Star Date: May 8th, 3008 Friday Comes Early: Due to a minor scheduling shift and the fact that we actually got everything finished early, I went ahead and did Friday's release today! MECHA PRICE ADJUSTMENT! The biggest announcement for today is the long awaited mecha price adjustment. Most prices went down by a significant amount. Also, according to our new official pricing scale, higher levels mechs will actually be more expensive... but I promise, no mecha prices went up today! Any new mecha models that fall into more expensive price brackets will have the new higher prices... Nova gem prices have remained unchanged. Only mechs that cost credits are affected by this price drop. One of the drawbacks to dropping mecha prices is the fact that many of you played the game from the beginning and bought all of the insanely priced mecha on your journey to become epic heros of Soluna City! As a special thank you to players who have been with us for a long time, We created a new veteran gift shop in Soluna City. The gift shop is only accessible for players who are level 18 or higher! NEW ITEMS ADDED! SDF Dualshot and SDF Robotic Rifle: Inside this gift shop are 3 new extremely powerful shoulder weapons (the SDF Dualshot, SDF Bloodshot and The SDF Vampiric Blast) that are extremely powerful. They actually hit for damage comparable to 2 levels higher than their stated level. Also, there is a special effect called "Energy Conversion" that heals back a small amount of the damage you did to your opponent. These shoulder weapons are going to stay in the game, but after 2 weeks they will be available to all players for nova gems. So this is your chance to get Nova Gem items for credits! Also, as a special thank you to newer players who may be broke from all of the previous mecha prices, we have added 2 new upgraded versions of the Battle Hammer mecha at levels 8 and 11 that are priced much lower than normal. These will also be available for 2 weeks only before they are converted to Nova Gem items. So get them now! In addition to these new items, we have added some lower level nova gem shoulders (the Retractable Rifle, Robotic Rifle and the Switch Rifle that have a chance to hit for 75% bonus damage. You can find these weapons at Tek's shop in the Intro Shuttle and also in the special shops in Soluna City. This mecha price adjustment was a long time coming. I remember back when we made the original prices so high because for a while, before the launch of Soluna City, people came off of the intro Shuttle with over 1 million credits! I wanted to do this price drop for a very long time now, but I wanted to do it right! So, I'd like to thank Blues, Maegwyn, Reens, Alac and Yagno for their indispensible input in helping me balance the prices and still do something special for players who have been with us for a long time! I really appreciate it!
	Star Date: May 5th, 3008 Coming up this week: Espionage Get ready for a secret espionage mission! Admiral Pureheart wants to find out more about the Shadowscythe's plans. So, you will need to sneak into a base, hack into their computers, download vital information and then escape! Citizen Patrols New patrol missions are opening up in Soluna city. The outskirts of Soluna were hit pretty badly in the last war. Some Shadowscythe units are still out there. Help clean up the warzone! Mecha Pricedrop Get ready! There is about to be a huge mecha price adjustment! This will greatly impact the pricing of lower level mecha models. Credit prices are being re-adjusted to make them more readily accessible to all players Nova gem prices will remain the same.
	Star Date: May 2nd, 3008 New Mecha and Blades today ! Wow! What an awesome week for mechquest! We sped away as a giant mech was trying to crush us! We took down an entire enemy controlled Battlecruiser! Now, we have new energy blades to completely pwn our opponents! All I have to to say is: "Red Wizard needs food badly!!!!!!!" Now it's time to dance! Is it just me or does this guy seem a little sketchy? Anyway, This brings our week to a close. Be sure to grab the mechas at the war camps while they last! Otherwise, you'll have to wait until the next war to get them... and yes, both models are very powerful!
	Star Date: May 1st, 3008 New Quest Today! New Shop Tomorrow! We're coming to the close of another multiple release week in MQ! We just released one of the biggest quests in the game so far. In this new quest, you will finally have a chance to restore Sys-Zero to his former self! The minigame is a lot of fun too! During testing, some people actually yelled out loud, "Oh no! it's going to get me!!!!" To access the new quest, you must have met Odessa on the moon and joined forces with the rebels. Then, goto Warlic's office at GEARS to get this new quest! Tomorrow we should have some new energy blades and a new energy blade shop coming up. The Battlecruiser is being quickly dispatched by everyone participating in the war too! this has been one of the craziest weeks ever for MQ! Also, I would like to personally thank our testers, especially, Maegwyn, Blues, Alac, Reens and Morgenstern! They have been working really hard with me to help balance the game better and to streamline our testing process! Our last few releases have gone very smoothly with only minor bugs and that is a huge accomplishment considering our rapid development schedule! Thanks so much!
	Star Date: April 30th, 3008 New Features, New MiniGame and New Shop! Today we have released new equip features in MQ. You may now equip your pilot with energy blades from within the equip screen. You may also save your energy blade using the save equip button in Tek's shop. Oh, and while I was at it, I fixed the buggy volume control in the options screen.... Also coming up tomorrow we have a new quest to Heal Sys-Zero that feature a heart-pounding minigame in which you have to speed away from a Shadowscythe Bloohound in your van! My heart was literally racing while playing it... On Friday we will release the Energy Blade shop and NPC in Soluna City. This shop will allow you to try out your fancy new player equip/save interfaces from today's engine update.
	Star Date: April 25th, 3008 New Mecha! The new war-time only mecha models are live now! These mechs will be available for all players at levels 7 and 17. Coming up next for Mechquest is Energy Blade shops and player equipping. Pretty soon you will be able to save your energy blade weapons so you won't have to run to GEARS every time you want your energy blade. Note: saving energy blades will only apply to weapons that you purchase at the energy blade shop (Coming soon!). You will still need to run to GEARS or the Museum to get weapons from the racks.
	Star Date: April 23rd, 3008 WAR! Aisha and I are currently putting the finishing touches on the new war! We have a major surprise in store for you at the end of this war. We're working on the end fight right now as you fight wave after wave of Shadowscythe. I won't spoil the secret, but you're going to get a chance to fight something BIG! This war is interesting for MQ because it is actually 2 wars in one. Players in Soluna City will run defense missions against the Shadowscythe invaders, while players on the moon will be able to run offensive missions against a vast Shadowscythe communications network. We're also adding some new Star Captian head weapons into the game today. Free players and those who have nova gems will not be left out though! New items are going to open up in the War shops.
	Star Date: April 18th, 3008 Surprise! Unannounced Moon Quest! I really love working on the MechQuest. The new storyline with Sys-Zero and the rebels on the moon is my favorite part of the game right now. In fact, I love it soooo much that I decided to make an extra quest for today :D Those rebels are just a little bit upset that you went around exploding their mechas and now you have to earn their respect and trust! Good Luck! It's a long and hard road ahead! We also made some cool new items that use ammo insteaed of cooldown! (and they can hit pretty hard too!).
	Star Date: April 16th, 3008 Admiral Odessa Pureheart Everyone is gone... I am the only one left in the office right now! It's my fault though, as everyone was leaving they said, "Hey Warlic, do you need any help?" Of course my reply was, "Nope! I'm all set! I'm just in the middle of a release here! Smooth Sailing!" Then everyone left and I thought to myself, "Soooo lonely... Me Gurgi will jump in the cauldron and save the day..." (The darkest moment in Disney history... hands down...); Why do I put semi-colons after every parentheses? Nooooo!!! Anyway, Today, we are introducing a new character in MQ. This is probably my favorite character design in the game so far (excluding my own character's fabulous big-hair MQ revision!). Also, today Star Captains get a new feature in the game. It is now possible to save your current uniform at your Dorm room in GEARS University! Next feature = save your energy blades. (yeah, it's a long time coming, but we have one programmer working on DF and MQ right now... and Rolith is kicking serious butt!) Odessa is the leader of the rebels and she is a rather formidable foe! If anyone actually beats her outright, then they are probably cheating! Although, it is theoretically possible to win... I won't reveal too much about her right now, because I don't want to spoil the game for you!
	Star Date: April 11th, 3008 New Styles! Today we have finally released the new House uniforms! Now you'll be able to show your team spirit with the official house uniforms! Jemini did an excellent job converting the awesome winning designs into in-game formats. Also, I am very excited to announce that we have some fabulous new hairstyles at HAL! Also on today's agenda are some massive new cannons at the Moon base. If you want to open the shops on the moon base, you will need to find the black box at the crash site. (If you have found the black box already, then you'll have to go get it again to open the shops.) Next release, the situation with the rebels on the moon is going to escalate and a terrible conspiracy is going to be revealed! Also, you will be meeting a new major NPC. She does not have a counterpart in either DragonFable or AdventureQuest. She is completely new for MechQuest! I will be posting pictures very soon. Update: New Haircuts released today (Available at HAL - in Soluna City and on the Intro shuttle): Male: Fro, Spike, Curl, Mohawk, Stud. Female: Gwen, Mohawk, Bun, Smooth, Slant, Emo
	Star Date: April 9th, 3008 Phew... Starships!!! *Wipes the sweat from his brow* Today was one of the biggest updates to MechQuest ever! Today, your starships will take off for the first time. We have many zones that had updates today to make way for this rather large addition to the game! There are a couple of shops and mini-zones left to do in Soluna, but some of them will require game version updates to implement. So, they are going to come a little later. The moon quest chain is still part of the Soluna City storyline. To start this quest, get all of the starship parts and then go see the Kingadent. You'll notice a new NPC on your starship. She is your first crew member, Ensign Lisa Mayes. You'll talk to her to launch missions and access othe ship options. There is a ton more coming in regards to the star ships. You will soon be able to customize the interior and add cool items to it! (Rolith is diligently working on that feature now as we speak!) More Coming on Friday: Jemini just finished up the House uniforms and they look amazing! Also, she is busy cranking out some new and absolutely fabulous hairdos! New house uniforms and hairs will be released on Friday along with some new arm cannon weapons.
	Star Date: April 4th, 3008 New House Mecha Upgrades I just finished up the new house mechas and I must say, the new attacks are definitely cool! Mystraven now has a triple kick that has a chance to damage it's opponent's energy, Wolfblade has a battering ram charge attack that can steal an enemy's ep and give it back to you and Runehawk has a mana sphere that can convert a huge chunk of your energy into extra damage! Note - These new attacks have a chance to do those effects. They may not go off every time. Next week we're going to have our first off-world mission and new house uniforms! Jemini finished the Runehawk uniforms today. She is doing an excellent job converting the contest winners designs into the game and I can't wait to see the others!
	Star Date: April 2nd, 3008 Fixing things I have been picking through the game and fixing some of the little bugs that have haunted MQ over the last couple of months. You'll notice that the weapon racks are now functioning properly when using the Phantasm Scimitar. Also, Val shouldn't be saying "Undefined" anymore. She now thinks clearly before speaking! Other bugs such as getting stuck while exploring the jungle ruins shouldn't happen anymore *knocks on wood.* Anyway, this has been a very exciting week! April Fool's Day was so much fun this year! Galanoth, Cysero and I were laughing hysterically while we swapped towns and came up with all sorts of crazy things to say. :) For some reason or another,, a lot of people were expecting a Gunslinging mecha this week... I guess they got 4pri1 f001-ed instead! Now we are working on the next tier house mechas. Not only are these versions of the house mecha going to have stronger stats, they are also going to have some new attacks added. We should have the house uniforms very soon too! Jemini has started converting them into in-game art as I write this! So, after this week, it looks like the only place to go is into the skies! Does anyone own a starship?
	Happy April Fools! Unfortunately *ahem* we have no special event for you today due to an issue on the DragonFable and MechQuest file servers. But never fear, we are SURE that EVERYTHING is functioning properly in both games! - Artix
