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Weekly Development Update: 11/8/2013


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#1 [HWK]ZamboniChaos

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Posted November 08 2013 - 06:13 PM

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Hello Everyone!

It’s that time again, time for the weekly update and there are a variety of topics to cover! If you haven’t seen our previous updates I encourage you to not only read them, but encourage others to do the same. Since we don’t have the ability to spend as much time on the forums during the day as we’d like, we could use your help in spreading the word if questions surfacing from players can be answered by what we've posted so far.

In order to provide some context to our topics today, let’s start with some clarification on the different environments used in our development. I've seen some comments expressing concerns that we don’t have a live environment to test in and that’s not an entirely accurate statement. We have 3 environments (4 when HAB is running):
    Our High Velocity Development Environment
    [*]Our Stabilizing Environment (updated once we've branched an update - all updates are generated from here)
    [*]Our Live Environment
    [/list]Each environment essentially has a different build of the game, with occasionally different platform service versions active, different database versions and of course, different user accounts. Each must remain isolated to an extent to prevent contamination and improve the quality of testing.

    So when I say that the only true testing environment for live is live, it’s not that we aren't able to have an environment similar to live, but it’s that live has conditions that can only be simulated up to a certain point. We can simulate thousands of users hitting the service all at once or players using different account versions but reality can be very different from a simulation. It’s true of any aspect of software development unfortunately. For example, we've had individual accounts not have voice working and very specific accounts have an “empty” mech in the garage. These aren't global issues, just weird combinations of strings of events that can result in different outcomes which can’t be reasonably simulated. The moral of the story is, please don’t assume that a problem you may be having is a global one, so file those tickets! Our support team has a very quick turnaround and are great at doing their best to help make things right.

    So let’s transition to the connectivity issues that are still outstanding (as indicated by the yellow bar still present at the top of the screen at the time of writing). The platform team has spent the past couple of weeks on this issue and it’s still under investigation, being looked at in multiple environments (not just live). There was even a little bit downtime this week to push something out to the live service to aid in debugging. Since properly looking into this issue requires the use of multiple environments and as close to a mirror of what’s currently live as possible for testing, we've had to put a hold on updating our stabilizing environment with new content. As a result this pushes back the next update by about a week. It was originally scheduled for this month but has moved to a new tentative date of December 3rd. It’s of the highest priory for us to fix these connectivity issues and we’ll update the community when we have additional information to share.

    Now some may wonder why we're even thinking about a new update when the connectivity and online performance issues are still present. It’s a fair question, but it’s also important to remember that a good number of team members here at the studio are unable to help with fixing such issues. We have artists, animators, designers, gameplay programmers...a huge amount of great talent that can continue working on HAWKEN even though online performance and connectivity is the highest priority for the team as a whole.

    We haven’t tied the final bow on the next update yet and even though the content is locked, there is final testing and polish to take care of. We have a few more weekly update posts in front of us until the next patch arrives so we’ll wait until another post to go into details on what’s coming. We mentioned in a previous posting that this update is more content focused than feature focused and until we specifically say what’s next, speculate as you will about this concept art for next month’s release:

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    Thanks Everyone!

    Jason Hughes
    Producer || Adhesive Games || twitter: @digitalHUGHES
    Click here to view the article

Pour yourself a drink, I'll sing you a song.


@ZamboniChaos


#2 Nept

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Posted November 08 2013 - 06:15 PM

FIRST.

https://robertsspace...orgs/OMNISCIENT


Complaining about Hawken's population?  Read this: https://community.pl...en/#entry524454

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#3 ChubaMecha

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Posted November 08 2013 - 06:16 PM

nice to hear this info

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Can u spot all the Chubas?

:D


#4 Vitinary

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Posted November 08 2013 - 06:18 PM

Wow, engines?
I'd assume those would be first colony ships that landed on the planet.
That's pretty neat.

#5 Zdragow

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Posted November 08 2013 - 06:19 PM

Oho, fixing the connectivity issues. This pleases me. Hopefully it might take care of the jumpy Scouts I see, you know the ones I'm talking about.

Also, liking the new concept art. Perhaps a new map that, in the lore, lies between Last Eco and civilization? It doesn't seem to be plagued by the Giga Structure, at least as far as I can tell.

#6 ropefish

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Posted November 08 2013 - 06:23 PM

yay another map with plants :D

also how much longer for the you-know-what o/////o

Edited by ropefish, November 08 2013 - 06:23 PM.

"I find that there are those who will hang themselves if you give them enough rope, and that there are those who will provide their own rope. "
-VocalMagic           Croin//illal's wildlife

View PostDaPheel, on October 26 2013 - 01:05 AM, said:

You don't nuke Ropefish : ROPEFISH NUKES YOU!

