1 - Beacon at the beginning of boss levels
I found out how the bells work by accident, and even this was after I reached the second level, after hitting them by accident while a mob just happened to be nearby. Later on, while I was watching my brother play, I noticed the same thing, in that he didn't notice the mail at all until I pointed it out to him.
So my suggestion is to just get rid of them altogether, because I think this is a bit of a poor way to get information to players, especially when they need it right there and then. So instead of using mail, use those information beacons you see at the beginning of levels with wolvers, lichens, devilites, and arenas.
In other words, this: http://i.imgur.com/mCasJ.png
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2 - Trade interface
Having said that, what I'm suggesting is this: http://i.imgur.com/WF3kg.png
That's right. Buttons. And to remove the Buy/Sell labels (they'd be obstructed by the buttons) and make the kind of transaction obvious with the change in crowns for the player.
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3 - The chat
The English language is rife with apostrophes but whenever I type a non-vowel after an apostrophe, instead of having the letter appear after the apostrophe, it disappears, and I have to type it again. I'm a pretty fast typer so I'm usually a word or so ahead before I notice a part of the sentence is missing and I have to go back to change that. Needless to say, this is pretty annoying.
I'd basically like to see a small change to this system that whenever I type a ' and a non-vowel, the apostrophe appears right after the letter I typed (and if you use a vowel, it changes into á, é, ú etc.) Or: How Facebook chat, MSN, Word, Google, and most internet forums (including this one) deal with apostrophes.
3.2: Make scrolling easier. Or, possible.
Right now if you want to scroll up in a chatwindow, you have to click the up arrow repeatedly. I'd like to see it scroll up automatically when you keep that arrow pressed.
3.3: Allow tabs
This is a system that's found in almost every MMO I've played before (a way to seperate and filter different chats) but the way I imagine it integrated in Spiral Knights is particularly inspired by the way chats are handled in World of Warcraft.
In WoW there is basically one "default" channel where all the information from all the channels you have open (besides the ones you've filtered out) comes together. A lot of players keep other seperate tabs open, most commonly a seperate tab for trade and guildchat. I usually used to have the general tab open where I could see what happened in the area, guildchat, and private messages, and when entering a big city (where the area chat was often a substitute trade chat) I'd switch off to a tab where I could only see guildchat and private messages.
This is probably really confusing if you've never played WoW before. Or maybe it still is even if you have, because I'm bad at explaining things.
Here, have a picture: http://i.imgur.com/ukoXz.png
The three-second scroll-over is disabled when you're pressing down one (or both?) of the mouse buttons, so it shouldn't interfere with your everyday grind in the Clockworks (if you're the type of player who uses the mouse for direction). It could also optionally be shut off whenever you're in the Clockworks.
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4 - GM support tickets
This is impractical for three reasons:
1) It interferes with the gameplay, having to have your client minimized and your browser opened to submit a request
2) Players who play this game through the Steam client don't have verified accounts for this website, so they have to jump through that hoop first before they can actually get help.
3) The page is usually blank.
So the solution is simple: We have a bug report interface that looks like this, why not make one for support tickets that (for instance) looks like this?
Sensible, well-considered, viable improvements? In the Suggestions forum? I had honestly given up hope.