Starhawk (new rumors)

[Shifty Geezer]

Melee was amazingly powered, too much so some complained. Especially for those good in a jetpack who could drop on someone, kill them, and fly off. My main issue was reach, which could have been a lag issue, but I had someone knife me from like 3 metres away. It's autotargeting was good as IMO it's obvious the player pressing the stick wants to hit the guy near him and not just wave the knife in the air. But it was very stupid that the best defense against someone running backwards machine-gunning you was to run through their bullets and knife them, and then heal up afterwards. most of my kills were melee. If you could get into their base and run around depots and stuff, you could get a good few kills in close succession.

I deleted the beta thinking it was finished, but I may try it again to see if anything has changed.

 

[patsu]

The supply depot is my favorite building. I always build it first, grab the rocket launcher and head out to the center area (somewhere high). Build another spawn point there ! ^_^

If I build something else first, enemy vehicles or warhawks may intrude our base and massacre all of us. Or they may build a sniper tower and turrets near/in our base.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

The supply depot is my favorite building. I always build it first, grab the rocket launcher and head out to the center area (somewhere high). Build another spawn point there ! ^_^

If I build something else first, enemy vehicles or warhawks may intrude our base and massacre all of us. Or they may build a sniper tower and turrets near/in our base.

All of this sounds so new when talking about a TPshooter ! Looks like I will have to get a new ps3 sooner than later !

 

[patsu]

All of this sounds so new when talking about a TPshooter ! Looks like I will have to get a new ps3 sooner than later !

Ha ha, I'm finding myself doing more building than shooting though. I think if they increase the power of the standard rifle, I will venture out more !

 

[Shifty Geezer]

That was true of both myself and my friend, and I dare say something of a concern for the game proper. How are you finding stalemates? Does the game either end in the first 5 minutes because one team has a coordinated strategy or drag on the full time with no-one able to make any progress, like the previous beta?

 

[patsu]

That was true of both myself and my friend, and I dare say something of a concern for the game proper. How are you finding stalemates? Does the game either end in the first 5 minutes because one team has a coordinated strategy or drag on the full time with no-one able to make any progress, like the previous beta?

It's been a mix so far. Probably 40% end fast, 40% stalemate, 20% neck-and-neck ? So far it's not as one-sided as MAG SVER domination. And not as hectic as R3. More like a blissful RTS MP game to me.

I need to pick up a warhawk and fly soon.

EDIT: They patched the game today:

http://www.LightBoxInteractive.com/3jszd40hw94gci23785ndhowfppqy7

Today's 1.2.2 update for the Starhawk Private BETA was deployed during the rescheduled server maintenance at 4pm Central and contained a large number of changes:

Homing Missiles and Swarm Lasers now begin homing far more quickly.
All 4 speeds have been greatly increased for Normal & Advanced flight modes.
Advanced flight afterburner now requires a double-tap of R2.
Advanced flight now has high-engine speed on press-and-hold of R2.
Afterburner speed for Arcade mode has been reduced slightly.
Increased Swarm Laser targeting range & reticle box.
Hawk Flare cool-down time has been lengthened.
Hawks now decelerate far more quickly when transforming from flight to mech mode.
Lowered the Hawk Mech stomp attack camera.
Camera in Arcade flight mode has been pulled a bit further back.
Missile Scrub values for "canned" dodges have been slightly increased.
Hawk off-screen target tracking time has been increased slightly.
Sniper Rifle aim assist while scoped has been increased slightly.
Increased firing time for Razorback turret before over-heat.

As you can see we've made a large number of changes with this update mostly focused on flight gameplay. Listed below is a bit more detail on the changes and why we made them:

...

 

[JPT]

I saw the magic word MAG, is this as fun as MAG?

 

[patsu]

Hmm... not really. Most of the beta maps are small. Definitely un-MAG-like.

But the level of cooperation demanded is close to MAG.

It's my favorite game at the moment. I play it until 2-4am for the past few days because I didn't realize time has passed so quickly. Game is a little too short to build my dream stronghold, but it's fun enough to design your own base co-operatively.

Attacking with jetpack is probably the most rewarding. Starhawk is awesome too but it's too fast ! I can't control it properly. Usually crash into the enemy base. I think Jeep is a winner too.

