HAWKEN servers are up and our latest minor update is live!
Forgot Password_ SUPPORT REDEEM CODE

Jump to content

  2. ▸
  3. ▸ Article: The Facility Update: Patch Notes

Category List

The Facility Update: Patch Notes

Posted by Scapes May 03 2013 11:55 AM in Game Information


Coming May 9, the Facility Update introduces the finished Facility map first tested by our pilots on custom servers, new customizations, gameplay balancing, and interface improvements.

Mechs
  • Increased all mechs starting armor by 50.
    • Designer's Note: We wanted to increase time-to-kill (TTK) for all mechs and decided on a flat rate over a percentage. With too large of a percentage, trying to kill a Type-C mech would push overheating limits. If we made the percentage too small, the TTK for Type-A mechs will still be too short. We'll be watching for player feedback and gameplay data to determine if this first step towards a TTK sweet spot is in need of tweaking in future patches.
Maps
  • NEW Map: Facility
    • Available for Team Deathmatch, Missile Assault, and Deathmatch.
    • Facility-only servers will also be available as Custom Servers for a limited time.
    • New Facility map Service Awards available to unlock.
  • Assorted map collision and art adjustments, mostly focused on Front Line.
Customizations
  • NEW Repair Drone: RD-0RB1T
  • NEW Thruster: JT-Bowshock
  • NEW Camouflages: Ash-GRY, Badlands-BRN, Fatigue-GRN, Granite-PCH, Survival-GRN, Tide-BLU
  • Holo Taunts
    • Increased duration from 7 to 10 seconds.
    • Increased size by 10%.
Items
  • Blockade
    • Decreased armor from 1000 to 750.
    • Increased duration from 13 to 15 seconds.
  • Repair Charge
    • Decreased absorption rate by 30% This change applies to all health orbs as well.
Gameplay
  • Mech Indicators
    • Increased size of ability icons and callsigns.
    • Enemy health bar indicator will now always display as long as you can see their callsign.
  • Radar
    • Enemy turrets show up on your radar if they are firing. The detection distance is the same as an enemy firing.
General Improvements
  • Added option to view others pilots' Profile and Achievements as long as they're in your Friend List. Right-click on the pilot's callsign in your Friend List to view.
  • Added taunting to post-match results screen. Press "G" to Mech Taunt and "H" to Holo Taunt. Additionally, press "Left Shift" to fire up your thrusters, and "C" to show your repair animation.
  • Text added to Ready Up Screen to denote that auto-balance is turned on.
  • Test Drives
    • Test Drive mechs will be automatically redeemed to your inventory for the Test Drive period.
    • Expired Test Drive mechs will be updated and auto-redeemed as well.
    • Automatically redeeming Test Drives mechs can be disabled as an option in the Settings menu.
    • Added option to show or hide expired Test Drive mechs in the Your Mechs pane.
  • Graphics optimizations including weapon projectiles, weapon trails, weapon impacts, explosions, thrusters, map textures, lighting, and more.
  • Graphics updates for Helix Repair Torch, Blockade, and Redox-O2 as well as some mech textures and PhysX materials in maps.
  • Audio tweaks including impact sounds, radio chatter distortions, and more.
  • Swapping weapons in the Garage now has an animation and shimmer effect.
  • Cleaned up localization text.
Bugs Fixed
  • TOW Missile and Detonator projectiles will no longer pass through Type-C mechs in turret mode.
  • Holograms now display desaturated paint camos.
  • Players will now be informed that they will not receive MVP awards if there are less than four people in the match. "MVP: Not Enough Players" will now display on the Post Match Stats page if there were not enough players to give out the XP reward.
  • The Submachine Cannon is no longer partially invisible.
  • A tower on top of the Prosk base is no longer missing segments.



Back to HAWKEN News


248 Comments


Frouste
May 03 2013 05:00 PM
I am hyped for this patch!

Sylhiri
May 03 2013 05:03 PM

Quote

Audio tweaks including impact sounds, radio chatter distortions, and more.

YES

BiO
May 03 2013 05:05 PM
Good bye Repair Charge... welcome Shield! :rolleyes:

Can't wait to see the finish facility map!! :D :lol:

Elix
May 03 2013 05:05 PM
Wooooooo.

