Maybe. I have no idea. I haven’t really followed the game enough to know.
The game is free open beta- and from what ive seen in game:
all you get for purchasing the game is pretty much a “summoner level bump” which would be like having a high level account.When the game is released everyone will be able to buy everything you get in the boxed game using points earned in game, but it will take time.(ive played around 20 games and I am level 8 out of at least 40)
things you can buy
-different character models for heroes
-characters( most of which are apparently locked )
-runes, which I think are smaller modifiers for your heroes.
so far ive had a lot of fun- but with no built in voice chat it is a far less serious game than Heroes of Newerth: but it is very similar.
more newbie friendly by far- so I’d reccomend it to anyone who liked the sound of HoN but couldn’t get into it due to its massive learning curve. especially because its free and the community is very nice considering what similar game communities are- only once did I get chewed out for not automatically knowing my hero front to back.
Anyone still playing this/have further thoughts? I tried it out a bit last night (though I only play against the AI on one map, with some friends who were equally clueless about what we were doing). I never played DoTA, but did play some Demigod and I think LoL compares favorably, mainly because it has deeper trees and more progression.
I’m not sure if there are other maps that are more interesting than the one I played, or if there are multiple game modes like in Demigod. Even if there aren’t, though, the main game is combining items, champions and spells/masteries (and I guess runes - have no idea how that system works) to fight against opponents, so it might be more fun to just have the same basic setup (it isn’t like Chess or Magic change the starting board).
Anyway, I just wanted to talk about the game a little bit…which I guess means I liked it.
Yes I am still playing it, a few matches every other day- something like my MMO fix, and I like it.
Suprised that absolutely noone else here is playing, as we did have 15 or so in HoN, and the learning curve there is extremely steep compared.
My summoner name is ThornFalconeye, add me and I would be happy to play with you and your buddies.
I played it last summer in beta some, but preferred HoN…which was just way more polished. Though it wasn’t as friendly as LoL.
How has LoL changed since then? Did they revamp the front end?
The game has more maps, and several more in the building. Also, there’s new characters every month, which personally is a big draw for me.
Anyone here from the GOA Servers (the EU publisher of LoL)?
I didn’t like HoN. I like LoL very much despite the graphics (which I just despise - I hate the WoW-style.) It’s faster, and feels a lot more balanced and action-oriented while allowing me to feel that every match won or lost was due to my decisions - which I missed in HoN due to the same-ish nature of the characters and the odd pacing.
I also love that there’s no Denial.
I found the exact opposite. I find HoN to be much faster and action oriented and I found the slow pace of LoL off putting. I certainly don’t find the characters in HoN to be similar in nature at all. Admittedly though, I’m not as familiar with LoL’s characters.
I also found the entire LoL experience somewhat off-putting and disjointed. Why is there essentially a front end app for the chatting and game creation and then it launches another executable for the actual game? It’s so disjointed and bizarre.
Which do you prefer: HoN or LoL?
Seems as good a thread as any to revive. I’ve been playing League of Legends a lot over the last 2 or 3 weeks. Certainly finding the game easier to get into that HoN and possibly a clearer strategy than DG gave. The graphics style I didn’t like from the videos but I do enjoy playing :) I also like the fact the map is quite self contained.
Now it has been released some things are clearer - you can play this game without ever spending a dime. Basically they have ingame cash which you earn from playing and your own cash which you pay for. That is worth more than ingame cash but with the exception of skins all other items can be bought using ingame cash. In addition whereas Battlefield Heroes was a let down for me where they went for temporary items in LoL they are all permanent. So that players really can play without paying they have 10 unlocked heroes which change each week. I reckon 10 hours of play allows you to unlock some of the cheaper heroes.
The one aspect I don’t like is US/Euro where the two are totally separate. I started with a Euro account but tbh I spend more time playing US so that is where my focus is. But those accounts are not linked in any way at all. Playing on US servers i’ve experienced very little lag.
Great game and as it’s free to play it’s just a download away :)
Yep- I am still playing this with roommates- add me to your list as ThornFalconeye: We could always use more people!
I have also been playing a lot of this lately. I’ve been playing solo queue games pretty much exclusively, but if anybody wants to add Rakatiel I’d love to get some premade games in.
I really like the item trees and character diversity in this game. I’ve been having a load of fun playing it.
I started out with character ADD, but I’ve settled down the past few days … and then soon as I say that I’m likely to drop that character and start to learn another!
