What's in development

- Would you be interested in PVP at all?
Yes, there is an element of suspense with the unpredictability of PvP that you just cannot get with PvE. PvP is never the same, because your enemy is always changing.

- What kind of PVP are you in to, or would be in to with Spiral Knights? Casual or more hardcore? Mario Party or Counterstrike?
The former would fit more with spiralknights, perhaps being as easy as a metagame for normal runs. As for the latter; I like direct competition as well and the little I saw in the beta was pretty fun. Certainly a new thing to do.

- What is your favorite competitive video game?
Super Smash Brothers - Melee
not the original, and not Brawl, but Melee

• Would you be interested in PVP at all?
  YES. I think the basic weapon mechanics of the game present some interesting choices, and the visceral quality of combat would lend itself well to PvP. But, I think PvP would need to go through a bit more filtering before it was "fun" in the same way that PvE is currently. To preface, I did play a few rounds of preview PvP, and although I found it fun, I wouldn't say it was something that would keep me coming back. An eight person FFA slash-fest in a tiny arena is over too quickly to really savor.

 

• What kind of PVP are you in to, or would be in to with Spiral Knights? Casual or more hardcore? Mario Party or Counterstrike?
  Neither. I would like to make a few points about how I see this game's PvP functioning as compared to the PvP offerings elsewhere in gaming. I see the ideal objective as something balanced somewhere in the middle between random fun and rigidly regulated competition.
  1. Mario Party is too casual a mode. It is basically run off of a random dice. The choices you make are very limited and not that meaningful in Mario Party compared to the outcome of the match. I would not recommend this approach.
  2. Counter-strike is too hardcore a mode. It viciously punishes those who don't have great aim and a complete knowledge of every map's idiosyncrasies. It quickly turns into a stomp-fest between experienced and inexperienced teams. In a game like Spiral Knights where players may only dabble in PvP occasionally, there is too much of a risk of newbie-crushing becoming endemic and turning off new players to this aspect of the game.
  3. The game I would most like to see emulated for Spiral Knights PvP is Super Smash Bros.. I feel like this game has a good mix of random elements and competitive opportunities. The characters in the game are fairly similar with some balance issues becoming apparent at higher level play, but with items and hazards thrown in there are plenty of opportunities for more powerful characters to die at the hands of an opportunist. In Spiral Knights, I see this as a possible "fun" balance solution: build a set of challenges such as power-ups and environmental hazards to deal with into PvP, such that it is not purely oriented around combat, which usually turns "who has ideal weapon" into the deciding factor. Although the preview build had both hazards and power-ups from what I remember, none of them were really strong enough to impact play. I'm looking for game-changing power-ups.

 

• What is your favorite competitive video game?
  For serious competitive play, I really enjoyed a little game called SubSpace. It was a multi-player asteroids style shooter with bouncy physics and lots of little bullets and bombs flying around. The gameplay was straightforward, yet very deep in terms of the potential for tactics in team combat. There were plenty of powerups but most of them were homogenized for competitive play.

  And this is the other alternative for creating some kind of balanced experienced in Spiral Knights PvP: homogenizing equipment. I would not advocate a total return to "base" equipment types, but I WOULD encourage the idea of a general adjustment for 1 through 5-star defense, damage, and shield duration in PvP such that the values were brought much closer together. This would allow new and established players to compete together in combat on a slightly more even playing field. Giving new and established players a place to play together will help keep PvP active even when the population lulls.

 
Hope some of that is useful. Basically, I'd like a balance between randomization and homogenization. A little of both will be required to balance a game with full gear progression that was not designed with balanced PvP as a top priority.

I look forward to seeing PvP implemented in SK! Here are a few other crazy PvP things I'd like to see, in no particular order:

• Randomized PvP maps
• More unusual power-ups with temporary beneficial effects: Regen, Flaming Shield, etc. (with visuals to show others who to run from)
• Some kind of mixed PvE/PvP mode, either team based with armies of monsters clashing (ala DOTA) or just a spread of enemies to deal with as you fight other knights (ala WoW World PvP).

I am definitely looking forward to a new boss. Tier is less important.

Oh, and a small thing for the auction house: Maybe put a sign or NPC up front to give some general information about how it works, such as talking about how the listing price functions and some basic advice? I'm not sure it's needed, but it certainly couldn't hurt. I know my friends and I were a little confused, thinking the listing price was a permanent loss, not simply a temporary cost until the item sold, when it first came out.