I think the most interesting is: It's possible for a quick enemy to steal our flag even after we have walled off the flag and spinkled turrets all over the base. In this sense, the game can be surprising. Many games end up with an early lead (Steal the flag before the base is strengthened), or stalemate. Occasionally, I see our flag stolen at the last minute. 8^(


EDIT: Shifty, how do I get more weapons for my Starhawk ? I saw the standard "3 eyes" weapon icon. Sometimes, I saw another weapon icon (3 rectangles ?) at the lower right hand corner. I don't know how I got those. ^_^

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Starhawks are just like WH - there are pick-ups around the level, although in the last beta most were disabled. I'm hoping those pickups are game-changers. Something like a shield disrupter would be important in breaking stalemates

 

[patsu]

I forgot to ask about the mine. It's a pickup item too ? How do I select between grenade types ?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Yeah, mines are lying around the map. In the island map they were on the north building in the central area; just clumb up the ladder in the middle. Mines are on the radial like WH. I never found them in the space map. Mines don't work the same as there's a delay when triggered. I guess that's to give players a chance to react. They're also pretty visible.

 

[patsu]

Yeah, enemy left them in our bunker. Couldn't see the mines from outside. I blew myself up the moment I entered it. 8^(

 

[patsu]

Starhawk Public BETA Update 1.2.3
http://www.lightboxinteractive.com/...012/1/25/starhawk-public-beta-update-123.html

Today's 1.2.3 update for the Starhawk Public BETA was deployed during the regularly scheduled server maintenance today, January 25th at 2pm Central and included the following Hawk and JetPack changes:

* Greatly increased Hawk maneuverability while afterburners are engaged in all 3 flight modes.
* Greatly decreased JetPack max fuel capacity (from 10 seconds to 5 seconds).
* Greatly increased JetPack fuel recharge time (from 2 seconds to 6 seconds).
* New JetPack OTS camera position.
* Reduced Jetpack's aim assist response time for OTS.
* Added up/down aiming angle constraint for the JetPack.
* Hawk Afterburner Maneuverability:
The turning accelerations and turning speeds (pitch & heading) have been updated so they match the same turning parameters for the Hawk when afterburner is not engaged. This has been done for all 3 flight modes; Classic Arcade, Normal, and Advanced. This change also brings the Hawk's maneuverability at high-speeds in-line with what players were accustomed to with the Warhawk aircraft.

The 1.2.3 Update represents just another of the updates we have planned for tuning the flight gameplay in Starhawk.

JetPack Dynamics & Aiming Adjustments:
We have made a handle-full of updates to the JetPack to help bring it more in-line with the other units.

First and foremost, we have significantly reduced the total fuel capacity of the JetPack. The net result of this for players is really two-fold: if you are using a JetPack, you can only hover/fly for half as long as you could previously and if you are on the ground being attacked by a JetPack, the amount of time that player can engage you from his improved hovering position has been greatly reduced.

Secondly, we increased the timer before fuel begins to recharge (3x) so that players who are attacking JetPack-players have a much greater likelihood of being able to score the kill once the JetPack player has landed on the ground. This is due to the fact that a "downed" JetPack player needs to stay on the ground for much longer before his fuel begins to recharge.

Lastly, we made a couple changes to the JetPack aiming parameters.

The OTS camera is now pulled a bit further away when you're using the JetPack resulting in less zoom than if you're using the more precise OTS as a ground troop. We have also adjusted the blending times for the aim-assist when you engage OTS while Jetpacking. This helps reflect that fact that players should not be as pin-point accurate when they are using the JetPack when compared to ground troops that are in a stable firing position. There have also been a number of issues related to being shot at from directly over-head by a player hovering above you with a JetPack. As of the 1.2.3 Update, there are new angle constraints applied to aiming when using a JetPack. These are intended to reduce the ultra-frustration of being shot in the top of the skull by a JetPack.

As always, the team here at LightBox Interactive will continue to monitor the BETA Test, combat data and community to help inform future updates.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

That's probably a good change. I did feel jetpacks were overpowered. Now users will have to be more cautious/strategic in their use.

 

[patsu]

Yap, fewer jetpack commandos now. It's still very useful for finding obscure spots to snipe people though. ^_^

Update 1.2.4:

Thursday, January 26, 2012 At 10:27AM

Today's 1.2.4 update for the Starhawk Public BETA was deployed during the regularly scheduled server maintenance today, January 26th at 2pm Central and included some stability improvements:
Fixed stability issues related to joining games.
Fixed stability issues related to host-migration.
Stability Fixes:
You've heard us talk about saying "YES" when/if the Starhawk BETA crashes and your PlayStation3 prompts you to send a crash report to Sony Computer Entertainment. The team here at LightBox Interactive gets all of that data you send and it greatly, and we mean *GREATLY* helps our team of engineers identify and fix any crashes that our Starhawk BETA Testers may encounter.

