S2 DivA talks about the HoN Realignment Patch

HoN Dev Blog: Realignment
S2 Diva gives some insight into the upcoming HoN "realignment" patch.

S2 Games - The Fabulous Company

[S2] Diva:
As we've stated previously, the realignment patch will be a large list of minor adjustments aimed to bring everything in the game more in line with each other in terms of balance. This dev blog will reveal how it is we're going about this process, as well as some hints as to what realignment entails.

Step 1: Houston, we have a problem
As with alcoholics and chocolate addicts, the first step of correction is always the acknowledgment that a problem exists. We've always known that a game as deep and expansive as HoN would be extremely difficult to balance, and the realignment process is the result of us listening to the community's input regarding the current state of balance and prioritizing its improvement.

Step 2: Finding the problem child(s)
We realized that if we are to "realign" the game, we needed something to realign to. That is, there needs to be a baseline to which we can bring up the underpowered and nerf down the overpowered. To ascertain the baseline and what lies above and below it, we quizzed our competitive players on the relative power and pick priority of each and every hero. After normalizing and pooling the data we gathered, we were able to come out with a neat little list ordering heroes by power and priority- and establish a baseline with which to proceed.

Step 3: I'm all about solving problems, baby
Having identified the problem areas, we needed to come up with solutions. Once again, we heavily involved our competitive players as we gathered suggestions on how to patch up the problem areas. These suggestions sparked a dialectic process in which we the developers and the competitive players went back and forth until we came up with a list of realignment changes that we're all happy with.

Step 4: Testing, 1 2 3
What looks good on paper doesn't always look good fully fleshed out. Just ask any catalog shopaholic. As with everything else we put into the game, we've immersed our realignment changes in extensive testing by both our beta testers and competitive players. With these tests, we hope to analyze whether our specific changes have had their desired effects and also if said effects do indeed "realign" the game.


We are currently in the testing step, and hope to be ready to release the realignment patch into retail soon- but not before we and the competitors are totally happy with it! To tide you over, though, here are some hints as to what's included in realignment- obviously these are subject to change and not anywhere near comprehensive .

- Plague Rider's ride is getting an upgrade so that it zooms faster
- Hammerstorm will no longer cry every time an enemy buys a Nullfire Blade
- Pandamonium will no longer be a masochist
- Sand Wraith is getting the nerf bat
- Booboo's leash is being extended so he may run more freely in Wildsoul's yard
- Rampage will be more rampant
- Ophelia buffed to Prophelia status

Stay tuned for the big realignment patch, coming soon.
Special thanks to all of our competitive players who have dedicated so much time and effort toward making this possible.

To get HoN Updates regarding the HoN realignment patch via social networks:
-Heroes of Newerth News on Facebook
-Heroes of Newerth News on Twitter

Heroes of Newerth Plans for 2011

HoN Dev Blog: January 17, 2011
(1st Development Blog for 2011)
by [S2] DiVa

Welcome to 2011! This first Dev Blog of 2011 aims to clue you guys in on what the new year means for HoN as we get back into the groove following the successful launch of HoN 2.0 and the winter holiday break.

Heroes of Newerth - conquering the Dota genre in 2011.

More New Content
As always, we'll be looking to inject new content into HoN to keep it a fresh and ever-changing challenge.

* We are well into the development process for the next hero: a ranged, Intelligence-based support hero, the Empath. Her concept art will be released with the next newsletter, so keep your eyes peeled to that inbox!
* We are running several item ideas through our rigorous testing process to see if they fulfill our intentions of moving the game in a positive direction.
* Game modes! We're working on creating new ways to play HoN and utilize some of the skills you all work so hard to develop in different ways.
* More Goblin Store content, like all new alternate avatars; Soul Reaper wants to ride a horse.

