And that’s the key word there is… “Community”

We’ve always been driven to support our community and at the same time, we’re not afraid to try out new experimental stuff. The latest result of this is our collaboration with one of our own players named Sugaboo — that’s his PSN handle, *not* his name IRL :-)

Sugaboo’s website MyHawk.org has been operational for quite some time now and he’s just rolled-out a massive update! Clan Matches & Tournaments, Daily Leader Boards, New graphs, Per-weapon stats, Stats on individual games, Game Calendar and more!

Here’s just one example of a player stats page with game calendar:

Based on feedback from our player community, there was always a set of very highly requested community features that Warhawk didn’t support “out-of-the-box”. These requests weren’t forgotten!!! We were just thinking of the best and most extensible way to roll them out. And since they’re community features, it was *critical* for us to develop a solution that would allow all of you guys, our players from around the world, to customize and enhance the Warhawk community for years to come.

We think of it as the democratization of our player community – and yes, it’s global so it’s not just for American players!

So…I’m not going to puke too much technical schwag at all of you but suffice to say, we now provide you guys with the full, and raw data stream from our stats database – not just awards and medals! Every game, every clan, every player, every kill. All of this data is delivered via XML so it’s very easy to Web 2.0-ify a community website. Yeah, Yeah, I know I just said “web 2.0” don’t hate me for using one of the most overused terms on the internet — It just happens to be true in this case so cut me some slack :-)

Here’s a just a wee-little bit of the XML that the Warhawk Server Cluster generates:

Here’s a pic of the game summary page from a recent game. Just click a player’s name to access his stats page. Then, you’ll see a calendar that shows the days he (or she) played Warhawk. Click on specific day and you will see a link to the results of every game he played:

Here’s a pic of the Clan challenge screen. This is where teams can schedule games and, via the new XML feed, MyHawk.org reports the official results of the match!

MyHawk.org now provides our Warhawk Community with some great new features; features that are built upon the global Warhawk XML feed that was developed by the fantastic engineers in our Online Technology Group in San Diego. They do soooo much work behind the scenes (and not just on Warhawk), that I thought it would be a good idea for you to see who they really are. And, just in case any of them show up on America’s Most-Wanted… here’s a pic of this motley crew during one of the play sessions!

Lastly, I want to thank Sugaboo for all of his hard work! He has been beta testing our global XML
feed for quite sometime and I’m so happy to see a member of our player community work to
extend the very community he’s a part of!!

Thanks Sugaboo!

The team and I really think that what you’ve done with our new XML streams is a great addition to
our Warhawk community and we hope that XML game streams of this magnitude are adopted by
other multiplayer games in the future!

So that’s it for now everyone – If there are any other community sites that would like to access
the Warhawk global XML feed, please hit the Warhawk forums and post your info. We have a
team in San Diego that can give you the proper server access.

Rock on!
-dylan

The sweet, sweet hotness that is the Icarus Mk.1 Rocket pack and once you’ve played it, you wonder how you ever played Warhawk without it!

Normally we announce stuff here in the States but we thought since Warhawk has a global player base, lets show it at Leipzig first this time.

Before I answer some of the questions that I’ve seen from the past couple of days, let me give you all a rundown of what’s included in Operation: Fallen Star.

There is an entirely new level – Tau Crater! It’s a smoky, forested island that features lots of vertical elements to give players tons of cools places to use the jetpack; huge trees that you can fly up into and land on their branches, an enormous recovery crane with lots of trusses and platforms to fly around, and of course, the name sake, a truly gargantuan capital ship wreckage smashed into the ground forming, you guessed it, Tau Crater.

The capital ship is fully traversable meaning you can use the jetpack or other aircraft to fly up to its various surfaces, pipes, and destroyed sections. Hop out, use them to recon the other bases, snipe, call-in a binoc strike, whatever.

Around the crater are salvage platforms that have been constructed and serve as some of the bases in the Tau Crater. There’s also a huge fiery hole in the middle of the wreckage that you can climb though as a troop to quickly cross from one side of the level to the other.

There are massive chunks of wreckage scattered around the level and the recovery efforts at these locations are bases as well.

In total there are 10 new layouts for Tau Crater and since the jetpack is a massive, game-changing addition to Warhawk, we included a crap-ton of bonus layouts for the original game too — there are 30 bonus layouts that add jetpacks into the Warhawk’s original content.

And yes, of course the jet pack can be used with both of the new free game modes that we released with the v1.4 Update. Jetpack Collector mode is awesome!

Now the jetpack itself is big departure from the way we normally do vehicles and this was very, very intentional. With each of our Booster-Packs, we specifically look for mechanic changing ways to freshen-up the game — and Operation: Fallen Star is no exception.

So here’s the run-down on the jetpack…

First off, the jetpacks are equipment that the salvage crews are using to work on the wreckage so the style of it is very much like the equipment you might see at a construction site. This is true for the Daedalus Rapid Assembly Device (D-RAD) as well. Think of it as a vending machine for jetpacks. One of our players on the Warhawk forums asked if it was like a “hot-dog-stand”…well, yes it kinda is :-)

You run up to the Daedalus and then press SQUARE to grab a jetpack off the rack, like you would to mount a vehicle or turret. The Daedalus then begins its automated construction process and makes a new jetpack for another player to grab. This construction period helps control the balance of the game so that not every single troop always has a jet pack.

Now to help protect against brutal base camping, we opted to not have the vending machine, err….the Daedalus be destructible. In some of our early play sessions, it just was too easy to ravage the other team if you could destroy the Daedalus.

The Warhawk forums also wondered if a jeep could drive the vending machine around, sorry, the answer is no. We spent a lot of time tuning the placement of each of the vending machines and towing them around the level would have introduced some pretty brutal exploits.

You can also mount other vehicles if you have a jetpack. So you and your team can coordinate fast strikes with the 4×4s and then all jump-jet out to make a flag run or scoop-up a team’s cores. If you have jetpack equipped, you are also allowed use it like an ejector seat and bail out of our Warhawk or Nemesis if you get into a dicey situation. Another great tactic is to use the Warhawk and run fly-by at the enemy base then have your buddy in the passenger slot bail out with the jetpack.

The controls for the jetpack are really easy too and operate the same as any other vehicle in the game so it should feel really natural to start using one.