	Star Date: March 31st, 3008 One Day Sale starts at midnight! The Super-Ultra-Mega Rare One-Day Mecha is going to go live tonight at Midnight EST! Be sure to grab your mecha immediately! It will only be available until midnight tomorrow! And yes, it is extremely powerful...
	Star Date: March 27th, 3008 Starship intro coming soon. Due to the setback during yesterday's DFA Launch, we are pushing the Intro Starship quest back a day. So it will launch on Friday instead. I think it's well worth the extra day, DFA turned out so cool and I think it's really awesome to have it embedded inside the theater in Ballyhoo *pops some corn!* Anyway, we have a couple of new Shadowscythe units animated by Jemini that look incredible! I can't wait to start unleashing the next wave of enemies. They are amazing! For the intro quest, you will be getting your starships back in working order. They have been sabotaged by someone (or something) and you will need to fix it. Note: this quest will be available to all players, but Star Captains will actually own the starships in question :D
	Star Date: March 26th, 3008 Embedded video madness! 9pm - DFA Released - phew! Well the good news is, DFA is awesome. The bad news, is somebody(as I remember, that somebody was me...) decided it would be really cool to embed a youtube link in Ballyhoo... and it works perfectly - unless you try to view it more than once! Then, the game completely glitches out and you have to reload the game completely to watch it again :( This tiny little bug is causing us all sorts of pain! We have to roll it with this bug still in there. So if you want to watch it more than once in a sitting, you will need to reload between views. Also, there has been an uproar on the forums about the lack of a planned free version of the one-day mecha model. I have decided to included a free version as well. The free version will cost the same as the SC version but it will be a little less powerful.
	Star Date: March 25th, 3008 One Day Mecha Event-Coming next week! There has been some confusion regarding when the one-day super rare mecha event is going to happen. So, I would like to clear things up a bit. We are releasing a special super-rare mecha next tuesday. We will have two different versions, one for Star Captains and one for Nova Gem purchase. The Star Captain version will cost 200000 credits and the Nova Gem version will be 1000NG. J6 went completely overboard on this new mecha! Also: I just finished editing and republishing the sound effects and music for J6's awesome MQ animated short, D.F.A (Death From Above) ! The animation looks absolutely incredible and we are extremely excited to release it tomorrow! Be sure not to miss it!
	House T-Shirts are LIVE! They are here! Head to our store at Jinx Gear to get yours. Supplies are very limited on this first batch -- so it is first come, first serve. I wrote the cheesy descriptions (hope they get a chuckle). Please let us know what you think of the shirts on the forums! Get your Official GEARS University T-shirt Behind the Scenes I would like to thank the hard work of Aisha who designed the logos, J6 who did the awesome color-work, and a special thank you to our yet-to-be-named Controller* who did all the foot-work to make this happen. We are currently battling** over who gets one the few shirts that we have here at the secret underground lab. I do truly believe these are the best looking, highest quality, most impressive things we have ever created - I guess our games are not the only things continually getting better. Good job everyone! * Since he works for a Video Game company would that make him a "Video Game Controller"? (Cysero gets credit for that one) ** I choose you Zhoom-a-chu! Now that our shirts will be giving away which house each member of the team really belongs to... here is a list of what everyone is wearing (or WILL be wearing, you guys get access to the first batch, we do not get ours until after you): Warlic: Runehawk Artix: WolfBlade Nythera: MystRaven Safiria: MystRaven Cysero: Runehawk Rolith: WolfBlade Zhoom: .. he is the only one who is undecided! OIshii: MystRaven GeoPetal: RuneHawk Maegwyn: MystRaven Galanoth: WolfBlade Captain Rhubarb: Runehawk Korin: MystRaven 4:30pm EST Update: After only a few hours, over 1/3 of the shirts have been sold already! Unbelievably, the houses are neck-and-neck with a difference of only 1 shirt separating them apart... which has left us with our jaws dropping.
	International About Pages This week, Safirira, Nythera and I undertook the project of creating multi-language versions of a page about MechQuest. We um... used Google Translator and apparently some of the translations (especially the German one) left some people on rolling on the floor holding their stomach from laughing so hard. You can preview the new multi-language MechQuest pages that we are working on.
	Star Date: March 19th, 3008 RaBots and Carrot Flechettes! Today we released our latest rare Holiday shops! The new weapons are all very cool and have my personal favorites, the RaBots - sickening cute super destructive bunny droids! The next quest will be our Egg-Static Egg hunt in Soluna city. So, get ready to de-activate some very bizarre omelettes! Korin, Thyton and Jemini are working in overdrive cranking out new Kaiju bunnies and our first ever hopping mecha! (We have walkers and floaters and soon we will have hoppers!)
	Star Date: March 18th, 3008 Stylin' in my new House T-shirt Since yesterday, we have been anxiously awating the arrival of our first ever MechQuest T-shirts. Aisha & J6 made some really excellent designs based on the Wolfblade, Runehawk and Mystraven logos. Well, the sample prints just arrived and I must say, they look downright stylin'! I can't wait to turn heads in my hot new shirt... (it should be fairly obvious which house I belong to, especially if you've played DragonFable or AdventureQuest before...) In addition to the t-shirts, we have a Grenwog event hitting MQ this week. Tomorrow we're releasing some awesome new weapons (Korin did an awesome job on the Rabots!) Also this Friday, we have a brand new mecha and an egghunting giant Kaiju bunny battling holiday quest coming up! This is going to be another awesome AE weekend!
	Nova Gem Sellbacks are Live! Due to a minor re-scheduling this week, Nova Gem Sellbacks have been released 2 days ahead of schedule! So, feel free to sell all of those Nova Gem items that are clogging up your inventories and replace them with shiny new higher-level Nova Gem items! For the first 24 hours after purchasing a Nova Gem item, players may receive a 90% sellback price. Then, after that 24 hour period they may be sold back for 25% of their original price!
	Star Date: March 14th, 3008 First Design Notes Post Ever! I know what you're thinking... Warlic? Design Notes? What's going on here? This week got off to a really interesting start when I ended up in New York City about ready to catch a plane back to Florida when... OUR CAR GOT TOWED and I LOST MY DRIVER'S LICENSE! To get back home, I had to reschedule to a much later flight, file a police report that my ID was missing and bring that to the airport with anything else I could think of to prove that I am indeed who I say I am... Airport Security: "None shall pass!" Me: "I am WARLIC! You WILL let me pass..." Airport Security: "Yes... You are Warlic... You may pass!" Good thing I know a couple minor mind control spells too... Anyway, today my driver's license was returned to me. someone actually found it in the streets of Queens, N.Y. and mailed it back. Good people do still exist! Thank you to whoever found my ID. You rock! Anyway depite this week's most insane start, we managed to pull off an incredible double release week! The new quest to Rescue Sys-Zero has some of the most beautiful cutscenes I have ever seen. J6's animation is awesome and I finally got to sneak some music into the game! Shhhh.... I never told Artix the filesizes...
Rolith	Star Date: March 7rd, 3008 It's a FEATURE! It's been a very very long week here in the secret underground lab... Gremlins got into the code and we spent several hours on thursday cleaning up after them. I really need to learn just because they say they're hungry dosn't mean we should feed them after midnight. Seriously. Zhoom hasn't even seen that movie and he's telling me. On a compleatly unreleated note, keeping backups is just good policy. If there's files you don't want to lose, it's just a good idea not to only have one copy. Just a bit of advice, no personal experince here or anything. Mech Upgrades have been a LONG time coming, Me and Zhoom have been working on them for a long while now, and it's extreamly rewarding to see them out and about in the game for real now. And just in case you thought we were going to go another week without anouncing the winners: The House Uniform Contest Winners Have been announced. Check out all the REALLY amazing art. Judging this contest was a huge challange for all invovled. ... So, How'd I do? Not bad for a first design notes, was it? What do you mean I'm still on? Oh- *CLICK*
Artix Krieger	Star Date: March 3rd, 3008 Mecha Merge Feature You work hard to earn enough credits to obtain the most powerful mecha. That is why Rolith is coding new functionality that will allow you to upgrade select models of mecha! Full details will be explained on the homepage when it goes live. GEARS University Uniforms Wow! The entires were amazing. See for yourself on the MechQuest forums. Warlic and I are doing the final judging now. It is very difficult as you can imagine. The judging will be done on the concept, how well it fits the house's personality, and how feasibly we can create an inspired final, animatable uniform in game. Everyone who entered this contest should feel proud -- we are so impressed by your works! Winners will be announced on Wednesday with the release! MechQuest Update Madness Since MechQuest was release in October we have averaged nearly two releases a week! With the main release on Wednesday introducing new battles areas, and adventure -- and then, on Friday Warlic has been releasing new items and mecha in the shops. We had no idea how much we were all going to love MechQuest when we were dreaming of creating it. Now, it is one of the most unique and fasted expanding games to ever hit the internet. Thank you for making this happen!
Artix Krieger	Star Date: Jan 22nd, 3008 The Secret of the ShadowScythe Coming This week In this weeks release you will be going deep behind enemy lines on a dangerous rescue mission. Pay special attention and you may uncover a terrifying secret about these mysterious invaders... as some of you have already noticed and speculated.... the ShadowScythe logo has been seen in DragonFable too! <dunnnn.... dunnnnn... DUNNNN!> GEARS University Houses In Development One of the most important parts of your University experience is joining a house. Each of these houses offers a distinct view of the Universe and is driven by a greater purpose. We are currently working on all three houses.... when we are done you will be able to choose between joining the WolfBlade, MystRaven and RuneHawk which will create three different paths through the game. J6 has created brand new beautiful scenery for the rooms while Thyton created a unique Mecha gear and other items for each. After playing the introductory missions for each, you will only be able to join one house. This decision is likely to be permanent and will influence other areas of the game giving you a unique perspective from the pilots of other houses. We expect there will be a huge tournament within the University pitting the houses against each other in a test to be the best. Which raises some excellent questions.... what sort of tournament would it be? Hoverbike jousting? Mecha dueling arena? What does the winning faction get? A trophy? A special perk? Access to a special shop until the next tournament? Let us know what you think on the forums! NovaGem Sell-back In Development Zhoom is coding functionality for both MechQuest that will allow you to sell back items purchased for Novagems. We are still hammering out the details, but it is being loosely designed on the fair system currently being used in AdventureQuest.
Artix Krieger	Star Date: Dec 24th, 3007 MechQuest Behind the Scenes Greetings and salutations! The secret underground lab at Artix Entertainment is empty today. Well, that is not exactly true. Every year I have a tradition of waiting until everyone is off, then I come in and power up my trusty computer. Daimyo is here with me... it is a really nice day today. Daimyo: Woof! It is a good time to collect thoughts. Think about all the things we have done this year and everything we are going to do in the next one. I am not allowed to make my cheesy (and often embarrasing) end of the year post... at least not yet, but I am very grateful for you, the team, the games and the opportunity to continue doing more. We did get a few things done today and yesterday. Warlic opened the gift boxes while I updated the town, Rolith/Safiria/Capt fixed a bug in a part of the payment system, our first Ballyhoo ad (promoting Chowder) was released and of course we checked the post office for mail and did customer service emails. It is so quiet now though... I was thinking about using this time to fill in some details about your Star Ships and the new enemy mecha you will be facing. As I am sure you know a major war is brewing in MechQuest.... we got a really interesting list of new ideas from the forums that we are trying to incorperate into it (Geo even printed them out for us) I hope your holidays are going well and you are having fun. If you are traveling please be very safe! Meanwhile, I am going to watch over the players who are online and continue planning for next year. Battle on! Artix P.S. I borrowed a GEARS University instructor uniform for the photo. Do not get me wrong, the uniform looks nice, just the huge shoulders make it hard to slay undead in!

