Heroes of Newerth - Faithful DoTA Clone

[Trouble]

This one seems to have slipped under the radar and is currently in closed beta. It's relatively easy to get a key from people who are in it.

http://www.heroesofnewerth.com

The message I got when making my beta account:

You are about to play a stand alone DotA based game. We have asked IceFrog if he had any objections to this and he did not, he is ok with it. Heroes of Newerth contains both content very similiar to DOTA and brand new content of S2 Games' creation.

We wanted to take a moment to share with you why it is very important you do not share this information with anyone, and to give some insight as to why we chose to create Heroes of Newerth:

1.) At S2, we're huge fans of DOTA, and were pained to see how it was being held back on the warcraft 3 engine. DOTA style gameplay deserves a stand alone game so competition can be taken to the next level. As a MOD, DOTA faces many obstacles and boundaries that a stand alone title like Heroes of Newerth does not.

2.) We also felt that the experience of playing and finding DOTA games online could use some drastic improvement. With HoN, there are many features and tools to make playing online (both with friends and by yourself) a much easier and more enjoyable experience. Your position as testers will help us perfect and fine tune these features, as well as allow us to see how they perform under various conditions.

I haven't played it yet but I've read what people have said on other forums and what some friends have said. It basically steals (with permission) a lot of stuff from DoTa. Heroes, abilities, items, etc. The goal is to be a much more faithful DoTa clone than some other games of recent. Currently in the works is a lot of matchmaking stuff so that finding good games with equally skilled opponents is easy, as compared to the horrific non-existent matchmaking in the actual DoTa. I think they're planning on implementing some sort of ELO rankings or something if they haven't already.

The NDA on the game recently dropped but they still aren't permitting any media (video, screenshots) to be released in the wild.

[Big Gulp]

DoTA means nothing to me.  Please to be elaborating.

[Trouble]

http://www.dota-allstars.com/

Defense of the Ancients. It's a mod for Warcraft 3 that puts you in control of a single hero that you need to level up while trying to defeat your opponents. Games are usually 5v5. It's probably more popular than actual Warcraft 3 multiplayer. It's like Counter-Strike to Half-Life. A mod more popular than the original game.

[Typhon]

I wish that Blizzard would pull a Firaxis (Fall from Heaven 2 game into an expansion) and release a War3 expansion that includes DoTA.  Great mod.

[Trippy]

I wish that Blizzard would pull a Firaxis (Fall from Heaven 2 game into an expansion) and release a War3 expansion that includes DoTA.  Great mod.

The FfH mod the Civ IV expansion includes is not the full FfH 2 game.

[schild]

Can I score an invite?

[Samprimary]

I play DotA pretty constantly. To me it's one of the best game experiences available and it's damn near free.

Basically the only real problems with DotA involve the limitations of the Bnet custom games system as a host. People hack the shit out of it constantly just trying to ease the process of hosting DotA.

Which is why HoN is such an excellent prospect. If they can get half as many heroes as DotA into the game, and stay consistent with upgrades and tweaks to the same degree that Icefrog has maintained DotA, you got a winner on your hands.



I enviously watch my friends play HoN. It's .... well, it's BETA. there is STILL TIME. They need to seriously fix the unit responses and they need to fix all the bugs so that they can begin concentrating on unit balance. Scout is essentially Gondar with a Clinx-style windwalk speed increase, free truesight wards, and Sniper's ult which he can fire whilst invisible. In the enhanced pace of this game, new Omninight's spell shield is ridiculous. Etc.

[Samprimary]

Also if you score an invite for me I will be SO thankful.

[Ragnoros]

I loves me some DoTA. Put me down.

However good luck to them solving the greatest flaw of DoTA. Other people.  

[Hayduke]

That looks very fun.  Also League of Legends (another DOTA clone) announced today there'd be a free version of the game and they put up pre-orders.

[schild]

Trouble posted and disappeared :(

[Yegolev]

Check EVE.

[Trouble]

Still here! I don't have invites yet, I think they hand them out to beta accounts at regular intervals, and they seem to hand them out in large quantities. Hopefully I'll get some soon.

[Typhon]

I wish that Blizzard would pull a Firaxis (Fall from Heaven 2 game into an expansion) and release a War3 expansion that includes DoTA.  Great mod.

