The major update to HoN is now live and available for free to anyone who purchased HoN (or will purchase) .

This remarkable update offers some ground breaking changes, there is also a huge 2.0 patch Q&A available which got some interesting info.

== Team Matchmaking ==

– Find matches faster! Boasting arranged-team or solo play, this innovative and intuitive feature increases the efficiency of game creation by automatically gathering player statistics from a variety of group sizes, formulating teams, then matching those teams in as fair a manner as possible. With the ability to customize game mode, region, and map preferences, as well as group up with players on or off your friends list, the new Matchmaking will not only make it much faster to find a game of HoN, but also maximize the fairness and quality of the match.

– Playing Matchmaking rewards you with valuable Goblin Coins! Check out the new end-game scorescreen function after a Matchmaking game.

– Matchmaking will be disabled initially, we’ll enable it when we’re ready to begin public testing on it this week. Once enabled, expect it to have cycles of going up and down as we gather data, iterate, improve the algorithms, and fix any bugs.

== Cosmetic Store ==

– With goblin coin currency, which can be earned or bought, players can purchase in-game brag-worthy cosmetic upgrades. The micro-transaction based store, controlled by Merrick the goblin shopkeeper, lets players customize their experience without affecting game play or allowing the purchases to change the level of competition.

– Cosmetic upgrades include:

* Alternate hero avatars

* Taunt

* Account icons

* Alternate announcer packs

* Name color options.

* Account Symbols

== New 3v3 Map: Grimm’s Crossing ==

– A new action-packed and exciting map that includes a two-way teleporter in the middle area, allowing for more innovative fighting strategies and tactics. Grimm’s Crossing is a battlefield for the bloodthirsty. The terrain favors the cunning and aggressive, as hidden paths within the trees can provide a quick way to rout unsuspecting enemies. There is precious little territory to be contested over; battles are won and lost at frantic paces, often beginning and ending unexpectedly.

– Features of the new map:

* 2 lanes that are very close together

* Only one set of towers outside of each base

* Small, tightly packed map

* Neutral creeps spawn only in the middle section of the map

* No elevation at entrances into bases

* 1 rune spawn location in the center

* Towers’ armor scales with number of players alive; Buildings have 100% of armor when all are alive, scaling to 0 armor when your entire team is dead. This is active if with both Casual and Normal mode on this map.

* Twin teleporters for quick transit and fun surprises

* It’s a winter wonderland! Try the snow weather on this map!

== New Game Mode: Casual Mode ==

– This entirely new mode of play will provide new HoN players and casual gamers with a more “fun,” less punishing way to learn and play HoN. Elements in Casual Mode speed up progression and increase rewards in ways that remain true to the game’s core identity, delivering a version that can be embraced by new and veteran players alike.

– Changes from Normal Mode to Casual Mode are as follows

* Exp range from 1000 to 1300

* Removed gold loss on death

* Increased hero bounty

** Hero base gold bounty: from 200 to 300

** Hero gold bounty per level: from 5 to 10

* First blood bonus: from 200 to 300

* Gold bounty per streak: from 50 to 75

* Hero assist gold totals 50% of kill amount, split between all assisters

* Radius assist gold base: from 30 to 0

* Radius assist gold per level: from 5 to 0

* Respawn time per level from 4 seconds to 3 seconds

* Denies no longer deny experience

* Uphill miss chance removed

* Creeps give 1.25x of average normal mode value, no gold fluctuation

* Buildings give 1.5x of average normal mode value, no gold fluctuation

* Towers give global experience when killed, even to dead people, (by tower level): 150,200,250,300

* Tower last hit gold bounty: from 470,520,570,620 to 300,350,400,450

* Tower Team gold bounty: from 200,240,280,320 to 300,350,400,450

* The amount of experience required to reach the next level increases as the game goes on. This means that at the beginning, players level up a lot faster than in Normal Mode, but in the mid and late game they level up at about the same rate as in Normal Mode.

* Buyback costs are at 1.75x normal mode values

* Towers’ armor scales with number of players alive; Buildings have 100% of armor when all are alive, scaling to 0 armor when your entire team is dead.

== New Interface Features ==

– We have revamped the in-game interface to be more dynamic, informative, and efficient.

– Enhancements include:

* Advanced mini-map interaction. Try hovering over heroes, buildings, or wards!

* Pull down tabs in the upper right for intuitive access to vote functions and game options

* Graphic kill messages for feedback when you net a kill in the upper left.

* A gold counter to see the breakdown of your gold earnings from different sources. Hover your mouse over your gold count to see the exact breakdown!

* Experience range indicators to mark enemies within the experience gain range. You will notice a small purple diamond next a creep’s health bar when you are in range and a purple diamond effect will play when they die if you got experience.

* Context-sensitive pings to highlight the object and send out alert messages to allies. Try Alt+Clicking an ally, enemy, or building.

* A hover-over inventory to allow for quicker inventory feedback on allies and enemies. Hover over an enemy to quickly see their inventory.

