Friday, July 29, 2011

HoN Free to Play FAQ

For Existing Players


Q. How does Free-to-Play affect me?

All existing players will be marked as Legacy accounts. Legacy accounts will no longer be obtainable and will continue to enjoy free access to the general hero pool. You will be able to play in Verified Only games, but can play in Basic games if you choose. Legacy players will continue to receive all content for free, including heroes after the hero leaves Early Access.

Q. What is Early Access?

Independent of Free-to-Play is a new feature called Early Access. Players will be able to purchase Early Access to new heroes to play them before they are released for free to the rest of the Legacy players.

While heroes are Early Access, they will not be playable in Tournament Play.

There are many reasons for the introduction of the Early Access system, for a detailed explanation see Maliken's post here: http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/sh...d.php?t=305655

Q. I already paid for HoN! Was my money wasted now that it's Free-to-Play?

Not at all! Legacy accounts are now a rarity, part of our old business model – you're getting additional new content (outside of any potential pay for content expansions) for free, which is a perk no longer available to new accounts whom have to unlock new content.

2.1.0 Patch Notes



Version 2.1.0
---------
- Heroes of Newerth is now Free to Play!
* Please read Maliken's Letter to the Playerbase
* Please refer to our forums for an FAQ that will answer most questions about what this means to you


== Account Type Explanation ==

- Basic: The standard, free account new players will receive upon sign up.
* Access to the weekly 15 free heroes
* Matchmaking restricted to All Pick
* Can purchase access to additional Heroes through the in-game store

- Verified: Basic accounts that have been upgraded through a show of commitment to their account, by either purchasing Goblin Coins or surpassing a certain threshold of play time
* Access to everything a basic player has, plus the ability to participate in Verified Only Matchmaking, to guarantee separation from Basic players if desired
* Can choose to play all matchmaking modes, however the use of Tokens or Passes are required (some tokens are awarded once a Basic account upgrades to Verified)

- Legacy: anyone with a paid HoN account before the F2P switch has automatically been upgraded to a "Legacy" account
* Access to Verified Only matchmaking
* Can continue to play all game modes without the need for Tokens or Passes
* Will continue to enjoy free access to the general hero pool

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Patch Preview with MSI and OK exhibition match!

The upcoming patch this Friday, July 29 has some awesome new content that we have been working on and polishing for weeks. Together with BreakyCPK and Honcast, we've set up an exhibition match with Fnatic.MSI (MSI) and Online Kingdom (OK) on our Release Canidate client.

On Thursday there will be an awesome showmatch involving these two teams. By tuning in, you'll get an early preview of our revamped SpecUI, with awesome new features such as more charts and less clutter. This match will also showcase two of the upcoming heroes - Drunken Master and Monkey King.

You can expect to see all of this:

Monkey King



Drunken Master



A new Announcer



A revamped Spectator/Replay interface



So tell your friends to make sure to tune into HoNcast Thursday for the MSI and OK exhibition match showing off the new content!

HoN Hero Spotlight: Monkey King!

Friday, July 22, 2011

2.0.40.2 Patch Notes


This is a small bugfix patch.

Version 2.0.40.2
-------------
- Fixing the Alt Avatar in the Store

Version 2.0.40
-------------
- Added a new Alt Avatar: Flint Boomstick

- The Tutorial should be much more functional
- Moraxus' Shield Bar should be fixed
- Tweaked tooltips for Revenant

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

HoN Dev Blog: Monkey King!

HoN Dev Blog: Monkey King!



The Monkey King stands triumphantly atop the snow-capped peak. Who will challenge this conqueror of the heavens and proprietor of chaos? He has endured a grueling journey to completion, rife with change and sacrifice. Let's see his transformation from a humble harlequin to a peerless disciple of immortals.

