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Heroes of Newerth |OT| Free-To-Play [PC /Mac /Linux]

Scythian

Member
How does one join the NeoGAF clan? And when do the Inhouse games take place? Is it scheduled or just when someone feels like creating one?
 

Ikuu

Had his dog run over by Blizzard's CEO
You need to get someone to invite you, just ask in the channel Clan NeoGAF, In-Houses tend to happen whenever enough people are around.
 

Dahbomb

Member
My account name is LoaLoa. I have another one it's called DantheBadass but it's usually one I let my other friends play on so you can imagine it having some shitty stats on it.

So do I wait for an invite or do I have to go to the channel and request it there?

And DOTA is NOT n00b friendly at all. Maybe DOTA 2 might be with a better interface but DOTA original is fucking rough even more so than HON. HON at least has recommended items, stat build order and even a guide built within the system you can read plus the items are all arranged in a neat order. You can't even customize your item hotkeys in DOTA without using some sort of custom program (warkeys) for it.
 
Was doing some light browsing of GAF earlier today and clicked this random thread here:

XMq29.png


Upon further inspection...

MOJ2m.png


Best part about it is that you didn't even answer the topic correctly! I can only imagine you were foaming at the mouth at the thought of a chicken sandwich, and just began typing wildly about Chik-fil-a.
 

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
Flying Courier + 2 Wards

Proest opening build.
 

Dreavus

Member
Ultimoo said:
so how true is that?

The expansion thing sounds KINDA MAYBE ALMOST plausible, but I doubt they'd ever "take away" legacy players' ability to play the current heroes and put them on the same level as free players. At the very worst they'd bar our access to these theoretical "new" heroes in this magical expansion coming out. And why would they even sell an expansion that gives you nothing to start with ("putting everyone on the same level"); not even any heroes? Doesn't really make much sense.

Everything else in that post is pretty much bullshit, imo.

Dream, for example... when was it ever for anything else? Who cares if they use the ideas on there to make heroes! Isn't that what people put them up for? It's there for the community's input. Of course they're going to tweak some designs before adding them to the game.

I really can't understand this constant thrum of rage that seems to be eternally directed at S2 Games as a company (usually on the GD HoN forums). Sure, I was a bit annoyed by the Early Access thing too, but since they started putting out alts that come with EA heroes I honestly have less of a problem with it. At least now you're "getting something" for your coins, which I'm pretty much fine with. I'll probably pick up Geomancer because I think his alt is really damn cool. I've had tons of fun with HoN since it's been out, and aside from some server issues I've been quite happy with how S2 has handled the game.
 

Tomat

Wanna hear a good joke? Waste your time helping me! LOL!
Wouldn't mind an expansion, but I really don't know what they could add. I don't think the new maps they released this year were all that popular anyway.

So as long as Legacy players get to keep their heroes then it's all good.
 

Archie

Second-rate Anihawk
Probably not, but the accusations are inane at best and flat out stupid at worst. I haven't been a S2 fan since 6800gate, but the story holds no weight and reads like fanfiction designed to stir up drama.
 

Guesong

Member
Working all week long, coming back home at 9h30 PM, eating something (generally pizzas) while watching GAF In-Houses but being unable to play due to said pizza eating or general tired-ness.

Is this real life? It sucks -.- Can't wait till I'm out of that crappy shift so I can finally meet someone mid.
 

Archie

Second-rate Anihawk
markot said:
Whats 6800 gate >_>? Something to do with the graphics cards?

When the item shop came out last December nearly you could purchase skins, icons and announcer packs via matchmaking coins (HoN's IP system). Everything in the shop was reasonably priced, with the most expensive item being ~900 coins. S2 released an announcer pack with Jon St. John that cost 6800 coins. Considering you get between 2-20 coins per matchmaking game, it was insulting to charge such a high price. Since then, S2 has released skins that cost thousands of silver coins. Although you can grind hundreds of hours to unlock those items, S2 is really trying to nudge people into spending real money for them.
 

erpg

GAF parliamentarian
Or be lucky like me and have a free stockpile of 2200 silver and 800 gold coins that you spend when everything in the store is half off. That felt good.
 

markot

Banned
And I thought the 6k lol stuff was over priced >.< (It still is!)

