Change in Hero Release Schedule

[DivA]

Hey Guys,

After careful deliberation internally, and with the tremendous aid of community feedback, we have decided to slow down the Hero Release Schedule. From now on, you guys can expect a new hero to be released every 4 weeks instead of every 2 weeks, effective immediately. This means that the next hero will be released on July 6th. We thank you guys for your honest and passionate feedback, as well as for your participation in our survey concerning this topic, in which a large majority of you voted for a release period longer than 2 weeks. Here is what you guys can expect for this to mean:


Higher quality heroes; more iteration on design and art
A more digestible pacing of new hero content injected into the game
More content and assets to complement new heroes
More work put toward design feature projects (stuff like Mid Wars)

We hope that regardless if you love this decision or disagree with it, you will understand that we put a lot of careful thought and discussion into this move, and it is one that we as a company wholeheartedly stand behind in our quest to make Heroes of Newerth as enjoyable of an experience as possible for our players. S2 Games is dedicated to prioritizing the gameplay experience, and while this may have significant ramifications for us on the business model side of things, we are confident (in large part due to your input and guidance) that this is a positive move to ensure the long-term sustainability and enjoyment of HoN. Thank you guys so much for your continued support and feedback, as well as for sharing our tremendous passion for HoN. We look forward to learning more and more from you guys moving forward, and you guys can look forward to more changes and features to come.

For those of you who are fortunate enough to be attending Dreamhack Summer in a couple of days and want to discuss this or other topics, please seek me out! We're very eager to hear as many voices as possible from our passionate community members. Otherwise, ping me on twitter or continue your buzzing on the forums, Facebook, Reddit, and other hubs that our staff members follow every single hour.

[SomethingOdd]

Furst.
WOW, YAYZ!
Thank you for listening.
Mfw:
http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j359/goatcathead/mfw.jpg

[Harakesh]

Awesome decision! Much appreciated, I know for a fact a lot of people find it annoying so many new heroes

[Andromeda]

This is what we really needed I think. Good to see S2 listening to the community a lot.

[xanderK]

Just wanted to pop in and say thanks to the community for being SO vocal about what they want from HoN and giving such amazing feedback. We all love the game as much as you do and are greatly looking forward to providing you with exactly what DivA talked about:





Higher quality heroes; more iteration on design and art
A more digestible pacing of new hero content injected into the game
More content and assets to complement new heroes
More work put toward design feature projects (stuff like Mid Wars)



I've already seen some of what we have in store and it's really exciting! HoN is going to be better because of this- because of YOUR feedback. We want HoN to be constantly improving and this is yet another way for us to ensure that.


Also to echo what DivA said, I'll be at Dreamhack this weekend! Come say hello and chat! :-D Or just tweet me or whatever you wish! :-D

[Skyve]

Sure hope this means we'll be getting more interesting heroes that might also deviate more strongly from what's considered 'usual' (oe, more than the 4 default abilities/qwer required).

Might also mean that designers will again have time to do the hero blogs?

[Flandre]

I'm very skeptical about this change. I doubt hero designs will actually improve (and they're not even that bad). Although balance will probably benefit a lot from this change.

[Jeroz]

Now the other question is, how would this affect EA?

last time you guys changed it to 3 weeks/hero they stayed in EA for 6 weeks. Is there going to be a revamp of the EA structure as well? I seriously don't want to see a hero stayed in EA for 8 whopping weeks.

[Tedde]

Awesome!

[Renegateor]

I'm very skeptical about this change. I doubt hero designs will actually improve (and they're not even that bad). Although balance will probably benefit a lot from this change.

The heroes are fine and balance and design are two different parts of s2.

I'd liked to have seen 3 weeks instead of 2 since one hero per month seems a bit... slow? (Mabye that's because we got overwhelmed with too much heroes last months?)

[XtremeFlash]

Good S2Guy

[Flandre]

The heroes are fine and balance and design are two different parts of s2.

I'd liked to have seen 3 weeks instead of 2 since one hero per month seems a bit... slow? (Mabye that's because we got overwhelmed with too much heroes last months?)
It doesn't matter that they are two different parts of s2. The point is that a hero now has 2 extra weeks in development before becoming available, which means it can be balanced and fine tuned during this time.
But I also voted for 3 weeks, 4 is a bit too long too keep a feel of constant 'refreshness' of the game.

[Chime]

10 bucks people will complain about the next hero saying that it wasnt well designed.

[Shake`Spear]

Great decision... at last ! Eh. :p

Anyway, I'm now eagerly waiting for that quality overhaul promise. Also, may we expect a few reworks on recent heroes ? I believe there's room for improvements with most concepts.

[RoLanD]

or whatever you wish! :-D

Challenge accepted.

[raeque]

I've always wondered if there will be a stop in releasing heroes. there will be a time where you have 200 heroes or more if you contine that long and imo this will be way too much. so do you have any plans top stop designing new heroes completly at a number of heroes?

[Chaser]

im sure i've heard of this sometime ago.... and it ended up reverting back to 2 weeks

[Fairlight_Ex]

*slow clap*

[SchniTTe]

That sounds really nice, and i hope for some work at old Heroes, like Alt Avatars. Not all Heroes got an alt Avatar already :(
Another big point i wish is an "Quake Sound Announcer". Dont know if only i want it, would be nice to here some responce ;)

Something like Smackdown = Headshot or Hattrick = Multikill Immortal = Godlike

[DracoDevil]

Finally we can expect good heroes. Now the excitement about new heroes will be bigger :)

[Radw]

Finally we can expect good heroes. Now the excitement about new heroes will be bigger :)
And then the disappointment will be bigger.

[carpenter]

Good decision. I love new heroes, but adding them too fast is really confusing for new players.

