Warhawk developer Dylan Jobe posted what can easily be described as a message from God for addicted Warhawk players with the announcement of a very important rundown of fixes to an already wonderful game. The main things to be concerned with: stat stability and getting rid of stat padders and general deviants. Jobe said it best on the official PlayStation blog:
The v1.1 patch makes the world a much happier place … ok, maybe not the world, but at least the Warhawk universe
Check out the full rundown after the jump.
The news:
Hey everyone, its been awhile since I last made a post here. The team and I have been cranking away on support and updates for Warhawk and I thought it’d be a good idea to give you all an update as to what the hell we’ve been up to.
So … since my last post, we’ve launched Warhawk in South-East Asia, Korea and Japan — which now means our community spans 15 different languages!
We’ve also been working on a lot of fixes, server-side updates and client patches. Because lets face it, while the team and I were really happy with our launch and players around the globe were having a blast playing, there were some problems that players encountered once we rolled the game out to the masses (stats, connection issues, etc). I’m not going to sugar coat that with a strawberry-flavored, pink, PR candy shell – it’s the truth.
All of that said, we have been hard at work to address the big issues that our Warhawk community currently is experiencing. We have already addressed the majority of our stats-related issues with the deployment of a few server-side updates. These were updates that we rolled out “on our end” without any of the players having to download an actual Warhawk patch. These updates also fixed many of the connection issues. But not all.
The remaining core updates have to be delivered as a client-side patch, hence my next topic - the impending global release of our Warhawk v1.1 patch.
Now we actually have been working on 2 patches — but I’ll talk about the second patch in my next post.
The first update, the v1.1 patch, addresses the critical issues with stats and connectivity. Those two points were the focus of this patch and while they may seem small, they had a huge impact on our player base.
The v1.1 patch is in the last stages of testing right now and should be deployed worldwide by the end of October. Here’s a change list for the server-side updates that we’ve already made as well as what’s upcoming in v1.1:
Server-side updates
* Stat database stability improvements
* Improved server stability
* Max Clan limit changed from 32 to 64
* Viral Rank-up bug fixed and correct for players that were accidentally ranked up.
* “Time-in-Vehicle” Stats fixed so certain awards can now be granted properly.Client-side updates for Patch v1.1
* Stat connection, fetch/post fixes
* Significantly improved client connection stability
* Quad “????” Ping display bug fixed.
* Added support for Player-Ranked Servers.
* Game synchronization fixes due to fluctuating network conditions (packet-drop).
* Crash fixes for end of game and split screen.These updates make a huge improvement to the stats and connection issues that some players were experiencing. The team and I know how much of a pisser it is to not get the award your worked for or how frustrating it can be to try and get on to some of the busy, popular servers.
The v1.1 patch makes the world a much happier place … ok, maybe not the world, but at least the Warhawk universe :)
We are also responding to complaints about wankers that are stat-padding, griefing or just messing with the Warhawk community in general. This is incredibly frustrating for players and we are not taking it lightly!!
A few weeks ago one of our mods made a post on the Warhawk forums letting people know that kind of behavior will not be tolerated. That was just a warning. Now, to protect the Warhawk community and preserve the legitimacy of our worldwide leader boards, I am announcing the existence of the Warhawk Arbiters. These are members of our online services groups in both the US and Europe that will be overseeing the leader boards, community stats and will also be “in the trenches” joining game servers for first-hand observation. Their PSN account names will remain a secret. They have the authority to warn players, call a player out to prove his or her skills, or render judgment … think Judge Dredd.
Judgment can take many forms, an email warning, forum post, a kick, temporary/permanent ban, or the Warhawk Arbiters can request your Warhawk stats be “cleansed.”
There are thousands and thousands of good, well-mannered players. We will not tolerate a small few messing with our global community. So be warned!!
That’s it for now; I’ll be posting again very soon to discuss the v1.2 patch…
As always, Rock on!
UPDATE: Right as we posted news on the v1.1 patch, Jobe and company have let loose info on the v1.2 patch. Take a look:
Patch v1.2 addresses some main requests that our community has made as well as fixes the primary exploits and glitches … and adds some new layouts!
Patch v1.2 includes:
* 5 New layouts.
* Clan game server option.
* Buddy slot reservations.
* Integrated Warhawk Store.
* Updated CTF capture/return behavior.
* Internal stat padder protection.
* Booster Pack status display at join game list.
* DualShock3 integration.
* Separate SIXAXIS motion control on/off per mode (ground, hover, flight).
* Detailed Player Score display at end of game fixed.
* Added new server type filters (player, ranked, dedicated, clan, Official Warhawk, etc).
* Added new server full/open filter.
* Fall damage exploit fixed.
* Dismount into walls exploit fixed.
* Invisible Tank, Turret & Warhawk exploit fixed.
* Auto-kick of idle players.
* Add to Favorites button added to end game screen.
* Increased VOIP volume when not using headset.There are a couple of items on this list that probably need a bit more clarification :-)
The new clan-game server option lets you set 2 clan names, one for the Eucadian team and one for the Chernovan team. Then, when you launch the game, the server will auto-sort the clans on the correct teams. The server will also only allow members of those 2 clans to connect. Clan games are also displayed in a different color at the join game list.
Buddy slot reservations allow you to specify a number of player slots on the server that *only* players in your PSN buddy list can join. So go ahead and kick up a game and you can always make sure that you friends can jump in with you and get their Warhawk on!
We also fixed what a lot of players refer to as the “tank” glitch. This actually could happen to turrets and Warhawks too. It is an annoying exploit and we’re happy to have it fixed – I’m sure all of you will be too!
We enabled DualShock3 functionality in the V1.2 patch too … maybe you all have heard something about this or read about it on the internet? Ha Ha :-)
The Warhawk Store is also going to be enabled in v1.2. This allows players to purchase Warhawk content, Booster Packs, etc from within Warhawk, rather than going through the XMB and then to the store – this is mainly for convenience.
And of course some new layouts – as you’ve seen from the images scattered throughout this post!
We have found that while a lot of players like playing the really large games, there was a pretty big segment that was playing smaller games. With that trend, we wanted to rig some new layouts that are more geared for smaller games; 4 to 8 players. The new layouts are:
* Eucadia: High City
* Island Outpost: Standoff
* The Badlands: South City
* Destroyed Capitol: Garden Showdown
* Archipelago: Close CorridorsSo there you have it. The update list for patch v1.2 that is currently being tested right now and we are tracking an early to mid December global release.
And of course I can’t end this post without mentioning the Booster Pack. So there, I said it…”Booster Pack” :-)
LOLOLOL
No seriously … my next post in just a few days will give you all a glimpse of an internal gameplay session we had with the Booster Pack. It’s just a glimpse because as I’ve said before, our top priority has been on the v1.1 and v1.2 updates.
Over and out…
