224 replies to this topic

[D20Face]

Always move forward.

The number of situations where going backwards is the best option are few and far between. It'd be a slow retreat. The only thing it's decent for is aim adjustment and that's only for super distance shots.

If you find yourself needing to retreat then 9/10 times you're better off just dropping a shield and laying into the enemy from where you are.

If you retreat, commit to the retreat. Turn around and boost away.

Edited by D20Face, November 05 2012 - 11:34 PM.

[EMEUTIER]

Turrets
With both types of turrets avaliable you can know when a placed turret is HITTING an enemy by a sound made that resembles a 'tick' sound. MG turrets are easier to recognize due the almost constant ticking.
These can be used as a form of early warning proximity sensor by placing the turret at a critical point in the map.

R Turrets
Rocket turrets tent to deal out more damage but are also far less accurate at distance than the MG Turret.
Due to the rockets relatively slow fire rate and particularly quiet fire sound they are much harder for the enemy to notice where they are located and can be used as a distraction in high-action areas of a map.

Internals
E.U. Canisters
These are only any real benefit in a match where energy transfer is an objective as in the Siege Mode games, as they allow you to carry more.
E.U. is NOT health or fuel, don't get these confused.

Items
Radar
These are portable radar arrays that can stick to any surface. They DO NOT counter the Radar Scrambler only provide a larger scope where enemies will be spotted on the scope and highlighted on the HUD.
These are best used with a sniper class or to assist a sniper on your team by placing the radar close to the enemy base (in siege or TDM) which will allow your sniper to notice enemy units from further away with ease.
Due to their small size the radar can be thrown onto a wall and be practically unnoticeable.

Edited by EMEUTIER, November 06 2012 - 12:38 AM.

[Gagzila]

 EMEUTIER, on November 06 2012 - 12:27 AM, said:

Turrets
With both types of turrets avaliable you can know when a placed turret is HITTING an enemy by a sound made that resembles a 'tick' sound. MG turrets are easier to recognize due the almost constant ticking.
These can be used as a form of early warning proximity sensor by placing the turret at a critical point in the map.

I'd like to also add that along with the audio 'tick' cue, an accompanying visual cue in the form of a yellow ring will flash around your reticle / cross-hair area to indicate your turret is getting hits on an enemy mech.

Some great info and tips in this thread that are being compiled very nicely by Arnie, should definitely be a sticky

Keep em' coming guys!

Cheers,

Gagzila

[DDwarrior]

 Kaylos, on November 05 2012 - 09:00 PM, said:

Aiming TOW rockets.

Watch the visible cast off light on the ground to guage when to detonate the warhead.  The smoke trail and rocket plume usually obscure the rocket itself.

I like this, I normally gauge the distance simply by my eyes on the rocket and enemy but this could be a more effective way to do so.  I'll have to test this in the next test.

[DDwarrior]

 D20Face, on November 05 2012 - 11:33 PM, said:

Always move forward.

The number of situations where going backwards is the best option are few and far between. It'd be a slow retreat. The only thing it's decent for is aim adjustment and that's only for super distance shots.

If you find yourself needing to retreat then 9/10 times you're better off just dropping a shield and laying into the enemy from where you are.

If you retreat, commit to the retreat. Turn around and boost away.

If you have effective corners and space, use the tow rocket or any projectile weapon to lead hit and run during a retreat or fighting superior numbers.  I whittled entire squads who gave chase by timing tow rockets to hit just as they turn the corner, by this time I've already turned and moved on.



I'm really enjoying helping with this thread.  I think I'll pick specific areas to explore and try to find good tips and strategies to add.  I want to say some more things on the assult rifle but I want to get more experience with other rapid fire weapons for comparison.

The assault rifle is extremely accurate with burst fire, use this to get extra damage on distance targets or snipe through small openings without the enemy being able to retaliate.

Edited by DDwarrior, November 06 2012 - 08:59 AM.

[ArnieF4440]

aaandd, updated

I've also been adding some more tips to various sections, just haven't been bothered putting a reply.

Edited by ArnieF4440, November 06 2012 - 06:37 PM.

[D20Face]

The Flak Cannon has the second highest DPS of any of the primary weapons in the files and the most of any available in the first closed beta.

The Repeater has the highest initial burst of any primary weapon assuming a full charge and direct hits with every round.

The Slug Rifle has the lowest DPS of any primary weapon, but it's hitscan and long distance.

[ArnieF4440]

 D20Face, on November 06 2012 - 07:12 PM, said:

The Flak Cannon has the second highest DPS of any of the primary weapons in the files and the most of any available in the first closed beta.