I also hope S2 will do other things to keep HoN fresh (more events, maps, items etc.).

[IPeonPeons]

Finally we can expect good heroes. Now the excitement about new heroes will be bigger :)

And then the disappointment will be bigger.
One of these posts was written with a pessimistic attitude, but I won't tell which!

[Storslusken]

gj, its the way to go s2
keep up the good work

[Fred_HUN]

I find this a good choice, since f2p accounts have more time to get silver to buy the new heroes who came out after xmas.

p.s: What about the 2nd half of the survey? Whitch hero will get reworked?

[klamer]

to much time for a hero - 12 heroes per year ...
it should be atleast 3 weeks ... It isnt that hard to learn 1 hero...

[Millikin]

Now the other question is, how would this affect EA?

last time you guys changed it to 3 weeks/hero they stayed in EA for 6 weeks. Is there going to be a revamp of the EA structure as well? I seriously don't want to see a hero stayed in EA for 8 whopping weeks.
This will definitly be the case as long as they want to keep the 2 heroes on EA rotation they have been using so far.


to much time for a hero - 12 heroes per year ...
it should be atleast 3 weeks ... It isnt that hard to learn 1 hero...
It's not about the time it takes to learn a hero, it's about the time it takes to create and design a new hero and have more time to develope other features such as Midwars.
Other modes/maps or just general alterations that divert from the normal gameplay that enhance the value that this game need to bring to further increase in popularity and keep it's current players satisfied.
And balancing the game will be "easier" when they don't have to constantly look at what will be comming up next.
There are only so many heroes you can have in development at the same time befor you lose aspect of what is more important: Bringing out the hero on time in a non-balanced(UP/OP) or broken state(bugged or bringing it out in a more timely matter when it doesn't need the imitiate attention for bugfixing, time taken from what could be used in working on above mentioned things.

They could go the route of hire more people to work with things but that would also in the end result in higher pricetags of things that is brought in to the game as there are more people on the payroll.

[Somersby]

Impressive that your are showing, you care more about game balance, than money balance right now.

Thumbs up.

[Aki]

I love this decision. More time to fine-tune heroes and notice some gamebreaking bugs (gemini infinite stat gain, MoA crashing linux clients, ...), and obviously more time to release some necessary balance before releasing them to the "public".
And every hero will then be received with a "oh hey! ANOTHER HERO! yay!" instead of a "oh hey... another hero.... yay...".

[Diablo``]

yay!
+10 respect for S2

[TrickeyD]

Should have done that a lot earlier. $2 just didn't listen and lost bunch of original players.

[WolfWood23]

Yes ! S2 For the win !

[Silv3erTwee]

your comment proves that some will never be happy

[foxmindedguy]

Naaaaaiiiicccceeeee!!! More frequent hero balancing too please.

[MothGod]

Im surprised. Big step from You, S2. We all want to say - THANKS !

[Maviand]

Can we expect more remakes/balance changes? Item implementations?

[blackAngel]

I was fine with 2 week iteration. I don't think the heroes will be automatically better, just because they have 2 more weeks. Also, apart from a few exceptions, i dont think it was that bad before...

I don't really care that much about the iteration time though, but if you're putting the heroes in EA for 4 weeks, I'll be mad.

[Leo]

4 weeks is perfect imo.

[Satangossu]

I voted for 4 weeks as well. Thank you S2.

[S2Shade]

I, for one, am very excited about this change. I really think the community is going to love the extra development time spent on higher quality heroes and new features! :)

[Rordarok]

Nice.

Good work.

[Testingrani]

Hopefully S2 can stick with this release schedule.

Will this also mean the end of the Early Access business model?

[_Phoenix_]

Awesome! Long live S2 :)

[Ceriss]

Hopefully S2 can stick with this release schedule.

Will this also mean the end of the Early Access business model?

why end of EA? EA heroes will just be in EA for 8 weeks instead of 4

[Alumando]

Wouldn't it be smart to make a more interactive area for people to give hero/skills suggestions to the designer team?
That create a hero thing isn't really helpful, a lot of good suggestions get snowed under by the amount of other suggestions from other players.
I think it would be wise to make a brainstorm room for the community so that the developers can use the ideas.

[Bangatron]

I don't mind this aslong as they bring out my multi team map idea (or atleast comment on it wink wink Xanderk)

[Skyve]

why end of EA? EA heroes will just be in EA for 8 weeks instead of 4

They could just end up being in EA for 4 weeks instead, with only one hero being on EA at a time. To me that would seem to be the more reasonable approaxh. 8 weeks of EA just seems way too long for people to actually stay interested in buying a hero, although they might just test how many sales still happen after week 4 at first (starting with an 8 week EA schedule) and then simply adjust the duration according to that.

[wonzling]

Love it! Thx S2!

[BattleHungeR]

Awesome news !

[shmoo]

I like the decision but then again, if you cant release quality Heroes which bring new Mechanics it's pretty meaningless. In this way good luck and I hope more concepts end up in the trashcan.

[Firebyte]

Gr8 job S2!!!

I just don't hope that they will increase the price of EA...

[DeityLink]

I'm very excited for this announcement :D. We really are dedicated to the long term health of HoN, and this decision is very much like a healthy 20 year old deciding to hit the gym every other day and cut down on the junk food. 30 years from now expect to see that guy still happy and healthy

[THS_Strider]

I just wanted to stop by and thank the community for all the great feedback. :D

[iLieKBubbles]

Furst.
WOW, YAYZ!
Thank you for listening.
Mfw:
http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j359/goatcathead/mfw.jpg

Sounds good.

Also, you browse /b/ or /mlp/ right?