R2 is the thrust button. Press it to engage the jets and your character will be carried higher and higher into the air. While you’re flying, use the analog sticks to move around. You can let off the thruster button to disengage the thrusters and your character will begin to drop towards the ground.

If you are flying around and you need to focus on combat and not thrust control, all you have to do is hold L2 and the jetpack will automatically emit enough thrust to maintain your current altitude. This way you can focus on raining death from above :-)

The jetpack also has a boost-dodge feature, similar to the afterburner for the aircraft. Simply double-tap R2 to engage the boost-dodge. The direction of the boost-dodge can be performed in any direction, backwards, forwards, side to side, even straight up depending on which direction you are pressing when you dodge.

Now this feature not only is a great way to get around the battlefield, but the “dodge” part of the boost-dodge is key for scrubbing missiles. There is only one missile in the game that can acquire a jetpack lock-on and that’s the troop missile launcher. So if you are up in the air and you see the missile warning pop-up on your screen, you better do a dodge, otherwise that missile is going to nail you! Now if you have a jetpack equipped but you are just running around on the ground, the missile launcher can’t get a lock on you…and this is another good way to help avoid getting hit.

Another question that our players wanted to know is if you can fly with the flag using a jetpack and the answer is yes. We took a lot of time to make sure all the traversal speeds were tuned just right and CTF and Collector mode are crazy fun with the Jetpack — hell, even just straight up deathmatch is way more fun!

So here are some of the details: Operation: Fallen Star is being released on August 28th worldwide and is $7.99 in the Playstation Store. We also worked with SONY to get a new bundle pack ready too. The new Booster Combo Pack includes all 3 of the expansions for only $15.99. That’s like getting all 3 Booster-Packs for the price of only 2!!! Quick — deploy the wacky waiving inflatable arm-flailing tube men!!!

As a reminder, keep you eyes out for our FREE v1.5 Update that goes LIVE on August 27th!

So that’s it for now — I’ll do my best today to answer comments cause I didn’t get to at all with my last post cause I was crazy busy traveling for meetings. So let ‘em rip!

Oh, and one last thing, Kudos to 3 people (topodisc, mattnz, cubehouse) who were able to breakdown my crazy color-swatch-HEX-string-mythology-reference!

Rock on,

-dylan

OMG…he’s a Jet…I still can’t get over it but, whatever.

We just released our v1.4 Update a month ago and we’re ready to upgrade our players to the latest version–Warhawk v1.5 which is tentatively scheduled for release on August 27th. We’re currently in the final phase of global Sony certification testing and all is looking good so far!

“Tell us Dylan…What’s in the latest Update???”

Custom In-Game Music

This feature was asked for by a bazillion players! Now players can use the XMB music player to play their own custom music. Warhawk will also detect if you are using the XMB player and automatically disable the in-game Warhawk music. Convenience for the win!

XMB Trophies

I have talked about this several times before so this is by no means new-news…especially with the recent leak of our full trophy list – gotta love the internets. BTW, the team and I are really flattered that someone would risk their job to leak confidential info about our game — Makes us feel good in a weird kinda way.

Anyhoo….

There are 56 trophies included in the Warhawk v1.5 Update. These also include trophies for the booster packs, some of the trophies are, or rather *were*, hidden and some are retroactive based on your server-side stats. Here are just a few of the trophies that are included.

Training Tutorials

As more and more people join the Warhawk community, we are seeing an even greater difference between skill-levels than ever before. New Warhawk players had to go online in order to learn the game and, invariably, they would encounter enemy players that were, shall we say, not too kind to newbies :) This made it really hard for players to learn the ropes, get familiar with the controls, weapons, etc.

So…The new v1.5 Update includes 4 very simple tutorials that can be played off-line. Each one focuses on the core principals of each of the 3 modes of gameplay: Infantry, Ground Vehicles and Aircraft. Now these tutorials are very, very simple and It wouldn’t surprise me if some of our more hardcore players find them way too pedestrian. But we’re looking to help the *new* player, a player that may not be that familiar with Warhawk or the shooter genre. These tutorials are an invaluable help to a newbie!!!

After completing each of the 3 core tutorials a trophy is unlocked – a nice incentive for new players and, well…all you avid Warhawk players can think of them as “easy-money”.

The forth training tutorial, “Flight Practice” is intended to be replayed over and over again, and help players get familiar with the most rewarding, and most challenging of the 3 gameplay modes: Piloting Aircraft!

In this one, you are tasked with destroying as many attack drones as possible in 3 minutes. These simple, hovering turrets fire swarm missiles at you as you practice flying and “scrubbing” missiles. This tutorial is a huge help for new players by giving them a safe, offline way to practice their piloting skills.

Now I know that there are many players out there that often engage in 1v1 dogfights for fun and bragging rights. And while these tutorials are way, way below your skill-level, you may find it fun to do “speed-runs” and compare kill counts.

Retract Clan Invites

Another feature that players, or more specifically, clan-leaders have asked for, is the ability to retract a clan invite that they have sent to a player. For whatever reason, that player maybe never responded to the invite, was being a…a…what’s a blog-safe term that I won’t get in trouble for using??? How about “tool”, yes I’ll use the term tool. So if a player is being a tool and just camping on your invite…you can pull it back. This is important to clan admins because there is a fixed number of clan invites (64) that an admin can have pending at any one time.

New Paint Schemes & Insignias

Awhile ago you all may recall that we held a competition in the USA where players could submit their own Warhawk and Nemesis paint schemes. We selected the 20 best ones and integrated them with the v1.3 update. Well, we held another competition but this time for our players in Europe. We got some great submissions for paint schemes and insignias, and we’re glad to show you all the winners! All of these, the 20 new paint schemes and 50 new insignias are included in the v1.5 update and of course they are free as are all of our updates.

GGL Ceremonial Blades

The GGL recently held a Warhawk tournament and you probably saw the post from our Sr. Producer at SCEA, Harvard Bonin. Below is an image of the new GGL-Ceremonial Knife that participants in the GGL tournament will receive automatically when the v1.5 update is released. You don’t have to do anything to enable it…the global Warhawk server knows if you were in the tournament and will auto-grant you the award.

For you members ARMED^ASSASSIN’s, the next time you player after the v1.5 update is released, your infantry combat blade will be replaced by the Champion’s Blade (seen below) and you’ll be the only players on the planet with this item!

