Star Date: 30 May, 3014

Happy Birthday Jemini! Star Captains: Get your Seasonal Rare Jemini Hologram from the shop in Soluna City and display it on your starship.

Star Captains: Permanent Version Of Strider Now In SC Club!

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Plasma Charge wrote this up to post on the forums at release time, so I thought it would be nice to share it with everyone here on the Design Notes! 

Prepare yourselves! For an unforgettable week of poultry PAIN! 
Because right now, the awe-striking Falcon mecha has returned 
to smack his enemies into submission! FALCON SMAAACK! 
The falcon has been buffed up a bit to match current standards 
for mecha. These buffs will affect all new and old models! 

All Star Captains will be able to get the Falcon-P from the SC club, 
and, while there, any brave souls among you may want to test your 
strength, skill and determination against the horrifying Super Mutant Ninja Turkey - 
he's mean, green and is going to crush the weak! 
Good luck to anyone who tries, and may the RNG be forever in your favour! 

Meanwhile, this week you can also head to the Art Museum in Soluna City West to see an awesome new display, by you and your fellow players. This exhibit features 
the amazing art of: 

Formorri 

UltimateWolfKing 

darklordpilien 

Toad12345 

forumlogin 

Plasma Charge (Hey that's me! =P) 

Lord Zombie 

Steamwave 

Eliminator50 

Mwktstorm 

Congratz to everyone who got their art in, and don't forget if you think you've 
got what it takes to become the first Picasso of Soluna you can submit your submission 
to the board of directors for approval! 

Finally, the amazing Shadow of Doubt from this Friday 13th got a buff this week! Maegwyn wanted me to add that Friday 
the 13th will be available over the weekend so that you have the chance to pick one up if you haven't already. 
Hope you all enjoy the release, I hope the Turkey doesn't cause you too much pain 
from face-desking, and don't forget to turn the speakers up for FALCON SMAACK! =D

Thanks, Plasma Charge - what an exciting writeup!

I'd like to thank everyone for the creative artwork submissions! It's never an easy decision.  If yours wasn't chosen this time, don't give up! We love to display your creations!

The buffs to the Falcon mecha models:

1. Head gets a damage BoT, +10% per turn for 5 turns 
2. Body gets additional dazzling effect (damage reduce -30 for 5 rounds) 
3. General damage buff

Note that the originals of these were created before the level cap raised to 45. The highest-level version scales to Level 42. That is intentional!

Speaking of Star Captain Monthly Mechas, since we are no longer pushing one out every month, what should we call them? Also, what art style would you like to see for the next one? Please let us know on the forums in this thread http://forums2.battleon.com/f/tm.asp?m=20511016

Buffs to the Shadow of Doubt: now deals more damage, and its last hit has a boosted chance for a critical hit.

The Bragging Rights bossfight battle in the Star Captain Club currently just features the new boss. On the forums, some of you expressed interest in keeping Super Teravolt around as an option, and then gradually building a group of bossfights from which you will be able to choose. That's what we will prepare for you for the future! Thanks for the feedback on that - we really like to hear about what you'd like to see in game, and if it's doable, we do our best to work it in. Vivi is going to have a look at how to return you to the proper place when you lose a bossfight - the quest has a mind of its own and insists on kicking you farther back out of it instead of bringing you right back to the challenge. So if that's fixable, expect that to come along with the choose-your-bossfight update.

Everyone has been asking about G.E.A.R.S. Games. We have not forgotten them! We ran into some complications with the new mechas where the animations needed some tweaking, and some details of the mechanics of the actual Games that seemed like they would be pretty straightforward to implement threw us a bit of a curveball. I'm going to meet with the team early next week about ways to work around and move forward with all of this for you.

Korin & I have already started to work on the next events that occur on Planet Liath - Minar is putting together a few elements also, so things are in motion on that. 

I guess I'd better wrap this up, so I'll just say thanks so much for playing MechQuest, please tell your friends, and have a great weekend!  See you on the forums!