Star Date: Dec 7th, 3007
Just Released: Energy Sword Fighting!
11pm Update
Whew... great job everyone!
I would really like to thank Warlic, J6, Ghost, To-be-given-a-name-guy, Aisha, Zhoom, Rolith and the rest of the staff for completing this release on time Friday. I know you all had a very hectic week and to create something of this quality in the middle of it is just unbelievable.

All of the bugs have been uploaded and we are going to keep an eye on things through the night.

7pm Update
Final Testing in Progress
We are fixing the last of the known issues now. The release will be going live semi-shortly! Thank you for waiting.

4pm Update
We can see the light at the end of the tunnel!
Considering this weeks theme... that might not be a good thing. We are working as fast as we can and we are nearly ready for testing. (Nothing beats a solid 5 to 10 minutes of quality testing before a major release. Go team!) Here is what the team had to say about Mysterious Johnson's shop:

"We have completely lost control of this game." - Warlic
"OMG. Are we actually going to release this?" - Thyton
"Wow, there is an overwhelming amount of pointless stuff to do in here. I love it!" - Rolith
"Woof Woof Woof" - Both Artix and Safiria's dogs are in the secret underground lab today. That was a trick though, Safiria's dog does not bark! (Although it did almost eat Daimyo).

While you wait for this release.... this is the perfect opportunity to upgrade your account by clicking on the banner to the right AND/OR to speculate on the forums about how extremely terrible the few voice clips we added in this zone are going to be. (Hint: They are pretty bad!) Nothing beats hearing Warlic do it in real life.... but this will have to do for now. *checks watch* BACK TO THE RELEASE!

1pm - Things are getting MYSTERIOUS!
It has been a while since we were this insanely behind on a Friday. (At least since Wednesday or last Friday... or last Wednesday.... or the Friday before that) But never fear... we are getting closer every moment that we are not getting farther away. This release is without question the strangest thing we have ever created. Be sure to explore every nook and cranny of this new store when it finally goes live!

FORUMS PREDICTION: 7pm
MRS. CLEOPATRA PREDICTION: 6pm
MYSTERIOUS JOHNSON PREDICTION: <a href="/--></p> pm

"The power of this energy blade wielding moglin is unlike anything I have ever seen. Who could he be!?" - Artix

"Man, I can't believe how awesome MQ is turning out. I mean, I can, but it's just like WHAM! Awesome." - Ghost

Star Date: Nov 14th, 3007
Just Released: Energy Sword Fighting!
Incoming message from Dean Warlic of GEARS University
"Before you can truly master the art of mecha combat, you must first become a master of yourself. You will not always be safe within the protective armor of your mecha. This is why the first available class at Gears University is Energy Blades 101! My good friend, Master Tsuba teaches this class. He is the foremost expert in energy weaponry in the galaxy and we are honored to have him as a faculty member this year. Energy Blades are very powerful weapons that draw from your inner power (which is a battery concealed within your uniform.)"