In-Game Shop Improvements
HoN's shop system is very robust and its contents are integral in making games as deep and diverse as they are. It is, however, an incredibly daunting experience for a new player to learn to play with the current shop system. Even for veterans, the shop can be inefficient or confusing to deal with. That said, we're investigating changes to the shop system to ease the learning curve and improve intuition and efficiency. Some of the new features we plan on implementing include:

* A search mechanism that filters items by name
* Item sorting by the bonuses an item bestows in addition to the current categorical sorting
* A more robust and detailed recommended items section outlining the different recommended build paths

Realignment
We're constantly looking to improve the balance of HoN, but with all of the new items and heroes we've introduced to the game recently, we'll be undergoing a wholesale, global "realignment" process. We, with the input of competitive players, will look at every single hero and item in an attempt to bring the big picture into focus. Forests of Caldavar will also be closely examined for further balance changes.

--End of Transcript--

To get updated with the latest HoN Updates:
Heroes of Newerth Updates (Facebook)
Heroes of Newerth Updates (Twitter)

Grimm's Crossing - Behind the Scenes of HoN 2.0

Nome of S2 Games talks about HoN 2.0's new 3v3 map, Grimm's Crossing.

Grimm's Crossing will be released during the Heroes of Newerth 2.0 update.

Grimm's Crossing - The HoN 2.0 map.

S2 Games Behind the Scenes on Grimm's Crossing
1. Darkwood Vale v2
Our desire to revamp matchmaking eventually became a directive to include a 3v3 option to increase the robustness of the system. We first turned to Darkwood Vale, our only 3v3 map at the time. Though the initial idea for Grimm's Crossing arose from the ashes of Darkwood Vale, the end result would eventually evolve into a vastly different product.

2. Initial Concepts
We began the project with the intention of altering Darkwood Vale, our previous 3v3 map. Though Darkwood Vale accommodated four less players, the map itself was just as big as Forests of Caldavar, our 5v5 map. To compensate for this, we drastically decreased the map size, particularly in regards to the middle neutral area and lane length. Over the span of a single week, more and more adjustments were made until the map snowballed from a simple rework to a completely new map. Along the way, we had several insights regarding what players looked for in a 3v3--that it should be small, action packed, and fast as hell. This brought about a few special additions to the map:

a) Teleporters

Teleporters add an interesting offensive and defensive element to the map, especially for juking. Despite the already small size of the map, they add a way to reach the battle faster, cementing the characteristic fast-paced gameplay. The idea for teleporters had been on our minds for quite a while; it was something we had considered for the original remake of Darkwood Vale. There would be one-way teleporters that offered a way to get into the action faster, and would be part of the remedy of the huge map size. On Grimm's Crossing however, they simply supercharge the pace... wait until you have your first starting rune fight on Grimm's Crossing!

2.1) Single Rune Location

There is no random number generator at work here. You know where the rune will be every two minutes... you just don't know what rune it is, or who else will be trying to get it. Because there are only two lanes, with the rune at the center of the map, leaving a lane allows players to obtain the rune and gank in one swift move without slowing the action down with backtracking.

Even the terrain itself is reflective of our goal of action, action, action.

2.2) No Elevation Changes

While elevation differences and the unique gameplay features they bring are core to strategy in 5v5, we felt that removing elevation differences in lanes and bases was better for 3v3 in order to fulfill a faster-paced gameplay style, as we wanted to avoid prolonged sieges outside of bases on high ground. The only walkable higher ground can be found at the teleporters, which will be vital for map control.

2.3) Lots of Trees

There are trees galore! Both lanes are essentially flanked by additional tree-lined paths specifically for ganking and juking. A savvy Thunderbringer player could, for example, theoretically spend the entirety of the laning stage playing from the cover of trees. The fact that many of the treelines are single-row creates even more potential for great plays when you consider heroes and items with the ability to destroy trees.

2.4) Long Lanes

Being a 3v3 map, you will inevitably have at least one solo lane. Unlike Forests of Caldavar, there is no "safe" middle lane--both lanes are "long" lanes with plenty of ganking potential.

Changes that did not make it in the FINAL VERSION of Grimm's Crossing:
Visible vision blockers: As a solution to potentially imbalanced ward spots on high ground, visible lines of tall grass are used to notify players of a sight obstruction. This feature was also incorporated on Forests of Caldavar, where notable grass and reeds now populate Kongor's lair where blind vision blockers used to be.

