Your Starhawk Questions Answered

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Your Starhawk Questions Answered

I can’t believe I’m posting on the PlayStation Blog again. It’s been forever! So what’s new you ask? Well, let’s see, not too much — oh yeah, we announced Starhawk! *cough* Finally. *cough*

The team and I have been wicked happy with the response from the media and the fans so far. Seeing you guys excited makes all the late nights worth it! But, we still have a lot of work ahead of us so thanks for all of the positive energy. We all know a good reveal is just the first step in making our fans happy and we’re looking forward to showing you guys even more tasty Starhawk content and get you more plugged into the Starhawk universe! So the other day I asked all of you on Twitter to send me Starhawk questions that you wanted to get answered, and while we’re still planning on doing a full FAQ post here on the PlayStation.Blog, I wanted to take a few of the questions that were popular and answer them straight away. Here goes:

Starhawk for PS3

Does Starhawk have two flight modes?

YES. Initially we wanted to have Starhawk use only a single flight mode so that all players were unified. We worked a lot on this but ultimately decided that the needs of a newbie player and the needs of a hardcore Warhawk fan were just too far apart and we weren’t willing to make the compromises needed to jam everyone into a single flight mode. So…Starhawk has two flight modes and both are great! The default mode is very simple and great for new to mid-level players (and yes, reverse aiming issues have been fixed). It’s a re-vamped version of our “arcade mode” (but much better), thanks in part to a lot of play testing on it. The advanced mode is for players that want even more control while flying around in the Hawk. It’s just like Warhawk’s “pro mode” flight mode.

Server list or matchmaking?

In Starhawk you have both. Matchmaking is good for casual players that just want to be put into a game quickly, or for when we need to enforce that players are not “cheating” or stat padding or whatever you want to call it. It lets the Starhawk servers control which players get put into which games. That said, our fans LOVE it so we let you browse the custom “non-official” games through a server list. This gives you the best of both worlds.

Is Starhawk’s character camera new?

YES. We got a lot of questions from people that noticed from the video that there was a tight over-the-shoulder (OTS) camera in some of the shots. We still have a normal camera that is further away from the character, although it is a bit closer than what we had in Warhawk. However, this new OTS aiming mode is enabled when you zoom in with your weapon. It gives you a combat choice—you can do your normal run-and-gun at some cost of accuracy or you can go OTS for more accuracy, although you’ll be a bit slower.

Does Starhawk still use weapon pickups?

Hell yes! I was actually surprised that people were worried about this. It was interesting to see the Tweets from people who were scared that we might be going to a class-based load out approach. No! We still have pickups. And getting a weapon is not limited by rank. That kind of thing just doesn’t work for our type of gameplay. In fact, weapon pickups are an important part of Build & Battle. For example, If you want your team to have “snipers,” you can build lookout towers which include the sniper rifle pickup. Or, if you want some heavy weapons, you can build a supply bunker to get a rocket launcher and a shotgun. Now of course we are still in the process of tuning the game so things are always bound to change, but this should give you a good idea of where we’re headed.

Starhawk for PS3

Are there space environments?

100% YES. The outer space environment set that the art team here at LightBox Interactive has put together is really awesome. Super fun to play on and looks great. Some of the elements are still being worked on and we don’t want to show it untill we’re 100% happy with it. But since sooo many of you guys asked, Sony was okay with me at least telling you that Starhawk was not just about terrain battles. :-)

There are a ton of other questions that you sent me and I will answer them as soon as I can, but for now, I wanted to get a little bit more info out to you all! Hopefully I’ll get to see some of you at E3 if you swing by to get your hands on Starhawk! Keep your eyes on the PlayStation.Blog and www.starhawkthegame.com for more updates, and if you’re interested in seeing behind the production curtain a bit, I often post behind the scenes pics of us making Starhawk on my Twitter account @dylanjobe, so check it out!

Okay, that’s really it for right now. Maybe I’ll include a puzzle with my next blog post—I promise it will be more challenging than the stuff I posted for Warhawk :-P

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328 Comments

58 Author Replies

  • Welcome back Dylan, the game looks SPECTACULAR, I can’t wait!!! 8)

  • this game looks amazing i am super excited to play this.

  • so happy that fixed this weird backward lockon. you fishfloppers are going to get owned,

  • I was wondering is there any chance that you might bring out the story mode that was originally to come out on Warhawk? But got canceled to just work on the multiplayer instead. I would gladly buy the story campaign for the Warhawk. I have always wanted to know why Eucadian & Chernovan had it out for each other. You would not even have to add the multiplayer part just the good old story mode & that would be swell.

    Also what are your thoughts on the NGP? Any chance of bringing the story mode from Warhawk to that system?

  • COOL!!!, BUT YOU DONT TALK ABOUT INFAMOUS 2 YET….

  • that looks cool but when is the ps store going to be back up?

  • Man, warhawk was the first game I’ve ever played for more than 2 years straight without stopping. I hope Starhawk can make me go that long too.

  • Dylan.
    Starhawk looks awsome!!!! Is there any conection to Warhawk? Will we ever see a single player for Warhawk? 2000 hr plus in Warhawk multiplayer….

