Today we are pleased to introduce the Grizzly manufactured by Northco/Shaian Mechanics and the Spitting Cobra manufactured by Territorial Arms.These Northern and Southern chassis are the heaviest close combat brawlers featuring impressive fire support. They often accompany recons and light support Gears into battle.
These new Gears feature a new gameplay mechanic which is the tracked foot. The tracked foot is a unique foot featuring tracks instead of wheels. The tracked foot required new animations and updates to our Gearbay. The track gives the heavy Gear wearing the foot a unique advantage on loose terrain such as sand and snow - as well an advantage in that it does not loose speed driving up inclines. As we introduce our weight system the tracked foot will be incredibly useful on open terrains.
The tracked foot and the Grizzly & Spitting Cobra will be revealed over the next 2-3 patches. We will keep you informed as we roll out these new features. We are also pleased to announce that this release marks the official production of our second season of Gears. More on this soon.
HACS-02HG-MPS GRIZZLY
Code Name: Grizzly
Faction: Northern
Production Code: HACS-02HG-MPS
Production Type: Mass Production
Cost: 199800 TEC
Manufacture: Northco/Shaian Mechanics
Use: Close fire support Heavy Gear
Height: 5.1 m
Width: 3.8 m
Average Armor: 70 mm
Armor Material: durasheet with alloy ceramic
Standard Weight: 9210 kg
Description: The first result of cooperation between industrial giant Northco and Kenema's Shaian Mechanics, the Grizzly heavy fire support Gear has been a mainstay of the Northern armies since its introduction in the TN 1870s. Designed to replace the Bear, the Grizzly brought a combination of raw firepower and thick armor to the battlefield. The basic armament of the Grizzly was generally based on that of the Bear featuring a Riley M225 heavy autocannon as its main direct fire weaponry, supplemented by twin GH-8 rocket pods. In addition to the unguided rockets, indirect fire capabilities are provided by TD-76 mortar unit, capable of lobbing guided high-explosive shells up to two kilometers. This long-range guided weaponry makes the Grizzly extremely dangerous when paired with a forward observing unit using a laser designator - such as a Cheetah or Ferret scout/recon Gears. The Grizzly’s S-V22OOZ engine was a distinctive improvement over the Bear’s troublesome S-V790T and managed a mild speed improvement, despite heavier armor. The Grizzly remains slow and lumbering compared to trooper and scout Gears and even to motorized infantry. To provide point defense, the Grizzly was equipped with a GU-10 gatling machinegun.
Despite its heavy armor and impressive weapons load, the Grizzly is usually deployed with lighter machines as defensive escorts. Tank hunting enemy Gears can be frighteningly effective if they are allowed to close range with the Grizzly, because of speed and maneuverability advantages. The standard tactical deployment remains in mixed companies, using squadrons of Grizzly in secondary positions, with strike squadrons moving forward and including at least one forward observing unit to relay coordinates and laser targeting data to the Grizzly. The successful use of the Grizzly has led to the progressive decommissioning of the Bear, but has entailed corporate difficulties for Northco. As Shaian Mechanics has become an active competitor, the long term contracts that bind the two corporations to the Grizzly line has become a matter of great contention -and possible litigation.
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OACS-01H/SU SPITTING COBRA
Code Name: Spitting Cobra
Faction: Southern
Production Code: OACS-01H/SU
Production Type: Mass Production
Cost: 199800 TEC
Manufacture: Territorial Arms
Use: Fire support Heavy Gear
Height: 5.0 m
Width: 4.0 m
Average Armor: 90 mm
Armor Material: armoplast with alloy ceramic
Standard Weight: 8990 kg
Description: The Spitting Cobra is the heaviest mass-produced Gear chassis currently in service with the Southern MlLlClA and Republican Army. Designed to fill the operational role of a heavy weapons platform, the Spit (as its crews invariably call it) is designed to wield devastating medium to long-range firepower on the modern battlefield. The Spitting Cobra's main fire-support weapon is a massive SCRP-98 back mounted rocket pod. Although unguided, the heavy rockets can saturate an area with ease and can take out heavily armored targets. More precise is the secondary fire-support weapon, a shoulder-mounted Vogel-H series guided mortar. Although less powerful than the SCRP- 98 rockets, the Vogel-H fires high-technology guided munitions capable of in-flight course corrections, allowing the Spitting Cobrato make full use of laser-designator data provided by forward observers such as infantry or scout Gears Both major weapons have an effective range of 1200 meters. Short to medium-range firepower is provided by a second pair of weapons more typical of a general purpose Gear, comprised of a MR60 autocannon and a shoulder-mounted FSRP-36 rocket pod. These weapons provide an excellent defense against assault Gears and other units. Close defense capabilities are provided by a MGU-77 minigun fixed to the Cobra's upper torso, allowing the Gear to fend off infantry at very close range.
