Star Date: 16 January, 3015

A New Room! The New Year is a lovely time to do some decorating. Star Captains, you are getting a new room in your starships tonight! I've started making some new items for you - there's a Hovering Goldfish Bowl that goes quite well in the Floor slot on the far left of the new room, with more hovering-style items to follow in the weeks ahead. Also new, for the Wall slots, is the Snow Globe On A Shelf. (The new part is the shelf. The snow globe was previously only available on a table as a floor item.) 

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Birthday Mecha Model: Golden Katana! This year, the Katana is getting a huge makeover to celebrate MechQuest's four-year anniversary.  Korin is creating new animations for its new head and body attacks, and has updated the look and action of the arms and shoulder animations.  This model will have default weapons in all slots.  Blues has designed exciting specials with Star Captain and Nova Gem exclusives. I'm putting together the merge "recipes" for the NSC and SC versions and setting up the Nova Gem pricing and levels - there will be lots and lots of levels so there's something for everyone.  This year's NG models will be priced at 800 Nova Gems (previous years' models prices will remain unchanged) - so if you grab one of the 2000 NG packages you have a lot left over to use for commemorative Starship items, or Salvage quest weapons, etc.  Don't forget you can also use your Artix Points- you can still earn points via the Ballyhoo ads in Cinemech in Soluna City (or in the Dropship) and of course earn via the Portal where you can also purchase Points.

Another Anniversary: Vivi!  I haven't kept detailed records about the MechQuest team member dates, but a phoenix happened to scrawl a fiery message across my screen that tomorrow, the 6th of October, marks the one-year anniversary of Vivi's MQ coding debut! He's been an enormous asset to the team and in fact thanks to him, the Dodge function is getting an update this week!  Keep an eye on the Design Notes this week and don't miss the Birthday Celebrations for more about Dodge!  He's been coding all the weapons and mechas and also has been coding some of the quests - and now this update to the MQ Engine really marks another milestone.  Hooray for Vivi!

Fireworks, Birthday Boost, and More:  Friday will bring fireworks to Soluna - AND with the engine change for the Dodge update we're also going to roll an XP boost!  Star Captains will get NEW starship items, and you'll all be able to get mechas from the previous birthdays like last year.  

Also I wanted to mention that I have gotten a lot of questions about the ETA for the next SCMM - Arklen has been busy with the 3 new House Mechas of course, and that comes with the Level Cap raise to 50 - so we're estimating that the next SCMM will be sometime in November.  

We're finalizing plans for all the Fall and Winter holidays that come along so quickly - not just the MQ Birthday but also Mogloween, Turkey Day, and Frostval - along with all the permanent content updates listed in the Coming Soon section of the newsletter - so Korin and I have been working together on juggling it all to set down into dates for the team.  We have a lot of things in the works for upcoming releases.  Lyris is prepping for more of her awesome animated cutscenes, I'll be writing some quests, we'll be collaborating on some - blues has been working on updates to some of the older mecha models and the SC Xtreme Challenge - Vivi coded up a tough Boss version of one of our recent quest encounters so I will be setting that up as an SC Challenge... we're looking at your suggestions for Tek's Mechs and more - much, much more.  The year ahead is shaping up to be exciting already! We're excited to bring it all to you - log in Friday to kick off MQ's New Year with a brand-new mecha!

Release Notes for 7 January, 3011!

• Art Museum - New Exhibit! Congratulations to this month's featured artists - check out the new exhibit and grab a souvenir Wall Art from Circe's shop for your Starship!  Featured Artists:
  • Rikyri
  • Zhark
  • neodiabolus 
  • SlayR
  • kaibinlore
  • Bomber of Justice 
  • pinata_BLASTA 
  • notagoodname
  • zozozoz 
  • Plasma Charge
• Arcade Games! In Soluna City you will see a new Shop button on the right-hand side of your screen - Arcades: Galactimecha Games.  If you are a Star Captain, you can choose from a variety of new Arcade versions of the Frostval 3010 (or was that 2010?) minigames - for Nova Gems you may purchase the Galactimecha Battle and Journey to the Sun, as well as the Firework Command Arcade Machine.  For credits, you may choose the version of the Journey to the Sun where you pilot your starship, and also you may now get your very own Planetary Defender (from the Dropship) at this shop!
• Starship Decorations: New Rugs! Visit Lisa on your Starship and look through the (credits) shop for new colors and styles for your Carpet slots!  Purple, Gold, Blue, Teal, and even Polka Dot and Pizza!  (I'm pretty proud of myself for having figured this out - didn't realize how relatively easy this kind of thing is.  +3 to Interior Decoration and Flash skills!)
• More Inventory Slots!!! This comes with an engine change, so be sure to refresh your browser. Everyone now has ten more default weapons inventory slots!  Thanks to Rolith and Korin for working together on this - we almost thought it wouldn't be ready, but it is!  There was a little Gremlin that got in before the engine change, so if you have already bought the maximum amount of slots, make sure you refresh your browser!