For PvP: I would be mildly interested. I definitely would like to see a spectator possibility (give it a small crown cost for admission, if necessary) and you could even add in a betting possibility, but that's just a suggestion. I wouldn't use it personally.

I'm definitely more into a casual PvP. But, honestly, as long as people are playing for fun primarily, or there was a way to split it off (maybe two match types, one with low cost but no return, the other with a higher cost but the winner(s) take the pot?) I could see it being just a nice side-track when I'm bored of dungeon grinding.

I also liked SSB, but, yes, competitive play was not fun at all. Otherwise.... L4D 1+2 versus is my mainstay. Gotta love gameplay that requires teamwork!

Does anyone even still play this game?

There's about 2000 people online right now. There even a filled instance or two of non-English Haven. The game seems to be doing quite well at the moment.

Yeah. Just because it's no longer the game for you, doesn't mean it's a terrible game.

Haters gonna hate. That's all there is to it.

1. A new Tier 1 boss dungeon. We've seen that Tier 1 players (there's a lot of them!) could use a goal to work toward that helps bridge the content into Tier 2. This beast-themed dungeon is looking really nice and features a very cool boss that I think Tier 1 players will enjoy.

This is cool, but I'd rather see changes implemented to make it so that running non-boss content was more profitable/worthwhile. Up the crowns, heat, or create more demand for mats from non-boss stuff, imo. Still, this will hopefully improve the new player experience and make T1 feel like less of a time-waster.

2. Auction House refinements. Please continue to give us your feedback on the AH, it is appreciated.

It would be really nice if we could search for specific UVs.

3. PVP! - Would you be interested in PVP at all?

Nope. There are enough PVP games out there that I feel little or no desire to get involved in another one, although I know PVP tends to be big with certain gamer crowds (which may or may not be attracted to MMOs and F2Ps in general...but that's another discussion entirely). I especially don't want PVP in the game if it means that the PVE content will be constantly tweaked/"broken" for the sake of PVP "balance." If you want a good example of what not to do, and an easy way to make players angry, look at how World of Warcraft has handled PVP since the introduction of Arena. If you can implement PVP without affecting PVE, fine, throw it in there so the uberleets can go compare the size of their Fausts. But please don't do it at the (ongoing) expense of PVE. I'd much rather see more PVE content being developed. Furthermore, I'd strongly advise against adding in any sort of gear rewards to PVPing. Keep it even from the get-go, even the gear odds. If players want to duel, have victory against their opponents be its own reward, and have victory be based on skill rather than gear.

- What kind of PVP are you in to, or would be in to with Spiral Knights? Casual or more hardcore? Mario Party or Counterstrike?
PVP with objectives (capture the flag, etc) is not innovative or particularly exciting. I think PVP that just focuses on battling/dueling appeals a lot more to the kind of people who want PVP to begin with. On the other hand, more goofy, "casual" pvp can get other people involved who wouldn't be interested in the competitive aspect...but then again, adding more PVE content would likely please them just as much (and the PVE-ers as well).

Totally uninterested in PvP. As long as PvE is still the main focus of the game and I don't have to do it, I'm fine with it being added.

It would be fun, though I think it would only work well if it was not based on the equipment people already had. Truthfully though, I'd much prefer to have more bosses in this game.

PVP - yes, if you don't put it back it'll be far more then just not caring, I'll be extremely unhappy if it doesn't.
I liked it how it was, just plain out fighting, but any other form of competition as long as not in place of plain fighting is fine; no preference.
Tier one boss - whoo.

well, PVP did feature fire pots that hit players in beta, and revving was instant free, and um, you either got up there or moved to corner, don't remember.
---
..Bleh, team pvp, not my thing.

1. PvP was the reason I entered this game, and PvP is the only thing that would bring me back. But from
what I've seen in user videos of super brawl mode, PvP needs some work, lots of balancing and other things to do before it would be any fun.

-An easy one would be to drop all damage dealt, being killed in one or two hits is not a way to go.

-Allow a full weapon combo(i.e. cutters five swing, or sentenzas six shots) to hit before triggering invincibility,
but it should also be done so you can't stop mid combo with a shield cancel and start another combo immediately.

-Fixed health values regardless of armor.

-Maybe buffing or reducing shield health value based on what weapons a person is using. A full sword user going against a gunner/bomber faces a disadvantage, a heightened shield value could be one answer to that issue, maybe. I haven't played pvp myself so it's all speculation on my end.

