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[Scapes]

OPEN BETA PATCH NOTES: 12/12/12

Overview

Our Alpha and Closed Beta test pilots have helped us immeasurably by playtesting HAWKEN and providing their impressions and suggestions on the official forums. As a direct result of your experiences over the past months, we're proud to present the HAWKEN Open Beta patch notes.

MECHS

Assault Mech

All players will start with the Assault mech with the following loadout.

• Name: Assault
  
• Class: Medium (Class B)
  
• Chassis: Fred
  
• Ability: Weapons Coolant
  
• Primary Weapon: Assault Rifle
  
• Alternate Primary Weapon: Submachine Cannon
  
• Secondary Weapon: TOW Launcher
  
• Unlockable Prestige Weapon: Point-D Vulcan
  
• Support Item: Shield
  
• Offensive Internal: Brand-New Radiator (Rookie Offensive Internal)
  
• Defensive Internal: Brand-New Cage (Rookie Defensive Internal)
  
• Functional Internal: Brand-New Regulator (Rookie Functional Internal)

Vanguard Mech

Players who purchased the Ensign, Lieutenant, or Commander bundles will receive the exclusive, prototype Vanguard mech with the following loadout.

• Name: Vanguard
  
• Class: Heavy (Class C)
  
• Chassis: Cupcake
  
• Ability: Vanguard Turret (currently operates same as Mobile Turret)
  
• Primary Weapon: Submachine Cannon
  
• Alternate Primary Weapon: Mini Flak Cannon
  
• Secondary Weapon: Grenade Launcher
  
• Unlockable Prestige Weapon: Point-D Vulcan
  
• Offense Item: Detonator
  
• Support Item: Repair Charge
  
• Offensive Internal: Brand-New Radiator (Rookie Offensive Internal)
  
• Defensive Internal: Brand-New Cage (Rookie Defensive Internal)
  
• Functional Internal: Brand-New Regulator (Rookie Functional Internal)

ITEMS

Rookie Internals

All Assault and Vanguard mechs come equipped with "rookie" internals which have no negative effects unlike other internals.

• Brand-New Radiator (Rookie Offensive Internal): Reduces Weapon Heat Generation by 5%
  
• Brand-New Cage (Rookie Defensive Internal): Increases Maximum Armor by 5%
  
• Brand-New Regulator (Rookie Functional Internal): Increases Experience Gain by 20%

Please note that while internal slots unlock at mech levels 8, 10, and 12, rookie internals will affect your gameplay starting at mech level 1. You won't be able to change out these internals until the slots are unlocked.

Countermeasures

We've added a new gameplay item called countermeasures. These automatic consumables activate when there is a status or condition present. Each activation consumes one countermeasure use. All countermeasures are drawn from an account-wide inventory of countermeasure uses, the pilot decides which (if any) countermeasure type to equip to a mech in their garage. Please note that countermeasures will only activate once per mech "life".

• Extinguisher: Reduces weapon heat upon overheat.
  
• Battery Charge: Reactivates systems disabled when affected by EMP effect.
  
• Descrambler: Renders mech immune to the Radar Scrambler effect.

Team HAWKEN likes to get this party started right, so each HAWKEN account will start with 15 countermeasure uses pre-stocked!

Repair Drones

• Each repair drone now has its own, unique body style.
  
• Commanders of the Vanguard Initiative also start with the exclusive PY-R0 H0G repair drone equipped to their Vanguard mech.

Thrusters

• Cosmetic thruster effects now have unique nozzle designs.
  
• Ensigns, Lieutenants, and Commanders of the Vanguard Initiative also start with the exclusive PY-R0 BURN thruster equipped to their Vanguard mech.

Camouflages

• You'll be ready to literally rocket the runway with these awesome camos: Wicked-Grn, Ripples-Yel, Earth-Lime, Pixel-Tan, Wisp-Brn, Worm-Or, Boom-Teal, Checker-Pnk.
  
