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Heroes of Newerth Beta PC (dota clone)
- Thread starter blitz64
- Start date
hobart said:
The really interesting thing is though, while Swiftblade on paper is weaker than Juggernaut, in practice he's about as good (at least for non-competitive play).
Carries in HoN generally outperform their DotA counterparts significantly due to the efficient netcode and reduced input lag. Compare Pestilence to Slardar, for example--Pestilence's numbers actually weaker (attack point, slow range), but he's a much stronger pick in HoN than Slardar is in DotA.
so does anyone have any idea when this game is going to ACTUALLY be released? i wonder how many more players will pop up at that point. i mean, there are TONS of games right now, i wonder how much bigger it will get.
i have been struggling to get my psr back up from all my pub games. i have been as high as 1600 and now i am floating between 1400 and 1500. i hate the fact that i can't get into a lot of games just because of my lower rating. i guess i just need to improve more!
i have been struggling to get my psr back up from all my pub games. i have been as high as 1600 and now i am floating between 1400 and 1500. i hate the fact that i can't get into a lot of games just because of my lower rating. i guess i just need to improve more!
^^
This may be frowned upon, but make an alt account, puts you right at 1500 with no stats. A bit less of a bias against you at that point, and you can get out of the 1400 bracket.
Also join the side that seems stacked so you have a higher chance of winning, there's an add on you can install that'll show stats in the lobby. Which'll help you join the stacked team faster, you can easily get up to 1560 ~ 1580 this way. It'll give you a buffer to work on getting up to 1600.
I can't guarantee you'll feel good about this though, but it's pretty much 80% chance of working.
This may be frowned upon, but make an alt account, puts you right at 1500 with no stats. A bit less of a bias against you at that point, and you can get out of the 1400 bracket.
Also join the side that seems stacked so you have a higher chance of winning, there's an add on you can install that'll show stats in the lobby. Which'll help you join the stacked team faster, you can easily get up to 1560 ~ 1580 this way. It'll give you a buffer to work on getting up to 1600.
I can't guarantee you'll feel good about this though, but it's pretty much 80% chance of working.
blitz64
Member
Open beta ends christmas night. Go create your account now and join the gaf clan.
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/open_create_account.php
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/open_create_account.php
blitz64
Member
1 more day to register for the beta.
Congrats on reaching 1 million register users and reaching 40,000 concurrent online players.
I think League of Legends hasn't reach 1 million users yet. It took Battlefield Heroes 1 month to reach 1 million after launch.
As for duplicate users, My guess would be 5%. It should be similar to other free to play games out there like LoL and Battlefield heroes. They get duplicate accounts too.
Congrats on reaching 1 million register users and reaching 40,000 concurrent online players.
I think League of Legends hasn't reach 1 million users yet. It took Battlefield Heroes 1 month to reach 1 million after launch.
As for duplicate users, My guess would be 5%. It should be similar to other free to play games out there like LoL and Battlefield heroes. They get duplicate accounts too.
blitz64
Member
hobart said:More details on the GAF guild...
http://clans.heroesofnewerth.com/clan/GAF
Once you login, you automaticly join the gaf chat channel. Guild chat will be in green color like world of warcraft. You can see all the clan members and join their games.
Lone_Prodigy
Member
I don't even see the point of playing against mint. 6.6 KDR omg. I think even if the Defiler wasn't feeding his Blood Hunter we still would've lost. :lol
Took me awhile to get back into DOTA form. Admittedly... I was a bit DOTA rusty when I picked HoN up... having not played for a good 2 months. Now after about 100 games played on HoN... I picked up a big win streak over my last 25 games picking myself up to the mid 1600s in PSR (which, actually, I find is a terrible barometer for "skill." Although.. generally the 1700 guys and above are pretty good).
I've been playing EMs primarily during my learning process... spanning many many different heroes in order to find which characters best fit my play style. What I really hate about the EM games is how much denying isn't a factor... and how quickly towers fall. It's laughable. And I think it's made me a little soft... so... I'm willing to spend that extra time in non-EMs to really get myself back.
The HoN engine is wonderful. It really does feel like everything I've ever wanted in DOTA but couldn't have... is here. I want to explore mods... but I'm a little afraid that it'll bug the game out a bit (I still find little bugs here and there).
Addicting as usual. Still looking for that GAF invite
Playing with pubs is still very very shakey.
I've been playing EMs primarily during my learning process... spanning many many different heroes in order to find which characters best fit my play style. What I really hate about the EM games is how much denying isn't a factor... and how quickly towers fall. It's laughable. And I think it's made me a little soft... so... I'm willing to spend that extra time in non-EMs to really get myself back.
The HoN engine is wonderful. It really does feel like everything I've ever wanted in DOTA but couldn't have... is here. I want to explore mods... but I'm a little afraid that it'll bug the game out a bit (I still find little bugs here and there).