2. I enjoy both mario party and counter-strike. I'd love to see hardcore and casual modes implemented, and some nice ideas have already been put out.
I'll leave a couple of mine here too.

Solo and team deathmatch, other combat games like all those suggestions that've already been posted.
Obstacle courses (with some super deadly hazards and traps) could be fun for those who don't want to fight each other directly, and for me!

So as a true neutral character would say, I go both ways.

3. Power Stone 2, Soul Calibur, Smash Brothers Melee, DotA - in that order.

Also, in regard to potential entrance fees for PvP games, if there are any then there should be some kind of compensation, though nothing that would create an imbalance between PvP gains and PvE gains.

B-But.. D: the PVP crown from beta, it is a must.

@Nearo--Trophy items/costumes (ie, no stats etc) would be fine. That's not what I meant in my post (I should've been more specific)

Tier 1 Boss: YES (But please don't make Ian design the boss; he'll make it so hard the new people will cry for months T_T)

PvP: YES.

I don't need Deathmatch, 4v4, ClanVClan. Just give me ... ... ...

SNIPE HERDING.

It's the only PvP you need.

(Okay, you can implement Clan versus Clan. BUT ONLY IF THE FLAG IS A SNIPE)

I have seen videos of pvp in the past, and it does look pretty awesome, but does need improvements.

For a start, I think that it needs some way of dividing the players by stars of equipment, or more simply in the case that players have mixed and matched tiers, downgrades or upgrades weapons so that they all have equal damage to speed ratios (The speed would stay the same, and the damage would change) to balance the people fighting. (I personally think the second idea is cooler, just because it would be cool to see a proto sword even with a faust in fight :D)

Additionally, it would be cool to allow guild battles to find superiory guilds, or end disputes between the groups, and should not downgrade the weapons when fighting.

Overall, I think the idea of pvp is really cool, and should be finished.

Still, the thing I want most in the game is a 5 star sword in the troika line! Gotta love them troikas! :D

If you make CTF, I agree, the flag should be a cute little snipe that we carry around like other pick up objects. Then we bring the other snipe to our base's snipe so they can be friends.

8D

YES, YES.

The masses require SNIPE HERDING as a PvP mode.

Capture the Flag will now be called Herd The Snipes.

This game does not lend itself for balanced competition, just forget it, leave that to the shooters/RTS, you try to make it competitive people will treat it that way and start QQing about balance. Balancing for PvP with a game not designed for PvP is a gargantuan chore. That and people from overseas would be excluded instantly (I can't imagine 350M/S would lend itself to PvP well). That Brawl event looks like fun, so implementing that regardless looks good if people are interested in some "I'm bored" fun.

I'm late to this thread, but I hope it's read and considered by developers, as PvP is such a big deal to me. How PvP is implemented will make or break the game for me, and I'm not alone on this boat. What are players gonna do when they're done farming their gear and tokens? PvP. I play games almost solely to PvP. The longevity of this game is very much linked to this PvP. A little info of me: I've played Bloodline Champions, Heroes of Newerth, Counterstrike 1.5, Ultima Online, Darkfall, Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates for 4 years on Midnight, and Starcraft 2. I've played these games hardcore. I'm biased, but I know my stuff when it comes to PvP.

The utmost important thing that needs to happen is separating people by gear, preferably star level. This DOES NOT mean "You can't pvp in 5 star gear." It means having different levels. 2nd most important thing is the ability to wager: you need to be able to put your money where your mouth is. This breeds competition and gives you rewards for being good, without adding more crowns into the game. Right off the bat, we're looking at 4 levels of gear, each level having its own wager:

Level 1: 0-1 Star gear allowed. 50 crown entrance fee as a crown sink. / An additional mode to wager 250 crowns.
Level 2: 0-3 Star gear allowed. 100 crown entrance fee. / A mode to wager 500 crowns.
Level 3: 0-4 Star gear allowed. 150 crown entrance fee. / A mode to wager 1000 crowns.
Level 4: 0-5 Star gear allowed. 200 crown entrance fee. / A mode to wager 2500 crowns. Note: The separation of 4 star and 5 star gear is necessary.

In addition, if we're going the group-based PvP route, especially if there are wagers, we need to be able to pick our teammates. If it's only the "First 8 players to queue gets in a game" format, there WILL be collusion, and the PvP will fail. This is so extremely vital. Personally, I will not play team based PvP where I cannot pick my teammates. That will absolutely ruin it for many players who take PvP seriously.