Tower armor reduction: Though this system eventually made it into casual mode as a standard feature, it originally began as one of the solutions to turtling on Grimm's Crossing. Eventually, that problem was solved by the removal of elevation differences.


3. Grimm's Crossing (Release on Test Client)
Once we felt pretty good about the map, we decided to release it on the Test Client for open beta testing. The map at this point was supposed to outright replace Darkwood Vale, but that idea was met with open hostility, so we set Darkwood Vale as 4v4 and spared it the fate of deletion. Though we received a lot of valuable feedback, we felt that in the end, the map was not ready for immediate release. The design and programming teams were prepping for the big move from California to Michigan, and we still lacked focused input from dedicated testers, as the Super Beta team was not yet created. For the next three months, the design team focused on the other features of HoN 2.0 and creating additional heroes and items. Grimms Crossing laid at the side with the intention of being resurrected near the end stage of 2.0.

4. Final Iterations
As HoN 2.0 was looming, Grimm's Crossing was brought back to the forefront of attention. Iterative test games were hammered out daily to make sure the final product was polished to our standards. Details like ward spots, juke paths, and fog issues were resolved to make the map what it is now.

The Heroes of Newerth 2.0 map - Grimm's Crossing Master Plan

Development time of HoN 2.0's Grimm's Crossing:
Although development occurred over several months, we only required one month of dedicated design work to complete Grimm's Crossing--the actual creation and major iterating process--a cycle of doodling, editing, and playing--occurred over a period of just two weeks. The best part about this is that like our new hero production schedule, now that we've set up the backbone for map creation, new additions to the Heroes of Newerth map arsenal should take even less time!

Grimm's Crossing will be added on the upcoming Heroes of Newerth 2.0 patch.
Heroes of Newerth has been nominated as Online Game of the Year.

Vote For Heroes of Newerth 2.0 (Online Game of The Year)
Voting ends: December 15, 2010 (You can vote once a day)
Heroes of Newerth 2.0 release date: December 13, 2010

HoN 2.0 - Innovation in the Dota genre

Heroes of Newerth, the industry leader in the Dota genre will be launching HoN 2.0 on December 13, 2010.

HoN 2.0 - Bringing Innovation in the Dota genre

New Stuff in Heroes of Newerth 2.0:
Casual Mode
Matchmaking
In-game store
Interface changes
Grims Crossing (3 v 3 HoN Map)
Map editor

Details by:
PC Gamer
Neutral Creeps
Worth Playing

Heroes of Newerth 2.0 is expected to attract a lot of League of Legends players to switch.
HoN 2.0 will essentially be LoL 2.0.

Read the Question and Answer Portion of HoN 2.0 by Idejder.
Vote for HoN 2.0 as Best Online Game of the Year.

HoN Dev Blog: Patch 1.0.21 Changes by DivA

DivA talks about Wards of Sight and Revelation changes in HoN 1.0.21.
Other notable additions: Myrmidon

Pub Stompers, Start Getting Your Wards.

Ward Changes:

* Wards (both of Sight and of Revelation) are purchased in packs of 1 instead of 2
* Each ward costs 100, so the cost per ward is the same

Explanation about the HoN Ward Changes:
Wards are a hugely important part of HoN, and there is a lot of game dynamics (and intra-team contention) that revolve around wards. They are incredibly effective, and good placement and control of wards will often make the difference between a win and a loss. However, in public and lower level games, they are very infrequently purchased. We've had extensive discussions about how we can get that to change.

We attributed the dearth of wards in public play to the following:

* Wards are extremely costly.
Not only do they cost gold, but they also require a player to collect it from the courier and then walk to place them, resulting in lost experience and farm. Sometimes, the gold cost itself can be prohibitive when a team is far behind.

* Wards do not convey an immediate, obvious benefit to the person who places it.
Placing a ward does not give a tangible and immediate sense of satisfaction and reward to the person placing it. Its effect is not "poppy," and is therefore often underestimated- until you get ganked, then it's the end of the world and you blame your teammates for not having peppered the map with wards.

