Unfortunately, Endon has been snowed in, so his internet connection has been cut off. Nevertheless, there is plenty of material in this release for free players: the finale of Mogloween 2009, the age-old tradition of Trick-or-Treating, and the much-anticipated hatching of the rare Halloween gourds.

Share and Share Alike

About:

In Falconreach, Myx stands alone, covered with cobwebs. He’s bored and lonely; he has sat all alone and unused for weeks while his beautiful mistresses had gone off to use other cauldrons. Just then, we arrive on the scene with Tomix with some good news for the evil cauldron: we’ve got a plan to get the Cauldron Sisters back together. The Soulweaver asks if Myx knew the secret recipes of the sisters, but the cauldron refuses to tell. However, Tomix is not after the recipe; he wishes to know if Myx could make their candy on his own, the one they planned to make together this year. Myx is hesitant, for the sisters had never decided on a formula. But we tell the cauldron that he’s our only chance; we’ll get the ingredients, and then it’s up to him. Myx lets loose a burst of fire in delight at being needed.

Our character proceeds to run through the town to steal bits of each of the Cauldron Sisters’ candy, battling past the various ghosts along the way. Unfortunately, each sister has her table guarded by a pair of Moglinsters, so we are forced into battle with those familiar friends before pinching the ingredients.

Once we have done, it is night in Falconreach, and we return to Myx with all our ingredients. We remark that we don’t know what the mixture would turn out like, since each sister’s candy on their own is kind of… meh. Myx sniffs that the Sisters’ true brilliance comes out as a team; we’ll see when we toss the ingredients inside him.

Just then, the Cauldron Sisters arrive, and they start berating our character for stealing their candy. But Trouble manages to notice Myx quivering violently, and he yells for everyone to duck and cover. With that, an explosion bursts out from him, and knocks us all off our feet, though a new kind of candy showers the area.

Once we have recovered, each sister takes her time to inspect the new candy. Trouble notices that her Sugar Springs have melted into this brown creamy stuff covering the confectionary. Bubble takes a bite and notices that her Faerie Floss has melded with the Bits-O-Wax to create nougat. Toil then remarks that the nougat is perfect; that’s what inspired Bubble to add Faerie Floss into the mix. And Bubble turns to Trouble, letting her know that her melted Sugar Springs were delicious. At last, an incredible thought comes to Trouble: they have created the perfect candy, and they must share it.

But a cry of ‘no’ is heard, and Greed explodes into being before us, knocking Myx over. He declares that we can’t share the candy, for he had worked too hard. After the Cauldron Sisters right Myx again, Trouble snaps back at Greed that it is there candy to do with as they please. They were too worried with what they were going to get out of their own pieces to realize that this was the time of year to celebrate and share. Toil adds that together, they had made a candy better than they could have crafted on their own; Bubble simply growls and sticks out her tongue at Greed. Tomix then appears before the malicious spirit, and tells him to leave, for he has no power over the sisters any longer. But Greed instead replies that he doesn’t need the Cauldron Sisters any more; he has the whole town to draw power from. Our character retorts that we also have something to share with him, and with Tomix by our side, we proceed to battle Greed.

At his defeat, Greed explodes, and darts away into the night as a little ball of black smoke. Tomix declares that it isn’t over; Greed still had some power over the town, so he was unable to banish him completely. He could still sense his thread moving in the darkness; and sure enough, what is left of Greed retreats to the town hall, and hides within the bookcase in Damien’s library. Meanwhile, what are we to do with the current Greedling infestation? Twilly then pops in and claims that they moglins could help; they could absorb the Greedling’s magic to render them harmless. They’re going to really want candy from now on though… we better be in disguise when we want to come visit with the candy. But what about the townspeople hoarding their precious candy in their homes? The Cauldron Sisters then propose a solution: they would share their candy with everyone else. Hopefully, the more we give to them, the more they would get in the mood to share. So it’s time to Trick or Treat!

Meanwhile, in the town hall, Sepulchure’s spy reports to his master that something new has come to town, but now it has hidden in Ravenloss underground. The Doomknight believes it to be another good distraction for us, so his spy must be ready to make his move.

Pros:

Much of the plus points of the quest comes in its second half. After Myx manages to, er, mix, the Cauldron Sister’s candy together, a new type of confectionary is formed, and it’s composition is quite detailed; instead of vaguely saying that it is the perfect candy, it is mentioned that Trouble’s Sugar Springs have melted, and Toil and Bubble’s ingredients have combined into nougat, which is precisely what they were shooting for from the beginning. Thus ends the speculation on what the original recipe, and thus the perfect candy, is. The fight with Greed afterwards is a good challenge; he has plenty of hit-points, and excellent multi-hit attacks that deal significant damage, not to mention are well-animated as well. And at his defeat, there comes a surprising plot twist; Sepulchure is back in town, and his spy is almost ready to make his move. It looks like whatever the Doomknight has in store for us is only just around the corner, but as it is, the plot twist effectively closes the quest with a good deal of intrigue, and ties in this otherwise independent event with the master plot of DragonFable.

Cons:

The first part of the quest, with the exception of the Moglinster guards, is exactly the same as the previous two quests; we run around the town to collect things and battle various ghosts along the way. It is repetitious, and took a good amount of patience to complete. And the resolution to the Cauldron Sister’s bickering is not, admittedly, all that surprising; right from the first quest, I predicted that Myx and our character would show the sisters just how much better it would be to work together than apart by making some candy ourselves. Lastly, though there’s no way to completely avoid it, the message the Cauldron Sisters give about realizing their mistakes, and that Mogloween is the time to share comes off as preachy. But other than these three points, this quest is actually a very good one.

Grade:

Though the initial phase is quite lackluster, the second rivals ‘As the Cauldron Boils’ in quality. Thus, ‘Share and Share Alike’ earns a 7.5/10.

Trick-or-Treat

About:

It’s that time of year again, when we knock on the doors of Falconreach’s houses and beg for candy, risking our necks to the ghouls, fiends and moglinsters that could crop up unexpectedly. For those who aren’t familiar with the tradition, our character comes to a lane before three different houses upon accessing the quest, and runs to one of them each time to knock on the door for candy (once we finish with one house, the three houses are replaced with new ones). If we’re lucky, we receive an amount of confectionary from the owner of the house as a treat; if we aren’t, we are either waylaid by a mad moglinster, or tricked into fighting a Mogloween monster. We could continue trick-or-treating for as long as we want to collect candy, which could be exchanged afterwards for a variety of things: unlocking the Pumpkin King armor, upgrading the weapons that are dropped at the quest’s end, and/or unlocking the various masks to ward off the moglinsters.

Pros:

And I thought that there wouldn’t be any room for real Trick-or-Treating this year. Guess the team proved me wrong, and that’s a pro in itself. Plus, there are quite a few good drops for the free player this Mogloween: the Batwing weapons series are both powerful and armed with excellent stats, and the Greedling helms are also equipped with great statistics, rivaling even the helms from the SandSea. Both the weapons and the helms are quite simple in design, which is a change from the detailed equipment we usually receive.

Cons:

Other than the weapon and helm drops, there really isn’t that much new material for this year’s Trick-or-Treating. The Pumpkin King armor is exactly the same as last year’s, and the new weapon series, the Frankenblade, is DA-only. In addition, the masks that are meant to be unlocked are both expensive in terms of candy, and not quite as fun as last year’s batch, though they do offer a good percentage of candy bonus.

Grade:

Though it’s a nice tradition, this year’s Trick-or-Treating doesn’t stand very well as a quest on its own. It gets a 6.5/10 from me.