Let's talk modes. I think there should be the 3 basic: Capture the Flag, King of the Hill, and Team Deathmatch. CTF and KotH are fairly self-explanatory. For Team Deathmatch, something like 3 or 5 deaths per player would be fantastic. I personally believe that there shouldn't be anymore than these basic 3. With more options, it becomes harder to find a game.

I've heard that players died way too fast back in the day, because damage was so high. If this is true, then I'd suggest a 50-75% damage nerf across the board when fighting in PvP. This will make games longer and be more newbie-friendly without taking away from the skill needed.

Lastly, a bi-monthly player leaderboard would be very awesome: Have the reward for being top dog some sort of costume that perishes in 14 days.

All of this would make PvP extremely competitive and encourage skill and dedication. Also, with the crown sinks: the more players playing, the better the game's economy, a predicament which is great considering this would serve as a tremendous crown sink that this game desperately needs.

Thank you for reading. Please make a a competitive PvP and do it well! ( =

PS: Something to keep in mind: Don't worry too much about PvP balance. Let the players balance it. There is all sorts of armor and sword types in this game that whatever is deemed "overpowered" will be eventually weeded out from counters for it. You will never have to nerf particular gears for PvP, because you already have amazing groundwork in this game that will allow. Also, please please PLEASE don't add artificial handicaps and discourage skill.

- Would you be interested in PVP at all?
Quite so.

- What kind of PVP are you in to, or would be in to with Spiral Knights? Casual or more hardcore? Mario Party or Counterstrike?
Casual, Mario Party esque would be sweet.

- What is your favorite competitive video game?
Starcraft 2, En Taro Adun!

@rap
i disagree. although the balance is a little rough around the edges *cough*great swords are OP*cough* you can see the attempt at give and take on balancing of gear. bombs need a charge and any hit cancels it. guns would be much better than swords if they didnt slow speed need reload and do less damage, swords require you to be melee range so smart play with either of the above weapons means they cant even touch you (area denial with bombs, forcing them to shield so you can run with guns). couple that with terrain like hazards and blocks and youve got one of the smarter fighters out there.

but really (just to emphasize), team based, tactical objective driven PVP will make this game shine. just think about all the tactics that come into play in something like capture the snipe. bombs for area denial, guns to take out snipe bearers, swords for generalized chaos. the foundations of great tactical gameplay are all already here.

I'll respond to the question of what my favorite competitive video game is:

League of Legends
and
Swords and Soldiers

Please make the PvP hardcore for sure! The main aspect is the PvE in this game and pretty much you can consider that casual. At least have the hardcore part on PvP! :D

HARDCORE SNIPE HERDING.

Dodge Lord Vanaduke AND the Jelly King while you herd snipes to your team's designated snipe herding area!

Nick, Ian, if you're reading this, FUND IT. PVP SNIPE HERDING.

Just thinking about this more. Team based PVP would be really good. I think the game already lends itself to team based play, especially in the boss area depths. working together and knowing what you are doing is key. I'd love to see competitions of a 1v1, 2v2, 4v4(perhaps the 8 player training grounds is on to something) where you are trying to make it through a level either fastest, or accomplish certain goals, maybe even face off against each other but not in a perfectly straitforward way. Like perhaps a oil and fire jug dodgeball match of sorts. Who knows there are endless possibilities here.

Also would love to see some straightforward death-match PVP too - but I posted about this already. And like I said, I envisioned that where people are granted the same gear each match, I could see it being cool, everyone gets the same gear and 4 weapons, to go at it with each other, randomized too, would be fun to experience all the weapons and armor you don't know. Plus armor knowledge would come in handy, playing on weaknesses of your opponents.

PVP for this game is a must. This game is made for PVP as it isn't revolved around stats alone but also around skill. I know that i'll be doing it alot, even just for the lolz.

I do wonder how it's gonna work though. Will you win or lose something? How about a bet system?

yeah. What title said. :) I think the PVP should revolve around that. :) Why? It makes all these guilds useful :)

I'm strongly against PvP that promotes elitism. Spiral Knights has a relatively laid-back and cool community and we could do without the whole PvP dramatics and flames (that many of us players get enough of in other games). If its going to go in, make it enjoyable for everyone regardless of wins or losses.

