255 replies to this topic

[Scapes]

OPEN BETA PATCH NOTES: 02/12/13

Overview

Coming February 12, this patch introduces new weapon balance changes, adds some hotly-desired interface improvements, and squashes lots of frustrating bugs. Also, isn't there a holiday coming next week_ Stay tuned!

Hearts of Fire

• In celebration of Valentine's Day and the Chinese New Year, we're introducing two sets of holiday camouflages and a holiday thruster! These customizations are permanent when purchased; they are not rentals and will not expire. The camos will be available as our first "universal" customization meaning that purchasing them will allow them to be equipped on any mech you own or will own in the future.
  
  • NEW Limited-Edition Camouflage: LESSTHAN-3
    
  • NEW Limited-Edition Camouflage: AU-REVOIR
    
  • NEW Limited-Edition Camouflage: LUCK-DGN
    
  • NEW Limited-Edition Camouflage: DGN-SCALE
    
  • NEW Limited-Edition Thruster: DGN-BREATH
• Learn more about the Hearts of Fire promotion!

Matchmaking

• We're introducing the latest changes to Matchmaking in HAWKEN with this patch. The goal is to rate pilots based on their skill so that all players experience fair fights with some variation in team skill composition. These changes are the next step towards achieving that goal, and we thank you in advance for being our live test subjects.
  
  • All players will be having their skill ratings reset. The purpose of this is to collect new, unadultered data on how the Matchmaking changes are performing. This does mean that your first match after this patch hits will be with pilots of a wide range of skill levels. Matchmaking will quickly "learn" more about you from this match and you should find yourself fighting pilots closer to your skill level within an hour's worth of matches.
    
  • Player ranking earned per match and game mode will be changing as of this patch. Ranking from Siege and Missile Assault matches was originally based on wins and losses while Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch was based on the pilot's kills-to-deaths ratio. Rankings in all game modes will now be based on your XP earned per minute. Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch will also factor in deaths unlike Siege and Missile Assault.
    
  • Rankings originally only vested if pilots stayed in 75% of the entire match. Rankings will now vest if a much smaller fraction of the total match is played.

Weapons

• Hellfire Missiles
  
  • Adjusted to be slightly more effective at closer ranges.
    
    • Damage per projectile was increased slightly.
      
    • Projectiles start homing to targets sooner.
      
    • Homing strength was increased.
      
    • Time to lose target lock-on was increased.
• Mini-Flak Cannon
  
  • Adjusted for more sustained close-range damage rather than burst damage.
    
    • Increased rate of fire slightly.
      
    • Reduced damage and heat generation per shot to compensate for the change in fire rate.
• KE-Sabot
  
  • Updated art asset.
• Upgrades
  
  • Weapon upgrades were not always being applied for some weapons. The following should now perform as their tooltips imply.
    
    • EOC Repeater: Level 1
      
    • Slug Rifle: Level 1
      
    • Submachine Cannon: Level 1
      
    • Hawkins-RPR: Level 2
      
    • Assault Rifle: Level 3
      
    • KE-Sabot: Level 3
      
    • Rev-GL: Level 3
      
    • Sabot Rifle: Level 3
      
    • Seeker: Level 3

Gameplay

• Game Mode Unlock
  
  • New players start with Team Deathmatch unlocked. Additional game modes can be unlocked by playing matches of any combination of available game modes. New players can still join their friends on a mode they haven't unlocked yet.
    
    • Play three matches to unlock Missile Assault.
      
    • Play five or more matches to unlock Siege.
      
    • Play five or more matches to unlock Deathmatch.
      
    • Note: Current players who have already fulfilled the requirements should be unaffected.
• Maximum Turn Rate
  
  • The decreased maximum turn rate has been fixed. There used to be an unintended mechanism with turning where moving the crosshairs from the center of the cockpit to the edge of the cockpit capped at a higher speed then the actual turn rate cap. This was considered an unnecessary inconsistency and was removed.
    
    • Basically, once your cockpit started actually turning with you, you were capped at the intended turn speed, but for a short time before that the reticle could move faster. The difference in speed was about 10% faster from the center point to the point where your mech starts to spin, then it would actually slow to the intended turn rate. This probably caused an impression of negative mouse acceleration since the reticle would slow down when you got to the edge of the cockpit. The removal of that change in speed means that players should expeience an even turn rate cap at all times.
• Siege Mode
  
  • Added turrets inside team bases to prevent players from camping inside an opponent's base.
• Reticle
  
  • Reticle improved to be more accurate. As a result, the optional setting for Accurate Reticle (Experimental) has been removed.

Interface

• Kills and Deaths
  
  • Improved kill and death messages in the mech HUD.
• Kill Cam (Alpha)
  
  • Upon death, your camera will now follow the player who killed you for a few seconds.
    