Mogloween Gourds

About:

In the beginning of October, three types of rare gourds could be found in various quests across the game. Now they have hatched, and I happen to be lucky enough to possess the Small, Twisted Gourd, which became Gourdon the Gourd-o-Lantern, a pet.

Pros:

Gourdon is a funnily-animated character, I guess, and deals a decent amount of damage for a pet that isn’t our baby dragon: 6-12 hit-points, and with the occasional double-attack.

Cons:

Let me be blunt: Gourdon is poorly drawn. I’ve seen far better pets in DF’s history; even the gold-fish looks better. And… there’s not much else that could be said here. An ugly pet is an ugly pet.

Grade:

Gourdon may be a kind of pet you get used to after a while, but it still doesn’t hold a candle against a fully- or even partially-trained baby dragon, in terms of art, animation and power. Therefore, this part of the release deserves a 6/10.

Final Grade of the Release:

It’s all about Mogloween for us free players on this release. We have overcome Greed but lie at the mercy of Sepulchure, Trick-or-Treated until we dropped, and battled alongside odd-looking pets. All in all, this week’s release earns a 7/10.

These are written by anonymous writers, who choose to remain so. I am merely a messenger of sorts. If any of the following posts offend you, please do not place the blame on United Lore, for it may be us hosting the post, but it is not necessarily our own thoughts.

These posts are basically critiques on AE; be it the games they host, their management, etc. It can be seen as a type of “shout out” to AE, an attempt to try and improve the status quo where it need be improved.

The 4th writer is, again, writing about MQ.

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MechQuest – Going Downhill since Returning to Westion

In the past few months, the MQ Team has been slipping in the quality of their releases. After the AvP War, they chose to return to Westion in an attempt to revive it and make it welcoming to players. By this, it seems that they did not want to let a planet, who’s checkered production already made it unfavorable (not to mention the major polarizing effect it had on the player base), go to waste. Great idea… But only in theory.

Not long after returning to Westion, they began tossing missions upon missions of Reputation Quests that required near-divine intervention in order to pass and continue on. Added to that was the fact that there were no uniforms available that could improve the chances of the roll. After these, we came to a War. The dual Bug/Fire War. Normally, it wouldn’t be a bad thing, but this came not too long after a previous, MONTH-Long War. With it came a completely random surprise: Suddenly, Westion had value, as the staff tried too hard to give the planet value by tying part of the GEARS Houses relics with the Planet’s God Pyras.’

Then after that war ended, we were tossed RIGHT INTO YET ANOTHER WAR. The Shadowscythe have come, and have decided it was time for Westion to die. From the get-go, it was a potential success. It was potentially the first losable war in MechQuest. However, many players began to cry and complain about the unfairness of it all, so the MQ Team chose to baby the players and make it fairer. On top of that, the staff used Deus ex Machina to explain the sudden save and reduction in difficulty.

Many players try to defend the MQ Team’s Deus ex Machina, but the truth is that there was no excuse for poor storyline planning and execution. Let’s look at this from a logical and proper storyline perspective.

1. Zargon has been reduced to two defenders after previous events; Starstorm and the Galactimecha. Logically, this would mean that one or the other has to stay and defend Zargon in the event that the massive Shadowscythe armada chooses to call in support to take Zargon. This would dictate that if Zargon chose to respond to the SDF’s call for help in defending Westion, either Starstorm would go and use her SuperHyperMegaPowers to help bring down the Shadowscythe fleet, OR one of the named former superheroes would pilot Galactimecha against the Shadowscythe fleet. Also, Dr. Boltavolt is still running around plotting his revenge. Would the only defenders of Zargon really be stupid enough to leave the planet wide open to attack, not only from the Shadowscythe, but from the scheming and revenge-driven man?

2. After the Arthurians vs Pirates War, both sides admitted to being exhausted of fighting strength. In fact, it was said that the Arthurian’s invasion force was part of their main military. After taking considerable losses, it would be impossible for them to rebuild enough of their fighting forces to spare for Westion’s defense. Heck, the MQ Team EVEN REFERENCED IT WITH THE REPLY ROBINA STATES IN THE SC ALLIES MISSION. So logically, Arthuria would never show up to aid Westion, since they first have to rebuild their forces, then keep enough on standby in the event of a Shadowscythe invasion.

Now, let’s look at what the MQ Team did with the cutscene that unlocked at around 40%.

1. Zargon sent not one, but BOTH of their sole defenders. Starstorm in the Galactimecha. Zargon is now completely defenseless.

2. Arthuria retconned their prior stance, and chose to send what they had to aid Westion. King Alteon himself is aiding the charge, with the statement that the “Might of the Arthurian Army is as Westion’s Disposal.” Normally, the “Might of One’s Army” means the most, if not all of their military force. Regardless, this is a retcon of their original stance.

3. Valoth chooses to awaken the “Evil” Dragonoid-Lich as a counter to the reinforcements. The “Good” Dragonoid is shown responding to the awakening, and quite possibly is going to come and see how his “friend” is doing.

The MQ Team just threw out all storyline logic and coherency. Furthermore, the semi-consistent storytelling MQ had was completely lost. Now lets fast forward to the Shadowscythe’s victory. Who comes to save Westion to an extent? Korin. He sends all Westion survivors to Gark and takes the ShS Dragonoid away from Valoth. The players are hit with another Deus Ex Machina. Instead of some emotional scenes like DF’s recent Fire War, we get a cheap and cheesy rescue and convenient removal of what could’ve been another viable threat for Lore, Zargon, and Lagos/Arthuria. I don’t know about the more youthful and innocent players, but that was a major face-meets-concrete moment for me and for a few other players. It wasn’t funny, it wasn’t done well, and it definitely wasn’t memorable except in a bad way. It was an insult, a poor shot at humor, and another clear case of stiff stick-figure animation. It was the perfect opportunity for the MQ Staff to show what they could do to make it emotional and memorable, but instead, they go with the easy way out. And since it’s not likely AE will ever rework a proper cutscene for Westion’s end, it’s guaranteed that Westion will be remembered in infamy. “The Planet that was a Failure from the Start.”

I care about MechQuest, and I believe that it deserves a bit of change from AE’s other games; especially since it is new territory for AE. As a person who has seen well over 50 different mecha anime, several live-action mecha movies, and has played a good range of mecha games (most never being translated to English from the native Japanese), I do reserve the right to criticize AE’s development of MQ. They need to watch more mecha shows and play more mecha games, and learn how the storyline and humor (if there are any) are incorporated into the mecha genre. Also, they need to hire competent creative story leads who can actually put together a consistent and reasonable storyline; especially for a game that will span solar systems, instead of just a planet. And finally, Korin better get on the ball and start getting serious about MQ. If he can’t, find someone who can. If neither are possible, cut back the releases to bi-weekly instead of weekly; using the gained time to PROPERLY design, code, and test new releases, as well as FIX all older issues. Pretty graphics and a strong battle system (as far as mech battles go) are nowhere near enough to guarantee MQ’s playability in the future.

We all know how MechQuest came to be: Artix always wanted a game based on giant, armed-to-the-teeth mecha. What we see today as MQ fufills that.

At least, only to the bare minimum.

Back in the beginning (read: gamma phase), all we had was the ol’ Newbatron v1. These were the good days. Our choice of weaponry? Gatling Guns, Flamethrowers, N00B Missles, Autoguns, etc. They were all SHAPED like mecha weapons, COLORED like mecha weapons, heck, they even MOVED like mecha weapons. They were high-tech, looked like stereotype mecha (weapons), and had a “space-explorer/vigilante” feel to them. You could slap any weapon you wanted on the Newbatron, and it still looked GREAT. This was also true for a good portion of the old days; Katana, Volt Thorn, BattleHammer, and the Star Gladius all looked just as good as the Newbatron. All perfect.