I dont get how they value heroes in these games.... surely they should all be the same price? I mean... its just weird...

I cant wait to see what valve does though, I hope that either all heroes are free, or at least you get a week from when you first sign in to try them all out, not just these stupid rotations that hon and lol do.
 

Archie

Second-rate Anihawk
If Valve wants to convert the majority of the DotA fanbase, than F2P with all the heroes unlocked is the only viable option. Otherwise, most people will stick with War3 DotA.


Lyphen said:
Or be lucky like me and have a free stockpile of 2200 silver and 800 gold coins that you spend when everything in the store is half off. That felt good.

I did that too (and got all the skins I want) but S2 really screwed that pooch on that one. It doesn't help they had a stickied troll thread by an employee during the drama.
 

markot

Banned
I hope they can run it profitably with just skin sales, given the popularity of Dota, I am guessing the influx of new steam users/customers would be worth it in the long run easily.
 

delirium

Member
Archie said:
When the item shop came out last December nearly you could purchase skins, icons and announcer packs via matchmaking coins (HoN's IP system). Everything in the shop was reasonably priced, with the most expensive item being ~900 coins. S2 released an announcer pack with Jon St. John that cost 6800 coins. Considering you get between 2-20 coins per matchmaking game, it was insulting to charge such a high price. Since then, S2 has released skins that cost thousands of silver coins. Although you can grind hundreds of hours to unlock those items, S2 is really trying to nudge people into spending real money for them.
The problem here is that should have charge outrageous price in the first place for silver coins. All the things in the shop are cosmetic, they have no affect on the gameplay. The game that you could buy them with earnable in game currency is good enough. For the majority of games, these things would cost you money and there's no way to getting them without paying.
 

Nome

Member
It's a flying sack of bullshit, and I'm quite personally miffed that he'd bring my name into it. I'm FAR from a "suck up" (or "stuck up", whatever he means) in the company. People talkin' shit when they don't know shit.
 

Archie

Second-rate Anihawk
I haven't been a fan of S2's activities in the past several months, but I kinda feel bad for them. Having to deal with the worst online community in the world (and one who is actively trying to undermine your business) isn't fun.

delirium said:
The problem here is that should have charge outrageous price in the first place for silver coins. All the things in the shop are cosmetic, they have no affect on the gameplay. The game that you could buy them with earnable in game currency is good enough. For the majority of games, these things would cost you money and there's no way to getting them without paying.

I agree that the gold/silver split should have been implemented when the cash shop first came out, but I personally took it as a cock slap in the face because I had about ~800 coins saved up when the Badass pack was announced and was planning to buy it immediately. I don't care about the high silver prices any more, but at the time I was pretty salty about it.
 

delirium

Member
I don't understand why this community think they deserve so much shit for free. Dota 2 is going to have skins and they're probably going to cost money (without the ability to purchase them with an in-game currency). People don't seem to realize that skins cost money and time to make. If they only had a silver coins cost, it would actually cost S2 money to make the skins without an steady income for them. The only dickslap that people can grasp on is the fact that S2 did was change their shop model, but that's because their old shop model was pretty unsustainable.
 

bzm

Member
Eh, yeah, wasn't sure of the credibility of that story when i saw it, but when diva dropped a fucking madbomb all over it he pretty much proved it was fake

regarding the skins thing, i just wish more were 600s instead of 3k, lol
 

Sanjay

Member
delirium said:
The problem here is that should have charge outrageous price in the first place for silver coins. All the things in the shop are cosmetic, they have no affect on the gameplay. The game that you could buy them with earnable in game currency is good enough. For the majority of games, these things would cost you money and there's no way to getting them without paying.

The TF2 Model is lame as hell. Items are expensive as fuck and the other way round of getting items is random drops, fucking random drops like some MMORPG. I prefer HON's system then TF2 which you would expect to be in Dota 2.

Also to point out TF2 model is not just cosmetics it actually affects game-play. Valve sure get a free pass.