== BETA Map Editor ==

– With the exact same tool that we used to make HoN, users can now create and edit maps for enhanced single-player experiences. Users who are inspired to create multi-player maps can submit their map designs to the HoN DREAM website for potential inclusion in HoN. Also, in conjunction with scripting manipulation, players can create their own custom modes.

– This is still a BETA version of the Map Editor, and as such still has features to be added, polish to be done, and bugs to be fixed. Keep this in mind!

– To open the editor, use the editor.bat file in your HoN directory or re-install the game and it will automatically add a shortcut to your start menu as well

== Weather Effects ==

– A storm has arrived on Newerth with HoN 2.0 and it shows! Change the weather of the map you are in at any time through the Options menu and feel free to sing in the rain.

– Players can set their preferred weather effect in the interface options or with a chat command. Right now we support “Rain” and “Snow”. The default is “Off”.

– Chat commands are as follows:

* /weather

* /weather None

* /weather Rain

* /weather Snow

– We included a text file with instructions on how to make your own weather effects in the HoN directory

== New Item: Spellshards ==

– It’s time for the magic users of Newerth to show their true power! With Spellshards, they can pierce the defenses of the enemy and burn them to a crisp that much faster.

– The wielder’s spells ignore a portion of their enemy’s magic armor, causing increased magic damage.

– After obtaining this item, the recipe may be re-purchased to upgrade it. Can be upgraded two additional times.

– Components: Great Arcana (1675) + Recipe (1000)

– Stats:

* 6 Intelligence

* 17 Damage

* 10 Attack Speed

* 3/6/9% Cooldown Reduction

* 75% Mana Regeneration

* Causes any Magic damage you deal to ignore 2/4/6 of your target’s Magic Armor. This effect can never cause their magic armor to go below 0.

– Note: The item “Trophy Belt” did not make it into this patch.

== Nemesis and Payback ==

– Beat down an opponent hard enough and you will become their Nemesis! Be careful, though, for payback is sweet revenge.

– A ‘Nemesis’ against an opponent is gained when you kill them 4 times in a row without them killing or assisting in a kill against you.

– A ‘Payback’ is given when you kill or help kill your Nemesis.

== New Music ==

– Newerth’s citizens, every now and then, take the time away from the battlefield to learn new musical scores. They have brought us six new songs to encourage us in battle!

– New songs:

* The Missing Rune

* Hope

* From The Depths They Rose

* The Chase

* Overrun Lane

* Kongor’s Lair

– Each map now has a custom music soundtrack that plays songs in a pre-determined order.

– In addition, several music related bugs were fixed:

* Fixed music looping

* Fixed playlist looping

* Fixed music fade-out/fade-in

* When a music track is stopped, it defaults to fading out

* Music is now streamed rather than loaded upfront. This fixes an issue where lower-end computers would randomly hitch when the music switched.

* When a music track ends, its memory is now freed

== Other Features ==

– BP bans increased from 3 to 4

– Single draft now has blind pick, meaning you won’t see the other team’s hero picks during hero selection

– Banning draft will now switch bans immediately

– Mid-bar completely redone for HoN 2.0

– Streak stats are no longer recorded for public games

– Fixes for Caldavar so the creeps won’t start in tower range in bottom lane and the middle lane will be more even

== General ==

– Fixed GPM calculations. Gold that wasn’t counted in GPM before:

* Passive

* First blood bounty

* Assists

* Radius bounty

* Was counting how much a player should have lost on death, rather than what he actually lost if he didn’t have enough gold

– Fixed a spot you can hit Kongor from outside of his pit

– You can now also “buy all components” for items without components and it’ll just buy the individual item.

– Swapping the minimap to right side now also swaps the location of attack modifiers

– Added sounds to the pause/unpause countdown

– You can no longer transfer items from your stash onto units that can’t carry items

– Toggling mute on a player no longer /ignores them

– Tweaked effects, voices, and animations of several heroes

– A code tweak that will increase load time for computers with limited amount of virtual memory, but should help alleviate crashes due to running out of virtual memory (32 bit Vista and 7)

– Gold will now max at 65535 instead of looping back to 0

– Sped up Frostwolf Skull projectile to 1500 (medium speed based on high and low ranges)

– Fixed up a lot of the stringtables

– Fixed some divide by zero errors

– Shrunk some giant textures

– Custom Game renamed to Public Game

– Fixed some map textures

– Fixed follow coloring to update when first displayed

– Fixed a crash when viewing match stats containing a null player slot

– Added a unit voice delay slider to the options panel. Credit to Bangerz for the initial implementation.

– Follow is now removed when removing buddy

– Fixed model quality change crash

– Fixed Tournament Mode not working on linux client

– Replay_autoSkipPause cvar for auto skipping pauses in replays

– Deleted un-used voice commands

== Bugfixes ==

– Previously, if a courier dropped an upgradeable item on you when you had a full inventory, including a recipe for that item, the recipe would be consumed but the item wouldn’t upgrade. Fixed.

