Star Date: 24 July, 3015:

Engine Change: I fixed an issue in the Starship where the equip slot suggesting the placement of Hovering items in the back room of the Captains Quarters was actually not functioning. This required an engine change, so be sure to clear cache and refresh your browser if you are not seeing Omega Ver. 4.0.2

New Hovering Items! Lyris made a couple of terrariums (terraria?) and an aquarium and they are in Lisa's shops on the Starship. The Hovering Aquarium and Hovering Desert Terrarium sell for credits, and the Hovering Terrarium is in the Nova Gem shop. 

Here's a screenshot of a couple of them in MaegTest's CQ

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Star Date: 16 January, 3015

A New Room! The New Year is a lovely time to do some decorating. Star Captains, you are getting a new room in your starships tonight! I've started making some new items for you - there's a Hovering Goldfish Bowl that goes quite well in the Floor slot on the far left of the new room, with more hovering-style items to follow in the weeks ahead. Also new, for the Wall slots, is the Snow Globe On A Shelf. (The new part is the shelf. The snow globe was previously only available on a table as a floor item.) 

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Star Date: 11 July, 3014:

Calling all Star Captains! I'm Boy Orbitson, Grad Assistant. I'm up in the Missions Room at the Star Captain's Club. If you are one of the students who is under L25 and feeling like it's the same old grind day after day to try to get ahead, then you will definitely want to check out the missions I've got here. A little something different for some extra experience. Even if you are over L25 you will probably want to give it a run-through, just for laughs.

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Star Date: 3 July 3014

• This weekend only - ALL NEW 4th of July "Haliaeetus" mecha model. 
  
• The Haliaeetus mecha has all NEW art by Minar and specials designed by Blues, and Vivi! It's in Soluna Main in the Holiday Shop on the sidebar. It'll only be here this weekend though! The art will probably return in the future, but specials won't come back in later years.
• 
  
• What's a "Haliaeetus?" Well, it's one of the most-recognizable eagle species. It ties in to the United States of America Fourth of July celebrations. And to think, I never would have known this if we hadn't already made an Eagle mecha model in the past! I love finding new and obscure bits of knowledge when researching - a friend of mine calls this "Research Rapture." Have you ever experienced research rapture, where you are led further and further off track from the original line of inquiry? This particular research line didn't veer at all. YET. But I digress...

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Star Date: 31 December 3013 // 1 January 3014:

Happy New Year! To ring out the old year and ring in the new, we've added some new Candy Cane themed Partizan Energy Blades for everyone, and also some Starship Items for Star Captains. Go to the Frostval Replays button in Soluna City Main to get to the new shops.  (Honestly I would have liked to do more, but I'm glad to have a few new things ready for you. I hope you've been enjoying all the year-end and New Year gifts and purchasables we've been bringing you!)

Giftbox News: 

• Back Arm Giftbox is now fixed: it was displaying an unwrapped present from a year in the past.
• We customarily unwrap these at the turn of the New Year, but this year we are shifting the date to the first full week of the New Year.  This means you still have time to upgrade to Star Captain if you have not already, and pick up your free giftbox weapons!
• Minar is putting together some terrific art & animation for this year's set!

Coming in 3014:

WAR! This was originally to be the Practel vs. Korin war, and it is undergoing some design modifications. Here's a note from Practel 

Hi Guys, 

I've been lurking the forums for some time and feel like I owe you guys an explanation to the Practel vs. Korin war. To get right to the point, the PvK war in its current state will not be released. Instead, another war will occur in its place. While I'm confident you guys will enjoy the new war, I hesitate to release information about it at this time. I believe part of the issue with the PvK war was that I announced it and hyped it far too early. A war is a huge project to undertake, and it was a mistake for me to want to do most of it by myself. While I genuinely wanted it to be a learning experience, I did not realize the amount of work it would take to make a great war. Furthermore, launching a huge-scale project only 2 weeks before school started for myself and some other team members was a big mistake. I couldn't commit to the project, which as a result, delayed it indefinitely. 

While I know a few of you may know this, 2 months ago I left all of my Artix Entertainment responsibilities to focus on my school work as well as pursue new experiences and opportunities within the video game industry. I left Artix Entertainment and the MechQuest team with full support from my co-workers. Our team leader, Maegwyn, fully supported my decision and stressed that school must always come first. I miss the team a whole lot - they are a great group of people, and I'm extraordinarily happy I was able to work with them for so long - but I worked as a volunteer at AE for 2 years, and it was time for a change. I suppose I should have offered this explanation 2 months ago instead of now. 

The team is a group of extremely talented people, and I know for a fact that they have some great ideas that they are excited to share with you guys soon. While the team may be small, they are full of ambition and desire and will get the job done. 

