Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Wed release of Susie quest in Soluna and DragonCon 2011
So this week's release is(was) (it has already rolled Live) tonight - Wednesday! We heard you like a lot of experience and credits when you play, so there is a new permanent quest for you to have the chance to gain a LOT of both!
Susie is standing to the left of Tek's Mechs in Soluna City. It used to be that all she wanted to do was to duel you - but now she has a mission! If you talk with her, she'll tell you about her Senior Project. If you will go on patrol looking for the ultra-rare Berserker Shadowscythe Hound that sometimes attacks in an area of Loreon known as Sector Sixty-Seven - and if you find the rare Amanita Warp Disc* that powers this unstable monster, Susie will give you a massive reward - an astounding amount of experience and credits! There is a Skip button so you don't have to click through a ton of dialogue - the common Shadowscythe enemies give normal rewards, and the quest brings you back to a point where you can replay it over and over in quick succession, hoping to encounter that Berserker.
Why a Wednesday release and nothing on Friday?? Because we** are going to DragonCon in Atlanta, Georgia (USA)! Come hang out with Korin, me (Maegwyn), and more members of the AE team including Artix himself, in the Artix Entertainment Suite at the top of the Marriott (Room 4724) on Thursday night from 8 - 10 PM for a super-casual all-ages pizza party! Then come to the AE Panel on Friday at 2:30 pm at the Sheraton, Savannah room. (If you have a costume, this is a good time to wear it.) MechQuest is creating a special mod for your mecha as a souvenir if you are able to attend!***
And ... wait for it .... there's MORE! We also have a Fan Table in the Hyatt this year! Stop by each day for a visit with different members of the AE team, and to get a special ribbon to hang on your DragonCon Badge, specially made by Jemini - a different dragon for each day! (Come early - supplies are limited.) Bring your artwork for the drop-box, too! Char, Korin, and I will be "manning" the table on Sunday, September 4th from 10 am to 12 noon!
We're really excited and hope to see as many of you as possible! Can't make it this year? It's an annual event, so start planning for the future! See ya!
*Can you guess why the component has that name?
** "We" includes more than just MechQuest's Korin and Maegwyn - some but not all past and present members of the MQ team such as Char, Jemini, Thyton, Lyris, and even J6 - and lots of AE staff members representing all of our games!
***If all goes as planned, the MechQuest team just might have a special few-of-a-kind unique hand-painted t-shirts to give away - I made a prototype and got a couple more done in between working on releases and fixing bugs, but I'm not entirely satisfied with the fabric paint performance so we'll see what happens. If nothing else, I can give someone the shirt off my back****...
**** I will of course be wearing layers if it comes to that :]
Saturday, August 27, 2011
MechQuest's New Menu Bar!
That's right, folks. MechQuest has a brand new interface that is super smart, easy to update, and helps keep the players from getting totally lost! Not to mention it also allows for lots of screen space. It's a complete upgrade from the old version. It no longer needs a repair button since you're automatically repaired unless a quest doesn't want you to. There's a new story guide that will jump you to your point in the game and not only will tell you what you need to do, but it will also take you there! How awesome is that? We've also made the story much more linear to keep new players from getting lost. You may also save any planet as your hometown! Using the fancy new and pretty starmap, you can now travel to different planets from any menu screen!
Thats not all. One big awesome feature is the new Star Captain 25% bonus experience and credits. For every normal Mecha battle you win as a Star Captain, you will get 25% bonus to your earnings!
This is a complete overhaul of the town interface and it's really made things more understandable and streamlined for the player's convenience. So if you haven't played in a while or haven't started, now is the perfect time to play.
On that note, I will leave you with my official cosplay of myself, thanks to Charfade for making it, that I will be wearing to DragonCon next week! Enjoy!!
Read More
Friday, August 12, 2011
Zargon Wormhole Grand Finale
What is happening with Starstorm?
fzzzap!!
Will you reach Boltavolt in time?
KABOOM!
Choose your words wisely...
Can Zargon be saved???
During this thrilling Grand Finale you will view and participate in exciting cutscenes, challenging fights including a never-before-seen very tough Boss, and you can earn the right to purchase a powerful Nova Gem mecha. (Next week, you will be able to buy NEW reward weapons with your credits, too. The bossfight will actually unlock the weapons shop as well... It's just locked at the moment because it's still empty.)
