Since Hawken was picked up by Reloaded Games in March, 2016, the developers have been working hard to revive the game. New patches comes out every other week and can be viewed on Hawken’s website. In the latest Hawken patch, game developers implemented a number a fixes that will improve multiplayer performance and match-making.
One of the biggest changes in the new patch is the increase in matchmaker expansion time. This change will make matchmaking more consistent by accurately assessing a player’s skill level. At the moment, Hawken veterans get placed at all levels of matchmaking because of the small player base. So what happens is that new players end up going against veterans, which as you can imagine, does not end well for the new players. As admin capnjosh states in the patch notes, “we want to get better matches for everyone, and good players seem to not mind waiting a little longer for them.” The changes seems to address this issue by placing high-skilled players into a new matchmaking bracket.
Also, the Hawken servers are going to get improvements as well. Future changes will improve mid-game balancing issues when players are requested to join a match or switch teams. Thus, the team that actually needs help will get it, rather than the enemy team getting even more stacked.
Given all the changes so far, I expect great things from Hawken. The developers have big changes coming such as reworking the game’s engine, hiring new programmers, and creating additional content. Stay tuned for more Hawken updates and news.