#7 Zdragow

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Posted November 08 2013 - 06:25 PM

View Postropefish, on November 08 2013 - 06:23 PM, said:

yay another map with plants :D

also how much longer for the you-know-what o/////o

I was wondering how long that'd take. Not long, not long at all.

#8 TheVulong

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Posted November 08 2013 - 06:49 PM

That's some Unreal stuff right there. Also, it will be funny if this will be the first map where you can fall to your death. I mean, i see an abyss there.
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Edited by TheVulong, November 08 2013 - 06:49 PM.

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#9 Silverfire

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Posted November 08 2013 - 06:52 PM

Thanks for the continued transparency Hughes! Also very happy that you guys are willing to push a new content update back in order to fix recurring problems. It really shows your commitment in fixing the game to continue to make it playable. I actually hope that you guys would do this more often, as I'm sure a good portion of the community would prefer more fixes than rushing in content updates.

That concept art though had got me tingling. :)

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#10 ChubaMecha

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Posted November 08 2013 - 06:53 PM

map with multiple levels

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Can u spot all the Chubas?

:D


#11 Teljaxx

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Posted November 08 2013 - 06:58 PM

A spaceship graveyard map? Abandoned Spaceport? I want to see more maps with Giga-Structure sections, too.

With how complex game programing and computer hardware is these days, it is nearly impossible to tell exactly what is going to happen until you put it all together. This is definitely a case of the sum being much greater than its parts. So I do not blame you guys for not being able to get everything working right until after releasing it. it is good that you guys are always quick to fix the inevitable issues that arise, though.
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#12 coden1ke

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Posted November 08 2013 - 07:10 PM

I am posting this here to see if I get any developer response. Here is the forum link for the thread.
https://community.pl...14/page__st__40

This is my last response to the thread, I will not be returning to play Hawken nor will I recommend the game to anyone.
Double and the ability to obtain Quad EXP was wildly advertised for the weekend event.

I don't care if this seems like a non issue or not, not responding to stuff like this is not good for any community, especially not one of this size.

If we can't get exp that we were entitled too - Fine
If refunds on the credits spent to get the quad EXP going - Fine.

But DON'T just drop this issue without a closing response.
I would be ok with losing out on my time and money for this issue, as long as their was some kind of explanation of what happened.

Instead we get nothing - and it looks like HAWKEN does not care.

#13 Magnolia1038

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Posted November 08 2013 - 07:45 PM

Love the concept art!

#14 HybriiD

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Posted November 08 2013 - 08:03 PM

First of all greetings for the game! I think it has hard work behind, and technically the game is awesome. This and free to play system make me think you want to share this masterpiece with many users, and i will be glad to see when game releases finally. Me and my group of gaming friends (10-15 people) are really looking forward the party system improvements, to make us possible to play with teams of 6 persons, and train tactics for competitive scene. I posted something related on the last patch notes with some ideas :ph34r:
I hope it's the beginning of a great adventure :D

Cheers

Edited by HybriiD, November 08 2013 - 08:05 PM.


#15 neo0031

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Posted November 08 2013 - 08:21 PM

Thanks for the update.

As for the concept art... A new map for co-op?
Voice chat spamming you in UK servers whenever I get the chance...

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#16 Aims

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Posted November 08 2013 - 08:42 PM

Thanks for the update as always. HUGE thanks for the environment art! Any chance you guys would be able to release more? It's always amazing to see what John and Khang have been up to and I would be very interested in any art from other memebers of the team too. The art style/direction of this game is one of the things which makes it so special - share it if at all possible :)

#17 Saturnine

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Posted November 08 2013 - 08:53 PM

Since he said the update is more feature focused than content focused, I'd imagine the artwork isn't for a map.. Maybe a clan hall feature to tie in with clan support?

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#18 Aims

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Posted November 08 2013 - 08:55 PM

View PostSaturnine, on November 08 2013 - 08:53 PM, said:

Since he said the update is more feature focused than content focused, I'd imagine the artwork isn't for a map.. Maybe a clan hall feature to tie in with clan support?

I think you got that backwards, Sat :P

#19 TheVulong

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Posted November 08 2013 - 08:56 PM

View PostSaturnine, on November 08 2013 - 08:53 PM, said:

Since he said the update is more feature focused than content focused, I'd imagine the artwork isn't for a map.. Maybe a clan hall feature to tie in with clan support?

It's the opposite, Sat.

Quote

We mentioned in a previous posting that this update is more content focused than feature focused

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#20 ShadowGTR

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Posted November 08 2013 - 10:01 PM

View PostTheVulong, on November 08 2013 - 06:49 PM, said:

That's some Unreal stuff right there.




On a serious note, it looks like a derelict ship, perhaps one of the ships used to colonize Illal? (Edit: Vitinary and I appear to have had the same idea.)

Edited by ShadowGTR, November 08 2013 - 10:03 PM.

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