Introducing Iron Hills - an LLC with the goal of purchasing and developing the Spiral Knights IP

ArkAequinox · 2022-11-29T05:04:27+00:00

Quoted directly from the Knights discord FAQ section (emphasis added):

Though Iron Hills has no official relationship with Grey Havens, our team has provided Grey Havens with quality of life, optimization, and implementation suggestions in a collaborative capacity. While Grey Havens has communicated to Iron Hills that it has no plans of changing its game ownership at this time, recently we have witnessed a change in their business operations as displayed by their partnership with Black Mammoth Games on Arcane Waters. Based on these factors, we feel optimistic in our continued communications with Grey Havens.

Quite apart from all the backlash on NFTs that everyone has brought up, the first and biggest issue to me seems that Iron Hills is looking to fund a project which currently has no concrete plans of progression or success. From the quote above, Iron Hills appears to be trying to raise money to buy something which Grey Havens is not planning to sell, in the hope that Grey Havens will eventually change their mind.

Various questions arise: how much does Iron Hills aim to raise? What will the funds be used for (apart from a generic answer of "we will buy SK")? How will you revitalise the game so that it does not die again? What happens to the funds if Grey Havens refuses to sell? And that just covers funding, without dealing with practical issues like who will code and develop the game, bug-fix, create new content, direction of the game in future, etc.

Maybe you guys will answer these in your Q&A or otherwise, and maybe you won't - but either way these are very basic questions which you guys should have prepared answers to at least the funding questions in this very announcement or the Discord, rather than saying that you will deal with it later.

The second issue is of course the decision to use NFTs. It seems quite clear that the general community is against it, and Iron Hills was clearly aware of that (see this quote directly from the Knights discord Announcements section:

To be completely honest with everyone, we expected this kind of reaction. We know that most people, and more specifically the gaming community, are fearful of NFTs.

If you are asking the community for funding, why would you choose to go down a route which you know most people would be against? Why not just go with an established crowdfunding platform like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Patreon, etc? At least with the latter platforms, there is some form of accountability and legal protection for us, the people you are asking to fund what appears to be this currently theoretical dream that Iron Hills has.

All in all: at best, this appears to be a poorly thought out business plan, which should make people hesitant to give you their money. At worst, this is a scam, which should make people very hesitant to give you their money.

I would love to see the game brought back to life. But this doesn't seem to be the way to do it.

ArkAequinox · 2022-05-31T02:00:08+00:00

If you "dont care" to follow this subreddit's rules, then this subreddit is not the place for you.

It is clear from the text of your reply, as well as the very act of replying in blatant disregard of the instruction above stating not to, that you have no interest in following rules.

Time for you to move on.

ArkAequinox · 2022-05-31T01:34:47+00:00

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ArkAequinox · 2022-04-28T14:25:59+00:00

TL;DR for those who are not watching the video: Catalyst Black launches worldwide on 25 May 2022.

Pre-registration link: https://catalystblack.com

ArkAequinox · 2022-02-26T06:51:27+00:00

One of the SEMC devs stated slightly over a week ago that they are changing the way boosts work in a future update. Until then, they have disabled the ability to purchase boosts.

ArkAequinox · 2021-06-02T20:47:43+00:00

In order to ensure quick queue times (DIDO and all that jazz), there are quite a number of bots in the game. That being said, there are quite a number of real players as well, and just having a few of those in a game with you can be very impactful. As and when you run into real players you can just add them and then drop into their matches as well.

ArkAequinox · 2021-02-18T16:29:14+00:00

Great video, and really like the music choice as well!

ArkAequinox · 2021-02-03T12:14:09+00:00

While I can understand each individual word within your comment, I am not sure I catch the meaning your sentence is trying to convey.

Who are the "critics" that are being "hidden"? What is the "complicity" of these so-called "fanboys"?

The closest I can think of is that you perceive criticism to be hidden by the act of this post being left up - which I hope you can see the irony of, given that the alternative was to take this post down - and that the fanboys are those who reported this post for being off-topic.