Energy Weapons 101
In this new release you can train your energy blade fighting skill to 35. There are eight new weapons and a new uniform to unlock! This quest features unique enemies and other students to train against. Perfecting your skill with these energy weapons will come in quite handy in your upcoming missions to help the Soluna City Police solve a crime spree of lunar proportions! (Coming next, and oh yes... there will be a Werewolf biker gang.)

Sword Fighting Launch Today!
We are in the final stages of testing (and breaking) things now. As soon as it is ready we will push it live. Check back often!

P.S. This quest will feature a special guest from AQ and DF (if you can figure out who he really is)

Star Date: Nov 12th, 3007
Bug Fix: Backwards (Cowardly Enemies)
Whoops... there was a rogue line of code in our sword fighting functionality stealth update which caused every other enemy to turn around and face away from you. Then again, maybe there was no bug,,, perhaps your character forgot to use deodorant. Either way we fixed some code and Dean Warlic has installed automatic deodorant dispensers in all GEARS University Pilot Candidate Uniforms. If your deoderant dispenser is still not working, you can solve this problem simply refreshing your browser!

Swordfighting Update
We have all of the critical functionality working (well, mostly working) for "out-of-your-mech" energy sword battling and are on schedule for the big Wednesday launch. I updated the progress report in the Nov 6th post below for you. Today we are adding monsters and assigning weapon damages. We have also begun work on the Police Station quests which will be launched next (giving you some brand new missions to try out your newly aquired energy blade fighting skills!) J6 is improving the combat menu, but you can see what the fighting looks like now on the testing server below. Notice you have a seperate health bar above your head when you are on foot (I think we are going to make it red though). Also, do not forget that today is the day we are removing the NovaGem sell back from in-game stores!

Star Date: Nov 9th, 3007
Gears Classes beginning Wednesday!
Energy Blades will be released this Wednesday. This release is going to feature the Energy Blade training class at the university. Yes, you heard correctly - classes will officially begin on Wednesday! This is a huge update because we have developed an entirely new non-mech battle system (see Nov 6th) that is being tested right now as I write this. We realize that many of you are eager to have Mechquest assume a regular release schedule. So, we are going to try to implement Mechquest releases on Wednesdays. The game is still in its early stages, so it might take us a couple of weeks to get regular - (send prunes!) . Once things get rolling, we will have MechQuest Wednesdays, AdventureQuest Thursdays and DragonFable Fridays!

After the Energy Blades, the next release will be the police zone, complete with brand new items, a new mecha, werewolves and a mysterious crime spree in Soluna City!

This game has been so much fun to work on! We have so many surprises coming up. We have had so many hysterical laughing fits during the design process and can't wait to share everything with you.

-Dean Warlic

Star Date: Nov 8th, 3007
Mogloween sale over
Update: Mogloween masks have been put away until next year. Tek would personally like to thank everyone who celebrated this year by purchasing her Rockin' masks! If you thought those mask were cool, just wait until next year! It's sure to be a blast.

Star Date: Nov 6th, 3007
The Pen is Mightier than the... WOAH!
MechQuest is not just the story about your mecha... It's also the story of your pilot. One of the features that is going to make MechQuest awesome is the ability to get out of your mech and walk around in the middle of a mission. We want to make extremely interesting missions involving mecha combat, sword play, blaster duels, enemy computer hacking and vehicle piloting. The first step... is adding energy sword fighting! Zhoom and Warlic are building a secondary battle system for when you are on foot. They are 50% done. The first round of weapons you will be able to earn are pictured below! (Leveling up your skill is going to be so much fun.)

Release Schedule: Building New Stuff with Polish
The next few MechQuest releases are going to be pretty big functionality-wise. The energy weapon release is new functionality that we want to use in many of the upcoming missions, which is why we are holding back on releasing the Police Station and the Hospital... and, hehe, just wait until you see what is going to happen in the "for sale" building. We are not on an official release schedule (yet) so what I would like to do is give you a list of our progress, then we can release it when everything is done. Here we go!

Next Release: Energy Blades 101

• Energy Blade Training Dojo (100%)
• Main NPC (100%)
• Secondary NPC (100% & being animated as a monster)
• Sword Fighting Engine Update (100%)
• All player character models animated for sword fighting (100%)
• New Energy Duelist Outfit (100%)
• Opponents (100%)
• Quest Chain (100%)
• Energy Blades (100%)
• Weapon Rack (100%)

Nova Gem Sellback
It recently came to our attention that some people saw credit prices listed instead of Nova Gems prices. So, some people unintentionally purchased items for Nova Gems. Because of this error, we have enabled Nova Gem sellback in all in-game shops. If you accidentally purchased an item, like one of the deluxe Mogloween masks or the new Kurosawa mecha, you may go to a store in-game and return it for a full refund. Nova Gem sellbacks will only be available until next Monday, Nov. 12, 2007.

Star Date: Nov 2nd, 3007
Bug Infestation at Gears University!
Due to the recent bug infestation at Gears University, teachers have gone on strike! Classes will not begin until Dean Warlic and the rest of the University staff eliminate every little pest that is currently infesting the university! Do not Worry, though, We assure you that this bug problem is being taken care of by highly trained exterminators armed with top-of-the-line EvilCorp Extermin-Mecha! In the meantime, Dean Warlic wishes that all of the incoming students have an extended Mogloween celebration in Soluna City! We recently had the opportunity to speak with professor Denara regarding the current strike:

"While this bug problem is a terrible thing, This will give me an opportunity to work more on this semester's curriculum... Last years 12% passing rate was a tragedy. I am aiming for 6% this year!

Please note - Entrance exams are still being held regardless of the bug problem.

Star Date: October 31st, 3007
Happy Mogloweeen!
Tonight, before you eat too much candy and treats, check out Tek's shop in Soluna City and grab a scary new Mogloween mask for your mecha! Star Captains will be able to get some special Mogloween masks that actually have attacking capabilities! In addition to the Special Mogloween heads, we are also releasing a new Samurai Mecha at the Star Captain's club. When you're out Trick or Treating, watch out, because three new enemies have been spotted in town: Pupperoni, Beary Goode and the Shadow Glider! They are out to steal your candy!

The following fixes have been implemented:

- Energy cost and cooldown added to item description.
- Used Sun Ray now has an attack.
- Recently bought items no longer disappear from your inventory list.
- Recently bought mecha are now sellable
- Ship flying minigame now gives the correct experience reward.
- Pizza quest: Tips are working.
- Pizza hats are now properly buffing pizza stats
- DOT no longer doing double dmg
- Stat-stacking bug fixed.
- Text in mecha shop is no longer editable.
- All Star Captains now have 20 mech slots

Star Date: October 30th, 3007
Ratatatatata.... Machine Gun Releases!
We appreciate you comments on the forums and we are on the job. As soon as we are done we will roll out the next update for you. Pizza hats are getting delivery roll buffs. Weapon cooldowns and energy usage is being added to the shop and inventory screens. We will add a unequip button for you and "monsters" are going to be altered to use energy and cooldowns (although this will be different than standard mecha units.) Also we have three brand new monsters that are being coded and tested as you read this. We are also preparing to launch the University Classes.... Forum Question: Are there any particular things you would like to "learn" at GEARS University? (Also, would it be alright if we used Maya as the librarian. We cannot tell you the relationship to the Maya in DragonFable, but we can totally justify it in the plot line!)

Star Date: October 26th, 3007
MechQuest Release!
Thank you for being here and becoming a part of MechQuest history*. Whether this is your first game release with us (Runnnn!) or if you are a hardened veteran who is ready for the chaos that is about to begin... you are about to experience something special**. We are leaving the sandbox of Gamma turning MechQuest into a real honest to goodness game!

With our unique style of build-on the fly gaming making, Soluna city shall be the seed from which MechQuest grows. We will experience many silly adventures (and a few serious ones too, promise!) together over the years to come... all featuring massive armed to the teeth Mecha. You get to say you were a part of it from the start! We invite you to join us on the forums and help us shape this universe. As you touch down on Soluna city you will find that 1.) IT IS HUGE and 2.) It is full of "coming soon" areas. That is your queue! We are going to focus on quality and fun building up the University (Classes will start next week) and the city. Then we will have the "Big Star Ship release" and you shall discover your true destiny as you travel through the main storyline, deep into the distant stars. But first... you have to pass that GEARS University Entrance Exam! (Says right here in the brochure: 12% survival rate guaranteed!)

* Technically, that would be "...a part of MechQuest FUTURE".
** Special = Server crashing game exploding hard drives flying across tables on fire while frozen and randomly teleporting.... special, special! This is going to be fun.

100% Animated Web Based RPG. Nothing to download or install, just open your web browser and play!