I suppose I'll see you guys around later on, but if not, 
Battle On!

We certainly miss Practel & wish him well - and we stay in touch! *waves at ol' Praccy* ... and then also coming in 3014...

The 89.7 GJNK Incidents Continue: Blade and ACW0 have a funny storyline cooked up so you will want to tune in for this!

Gark II: The dangerous planet of Gark holds more adventures in 3014, as promised.

Liath: The ends you thought were loose and dangling were just put on hold! There is more to discover.

AND MORE. As we firm our plans, we'll continue to reveal them! 

Thank you all so much for playing MechQuest - your support and enthusiasm is contagious! Wishing you a healthy, happy, and adventure-filled New Year! 

Star Date: 16 August, 3013

Nova Gems! To recap the note from Artix and add some details: If you have logged in within the past month, you have been awarded 250 Nova Gems - and 1000 additional Nova Gems have been awarded to all Star Captains! Did you just send in a payment for an upgrade & missed it? If your payment method is not instant (bank-transfer or snail-mail or other delayed types) we will be on the lookout for yours. We'll scan again (thanks to Captain Rhubarb) in 7 days and we will monitor snail-mail upgrades for the next 3 weeks to be sure you new Star Captains all receive the thank-you gift!

Toast and Coffee! With all these new Nova Gems we're giving you for free this weekend, if you weren't already saving up for something, you probably want some awesome new items to pick up. Minar has drawn & animated in record time to bring you this series. Soluna Main is where you'll find the shops with the new Toaster Arm and the coffeemaker & toaster Starship Items.

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Star Date: 11 June, 3013

I'm actually transmitting to you from the Secret Underground Lab, which I can tell you is a far drive from my Undisclosed Location. I battled the elements to get here - Water and Lightning were especially strong, and Darkness turned out to be a factor in the end. Mission Accomplished - I'm sitting across the desk from Korin!

Specials: Here are the specials for the Automorph-P series mecha models that are now in the Star Captain Club mecha shop on the 2nd floor (Artillery Level):

Front Arm: 
- 1.25 times damage 
- -30 enemy defense 

Back Arm: 
- 1.25 times damage 
- Roll for an additional hit 
- Hit 1 and 3 get additional a roll for -10 enemy defense 

Shoulders: 
- Roll for an additional hit 
- Hit 2 and 4 get a roll for +20 BtH each, stacking 

Body: 
- each hit gets a roll for +10 BtH , stacking 
- Hit 1,3 and 5 get a roll for a critical hit 

Head: 
- Hit 1: +10% general damage 
- Hit 2: +15% general damage 
- Hit 3: +20% general damage ---> no rolls, stacks up to 45% general damage bonus 

Hits 1 and 3 get a roll for a critical hit

Thanks to blues for the specials, and to Vivi for doing the coding!

SC Club "SCEM" for Levels 43 and up! With last week's Automorph-P release, many of you asked for it and other models to be released for the higher-level players. I'm going to show Practel how to add the scaling code and I'll make the new database entries for this Friday's release. Automorph-P, Dharmahp-P, and Falcon-P will the the models getting the higher levels this week!

Tweet #MechQuest: Send out a tweet using the #MechQuest hashtag with your wishlist of non-rare weapons and mecha models you'd like to see at higher levels.  The weapons are the very fastest for me to put together so if you get me a list I should be able to add a TON of them! 

Magitech Scythe Recolor: Plasma Charge did a nice recolor to the arm that is a huge improvement upon my original. This is the promo weapon that comes with the Artix Entertainment Artist Sketchbook, which you can get from HeroMart

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Star Date: 28 May, 3013

Transmission incoming!

Hey Questers! Just thought I'd stop by and drop some DNs on the table for you guys. There's a lot to talk about, so let's get to it! 

First up is our plan for this week. The goal is to release something for the higher level players, specifically those between levels 41 and 50. However, there is a twist! We are going to be taking suggestions for non-rare things you want at those levels this week. Tweet your wish list to us

( @MaegwynAE & @PractelAE ) with the hashtag #MechQuest and we'll see how many we can get in-game! Watch the Design Notes for shop info.

Secondly, I know some of you have been wondering where I've been for the past couple of months, and honestly, life has just sucked all of my time away! I plan on returning full-time and ready to rock and roll in one week. Get ready for a lil bit mo Practel in yo life!

Finally, shoutout to Jemini because it's her birthday! In honor of this special occasion, we are releasing a "Jemini Statue" which Star Captains can collect, just like Jemini herself! Congratulations @JeminiAE on the level up!