And then the Pizza missions came out. YES! Our first mission! We just…sign up…for a pizza place…

Do you see the problem in that? We’re warriors of space in gigantic, incredibly dangerous mecha, and we work at a pizza place for some spare credits. Ok, we’re students, and yes, college students DO get jobs; this is understandable. And it was pretty funny, to be honest. The one thing that was weird is that our so-called student workers were paid little. Must’ve gone to tuition. I guess this IS understandable, being a new game, and lacking the humor that the other games had.

This is also the place where the dreaded roll was first introduced into this game (which was “patched” later on); however, that is a different topic altogether.

The rewards for this pizza job were awesome, at the time. There had never been actual quest rewards before. We had a missile launcher, a giant pizza saw…a bigger pizza saw…and a mecha head with a chef’s hat. Again, this is still pretty normal for a new game; still introducing humor (it WAS the first release or so). However, this is when total color-choice was released. This made it awkward to stick some of those weapons on certain mecha. Meh.

Then, the mecha. It. Was. Insane. It had more HP, more EP, more Regen, and more sheer strength than any other mecha in the game. The catch? It cost a heck of a lot of credits. And what’s with a mecha being sponsored by a pizza shop much more powerful than an official, military-issue mecha? We may never know.

And it had a very different coloring, compared to the “originals”. It had shades of yellow, orange, green, red, and some greys. The worst part is that it had no option to recolor. Clearly, this was a themed mecha; this was fine, for the most part, because it WAS just a gimmick quest (albeit costing you many hours of farming). This mecha still could not match with the other weapons available; the mecha aspect was lost a bit, as you can’t really be a mecha with a giant pizza saw and a funny colored chassis. It just wasn’t standard. Yes, breaking standards is what AE “does,” but couldn’t they have at LEAST added re-coloring in? Yes, it’s a hassle, but is a hassle worth the deduction of the mecha-aspect in this game?

This is continuously seen throughout the game. Next came the Police series; not as expensive, but still very themed. Hospital? Same thing. A giant mecha with a scapel? Pass. These were in the EARLY days of the game, back when everything was plausibly fixable without wasting a ton of time. Let’s move on.

The house mecha. Oho. Better run from these. I’ll start with Wolfblade, as I am one of them (no, not a preference; it just happened to be what I clicked):

Their mecha is NOT “looks-compatible” with any equipment in the game, save for the weapons in the actual house shop. To make it worse? Its main weapon was a giant slab of metal. Yes, we’ve seen melee mecha before, but a giant slab of metal shaped like a hammer? Do mecha do that? Meh.

Next up is Runehawk: First, before I get anywhere, they are, again, not compatible with other equipment in terms of style. Their actual mecha-aspect is even worse; the Mechronomicon. A book that contains magical secrets, able to launch ice-balls at the enemy. Giant. Mecha. And magic? Yes, magic is okay in fantasy games, but shouldn’t it be more subtle? Isn’t this a little too explicit? Their Energy Orbs are just as bad; remember, they don’t send electromagnetic pulses and whatnot. They actually use mana to damage the enemy. Is the physical use of mana in a mecha game to this extent truly justify its mecha game qualification? Hmm.

Finally, Mystraven: Again, looks. Then, they use energy bows. Bows. Is it even plausible to build giant bows that shoot energy, when just having a cannon is easier? They obviously had the tech for it; where did the bows come from? Granted, they DID have the most realistic of all the weapons from the houses. That, however, doesn’t make up for the fact that the mecha did not look “rogue-y” at all, and wouldn’t be able to stealth around a city at all.

Perhaps these themes should have been dropped. Maybe mages, rogues, warriors (as in, the type of warrior the Wolfblade is), and the like were too much for this Fantasy/SciFi Web Game. Have they ever been used in Fantasy/SciFi games/anime before? Maybe. Were they used as main themes? Probably not.

The first planet, Westion, was FULL of non-mecha themes. First of all, the war-reward, the oh-so-overpowered-back-in-the-day Equinox, was a fricken horse. Doesn’t that scream “I’m totally a gimmick” to you? Second, there were SNAKE mecha. Yes, it’s sort of understandable; why not have a mecha that shoots acid? Well, the reason is because it’s a giant snake in a sci-fi game with mecha. Who have guns and cannons and bombs. Sure, the natives at Westion would have “alien” mecha, but should that be used as an excuse? If these mecha are so alien, wouldn’t they also be incompatible with the weapons found on Lore? Very confusing, indeed.

At this point in the game, there has been a huge blow to the game’s Mecha feel. No longer is it about exploring space, finding new mecha, beating up the bad guys; it’s about being a student in most definitely NOT mecha style mecha. Yes, the QUEST part of MechQuest is there; you fight the Shadowscythe, the bad guys, just like any good RPG. But should this game be called MechQuest? Why not “Midievil – Space crossover Fantasy”? It seems like the game is much more of the latter.

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No, this isn’t a “FIX EVERYTHING” post. It’s a post about a problem that existed (and still exists; in fact, even more of a problem). There is a solution (or at least, a prevention of further harm) to this.

From now on, keep your head on straight. Remember the Mech in MechQuest. Quest is fine, but aren’t we here for the Mech, too? Don’t go insane with themed planets and whatnot; try keeping it a bit more realistic.

A lot of this post can be countered by “Well, AE is normally very foolish (no, not like that)”. Well, maybe TOO foolish? Foolish enough to wreck the core of one of their games? This problem can’t be answered by precedence alone. (Again, I stress that the word foolish is used as in “different,” or “wacky”)

MechQuest is a great game, no mistake. But it wouldn’t hurt to see a little change, would it? Aesthetics may not be everything, but it certainly adds flavor.

I’m still going to go back and do the analyses from three weeks ago two weeks ago, and this week, but I’ll start with this one and get back to the others.

Anyways, in this weeks release, a new planet has surfaced, with a very spooky, Mogloween, Friday the 13th-ish feel. Except this time it’s a permanent planet, and AE is promising its best one yet. How’d they start? Read on for my take.

Necryptos Planet: Town Lyceum

About

The town of Lyceum has opened on the newly discovered planet of Necryptos, and with it two NPCs, a new vampire enemy, a new quest, and new mecha were released. The town’s lead character is named Mina, and her story goes as such: One day she was walking through the Mortenwood Forest on her way home (why she did such a foolish thing the world may never know). Anyways, she was running late and as the darkness began to engulf her, the sounds of the forest overcame her, and eventually weird skeleton creatures came chasing her, which caused her to black out. The next thing she remembered was waking up at the edge of town in the morning, and she realized she had been bitten by a vampire. Mina speculates that she was probably bitten by the Lord of Mortenwood, the vampire Dimitri. She tells us that word around the street is that the only way to cure vampire bites is to kill the vampire that did the deed, which is of course where we come in. It is up to us to venture into Mortenwood and destroy Dimitri once and for all.

To help with the quest, Mina points us to the man across the screen, Van Helsing. Arguably one of the more deep and complex characters MQ has seen, Van Helsing has a fascinating history, one in which I would point you to read firsthand rather than listen to my summary. Basically, Van Helsing despises vampires and was once a vampire hunter himself back in his younger days. Nowadays, he is too old to fight vampires, but he does own some vampire-specialized mecha with which to help defeat them (which I will discuss in detail later on).