• Ensigns, Lieutenants, and Commanders of the Vanguard Initiative also start with the exclusive Vanguard Bronze, Silver, and/or Gold (depending on their Vanguard Initiative tier) camo equipped to their Vanguard mech.

Chassis

• The new Brommens medium chassis is now available in the Body Shop.

Functionality

• Auto-switching of items upon use can now be disabled from the Settings Menu.

GAMEPLAY

Tutorials

• Interactive Basic Training and Garage Store tutorials are now available in the Deploy pane.

Siege Mode

We are extremely excited about the evolution of this mode, but in the short-term we consider it a work in progress. We're carefully watching how it's played and are eager to get your insights on how you feel we can improve it.

• Bases now have integer-based health like mechs.
  
• The energy required to launch a battleship now reduces over time instead of increasing over time.
  
  • Battleships will automatically launch if an energy requirement reaches zero this way.
• When launched, battleships will stop outside an enemy base and do damage to it.
  
  • Per team, only one battleship can be active at any given time.
• Energy Stations no longer run out of energy, but they will provide less per second when simultaneously used by multiple mechs.

Level Cap and Overflow XP

• The mech level cap is now 25.
  
• When you reach level 25, you can unlock each mech's prestige weapon. You will still gain XP on level 25 mechs. This XP is called "Overflow XP" and can be transferred from the level-capped mech to a lower-level mech in your Garage.
  
  • Please note that Overflow XP is not active as of this patch.

Balance

• Radar and Radar Scrambler items now bounce off of walls and ceilings, deploying on the ground when they land.
  
• Collision on all turret items has been removed, allowing for improved player mobility after deployment.
  
• All internals now have positive and negative effects with the exception of rookie internals.

Maps

• The interactive Basic Training tutorial takes you to a new training map, allowing rookies and veterans to learn the basics of HAWKEN by fighting sweetly inept AI drones.
  
  • Anticipate updates and improvements to this map on a regular basis.
• Adjustments have been made to Bazaar's layout for improved balance between starting locations.
  
• Landmarks have been added to all maps to help players become more familiar with maps and make it easier to locate teammates.

Weapons

Our weapons have undergone balance updates thanks to the community's great feedback and testing. We all know the weapons are vital to making HAWKEN feel amazing and fun to play. New players won't notice a difference so this is mainly to inform our more experienced pilots.

Overall, weapons should behave much closer to how they performed in Closed Beta Event 2, with added emphasis on consistent feedback to the player and removing extremely high burst damage.

• Short to Mid Range
  
  • Flak Cannon: Slightly decreased damage, but decreased heat generation and spread to compensate.
    
  • Mini Flak Cannon: Decreased rate of fire and damage, but decreased spread and heat generation to compensate.
    
  • Submachine Cannon: Decreased spread to make it more effective at mid range. Previously known as Submachine Gun.
    
  • Point-D Vulcan: Increased spread to make it less effective at range, but reduced heat generation.
• Mid to Long Range
  
  • Assault Rifle: Decreased heat generation and spread, making it much more effective at mid and long ranges.
    
  • SA Hawkins: Decreased heat generation and highly increased accuracy. Also increased rate of fire to more effectively chip opponents down.
• Long Range
  
  • Slug Rifle: Highly decreased spread to make it extremely accurated while zoomed in. Also decreased spread while not zoomed in.
    
  • Sabot Rifle: Highly decreased spread while zoomed in and unzoomed. Slightly increased damage to allow for better bursts.
• Explosive Weapons
  
  • Rev-GL: The Rev-GL was overhauled to make it much more effective in every situation, especially in one-on-one combat. Its projectile grenades travel at a higher velocity to hit targets easier and its damage was increased slightly.
    
  • EOC Repeater: We increased the radius of deployed projectiles. Projectiles now do more damage to players who walk over them.
    
  • HEAT Cannon: Slightly decreased charged projectile damage.
    
  • Seeker: Increased projectile speed, but decreased homing strength, meaning they won't track opponents quite as well. Fixed a bug where projectiles were locking onto opponents too easily.
    
