Warhawk v1.3 Patch details

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I’m excited to announce our new, and FREE, update for Warhawk – the v1.3 Patch!

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.

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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.

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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 :-)

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#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!

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#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.

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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!

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#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.

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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.

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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.

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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…
rock on

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580 Comments

72 Author Replies

  • Now this is called a QUALITY developer. Please, for teh sake of great gaming, send other developers a tutorial on how to make great games.

  • Hey man I was just wondering if you could ride in the tank and pop out the top hatch and whack the health into it while still riding along?

    And dude hugs for you and the Incog guys for adding cross-team chat :) It drives me crazy when games don’t have that!

  • will the generatoer and wrench take the position of knife and mines or will we be able to have all four of them at the same time?

    how long will generator last once u throw it?
    can a enemy destory it by shooting it?

    can you use wrench unlimited amounts or will u have to keep picking more up?

    • When you pick up the Wrench it overlays the combat knife.

      We are still experimenting with how to overlay the bio-field. In the current build we\’re testing, it overlays the prox mines.

      So if you have prox mines and then pick-up the bio-field generator, you will have both. Taping the same direction, like manual reload, switches between prox mine and bio-field.

      Does that make sense?

      Not sure if it will stay that way, we\’re still playing around with it.

  • Hey Dylan, I almost CARPPD my pants when I read this!! Any chance though of Boats in lvels that have water? A driver, gunner on back and a guy in the middle that can shoot anything. That would be sick for Archiapelagio ( i think thats right). Omega still RULES man. I love this game. See this is the kind of update people in the PSC (PlayStation Community) want for their games. You have saved it yet again. THanks.

  • LOL ASCII ROCK ON!

    Dylan, you guys rule. Any word on the website stats integration?

  • the Home integration is quite telling. I’m hoping/expecting Home soon

  • Do we still have time for the insignias? I wanna revise the one I did.

  • 1 question will there be custom soundtrack

  • Mine was the psychotic jester logo.

  • How are we going to choose the wrench and the bio-field thingy? I thought all of the easy access slots available from the D-pad were taken.

    I can see the wrench replacing the knife but what about the bio-field thingy?

    Expanding the 3×3 matrix would mean that it would take longer to switch weapons, right? I’m sure ya’ll have thought it all out but I was just wonderin’.

    Btw, thanks for the update and for Warhawk in general.

  • This is serisouly awesome. I am excited for EVERYTHING in this patch. This game is close to me cause its the first game i got for my PS3 that made me think, ” Holy Crap.” ( Got my PS3 on June 3rd. ) I enjoyed PS3, but once Warhawk came out, it was awesome. It’s my favorite multiplayer game so far bar none, and these improvements make it even better! I just have one last question… WIll the patch include an option to allow us to change headsets in game? Example: I have my USB headset set up. Lets say i switch to bluetooth, i have to go to the XMB, any chance we can switch in game? No biggie, just curious.

    Awesome patch !

  • Great Job!!! It’s great to see a FREE patch like this!!! AWESOME WORK!

  • This update is going to be everything I’ve wanted and more! But I have one question to the devs, my cousin just bought a PS3 and as funny as it may sound, she’s a girl. She loves Warhawk and happens to be pretty good. She’s always wanted to know if there would be a “female” skin or customization option for her to choose. Altough, she doesn’t mind playing as a dude :)

    • I know…its something that always comes up. We should support our women gamers out there!

      For our next game its something that I\’m very keen on integrating.

  • wow! nice update :)

  • i want a semi!! that would be an awesome add-on. like a dropship, on the ground ;)

  • Hey Dylan great job in making this game a whole lot better! I had a great idea for a map, one that would take place in the Mountains like the original Warhawk trailer and have a whole lot of trees like under the XMB when you hover over “Warhawk”.

    Could there ever be a “Map Edit” button where you can change the spawn points of stuff and weapons. Or how about the ability to save games under a pseudo-video forward and backward so that people can create game videos about warhawk. That would be cool. Keep up the good work!

  • This is great news. Ah! I saw the broken mirror! Seven years bad luck :)

    Can’t wait? Is the “HOME” integration any indication on when the full version of “HOME” will be out? Does the release of this patch tell us HOME is closer than before? Or is this “HOME” patch more of what most developers are doing with the RUMBLE additions for the DS3?