In this case our BETA Testers were experiencing some crashes when connecting to a game -- frustrating, we know. So this update should resolve many of those crashes and instead result in 1 of 2 things. Either the player will be able to successfully connect to the game *OR* Starhawk will now "gracefully" recover from the defect, not crash, and put the player back at the Starhawk BETA splash screen.

And we know that it takes more time for the Starhawk logo to fade in and for Emmett to stand up and take out the Uplink... we're hoping to speed that up in a future BETA update.

Lastly, just want to say these stability fixes *DO NOT* fix all of the stability issues currently in the Starhawk BETA. Please do not expect the BETA to be 100% crash-free. The team here at LightBox Interactive is hard at work to make sure that Starhawk is as good, as balanced and as stable as possible before we launch so we greatly appreciate all of your BETA Testing efforts!

SPECIAL NOTE: Be advised the Skill-Score Leaderboard is currently misbehaving and inaccurate. It is suffering from some defects that result in players being incorrectly ranked and in some cases, the Leaderboard will completely disappear. We are tracking this issue and will be fixing it in a future update.

 

[patsu]

Excellent ! This is the kind of fast and robust turnaround I am looking for in a public beta:

Starhawk Public BETA Update 1.2.5
Thursday, January 26, 2012 At 6:37PM

Today's 1.2.5 update for the Starhawk Public BETA was deployed during the regularly scheduled server maintenance today, January 27 at 2pm Central time and included the following changes:

Reduced troop Rocket Launcher lock-on time.
Added a *VERY* small homing delay to Swarm Lasers.
Improved ease of organic missile scrubbing in Advanced flight mode.
Fixed bug that recently stopped prevented Hawk MGs from targeting turrets and mines.
Air Mine pick-up moved to center of Acid Sea Map.

Faster Lock-On Time for Rocket Launcher:
We have made a significant speed increase to the rate at which the ground troop Rocket Launcher acquires target lock. It maybe too fast, however with the increased ease of missile scrubbing for Advanced flight, we will need a bit of time to see if that's really the case.

Very TINY Homing Delay for Swarm Lasers:
There is now a 0.2 second delay on Swarm Laser homing. This still preservers the improved response time that we deployed from our previous update but gives just a bit for forward velocity before the Swarm Lasers arc towards their targets.

Easier Organic Missile Scrubbing for Advanced Flight:
We are continuing to evaluate and tune the missile scrubbing in Starhawk and this update is just another step towards our goal. The 1.2.5 update makes the organic missile scrubbing easier for Advanced Flight by generating more "EVASION" as you aggressively maneuver your Hawk. This results in growing your Evasion Meter more quickly and therefore scrubbing missiles more quickly.

 

[Brad Grenz]

Finally got a chance to platy a few rounds tonight. Always hard with these betas to go strait into competitive multi-player without prior knowledge of the controls, concepts and tactics. I managed to muddle my way through, only destroying a couple of my team's wall as I learned the structures I was reclaiming were already under my team's control. Oops! By my last match I was having a good time and got the key kill that allowed a team mate to get the enemy flag to out base in sudden death overtime. Still need to learn how to control the 'hawks better, though!

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Played the beta again. It's not much changed from the closed beta - same maps, gear, buildings, etc. Just a matter of seeing how the tweaking is working, or not.

The lack of motion flight is ridiculous though. If they added Pro Flight for those who liked that, why not motion flight? They already have the code (or at least algorithms and parameters) for it!

 

[patsu]

You mean SIXAXIS control ? Should be interesting. I hate good Warhawk pilots. They are difficult to shoot down with homing missiles. They know how to barrel roll at the last minute. They can also take out the turrets quickly, and then they land on top of you. >_<

This is like a Lego Tower Defense game to me. I build my masterpiece and watch enemies tear it down, or sneak past my defense. Then curse out loud, cry and redo.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Have Starhawk pilots become good in SH? They were pretty much useless in the beta and hardly anyone bothered with them in the games I played. They're a difficult thing to balance, although at least you can build a laser turret that autotargets and is pretty effective against them. And you can build a shield to protect your lovely castle!