Wednesday, August 28, 2013
A Load of Dynamics
Star Date: 28 August, 2013
Dragon*Con Bound! I'm just about finished packing for Dragon*Con! We're working on a head weapon for you if you're able to make it (and we'll make a version available to those who can't, too. Did I tell you that already? I forget... ) In other news, I've got twitter working on my phone now, so watch for tweets about #MechQuest and other Artix Entertainment game news from Atlanta this week! (follow @MaegwynAe on twitter - that's me!)
<bzzt> beep beep boop boop
Ooh a transmission from Practel! It's for YOU! I'll talk with you more later! =Mae
Hello players!
I'm here to deliver you an update on the Practel vs. Korin War! A lot of progress has been made on it, and the hardest part (dynamically loading certain things pertaining to the war; I'll explain more in a minute) has been completed.
The main objective of this war is to explore the craziness and insanity between two brothers, Korin and Practel. A few players really want a serious progression to the story (or at least one building up to why the war is occurring), and I want to explain that the reset technically has not occurred yet. So, following the timeline of the story, the war takes place before the finale in terms of lore and story. The way that it should be viewed is as follows: the player has to maintain a very serious situation and needs to be focused, while Practel and Korin are absolutely not taking anything seriously (to the point where they start to cause issues for the people of Loreon!) If you haven't already, talk to Practel in-game at Soluna City for an awesome cutscene.
One of the awesome things that I haven't seen used a lot in the MechQuest is dynamically loading certain objects and scenery into the game. For instance, if you beat the finale in-game, a party is dynamically loaded into the game at Tek's Mechs. Normally, if you haven't beaten the finale it wouldn't show up for you.
In essence, it means that we can make players who support Practel see certain things Korin supporters can't and vice versa. The plan right now is to have the players (you guys) choose a side at the start of the war to support, and can't go switching easily. If time permits, there may be a betrayal quest that allows you to switch sides.
Now, with all that random and annoying technical stuff out of the way I give you the first room of MANY in the war hub for Practel and Korin.
http://i.imgur.com/5wRbqoc.png
And finally, we have 2 of 4 practel and korin war NPCs:
http://i.imgur.com/QszPR8J.png
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Exciting
Star Date: 18 August, 3013 transmission incoming
Hello, pilots!
Today I have some exciting news! Over the past few weeks the MechQuest staff and I have been developing a new WAR coming to MechQuest! This war has been really fun to plan, and we are excited to announce it today. Keep in mind that while it was announced today, it is not going to be released for a few weeks. There is a lot of work to do and I can't promise a date quite yet.
Without further ado, I give you... The Practel vs. Korin War!
I'm excited to show you guys more in the upcoming weeks!
Practel out.
Friday, June 14, 2013
A Behind the Scenes on Testing in MechQuest
Star Date: 14 June, 3013
Incoming transmission from Practel!
Hiya Questers!
Today I figured I would walk you down the road of testing a weapon in MechQuest. Something awesome about MechQuest weapons is that each weapon is unique in its own way. Every weapon has a different special, different art, and different effect! Since each weapon is so unique, every weapon must be tested individually to make sure that everything is working. You can't just equip the weapon, say "This weapon looks good" and then release it because there are a LOT of bugs that come up!
For instance, I just finished a weapon this morning that is releasing later today. I would say I have 9-15 different versions of this weapon, each with little buggies. For this weapon, there are 17 different things that the team and I had to test. The beautiful thing about testing is that you can locate and pinpoint the bug, and then attempt to fix it. In the list of things the team and I had to test, we went down the list one by one, checking off the things that worked and noting the things that didn't. What happened a lot during this process was finding one bug, fixing it, doing a miniature celebration, then find another bug. Rinse and repeat.
Last night when I was working on the weapon a rather annoying bug occured. I have since dubbed it the name "Bug of Staying up Late!". Last night, with only one thing to test, a bug that literally defied the logic of math worked its way into the weapon. The bug was: 5 * -7 = 40. Which is false. 5 * -7 SHOULD equal -35. Why was this happening? I reviewed the code with Maegwyn and Vivi about 5-10 times over, and we still couldn't figure out why it was occuring. We decided to call it a night and tackle it in the morning.
Boom, 10:30AM and the bug was never a bug. The enemy had an inherent -5 boost, and the -35 was just being added to that. So in all, the code was right, and it's just I never realized the enemy had -5 to begin with. It's safe to say the game trolled me.
Well, that's it from me this week. I hope you enjoy the weapon coming tonight! It's called the "Valoth's Epic Shredder" series.
Read More
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
News From Practel Jemini Birthday
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
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Mogloween Wednesday
Star Date: October 28th, 3012
Incoming transmission from Practel!
Hey, dudes and dudets.