  • Hi
    Can anyone tell me when the store will come back ???

  • NOT TO COMPLAINT OR ANYTHING BUT I AGREE WHIT SOME GUYS ON WHE D PS STORE WILL B BACK I KNOW U HAVE A LOT ON UR HANDS BUT CAN U TELL US WHEN ITS GOING 2 COME BACK?????????

  • Man I have to give it to Dylan. He just seems like a really cool dude. What I love the most is he seems like a true gamer, and just loves talking about Starhawk as much as we do! More power to you Dylan! I really hope I get to meet you at E3 this year. Ill keep my eyes peeled when I get to the Starhawk demonstrations. Can’t wait for Starhawk, keep up the good work!

  • I Wanna Thank The Creators Of Starhawk 4 Exceeding My Expectations :)

    1 Question Tho

    How’s The Online Character & Hawk Customization ????

    is It Like Warhawk Where You Rank Up To Unlock Clothes, Skins, & Colors, Or Is It Way Better ????

  • Will this game have 4 player split screen? One of my favorite qualities of Warhawk was having four player split screen online together. Will this game have split screen co op Story mode? Will there be an option to play offline with bots?

  • trophies on Warhawk was a BEAST. looking at this its going to be a DEMON for trophies. T.T

  • Couple questions:
    1) Will we still be able to host our own servers? I always thought that was a really cool feature; kind of a way for hardcore to “give back” to the community by hosting.
    2) You talk about the landscape as being pretty devoid of constructs; so I’m assuming no bunkers and such? And the stuff we build can be blown up. Is there no place left to hide? One thing I love about Warhawk is that it can be really intense; but you can also take a break in a bunker and think (or use the bathroom).
    P.S. This game looks GREAT!!

  • Yeah, 4 player split-screen offline multi-player with bots would be great!

  • Love Warhawk, can’t wait for starhawk.

    Great video by the way.

    It’s good to have you back on the blog.

  • “2nd : You wanted online? well go play it and stop whining like a bunch of new borns!”

    Kinda hard to do, when your PS3 crashed and you can now never again access it’s hard drive, so you have to wait for the store to come back up so you can re-download all the games and DLC you paid to store on the hard drive.

  • MY biggest worry Dylan, is if there are you know…. grassy areas, or places that look…. you know, not so desolate. One thing I liked with Warhawk was the more scenic levels, like Eucadia and Archipelago. Please tell me you have some levels like that still.

  • What I want to know is if you solved the frame rate drop when a lot of things are happening at the same time in the same location? in Warhawk it move a snail pace when a tank, and Warhawk and troops all fighting for one spot especially when the warhawk dropped those bouncing bombs all over the place. Now the graphics look better than the last game and more chaos is happing all at once. I hate for this game to have really good mechanics but frame rate drop you down to turtle slow game play where its unplayable.

  • Dylan, I have some questions and I am amazed that so many people that claimed to love the game had only 1 question. With the build and battle is it going to be on always or can the feature be turned off if you prefer a pre built terrain? Can every building really be destroyed? I would love to have a bunker of some sort that they could not obliterate from a distance. For those who were dedicated players to warhawk can we expect any kind of bonus? Even just something visual? With over 200 hours put in and the tournament blade it would be awesome to be rewarded for it. Beta access would be the best reward. I also noticed that I couldn’t find anything hidden in your post which seems unusual for you. Did I miss something or are you not doing that anymore? As someone who read pretty much everything you posted regarding warhawk I would have to say that your response of saying you cannot confirm a jetpack sounds a lot like confirmation. I seem to recall you claiming you could not confirm other things that turned out to be true. Any new game modes? Are any of the game modes be dropped? I must say that CTF on warhawk is one of the best games ever. If this game is anywhere near as intense as CTF on warhawk I will be playing nonstop.

  • With regards to the vehicles are they going to have predetermined spawn points like warhawk? Do you have to build something to make the vehicles spawn? Can placing buildings interfere with vehicle spawn points? When do we get to find out what vehicles will be in the game. Will we keep all of the vehicles from warhawk and the expansinons? I have been waiting for this game since the rumors started about the title starhawk being trademarked. Cant wait to buy it. Can you give us any details on the way the build and battle works? Can you drop unlimited buildings? Is there a cool down period or recharge time in between buildings? Is there a max number of buildings that one player can have out? For example how in warhawk if you already have four mines out and throw another the first one will disappear. Will you be limited in the number of each kind of building you can make? Can you build structures outside of your home base area? I can imagine a lot of people will be upset is several people run in there base and build some turrets. However being the one building turrets in the opposing base would be fun. Can you build any building you want from the beginning or is there an order to it like how some games have a form of tech tree?

  • AWESOME GAME

  • LAN play ?

  • cool how much can we expect this game to be at launch?

  • So I saw that my questions from your previous post went unanswered so I cut and paste it to this post. Apparently a couple of these questions were answered on this post before I pasted it, oops.