* The Free-rider problem.
Externalities, public goods, blah blah economics jargon blah. Lowdown is that each member of the team pretty much benefits equally from the wards being up, but the cost is almost never split. In a disorganized team, there is often dispute as to who should be responsible for wards, and to which extent each deputy is liable. This results in people waiting for others to take on the burden of providing the team with the shiny orange public good. When so many are running around with a "I'm going to carry you, stfu and get on my back" mentality, what that actually means is that you'll be staring at a whole bunch of fog on your minimap.

S2 Games' decision on Wards:

After much deliberation on the subject, and the investigation of all kinds of outlandish and radical ideas, we've settled for now with the most direct, simple, and minor change. Despite the simplicity and scale of the change, however, we're very confident of the positive effect it will have. The lowered "barrier to entry" from 200 to 100 makes it much simpler to grab a ward to go as a side of fries rather than as a main course basket. It makes splitting up the responsibility a lot easier, as the increments at which wards are purchased have decreased. Finally, it opens up greater possibilities of item bundles that include wards, especially at the very beginning of the game with that fabled 603 gold. While it does not solve all of the problems presented above, we're very optimistic of the effects this change will have, and view it at worst as a significant step in the right direction.

Update:
HoN is a FINALIST at the Mashable Game Awards!
Vote for Heroes of Newerth as Best Online Game.

HoN Dev Blog: Patch 1.0.20 Changes by DivA

DivA's explanation for Changes in HoN 1.0.20

HoN 1.0.20 has introduced Moraxus and significant changes to Forests of Caldavar and the assist gold mechanics.

Prior to the relase of this patch, Fielding spoke about how the HoN design team felt about the state of the game. At the same time, Fielding stated the team's focus and plans for the future of Newerth. You may read Fielding's HoN Design Update to find out what Heroes of Newerth has in store for the increasing number of HoN players.

Changes to Assist Gold:

* Half of the total bounty awarded for the hero kill is divided evenly amongst all assistants on the kill
(Example: If two players assist on a kill worth 400 gold, then 200 gold is split evenly between the two people who gave an assist - they each get 100.)

* The player who gets the kill receives the same amount of gold.
(That means that the gold assisters get is bonus. None is taken away from the killer.)

* You still receive gold for simply being in the proximity of an enemy hero kill

Explanation of the Assist Gold Change:

This change to assist rewards will vastly increase the amount of gold that is injected into the game when a kill takes place. We feel that attaching more gold rewards to kills is extremely necessary because prior to 1.0.20, when a kill takes place past level 8, more gold is taken out of the game via gold loss on death than is put in through kill bounty. Player interactions and exciting fight scenes should result in a game's progression - not regression. Additionally, this will place less emphasis on who lands the last hit when several players are collaborating to take down an enemy, as it rewards assister(s) with a hefty cut of the bounty as a bonus. Support players will also be able to translate their assists into gold and items, as enabling your teammates to rack up the kills becomes personally rewarding.

Forests of Caldavar Changes:
Note: Forests of Caldavar (FoC) - the primary HoN map was based on DotA.

"Vintage DotA map" (credits to Neutral Creeps)

Bases:
The Hellbourne base was much much larger than the Legion base and they were both lopsided and not aligned with the lanes correctly. Pushing a particular lane could give you an advantage based on the number of arbitrarily placed filler buildings between the barracks and the main. Now, everything is even, centered, and it is equally effective to push any lane.
The bases are now the same size, centered, and all the barracks are equidistant from the main building/fountain.

* The bases are now the same size, centered, and all the barracks are equidistant from the main building/fountain.

Ramps:
The ramps were quite small and the area outside of the bases were constricted or had very narrow paths. This discouraged pushing, as it placed the aggressor in a massively disadvantageous position, and drew out games unnecessarily. Now, the lanes and approaches to the bases on all sides are wider and more open. This makes team-fighting and pushing much more appealing since there are no more "death-trap" corner spots that can ruin an otherwise good push.

* The ramps leading into the base are wider and the space outside of the bases are much larger/more open.

New Trees
-To counter the influx of axes, new trees were grown.