Almost every video game out is doing a bunch of Halloween updates this week! MechQuest has the decorated Soluna City coming for you on Wednesday! Expect some really... really spooky awesome stuff!
This Wednesday we're also updating the Museum... with a rad spooky Mogloween Quest! Have fun playing it!
So, without further ado, here are two more pictures from the new town.
Battle On indeed! Hope you had a great weekend!
=Mae
Monday, October 22, 2012
Mogloween Sneak Peek
Stardate 22 October 3012:
I'm getting a transmission from Practel!
I temporarily broke the page! Now you have clickable links instead of images! =Mae
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Artix Entertainment Anniversary Note
We've been really busy working on the humongous AE-Anniversary event - I'm busy doing some decorating at the moment but there's an incoming transmission from Practel so I'll just turn it over to him. Happy Wednesday! =Mae
Heyooo Questers!
Make sure yo-TRANSMISSION INTERCEPTED
************
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Answers from Practel and Poetry From Gibby
Star Date 2 October 3012:
Practel Answers More Questions!
Thanks, Practel! And now... I actually intended to post this yesterday:
Gibby Waxes Poetic!
Inside your favourite mech,
Is planet Loreon today still at peace?
It’s time you might have guessed,
To visit your game Mechquest,
We’ll find out soon in this week’s release.
Buy a new mech before you start,
With colors that are slate of the art,
here you can take nothing for granite.
Make sure nothing goes wrong,
With your brand new nubertron,
If you want to have a space party, you have to planet.
If you are familiar with the writing style above, then you'll know that it's Gibby doing this week's DN's. If you aren't famliar with this, it's still Gibby doing the notes. As I live in the "land down under" I have to use fliptext to write this so you can read the words the right way around. OK, so I made that up. I'll be sewious now. This week's Mechquest release brings you a Jemini redesigned Nubertron as well as some new starship items. Happy Fifth Birthday Mechquest. High Five!
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Ask Anything 2
Practel has some replies to your questions!
Woohoo! Here are my first round of questions!
hijinks asks: Hey Plasma Charge and Practel how did you come up with your usernames? What is your favorite mecha? WHY IS THE WORLD BLUE!?! Will you guys later be part of the NPCs later found in MQ like Korin, Warlic, etc.? Kidding, is there anything awesome that you two are planning to do? Are you guys ninjas? Any other awesome updates that you guys might do? :O I'm one of the few new players here, is there a mecha that I should try to get?
Wow, lots of questions! Here we go, in a speed round: I actually got my username from my Xbox Live username, when I misspelled Practical. Practel stuck ;). My favorite mecha is now the revamp of the Seppy one. I love the characters, animations, and just in general it rocks. The world is a bunch of colors, blue included. So I don't know why it's just blue. I think we'll become NPC's. (psst... spam Maegwyn's PM Box on the forums to let us get em!) I don't have anything too awesome planned for MQ, untill Korin and I meet up and decide to do something awesome for Maegwyn (and the rest of MQ). Am I a ninja? Hmm, let's go with yes. I know I'll continue to do MQ DN's (I really need a DN's picture, right?) but aside from that I think that's mostly that. I totally recommend getting one of the anniversery Mecha's coming soon!
forumlogin asks: Who are you? XD What do you do? :O How do you do it? Does it take a lot of time and/or effort?
I'm Practel, generally silly, fun, and exciting person. I test 3 games, MQ, ED, and AQW. I'm also a forum archknight. Testing is interesting, actually. Many players assume testing is just a simple playing of releases. In fact, it is not. Sometimes we need to run a quest almost 50 times to try and fix it. One day I'll see if Maegwyn will let me write a Design Notes post of the daily testing. It defenitly takes a lot of time and effort. You need to be somewhat comitted to helping, so I invest probably a full 24-36 house in any AE activites a week.
Eonaleth asks: 1. What got you two into MQ and what would you like to accomplish? 2. What are you two's ID's on MQ so I can pvp you on Assault Mecha? 3. How long have you two been playing MQ?
Hmm, I got into MechQuest from my friend a while back. I remember playing around Christmas time with him for AGES, and personally what I want to accomplish is just being able to help Maegwyn and the other MQ devs as best as possible. I only have one main character, but that's a secret, sooooo I can't share it :3. This year will be my anniversary of playing the quest of Mech for 4 years!
SMGS asks: What do you enjoy most in the game and why? What's the most interesting/memorable (bad or good) gremlins you've found in testing? What was the hardest bug ever to duplicate and why? I remember someone who ate bugs for breakfast, lunch and dinner. What is your method of choice in getting rid of gremlins?
I LOVE robots, and think the aspect of having them (and being able to controll them) totally rocks. Hmm, I think the most memorable, and probably bad bug I've tried helping with in MQ was the black login screen. That is also the hardest thing to duplicate and fix haha. I generally recycle my bugs, then eat them. That wasn't supposed to make sense.