What’s more fun than a Trophy that you can beat someone with? – I submit…NOTHING :)

“Rookie” Server Color-Coding

We also have added an attractive green color to all official “rookie” server names in the server list. Players that are eligible to play on rookie servers will find these servers sorted to the top of the list automagically for easy selection.

To recap the color coding, Blue servers are official Sony hosted servers, Yellow servers are games launched from HOME, and Green servers are reserved for “rookies”.

We have also fixed the exploit that allowed some players to host unlimited flag capture games, get underneath and into the battlefield and act like….like tools. We also fixed the issue with Quick Join that required you to have stats previously posted in order for it to work properly, and a few other items…ohh yeah, and the 1-minute farming of the Winning Team Ribbon has been fixed. Oh…and one more thing, we are going to be rolling-out version checking on the EULA and announcements so if you have already seen them and they haven’t changed, Warhawk will automatically bypass those screens for you.

Some of you may have read some rumors about our next Booster Pack…I can neither confirm nor deny anything…at least for right now :) Keep your eyes peeled for an update here on the blog and the media coverage at Leipzig which is right around the corner!!!

Last hint…and this is an easy one:

With one of these equipped, a soldier can escape quickly…even bail out if needed!

As always – Rock on!

-dylan

Before I get into the meaty list of updates, let me start off by saying that Warhawk v1.4 will have its global simultaneous release very, very soon…how soon you ask?

In just about 48 hours — July 16th at 10:00 GMT (that’s 3am Pacific)

When we started designing the new modes, we looked at play styles could freshen up the Warhawk play experience. After all, Warhawk is now almost a year old :-) And after a few months of development and play testing, we’re ready to rollout 2 new gameplay modes that the team and I are incredibly happy with: Hero and Collection.

New Gameplay Mode “Hero”

This is a team-based game mode in which one member of each team is randomly selected to be their team’s Epic Hero. Players score points for their team by killing the enemy Hero or by killing enemies while they’re the Hero. The team that reaches the score limit first (or has the most points when time runs out) wins the game.

Really what it all boils down to is a huge battle between 2 armies that are being lead by 2 Epic Heroes!

While you’re the Hero, you get some pretty incredible buffs…the mode’s called Hero after all so you’ve gotta be tough!

You get crazy high damage resistance which is like having 500% health. All of your weapons do twice the damage. And the armor-piercing values for your weapons are increased so that some weapons that normally can’t hurt vehicles like Tanks and Turrets, now can!

Now you aren’t the Hero for the entire game. Once you are selected as the Hero, you have a limited amount of time to go on your berserker-blitz-rampage-of-carnage-awesomeness. See the shots above for the Hero meter in the upper left-hand corner. Also note the crazy visuals that are rendered when you’re the Hero. You glow your team color, you emit light the same color as your team, you growl a scary sound that strikes fear in you’re your foes, and of course, energy sparks…must….have…energy sparks!!!

Scoring is simple: If a Hero kills a player, he scores 1 point for his team. If a normal player, or more commonly, a group of players, kills the Hero, 1 point is granted for the team. If a Hero kills the other enemy Hero, then 2 points are scored for the team.

Oh…but here’s the downside for the Hero…everyone is gunning for you! If you die, then a new Hero on you team is given the chance for Epic Hero Greatness!!!

Did I mention that Heroes are always displayed on the mini-map!?!?…and with a star no less!

Simply stated…this mode is wicked intense!

New Gameplay Mode “Collection”

This new gameplay mode is like multi-flag CTF. There are 4 energy cores scattered around the map, generally positioned in the center or between the 2 team’s main bases. Each team has a Reactor where Energy Cores are taken to score points.

In the screen shot above you can see 2 Energy Cores positioned on a Eucadian bridge. Bringing these Cores back to your team’s reactor will score points for your team…and you can carry more than 1 Core at a time.

The scoring system is progressive, so if you score just 1 Core, your team gets just 1 point. 2 Cores will score 3 points. 3 Cores are good for 6 points…and if you manage to work as a team and bring all 4 Cores back to the Reactor at once, then your team scores a whopping 10 points!

As you can see in the screenshot below, the Cores are displayed on your character and the more you are carrying, the more you see whirling and orbiting around you. You’ll also see them on the mini-map as pulsing energy symbols. The score is displayed in the upper right corner as usual, but there is a new display there for Collection mode. It’s the little yellow number that shows you how many Cores your team currently is currently carrying. This ends up being critical for knowing where your focus should be; Offense or Defense.

Collection mode is fun as &#@%! and really helps promote teamwork and yield some truly fantastic risk-vs-reward moments!…and you can press the TRIANGLE button to throw the Cores you are carrying! Passing Cores among your team is “super-effective” :-)

So that’s a quick run down of the new modes and we can’t wait to have our player around the world start playing 2 completely new ways to enjoy the fast-paced world of Warhawk!

Hmmm…what should I cover next?

Quick-Join:

While we were glad to provide players with very specific control of which games they join or host via our global server list, we wanted to provide an easier way for new and veteran players to get into their favorite games more quickly and easily….thus the new ‘Quick-Join’ feature.

Basically what this new feature does, and I imagine many of you have already figured it out, is automatically scan the server-list behind the scenes, pick a good game for you based on your connection, latency, current filter settings, etc. This all happens in just a few seconds.

This way, if you like playing CTF games *only* in base retail levels with no booster packs, you can set your filters and all you ever have to do from there on out is click ‘Quick-Join’. The ‘Quick-Join’ button honors *all* of your filters so you can really customize Warhawk’s automatic server selection.

If you are brand new to the PSN or to Warhawk you’ll have to play at least one ranked game the traditional server-list way, so that the servers can collect some stats before ‘Quick Join’ will work well for you. After that, you’ll be ready for hot, 1-click, automated server selection action! For those players you have already played Warhawk and the servers already have your stats, you’ll be good to go as soon as the patch is released.

Mini-Map Update:

For game modes like CTF, and the newly added Collection mode, we really need to clarify where you need to take the flag or core – we had received complaints that players could get confused as to where they needed to go. Warhawk now draws a much more prominent ring at the location where you need to return the flag or core. Additionally, the mini-map renders an animated green line that connects your ‘blip’ to the return location.