Otherwise, scrap if it we're going to expect "YOUR GUILD SUX HAHAHA"-esque comments.

So, I just came up with an idea while shield-bumping jellies at my friend:

Pong (OK, I may be a couple decades late on this one)

Pong using shields, perhaps powerups, random stuff like the exploding jellies, and maybe the trees come out and take a whack at the puck? I dunno, I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to flesh this idea out into something really enjoyable.

Would you be interested in PVP at all?
Yes, I'd be very interested!

What kind of PVP are you in to, or would be in to with Spiral Knights? Casual or more hardcore? Mario Party or Counterstrike?
I think that there should be both casual and hardcore, but I understand that this may not be possible. A deathmatch and team deathmatch from 1v1 all the way up to 4v4 would be great. If you decide to have different game modes, such at CTF, there is a lot of room for map creativity. I also see the possibility of weekly and/or monthly tournaments with prizes.

What is your favorite competitive video game?
I would have to say Team Fortress 2. There's a lot of community there for mapmaking and ongoing beta feedback, and makes the game continually interesting. Even if you don't play the game professionally, it's both fun and competitive at the same time. A close second has to be Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, simply because it has many different multiplayer modes and the lightsaber adds a lot of depth to the game.

It would be nice to add some stuff to the Guild Halls. Maybe have a store to buy stuff using crowns. Right now the Guildhall is kinda useless.

The best way to handle PvP in my mind is to make combat secondary to the goals of the match in question. When combat does happen, allow for reasonable respawns when you die such that you can get back into the game quickly. We want to ensure that folks are having fun here! Be sure to rank players and guilds (not in a guild? Rank them as "mercenary" or "free agent" etc) in some manner for bragging rights, that would be great fun and provoke a bit of good-natured rivalry.

Have games where parties of four (and allow for preset parties, please!) have to capture flags and bring them back to a home territory or have to capture territories that add up to a total score. Have fun gimmicks like the ability to gather materials and summon monsters in your opponent's base or something like that. Make them unique, make them random and make them fun! Combat should be useful but secondary as I said before. If you want a dueling place that's fine too, but that gets boring after a while.

Ensure that special tokens (spent on special PvP equipment or crowns of course!) are handed out to everyone, winners and losers alike. For each type of game, ensure some sort of mercy rule (ie, if you can capture up to five territories and they are capped right away, end the game after 5 seconds), so that even if there is a team imbalance, folks can move on to the next round, and still get a little something out of the deal.

Incidentally, I see whole new weapon/armor types coming into play here. Given the huge numbers of GF/DA swords out there, we might see more piercing/shadow damage being made and used.

By the way, we are actively collecting the feedback from this thread, even if we aren't posting to it constantly. Please keep your thoughts coming!

Objective based pvp is key--especially because it will make multiple weapon styles viable.

-Bombs are easy to avoid and no good for outright killing people, but are very good at "zoning" enemies off of objectives, from getting through doorways, ect.

-Guns are good in long, narrow areas--especially ones with little cover.

-Swords are excellent in areas where closing the distance with cover or tight turns is easy.

Make sure that each style has its place and is viable, and please reward teams for being able to adapt with a variety of weapons.

A good example of level design built to accomidate different classes/playstyles can be found in the team fortress 2 commentary, where they talk about creating alternative routes in levels that suit different styles of play. In fact, just look at TF2 in general. About 9 years of design trial and error put into that one a lot of good stuff can be pulled from it.

Icee wrote:
All MMOs are "connection-dependent" to some degree. The fact that having a better ISP might give one person an advantage over another is not a reason to avoid implementing a fun feature. If you're playing on a slow connection, you almost certainly won't win a swordfighting tournament in Puzzle Pirates, but that doesn't make swordfighting tournaments bad.

I should've been clearer when I mentioned connection dependence; I meant that (1) Spiral Knights currently (apparently) does not implement sufficiently robust protocols to handle any kind of connection noise, and (2) connections to Spiral Knights from the places I've tried (and I have tried several) are for whatever reason worse than connections to any other game. I live in a house where we paid for a rather nice Internet package that gives us 20 down/4 up with ~20 ms ping to everything in the bay area. Everything, that is, except Spiral Knights. I can run simultaneous pings on the SK game server, the nearest Google server, and a LoL game server, and the SK (pa)ping will be consistently an order of magnitude higher than everything else. (And Halo, League of Legends, Magicka, and Portal 2 ALL run nicely while SK continues to periodically stutter.) OK, so I'm stuck with a 200ms ping time to SK; that shouldn't be too much of a problem, right? Then why do enemies occasionally migrate through walls for 2 seconds at a time? It's as though SK were just dropping messages that took more than 250ms or something to arrive.