[TaeYeon]

They could just end up being in EA for 4 weeks instead, with only one hero being on EA at a time. To me that would seem to be the more reasonable approaxh. 8 weeks of EA just seems way too long for people to actually stay interested in buying a hero, although they might just test how many sales still happen after week 4 at first (starting with an 8 week EA schedule) and then simply adjust the duration according to that.
I think the sales will dominate for the first week(s), however I think by making them stay EA for 8 weeks more people are gonna buy that hero than if they knew he'd be available in just 4 weeks.

[Twinniss]

kinda wish it was 8 weeks instead. honestly people only got EA for the alternative avatar and I am not so fascinated with the idea of 1 month to design a hero. sure there are some few good ones in the past few months but imma go with what Cliff Bleszinksi tells Tim Sweeny of EPIC games,

"there’s the first 90 percent of the project, and then the second 90 percent. Because once your game is completely playable and it works, you’re really only halfway,” Sweeney explained. “It takes an incredible amount of tweaking to get to the level of polish where people take your game seriously.”"

taken from http://www.penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/the-ugly-side-of-kickstarter-why-the-risks-in-backing-gaming-campaigns-are-

just instead of "game", change it to "hero".

but with 4 weeks, maybe it could be public release three weeks after, and then we get that 1 week for no one to have an EA "advantage"

[GodForski]

Good news :)

[_Scathach_]

Sounds good.

Also, you browse /b/ or /mlp/ right?

One does not have to browse /b/ (in fact, if one can avoid it he/she should avoid it very vigorously) or /mlp/ for pony pictures. Especially reaction images. Tumblr, the know your meme image gallery for mlp, and straight up google image search are great.

[TwilightStar]

Tis' be good news folks! Keep it up!

[Nuveno]

kinda late... but finally :)

[malloc]

Thanks to everyone for taking the survey; it's one thing for someone to say players want something, but it's another thing to actually prove it true. This is an important step for us, so thanks for making your opinions known!

[Mysing]

Finally!!! ^^

[LordTroll]

Diva and xander are the cutest game developer staff members in the world. <3

[Atrim3ntus]

With a hero a month I remember that people would get really excited excited about upcoming heroes and would stand in line waiting to try them out (people even made mods that would instapick the new hero). That wasn't really something that happened with the "A hero every 2 weeks" system. It seemed like people didn't really care when the hero came out of EA, but maybe that's because of the design and balance parts that felt rushed. Blitz has been one of my favorite heroes recently but unfortunately he didn't come out as the strongest hero - still isn't. An extra 2 weeks would guarantee that a hero comes out more polished and is a hero that people genuinely want to feel excited about and can't wait to play.

I'm interested about the feature projects. I would really like to see custom maps being made. Maps like Footmen Frenzy from Wc3. If enough work and support was put into them I've no doubt people (like me) would be willing to pay and give you guys an extra source of revenue.

[Mediocre]

Just wanted to pop in and say thanks to the community for being SO vocal about what they want from HoN and giving such amazing feedback. We all love the game as much as you do and are greatly looking forward to providing you with exactly what DivA talked about:



I've already seen some of what we have in store and it's really exciting! HoN is going to be better because of this- because of YOUR feedback. We want HoN to be constantly improving and this is yet another way for us to ensure that.


Also to echo what DivA said, I'll be at Dreamhack this weekend! Come say hello and chat! :-D Or just tweet me or whatever you wish! :-D

Only took you guys over 1 year to understand how retarded it is too release one hero every 2 weeks, even tho the "community" has argued against it all along.

Still you didnt have the guts too take it all the way too 8 weeks.... Stay small HoN

[RaViJ]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLjIOzQTBHc

[Bangatron]

Can we get the teasers and spotlights earlier? just to create more buzz for longer on teh new hero

[J3PS3N]

well i voted for one heroe in month so im happy ;D

[Skyve]

Can we get the teasers and spotlights earlier? just to create more buzz for longer on teh new hero

If the longer time in SBT is used for more adjustements then that might not be possible.

[Lolo]

interesting, I like the idea

[Daboomb94]

Awesome decision! Much appreciated, I know for a fact a lot of people find it annoying so many new heroes

atleast with my friend, it isn't annoying with new heros. we are annoyed with the fact that the new heros most often is more powerful than the older once and maybe not that well done/thought through!

[Kenshin`_`]

yeeees, thanks S2! i like it

[webzen]

hey s2 allso please conside we want more balance try it instead of relasing new heroes !!! the balance and the community need fixes !!! ;)

[Pandaownium]

Less content = less competitiveness with other MOBA games.

I guess you are giving up then.... :(

[McStealer]

so the 3 weeks before the week of the new hero will only include new alts ?

[MacroHard]

so the 3 weeks before the week of the new hero will only include new alts ?

During the off-weeks there will still be balance adjustments, although balance is on hiatus this week due to DreamHack. =)

[ricksis]

Maybe focus more on balancing the game, instead of releasing more and more heroes, the next more imba than the previous. :)

[ShocknAww]

Looks Nice, now we wont have to be wondering every week how this new hero will murder us :P

[DeityLink]

Less content = less competitiveness with other MOBA games.

I guess you are giving up then.... :(

let me fix that equation for you

Less [polished] content = less competitiveness with other MOBA games.
I guess we are gearing up for battle... ;)

[Pan_spagetka]

I apreciate the changes! Thanks s2



Thing left to fix

- Hero pricing (lower or adjust them to be equal to their difficulty, for example salforis mightbe excellent hero for new players, but is way too expensive)
- Give some static heroes for new players, they learn a hero, and after 2 weeks they have to learn everything from scratch.

[Drakir]

That sounds really nice, and i hope for some work at old Heroes, like Alt Avatars. Not all Heroes got an alt Avatar already :(
Another big point i wish is an "Quake Sound Announcer". Dont know if only i want it, would be nice to here some responce ;)

Something like Smackdown = Headshot or Hattrick = Multikill Immortal = Godlike

Actually - Headshot, Multikill and Godlike are all from Unreal Tournament. Would love to see UT Announcer tho. :)

[Alai]

Took wayyyyyyyyyyy to long to figure it out s2.