Rank & Award Updates:

Now we know this is a sensitive subject as it relates to how easy, or in our case, how hard it is to rank up, unlock some of the badges and be awarded any of the elite medals. With that said, we have made some changes to make ranking up a bit easier. Here’s a list of what we changed for the Medals and Badges:

• “Capture the Flag” Medal previously required 500 total captures, now it requires 250.
• “Capture the Flag” Medal previously required 5 captures IAR (In A Round) and now requires 2.
• “Capture the Flag” Medal still requires 500 flag saves.
• “Distinguished Air Combat” Medal previously required 10K total air-to-air kills and now requires 5K kills.
• “Distinguished Air Combat” Medal previously required 20 minutes IAR of flight time and now it requires 10 minutes.
• “Master Teamwork” Badge previously required 75 team points IAR and now requires 60 points.
• “Master Teamwork” Badge still requires 2K total team points
• “Warhawk Teamwork” Badge still requires 2K total team points
• “Warhawk Teamwork” Badge previously required 150 team points IAR and now requires 100 points.

We have also loosened the requirements, specifically point requirements, for some of the officer ranks. The changes to the point requirements for rank advancement are:

• “Major” previously was 150K now its 110K points.
• “Air Marshal” previously required 170K now its 130K points
• “Command Marshal” previously required 190K now its 155K points.
• “Lt. Colonel” previously required 210K now its 180K points.
• “Colonel” previously required 230K now its 210K points.
• “Brigadier General” previously required 250K now its 240K points.

Now we realize that there are many players who have logged several hundreds of gameplay hours – the team and I greatly appreciate your dedication to our game and it’s the dedication of our loyal fan base that helped make the development of these free game modes an easy decision!

TOW Missile:

The respawn rate modifier based on player count has been modified to take a longer period of time so that TOW missiles do not respawn as quickly in large player-count games.

Minimum Rank Server Option:

Warhawk official and player-hosted servers now support a MINIMUM rank along with the previously existing MAX rank.

Respawn Selection Hint:

I know it may sound odd to some of you avid Warhawk players but we actually noticed that there were a number of new players that didn’t realize that you could select a different spawn point when you died. This is primarily for new Warhawk players and this respawn hint is disabled if you have “Hints Display” turned OFF in your options.

Updates for Home Game Launching:

Now players that are launching/connecting to Warhawk games from Home can designate which team they will be assigned to before the server is started. Warhawk’s Support of Home Game Launching now also supports the new Hero and Collection gameplay modes.

Afterburner Flight to Hover Transition:

Previously, if you were flying the Warhawk (or Nemesis) with the afterburners engaged, you were disallowed from transitioning into hover mode. While this may have been a bit more realistic, Warhawk is more about fun than realism and not being able to transition into hover when you want to need to is frustrating! So now, you can switch to hover mode even if your afterburner is engaged.

Team Deathmatch Scoring:

The scoring system for Team Deathmatch previously counted base captures towards the team kill count/score. This is no longer the case and now *only* counts kills…as you would expect Team Deathmatch to do :-)

New “Winning Team” Ribbon:

In an attempt to further promote teamwork, Warhawk now awards a new ribbon to every member of the winning team. With this “Winning Team” ribbon, each player also is awarded an additional 50 bonus points.

Kick-Idle Player Server Option:

Warhawk now allows players to set an option on their own servers (player or dedicated) that will auto-kick idle players. Warhawk also now detects players purposely not respawning via the respawn exploit and will consider them idle as well.

So that’s a pretty good summary of the Warhawk v1.4 Update that’s going to be released world-wide on July 16th at 3am Pacific time (10:00 GMT). We really hope you like all the new updates ‘cause I sure know we had a great time making them for all of you!!! And FREE content is always a good thing!!!

Oh yeah…let me take a minute to clarify some stuff about our upcoming Warhawk v1.5 Update and our new Trophy support.

So, while I have just finished writing what is probably *way* too long of a blog post regarding the v1.4 Update…I need to talk about the v1.5 Update, specifically the Trophies. Here’s a quick breakdown of the 56 Warhawk Trophies:

There are 10 trophies based on current stats, ranks and awards and these 10 *ARE* retroactive. This is largely due to the fact that we have this data stored on our global Warhawk Server Cluster. There are 34 other Trophies that are entirely new ‘goals’ and should provide players with plenty of new challenges. And yes, Operation: Omega Dawn, Operation: Broken Mirror, and possibly a new something have new Trophies as well. Each booster pack has an additional 4 unique Trophies.

To earn the Warhawk Platinum Trophy, all you have to do is unlock the base game’s 44 Trophies…you do *NOT* have to buy any DLC to unlock the Platinum Warhawk Trophy. Forcing players to buy our DLC would be super-craptastic and completely unacceptable.

….hmmm, that’s about it for now. The Warhawk v1.4 Update is right around the corner!!

As always, Rock on!

-dylan

—ohh, you crafty, crafty colored text—

First off, players that register and participate in the tournament will get a special piece of troop equipment: The “GGL Ceremonial Knife”. This replaces your troops current combat blade and *only* players that participate in the tournament will get this new equipment.

Next is the Champion’s Blade — a fierce and dangerous trophy of doom (muhaaahhaaa).

This piece of equipment will *only* be awarded to players on the winning team. And yes, these are sync’d across our global network so when you whip it out, players from around the globe will see it…and fear you! :)

Now it should be noted that these are not uber-weapons…they’re just visual upgrades as it isn’t really right, gameplay balance-wise, for the best players to be able to ravage people even more brutally just because they won the tournament!!! Still…a damn cool prize!

For increased awesomeosity, the GGL is also awarding the winning team with the six-inch Warhawk statues that Gentle Giant Studios is working on. The above pic is a work-in-progress shot.

Here’s the link to their site: GGL Warhawk Team Tournament

Tournament registration is already underway and will continue until June 29th. The competition officially starts on May 27th and will run until July 27th. Teams are already forming and playing in the practice ladder.

GGL is running this tournament so please hit their site for info and any questions you or your clan may have.

On a semi-related note, the team and I have been pretty quiet lately…it’s not because we have gone away! We’re just cranking away on our next FREE update for all of our global players, the Warhawk v1.4 update! Stay tuned to the blog for more info.

We’re also going to be pushing some new server setups on the official servers as well. This could happen as early as this week. We’ve been tracking a lot of feedback from our community and we’re going to be making some of the requested changes….yes, we hear you all loud and clear…more LARGE layouts. :)

And always, how can I end a blog post with out some form of crazy riddle, or hint or something like that. So, here goes…check the image above, and this one is difficult since the other ones I’ve posted you guys have cracked in like a couple hours.

