Hi! A few notes from me, mostly just to say hi and keep in touch to let you know what's up while we work on the upcoming releases.  

I just got an email from Arklen, who is working on an animated cutscene for Planet Romero. He had a couple of questions, so I hunted around for a file with a good example of one of the answers & sent that onward.  I missed blues when I was afk this morning - we generally meet on MSN on Wednesdays - but I'll be mailing him the basic plan for a weapon for which we'll be needing specials. Minar sent the art already, and Korin is deciding whether he will animate it as FA only or also make a BA version.  It's a really cool Minar-style take on an old Civil War surgical instrument I found when I was poking around looking for ideas for medical-themed weapons.  Minar also sent some more backgrounds for the upcoming quests. All that and in the middle of a busy school week for him!  I talked with Lyris briefly last night on MSN - she's almost to the end of the crunch at the day job and getting ready for the next real-life busy time. She had lots of compliments for the team & was glad to see that the reaction on the forums has been positive.  Vivi is also having a busy week so I figure we'll touch base tomorrow.  I'm writing up the concept for the St. Paddy's event to run past Korin for his approval - we've got the music already & I'll tell you more about that another time.  Other things I am working on include writing up some quests' story/dialogues for later. We also have some other things in process that aren't related to the holiday and have nothing to do with the new planet. We talked about some of it yesterday so the ball is rolling on those.  I guess I'll keep that vague and mysterious for now, since I don't know how soon it'll happen.

My slow PC is driving me crazy. I am so eager to get my laptop back with its fixed screen! Opening anything in Flash takes forever. In other news I guess I'll reset my twitter password so I can be in touch that way too. But that won't be tonight because we have some duties that will take me away from the computer. Speaking of ... I have to get ready to go & have emails to write before then - so - Later!

We Heart You! Replay the Heroes Heart Days of the past (or is that Hero's Heart?) via the News Screen or at Braddock Steele in Soluna City. 

Sneak Peek at an Upcoming Romero mecha !! Thyton drew up a new version of the Hospital Mecha and we're working on getting it ready for rewards later on in the planet storyline. Here's a look at it in its early stages!  Korin vectorized it - he took the screenie of it in its vectorized and posed version.

Energy Blades! Minar drew up a couple of new energy blades for us! One is now in the Hospital Gift Shop in Soluna City - pick one up if you are having trouble with the Romero Zombie fights.  After you get to Romero, find the other blades in the Vend-o-Tron.  These are powerful - keep in mind that we are revamping swordfighting soon and you'll see other changes to swordfighting when that happens. So don't be alarmed that these outclass most of the current energy blades.  You'll need to be L10 to wield one, and you'll have to complete Hospital jobs to open the shop and unlock the planet, too.

Poison I.V. Shoulder Weapon! Concept by Lyris, animation concept by me, art by Minar, animation by Korin, specials by blues, coding by Vivi

Numbers are as always NSC (SC,NG) --->>< CD=3 

does in total 1.25 (1.5, 1.75) times damage 
- normal (1.5 time, double) HP DoT for 3 turns 
- chance for a normal (1.25 time, 1.5 time) EP DoT for 3 turns 
- chance (NG no roll) for a defense NoT, reduces enemy defense by 10 (15,20) per turn, cap is 100 
---> could be poisoning armor 
- NG only: chance for a damage reduce NoT, -12% per turn for 3 turns.

Preparing for Next Weeks: We have new enemies - 2 with all-new art & animation as well as new attacks, and some recolored already-released art but with new attacks.  Korin is working on a HUGE new zone with quests. Minar is getting some awesome backgrounds ready. So there's a lot to which you can look forward on Romero!

Have a fantabulous weekend - enjoy! Thanks for playing MQ!

Planet Romero! For now, everyone can use the "Planet Romero Newest Release" button in the News Screen to access this NEW planet - you will need to complete the jobs at Specific Hospital and have flight clearance as prerequisites.

This planet, which is originally Lyris' concept, has been in the works for a couple of years now and has undergone an extensive process of revisions along the way. She and Jemini did much of the early brainstorming regarding various plotpoints, and what with one thing and another, as they say, it ended up sitting on the shelf waiting for its time.  It originally had a completely different name.  Artix made a lot of tweaks and conferred with Korin, and Korin conferred with me, and I made some edits and conferred with Lyris and went back to Korin, who went to Artix, and so on - in the end it all came together as the new planet you can finally now visit! Lyris put together a resource of a lot of medical-themed elements and broke down NPCs for her animated cutscenes you'll see in this intro to the planet. Minar created the backgrounds and the - (is it a shop? is it an NPC? You'll have to explore Romero to find it, and decide for yourself).  

Then, there is also a special NPC you will encounter - his design was originally started by Oishii and then got a revamp by AQW's own Cerberoz! Arklen (and Korin?) animated the new swordfighting enemies that Lyris put together which you'll encounter this week, and we've got some more new opponents on the way thanks to Thyton's arting & Arklen's animating. Korin has been animating as well, and built the quests & the town interface along with adding to the animated intro cutscenes.  He did a TON of work this week and brought everything together into a coherent whole.  The entire MQ team is brainstorming rewards which will open up as the planet progresses.  Minar & I are talking about some ideas as I write this. I put together the stats for the (spoiler ... er, the what-you'll-find-this-week) - Icy, who among other things is the Head Moderator of the MQ Encyclopedia, helped me decide some of the details. (Can you guess what is being parodied in the description?)  