  • Hellfire Missiles: Decreased damage slightly, bringing it closer to other secondary weapons.

USER INTERFACE

• The Garage has been renovated with a new look.
  
• The Garage and Deploy menus have been improved.
  
• The in-game interface has been updated with major changes to the HUD and item icons.
  
• Lore and polished descriptions have been added to nearly every item, weapon, and mech.

AUDIO

• Music has been added to the Garage, Deploy, and Postgame panes.
  
• Lots of new sound effects and sound variations.

BUG FIXES

• Massive improvements to localization support.
  
• Environment collision has been improved on all maps.
  
• Optimizations have been performed on all maps.
  
• Heavy mechs in turret mode can now use items.
  
• XP and HC gain are no longer improperly recorded on rare occasions.
  
• Beautified the sky on the Uptown map.
  
• Players will no longer see their own thruster exhaust visuals in the HUD.
  
• Left and right weapons will no longer appear swapped in Postgame pane or in holograms.
  
• The "Syncing Account" message should no longer appear when failing to join a match.
  
• Heavy mechs can now exit turret mode while overheated.
  
• Players names no longer appear twice on the scoreboard. No more doppelgangers!

[Coot]

Thanks for posting these. Alot of stuff looks like an improvement!

Countermeasures from the looks of it are no bueno. All it seems is a P2W advantage in gameplay, which is what Adhesive has been against all along.

What brought this on_

Edited by Coot, December 11 2012 - 06:17 PM.

[GREW]

Man, just reading all that makes me pumped.

[Husky]

Scapes, on December 11 2012 - 06:04 PM, said:

Mini Flak Cannon: Decreased rate of fire and damage, but decreased spread and heat generation to compensate

Sweet! You guys really listen to us

[OverWolf]

*insert spaz here.*

[AsianJoyKiller]

Wow.
Countermeasures are extremely lame.

[marshalade]

WOW lots of content. Inb4 accusations of countermeasures being P2W (which, I dread, they might just be). Really excited for Overflow XP concept! Thanks for buffs to SS weapons, definitely buying mine back now! EOC as well! Disappointed on HEAT nerf, but it was needed. YAY MUSIC! YAY SFX! YAY SEEKER NERF!

Ahhhhhh I just want it to be tomorrow.

Edited by marshalade, December 11 2012 - 06:21 PM.

[Skylead]

I'm floored that you were able to so neatly eliminate the turtle strat from Siege mode. Great work Adhesive team!

[Husky]

AsianJoyKiller, on December 11 2012 - 06:12 PM, said:

Wow.
Countermeasures are extremely lame.

I have to agree, especially if we have to buy new CMs.

[Elix]

Scapes, on December 11 2012 - 06:04 PM, said:

Ensigns, Lieutenants, and Commanders of the Vanguard Initiative also start with the exclusive PY-R0 H0G repair drone equipped to their Vanguard mech.

So, that wasn't a typo_ This is really happening_ All Vanguard purchasers of Ensign and above get the drone_ Woooooooo~

Scapes, on December 11 2012 - 06:04 PM, said:

Collision on all turret items has been removed, allowing for improved player mobility after deployment.

Scapes, on December 11 2012 - 06:04 PM, said:

Lore and polished descriptions have been added to nearly every item, weapon, and mech.

Yay lore!

You are speaking sweet, sweet harmony to my ears, Scapes. I like this. I hope to see you in-game so I can mock you with a dancing Fred.

[NotKjell]

I hope so much that I am mis-reading how countermeasures work. I will hold my tongue until I play the beta, but I hope I am wrong.

[Zeshi]

Scapes, on December 11 2012 - 06:04 PM, said:

Countermeasures

We've added a new gameplay item called countermeasures. These automatic consumables activate when there is a status or condition present. Each activation consumes one countermeasure use. All countermeasures are drawn from an account-wide inventory of countermeasure uses, the pilot decides which (if any) countermeasure type to equip to a mech in their garage.