  • It’s cool, awesome fast reply too :P

    It would be awesome if the patch came out on the 22nd of February. ( My birthday ) and the title screen said” Happy Birthday SIllyHatMafia” towards the bottom lol.

  • I have a couple of questions. Will the BIO FIELD be able to stick on, say, flag carrier jeeps. How fast does it heal, and how long does it last. Why can’t you just axe the knife and give us the wrench for unlimitedness. Any way you may be able to mix the mines and the generator. As in it has a Heal over time, but at the end it explodes with healing. Same with damage. It will DOT, but then explode at the best moment (not hurting the allied team, of course). Could this also be a proximity thing, like it explodes when people are near it on the other team. I have a feeling that this could entirely replace the mine. Can we have more free layouts and game modes. Will we be getting any layouts in this patch? Finally, can you make it so if you have a physical AMERICAN copy of warhawk in an american ps3, but a european PSN account (im stupid, dont ask) that we can still buy future expansion packs. ATM it wont let you buy it. It shows nothing in the Downloads page. Please fix this, because i am a high rank so i don’t want to restart with an american PSN name.

    Broken mirror… What is it???

    • sadly, there\’s nothing I can do for you if you setup a Euro PSN account on an American PS3 with an American version of Warhawk :-(

      Sorry dude…

      But…yes, the bio-fields to stick to vehicles.

  • Oh yeah, forgot to ask: at what point will the wrench switch from dealing out damage to healing? For example, you’re damaging a moving enemy tank, then the driver bails out. If you then hit the empty tank, does the wrench immediately switch to healing mode or will you have to board the tank first in order to “claim” it as a now-friendly vehicle?

    Can’t wait for the snow map! ;)

    • right now, if an enemy is in the vehicle, then you damage it.

      If the enemy bails, then you will stop damaging it. We did this because we found that it adds a neat moment when you force a ground troop out of his vehicle and then boost its health quickly and claim it for your own.

  • thanks for answering

  • Dylan I must say WoW Hawk started off a bit rocky but you guys put the work in and it really shows, thanks so muck for not letting your fanbase down and keep up the good work.
    PS.
    Keep the “free” stuff coming as it does not fracture the user base and only makes it more enticing for more people to get the game.

  • thanks for the help dylan. That stinks. I do not want to get 60k points again :'(

  • Great news, and I’m still impressed by the level of support you guys are putting into the game. Any chance of being able to squeeze one more thing into the patch?:

    Visibility – Parts of the on-screen display are still very difficult to read. In particular, the blue-text-on-blue-background, like in the server selection screen, is near impossible to read. Seems it would be oh-so-easy to tweak the color values for a bit more contrast. The base numbers on the map display are also tiny…all but indistinguishable on an SDTV, and very difficult to make out on a 56″ DLP and a 50″ plasma display. This definitely has an impact on gameplay, and the ability to communicate strategy to teammates.

    Keep up the good work!

    • I\’ll talk to software team about making a color tweak on the server list screen…that\’s easy to do and I agree, it is a bit hard to see.

      Base numbers….I\’ll have to get back to you.

  • I Forgot to ask:

    Could warhawk ever have Active Weather? you know snow, rain, ice , hurricanes? cause that would make the game experience different every time!

  • i take that back… 70k Dang this would be hard to make up… I’ll just hope you release free maps (snow map is the only one i want) and more modes.

  • Excellent additions! =)

    I like the idea about the Biofield. However, I have concerns of massacres when it comes to large games. Maps like Archipelago have a few small bases that often are very crowded, especially in modes like CTF. It’s very easy for the very daring players to fly in and drop a Biofield Generator to begin knocking out players. Will the field be small enough to avoid that or the loss of life slow enough to give the players a chance?

    Also, what are the chances of making machine guns basic starter weapons? I know you have probably dealt with this question before, but I would like to see the odds. I have always thought the pistol really ends up quite ineffective and hindering when you are in heat of battle defending a base. Generally, most players automatically just look for other weapons or go to the knife. The pistol seems to be only used in desperation when a 1 on 1 scenario suddenly occurs. Any chance machine guns may be optionally worked into basic weapons in custom games? How about option to choose what the basic weapon will be in custom games? To add one further, is there any progress in weapon limitations custom games (I really want to make a pure machine gun game, it’s the real battle!)?