  • This has been implemented early in the development cycle, so it's still very much a work in progress.
• Menu Usability
  
  • Your mech list can now be reorganized using the arrow buttons or drag-and-drop on the YOUR MECHS tab.
    
  • New ribbons denote NEW, POPULAR, and LIMITED items.
    
  • You can now view the submenus in the EQUIPPED tab before they're unlocked. Individual items within the submenus show locked statuses.
    
  • You can now use left and right arrow keys to navigate between MECH SHOP and YOUR MECHS tabs.
    
  • HAWKEN Credit and Meteor Credit icons added to MECH SHOP tab.
    
  • Removed ping column from "Ready Up" screen.
    
  • Changed "Dash Recharge" to "Dodge Recharge" in the mech HUD.
    
  • The DEALS button has been renamed to STORE in the Main Menu and Garage screens.
    
  • Various updates to post-match earnings text for clarity.
    
  • Language translations updated.
    
  • Text in the Credits tab updated.

Miscellaneous

• Continued visual and audio tweaks for training mission tutorial, maps, mechs, weapons, and items.
  
• Added sound effects for mech animations in the Garage.
  
• Added cockpit reflection and lens flare visual effects.

Bugs Squashed

• Added collision to a wall in the Origin map to prevent exploitation.
  
• Repaired the Repair Charge item to no longer occasionally cause the game to crash.
  
• Fixed mech features not functioning properly after unlocking an expired Test Drive mech.
  
• The Siege battleship timer will no longer appear with no battleship present.
  
• Cockpit grime and cracks will now display correctly as damage is taken.
  
• Fixed Friends List, Chat, and other windows changing sizes when resolution is changed.
  
• Fixed scoreboard text displaying incorrectly for and being overlapped by long callsigns.
  
• Fixed clipping issues on wall in the Bazaar map.
  
• Fixed mech preview not updating correctly when navigating mech lists using arrow keys.
  
• Heavy mechs will no longer clip through the environment in the Staging screen.
  
• Bold fonts now display correctly for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean localizations.
  
• Fixed KE Sabot and Hawkins-RPR off-centered visual alignment on mech and in first-person view.
  
• Ambient audio on the Bazaar map will now play correctly.
  
• Crushing Kill text will now displaying in the post-match earnings screen.
  
• The straw stack will no longer spin off the Bazaar map when shot.
  
• The health display will no longer move to the center of the screen while zoomed in after repairing.
  
• Fixed the blurred edges of health meters when zoomed in or in turret mode.
  
• Fixed a missing boundary box in the Prosk map.
  
• Jump pads will now work more reliably in the Uptown map.
  
• The RD-LZR repair drone will no longer play the incorrect animation and its red eye will no longer persist in previews.
  
• Fixed "Other Player Volume" adjustments not taking effect immediately.
  
• Fixed XP bonus indicators being left as bright blue orbs in-game.

Click here to view the article

[PlagueDoctor]

Wait so did you fix the hellfires so that the second volley will always lock_

[KaszaWspraju]

Kill Cam, omg .

Quote

• Reticle improved to be more accurate. As a result, the optional setting for Accurate Reticle (Experimental) has been removed.
  
• Fixed XP bonus indicators being left as bright blue orbs in-game.
  
• Improved kill and death messages in the mech HUD.

You can see that the changes are coming for the better, here are some of my observations: http://community.pla...nt/#entry201064

Quote

Your mech list can now be reorganized using the arrow buttons on the YOUR MECHS tab.

YES.

Edited by KaszaWspraju, February 08 2013 - 06:09 PM.

[Fields]

Fantastic!

[LtMackAttack]

looking forward to this patch!

[NYPD54]

Really, Kill-cam_

To RentAKnight: This is another reason why I don't like the new battlefiled games.

[Fantus_Longhorn]

Good to see much more detail in the notes this time. Thanks

Looks like a good list of changes there, looking forward to playing once the patch hits.

[Noin]

Nice, keep it coming.  Can't wait to try the hellfire changes.

In before the moaners!

[bacon_avenger]

"Game mode unlock"...  I could guess that it's to prevent new players from jumping into the 'more complicated' match types_

"Added turrets inside team bases to prevent players from camping inside an opponent's base" - Cool, good addition.  Better would to allow for multiple exits from the base as this still doesn't address the base camping problems (CBT2 Siege, put it back!)

"Reticle improved to be more accurate. As a result, the optional setting for Accurate Reticle (Experimental) has been removed" - ....really_  You are removing one of the more popular additions to the game_  I guess I will see how this works when it's rolled out...