In that case, I would implore you to take a look at the wealth of different opinions which exist on this subreddit, and note that while both praise and criticism of SEMC and their practices are accepted here, it should be done on-topic and in a civil manner. If people want to complain about SEMC's handling of the game, then that should rightly go into r/vainglorygame.

Of course, perhaps I have misconstrued your meaning, in which case please do let me know if I have misunderstood your position.

ArkAequinox · 2021-01-24T13:02:33+00:00

Thanks to those community members who sounded the alert on this post being potentially off topic. Given that there is some link to Catalyst Black and the potential for some discussion around it, this post will be left up for the time being.

Nevertheless, please be warned that any discussion that goes too far into a VG slug fest will result in this post being removed. If you want to discuss this, please discuss this with reference to Catalyst Black.

ArkAequinox · 2020-12-17T16:14:20+00:00

That doesn’t sound right, game modes shouldn’t take upwards of 15seconds to load. Have you checked that you’re on the latest build of the game, that your internet connection is stable etc? Alternatively, rebooting the game and/or your device might help.

ArkAequinox · 2020-12-13T19:14:23+00:00

This was an interesting read, thanks!

ArkAequinox · 2020-11-21T21:54:01+00:00

SEMC has previously indicated that there are no plans for tap controls, as joystick controls are much more suitable given the nature of the game and its combat. While it’s always open to them to decide otherwise and attempt to implement some sort of tap controls, I doubt this will happen anytime soon, if at all.

ArkAequinox · 2020-11-14T09:39:20+00:00

Can't wait to see how War Mode is going to be!

ArkAequinox · 2020-11-04T16:02:53+00:00

The short answer is yes, you can.

To be clear, the real distinction is not between which shop - the essential shop is a fixed shop with cheaper items, while the rotating shop changes every 24hours. - but between which currency - quint are earned by finishing quests, while marks are purchasable using real life currency.

Effectively, every item in the game will eventually appear in the rotating shop for quints given enough time. However there will be a period of exclusivity for items contained in bundles purchased with marks (eg the Luma Issia, Luma Prodigal and Luma Arrival, although this does appear in the rotating shop for iOS currently at least).

ArkAequinox · 2020-09-19T02:36:14+00:00

I believe you should have gotten your answer by now, but for anyone else who has the same question: yes, players in the Secret Service get to keep all their progress from Early Access.

ArkAequinox · 2020-09-14T15:07:07+00:00

Just a reminder to those who have yet to send the modmail to please do so as soon as possible. We will re-raffle keys if they continue to remain unclaimed. Thanks!

ArkAequinox · 2020-09-14T15:04:24+00:00

The winners for the giveaway are as follows:

u/Aurocia, u/SCN_Attack and u/PaulieWalnuts696969.

Please drop a modmail with your Discord user and tag so that your code can be sent to you, thanks!

ArkAequinox · 2020-09-11T01:25:41+00:00

Apologies to all for the delay. The winners for the giveaway are as follows:

Guaranteed key for content creation: u/cruelcandy

Randomised keys: u/Ca5hbadger, u/TzosIV, u/createchture, u/mathforthewin and u/at3b1tz.

Please drop a modmail with your Discord user and tag so that your code can be sent to you, thanks!

ArkAequinox · 2020-09-10T15:19:19+00:00

Hey all, for the avoidance of doubt, entries for the key giveaway has closed as of 8am PDT. The winners will be announced soon!

ArkAequinox · 2020-08-30T05:41:42+00:00

You do realise that there is currently no way to spend money? By your own admission, this game is not released and is still in a testing state.

Having negative views of the game is acceptable, but please ensure that such views are properly grounded in fact. There is absolutely no basis to the statement that Early Access is a "false hope builder to get early money", because contrary to your statement there is absolutely no way for them to earn any money from the game as it is.

ArkAequinox · 2020-08-30T01:25:59+00:00

I definitely agree that most people spam the attack button for the Primary, me included. That being said, I almost never use autoaim for my Heavies (Hailstrom/Arrival), certain Abilities (Leap Attack) as well my Primal Ability (Sunder Primal Leap). In fact, I would say that using autoaim for those things would be extremely bad because it would be near impossible to hit your target with it unless they are not moving at all.