The Repeater has the highest initial burst of any primary weapon assuming a full charge and direct hits with every round.

The Slug Rifle has the lowest DPS of any primary weapon, but it's hitscan and long distance.

Sweet, where do you get the stats_

Updated BTW, can't wait for CBE2, time to look for some more stuff and test a couple things out XD

[D20Face]

/documents/my games/hawken/hawkengame/config

Has loads of stats. Mechs, weapons, abilities, all in exact numbers. Some things are missing though so it doesn't have everything.

[D20Face]

I was looking through your tips and found one that is not the case.

 ArnieF4440, on November 03 2012 - 08:09 PM, said:

Firing explosive weapons inside a shield is NOT a good idea. Explosive projectiles will explode regardless of if they are fired inside or outside of the shield (you can kill yourself). On the flip-side, you can move so your weapon is just inside of a shield and fire upon anyone inside

What you have been experiencing is firing an explosive weapons BEHIND the shield, outside on the other end.

The bubbles are rather tiny, so you have to be careful about moving outside of them as you won't be able to hit enemies from behind the shield as it will be blocking your fire.

All attacks can penetrate the shield from within. No attacks can land within the sphere from outside but explosive weapons can get their slash damage within it by hitting the shield itself or a nearby object.

[SirMilagres]

here is my 2 cents:

- Side boost have cooldown, but that does not mean you're a sitting duck. You can still foward boost anywhere you want, imidiately after a side boost. You could zig zag, like side boost >> turn your mouse the way you came >> foward boost back to it. The enemy, usually, expect you to NOT being able to dash after your side boost. Surprise them.

- Fake retreat. Almost everytime if you retreat with considerably low health someone will follow you, crasy to score an easy kill. Retreat, 180° and wait to ambush this guy. (team play would, of course, serve a bigger, better, therefore deadlier ambush)

- Grenade Launcher hit enemies where no other weapon can. Use walls in your favor, grenades will bounce on them, hitting an enemy you can not see. Adjust your angle, shoot and detonate at the right time (if you're sure there is an enemy mech there)


(Sorry if any of this was already posted. I read the first topic, some of the others, and assumed that TC copyied all tips and tricks onto the first one)

[NUCLEARSHARKHEAD]

Nice tips compilation so far. I made a tips & tricks video if you want to look. I'll be coming out with a better one in a few days that will hold as much of these tips as possible.

Edited by NUCLEARSHARKHEAD, November 08 2012 - 11:30 AM.

[Thrull]

 Xyzz, on November 05 2012 - 10:32 PM, said:

Can anyone provide tips on how to better control [shift + s] 360 degree rotation during battle_ It seems like I always use it unintentionally, although useful in some situation, becomes quite annoying when you either tries to fire while backing up or escaping enemy fire.

I find that treating boost+direction as a distinct key-press helps me stay precise.  I.e., think of all the boosting activities as "Shift+Key" rather than thinking of Shift as a way to turn your strafe into a side boost.  The only really dangerous time is when you're backing up and thinking about side boosting as well, since you might be pressing S and A/D at the same time.

I would definitely not disable it.  Hawken mechs have limited turning ratios -- there is a cap to turning speed and it is quite low compared to the speed of your mouse, which means that it is ALWAYS faster to perform a 180 speedy turn if you know you'll end up facing the direction you need.  It also costs no fuel.  I've found 180 -> boost forward -> 180 to be one of the safest and quickest ways to retreat while threatening pursuers.

[ArnieF4440]

 D20Face, on November 08 2012 - 10:18 AM, said:

I was looking through your tips and found one that is not the case.

 ArnieF4440, on November 03 2012 - 08:09 PM, said:

Firing explosive weapons inside a shield is NOT a good idea. Explosive projectiles will explode regardless of if they are fired inside or outside of the shield (you can kill yourself). On the flip-side, you can move so your weapon is just inside of a shield and fire upon anyone inside

What you have been experiencing is firing an explosive weapons BEHIND the shield, outside on the other end.

The bubbles are rather tiny, so you have to be careful about moving outside of them as you won't be able to hit enemies from behind the shield as it will be blocking your fire.

All attacks can penetrate the shield from within. No attacks can land within the sphere from outside but explosive weapons can get their slash damage within it by hitting the shield itself or a nearby object.