    Thank you
    Manish Patel

    • The radius of the bio-field is well tuned IMHO.

      Plus, we track damage on the actual bio-field generator itself…so it can be destroyed which makes the bio-field go away.

      There is a way to start with some additional troop weapons when you spawn in…but I\’m not allowed to talk about that just yet :-)

  • I so want weather, Rain especially, and more dark, preferably Full night, stages sooo much. Would also be great to somehow make it easier for Friends to stay together on the same team, even if its just one other friend to stick with.

  • How many of these bio-fields can you lay at one time, and are these “sticky” pickups which will stay around until they’re destroyed (assuming) like land/airmines? Do they have a lifespan (so they’ll only generate a field of however many minutes)?

    What is the radius of the field, and how long would you need to stand in the field to be killed/completely healed?

    If you drove through a line of them in a jeep, would you take damage as a troop, jeep or both? likewise, if a tank drove through the field with a man in the hatch, would he take damage?

    not related to the weapons, but have you made any decisions based of feedback from 1.2? eg, automatic flag respawning, respawn times, friendly fire, points?

    I think I speak for everyone when I say I wouldn’t mind seeing a few demonstration videos of these new tools in action

    • bio-fields are \”sticky\” and affect troops that are in in \”open-air\” vehicles . So yes, if you were driving a jeep an drove through an enemy bio-field, your lungs would sizzle. If you were driving a tank, you would be protected…if you were popped-up in a tank hatch though, you would take damage.

      And yes, we look at feedback from our community and we will be making a few balance changes. Can\’t comment on those right now though as we are still debating them :-)

  • Home will be out soon…
    Trust me on this one ;)

    [URL=”http://www.google.com/reader/shared/13181999265205944024″]View my Tech, Gadget & Gaming News[/URL]

  • One crazy idea i had i forgot to mention before. If you plan to release any more maps.. one idea me and my friend had, make a map with more rivers and an ocean around it, and possibly add boats with guns on it. We had 2 boat ideas. One boat would be small, fast, and rather weak. The key is its speed and agility to escape trouble. The second boat would be a carrier, it coudl hold a vehicle and a few warhawks on it. What do you think of it?

  • Dylan,

    Will there be added Clan support in 1.3 or the next patch? A few things that would enhance clans are as follows….

    Website Leader Boards
    1. The ability to search for a clan.
    2. The ability to view the clan roster in a Head to Head format.
    3. The ability to see what clan a user is in under the normal format, and be able to view the clan roster from there.

    In-Game Request
    4. Clan Chat System
    5. Clan Message System [ like a mail box in game ]
    6. Clan Ladder System
    7. Clan Challenge System
    8. Clan Stat System
    9. Clan Request System [ for users to send a request to a clan to join it ]

    Thanks,
    DeadSpider

  • Something that would add to the multiplayer – team aspect would be to cooperatively call in
    attacks on certain areas ”
    Airstrikes,
    Ground Ambushing,
    Rocket Launcher attacks”
    And on the map it would show up with a different color so that it can be communicated.

    That would be awesome!

  • In the current server list filter settings, you can specify various server types to filter on. But, it seems that you can only specify each type of server independently. I’d like to see an option where you could filter on any “Ranked” server, which would give me a list of both Player Ranked and Dedicated Ranked servers. Would this be possible?

    • We have done a couple updates to the Knife/Wrench to make it behave better on the internets.

      We\’re gonna see how these changes work and then the community will tell us if we need to tweak it further :-)

  • are you able to increase the knife hit detection. I hit them around 5 times and i see the blood, but they don’t die. And when people run away from me swinging I die half of the time…

  • Hey Dylan, my girfriend is an avid WH fan & is ranked the top 4%. She’s not the only female fan either you know, Warhawk’s massive with the women.
    You guys are so shysty (LMAO) IDK what your planning, but there really needs to be a female skin in there soon.
    Big Up for the update though Bruv, it really does sound amazing. Home Integration, Troop/VOIP options, not to mention the custom Insignia/Paint Job’s.
    Operation Broken Mirror, I love the conspiracy…

  • Revised insignia sent. It’s gonna win. Believe it!