To celebrate the release of our second Booster-Pack, our fine friends on the Playstation Store team have agreed to run a limited-time sale on Warhawk for just $29.99. This is a crazy-good deal and I can’t wait to get an influx of new players — But a warning to all you hardcore Warhawk players…please be gentle!!! :-)

Ok…to kick things off, scope the video below – it’s the trailer for our second booster-pack, Operation: Broken Mirror!

Granted, you probably just watched the video but in case you didn’t, here’s a quick summary of what Operation Broken Mirror includes:

• 10 layouts on a brand new winter battlefield, Vaporfield Glacier.
• 2 new Armored Personnel Carriers (Chernovan and Eucadian styles).
• 10 bonus layouts for battlefields from the original game so that you can play with the APCs.

First let me write a bit about the new battlefield.

So yes, finally it’s a snow level…something that everyone has been asking for. And no…our next expansion will not feature a lava-level !! :-)

It does feature dynamic weather so in some screenshots you will see the sun is shining, there are shadows and very little, if any snow falling. In others, you may notice that the weather conditions have changed. When the sun is behind the clouds, the snow is stronger, whipping back and forth, the shadows flatten and the lighting becomes more diffuse. And yes… the weather state is synchronized across the network.

Vaporfield Glacier is a vast, windswept valley filled with huge chunks of glacial ice, raised highways, deep chasms, with military bases and research facilities scattered around the frigid landscape. At the heart of the battlefield lies Olsavik Village, a small abandoned town whose people have long since left their homes after years of bloody conflict in the Eucadian War.

~burrr~

“I’m so cold….so very, very cold…”

While our last booster pack, Operation: Omega Dawn sold really well (thanks to all of you) and was received very positively, some players on the Warhawk forums did voice a concern that the Omega Factory battlefield was too large!! Something that I must admit I was surprised to hear but nevertheless, it came from our player community so we took it very seriously.

So…we took a different approach with Vaporfield Glacier. The naked battlefield is in-fact larger that Omega Dawn. However, we decided to include twice as many layouts so that we could provide players with more variety in small and medium maps. We also included something else that our community has been requesting for quite sometime — asymmetrical layouts.

So like I was saying, Vaporfield Glacier battlefield is large but it’s carved-up into a bunch of smaller layouts that would provide players with a lot of layout variation. Here are the layouts that you’ll get with Operation: Broken Mirror:

We’re really happy with the way these layouts play and hope all of you enjoy them as well. I was also really glad that SONY was cool with us doubling the number of layouts without increasing the price.

As you know from our previous Booster-Pack we like to “retro-fit” the new vehicles into the core battlefields to keep things fresh. In Operation: Omega Dawn, we included the Dropship into each of the big layouts from the 5 original core battlefields as “bonus” layouts.

Well…this time around, we really wanted to increase the number of bonus layouts because the APCs play really well on both large and medium layouts. So I’m happy to say that Operation: Broken Mirror includes not 5 but 10 bonus layouts that feature the APCs.

Now…on to the APCs. And they are jam-packed with Yummy Gameplay Goodness! I should trademark that so that I can say something like “our new booster features YGG technology!”

…but I digress.

APCs – They have a ton of features so here’s a quick YGG summary:

• APCs support a driver and 6 other troops in “pop-up” hatches that allow troops to use their own weapons, making the APC like a customizable weapons platform.
• APCs act as mobile spawn points for your team so you can setup field bases, help coordinate ground assaults, and spawn directly into them as another player is driving them around.
• When you spawn into an APC, your troop is rewarded with an additional weapon based on an internal loot-table.
• APCs can activate a huge shield by placing an E-POD.
• APCs have a boost ability that not only allows them to traverse distances more quickly, but it also acts as a ram-attack that obliterates other vehicles (except the tank because of its super-heavy armor).

I’m probably gonna have to respond to a lot of comments and questions from this post so that you can get some specific answers. So let ‘em rip!

Oh, and because I know someone is going to ask me…”why is this booster pack called Broken Mirror?”

Well… and maybe this gives too much exposure into how my mind works (or doesn’t work I guess), I found the fracture patterns of broken glass very similar to the crystalline structures of ice and snow — So there…”Broken Mirror”

0052 – 006F – 0063 – 006B – 004F – 006E – 0021

Most of our readers and Warhawk aficionados know that we recently held a contest for players in the US to submit their own insignias and aircraft paint schemes. The response was fantastic and we received a ton of entries. Thus why it has taken us so damn long to review them all, then pick the winners, contact them, and secure all the paper work required by our lawyers.

Welp… the winners are now selected and integrated with the upcoming Warhawk v1.3 update!

Before we reveal the new designs, why don’t you take a gander at this brand new v1.3 trailer and get hyped up for the awesomeness that these new designs will be flying around in:

The team was really impressed by the quality of the submissions. Many of you spent a lot of time designing really great stuff and it’s going to make a great addition to the game — aside form the fact that it’s just plain sweet to get your stuff in a game!

And like I said before the team was really impressed by the paint schemes especially since they clearly took the most time to create. Our artists were so happy with the results that they took the time recently to generate hi-res renderings of all the winners.

The images turned out pretty damn cool and I thought that I would post them here as the announcement rather than a standard text list — text is soooo old-school :-)

Thanks you all for entering the contest – all your great designs add a lot of value to our new v1.3 update!!!

~drum-roll~

Fellow internet-peeps (not to be confused with the seasonal, addictive Peeps), here are the winners!!!

Here are the winning insignias!

We really liked these insignias be cause they were so diverse; from simple abstract shapes all the way to literal items. These should really help our players personalize their troops and aircraft!

Now of course I can’t leave this BLOG entry without updating you on the v1.3 patch and the upcoming Booster-Pack Operation: Broken Mirror.

The v1.3 patch is “basically” done and our international teams are in the last few days of test so I should be able to announce a release date very soon.

Operation Broken Mirror is also “basically” done but hasn’t gone “gold” yet…in hindsight, I wonder if there is a law or some form of internet etiquette that limits how many words I use in a single post with “digital-air-quotes“? Doh…there’s another one.

~blah~

I will be making an announcement about this very soon as well. And I must say, the team and I are really happy with how much fun this new Booster is. Between it and the new equipment added in the v1.3 patch, Warhawk feels like a fresh game!

