Maliken Speaks About HoN's Technical Issues

HoN Server Problems Again? Let Maliken Speak.

Maliken (Marc DeForest) speaks about why HoN is down.



Maliken speaks:

It is quite apparent that our current systems are incapable of handling what is being thrown at it. This issue was not present prior to being DDoSed. However, all that did, is bring to the surface issues which would have faced us as HoN grew. These are issues we thought we had solved even after those attacks.

We are fevorishly working to solve these problems. We continue to make minor adjustments to keep as much uptime as possible. However, these efforts are not impacting things to the degree at which we need (again, clearly evident in performance). This situation is taken as seriously as it possibly can and we are pursuing multiple avenues to correct things.

I am sure the situation appears dire and I can fully understand the frustrations and lack of confidence. I can't say anything to alleviate those thoughts. Right now, it is up to us to get this right and let continued, uninterrupted stability be the only acceptable response!

Maliken speaks some more and takes the blame:

I'm taking FULL blame for this.

Also, we have had issues prior to DDoS, these are issues that had not shown themselves in months of months of operation and are issues we thought did not exist any longer. The attacks simply showed us the issues did still exist, we simply had higher thresholds before they would show themselves. It was the DDoS that pointed that out.

It is SOLEY on us that those issues could exist in the first place and that those issues continue to exist. We will get this solved, we have no choice. I am in the same boat as everyone else in wanting them and expecting them to be handled sooner than later.

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Maliken Reacts to Valve Dota 2 Announcement

S2 Maliken of S2 Games speaks about the DotA 2 Announcement.

Silence!

Maliken speaks:

I wanted to address some concerns that I see in the forums:

Perception is everything and I can see how some may perceive the most recent couple of months and very "unproductive" for the continued development of HoN. From that view it may be seen that we're not working on HoN inside the S2 organization. I apologize that the 1000s of hours we have been working on quite a few things can't be seen more immediately.

There seems to be a certain segment of our community who feels we are happy with the money we have earned from HoN and we simply don't care about the product. This couldn't be further from the truth. Since HoN's retail we have been hiring, enlarged our staff, and HoN continues to be S2's main priority. Unfortunately many of the things we have been working on are not visible to you all just yet.

Valve and Ice Frog have announced their upcoming game DotA 2. As can be seen on these forums, many people feel HoN will be severely impacted. While there is some truth to that, it is up to S2 to make sure HoN is a great game and able to compete. We already have an excellent product that has achieved tremendous success and continues to generate significant sales and revenue for S2. We plan to make that product better and create new ways to draw more attention to the game and increase our playerbase even more than its current growth rate.

The challenge is welcomed and you can bet we plan to "bring it!"

Game HoN!!!!!!!!

Maliken Reveals The S2 Games Gameplan

Marc DeForest, the man behind Heroes of Newerth has revealed to us the S2 master plan:

Hello everyone!

I wanted to take the time to let everyone know that what we've been doing, what we're going to be doing, and what our plan is for open beta & retail release.

We've been developing and are working to finish the following:

1.) Automated Match Making
2.) New Interface (We call it Front End 2.0 or FE2)
3.) Art Polish
4.) Gameplay Balance

Much of this stuff has been in the works for a while and progress has been great. We're getting near the end of having this stuff is a testable state.

Our plan is to do the following:

1.) Release a Beta Test Patch with the above mentioned *when it is ready*
2.) Test & Fix & Patch (as many times as necessary) issues related to the above changes
3.) Finalize and put patch into Beta Client
4.) Go to Open Beta which will run for an unset period of time (we plan to release some new heroes during the open beta)
5.) Release the game as retail requiring payment to continue to play at such time we feel Open Beta has run its course.
6.) Continue to polish, improve, and create new content for HoN (this will include the eventual release of a Map Editor, SDK, New Heroes & Items & Maps)
7.) ?????
8.) Profit!

By the way, as proof as of S2's plan for world domination, they even have an ice hockey team in Michigan.

Vote HoN in the MMOSite Reader's Choice Awards

Maliken wants you to vote for HoN
(only if you think Heroes of Newerth deserves it)

From S2 Maliken:

I realize that they categorized HoN as an MMORTS and that probably isn't accurate, but none the less we should win this contest. I ask you all to go vote and get all your HoN friends to do as well.

Thanks. :)

Heroes of Newerth is the winner of the Reader's Choice Awards

Help make it a reality:
Best in the DBG genre
Best New Game

Why pre-purchase Heroes of Newerth?

Citizens of Newerth!
You may Pre Purchase by visiting this page:

https://www.heroesofnewerth.com/purchase_pref.php

I wanted to throw out an update that people are asking a lot about.

1.) What is the relase date for HoN? I honestly can not say because I don't know. Too many variables involved in putting the game to a place we want it to be, before we call it release ready. Why use the term relase ready? Because HoN will be far from "done" at that time. Just because we require people to purchase an account to play (release date) doesn't mean we will be done working on this game. Based upon initial closed beta popularity, we expect we can be working on HoN for a very long time with new maps, heroes, balance tweaks, polishes, and features. We did this with Savage 2 (significantly less popular game) and CONTINUE to do it with Savage 2 now(20 months after relase).

We opened up pre purchasing in an attempt to let us continue to work on the game under this closed beta scenario where we allow in as many players as we are ready to have (no open sign up). Due to the extreme popularity of the game, our operational costs are very significant. We can not continue to pay for the service that is Heroes of Newerth in closed beta with this many players without income.

2.) Why Pre Purchase? I gave you a small prelude to that in the paragraph above. Heroes of Newerth cost a lot to operate. While this is built into the budget of (what we consider to be VERY reasonable) price of $30 USD and operating the service after our initial release date, we need assistance in the interim.

Outside of helping out S2 Games and the game we're all enjoying, there are some very selfish reasons for you to Pre Purchase. Those include:

* Special Colored Nickname: You will have a golden colored nickname on the forums and in game that denotes your support of S2 Games. This will continue after the release of the game.

* Special Shield Icon: You will get a golden shield icon on the forums and in game to signify your support. This will continue after the release of the game.

* Ability To Taunt: Only Pre Ordered accounts (other ways to achieve this post release) will have the ability to taunt in the game. While playing, you may taunt an enemy hero. Only you and that player will hear your heroes pre death voice taunt message. It also puts a state on them for a specified period of time. If you kill that hero during that time a global announcer voice and arcade text "SMACK DOWN" is played as well as you and the other player will hear your post death voice message. In the event you are killed by that hero though, a global announcer voice and arcade text "HUMILIATION" is played and you and that player here their heroes post death voice taunt.

* Secure Your Nickname: Once we release the game all non pre purchased accounts will be deleted. While we will have pre purchasing available until the time we go to release, its always good to just "get it out of the way".

* Closed Beta Invites: You will instantly be given 3 closed beta invites for your friends after pre purchasing. We will still selectively give out invites on our own, they will be a bit rarer than they have in the past (obviously to motivate more pre purchasing).

I'd like to ask all players to pre purchase the game. Help us get some statistics as to the sales potential of this game, help us continue to make the game better before "release", help us continue to operate (what to this point has been expensive to us, free to you) the servers, and get yourself some cool premium benefits for doing so.

Lastly, thank you all who have pre purchased so far and/or plan to do so soon! It sincerely means a lot to us.