~C~
At the moment i’ve stuck with the easiest characters. Annie was my favourite but Alistair is growing on me - particularly his supporting role :) But I would agree just as I am starting to get used to one I want to try another, the champions are very nicely done. Shaco being my nemesis!
I’ve been playing it again the past month or so. A lot. The DotA formula is so damn addicting. Win a game? That was fun, let’s see if I can win another. Lost one? Well, I don’t want to quit on that note. It’s a never ending cycle. ;) And of course there are always more heroes to try and item combinations.
I’m not sure at this point which game I prefer between Heroes of Newerth and League of Legends.
Back in beta I didn’t care for LoL’s lobby and profile system because it’s not integrated (and there aren’t many stats/etc compared to HoN). However, I’ve warmed to it because you can easily check up on email/forums/whatever in between games.
Getting a game going in LoL is much, much quicker than HoN. In HoN you can get kicked out of lobbies if your rating is off, or your k/d is too high or too low, etc. People dropping during countdown because of the balance. Also have the issue of orchestrated noob stomps.
The results of matchmaking in LoL can be pretty frustrating at times, though. You’ll get matches where you have player levels 30/30/23/28/30 vs levels 12/30/14/15/18. There seem to be enough players available to avoid this. Matching generally only takes 30 seconds, I’d rather it take a bit more time and pair it up better. Their goal is that you win/lose 50% of the time, but when it’s because of a large imbalance it’s just not fun for either side. I think in my latter example it generally means there is an arranged team(s) in there, but the level discrepancy is still too large. When I either win or lose by a landslide, I check the levels post game and usually it seems the losing team has players much lower level.
IP and buying runes/champions and setting masteries is an interesting meta game, and I think it adds a nice layer.
Players seem to specialize in one hero mostly, quite a bit more so than you see in HoN. I think this is in part because of the above (masteries, etc) and in part because of the blind pick mechanic. Maybe it’s not a bad thing per se, but in any case, you are definitely better off if you make yourself familiar with all the heroes so you know how to counter them effectively.
HoN is very polished - the attention to detail in the UI/etc is almost like something out of Blizzard. It’s also very stable as a service. LoL has a fair bit of downtime, HoN has almost none. HoN is a faster and more hardcore game. The community is terrible, the worst in gaming. Not that LoL’s is great, you still get the idiots that complain to the opposing team about their “noob ashe” or whatever, but they generally aren’t nearly as abusive as HoN players and there’s a lot less ragequitting.
It’ll be interesting to see how it all pans out, especially once HoN drops beta, but so far it looks like both are successes and they are both definitely worth checking out.
Nice post and I would agree. I find it very hard to end on a winning note as i’m on a roll and when i’m loosing I want to leave on a high note :). I had thought it would be difficult for an accomplished player to move between games as much because some of the key skills (deny) used in HoN can’t be done in Lol.
In terms of match making - I believe this is now better. I think if you stick to one or 2 players on your team the match making will be pretty much spot on. If you go with a premade then matchmaking doesn’t seem to occur and all bets are off. They are looking to do ranked games where 3 and more is viewed as premade and 1/2 solo and it feels like in the normal match making that is in. Certainly when I link with 5 I feel inadequate :) But when I am by myself the people appear to be of similar skill level and the levels seem about right when I look in the lobby afterwards.
I never could get to grips with HoN its a superb game but the learning curve and the player population just seemed to be a hurdle I couldn’t overcome. I had thought playing Lol would give me a better perspective but i’m not sure now :) I do like some of the nice touches in LoL. The shop seems very well thought out and how the recipes work and any item lists what recipes it makes up and you click into that recipe to see it all, just nice. I also like the fact that in death whilst its a pain in the backside at least you can hit the shop and make use of the dead time.
Speaking of Lol and by that i mean not at all speaking of LoL, does anyone happen to have a spare Heroes of Newerth beta key lying around?
I think there’s a HoN thread around here somewhere, so it’d be best to go there with your HoN related discussion.
That said, I do have a spare HoN key. PM me the e-mail address that you want the invite sent to, and I’ll set that in motion.
I already hooked him up.
Yep not playing Hon myself but if anyone fancies going into that cess pit i’m sure I can find a key :)
I pre-ordered this game back in July but I am just now getting around to playing it. It seems like more and more QT3 members are getting into the game, hopefully we will be able to start setting up gamenights and the like.
epicnemesis is my account name.