• Police Station - To serve, protect, and occasionally obliterate!
• New Mecha Model - Yes, he just casted a fireball from his hand.
• Star Ship - Sure beats having a dorm room.
• Mecharoni Pizza - Gotta pay that 40,000,0000 credit tution bill somehow!
• Heavy Weapons Chamber - Would have been easier to carry the light weapons all the way up there instead!
• Mission Room - At the Star Captain's club!

Star Captain Upgrade
Also today, the first players will become Star Captains by upgrading their accounts. In addition to getting full access to the game and your own Star ship, those of you who upgrade during this launch will be given "founder" status. If you like what you see in MechQuest, support the game and its growth by upgrading your account for a one-time-only fee! Just like AdventureQuest, which is celebrating it's 5th year birthday this week -- MechQuest is one of the best long term gaming values you will ever find. Become a Star Captain!

Gears University Here we Come
We are impossibly behind schedule, low on coffee, and Zhoom said that the time machine we need is on back order. Ready or not.... (If you chose the correct answer, "Not", please award yourself 10 points at this time) we are landing this week! Next week! We are there!

While we will not have everything ready when you land... we will release the new missions, stores, and school extra-curricular Mecha combat activies in a flurry of non-stop exciting mini-releases.

Soluna City
We will land (Unless Worsh is piloting then it is far more likely we will crash) in Soluna City! You will be able to take the entrance exam to the university, shop at Tek's Mechs for new weapons and mecha, and explore the town which is full of specialty shops and interesting locations. It is unlikely that we will finish building all of the areas before you land, so we will get as much ready for you as possible and then release the town area by area with our ongoing releases!

Upgraded Accounts
You voted and the results are in: Star Captains and Nova Gems it is! If you upgrade you will get the Star Captain's license which will allow you to use the most powerful mecha, weapons, vehicles, and very soon travel the universe aboard your very own upgradable Star Ship (Which will be upgradable and act as a house & garage & mechbay for your various uniforms, vehicles, mecha and more). What other features would you like? Let us know on the forums.

5 New Mecha
In the new release you will be able to obtain of five new mecha with better armor (HP), energy, and recharge rates. Some will even have equippable front shoulder slots! Expect the opening price for the beautiful machines to be between 10K to 30K credits each (With some very expensive models). As of the time this was written, free players will be able to store 2 full mecha models and upgraded players will be able to store up to 20 full mecha models.

Up to the Minute Newsfeed
Midnight - I am too excited/nervous to sleep. Time for a website update! There is still so much to be done... this is going to be insane. I will start at 9am with the first news posts.... see you then!
2:47am - We are all supposed to be up at 7am... this is a bad time to still be awake. Maybe I should try counting sheep. 1,2,3,4.... BOOM! Whoops, forgot to turn off the anti-sheep missle system. <hides> See you at 9am EST!
7:18am - <Wishes anti-alarm clock missle system was functioning....>
8:00am - Goodmorning! I am driving to the secret underground lab where I will be meeting Rolith, Zhoom, Warlic and the rest of the team (even Daimyo is coming with me today.)
8:30am - The bug reports are in. Whew, I was scared there was going to be a lot of th... OMG!!!
In other news: Ghost is online and says, "Pizza delivery is by far the coolest thing on the inter-web"
9:00am - It is 9am, where the is update! Oh no.. are updated broken too!? (The forums are fun) We have completed 2 out of 346 bugs. We also want to build some more stuff. 3 hours left! Also, the mecha shop code is broken and I forgot to call and wake up Zhoom this morning. I hope he is up!
Update: Just called him.... <gulps> he is up now!
9:30am - Bugs 9% complete, Coffee 60% full... we are going to need reinforcements. Daimyo, here boy. Good boy! Ok, go to Starbucks little fella. Tell the barista that we all fell down a well. Again. "Woof!" (Only 2.5 hours to launch)
10:00am - When we launched DragonFable, as you may remember, the very first upgrade was purchased by my Mother. She was anxiously looking forward to have the same honor for MechQuest -- BUT -- to our complete shock someone beat her to it! Which is really funny... considering that WE HAD NOT RELEASED ANY PAYMENT PAGES! It was two weeks ago and the upgrade came in the mail. It was a hand written letter from a AQ/DF player who specifically requested... and this was not some sort of mix-up.. it said right there in pencil on the lined sheet of paper, "payment to become a MechQuest Star Captain". You cannot imagine our heart stopping awe. (Alright, fine -- I will say it. We nearly broke into tears. That was just about the biggest compliment a small team like us can get.)
10:30am - Zhoom, Thyton, and Sasha just arrived. Which is good, because with only 1.5 hours remaining it may be in our best interest to have the Mecha shop working when you land. We also have a new minigame that we will be testing on the right East side of town... it still has bugs though. This is going to be close. Oh, there will be 6 different models of Mecha (instead of 5) being released.
11:00am - Servers: Online and ready (CHECK!), Database: Online and ready (CHECK!), Bugs: Everywhere (CHECK! Mostly typos -- I did a lot of the writing in the game as you are about to see... "teh tpying wll be relly gud!")
11:10am - Aishia arrived at the secret underground lab (She brought Warlic and I COFFEEEEEEEEE). I am really concerned because nothing is breaking... stuff is not supposed to work like this.... the fact that everything is going so smoothly... IS WRONG! (I smell a trap) And we are 50 minutes away from release! Someone please fix this!
11:18am - Yup, we broke stuff. Rebooting servers! <Whew...>
11:36am - 24 minutes to RELEASE...
11:45am - 15 minutes to RELEASE...
11:50am - 10 Minutes to RELEASE!
RELEASE Noon - ALL SYSTEMS GO!
Can anyone let me know if it is working? (Relog in and you should be able to land!)
Reens says, "Way to go, guys! The chat room is going nuts!"
Alac says, "It looks like the release is a success. Nice job, you and everyone at the Secret Hideout. "
<At the Secret Underground Lab... Clapping and cheering is heard.. then a song starts playing>
12:34pm - The server cluster is performing amazingly! I would like to thank everyone who made this possible. All of you who signed up for the pre-register promotion and made it possible to get the right hardware in place before this release -- thank you!. We would also like to thank everyone that has and is upgrading during this release today! You are going to be happy that you did.
12:47pm - Fixed a number of bugs including the one if you fail a Pizza Delivery quest. You will no longer walk on an endleslly repeating path of car stomping destruction (I love that quest so much... has anyone gotten a prank call yet?)
1:00pm - Level cap has been raised to 12.
2:00pm - We are reading your feedback on the forums and monitoring things while making fixes. Safiria and Nythera are getting A LOT of email (Thank you for the encourament!) This is no time for us to idle -- we are already starting work on the next release which will feature many interesting (and completely bizzare) GEARS University classes. Now, lets see if we can get those energy blades working!
5:30pm - For the last 5 minutes Warlic, Zhoom and I went and played a little guitar to calm our nerves. Now we are back to fix more stuff! Upon returning we found that pretty much the entire DF Team is playing MechQuest... your DF release may be a little late tonight. Talking about MechQuest: 10,000+ players online at the same time! NEW RECORD!
5:45pm Galanoth says "20K players on AQ...16K players on DF... 10K players on MQ. We are going to break a record tonight!"
Prime Time: We broke 13K players online at the same time! NEW RECORD!
Midnight: Congratulations to you, the other players, the forum moderators, and the team! This release is off to a GREAT START!

Star Date: October 26th, 3007
MechQuest Releases today!
We will be releasing around noon EST today. I will update you moment by moment as we prepare for the release. (Note: It is 1am now and I am nervous and excited that I cannot sleep.) We are planning on being up and starting at 7am.... see you then!

Star Date: October 23rd* 25th, 3007
Only 1 Day Left!
Friday at Noon-ish EST is the first major MechQuest release, Soluna City! I think we really raised the bar when we made this one. You will get to immediately experience a lot of the game and you will get a huge preview of what is coming in next. If you like the quality of the open places in Soluna city, just wait until you see the next few releases (Starting next week)! Remember... this is just Soluna City -- next stop is complete other planets! Join me tomorrow morning as I give you a moment by moment countdown (Watch us crash and burn in real time!) to the launch of MechQuest!

• Soluna City (Open for exploration and shopppppppping!)
• Star Captains (The first upgraded accounts!)
• 5 New Mecha Models (Maybe more!)
  

Also Happening: Mogloween, the 5th year spooky birthday party for AdventureQuest is being released! Head to Battleon.com for monsters, mayhem and caaaaaandy! Tomorrow, find out how it all began in the origin story, "The Legend of Mogloween" which is being released in DragonFable!

* Time Travel Faeries went 5,000 years into the past... they know no bounds!

Star Date: October 24th, 3007
2 Days Left....
Ninja Post. <Puts finger over nose> Shhhhhh.

