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Star Date : March 10th, 3010!
Surprise! Castle Darkspyre Challenge Mode!
Hello everyone! It has been a while since I have posted to the DNs! I assure you, I am still alive! I have been very busy with Bladehaven (Sneak Peek) lately and am proud to say that development is moving along nicely! We should be releasing our first Battleon Portal minigame very soon!

Anyway, even though I have been a bit silent on the DNs lately, I have also been helping Korin with MechQuest releases, coding new mechs and weapons, etc... Now Korin is out of town for a few days, so I get to play around with MQ again for a bit.... muahahahaha! Today, we have a very small surprise Wednesday release for you - The Bloodrock Mountains in Necryptos now have a a special Castle Darkspyre challenge mode! Now, if you play the Castle and Piotr Quests in challenge mode, they will be ridiculously hard... (So hard, in fact, that Maegwyn and I got smeared by them.. I actually did beat the castle once with a lucky stake..). Note: this challenge was all Bluesy's idea - don't say I didn't warn you... IT'S HARD!

We still have some new vampire lord weapons coming Friday for you. Piotr's Head, Akana's Blade and Myracyrina shoulders... We had originally planned to release them as part of today's mini-release, but I decided to use them to help train our newest part-time addition to the MQ/DF teams... Personator, is now taking new coding projects for both DF and MQ and is going to be coding these new Vampire Lord weapons! He has a lot of stuff to learn - but he is catching on quite quickly. Maegwyn also wanted me to add just how extremely proud she is for Personator! Congrats and welcome to the MQ team! We are very excited to have you with us!

For this Friday's release, Korin has allegedly left behind a very colorful rainbox vortex and would like me to unleash it upon Soluna City... He left a nice note for me:

Warlic,
When it is Friday, just push this button... Oh! Not that button! This button! No wait... maybe it's this button... Well, nevermind. Just push the right button and something will happen.

Have Fun!
-K

Sounds interesting indeed! I can't wait...

*Looks at the giant panel of 3,000,000 unlabeled buttons in the basement of the secret underground lab...*

Star Date : March 8th, 3010
Not-as-buggy-as-last-buggy-Monday Monday.

More happy fixes and news for the week! And yes. I meant to type Monday twice.

Hello everyone. I hope you had a great weekend. Mine was spent half-sick and half working. Why was I working on the weekend? Because I will be out of town for the last half of this week and the first half of next week. So I decided I would get a super head start because I WILL be able to work while I'm out but not nearly as much as I would in a normal work week.

That said, before I go into what's coming up, let's start with what is being repaird this today. As always I'm oblivious to what's going on around me, luckilly Maegwyn is sharp as a tack and has a list!

1) Safiria gets a "Replay Quests" option with the map buttons.

2) Order of the Vampire Uniform choices has been changed, so that "No thanks" is at the top. (People were clicking fast and accidentally hitting the "Yes and Save" option.)

3) Safiria now has a Merge shop button on Necryptos (in case you've sold your Bloodstone after defeating Miracyrina, now you can fight the bosses again, get the shards and merge them).

4) Map bug when searching for Miracyrina: clicking Morrowood Forest was bringing you to Sekali Temple.

5) Item merges no longer require you to have two open inventory slots when only one open slot is needed.

6) On Westion, in Khaeldron, the Inn no longer incorrectly tells you it's closed when you mouse over the door.

7) Black Cat Head Std 3010 is now scaling properly.

8) Count Mechula XXV was displaying an incorrect HP value in inventory view. This is not fixed.

9) Blackscreening on one area of the desert during the Map quest in the Sekali Desert was fixed (this one actually rolled Live last Friday).

10) The green skin of the Vampire Uniform is now color-customisable at Hal's! So if you don't like the green (we heard you on the forums) then you can change it to whatever color you prefer!

Also...

As many of you noticed, the L25 SC Vampire Mecha became NSC. We apologize for the confusion! That version was intended to be NSC. Warlic is working on a scalable SC Vampire Mecha. As those Star Captains who bought the original version now have an NSC mecha, Warlic is making this new SC scalable version available [b]for free[/b] to Star Captains for one week!

Thank you, Maegwyn. On to next week.

There's going to be a lovely rainbow vortex that opens in Soluna city. Braddock Steele will be talking you through the quests. Basically, these giant angry Leprachauns are waging war on Soluna. You need to take the fight to them before they begin destroying Soluna. We're releasing items in strange waves.

This Wednesday we hope to finally release the Vampire Lord weapons and the un-nerfed Castle monster (though apparently Piotr has always been the stronger version).

Friday we will begin the war on the Leprachauns. You will be provided a rank-up system in which you collect clovers. Once you collect a certain amount of clovers, you rank up. Once you reach top rank, you can purchase St. Patrick's Day weapons. There will be some awesome looking energy blades, more info on them in another design notes, and a head, and hopefully a shoulder as well. Probably more but those are the only weapons thought up so far.

Next Wednesday(St. Patrick's Day so remember to wear green) we hope to release some items many of you appear to be wanting. Take that as you'd like.

Next Friday we are releasing the Star Captain Monthly mecha, and we expect the war to be over at some point around Next Friday. Upon completion you wil be rewarded St. Patrick's Day themed mecha!

Everything's looking great this week and it looks like we have a hefty amount of content coming up. Sorry for any frustrations you've had lately. We're definitely listening to your posts in the forum and your opinion weigh heavily on our minds. Therefore, we will always try our hardest to make the best game we can. Even if it comes out buggy for a few days x_X

Star Date : March 5th, 3010
Chaos

So much going on right now. So many weapons. We actually had to scale some back. The Vampire Lord weapons should be releasing this upcoming Wednesday. There just realistically wasn't enough time to code them, test them, put them in the game, etc. It just wouldn't have happened. However, you have tons of Vampire stuff. Lyris designed some Vampire costumes as well as a Vampire Hunter costume. There are a few known issues with them mainly having to do with the skin changing colors but those will be fixed when we actually have time to figure out why.That said, refreshing after you change out of the Vampire class will fix any problems. Please make sure you DON'T click the "save" button for the costumes. It will overwrite any rare costume you have. So don't do it unless your current costume is easy to get! Still much going on Warlic is helping me with getting the weapons in the game while I type these off. Speaking of weapons, let's wee what Blues has to say today!

Here are the specials for the new Weapons:

Plasma Gun ( Shoulders, 4 Hits) ---> NSC

All specials on Hit

Increasing damage

- Hit 1: +20 BtH for the next hit
- Hit 2: chance for a crit
- Hit 3: +40 BtH for the next hit
- Hit 4: chance for a crit

Masque of the Bat ( 2 Hits) ---> NG

All specials on Hit

- Hit 1: +30 general damage boost, +30 BtH for the next hit
- Hit 2: Life drain for 5 turns, does DoT damage and drains damage done


Breath of Death (2 Hits) ---> SC

All specials on Hit

1.5 times damage

- Hit 1: BtH NoT 10-20-30-40-50
- Hit 2: Defense NoT 10-20-30-40-50


Energy Vein ( 3 Hits) ---> SC

All specials on Hit, gets a CD of 2

Damage boost for every activation, works for BOTH alternating.

Starts with 1.2 times damage and increases by 20%.
Caps at double damage!

additional: (Duration 2 turns)

- Hit 1: chance for Enemy damage decrease of 15%
- Hit 2: chance for Enemy BtH decrease of 15%
- Hit 3: chance for Enemy defense decrease of 15%

stack for both Arms.

Vampire Mecha

NSC version is slightly weaker than the SC/NG version.

FA (1 Hit) - Jawbreaker

- 1.25 times damage
- chance for -20 enemy BtH
- chance for deactivating enemy head

BA (4 Hits) - Chains of Life

- Hit 1: drains 40% of damage done HP (20 roll)
- Hit 2: drains 50% of damage done HP (20 roll)
- Hit 3: drains 60% of damage done HP (20 roll)
- Hit 4: chance for life tap

Shoulders (4 Hits) - Unstable Laser

Increasing damage for each Hit

- chance for an extra Hit
- Hit 1: +10 BtH for next hit
- Hit 2: +20 BtH for next hit
- Hit 3: +30 BtH for next hit
- Hit 4: +40 BtH for
- Extra Shot: Chance for critical hit

BtH increase is just for the next Hit of the weapon, not general.