For some reason my grenades kept blowing up within the shield XD. Anyways, I can confirm in CBE2 that projectiles go through the shield from within it. Will update later

Anyway, I was testing the Heat Cannon and I can confirm the following about charged and uncharged shots:

• there's a slight difference in travel time, its not much, but it can make a difference
  
  • testing conditions:
    
    • fraps recording at 30fps
      
    • frame rate used to measure travel time
      
    • frames measured from the weapon flash to the start of the explosion
      
    • not sure what the range was, but I stood in the same spot aiming at the same target
      
    • same latency throughout testing
  • looking at the video and measuring the start and end frames, i got these results
    
    • charged: 21 frames (0.7s)
      
    • partially charged: 36 frames (1.2s)
      
    • uncharged: 36 frames (1.2s)
  • looking at the code (when I cbf) will probably be more accurate XD
• charged heat cannon shot has a bigger explosive/splash damage radius

I'm still trying to confirm how much damage it does, according to the stats, it does 85 damage, but nothing's said about the charged version in-game, but it looks like it does about 2x the damage when charged. Will be testing that later on if I can get someone willing to help with that XD

Edited by ArnieF4440, November 09 2012 - 03:24 PM.

[PsychoStoner]

http://www.twitch.tv/psychostoner

For tips that aren't just reading words and wanna see it in action watch this stream!

[ArnieF4440]

Updated up to now. I'll go through your vid later though sharkhead.

I've added a section for weapons you get at level 20, and I'm gonna have a look at the weapon stats from ingame also

EDIT: also added a weapon chart (under weapons section) with all the ingame stats (damage, accuracy, rate of fire, effective range, heat rate) and damage per second (I'm assuming rate of fire is per 1 second). It doesn't include the Point-D Vulcan and charged Heat Cannon and EOC Repeaters though ...

Edited by ArnieF4440, November 09 2012 - 07:04 PM.

[DarkPulse]

I'll contribute lotsa info.

Here's a few things I'm not sure on/wish to clarify:

• "Walking & Running Speed": I'm not sure what measurement this is in. I THINK this is in Unreal Units per second, though obviously I can't reliably check this (I'd need access to UnrealEd to do so). In UE3 games (And thus, UDK, which Hawken is made in), the best approximation is that 50.3 UU = 1 Meter, based off a UT3 assumption of a character being about 5'9" (1.75m). Of course, even if these are in Unreal Units, it's just a sense of scale - we could say 50.3 UU = 17.50 meters too as long as everything else is scaled accordingly. The best way to test for this, without UnrealEd, would be to compare the mechs to the cars, or if you can spawn one, the humans.
  
• I'm assuming "Heal Rate" is health per second. This could be tested by bringing a mech down to a certain level and busting out the stopwatch, though. (But obviously, keep in mind that things can boost this!)
  
• "Walk to Run Time" is the measurement (in seconds) it takes for you to go from full stop to what is considered the running speed. You will accelerate towards the running speed during this time.
  
• "Acceleration Speed" is obviously the speed you accelerate at; however, I'm not quite sure how it works. My best guess is that this is the speed (in Unreal Units) the mech will accelerate at per second, but it's still capped by Running Speed, and it still takes the "Walk to Run Delay" time in effect.
  
• "Landing Delay" is how long it will be until you can control your mech again from a hard landing (e.g; falling off Titan to the ground floor).
  
• "Thruster Jump Energy" is actually how many units per second a mech uses to jump (NOT hover!)
  
• "Thruster Side Boost Energy" is how much energy a mech takes to dodge.
  
• "Thruster Rate Hover" is how much it takes to fly.
  
• "Bump Damage Factor" is presumably how much damage a mech deals from a collision_

The rest should be pretty self-explanatory. I also have a few other stats for each mech class, but as those are mostly technical stuff (Collision cylinder height/radius, amount of blur during boosts, etc.) I've omitted those. I'll put them up on request, though.

A-Class Mech Stats:

Spoiler

• Health: 500
  
• Heal Rate: 35 health per second
  
• Heal Startup Delay: 2 seconds
  
• Walking Speed: 600 UU
  
• Running Speed: 850 UU
  
• Walk to Run Time: 1.5 Seconds
  
• Acceleration Rate: 800 UU
  
• Side Dodge Speed: 2300 UU
  
• Side Dodge Delay: 1.25 Seconds
  
• Side Dodge Distance: 900 UU
  
• Forward Boost Speed: 1800 UU/second
  
• Air Speed: 700 UU
  
• Landing Delay: .55 seconds
  
• Thruster Regen: .9 units/second
  
• Max Thruster Energy: 9 Units
  
• Thruster Jump Energy: 1 Unit/use
  
• Thruster Side Boost Energy: 2.25 Units/use
  
• Thruster Hovering Rate: 1.6 Units/second
  
• Thruster Forward Boost Rate: 1.8 Units/second
  
• Bump Damage Factor: 80% of Normal
  
• Falling Damage Multiplier: 120% of Normal
  
• Max EU Held: 150 EU
  
• Eye Height: 95 UU

B-Class Mech Stats:

