Warhawk: Omega Dawn Impressions (make sure you are in a comfortable chair)

The Omega Dawn download was made availiable yesterday along 1.2, but I didn't jump in until this morning because I was waiting for it to enter rotation on SCEA's dedicated servers (which allow for 32 players as opposed to 24 and which tend to feature a higher level of play). The only map I played is the new level (the Omega Factory), which is vast and boasts a very differest aesthetic than the other maps.

A big change implemented in 1.2 (aside from the fact that defensive play is rewarded with less points) is the fact the flag carrier, like all other infantry, only show up on radar if a teammate has a visual. In some of the older Warhawk maps that is less meaningful just because there are a lot of chokepoints and a lot of open space (so no Warhawk pilot will miss a flag carrier) but in the Omega factory but in the sprawling Omega Dawn its more feasible for a flag carrier to disappear. I captured the flag in Omega Dawn six times and didn't stealth my way across the entiremap any of those times just because such a move is against the culture of Warhawk.

In Warhawk teams are used to protecting and helping the flag carrier (I've seen Warhawks interpose themselves between flag carriers and cruise missiles), so a guy crossing on foot inevitably has friendly Warhawks hovering overhead and guys in jeeps offering to give him a ride :P.

Dropships are tough and powerful (when any individual vehicle goes against a dropship, the dropship will inevitably win) and can be put to very good use by well coordinated teams. I'll describe the best use of dropships I saw in a single round of play. A fully manned dropship systematically moved from capture point to capture point, picking up health on the way (all dropships can pick up are health and flares, though they have 6 cannons and six missile launchers, so they don't need anything else) and swatting (with the help of a handful of guys outside the dropship) everything that got in its way. When it got to the flag it invariably had a tank on the underside.At which point the six passengers exited the dropship (the pilot stayed in and focus his fire on anyone out in the open and incoming Warhawks), killing everyone in the vicinity and mining vehicles, then the dropship flew off with the survivors, including the flag carrier, who could notenter the dropship, but could be in a vehicle carried by it (of course, the restrictions on flag carriers are flexible and set by the guy who sets up the room). The really sad thing is I was on the team that got worked by the dropship.

Ironically, my team won that round just because the other team's defensive play was terrible (they put too many bodies on the dropship, too few on their own flag) whereas my team was more balanced (our dropship tended to be lightly manned, but we had more Warhawks in the air and more boots on the ground). So I'd say dropships are an awesome addition to Warhawk, but fully manning them and giving them the requisite air support can deplete a small team, so they balance out. Playing on a ranked server (which allows for 16 man teams as opposed to the 12 man limit on hosted games) is ideal.

Awesome! Thanks for the detailed impressions.

Are you in the U.S.? I updated my firmware last night but didn't notice a Warhawk download.

Sounds really cool.

If Warhawk had a single-player mode (like planned...or even like the Battlefield singleplayer mode), I'd buy it an instant.

Yeah... I'll get around to playing the damn thing when Sony quit being gits and allow people without credit cards to purchase content....

But out of curiosity how much does it take for a dropship to go down? How many tank rounds can they take? Will a TOW missile do them in? How about a well placed cluster bomb? Or are Warhawks just gnats? Do missile turrets lock on? If so how many does it take for them to go down? Do the flak cannons do good enough damage?

Are you friggin' utterly screwed on foot? It's bad enough having a Warhawk on your ass without any support, even with a rocket launcher.

I'm mainly curious if it's easy or difficult to damage the things, which seemingly no one cares about.

And are you telling me that a guy who captures a flag can hop in a jeep or tank and then just have the dropship carry them home? I really don't like that if so.

Awesome! Thanks for the detailed impressions.

Are you in the U.S.? I updated my firmware last night but didn't notice a Warhawk download.

Grieverr

Yes. You just have to go online. Warhawk has a download section via which you can download Omega Dawn.

Sounds really good, I have to get into it, I been so busy with COD4 and Orange Box on PC. I have not played a lot of Warhawk I'm ashamed to say. When I was first playing , when it came out it kept locking up, I have not played since. It sounds like I need to really give it another shot. How much is the add on?_Bear

The add-on is 8 bucks. Warhawk servers (at least the dedicated ones) are now pretty stable (I've put in maybe 60 hours in the past month and the game has crashed twice).

Yeah... I'll get around to playing the damn thing when Sony quit being gits and allow people without credit cards to purchase content....