Head (2 Hits) - Head Splitter

Increased damage

- Hit 1: -20 enemy BtH, -20 enemy defense
- Hit 2: -15 enemy damage, + 15 general damage boost

Body (5 Hits) - Batty Stakes

Increasing damage for each hit

- Hit 1: chance for a HP DoT
- Hit 2: chance for an EP DoT
- Hit 3: chance for a HP DoT
- Hit 4: chance for an EP DoT
- Hit 5: - 30 enemy defense

DoT´s stack!

Great wall of text! Overall, besides quests, this has a lot of content. With much more content to follow next week with out St. Patrick's Day release as well as some more Vampire Lord weapons. It's guaranteed to be another stressful week but we will not stop!

I don't think there's much else to say, really. New costumes, new mech, new weapons, good stuff.

So on that note, have a great weekend guys! Later.

Star Date : March 1st, 3010
Buggy Monday

Busy Monday. We've made many fixes. Allow me to share with you via Maegwyn.

fixes Monday 1 March 2010
1) The issue where some characters could not get to Miracyrina is now fixed!
2) Enable/disable button system for Miracyrina on map has been changed and improved, during the course of fixing the Disable function.
3) Fancy stone names at the Fangor Jungle Temple are now fixed
4) Sekali Desert: Engage button from the heal rig no longer asks you if you want to return to Khaeldron.
5) Worked on the Revived monster animations; the really awesome entry animation just won't work without horrible lag - improved performance on these a bit, though.
6) Fixed Desert Nosferatu popups - 1) "Darkenss" is now Darkness 2) "Enfeeblement Desert Nosferatu grows weaker" - second popup says playername but first popup says the monster name (is now playername both times)
7) The Akana who has the Caravan in Sekali Desert - the lock graphics no longer stay on the screen during her Talk screens (if you go there before doing any of the quests in the Desert)
Rolith has the merging issues on his list, but those won't be fixed instantly

Thank you, Mae.

Sorry to hear many of you lagged from Necryptos. Also sorry weapons took awhile to get out. I'm hoping to release the rest of the Vampire Lord weapons on Wednesday but I'm not promising that. Right now we're working on the Vampire class though as well as prepping for St. Patrick's Day since I'll be out of town and my schedule will be limited. Should be fun and the weapons and stuff should be cool.

I'd like to do a bit of a post about how the progress of Necryptos went. Maybe share some back stories and some insight as to why certain things happened.

Anywho, enjoy the fixes. Hope it all works for you. Continue to keep us up to date with the bugs. We do test all of the releases but some bugs are more apparent than others.

Thanks for playing, everyone. Laaaaaaaaaaater.

PS. 5 Rain gum does not taste like rain.

Star Date : February 26th, 3010
Ridiculously busy day And Miracyrina!

Alrighty. So this week started out with a pretty easy plan. Fight Miracyrina in different areas. Then we were like "Oh but it would be cool if...!"

Silly me, I say! Yes the idea is awesome. And yes it came out awesome. In fact, I'm still working on it as I speak and Artix is practicing guitar near me to keep me company.

Anywho, since the production of this quest went a little into overtime, we sadly don't have weapons yet. They were made but they still need proper testing so expect to see them either later tonight or tomorrow. However, we promise there will be a ton of happy new stuff next week. In fact, next week is pretty much pure items and a new mecha! Courtesy of Safiria. But again, that's next week.

So this week we have the giant finale of the fight between Miracyrina. It features a nice small cutscene that should get a laugh. Then terror ensues and you search for Miracyrina, you will find yourself meeting familiar foes.

It should be fun and it's at least a cool thing that we did. Basically if any of you remember the bug on Thoh where the enemies would switch out and begin attacking you lik ecrazy, we kind of took that and made it useable. In a way. Either way it's neat.

Currently seems like things are working. While I've been writing this I was trying to fix a big and it turns out I was the bug :[ Turns out I didn't have to fix anything. Scratch that. New issue. May be fixed though. Woo!! Fun release day. Full of obstacles.

Anywho, I'm gonna end the note here. Expect some weapons tonight or tomorrow. And look forward to tons of stuff next week. Then we get to figure out what happened to that dumb Dragonoid. But isn't St. Patrick's Day coming up?

Have a great weekend.

PS. I lied I'm back. To say, what a hectic evening this was. Sure the release is a good 1.75 hours late but we got it, by golly. Hope you enjoy it.

Star Date : February 23rd, 3010
Fix list and Dragonfable does what now?

Hello again everyone. Hope everyone enjoyed the weekend. We have a doozy of a release planned this week. But what's new? MechQuest only works hard every week. More on this later.

First, I know we fixed a few bugs and Maegwyn has made a lovely little list for me to post which I will do sometime near or around the end of this sentence which is a run-on sentence which I heard was bad to do ever since they taught me in English but I can't remember if it was High School English or Middle School or even Elementary School but all I remember is that run-on sentences are bad and that you shouldn't do them because if you do a Moglin loses it's ears which is just a myth as far as I'm concerned so you really shouldn't worry about it but don't do it anyway and this makes me wonder how many words are in this sentence even though I'm making a joke about run-on sentences when you shouldn't be making them and pretending like I never make them even though I'm making one now should at least get a chuckle out of some people but it still seems like I should be concerned about how many words are in the sentence because it's looking like a giant paragraph right now but that's absurd because so far I don't see any periods which is amazing because I thought I at least made one normal sentence at the top of this paragraphy but apparently I didn't which is really weird but enough stalling and I hope you laughed but here is Maeqwyn's Fix List and never use run-on sentences because they're bad.

This Just IN: Fixes Monday 22Feb2010

1) Removed Sepulchure Ultimates from Drakel shop

2) Dropship monthly mecha button now displays the text as Psychic Wing

3) Castle attacks by the vampires that come out the door were applying the NerfsOverTime to the enemy instead of the player - now fixed.

4) Napalm Torment, Storm, Smite, and Strike now have "(Has the effect of damaging their energy over time.)" added to the description.

5) Werewolf series mechas no longer have walkaround issue

6) Vladic Dark Pulse shoulders (the standalone weapons) effects now stack

7) Assault Raider CNX. The name of the head was "CNX" - now "Raider Hullpiercer CNX

Thank you Maegwyn.

New subject, I don't know if any of you have heard but apparently Dragonfable is releasing a fish. And you know what? Good for them I guess but why do they get a break? Capital tee underscore capital tee (as in T_T). I mean, sure MechQuest has small releases every now and then but never just 1 item and we always find ourselves working our tails off all week and somehow still manage to push the release to the last minute. It's just sad I guess. I would love a week to rest but that's right, We've got a planet to finish! I mean they're not even just releasing an item :[ It's a fish :[[[[[

Sadness. Yet jealous. And let me tell you, jealousy is ugly.

Well atleast you can take solace in the fact that MechQuest is working hard as always! Woot for us! Right!? Right!

Star Date : February 19th, 3010
Star Captain Mecha and Bloodrock Mountain Finale!

Hey everyone. This week was an odd week but we got a lot done. We have a new enemy which is a castle wall, the Vampire Lord Piotr's enemy is complete and the one you've been waiting for, the new Star Captain Monthly Mecha! Get yours today! Let's see what Blues has to say.

And here are the Stats for the brand new
SC Monthly Mecha - The Psychic Wing:

This Model has reduced CD´s on Arms and Shoulders,
high BtH and Defense capabilities, and once you affect
the enemy with the psychic powers, the effects will
not wear off!

FA (1 Hit, CD 1)

- Increased Damage, chance for -40 enemy Defense

BA (2 Hits, CD 2)

- Increased Damage for both Hits
- Chance for an extra Hit
- Chance for -20 enemy Defense

Shoulders (4 Hits, CD 2)

- Increased Damage for each Hit
- Chance for +10 BtH
- Chance for +10 Defense
Effects stack for the Shoulders

Head (1 Hit, CD 5)

- Increased Damage
- +30 BtH
- +30 Defense
- -30 enemy BtH

Body ( 4 Hits, CD 5)

- Increased Damage for every Hit
- Hit 1 & 3 have a chance to crit
- Hit 2 has a chance for a 1.5 time HP DoT
- Hit 4 has a chance for Healing the damage done

In total: (when everything applied)

- -60 enemy defense
- -30 enemy BtH
- + 60 BtH
- + 60 defense
- 1.5 time Hp DoT
- Healing of 45% standard DpT

Pretty impressive....
I hope you like it.