On the flip side, apparently many people have absolutely no problem with their connections to SK, so maybe it's still something on my end (which again is odd, considering that every other online game I play feels just fine). The fact remains that SK doesn't handle less-than-stellar connections well at all, and I think that that is something that needs to be addressed before PvP becomes viable. Otherwise, PvP won't BE a fun feature; it's fun to beat and be beaten by other players; it's not fun to be beaten by the lag monster.

Incidentally (ironically), Puzzle Pirates is a good example of a game where connection troubles ARE handled well. It turns out that you CAN do well in swordfighting with a slow connection, since the connection quality isn't tied to the gameplay quality. The same holds true for most of the puzzles; in fact, you can actually yank out your Ethernet cable and see most puzzles continue to function (without hiccups) for several more seconds before it complains that it can't talk to the server anymore. In fact, I picked up Puzzle Pirates partly because it was a game I could play despite having 2k ping--everything except turbo TD and bnav were playable.

Would you be interested in PVP at all?

i'm all for the idea of 'fun' PVP seeing as the game is more focused on the clockworks than PVP, but it would be nice if there was something to gain in PVP. Nothing to spectacular that will undermine what the games actually about (The Clockworks)

What kind of PVP are you in to, or would be in to with Spiral Knights? Casual or more hardcore? Mario Party or Counterstrike?

The game has enough egos who think they're god, it doesn't need more which hardcore PVP would provoke, Casual is gripping, something for everyone to enjoy, i've honestly never played mario party, but counterstrike with capture the flag, bombing mode, anything that actually requires stratagy not basic broken record slaying, is nice. Working as a team properly and effectively is after all, far more skillful than showing off solo, and it's more fun for everyone!

What is your favorite competitive video game?

I can't say just one XD...Combat Arms Europe, Uncharted 2 Amongst Theives (online), Monster Hunter (all of them)

Would you be interested in PVP at all?

Yes, there is nothing wrong with a bit of competition.

What kind of PVP are you in to, or would be in to with Spiral Knights? Casual or more hardcore? Mario Party or Counterstrike?

I think that there is a time and place for everything. There are both casual players and hardcore players in any gaming community and there is no reason as to why both these groups cannot be addressed at the same time; simply have a ranked and unranked section of the PvP arena. Perhaps there can be staking- 1 on 1 (or similarly balanced teams) battle for a predetermined agreed amount of crowns. Different game types as previously mentioned would be nice as well.

What is your favorite competitive video game?

I am very good at TF2.

1. Beast-themed you say? Sounds suspicious, since there is a "Vog Cub" Wolver that is said to have not been seen by users, will we perhaps see it now? And will there be a new token involved?

2. Instant access to AH, CE bidding, Ability to see the time left on an item, Remove 10% Fee or decrease it. Thats the only things it needs.

3. - Would you be interested in PVP at all?

Offcourse! A little curiosity on fighting against players never hurts.

- What kind of PVP are you in to, or would be in to with Spiral Knights? Casual or more hardcore? Mario Party or Counterstrike?

I like something casual yet involves strategy, not just spamming attacks hoping you get the enemy before he gets you.

- What is your favorite competitive video game?

I'd say Lost Saga (OGPlanet), I would've enjoyed it, if only it wasn't server restricted to NA and EU. (I can join, but theres a bit of delay)

Tier 1 Boss:
Oh sweet a new boss! The only problem is that it's a beast. Beasts give the worst materials ever. Not to mention it's the path that leads into the cookie cutter vog cub set. Everyones first set is usually wolver due to how easy it is to get. I'd like to see more armor diversity. On the plus side at least there's going to be a use for piercing defense now.

PvP:
Sounds cool. Hopefully It'll be balanced unlike in the preview event. Are there going to be PvP tokens you can trade in for some gear though? That'd be pretty cool.

PvP is one of the things that I've been looking forward to most in Spiral Knights. I am a very competitive PvP'er, having played a lot of games such as World of Warcraft (arena included), League of Legends, and Counterstrike.

As other people have mentioned, object-based game modes such as Capture the Flag, Juggernaut, and Capture the Base would fit very well into this game's combat model, as well as simple Team, and Free-for-All, Deathmatches.