* Added some trees above in the Hellbourne side of middle lane (up-left of the middle outermost Hellbourne tower)

We noticed a discrepancy in the difficulties of ganking a hero on the Legion side of mid lane versus ganking one on the Hellbourne side of mid lane. You can approach a Legion hero in the middle lane from behind on the right side and remain hidden by fog until you're practically on top of him due to the trees next to the tower. It was impossible to do the same from behind on the left side of the Hellbourne's middle lane because the treeline did not extend out far enough to cover a hero as he enters the middle lane from the Hellbourne jungle. By extending the treeline a bit, we've provided more symmetry to middle lane, allowing Legion gankers to get a few hundred units closer to their victims before they are revealed.

Heroes of Newerth Game Development 7-19

What S2 Games is working on 7-19-2010

With the excitement surrounding Starcraft 2's launch on July 27 2010, S2 Games has been hard at work to provide new features for HoN. Just kidding, they've been playing a lot of SC2 beta. But with the Wings of Liberty beta closed, the game devs have been forced to get back working on their own game.

Updates from S2Maliken:

Match Making with Teams: This system will replace the current match making. It will allow players to enter solo or as team sizes of 2-5 and match players of similar skill (and similar team size) together. The key to this system is the increased use MM should see due to the fact that friends can now use the automated system to play together. We have already done internal testing and continue to tweak and bug fix before we get a beta version out there.

Map Editor / SDK: We are putting an entire new UI on the Map Editor as well as cleaning up a few bugs and adding a couple features. This has been underway a while. We have no dates available, but it is being worked on and is definitely a higher priority for us.
Alternate Hero Avatars: Have you wondered what some of our concept art was for? It is for a feature we will be releasing soon that allows you to play your favorite heroes using a slightly altered hero model & texture. More details regarding this will be released once we have some other things taken care of.

Pathfinding: We have 2 issues that we are currently attempting to resolve - (1) Getting stuck on buildings as you path around them and (2) multi controlling units and allowing the faster unit to properly path to the front and not constantly bump the slower units.

New Heroes: We always have new heroes underway. We plan to constantly add new heroes to the game

Heroes of Newerth Game Development 1-10

What S2 Is Working On 1/10 Update for Heroes of Newerth

Check these out guys! A lot of great stuff coming up!

Match Making!
Our test client currently has a version of Match Making in it. It has a few issues that we are trying to iron out. Once we are pleased with its operation we will release it in the beta client.

Replays
Replays are currently fully functioning in our test client. HoN is the only game that has a searchable online index of all HoN games played. We are also the only game that has 100% automated backwards compatability of our replays. Don't forget you can pause, rewind, and jump forward and back as much as you like in our replays. You can view the replay from a specific players standpoint or from the spectators stand point. You should see replays go into the beta client VERY soon.

Once the ground work for the Tournament System is in place, we'll have most of what we need to very quickly get our League system operational, with a similar level of integration and support. As previously announced, we plan on having a $10,000 initial beta tournament for this upon completion (with more details down the road).

Balance
This is a pretty obvious one. We will continue to make the small tweaks necessary to bring more balance to the game.

Polish
We are also polishing art and optimizing code. You'll notice some of this in the addition of specific ramp setups for the map to identify where the ramps are and are not. Just one of many many many things being cleaned up.

Preparing for Open Beta & Retail Launch
"Soon"

HoN 0.1.62 Test Patch, Matchmaking Game Update

Here's a quick HEROES OF NEWERTH game development update.

HoN is a game title created by S2 Games under the DBG genre.
It is currently in CLOSED BETA.

Latest Server Test: 40,000 concurrent players in a closed beta.

UPDATE: We will be patching when the Master Server comes back up tonight.

Just a heads up, we'll be putting up a test patch later today to test our next patch and our next version of Matchmaking. We will be including a Hack & Slash rework in this test patch. Come test!

