4th of July 3011 - Korin Special Sale on Nova Gem Models!

Nova Gem Models: Note New Pricing

• Level 5 -   Scales to L18  -   1000 Nova Gems 
• Level 19 - Scales to L23  -   1000 Nova Gems
• Level 26 - Does NOT scale - 1000 Nova Gems
• Level 33 - Does NOT scale - 1000 Nova Gems
• Level 40 - Does NOT scale - 1000 Nova Gems
• Level 45 - Does NOT scale - 1000 Nova Gems

We read your comments about Nova Gem Pricing on the forums - and Korin, blues, Vivi, and I met this morning for a discussion.  One of the issues you noted is that a regularly-priced mecha model at Level 45 comes at a Nova Gem cost that is slightly more than the minimum package.  Korin came up with this amazing idea to have a special system for the 4th of July models this year!  Instead of basing the Nova Gem pricing on level, where the cost in the past has behaved like the credits versions, increasing as you level up - he's doing a special where a Nova Gem model costs you the same amount regardless of your level. The low-level models will be levels-with-you style to accommodate the change, and the higher-level models are more of a bargain the higher the level.  (See the previous Design Note for the old pricing.)

This Korin Special Sale works out to benefit you!  Don't forget - besides our Nova Gem packages available for purchase, also the referral system can earn you Nova Gems, and remember also that you can still view the Ballyhoo ads at Cinemech for a chance to get some, you can still redeem your Battleon Points, and you can still participate in AExtras offers to earn more Nova Gems.  

We really appreciate your support - Star Captains have gotten exclusive quests in the Traveler / Maria 5 saga lately, and we've got some more really amazing Phoenix-themed rewards coming along (not this week) for you.  Minar has been doing a fabulous job with these and really pushing some limits. Note that the Phoenix items synergize, and the set is not yet complete.  Also, the quest line will return each time the Traveler comes back to town so if you upgrade to Star Captain you will still be able to access this series of quests and rewards when he returns.

Thanks to everyone for playing!  See you on the forums - or catch us on Facebook, Formspring, and/or Twitter!

The 4th of July mecha models will go into the special Holiday shop on Friday, July 1st and stay there for a week - until Friday, July 8th.  Ideally, this should give you plenty of time to pick one up if you're away celebrating the American holiday or having a vacation for any reason.  Thyton is drawing these and I hear they are going to be very cool-looking!  Usually our Holiday Rares are priced a bit higher than the normal price for a non-rare model, but this year we are going with the regular pricing to keep things affordable.  Here's the run-down:

Non-Star Captain Models: 

• Level 8 -      20000 credits
• Level 16 - 160000 credits
• Level 24 - 240000 credits
• Level 32 - 320000 credits
• Level 40 - 400000 credits
• Level 45 - 450000 credits
  

Star Captain Models:

• Level 7 -    17500 credits
• Level 14 - 140000 credits
• Level 21 - 210000 credits
• Level 27 - 270000 credits
• Level 35 - 350000 credits
• Level 40 - 400000 credits
• Level 45 - 450000 credits

Nova Gem Models: Note New Pricing

• Level 5 -    Scales to L18 250 Nova Gems 1000 Nova Gems
• Level 12 -  600 Nova Gems 
• Level 19 -  Scales to L23 - 950 Nova Gems  1000 Nova Gems*
• Level 26 - Does NOT scale 1300 Nova Gems 1000 Nova Gems
• Level 33 - Does NOT scale 1650 Nova Gems 1000 Nova Gems
• Level 40 - Does NOT scale 2000 Nova Gems 1000 Nova Gems
• Level 45 - Does NOT scale 2250 Nova Gems 1000 Nova Gems

Korin leveled up today but he still can't ketchup to me... Happy Birthday, Korin!  (There is already a birthday wishes thread on the forums in the MechQuest General Discussion area if you would like to add a post to it!)

Gremlins Fixed: A huge shout-out goes to NaturallyMaria on the forums for helping confirm and isolate these Gremlins from Yokai!  Thanks to Vivi for the fixes!  (I helped. Just saying so's you don't think I do nothing. Ha!).