When you discuss this on the forums, please use spoiler tags!
Huge round of applause for Vivi, Minar, Lyris, blues, Arklen - and me, Maegwyn. Korin let me coordinate this while he's working behind the scenes on some exciting developments for MQ.
Next week we'll get those weapons into the Zargon Wormhole Bossfight reward shop - I'm trying to keep my committments fairly small for that week as I'm throwing a bridal shower (I'm actually the "Best Man" and the bride's brother is the "Maid of Honor"). Next week I have a ton of "real life" stuff to do besides MQ work - I'll need to get some "Mad Libs" style games put together for that, coordinate the food and decor, and finish figuring out the little shower gift prize thingies. Plus some of the team goes back to school soon, some of us are going to Dragoncon... a bit of a breather might be in order as before you know it, it'll be time for MQ's Anniversary, and Mogloween - and the holidays just don't stop once they get started, do they?
Anyway have a great weekend - thanks for playing MechQuest!
Monday, August 8, 2011
Maegwyn's Birthday Bonus!
That's right everyone! Today is Maegwyn's birthday! And to celebrate her birthday, we dressed up the Knife and Spork with birthday stuffs! Go to the Knife and Spork to wish her a happy birthday and she'll tell you more about the bonus!
The Dharmahp's Level 38 scaling is fixed as well. Silly typos in the code always get in the way and easily go unnoticed D: I can confirm this since I've been shoulders-deep in the game engine.
First I was working on sword fighting again but that's been slightly put aside for work on making MQ a much more linear experience in the sense that a new player doesn't get lost easily. I'm making a new menu interface to make a lot of things accessible easily from everywhere and it'll be updatable via the DB and will automatically go live to every town that has it without us having to edit every single town file every single time we edit it. Also, it will feature an auto-heal since let's face it, the repair button is mostly useless D: That's right. I said it.
So I'm working on lots of engine stuff and a lot of things are up in the air. Meanwhile, Maegwyn and company has been hard at work on the upcoming Zargon Wormhole release and it's looking like it'll be awesome. I have no doubt you'll enjoy it and I want to point out that they've been doing a terrific job. MechQuest is only getting better from here.
So everyone wish Maegwyn happy birthday if you haven't already! Of course you can just wish her Happy Birthday again. No one's stopping you :P
Enjoy the week and look forward to Friday. You might even get to sample some of what I've been working on.
And Happy Birthday, Maegwyn!
Friday, August 5, 2011
Traveler Shop and Screenshot Page Update
There is a NEW Star Captain Back Shoulder weapon in the Traveler shop!
The Grapnel ALB series is a powerful grappling hook styled weapon that has 0 cooldown, increases in power with every use, and has a good chance to deal an HP and EP Damage over Time attack that also increases over time.
You will also find a new shipment of the TNSEWP series including a NEW Level 45 version - and in the Nova Gem shop, the Serious Gatling series has returned!
Screenshot Contest Winners now on the Screenshot Page! Check them out here
Congratulations again and thanks again to the winners:
BILF BELF
Blackshock
Brownie
crazy penguin
DiEgO26
EinhanderX01
golden1231
Leon~o
Lord Crepe
Matri
Myra
RRR2ok
Sarnagon
Selutu
shattered17
Sparticus
Sudz16 WAR,
Terra
THIS_IS_SPARTA
Wizard Man
Xrazoc
(note that the screenshots don't appear on the page in this order)
As you might have guessed, we are working on the Finale of the Zargon Wormhole for next week! This release features intense cutscenes, a new challenging boss battle, and lots of excitement. I know, we've left you in suspense over what will happen with Zargon... no spoilers coming from me!
We've got a lot more plans for MechQuest coming along after this Wormhole wraps up, too. I'm really bursting with excitement about everything - I can hardly wait for next week and beyond! Huge thanks to everyone on the team making all of this happen - but most of all, thanks to all of you playing MechQuest! Hope you're having a great summer - or winter, if you're in Australia for example - and enjoy your weekend!
Connect with our online game community!