  • Really nice to see that Warhawk is being supported by a substantial patch like this. The PTT comms. bugged me a lot and after this patch I will be wanting to play Warhawk again with my buds. Other developers need to take heed- and not see patches as bug fixes only and DLC as a pay for features add-on. I really appreciate these free value add-ons patches that will extend the life of the game for everyone.

  • Sounds good Dylan. another thing I have noticed is that since the language servers were created that the filter doesn’t save your preference. each time I go into the server list I have to reselect my language and browse again to only be shown the english servers. that’s a minor thing I would like to see fixed also.

    also a “quick join match” option would be cool too. joining a game last week was hell because everyone was hammering the 1 or 2 empty slots on the full servers, while a good deal of them were sitting there with 0 players.

    keep up the good work, looking foward to the 1.3 update :)

  • Very cool, Dylan. Should we expect more goodies in the Patch, or is that pretty much the full list of details?

    Also, will you be making a blog post on the 18th (as the contest rules stated) to announce and show off the winning paint schemes and insignia?

    Thanks!

    • We got soooo many submissions that we need to review and i don\’t want to rush the selection. So many of you guys have put in a great deal of time with these designs.

      So…if we can make an announcement on the 18th we will….but I\’m not going to rush it. You all deserver a fair evaluation!!!

  • @Divine

    Yes… is weird how many girls like this game like my best friend and some random friends that I play with in my PSN friends that I meet in the game… so it’s cool to have some pink paint in the furure for the girls I guess lol…

    • ha yes…we got one submission that was based on Hello Kitty !!

      As you can imagine, I can\’t select that one cause it has Hello Kitty logos all over it.

      LOL

      It was a good paint job other than that though.

  • I prefer purple over pink :P

  • Dylan, you hint sooooo much at that snow level everyone seems to talk about. Just spill it. hahaha.

  • i loved that hidden message at the end Dylan!!!
    i dunno how many people actually looked at it though!!
    lol
    keep it up

  • To the hello kitty comment, I did one with classic P-40 Warhawk details. (Eyes and Teeth)
    Is that acceptable?

  • Thanks for the updates Dylan. It helps keep the game stay fun. About the wrench could a few troops stay behind or in a tank and make it invincible. Also the bio-fields would they make the troops behind the tank invincible too.

  • Dylan:
    I ahve a question.
    If you lay a bio-field genarator down and an enemy comes upon it can it be destroyed by a grenade or a shot? Also will there be a timer on the bio-field genarator if it can not be destroyed by a player?

    • enemy players can destroy the bio-field if they damage it enough.

      Otherwise, the bio-field will time-out after its lifespan has elapsed.

  • Home:
    You add a patch to include home support, so I have the suspicion that something is going on with Home. I know you can’t say anything, but I have a feeling that Home in some form will be here soon.

    Ok, now for a question… Warhawk is battling for my call of duty 4 time. Its litterally a tie, but what I think (for me) that could make this so much more fun(not saying its not fun, its already outrageously fun) is having a very very fast motorcycle. It could be totally weak, like 2 swarm missile and blown up. But really, I want some ground speed. Warhawks pull off that sense of speed in the air with boost, but I really want to see this really fast chopper. Could you imageine how awsome it would look? Eucadian would be like a harley looking thing, then the Chernovan would be very sleek looking bike. Man, I could get into that.

    • COD4 is a top-shelf game and deserves to be played by *all* shooter fans — No Question!

      We\’ve talked about a bike before. I think it could be a sweet addition at some point. We\’re really looking for ways to getting players to work together though so team-based vehicles get a lot of our design attention.

  • Hope to see you on the boards soon, we like it when you visit.

  • HEY DYLAN

    can bio-field generators be detonated like a land mine? can weapons blow them up?

    also, any plans for a semi, or new land vehicle? that would be….

    EPIC

    • yes…you can shoot a bio-field and cause it damage like a prox-mine

      Sorry, but I can\’t talk about the new vehicles right now…

      :-)

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