25min Steamboot's, Helm, Headdress and Beh Heart. :O Very impressive.
xlmfwo.png
 

Swag

Member
delirium said:
I don't understand why this community think they deserve so much shit for free. Dota 2 is going to have skins and they're probably going to cost money (without the ability to purchase them with an in-game currency). People don't seem to realize that skins cost money and time to make. If they only had a silver coins cost, it would actually cost S2 money to make the skins without an steady income for them. The only dickslap that people can grasp on is the fact that S2 did was change their shop model, but that's because their old shop model was pretty unsustainable.

Assuming 10 coins average

6800 / 10 = 680 games needed x 29 ( average time per game ) = 19720 minutes / 60 = Roughly 328 Hours / 24 = Roughly 13 Days.

At the time of the release, it wasn't a matter of people being upset that they couldn't get it for free, it was that S2 reneging on "Everything will be available within a reasonable amount of play time". As everything prior to that was reasonably priced, that being said, S2 gotta make money somehow, so it was probably inevitable.

That story is somewhat hilarious though, kinda reminds me of that one guy that got fired from Joystiq and made a big stink about it.
 

delirium

Member
It's anbokr, what do you expect? Didn't you go to this school of ricing?

bzm said:
Eh, yeah, wasn't sure of the credibility of that story when i saw it, but when diva dropped a fucking madbomb all over it he pretty much proved it was fake

regarding the skins thing, i just wish more were 600s instead of 3k, lol
I do to from a consumer point of view but you have to realize that it cost S2 money to make those skins. If every skin was 600 silver, everyone could get skins just by playing the game and they really have no point to buy gold. At the end of the day, the only objectionable thing that I think S2 has done is EA, but I really do think they didn't need that if they just jacked up the price for silver coins in the first place.

If I was in charge of the store, it would look like this for every cosmetic item.
Gold coins would cost the same.
Silver coins would be tier. The current silver cost would let you try out the skin for 30 days. A cheaper price would let you try out the skin for 7 days and a more cost lets you purchase the skin outright.

Example:
Skin - 600g to buy. 300s to try out for 7 days. 600s to try out for a month. 1200s to buy.

Sebulon3k said:
Assuming 10 coins average

6800 / 10 = 680 games needed x 29 ( average time per game ) = 19720 minutes / 60 = Roughly 328 Hours / 24 = Roughly 13 Days.

At the time of the release, it wasn't a matter of people being upset that they couldn't get it for free, it was that S2 reneging on "Everything will be available within a reasonable amount of play time". As everything prior to that was reasonably priced, that being said, S2 gotta make money somehow, so it was probably inevitable.

That story is somewhat hilarious though, kinda reminds me of that one guy that got fired from Joystiq and made a big stink about it.
No doubt. Their PR is horrible but I do think they're learning. They should have out righted stated that their old shop system was unsustainable. I think the community would have reacted much better if they stated that it wasn't bringing them the money that they needed to keep it running and they had to change it. The bottle of tears shit was really fucking bad.
 

TheExodu5

Banned
markot said:
I cant wait to see what valve does though, I hope that either all heroes are free, or at least you get a week from when you first sign in to try them all out, not just these stupid rotations that hon and lol do.

If Valve hopes to bring over the DotA Allstars community over to Dota 2, I think they're going to have to make all the heroes available.
 

delirium

Member
TheExodu5 said:
If Valve hopes to bring over the DotA Allstars community over to Dota 2, I think they're going to have to make all the heroes available.
I think Valve is big enough to do this also. It's a great trojan to get Steam to the SEA market. With a cash shop, it could sustain the game easily with cheap updates.
 

Swag

Member
delirium said:
No doubt. Their PR is horrible but I do think they're learning. They should have out righted stated that their old shop system was unsustainable. I think the community would have reacted much better if they stated that it wasn't bringing them the money that they needed to keep it running and they had to change it. The bottle of tears shit was really fucking bad.
This would have made a better transition, an immensely better transition. Bottle of Tears though, I had no idea what they were thinking. Things like that, propagate the opinion that S2 doesn't care about their customer base etc.
 

Nome

Member
I was having a debate with an old friend the other day about how Valve is going to make money from Dota 2.