To those of you unfamiliar with the test client, it's a special client that updates and installs separately from the regular beta client. When we have content that we know is going to require some more thorough testing, we put it through the test client to get the obvious bugs/issues out of the way (in addition to feedback on experimental balance changes). Some people like to ask "what's the point of the main beta test, then?" The second client really doesn't diminish the value or meaning of the primary beta test. Rather than put out a patch/update to the beta client that we know will have some glaring issues, we run it through this secondary process first. This actually helps the main beta test by not slowing it down with potentially game-breaking issues (our test patches on the pre-beta client receive minimal testing and often we'll patch multiple days in a row as we work on it, a process which would be quite troublesome if attempted on the main beta client).


To participate in the pre-beta test client games, you'll need to participate in our IRC channel. This is open to anyone who wants to join. Our IRC information is:
server: irc.s2games.com
ports: 6667
channel: #hon

Once you're in, you can use /nick to change your name.

We'll be posting the link to the test client in the topic of that channel, as well as information as to where to contribute feedback and discuss the patches.

The exact timing of the test patch's release is not known, but most of them release around 4-5 PST.


Note: This does not mean Matchmaking is coming in the next patch, just we are testing it with the rest of the content with the next patch in one fun bundle.

Heroes of Newerth Clan Management

HoN Clan Management


http://clans.heroesofnewerth.com is now live!

Features:

* Clan Searching
* Clan Profiles
* Clan Management
* Clan Creation


Clan Searching:

clans.heroesofnewerth.com/clans

This page offers the ability to search and sort through the entire list of clans. On the left you can type into the name and tag fields and refine the results as you type. Any of the fields are sortable and you can sort refined results from typing.

You may notice a new data field called CAI, if you hover over the label it will tell you it is a measure of how active a clan is.

CAI: (clan activity index)

Someone joins your clan = 5 points
public match (3 or more people from same clan on same side - pub stomping) = 30 points
scrimmage (4 or more people from same clan on same side vs 4 or more people from same different clan on same side) = 60 points
clan match (will be defined with leagues and tournaments) = 100 points

All of these events are added up (if the clan has at least 5 members) for the previous week when calculated and multiplied by a number determined by how many members they have and how many inactive members (have not played a game in 1 week) they have. The larger your clan is the more inactive members will hurt you. If you have a large clan and everybody is active your multiplier will be high. This allows for small clans to compete by having a higher percentage of active members while still giving large clans credit if they really do just have an awesome clan.

Clan Profiles:

The Clan Profiles section, like the rest of this sub domain, utilizes predictable URLs to aid navigation without searching. To visit any clan profile simply add their clan tag after /clan/

example: http://clans.heroesofnewerth.com/clan/S2 takes you to the S2 clan profile.

example: http://clans.heroesofnewerth.com/clan/S2/members takes you to our roster page.

Every clan has a profile that is editable by any officer or the leader. Clan avatars, hello messages, descriptions, and titles are customizable. There is a comment section, news section, and events.

Events:

Clan events are similar to twitter. Every time a public game, scrimmage, or clan match takes place the clan events is updated with the game number and outcome. This will eventually be linked with the replay site. Users can also add their own events much like twitter. The events archive shows the most recent 30 events with applied filters. Clicking a filter will add that filter to the results. As of now, events are deleted after 30 days.

Clan Management:

Leaders and officers can manage their clan from this web site even more effectively than in-game at the moment. The management abilities include:

* Creating a clan
* Leaving a clan
* Promoting a member
* Demoting a member
* Setting up an application
* Flagging your clan as recruiting
* Viewing clan applications
* Accepting / Rejecting clan applications
* Inviting a user to become a member of your clan
* Posting clan news
* Posting clan events


Most of these are pretty straight forward. A nifty new feature of this system is the application process.

Applications:

On the clan profile (/clan/clan_tag/edit) at the bottom is a check mark that your clan is recruiting. Upon checking this box you will be asked to specify how many questions you would like to put on your application up to a max of 20.

After inserting the questions for your application your clan is marked as recruiting and anybody can come and answer those questions.

Users may only have one active application to your clan (meaning you have not yet accepted / rejected the application) but may resubmit an application as many times as they want.

Once you accept an application the user will be PM'd an invitation to the clan. If you reject them it will send a PM alerting them to the decision.

Invitations:

Clan invitations send a PM to the user with two possible links to follow. One link will accept the invitation and add them to the roster and the other will decline the invitation. The user must be logged into the account that was invited on the page that accepts or declines the invitation.