Spoiler

• Health: 675
  
• Heal Rate: 35 health per second
  
• Heal Startup Delay: 2 seconds
  
• Walking Speed: 525 UU
  
• Running Speed: 750 UU
  
• Walk to Run Time: 1.8 Seconds
  
• Acceleration Rate: 600 UU
  
• Side Dodge Speed: 2100 UU
  
• Side Dodge Delay: 1.5 Seconds
  
• Side Dodge Distance: 900 UU
  
• Forward Boost Speed: 1600 UU/second
  
• Air Speed: 700 UU
  
• Landing Delay: .75 seconds
  
• Thruster Regen: ..85 units/second
  
• Max Thruster Energy: 9 Units
  
• Thruster Jump Energy: 1 Unit/use
  
• Thruster Side Boost Energy: 2.25 Units/use
  
• Thruster Hovering Rate: 1.675 Units/second
  
• Thruster Forward Boost Rate: 1.6 Units/second
  
• Bump Damage Factor: 100% of Normal
  
• Falling Damage Multiplier: 150% of Normal
  
• Max EU Held: 225 EU
  
• Eye Height: 105 UU

C-Class Mech Stats:

Spoiler

• Health: 850
  
• Heal Rate: 35 health per second
  
• Heal Startup Delay: 2 seconds
  
• Walking Speed: 450 UU
  
• Running Speed: 650 UU
  
• Walk to Run Time: 2 Seconds
  
• Acceleration Rate: 550 UU
  
• Side Dodge Speed: 1900 UU
  
• Side Dodge Delay: 1.75 Seconds
  
• Side Dodge Distance: 900 UU
  
• Forward Boost Speed: 1500 UU
  
• Air Speed: 700 UU
  
• Landing Delay: .95 seconds
  
• Thruster Regen: .8 units/second
  
• Max Thruster Energy: 9 Units
  
• Thruster Jump Energy: 1 Unit/use
  
• Thruster Side Boost Energy: 2.25 Units/use
  
• Thruster Hovering Rate: 1.75 Units/second
  
• Thruster Forward Boost Rate: 1.4 Units/second
  
• Bump Damage Factor: 120% of Normal
  
• Falling Damage Multiplier: 200% of Normal
  
• Max EU Held: 300 EU
  
• Eye Height: 110 UU

Edited by DarkPulse, November 09 2012 - 07:11 PM.

[ArnieF4440]

Umm, just updated the weapon chart with the Point-D Vulcan ... and ... umm ... 127.4 DPS. Making it the best gun in the game. If you put a lot of stuff into reducing heat, you have a death cannon that can keep going ...

Doesn't help that the Assault Mech has the weapons coolant ability which effectively doubles your continuous fire time ...

Edited by ArnieF4440, November 10 2012 - 01:37 AM.

[NUCLEARSHARKHEAD]

 ArnieF4440, on November 10 2012 - 01:36 AM, said:

Umm, just updated the weapon chart with the Point-D Vulcan ... and ... umm ... 127.4 DPS. Making it the best gun in the game. If you put a lot of stuff into reducing heat, you have a death cannon that can keep going ...

Doesn't help that the Assault Mech has the weapons coolant ability which effectively doubles your continuous fire time ...

And so it beginssss

[D20Face]

 ArnieF4440, on November 10 2012 - 01:36 AM, said:

Umm, just updated the weapon chart with the Point-D Vulcan ... and ... umm ... 127.4 DPS. Making it the best gun in the game. If you put a lot of stuff into reducing heat, you have a death cannon that can keep going ...

Doesn't help that the Assault Mech has the weapons coolant ability which effectively doubles your continuous fire time ...

I personally consider the Flak more useful. They're both up there, but they both have pretty piss ranges.

The burstyness of the flak and lack of spinup makes it better for finishing people off and it's easier to aim because shotgun.

Your stats are also missing a lot of numbers. For example the EOC repeater does both explosive and direct hit damage but only one is listed. It also does a 3 shot volley instead of just hitting once.

Somebody who didn't delete their old .inis would be better suited to making a weapon chart.