[VanHelsing69]

If i am not mistaken there was a second part to that survey. So which hero is getting a rework ? Gemeni???

[FastBullet]

If i am not mistaken there was a second part to that survey. So which hero is getting a rework ? Gemeni???

Was thinking the exact same thing.

[willy123]

I think that S2 should publish the poll results =P so we know that this decision was really made by the public, and ins't a scheme that s2 is using because the lack of ideas for new heroes, concepts, also the increased length that a hero stays in the early access will increase the purchases of the early access of that particular hero. I'm not impressed exactly because i think there is an interior motive, no one wants to w8 that huge length of time to play a new hero, the old system was better because the hero where getting release to the public earlier. Maybe if s2 decreased the time that had to be waited before the hero was released into the rotating hero pools this update would be more acceptable. To me i see that this update will increase s2's income and will decrease their costs because of the new hero release so spread out. Cmon s2 release the legitimate poll results so we can get a perspective one what the public actually wants, at least it would decrease the doubt in my mind of the actual purpose of the update.

[willy123]

BTW. Make the cost for ult avatars less silver so they are actually possible to buy with silver coins, not all of us have free reign on mummys credit card.. 3000 silver coins for a half decent avatar is ridiculously over priced...

[Tobias_Rook]

This is a big step in the right direction. We serve a large, diverse community, but we all want the same thing; a game that rocks. Less heroes, with more balance and improved hero concepts will definitely keep HoN rocking well into the future.

T_R
designer, S2

[MacroHard]

I apreciate the changes! Thanks s2



Thing left to fix

- Hero pricing (lower or adjust them to be equal to their difficulty, for example salforis mightbe excellent hero for new players, but is way too expensive)
- Give some static heroes for new players, they learn a hero, and after 2 weeks they have to learn everything from scratch.

This is already being strongly considered. You may read about it here:
http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showthread.php?414561-Improving-the-Free-to-Play-System

=)

[Griefherald]

I have a question that's very important to me. What happens to the heroes currently in the Early Access rotation? I've been looking forward to Bramble for quite some time,and have saved silver for him, but i'm broke right now,so no EA. Does this mean players won't see Bramble in the hero pool til July 7th, or will he be released as scheduled Friday after next?

[Konran]

A big thank you to the entire community for voting and making your opinions heard. We had an incredibly high number of responses and it's thanks to you that this change is coming!

[Lotheim]

With this I demand Viole (and the spotlight crew) to make old heroes spotlights!

[Zautha]

I voted 6 weeks, so im half happy.

Fu*k Diablizzard and Go on S2 i love your game since béta.

[LoreMeister]

Just wanted to stop by and thank the community for all of the involvement in this process. Thank you for being so passionate about the game we all love!

[MurdoctheMad]

Huh, I'm questioning what this will really do for the game... Don't new hero concepts already stay in SBT until they're deemed "ready" as it stands? Meaning the balancers and designers have as much time as they need to balance, tweak, and rework said concepts. Besides, apart from glitches and bugs, hero designs have been incredibly solid for quite some time (dare I say since Nome left and we stopped getting boring auto-play heroes like Monkey King and Emerald Warden?). Riftwalker, Ravenor, and especially Bramble are three excellent heroes in just the last six weeks. Would they really have been better if we waited three months for them?

Additionally, this means that new content that actually grows and advances the game will be reduced to once a month. It won't mean more reworking and balancing from DogKaiser's camp--he works on a different schedule, as he should. It won't mean more new items, since again that relies on huge amounts of balance testing. It won't mean more new game modes (because that seems to be all anyone wants anymore for some reason).

All this change means is that we get eight alt avatars in the time it will take to get one new hero--eight piece of cosmetics for every one piece of real, new content. I can only imagine that the game is going to start to grow stagnant very quickly.

Oh well, call me a pessimist. It's not like I'm quitting and jumping ship to another game--even if I disagree with this change, HoN is still by far the best game in it's genre. I'm just questioning if this is the best move forward for the game.

[Ecthelion`]

That makes me come back! HELLO GUYS AGAIN! :D

[MrSnowJr]

Mfw The natural stupidity of the HoN community and them being so impatient will make them buy the EA even more because they are bored and impatient for what they have.

Well done S2 I predict this will increase your income, if not immediately, then given a few months atleast.

[Nospheratu]

I'm SO happy now after i've read Diva's post and all those nice thanks from all of you at S2; even more becouse of these news!

This is a really welcome as well as a sorely needed decision & action! Although some of us are probably a bit "cautious" (to put it mildly) regarding that part about the problems with the business model, we salute your decision and your good will to not only ask your community for such input but then also to act upon it, even though it might mean serious financial trouble for the company...

Recently i've read and seen many dissapointments in the gaming industry, but you guys gave me hope; after reading this and thinking that you're willing to actually lower your monetary income in order to make and maintain a better game and make your playerbase happy, i can only say "This Gorilla has a heart of gold and balls of steel!"

I've been putting this off for way too long, but now i'm done with excuses - you guys really deserve my money and you shall get it.

[ktz0r]

Hope to see balance patches (real ones) between those 4 weeks.

[Mad_Angel]

First of all I want to state that IMO S2 (finally) made the wise decision to change their release schedule. Nonetheless, lets analyze this decision and the sudden overwhelming love from S2: 11 posts by S2 staff members in less than 1 day, all thanking and stating how awesome the HoN community is I find it a little strange...