Birthday Mecha Model: Golden Katana! This year, the Katana is getting a huge makeover to celebrate MechQuest's four-year anniversary.  Korin is creating new animations for its new head and body attacks, and has updated the look and action of the arms and shoulder animations.  This model will have default weapons in all slots.  Blues has designed exciting specials with Star Captain and Nova Gem exclusives. I'm putting together the merge "recipes" for the NSC and SC versions and setting up the Nova Gem pricing and levels - there will be lots and lots of levels so there's something for everyone.  This year's NG models will be priced at 800 Nova Gems (previous years' models prices will remain unchanged) - so if you grab one of the 2000 NG packages you have a lot left over to use for commemorative Starship items, or Salvage quest weapons, etc.  Don't forget you can also use your Artix Points- you can still earn points via the Ballyhoo ads in Cinemech in Soluna City (or in the Dropship) and of course earn via the Portal where you can also purchase Points.

Another Anniversary: Vivi!  I haven't kept detailed records about the MechQuest team member dates, but a phoenix happened to scrawl a fiery message across my screen that tomorrow, the 6th of October, marks the one-year anniversary of Vivi's MQ coding debut! He's been an enormous asset to the team and in fact thanks to him, the Dodge function is getting an update this week!  Keep an eye on the Design Notes this week and don't miss the Birthday Celebrations for more about Dodge!  He's been coding all the weapons and mechas and also has been coding some of the quests - and now this update to the MQ Engine really marks another milestone.  Hooray for Vivi!

Fireworks, Birthday Boost, and More:  Friday will bring fireworks to Soluna - AND with the engine change for the Dodge update we're also going to roll an XP boost!  Star Captains will get NEW starship items, and you'll all be able to get mechas from the previous birthdays like last year.  

Also I wanted to mention that I have gotten a lot of questions about the ETA for the next SCMM - Arklen has been busy with the 3 new House Mechas of course, and that comes with the Level Cap raise to 50 - so we're estimating that the next SCMM will be sometime in November.  

We're finalizing plans for all the Fall and Winter holidays that come along so quickly - not just the MQ Birthday but also Mogloween, Turkey Day, and Frostval - along with all the permanent content updates listed in the Coming Soon section of the newsletter - so Korin and I have been working together on juggling it all to set down into dates for the team.  We have a lot of things in the works for upcoming releases.  Lyris is prepping for more of her awesome animated cutscenes, I'll be writing some quests, we'll be collaborating on some - blues has been working on updates to some of the older mecha models and the SC Xtreme Challenge - Vivi coded up a tough Boss version of one of our recent quest encounters so I will be setting that up as an SC Challenge... we're looking at your suggestions for Tek's Mechs and more - much, much more.  The year ahead is shaping up to be exciting already! We're excited to bring it all to you - log in Friday to kick off MQ's New Year with a brand-new mecha!

NEW Wormhole Quest (access it via the Dean Warlic button in Soluna City): It's a race against time - can you get to Starstorm before Boltavolt does? (Cliffhanger...)  The cutscenes in the Wormhole this week are the simple style, rather than the animated, to give Lyris some breathing room.  The backgrounds - specially destroyed by Minar - have some animated fire effects.  Note that this can cause a bit of lag in the quest, but shouldn't affect your ability to complete it.  

Here's Vivi with the specials he programmed into the new Star Captain Monthly Mecha, the Dharmahp, according to blues' specs:

Mecha Triggers - Additional Damage Against: 
Shadowscythe: +25% damage 
EbilCorp Units: +20% damage 
Equippable Enemies: +15% damage 

BA - 2 Hits --> CD=2 
Both hits do increased damage 
First hit lowers immobility resistance by 100 for 3 turns 
Second hit attempts a stun 

FA - 2 Hits 
All hits do increased damage 
First hit lowers enemy bonus by 30 for 3 turns 
Second hit lowers enemy defense by 50 for 3 turns 
Chance for a third hit 

Shoulders - 2 Hits ---> CD=1 
Alternating damage buff. Start with 125% damage and add +15% every turn, caps at 250% 