So I’ll leave you all with a little treat, cause you all know how I like to embed little treats in my posts. Here’s a small teaser image from the upcoming booster. But….I fractured it into a bazzilion little pieces — like a digital jig-saw.

And I totally realize that making a puzzle out of a preview screenshot *does* prove to the world that I am a huge game addict!

(Engage digital reverb filter)

ENJOY! — ENJoyyy — ENjjoooyyyy — Ennnnjjooooyyyy — eeennnjjjoooyyyy —–

There are 5 key additions in this update that add a ton of value for our current and future Warhawk players. First, I’ll cover the 2 new troop items that we are adding to the game.

So far, Warhawk players have logged over 7.3 million hours of gameplay and have scored over 206 million kills! And during this time, we’ve keenly observed the battles, looking for opportunities for us to further balance Warhawk’s gameplay and over-arching “combat economy”. The result of our observations comes in the form of two upgrades for ground troops – to help promote teamwork, lengthen troop lifespan, and expand Warhawk’s fast-paced, emergent gameplay that players around the world have come to love.

This is gonna be a long post and I want to give you all a rundown of the new equipment but I can’t ramble on for pages about it so I’ll just write a quick summary here. I can always follow-up with you guys later in the comments….you know how I love to respond to comments :-)

#1 Mechanic’s Field Wrench:

As you might expect, this piece of equipment is used to repair vehicles. Once you get the pickup, you swing it just like the combat blade. Then, just walk up to, or onto an allied vehicle and “whack” it with the wrench. It repairs wicked fast so it’s very effectively during combat. On the offensive side, not only is it still a one-hit-kill against troops, but it can be used to damage enemy vehicles as well!

#2 Bio-Field Generator:

To use a Bio-Field, grab the pick up and throw it down like a proximity mine. It sticks to walls, ceilings, anything…including vehicles. Then, if any ally stands within its bio-reactive field, his health will quickly regen. Alternatively, and this is where some neat tactics emerge, if an enemy walks into the bio-field (yes, bio-fields are color coded), they’ll take damage – their lungs sizzling like bacon….mmmmm bacon.

This new equipment makes life as a ground troop more balanced, and we’re really looking forward to seeing how the battlefield changes once the patch is released!

#3 HOME Game Launching:

Yeah Baby…So our HOME integration is coming along nicely and this update includes a great, and much needed feature for Warhawk. With the release of v1.3 patch, players will be able to form groups, meet in their apartments, discuss tactics, and then launch a game of Warhawk…all together!

When you’re in your apartment, all you do is whip-out your virtual PSP, select ‘create game’ and pick Warhawk. From there, you get to start your own player server, pick a game rotation, set server options and then…BAM !! Launch Warhawk with all of your friends!! You can also pick to not make your game viewable to the other Warhawk players around the world, or you can make it a ‘public’ game that puts all of your friends into the server together, and leaves open slots for other global Warhawk players join.

Games launched from HOME show up in the global games list in an attactive gold color.

Now this is just the beginning of what we’re gonna to be doing with HOME and there’s some really neat stuff on the horizon. I’d love to show you more of the cool HOME stuff that we’re working on but I suspect I’d get a PR-shank to the spine…or possibly a lung.

So I gotta say that I’m actually super relieved that we’re putting in *REAL* legit value for players and *NOT* making HOME a portal for SONY to jam branding and marketing schwag down player’s throats!

As a gamer, I’m excited *and* relieved to see the direction HOME is taking.

#4 New VOIP Options:

We have also received a lot of feedback about VOIP stuff. There were a couple of features that players really wanted, and hopefully this gives them a big chunk of their crazy, crazy VOIP desires. :-P

We now allow players to select between PTT and Open-Mic. Players can also tune the voice-activation level so they don’t accidentally broadcast their girlfriend or boyfriend blabbering-on in the background. Players also now get to more clearly see who’s talking. It’s displayed on the right side of the screen. And yes, the picture below is correct. We also now support an “all-talk” server option so that you can enable cross-team trash talk.

What else…oh yeah, we now display which player is speaking at the score screen too. And…we let you pick players from the score screen to mute/un-mute their VOIP.

#5 New Paint Schemes & Insignias:

If you’re an avid Warhawk player and/or read this blog with any regularity, then you know that we are sponsoring a contest that allows players to submit their own, custom, paint schemes for the Nemesis and Warhawk. We’re also allowing players to submit custom insignias too. We’ll be picking the winners and including these new customizations with the v1.3 patch.

Now I’m not posting these because they have already won…but these are some neat designs and I wanted the blog readers to see some of the great paint schemes that have been coming in.

And one last thing…we want insignias too. Send us your insignias…and please DO NOT just scan something out of a magazine. Seriously!

Well that’s it for now, there are some other features in the new patch too, like some new server options, but we’re not sure if we’re going to ship them or not. They need more play testing.

So this patch is a big update for Warhawk: New troop equipment, HOME Game Launching, VOIP updates and player-created customizations!

~guy in back of room yells “yeah, yeah….but when’s it coming out”~

We’re testing the Warhawk v1.3 patch right now and we’ll update you on timing in another post. Sorry I can’t be more specific…you know how it goes. As soon as I have the “official” release date, I’ll let everyone know.

As always…

As many of you know, we’re always working on game updates to keep the stream of fixes and new features flowing to our players. As such, we’re currently working on the Warhawk 1.3 patch which will include a collection of new, Player-Created insignias and paint schemes for you all to use when you customize your troops and aircraft.

The team and I will be judging all the submissions and selecting the winners — 50 new insignias and 20 new paint schemes. Winners will not only get their stuff in the game, but will also win a limited edition Warhawk statue from Gentle Giant Studios.

Now of course there are some ground rules…there are always rules :-(

This is common sense but just in case…don’t use other logos or previously created content or imagery. That means you WILL NOT be able to fly around with a official sports logo on your Warhawk or have the face of some hamburger salesman on your soldier’s helmet!! – As cool as that may be. Well…it would be cool for me as I’m big fan of Chicken Nuggets.

