Hawken Gets Technical with New Update

[IanDavis]

Hawken Gets Technical with New Update

The Technical Update adds achievements, a new map, and a support class to the F2P mech shooter.

The only thing more exciting than shooting your fellow man in a friendly online deathmatch is doing so with large robot suits. That's the thinking behind the free-to-play mech shooter Hawken. While not officially released, Hawken went open beta in December 2012. In modern game development terms, that usually means that everything's working, but expect massive content patches and slight retweaks. This week, Hawken players are getting a few new toys to play with thanks to the Technician Update.

The star of this update is the Technician support mech. Equipped with the Helix Repair Torch, the Technician can hang back and repair allied mechs. It's more than just a medic though, as the repair torch is just as good at removing the armor of enemy mechs, and the new chemical rounds cause targets to take more damage from allied fire. The Technician comes equipped with a new ability and item as well. Amplification temporarily boosts the power of the repair torch, while Blockade lets the player drop a vertical shield for a short duration.

Along with the update comes a new achievement system. Far from being just another way to compare the girth of internet egos, these new Service Awards also dole out credits (and in one rare instance, the paid currency). While new accounts used to start with 5,000 Hawken Credits, players will gain large amounts of their in-game cash through unlocking achievements. However, to get make the new system work properly, Adhesive Games will be resetting a select few player stats (such as kills and deaths).

The new map is called Front Line, which features two sides with remarkably different architecture. The update notes refer to a more open level design, which should make playing a fragile support mech interesting. In a previous life, Front Line existed as an unskinned map called Valkrye in the early alpha release. The new map supports all game modes.

Source: [a href=http://community.playhawken.com/news/_/game-info/the-technician-update-patch-notes]Hawken[/a]

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[Silk_Sk]

It's Adhesive, not Abrasive .

 

[IanDavis]

Damn it. I have to stop posting late at night.

 

[MercurySteam]

Just got into Hawken and I can say the Technician is quite a handy class for keeping your team in the game. Blockade is also useful if the enemy is chasing you and you want to shut off their path to you. The game is still in Beta (still has bugs here and there) but so far is doing well for a F2P game.

 

[Agayek]

This is good to hear. I played it for a couple months right after it started open beta (which is an eternity for me in a purely-multiplayer game). I might have to go back and check it out, the Technician sounds like my kind of mech.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I would like to see the new update in action, the new support class sound cool which made me wonder what that mech design look like (or is the design is not restricted to the class?).

 

[rbstewart7263]

I would like to see the new update in action, the new support class sound cool which made me wonder what that mech design is (or is the design is not restricted to the class?).

there are also alot of changes to balance out all of the classes in terms of dps and the like.

 

[Silk_Sk]

I would like to see the new update in action, the new support class sound cool which made me wonder what that mech design is (or is the design is not restricted to the class?).

It is not. Each mech does come with a unique set of chassis parts but you can spend money to swap them out for any of the other parts (of that mech's size anyway). Most of the time, you can tell what kind of mech someone it piloting based on the chassis they are using, but if they've changed it to look like something else each mech has a unique symbol (based on that mech's special ability) next to the player name that denotes what kind it is.

 

[Balmong7]

When is the destructible environment update coming out? I saw them demo it. I WANT IT.

 

[rbstewart7263]

I would like to see the new update in action, the new support class sound cool which made me wonder what that mech design is (or is the design is not restricted to the class?).

It is not. Each mech does come with a unique set of chassis parts but you can spend money to swap them out for any of the other parts (of that mech's size anyway). Most of the time, you can tell what kind of mech someone it piloting based on the chassis they are using, but if they've changed it to look like something else each mech has a unique symbol (based on that mech's special ability) next to the player name that denotes what kind it is.

which is good for strategy. You can for example change the sharpshooters chassis for a raiders and people will be playing keepaway when they should be trying to get close where you are weakest.

 

[Silk_Sk]

I would like to see the new update in action, the new support class sound cool which made me wonder what that mech design is (or is the design is not restricted to the class?).

It is not. Each mech does come with a unique set of chassis parts but you can spend money to swap them out for any of the other parts (of that mech's size anyway). Most of the time, you can tell what kind of mech someone it piloting based on the chassis they are using, but if they've changed it to look like something else each mech has a unique symbol (based on that mech's special ability) next to the player name that denotes what kind it is.

which is good for strategy. You can for example change the sharpshooters chassis for a raiders and people will be playing keepaway when they should be trying to get close where you are weakest.

No. This is why symbols over the mechs were recently added. Being able to pay money to fool your opponent stinks of pay-to-win. That's why they added a way to tell what kind of mech it is other than the chassis.

 

[rbstewart7263]

I would like to see the new update in action, the new support class sound cool which made me wonder what that mech design is (or is the design is not restricted to the class?).

It is not. Each mech does come with a unique set of chassis parts but you can spend money to swap them out for any of the other parts (of that mech's size anyway). Most of the time, you can tell what kind of mech someone it piloting based on the chassis they are using, but if they've changed it to look like something else each mech has a unique symbol (based on that mech's special ability) next to the player name that denotes what kind it is.

which is good for strategy. You can for example change the sharpshooters chassis for a raiders and people will be playing keepaway when they should be trying to get close where you are weakest.

No. This is why symbols over the mechs were recently added. Being able to pay money to fool your opponent stinks of pay-to-win. That's why they added a way to tell what kind of mech it is other than the chassis.

awe I liked that strategy.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Eh, on one hand I love the concept of Hawken.
On the other hand, matchmaking is wildly inconsistent for me, either it's way too easy, or way too hard.
A bot-mode (like they added to LoL) would be nice to practice on or just fool around with, but I imagine the majority of the fanbase would balk at that.

Between that and the mountain of papers and studying I have to do (Finals week is approaching fast), I'm probably giving up on Hawken entirely...which is a shame because the Technician is exactly the kind of mech I'd play.

 

[Atmos Duality]

They just need to implement a party system, quickly. The game is a lot more fun with friends than it is without. Sadly it is nearly impossible to get a group of 4 friends in a single team.

I'm guessing they haven't implemented a party system due to the relatively low online population (the average number playing at a given time; not total number of accounts).

The thing about games with any sort of matchmaking, is that they require a larger population the more stratified the population becomes in skill level/ranking. And, well, I've noticed that there is an ENORMOUS gap in skill level in the middle rankings; to the point where I bounced up into the Advanced tier briefly after only playing three games (and boy was that obvious), and then bounced back down into a string of games with new players where I absolutely crushed them.

Also, a party system would reduce the number of available matches, because teams need free agents to fill the rest of the slots in order for matches to start and when most players start partying up, it creates "blocks" of players that can't fill the smaller gaps in matchmaking. Though with a sufficiently large population, this doesn't matter, as long as there's always some free agents to fill the gaps at a given skill level.

Plus, you'd run into the big problem MechWarrior Online has, where premade Lances are absolutely destroying pub games in a major Smurf-fest. If you aren't in a Lance with shittons of ECM, you're going to lose every single match pretty much guaranteed.

(EDIT: Edited for clarity. Don't read two things while writing kids.)