Head - 3 Hits 
Increasing damage per hit 
Hit 1: Chance for a Bonus BoT, starts with +10, adds +10 every turn, lasts 5 turns 
Hit 2: Chance for a double HP DoT for 5 turns 
Hit 3: Chance for HP drain of damage done 
Damage BoT, starts with +10%, adds +10 every turn, lasts 5 turns (not tied to any hit, activates at the end of the attack) 

Body - 2 hits 
Both hits do increased damage 
Critical BOT. Starts with 5% and adds 5% crit chance every turn, caps at 75% (not tied to any hit, activates at the end of the attack)

Thanks for putting that together!

We had lots of time for testing and tweaking, so we hope you won't find any Gremlins - if you do, please report them via the Gremlins forum

Have a great weekend - stay cool if you're in a hot climate, and keep warm if it's your winter! Thanks for playing MechQuest! 

Rescue Quest: Though this was put through the wringer of extensive testing, even still when you reached the 75% mark and unlocked it, it became clear that I should have made the timer longer to accommodate some of the lengthier animations of various mecha models and equipment setups.  I've made the timer longer now, but hopefully still enough of a challenge to be fun.  

Imbiber Bugfix and Buff: Part of the issues with the underwhelming performance of the Imbiber was the result of a bug.  Korin made an engine change and Vivi made the code play nice.  Also, blues and Vivi and I discussed the buff and looked over your notes in the Game Balance Discussion section of the forums, and here is Vivi with a run-down of the buff details:

Buffed Stats for the Imbiber: 
DOT Shield is the same as before 

Body: 

• 125% damage 
• If you have enough EP to not go below 0 with this effect, 50% crit chance. If the attack is a critical hit, takes additional EP from you equal to WeaponCost at your level 
• 50% of damage is also inflicted to EP 

Head: 

• Each hit rolls between 0 and 50% bonus damage 
• First hit heals HP equal to the damage done 
• Second hit heals EP equal to the damage done 

Front Arm: 
Inflicts a 2x EP DoT, lasts three turns 

Back Arm: 
Inflicts a 2x HP DoT, lasts three turns 

Front Shoulder: 
Inflicts a 1.5x EP DoT and heals your EP each turn by some amount based on your mecha level (this amount has increased from before) 

Back Shoulder: 
Inflicts a 1.5x HP DoT and heals your HP each turn by some amount based on your mecha level (this amount has increased from before) 

The fix and buffs should bring the Imbiber up to expectations.  Thanks for your feedback on the forums!

I also put the Ice Harvester and Shadowed Arthurian Lion mecha models on a diet so that they can now be used for the timed quest and other walkaround maps.  Thanks to everyone for your reports in the Gremlins forum!  Now that I've got the hang of fixing that Gremlin I'll be a lot faster at that (and ideally we will catch those now before they roll Live...)

You haven't heard from me on the Design Notes much lately - I'm happy to say that I'm working from home now instead of on the coffee shop circuit!  I'm about five times as busy as normal at this stage - working with Vivi and Lyris on an upcoming release, which I can't remember whether Korin has mentioned so I won't say too much for now - along with working ahead on putting together another quest - and then more current things like the usual testing, fixing your House Affiliation Gremlins, doing all the database entries for the upcoming rewards to give you some examples of what I might be up to on a given day.  I'll try to be more talkative!

See you on the forums!

Korin chose the name for this SCMM from your suggestions on the forums.  This model's name, the Vanguard, was suggested by blackshock and was one of those that were quite popular with the naming thread participants.  I looked through the thread also, and discovered that people prefer having specific names for each level rather than just Vanguard V2, Vanguard V10 and so on.  Many of the adjectives were suggested by Clyde and Soldato J - and I added a couple.

