24 replies to this topic

[PabloPwnage]

Greetings HAWKEN Pilots,

Team HAWKEN wants to thank everyone for participating in our first Closed Beta event (CBE1)!

Successful First Closed Beta Event is Successful

We have received an amazing amount of great feedback from the HAWKEN community and we have been pouring through it to see where our focus is most needed to balance and improve the game before Open Beta arrives on 12/12/12.

Our goal is to create the best online mech FPS experience available and to do that takes a lot of hard work and careful balancing to make sure the experience is truly top notch. Games in a beta state are incomplete and the parts that are complete, we actually do sort of hope you find ways to break. That's the nature of these events. We trust you guys, our intrepid Closed Beta Event pilots, to break stuff and you truly came through for us in CBE1!

Closed Beta Connectivity Issues_ This Too Shall Pass!

A big aspect of our first Closed Beta event was infrastructure and server testing. At launch, there were many difficulties with our servers. As many of you have already correctly pointed out on the forums, this was due to a huge number of people wanting to play and not enough servers being available to hold them all.  

For any online game, stress testing servers is a key part of preparing the game for launch and making sure that everything will run smoothly when we unleash the full fury of the unforgiving internet on our systems.  We wanted as many of you as possible to be able to play and demand was actually way more than we expected. We couldn't have asked for a better test of our systems. Our team learned a lot from the pummeling you so aptly provided. As a result, login, matchmaking, and general connectivity have been greatly improved in anticipation of our second Closed Beta event (CBE2) scheduled to start this Thursday, November 8!

Playing Matchmaker in HAWKEN

Matchmaking needs to do one thing: maximize the fun time (piloting giant mechanical death machines) and minimize the less-fun time (finding games, joining games). To make sure it's tuned correctly we need your help. We call upon you and your friends to join the coming Closed Beta events with the goal of pushing our systems to the limit again.

Our Matchmaking feature gauges several aspects of a player's skill, performance, history, and experience. We also take the level of your mechs and their items into consideration. This system is designed to match players with other players of a similar skill and mech level. That said, if you currently use the Server Browser instead of the Matchmaking feature, you bypass this system.  

What does this mean for you and your fellow pilots_ Well, if you would like to ensure that you are always being put into as fair a match as possible, please use the Matchmaking feature during this next Closed Beta event. You can continue to use the Server Browser, and we would encourage you to do so for the purpose of helping us test our systems, but it might not yield a fair fight.

HAWKEN Will Be Free-to-Play

Team HAWKEN loves free-to-play (F2P) and we see it as a great way to be able to continually offer fresh content and a high-quality game experience.

In HAWKEN, all the mechs can be purchased with HAWKEN Points (which are earned by playing) as well as Meteor Points (which are bought with money). Additionally, every mech is continually balanced against all the other mechs in the game.  We want to ensure that when a player purchases a new mech, they are purchasing a mech that's different, not superior. You're still going to need to master the necessary skills to make your mech effective in order to realize success on the battlefield. You don't ever have to spend a dime to end up with a mech exactly as powerful as anyone else's. It might not look the same and it will take you longer, but at the end of that road you're going to be in a fair fight. There the only excuse for winning or losing will be skill.

CBE1 helped us learn that the accrual rate was off and we have doubled the speed at which HAWKEN Points are earned for CBE2. You're welcome!

TL;DR

CBE1 helped us make HAWKEN better, faster, and stronger. Thank you!

We are very excited to welcome our dedicated test pilots back to HAWKEN starting this Thursday. As with previous events, keep an eye out for familiar callsigns sporting Adhesive or Meteor clan tags: [ADH] and [MTR]. Staff members will be playing in Closed Beta Event 2 whenever we get a free moment: there’s nothing more enjoyable than exchanging missile salvos and hot lead volleys with our hardcore fans. Remember to keep those vulcan cannons spinning; dev blood is like unicorn blood. And it’s time to make it rain.

Happy hunting, pilots!

Paul “PabloPwnage” Loynd
Producer, Meteor Entertainment

[SGRock]

Thank you for the update.

[Spiderz]

nice!

[KaszaWspraju]

I like this :

Quote

There the only excuse for winning or losing will be skill

[TemperWolf]

Super, now we just need to see how diverse the Internals are and whether or not they can be applied to different mechs. If you have by same exact internal for every single mech, then we may still have some trouble!

[Snoof]

Excellent news, great to hear the connection issues have improved, any news on the GFX settings saving properly and being displayed in full, as i am sure many people would just love to push this baby further, while the ini tweaks DO make a difference we still want proper access to the "max" setting (ie bucket 5 please )

[Aelieth]

Looking forward to this! Can't wait to see what mechs and changes are made from CBE1. The new matchmaking system sounds very nice, let's see where the devs get matched up!