Well, you might not be amused by the new enemies.
They are pretty tough and will give you a real challenge.
Be prepared for the final fights!

Have fun!

Awesomesauce! This week is odd. There was no way we could close out all of Necryptos this week so we kind of stunted the progress at the end of the Bloodrock Mountains. Next week we will finish Necryptos in a pretty big finale. Next week we'll also let Safiria merge your different Bloodstones but for now, for plot purposes, we left it disabled.

It's a pretty short Design Notes but all is well. Everyone on the MQ team did a great job this week. Time for a nice 2-day break then we're getting back to it!

Have a great weekend everyone.

PS. Happy belated Birthday to Dragonnightwolf. He shared some kind words with us this week and his Birthday was yesterday. Thought it would be nice to mention it. Meant to do it yesterday but I got caught up.

Star Date : February 15th, 3010!
Another BugFix Monday, and Some News!

Braddock Minigame Fixes:
1) You can no longer fall through the pit after the last boss, Techdora, is destroyed - The stage resets itself so you can walk safely over him!
2) Levels have been slightly tweaked to make jumping off platforms a little easier. you now have a little bit of "running" room. You still need some degree of skill though! :P
3) Crouching and firing no longer makes you stand.

Two More Fixes Off the List:

1) The Police Mission Undercover Quest - The issue causing people to get bounced back to the first walkaround screen is now fixed - and if you want to, you can even walk back and get the "Leave Quest?" option!
2) The Runehawk Mascot Arms (all versions) no longer freeze the battle after the chain attack activates.

Yes, "Buggy Mondays" are back and we're working our way down that list! Thanks, Warlic! We've got a lot more fixes coming, so stay tuned.

Coming This Week:
Bloodrock Bossfight! The powerful eldest son of the Drakvir line, Lord Piotr, awaits in the Darkspyre Castle at the summit of the Bloodrock Mountains, while the curse on Mina appears to be strengthening by the hour. The final Bloodstone and perhaps the fate of the entire planet of Necryptos is *cough* at stake...
Star Captain Monthly Mecha!
Yes, it's that time again - the newest SCMM is rolling along the production lines now! All plans are still under wraps - until it hits the proving grounds later this week. Even the name is still a secret!

Happy Birthday, bluesy! Many happy returns of the day to our dear and very cool Color!

Star Date : February 12th, 3010!
Braddock Steele: Mission of Love?
Braddock Steele is on another impossible mission... and this time HE DOES NOT WANT YOUR HELP!!! He is going solo against a Shadowscythe Mothership and General Mediera herself! But... it looks like a trap... a hideous man-trap! Can Braddock Steele survive this madness?

Anyway this week was incredibly intense. We went way over our heads when we decided to make this weeks release feature 3 EPIC cutscenes by Korin, 10 game levels designed by Yergen Von Shmergenbergen, 2 Bossfights and new Weapons of Love! Oh, and did I mention that this weeks release features a fully featured platformer minigame engine complete with scalable gravity and speed, parallax scrolling, jumping, shooting running, powerups, etc..., Korin, Thyton and Yergen also pulled some Weapons of Love out of their bag of tricks!

The minigame engine is actually the same engine that I was developing for the as of yet unannounced Ticklish Zobo minigame. In this release we are pushing the limits of what we can do with MechQuest. So, if you run into any game performance issues, you may want to turn your graphics setting to "Low" in the options screen - It still looks great at the lower quality because the levels have a lot of depth.

A conversation I had this week:

Artix: Hey Warlic what's your status on Bladehaven? (Another Portal Site minigame project)
Warlic: I haven't worked on it this week...
Artix: um, what?
Warlic: MechQuest release ended up being REALLY intense this week.
Artix: Oh really why?
Warlic: Here, check it out!
Artix: WOW!!! This is a REALLY COOL Old school action game!
Warlic: Did I mention this engine is it is very flexible and usable in future game projects?
Artix: This is incredible! Here are more projects for you!
Warlic: Thanks! *gulps*

Anyway, this , but I hop you all enjoy the release. I involves some hand and eye coordination - So, if you have any trouble with it, get your little brother or cousins to help you out! There are some tricky jumps and lots of shadowscythe bugs to squash! the cutscenes are truly hilarious too!

I hope everyone has a truly wonderful Hero's Heart weekend!

Star Date : February 10th, 3010!
There will be NO Zombies in Friday's release!
Those of you following me on Twitter already know that this Friday's release will be using a modified version of the game engine I am creating for the Ticklish Zorbo platformer minigame. Anyway, Ticklish Zorbo will not be in Friday's game. Instead, you will control Braddock Steele as he escapes from a Shadowscythe Starship. what does any of this have to do with Valentine's Day? Well, Don't worry... it is going to be vaguely related to love and romance... You will soon find out... In addition to the minigame quest, we will also have some weapons of love for you...

Anyway, I spent last night fixing the enemy AI in the new minigame engine. There was a bug in which enemies were suddenly becoming invincible zombies that just walked mindlessly off the screen. After an epic struggle picking through code and following the logic that turns innocent Shadowscythe pilots into brain-craving automatons, I am happy to say there will be NO ZOMBIES in Friday's release.

Now, why am I suddenly craving a side of neural tissue with my scrambles eggs? NO!!!!

Star Date : February 8th, 3010
Special Snow Day Weapon!

So we heard there's a lot of people having Snow Days so we made a snow day weapon for everyone. You can find it in Soluna City on the right side of the screen's New Release panel.

The weapon will grind a snowman and shoot snowballs at your opponent. With each hit and roll of 20, your chance for a crit will increase by 20%.

These weapons are for non-Star Captains and are available for levels 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, and 40. It's a bit of a quick update.

This week is an awesome release involving Braddock Steele. Pretty exclusively as well. It's certain to be awesome and you will all definitely enjoy it. Of course there will be weapon rewards as well.

More info to come. I hope everyone enjoys their Snow Day. Stay warm. For the rest of us that had normal Mondays, I'm sorry and I feel your pain :(

:] Later

Star Date : February 5th, 3010
Bloodrock Mountains and Vampire Mecha!!

It's finally Friday. Super excited this week. I feel like this week's releases are strong. We have massively updated the dialogue of Han Velsing as well as Mina. Now after you complete each... country? state? county? region? Anyways, after you complete one of those, their Talk dialogues will change. Also be careful when approaching Han if you have a certain mech equipped. He might not be so understanding.

We have a new enemy released to day. You will find him on the 2nd quest of the Bloodrock Mountains. He's tough. He tore through my Mystraven Advanced in 2 turns which isn't REALLY saying much but still, 2 turns. Equip your hunter mecha, folks! Speaking of the new mecha, after you've managed to defeat him, and it's almost certain you will have to, Safiria will have a gift for you. Instead of spoiling it, as if it weren't obvious enough already, I will have Blues confirm any suspicions about what the gift is. Blues!

Here are the Stats for the new enemy and the buyable Vladic Knight Mecha.
The enemy has of course some nice boosts!
Shoulders are also available as standalone NSC version,
BA as standalone SC version.
Mecha as a whole is NG only.


FA: 1 Hit, CD 1

Increasing damage for each activation.
Starts with 150% and increases by 25%.
Caps at 250%.

BA: 3 Hits, CD 3

- Hit 1:Chance for 1.5 time HP DoT
- Hit 2:Chance for 1.5 time EP DoT
- Hit 3:Chance for 1.5 times damage done healing

Head: 2 Hits, CD 5

Increased damage for both Hits.

- Hit 1: +30% general damage boost
- Hit 2: +30 BtH

Shoulders: 2 Hits, CD 3

- 150% damage
- chance for -20 BtH (stacks, -40 max)

Body: 10 Hits, CD 5

- Increasing damage
- 5 hits have a chance for 8% defense reduce per hit (-40 in total)
- 5 hits have a chance for 8% damage reduce per hit (-40 in total)

Have fun, enjoy your weekend
and playing MQ!

Thank you, Blues! Moving on. 2 new quests. 1 new mecha. Weapons can be purchased seperately. Plenty of new dialogue. A sicker-looking Mina. Sekali desert quests have been simplified (no more going back and forth as there is now only forward). This is a pretty beefy release, right? You bet!!

