Maegwyn

Friday, January 20, 2012

Knife and Spork Challenges Update and More

K&S! The long-awaited Knife & Spork Challenge Updates have begun! If you have completed the first set of ten Grand Opening Challenges, click the new "More" button above the Contest button to access the second set of challenges, called the Advanced Contest.   Challenges 11 and 12 are playable now, with more in the works.  

Challenge 11 is a special feature, incorporating the winning designs from a forums contest to Build Your Own Mecha, held 'way back in 2010!  Maverik, Vadriel, Bling bla, and Lyris (who entered that contest before she joined the MQ team) finally got their designs in game! It is recommended that you be Level 28 when facing these enemies.  Defeating them all opens up a shop with a higher-level Pan arm and also unlocks Challenge 12.

Challenge 12 gives you a series of L30 opponents - one from each House with some customization and stats trained, and a couple of students with Anniversary models and trained stats.  

We had a blast pretesting this.  One of the Contestants was a little crazy at first - he equipped mini-mechas to his mecha! (That's a byproduct of the intended weapon being the default to a different chassis rather than a standalone weapon.)  So Vivi grabbed the screenshot and after we laughed our heads off for a while, I changed things up a bit - we still used the general theme of Bling bla's winning entry as inspiration.  

Updating the K&S has been promised for ages but now that I'm able to set them up myself, I'll keep adding new challenges for everyone - and keep your eyes on the forums because I'm going to be looking for more of your setups for new Challengers!

Wrangler Buff! And now from Vivi, the Wrangler mecha buff details:

Specials are listed as NSC (SC, NG) 
FA, 3 Hits: ---> CD= 2 
- Hit 1: +30 (40,50%) damage 
- Hit 2: +55 (65,75% damage 
- Hit 3: High (Guaranteed, Guaranteed) chance for a crit 

There's a chance the gun will jam - when it does, no damage is done but there's a good (guaranteed, guaranteed) chance for a stun and your bonus increases by 10 (15, 20) for the rest of the fight 

BA, 2 Hits: ---> CD= 2 
- Hit 1: lowers immo resist by 50 ( 80, 120) 
- Hit 2: Good (guaranteed, guaranteed) chance for a crit, tries to stun 

Shoulders, 5 Hits:---> CD=2 
- in creasing damage by +5 (10,+15%) for every Hit 
- Good (high, guaranteed) chance for an extra Hit, extra Hit crits ( same base damage of Hit 5) 

Head, 2 Hits: ---> CD = 5 
- Hit 1: blinding NoT, - 5 (8,10) BtH per turn for 5 turns 
- Hit 2: normal (1.5 time, double) HP DoT for 5 turns 
SC / NG only: 
- additional Hit 1: general damage BoT, +8 (10) damage per turn for 5 turns 
NG only: 
- additional Hit 2: 1.5 time EP DoT for 5 turns

Thanks for the details & for coding them, Vivi!! And thanks to blues for designing them!

Persistence Bonuses! Korin went through a TON of early quests and added persistence bonuses, so doing the jobs will go faster.  I think after we rolled I updated a total of 15 quest names - the Museum quests, the Police quests, and the Hospital quests were all on the list.  Thank you, Korin! We have plans to improve the Ghosthunting quests by changing how soon you earn the rewards - and long-term ideas about making that Ghosthunting training pay off.

New Planet Coming Soon! Lyris and Minar and Arklen have all been working on assets for the upcoming new planet - for which Lyris designed the concept & storyline. I've been working with Lyris on some of the script details while she does cutscenes - Minar has some backgrounds in the works and Arklen & Korin are working on vectorizing & animating some NEW enemies drawn especially for MQ by Thyton!  

Thanks for playing MQ - don't forget to send your referral links to your friends and family so you can earn bonuses when they play - and have a great weekend!

Maegwyn

Friday, November 4, 2011

Mogloween and More

This has been an insane couple of weeks! Sorry I haven't had much time to write you notes.  Here are some quick ones for now! The 3011 Mogloween event with Trick or Treating is still happening - if you are having a hard time with the clues, just keep going straight for that candy by the Bay Doors in Trick or Treating quests - if you fight the same person a couple of times in a row it is most likely an NPC with a clue and you should go explore his or her starship. There is an image of what the clue looks like by Jack in town on Mortis (orange fingerprint).