Then there’s the quest itself. Accessed from a handy map which presumably displays all the areas of the planet, the Mortenwood Forest quest uses a map walkaround system with a minimap radar in the top right corner of the screen, which is viewable at all times. The objective is to walk around and kill enemies to find the key to the crypt, which will be used to unlock the Dimitri boss fight. The quest introduces a new vampire enemy, with its only strategy employing four (4) DoTs and using each one to buff a heal over time for itself. So basically, it will eventually inflict four HP DoTs on your mecha, while each turn healing itself by an amount that will significantly add up over time. The Vampire Mecha is a very respectable option versus the vampire enemies, even though the buffs against them don’t directly counter the vampire’s specials.

Pros

I’m going to use a new system of pros and cons for releases analysis posts, using a list system to better organize the critique.

• Horror feel is captured very well throughout the town
  AE hasn’t always done a great job representing the feeling, emotion, and overall mood of certain areas in the world of Lore, but in Lyceum the trend is reversed. The backgrounds, background music, map layout in the quest, and artwork of the vampire mecha and Lyceum home screen were all created with a spooky, foreboding tone, and it really shines through in helping craft a well-rounded planet. This is the sort of thing that subconsciously plays in our minds as we form an opinion of a zone, and it’s worth pointing out when AE does this right.
• Vampire Minion enemy is challenging
  This is a good thing, as the Vampire Minion is difficult enough to force us to use actual strategies and think about what we’re doing while fighting it. It also isn’t impossible, and has many weaknesses with which to exploit. The drain/heal special was implemented well, and can be a real pain to counter. The animations and graphics of the Vampire Minion are also top-notch, as always.
• NPCs have personality
  Hard to believe coming from an AE game, where NPC personalities are as rare as a release without typos; in other words, it doesn’t happen very often. In fact, only one other time in MechQuest history have I seen the kind of dialogue depth and NPC interaction as with the two NPCs in this release: Back during the Crystal Asteroid War, in the Rec Room with the dream side-storyline. This time, it happens in the main storyline, and it’s a great sign to see. Van Helsing has a ton of text to read through, but it is all very interesting and truly gives him a personality and life of his own. Mina also has a nice personality (if not as developed as Van Helsing quite yet), but is off to a good start as she thoroughly explained her predicament and what happened. The depth of the characters will hopefully continue to evolve, as this oft-ignored aspect of releases was finally brought to the spotlight.

Cons

• Quest itself is boring and repetitive
  I don’t have many cons with this new planet, but I do take issue with the opening quest. Simply put, it is uninspired, lazy, and repetitive. The atmosphere and new enemy were both pros, but the fundamentals of the quest progression didn’t work for me. The key percentage drop is way too low and almost converts the quest into a vampire farming zone, and the simple walk around and fight enemies till you win structure reeks of lack of originality and creativity. The quest would have been much better if it had worked as a maze, with the end of the maze holding the key. The way it is now is way too run of the mill and boring.
• Overall small release
  One of the things I ask myself after playing a release is whether I feel there was enough content to justify the week of development. Over the years AE has set a standard for how much content to expect, and especially for planet introductions that bar has been set pretty high. Needless to say, Necryptos didn’t hold up. Only a one-screen, two-NPC town was released, with one new mecha model and one new enemy. And that’s about it. I expect more from a highly-anticipated new planet, and Necryptos just didn’t match the quality of other planet debuts (such as Westion and Gark/Lagos).

Grade of Release

7.5/10. There were a lot of good signs in Lyceum’s debut, from the engaging NPCs to the atmospheric environments. Unfortunately, much of the pros were offset by a dull feature quest and overall lack of “pow”, so it all evens out to an average 7.5.

Vampire Mecha

About

Van Helsing has s0me special buffed Mogloween rare mecha, and will be replaced with be permanent, slightly altered versions later this week. (UPDATE: These newer models have now been released, replacing the permanent versions. Both models are nearly identical though, and the permanent version is not weaker than the rare one.) The models come in non-SC, SC, and NG varieties, but the only version available for players below level 30 is a level 10 NG one. The mecha comes equipped with increased overall damage against vampires (especially on the shoulders), a very cool body combo (in which the more weapons you use before the body will buff the body’s attack more), a BoF of 20% extra damage on the head against vampires, and many more cool effects.

Pros

• Vampire-only effects improve the mecha greatly
  AE did a really nice job adding powerful but not overpowered extra effects onto the mecha to make it a force against vampires.  The vampire mecha is definitely one of the best options to fight the powerful vampire enemy, which is the main purpose of the mecha.
• Body special is unique and powerful
  MQ has never seen a special quite like that of the body default, which boosts its attack damage the more default weapons you use before the body. It’s a very unique, original special with the potential for massive damage if used correctly. This is definitely one of my favorite specials in the game, and definitely boosts my overall opinion of the mecha

Cons

• Mecha is very weak against non-vampire enemies
  I’m fine with the mecha being extra powerful against vampire enemies, but it seems AE forgot about all the other enemies the V-hunter can face. The mecha, is quite frankly, a terrible option versus non-vampire enemies, as the standard specials are very basic and include nothing to get excited about. It still fares well enough, but overall the strength of the regular attacks could have been more varied and powerful.
• Not enough level variety
  The only model below level 30 is of the NG variety (level 10), which is incredibly disappointing. Even with it being a rare mecha and it being located in a higher-level zone, it is straight up unacceptable for AE to forget such a major part of the level spectrum.
• Other specials are ordinary
  Besides the beast body weapon, the rest of the specials aren’t much to get excited about. In fact, all there really is are a bunch of standard specials, like a BoF, extra damage, DoT, and heal. I would have to liked to see some more variety, coherence, and creativity from the staff with the other weapons, and maybe a special or two specifically designed to target vampires’ weaknesses (not just vague overall buffs).

Grade of Release

8.0/10. Even with my problems, I was still satisfied with the Vampire Hunter. For an opening zone mecha focused on a specific type of enemy, the mecha serves its purpose very well, and I can’t honestly lower the grade more with a body special like this.

Overall Grade of Release

7.5/10. Ultimately, I just felt underwhelmed and unimpressed with the opening of the new planet, even with some positive signs. The mecha was nice, the atmosphere was chilling, the NPCs actually had personality, and the plot shows promise. Unfortunately, the release as a whole didn’t have enough content and the main quest didn’t hold up well enough for me to give the release as a whole higher than a 7.5. I’m hoping that the zone grows positively and shows AE’s capacity for making something great, because many of the pieces that don’t always show up are already in place.

These are written by anonymous writers, who choose to remain so. I am merely a messenger of sorts. If any of the following posts offend you, please do not place the blame on United Lore, for it may be us hosting the post, but it is not necessarily our own thoughts.

These posts are basically critiques on AE; be it the games they host, their management, etc. It can be seen as a type of “shout out” to AE, an attempt to try and improve the status quo where it need be improved.

This next writer, under the alias of Rayne Mysthawk, is talking about AE’s moderation system.

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Moderation on the BattleOn Forums

All personally identifying information has been changed, meaning that this was not written by Rayne from the BoF, and I- whoever I am, though some of you know and I’m sure others have guessed- won’t be naming any names. This is for practical reasons only, as it doesn’t make much sense for me to argue against the current BoF mod system in place while still posting there as if nothing had changed. However, I’m not exactly known for my abundance of good sense.

I do have some…issues…with one or two mods on the AE forums, as with one or two members. However, I keep it to myself, and have done my level best not to let those feelings affect my judgement while writing this. Everyone deserves basic respect, and the quirks certain mods have which annoy me have never broken the rules. Personal bias is not a reason to take a matter public when the receiving party has done nothing to merit it.

