Aino and I spent a good chunk of our time testing Preview Server along with many others whether thats from 30 minutes to 5 hours. It is still our own personal time to test something. And it was not looked at or discussed.

Aino posted his feedback on the Preview server post and many others, including myself, have done so too. Please, GH, take the time to look at them and atleast tell us why we had the server run in the first place.

People are still opening gambling boxes for $1000 in Haven to get tickets.
Might as well turn everything into crap /s

While I'm super happy to have the preview server as a regular part of development, I'm also fairly busy and my schedule didn't let me even start playing Spiral Knights until later today.

I'll need to wait to give my own personal feedback, but what I can agree on is that the testing server is rather pointless if it's being used as a one-day preview of what's releasing the following day.

While players were certainly wanting the spike event to return shortly after the server issues from the previous event, most players would have preferred to have time to cook the changes before pushing them to live.

Every preview we've had recently has been used fairly successfully - from fine tuning the spikes to testing two versions of DVS to see which one worked better. This slime spike preview was not around long enough to correct design issues, and now it's a bit too late to fix it as it's gone live.

I believe this preview was lauded as being brief, but it was far too short for what it's worth. If anything, Grey Havens should consider private testers for shorter tests like this and keep the public tests as the longer ones. If you're looking for quick bugfixes on a tight schedule, private testers could be given those parameters instead of promoting the entire playerbase to give feedback that doesn't have time to get implemented.

Hopped into the game today (haven't played in preview server and never will because why if GH will never listen) and played Onyx Clover gate first strat of T3 since it has slime levels. I didn't mind it when they had at least two spikes max but once they get max spikes then it becomes ridiculous. In Starlight Cradle I did the danger room that you pay with energy and faced off against FIVE giant lichen colonies, all of them with max spikes on them. Mind you I played this game for years just like other vets and know plenty of movement tech, dodges, positioning and flash shields, and against five giant colonies that only have like 1-2 seconds of cooldown before launching another mass spike attack consecutively with a very large health pool on each of them in a small room is not fun. I'd rather face two Radahns from ER than go up against whatever I just faced because at least for the former there is a learning curve while in here they just decide to add a buff element to existing enemies and throw a bunch of them at your face. Now again I'll give the benefit of the doubt that it was in a danger room where a bunch of lichens spawn and that's my fault on going in there during the event, but when the only option I had was to spam OE charges to weaken them and reduce their damage by a tiny amount due to the spikes, there really isn't much of a learning curve. It's just keep throwing attacks at them until they die and such, especially when I was cornered and didn't have much of a way out since it was five of them and they cover a wide area each. If the room was bigger then I'd have a different opinion, but other than that it's the same ole thing as the first event.

Also what was the reasoning behind picking up the spikes when they pop out of the ground instead of just... walking over them to collect them? Now because of that you have to click a button to perform the action and if enemies are around (especially spiked), you're basically vulnerable until you drop it, and even dropping it you have 2-3 frames on you where you're defenseless and guaranteed hit. I'm not aware yet but throwing them against enemies damages them so that's a plus I guess, but the old way of collecting them was kind of better imo. Everything else regarding spike being off the HUD and such doesn't matter to me much so I won't give my feedback on that. Also like Aino's video there were some instances where a few spikes were stuck in block or behind a gate that required a second person to keep open.

I also don't like how some people still defend GH's actions and assume that the game is going to make a comeback. Before and during the revival of SK I still had doubts that it'll occur and so far I was right in which the revival really wasn't much to begin with. Most of the new things were just QoL updates and this event as a sprinkle. Yes it increased the playerbase but over time it started dropping back to regular levels, albeit a bit higher which is nice if anything. Other than that the event itself REALLY NEEDS major work and hasn't risen the player count much because of how grindy it is and how overtuned the enemies are in which newer players won't have much of a chance and the event being basically geared towards maxed-out players.

Tl;dr: Second event was kind of a downgrade imo, some of the QoL updates are nice but meh, GH needs to add more testing time for events like this like maybe up to a month or so.