• V2 - Just plain ol' "Vanguard" 
• V10 - Sturdy Vanguard 
• V16 - Tough Vanguard 
• V20 - Steadfast Vanguard
• V24 - Tenacious Vanguard
• V28 - Reinforced Vanguard
• V33 - Fortified Vanguard
• V38 - Resolute Vanguard
• V43 - Staunch Vanguard

And now, some answers to your questions!  I am still going through for the ones specifically asked of me, for now.  Feel free to add to the questions thread - the link to it is here

LeoMart asks Hmmm Maegwyn... What'd be the first thing you'd do if you got kidnapped but you were able to run away?  

I'd run away!

Dinoboy Whisperwind wants to know: Maegywn, do you (and all of the other staff members) like dinosaurs or any other prehistoric beats?? ("I do," he added with a grin.)

First off - What a great name you have!  Now for the question... I was always fond of the Ankylosaurus - thought it was handy to have a mace for a tail!  The flying ones are interesting and though this is later Jurassic, the Archaeopteryx is probably my favorite flying one.  Seeing the huge dinosaur skeleton exhibits at the New York Museum of Natural History was truly awesome when I was small.  The later Great Mammals such as the Smilodons (Sabretooth Tigers) and Wooly Mammoths are also very cool.

Hellsoarer asks: What is your FAVORITE video game and what is your FAVORITE Godzilla character and what is your FAVORITE mecha in MechQuest and do you usually see Korin with or without his bag and what is your FAVORITE type of pasta and do you have a pet and if so what is their name, Maegwyn?

I am terrible at picking a FAVORITE anything really, but your questions might not be too hard...

My FAVORITE video game is going to still have to be the original Diablo.  There is just something about that dark, brooding atmosphere as you descend deeper into the catacombs... and how if you click on a shrine you have to be careful because it can actually do BAD, IRREVERSIBLE things (unless you go back to an earlier save-point... but what's the fun in that?)

My FAVORITE Godzilla character has to be Godzilla!  The really bad old Godzilla before anything was fancy at all, and it was all hokey and unreal!

My FAVORITE mecha in MechQuest right now is the Chronomech because I had such a good time working on it with Vivi, I'm proud of my contribution (made a working button that allows us to have a new feature in combat now) - and I love that Steampunk-style design - but I do have a lot of favorites for different reasons.  I might have answered a similar question earlier.

The first time I saw Korin in person was with his bag, actually!  He works in the Secret Underground Lab and I work in a (separate) Undisclosed Location, so we don't get to see each other in person too often.  When we do get to hang out, he's usually not "In the Bag" though.

My FAVORITE type of pasta is probably Vermicelli with White Clam Sauce.  Linguini is ok too, but I like the texture of the super-thin pasta.  I also like Asian Rice Vermicelli - does that count as pasta?  

I do have a pet!  He is a black cat and he has a few names, as all respectable cats should.  His formal name is Little Bear, because he looks like a little black bear and sometimes stands on two legs to reach up to me when he wants to be petted.  His short nickname, which is actually on his tag, is Peeps - because he doesn't usually meow... he "peeps" like a bird.  His long nickname is Mr. Peepers - a lot of people call him that, though I usually don't.

XxArchfiendChaosxX wants to know: do you watch/used to watch any popular animes?like dbz?naruto?bleach? 
if so,what are your favorite characters from those animes? 

Actually I haven't gotten into any animes at all.  That's probably really weird.  I think a lot of the artists are talented and the art style as a whole genre is cool, but I haven't really sat down and watched any.

Selutu asks: How is it like working with all the other MQ staff?

I absolutely love working with all the other MQ staff!  We are such a good team - so many talented people.  Since I'm not sitting in the same room with any of them, we communicate on MSN, IRC, the forums, via e-mail, or sometimes texting / phone calls.  That is interesting because it's a different style of communication - in a way I think it makes us very tightly-knit despite the physical distances between a lot of us.  And mainly it's fun - sure, it's a lot of work and sometimes I'm stressed - but I can have fun while being stressed, which is also very cool.

I think that's all I have time for tonight.  I have some more work to do in the database for the mecha models, some people to check in with/talk with, and other things I should be getting organized!  I'll see whether I can't get some more of our team to send along some answers for you, too!  