Next week will be a strange one. Sadly we can't finish the Bloodrock Mountain zone but at the same time, our Valentines Day release is shaping up to be a fun one. Warlic and Yergen have been planning that out while I've been plugging away this week so I'll admit that my knowledge on it is limited but what I've heard is awesome and I don't want to avoide ruining anything so check back on Monday and I will post another Design Notes to explain more of what's going on. Trust me, it'll be awesome.

I really hope you all enjoy this release. There really is a lot of good content. The quests should be a great challenge but the rewards are awesome. Please don't forget to tell your friends to play MechQuest! I feel as though I am becoming like Bob Barker of Price is Right fame. His closing messages are about controlling pet population, mine's about getting more people to play MechQuest. Go me! And tell your friends! Enjoy your weekends, everyone.

Star Date : February 2nd, 3010!
GEARS Games Trophy Update!
Hello everyone! It was recently brought to my attention that we made a pricing error on the silver and bronze trophies in the GEARS Games. These trophies were supposed to be 1000 credits, but were incorrectly priced at 1000 Nova Gems. I took the GEARS Games down last night so that we can fix this issue.

Well, it is hard to please everyone (especially when changing the price of a Nova Gem item.) When I took the games down, a lot of people became upset because they were waiting for the price to get fixed before they purchased the trophy. So, today the GEARS Games are going to come back after the price is fixed and everyone who purchased them at the incorrect price is fixed. I apologize to anyone who was upset by the decision to close the games to fix the pricing issue. You may now go back to the games and get your trophies and or Corrupted House mechs. I will keep the Games open another full week to give everyone a chance to get their corrected GEARS trophies.

And now... Coming This week!

Korin is busy cooking up the next zone in Necryptos... the Bloodrock Mountains! These mountains were the original home of the Darkspyre castle! The castle is now occupied by Lord Drakvir's eldest son, Piotr. He will not give his land so easily! Get ready for a terrible fight as you scale the treacherous Bloodrock mountains to reach Castle Darkspyre!

Star Date : January 29th, 3010
Fangor Temple!

It's Friday already. And what a busy one. On a bright note, we're rolling early. How crazy is that!? Pretty crazy in my opinion. Should be in yours as well.

Anywho, great release today. We have the trek to the Temple Entrance which involves a minigame to complete. It's kind of hard but at the same time, fairly lenient. You may lose a couple times. If it still appears to be too difficult for some, I'll come up with a method to help out. Once you get through that quest, you'll have access to the Queen, Akana. She's super tough so I actually do recommend getting the new Vampire Hunter weapons from Han Velsing's shops. We have some new Nova Gem arms, Star Captain heads, and Non-Star Captain Shoulders. ...... This just in from Blues! Go!

As usual you get the specials for the new VH Weapons
and also of the new enemy.... Queen Akana!

All weapons have NO special against normal enemies. Specials only
activate against Vampires!

Head: (SC, 1 Hit, CD 5)

+30% damage boost
+30 BtH

FA: (NG, 1 Hit, CD 2)

+30% damage boost
-30 damage and BtH for the Vampire

BA: (NG, 4 Hits, CD 2)

Increasing damage for the Hits
Hits 2 and 4 heal damage done

Shoulders: (NSC, 1 Hit, CD 2)

150% damage
Chance to heal 80% damage done

And now to the brand new enemy, Queen Akana!

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/6816/queenarkana.gif

She starts with an initial BtH of 50 and has 3 different attacks.

1) Head Laser attack (3 hits)

- hit 1 gives +30% general damage boost for 3 turns
- hit 2 gives -30 BtH
- hit 3 gives -30 Def

2) Body Melee (7 Hits)

Has increasing damage for all Hits.
She will get very mad at a certain HP value, so you better be careful....

3) BA, red rune dragon (1 Hit)

Does HP and EP DoT.
Oh, nice, only a DoT you might think...
well, it grows stronger every turn so hurry!

She can get really mad the longer the fight lasts
and I really don´t think that meeting her in a non
VH Mecha is a good idea.

Have fun!

So there you have it. New weapons. New great release.

It's also worth mentioning that the Corrupted House Mecha will only be available a little longer!!! I think Warlic wants to remove them on Monday... If not Monday, definitely Friday. To be safe, I'm saying Monday. Get them while you can!!

Next week we'll be starting the Mountain zone of Necryptos so you all can look forward to that.

On a side not, yesterday I was shown some videos of a cat getting scared of a compressed air can spraying and the panic of the cat caused me to laugh until I cried. Something about cats always makes me laugh.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Tell your friends to play MechQuest! Later!

Star Date : January 25th, 3010
Moar DN's Plz!?

Hi everyone. You've all requested more Design Notes posts so we're trying to help that dream become a reality. But what kind of things can we talk about? Well, I can give you some insight to what we're doing this week. We're releasing the Fangor Jungle Temple. Basically we'll have you completing small puzzles leading up to the fight with the Jungle Queen. The puzzles will require a new type of minigame. It should be interesting and fun. We're thinking about including extra levels once the trek to the Temple is complete. I say trek because there's a small ancient and ruined city surrounding the Temple and it's covered with traps that you get to defuse.

Other than that, we're hoping to get some new Hunter Weapons out to you as well. I believe the Queen is already animated and just need her specials applied. However, they may already be applied. Warlic helped out with that while I've been working on the main quest files. Jemini is working on the backgrounds and other elements that I'll be needing for the quest and temple fight.

Other than that, almost an average day. Almost everyone in the office played a short game with a 6-barrel Nerf gun. You spin the chambers and stop it, do something stylish, and then try to shoot a poster on the wall. The nerf gun only had 1 foam projectile in it so it almost became a game of chance. The idea is that you go through this big epic motion, make an elaborate phrase(or steal one from a movie), then pull the trigger. If it shoots, success. There was only 1 success. So every other time ended in disappointment, no matter how elaborate the motion. Thyton loved rolling around on the ground then firing. Artix tried to jump on a chair and roll with it which ended up toppling the chair to have him almost fall on his face. I was rather boring on my few tries because I knew I would hurt myself if I tried to do anything crazy. Zazul eventually came in and managed to get the nerf gun to fire. Great success. On a side note, Ai No Miko kept looking down the barrel of the gun. Looney Tunes should have taught us all that looking down a barrel of a weapon is a HORRIBLE idea. This all said, this was a nerf gun. It wasn't real. And to make this a Public Service Announcement, don't play with guns. It's a horrible idea. Never point a gun at another person.

I hope you've enjoyed this look into the Underground Lab. More info on the release to come. I've been distracted all day and I need to get to work immediately!!! So, to everyone, tell your friends to play. We'll appreciate it. Thank you drive thru.

Star Date : Jan 26th, 3009
Automorph Exposed!
Let´s start with the specials of the Automorph:
CD´s are: Arms and Shoulders 2, Head and Body 5.
Body: (6 Hits)

Boosted damage for all hits
2 hits have a chance for a crit
Every hit has a chance to give +5 BTH, max of 30

Head: (3 Hits)
One hit has a chance for a crit
All hits have a chance for a general damage boost, max of 40

FA: (1 Hit)
150% damage, chance for -30 defense

BA: (4 Hits)
Boosted damage for all hits
Chance for additional Hit
2 Hits have a chance for -10 def for enemy, stack with FA

Shoulders: (5 Hits)
Boosted damage for all hits
2 Hits have a chance for a crit
2 Hits have a chance for +15 BtH, stack with Body.

New House Weapons: (NSC)
All have a 20% damage boost against the other Houses
All have a 20% damage boost against Shadowscythes
All do 125% damage

WB heals a certain amount of the damage done (HP)
MR does a double HP DoT
RH heals a certain amount of the damage done (EP)

Have fun!

Star Date : January 25th, 3010
Better late than never? Maybe.

Oops. So while release went well Friday, I was in a hurry to get out of here and in my haste, realized I forgot to make Design Notes. However, I exclaimed, I decided I would get them done after I got home. One 40 minute drive later, I forgot.

Hello, Monday. How are you? How do you feel knowing that billions of people hate you? (I'm talking to Monday, not you players). Enough of this. It's not that funny.

