Flavescent Friday and Planet Liath

Flavescent Friday! The Event section of the Shops interface is where you will find the Flavescent Friday Discounts and Rares! There is a limited selection of Rare mecha models as well as non-rares. The non-rares are 50% off the normal selling price!  The weapons selected are 50% off as well.  The version of the RARE Chronomech that is in the shop is not quite identical to the one that was offered with the 3011 Calendar. It scales only to Level 50 and has been named differently to help distinguish it from the promotional version.  

We took your input on the forums and considered the pros and cons of everything you said you would want to see (and not to see) in the shops this year.  It turned into a lively debate again, and it was fascinating to see what interests you.  Honestly I was originally considering limiting this year's offerings to mechas only, but everyone was interested in having a weapons shop - and I'd like to remind you that we have the Salvage quest in Soluna City which really does fill that niche nicely.  This year's selection of weapons is mostly for over level 20 - but you can stock up now in advance for when you attain that higher level!  (The level range is my fault - I was so focused on getting just the right mecha models selected that I ended up putting weapons on the back burner.) There is a chance that I might add something for the neglected levels, as suggested by ZamuelNow on the forums - Korin gave his blessing so it just depends on how the weekend plays out.  I do love the name "Saturated Saturday" that ZamuelNow came up with!

Korin & I decided that Flavescent Friday will last for the entire weekend, so you have time to decide what you'd like to add to your inventory!  Keep an eye on the shop, in case we have time to add anything. No promises, but if I add something I'll put out a quick Design Note!

Planet Liath: The Black and White Planet! Liath is now open to everyone who has completed Val's quests at the Museum and also has flight clearance! There are now Non-Star-Captain shoulders in the reward shop (the Nova Gem Preview weapons are Rare FOREVER) and Star Captains still have a nice shoulder in the shop as well, although it is a bit different from the SC Exclusive Preview version. blues designed the specials and Vivi coded them up - and Vivi also made their database entries and did the shop work! Huzzah! (Debut in the database!) (And many many thanks!)

Minar arted up the cool and all-new backgrounds for the town and new element for the new quest, and there's an 'establishing shot' he also made that isn't LIVE yet, because we are adding a landing cutscene next week.  (I'll be plotting that out next, along with a little extra dialogue.) Many thanks to Minar for being such an integral part of our dev team while still going to school, etc. !!

Korin let me put together the general visual design for this planet and much of the storyline planning and specific dialogue - I tell you this because I am starting to hear that people don't know who does what, and I generally tell you what everyone else does but not too much about what I do.  We do a lot of collaboration as well. So for example I'm hoping Lyris will have time to work with me on one of her awesome animated cutscenes for the landing ... 

Korin has introduced a brilliant feature in the quest after you arrive in the town - making rolls to advance much easier and more hopeful - it actually made me not care about rolling under the required number while testing, because I was given hope that I'd succeed and the end was really in sight - and it was! What do you think of this new feature? The new 'organic' dinosaurs are Korin's brainchild (or should that be "brainchildren") too! 

*Teaser* Arklen has sent along a something that is animated and relates to Planet Liath... something blues and Vivi will definitely be involved in working on, and something I'll have a hand in... speculations welcome, but no further spoilers are forthcoming anytime soon! 

Have a fantastic weekend - thanks for playing MechQuest!

Tags: Flavescent Friday Planet Liath Maegwyn

Flavescent Friday is Here

MQ's very first annual Flavescent Friday is finally here! Visit Soluna for tons of discounted weapons and mecha models! There are even a few rare weapons from back in the day!  

(Flavescent?? It's a real word, meaning a color, defined as "yellow, yellowish, or turning yellow."  A symbol of Autumn in areas where the trees change the color of their leaves.)  

It was difficult to decide what-all to discount this year - we listened to you on the forums and included as much as was both reasonable and feasible.  Re-releasing rares is a tricky proposition, and we wanted to be fair to those who love their weapons that are no longer available in shops while still providing something special.  There's a lot of lively discussion on the forums and I hope you'll join in! The main purpose of this shop is to provide items at a discount, so I think we succeeded - there are a LOT of items and mecha models!

My fingers are quite literally numb - actually the tops of my hands, starting around the wrist area. This was a LOT of list-making and typing in the database to get all the prices slashed - and to keep records of the original prices for Sunday at 11AM Server Time, when the shops close and the typing begins again to put them all back to their originals!  This shop turned into what Korin called my "baby" - I consulted with him, Warlic, and Vivi plus with you-all on the forums, so I can't really take all the credit.  Except for one thing - the typing.  I did all the typing.  Vivi caught a mistake in pricing before everything went Live and I did the Zorbo dance around the dining room thinking that might be the only error.  I made a few more, as it turned out ... I think I closed a window with un-updated tabs prematurely, was what happened.  I had 8 windows open in the database with up to 20 tabs per window.  I would like to thank some people who alerted me via IRC to those post-release mistakes in the price-slashing - you would recognize them as ZanpakuTô and zeke50100 on the forums.  Thanks!

I think you should go visit the shops in Soluna to see what's there because there is no way I'm typing out lists - haha!  Geekatron chassis!  RARE AvP weapons! And MORE!

I did make L33 versions of the Khael series mecha models for NSC, SC, and NG, and an extra NG model at L42 - these have the slashed prices, and will go into the regular shops at regular price when the Flavescent Friday sale ends.

I would have liked to make some higher-level versions of non-rare weapons for this but instead what I'd like to do is to get your input on the forums of what non-rare (available in the game) weapons you would like to see get higher level versions.  (Not new specials - that would be a separate project - just higher levels.) And if we make a separate forum thread for that, the link will be on the forums!  

I think I have a pretty good grasp on what non-rare mecha models you'd like to see get revivals (updated specials plus higher levels) or just higher level versions - more about that after Frostval, though.  Thoh is coming! Snow is coming!  

Snow Forecast! Minar is working on some really cool weapons for the Star Captain Giftboxes!  Vivi and Minar and I had a blast last night, chillin' together - I even got a brain freeze.  The wrapped gifts arrive for Star Captains on Wednesday (and the boxes mean nothing - their specials change when the gifts unwrap later in the Frostval season)!!!!

Mogloween and Turkageddon: Korin mentioned that I should let you know that we are leaving Mogloween up until we take the Flavescent Friday shops out on Sunday (access Mogloween via Jack in Soluna City until he's gone) - and then Turkageddon will stay up until this upcoming Friday.  I know I said it was leaving earlier but we decided (Korin actually decided) that it would stay up a bit longer.

Museum! New Museum exhibits including a special "Staff Pick" from a forum member who didn't even submit it for consideration! Run West to the Art Museum to check out Bladebrawl's art and art created by Hellsoarer, JoRanManzor, Xin the Ultimate, Kid Asero, and Draco1236 !  Talk to Circe in the Art Museum to get your own replica to hang in your Starship (if you are a Star Captain) and also to find out how you can participate and get YOUR artwork in the game for people all over the world to see!  (I'm not kidding when I say all over the world - I talk with people who play in: Malaysia, Romania, the Philippines, Austria, Australia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Mexico, Brazil, Israel, Ecuador - the list goes on.)

(No more lists! I'm done writing, going to go Zorbo-Dance some more now!) Have a great weekend! I'll be around on Sunday for sure, re-pricing stuff, and checking in as usual tomorrow.  Thanks for playing!

Tags: Maegwyn Flavescent Friday