Welcome to Hawken Closed Beta Test 2!
I thought that I would write a brief guide to help new people with the closed beta tests. This is part FAQ, part advice on how to best help Adhesive and Meteor improve Hawken before Open Beta begins on 12.12.12. This is my own personal advice and I welcome feedback in the comments.This is not a comprehensive guide to everything Hawken, just a starting point for all the new people that'll be coming.
1. How to download and install Hawken, and common problems on this step.
First, you will need to have a beta key. If you don't already have one, you won't be able to post in this forum, so go get one from any of the sites linked in this thread. If they're all out, check the official Twitter account at @PlayHawken, the official Facebook account, or r/Hawken on Reddit. Instructions on redeeming the key should be listed next to any of the giveaways, but in short, register an account on playhawken.com (that's this site), and then paste your beta key or invite code into the "Redeem Code" box along the top. Go to http://www.playhawken.com/beta/ after it says that your code is accepted (make sure that you're still signed in on the beta page), and the download link for the installer should be there once the beta begins.
Once you have downloaded the installer, run it. Please note that this is currently Windows-only. Sorry, Mac and Linux users. Other OS versions might be available sometime, but during beta, Hawken is only being built for Windows. The installer will do its thing and may install some files for DirectX. This is normal.
The installer will ask you to log in with your Hawken account (email address and password). After you have logged in, it will then check for any necessary patches before starting the game. If you receive the error "Unable to download manifest", it means that the patch server is not currently up. This will happen whenever there is no active beta test under way. You will need to wait for a test period to begin. If this occurs during the testing period, it may be a technical issue with your computer, but it is probably a problem with Hawken's patch server, and it will be fixed soon.
2. Important things to know about Hawken's Closed Beta phase.
I'm about to answer 50% of the questions asked during the first closed beta test that were not due to a technical problem. These are important, and reading this will save you a lot of time and hassle. Hawken is in Closed Beta, and that means several important things.
a) You are here to help test the game. This is a very important thing to understand. Not everything is going to work. Not everything will be perfect. You will have fewer options than you might expect. This is normal; the game is currently in testing. Take this into consideration when you are about to post a complaint or a suggestion to the forums. Your feedback is important and it's why you're here, but keep in mind that you are playing an unfinished game. Your help is needed in order for Hawken to be the best game it can be when 12.12.12 rolls around.
b) There will be a full wipe of all purchased mechs, parts, boosts, exp earned, Hawken Points earned, everything, before Open Beta on 12.12.12. Everything will be reset except for your callsign and your account. It's likely that there will not be any wipes between closed beta test sessions before Open Beta, but you should be prepared for it to happen just in case.
c) Use the search function and read stickies before making a new topic. This is critical. The beta forums are watched closely by the development team, even if you don't see them post often, and they rely on the forums for our feedback. If you are giving feedback about a major element of the game, or you are reporting a major problem or bug, please check to see if someone else has already made a thread about it. Making duplicate threads just clogs up the forums and makes it harder for anyone to see smaller, less-active threads. Use the Search function in the upper right of the forum, read stickies, and read the first two pages of the forum to see if any of the thread titles seems to match your situation. If you don't see anything relevant, then go ahead with a new thread. Remember, you're not just a player with early access, you're a beta tester.
d) No, seriously, use the search function. I'm repeating this because it's that important.
e) The Rookie frame, aka "TV Mech", aka Fred, is probably here to stay. There's not much point in complaining about it. Like I said earlier in the post, this is still closed beta. The devs have many more options (including some returning old favourites, for people who were in the NDA'd Alpha phase) for when the game is going public.
f) Please make sure you use the right subforum in the Beta Forums for the correct situation. An "unable to download manifest" error does not belong in Beta Discussion, it belongs in Beta Support. A bug report where your mech's exp resets to 0 does not belong in the Beta Support section, it belongs in the Beta Bug Reports section. Suggestions on how to improve Hawken go in the Beta Suggestions forum. Please do your part to help keep the forum tidy.
g) Use the search function! I hope I've made my point clear, here.
3. Some Hawken tips.
Hawken is a fast-paced FPS in big, hulking mechs. I, myself, am not that great of a mech pilot, partially from lack of practice and partially from having a computer that couldn't render a pack of fuzzy bunnies if you gave it a week, but enough excuses from me. Hawken is a bit different, and it requires a bit of a different playstyle than some people are used to.
Don't stay still. You're a target, and the less you move the easier you are to hit.
Don't be afraid to retreat. Remember, you can heal yourself if you can get away and hide.
Maintain situational awareness. As much as possible. In a chaotic deathmatch, this can be hard. Use your radar, and remember that radar jammers may be in play.
Be aware of your mech's limitations. Hawken CB test 1 had three classes of mech: A, B, and C. CB test 2 probably will have the same. You get more heavily armed and armoured, but slower, as you go from A to C, and this drastically changes your options in a firefight. Don't jump into a fight that you won't survive unless you have no choice; it will take longer for you to respawn and run back to the battle than it will to run away, hide, repair, and come back.
Watch the tutorial videos. It's what they're there for.
Manage your heat. Overheating shuts your guns down for several critical seconds. Overheat at the wrong time and you're dead.
Support your team in team game modes. This especially applies to missile assault and siege, where multiple roles are needed in order to win. You need to coordinate, and you need to stick together. A lone wolf is a dead mech, and dead mechs can't capture or complete round objectives. Watch your teammates' backs in team deathmatch.
Have fun. Don't take the game too seriously, and don't let someone else ruin your enjoyment of the game. If you aren't having fun in a particular server, leave it and play in a different one. Hopefully, you'll have a more fun experience in that one. Don't flip out on the player and start saying nasty things about their mother. That sort of behaviour tends to get you in a load of trouble in most games.
"Fuzzy bunny" is a word filter for a variety of unpleasant words on the forums. Keep the language clean and be respectful to other posters, please. This isn't from me, this is from the mods. Note that not every instance of "fuzzy bunny" represents a bad word the poster tried to use. I typed it out in full twice in this paragraph, and a number of veteran posters will do that instead of actually cursing. Don't try and evade the word filter to curse at someone; the mods really don't like punishing people.
A quick message to Alpha/Beta veterans.
Be nice to the new kids. Be patient when they ask questions that have already been answered a billion times since Alpha 2 ended. Remember, they don't have the experience you do. English may not be their first language, as well, so there may be reading comprehension issues that make it more difficult for some people to find the answers to their questions. Blow them to bits in-game, but be nice to them. Click the "Report" button on rule-breaking posts, but don't reply to them. That only creates more of a mess for the mods to clean up and just escalates the thread.
Edit: Formatting tweaks.
Edited by Elix, November 08 2012 - 05:03 AM.