Here's hoping that the TTK testing is successful, but balance is a work in progress. Looking forward to the patch. :D

OdinTheWise
May 03 2013 05:07 PM
I think the shield should have a tinny bit more health

TerranCmdr
May 03 2013 05:12 PM
Can't wait to play the finished Facility!

Also stoked to taunt in the after match screen. :P

ropefish
May 03 2013 05:20 PM
no prestige weapon for the tech_

Umbre
May 03 2013 05:29 PM

View Postropefish, on May 03 2013 - 05:20 PM, said:

no prestige weapon for the tech_

There will likely be one in the patch coming after this one. I'm sure that the next mech introduced into the game, will share a weapon with the Tech like the Reaper did with the Sharpshooter.

Akaon
May 03 2013 05:47 PM
Like the item changes overall, not sure what to think of the health boost to all mechs, why not just decrease the damage of guns_

Also, this is a 10% buff to the health of A mechs and an almost 6% buff to the health of C mechs, essentially buffing A mechs the most, while C mechs are pretty much the worst mechs as it is. I just don't get why you're using a flat health buff instead of a percentage. (just like how a couple of internals/optimizations give flat buffs instead of a percentage, resulting in varying effects depending on what class your mech is)

Guiotine
May 03 2013 06:13 PM
I'm hyped, can't wait :D

Sylhiri
May 03 2013 06:14 PM

View PostAkaon, on May 03 2013 - 05:47 PM, said:

Also, this is a 10% buff to the health of A mechs and an almost 6% buff to the health of C mechs, essentially buffing A mechs the most, while C mechs are pretty much the worst mechs as it is. I just don't get why you're using a flat health buff instead of a percentage. (just like how a couple of internals/optimizations give flat buffs instead of a percentage, resulting in varying effects depending on what class your mech is)

Quote

Designer's Note: We wanted to increase time-to-kill (TTK) for all mechs and decided on a flat rate over a percentage. With a too much of a percentage, trying to kill a Type-C mechs would push overheating limits. If we made the percentage too small, Type-A mechs TTK will still be too short.

Adding a little bit of health is a lot easier then adjusting all the weapons.

ReachH
May 03 2013 06:39 PM
Woot Graphics optimizations. And welcome a new era of post-repair charge dominance.

nokari
May 03 2013 06:40 PM
I was not expecting this haha, but certainly welcome news. Eventually at some point I will be free enough to test these out.

The_Silencer
May 03 2013 06:43 PM
Oh yeah! Awesome picture up there. Can't wait to play on this map, it looks so cool! :D

...

SystemiK
May 03 2013 06:57 PM
Been away for awhile.  Can someone explain the "auto-redeem" part of the notes_  Can't seem to get my head around what this actually means and I was unable to find anything from looking around the forum.

The_Eldritch_Abomination
May 03 2013 07:00 PM
Can't wait to have 930 health on my Rocketeer... :lol:

Umbre
May 03 2013 07:01 PM

View PostSystemiK, on May 03 2013 - 06:57 PM, said:

Been away for awhile.  Can someone explain the "auto-redeem" part of the notes_  Can't seem to get my head around what this actually means and I was unable to find anything from looking around the forum.

I think it means that rather than searching the store for the mechs, they just automatically get added to your list.

View PostThe_Eldritch_Abomination, on May 03 2013 - 07:00 PM, said:

Can't wait to have 930 health on my Rocketeer... :lol:

932 with the 3.5% health optimization, with another 8 if using the movement tree health bonus (but you shouldn't, since it offers almost nothing), and a total of 985 health with all of the optimizations + health internal.

Wasabi_Wei
May 03 2013 07:03 PM
Nice.

MartyFriedman
May 03 2013 07:03 PM

View PostSystemiK, on May 03 2013 - 06:57 PM, said:

Been away for awhile.  Can someone explain the "auto-redeem" part of the notes_  Can't seem to get my head around what this actually means and I was unable to find anything from looking around the forum.
My guess would be that they get put in your garage automatically instead of having to go into the store to put them in the garage.