Star Date: October 23rd, 3007
3 Days Left....
As Worsh begins to set his landing trajectory, Sys Zero tells you a few of his favorite stories from the Star Captain's mission room. If you ever get a ship, you should come visit him there. Who knows what kind of trouble you two would get into. Back to Soluna City, the weather is beautiful this time of year... even with an alien invasion in progress!

Star Date: October 22th, 3007
The Final Countdown!
Only 4 days remain until the MechQuest Soluna City release. One amazing thing about the AQ/DF/MQ team is that if you give us an extra week, we will try to cram a month's extra work into it to make the best game ever for you. Soon we will be adding the 'Count Down Timer' to the header... tick... tock... tick... tock.... it will be "do or fry"*! This week we are also launching Mogloween in AdventureQuest celebrate it's 5th birthday! Furthermore we are releasing the Legend of Mogloween (Origin story) in DragonFable featuring three beautiful witches and one sneaky dark cauldron. This Friday is going to be HUGE!

* And anyone who spends a lot of time on the forums can tell you, if we do not make the release on Friday -- there will indeed be FLAMES!

Star Date: October 20th, 3007
Whoops! (a.k.a. The Soluna City Blackout)
When the bug fixes were released for you last night we forgot to remove the button that will take you to Soluna City out. <gulps> This has been fixed. On behalf of GEARS University we would like to apologize to anyone who clicked on the button and was instantly hurled into the game-crashing black hole of file missing-ness. The good news however, is that many of you now know exactly how to get to Soluna city for the big release next Friday! (Of course, that button was "sorta" big. Well, maybe huge. Should we make it bigger?)

Star Date: October 19th, 3007
University Entrance Exam - Next week!
Due to a severe malfuction in the exam assessment drone an unusually low number of pilot candidates are making it into GEARS University*. There have not been any complaints though**. The friendly faculty at GEARS University anxiously awaits the arrival of new candidates to try the entry exam.... including you. Who we are SURE will score far better. The shuttle lands next Friday!

* Official Count: 0
** Nor have there been any survivors... we are certain this is just a coincidence.

Star Captain's Club
After a successful mission, the who's who of Soluna city head to the hottest Mecha dance club and restraunt in town. It is complete with disco lights, an arcade, and an exclusive VIP mission room... and um.... a restricted heavy weapons chamber. Forum Question: What items should be on the menu?

Gamma Bug Fix Release
In the last engine upgrade we changed the way the character was being referenced immediately breaking lots of stuff! We just rolled out the fixes! Hal will now properly update your hair style and color when you get a hair cut. The "secret" helmet will now equip itself properly on your head if you are crazy enough to get it. Finally, the malfunctioning enemy mecha unit will no longer stall in the middle of battle. Battle on!

Star Date: October 18th, 3007
E=MQ^2
You are going to learn so many valuable facts at the University*! But the area around the University is equally fascinating. If you are hungry, you might want to go to Mecharoni Pizza. You can even get a part time job there**! If you make employee of the month you might just get to pilot the Elite Pizza Delivery mecha. (This game is going to be so wierd it is awesome) This brings us to today's challenge.... it is a question that Warlic, Rolith and myself spent some time trying to figuring out this morning: "How can you cut a pizza into 8 equal slices with only three straight cuts?" This one takes some thinking outside of the ol' pizza box! (Note: Be sure to try figuring it out yourself before going to the forums.) Also, we would love your help coming up with some of the positions you can can promoted to at Mecharoni's.... "Elite Pizza Delivery Tactition", "Inter-Garlic-tic Manager", "Dishwasher", etc! Check back tomorrow for a a sneak peak of the Star Captain's Club.

* If you survive the entrance exam which is decidedly an impossible death trap that no one can beat.
** Hey, you have to pay that 40,000,000 credit University Tution off somehow....

Star Date: October 17th, 3007
Final Release Date Set / Changed / Re-Set
Worsh says, "What does this red blinking E mean on the fuel gauge?"
The sun has just set outside of my window as I write you this message. I know many of you will see the wisdom (and bravery if you are a forums user) in the choice that I am about to announce, but I am doing this for the right reasons. I looked at what we will be able to release this Friday and, in short, I am not satisfied. I do not want to release MechQuest "rushed". I want you to experience the same level of quality and polish that the University Shuttle currently has. In my mind's voice I can already hear your Luke Skywalker responding to Darth Vader like "Noooooooooooooooooooo! That's impossible....." but, it is true. The MechQuest release is officially being pushed back one more week. (Please note: At no point in the MQ timeline will I be revealed to be your Father) I hope that you can put yourself in my shoes and see what an extremely difficult decision this was to make. But doing MechQuest right from the very start is something that we should not compromise. Not if it is a week... or two weeks... or a month... or a year! (Do not worry, it is just a week.... seriously) I hope you respect how seriously we are taking the quality of MechQuest. In return, I am going to stop holding back all the development secrets and starting tomorrow I will post you actual screenshots of what we are working on. And Warlic suggested some of you may be interested in playing the role of various bad guys, but we can talk about that later. Here are some never before seen screenshots to start you off....

• Police Station - To serve, protect, and occasionally obliterate!
• New Mecha Model - Yes, he just casted a fireball from his hand.
• Star Ship - Sure beats having a dorm room.

(Note: I just got the Star Ship image up, thank you for letting me know about the broken link. Also, I wanted to thank you very much for your support on the forums. You guys are the best!)

Star Date: October 15th, 3007
Gears University Here we Come
We are impossibly behind schedule, low on coffee, and Zhoom said that the time machine we need is on back order. Ready or not.... (If you chose the correct answer, "Not", please award yourself 10 points at this time) we are landing this week! Next week!

While we will not have everything ready when you land... we will release the new missions, stores, and school extra-curricular Mecha combat activies in a flurry of non-stop exciting mini-releases. Which brings us to the question we have all been pondering... Official Forum Question: What day would you like it released on? (Please Note: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are invalid selections)

Soluna City
We will land (Unless Worsh is piloting then it is far more likely we will crash) in Soluna City! You will be able to take the entrance exam to the university, shop at Tek's Mechs for new weapons and mecha, and explore the town which is full of specialty shops and interesting locations. It is unlikely that we will finish building all of the areas before you land, so we will get as much ready for you as possible and then release the town area by area with our ongoing releases!

Upgraded Accounts
You voted and the results are in: Star Captains and Nova Gems it is! If you upgrade you will get the Star Captain's license which will allow you to use the most powerful mecha, weapons, vehicles, and very soon travel the universe aboard your very own upgradable Star Ship (Which will be upgradable and act as a house & garage & mechbay for your various uniforms, vehicles, mecha and more). What other features would you like? Let us know on the forums.

5 New Mecha
In the new release you will be able to obtain of five new mecha with better armor (HP), energy, and recharge rates. Some will even have equippable front shoulder slots! Expect the opening price for the beautiful machines to be between 10K to 30K credits each. As of the time this was written, free players will be able to store 2 full mecha models and upgraded players will be able to store up to 20 full mecha models.

News and Design Notes
Star Date: October 12th, 3007
Worsh is LOST IN SPACE!
Talk to Tek to try out our new Mech Shop featuring an upgrade to the NWB-3K Newbatron (20,000 Credits). Also, Sys Zero has spotted a strange energy which seems to be a powerful enemy unit. Talk to Sys Zero and maybe he will let you battle it. You must be level 3... and likely you will need the new mecha model to take him out! (Look for "Strange Blip")

Talk to Worsh and ask to "FLY THIS SHIP!" to play our very first MechQuest minigame for experience and gold. Also, JUST RELEASED, Guardian/DragonLord verified characters will be able to use the "Save your Equipment Config" feature (This will make you MUCH more of a challenge in PVP... especially until we fix the A.I.)

Star Date: October 12th, 3007
Worsh is LOST IN SPACE!
When you become a Star Captain and hire a pilot, just remember to get one who knows how to read a star map. The GEARS University Shuttle is..... lost.... which is bad news because the GEARS University entrance exams are starting this week! Hopefully we make there in time. <Insert tense music>

Note: We may be releasing a test of the Mech Shop today with an upgrade for your NWB-3K Newbatron. Also, Sys Zero picked up something on his long range scanners... it is a really intense power signal. There is a 80% you will get to battle it!

Star Date: October 9th, 3007
Star Captains
Since we have reached out into the stars, the Star Captains have used their ships to explore, promote peace and.... well, shame on all of you Space Pirates! The insignia of the Star Captain is a symbol revered across the known universe. It is also the key to unlocking some of the most securely guarded Mecha and weapon systems. Below is the first ever look at the Star Captain Insignia.

Note: A Star Captain in MechQuest is the equivilant of Guardian in AdventureQuest, or a DragonLord in DragonFable.

