Hawken

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Americans and Europeans can now play together on the new Atlantic servers!

"During the QnA earlier today someone brought up hosting in Greenland as a possible means to let European and American players compete against each other on a [more] level playing field. I had started looking into hosting in alternative locations kind of like that in recent weeks, so I thought I'd take another look.

After looking at this map and a few others, I focused on Iceland. Ultimately I came across Advania, and since they were able to turn around something very quickly, I set up a host.

So, we now have servers in Iceland hosted with Advania using QStack. I'm pretty excited, though I'm sure we'll have to figure out how CloudStack-driven servers really behave under the brutality you all will subject them to

So the next time you log in to Hawken, look for the "Atlantic" region. I'm hoping it could be a way for players in North America and Europe to be able to play on the same servers. Check it out and let us know what your experience is."

[Triggered Fridgekin]

Hey, I'm in the Atlantic region!

[Xenogeist]

I thought I'd give the Atlantic servers a try. I was planning on making some new European friends and testing the server to see what kind of ping I get but they are sadly all deserted at the moment.

I'll try there again another time.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I thought I'd give the Atlantic servers a try. I was planning on making some new European friends and testing the server to see what kind of ping I get but they are sadly all deserted at the moment.

I'll try there again another time.

Considering the playerbase somewhat died after the crisis the devs just underwent, I'd imagine there aren't enough active players left for the new servers to be constantly filled 24/7.

[Xenogeist]

Yes, the playerbase is low but there are still enough players that finding a game is never hard, at least in NA. I imagine Europe is similar but I can see both NA and EU completely ignoring the Atlantic severs except for any possible tournaments that might take place.

I'm curious to see the data on how well those servers perform. If it was good enough for both EU and NA maybe they could be added to the matchmaking lists of both regions and we'd get some cross over of players there.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Yes, the playerbase is low but there are still enough players that finding a game is never hard, at least in NA. I imagine Europe is similar but I can see both NA and EU completely ignoring the Atlantic severs except for any possible tournaments that might take place.

I'm curious to see the data on how well those servers perform. If it was good enough for both EU and NA maybe they could be added to the matchmaking lists of both regions and we'd get some cross over of players there.

I find that unlikely to happen. If you're going to have the East Coast playing with Europe, than West has to be connected to (Because East and West coasts need to play with each other), and given the latency from West Coast to Europe, the game would be almost unplayable.

[Xenogeist]

I'm sure you're right, East and west coast already have issues playing with each other unless they use midwest servers to connect. I'm just thinking of what the devs might have in mind for these new Atlantic servers.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

It's been a year and a half since the last content update, and the new dev team is still trying to figure out how the game is even built (since Adhesive apparently did not take the time to document it when it was first developed waaayyy back in 2010). Doesn't help that the team is ludicrously tiny, and there are only about 250 players online AT THE MOST each week (and considering this is a F2P game that makes money off of selling thrusters, I'm honestly surprised they've still been going for as long as they have since the buyout, but hey it's a small team with a very patient, dedicated community so who knows?) Currently no word on what's the plan for new updates - they don't know how to reliably code anything for the game outside of new mechs and paint jobs (and even then it's damned hard apparently). Regardless, it's amazing to see how active the community has been for game that has practically entered zombie mode (it's not in maintenance mode since the devs REALLY DO want to progress the game - they just don't have the technical information to do so yet - but it isn't exactly pumping out content on a consistent basis).

Latest dev blog: https://community.playhawken.com/top...te-2016-02-08/

News from CapnJosh:

All right, things are moving now. We had some huge UI issues that we've solved with the help of some great people. It'll be the stuff of legends, and it'll make for some great live stream material - yes, have no fear; that's coming up again.

The team has grown, and we have the level of engineering support that Hawken deserves.

Today we had a pretty big breakthrough with Vivox. We have completely rewritten the integration with some close consultation with our good friends over at Vivox, and it's smooth like butter now. Or maybe more like a really good water slide. Anyways, it's going well.

Things like the mech art pipeline have been rediscovered and documented. We're now stepping through how weapons are created and structured, with an eye toward how best to manage balance with these beastly things.

We're starting to actively review AI, and honestly there are some good opportunities there. Not Skynet-level opportunities for world domination, but good opportunities nonetheless.

Happily, Hawken's code architecture is really quite good. Despite the fabled "tech debt" (as all projects accumulate), one thing that's held strong is that the Adhesive team knew how work *with* Unreal rather than against it. We've had more than a few discussions where we've tipped our hats in their direction.