"Kill Cam" - Why_  Just...  why_

"Added cockpit reflection and lens flare visual effects" - Hopefully we can turn them off if the performance hit is too high (how about that advanced graphics tab_)

The rest of them, very nice, especially the one that lets you rearrange the order mechs show up in the garage.  Looking forward to seeing how these work out and improve the game.

[Guiotine]

Scapes, on February 08 2013 - 05:45 PM, said:

Weapons

• Hellfire Missiles
  
  • Adjusted to be slightly more effective at closer ranges.
    
    • Damage per projectile was increased slightly.
      
    • Projectiles start homing to targets sooner.
      
    • Homing strength was increased.
      
    • Time to lose target lock-on was increased.

OMGOMGOMGOMG woot Happy day for bruisers! ....but someone else brought up a good point, will the second salvo always lock now_

[Spiderz]

[Culex]

Going to clarify the unlisted bonuses to the weapons that have been fixed for convenience.

• 
  
  • EOC Repeater: Level 1: +1.5 sec mine duration
    
  • Slug Rifle: Level 1: -20% Spread
    
  • Submachine Cannon: Level 1: +5% Spread Stabilization
    
  • Hawkins-RPR: Level 2: +10% Range
    
  • Assault Rifle: Level 3: +10% Spread Stabilization
    
  • KE-Sabot: Level 3: +10% Unzoomed Damage
    
  • Rev-GL: Level 3: +10% Velocity
    
  • Sabot Rifle: Level 3: +6% Unzoomed Damage
    
  • Seeker: Level 3: +10% Projectile Speed

[Allectus]

Not a fan of kill-cams.  Against an organized and communicating team it means flanking is good for precisely one kill...

[Zeshi]

Scapes, on February 08 2013 - 05:45 PM, said:

Gameplay

• Game Mode Unlock
  
  • New players start with Team Deathmatch unlocked. Additional game modes can be unlocked by playing matches of any combination of available game modes. New players can still join their friends on a mode they haven't unlocked yet.
    
    • Play three matches to unlock Missile Assault.
      
    • Play five or more matches to unlock Siege.
      
    • Play five or more matches to unlock Deathmatch.
      
    • Note: Current players who have already fulfilled the requirements should be unaffected.
• Maximum Turn Rate
  
  • The decreased maximum turn rate has been fixed. There used to be an unintended mechanism with turning where moving the crosshairs from the center of the cockpit to the edge of the cockpit capped at a higher speed then the actual turn rate cap. This was considered an unnecessary inconsistency and was removed.
    
    • Basically, once your cockpit started actually turning with you, you were capped at the intended turn speed, but for a short time before that the reticle could move faster. The difference in speed was about 10% faster from the center point to the point where your mech starts to spin, then it would actually slow to the intended turn rate. This probably caused an impression of negative mouse acceleration since the reticle would slow down when you got to the edge of the cockpit. The removal of that change in speed means that players should expeience an even turn rate cap at all times.
• 
  
• Reticle
  
  • Reticle improved to be more accurate. As a result, the optional setting for Accurate Reticle (Experimental) has been removed.

• Kill Cam (Alpha)
  
  • Upon death, your camera will now follow the player who killed you for a few seconds.
    
  • This has been implemented early in the development cycle, so it's still very much a work in progress.

Click here to view the article

I really should stop being amazed at how out of touch adhesive is.

[_Hex_]

This patch looks almost completely beautiful. I spoke too soon about them in that other thread. But some things aren't needed. (see above post)

ableit...

Scapes, on February 08 2013 - 05:45 PM, said:

Slightly

Number please_ Pretty please_

NUMBERS MAN! DO YOU HAVE THEM_

[draco7891]

Scapes, on February 08 2013 - 05:45 PM, said:

Mini-Flak Cannon

• 
  
  • Adjusted for more sustained close-range damage rather than burst damage.
    
    • Increased rate of fire slightly.
      
    • Reduced damage and heat generation per shot to compensate for the change in fire rate.

Is this change a net increase, decrease, or no change to the weapons DPS and total damage_

Draco

[Kerbstomp]

Zeshi, on February 08 2013 - 06:52 PM, said:

I really should stop being amazed at how out of touch adhesive is.

Thank you for the constructive feedback.

[Onebullit]

Great improvements overall.
Im so happy to see that the Hellfire missiles are getting some love.
The Bruiser and the Rocketeer will be more deadly now hohohoho.

[Azrael39]

I have just started a Rocketeer yesterday and it's lvl 19 now.  Can't wait to see how hard Hellfire's hit after the patch.  I will make them cry my name in frustration.

Good patch, nice update, and thanks for telling us straight up.  Great job Adhesive.

[[HWK]HAGER]

PlagueDoctor, on February 08 2013 - 05:51 PM, said:

Wait so did you fix the hellfires so that the second volley will always lock_

No. You will still have to manually lock on, if that's what you mean_