Well, that about sums it up for me right now. Take it easy, pilots!

-Practel

psst! Calling all Star Captains!

I just got word from Braddock Steele that he's got a quick one-fight mission for you! Hurry now to the War Camp at the White Castle! This is a great opportunity to push the war meter over the 50% mark and show EbilCorp that we're not going to let any corporate types push us around.  I've got to run before I get caught transmitting this...

You heroes are doing fantastic - keep it up!

Battle on!

=Mae

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!

Interface Update and New Weapons

You may have already noted a change to the main interface this week.  The News Screen no longer pops up automatically when you enter a new area.  Instead, a new News button has been added just under the Options button on your main screen so that now you may read the News whenever you like! Except during battle.  You can read the news during battle, but we don't recommend it.  It's rumored that the Gremlins like that sort of thing.  

We'll be looking at more bugfixing in the next few weeks and doing a lot of major planning as well. There is a 4th of July mecha coming - updated artwork of an ancient model along with new animations and of course new specials!  And that's just one of many things happening behind the scenes.

Here's Plasma Charge from the forums, with the weapons news!

This week there are two HOT! new back arm weapons being released in Soluna!
The first of these - the Phoenix Spear - has been specially commissioned by the Traveler for Star Captains who have helped him and Maria 5 so far!
This new weapon combos perfectly with the rest of the set, by not only having a chance for HP and EP DoTs, but also supporting the other weapons by giving them increased chance to hit!
Meanwhile, Tek's Mechs is also receiving a new shipment of back arms:  the new OverHeat model inspired by GASKAL!
Created for intermediate level pilots, this weapon has it all: increased damage, a powerful DoT - and against equippable enemies it has a chance to increase  the cooldowns of the enemy's arms and shoulders.
So there you have it - a blazing new addition to the Phoenix series and a piping hot new weapon with the possibility to change PvP as we know it!

Thanks - that was a fantastic writeup, Plasma Charge! 

And thanks to all of you - have a great weekend!  Thanks so much for playing and for your support - and please tell all your friends about MechQuest!

Early Release Today! All the stars and planets seem to have aligned nicely - tonight's release is Live already, so log in NOW!  

Salvage Quest: (See Joey standing in Soluna City, to the right of Tek's Mechs.) The Salvage quest has now been updated with chances for Back Arm weapons to drop! I don't want to give away too much yet, so I will just say that there are NEW Never-Before-Seen Back Arms for NSC, SC, and NG at every tier, plus some other "Oh I have one of those / OOh I was wanting one of those" Back Arms scattered among the possible drops as well.  Huzzah for Korin getting the new weapons all vectorized and animated and coloratizized, and grazie to bluesy for the specials designs, and to Vivi for codings - and yours truly set them up with all their numbers and descriptions and that sort of thing.

Star Captain Club Extreme Challenge: This new "Bragging Rights" option lets Star Captains battle the featured - and extremely tough - "Boss" - we are kicking this off by featuring the un-nerfed, super-powered, unleashed Teravolt! There was a little mix-up in the initial communication of specials planning for the Zargon Wormhole battle, so the original Teravolt came out as an opponent who was ... basically unbeatable by what I'm guessing would have been 999 out of 1000 players.  I haven't found my strategy for beating him in the Star Captain Club challenge yet, in fact.  (Feel free to discuss it on the forums, but please use spoiler tags if you come up with a way to defeat him before the end of this weekend...)

We're working ahead on Mogloween (MQ's Halloween) with some very cool plans - continued Mortis-related storyline with new animated cutscenes, all-new quests and in fact we are already working on the backbone for a "Trick or Treat" style quest!  Are you a Star Captain? Has Starbuck approved you for PvP (at the Stadium at GEARS University)?  If not, there is still time - the deadline is Thursday the 27th of October 6:30 PM Eastern time (Server Time)  You may submit your Character ID and Character Name on the forums in this thread so that players from all over the world (and from everywhere in the galaxies) can have the chance to visit your Starship this Mogloween!

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend - I know I will! I am getting IRC queries about having no Design Notes up yet, so I shall wrap up here and post them for you! I will be immersed in music and artwork when I am not doing home maintenance and not playing our games or visiting with you on our forums - and on that note... TTYL!

The Traveler Gets a New Shipment!  A Star Captain Head complements the Ring shoulder series, and a Nova Gem and a non-Star Captain shoulder also arrive!

The Star Captain Macabre Circlet series: Each of the 4 hits has a chance for a critical hit. Can nerf enemy damage by -10% for 5 turns.  Can reduce enemy Bonus to Hit by -10% for 5 turns.  Has the potential to do HP and/or EP Damage Over Time for 5 turns.