It's been rather long between updates, but we're nearing when we will be able to fill you in on all the things we've been working on. "Heh heh..." you say, "I've heard that one before." Well, it's true. We have 2 more big technology hurdles to clear, but given the people we've got on it now, I'm not worried. 2016 has a big up side for Hawken, and it's going to be a fun ride.

-capnjosh

Seems like we might get a major update by the end of the year.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Good news everyone!

The devs have finally cracked the code, and we will be getting actual updates (as opposed to patches and bug fixes) this year! (For those who don't know, Hawken was sold to another company, and the new devs have spent the last year trying to understand how the game actually works behind the scenes before they attempt to change anything). Additionally, a PC relaunch will take place that will add in the console exclusives (such as the V2 mechs) to the PC version. In the mean time, remember those Year of the Dragon skins from wayyy back? The devs are bringing them back for those who missed out (even though it is the Year of the Rooster), so you can buy that if you want to help support the game.

https://community.playhawken.com/top...e-december-12/

- - - Updated - - -

The devs are thinking of changing the G2 mechs from the current (on consoles) "raw stat increase mech" to a mech with the stats simply rearranged, for alternative builds.

[Xenogeist]

Glad to hear it. When the updates happen I'll be there, hopefully to try out some new mechs and maps. I'll even accept some major gameplay changes if they decide to revamp things although I think that would be beyond their capabilities.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

The Soft Relaunch Rollout has Begun!

Hey folks,

We're rolling out the PC relaunch update as you may have seen. This is *not* the final version of the PC relaunch update and everything is subject to change. This is a soft launch period that will last a bit of time, and I stress that this is not the final version of the game. There will be lots of bugs, and we will be fixing them as soon as we can. Expect several patches this week and the weeks to follow.

Please post any feedback you have regarding the softlaunch period in the "General Discussion" area of the forums. We will be working hard with the community on fixing issues that may arise in both the community-run Discord server and the forums, as well as customer support.

Thanks for supporting us, and we'll see you ingame.
CZeroFive

If you log in to see that your stuff is gone, DON'T PANIC! Simply close the game and post a bug report on the forums. Remember, these guys were handed a game that they didn't develop, and are still trying to understand how it works. It's for this reason, that they didn't attempt to roll out any major updates to the game for the past two years. Now, they putting their accumulated knowledge to the test, and are rolling out the releases of the soft relaunch piece by piece. If you are former player, please check it out and give post your feedback!

Title screen has been revamped, the acrid green tint has been replaced with a cooler blue tint.

Matchmaking has been replaced with competitive seasons, you must play a few games to get placed. Since this is a reboot, your ranking will almost certainly be different than your previous MMR, so you will need to play more games to get into your proper skill tier. There will be rewards for progressing higher through the ranks. Furthermore, there will be rewards handed out at the end of the season, depending on how well you did. There are no separate MMRs; what you see is what you get across the board.

Revamped new player experience.

HDR has been integrated, and new FX for bullet weapons. Game should now look much nicer than it was previously, and alot more vibrant. Should be able to see detail in dark areas now.

Co-Op Team Deathmatch now starts automatically, no more waiting on AFK players.

Quickmatch now rotates through different game modes, and gives a boost to EXP and credits earned. Quickmatch changes daily.

A new tier of mech has been added, G2 mechs. All of your old mechs were G1's. You can only unlock G2 mechs by progressing in the respective G1 mech (ie, you have to actually learn and master the Grenadier before you can get it's master version). G1 mechs get more EXP. A bundle will be available in the store some time in the future that will let you buy EVERY SINGLE G1 MECH (though it should be stated, you can still automatically unlock every G1 mech in the game just by progressing through the mechs in the standard order anyways...)

Actual new content updates are in the pipeline, and when they come out is dependent on the success of the relaunch. Get in there and submit feedback!

TL;DR, Hawken's back folks.

[Xenogeist]

Weeeeeeee Hawken!

It is a very nice first step.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Annnnnd as soon as things look like they're going great, the worst possible announcement is made: The game's shutting down.

If you want a modern mech game, your only choice is MechWarrior Online... but if you're a Hawken fan, then more than likely MWO wasn't your thing anyways. Hopefully FromSoftware revives the Armored Core franchise (with a PC port!) or something, but it looks like the mech genre is effectively dead for games.

[Xenogeist]

RIP Hawken. I had a lot of fun.