The heavy weapons load of the Spilling Cobra required a high-strength chassis so Territorial Arms used concepts developed by Mandeers Heavy Industries and thoroughly tested in their Desert Viper and Python Gears (and related models). Thick armoplast armor over a hulking frame are the mainstay of the Spitting Cobra. Developed in a time of concerns for pilot safety, the Cobra features a very heavily armored cockpit, allowing the Gear to shrug off the most dangerous attacks. Unlike the Python, the Cobra uses a standard sensor pod arrangement, with the pilot's head within the Gear's The Cobra required a very powerful engine so the WV-l500TC/A V-engine, with its 940 Hp output, was chosen to fit the bill along with a half-track secondary movement system.
Play with the Devs
Play with the Devs is back to its regular weekly schedule again.
Watch it live on Twitch every Friday starting 6PM EST, or better yet join us on our Discord server and to chat directly with the Devs and other players!
Take your pick: Light, Medium or Rapid-Fire! Shoulder mounted, Bazookas are an alternative to Rocket Pods. They have a slower fire rate and lower damage output than the Rocket Pods but the Bazookas are faster, easier to aim with and can be reloaded. Currently Bazookas require only a shoulder mount to be equipped, in future updates they will also require the corresponding hand manipulator to be free in order to operate.
Available in the Light and Heavy varieties, Mortars are attached directly to the side of the V-Engine, the same hardpoint location as Jump Jets. Utilizing the Gear’s advanced AI, fire arcs are automatically calculated for you. When aiming at a moving target the computer will adjust to the heading and speed of that target. Just point your reticle, fire, and watch destruction rain where you aim.
Added:
Mortars (Light Guided Mortar, Heavy Guided Mortar)
Bazookas (Light, Rapid-Fire, Medium)
Cycle through the mounted weapons with [T] and [ALT] + [T] to group and use the middle mouse button to fire the weapons.
New HUD elements for V-Engine mounted equipment
Flamer sound effects
Flamer hit particle effect
"Preview" mini-lobby
Changed:
Removed aim delay from "Advanced" Mech Sim Controls
Stock Hunter has a Light Flamer instead of a Rocket Pod
Gearbay lighting has been changed to neutral white for more accurate paint colour representation
Improvements to Pioneer Outpost 2017
Removed turrets
Added lights in the Gearbay during night
Fixed:
Lasers firing through concrete floor in Pioneer Outpost
Fixed match time limit on Server Hosting Panel
Fixed Exit Game crash caused by incorrect audio tear down
Fixed Fatal Error "IRC" Crash caused by cached HUD pointer
Known bugs:
Issues with the scoring system: deaths may count as points
PC GAMESN: Making it in Unreal: behind the reinforced plates of Heavy Gear Assault
Our Producer Vince 'VAM' McMullin sits down for a few moments with PC GamesN to talk about Heavy Gear Assault and our team's use of Unreal Engine 4. We talk mech games, UE4 tech, and Heavy Gear in this one.
GAMEREACTOR - Talking to Stompy Bot: Heavy Gear Assault Interview
A very candid coversation with Vince McMullin, HGA Producer, on the state of HGA, the revival of the mech genre and the difficulty of developing crowdfunded games.
With this week's patch, bots will now automatically populate servers. They will attempt to keep matches balanced in terms of player count and will fight against and along side each other and real players! We will be continuing to update the AI including adding the ability for bots to participate in objective based game types. We are happy to bring a new weapon to light with this update - the Light Flamer! Enjoy this toasty new patch - on us.
Finally, we have some exciting new material coming in our next patch. Check out the “Guess who?” image below. Do you know which Gear it is? Let us know.
Team AI Bots implemented!
Setting hearts on fire! Flamers implemented!
Mortars coming soon!
FUTURE UPDATE SNEAK PEEK!
Added:
New Weapon: Light Flamer
Player bots are available on all game modes and maps
Changes:
Right mouse button + drag now rotates your Gear in the Gear Bay, removed slider
Hosting page updated
Added bot settings
Removed non-functional weather settings
Improvements to Pioneer Outpost
Boundary is now rounded
Further optimizations and set dressing
Reworked the jumpjet portion of the movement tutorial to be less challenging to pass
Fixes:
Reduced time that the black screen after Stompy Bot intro displays
Market scene camera placement
Fixed an issue where the JumpJets FX wouldn't activate after being being activated once
Changelist: 02/10/17 Version 268
Based on the feedback from some of our competitive players, we have introduced a hitmarker around the reticle that animates on confirmed hits. Pioneer Outpost got redesigned - slopes are more accessible and there are roads connecting major points of interest. Official servers will feature both maps on rotation. Equipment in the Gear Bay marked as “coming soon” is under active development.