Addicting as usual. Still looking for that GAF invite
Playing with pubs is still very very shakey.usea said:
Or - shot in the dark here - you suck at it.
Which is to be expected. I never played dota so hon was my first experience with this type of gameplay as well. God knows my first month or two wasn't pretty. Still, this game is both complicated and deep, so a steep learning curve is the order of the day.
I've been trying for 3 fucking hours to play a single game. Nobody wants to actually play, they just want to be assholes and steamroll some other team to improve their kdr. Every game has half a team locked and the autobalance doesn't get past 25:75. Or somebody disconnects and everybody refuses to remake or concede. I've just been trying to play a god damned game and I can't even do that.
Also I have had 3 different teams disconnect on me when I said I was new to the game and I asked for tips or instructions. Usually accompanied by telling me to kill myself. These are all noob-only games.
Not even going to get into the absolute epitome of unintuitive mechanics and mess of items and characters.
Also I have had 3 different teams disconnect on me when I said I was new to the game and I asked for tips or instructions. Usually accompanied by telling me to kill myself. These are all noob-only games.
Not even going to get into the absolute epitome of unintuitive mechanics and mess of items and characters.
Teknopathetic
Member
While GAF is certainly more open and tolerable to newbie players, I've definitely seen some pretty shameful displays of manchild tantrum throwing a few times. Hell, Joe Martin's response to usea was even fairly shitty. That said, the game breeds that sort of attitude with its mechanics and, of course, people accustomed to the community might gradually grow to behave similarly.
And the solution to a shitty community isn't "get better."
And the solution to a shitty community isn't "get better."
Teknopathetic said:
I wonder how they plan on dealing with this, the community in HoN is really one of the biggest player scares.
I'm sure there are many players that have had experiences similar to Useas', it could grow to be one of the biggest deterrents for new player purchases, especially those completely new to the genre.
usea said:
Yeah, the community is ass. Very newbie unfriendly. But the game still can be fun.
While I haven't watched them myself, there are plenty of tutorial videos on youtube, like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMn6bcQYG20
Maybe that helps a bit.
Ok I've played a few games now and am getting the hang of things, my username is Snacks_HoN I'd love to play some games with you fellow GAFers if invites for the guild are still going.
HoN is definitely a more graphics intensive game than LoL, I'd be surprised if it ran better, but I haven't looked into the scaling options so cant say for sure.
bjaelke said:
HoN is definitely a more graphics intensive game than LoL, I'd be surprised if it ran better, but I haven't looked into the scaling options so cant say for sure.
mint said:
Much of the problem occurred when I decided to use my gold for buy backs early on instead of focusing on keeping myself fat on neuts and staying patient for them to push. In retro... I think we got a little too anxious in knocking them off... our whole reasoning of finishing them early is actually what helped feed them.
A win is a win. But I needed to play better in the 2nd half there.
Real fun, mint! Had fun rolling along with you for most of that game! haha.
Thanks. I'll check it out. I've played LoL before (like 3 games total) and I've played probably 15 hours of demigod so I know how the game works in a nutshell. I tried playing a practice game, but there are no bots so it's kind of silly. Even in a practice game I still only get 2 minutes to pick my hero though. Inexplicably.Won said:
Mint, I might play some more tonight. No idea. I'll hit you up if so. Could somebody invite me to the gaf clan thing? My hon username is usea. (edit: apparently I did get an invite 2 days ago, but it shows up on the forum instead of in-game? I just saw it, but it's expired now)
I actually did sort of OK in a game last night. I didn't die too many times, anyway. My level was really low still though. I think when the game ended the top guy was level 25 and I was 17. I also felt kind of useless playing sand wraith; I didn't really understand his skills. I just used the passive one and the sand snare thing.
usea said:
Well, if you want to read through all the abilities of all the heroes and items you can go here:
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/heroes.php
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/items.php
Some skills even have videos I think, but it's obviously still beta.
I also suggest to filter for Single Draft (SD) games. You get 3 random heroes you can choose from and it kinda forces you to try new heroes all the time. Not a bad thing if you are new.
I think i'm jinxed. I think i've only won one game in ten when playing with gaffers like mint and anth. I guess i'm spoiled by laning with my brothers who i've been playing dota with for years.
for the guys new to HON... well I dont think i can make excuses about the community because well... it's pretty hardcore. Wish it was easier to onboard new players but without a good friend teaching you real-time over the shoulder while you play it wil be hard to grasp the metagame and stick around long enough to appreciate it. And with the open beta, a lot of the "new" accounts are just veterans creating alts for pubstomping. I guess I'm kinda guilty of it myself since I created an ALT over xmas to see if my KDR actually improved from my shitty 0.7 KDR main. I've been playing Dota since maybe 2002 and people still call me a noob feeder in some games. It's tough
I really think that the HON playerbase has reached its peak right now in the beta. Once it goes retail, some cheapskates will go back to DOTA which is arguably better balanced with none of the way imba heroes that S2 created. As for new players, I doubt they'll be able to lure anyone in at this point. All the DOTA players that wanted to switch will have done so by now and new guys will just get forced out bit by bit.