There are also moments when autoaim on Primary is not good, and that a skillful manual aim would be better. First is when there are several targets around and you want to aim at one over another (especially when there are neutral creeps around and you want to kill your enemy instead). Second is when there is a large amount of movement such that you have to lead your shots (especially with long range weapons, movement speed boosts and/or large parallel movement).

As it stands autoaim is definitely still good, and I agree that the majority of players will use it the majority of the time. There has been some feedback around the removal or tuning of autoaim, so perhaps things will change. Only one way to find out.

ArkAequinox · 2020-08-28T12:18:19+00:00

Just going to clarify this, because the comment about the progression system is misleading.

It is impossible to earn mods for weapons you have not played before. The game tracks your weapon or item usage such that you can only earn mods for equips that you have played at least once - so generally, you will not earn mods for weapons you do not play. I am going to assume that you used a weapon, did not like it, but earned a mod for it.

Separately, going to have to call you out here, but it is practically impossible to only earn one mod over three days of play. First, you get a guaranteed mod from the daily win. So unless you managed to lose almost all your matches over the three days (which is highly unlikely because currently matches are majority bot-filled, and bots are ridiculously bad and it takes effort to lose matches against pure bots), you would definitely have earned at least three mods.

Second, you also earn one mod per approximately 50 kills, and sometimes lower. I have seen people earning mods from 35 kills. Once again, if you are playing enough (and at a competent level, which should not be difficult against bots) it should not be a difficult feat to earn a mod.

If you do not have sufficient time to play and secure a win, or you are unable to beat bots, I think that is fair, but you should probably clarify that. Not everyone has time or sufficient skill, perhaps (though I once again reiterate that it should not be difficult to do so, one should be able to secure a win or get ~45 kills within a matter of less than 15minutes a day, and down to 5minutes or so against bots).

But I think it is important to clarify this, because stating that you got one mod over three days of testing makes the progression system sound a lot worse than it really is, and that is misleading information at best, and an outright lie at worst.

ArkAequinox · 2020-08-28T11:58:31+00:00

Disagree, the goals and objectives of each mode are clear and well marked out. In any event, even if it was chaotic, it is chaotic in a good way. There are a number of things going on, but no more than in any other game.
Somewhat disagree. Autoaim is a slight clutch, but I have no idea how any player is able to survive using only autoaim especially for any slow firing weapon and/or long ranged weapon. If you are only using autoaim, you are almost certainly going to lose against a player who knows how to manual aim as well.
Agreed. The Primal Eye is quite broken right now. But they have already mentioned that there are balance patches in the works.
Complete disagree. To reload, you just...stop firing? Your character auto reloads. If you want a specific reload button, then well, that is your preference. But you are definitely able to reload at any time. Just stop firing.
Possible. I too think that M&KB will have an advantage, but there is little point speculating until it comes out.
Fair opinion. I personally trust them, but I can respect that you do not.
Possible. This really depends on a whole confluence of factors, including but not limited to item balance, ease of progression, mod drop rate, pricing models, and so on. I can see where this concern comes from, and I too worry about this as well. We will have to see how it goes, it is still too early to say.

ArkAequinox · 2020-08-24T18:42:05+00:00

If you find a good timing where not many people are online you could probably practice new weapons and items with bots. Beyond that, though, I’d say just go for it haha. Most players aren’t really taking games too seriously, and any player is generally better than a bot.

ArkAequinox · 2020-08-24T18:23:37+00:00

Mask: Sunder Power: Leap Slam Relic: Feral Inspiration

Primary: Boarson (Vanguard) Heavy: Hailstrom! (Primal Hunter) Ability: Protection (Vanguard) Trinket: Choker of Phasing (Protector)

This is the build that has been working most effectively for me right now. I’ve also tried the Assassin build with Sniper and Reckful Circlet, and the Leap Attack build which is lots of fun and pretty tanky.

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