-

The Harlequin was one of my first submitted designs as a community member in 2009; an agility hero who manipulated opponents' movement, whose gameplay was not just at the behest of the player, but followed an implied cadence that dictated a forceful, forward flow. Even after I was hired, I had long desired to implement some form of the Harlequin, but ran into a myriad of problems in its practical implementation, specifically with Carousel. Though it seemed innovative on paper, the manipulation of facing direction and turn rate felt unnatural and unintuitive to the affected players. I decided to effectively start from scratch with the abilities, only keeping an activated, targeted version of the Hop passive that eventually became Heavenly Vault, an ability that became characteristic of the hero's new identity as the Monkey King. This motif is of special importance--it's one of China's most valued mythological figures, and so it was an honor to take inspiration from its rich lore.
(W) Heavenly Vault: The Monkey King plays a game of leap frog on a series of opponents, using their heads as springboards to launch himself further. Unfortunately for his victims, monkey feet are heavy, and they are knocked backwards.
From the start, we knew that this would be the centerpiece of the hero; it was a unique movement mechanic that depended heavily on player reaction and positioning. Landing successive Heavenly Vaults was incredibly satisfying to pull off and rewarded the player with additional movement and displacement. From here, two additional abilities were built that satisfied the original theme of the Harlequin, which was to strike without being struck. Instead of Harlequin manipulating your opponents and causing frustration, the Monkey King would manipulate himself in different ways.
(Q) Illusive Dash: The Monkey King quickly dashes forward a short distance, striking every enemy he contacts. Seconds later, he performs a second dash.

(E) Thousand Jin Slam:
The Monkey King brings down his magic staff at full force, causing a mountain of earth to erupt in front of him, thrusting victims into the air before imploding.
Key to these three abilities would be the interplay between them. All three skills synergistically boost each other: you may perform a Heavenly Vault from a Thousand Jin Slam to vault over a cliff that would normally block movement, or use Illusive Dash between successive Heavenly Vaults to cover distance towards your next target. The core gameplay of the hero had been established firmly, which made conceiving a unique, fun, yet impactful ultimate fairly difficult. We toyed with several ideas, including leaving a trail of fire (while playing the Guile Theme for moral support), breaking out of CC in a burst of power (scrapped due to our unwillingness to make an exception to the "silenced/stunned" rule), and various passives that synergized with the Monkey King's playstyle but ultimately failed to fulfill the sense of epicness that the hero deserved. Conceptually, the ultimate had to feel like an ultimate, yet could not steal the show from the basic abilities, making the perfect middle ground very difficult to reach. In the end, we drew from the Monkey King's lore.
(R) Flying Nimbus: Noncombat mount. When not taking damage, the Monkey King may choose to coast upon a magic cloud, granting movement speed and other bonuses.
Though it's simple, Flying Nimbus served as an out-of-combat foil to the speedy combat design, and was able to be impactful without being overwhelming or unnecessarily adding additional unwanted dimensions to an intricate clockwork of existing basic abilities.

Crucial to the design was the aforementioned rhythm that originated with the Harlequin: the set pace at which the hero glides through battle and the distance the hero travels for each skill have all been timed and tested meticulously, optimized in order to never leave a lull in battle. In psychology we describe a phenomenon called flow, a mental state of deep immersion that results in peak performance during the process. It would be presumptuous to declare that the Monkey King has reached this nirvana, but it is designed to facilitate it. Designing, scripting, and testing the Monkey King has been a labor of love for us, and we certainly hope you will share that enjoyment when you play him.

The Monkey King arrives... very soon

PS: Matt Mercer, who voiced Fei Long in Street Fighter 4, will be performing the Monkey King lines! Thanks to Warchamp7 for the hookup!

To the people who think we're copying League of Legends: We've internally had the concept art for Monkey King since before LoL's open beta started (aside from the fact that The Monkey King is obviously a character from Journey to the West):

Friday, July 15, 2011

Version 2.0.39 & 2.0.39.1 patch notes


   Version 2.0.39.1 
       -------------
- Fixing an auth error (Uploading a new installer now)
Version 2.0.39
-------------
- Added new chat color, Royal Tanzanite
- Added new Alt Courier, Robot Courier
- Stat Resets and Sub Accounts can be bought in the Store with Gold Coins

- Fix to effects with 0 lifetime
- Fix for custom account icons being treated as modded files
- Fixed front queue tools not front queueing when double activating
- Fixed a buffer overflow when attempting to execute a very long console command
- Russian Stringtables updated

- Channel code change
* Item swaps between backpack slots no longer breaks channel
* Moving items to Stash interrupts properly
* Homecoming Stone tweaked slightly, now consumes the stone at the start of the channel


== Items ==

- Added new item: Sol's Bulwark
* Components
* Ringmail (550)
* Ringmail (550)
* Sol's Bulwark Recipe (700)
* Total Cost: 1800
* Passive Effects
* +5 Armor
* Can be toggled between a +5 Armor Aura for Allies or a -5 Armor Aura for Enemies. 10 second cooldown

- Daemonic Breastplate
* Reworked Components
* Ringmail (550)
* Sol's Bulwark (1800)
* Warpcleft (2100)
* Daemonic Breastplate Recipe (1100)
* Total Cost: 5550

- Dust of Revelation
* Visual effect now plays if Empath uses it while inside someone.