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http://forums2.battleon.com/f/fb.asp?m=2616844

22) Staff may delete and lock messages at their discretion.
24) Staff have the final say.

Read: Moderators have inordinate power at the official Artix forums.

No, this is not an “OMGTEHMODZREVIL!!1!!1!1!!!eleven” rant. (In fact, I rather like most of them. They’re generally nice people, unless you start a flame war or somesuch.) No, I’ll argue that the moderating system itself could use some rethinking.

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Rule-by-Rule Dissection

22) Part of the job of moderators is to keep the boards clean. Messages deemed inappropriate, old, or off topic may be deleted/locked by moderators at any time.

A moderator’s stated job is to make sure forumites and forum threads adhere to the rules. If mods can also determine the rules on the fly, it will result in a great deal of unneeded and confusing variation. Now, I’m not saying mods should adhere only to the written versions that members see, without any leeway in case-by-case judgement. It is impossible to list what should be done in more than a handful of basic situations. However, with this wording, which threads are locked and which stay up depend almost entirely on the judgement of whichever mod/AK happens to be online.

Case in point: Once upon a time, an attentive forumite noticed that the DF Login News-Screen had not been updated for some time and posted about it in the DFGD. Perhaps an hour later, an AK logged on and locked the thread, stating that it was not ingame discussion. Which, in fact, it wasn’t, but it had an indirect impact on ingame discussion. Rather like DN or Twitter/Facebook update threads – but you never see them being locked for not being ingame discussion, do you? In fact, the only difference is that we hear it from official sources. Suppose that a staff member responsible for updating the Daily Dragon had logged on beforehand and posted in the thread. Would the AK still have locked it? Would anyone? (I’m not talking about theory, since in theory, yes, they would have. I’m talking about practical application, where I do not believe it would have been locked. Die out, perhaps, but no lock.)

This is a trend I’ve noticed among niche threads: if a staff member posts in them, they are much less likely to be locked. If that section’s moderators are interested in the thread’s particular niche, the chances of it being locked drop almost to zero. That doesn’t encourage me. If threads that have meaningful content in them are being locked because the section’s mods don’t like it, the board wilts into ’safe topic’ mode quickly. Safe topic mode does not help AE improve their release quality. Safe topic mode does not allow for innovative and/or radical new ideas. Safe topic mode does not get people banned, but it doesn’t promote new Helpful/Creative/etc. people either. (Which is also a completely arbitrary system in my not-very-humble opinion, but I’ll open that can o’ worms some other time.)

24) If you are told by a staff member to stop doing something, you cannot claim that it was not stated in the rules. It is impossible and impractical to list every rule possible. Attempting to circumvent a rule will result in a more severe warning. Also, the determination of things such as begging, flaming, spam, whining, etc. are dependent on the mod, not the users. Any complaints involving attempts to find loop holes in the rules and complaining that it was not explicitly stated in the rules will not be acted upon. Disagreeing with them in anything other then a private, respectful manner will be considered not only harassment but trolling.

I entirely agree on the part about polite disagreements. I would not want to spend hundreds of hours ‘cleaning up’ after people on an entirely volunteer basis and then get yelled at for it. However, you cannot expect us (i.e. the forumgoers) to follow the rules if they are not written down. I realize that it’s humanly impossible to list every nuance, but please take the time to elaborate on what you want and don’t want posted in each section’s guidelines. Otherwise, we may innocently earn ourselves a rotten vegetable pelting.

If you do not want us to post about ‘old’ topics, please say so- and please define a cutoff date for ‘old’. Otherwise, the rule is essentially useless. Suppose I were to post about a coincidence between a cutscene in the Nythera’s Storm war and an old movie I just finished watching- would that be considered old because it doesn’t refer to something released in the past six months? Or would it be considered old because the forumgoers who posted in the Storm release threads noticed that, and even created a thread in the S&T forum? Well, while both of these example reasons have their flaws (if you can’t post about something if it wasn’t released within a recent timeframe, the DFGD might as well be renamed the DragonFable Weekly Release General Discussion, and if you can’t post about something which other people noticed, the mods might as well prohibit anyone new there from posting, because they will invariably bring up something the regulars already know about) I would much rather have these clearly-defined rules than the mod-reliant “old”. It also cuts down on overall work for the mods. If people know what following the rules actually means in practice, they are that much less likely to break them. (Well, I’m that much less likely to break them, but I can’t speak for the people who don’t read the Rules and/or Rules updates.)

It is impossible and impractical to expect us to follow every mod’s variation on the Rules, and if you have a system for making sure that all those variations don’t conflict, I would appreciate it if you dusted it off, reworded a bit here and there to be more applicable, and added it to the Official Rules. Otherwise, we won’t know how to follow some of those those frustratingly vaguer rules.

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Solution

Would any of my rants be complete without a solution? This time, I’m proposing not only a solution, but a way to test it without a massive makeover (which would be expensive both in time and reputation should my proposed solution worsen matters, or should the problem prove imaginary to everyone but myself).

When the next board or sub-board comes out, make some changes to the standard set of rules. (Despite some assertions that AE’s design process is none of our business, I’d suggest a MQ Game Design Discussion board as a sister to the MQ GBD. Some players have very well-thought-out critiques on the way AE is taking the MQ story. It could help AE out tremendously in the long run.) When you think them out, add limitations to each rule. Define what you mean by ‘old’ or ‘controversial.’ If by the latter you mean intentionally starting something along the lines of a SC vs. non-SC or House vs. House argument, not whether or not a recent plot twist is Deus ex Machina, please say so. If each mod has a specific jurisdiction in the board, please tell us as much as you can so we know exactly who to complain to- or about. If you want us to not criticize AE, tell us where critique stops and criticism begins.

Try it. You might be surprised at how friendly and well-behaved a forum can be if both forumgoers and mods know exactly what is expected of them, rather than offloading all responsibility for keeping things clean onto the latter.

Members are the backbone of the AE community, not moderators. I think it’s about time we all remembered it.

Sorry for the delay, to all readers; things have been getting hectic for me lately. But prepare yourself for three reviews over the next few days: October 23, October 30 and November 6. No release will go ungraded, if I have anything to say about it. Now onto this critique.

Greed has woven himself into the threads of the town of Falconreach, and it’s up to us and Tomix the Soulweaver to cut those threads before it’s too late. But just how far had the greed spread in the town? Meanwhile in Amityville, Zorbak’s up to some new hi-jinks, and this time, he means business.

Appetite for Destruction

About:

Back in Falconreach, Tomix tells us that Greed has grown stronger, having woven himself among our friends, and setting worth his minions around the town. We don’t have much time; we must convince the townsfolk to share their candy, which the sisters have sold, their appetite for fame and gold having outweighed their hunger for their own candy. However, Tomix believes that the way to defeat Greed lies in the sisters’ connections. For now, they need to convince everyone to share their candy in this ‘trick-or-treat’ tradition.

And so we search the town for the citizens, battling the Greedlings, Wisps and Spirits along the way. Then in the various corners of Falconreach, we find four citizens who’ve allowed Greed to take over: Patch the barber, Twilly the moglin, Grams the pet-tamer, and Reens the alchemist. They each immediately engage our character in battle, convinced that we had come to steal their candy. We have no choice but to defeat them, as they refuse to talk.

Later, we meet up again with Tomix and relay to him our distressing news. The Soulweaver then gets an idea; hadn’t it all started with the Cauldron Sisters, when they had a new recipe for their candy? If it began with them, then it must end with them as well.

