HoN: Heroes of Newerh Newsletter

volume ix

HoN News - Vol 9 - Happy HoNiversary

On May 12, 2010 at 4 p.m. EST, we celebrated the launch of our highly anticipated third title, Heroes of Newerth. After working on the title for over three years, HoN went retail with over three million beta subscribers. We worked tirelessly to make HoN the best online, multiplayer game of its kind and haven’t slowed down since then. Over the past year, we’ve accomplished many milestones. HoN now averages 30,000 concurrent players at any given time, daily concurrent peaks over 50,000 and an impressive 420,000 unique active players!

Redesigned Item Shop, Hero Guides & Tooltips

After months of hard work, we’re pleased to unveil our new and improved shop featuring integrated guides and other enhancements that are sure to be crowd pleasers. But that’s not all – we’re also introducing new tooltips for both casual and advanced players. Changes were made to make the game friendly and more accessible for new players, while streamlining and clarifying the game for our existing player base. The updates, which go live on Thursday, May 12, include:

HoN features over 100 items, which may be daunting for new players. To reduce the amount of time new players spend browsing the shop, the entire system has been redesigned to help them learn the intricacies of items. In addition to enhanced visuals and interface elements, dual modes, a re-hauled purchase interface, and intuitive item progression, the shop introduces an entirely new search function, letting players search for any item by name.

Not only are the HoN names included, but common nicknames, slang, and even the names of DotA counterparts.

One of the most important features of the new shop is the integrated hero guides. Hero guides are created, voted upon, and judged by the community, ensuring a large quantity of differing play styles and viewpoints for each hero. The integrated guides feature pulls the most highly rated guides from the site and sets them as default “templates” for how to play your hero. Hero guides feature a template for ability leveling, item suggestions for each stage of the game, and user-written instructions.

It also has the optional ability to automatically level up hero skills according to the guide and provides players with the coaching needed to enjoy and play any hero at a basic level, even those that a player may have no experience with. This lessens the burden of knowledge for new players. Advanced players may use the guide to create their own list of “favorite” items that are condensed onto a single page.

A completely new set of tooltips has been written for all abilities across the board. The new optional, simple tooltips feature plain, concise wording and will encompass everything a new player needs to know about the basic workings of a skill. Advanced mechanics and niche information may still be found on the normal tooltips, which have also received an interface revamp for increased readability.

FREE HoN Account with Coin Package Purchase

From Thursday, May 12 at 9:00 p.m. EST until Sunday, May 22nd at midnight EST, players will get a FREE HoN account with the purchase of the $40 Goblin Coin package. A HoN account is typically $30, but for $40 you get 2,415 Gold Goblin Coins plus a FREE account that you can use for yourself or share with a friend. If you were planning on making a Goblin Coin purchase in the future, now is the time! You can purchase coins at:
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/purchase.php

If you already own a HoN account, you will receive an email with a code for the free account after purchasing the $40 Goblin Coin package. If you’re using a free-to-play account, it will automatically be turned to a full paid account after the coin package purchase.

Two New Alt Avatars

Two new and highly requested alt avatars will be added to the in-game store just in time for the HoNiversary celebration! Premium Avatars Thor Thunderbringer and Winston Charmadon (Armadon's alt avatar) will be available this Friday for 600 Gold Coins each.

First Game Bonus – 200 FREE Goblin Coins

And that’s not all! Every player will be rewarded with 100 Gold Goblin Coins and 100 Silver Goblin Coins for their first game completed during the HoNiversary celebration period which starts today (Thursday, May 12) at 9:00 p.m. EST and runs till Sunday, May 22nd at 12 a.m. EST. Coins will be automatically added to your account. Get playin’ and get your free coins!