So anyways, Friday we continued the Necryptos storyline. We'll be continuing it this week as well. We also released more GEARs Games weapons. Get them while you can!

As for Necryptos, many of you finally met Safiria! If you haven't yet, got o Necryptos! Yes the mecha Skeeto is difficult but that's just one of the many dangers riding down a river in a tiny raft. I mean, technically it's not tiny since a mech is standing on it. But yes, the quest released last week was Jungle Cruise. After you beat it once, you can replay the minigame in Score Attack mode (button becomes visible in the intro dialogue of the quest at the bottom of the dialogue screen). In Score attack mode, there is no mecha fighting. It's just a game where you see how long you can last on the river without taking 4 hits of damage. However, the river moves much quicker this time so it's a little more difficult to dodge and a lot of it does rely on luck mixed with skill. Good luck if you try it.

This week we are continuing the Necryptos storyline and adding the temple zone. As of this second, I have no idea what we're doing for it. I would like it to be something a little different than your typical walk, fight, walk, fight. I'm sure we'll come up with something great and we'll make sure you know what we're doing on Wednesday.

So on that note, I hope everyone's week goes great! Keep playing MechQuest! Keep telling your friends to play it! Check back to the Design Notes on Wednesday. Later!

Edit: Completely forgot!!! Star Captain mecha is out! Enjoy!

Star Date : January 20th, 3010!
Coming this Week!
Greetings! Things are crazy here at the underground lab nowadays - I have so many new projects that it makes my head spin! I am involved in several new projects directly tied to the new Battleon MAster Account system that are extremely exciting and I am soooo excited about them. (One of the new projects planned involves Ticklish Zorbo. It is in the proposal stage right now... So, I will definitely post here the second it is approved!)

There is no Wednesday release planned this week. We have a new minigame on Necryptos that Korin is working dilligently to produce. Fangor Jungle part one is this Friday's main release. There will also be a new major NPC introduced (any guesses? Hint... major AE vampire character). We also have a new SC Monthly mecha, the awesome Automorph model coming Friday! This one is a fast moving model that actually transforms onto a hovering vehicle in its walk cycle.

The GEARS Games is nearly finished. The new battle system really helped make this the most intense GEARS Games ever! There were many moments I was actually afraid we were going to have a 3-way tie! I must say, Wolfblade really put on a good show. They have managed to maintain a small lead regardless of Shadowscythe attacks! Mystraven is really giving them a run for the money. Runehawk, is in third place, but not by very much! this games event has been awesome! However, Xaria's fates is still up in the air! Will the Shadowscythe succeed in their mission to kidnap her?

Now... on to the future of Wednesday releases... As of today. There will be no more regualrly planned Wednesday releases. In the past we have had small regular releases in the middle of the week. Well, over the 2 years of MQ history, these wednesday releases have gotten smaller and smaller until now they are so small they aren't even worth calling releases (bugfixes, minor tweaks, etc..) So, I have decided to stop this tradition and let Korin focus all of his efforts into the Friday major releases.However, this doesn't mean that we will stop having multiple release weeks. There will be some weeks where we still have multiple releases when necessary. They just won't be every single week.

Star Date : January 16th, 3010!
MechQuest Theme for Firefox!
Hello Everyone! - You may already know this but, If you have Personas for Firefox, you can deck out your browser with our awesome new MechQuest Firefox Skin! Get it Here!

Also, I just uploaded an update to Betrayal in the GEARS Games. Now, you shouldn't get locked into one house if you have betrayed the other two houses. If you have betrayed the other 2 houses, your betrayal status will reset and you can start over again. Also, the corrupted house mechs have been re uploaded because some people got old files and the specials were a little messed up! Should be good to go now!

Star Date : January 15th, 3010!
Corrupted House Mechs! But... Why?

By the time you read this, the release will be live. Why? Because I already finished and released everything before I started typing. So HA!!! And now for something completely different from... Blues!

Here the new specials for the Corrupted House Mechas:
(All Weapons have standard CD´s. Body and Head 5, rest 3)

ShadowHawk

- Body
- Shield transferes EP to HP for 5 turns
- reflects 25% damage for 5 turns

- Head
- Damage boost of 40% for 5 turns

- Shoulders
One normal HP DoT, one normal EP DoT.
Both Shoulders are stackable

- FA
Drains EP for 3 turns

- BA
- blue sphere
irritating effect, +30BtH and +30 defense for 3 turns

- red sphere
armor damage, -50 defense for 3 turns

- yellow sphere
blinding attack, -50 BtH for 3 turns

ShadowRaven

-Body
Gives -25% damage and -25 BtH for enemy.

- Head
- 20% damage boost for 5 turns, +20 BtH for 5 turns

- Shoulders
- Shoulders do more damage with every activation

- FA
- gives HP and EP DoT, 3 turns, 1.5 time DoT.

- BA
- increasing damage.

ShadowWolf

- Body
- gives -40 defense for the enemy, +40 BTH for the player and 1.5 times damage

- Head
- +35% damage player, -35% damage enemy for 5 turns

- Shoulders
- give 1.5 times damage

- FA
- gives double DoT

- BA
- 1st and 3rd hit crit, 2nd and 4th hit -20 BtH for the enemy, stackable. Lasts 3 turns.

Thank you, Blues. We should probably address why the House Mechas are corrupted. As you may have noticed, the Shadowscythe have expressed interest in a certain House Leader. They're also disrupting the GEARS Games for whoever is in first place. By first place I mean quite literally whoever is in first. If Runehawk or Mystraven come in first place, the Shadowscythe will appear for them as well. We're not playing favorites :P

Aside from the Corrupted House mechs, we're also releasing GEARS Games Edition House Mecha. All of these mechs are rare. Grab them while you can!

I hope everyone enjoys the new mechs! This has been a fun GEARS Games. Looks like we'll be more towards back on track last week. I hope everyone has a great weekend. Don't forget to tell your friends to play MechQuest! Later!

Star Date : January 9th13th, 3010!
GEARS Games Increased!

Hey everyone. Late Design Notes. Had to evacuate the lab so I decided to update from a secure location and the traffic to the secure location was horrible. Yay sink holes. Also, yay cat that keeps hopping on my lap and getting in my ways!!!

But I'm sure this is not important to you. I'm positive you just want to know about the release for Wednesday. It's been Live for an hour. Those mascots you've been beating up in the GEARS Games? Well, now you get to wear them. Just talk to Nigel and you'll see a new option for a Mascot Uniform! What wonderful outfits. As always, if there is a bug with the costumes, please post them in the gremlins and we'll be sure to fix them as soon as we can.

Admittedly I forgot about us releasing these until 2 hours ago so I had to scramble to get them together. However, I was focussing more on Friday's release and it looks like we're on a good schedule right now.

Speaking of Friday, I've noticed some Shadowscythe coming in to the area. I wonder what they're doing. I'm sure it's nothing to worry about :]...

I hope everyone enjoys the uniforms. The GEARS Games are going great this year. Everyone needs to keep fighting!! Have a good night.

PS. Jemini is in class. Let's all have a friendly laugh at her expense for being in a class she'd rather not be in at all. Ha ha? Ha ha :]

Star Date : January 8th, 3010
GEARS Games!!!
We meet again in this new year of 3010.

Big week. The long-awaited GEARS Games are now underway! I'm sure everyone's thinking Wolfblade will win but we'll just see about that. We have new factors to worry about. To start, I'll simply say that if you lose a battle, the house that beat you will get a victory. The stakes are high now. Some might think that they're not high enough. Well, get ready for chaos.

In Mecha Ball, and the duels you will find that there are now battle parameters that will create penalties and other weird effects. To give you an idea of what they are, here are a few examples:

If you're Wolfblade and you use Berserk in the fight, you will be penalized with a 2x Damage over Time.

If you are Runehawk and you use Mana Shield in the fight, your penalty is losing half of your EP!

If you're Mystraven and you use Smokescreen in the fight, you lose 3 turns.

Good stuff, huh? Don't forget, these are just a few of the penalties that can come up. This GEARS Games will be the most exciting for sure.

We also have a new quest where you can infiltrate an enemy House and steal their mascot! You may have some trouble with the House Groundskeeper though.

We've made a few new weapons today and have added them to the GEARS games shop list and there will be more coming. (Time got the best of us) They will only work for your house so only buy it if you're the house the weapon works for. Make sense? Hope so.