Pros:

To get right down to it, this quest doesn’t exactly have that many pros. I appreciate the team’s attempt to resurrect the old trick-or-treat tradition, for one thing. Another thing is that the four bosses proved to be quite amusing to fight, each with different statistics, different elements, and slick battle animations (I had quite a laugh at kung-fu Grams). Since there were four, and there were no healing pads or full heals in sight, I could understand why they each had low hp, though Reens and Twilly proved to be a somewhat decent challenge to fight. But otherwise, there is very little else to commend for this quest.

Cons:

Other than the four bosses, this quest is almost identical to the previous quest in the Mogloween chain: we run through the town battling the same three types of ghosts, and every one of Falconreach’s buildings are barred shut, with strange signs or noises going on inside. But what disappoints me most of all is that the storyline progressed very little in this quest; it is very much like a repeat of the previous, and the revelations introduced at the end of this quest could have been merged with the last. It really just seemed like a failed attempt at resurrecting trick-or-treating, or is filler material. Plus, the vampire cape drops are not much to get very excited over.

Grade:

The only things that save this quest from receiving a five are the four boss battles, which is a disappointment, considering the success of the previous quest. Thus, ‘Appetite for Destruction’ receives a 6.5/10 from me.

And now I’ll hand this critique over to Endon, who’ll be reviewing the new Amityville quest.

Zorbak’s Legion!

After the finale of the Wanderland chain, a new DA-only chain has emerged, starring every paladin’s most despised moglin, Zorbak! Let’s dive into the details!

(Note: I’m assuming you have completed the Undead Dravir quest.)

About:

This quests starts with you wondering where Zorbak has ventured off to. You are teleported to a cave (which looks strangely like the undead dravir cave: see below) and are faced with a plethora of monsters. They are variations of the Avian, The Tog, and those acrobatic Mushrooms. They are colored green and all do poison damage. They are usually low-hp high damage, with some more tank-ish togs. You will be ganged up on, so conserve HP.

After brawling your way through the cave, you come across “Unkie Zorbie” reading a story to the wittle dracolichs to get them to sleep. You barge in and tell your own little tale and somehow make the little darklings fall asleep. Now that they are asleep, he prepares to cast a spell on them that will turn them into an invincible undead army! But you step in. The little guys ARE really cute (nowhere NEAR as cute as my dragon Valinor, though), in a weird, skeletal way. Yeah. But you won’t let Zorbak do anything to them and resolve to stick around to look out for the little guys.

Loot time! This quest drops a darkness sword, dagger, and staff for levels 25, 35, and 50.

Pros:

Well….. It was funny? There really wasn’t much to this quest, good or bad. See cons.

Cons:

This was obviously a filler quest. I’m slightly alarmed that it followed the basic structure of the Wanderland finale. Lots of monsters, a short cutscene then loot. It wasn’t as lengthy as the Queen of Tarts, but still seemed overly long. The art was basically the same as the Undead Dravir quest, and they used the same three monsters through all ten rooms. The light and Darkness elements are completely dominated by the Dooms and Destinys, so the weapons were kind of obsolete.

Grade:

All in all a short quest with nothing much in it. I hope this is just a lull before some really good releases. I give this quest a 6.5/10.

Final Grade of Release:

An attempt at trick-or-treating and an endeavor at stopping Zorbak’s dracolich army. Both quests seem rather repetitious, so I’ll have to give this week’s release a 6.5/10.

These are written by anonymous writers, who choose to remain so. I am merely a messenger of sorts. If any of the following posts offend you, please do not place the blame on United Lore, for it may be us hosting the post, but it is not necessarily our own thoughts.

These posts are basically critiques on AE; be it the games they host, their management, etc. It can be seen as a type of “shout out” to AE, an attempt to try and improve the status quo where it need be improved.

This second episode brings yet another analysis of MechQuest; in particular, Westion.

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MechQuest: Westion Declines

Recently MQ has been having very unimpressive releases. It all begins with a wonderful return to Westion (speaking in terms of quality) and then declines to one of the worst releases in MechQuest’s history. The releases started out generally the same with a mission, NPC text, and shops that unlock during that mission. This was very true for the Khaeldron Sheriff’s Office and it was a normal AE zone. After two good weeks there, we moved to the Alamonia General Store where things started to go wrong. The release of the General Store was a very simple mission that had little rewards and the promise of a Steampunk mech which is still available in the war right now. From the General Store we moved to the most unimpressive zone in MQ history, the Khaeldron General Store. The General Store had a very simple battle, heal, battle mission and very quickly unlocked more unimpressive rewards. The worst part was these rewards could only be used with the Steampunk. After this point, zones no longer connected with each other in release order.

The Khaeldron Town Hall was a 100 enemy mission with a mini-boss and more rewards. No cutscenes, no ties to the plot, just a mission. The Alamonia Saloon was just two card games that you had to play over and over again until you unlocked shops. These zones have no worth to the plot and are very simple, not the quality one would expect from the previously wonderful MQ team.

Now let us talk about the Fire War, which shows the continued lack of effort by MQ players. The war began disguised as another bug war (horrible start) for the first 10%. You may think that is harsh, but actually the war was only 1 million enemies. Compared to the length of the last war, this one should have been very easy. However the war dragged on as the plot of it developed. The setup for the war was impressive, but the players’ desire to fight in it was clearly not present. The rewards were very disappointing (this was soon rectified) and some believed the boss fight was too hard. This was a very good war, but it was a clear indicator players did not want to fight for Westion.

So what would the MQ Team do at the end of Westion Part 2? Start another war of course! This war turned out to be the worst (but surprisingly not the longest) war in MQ history. The war was set up nicely with challenging fights, rewards and an SC only war zone with a challenging mission. The war morale was clearly low though and I suspect it was because there was no introductory cutscene. The following week there was promise of a cutscene at 35%. Once reaching that point the ShS forces slowed down and the war moved faster. A new SC mission was added that had you looking for help from Zargon and Arthuria to find they had their own problems to deal with. However once the cutscene was unlocked they had magically changed their minds. Despite staff explanation, this was clearly a deus ex machina. The next week brings us to the most recent update and one that is very, very disappointing. An unfinished minigame of extreme difficulty, a cutscene that was supposed to unlock at 80%, and a reward hidden behind a 200 VB requirement. The only thing that worked was the boss at 80%. The war continues to fail at making players fight in it. The Westion story began in June and ended well into October. The length in itself made many people want the planet to be destroyed.

People have been saying ever since Korin became head of MQ, the releases have gotten smaller and worse. I myself think that this is partially true, but it is not Korin’s fault. This was his first week flying solo and the past weeks he was still working with Warlic. So what changed? The attention team members get to play to their own game. It has been said in DNs that Artix has Warlic working on other projects, and Cysero is working more on AQW. Yes the games have their own staff, but AQW is changing who is on which team. AQW is not causing the problems, the shifting of staff members is causing the problem. This is all highly speculative, but in my opinion it is the only excuse. Korin is not an idiot and is capable of having control, but he may have been rushed into it. How would you feel if you worked at a pizza store and suddenly you were the CEO of that pizza corporation? You wouldn’t be very good at your job and you would be overwhelmed. I do not know for sure what is happening, but something is happening. Perhaps AE has grown too large and been too foolish all its life and now is in serious trouble.

A note about the following “episodes”:

These are written by anonymous writers, who choose to remain so. I am merely a messenger of sorts. If any of the following posts offend you, please do not place the blame on United Lore, for it may be us hosting the post, but it is not necessarily our own thoughts.