Snake Master Arms: 
The damage boost and crit boost should be working now 
The NG special is functioning properly 

Tengu Wings: 
NG version now has correct specials (was using SC numbers before) 
BTH buff and debuff effects respect the stat cap 

Tiger FA: 
Respects the stat cap 
Does not reset itself to 0 when you reuse it 

Tiger BA: 
Now increases your boost properly

Also here are the weapon specials from Friday:

Phoenix (1 hit, SC) Quest Reward - Traveler
- 1.25 times damage 
- Chance for 1.5 time HP DoT over 5 turns 
- Chance for 1.5 time EP DoT over 5 turns 
- Chance for an HP Heal Over Time over 5 turns 
- Chance for an EP Heal Over Time over 5 turns 

Lightning (1 hit, SC) 
- 1.25 times damage 
- Chance for blinding effect, BtH NoT of -10 per turn for 5 turns 
- Chance for BtH BoT, +10 per turn over 5 turns 
- Chance for damage NoT, -10% per turn over 5 turns 
- Chance for damage BoT, +10% per turn over 5 turns 

Beam (2 hit, NG) 
- 1.5 times damage 
Hit 1: 
- Chance for a damage BoT of +10% per turn over 5 turns 
- Chance for a 1.5 time HP DoT over 5 turns 
- Chance for a 1.5 time EP DoT over 5 turns 
Hit 2: 
- Chance for a damage NoT, -10% per turn over 5 turns 
- Chance for a BtH buff of +50 for 5 turns 
- Chance for a BtH nerf of -30 for 5 turns 

Rift (2 hit, NSC) 

- Chance for 1.25 times damage 
First hit 
- Chance for a BtH buff of +20 for 5 turns 
- Chance for a 1.25 time HP DoT for 5 turns 
Second hit 
- Chance for a damage Buff of +15% for 5 turns 
- Chance for a 1.25 time EP DoT for 5 turns 

Thanks to blues for designing those, and to Vivi for coding them (and writing them up!) Also - Plasma Charge is the person I wanted to thank for reminding me about the MechQuest facebook page updates.   

Hope you all had a glorious weekend!  I went to a nice party and had ice cream and worked in the garden - and I'm still at war with the ants... having fun now working with the team to bring you something new!  See you on the forums!

War on Bugs! Really the credit goes to Vivi for fixing the bugs in the Data Cell Head and the Mechatron!  I played a role in the process but his role involved cogitation and coding, while mine involved things like downsaving and uploading and rolling and databasing.  If that made sense to you, hooray! Anyway, my point is that I did the easy part.  And the Mechatron and Data Cell Head bugs should now be fixed.  There are some other bugs involving the Yokai planet rewards that are high on the list - but their fixes will come along in the next week or so, as I got distracted by... a Bug War??!!???

Yes, I was doing some real-life Bug Warring here in the Undisclosed Location. I've temporarily dubbed it "MidWestion!"  The ants came marching two by two - kerrick, kerrack, hurrah (if you get that reference in its entirety including the bits beginning with k, you win ... an acorn, man!)  Yeah, I am perhaps not the best housekeeper ever, but I do keep things pretty clean (if not tidy) - and with the wet weather and a missed sticky spill plus a stray raisin, the tiny ants thought they found a prime picnic spot here.  Thanks to real-life friends and facebook friends for the arsenal - I got ideas for ant deterrents and communications from diverse places including Sweden, Singapore, France, the US Midwest, and New York City.  I have only seen a couple of stragglers late to the picnic now that I've cleaned all three food/spice cabinets and counters with an ammonia-based cleaning product, and used other solutions such as crushed red pepper and cinnamon and sugarwater with soap and a chemical-free bug spray... if I combine all this with Cola perhaps we'll have a real-life Maegwyn's Bug Spray!  (Just don't mix chlorine and ammonia - Very Bad Things Happen!)  (I did not do that.  I'm just sayin' ...)

We have some cool stuff happening in the upcoming weeks - thanks for playing MechQuest, and stay tuned for the news here, on the forums, on twitter, and on our official facebook page  which we plan to start updating again on a regular basis!

So today's release brings new Head weapons to the Gameshow planet and buffs the Mechatron SCMM model.

Here's Vivi with a rundown of the SCMM changes: 

Switched the BA so that the specials are more aligned with the rest of the mecha 
BA is more damaging 
Head is clickable, toggles whether you'll turn shifting on or off when you attack with it 
Head gives +30 defense or boost depending on your current toggle 
Shifted body keeps some crit damage and reduces bonus by 10 per crit instead of 7 
Shoulders deal a bit more damage, effects are slightly stronger 
FA Crits on second hit whether or not you are shifted

Also the default weapons have +2 to crit, and the body has +10 to crit.  That's a database-based tweak, suggested by golden1231 on the forums. Besjbo created the discussion, and notable participants were EinhanderX01, glaisaurus_x, NaturallyMaria, Selutu, Street Halo, TostiTostelli, $$$$ (and maybe more but those were the constructive posts that stood out for me - if I missed your post, it was nothing personal - please PM me on the forums please with a link!) - thanks as always for your valuable input!  

