New players and the hero picking screen.

[Aki]

This suggestion thread basically consists of 2 suggestions, ROLES and CUSTOMIZABLE HERO HIGHTLIGHTS, but both going hand-in-hand.

Now that the game has gone free to play, with every hero being available, new players/inexperienced players may have a hard time choosing the correct heroes (especially with the picking phase in AP being extremely short!).

What I propose is an interface overhaul/addition that lessens the confusion for those players: ROLES

So, what to expect from this? Here's a screenshot, of how it could be implemented (ignore my hideous MS paint skills, thanks):

http://i.imgur.com/l8P0c.jpg

If you kindly ignore my - probably - awful choosing of hard carries as an example (along with my terrible highlighting color), you can see, that it would take a big burden off new players if they get the preferred heroes hightlighted. They won't have to look through heroes and their skills anymore just to notice "I don't like that hero, he doesn't fit me at all".

But hey, you might notice something strange on that first picture! What does that "Custom1" mean? Noooooooooooow onto my second suggestion, which is actually a fine addition to the role picker.

Let me present: CUSTOMIZABLE HERO HIGHLIGHTING

This may be a feature not only for new players, but for long-time players as well, because, let's be honest, we are -ALL- sitting in front of the screen and just thinking to ourselves "what am I going to play this time..." or "Played a lot of hero xyz recently, I might want to play abc now, since he's my #2 favorite hero... wait... where is he again... time running out... *let's get it on*... DAMN!"

For people, wanting to go into "battle" prepared, they now can pick heroes beforehand on practice screens/herodex what they would like to play the next game, games after that, which heroes look exciting/they prefer/they like, so they won't have to bother looking for them over and over again in case they've lost them.

Example picture of how it could work (note: for it to work in practice: S2 has to remove the useless countdown; Who needs that in a practice match with himself?):

http://i.imgur.com/J3HWQ.jpg

Again, ignore my terrible MS Paint skills, thanks.

So what do you guys think? F2Ps and old-timers as well (as both parties would profit from it, especially the second suggestion!).

[DarkCookie]

Where are the free cookies :(?

[Cichy133]

Voted yes because of your avatar and cookies.

[Aki]

Where are the free cookies :(?


Voted yes because of your avatar and cookies.

Sneaky scout stole all the cookies!
I'm sure he will release them once the suggestion gets implemented!

Or will he? :scou:

But going back on topic: If anyone has any ideas for improvements, so I can include them in the main post (along with godlike MS paint arts!), feel free to contribute, so we can make the best out of this, for a proper implementation (if it ever happens, that is, duh).

[becks]

This may be a feature not only for new players, but for long-time players as well, because, let's be honest, we are -ALL- sitting in front of the screen and just thinking to ourselves "what am I going to play this time..." or "Played a lot of hero xyz recently, I might want to play abc now, since he's my #2 favorite hero... wait... where is he again... time running out... *let's get it on*... DAMN!"

That's just so true!
Both are amazing ideas but i prefer the custom hero highlighting.
If they dont implement it asap maybe u'll find a modder :D

[Feuzan]

I like your ideas very much, as the hero pool gets bigger and bigger, S2 should definetly think of implementing something along these lines, especially as AP selection time is so short... even for experienced players like myself, finding the right hero on the screen as the announcer counts down can be a challenge!

so here's my vote and a bump :D

[colondee]

this is obvious but will not be implemented due to laziness / priorities

[Aki]

this is obvious but will not be implemented due to laziness / priorities

I don't think so. S2 had a lot of things to take care of (I assume that at least) with all those recent implementations such as australian server, making this game completely F2P, adjusting all those store prices, taking care of things to work (did you notice? Nothing's broken!).

And with all of that it should be fairly obvious that S2's main goal should be to cater for those new players arriving in HoN, or ones that left early on in the F2P days, and that's what this suggestion is all about!

[Imbaer]

I personally would also love to see the difficulty rating + role tags you can see in the early access section in the store displayed in the herodex and the hero overlay displayed when hovering over an hero icon during in the picking phase. Standarized role tags (lane support, support, nuker, disabler, carry, good farmer, escape,...) together with the displayed difficulty rating and the hero filtering you suggested would be a big improvement.

[Sasuga]

Personally I think this is a bad idea. The community already has some pretty hard-minded ideas on what roles certain heroes play, and the difficulty rating is someone's opinion.

Some of the heroes that are rated as difficult to play I think are easy to play, and some of the heroes that are rated as easy to play I think are actually difficult. Some are rated correctly from my point of view. However, I also know my point of view is different from everyone else's point of view. While it was a good idea to try and give the community an idea of how easy or difficult a hero might be to play before someone purchased it, now that they're all free to play I think people should just try the heroes out and see what works for them. People have different play styles, I for one tend to get Ghost Marchers on most heroes that people recommend Steam Boots on, and I tend to get Plated Grieves on many of the heroes people recommend Ghost Marchers on. Do I recommend you do the same as I do? Only if you're in my clan. Otherwise, go with your own style. (Heck, even with my clansmen I only suggest.)

As far as having heroes highlighted for you based on role, whether or not you like them, etc. I also feel that the feature would be a bit of a waste of time for S2, and another thing that players really shouldn't have. The color is likely to draw your eye to those heroes and encourage you to pick based on that instead of really thinking about what's good for the team. Sure, the team might need a Hard Carry for the strategy that the team is going with, but there are a lot of other factors that players really should consider. Poor team lineups is already a problem in the lower brackets, it doesn't need to be compounded because of a feature that claims certain heroes fit certain roles.