I certainly hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and I wish the best for 2010 3010 on everyone.

Time to roll and we're out the door!! Enjoy the release!

Star Date : January 6th, 3010!
Bug fixes!
Greetings everyone! Today, I opened up a crate of Maegwyn's weaponized bugspray and pointed it at our bug report sheet and started blasting away randomly... (until I heard Korin scraeaming something about his eyes and everything got all psychedelic...) Anyway, after this massive bug strike, we now have a new Game engine!

Please refresh your browsers to load Game verison Omega 3.7.2!

Bugs fixed today:
1) Equipping a new mecha no longer leaved non-default items marked as equipped.
2) Switching character uniforms no longer unequips your non-default Items.
3) Shops now correctly count your inventory items. They no longer count mecha defaults as part of your inventory.
4) Viking mecha non-default equips are no longer tiny.
5) Quickflash Mecha SC Ability is no longer accessible by Non-Star Captains.
6) Experience now saves if you lose a battle in Westion's Mobile Base mission.
7)The Westion Mobile Base mission no longer crashes after 10 fights!
8)Arthurian character uniforms can now load hats without crashing.
9)the Westion Bug War Starship Movie projector no longer blackscreens upon exiting the cutscenes.
10)The Items, Used Gatling Gun, Dragontooth chaingun and Large Military Repeater should now divide attacks properly.
11)Yeti Leader Mecha walkaround problems have been fixed.
12) Arthurian War Shops have been disabled in the AvP War on Lagos.

Now, on to the GEARS Games... many of you have been asking... and then asking... and then asking again whether or not non-house members will be allowed to participate in the upcoming GEARS Games event. The answer is: YES. All players will be able to play in the games. If you do not belong to a house, you will fight for random houses in the games.

Also, we realize that in past events, the house with the most players is the most likely to win the games. This time around we are working on a more balanced system to keep the games closer without recoding our entire war system in the game engine.... I will keep you updated as things develop!

Battle On!

Star Date : January 4th, 3010!
GEARS Games!
Happy New Year! I hope every one had an AEsome New Year's! Of course, I spent New Years at Tek's Mechs battling Time travel fairies! Despite the minor vandalism the time travel fairies inflicted at the Soluna City Newscreen, I think this was the most exciting New Year's ever! My New Year's Resolution is to eat healthier! No more burritos for this wizard!

This is the first official full work week of the New Year here at the underground headquarters! Our day was full of everyone getting back together and telling all of our fun tales from over the holidays. After reaquainting ourselves, we had a huge 1st of the year planning meeting! I know what you're thinking... Yay, meetings... However, meetings here are quite interesting since we come up with all sorts of exciting ideas for all of the games! 3010 is going to be an EXCITING YEAR for AE!

Anyway, This week, we are getting ready for our third GEARS Games event. So get ready to duel each other in PvP battles to determine this year's champions! This year we're adding mascots to the mix - and a mascot costume stealing quest! Warning: New rumors are surfacing that the Shadowscythe have been watching the games closely over the last couple of years! Why are they interested in the games?

I have a feeling that this year is going to be the closest and most fierce GEARS Games yet! Wolfblade took the last couple trophies. Will they do it again this year?

Star Date : January 1st, 3010!
Happy New Years!
Happy New Year's everyone! There is a party at Tek's mechs, new hats, new weapons, a Year in Review cutscene compilation, all new Korin-tastic Fireworks AND a live performance of Auld Lang Syne by the NPCs.

(Note: This time around, we will have fireworks in East and West Soluna too... Also, you can disable the fireworks if you get to much lag with them enabled!) As i was working on release today, I realized (with great horror) that I forgot to put snow in Soluna for the holidays this year - So Snow is back in town! Sorry about that!

In case you haven't heard, the NPCs is our real life office band featuring Zhoom on Drums, Artix on Rhythm guitar and me on Lead guitar (Sometimes Rolith plays bass...) Also, Safiria, Fonz and Alac have sung for us at times too! Anyway, I hope you enjoy our performance tonight - It was a live recording - no overdubs... mistakes and all! I hit quite a few wrong notes, but I tried to follow the advice of the great Herbie Hancock: "If you play a wrong note, play it again - then everyone will think you're a genius!" I can assure you I played a ton of wrong notes multiple times - that way I should seem like a guitar wizard... or perhaps just insane...

Anyway, this has truly been a great year for Artix Entertainment! All of our games have grown by leaps and bounds. As always, I am extremely proud to be a part of this company! Thank you everyone for playing MechQuest - Without you, we would not be here today! Here's to another AEsome year!

Star Date : December 30th, 3009
New Years Party Coming to Soluna!
Hello Everyone! I hope everyone is continuing to have a wonderful holiday season! We are getting our New Years Party ready for tomorrow. This week's release is happening Thursday at midnight (Technically Friday at 12:00am Server Time)! This time around we have an updated fireworks show and some new music for the Band!. Korin really knocked this one out o the park! The fireworks look absolutely incredible. We also have some new weapons coming for the New Year!

This week, Rolith and Alac finally convinced me to start a Twitter account. You can follow me here! I have already been swept up into a maelstrom of tweetilicious productivity killing randomness! today we celebrated Artix and Nythera's birthday with cake and pizza! I am feeling the effects of Nythera's extremely rich cake...

Hey wait a minute... that cake wasn't poisoned was it? Nythera would never make an attempt on my life... that is a completely ludicrous idea!

Hey Blues, why don't you tell us about the new weapons?

Sure, Warlic, Here you go!

Here are the Stats of the New Years Weapons!

When you like Fireworks, then these are the ones for you.

Dazzler 3010, BA, SC, 2 hits, CD 3
- first hit distracts enemy, -40BTH for 3 turns
- second hit gets +70 BtH and increased damage.

Uppercut Rocket, FA, NG,1 hit,CD 3
This amazing FA has 2 different one hit attacks.
- increased damage. Defense NoT of 50-40-30, additional chance for a 1.5 time DoT.
- increased damage. BtH NoT of 50-40-30, additional chance for a 1.5 time DoT.

Sparkler Rocket, Shoulder, NSC, 1 hit, CD 3
- Increased damage, 1.5 time DoT

Launcher of Awe, Shoulder, SC, 1 hit, CD 3
- increased damage, damage NoT of 50-40-30

The black cat, Head, NG, 4 hits CD 5
- increasing damage for all hits
- hit 1 does a BtH boost for the other 3 hits of +50
- hit 2 has a defense BoT, 20-30-40-50-60, overrides
- hit 3 causes an energy leak.Chance for EP DoT for 5 turns and 5 turn EP regeneration stop
- hit 4 has a chance for only 50% damage input for 5 turns. Has a 50/50 chance every turn when activated.

I wish all of you a Happy and Healthy New Year!
Have fun and look forward to MQ´s 3010

Star Date : December 28th, 3009
Last Week of 3009
This is the end of our most epic year in MechQuest history! It is hard to believe how much the game has evolved over the course of 3009! We introduced tons of new mecha models, new strategies, and new storylines... We had our first galactic space battle, We battled an ancient elemental guardian... We also witnessed the end of our first planet! Now we are looking ahead into 3010! What will next year bring? Will Wolfblade win the next Gear Games? What is Korin up to? Is he a powerful ally or a deadly foe? Can the Shadowscythe be defeated?

Anyway, this week the secret lab is fairly quiet. Many of our team members are visiting relatives for the holidays. So, things are quiet around here! We will be doing a small New Years release with some new fireworks and new weapons! What is YOUR MechQuest New Year's resolution?

Star Date : December 23rd, 3009
I want a Frostval Cookie

Happy Frostval everyone! As you may know, our release is Live! Shadow Claws and his army of Frostscythe Warriors are pummeling Frostvale right now as we speak! Go there and help out! I promise that this war will be even shorter than the Yeti war - Let's consider it a battle....You will get Yeti mechs when it is all over! Also, The Final Star Captain Frostval Gift is here! Grab your Viking mecha now! It's an incredible mecha, Scales to level 40 and it's free! It's our way of saying thanks for upgrading in our game!

I realize that everyone wants their Zorbos back... I want mine too! At least I can dance with the evil one... They're always willing to take a break from evil deeds to dance... Unfortuanately they are still under shadowscythe control! However, they will be returning to you tomorrow after their evil Shadowscythe sub-routines have finished executing.

