Ok, crazy idea:
how about showing ADs on level loading screen and occasionally showing ADs in town, in some fixed areas of the game? They'll get some money for it...

PS: upgrading a couple of items 3* right now, so far crystals haven't been a problem for me.

Thunder is right.

ADs could show "get energy pack A with free extras!!" - energy depot ADs, or supply depot ADs...

@ Malsvir-Branea While I agree they need it make money it is silly to imply the forge and crafting costs are the only way to do it. There are plenty of f2p games out there that manage just fine without going to such extreme measures. Whats more Spiral Knights is a very simple game compared to most. It has a couple enemies pallet swapped every couple of levels and placed in pseudo random dungeons. This game goes through very aggressive lengths to extract money from its player despite providing very little content for it.

A bit late to the party, but let's go rant. On the rant floor.

What Malsvir-Branea means is that 000 needs money to update the game, and they are human beings after all, so they will need precious dollar bills. Before, 000 would make money off of CE and Elevator passes, because you were limited to 10 levels a day if you weren't willing to spend CE on runs. Old alchemy costs also required CE, not our OoAs that we have nowadays. Now, since the ME system got 10000000 hatred from newbs like OP, they voted to take out the ME system, but they still need money, right? So they implement the Forge. Those are the two ways they can make money, so you either have to go one way or the other.

At Mlaah, while I do suppose that this game is less complicated than perhaps Tf2 or stuff like that, but a lot of MMORPGs are not exactly that complicated. Take RS for example, all you need to do is press attack, then AFK for 20 seconds and wait for the monster to die. That is very simple. In SK, there is no such thing as AFKing in the middle of a fight, if you do, you die, so this may be more complicated than you might think. And when you get bored of that little content that F2P gives you, you have to pay MONEY to get that 80 percent of stuff you didn't get to see. That is what makes them get money. All games need to have a way to make money (other than very simplistic Flash games)

@OP, if you don't like the game, feel that it's going in the wrong direction, don't make a thread that includes your own greed for F2P wisdom, then threaten to leave the game when they don't give you what you want. NO ONE GIVES A [poop]. One guy leaving isn't going to trigger a massive dwnfall of population, we don't care. So you have a nice day. This game won't die yet. Good bye.

I would argue that OOO needing an incentive for players to spend money is false, or at very least strongly exaggerated. As I pointed out many games make money without strong-arming players for money at every turn. Both TF2 and Runescape which you pointed out have much higher cost to maintain and create content for, regardless of how involved you feel the combat is, yet neither has a really strong incentive to pay. TF2 items can easily be crafted with minimal time investment and don't actually make your character any stronger just change how you play them. A large portion of Runescape is free to play and if you do feel like unlocking more its a flat subscription. Both are probably among the most successful f2p games out there. Spiral Knights on the other hand tries to extract money from you at every turn.

What I am getting at is just because they need to make money doesn't instantly justify any such scheme. At this point its not a developer trying to provide a fun experience for their players or building the game they want, its the developers trying to abuse psychological trick to get people to give them as much money as possible under the thin disguise of a game. Its no coincident that spiral knights was started soon after Farmville because that is what it was almost certainly meant to be, a way to abuse addictive tendencies to grab money from people.

I like Spiral Knights and think it could be a good game if the developers would switch to a more ethical way to make money.

@Benjamin-Craft:
First and foremost, telling someone to kill themselves because they disagree with your opinion, and this topic, is strongly out of order. Quit being a child and accept criticism.

Regardless, I don't see why so many people see the Forge as a way for OOO to earn money. In all honesty, I feel it's been implemented as a shift to the progression curve of the game. Simply because, now that we no longer Mist Energy, running through the Clockworks is effectively infinite. With that, heating gear in the old manner would be a short, rather unrewarding experience (get a new weapon, and fully heat it all within the same day).

That's it.

On another note, as much as the number of crystals needed does annoy me, stating "you don't want to run to get them", is effectively saying you don't want to play the game to progress. What's the point? You're playing Spiral Knights so you can tell your friends you play it? Even though you haven't made one step into the Clockworks?

As much as SK could do with a strong community, it really doesn't need that kind of people.

Lastly, and I apologise for others (I'm in a bad mood), Benjamin-Craft, for your statement here:
P. S. Oh, and for Three Rings: I__HATE__YOU. You won't see me in your game anymore. Hope you'll close soon.
Have a nice day!

I have only one thing to say: I'm glad you're leaving. Don't return. Oh, and please don't re-produce.