Plus the current metagame is soooo newb unfriendly. There isn't a starter character like in DOTA that 50% of people would recommend for new players because the naturally long attack range and skillset would preclude the new guy from getting into some situations wherein they could die easily while the assasinate ulti would give them some occassional kills and enough positive feedback to keep playing.
/rant. I could go on for days ranting but I know I'll go online again later and get beatdown again
for the guys new to HON... well I dont think i can make excuses about the community because well... it's pretty hardcore. Wish it was easier to onboard new players but without a good friend teaching you real-time over the shoulder while you play it wil be hard to grasp the metagame and stick around long enough to appreciate it. And with the open beta, a lot of the "new" accounts are just veterans creating alts for pubstomping. I guess I'm kinda guilty of it myself since I created an ALT over xmas to see if my KDR actually improved from my shitty 0.7 KDR main. I've been playing Dota since maybe 2002 and people still call me a noob feeder in some games. It's tough
I really think that the HON playerbase has reached its peak right now in the beta. Once it goes retail, some cheapskates will go back to DOTA which is arguably better balanced with none of the way imba heroes that S2 created. As for new players, I doubt they'll be able to lure anyone in at this point. All the DOTA players that wanted to switch will have done so by now and new guys will just get forced out bit by bit.
Plus the current metagame is soooo newb unfriendly. There isn't a starter character like in DOTA that 50% of people would recommend for new players because the naturally long attack range and skillset would preclude the new guy from getting into some situations wherein they could die easily while the assasinate ulti would give them some occassional kills and enough positive feedback to keep playing.
/rant. I could go on for days ranting but I know I'll go online again later and get beatdown again
blitz64
Member
I think the system requirement is less than LoL because HoN uses an old savage2 engine. Although looking at the sysreq for both games, it is very similar.
The HON playerbase has not peaked yet. It is still growing every week according to S2. The highest concurrent players right now is 41,000 on the weekends. S2 predicts 65,000 concurrent when it goes open beta.
I think S2 has a way to keep players after the game releases. If I were S2, I would allow all the free players to play a restricted custom mode or something similar to what we have now. Then allow all the paid players get matchmaking, stats, replays, etc. Something similar to the free game Savage 1 and 2 strategy.
The HON playerbase has not peaked yet. It is still growing every week according to S2. The highest concurrent players right now is 41,000 on the weekends. S2 predicts 65,000 concurrent when it goes open beta.
I think S2 has a way to keep players after the game releases. If I were S2, I would allow all the free players to play a restricted custom mode or something similar to what we have now. Then allow all the paid players get matchmaking, stats, replays, etc. Something similar to the free game Savage 1 and 2 strategy.
Teknopathetic said:
I really don't understand how people believe that the HoN community is worse or in any way different from any other competitive game community. They're all equally filled with the usual internet asshats as the next one. The effect may only seem more pronounced in HoN because it's a team based game with stats recorded by match, and it really only takes 1 bad player on a team to bring the whole team down, which is frustrating to say the least.
But moving past that, like all other online experiences, the community is only what you make of it. Who you play with and who you're exposed to is entirely a choice you're free to make. Don't blame the community because you play with assholes. Make friends with people that aren't flaming rage quiters and play with them. Involve yourself with people on the forums and in IRC that aren't awful/don't have unbearable personalities and play with them. It's what I do and I have a pretty good time playing. There's an endless amount of player created resources on basics and things to know before jumping right in. Hell there are even plenty of "newb inhouse" oriented clans out there that exist solely as a training ground for newer players to beat each other up/learn from the more experienced players running it.
I guess the most important thing to emphasize is that this, (again) like all other competitive games, is not something you can just pickup and play and hope that you're good. It doesn't work like that. And if you're not willing to invest a little time and effort to learn then yes, the rest of the community that has is not going to be kind when you fail horribly in their games.
And if you want to get on about my post, your assumption that my response to usea was "fairly shitty" has more to do with the fact that you probably only read the first line of my response, which is fairly shitty of you. But then you go on to pontificate about the kind of attitude it breeds as if I (or anyone else that isn't a emotionally underdeveloped teenager) mimics the behavior of the less-than-mature side of the community in everyday life, which is even more pretentious of you. Kids will be kids and assholes will be assholes; the real manchildren of the community are the self-righteous indignants who can't get over and move past the fact that there exists shitty people in a competitive online video game.