The question is: Why this new found love and appreciation? Specially, what made many S2 members choose this particular subject to write for the first time in forums?
I see only two possible explanations:
1- S2 realized it made a mistake and releasing a hero every two weeks was harming the game. So, by smothering us with love they are attempting to distract us from the real issue: S2 was wrong, and it was wrong for more than 1 year. All that bs that heroes leave SBT only when they are ready that we heard countless times was not entirely true. You know it, we know it, but you are trying to makes us forget that it is ridiculous the amount of time you took to admit your mistake...
or
2- Those S2 members who posted are really happy this community pool finally showed S2 management what everyone already knew: Force pushing (pun intended) a hero out of SBT every other week was hurting the quality of the heroes and, ultimately, the quality of the game. Heck, how many combinations of blink/stun/slow can a guy put together before ppl start noticing we are rehashing the same hero concept over and over again? So the hard working guy @S2 is really happy as the time of the half baked heroes has come to an end and, furthermore, they can now work on adding new features to HoN that were put aside and tagged as SOON because features do not generate direct income, EA heroes do...

Feel free to disagree with me. But please for once don't delete my posts...

[SimplyEvert]

This is awesome!

[robertpurple]

I have a question that's very important to me. What happens to the heroes currently in the Early Access rotation? I've been looking forward to Bramble for quite some time,and have saved silver for him, but i'm broke right now,so no EA. Does this mean players won't see Bramble in the hero pool til July 7th, or will he be released as scheduled Friday after next?

I'm interested in this too! Already have 850 coins saved up for Ravenor, an answer would be awesome S2.

[Millikin]

Huh, I'm questioning what this will really do for the game... Don't new hero concepts already stay in SBT until they're deemed "ready" as it stands? Meaning the balancers and designers have as much time as they need to balance, tweak, and rework said concepts. Besides, apart from glitches and bugs, hero designs have been incredibly solid for quite some time (dare I say since Nome left and we stopped getting boring auto-play heroes like Monkey King and Emerald Warden?). Riftwalker, Ravenor, and especially Bramble are three excellent heroes in just the last six weeks. Would they really have been better if we waited three months for them?

Additionally, this means that new content that actually grows and advances the game will be reduced to once a month. It won't mean more reworking and balancing from DogKaiser's camp--he works on a different schedule, as he should. It won't mean more new items, since again that relies on huge amounts of balance testing. It won't mean more new game modes (because that seems to be all anyone wants anymore for some reason).

All this change means is that we get eight alt avatars in the time it will take to get one new hero--eight piece of cosmetics for every one piece of real, new content. I can only imagine that the game is going to start to grow stagnant very quickly.

Oh well, call me a pessimist. It's not like I'm quitting and jumping ship to another game--even if I disagree with this change, HoN is still by far the best game in it's genre. I'm just questioning if this is the best move forward for the game.

Say they always have 4 heroes in development but every 2 weeks they have to release one of them. Now if you make it the same amount of heroes being developed but over a 4 week period instead. This could mean that they get 1 more week to work on each hero that will be released and 1 week to spent on developing other new content (not the alt avatar section people that have their own schedule). Note that I only put the time in weeks as total time spent on each thing as an example. How they spend that time in actual workhours would ofc be different, but it should show you the basic idea what this release schedule could do that you seem to overlook in your pessimistic view (no offense, your own words).
If anything would be changed for the art team it would be that this could give them more time to work on each avatar they bring out with the same schedule as now when they don't have to make 2 specific for the original + alt for EA every 2 weeks.

Ofc it could be as you say and they make more alt avatars but their stuff doesn't derail the balance and content teams from their work.

[Y]

Interesting changes :)

[Alumando]

Could S2 give me an answer?

Give me 1 good reason why it would be better to release new heroes every 4 weeks instead of 2.

Apparently the majority of the community wanted it that way.
But the majority of the community isn't willing to buy EA heroes. It's just pissing them off that they can't play newly released heroes when they want it to.

I don't believe that it will make the game more polished, since balancing can always be done.
I don't see how releasing 2 heroes a month would change anything to that.

Or are you trying to tell me that the heroes that will be released every 4 weeks will end up to be better than the heroes that would've been released every 2 weeks?
Making up a hero can't be that hard.
I haven't seen a hero changing his skill set after 2 weeks because you guys found out you needed more time.


So what the real addition of making it 4 weeks?
Just because of the vote?

[neonranger]

Or are you trying to tell me that the heroes that will be released every 4 weeks will end up to be better than the heroes that would've been released every 2 weeks?


One of the points is that the heroes are more balanced BEFORE they get released, people are getting pissed off that when the EA heroes come out they just rickroll the game. Having a longer release cycle will mean S2 will have more time to focus on bug fixes, tweaks and balances.

And I don't want a longer release cycle because I don't buy EA... they're probably going to extend the EA time anyway so that point's invalid. I also want less heroes because it gives me time to adjust to the new addition of the game, rather than being spammed and not being able to keep up with the game.

[`Kry]

Makes me kind of annoyed that people opt for less content rather than more.

People think that better and more original ideas will be thought of as they have more time to plan heroes, this will highly unlikely be the case. They already have their next 6 or so heroes designed (concept/skill wise) and all this delay in content is doing is making sure that they release over 5 months, rather than 2.

People also complain that "oh gee we can't get use to the heroes they're being released so fast it takes me more than two weeks to learn a new hero pls stop :c". Frankly, this is your fault, there are people out there (like myself) who can learn and perfect a hero within two weeks, if you cannot that's your problem, don't take away from those who can.

Frankly one of the main things that kept me interested in this game was the new heroes every two weeks, it made for some excitement and aniticpation. Now having to wait an entire month for a new hero just so people can have the illusion that heroes have had better development, when they haven't.

Three weeks was okay, but halving the hero release is just plain retarded, and shows how idiotic most of this community is.