I have done a terrible thing... Horc rock celebrating the awesomeness of cookies.... Alac is also guilty of rocking out... Actually - the entire office is guilty for this act of total Rockdom! You will understand when you see Artix's special Frostval holiday greeting video on YouTube:- <SEE ABOVE> everyone's submissions for the cookie contest were absolutely incredible and delectable! I wish everyone an awesome Frostval holiday and and remember MechQuest gift cards make the best holiday gifts for your friends and relatives! Your grandmother will love it!

Star Date : December 22nd, 3009
Game Balancing News
Soon the SC gifts will unwrap and you can test your brand new Viking Mecha.

Many of you are for sure curious about the specials.... here they come:

SubZero Gaze (Head, 2 Hits):
The Head has 2 specials, both activate on hit. They are a BtH nerf for the enemy and a BtH buff for the player. Both wear off over time and override all other BtH effects. CoolDown is 5.

Frozen Cannon (Body, 5 Hits):
This amazing Body attack got 2 specials. Every hit does increasing damage and it nerfs the enemies damage. This effect wears off over time and overrides all other damage nerfs. It activates on hit.

CoolDown is 5.

Viking Ball and Chain (Shoulders, 2 hits):
These shoulders do more damage every time you use them. So, make sure to use them often! 
CoolDown is 2.

Frostval Axe (FA, 1 Hit):
The Axe has a chance for a crit boost and a DoT.
CoolDown is 3.

Fryse Spyd (BA, 2 Hits):
Got also two specials. First hit has a chance for a damage boost, second chance for a 1.5 time DoT. DoT´s from FA and BA stack.
CoolDown is 3.

This Mecha is awesome and I hope that all SC players enjoy this gift. Not only that you get the Mecha, you can also keep the Weapons if you like and it scales 40 Levels! I love this Mecha, the looks, the specials and the animations. 

And here´s another new Mecha. Ever wanted to be a Yeti? Now you have the chance to! We have two variants of this Mecha. A NSC and a NG one.

Yeti Freeze (BA, 2 Hits):

NSC: .Chance for a DoT and a Defense nerf of 40. CD is 3
NG: Chance for a 1.5 time DoT and a defense nerf of 50. CD is 3.

Fist of the North Pole (FA, 1hit):
NSC: Chance for a damage boost. CD is 3.
NG: Chance for a damage boost and damage NoT for 3 turns. CD is 3.

Yeti Blaster (Shoulders, 1 Hit):
NSC: BS has an increased crit chance, FS a damage boost. CD´s are 3.
NG: BS increased crit chance, FS damage boost, both chance for an additional hit. CD is 3.

Pine Pulverizer (Body, 1 Hit):
NSC: Chance for a BtH nerf of 30, chance for crit.. CD is 5.
NG: Chance for damage boost, chance for BtH nerf of 40. CD is 5.

Abominable Staredown (Head, 1 Hit:)
NSC: General damage boost of 20 for  5 turns, CD is 5
NG: General damage boost of 40 for 5 turns, enemy damage nerf of 20. CD is 5.

NG version scales from Level 1 to 40.

Whenever I read Yeti I think of IMY (Icemaster Yeti), our Forum Admin. Not only because of the name, some people say that he also looks like one :P

I´m visiting friends for some days, so I want to wish all of you Happy Frostval!

Enjoy these hopefully quiet days, enjoy playing MQ and Have Fun!

Star Date : December 21st, 3009
Twas the last week of Frostval
We're in the final stretch of Frostval! This week we are releasing on Wednesday because the office is closed on Thursday and Friday! So, we are up to our necks in Yeti mechs, a Viking, and the final showdown with Shadow Claws! It will be a miracle if we can actually get everything together in 3 days! Right now everything is running smoothly, almost too smoothly!

Anyway, I hope everyone is enjoying this year's Frostval! It has been a ton of fun to make! Between Ticklish Zorbos, EbilCorp, Yetis and Shadow Claws. This has been one crazy holiday of random insanity and infectious dances!

Korin wanted me to remind you all to tell your friends to play MechQuest!

Battle On!

Star Date : December 18th, 3009
Fixed an Assault Mecha Bug
Well howdy, guys. And gals. Howdy guys and gals!

First and foremost, important business. We had chicken for lunch. Warlic's beard has been plagued by chicken grease. It's a serious situation. We've decided to leave him alone.

In other news, Frostvale continues!! Up until now, I've been calling it Frostval. Silly me. There are quite a few things going on this release so to start, I will simply say that yes, Yetis are coming! Run for your lives!! Save your Ticklish Zorbos! Or stay and fight. Maybe a shop will open once the war is over. And by maybe, I mean definitely. In the shop, you will notice we have new weapons for you, 1 of which is a Star Captain gift (Sub Zero Gaze). For more information on the weapons, because I'm clueless, let's go to Blues. Blues!!!

And now back to me. Thank you, Blues. Without your numbers, I would be useless.

In other news, we have elf costumes. designed by Lyris. They do have hats, but they aren't currently working. I'm going to look into those next week. And guess what! They jingle. Every little thing you do causes them to jingle. Sound awesome? Because it is.

We also have new house items available. We have a Nutcracker, Teddy Bear, and a Train as well as some other regular starship items, as I'm told.

Next week we'll be releasing the new Star Captain mech and a Yeti mech. We will also be finalizing the Frostvale excitement with a pretty epic string of terror. When I say string of terror, I don't actually mean a terrorizing string although I must admit, upon thinking about it, it sounds hilarious to have a thread of string trying to take over a planet. ........

Annnyways. Regarding your Ticklish Zorbos, fear not. They are going on a secret mission. They will return after the holidays. You are not losing them. They are just temporarily you know.... not..... going to........ like anyone.

This has been an unusual week. We've finished on time! Freaks me out. Thyton got sick today so he and Yergen went home (they're neighbors so they carpool). I get to drive Yergen home on Monday though. TMI, right? Or maybe JEI. Just enough information.

Alright. I'm tired of typing. You should be tired of reading. But you should be perfectly ready to play MechQuest and I fully expect you all to tell your friends to play. They're missing out. We would also really appreciate it.

Keyboard Cat! Play me out!!

Star Date : December 17th, 3009
Fixed an Assault Mecha Bug
It was brought to my attention yesterday that there was a very serious bug in assault mecha that was resulting in a game crash and loss of Exp/Credits. Basically, pressing the fight button multiple times before the fight started loading was causing multiple enemies to load at once...

Anyway, the underground headquarters was deadly silent today as everyone is working extra hard to get their releases finished on time! At least so far - bugs are very few.... I am sure I just jinxed us for tomorrow. Believe me, I have yet to work a Friday here that isn't full of exciting hair pulling and "omg omg omg I broke the entire game 5 minutes before release" moments! Anyway I hope you are enjoying Frostval so far! Will see you for release tomorrow! Battle on!

Star Date : December 16th, 3009
Ticklish Zorbo- Restocked in Limited Supply!
Vil-Mart just received a small shipment of Ticklish Zorbos! Go there now! This small shipment is only expected to last through the end of the day. So act fast! Don't miss out on your last opportunity to get this super rare holiday item!

In other news, the secret underground lab is a flurry of activity this week! Everyone is working overtime to get everything finished for their holiday releases! I am up to my nose in Yetis... Yes... Yetis. Yergen Von Shmergenbergen has turned into a Yeti-making machine and is almost finished with 3 fully animated Yetis and several new items... not to mention the surprise sub-boss monster that he has already finished.... I have a lot of AI to code today! I also brought in my micrphone to record some belches with Yergen... Don't ask... It is something that we just have to do.... While all of this is happening, Korin is making several cutscenes - Remember the end of the Lagos war, when he was slammed with cranking out 3 full cutscenes? Well, we did it to him again... Sorry Korin!

Ticklish Zorbo- Sold Out!
Ticklish Zorbo is all sold out*! Congratualtions to everyone who got a chance to get one of these super rare items! Watch out! Many people have reported that their Zorbos have mysteriously disappeared at night. These rumors have not been confirmed however, it is a good idea to keep on the look out for Zorbo thieves!