SMGS also asks: Who's Practel? Where and how did BlamePractel2012 begin? I thought everyday was a holiday, what happened?
Practel is a brony, and generally silly person. He's also super cool. #BlamePractel2012 began on twitter as a small things going around with my friends and I, which eventually led to other games (ED, and MQ!). Everyday is a holiday, or that's at least how I treat it!
glaisaurus_x asks: WHAT ARE YOUR OPINIONS ON...Dinosaurs (and/or Aliens)?
They both eat you in the end.
forumlogin asks: Did you use to have a different forum name? Or were you not a forumite before?
Yes, for a while I was "Holiday Practel" (since I joined the forums around holiday time)
kim346 asks: Do you guys enjoy listening to music? If so, why?
I do very much so enjoy listening to music. I feel there is a natural beuaty in song, and I enjoy listening to it while doing homework, playing sports, and just in general. I also like a lot of Techno, Dubstep, and Electronic. I also like anything that is really beautiful.
Thiefboy109 asks: What's both of your favorite colors? You can tell a lot by someone's favorite color believe it or not.
I really love green. I also like red and blue.
the clan master asks: What was the first AE game you played? What is your favorite MQ planet? What Gears House did you join and why?
The first AE game I played was DragonFable, and I actually don't think I have a favorite MQ planet! That needs to change. I joined RuneHawk at the time, and I was a little unawware of what was going on. As time expanded, I love what RuneHawk symbolized.
Selutu asks: Where did the name Practel actually come from? What's your favorite thing about MQ?
The name Practel comes from the Xbox Live Word: "Practical" in a severe spelling mistake. It's stuck ever since! My favorite thing about MQ is defenitly the robots. KABLAM BOOM POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH BOOOOOSH!
blackshock asks: If you could learn a foreign language that you currently do not know how to speak, what would it be and why? In a previous life, who do you think you were? What genre of music you like? What's your favorite mecha anime? What MQ house do you peeps belong to?
I'd probably learn french. It's the love language, + it just sounds cool. In my previous life eh? I think I was probably a fun and successful guy. I like techno, dubstep, and electronic specificly, but I also love any music that sounds good. I actually don't like anime D:. I belong to RuneHawk.
Korin asks: - You have one meal you can eat every day for the rest of your life. What do you choose?
- What movie have you seen that made you cry?
- If you could steal any item from history, what would it be?
- What's your favorite celestial body?
Coming from google definitions a meal is classified as any of the regular occasions in a day when a reasonably large amount of food is eaten. In that case, I would have something from all the food pyramids every day. I'll be honest, Marley and Me made me bawl my eyes out. If I could steal any item from history eh? The one that's been undiscovered, probably. Celestial body? Yeah.
REIGNZERO asks: I hope we can be friends on the mechquest forums? How do I get even better at mechquest now that I have more time to play?
Of course we can be friends! I look forward to seeing your posts and interacting with you more. Also, I think Plasma Charge gave a GREAT description! I’d say that the best was to improve would be to experiment with different builds against enemies difficult enemies such as the Vampire lords on Necroyptos.
Xiphroid asks: How exactly do you squish a gremlin? Hammer, mallet, anvil? Why BlamePractel? (BUT you have to make up the answer!)
Hmm, I'm a fan of a traditional WAR HAMMER! I just smash that hammer on them bugs and they disperse. Why BlamePractel? Well, the simple solution is why not?
forumlogin asks: Why'd you decide to start working on MQ?
I started to work on MechQuest because my real life great friend Maegwyn wanted some help, so I said Pracy shall help! And so it has become.
I think that's going to be it for me, everyone! I'll try to keep the next DN's shorter!
~Prac
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
MQ Anniversary and Ask Anything
Star Date 25 September 3012:
Incoming transmission: Practel
Thanks, Practel! Time really DOES fly when you're having fun. I can hardly believe this is our FIFTH Anniversary! It's been a ton of fun working on MQ for all these years. Huge thanks to all of you for playing - we appreciate all your input and on behalf of the entire MQ team I'd like to thank all of you for helping to make MechQuest what it is today! And now I'll get back to work. =Maegwyn
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Sneak Peek of Eidolon Revival
Star Date: September 20, 3012
Practel & I were hanging around on MSN - I had just been double-checking Vivi's setup for the revival of Eidolon - no more NaN so we're ready for tomorrow - and he asked if he could give you guys a quick sneak peek. Well, of course! So with no further ado - here's Practel!
Heya Questers!
Just thought that a random, 10:43 at night Design Notes post would be awesome to have. This friday we will be having a fully revamped Hunter Eidolon! Check out the screen shot below, I should probably hit the ZzzZzzzz...
