Heroes of Newerth Game Development 9-14

What S2 Is Working On 9/14 Edition

Citizens of Newerth!
I wanted to throw out another update of things we're currently working on:

1.) Spectator / Replay Interface: This is an interface specific to spectating or watching a replay. It will have more information and options to expand & collapse lots of detailed information panels.

2.) Match & Player Web Stats: We will be releasing access to the online systems that gives all the data for every HoN played. This includes access to replays and player stats. Only accounts that have Pre Purchased the game will access.

3.) Automated Match Making: Now that a majority of our Chat Server scalability is handled we have begun work on the match making system. The initial iteration of this system will only allow for individual and entire team play (5 man teams).

4.) Automated Tournament System (Leagues to follow shortly): We are almost complete with our automated tournament system which seemlessly integrates the ability to create a tournament from web interface directly to the game server, chat server, and game client for creating scheduled games, notifying players of upcoming games, and automatically submitting results and updating brackets. We'll host a $10,000 initial beta tournament for this upon completion (more details will come down the road).

5.) Web Clan Administration: Just the beginnings of our web based clan stuff, will allow for some more clan operations that don't quite function properly yet in game with much more functionality coming down the line.

6.) Recommended Items: For new heroes and new players a like. This system will highlight items that are good and great for the hero you are currently playing. It also adds another shop (Recommended Items Shop) to the list of shop keepers.

7.) Item & Hero Compendium: Available from the Main Menu and the CC Panel we are creating a way to look through items and heroes. The hero section will include recommended play styles, items, and the ability to level up a hero and watch their stats change. This will come through in multiple iterations so don't expect it all right away.

8.) New Heroes: We will continue to push out new heroes. Here is a list of the next group of heroes we're working on.

(a) Sand Wraith: Mercurial (Spectre) port
(b) Panda dude: New hero based on a panda (we had to do it guys!)
(c) Diseased Rider: Lich port
(d) Necrolyte port

We will also be working on other polishes, tweaks, balances, mechanics, etc... while the rest of this is going on.