These posts are basically critiques on AE; be it the games they host, their management, etc. It can be seen as a type of “shout out” to AE, an attempt to try and improve the status quo where it need be improved.

This first writer is criticizing the current state of MechQuest as a whole.

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MechQuest: The End of an Era

Where to start after that point, I guess the best place would be the latest disaster known as Westion Part 2, although I personally have another name for it, AE’s Bottomless Pit. The very beginning seemed promising, the return of the ShadowScythe, several brand new good-looking ShadowScythe units and a clash with more backstory on them, however, if you read what I just said, you’ll notice I posted nothing promising about Westion itself, only about the SS returning. Honestly, there was nothing promising about Westion to be happy about in waiting for the releases. The beginning was littered with near impossible reputation shops and quests that required hours of a player’s time to max out with honestly sub par rewards as the end result of this madness, and then the next week, we started all over again, in an endlessly hellish cycle that could have been completely avoided had these quests been done in a more enjoyable, varied, and separated fashion than they were.

After this trainwreck, they announced the coming of Westion’s first part 2 war, the 2nd Bug War. First off, it was a bad idea to advertise this war as they did, as the original was a complete DISASTER and was one of the worst releases in MQ history, the staff having to end the war FOR us. The war changed at 10% becoming a Fire/Bug War and getting people more interested in it, I’ll admit, this seemed a good ploy at first, introducing a larger enemy for the war and revealing a new type of enemy with a new damage type that you could gain resistance to. The flip side of this was that it required 250 ELEMENTAL EMBERS, which were a new drop item, only available from the new enemies the Mini Magmars, to max out one of the possible 2 fire resistance items, and then an UNANNOUNCED amount of Embers would be required to get the Steampunk mecha that was revealed to be the mecha at the war’s end. This move convinced a large amount of players that the war wasn’t worth it all and they refused to fight until the amount needed was revealed, which was more than 3/4 of the way through the war, and in the end, it turned out you only needed them to open the shops, not use in a merge or ANYTHING. On top of this, their attempt to somehow tie the GEARS Houses into this war was a solid idea, however was ill-planned and poorly executed, placing the nail in the coffin at this point in this entire war release, condemning it to rot in the minds of the MQ players as one of the worst, most tedious releases in history.

Soon after the end of this disaster, Warlic passed the reins of Creative Head onto Korin, a young animator who had risen through the ranks of the MQ Staff and impressed Warlic, which he believed warranted this promotion. This is potentially one of the BIGGEST mistakes in MechQuest history, as we have seen in the weeks to come, it may have been a thoughtful idea on Warlic’s part, it was an ill-considered one and it was far too early for Korin to have been given creative control of the entire game, I would have recommended giving him a trial run without telling the players, allowing Warlic to evaluate if Korin really was ready for the promotion he had in mind, which he would have seen that he wasn’t. Korin’s first few releases weren’t exactly bad, but they weren’t exactly good either. They nearly slid under the radar with how bland they were, the only semi-innovative release being the Alamonia Saloon, which used card games followed by a mecha fight as an interesting new way to gain Rep in a quest. This was the only release of Korin’s that is really worth mentioning, instead I’ll move on to the current war that plagues this game, the ShadowScythe Invasion.

As this war began, it pitted us against the ShadowScythe who were invading the planet, with 2 war meters side by side showing our progress against theirs, the first to 100% being the winner. While this is a rather solid and interesting concept, everything done after it was a step down the wrong road with no looking back. The SC Camp provided a difficult Special Mission and the same shops provided at the Non-SC camp, with the battles being rather difficult even with a very high leveled mecha. Then came the release of a second special mission at the SC Camp, to get help from the planets of Zargon and Arthuria, whom we’d helped in the past. Both revealed that they were stretched thin as it was and that there would be no way that they would be able to send help to Westion. Yet, in the cutscene unlocked at 35%, who do we find flying to our rescue? Selina and the Galactimecha from Zargon, and King Alteon and his fleet from Arthuria, a clear Deus Ex Machina to save the players from being completely annihilated, and a NECESSARY one. Also at this point, Valoth has decided that it’s time to awaken his evil Dragonoid (Undead Dragonoid) to finish off the Defenders of Westion in one final attack, the Dragonoid we have previously met sensing the awakening of his “friend” and probably coming to find him. This week we see the potentially WORST release done by MQ in a long time, a near impossible minigame fight against the Dragonoid in the Galactimecha that is heavily bugged and should have been looked over a lot more before having been released, and the promise of a cutscene AND the bossfight at 80%. However it was later revealed that the MQ Team didn’t have the cutscene OR the finished bossfight ready, releasing only a black screen with music and a sub par boss enemy who lacks the specials that he was supposed to have, proving the point that this release was easily one of the worst, if not THE worst in Mechquest history, with a shocking amount of flaws and disappointing factors that I expected from MQ 2 years ago right after it started out, not NOW.

Overall, I am extremely displeased with this turn of events and do not know if MechQuest can bounce back from it, I guess that only time will tell and we’ll have to wait and see if they can overcome this HORRID planet and ALL of its releases with it, a difficult task in itself. I do wish the MQ team luck, however I don’t have the confidence that I once had in them and it will take a lot on their part to win it back, more than they’ve shown in a LONG time.

Sorry about how late this was, real life caught up with me. The WarpForce September release is here! Read on! (Warning: May contain exploding weapons, terrible puns, and a Jaws parody!)

Alteon Assault (Storyline, Chapter 5)

About: Continuing on straight after Eternal Darkness, the Defilers are attacking  the Alteon, most likely after the Hand of Creation. You, being the hero you are, must defend it! The shields go down, and Armada tells everyone to prepare for battle! Outside, the Defilers connect two ships to the Alteon, whilst the Alteon itself begins to fall though space (leaving the WarpGuardian Tower behind). Ships begin to sqaure off against the Defilers. Meanwhile back in the ship, you head into the Bridge, where everyone is waiting. After the dialogue, you will be met with a screen. You must select all the buttons at least once to drive the Defilers away. Each area will have a different event. After completing the missions, you return to the bridge. They tell you that nearly all the Defilers have been repelled. They have taken the hangar again… and General Leet is assumed… gone. You return to the hangar. The leader of the Defilers, along with two Defiler Senteries, are engaged in battle with General Leet. You arrive, and challenge him.  You fight two Senteries. Then the boss fight. After defeating him, you can buy some weapons.

Pros: The quest brought on a much-needed challange to a quest. The Defilers are a very powerful race of enemy. The quest reward was aso a very enjoyable battlesuit to use. Can’t wait to see where this goes…

Cons: Above I stated that this provided a much-needed challenge. It gave me FAR too much. The enemies are hard. The boss was VERY hard. However, this does not bring down the total score much.

Grade of Release: 8.5. A great storyline chapter with some story info. Hopefully the Hand of Creation saga will continue…

Planet Satiren (The Attack of Maws)

About: Speaking to Stormfront on the Alteon’s Hangar, you know have the option to TRAVEL to different planets. At the moment you can only travel to one planet: Satiren: The Sea Planet! Stormfront has been receiving distress signals from the world, and would like you to go check it out. Upon reaching the planet, you land on the one piece of land in view; a small hut-like building, built in the middle of the sea. The owner of this estate, is an elf (I think) named Trinni. She is hiding out on Satiren, from “powerful enemies”. (Press talk to learn about her past.)