  • Hey Dylan,

    When will we be getting our Warhawk Paint Competition statues? ;)

  • Looks pretty interesting.

    I’m just happy to see things are still progressing really nicely. As for the PSN Store quit riding them so heavy about it. I’m sure it’ll be up today if not today then sometime before the end of the month.

  • Is it strange that this is what has finally convinced me to finally buy warhawk?

    I’ve been mucking about in the demo for a while but never bought it (I finally got my own ps3 last x-mas). I guess i saw “online only’ and the release date and balked, thinking that the only people still playing this game would just slaughter me.

    Now I know for sure that people will be online until starhawk releases. Probably even other warhawk noobs like me! :) I guess this also makes me one of the very few people happy about the “distant” 2012 release date. I’ve got catching up to do.

    I will definitely be in on day one for this game. I love shooters and RTSs but unfortunately only one of them usually works on a console… A mash-up seems like a workable compromise, especially after watching some of the footage you guys have recently released.

    In short, I’m very much looking forward to this.

  • Also looking forward to more news on the beta.

  • Are you going to filter laggy players from Starhawk? I won’t buy the game unless you do.

  • Hi Dylan, you are a genius!
    I have only two question for the split-screen:

    1) Is there a Log-In system for the split-screen?
    For give to the players the possibilty to use the own ID for playing, like Resistance 2, Little Big Planet and the upcoming Uncharted 3.

    2) Can the split-screen’s players join in the ranked server? I hope yes, this thing was too restrictive in WarHawk.

    I think, if there were a Log-In system for the other players that join in split-screen, these players could participate to the ranked server, because any player would the own ID with own points and statistic.

    I hope you can answer me, and sorry for my bad english ^^

  • InfinityAbsolute

    STOP AKSING ABOUT PSN STORE, THIS POST IS FOR/FROM THE DEVELOPERS OF STARHAWK! YOUR ALL ACTING LIKE THE FA@@OTSM ON XBOX, JUST WHINNING ABOUT EVERYTHING. HAVE JUST A SHRED OF DIGNITY PLEASE. AND DONT BIT@H ABOUT ALL CAPS.

  • Bleh… I would like to buy it, but the 3.61 one gave me the yellow light of death. And, after giving Soney half my money for my whole life, they expect me to pay them another 200$ and wait 2 months. -_-

  • NIICCe ;D I like this .. but what about the store guys ?! I really want some updates XD

  • Awesome. Hope there will be a limited edition of it too. ^_^

  • I dont have questions about Starhawk. I have questions about the store. What kind of welcome back is this?

  • I have a question: What is YOUR favorite part of Starhawk, Dylan?

  • shazbot-finubus

    I really can’t wait for this. Every little bit of information is like music to my ears, the kind of game I’ve been waiting for a long time.

  • @83 Oh no! Sony will lose 1 customer out of 10000000, SHUT UP

  • is there any plans to reward the dedicated players with an early BETA release or something?

    will my 1800 hours in warhwak count for anything? other than muscle wastage and persistent cramps.

    the only thing missing from warhawk was a shotgun. glad to see you’re putting this right.

  • Warhawk was my first game on the PS3. 1000 hours of fun and sill enjoying. Dylan Jobbe for PRESIDENT \o/º Platinum trophy is so hard. Starhawk too, PLEASE. Trophies easy is FAIL

  • great. i already want this game but yet have to wait a year. sigh

  • SPACE BATTLES!! Woohooo

  • all i got to say is id rather just choose my weapons you dont have to go class based but it be nice to just say ok i want a sniper and assault or w.e being the case

    with that said ill repeat what i said on the last blog post this ots is games is horrible stop thinking this is the way to go developers it is not its such a bad view…..come on now

  • I’m at Walmart what game should I get Socom4, Crysis, COD Black Ops, Which one has a better storyline, I just play against computer.

  • Hey Dylan….

    Please just add a PARTY SYSTEM.

    The only thing that held back warhawk was the difficulty when trying to play (ON THE SAME TEAM) with friends. Please address this issue, with an easy-to-use system ala… Call of Duty games.

  • @ jwtherev crysis for the story socom 4 for the same kind of gameplay as starhawk (online)

  • Thx Buchi…, I’m going to Gamestop in a few to get a used copy to see which one I like. Hope they got it

  • @ Dylan
    “Not sure if this will help you feel better, but in Starhawk, you don’t have to use OTS to shoot. We include it much like how you would zoom in with a Sniper rifle to be more accurate.

    In Starhawk, you still have a reticle as you run around. It’s not as accurate as being in OTS but there is a gameplay trade-off. When you are running and gunning, you are faster but a bit less accurate. When you are OTS, you are more accurate but slower.

    Using OTS in Starhawk really comes down to player preference and the style of play they prefer.”

    I know this is what you said to me last time about OTS but here is the problem your normal back farther view is still in OTS it is not in TPV the charter is to the left of the screen or at least off centered there for OTS also that trade off in accuracy forces people to use the zoom in just like every other game out there…in my eyes i hate that but i will admit id rather have that then FPS :)

    Also with the sever created rooms be unranked and that is what “unofficial” means?

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