Here are some examples:

No questionable content either please. I’m not going to describe various examples of questionable content…you all know what I’m talking about :-)

So for insignias…Here’s what you need to know:

• The new insignia must be black and white.
• White is opaque, and Black is fully transparent.
• The ideal insignia uses only white, black and 50% gray.
• The new insignia must be 64×64 pixels.
• No words or text. The insignia must be graphic.
• The insignia must be submitted in BMP, TGA or PNG file formats.
• Do NOT submit your insignia in JPEG file format!

That’s the set of guidelines for the creation of insignias and some examples.

Now let’s talk paint schemes. Here are the Warhawk paint templates that you’ll use for your submission.

Once you’ve downloaded the template, you can apply your paint scheme much like using a coloring book. Although, if your submission has the quality of a 3-year-old’s rendering of Dora the Explorer…well, then you are immediately disqualified!!! :-)

Here’s an example of what a good war paint submission looks like if you were the leader of…oh, let’s say the “Airborne Banana Clan” :-)

Note that you don’t have to be a PhotoShop expert to submit a paint scheme, Keep in mind that not all paint programs may work.

Here are some other guidelines and steps that you should be aware of:

• Go to the official site and make sure you read all the rules!!!
• Use a paint program on your PC or MAC to fill in your design in like a paint-by-numbers … but without the numbers.
• Avoid tiny details!
• The best paint schemes feature clear and bold graphic lines and forms.
• Again…DO NOT use logos or other previously created content.
• The paint scheme template can be submitted in JPEG format.

Ok, now for the critical info…pay attention!!

Please send your submissions to playstation_community_support@playstation.sony.com
Make sure that the subject line reads “Warhawk Insignia” or “Warhawk Paint” depending on what you are submitting. And yes, you can make more than 1 submission. Please also include, in the body of your email, your full name, Telephone Number, and PSN handle.

Lastly, the deadline…

The submission deadline is February 15th, 2008 at 11:59pm PST!

If you have any questions please, please, please be sure to hit the official contest Web site for all the details…hypothetically speaking my blog entry *might* not cover everything so please check out the official site so our lawyers are happy :-)

We can’t wait to see all of the cool insignias and paint schemes that you come up with! Also, keep your eye’s posted to this BLOG and Warhawk.com for new info and an update on the upcoming Warhawk 1.3 patch!

.-. — -.-. -.- / — -.

Before I jump-in with the FAQ, I wanted to let everyone know that our V1.2 patch will go-live on December 19th at 10:00 GMT (that’s 2am pacific time). We will be bringing our game servers off-line while we roll-out the patch from 10:00 to 16:00 GMT (that’s 2am to 8am pacific).

Also, the Warhawk: Omega Dawn Booster Pack goes on sale December 20th on the PlayStation Store for $7.99!

So, below is a huge batch of questions that we grabbed from your comments. Hopefully you all find the answers useful, helpful, enlightening, entrancing … blah, blah, blah.

FAQ-on!

“OrganicShadow” Wants to know …

Can both teams have a dropship at the same time?
YES – the Combat Dropship only spawns in at specific locations and these bases become really important to hold. They also take awhile to respawn so you don’t see them constantly. But some of our best memories from working on Omega Dawn are from crazy Dropship-on-Dropship battles where nearly everyone in the battlefield is in the air!

Can you give us a roundabout estimate as to how much damage a dropship can take before kaboom time?
It’s really hard to estimate the time because it varies from weapon to weapon. It also varies because, just like a classic BOSS, the dropship has a weak point that causes more damage. I’ve seen a well coordinated team take a dropship down pretty quickly…but the inverse is also true. I’ve seen a team command a dropship for 10 minutes or more. It really depends on how you and your team or clan works together.

Out of curiosity, what button grabs the vehicles and do you have to keep it held?
The CIRCLE button picks up vehicles and you don’t have to hold it the whole time. Also, the player who’s inside the vehicle being carried can also cut power to the tractor beam by pressing CIRCLE as well as long as they are in a “safe” place to dismount.

Will it be available through the game like an in-game store or will we have to back out and go to the PS Store, download it, then go back in?
You can buy the Omega Dawn Booster Pack in both places; the PlayStation Store *and* at the Warhawk in-game store. When you buy Omega Dawn from the Warhawk in-game store, it’s very streamlined. You just pick the product from the list, download the content, it automatically installs and BAM, you’re good to go. You don’t even need to restart Warhawk.

“P_tear_griffin” Wants to know …

I can see how people can be kept out of the new map if they don’t buy it but what about the dropship on the old maps?
The v1.2 patch includes some new features for the server/game list. It allows you to see maps that you don’t have but Warhawk lets you know they are locked until you buy them. So if you don’t have Omega Dawn, you won’t be able to join server running an update dropship version of an older map.

Will the SCEA, SCEE and other dedicated servers indicate the need to purchase the new content before entering the server?
We have also added a very simple color code to the server list. Players will now see a Green, Yellow or Red dot next to the server name that shows that servers content status. For example: if you see a Green dot, your content matches perfectly with the content of the server. If you see a Yellow dot, you have some but not all of the content. If you see a Red dot, you have none of the content.

If you join a server that is running content that you don’t have, you will be allowed to join but prompted that you need the required content to join the game. We then allow the player to buy the expansion content right there once the server has determined what they need.

By the way Dylan, will we see new troop weapons in the near future?
Good question!! I can’t talk too much about it right now but let’s just say that there is some new stuff in the works for ground troops…and it will be FREE for all players!

“Bierbeer” Wants to know …

How about v1.2? I know the Omega Dawn is BIG but I’d like to know how 1.2 is progressing?
We’re done with both. The v1.2 patch comes out on December 19th at 10:00 GMT and the Omega Dawn Booster Pack will be released on December 20th.

“Eclipsed4utoo” Wants to know …

How will this effect CTF? Will the dropship be able to carry someone who has the flag? Will it be able to carry a vehicle that is carrying the flag?
It makes a huge difference!! First off, you *can* be in a ground vehicle with the flag when you get picked-up by a dropship. This really changes the way teams work together when playing CTF. Swooping in to pickup your teammate that’s under fire, and whisking him away to safety is awesome!

You can’t be a normal passenger in the dropship when you have the flag, just like a Warhawk. However, if your server is set to allow “FLY WITH FLAG” then you can, just like in any other normal Warhawk game.

“Bhive01” Wants to know …

Ever consider doing a snow/mountain level?
Hmmm … snow you say?