Buggy Monday on Tuesday! We worked yesterday and this morning on fixing some of the Gremlins that crept in to things - here's the list

• Removed an incorrect description from mod SC dB5

Skelapunk:

• Fixed missing color on Skelapunk FA hand & finger   
• Korin added color to missile popups
• Corrected the HP values on the chassis to display correctly for NSC  
• New Feature: Korin added Color-Customization feature for SC players and on the NG models

AC-490:

• <s>Back Arm</s> HEAD no longer causes NaN bug when battled in PvP 
• Body of AC-490 can trigger damage-increasing effect now - and Back Arm

er, ooops - durrrrr - (via IRC: 

• <&Vivi> oh Mae, it was the head causing the NaN bug in PvP XD
• <~Mae|Highlight> oh ha 
• <&Vivi> BA and Body are for triggering damage boost
• <~Mae|Highlight> I'll just quote that shall I?

This was a fun set of fixes - Vivi showed me how to fix the missing color stuff and he fixed AC-490 - Korin added the extras on Skelapunk and we decided to wait until today to roll everything ... which was great because he got a letter in the mail from a player who reported that his HP value on the Skelator model wasn't displaying correctly.  I was able to fix that so it is live in this set of fixes as well.  As always, thanks for reporting your bugs in the Gremlins forum and even by mail!   

Calendar Pre-Orders!

Great news - we are doing a second print run on the calendars!  You still have time to get a Chronomech in MQ and the other games' promo items as well!  Go to HeroMart  now to pre-order your 2011 "Year of the Moglin" AE Calendar!  Hurry before these all sell out... 

Korin & I wanted to say hi really quickly since we realized that we haven't posted any DNs since the last ones I posted... partly because we didn't have internet in our rooms.  We're having a great time - the panel was amazing and we got to meet a bunch of you for the first time and see others of you again this year.  So right now Vivi & Korin & I are sitting at this table with half-eaten pies and pretzels on it. And Char just walked up 47 flights of stairs to join us.

The Star Captain Monthly Mecha was a little tricky this week because the file was corrupt.  Korin actually did the shading & coloring, and Vivi helped test while I was getting ready to fly to Atlanta for the second part of my vacation.  So Korin went to the forums and asked you to name this one - and you came up with "Steve Skysplitter," which was the one that cracked him up the most!  (There will be a description on this model in a couple of days, by the way.)

Anyway, about the panel!  We met an awesome player known as Azorra who knows more about MQ than we do (we think) - we're going to stay in touch with him about fixing a few things with the early lower-level game experience, too!  We also got to meet neo_manni from the forums, whom I've seen around the forums since before MQ even existed & we used to talk on the forums about Adventure Quest - I didn't realize at the panel that he was neo_manni so I got really excited at the Voltaire concert when I figured that out.  Aeonarial from the forums was also at the panel - and he won the Guitar Hero giveaway via the best Twilly Punter! Aeonarial & I ran into each other waiting to see the George Lowe panel this morning - which was AMAZING - and we got front row seats - which was also amazing!  I could go on for hours writing about all the people we've gotten to see - players you might remember hearing about from last year's DragonCon who cosplayed as AE characters J6, Tek, Valencia, and Ash (and this year Tek had the most amazing little Korin with her - we'll get some photos up when we get back from Con) - and others who traveled from as far away as the UK and New Zealand!  I could go on for even more hours & I'm sure I forgot to talk about things I was meaning to write about but we are all half-delirious from tons of walking & lack of sleep so we'll stop here for now. So, bye from Thyton who just walked in like the ninja he is, and from the rest of us - see you on the forums!

Star Captain Monthly: Cosmic Talon!  The NEW SCMM is now released - wouldn't it just figure it would give us technical difficulties when we were SO CLOSE to releasing it right on schedule... Well it's in Tek's special monthly shops NOW - and we're hoping that it is now Gremlin-free (as in, no bugs) and that you all enjoy it.  I or blues will write up its specials later, but for now you should have fun playing with it and putting it through its paces.