[Radio_Raheem]

And every hero will then be received with a "oh hey! ANOTHER HERO! yay!" instead of a "oh hey... another hero.... yay...".

best part right here. The more rare an experience, the more thrilling it becomes, to a point.

[OJPhoenix]

slowing down the release of new heroes is probably a good idea, I was okay with a new one every 2 weeks but there are reasons not to be.

I'm hoping this means we'll see more results in other areas of the game, such as balance, new items and so forth. I for one would really like to see more Staff of the Master :staffofthemaster: implementations in the game, as well as remaking some of the DotA ported upgrades like Pyro :pyro: It was hinted that we'd be seeing more of this a while back, and that Geomancer :geom: was the first step for this, so where is the rest of it?

[Ekamo]

As a person who has had access to a lot of what is going on behind the scenes, I am unaminously positive to this change. This is a huge step for the game in trying to truly improve the content of what is released, but also the content of what already is. The hero design has been at times of this game's history been questionable to say the least, and it is my sincere belief that the extra time that is given to work on heroes will in fact result in more conscious thought being put into heroes that are already in the works and heroes to come after that. What will make or break this game in the end is the quality of the released material, and this must be top-notch in order for this game to compete on equal terms with its competitors in the genre. Good design is crucial to this, but has always been restricted by a fast releasing schedule.

Thanks S2!

[Tony`]

Sweet, now all that's left is more community-based future heroes!

[XNibiNoNekoX]

Thanks a lot S2. I voted for 4 weeks, so I'm pretty happy about this.

Another thing I would love to see is more surveys (maybe make a new survey every month with the release of the new hero?). But don't only take the surveys and say, "The community voted for ___!" But actually show us the results when you announce which ones won. It's just a small thing, but something that I'd enjoy. I'm actually quite curious to see what the results were for this survey.

Anyways, just my two cents. Thanks for listening to us...for once. :p

[ahujet]

good job s2! now improve some of the fast realized heroes.

[SlicerDigZ]

To be honest I don't care how often you release heroes, as long as they're decent, so gj S2, and since the release is an entire month now, how about you put the spotlight 2 weeks before, so people can send feedback or an alt avatar suggestion, but this isnt necessary

[klamer]

nice one to del all non-asslicker posts

[Luxotor]

Thanks for listening.

[Wrathmont]

Very much about time. Good change on so many levels.

[Griefherald]

I have a question that's very important to me. What happens to the heroes currently in the Early Access rotation? I've been looking forward to Bramble for quite some time,and have saved silver for him, but i'm broke right now,so no EA. Does this mean players won't see Bramble in the hero pool til July 7th, or will he be released as scheduled Friday after next?

Any ruling on this?

[MurdoctheMad]

Ofc it could be as you say and they make more alt avatars but their stuff doesn't derail the balance and content teams from their work.

I'm not saying that they're going to be pushing more alt avatars out the door, I was merely putting it in the perspective that, as it stands, this is the content release schedule that (presumably) things are now going to be running under.

My entire point can be adequately summed up by part of Alumando's post:
"Or are you trying to tell me that the heroes that will be released every 4 weeks will end up to be better than the heroes that would've been released every 2 weeks?"

Unless the designers/testers/balancers are going to change their definition of what qualifies as a "ready to release hero", all this change is doing is holding back finished content to appease the whiners in the community. If a hero isn't "polished" enough to be released under the old system, they wouldn't release it, so what good do the changes accomplish?

The argument can be made that this allows S2 to shift designer resources to other ideas like items and game modes. I see nothing wrong with that, but I'd like that explanation rather than one saying "better, more polished heroes." I've seen nothing wrong with the recent heroes released and thus I see no reason to delay the ones that are ready.

Again, just my thoughts, hoping to provide some counterpoint.

[Arakus]

I think 1hero in a month is too slow..I'm only really exited to play when theres new content -> I play much more on the weekends with new content...And I think i´m not the only one who thinks like that. Hope you dont change the EA now <.<

[Djulio]

I read through all the S2 posts and couldn't find anything about EA heroes and how it'll affect them?

[TACretAw]

will this lead to an increased price in EA heroes?

[Nospheratu]

I used google transalte on this post and this is what it came up with:

"We have run out of ideas for new heroes, so we will wait for dota and lol to release new abilities on heroes so we can combine them and release as new hero for hon"

I used google translate on this post and this is what it came up with:

"I have absolutely no idea about S2's action process, but that doesn't hinder me to talk rubbish about it."

Seems legit^^

[CrazyIvan911]

Hey Guys,

After careful deliberation internally, and with the tremendous aid of community feedback, we have decided to slow down the Hero Release Schedule. From now on, you guys can expect a new hero to be released every 4 weeks instead of every 2 weeks, effective immediately. This means that the next hero will be released on July 6th. We thank you guys for your honest and passionate feedback, as well as for your participation in our survey concerning this topic, in which a large majority of you voted for a release period longer than 2 weeks. Here is what you guys can expect for this to mean:


Higher quality heroes; more iteration on design and art
A more digestible pacing of new hero content injected into the game
More content and assets to complement new heroes
More work put toward design feature projects (stuff like Mid Wars)

We hope that regardless if you love this decision or disagree with it, you will understand that we put a lot of careful thought and discussion into this move, and it is one that we as a company wholeheartedly stand behind in our quest to make Heroes of Newerth as enjoyable of an experience as possible for our players. S2 Games is dedicated to prioritizing the gameplay experience, and while this may have significant ramifications for us on the business model side of things, we are confident (in large part due to your input and guidance) that this is a positive move to ensure the long-term sustainability and enjoyment of HoN. Thank you guys so much for your continued support and feedback, as well as for sharing our tremendous passion for HoN. We look forward to learning more and more from you guys moving forward, and you guys can look forward to more changes and features to come.