But out of curiosity how much does it take for a dropship to go down? How many tank rounds can they take? Will a TOW missile do them in? How about a well placed cluster bomb? Or are Warhawks just gnats? Do missile turrets lock on? If so how many does it take for them to go down? Do the flak cannons do good enough damage?

Are you friggin' utterly screwed on foot? It's bad enough having a Warhawk on your ass without any support, even with a rocket launcher.

I'm mainly curious if it's easy or difficult to damage the things, which seemingly no one cares about.

And are you telling me that a guy who captures a flag can hop in a jeep or tank and then just have the dropship carry them home? I really don't like that if so.

VilgeDuin

Missile turrents lock on, but a single hit from a missile turrent doesn't bring down a dropship, nor does an entire salvo from an anti-air cannon (most of which appeared to hit). I have seen a binocular directed airstrike take out a dropship (some guy high up in a tower let our dropship load up, then blew it up before it launched) with a single hit, but I haven't seen anyone drop mines on a dropship or hit it with a cruise missile strike. The only tank vs dropship battles I saw didn't last long (tank vs dropship has about as much suspense as stationary jeep vs tank) and tended to happen when a dropship caught a tankdriver out in the open. Warhawks are probably the best vehicles to use against the dropship because they are so quick, but its kind of like dogfighting with bunch of missile launchers, so one either needs to be very good at throwing missile locks or have chaff. And a dropship's cannons can take down a Warhawk or anything else pretty easily (of course, the trick is targetting them).

Bear in mind a dropship loses half of its firepower if its not fully manned (each of its six missile turrents has to be manned by a passenger) and more than half of its effectiveness, since to use the pilot controlled cannons (of which there are 6) the pilot has to slow down (possibly stop, I don't recall) the dropship and the dropship isn't all that fast to begin with. Dropships can ferry flag carriers, but dropships are slow enough (I've never seen the two race, but I doubt a dropship is appreciably faster than a jeep) that Warhawk pilots have plenty of time to intercept. However, if if really bothers you, I believe you can set up a room which disallows ferryservice for flag carriers.

I think dropships are part of the developer's effort to make offense a little easier. In the past things were skewed a little too much towards defense in Warhawk (speaking as a guy who likes to play offense). Another interesting change made in 1.2 is that if both teams have each others flag (and you can't capture a flag unless you have your flag as well) then capture times eventually shorten dramatically. Capturing a flag in the enemy base, where 16 guys enjoyed 5 second respawns was so difficult that in the past such situations tended to result in scores of 0-0, but thanks to the new change, its easier to break the logjam.

I'm both thrilled at how much they can take (and dish out apparently) and annoyed.

As you stated, Warhawk was very defense oriented. Thus why I haven't bothered playing over the past month. I got sick of being in too many one sided games where one team wound up getting holed into their main base and that was it. Any efforts to do much got them curb stopped.

It just seems with the dropship this problem won't be fixed but exascerbated. Think of it though, how many times have you seen one team driving the other back into the main base on Euchadia during a CTF game? Too many for my liking. Now with the "roving fortress of doom" you can fly over fully manned with a tank, drop it in grab the flag and fly right out. Or just keep pounding them to death with the thing. Eh well.

I just wish Sony would release the damn network cards so I can purchase stuff without a credit card.

I'm both thrilled at how much they can take (and dish out apparently) and annoyed.

As you stated, Warhawk was very defense oriented. Thus why I haven't bothered playing over the past month. I got sick of being in too many one sided games where one team wound up getting holed into their main base and that was it. Any efforts to do much got them curb stopped.

It just seems with the dropship this problem won't be fixed but exascerbated. Think of it though, how many times have you seen one team driving the other back into the main base on Euchadia during a CTF game? Too many for my liking. Now with the "roving fortress of doom" you can fly over fully manned with a tank, drop it in grab the flag and fly right out. Or just keep pounding them to death with the thing. Eh well.

I just wish Sony would release the damn network cards so I can purchase stuff without a credit card.

VilgeDuin

In my experience, teams only get bottled up when they number too many (often inexperienced) players that like to play turtle. Such players see that they are surrounded then think 'The only thing we can do is keep them from getting the flag'. Sure, it makes sense to have five or six guys on defense when the other time is staging an assault from the base closest to yours, but it never makes sense to have 16 guys playing defense.

When a team gets bottled up, experienced players (I've put in 170 hours, so I've seen quite a bit) target the bases in the middle of the map, which tend to get converted and abandoned since they aren't on the front lines. Either that or make a flag run. Either strategy (especially a flag run) tends to break teams out of boxes, at least if the team seizes the opportunity.