She needs your help with one of the local… fish. Its name is Maws, and she needs your help. You need to get rid of Maws, while she keeps a look out for the bounty hunters. You head underwater in a submarine, and, after drinking some Water Breathing Potions, leave it. You encounter a small fish, who your character thinks is Maws. It swims off, and the hero runs after it. You call for the fish, and encounter a similar fish… except… MUCH BIGGER! You initiate a battle with Maws. Maws retreats, and talks with her child, the smaller Maws. It complains it just wants a friend, and the mother Maws remembers she has to eat you. You then battle Maws in the submarine, and after defeating it, open a shop with the baby Maws in it.

Pros: The ability to start traveling to different planets is great. This will surely add to the coming soon Galactic Chart. With the quest itself, it was funny to have a Jaws parody, and the temporary armor/sub (Nuculer class) was fun to use too. The Maws reward was a great pet, outclassing the Glador and Flowering Findle in terms of Water damage.

Cons: Maws can be slightly difficult.

Grade of Release: 9.9. The first different planet we can travel to is a fantastic one, and it had a fun storyline, an epic battle between giants (Maws and a sub) and a great little pet!

Planet Dremin

About: Speak to Stormfront in the Hangar to accept this mission. The Diceros that live on the planet are being overrun by a mysterious race… that wasn’t there when they arrived! You arrive on the planet, and meet with Enki of the Diceros. They speak to you about the huge aliens that have arrived on the planet.  You begin to travel across the planet, and encounter the enemies. They are huge fuzzballs of creatures. You then initiate a minigame, where you must dodge the aliens. After completing the minigame, you then must fight your way through the creatures. You can team up with either of the Diceros. or Dillan. After fighting through waves of the Giant Skitters, you reach the nest, and find a load of barrels that are oozing green liquid. A tiny Skitter drinks it, and grows huge. A Tytoa arrives, and he says HE turned the Skitters huge. He says you will NOT stop him. You fight the final skitter, after which you attack the tytoa. After defeating him, you gain access to a shop containing Skitter Pets. (Darkness Element)

Pros: Yay! More pets! We need more pets for each element. The minigame was enjoyable, if not a bit easy, and the story was good, showing the Network is still doing major damage. The guests were also quite good.

Cons: A few bugs with the minigame: If you are a drakel, you will have a human head. Also, when you complete the minigame, your final score comes up as 0.

Grade of Release: 8.0. A good solid quest, which could have used a bit of polishing.

Weapons and Guns Galore

About: There is now a huge load of new weapons in Stormfront’s weapon shops! They range from level 11 until (the yet unreachable) level 44. There are also some new guantlets, the Network Deflector Gaunlet series.

Pros: Hooray! New weapons! I was getting bored with using weak weapons with my level 15 character. Now I can use stronger weapons and be able to tear apart enemies again!

Cons: I don’t exactly see the point of adding in weapons that you can’t get yet…

Grade of Release: 9.5. With a huge load of new weapons, players will be happy until next month…

Level Cap Increase

About: As per usual, there was a level cap increase! WarpTrackers can now level up to level 25, and WarpGuardians can hit level 40!

Pros: WOOT! Now we can level up again! I got lonely without my XP bar… but seriously, this was great!

Cons: To be very honest… I challenge you to find something bad about this. Go on. I’ll wait………….. Okay, enough waiting. Nothing bad!

Grade of Release: 10. Hooray! We can level up again! (Plus my first perfect mark for a release!)

This week’s release brought us the beyond-overdue updated house mecha, another war update to the ongoing Westion vs. ShadowScythe marathon, and some new weapons and a new playable SS mecha. The full analysis is coming right up!

Updated House Mecha

About

I never thought the day would come, but lo and behold updated, higher-level house mecha have finally arrived to MechQuest. They come in level 35 and 40 versions, with updated base stats and higher special activation rates but no new specials or graphical overhauls. A couple minor balances were made to the specials to even things out though.

Pros

I didn’t expect anything more than updated higher-level versions, which is exactly what we got here. I was afraid these higher-level versions would pale in comparison to the influx of newer, more original mecha being released, but thankfully they can actually hold up pretty darn well, which I was very happy to see. Balance-wise, the three houses seem to be pretty much in line, even with MystRaven holding a slight edge.

Cons

Even though I knew we weren’t going to get cool new specials or awesome graphic updates, it was still mildly disappointing they were so similar to all the previous versions. Additionally, I would have liked to see the updated versions at a few more levels, not just two new level categories.

Grade of Release

8.0/10. There isn’t much to say here, as we all got what we finally wanted in the updated house mecha, although for whatever unspoken reason I was still expecting a little more.

Westion vs. ShadowScythe War Update #1: Star Captain Galactimecha Minigame

About

Over on the Star Captain zone front, a new minigame was released, in the same light as the Zargon mega-boss battle against Universo. This time, it’s against Galactimecha, a massive evil dragonoid-like monster that we have to take down in our mecha. It is an incredibly difficult minigame, much harder than Universo, even at the easiest level. I haven’t been able to personally beat it, so I can’t speak to what happens afterwards (although I don’t believe anything major happens).

Pros

The original Universo mega-minigame was incredibly well done and received a very high score from me. It was awesome to see the minigame implemented in a different light, and it’s still as fun as ever. The attacks and animations are completely different this time around, and it’s an absolute blast to see in action. I would attest to this minigame being one of the best, if not the best, minigame AE has ever created, and the new iteration does not disappoint.

Cons

Once again, as has seemingly become commonplace with these otherwise excellent releases, there is one major, glaring problem I can’t avoid: Difficulty. There are two difficulty options in the minigame: hard and impossible. They both might as well be labeled “don’t even think about winning”. The dragonoid enemy has an insane amount of health, and even if you’re good at dodging the multitude of different sized bullets constantly pouring at you it is still an impossible task to win. I can understand upping the difficulty of the minigame since it is an extra SC-only feature and is intended to be a challenge, but this is just ridiculous. I really have no idea what AE was thinking when they made the difficulty. It’s too bad too, since that’s really the only weakness in the entire minigame. I could also argue that the lack of any real storyline relation is a disappointment, although considering the fact that this is a side deal I can understand the separation.

Grade of Release

8.0/10. What should have been a near-perfect minigame release is brought down a bunch by the absurd difficulty options and lack of storyline relevance. If you ignore the difficulty and the notion that the minigame can not be beaten there is a helluva good time to be had though.

Westion vs. ShadowScythe War Update #2: New Weapons + Playable ShadowScythe Trog

About

Two new weapons were released (can’t remember which ones), as well as the ShadowSycthe in non-equippable form. It can be bought with Nova Gems or credits (but you must have 100 valor badges for the credit versions) and is very similar to its enemy counterpart; very DoT-oriented.

Pros

The SS Trog is one of my favorite enemy SS mecha, so to see it become available to us is awesome. AE chose the right SS mecha to convert, and it’s a blast to play with.

Cons

I wish the Trog wouldn’t have been only NGs or credits with a very high valor badge requirement; a lot of people are going to miss out on a cool SS mecha.

Grade of Release

9.0/10. Great mecha for AE to add to our side, and it was done very well.

Overall Grade of Release

6.0/10. Alright, explanation time. Yes, none of the 3 updates received less than an 8/10, so it shouldn’t make sense I’m giving the release only a 6/10. Right? Nope. Here’s why: There just wasn’t enough content released. The updated house mecha was nice, but hardly any kind of a major release. The new weapons + Trog were also good but were very small and minor. And the main attraction, the Galactimecha minigame, which was also solid, had no relation to the war plot and is a complete side challenge for Star Captains. While what was released was of relatively high quality, there was nowhere near enough content to give this release as a whole a high grade. I’ve come to expect more on a weekly basis from AE, and they didn’t deliver this week.