I'm going to make a fairly large assumption here, and that is the fact that the vast majority (read: 95%) of DotA players who are willing to pay real world money for a MOBA game are in either North America, South America, or Europe. I'm making this assumption based on a lot of the data I've seen from HoN, mind you. The problem that Valve faces here is that this population of people is already invested in either HoN or LoL--with LoL more so because the players who HAVE spent money, have likely spent hundreds by now. I'd easily wager that Dota 2's primary stream of income, provided it will be monetized in any way, will come from the current Steam userbase, NOT the DotA userbase, simply for the aforementioned reasons.

Knowing IceFrog, he'd be completely against any pricing plan that excluded certain heroes. The guy's not a very good balancer (every competitive player that has worked with him closely will acknowledge that), and he tends to make judgments on hero balance based on the availability of counters, and a hero pool without the proper counters would wreak havoc on the overall balance design of the game. The same is true for HoN, but to a somewhat lesser extent than DotA. I don't know enough about LoL to comment on this facet, but from what I've seen, the pub scene seems to be fairly lineup agnostic. If Dota 2 is monetized, it will either be using the current typical MOBA formula AGAINST ICEFROG'S WILL, or be sold as a complete game. I have severe doubts it will be free to play with skin sales, but then again, that's also possible. More on that later.

I postulated a few months back that Dota 2 would NOT be free for this reason, and the recent interviews seem to have bolstered that standpoint. If Dota 2 were free, Valve would have announced it by now as a marketing push to prevent any more leakage from their potential userbase into LoL or HoN, both of which now sell non-cosmetic content for in-game currency and real money. The other side is that Valve is viewing Dota 2 as a vehicle for Steam, and "philanthropically" giving the game out with the gamble that it will do more overall good for the company than bad. I say overall good, rather than just financial gain, because fortunately for Valve, they are in a financial position where they can do acts of good will without fear of wrecking their bottom line.

It's been really interesting watching everything unfold from an insider's point of view. I wrote up a few guidelines on how S2 in particular could deal with Dota 2's arrival two years ago, and almost all of my predictions so far, especially involving how Dota 2 would deal with the "classic DotA gameplay", have come true. At this point it's really in Valve's hands. I have no doubt Dota 2 will be a superb game, but the haters saying it will crush LoL and HoN are talking out of their ass. If anything, it will be a difficult uphill fight that will shatter the DotA community once and for all, dividing them between DotA and Dota 2 the same way the Counterstrike community split. Valve is going to run into the same problems that S2 did, specifically handling the transfer of mechanics. Watching the Dota 2 casts at the office, we already noted several inconsistencies that the Valve guys haven't caught onto, but will likely have to be addressed in order to replicate the niche gameplay mechanics that the Warcraft 3 engine provided. The only big advantage they have is the IceFrog name, which in the end, is just a name that commands attention. If the fans only knew the person behind the name.
 

Ikuu

Had his dog run over by Blizzard's CEO
HoN has more to be worried about with Dota2 than LoL, I don't think I've seen a community before where it feels the majority of players are playing the game while they wait for another to come along and replace it. LoL may lose some people, but the games are different enough that a lot of people will stick with LoL.

If Dota2 isn't f2p then I see more of a SC2/BW than CS situation, where Asia sticks with DotA and the West moves onto Dota2.
 

dommynick

Member
Nome said:
Valve is going to run into the same problems that S2 did, specifically handling the transfer of mechanics. Watching the Dota 2 casts at the office, we already noted several inconsistencies that the Valve guys haven't caught onto, but will likely have to be addressed in order to replicate the niche gameplay mechanics that the Warcraft 3 engine provided.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPMiVHM9gA8&feature=player_detailpage#t=27s

don't remember being able to do this in dota
 

Nome

Member
Ikuu said:
HoN has more to be worried about with Dota2 than LoL, I don't think I've seen a community before where it feels the majority of players are playing the game while they wait for another to come along and replace it. LoL may lose some people, but the games are different enough that a lot of people will stick with LoL.

If Dota2 isn't f2p then I see more of a SC2/BW than CS situation, where Asia sticks with DotA and the West moves onto Dota2.
Doubt it. Asia's answer is always going to be piracy. If people there want to play Dota 2 without paying, they will quickly find a way to do it. The SC2/BW situation is a lot more complicated for political/money reasons.

dommynick said:
Yeah, in DotA you can do things like throw someone on a cliff and force them to -antistuck. The cliffwalking is definitely a problem in HoN.
 
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