What's Next?  Well we had a few things planned in a certain order - and then Korin reassessed "popular demand" as we were all reading the forums, and so the playable "Bruce" and "Chuck" mechas are now next up in line.  You really really really want those.  So the Star-Captain-Only quest on Yokai will be delayed, and the Soluna Art Museum's next exhibit may also have to wait a bit longer. Those things are still coming though as well.

No Buggy Monday News This Week?!??  Well I have some typos fixed in various areas but I didn't want to put those up for testing until after we had the SCMM ready.  Because I probably didn't break anything while fixing typos in a zone, but imagine if we didn't have time to test it & it rolled Live by accident when the SCMM rolled and what if I somehow broke an entire planet... I have nightmares about this... so yeah, holding off another week on those typos. 

Thanks for playing MechQuest & enjoy your week - be talking with you again soon!

Warlic performed his magic on the NaN insta-kill that was occurring against the Crane (if you stunned him) - and that was also happening if you got stunned while wearing the AC-490

Other fixes to AC-490:
-non-default shoulders now equip frontwards
-name & description of default shoulders is also no longer backwards (I fixed that last week actually, & forgot to mention it)
-Ticklish Zorbo now negates the default Front Arm's Defense BoT (it was allowing you to buff up too quickly when used together) - when the Zorbo effect wears off, you now must use the FA again to start over from +8, increasing.

Korin also fixed these things today:
# King Techdorah shoulder - back shoulder HP DoT now works
# Corrupted Arthurian Lion bug where the boost effect on ShS only worked once before needing a re-equip is now fixed
# Masque of the Bat life tap is now damaging the opponent, and the 30% damage boost is applying to the attack

It doesn't look like anyone on the forums has figured out the hidden "feature" in the Museum at the pair of boxes yet. It is still too early to spoil it, I think, so I will tell you that it is in the sculpture area, it is not the pair of boxes with the extra arrow, and it is not in the room with the Employees Only door. Those are the only hints I'll give you for now... *stops whispering*

And now, as promised, the note from Blues!

Memorial Day Weekend! Here in the US, we celebrate Memorial Day on the last Monday of May - which is this weekend! So I'm sure lots of you will be busy with parades and picnics and barbecues and cookouts and parties. Have fun - and don't forget that your MechQuest team is still working to get the new Star Captain Monthly Mecha ready! (And yes, that's fun for us! We'll get some celebrating in as well.)

This mecha is yet another amazing design by Thyton, with specials by blues. The AC-490 mechas will be rolling in to Tek's Monthly Shop in Soluna on Monday, so if you're inside cooling off, why not log in to MechQuest for a peek!

New Weapons in Miko's Shops! Minar, whom some of you may know from the forums, designed and animated some very cool new weapons for Planet Yokai this week. Visit Miko's shop to check these out - there is a Front Arm, Dragon Fury, in the Nova Gem shop; in the regular shop you will find the Straw Hat for Star Captains and also the Scroll Beam Front Shoulder (available to all players).

Snake Master Reward Shops: We discovered that some of you were having trouble unlocking these shops after completing the new Temple of Masters mission from Miko on Planet Yokai. There was much emailing and texting and instant-messaging, phoning and testing and troubleshooting - many thanks to Korin for rolling Fix #1 (which alas didn't completely solve this for everyone - Fix #2 will come soon) and to Vivi for posting the following workaround on the forums:

Gremlin Workaround by Vivi: If you're still having trouble accessing the reward shops after beating the Snake Master, please complete the Assault Mission one more time. This should cause the lock next to the shops to become an exclamation point and then defeating the Snake Master will unlock the shops properly. We'll try to get the quest fixed so that this isn't necessary, but for now this is how you get into the reward shops. Sorry for any inconvenience.

So have a wonderful weekend, and thanks for playing MechQuest! Please tell your friends, too. We have a lot of exciting things planned for the upcoming weeks!

What with all the shop-gremlin-busting activity, I completely forgot to deliver the Design Notes from Blues! So here they are: