forge is exited. The mission becomes locked for exactly a week, or 168 hours. A count-down timer could be visible on the image icon for the mission. This means you can change your mind and exit the forge with that X button, and return, as you wish, to use it.

Edit: alternatively, establish the base cost of every little thing. Then, if you use the forge again, everything in the Forge costs twice as much. Then twice as much again. And again. But, if you choose to wait, the multiplier ticks off. So, instead of a time limit, you are limited by your own wallet and spending habits, and rewarded with patience.

Plan things out! Some accessories might only be available at certain times, like with flash sales.

Mission Type: I think a free DLC of this level would be appropriate, as it doesn't provide prestige points, nor does it provide a ton of lore for rank missions. We need more DLC anyway, it's silly to have that big button for just one DLC mission (Operation Crimson Hammer). Perhaps call it simply...Forge of Finesse.

The Forge of Finesse is located in a Hall-of-Heroes like mission, in that you can only enter alone. The Forge appears as a grand, glowing tower in the middle of a large castle room, interacted with at the front with Attack like normal things. There are no NPCs, but there is an information module telling you how to use the forge next to the elevator in the back of the room. This elevator returns you to haven.

The Forge of Finesse is not Bechamel. It is a unique transmutation station, that creates a set (two items) in one go. If you want to edit your outfit, you can't run it through the Forge again. You have to either do one accessory edit at a time at Bechamel, or access the Forge again to make another outfit entirely. This could potentially be more costly than single Bechamel edits, but might be more economic, depending on the end result desired.

You can of course equip only the helm, or only the armor, with any other helm or armor you have, just like with your proto set.

The Forge of Finesse UI

• Explaining the Image

No, it didn't take me that long to make the image. I'm just super enthusiastic about this idea. Everything in that image is from Spiral Knights, property of OOO. Images were taken via screenshots in-game, or from the wiki, and made greyscale and resized in some cases.

Using the Forge of Finesse: the first thing to do is choose style. For the image, Fancy style was chosen. If you choose to go back and change style, then any accessory you've added will change to that style automatically.

A helm and armor are chosen next. For anyone using the Forge of Finesse , the default "new player" armors, helms, and themes are available.
After the "base" of Style, Helm, and Armor are chosen, accessories may be added. At this point, the transmute button becomes click-able, as long as you have the needed materials. I've not really decided on transmutation costs, as the economy is difficult to please.

The Style, Helm, and Armor progress automatically in that order, then land on Helmet Top. You can go back to change armor, helm, and style at any time, but you'll have to re-affirm the proceeding steps.

Next, accessories are chosen. Simply click on the accessory on the right, and it will appear and stay until you click it again, or click a different accessory. For anyone using the Forge of Finesse, the default "new player" accessories are available. As your knight progresses, more things will unlock, such as vertical vents, flowers, even auras as long as they are themed. Even new "proto" armors and helms, as well as themes, might be unlocked. See THIS TABLE for my ideas on unlocking via progression. More on the table below, in thoughts.

You can jump to any step at any time. The transmute button ends the process, and you'll get what you created in your Arsenal, as you would when transmuting at other machines. Again, the transmute button is only click-able if you have the crafting cost covered, and at least the first three steps completed.

The buttons around the preview screen are toggles, that remain indented until pressed again. Walking shows how your knight might look whilst walking in place, revealing any clipping issues with animation. Auto rotate causes the preview knight to rotate in place constantly (much like the accessory mouse-over on the blueprint bodyparts in-game), while you edit it. The Freeze button halts all movement, including aura animation, tail rotation, breathing, and so on. This is for people who want to take the time to get a really nice image. The Equipped button shows your knight holding a weapon and shield stance. Whatever items you have currently equipped before using the Forge of Finesse will be displayed.

The background menu lets you choose a variety of scenery or blank backgrounds. The default is the normal blue. White, grey, and black should be available. Blast furnace, Haven, Cooling Chamber, Spooky, and so on (all of them) should also be available, so you can see how the outfit might look in the clockworks and in general public places.

The Inspect button shows the image people will see when inspecting you. The Overworld button displays an image of your knight in whatever background you chose, overworld style. Click on/select your knight and use normal movement commands to walk around, turn, and so on. When you select the knight, any toggles except overworld and equipped will deactivate to default. To get out of the overworld movement, select anything outside of the preview screen (but not the X! haha).

Note: all slots are available on every Non-Special item, no matter how badly it clips with certain things.

Thoughts

• Some Words on the potential effects of this in-game

Providing accessories in this manner (see table) could have:

Negative effect on the economy 1) Collectors that simply want to have "all of a thing" may be satisfied via the Forge of Finesse, and so money they normally would have spent on an unused accessory would vanish into the forge, instead of the Supply Depot or another player's wallet.

Negative effect on the economy 2) Certain outfits are a significant energy drain. If enough players are using the Forge of Finesse constantly, then money they would have spent on Flash Sales would not be used to generate more accessories.

Positive effect on the economy: players might further realize the value of unused accessories, and the economy would adjust acordingly. After all, the Forge of Finesse doesn't let you put anyhting on Heavenly Iron Armor, or that lovely prismatic Lockdown outfit.

Keep in mind that nothing from the Forge of Finesse can be traded.

Negative: this is yet another aesthetic thing to add to Spiral Knights. But hey, we are good looking warriors here, for a reason!

Negative effect: this would add "tiers" to accessories, and styles. This may have an effect on the prices of current and future accessories (like if they ever make all standard styles of pigtails).

Positive effect on the playerbase: Older players such as myself would have access to things that newer players have, since many of us rushed the creation of our proto sets and thus missed out on a lot of costume opportunities.

Personal)
I would love to make a very divine dragon outfit, using a scale helm that truly matches skolver coat in every color. Frosty Scale is okay, but it's not a perfect fit. I would do many other things, but many of you have died of old age by the time you've finished reading this entire post.
~Your thoughts and feedback?~