We Wanna Know When These Will Come Out Soon

Totally down for the PvP. I'm definitely in the team PvP camp though.

Imagine CTF... a group of knights moves forward for a flag run. After shield-bashing and knockback-ing the opposing team out of the way, the group manages to get a hold of the flag. They about face, and three of the knights group around the flag carrier. Slowly, they crawl back towards their base while shielding in close proximity to defend the carrier. Two members of the opposing team get ahead of the flag group and set bombs in their path. The flag group is forced to stop while the bombs detonate while two other members of the opposing team attack the shielding flag carrier from behind. Noticing this, the flag group reorients to protect the carrier, but it is too late. The entire enemy team converges on the flag carrier and his team as the carrier's shield breaks. The flag group is struck down, and the opposing team advances towards the flag...

Not sure how the image is painted in your head, but that sounds pretty epic to me.

There's a similar game type that appears in Halo (bomb) and S4 League (touchdown). You grab an item and bring it to the enemy base. Very similar to CTF, but it has some interesting nuances. It would be great if you could "pass" the "ball" to fellow teammates. Hell, the ball could totally be a snipe. It's kind of funny.. In S4 League, the ball is a creature called a Fumbi, and they do a dance during halftime... but yeah.

I've always been a fan of PvP game types where you can utilize the environment against your opponents as well. I'm sure this was in the plan already, but being able to move/drop/destroy/redirect objects in the world to help you best your opponent makes for very interesting gameplay.

Also, there are always interesting new play styles that develop when constraints are made. You could have "guns only" or "no shields" game types.

As for the survey...

Would you be interested in PVP at all?

• Yes, yes, and hmm, yes.

What kind of PVP are you in to, or would be in to with Spiral Knights? Casual or more hardcore? Mario Party or Counterstrike?

• Huge fan of casual game types that can be taken to a hardcore level. The basics like CTF keep showing up because they are suitable for casual, for-fun gameplay and serious, strategic gameplay.
• I don't think a straight-up hardcore-style PvP would be suitable for Spiral Knights. It just doesn't fit the feel and aesthetic, but the systems behind the game allow more intense players to dive in as well. I think this is the game's biggest strength and should continue to shine in PvP. If you guys have pulled off the tricky balance with the game as a whole, I'm sure you can do it with a new feature.

What is your favorite competitive video game?

• Starcraft. You can either hop into a league match or just run a custom game. On that note... custom maps... hmm... Maybe in v37, right?

Hate to rant too terribly much, but tell me there's some love for guilds out there. My 25 person strong guild loves doing runs together, but I foresee things starting to get monotonous once we reach the upper levels of gear.

Are there any plans to do things with the Guild Halls? Guild tokens and customizations would be right up The Pastry Chefs' alley. We would totally get the biggest oven available. I understand it's a whole bunch of content generation, but I'm sure there are some 3d-savvy players out there who might be willing to contribute *nudge nudge, wink wink*

The only problem I see with CTF is that if it uses the standard item-holding method, a lone enemy knight with a gun could easily snipe at the flag-bearer and cause him to drop to flag.
Of course this could be prevented by team-mates shielding around the flag-bearer, but I think it would neat if the knight holding the flag was set in a shielding state. This way he could take several hits before dropping the flag (The shield would be stronger depending on the Tier level of the fight). This would also mean the flag-carrying Knight would walk at the same speed as if he was normally shielding. I personally think this would add an interesting gameplay aspect, since it would take the flag-bearer much longer to reach home-base, and therefore, would need to be defended much longer. Then again, this wouldn't be very ideal for large arenas...

Also, if I am remembering correctly from the beta, getting hit by anything would cause you to blink and become invulnerable for a short amount of time (like normal). However, in PVP this made weapons like the cutter and autogun next to useless, since the instant an enemy was hit by the first strike of a weapon, he would become invulnerable to the remaining strikes. I'm not saying invulnerability should be removed for PVP (it keeps people from easily ganging up on someone); rather, I think the invul state shouldn't apply to attacks of the same combo from the same Knight (three slashes from a caliber, an autogun burst, etc.)

And also, I think massive tournaments would be awesome, especially if it was Guild vs Guild.

Just my thoughts on PVP stuff..

- Would you be interested in PVP at all?
Yes! Yes I would!