Lyris is in crunch time at the day job and will be taking a bit of a hiatus, so with her detailed documents and asset files in hand we are striding forward but we will definitely miss her cutscene work. With Korin and Arklen on cutscene duty and Minar's art and animation skills I am not worried at all; however, we're all looking forward to her being able to volunteer time to MQ again!

Vivi is working on the swordfighting revamp along with coding rewards and fixing bugs and working behind the scenes. I think I forgot to mention his recent work on the engine that fixed some big bugs with Assault Mecha! blues has a list of to-dos that we are working on knocking out, along with his usual specials design which you'll see more of in the upcoming weeks, and balance work of course. I've been doing coordinating and editing and testing and bugfixing along with working on some non-Romero content while my laptop is on the fritz (and while I have some "real life" duties to deal with that are encroaching on the insane amount of time I usually spend on MQ).

I hope I didn't leave out anyone's contributions or forget to note something important! Have a fantastic weekend -thanks for playing MQ and don't forget to tell your friends!

We are still preparing Planet Romero for you - and so for this week we have continued our Buffs and Bugfixes while we're still getting things in shape on the new planet.

Buffs!

1) In the Dropship, the "Fly This Ship" minigame that you can play (go right till you find Worsh flying the ship) got a buff. I set it up so that it now gives much better credit rewards - for example, a score of 20 used to give you 20 credits but now gives you 200!

2) Tyranno Mecha - I made NEW level 14 and level 19 versions as well as the buffed-up level 10 originals - find them in the Repli-Mecha shops after completing the Museum Jobs for Val. blues designed the buffs, and Vivi coded them and has the following info on the new specials.

Specials are NSC (SC,NG) 
Head: ---> CD=5 

- starts with 1.1 (1.3,1.5) times damage 
- general damage boost BoT of +5(8,10) per turn for 5 turns 
- frightening attack, enemy BtH reduction of -20 (30,40) for 5 turns 
- SC/NG only: Disables an equippable enemy's head 

Body: ---> CD=5 

- starts with 1.1 (1.3,1.5) times damage 
- combined HP/EP DoT (normal, 1.5 times, double) 
- Chance for double (triple,triple) EP regeneration. 
- SC/NG only: damages EP with half damage done 

Arms: ---> CD=1 

- rage attack: Damage increases by 10% (20,25) per use. Increases stack between the FA and BA. 

Shoulders: ---> CD=2 

- starts with 1.1 (1.3,1.5) times damage 
- Chance for an extra Hit with 50% damage 
- Chance for a HP Dot for 3 turns, stacking 
- SC/NG only: Chance for enemy EP regen stop for 2 turns 

3) Soluna Battle Button!!??!!

Vivi updated the encounter list:

• fewer Ghost types, so more chance of variety
• At Level 25 and up, Advanced House Mecha opponents can show up
• buffed 3 monster specials

Goliath A (flamethrower, bombs) 
Flamethrower: 120% damage with improved accuracy, inflicts a 1.5x HP DOT 
Bombs: Rolls between 10% and 50% extra damage, reduces enemy boost by between 8 and 15 per hit 

Goliath B (machine gun, ground pound) 
Machine Gun: Damage and crit chance increased, Inflicts a DOT with strength based on number of hits 
Ground Pound: Damage increase between 20 and 40%, reduces enemy bonus by between 8 and 15 per hit 

Turret (small attack, big attack) 
Small attack: Less damage than usual, first hit deals EP damage equal to half damage done, second through fourth hits each lower defense by between 8 and 10 
Big attack: Increased damage, if all 5 hits connect it attempts to stun you

Thanks, Vivi!

Bugfixes:

1) Korin fixed an issue with the menu bar disappearing from the interface and messages of "undefined" (required another engine change, so please clear your cache and reload).

2) I fixed (with Vivi's assistance) the Hazuko series weapons that were causing NaN values

• Hazuko Machete
• Hazuko Katana
• Hazuko Staff
• Hazuko Sai
• (Note: I am still working on a head fix - the Tremendous Lightning still gives NaN for now, but I'll get that fix rolled out soon too)

3) Vivi fixed a NaN issue with the Morehawk (which was actually for last week but got included with this week instead)

...and last week some fixes for which I didn't get you Design Notes written:

• NaN issues with Korin Bag head series, Subzero Gaze heads, and the AC-490 mechas
• SC Xtreme Challenges Necryptos X-A and X-B (rolled Saturday) - losing no longer takes you back to the intro & kicks you out of the quest 

I *think* that covers everything we've fixed & buffed so far!  More fixes are on my list, and we have other improvements in store - we're eager to bring you new content and it's on its way!  It's been an insane few weeks with the pre-production of the new planet getting a couple of delays, but this is actually turning out to make it better that it would have been.  Ok - I think that's all from me for now. Have a great weekend - have fun - and of course, thanks for playing MechQuest!