Change in Hero Release Schedule

[[S2]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.

[[f13]SomethingOdd]

Furst.
WOW, YAYZ!
Thank you for listening.
Mfw:

[[IMMS]Harakesh]

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

[[TFLC]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

[[IaF]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?

[[Toho]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.

[[SBT]Tedde]

Awesome!

[[SBT]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?)

[[uP]XtremeFlash]

Good S2Guy

[[Toho]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.

[[TTFR]Chime]

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

[Shake`Spear]

Great decision... at last ! Eh.

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.

[[TOUR]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?

[[TCRx]Chaser]

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

[[VGG]Fairlight_Ex]

*slow clap*

[[j1p]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