• Extinguisher: Reduces weapon heat upon overheat.
  
• Battery Charge: Reactivates systems disabled when affected by EMP effect.
  
• Descrambler: Renders mech immune to the Radar Scrambler effect.

Team HAWKEN likes to get this party started right, so each HAWKEN account will start with 25 countermeasure uses pre-stocked!

I don't like this concept at all. Seems like its going to turn the game into "who can afford to bring the most countermeasures". Ill change my tune if it turns out amount of uses per game is extreamly limited and they are resonably priced in hawken points.

As far as the weapon balance changes go, I think overall you did a good job. Except for the heat cannon. The problem with it wasn't the damage it did when charged, it was whenever you used charged shots it was pretty much impossible to overheat. Guess ill continue to play infil and not have to worry one bit about one of the games defining mechanics.

EDIT- I also feel the nerf to the seeker may not be enough, because it is a broken wep to begin with.

Edited by Zeshi, December 11 2012 - 06:29 PM.

[Scapes]

AsianJoyKiller, on December 11 2012 - 06:12 PM, said:

Wow.
Countermeasures are extremely lame.

We'll be looking for constructive community feedback on the new elements of this build, please feel free to voice it (after trying it out for a bit).

Elix, on December 11 2012 - 06:17 PM, said:

So, that wasn't a typo_ This is really happening_ All Vanguard purchasers of Ensign and above get the drone_ Woooooooo~

I'm now two for two on that copypasta error. I do believe I will never get that part right on an initial post.

[Skylead]

I think the countermeasures could create a good HP sink for those with all the mechs unlocked. That being said I don't want to see it go the way of World of Tanks where in order to be competitive you have to spend real money on the better ammo. It is an interesting answer to the EMP OP problem.

[marshalade]

Zeshi, on December 11 2012 - 06:24 PM, said:

As far as the weapon balence changes go, I think overall you did a good job. Except for the heat cannon. The problem with it wasn't the damage it did when charged, it was whenever you used charged shots it was pretty much impossible to overheat. Guess ill continue to play infil and not have to worry one bit about one of the games defining mechanics.

Yeah I'd gladly trade 1.5x heat gen for that damage back, Infil is nearly physically impossible to overheat.

[The_Silencer]

OH YEAHF! canf't talkf wellf... excusefme.. droolingf abundantflyf... brb

[Elix]

Scapes, on December 11 2012 - 06:26 PM, said:

Elix, on December 11 2012 - 06:17 PM, said:

So, that wasn't a typo_ This is really happening_ All Vanguard purchasers of Ensign and above get the drone_ Woooooooo~

I'm now two for two on that copypasta error. I do believe I will never get that part right on an initial post.

Troll Scapes is troll...   edit:   

But, I haven't lost anything I never had in the first place, so, fair's fair. I have a bit of concerns about the countermeasures mechanic, but I'm going to see how it plays out.

Edited by Elix, December 11 2012 - 06:29 PM.

[Zeshi]

Skylead, on December 11 2012 - 06:26 PM, said:

I think the countermeasures could create a good HP sink for those with all the mechs unlocked. That being said I don't want to see it go the way of World of Tanks where in order to be competitive you have to spend real money on the better ammo. It is an interesting answer to the EMP OP problem.

Its not a good answer imo. All it does it make you feel required to bring that specific countermeasure and ignore the others.

[Sylhiri]

Laughing at the people who need EMP to kill people, sad at the fact that the Assault can have a double weapon coolant with a Vulcan.

[Zeshi]

Sylhiri, on December 11 2012 - 06:34 PM, said:

Laughing at the people who need EMP to kill people, sad at the fact that the Assault can have a double weapon coolant with a Vulcan.

...You really shouldn't be laughing. All it does is force people to bring that specific countermeasure to prevent being emped.
And how can an Assault have double wep coolant_

Edit- Oh your talking about the countermeasure. It just says reduces heat, not get rid of it completely.

Edited by Zeshi, December 11 2012 - 06:41 PM.