Battle On-zzzZzzzZz
Monday, September 17, 2012
Talk Like a Pirate Day is Wednesday
There were a ton more awesome players, but unfortunately we can't list everyone right now, but it was a pleasure to see all of you!
BattleOn!
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Practel Gives Recap of DragonCon
A few words from me, Maegwyn...
I've been super-busy ever since we got back from Dragon*Con, writing things that aren't Design Notes along with planning & coordinating upcoming releases, so as this has been somewhat of a trend over the past few months I thought we'd spice up the MQ Design Notes by including more of the team! Here's Practel, who along with Plasma Charge has been helping us with testing and Gremlins!
Hiya Mech Questers!
You may have noticed that the last MQ Design Notes post was a little while ago... and I’m here to help fix that! This is my first design notes of MANY more to come, and I will hopefully be doing rundowns of what each release will have each week! There’s a good chance a lot of you may not know me, so let me introduce myself. My name is Practel, I started playing Artix games in 2007, starting with DragonFable and MechQuest, then I later joined EpicDuel, AQWorlds, and HeroSmash. I’m currently a tester for 3 games, EpicDuel, MechQuest, and AQW. Along with being a tester, I’m also an in-game moderator for EpicDuel, and forum ArchKnight for the EpicDuel and MechQuest bugs boards! I’m going to be giving you a little info about our fantastic Dragon*Con 2012 experience this year (which I went to, along with Maegwyn, Korin, Artix, and the rest of the AE gang who were able to attend!)
What is Dragon*Con?
I’ve already written a really awesome Dragon*Con recap for EpicDuel, so I’m grabbing a snippet of info that I think sums up the 'Con pretty well and using it here!
“Every year about 50 Artix Entertainment staff and assistant staff travel from their secret undisclosed battle locations to Atlanta Georgia (an 8 hour bus ride) to attend Dragon*Con! Dragon*Con is the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the universe! Each year the convention attracts about 60 to 70 thousand people, and an awesome group of Artix Entertainment players! To see everything that the con has to offer is almost impossible, but those who are courageous enough to fight the “4 days with no sleep” boss can do it! The con offers something for anyone. There are panels about everything from making your own functional steampunk R2-D2, to meet-and-greets with some of the biggest names in TVs, Movies, Gaming and Books. There are thousands of people dressed up as their favorite characters, movie marathons, a sea of tables for table top games like Dungeons and Dragons, card games like Pokémon, Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh, board games like Risk, Settlers of Catan and King of Tokyo.”
The Parade!?!
Have you ever seen a several-mile-long parade with thousands (and I mean it) of people dressed up in the craziest, wackiest, coolest, most epic costumes ever? Well, there may be only one place where that happens (at least in my experience) - and that’s Dragon*Con! Each year, over 60,000 people come to this convention, and at least half (at least it appears that way) dress up in all sorts of costumes. Talk about Halloween early! This year, I had the pleasure of hanging out with Maegwyn (a long time, real life friend of mine) and watch the parade IN THE FRONT ROW! Along with hanging out with my Artix Entertainment buddies, I set out on a mission: Record the ENTIRE parade and panel, then upload it to YouTube so that the players can see it, and that’s exactly what I did! Think I was lying about the people dressing up? Go check out the video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNkNpVSQTfw&feature=plcp
MechQuest and moving forward
This year's AE panel was probably the most exciting panel we’ve had yet! There were well over 100 people attending, filling the enormous room - and everything ran so smoothly that we actually ran out of time even though this was also our longest timeslot and largest room to date! At the panel we announced something that I think many of you guys will be excited for: The Ending to MechQuest’s main storyline is going to be about the foretold “Reset”! Here you will experience what exactly happened on Planet Loreon, and why a world with Future-space-robot-killing-machines was 're-set' back to the medieval ages!
Some of you may have been (understandably) confused by some of the recent news and may even think that MechQuest is ending; just as Maegwyn announced at the panel, and as Artix has reiterated, I can also tell you this: MechQuest is NOT ending, and it will continue to have weekly releases as usual!
I am SUPER excited to be able to write Design Notes along with possibly blues, Vivi, Plasma Charge, Minar, and the rest of the MechQuest team.
As always, stay classy, Hero!
BattleOn!
Thanks so much, Practel - that was epic!
We're working on the revival of the Ghosthunter Mechas again this week, with a focus on the versions you can get by using the Doom Cell merge option - along with bringing you a Nova Gem version of the Sepulchure Mecha since the T-shirts have gone rare! We've got a very busy Fall schedule planned for you, jam-crammed with holidays and new content and an exciting new promo in the weeks to come! So stay tuned to the Design Notes for more info (to be updated more frequently, too), and thanks for playing MechQuest!
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