Clan Creation:

Clan creation from the web site is almost exactly like in-game except the method by which someone accepts an invitation to sign the clan charter is sent by PM. Once all the signatures are received the clan is created.

If one user declines the charter signature the entire charter is deleted and you must start a new one.


Have fun guys!

Heroes of Newerth Game Development 10-26

What S2 Is Working On 10/26 Update for Heroes of Newerth

Citizens of Newerth!

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

Clan Management & Tools
We've developed several advanced Clan Management tools and features (including a Clan Activity Index that you can use to compare your clan's activity to others).

Automated Tournament System
This is still a work in progress, and to those who didn't catch our last update on this, it's a system that allows users to create tournaments on the website and seamlessly integrates into our other systems, notifying players of upcoming games, automatically submitting match results, and automatically updating the brackets. Participating in competitive HoN and organizing competitive events will be a breeze!

Once the ground work for the Tournament System is in place, we'll have most of what we need to very quickly get our League system operational, with a similar level of integration and support. As previously announced, we plan on having a $10,000 initial beta tournament for this upon completion (with more details down the road).

Match Making!
Many of you are aware that the initial testing and development of our match making system is already well underway. We're making good progress, and are excited to share the details of how this functions later. For now we're testing solo-match making, but once that is complete and functional we'll be able to pretty quickly introduce arranged team-style match making, as well as potentially a team finder tool so that groups of 2 or 3 can more easily find other groups of 2 and participate in the 5v5 match making system.

Spectator Interface / Replays

Part of our replays system has been revealed with the latest feature addition, the Match Stats tool. This tool already allows players to look up past games, but we'll be adding features and functionality to it. When replays are available, this tool will be capable of downloading and watching replays.

The rest of the spectator & replays interface is still being worked on. 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. This also includes full functionality of replays with planned full backwards compatability.

The interface has been designed with competitive play in mind, with lots of little features and nuances that should make it easier for spectators or shout casters to catch the action and make detailed assessments of the gameplay based on the stats we provide.

We've got some code hook-ups to tie in here to get this all functional and then the spectator interface should be done. This isn't our highest priority, so it's getting done as the programmers are able. Expect to see it soon!

New Heroes
We've got several heroes planned and several still being designed. Expect to see two more hero ports and a few new HoN-original heroes too.

Misc optimizations / fixes
As always, we'll be continuing to work on improving and polishing existing functionality, balance fixes, hero/item reworks, and pathfinding tweaks are still planned.

Heroes of Newerth Game Development 10-3

What S2 Is Working On 10/3 Update

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. This also includes full functionality of replays with planned full backwards compatability.

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.) Pathfinding Tweaks: While pathfinding works as intendedly most of the time there are situations we would like to improve.

6.) 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) Silencer port
(c) Rhino Rider: port but who?

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

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.

Heroes of Newerth Game Development 8-26

What S2 Is Working On 8/26 Edition

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.) Practice Mode: The ability to locally create a game on any map, play as any hero, give gold, give experience, spawn other heroes and units, change heroes, etc... This change will allow you to experiment in the game and test maps (when you get the editor ) This will also disallow single player games on remote servers which will increase our server capacity.

3.) Chat Server Scalability: We've just recently streamlined the Chat Server's speed and CPU usage and are working on making it fully scalable. This is the last piece of the puzzle for system wide scalability.

4.) 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) Maliken: New strength Hellbourne hero
(b) Andromeda: Vengeful Spirit port
(c) Sand Wraith: Mercurial (Spectre) port
(d) Panda dude: New hero based on a panda (we had to do it guys!)
(e) Diseased Rider: Lich port

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

I hope this update helps you feel good about what is going on with HoN. I hope you feel as though we are getting a lot accomplished. Just think, this is a small self-funded team. Just image with the success of HoN & increased capital and more developers what we can get done (yes, *wink* *wink*, pre purchasing is good hehe). Ok, sorry, that what the capitalistic pig in me coming out. Back to developer mode - thanks for testing and thanks for the feedback everybody!