The fact that in Warhawk teams can be crushed and that thedropship might widen the gap between the skilled and the not so skilled doesn't bother me.Teams playing defense tend to become less defensive as they grow more experienced. Also, Warhawk usually mixes up teams if one team gets blown out two or three times so imbalances correct themselves even if players don't improve with time (most do).

Oh I hear ya, I just personally got sick of how many games devolved into having one team holed up. Thus I haven't played.

It just becomes boring when you have the other team utterly at a loss and can go willy nilly about doing whatever you damn well please. Takes some of the competetive nature out of it.

Worse is when you wind up joining a game on a team that is already holed up. I mentioned Euchadia because it's the worse for it. Island Outpost and Badlands have countless ways to expand, Destroyed Capital isn't too bad (since it's mostly confined anyways or in the air) with Archipelago just being too fun to be annoyed at, Nothing was more frustrating for me to spawn on a horrid team in Euchadia and having no access to a Warhawk since seemingly every horrible person thinks hopping in and hovering in spot shooting at stuff is a brilliant idea.

And even if you're lucky to get out, if the other team is even remotely competent and watching their maps, or even just following you, trying to retake the spawn points becomes an effort in futility. Now, if at least a few people try, it'll work of course, but all too often most people just consign to sitting in their base like helpless turtles.

The offense aspect of the game is brilliant, I just can't stand defending. It's essential, but if you're going to do it at least try and do a decent job. I still don't know how 12 people in a base can seemingly still have a flag get taken from them, let alone why they won't even try getting it back.

That said, yeah it doesn't happen all of the time and I'm sure maybe it's improved. Especially considering the new patch is out I may just have to fire the black behemoth up to see for myself.

Sounds great, thanks for posting your thoughts on it :)

How do you find voice chat on the game? Is there much team work usually or it is more a game where everybody goes and does their own thing? (I am thinking of battlfield 1942 where you see people messing about or team killing - especially the battle of britian where one player kept blowing up the radar posts even though they were on the team supposed to be defending them).

Wow nice impressions heart. Im going to get it tomorrow I hope. Can the previous levels go dark as well or is it the new only only?F1Lengend

I understand all of the prior levels have been redone with a darker color scheme, though I haven't played those levels yet.

Sounds great, thanks for posting your thoughts on it :)

How do you find voice chat on the game? Is there much team work usually or it is more a game where everybody goes and does their own thing? (I am thinking of battlfield 1942 where you see people messing about or team killing - especially the battle of britian where one player kept blowing up the radar posts even though they were on the team supposed to be defending them).

Garfield360UK

Voice chat in Warhawk works fine, though most games only three or four guys are using mics. Intentional team killing is very rare, though accidental team killing is common (guys being a little too close to an explosion or wandering in front of a speeding jeep). There is sometimes verbal coordination (mostly used to coordinate attacks) but most of the coordination is non-verbal (a guy gets the flag,everyone not on flag defense tends tofind ways to help the flag carrier, whether that be running for Warhawks to provide air support, or mining a road or manning a turrent to make life short for his pursuers).

Team killing was horrid months ago. Especially the first month of release. There's videos out there on YouTube of people filming themselves team killing. Was a bit ridiculous. Although it died down tremendously when the first patch was released, and considering arbiters are supposed to be around I assume it's very rare anymore.

But as Carnage said, unintentional team killing, well it's part of the game. With the number of grenades tossed, mines around, binocular shots used, TOW missiles fired and general carnage... People just wind up getting blown up. Much like real war.

The problem with Warhawk's mic work is both a boon and a fault. You have to press in the left stick to talk. The benefit of it is it cuts down on useless chatter, although I was in a few games where some guys would hold it down the entire time for no reason. The problem though is, especially when you wind up in some intense combat trying to say anything can be a bit trying.

People also tend to not talk. So not much coordination. Although you'll occasionally wind up on a team that can have great communication and teamwork, which definitely helps. Although the way the game is structured and played it's not really needed. Most people do their own thing, but help each other out if they can see an opportunity arise.

But I have to admit, I very well may have to go get someone to let me use their credit card Carnage. This thread's reminded me how much fun I had with Warhawk, i feel an itch to play with this new map. Oh, and the hovering death machine too.

I own an Xbox 360 - I can honestly say I wish Warhawk was a Multi-plat.

I played Warhawk at a friends house and I was hooked.

It is the only PS3 game that I am jealous of as a 360 owner.