There has been a recent increase in Yeti sightings around Frostvale. Some people have even reported that Yeti's have been seen vandalizing their Ticklish Zorbos. Vil-Mart security forces believe that Yetis may be responsible for the Zorbo disappearances but these reports have not been officially confirmed!

Today at the underground lab we celebrated Beleen's Birthday with a jello and pudding party! I consumed aproximately 3 jellos and one bowl of whipped cream while watching crazy parkour youtube videos with Artix!

This Friday, Frostval continues! Star Captains will get the next piece of the Viking mecha! We will also have some more Holiday weapons and yes... you guessed it... Yetis! How abominable! korin is busy cranking out some new cutscenes and Yergen Von Shmergenbergen is animating new enemies and weapons at breakneck speeds!**

Many people have been expressing concern for Maegwyn on the forums because she has been out sick for such a long time. She is doing better but still needs time to rest and recover. I will keep you all updated as I hear more. We wish you well Mae! Please feel better soon!

*Psst - Rumor has it there may be surprise shipment coming sometime in the middle of this week

**Korin and I think that Yergen is actually a machine.

Game Balancing News
Here the latest news from Game Balance and some other things.

1) Vampire Minions and other Vampire Enemies
We have the discussion whether they are too strong or not. The bosses are a challenge and they are intended to be one, but none should be a problem with the Vampire Hunter Mechas and some nice Vampire Hunter Weapons. That´s why we released them - to fight Vampires! When you have troubles with other Equipment, you know what to buy.

2) The Frostvale gifts
All of them have temporary specials. They are most likely to get changed once they unwrap. There´s no need to discuss their power right now, let´s wait til you have the Viking Mecha.

3) Frost Mecha
We released higher levels of the last years Mecha and the CoolDowns got changed a bit. We didn´t buff the damage output nor did we give it new specials. This is just for all the players who didn´t get it last year and want to try it out. This Mecha is still good and in my opinion this is a nicely balanced NSC Mecha, even for todays standards. Soluna is no problem and for other planets you can buy other Mechas or even customize this one. Try it with Zorbo for example.

4) Monthly SC Mechas 
All of them are exceptional good and they have a special theme. Some are more offensive, some more defensive, some in between, some more useful against equippable enemies, etc. We invest a lot of time to create themes, create specials and balance them. Some may seem to be too good like Warbear and well, yes, Warbear is really powerful but against certain enemies he will fail. BC is really useful against equippable enemies, thats his theme. It seems that players prefer high damage output Mechas which can win fast. We have some of them, but the monthly  rares are also supposed to have a strategical factor. When a monthly Mecha doesn´t fit your play style, that´s no problem. One of the next ones will for sure.

Enjoy the Releases of this week and be prepared for the Viking Mecha and all the Frostvale Stuff. :)

Have Fun!

<Edited by Warlic 2:15PM 12/15/2009>

Star Date : December 11th, 3009
Ticklish Zorbo- This Weekend Only!
Ticklish Zorbois now at Vil-Mart in Frostvale! Go there NOW to get your very own awesome Ticklish Zorbo Weapons! These weapons are great! they have an incredible defense/healing special, scales up to level 40 and is available for ALL players!

The Starship versions of Ticklish Zorbo are available for Nova Gems - If you treat your starship Zorbo's kindly and feed it some bacon (stacks of 10 pieces are available at Vil-MArt stores Now!) evey day, it will be a loving pet that giggles when you tickle it and dances to all of your favorite MechQuest tunes! We also have a special Ticklish Zorbo Wall Poster that can Transport you and your Ticklish Zorbo (if you're lucky enough to own one) into the Dance Dimension!!

So head to Vil-Mart today! Ticklish zorbo will only be available this weekend!! Oh, I forgot to mention - holiday shoppers are absolutely crazy about Ticklish Zorbo and the Flight space is heavily congested with aggressive shoppers! Be careful!

Oh Korin wantred me to give you his kind regards... and remind you to please tell your friends to play MechQuest!

Battleon!

Star Date : December 9th, 3009
Wednesday Mini-Release Freeze - Until end of Holidays
This week's wednesday mini-release was pushed aside for yesterday's Ticklish Zorbo Dance Party website release. If you missed it, you can check the link here! Anyway, Yergen Von Schmergenbergen and I had a lot of fun making it and I hope everyone was thoroughly inspired to dance! XD

* When I showed Zorbo to my 2-year old daughter, she danced non-stop for over an hour and got extremely upset when we tried to close the webpage... So please be careful when showing the animation to young children. Zorbak's mind controlling effect is very powerful against kids!

For the remainder of this month, our team is focused solely on producing Holiday content. Due to the limited timeframe for the holiday season, I have decided to freeze our Wednesday mini-releases until the holiday season is over. I apologize to everyone who eagerly anticipates our tiny little Wednesday updates. However, we did the same thing last year and it everything worked out quite nicely!

Star Date : December 9th, 3009
Ticklish Zorbo Coming Friday
This holiday's hottest item is hitting Vil-Mart's shelves this Friday! Ever since Ebilcorp Toys Unlimited announced their newest product, demand has been skyrocketing! They will be offering 2 Ticklish Zorbo models, one for mecha shoulder equip spots and another for use in starships! Starship models are designed to be loving pets that eat bacon and dance to your starship music (Ticklish Zorbo apparently enjoys Headbanging to Evil Jim music...). And for your mecha battle needs, Ticklish Zorbo will equip to your front shoulder and pummel your enemies with love! It is a fierce defender who will go to great lengths to protect it's loving owners! So go to Vil-Mart this Friday and pick up your very own Ticklish Zorbo! (Quantities are extremely limited! Get yours while supplies last! ) To celebrate the release of Ticklish Zorbo, Ebilcorp is holding a Ticklish Zorbo Dance Party - here!

Note: due to the extreme popularity of Ticklish Zorbo, Holiday shops are expected to be full of highly competitive shoppers this Friday. Starship trafic is already starting to build up in Planet Thoh's airspace. Local security forces are expecting a code red situation this Friday!

Ebilcorp denies all liability for any issues that you might experience from increased traffic situations.

Star Date : December 3rd, 3009
Master Account & EpicDuel
"The One Login To Rule Them All!"

All players are invited to create a Battle On Master Account . this is the Alpha test of the new system which will unify all of our games.

Surprise - we are lauching our 5th game NOW!
Members of AQWorlds, Guardians, DragonLords and Star Captains are hereby invited to join us in the Beta-Evolution of the PvP based MMO... EpicDuel! A surprise game release? How did this happen? Brace yourself and read the amazing article that came out on IGN's homepage.

JUST Released!

• Master Account System - Alpha Test
• Epic Duel NewMMO! (Beta Evolution!!!!!!!!!!!!)
  

Coming Tomorrow: The Four Weeks of Frostvale

• AQWorld's - New Release!
• DragonFable - New Release!
• MechQuest - New Release!
• AdventureQuest - Already Released!

Star Date : December 2nd, 3009
Master Account System
Alpha Phase Opens Tomorrow (Thursday)

Tomorrow we are going to open up the apha of the Battle On Games! Master Account System. It will happen at night... possibly REALLY late*. You probably have a lot of questions**. But my best answer is as follows:

"The One Login to Rule Them All!"

Think hard about what login name you would like to use to access all of our future games. Then join us tomorrow night to choose your login name. By the way, for security reasons, no one except you and the player support team will ever actually see this login name. It will never be publically displayed. Pretty good security move, huh? This is why you should choose a login name that is completely different from the name you normally use. You can even use an email address. For example... and this may shock you. My login will NOT be Artix. I am going to choose something impossible for anyone to guess, and then I am never going to tell anyone else what it is. Since your login name and password will be how you access all of your games in the future, I highly suggest you do the same***.

This is the start of something huge. Tomorrow's Alpha release of this new system is available to all players. It is an Alpha... so there will be very limited functionality and anything can (and will) go wrong. Also.. as a special bonus... we have a secret announcement to reveal! (Oh boy, are you going to be surprised****)

* Really late like... Friday. Or perhaps even Monday.
** Questions like: What really killed the Dinosaurs? Does Cysero use a specific brand of enchanted Hair Gel? How many Ninja does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop?
*** H@x0r the Bear says, "Only you can prevent account theft!"
**** Hint: It is not AQW, AQ, DF, MQ, WF or EbilGames releated.