Added:
New engines and pylons (Light, Heavy, Assault)
Updated Tiger assets
Hit confirmation indicator to reticle
Cleaned up the HUD, moved the ammo counters further from the centre
Manual received an update
Tutorial text changes based on key input settings and gamepad/mouse+keyboard
New Pioneer Outpost 2017
Layout alterations
Reduced memory usage
Greatly increased FPS in Gear Bays and certain time of days
General optimisations
Fixes:
Main menu Gear Bay scene optimisations
Fixed a bug where picking up an empty weapon would not automatically start to reload
Re-enabled the ability to manually reload weapons with [R]
Heavy Gear Assault - Regional Servers Inbound
Hey Gearheads,
Thanks for checking out Heavy Gear Assault so far! Did you know we released our latest patch version 259 on Steam on January 24, 2017. Check it out!
We are excited to announce that we’ve added significant support for Linux and fixed issues that were preventing some Linux distros such as ArchLinux from accessing the game. Thanks to the great work by our development, server, backend, and community management teams. In addition to patch 259, we are also happy to announce that we now have regional server support. We will be introducing changes to our in-game landing page with a combined Pilot Lounge and Game Launch Landing Page with our next patch.
Our backend team now has fully realized regional support. Currently we have 2 backends - one residing in Montreal and the other in France. HGA’s game servers are hosted all over the planet including Central, East, and West North America, Europe, and Tokyo. We are looking into an Asian-Pacific backend and will get the Asian community updated on that when it happens!
I am also very excited to announce that we have some very specific plans gearing up for the Heavy Gear community with focused efforts on new content! Hurray! Gears, Guns, and Glory!
We are planning some special updates for the eSports Community, Linux Community, and the Mech Communities at large. Stay tuned for more details.
And our new website and platform for teams and players is currently getting some last minute polish before being activated.
I think the community is going to love what we have on the way.
Our latest patch list is located on our Steam news patch so check it out: http://steamcommunity.com/games/416020/announcements/detail/687197541758707426
Thanks for your feedback everyone. Keep it coming!
Your Producer,
Vince “VAM” McMullin
Changelist: 01/24/17 Version 259
Version 259 is now available through the public branch on Steam and through the standalone BitRaider launcher. We would like to thank all of our users that helped test the build through the Pre-release branch.
We have verified that this build should address most of the issues preventing some distributions of Linux from accessing the game.
This update includes a first pass at addressing some of the initial feedback we have received since Steam launch.
Fixes:
Fixed issue that prevented player from being able to stand from the prone position
Addressed issues with OnlineSub Systems for both Windows and Linux
Addressed issues compiling with cross-platform compiler using Clang
Updated the SteamAPI to the latest version for further compatibility with Linux and the Steam Controller
Fixed memory leak in the Steam Controller interface
Fixed issues with our virtual mouse in Linux
Fixed issues with Clang causing FMalloc to crash
Identified why our original proxy seemed to work but our newest proxy did not
Identified issues with Geotrust and our RapidSSL certificate
Implemented Let's Encrypt SSL certificates to work on Arch and potentially other minimal distros not yet tested
Addressed various Backend issues related to missing TEC and Gears
Fixed various SteamID issues and API updates to the Game client
Regional backend server response times for Europeans should be better
Added:
Weapon locations now highlight on the HUD when selected
Selected shoulder mount location now highlights on the HUD
Weapons equipping to tutorial
Default gamepad movement control layout in tutorial
Autodetect “Listen” to keybinding options
Cancel rocket salvo by pressing the button again after release
Base implementation of in-match experience system
Continued to incrementally improve sounds, art, effects, animations and environments
Version 259 available on the Pre-release branch
Heavy Gear Assault version 20170124-11839-259 is now available on the Pre-release branch through Steam.
This update should resolve a number of issues for Linux users including those that received the following error upon attempting to login:
“LoginFailure: Login request failed, backend is unreachable or is malfunctioning”
Aside from the fixes for Linux, the HUD now provides feedback when equipping weapons making the system more intuitive to new players. Your Gear can also get up again from Prone by pressing the Prone key again -- [Z] by default.
We would like to invite all of our players, especially those on Linux, to take this opportunity to test this update before it is pushed to the main release branch of the game.
Switching between branches on Steam is easy:
Right click on Heavy Gear Assault in your Steam library and pick ‘Properties’. Go to the ‘Betas’ tab and then select the ‘pre-release’ branch in the dropdown menu.