The FfH mod the Civ IV expansion includes is not the full FfH 2 game.

Yeah, I phrased the sentence poorly.  Should have said "(Fall from Heaven 2 scenario into an expansion)..."

[Hoax]

Interested in an invite as well...

[schild]

People should've gotten invites who friended them on Facebook but uhhhhhh I haven't yet.

[Draegan]

I never played DOTA before.  I always wanted to get around to trying but I can't find my WC3 discs.

[Trouble]

Sent an invite to schild.

[schild]

You rule.

[Samprimary]

NOO I'VE BEEN PASSED UP IN FAVOR OF THE PERSON WHO ASKED FIRST

[schild]

NOO I'VE BEEN PASSED UP IN FAVOR OF THE PERSON WHO ASKED FIRST

Don't kid yourself, you were passed up because you don't have an avatar. Whereas I have an awesome one.

[Hayduke]

The invites are up for Facebook friends.  Check the view updates section on their page.

[Samprimary]

NOO I'VE BEEN PASSED UP IN FAVOR OF THE PERSON WHO ASKED FIRST

Don't kid yourself, you were passed up because you don't have an avatar. Whereas I have an awesome one.

I don't have one presently because forum won't let me upload this

[Trippy]

That's cause it's too wide and it will be automatically shrunk down which destroys the animation.

[Samprimary]

And my new computer doesn't have my perfectly legal copy of fireworks. Siiigh.

anyway I already posted my first sincere recommendation on the forums: that the unit responses and voice actors should be shot and burned.

[Samprimary]

After playing this for a while, I gotta say that while the graphics are really well done, DotA remains fundamentally a better game, even on its extraordinarily dated engine.

DotA's pacing is a sight bit more manageable and it isn't presently filled with broken heroes that dominate AP and RD games.

One of the things that DotA's dev community has going for it is that its playerbase acts as a gauntlet of peer-review. A new hero submission has to be vetted through this process before it gets entered into the playing field. In contrast, new heroes are getting put into HoN just because the devs think they are a cool idea. Existing heroes are remade in ways which make them inexcusably unbalanced.

S2 seems also to have completely lost control of their beta community, which is filled with noise and acrimoniousness and a decisive yet understandable split between oldskool dota players and new guys who are offering advice on how to 'fix' the game which is borne by their lack of understanding about what makes DotA good.

[Hayduke]

It is a good looking game, but the people playing it are ultimately way too unpleasant.  I have no dota experience and I guess that's the problem, but Demigod seemed sufficiently different that it was still fun for a newb to jump into.

[Samprimary]

Yeah. In DotA, a bad player ruins games and investments of 30+ minutes of your life. The community is paradoxically hostile because it is so interlaced; if you play it enough you understand why any player has to have an immune antibody response against players who can't play. The enemy will feed on them, then on you.

DotA has adjusted somewhat with a sub-community which will guide you through a kickstart process. S2 isn't providing anything. They can't even keep their own forum from turning into a pit. Stardock went a different way.

[Nonentity]

Anyone got a beta key for this? I'm fiending for League of Legends, but it's not up 24 hours.

[schild]

Anyone got a beta key for this? I'm fiending for League of Legends, but it's not up 24 hours.

You might as well just play DotA. heroes provides you no benefit over playing the original, Mr. But I don't Have a Problem with DotA.

[Nonentity]

But HoN is the new shiny. I need it.

[schild]

But HoN is the new shiny. I need it.

It's really not.

[Lounge]

But HoN is the new shiny. I need it.

It's really not.

I disagree... Even if all they did was make a 100% exact clone of dota (graphics, sounds, heroes, items, etc) without adding anything at all new gameplay wise, its still INFINITELY better than dota because it has an online system which actually works.

[Samprimary]

I disagree... Even if all they did was make a 100% exact clone of dota (graphics, sounds, heroes, items, etc) without adding anything at all new gameplay wise, its still INFINITELY better than dota because it has an online system which actually works.

If they made a clone of dota without adding anything at all new gameplay wise, I would be happy.

They have not done this. They've retooled characters, disrupted balance, enhanced pacing to a trippy level, added terrible voice acting. Presently it is not worth the advancement of the matchmaking system!

[Arrrgh]

Does anyone else think it's sad that their site is just a link to facebook or is it just me? All DOTA fans use facebook?