Introduction.

This page contains a short FAQ on the Missing Link Expansions. If some question does not find its answer here, feel free to use the Yahoo Highlander mailing lists to ask your questions (check the Links page) and other players will get the official answer as well.

What is the Missing Link Expansion project ?

The Missing Link Expansions are virtual (under electronic form) and unofficial (designed by players for players) expansions for the Highlander CCG from Thunder Castle Games. They are distributed freely for any player who wishes to have new cards and new strategies at hand, and mostly in order to keep the game alive after over five years of waiting for the official Ramirez Edition.

The MLE project tries to be the link between the Four Horsemen expansion and the expected Ramirez Edition.This set also tries to be a link between multiple Highlander universes : from Highlander The Movie to Highlander IV Endgame, Highlander The Series and The Raven.

The most current MLE set is titled World Without End, and the latest collection is the Chronicles of Connor MacLeod.

All sets distributed in virtual booster packs. Each pack is composed of jpeg pictures selected randomly from the card rarity list thanks to the Virtual Packs Generator.

What is the Virtual Packs Generator ?

This a small software designed to build random packs of Highlander cards from a list of cards with different rarities (from common to ultra-rares) and distribute them freely at a selected rate.

This limit and the booster packs system are not designed to frustrate players nor to limit them in their deck building exercise, but on the contrary to slowly give them access to all card pictures and have them make efforts in deck building as if they had bought ten "real" weekly boosters from their retailer.

Once downloaded, each card can obviously be used in multiples in your decks. Players are also free to exchange their pictures with friends and other players. The main purpose of this system is to give each card its chance in your decks and to prevent overpowered cards and immortals to overshadow basic cards and Persona for all players.

HONOR GUIDELINE #1 : Please do not trade the same card more than once. Each time a card is traded through the mail, a new copy of the jpeg file is created. By trading the same card many times you would waste the whole rarity system (some players would trade 10 rares for a missing common). Rares and Premiums are supposed to be available in lower quantity than commons or uncommons. That's why we are requesting you not to trade the same card more than once.

How may I get a complete collection ?

To collect all these jpeg pictures, you can firstly download your weekly packs. You should be able to get all commons in a few weeks and all the uncommons in less than two months. Getting all Rares and Premiums will be much harder. Statistically, it should take about three or four months to gain access to all rares pictures and one year for Premiums.

It is obviously an incredibly long time. Way too much for any Highlander player. That's why it will be necessary to trade your pictures for those that have been downloaded by other players. You can email copies of your pictures to other players and trade them for some card pix you do not have. You can even use the basic Yahoo groups Highlander swaps list to post your trade lists and make trade offers.

HONOR GUIDELINE #2 : Please do not post any picture or URL to any picture in any newsgroup, mailing list or web directory. You can use a few of commons in your HomePage or MLE strategy/trade page but do not display your whole collection on a web site. Keep in mind that as soon as everybody can see and download a picture, it becomes a worthless card in the VPG database.

HONOR GUIDELINE #3 : Do not send multiple account requests to get more cards. If need be, we can check the I.P signature provided by anymous email providers : two different accounts from hotmail have the same I.P signature if sent from the same computer, and this IP signature is also used by yahoo or aol... If we receive too many multiple requests from such anonymous accounts, we will simply removed all anonymous emails from the subscription.

How can I get "real" MLE cards ?

The MLE team do not want to sell a "real" printed version of these cards in order to avoid any confusion. We are NOT trying to make money with this project, so we won't sell a printed version of our cards, even at a very low cost. So unless you can get this service from another player (see the Wanna Help ? page), you will need a decent printer (preferably a colour printer, but b&w is far enough).

Each jpeg should have approximately the size of a real Highlander card so you should be able to print them "as is". Yet on some systems, or with some printing tools, cards may not have this specific size. In this case, you'll have to fix the following size for each card :
Height : 8.5 cm (3.5 inch) and/or
Width : 6 cm (2.36 inch) and/or
Resolution : 150 dpi

If you have access to tools such as MS Word, Paintshop 6, Adobe Pagemaker or Photodeluxe, you can even print up to nine cards per sheet of paper (A4, or Legal US paper).

Check out Colin Fijal's short printing guide for more informations.

Who's the MLE team ?

The MLE design team is currently composed of :

- Glenn Clarke < MLE@mleccg.com > (MLE manager), < Playtest@mleccg.com > (Playtest manager)
- Gerald Dibarboure < dibarboure@cls.fr > (MLE creator)
- Eric Thompson < Art@mleccg.com > (Art manager)
- Shaun Campbell < RnD@mleccg.com > (RnD Manager), < Docs@mleccg.com > (Documents manager)
- Erick Hess < Webmaster@mleccg.com > (Webmaster)
- Eric Cavaliere < Apps@mleccg.com > (Application manager)
- Adam Crites < Promo@mleccg.com > (Promo distribution manager)
- Steve Crow (Game mechanics advisor, Continuity manager)
- Nicholas Jenkins (R&D designer)
- Mike Hawk (R&D designer)
- Andy Griffiths (R&D designer)
- Alben Shockley (R&D designer)
- Steve Hurley (R&D designer)

It is also necessary to underline that many many players have sent either card ideas or original Highlander pictures, and have participated to the long playtest process. We'd like to thank them all for everything they have provided. Check out the credits page for more details.

Well done guys !

Feel free to send your own text files with card ideas or more Highlander pictures for jpeg card building. YOU can be a part of the MLE project. YOU can make the Highlander CCG live again in your area and all over the world...

Troubleshooting.

In case of problem with these pages and software, feel free to request the help of the MLE team. The Double Eagle software is currently Netscape 4+ and Microsoft IE 4+ compliant if Javascript and Cookies are enabled. If you are using another browser on which this software does not work, or if you still have problem, then you can still email the webmaster.