And now, to answer some more of your questions!  Korin has been terrific about answering already - I think I will pick a few at random this time around.  Other members of the MQ team will be getting answers out for you as well, by the way...

blackshock asks: What's yer favorite bands? 
Fave genre of music? 
Do any of you guys play instruments?

I enjoy a wide array of music - if you were in my Undisclosed Location while I work, you might hear old punk bands like The Clash and the Jam, or some ska - possibly rap like Lupe Fiasco, probably a lot of gypsy/Spanish-influenced music such as Manu Chao (and his previous incarnation with Mano Negra) or Santana - or you might get a dose of old country/newer Americana (think Merle Haggard... Rodney Crowell... Steve Earle... the Cumberland Gap band for a dose of bluegrass and/or cowboy music).  I might play some classical.  I am a die-hard fan of Warlic's music, and I have become a fan of Voltaire and One Eyed Doll as well.  I've probably left a ton of favorite bands out, because I really love music.  As for instruments, I play trumpet, and this year I got a guitar for Christmas so I am busy learning chords and figuring out how to read tabs in my spare time.

Let's see - I think there were some questions addressed specifically to me...

Oh boy. HOW many pages are there now? eek. Checking back on page one....

runer asks me: a multiple-type question thing, so I'll use a little different format - the italics are my answers.

Didn't you release such thing on the DN's back with Blues few years ago ? I remember you made a "Promise" to do it again , but as most things in the MQ DN's , it never came to life . 
     Yeah and I am sorry that it didn't come to life again until now.  I got busy  and the plan fell by the wayside in favor of other things.  I don't know that I'd say that is true about "most things in the MQ DN's" though.

 Anyway , how about , what do you guys do for fun ? I mean in break time and free time ? 

     I like to rollerblade, garden, take photographs, cook, dance, listen to music, especially live music. I read a lot, do a bit of writing now and then, mess around with various types of art and craft things. I have great family and friends so when I'm not alone (which I enjoy) I like spending time with them.
Can we do something like Alina does on the DF DN's ? They usually add something little about their RL weird events , or things that happen down at the Underground Secret Lab . Well I don't know what happens at the Lab since I'm at an Undisclosed Location, but I might be able to tuck in some silly quotes from MSN or IRC chats, or the occasional anecdote from my life more often.  If you guys are really wanting that kind of thing. I'll look at how she does things but I can't promise to make what I do just like what she does.

Neonpanther says: The only question I have for the staff is for Maegwyn and I was wondering: What is your favorite location that you've ever visited or vacationed at? Multiple answers are of course wonderful so don't feel like you need to stress out over picking just one. 

Ah, you know me well, don't you - I'm terrible at picking my favorite anything!  Well I have been almost all over the US and a portion of Eastern Canada, but there are so many places I still want to visit all over the world.  I enjoyed Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard very much - in an alternate universe I'm pretty sure I'm a beach bum.  I was born in New York (born in Chelsea, moved to the West Village) and that is still at the top of my list of places to be.  Another is the Badlands - I've only been there once so far.  Then there's Southern Illinois where I like to vacation with a photographer friend.  I don't really do the camping thing - I enjoy walking around but please give me running water and an indoor bathroom that doesn't require a flashlight-lit hike!  I guess you can get the girl out of the city, but you can never get the city out of the girl...

pharaon atem says: Ummm... Maegwyn, I got a funny question lol 
What is that all about? xD 

That is all about funny!  There is almost nothing funnier than that!  Especially if you say that over and over.  That that that that that that that that.  Try it!  If it doesn't crack you up, try saying that in a different voice or two or six!

On that note I should stop for now and get these posted so we can get me out of the house for a bit. I love working at home, but sitting in the same place gets tiresome and makes my gluteus maximus numb!