[c0mad0r]

Must remember this one: "dev blood is like unicorn blood and it’s time to make it rain."

[EMEUTIER]

Ah, yes, the blood of the unicorn.... do I hear thunder_

Edited by EMEUTIER, November 07 2012 - 07:52 PM.

[PabloPwnage]

Snoof, on November 07 2012 - 05:32 PM, said:

Excellent news, great to hear the connection issues have improved, any news on the GFX settings saving properly and being displayed in full, as i am sure many people would just love to push this baby further, while the ini tweaks DO make a difference we still want proper access to the "max" setting (ie bucket 5 please )

GFX settings should be saving properly during this Closed Beta Event.  Crank them up and enjoy!

[Elix]

Quote

It might not look the same and it will take you longer, but at the end of that road you're going to be in a fair fight. There the only excuse for winning or losing will be skill.

I'm going to save this thread and tattoo those two sentences on the forehead of the next person who comes into the forums and drops a bunch of bunny pellets around complaining that Hawken is Pay2Win.

I look forward to being reduced to flaming scrap by the devs this weekend!

[Chig]

Can't wait to jump into the pilot's seat. I think this will be the perfect way to brighten up these dull, autumn, rainy days.

[FenixStryk]

[MTR]PabloPwnage, on November 07 2012 - 04:51 PM, said:

CBE1 helped us learn that the accrual rate was off and we have doubled the speed at which HAWKEN Points are earned for CBE2. You're welcome!

Paul “Jay Wilson” Loynd
Producer, Meteor Entertainment

The Jay Wilson approach is always admirable. I look forward to seeing how doubled HP accrual rates pan out, and testing the next wave of mechs CB2 hands us!

[Blue_Steel]

I think this is better than mech warror!

[Gagzila]

[MTR]PabloPwnage, on November 07 2012 - 04:51 PM, said:

Thanks for the great letter Pablo!   

TemperWolf, on November 07 2012 - 05:30 PM, said:

Super, now we just need to see how diverse the Internals are and whether or not they can be applied to different mechs. If you have by same exact internal for every single mech, then we may still have some trouble!

You could think of the mechs as "cars", where each mech is like a completely different brand and model from each other. All cars are made up of common components but each component is designed differently to fit and work in each car, so you can't simply swap parts between them as they aren't designed specifically for the other "cars".

All of your mechs also exist at the same time in your garage, so in that sense you can't buy one part and then have to swap it over everytime you want to change the mech you are using. So just like if you had three cars in the garage that you wanted to be functional at the same time so you can take either out whenever you wanted, all your mechs have to have their own parts.

Hopefully that analogy makes sense, I know what you are saying but think of it from a real life use perspective as the devs obviously have to help with that immersion of managing your mechs. I would also say it is likely part of their F2P model and so not likely to change, but maybe it could do with some tweaking so it's not such a long grind to give each mech options and variance. I think the idea is also not to use all of your HP and MP buying lots of mechs, but to buy 1 or 2 (I reckon the sweet spot would be 3, 1 of each class) and develop them over time and once maxed out you can start looking at saving (or actually purchase MP ) to buy another 1 to develop.

Cheers,

Gagzila

Edited by Gagzila, November 08 2012 - 12:18 AM.

[Frenotx]

Can you guys make any comments on the direction of customization_ It seems that the system has become more and more limited as time's gone by, and it make me sad / nervous. Is this due to you guys looking for more focused tests, or is this the way you're actually planning on going into open beta / launch_

[Elix]

Why did you feel the need to post this question twice in two entirely different sections of the forum, Frenotx_

[Frenotx]

Elix, on November 08 2012 - 07:09 AM, said:

Why did you feel the need to post this question twice in two entirely different sections of the forum, Frenotx_

Because I feel it's an extremely pertinent question, and both places seemed like an appropriate thread for a dev to respond to said question.

[Culex]

Frenotx, on November 08 2012 - 10:14 AM, said:

Elix, on November 08 2012 - 07:09 AM, said:

Why did you feel the need to post this question twice in two entirely different sections of the forum, Frenotx_

Because I feel it's an extremely pertinent question, and both places seemed like an appropriate thread for a dev to respond to said question.

I nominate Elix for Forum Cop. Wouldn't be the first time he's trying to get answers for why people post in certain areas.

Back on topic, before I get crucified. Great letter Pablo! Great updates; hopefully the communication will stay strong.

[Nexus06]

The biggest thing that appeals to em about Hawken is not the amazing art style and incredible graphics of the game or the amazing fast paced action, but it is the the balance every mech as stated above is just different and I really love that.

So basically in this game you just pic what you want your machine to do then fine to it to your play style. There is no P2W and broken unfair win machines. The game is just fast fun paced fair action. I see nothing but good coming from this game and hope to enjoy it for years to come!