@Fangel: No mean to disrespect but as much as you have great feedback, I wish you could be more blunt and provide more direct criticism. The wording and approach you normally do I understand you're looking at both sides and look at the positive aspects of things, but you're not necessarily adding much on the more negative aspects. People are very upset at this event and have the right to be so we can't give GH the benefit of the doubt when for the second spike event they only had the test server open the day before public release. That is definitely not enough time and to me that shows incompetence from GH. I work in the aerospace industry and work like this will get immediately rejected by QA, they won't even bother to look at the whole thing. Now both fields are entirely different and understandable, but this type of approach GH is doing is really lazy and inefficient. If they kept the test server open for maybe a month and actually read players' feedback (not just the whales or endgame players), then we would have a better event. Not perfect but much better. Constructive criticism is valid but we have to put it in a way that doesn't give them much benefit of the doubt at least for how far we all are in this point of time in the game; it's 2026 and we went several YEARS without actual new content such as new unique levels and bosses for example, the only new content we got being the post-FSC story levels. If it were 2013 then yes the way you would explain it would make sense because they're still barely adjusting to the transfer (don't remember when GH acquired the game so bare with me) but now we're in 2026 and already some of us are kind of fed up with how they're treating the game. GH promised us a return of the game and kind of set themselves to putting high standards on it, but so far it doesn't seem like it and most of these new updates are QoL things which I understand are needed, but they really needed more time having people test their 'new' content until they get it right. Again no hard feelings but some of us vets are either over it or very upset at the current state of the game in how GH is rushing 'new' content. We're allowed to voice opinions in a way that demands better action and accountability from them so we can't give them much positive reinforcement. It's not to say negative reinforcement is good since it can also backfire as well, but we're at a point in time where the dedicated players REALLY want to see actual progress and not flipflopping random content until they make it work in their eyes. If we give them the benefit of the doubt often then it'll have them assume that they don't really have to do much to appease the general playerbase, and I get that there isn't much staff at GH but I mean... they could've gone with temporary interns at least but they either refused or don't have enough resources for more people. I mean I heard some people wouldn't mind working there as unpaid interns but I don't know much about that part. So yeah we technically have to be blunt and hard on GH or otherwise we won't get meaningful results down the road, especially when they were ambitious that they plan to bring the game back better than ever. But overall they have the say on what gets released and how it's released with barely much player feedback implemented into it. Again no hard feelings.

NGL it would be infinitely better if your knight just automatically picked up the spike they walked over... if they're spamming attacks they throw it and probably deal damage, otherwise it just saves time

Right now you can run over to a spike and depending on lag and what animation your knight is in, you might just start shooting your gun instead of picking up the spike in time to stop a problem from turning into a big problem

Also a smidge sad there's no new items

The flow of aurora levels now is just horrid, instead of being able to shatter the spikes by walking over them, I have to purposefully alter my playstyle around picking up each spike to yeet it at a random enemy or wall in order to collect it unless I want to suffer.

I don't know chief, but this is just straight up not fun.

I appreciate the attempt to limit alt farming, since in reality, unless you pour insane hours into this event, it shouldn't be a "one-and-done" type of thing. However:

- Being forced to pick up spikes or let an enemy take them ruins the flow of a level. I'm stuck trying to interact with and pick up a spike when an enemy that was trying to get the spike is already next to me, so I get attacked while grabbing the spike. It makes levels feel slow.

- Forcing all party members to be near each other for spikes to spawn is an interesting concept, but it doesn't work in its current implementation. Multiple situations have come up where we've had to almost backtrack through entire levels after "clearing" them, because new spikes spawned. This causes levels to feel super clunky and slows down the grind a ton.

- I think the spike numbers need to be tweaked a little if the gameplay of the event is going to remain this slow.

- Bring back the spike counter; I only really saw two people opposed to the counter, which I honestly have no idea how it's a bad thing. Especially if spikes gained during levels is capped at 50, it would be extremely beneficial to know how many you have currently gained.

The best solution in my mind:

- Bring back the old spike mechanics from the first event, and the spike counter UI. Either make spikes bound, or keep the current implementation of the party nearby system, but make it more generous on party spacing (and make spikes spawn during encounters faster) in order to continue to prevent alt farming.

- Add the slime prize box in the depot, but add in the old casino special slime costume/equipment variants to the box, since the current casino seems to be headed into a different direction.

I can't disagree that this implementation is to make test anti-speedrunners/alt farmers ingame mechanics... So congratz the game feels even more aweful for those that didn't do that on the first place... The Spike Counter and the limit per level would Definitively make players be more conscient of the map, I agree with Yatez on the fact that spikes should prioritize spawning on tiles where the knights are.

Now I understand this measures are to dissuade 'speedrunners/alt farmers' from a gameplay point... and DOESN'T work, Speed-running is heavily afected by having to pick the spikes... Sure, I don't think is bad... There is some things to consider, the clunckiness of the animation as I said in another post. And the Interact Hotkey as an option so I dont need to 'click' while Holding a Bomb just for the game Confuse what Do I want to do and Succesfully do niether, while I get Hit in the face wantonly.

Even If this will draw Ire from some players, I will state it. Alt-farming have to be stoped SERVER-side, Time the player Out for an hour. So it might resume the whatever is that wants to achieve later on, knowing that it got timed out for Alt-farming.
Again I understand what's the Intention of this deploy, and I can respect it... However I will not accept having my game-play experience degraded Just because others exploit the game and refuse to take responsibility of such.