Star Date: October 5th, 3007
Behind the Scenes
I am pretty sure we have never worked this hard in our entire lives. Running three games has put us on a non-stop working schedule that is only maintanable due to the passion and love of the games. We really hope you are going to like what we are making for you. The goal is to land the shuttle in Soluna city, where the game will REALLY begin. Mechs... Shops... Weapons... Cars... Helicopters... Star Fighters... new, never before seen NPCs.... and... well, check back every day for an update and sneak peeks!

Star Date: October 4th, 3007
Soluna City
The brochure says it is home to GEARS University and some of the finest shopping in the entire galaxy! If you like cars, pizza, movies, energy sabers, and giant assault mecha weapon stores, this is the place for you. This college town is full of opportunity and excitement... and the occasional werewolf biker gang.

First MechQuest Minigame
Worsh really looks nervous piloting the ship... maybe you could give him a hand. Pilot the GEARS University Shuttle in our first EVER MechQuest Minigame. It is pretty simple, but it is cool things like this that are really making MechQuest cool! Meanwhile, the team is hard at work preparing Soluna city for your big landing. (Note: There are a lot of really interesting minigames planned for phase 2 of Soluna city.)

Star Date: October 3rd, 3007
Day #3 Updates
In todays release we added two new enemy units (ShadowSythe Spyder and Shadowscythe Mega Gunner), fixed HAL the hairbot, improved several of the weapon fire animations and added our first special effect weapon to the Guardian/DragonLord shop -- the STUN GUN! (Electrical charge stuns enemy unit for one turn.)

BAD HAL, BAD!
It appears HAL, the hairbot, was malfunctioning yesterday giving pilot candidates hologram hairs without taking their credits. (At least they did not lose anything) Tek will be performing maintenance on HAL shortly to correct the issue. In other news, today we will be testing "Save Equipped item settings". If this works you will no longer need to re-equip your items every time you log in!

Soluna City
The team is currently focus firing on the full blown city of Soluna (which contains GEARS University). The original plan was to release the town piece by piece.... but since we can have you get new weapons and fight new mecha and monsters right now from the ship (to test them), we are thinking that it might be cooler to wait until we can release the entire city AND University all at once (and give it the same level of quality/polish the shuttle has.) Then while you play through all of the things there will be to do in the University we can begin work on the world plot missions. What do you think?

Just Released!
Star Date: October 2nd, 3007
Thank you for all of your awesome feedback on MechQuest! Things are all happening on time and going smoother than ever imaged... so please do not tell anyone (it would will ruin our image!) The second release has just gone live including several fixed and the craziest barber chair ever created... we are looking forward to hearing what you think. Battle on!

"Haircuts anyone? Just think of HAL as a sentient flowbie."

Important Announcement from the Kingadent
Login to hear the important announcement from the unanimously voted Kingident (President+King) of Lore about the strange approaching warshiped sized UFO.

HAL - New Hair Machine
In a completely unrelated subject talk to Tek and choose the "Hair Shop" option. You will find that the HAL (Hair and Lobotamy) machine is now available to students aboard the GEARS University transport shuttle. Depending on the machines reliability (and mood) you will be able to redo your do with brand new, never before seen hair styles and colors! (Especially good if you are already borg'd with the hair style you have now.) We are taking requests, any cool hair styles or assessories you would like to see next?

Guardian & DragonLord Only Mode
Important Note: There will be extended periods of time during the Gamma where we will be doing extensive work on the MechQuest servers. We will do our best to leave at least one playable server running for everyone with an upgraded account in either our two other flash RPG games (AdventureQuest or DragonFable). We believe this is the right thing to do since... you know... you are paying the bill for the MQ servers right now. (Thank you!)

October 1st, 3007
Congratulations! ...and even more new stuff coming.
I would like to congratulate the team on for the first-ever on-time, fully-functional, super-smooth release! You guys worked so hard and it really shows. The first Guardian/DragonAmulet shop is being released tonight and tomorrow we will be adding a few new features including H.A.L. the barber and perhaps an update from the Kingadent!

Gamma Launch is a 3-2-1 GO!
The gamma has just been released. All MechQuest accounts will be welcome to play at initial launch. Servers may be... well.... *gulps* good luck everyone!

Today is going to be AWESOME!

Up to the minute newsfeed
6:00 to 6:15pm - 4741+ 5253+ 5701+ 6098+ 6618+ players online simultaniously!
5:50pm - 4,100+ players online simultaniously!
5:30pm - Wow.... we are live! we are live we are live! (The servers are so dead!)
5:15pm - Rolling code and files out onto the server cluster....
5:10pm - Wow... this is going to be CLOSE!
4:30pm - We are making three enemy mecha, one monster, and AI PvP live for this Gamma Release. Tek is on board offering a limited supply of bargin-bin special mecha weapons at a heafty student discount. There is also a very very very very special helmet you can get... somehow. The amount of content we are releasing is perfectly proportioned for this test release.... we really hope you enjoy it! We are not changing the estimated time of launch yet -- cross your fingers. Note: We have STILL not started internal staff testing yet.
4:00pm - There was a mistake in the earlier post... we actually have not begun team testing yet. We were uploading as I wrote that but they were set back by some database issues. We are just preparing now to do our very first round of testing.... only 1 hour before launch.... plenty of time!
3:45pm - Walking around the GEARS University Shuttle is really fun! We really hope you like it.
Special Poll! - Safiria posted a special poll for you!
3:30pm - The entire team is in final (which also happens to be the very first) testing and we are prepaing to roll the game out onto 5 (yes FIVE!) load balanced game servers. (Note: We only had one for DragonFable when it was at this phase.)
3:00pm - Dooooooooom! Only 2.5 hours and 300 bugs left until we are supposed to go live. Rolith is getting the Account Manager working for you and we are breaking things twice as fast as we can fix them. In other words, everything is goign exactly as planned.
2:30pm - Zhoom is fixing a shopping bug in MQ. Warlic is rebalancing the monsters while J6 is adjusting the animations. We are aware of the DF Verification issue and that will be the next priority.
1:59pm - New Website live -- AND ONE MINUTE EARLY! What do you think? Let us know on the MechQuest forums. As you have most likely already noticed... we are aiming for a 5:20ish release tonight. Wish us luck! BTW Safiria is fixing the typos on the site now :-)
1:22pm - We restored the corrupted files from backup and got them working (YAY!) Zhoom is finishing up the final website bugs. The next post you read should be from our shiny new MechQuest homepage. We have the gamma ship ready for bug testing and Warlic is finishing Tek's weapon shop.
12:40pm - We just got a brand new never before seen error in Flash CS3 telling us parts of our documents were damaged and we should delete them. <gulps>
11:14am - I remembered to upload the newsfeed.
11am - New character creation for the gamma is suddenly working... we believe this may be a miracle.
10am - Website changes finalized waiting for testing when Safiria and Nythera arrive. Website launch expected at 2pm-ish EST.
9am - Warlic, J, and I began to prepare. In the process we broke a $3,500 expresso machine. Strangely, this sounds exactly like something that would happen on MechQuest gamma launch day. We looked up instructions on how to fix it... which were in German.... and... well....

Actual translated instructions: "If it interests someone, error 8 was a wedged sentence, which had outward pressed the flexible part of the Prestors, the chute probably became wedged and the machine off switched. Solution by taking the scavenge cup out, use the particle, a switching off switching on on (like ms) and it goes again. Hurra!!!!!"

The calm before the storm...
I hope you are as anxious as we are for the release of the MechQuest (Gamma) coming this afternoon (Monday). In a completely unexpected turn of events... we are actually on schedule! Well, we are sort-of on schedule if you do not mind that there has been zero testing and we will most likely still be building the weapons as you fire them *chuckles*. We are setting the level cap to 3 and adding a number of weapons that you can obtain while on the shuttle headed to Soluna city, home of GEARS university! The afternoon release is good for two reasons. First, because we know that many of you are in school and at work. Second, because we will really be scrambling up to the last minute! Check here often as we will be updating you with the play-by-play!

Special Note about User IDs and Guardian/DragonLord Verification
If you pre-registered, congratulations! Everyone with an account created before this post (USER ID# below 110,864) will get a special flag set that proves that you were here from the start. Consider your guinea pig experimental account something a special privilege that no one else will ever be able to get.

Also, early tomorrow you will be able to verify if you are a Guardian in AdventureQuest and/or a Dragon Amulet bearer (aka DragonLord) in DragonFable. It will be very easy. Accounts that are verified this way will get priority in the event that there are server problems and we need to restrict the number of players that can be online.

Please remember that this is a special test release. Read the section about "Gamma release" below for more information. We will be listening closely to your feedback and making improvements to the game. Over the next few weeks it should be amazing watching what happens to MechQuest. Wish us luck and see you soon!