“MotoX3style” Wants to know …

The question I have is, will someone be able to be in the vehicle while its being transported by the dropship?
YES – its one of the great things about the dropship. You can pickup tanks and 4×4 with players still in them!

“D1rk-Knight” Wants to know …

Is this pack being released in all PSN stores at once or will it be available only in the American store?
Very good question!! The Omega Dawn Booster-Pack will be available in all PlayStation Stores world-wide!

“Agriel” Wants to know …

Will we be seeing a world-wide release on this or will Europe have to wait?
Ahhh … there’s a trend emerging here! Europe will *NOT* have to wait. Warhawk is a global game and our v1.2 patch and Omega Dawn Booster-Pack is being released simultaneously world-wide. The v1.2 patch is being release at 10:00 GMT and the Booster Pack goes on sale December 20th. The specific hour of the Booster-Pack’s release varies from country to country but definitely on December 20th!

“Carl” Wants to know …

Do you have any idea how much this will cost in the United Kingdom?
YES – It will cost £3.99.

How big will the download be? I’m running short on HDD space at the moment?
The Warhawk v1.2 patch is 42MB and the Omega Dawn Booster-Pack is 143MB.

“JJ-F1” Wants to know …

If I purchase this expansion pack, will all users on my PS3 be able to access it or will it be limited to my (master) account?
If you purchased a Blu-ray version of Warhawk then *any* account can play just like you’ve always been able to. If you purchased Warhawk from the PlayStation Store, then you already know that you are required to use the account that purchased the game.

“AbandonAllHope” Wants to know …

Any chance of adding minimum rank limited servers in the booster or patch instead of just MAX rank?
YES – We are adding this in our v1.3 patch. I’ll discuss that more in a later post.

“SeanScythe2” Wants to know …

Are we going to have flashlights or something like that? Maybe spot lights to shine the sky?
NO – Sorry there are no flashlights or spotlights :-(

“Snowglobe” Wants to know …

You are going to make sure that the patch/content works on non-NA PS3s this time, aren’t you?
Ha…Yes of course!!! That wasn’t really the problem that we faced when the wrong European v1.1 patch was released but long story short … YES!

Have there been any additional fixes in the 1.2 patch or is it exactly the same stuff which was mentioned before?
The same fixes that we mentioned back in this blog post are the ones that you’ll all be seeing in the release of our v1.2 patch on December 19th.

“Hplcman” Wants to know …

What kind of defenses will the dropship have? I know it will have that cannon but what help would that be against a missile turret? Will there be a stealth mode for it? Can it pick up the same powerups as the Warhawks?
The Dropship is very powerful and has a lot of health. It also can acquire chaff pickups. It can carry 6 of them. Chaff and health are the only pickups that the Dropship can get.

“Kurtkbee” Wants to know …

Is it possible that we will see game with more than 32 players and also more official (ranked) servers?
You probably won’t see more that 32 player in Warhawk. On the topic of more servers, we monitor our Official server load very closely. Right now we’re keeping up with demand and if it looks like we ever aren’t keeping up, then we’ll look at supplementing our server cluster.

“Youlikeyams” Wants to know …

So I’m guessing America will get this a month before Europe?
Oh wow … this is a bad trend indeed!!! Everyone around the globe will get Warhawk Omega Dawn at the same time! :-)

“Byrd864” Wants to know …

When you enter the KT-424 as a passenger can you free roam in the ship? Or is it going to be like flying as a passenger in the Warhawk?
NO – it’s not like a capital ship with different rooms that you can walk around in. Size-wise, it’s about 4 times bigger than the Warhawk.

When you are a passenger, you get to control a swarm missile turret so that you can help defend the dropship and attack incoming aircraft and other targets.

“Reson8er” Wants to know …

How will it work for those that do NOT download the content?
Players that choose not to purchase the Omega Dawn Booster-Pack can continue to enjoy the same fast-paced gameplay they have been for the last 4 months. However because they haven’t purchased the Booster-Pack, they won’t be able to play on any of the new Omega Dawn layouts or play with the dropship.

“heihachi vs. Kazuya” Wants to know …

As for this update any chance it will be free after awhile?
Well…I’m not the pricing guy so I couldn’t tell you. Sorry. I will say this though. Our patches like the v1.2 update that gives you new server features and new layouts will always be FREE. I’m a firm believer that an online game needs to continue to fix bugs and exploits but also add new value for the player community.

As far as Booster-Packs…again, I’m not the pricing guy but I gotta believe that we won’t be giving Booster-Packs away for free.

“gardea” Wants to know …

Are the dropships the big ships we saw when Warhawk was still in dev?
NO – those were very early capital ships that were from our singleplayer campaign…may it rest in peace :-)

“Darkflame588” Wants to know …

So, by the sound of “boss”, that means there will only be 1 per map?
There are at most 2 Dropships per map. The vast majority of the time players will see only 1 dropship at a time but sometimes, when the respawn timers are just in-sync and the battles have played out just right, you can get some really great dropship-on-dropship battles that last a long time.

“Wilester” Wants to know …

Is this December release for Europe as well or will it fall into 2008?
We take our European players very, very seriously. Actually, we take ALL our players very seriously that’s why we are launching our Booster-Pack simultaneously world-wide.

“Contractkilla” Wants to know …

My question is how will the dropship affect pure deathmatch games?
This is a very good question! The dropship had a very big impact on pure deathmatch games. So much so that we felt it was massively unbalanced so we disallow dropships in pure-deathmatch games.

“Kenshin001” Wants to know …

Will the downloadable content be region coded?
More or less yes…it’s not based on hardware region code, but based on the region where you purchased the game Warhawk. USA, Europe, Japan, etc.

“Cerberus_hunter” Wants to know …

Will Omega Dawn be released on Blu-ray?
NO – The Omega Dawn is available on the PlayStation Store only.

How long are you guys gonna keep making Warhawk Booster-Packs?
For billions and billions of years!! Ha…no seriously we’re not sure. As long as there is a market for it I think we should continue to develop them.

“Gamenut6659” Wants to know …

Is the tank glitch gonna be fixed?
YES – OMG! It was a problem that resulted in players being able to mount invisible turrets and warhawks too. It was a terrible exploit that is fixed in the v1.2 patch!!

“Canthor” Wants to know …

Will there be new extras like a set of night vision goggles?
There are no new night vision goggles, sorry. But as I alluded to earlier…we do have some new troop stuff in the works for our v1.3 update.