And If alt-farming is no longer a practice GH accepts, make a Direct statement. Just because the game have 15 year doesn't mean GH or the players get to act like teenagers and expect that demure infer is enough communication.

Gotta say, the spikes are a downgrade from the first pass. One of the largest things I appreciated about the previous Spike event was that spikes were a party resource. This event is unique in that you have to run around Arcade levels and actively kill things - pretty much every other event in SK has you playing a set of prestige missions normally, or speedrunning the Clockworks to find a scenario room that contains what you need.

The fact that spikes seem to spawn on a per-player basis when they enter a room is very awkward. One of the strange results is you can be running through a level, clear out all the enemies, and while your partner is grabbing loot, more spikes will just spawn behind you. This means you need to stop, walk back, pick up and throw the spike, pick up the material, and then walk back to where you were. I got into a loop once where I backtracked to the same spot 4 times in a row because spikes decided to pop up as I was leaving the room that many times.

These behaviors are frustrating and slow. The fact we need so many spikes and now we need to not just rush the spikes, but pray we can pick it up before the monsters do is tough. If the monsters had to attack the spikes to pick them up, that might give players a slight edge, but as it stands monsters pick up spikes so quickly while knights have to awkwardly rush to them. This issue is exasperated by ping, meaning you can beat the monster to the spike on your end but in the time it takes to return to a neutral stance to pick up the spike, they've already closed the distance and picked up the spike, often immediately attacking you with increased attack speed and damage. This is further worsened by the fact Slimes have perfect tracking on you as a player, so if you lose a spike rush against a slime, you pretty much are getting hit guaranteed if you have more than 50 ping.

I will say that throwing the spikes themselves does feel alright. The damage they do is substantial, even if the process of grabbing them to throw is annoying. Personally, I think it would be cool to return the team spike counter but make it essentially a party-wide throwable - if one person picks up a spike, we get it in a shared inventory that we can use to throw at enemies. They could break like normal materials in those instances, but at the end of a level we'd get the shared spikes added to everyone's inventories like minerals are. This would resolve the awkward pickup condition, give players a strong weapon to use against spiked enemies, and return that feeling of shared loot. This could still only apply to upright spikes - the monsters dropping spikes as materials is mostly a non-issue in my experience, and is a valid way to combat alt farming.

That being said, there needs to be a way to get more spikes per level. Players in the last event were running alts since they felt like a necessity to farm the event in any reasonable time. A reduction in material costs for Slicers, or a multiplier to the materials (maybe the shared inventory spikes get multiplied by difficulty - x1 for normal, x2 for advanced, x3 for elite at the end of the level) so that running alts doesn't feel mandatory to get the weapon you're spending the whole event farming.

@Zenphyre- I'm not sure why you decided to single me out here, I have a long history of constructive criticisms since I don't really see the value in ragging on someone. Often times game communities view their devs as this weird conglomerate that have no ears or brains instead of being made up of people with flaws like everyone else. I have no issues being stern and direct when I see an issue, but I have no desire to be hateful or rude. I prefer offering solutions to problems I see, as most of the time folks will simply complain about a problem without digging deeper into why they dislike the thing, and criticism without being constructive is easy to ignore.

I also believe only giving negative feedback when something is done right makes it appear that the user is not arguing in good faith. Again, it's easy to say what you dislike about something. Providing a point a reference for what you do like helps guide future decision making, especially when you can explain what you do like about the thing.

As a guess, GH might have pushed the spike update live to address player complaints about the preview server being paywalled. Now more people get to be exposed to the changes for free, which is good.

@Fangel "This slime spike preview was not around long enough to correct design issues, and now it's a bit too late to fix it as it's gone live."

Do you not understand this is a live service game? Nothing is "too late" to "fix" because any aspect of the game can be updated at any time. Check out the recent changes to WHB and DVS if you haven't yet as one recent example.

This event isn't anywhere near as fun now, I can't lie.

edit: found time to expand on my thoughts.

Genuinely, I didn't expect this pick-up mechanic to make such a big difference, but it VERY starkly highlights how few options a player really has for counterplay unless they know the matchup *exactly.* If your test servers are asking for the opinions of a testing cohort that is fully invested in the game to the point they're A) Paying To Test and B) Fully Geared to the point they know What To Test, the only insight you're going to get is from players who find the content really trivial. For newer or more casual players, this experience SUCKS!

I mean, jesus, dude; spiked Elite Mecha Knights on Solo. Spiked Gel Drops, too! This isn't a player-directed problem, either, those players earned the right to be called good at the game Because They're Good At The Game. The issue with the event isn't those players, it's the testing cycle, I think...