September.28.3007.Thursday
GAMMA RELEASE on MONDAY
Greetings everyone! We hope you are excited to jump in and be the first to test out battling from the cockpit of your very own Mecha unit. On Monday we will begin the Gamma Release as originally planned... from the very, very, very beginning!

The Story
You are one of many hopeful candidates aboard a shuttle headed to Lore with the hopes of passing the entrance exam to GEARS University. A few important NPCs from later in the game will be traveling with you. This will be a great time to meet them, battle test your Mecha, and learn a little bit about the University before the shuttle lands (If all goes well, later this week!) in Soluna City. Meanwhile, a giant unidentified war-ship sized object is making its way towards the planet. It is expected that the Kingadent (King-President) Slugwrath will address the world on this urgent matter soon..... we hope.

Progressive Release
As the week progresses we will be making more features, items, and areas available. Remember -- this is a Gamma release... which means you get to keep what you earn but ANYTHING can happen, change or go all explody. If this if your first time experiencing an AE-style game release... um.... <chuckles> prepare yourself for utter chaos. If you were present for the release of AdventureQuest and/or DragonFable, come over to the forums and help us let everyone know what to expect. It always starts with a little and grows... and it does this with your help. Everyone is encouraged to join us in coming up with MechQuest ideas, areas, weapons, and improvements. We are all anxious to build this third game side by side with you!

Last Chance to Pre-register
Remember, now is your last chance to pre-register. We will be closing registration to do our final database modifications (as early as tonight). The Gamma release will most likely be Monday afternoon. Oh, quick question -- which game(s) do you play AQ or DF?

Are you a Guardian or/and DragonLord?
If you have upgraded your accounts in either of our other two games AdventureQuest or DragonFable you will be able to verify this once the gamma release is launched. This will allow you to obtain perks in MechQuest as they become available. Two special Mecha chassis are currently in development and planned to be released after we have worked any bugs out of the battle sytem (Bugs? We never have any bugs....) Battle on!

September.28.3007.Thursday
GAMMA RELEASE on MONDAY
Greetings everyone! We hope you are excited to jump in and be the first to test out battling from the cockpit of your very own Mecha unit. On monday we will begin the Gamma Release as originally planned... from the very, very, very beginning!

The Story
You are one of many hopeful candidates aboard a shuttle headed to Lore with the hopes of passing the entrance exam to GEARS University. A few important NPCs from later in the game will be traveling with you. This will be a great time to meet them, battle test your Mecha, and learn a little bit about the University before the shuttle lands (If all goes well, later this week!) in Soluna City. Meanwhile, a giant unidentified war-ship sized object is making its way towards the planet. It is expected that the Kingadent (King-President) Slugwrath will address the world on this urgent matter soon..... we hope.

Progressive Release
As the week progresses we will be making more features, items, and areas available. Remember -- this is a Gamma release... which means you get to keep what you earn but ANYTHING can happen, change or go all explody. If this if your first time experiencing an AE-style game release... um.... <chuckles> prepare yourself for utter chaos. If you were present for the release of AdventureQuest and/or DragonFable, come over to the forums and help us let everyone know what to expect. It always starts with a little and grows... and it does this with your help. Everyone is encouraged to join us in coming up with MechQuest ideas, areas, weapons, and improvements. We are all anxious to build this third game along side you!

Last Chance to Pre-register
Remember, now is your last chance to pre-register. We will be closing registration to do our final database modifications (as early as tonight). The Gamma release will most likely be Monday afternoon. Oh, quick question -- which game(s) do you play AQ or DF?

Are you a Guardian or/and DragonLord?
If you have upgraded your accounts in either of our other two games AdventureQuest or DragonFable you will be able to verify this once the gamma release is launched. This will allow you to obtain perks in MechQuest as they become available. Two special Mecha chassis are currently in development and planned to be released after we have worked any bugs out of the battle sytem (Bugs? We never have any bugs....) Battle on!

September.25.3007.Tuesday
Gamma Release on Monday, October 1st!
I just finished taking a quick look at a the check list... and yup, everything is broken, malfunctioning and not complete. Looks like we are ready to launch! Zhoom has not come in yet due to the DragonFable server cluster upgrade last night (He was up until 5am) but when he does I have a short list of bugs (3,511) waiting for him to cheer him up! The gamma launch will be a a lot like a beta release... but it counts as being live. You will be able to login, look around, and pilot your mech for the first time.The level cap will be pretty low (1 being the lowest!) and a few weapons to buy with credits and equip on your mecha. You will be able to keep any items you earn (unless something goes terribly, terribly wrong). Gamma here we come... OR ELSE! (Cysero's personality is contagious)

Reens says, "It's Mecha-crazy time!"

September.24.3007.Monday
Third "Peace Probe" seems to have been "eaten" by the Second
In a desperate attempt to avert a confrontation with the oncoming unidentified warship-sized-object, which is only 6 DAYS AWAY, we have sent yet another (read: 3rd) probe with a message of peace and friendship! Our scientists best guess at what happened this weekend is that the 2nd probe that we sent on Friday ATE the 3rd one that we launched earlier today. This is both shocking and frightening as we are pretty sure no-one purposefully put any teeth on our space probes. The eyes and ears of our world are awaiting the official public statement from our beloved Kingadent Slugwrath.

Bad Things that can happen to your Mecha
Those of you looking to earn some extra credit can list some of the horrible things that can happen to your mecha when hit by a critical hit. These things can have little to no effect on the overall functionality of your battle machine.... or could have a much more severe impact.

Common Mecha Problems: Examples
Cruise Control Damaged - Manual pilot only!
Sensor Malfunction - -1% to hit
Servo Damage! Fortunately no one knows what that is for.
Innerwiring Melted - probably did not need that anyway.
Power Surge! + 5 energy
Cappichino Machine Malfunction - No steamed milk!
Ejection Seat Malfunction - Ejection may be deadly.
The red button is flashing! Good thing you did not read the instruction manual.
Hip^2 damage! (It is hip to be squared)
Armor breach! Damage taken increased by 3%
Cockpit Fire! You have been tanned +5 and may have a new hair style.
Ankle fused! Can only walk forward.... (not that you could walk backwards anyway)
Soda pop machine malfunction - 1 free soda! Awww... it is diet.
... your turn, see you on the forums!

September.21.3007.Friday
Probe sent... but something is wrong!
A warship sized object has appeared on long range scanners. We have sent a probe to investigate. However the results are troubling. The probe sent us the following transmission over and over for an hour then suddenly went silent! " 01100100 01101111 01101111 01101101 " It is only 10 days away from our planet.... the Kingadent has been notifed and we are sending a second high speed probe with a message of peace!

September.18.3007.Tuesday
Something strange has been detected on our scanners!
This message was accidentally broadcasted using the same frequency of the G.E.A.R.S. University home-ec department. Joey is still mad that the transmission corrupted his triple chocolate treat pie recipe. Although it does explain why he was putting mayo in it.


<Begin Mistransion>
"Go ahead. <k'chk>"
"Sir, we have just picked up something huge on the scanners. It is... it is the size of a Warship! <k'chk>"
"Is it the SS Redshirt returning from its deep space mission?<k'chk>"
"No sir, definately not! <k'chk>"
"How do you know?" <k'chk>"
"Because they have not left yet.... <k'chk>"
"... <k'chk>"
"OMG! This thing is huge sir... it keeps phasing in and out of our sensors and it isheaded straight for our planet! <k'chk>"
"Send out a probe to intercept. I want to know what this thing is! <k'chk>"
"Aye aye sir! <k'chk>"

September.13.3007.Thursday
Alpha, Beta, Live!
If we are going live October 1st, when are we doing the alpha and the beta and... stuff? Excellent question! My thoughts? Lets do them ALL at the same time*! Let's call it a Gamma. We re-wrote the beginning of the game so you get into the plot faster and um.... we will just expand this game one world at a time and fix stuff** and add functionality as we go! After carefully reading your posts we decided that everyone who participates in the Gamma will get to keep all of their earned Exp, Mecha, and gear. OK... back to work for me... NEED.... MORE.... EXPLODY*** THINGS!

* It is really wierd, but statements like this is why I actually like Artix and the team.
** Translation: Break the things that are actually working.
*** Explody,adj. Something that has not exploded yet <dramatic pause> yet.

September.06.3007.Thursday
Catastrophic failure.... sorta....
We just returned from DragonCon (See the photos) and it is an all out assault to prepare MechQuest for an October release! So you can imagine our horror when we found that our game engine file was corrupted.... <cries>. But that has never stopped us before! As you read this Zhoom and Warlic are re-adding lost functionality to our last back up* from the 17th while Thyton is working on the shuttle interior and Aisha** is building the house logos for Bloodwolf, Runehawk, and Mistraven. When the alpha opens you