The Nova Gem Poison Cannon series: May add +30 to your Bonus to Hit for 3 turns.  Good chance to do critical damage. May merge purge all Bonus to Hit nerfs affecting you; can also merge purge all Damage nerfs affecting you.

The non-Star Captain Flamethrower series: Does extra damage.  Good chance for an HP DoT - decent chance for an EP DoT as well.  Also has the potential to blind the enemy with a Bonus to Hit Nerf over Time (-10 per turn for 3 turns).

The 4th of July Mecha Models stay in the shop over this weekend! NG and SC get a buff! A lively discussion of the power level of the Deflagrator models is underway on the Balance Discussion Forums.  After some mid-week Staff discussion of your comments, we decided to buff the Star Captain and Nova Gem models a bit - the Star Captain models now have a chance to get what was previously the Nova Gem exclusive special, and the Nova Gem models have a greatly-increased chance of that special.  So we are keeping the shop open this weekend for you to pick up a Deflagrator.  

Char is working on opening the wormhole... but... 

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"Team Loose Cannon" -  which is Maegwyn, Vivi, Minar, and blues - ROCKS! While others of the Artix Entertainment team focused on mini-game styled things for Gametastic (which you should vote on here http://forums2.battleon.com/f/fb.asp?m=18657738) Korin let me manage this week's MQ release! (The link to Korin's team's game isn't quite ready yet but you should totally check it out when it is!) (And congrats to all the Gametastic teams!)(Our team didn't make a new minigame as the other teams did - we worked on this week's release.) (I think I might be finished speaking parenthetically...) So, if you've been eyeing the "S.O.O.N. List," one thing we promised ages ago was to update the Star Captain Xtreme Challenges in the SC Club. For a long time, blues has had ideas for this, and we made it happen! This is part A of (planned for 4 parts) and it is brutal... blues wanted this to be more than just a challenge, so I wrote up some storyline that will gradually reveal over the parts of the quest.  Vivi coded all the monsters and the reward heads - Minar designed, drew, and animated the heads!  

The one thing about which I'm less than satisfied is - what happens when you lose.  You have to click more buttons than is really ideal - and you're going to lose a LOT before you win... Warlic & Korin took some time to assist wwith this puzzle - this is not just me being new at quest-building - so far, we haven't been able to put the player where I envisioned, upon losing a battle.  I did put in lots of skip buttons otherwise, so while there are some extra clicks if you lose, you should be able to get back into the challenge reasonably quickly to give it another go.

Non-Star Captains have the intro to the Knife & Spork's new Challenges to keep playing for this week. The Traveler is still in town, so everyone still has time to purchase weapons. Next week we've got some beautemous new weapons for Hero's Heart Day from Minar and some replayable MQ Hero's Heart quests as well!

Enjoy your weekend and I'll try to catch up with you on the forums! 

The Traveler returns to Soluna City with new weapons (art & animation by Minar, specials designed by blues and coded by Vivi) - something in his shop for NSC, Star Captains, and Nova Gems.  If you are a Star Captain you may choose to go on an exclusive quest!  This quest will be available when The Traveler comes to town so if you upgrade to Star Captain in the interim, you will be able to access this quest when he comes back.

There is a new bossfight - Vivi designed and coded the AI.  I think it's genius!  Korin suggested a detail in this enemy's defeat animation that puts a pretty awesome finishing touch on this gem.  

The reward is sweeet - another work of brilliance brought to you by Minar-blues-Vivi!

I hope you like the quest - Korin is starting his grand plan of getting help more with quest building. He started by giving me a tutorial, using an existing quest as a sort of template (so you will recognize a lot of elements) and I used that to set up what I guess you'd call the 'bones' of the quest.  Things like how it decides which enemies you will fight, and when - choosing from a variety of things you might find if you don't find the thing you were looking for - basically how the quest is set up.  Then he took that and added it to The Traveler's menu choices - so that you can actually, y'know... access it...

I actually used real paper, colored pencils, and scissors to set one thing up.  Then I took photos of it and showed it to Korin so he could see exactly what I meant.  But it would be a spoiler if I were to explain exactly what. You'll just have to play the quest to find out... It was really fun to write and set up and I even got to do some coding without making too many mistakes!  I learned a lot from the little things.  

Korin also chose from your suggestions and we've given the first Verified Mecha its proper chassis and weapons names.  Thank you to everyone who participated - I don't have the list of names of everyone whose suggestion was chosen but I know astro999 came up with the part of the chassis name that shows which level it is. Congratulations and thank you!

And I know I had a lot more to say but I should probably take a break at some point here.  So thanks for playing, and have a great weekend! (I'll probably see you on the forums.)