== Heroes ==

- New hero: Revenant

Aluna
- Attack cooldown from 1450 to 1700

Dampeer
- Terrorize now applies a 50% movespeed slow to feared targets
- Consume cooldown lowered from 50/40/30s to 30s flat
* Killing a hero now gives 3 essences at all levels

Flux
- Fixed his Magnetic Surge push so that it applies the same state as the pull

Empath
- Essence Link cast range from 500 to 550 and break range from 750 to 800
- Essence Link casttime from 500 to 400 and castactiontime from 250 to 150
- Synergy numerical regen from .75/1.5/2.25/3 to 1/2/3/4
- As One cooldown from 100 to 100/80/60 seconds

Forsaken Archer
- Improved Split Fire so that you won't lose its setting when you die
- Piercing Arrows cooldown from 120 to 100/80/60 seconds

Parasite
- Fixed him from following his last-issued command after you Infest

Pyromancer
- Fixed the DoT from Fervor applying the proper level

Slither
- Fixed his projectile from Poison Spray hitting units directly behind him if they are too close

Amun-Ra
- Ashes to Ashes regeneration lowered from 2/4/6/8 to 1/2/3/4

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

IGN giveaway

Join the IGN Prime HoN Take-Over! Become an IGN Prime member today for FREE. You’ll get Leprechaun Blacksmith, 200 Gold & 200 Silver Goblin Coins, HoN training videos from the S2 dev team, and access to IGN Prime-only tournaments with $1,000’s worth of prizes.

Quick Tutorial to get the stuff free of charge:

1. Go here
2. Click start free trial
3. IGN Prime 30 day free trial
4. Create IGN account
5. Choose Paypal as payment method (make an account if you don't already have one, you don't need any money in the account)
6. Complete the appropriate Paypal information, then when you're back on the IGN website, click the button that just appeared. This is what you should get.
7. You'll get your promo code at http://www.fileplanet.com/betas/hon/index.aspx
8. Enter promo code on http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/ign
9. Now, go back to IGN prime. Login on http://my.ign.com/home
10. Go to https://login.ign.com/Subscribe/Mana...scription.aspx
11. Click on the big "Turn auto-renew OFF" button
12. Click on the really small "Continue with cancellation" link at the bottom

You're done! With no payment required.

You can also create a new paypal account with no money on it and register with it to be extra safe.

Enjoy your new avatar and free coins.

Friday, July 8, 2011

2.0.38 Patch Notes





Version 2.0.38
-------------
- Fixed hitting S or H while connecting to a server causing the game to never load
- Updated text when disconnecting from Matchmaking to be more clear
- Fixed players respawning attached to projectiles when Gore Taunted when "no respawn timers" is set
- Fixed custom account icons counting as modified files for the purposes of Tournament Rules
- Fixed exploit with Rampage and Blood Hunter reveal gadgets
- Fixes to Emerald Warden bugs with Nullstone and Magic Immunity
- Nullstone effects tweaked

- Added new Alt Avatar: Phantom Defiler

- Added new Alt Courier: Rat Courier

== Items ==

- Alchemist's Bones cooldown/timer increased by 20 seconds

- Astrolabe
* Reworked Components
* Fortified Bracer (510)
* Refreshing Ornament (603)
* Astrolabe Recipe (600)
* Total Cost: 1713
* Effects
* +8 Strength, +5 Agility, +5 Intelligence
* +3 Health Regen aura
* On use: Heals nearby allies for 200 Health. 100 Mana cost, 45 second cd
* A hero/unit can still only be healed once every 25 seconds

- Energizer
* Components
* Soulscream Ring (460)
* Major Totem (540)
* Energizer Recipe (700)
* Total Cost: 1700
* Effects
* +7 Strength, +10 Agility, +7 Intelligence
* On use: Nearby allies gain 50 Movement Speed and Unitwalking for 5 seconds. 100 Mana cost, 45 second cd

- Arcane Ring
* Reworked Components
* Amulet of Exile (485)
* Pickled Brain (900)
* Auto combines
* Total Cost: 1385
* Effects
* +300 Mana, +3 Strength, +3 Agility, +6 Intelligence
* On use: Nearby allies gain 135 Mana. 25 Mana cost, 33 second cd

- Shieldbreaker
* Rework
* Warhammer (1600)
* Shieldbreaker Recipe (900)
* Total Cost: 2500 / 3400 / 4300
* Effects
* +30 / 45 / 60 Damage
* -2 / -4 / -6 Armor debuff on target