- What kind of PVP are you in to, or would be in to with Spiral Knights? Casual or more hardcore? Mario Party or Counterstrike?
It really depends on the mood I'm in at the time.. I really enjoy playing both.

- What is your favorite competitive video game?

-MechWarrior: Living Legends
-Super Smash Bros Brawl
-Team Fortress 2
-StarCraft 2

And yay for more bosses! :D

Just a thought for an entertaining thing - something partway between the Training Hall and full PVP. Fill it with people, let people rez pretty much any time they like (possibly have entry and rez costs be a small fee, but likely better to buy as a day pass) and fill the place with constantly repopping oil vases, fire vases, heals, vials, and so on (along with a bunch of random terrain features - hazardous and otherwise). Basically, the idea is to be able to go nuts on each other without real cost. Sure, you just plastered one of your fiends with poison, curse, fire, and shock, but he can instant-rez for free, so it's not like there have to be any hard feelings. Set gear effects to the lowest possible tier, to reduce the gap between high level and low level characters, and possibly even have character weapons not affect each other. Just a place for wacky, fratricidal fun.

Ways to deal with the costs of this thing...

- The heavyweight version: Make it guild-only, and have the guilds pay to build it. Each individual guild can buy space and individual terrain features in their own little dueling hall for a significant, but not exorbitant energy cost (though building a hall of significant size and/or complexity could quickly *become* exorbitant). Having an associated cost in crowns as well would be a good way to give upper-tier players a solid crown sink - a good way to tweak energy-to-crown prices. Then have the guild unlock the doors for a month at a time for another significant but not exorbitant fee. Possibly allow guildmasters to rearrange the place more or less at will, using the previously purchased terrain features. If you give the terrain features material requirements as well, it could make a decent mat sink. This allows people to do the lair-building thing (and people like that). It would take a fair amount of developer time to do properly, but I'm pretty sure it could be made to pay for itself.

- The lightweight version: have a "practice hall" right next to the "training hall". Honestly, if you had exactly the same hall, but without the helpful explanations and with friendly fire on vials, you'd be halfway there. Spread out the vial sources a bit, muck around with the layout somewhat, and put in a few more firepot sources and damaging terrain, and you're there. Have entry be a cost by the day - either a relatively small amount of crowns or a modicum of energy, depending on which kind of sink you want. As noted before, rezzing should not cost energy, but there wouldn't be anything wrong with putting in a few energy gates with particularly potent weapons behind them or energy turrets or so forth. Basically, you don't want people to be able to take energy from each other, but letting them spend a small amount themselves to play with the really cool toys is totally okay.

- Would you be interested in PVP at all?
Yes when i look for an game i always look for pvp but this game is fairly new and id think it would come out l8ter into the game
- What kind of PVP are you in to, or would be in to with Spiral Knights? Casual or more hardcore? Mario Party or Counterstrike?
Ima into both Pvp stypes except i like Casual regular pvp (Death match, Team, Guild vs guild etc)
- What is your favorite competitive video game?
Call of duty/Halo

*IMPORTANT* if u install pvp into the game i think it should have some features like Wager,earn tokens to buy gear only from winning pvp matches that are binded when bought and can not be unbind if u install unbind thingy.

1 question , WHEN WILL IT COME!!!!!!!

What kind of PVP are you in to, or would be in to with Spiral Knights? Casual or more hardcore? Mario Party or Counterstrike?

For SK I would probably be more into casual PvP. Something along the lines of team item-based frenzy like mario strikers. Or maybe Fat Princess (esp. re: objectives). The game is already designed for groups of people working towards a goal, and though there's a nice rock-paper-scissors element to armor and weapon choices, I'm not sure the battle system really lends itself to deep competitive play.

What is your favorite competitive video game?

Super Smash Bros. Melee / Brawl
Guilty Gear / BlazBlue
Mario Kart

I look forward to seeing the new boss. Keep up the good work!

pvp where players fight each other really isn't my thing (maybe cuz i'm rubbish enough at not getting myself killed without someone who knows what they're doing on the other end, lol..), although some of the competitive minigame type suggestions posted in here sounded kinda fun, like racing through a wide column of blocks and jellies to see who/which team gets to the other end first, or some kind of dodgeball.

actually, shield-bump ice hockey might be interesting.

Bomberman-style PVP?? The unbreakable boxes already prevent damage through them so it is pretty much the same 'single file' bomb except for visuals if you make the map in a similar style.

Just think it would be trés cool.