For those of you who are fortunate enough to be attending Dreamhack Summer in a couple of days and want to discuss this or other topics, please seek me out! We're very eager to hear as many voices as possible from our passionate community members. Otherwise, ping me on twitter or continue your buzzing on the forums, Facebook, Reddit, and other hubs that our staff members follow every single hour.


Evening sir DivA, I'd like to you about the sale of new hero. As you said above that the schedule of the hero release has been changed. Just one Hero/Month.

Lets say as we go according to the old schedule, 2 Heroes per month.
Say you release Hero A & B in the 1st month. so when it comes to sale for silver coins it happens to get out in the 2nd month. Thats when hero C which is into play in 2nd month comes into EA slot which replaces hero A

My point to this is you may change the sale of heroes too as it will still stay for EA for the period of one month as it has been before. As well as gamers who dont/cannot buy gold coins dont have to wait for more than a month to buy them with silver.

Sir, this is just what i think and i'm sorry if i'm wrong at any point regarding your sales policies.
Thanks & Keep up the GoodWork. :)
Have a Nice Day

[DeathCult]

I thought the current hero release cycle is 3 weeks per hero. Did you not already change that a long time ago??

[AmaterasuDK]

When is hero pool gone change????

[GeneralGrind]

The stakes have been raised. Going to get even harder to get in some community heroes now.


http://i3.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/004/457/challenge.jpg

[PlasmaPony]

How does this affect EA? Does this mean that people who don't buy EA have to wait 2 months to play a hero rather than a month? Seems a bit long to have to wait.

[Gndwn]

wow 4 weeks, boring meta game inc

[TDown]

Thank god maybe now we'll heroes with 4 skills that synergize with each other instead of having 3 random skills with the same visual theme and one shield skill randomly throwed together.

[SomaZ]

4 weeks a bit too long imo.

[Konran]

We've seen a number of questions regarding how many EA heroes there will be and how Bramble and Ravenor are going to be released.

To clear that up, starting July 6 there will only be one hero available in Early Access and that hero will remain in Early Access for 4 weeks. Bramble and Ravenor will be released on their planned dates with Bramble becoming available on June 22nd and Ravenor on July 6th.

Thank you for the feedback you are all providing so far!

[john4014]

Now you guys get a few more alt avatars per week :D

[MrStitch]

If in 4 weeks a hero is suposed be super b designed.. what would happen if community picked 8 weeks? oh god, please change to 8 weeks D:

[LateFebruary]

Good decision S2 folks <3

[CrazyIvan911]

We've seen a number of questions regarding how many EA heroes there will be and how Bramble and Ravenor are going to be released.

To clear that up, starting July 6 there will only be one hero available in Early Access and that hero will remain in Early Access for 4 weeks. Bramble and Ravenor will be released on their planned dates with Bramble becoming available on June 22nd and Ravenor on July 6th.

Thank you for the feedback you are all providing so far!


Thank you sir. That was a really quick reply and cleared my doubt as well. Thanks again :) Have a good time at DreamHack

[Master_One]

i would also like some clarification on EA. Will EA get priced higher, than it is now?

If so, can we expect something for it?, like 2 EA avatars per hero?

[Karstein]

Nice move S2 =)

[Biffo]

Finally! Good decision S2!

[colondee]

i want a hero every week!

[klamer]

If in 4 weeks a hero is suposed be super b designed.. what would happen if community picked 8 weeks? oh god, please change to 8 weeks D:
Prob will be something like this - S2 team 6 weeks party, oh guys we have 2 more weeks lets make that hero.

[davestr1zl]

this should give them the extra time they need to implement the promised, yet 2-year-late, feature of custom maps.. yay!

[Alumando]

Could S2 give me an answer?

Give me 1 good reason why it would be better to release new heroes every 4 weeks instead of 2.

Apparently the majority of the community wanted it that way.
But the majority of the community isn't willing to buy EA heroes. It's just pissing them off that they can't play newly released heroes when they want it to.

I don't believe that it will make the game more polished, since balancing can always be done.
I don't see how releasing 2 heroes a month would change anything to that.

Or are you trying to tell me that the heroes that will be released every 4 weeks will end up to be better than the heroes that would've been released every 2 weeks?
Making up a hero can't be that hard.
I haven't seen a hero changing his skill set after 2 weeks because you guys found out you needed more time.


So what the real addition of making it 4 weeks?
Just because of the vote?

S2? answer please

[Xanuben]

When I read this article, for some reason I got this moment in my head.

"I had my eyes opened. I came to realize that I had more to offer this world than just making things that blow up. And that is why, effective immediately, I am shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of Stark Industries."

Probably because of the "effective immediately" phrase... and it actually suits in concept. You have more to offer to this community then just new heroes!

Well decided.

[Ritualst]

a long awaited change. GJ S2

[davestr1zl]

S2? answer please

so they dont have to do as much work

[Wingser]

I would've been happy with this but only on one condition:

All those who voted for 4 weeks will be forced to buy at least one EA hero every 2 months :D
If they don't want to buy EA, they've got NO RIGHT to vote on it.

Whiners. Jealous of people who get EA heroes and own them.

[the_guy117]

Hope they build more unique heroes. No more STR tankers, INT spellcasters, or AGI auto-attacking carries.

[Epidemilk]

I would've been happy with this but only on one condition:

All those who voted for 4 weeks will be forced to buy at least one EA hero every 2 months :D
If they don't want to buy EA, they've got NO RIGHT to vote on it.

Whiners. Jealous of people who get EA heroes and own them.

Look at it this way, they ****ed themselves a bit because now they have to wait twice as long to play heroes they don't want to buy EA for.