For one thing, Andromeda is a great support hero, but she can also carry pretty well. Parasite is considered a ganker, but he can also support nicely. Accursed is a tank that can go full on tank, but also can play a good support hero.

Sure, some heroes are kinda locked into one role or another, like Flint. Flint is one hero that I feel needs a lot of farm to truly be useful to a team, and thus he shouldn't waste time running around the map placing wards, or spend gold on wards. However, other heroes are great at filling nearly any role, like Midas who can farm well enough to stay useful throughout the game if he also buys wards and places them, or he can go full on ganker and help dominate the game until the opposing team gets shrunken heads (which if he does his job ganking correctly might be never).

Having some interface tell a person that this hero is support or that hero is a carry just makes people more hard-headed and less likely to experiment. Look at how many heroes get overlooked for a really long time, are thought to be useless, then suddenly someone in the competitive scene uses them effectively and everyone thinks they're 'over powered'. Sometimes it might be because an item got changed, but often its just a matter of the hero having always been there and no one realized its potential.

Moraxus and Cthuluphant are two examples that come to mind for heroes that were thought to be weak, then suddenly thought to be overpowered when someone really learned how to use them.

My favorite thing about heroes of Newerth is this idea that there are many different ways to achieve victory. You don't have to go along with one certain style to win. Two other things I love are how new heroes are coming out, but also older heroes lay in wait, unnoticed, thought to be useless or weak, but then someone figures out a powerful build or tactic with them and suddenly, POOF! That heroes no longer a support hero, they're a carry! Or that heroes no longer a carry, he's a ganker! Or that heroes no longer a ganker but an initiator.

Marking a hero as a certain categorical will probably stipple growth and exploration in players. Also, what happens when a hero is used as a ganker but get 'nerfed', or a hero is used as a support but get retooled and suddenly they're a carry (like keeper of the forest). People will have to update their lists with every patch.

Lastly, think about this. Do you not know who your favorite heroes are? Do you really need a green boarder to tell you which hero is your favorite? What happens when you get sick of that 'favorite' hero?

I for one am tired of picking my heroes. I've been playing a lot of All Random games lately, and only All Random, because I like playing but prefer the challenge of the hero I'm 'stuck with' in All Random.

Seems like a lot of effort and work for something that isn't of any real benefit to the community. Sure, sure, its a neat feature, but is it really something we need? Is it really useful? Or could S2 spend their time programming something else for us?

ss isn't a hard carry ._.

[Zestiwafflez]

I like the idea of being able to create new role tabs, that would be sweet for all levels of player. People could sort out their favorite mid heros to a tab.

[KillBei]

I think new players should have a list of 20 heroes highlighted that are quite easy to play with clear abilities and decent impact on the game despite farm. This means: NO heroes like Devo, Empath, Rhapsody, etc. Instead heroes like WS, MQ, Jeraziah are great.

[Baer]

Sounds good, but wouldn't an (additional) indicator for the hero difficulty be better?
Currently you can only see the difficulty of a hero in the HeroDex, most players want to start right ahead though.

[Quillenator]

100% win rate so far for this suggestion, heres a bump and some kudos for such a good idea.

[sefan]

Don't think we need it. But +1 becose it can't be hard to implement. And it will be nice to have it.

[Brokkr]

I like it, and will thumb it up...but would like to add some suggestions.

1) All, Hard Carry, Carry, Ganker, Tank and Support should all be pre-fab with the dropdown. Obviously some heroes would fit into several of the above roles. Example: Slither is a a Hard Carry, Carry, Ganker AND Support depending on playstyle and thus would fit into all but the 'tank' prefab. If this is not done, then please simply make it entirely modifiable where it's 'all' until you set your own settings.

2) The built in 'random' feature would be applied to this so that a player could click the button and random only one of the heroes in that list. Explanation: If a player has 'all' selected on the drop down menu, then random would be from all heroes. Furthermore, if a player chose another selection, say..'tank'...they would only random tanks.

This would also make group makeup roles much easier, especially if settings were saved due to the fact that if a player is knocked offline, unable to return in time but they're always a tank...the random would simply choose a tank and not screw over the team.

I'll take a sugar cookie if you got it please.

[Pwnograhpy]

Voted yes because of your avatar and cookies.
Same.

[SanniK]

Awesome Idea Aki,

One other thing I would like to suggest is when other people pick a hero say tank in this example the colors should change. If two tanks or same class is picked then grey it out with a slash mark through the words.

You can make any variation of that but the purpose is to let newer players or lazy players know you have alot of those already and probably dont need anymore.

[Ekantar]

Absolutely yes. Filtering heroes on this hero pool helps me greatly. Customizing your hero pool to let favorites show up or those I need to pick but keep forgetting to play and instead pick one of the heroes I know because I know where they are. Even more so if time is running out when I am picking with randoms.

I am rather new to the game, just figured I'd add this to people pool (Old and new player thing)

[dodgers]

Voted yes
1800 player who does not know chessie
or star wars tsss ;D

[`fatCat]

+1 voted yes :D

[Luftwaffles`]

Cookies pls

[Example27]

It would be really nice to have this. I often don't know what to play so this would help a lot.

[OPZ]

Great idea can't wait for it to be implemented!!!

[Wololo]

Bump and a yes vote!

[CJXander]

you got my vote 1+

[ben301]

Yes is it good to old players too, cant trac them all ;)