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New RTS Based on DotA Offers Native Linux Client
S2 Games, longtime fans of the "Defense of the Ancients" (DotA) mod for Warcraft 3, have decided to create an entire game based around it (which IceFrog had no objection to). Without offending their still-active NDA, I can say that Heroes of Newerth is shaping up to be a very polished RTS, with the ability to play both via S2's own online service and local games, something that even Blizzard seems to be missing these days. Unlike most publishers, S2 has also decided to simultaneously release Windows, Mac, and Linux clients, making this one of the best looking games that I have ever seen on my Linux box. Additionally, S2 would like to invite another 400 players to the HoN beta, so if you are an RTS fan (and especially if you are a DotA fan) just send an email to scuttlemonkey at slashdot dot org with the subject line of "HoN Beta Key Request" and I'll reply to the first 400 requests as best I can. Update 20:37 GMT by SM: In case you don't notice in your haste to create a beta account, let me remind you that this game is still under strict NDA, so please no specifics in the discussion below. Update 00:01 GMT by SM: Well, given the 800+ emails that flooded my inbox in the first half hour or so we're all out of beta keys, but keep an eye out for a release date. Update 01:00 GMT by SM: Apparently your friends over at S2 games were quite impressed with the level of interest and are furnishing another 2,000 beta keys for me to continue working through the requests in my inbox (I'm at around 1,500 requests total as of this update, and only about 350 keys sent out). Please be patient as I slowly try to catch up. Also a point of clarification, while IceFrog doesn't mind S2 diving in to this space with a game based on DotA (competition is good in the long run after all), he wanted to make sure loyal fans of DotA knew that he plans to continue developing and improving DotA for WC3. Update 7/10/2009 13:06 GMT by SM: to all those still waiting on a beta invite, please be patient. I use gmail as the central repository for my email for ease-of-use, and while I was only expecting to have to hand out 400 keys, apparently gmail has an email cap of 500 per day. Last night my account got locked for excessive use, so I am waiting on the wrist-slap to expire so I can continue my key-spam. It looks like all who have requested a key so far will get one.
Gaming comes to Linux, this is the end for Tux Racer!
Trolling is a art,
I've found this to be true of pretty much anything on battle.net. Or perhaps of anything remotely popular.
I think part of the problem is the complete anonymity of people and the fact that there are a lot of immature people playing the game that haven't learned yet the value of teamwork.
What may help is a psuedo social network, where players could rank each other in terms of who're good players, whether people enjoyed playing with/against them, etc. Somewhat like the feedback mechanisms of ebay and amazon. This way unpleasant players will find that they just don't get invited/allowed to many games.
But of course you still need some way for newbies to get experience and reputation, or else you'll effectively cut off experience players from new players.
A mechanism like this could also make it easier for people of similar skill levels to find and play with each other.
Some of the aspects of the game I really enjoy:
1) Having it so that certain buildings can't be built until you have other supporting structures built before that. It's almost like a "tree" of "things" you can "build."
2) Being able to highlight a bunch of your army and send them off to fight people on the other side of the map. Tremendous fun.
3) The developers, knowing how much people enjoy 2) have implemented "keyboard shortcuts" to make bundling up a group of units and sending them off as one easier. I can't discuss the specific keys being used, but on ANY STANDARD KEYBOARD, you'll be able to press a combination of keys that will "store" your group selected in memory. Not just that, but you can RECALL this group that was stored at a prior time by pressing yet another patented group of keys. What will they think of next?!
4) Being able to choose more than one race as the army under your control. So Race 1 can fight Race 2 and employ different tactics!
5) Not being able to build until you "harvest resources." You have to send out a bunch of little guys (I'd probably call them peons) to get these resources for you before you can build any of the buildings and get a start on your "tech tree."