Then back to Vivi again:

NG Head: 
150% damage 
Even odds of either +40 boost to yourself for 5 turns, -40 boost to opponent for 5 turns, or both ("even odds" meaning 1/3 chance of each) 
If you're in the Mechatron, this will also trigger or disable the data shift the same way its default head does 

SC Head: 
First hit gives -20 defense 
Second hit deals 150% damage and either stuns the enemy or heals you equal to damage dealt (50/50 chance of either) 

NSC Head: 
120% damage 
Chance to inflict a 1.5x HP DoT on hit

Thanks again, Vivi!

We worked hard on getting this together for you, and we really hope you like the new Heads!  Also, in theory the buff to the SCMM should set it up to power standards.  We tested it and it definitely plays better - if you have something more tweak-needing to discuss, please use the Mechatron thread in the Game Balance Discussion forum.

If you're in the area, you should check out PariahCon this weekend!  Korin & Charfade were instrumental in setting this up, and ArtixEntertainment has a booth so you really should go if you can! And on that note - thanks for playing MechQuest - please don't forget to tell your friends - and have a fantabulous weekend!

Congratulations and thank you to the winners of the screenshot contest! Listed in alphabetical order with the link to the winning screenshot - and yes, I awarded everyone's prize of 100 Nova Gems (you might need to log out and back in to see that change if you are currently playing).  This was a really tough contest to judge - so many great screenshots and we only had room for 21.  

BILF BELF http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5106/5621871640_d768406144_b.jpg

Blackshock http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii27/jptbiyo/vmech.jpg 

Brownie http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/818/disproportionatemecha.jpg 

crazy penguin http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/7443/rhubarb.jpg 

DiEgO26 http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/8291/cookingchiken.jpg 

EinhanderX01 http://i55.tinypic.com/2v0d74m.jpg 

golden1231 http://i.imgur.com/sAWkS.jpg 

Leon~o http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/i413/LeoReign/WhysoSerious.jpg 

Lord Crepe  http://i802.photobucket.com/albums/yy310/Lordcrepe/screen8.jpg 

Matri http://img140.imageshack.us/i/moredakka.jpg

Myra http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/5325/libertyl.jpg 

RRR2ok http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/197/fireextinguisherw.jpg 

Sarnagon http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/90/fightingpilotvsmonster.jpg

Selutu http://www.flickr.com/photos/selutu/5621849538/in/photostream 

shattered17 http://img16.imageshack.us/i/bearonaunicycle.jpg

Sparticus http://img576.imageshack.us/img576/1146/evilcorpnormal.jpg 

Sudz16 http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p284/sudz16/MQbattle.jpg 

Terra http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5187/5636998879_0f790d7b93_b.jpg 

THIS_IS_SPARTA http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/339/mqsc3.jpg

Wizard Man http://i1085.photobucket.com/albums/j436/SquirrelEater07/Mechquest%20screenshots/DestructoLaunchers-1.jpg

Xrazoc http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/2958/trimrobot.jpg

When the new Web page is set up and Live with all your amazing screenies we will let you know in the Design Notes!

So, I always have good intentions of writing really frequent DNs and then I get involved in all sorts of things and suddenly a week or more goes by.  And then 2 more days, and so on... Well, last Monday was a US holiday and then I took Friday off to go away overnight with my husband but somehow we managed to do 5 days worth of work in 3 days and released the new SCMM, the Mechatron series. (Well Korin and Vivi worked on Friday to wrap things up, but somehow I got the design and database stuff set and we even fixed some bugs.) I set up the main specials design for it since bluesy is on vacation, and Vivi helped fill in the gaps where my mind went blank (and he coded up the mecha to spec).  Vivi & I have been following the discussion in the Game Balance Discussion Forum and looking at some potential tweaks to buff up the power a bit.  I actually was hoping to get those done sooner, but having a theme with increased critical hits gets tricky when you start adding raw power.  Once damage gets to stacking, it's pretty easy to end up with something that's dealing the damage of 20 (or so) levels above its level.  Anyway Korin got the color-customizing to work with the lit-up parts and this is a really cool model.  Even if the balance still is getting tweaked.

This overnight trip with my husband was actually in keeping with a lot of what I do in MechQuest's development.  He has been restoring a 1954 VW Bug, and we drove it to a Volkswagen festival! I guess you probably know what kind of car is my dream car... if you know old, ugly American cars you will guess in a second... but since I don't have one of those, a Bug is pretty fitting, wouldn't you say? If you follow me on Twitter you've seen the bug as my wallpaper.  I'm not a super-regular Tweeter - I mainly watch our forums - I also answer questions on Formspring when I have time, and you might find me on Facebook - but I'm getting way off the subject, aren't I? 

What... was the subject again?  Well anyway, Korin's been working on some stuff that's looking promising, and I should get back to working with Vivi & Lyris on something that'll be coming along in just a few weeks.  And something coming out Friday, too.  SO VAGUE, right?  Well, as always, thanks for playing MechQuest and I'll see you on the forums (or those other places I linked)!