I sort of expected more testing and tuning, you know? Like, mechanical and gameplay and design tweaks, not this... weirdly coy anti-alting measure being half-heartedly implemented because seemingly nobody wants to take a concrete stance on the matter. So, what, players like me who are just trying to casually unwind get spark-checked because Dr. Multibox And His Marevlous Multiplayer Machine is going through the content a little bit quickly? Who cares, man, not when the game design is ruining the fun for regular once-an-evening players more than Alting Players are.

Like, I'm not exactly a tourist, but even I can see that it's kind of miserable to ask a new player to just, "Put Up With" the fact that a fully spiked glop drop in a compound means you're going down if you're not fully locked in - no ifs-ands-or-buts. I dunno, part of this is that I'm disappointed that there's no slicer variation, maybe... This is kinda just aimless griping on my part at this point, rather than an attempt to be constructive, but these changes feel so... thoughtless?

Are you making these changes to disincenivise alting or do you not actually care? Is it a problem or not? If it is why are we playing cute little game-design games to "kinda-sorta-maybe fix it except not at all" instead of just suspending offenders? And if it's not a problem y'all want to fix, then... why do this at all? Not to put too fine a point on it but like, Alting Is Your Fault, GH. People resort to it when they find a grind unforgiving or when they have the assumption that something will go out of stock permanently - it's a fomo thing. The REAL thing that didn't help wasn't the huge spike count for a mandolin or anything else, it was showing up in the forums to your OWN GAME and boldly saying "We Do Not Know When It Will Be Back Or For How Long :)" in the early days of the event's first run. Who does; god?? Should we hold hands and pray?

Great to see that Barbus is still completely useless, by the way. Suuuuper stoked about that. Yeah, I totally want to waste my time running the spike storm when I could just hit DnN, or even better, FSC, yet again, for radiants, *and* get ten thousand crowns for my trouble. Good. Great even.

I dunno if I have any ideas for giving players better odds against spiked enemies. Maybe a thrown spike deals more and more damage depending on how many spikes the struck enemy has and it starts off low. Maybe it triggers a friendly-fire-safe explosion that stuns spiked enemies to level the playing field temporarily. Maybe this pick-up-and-throw mechanic could have any risk/reward balance at all instead of just being a hollow obstacle to an external problem. Just a thought.

I was really happy with the weapon balance changes - following it up with this is kind of a damp squib that takes the shine off. Rushing stuff like this doesn't work, man.

After a few more runs I'm honestly really enjoying the thrown spikes mechanic for the most part. It's immensely satisfying grabbing a spike before an enemy does and proceeding to one-shot them with it. I've had moments where I've chained a few of those in a row and it made me feel like a god gamer. I do think it could use some tweaks, like maybe having spikes without any enemies around revert to the easily collectible state, but the basic idea is sound.

I agree with Sweet-Hope, but my experiences with spiked Mecha Knights are atrocious... They need to make it easier for us players to pick up the spikes and harder for monsters to grab them since they're so fast. On top of how we now need to grab the spikes to break them or throw them as damaging projectiles at the monsters. On top of how when swarmed, shielding won't work. Nor can you charge up a weapon to knock back anyone surrounding you. And all attacks of any kind can be constantly blocked by Mecha Knights instead of making them unable to block for a time if they shield spam like we try. Please next time allow longer beta testing to work out balancing and bugs more from a wider audience. I love the new gun still and am happy to get another chance to make it, but the current event feels so stressful sadly...

So when I saw that the test server was going live again, I was very curious about it and finally downloaded it for the first time to play and test on it the next day. But when I tried to login there the very next day, the event already went live and the test server was unavailable...

Well, at least I got it downloaded now for when the next testing starts, but having a test server run for less than 24 hours is too short in my opinion.

I could have sworn I fought lichens with more than 4 spikes, too. I guess the merging mechanic isn't subject to the 4 spike limit?

While I'm here, I'll also add some feedback:

I really like that you can (almost) one-shot normal enemies with the thrown spike on solo. Perhaps a tiny damage boost would be nice, so that it one-shots even on the deeper floors (if I remember correctly)?
EDIT: I didn't remember correctly. You can't one-shot enemies only in depths 2-7 on Elite and depths 3-6 on Advanced difficulty.

Having monsters have an advantage on grabbing spikes is annoying. For vertical spikes, knights have to go through the throwing mechanic to get rid of them. For fallen spikes, knights have to wait for the falling animation to finish, while monsters don't. I like the suggestion that vertical spikes should interact with knight attacks, they could break or fall over as a result.

The solo experience is miserable. Because of having to use the throwing mechanic and spikes spawning close to enemies, you can hope to clear only 1 spike in a room (maybe 2 if you're lucky). The monsters will get all the spikes and there's little you can do about it (well, without any crowd control). However, having a full party spread out across the room helps with clearing out the vertical spikes a lot. The event really is best experienced in parties.