The old Hospital mechas have gotten some nice buffs to make them more useful and powerful. 

Last weekend I worked on a whole bunch of Gremlins - got some fixed - and was completely mystified by the Mecha Fryer crashing the game. Korin took it apart layer by layer this week to find the issue - and he has fixed it! Huzzah!

Salvage Quest: Joey has Heads - four models that are all completely new to the game, plus I selected a variety of heads that were either rare, seasonal-rare, or available somewhere in-game for each tier.

Special thanks to Gibby for compiling the list of Starship IDs for me last week, and to Kamui for helping us with pre-testing this week! And a huge thank you to all of you for playing MechQuest! Have a great weekend!

Maegwyn

Friday, October 21, 2011

Mecha News and Mogloween

News from blues! This morning, I got a transmission from blues!

Dear Players!
 
Long time no see :P
We all are pretty busy with the upcoming events and here are some news from behind the scenes.
 
Our Mecha buffing project is ongoing and next buff will go to the Hospital Mechas. Specials are ready, they just need coding and some testing. Next one on my list is the Westion Sheriff Mecha.
 
All the promised buffs for the Promo Mechas are also ready and await coding. They will be significantly better and I´m sure you´ll like them. You will see better damage, lower or even no rolls and some additional specials.
 
Next major project are the new House Mechas. I already have a plan and I´m working currently on the raw specials so that we can discuss them next week. The main themes will stay the same. Wolfs will be offensive with high damage, Hawks will be a defensive powerhouse with lower damage and Ravens are somewhere in between with more ranged attacks. Power will be around SCMM standard so quite good. It´s not possible to balance them exactly because they have different themes. So, when you love hard hitting Machines with a lot of damage, then Wolfblade should  be your first choice. And when you are more the chilling player who loves to have a good defense and nerf his enemies Runehawk is the House for you. In case your undecided, then Mystraven is always a good choice.
I talked with Vivi this week and both of us can´t wait to create the new House Mechas.
 
Aaaaand... better late than never (but I already did this via MSN) : Happy Anniversary Vivi!
I can´t believe that you are already coding for one year!
Working with Vivi is really fun and he always finds a way to get all my fancy ideas working. Kudos to him and all the best for the next Year!
 
That´s all from me for now.
Enjoy playing MQ, your weekend and as always: Have fun!
Thanks, bluesy! And three cheers for Vivi!
Tonight's release brings you new Front Arm weapons in Joey's Salvage Quest.  There are never-before-seen weapons for all players of all tiers, and along with the usual gamble there is a grand one: in some of the tiers, you have the rare chance to Salvage the ultra-powerful Nova Gem BallDrop Mace! 
Mogloween Mecha! Korin asked me whether we had told you that there is a new mecha in the works for this year's Mogloween event ... and I don't think I've said a single word about it yet! Thyton drew another amazing one - I hear good things about it - I mean, it sounds awesome - it brings sweet music to my ears... I imagine it to be hauntingly beautiful, though I wouldn't want it to hit a sour note... anyway, enough of that, haha!  Korin got a head start on setting it up and he's sent it off to Arklen to add some of his cool attack animations.  You'll want to stock up on credits and you might even want to grab some Nova Gems for this new Holiday Rare Mecha!  
More Mogloween News: This year's event integrates the new Starship Trick-or-Treating-styled feature into the continuing Planet Mortis holiday storyline.  If you are a qualifying Star Captain, or are able to become one by Thursday the 27th of October 6:30 PM Eastern time (Server Time), then you will be able to give players from all over the world (or, should I say, the multiverse) the chance to visit your Starship! Head on over to the MechQuest Forums, see whether you qualify (Nigel needs to give you approval), and post your Character ID Number and Character Name http://forums2.battleon.com/f/tm.asp?m=19701667 
Lyris has already put together a fantabulous animated intro cutscene and is working on more, I'm working on writing and laying the groundwork coding for the Starship Trick-or-Treating and other quests (and Korin & Vivi will help get them functional and refined) and Minar has been designing cool new Starship Items!  (Don't let me forget to make an Action Figure of the new mecha, ok?) We are all really excited about this year's Mogloween! 
So if you are a Star Captain, have fun decorating your Starship - and don't forget, everyone still gets the Anniversary XP and Credits Bonus in battle this week so that you can stock up on credits for the Mogloween Event rewards!
Have an awesome weekend! See you on the forums!