– Fixed a Bombardier Boom Dust bug relating to casting it from long ranges resulting in quirky behavior

– Chipper ult won’t draw on the minimap anymore

– Fayde‘s Burning Shadows now give small clearvision

– Legionnaire‘s ult damage when he doesn’t kill now correctly does Magic damage (was a script error)

– Pharaoh‘s Wall of Mummies will now grab people correctly to the middle

– Tempest‘s Glacial Blasts won’t stun magic immune units or invulnerable units anymore

– Fixed Arachna‘s ult still spawning if the target dies first

– Thunderbringer‘s ult won’t hit illusions anymore

– Vindicator‘s illusions won’t steal int from him anymore and will get the +2 int popup so it’s not obvious who the real one is

– Blacksmith can now hit himself with Frenzy when it multicasts on another target

– Gladiator‘s ult won’t wonk out anymore if he casts it while frozen and can’t turn

– Gauntlet‘s fist won’t wonk out anymore if he casts it while frozen and can’t turn

– Fixed the manacost of Defiler‘s Silence to match the tooltip correctly

– Fixed Thunderclaw and Charged Hammer so they won’t go off on denies

– Added double activate to Blood Hunter Blood Crazy

– Added double activate to Succubus Mesmerize

– Made Succubus ult undispellable

– Made Tablet of Command unbind it’s target

– Warbeast‘s Wolves won’t take the craters they come out of with them anymore

== Neutrals ==

– Neutrals now sleep at night

* They have zero aggro range at night and normal aggro range in the day

Minotaur Neutral Creep:

– Fixed a damage/stun event to fix Bubbles wasting Take Cover autocast

== Heroes ==

– Fixed some effects playing through fog:

* Gladiator Pitfall

* Moraxus Stomp

* Bubbles‘teleport-to-Shell-Surf “water splash”

* Bubbles‘ Song of the Sea

Balphagore

– Fixed his illusions from eating creeps

Chipper

– Fixed his ult from drawing on the minimap like silliness



Devourer

– Fixed a damage/stun event to fix Bubbles wasting Take Cover autocast



Doctor Repulsor

– Fixed missing tooltip info

Electrician

– Fixed a damage/stun event to fix Bubbles wasting Take Cover autocast

Engineer

– Turret now shoots twice as fast and the cap of number of hits removed.

* Damage per bullet starts at 10/20/30/40 and is lowered by 10% for every bullet that hits you

* The push starts at the same it was, but gets weaker the more you are hit

* Snare is still max of 35% from 10 hits

Gauntlet

– Fixed a damage/stun event to fix Bubbles wasting Take Cover autocast

Gladiator

– Fixed a damage/stun event to fix Bubbles wasting Take Cover autocast

– Added a glow to the whip

Legionnaire

– Fixed a typo in his ult damage (was doing 300, should be 350) if you missed with it



Maliken

– Re-exported and cleaned up voice

Moraxus

– Axes damage from 80/100/120/140 to 60/80/100/120

Myrmidon

– New sounds

– Fixed infinite life weed field

– Fixed a bug that caused him to have a projectile with Frostwolf Skull even in melee form

– Fixed a permanent vision bug

Nymphora

– Pod is now 250 AOE, 1 second delay, and 60/120/180/240 Damage/Heal. Used to be 325 AOE, 2.5 second delay, 90/180/270/360 Damage/Heal.

Pebbles

– Fixed a damage/stun event to fix Bubbles wasting Take Cover autocast

Sand Wraith

– Fixed an issue with Dissipate that let him get some long range damage

– Fixed a bug with the ult that reset the cooldown to the max length incorrectly when Mirage was used

– Fixed the illusions incorrectly giving vision the whole duration of the ult instead of just while they are alive

Soul Reaper

– Fixed him getting mana from hero kills correctly

Succubus

– Fixed a damage/stun event to fix Bubbles wasting Take Cover autocast

– Fixed heroes ulted by her not doing their idle animation after it ends

Tundra

– Fixed his charge and interaction with Moraxus’ Shield

Wildsoul

– Fixed a bug that caused him to have a projectile with Frostwolf Skull even in melee form

== Console Commands / UI Commands ==

* This section is mainly for modders

– StopMusic(true) will now fade out the current music track

* StopMusic() will still stop it instantly

– New console command ‘MusicInfo’

* Displays the name of current track, length of current track, and position within current track

– New console command ‘MusicSeek’

* Allows you to jump to a specific time index within the current music track

* The argument can be in ‘mm:ss’ format, for example 01:30, or in seconds, for example 90

* If the argument begins with ‘-‘ then it represents a time offset from the end of the track (for example -10 would seek to 10 seconds from the end of the current track)

– New console command ‘PlaylistStart’

* Begins playing the specified tracks in order. Example: PlaylistStart music/track_01.mp3 music/track_02.mp3 music/track_03.mp3

– New console command ‘PlaylistClear’

* Clears the current playlist

– New console command ‘PlaylistNext’

* Plays the next track in the playlist

** Fades out the current music track and fades in the next music track

– New console command ‘PlaylistInfo’

* Displays information about the current active playlist, including number of tracks, name of each track, and which track is currently active

HoN 2.0 Trailer



Links

HoN

2.0 Changes

2.0 Patch Q&A