Analysis
May 03 2013 07:11 PM

View PostScapes, on May 03 2013 - 04:55 PM, said:

Mechs
  • Increased all mechs starting armor by 50.
    • Designer's Note: We wanted to increase time-to-kill (TTK) for all mechs and decided on a flat rate over a percentage. With a too much of a percentage, trying to kill a Type-C mechs would push overheating limits. If we made the percentage too small, Type-A mechs TTK will still be too short. We'll be watching for player feedback and gameplay data to determine if this first step towards a TTK sweet spot is in need of tweaking in future patches.
Maps
  • NEW Map: Facility
    • Available for Team Deathmatch, Missile Assault, and Deathmatch.
    • Facility-only servers will also be available as Custom Servers for a limited time.
    • New Facility map Service Awards available to unlock.
  • Assorted map collision and art adjustments, mostly focused on Front Line.
Customizations
  • Holo Taunts
    • Increased duration from 7 to 10 seconds.
    • Increased size by 10%.
Items
  • Blockade
    • Decreased armor from 1000 to 750.
    • Increased duration from 13 to 15 seconds.
  • Shield
    • Increased damage absorption from 300 to 350.
  • Detonator
    • Decreased damage from 155 to 140.
  • Repair Charge
    • Decreased absorption rate by 30%.
Gameplay
  • Mech Indicators
    • Increased size of ability icons and callsigns.
    • Enemy health bar indicator will now always display as long as you can see their callsign.
General Improvements
  • Added taunting to post-match results screen. Press "G" to Mech Taunt and "H" to Holo Taunt. Additionally, press "Spacebar" or "Left Shift" to fire up your thrusters.
  • Graphics optimizations including weapon projectiles, weapon trails, weapon impacts, explosions, thrusters, map textures, lighting, and more.
  • Graphics updates for Helix Repair Torch, Blockade, and Redox-O2 as well as some mech textures and PhysX materials in maps.
  • Audio tweaks including impact sounds, radio chatter distortions, and more.
  • Swapping weapons in the Garage now has an animation and shimmer effect.
  • Cleaned up localization text.

Slower kill times really_ What is your ideal kill time_ Will it stop when the kill times get long enough to create a chain letter with my opponent_

+50 health to all mechs since killing a tech was already to easy_ More mech blobs coming...

I'm very concerned about the reduction of heal rate from orbs. So you want it to be nearly impossible to go solo or win a 2v1 fight now_ I run commando in general since I can't stand two mech blobs fighting. Hawken is at its best in 1v1, 2v1, and 2v2 in my opinion.

Still no change to Heat_ How can this God gun remain unchanged_ How can you justify the speed of the projectile with the inclusion of splash.

The direction of this game continues to baffle. I guess I should say "good job" since it appears many others find these changes good.

Not sure why shield damage absorption was increased. Who likes fighting an invincible opponent_

The only aspects I can agree with that are in the patch:
- improved holo taunt functionality
- textured Facility
- enemy health always visible if in sight.
- updated graphics options

This patch sounds as troubling as the Technician patch. Pre-patch excitement level 1/10. I wish the Hawken team would just say they want the game more like Mech Warrior so I could just drop this game completely.

WarlordZ
May 03 2013 07:37 PM
So, wait, you're buffing armor at a flate rate across the board, even though A class mechs are top-tier_  So technicians still have fast regeneration, stackable construction beams, and now they're gaining +10% more health_  This sounds bad.  Maybe the increased health bars everywhere will overwhelm the techs a bit, but I'm really worried about this further messing things up.

Elix
May 03 2013 07:39 PM

View PostAnalysis, on May 03 2013 - 07:11 PM, said:

Slower kill times really_ What is your ideal kill time_ Will it stop when the kill times get long enough to create a chain letter with my opponent_
Considering that you can drop a mech from 100% to 0 in about 4 seconds, TTK is possibly a little too low right now.

Also, the repair charge healing rate's been reduced because between dropped/deployed repair charges and techs, rediculous tanking capability currently exists in the game. From 1 hp, with a repair charge, repairing, and a tech, a C-class can be back on its feet incredibly fast considering its giant HP pool by comparison to the smaller classes.

ropefish
May 03 2013 07:40 PM
i need to get some mc to buy the new items ,heh heh heh......

Phos
May 03 2013 08:26 PM
This patch sounds like a bad idea that almost completely misses the point.  More death glob stalemates ahoy.  

No siege changes no tech nerfs no SA Hawkins buff, Vulcan still mostly harmless and you guys still won't just surface the raw numbers.

Silk_Sk
May 03 2013 08:32 PM
Guys! Look! Numbers...

Posted Image