Hope they build more unique heroes. No more STR tankers, INT spellcasters, or AGI auto-attacking carries.

Ravenor isn't inherently tanky (and people don't seem to like building him tanky either), Blitz isn't auto attack carry...fine, guilty on their last couple int heroes being casters I guess (ofc Gravekeeper doesn't reeeally fit the mold).....really I'm going to say your comment is unfair and shows a lack of thought, sure, one way or another Shadowblade builds into an auto attack carry, but there is no other who works quite like him, and how far back do we want to go? We got a STR caster last year..

At least you're not making the usual "FFS CMON S2 NO MORE STUN+BLINK" complaint, don't want another Salforis do you?

[HonchoBob]

Good move guys, nice to know you can change course when needed.

[Jhamin_Libre]

you should be making new heros when you come up with solid, awesome designs with original skills and concepts.. not just every 4 weeks cause you like the money..

[EvilSkyline]

Finally!

[COLD_TEETH]

So can we delete a few half assed heroes?

[n0brain]

good decision there are 2many new heroes allready ty for listening 2 the community

[BloOd`8o8`]

yay! finally. love u S2. :P

[You_Are_BoB]

its a bad direction s2 is going when free2play users that not even got the half of the available heroes can choose the amount of heroes are added, sure they didnt want more heroes when they still didnt got the half of them.

[CRITICAL_DMG]

it can be lower to a hero released every month imo

[Dominare]

it can be lower to a hero released every month imo

Um, that's exactly what they did. 4 weeks = 28 days ~= 1 month

[Jhamin_Libre]

please delete bramble and blitz from this game?

[Cor0na]

BIG thumbs up and also kudos to all the S2 staff members posting here. Nice to hear from you guys and also learn about your thoughts!

Keep it up!

[_BIGboss_]

Nice idea

+1

[_hidanboss]

Nice work but need relase 2 heros at the same time (not every time, on a special event, etc...)

+1

[_Kaiser]

4 weeks it's nice

[QuitBitchin`]

I would've been happy with this but only on one condition:

All those who voted for 4 weeks will be forced to buy at least one EA hero every 2 months :D
If they don't want to buy EA, they've got NO RIGHT to vote on it.

Whiners. Jealous of people who get EA heroes and own them.

My account is legacy, I played in beta, I paid for this game before it went f2p and instituted the EA hero business model. No I have not bought any EA heros, instead I wait until they come off EA and get them completely free. Having them does not suddenly change my opinion that some balancing issues exist. Your entire post is one big whine about how your opinion isn't valued more than mine. You already got your way, there is EA heros, that was you getting your way. If I had got my way, there would be no EA, and f2p accounts would have to farm silver for 2 months to afford to permanently own a hero and the revenue stream would be coming from the ones that just outright pay for them in gold. I didn't get my way, you did, stop QQing about my being allowed to vote on how often a new hero gets added to my roster even tho I won't pay for early access.

You know what I would pay for? A button in TMM that charges $10 to my credit card every time I use it and instantly declares my team the victor. I'd use it on the day a new EA hero comes out, every single time I got into a TMM and someone on the opposing team picks it. Then I'd laugh at anyone that dislikes it and tell them that because they don't use it that their opinion about it is worthless. Finally, I'll conclude that they are just jealous that I have $10 to burn and they don't.

[Millikin]

I thought the current hero release cycle is 3 weeks per hero. Did you not already change that a long time ago??

Geez... wake up man.. where have you been the last 5-6months?.. The 3 week cycle that supposedly was so much better for the community only lasted from about Monarch(The first to be 6 weeks in EA) up to I think it was Artesia which would be somewhere in January(?). Ever since then the release was back to 2 weeks without any notification or explanation from S2 at all.

[`Yerbatero]

Quality over quantity

[Rkey]

Big plays S2

[Bull3t915]

Such a good idea +1

[cruelspirit]

:mida3: I WANT IT :((((((

[Alumando]

next time, only make people who have bought EA before vote
this is such a bad change
makes the game more boring
as if 3 weeks would be worse than 4
only jealous kids voted for 4 weeks

[PrincesAzula]

Hey Guys,

After careful deliberation internally, and with the tremendous aid of community feedback, we have decided to slow down the Hero Release Schedule. From now on, you guys can expect a new hero to be released every 4 weeks instead of every 2 weeks, effective immediately. This means that the next hero will be released on July 6th. We thank you guys for your honest and passionate feedback, as well as for your participation in our survey concerning this topic, in which a large majority of you voted for a release period longer than 2 weeks. Here is what you guys can expect for this to mean:


Higher quality heroes; more iteration on design and art
A more digestible pacing of new hero content injected into the game
More content and assets to complement new heroes
More work put toward design feature projects (stuff like Mid Wars)

We hope that regardless if you love this decision or disagree with it, you will understand that we put a lot of careful thought and discussion into this move, and it is one that we as a company wholeheartedly stand behind in our quest to make Heroes of Newerth as enjoyable of an experience as possible for our players. S2 Games is dedicated to prioritizing the gameplay experience, and while this may have significant ramifications for us on the business model side of things, we are confident (in large part due to your input and guidance) that this is a positive move to ensure the long-term sustainability and enjoyment of HoN. Thank you guys so much for your continued support and feedback, as well as for sharing our tremendous passion for HoN. We look forward to learning more and more from you guys moving forward, and you guys can look forward to more changes and features to come.

For those of you who are fortunate enough to be attending Dreamhack Summer in a couple of days and want to discuss this or other topics, please seek me out! We're very eager to hear as many voices as possible from our passionate community members. Otherwise, ping me on twitter or continue your buzzing on the forums, Facebook, Reddit, and other hubs that our staff members follow every single hour.

Diva for president

[WaytooPro]

hahahahahah what a noob
:scou: