Shinobi-Wars

We are taking down half the servers for a patch tomorrow at 6 AM EST. The patch should go live within 2 hours of that point and the servers should return to normal around 9-9:30 AM.

If you are ingame there should be no noticeable effect. If you are looking for a game or in the MM queue in the span of these hours then it might take longer to find an open server.

Matchmaking will most likely be taken down for ~10 minutes while the actual patching process is taking place. You will have to patch to queue for it once it comes back up.

S2 Staff Member

Version 2.2.1.2
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- Fixed the game crashing when you hit the Disconnect button

Version 2.2.1.1
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- Fixed Replays

Version 2.2.1
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- Fixed the Forsaken Archer bugs

Version 2.2.0
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- The current Free Heroes have changed. The current available list is:
* Magebane
* Dark Lady
* Moon Queen
* Night Hound
* Wildsoul
* Dampeer
* Armadon
* Electrician
* Geomancer
* Parasite
* Gauntlet
* Slither
* Demented Shaman
* Vindicator
* Glacius

- Fixed problems caused by using child interfaces in overlays
- Fixed two different server crashes
- Fixed consecutive bonuses not falling off
- Post-Game Chat Channels will no longer display the option to add the channel to the auto-join channel list
- News has new countdown timer system
- Fixed a bug where some of the midbar icons would be grayed out after playing a Matchmaking game

- You can no longer bottle or touch a rune that's been deleted
* This fixes double bottling a rune if you get it on the same frame as someone else
- Hellbourne ranged creep sounds updated
- Possibly fixed rune pickups not being announced occasionally
- Shop item cooldowns are now only updated once per second
- Don't send game data to players that haven't loaded the world yet. This fixes crashes when reconnecting
- You can no longer call kick votes on yourself
- Kick votes on an AFK player will now be AFK kick votes
- Fix crash when checking item ownership if an item had no owner
- Fixed logic used to determine killer of a hero when a non-hero gets the last hit

- New last hit detection method
* Damage done in one frame is now applied in a random order. The damage that ends up killing the unit is now credited for the kill

- Old last hit detection method:
* Damage is done at once. If the unit died, use a weighted random system to determine which damage source gets credit for the kill

Two scenarios for this:
- 50 HP creep takes 20 damage from player A and 60 damage from player B
* Old method: Player A has 25% chance of getting the kill, player B has 75% chance
* New method: Player B always gets the kill

- 50 HP creep takes 60 damage from player A and 440 damage from player B
* Old method: Player A has 12% chance of getting the kill, player B has 88% chance of getting the kill
* New method: Both players have a 50% chance of getting the kill

Kongor
- Kongor instantly kills Illusions he attacks
- Kongor now stops getting stronger at the 1 hour mark, increased from 45 minutes
* This means Kongor at the 60 minute mark has 120 charges of his growth buff, up from the old cap of 90 at 45 minutes
- Kongor Armor from the growth buff doubled from .05 to .1 Armor per charge
- Scaling damage for the stomp does twice as much damage to non-Heroes & the stomp damage increases by 1 damage per charge of his growth buff
* Starting damage of the stomp is 70 Magic Damage against Heroes
- Kongor can no longer have his Armor reduced by any ability or item
* Abilities like Pestilence's Swarm still can be cast on him and give vision, but do not reduce his Armor


== Items ==

Observatory
- Health Potions can now be bought here
- Mana Potions can now be bought here

:FrostwolfsSkull: Frostwolf's Skull
- Ranged Heroes now apply a 20% Movespeed Slow
* Melee Heroes still apply a 30% Movespeed Slow
- Stats changed from 25 Strength, 25 Agility, 25 Intelligence to 30 Strength, 15 Agility, 15 Intelligence

:TabletOfCommand: Tablet of Command
- Manacost increased from 25 to 50
- Cooldown increased from 16 to 20 seconds

:SolsBulwark: Sol's Bulwark
- Recipe cost increased from 700 to 900

:DaemonicBreastplate Daemonic Breastplate
- Recipe cost decreased from 1100 to 900

:RunedAxe: Runed Cleaver
- Damage increased from 55 to 60
- Cooldown to kill a tree lowered from 15 to 5 seconds


== Heroes ==

- Added a new Alt Avatar: Magus Bane

All Melee Heroes
- Base health regeneration increased from 0.25 to 1.25 health per second

:arac: Arachna
- Harden Carapace duration changed from 3 to 2/3/4/5 seconds

:arma: Armadon
- Spine Burst bonus Physical Damage per stack lowered from 30 to 25
- Restless passively increases the bonus Physical Damage of Spine Burst by 5 per level
- Back angles and Side angles increased by 5% each (so 20% more area covered)

:behe: Behemoth
- Fissure duration changed from 8 to 5/6/7/8 seconds
- Enrage cooldown lowered from 7 to 7/6/5/4 seconds

:chro: Chronos
- Time Leap manacost lowered from 135 to 120
- Chronofield now gives vision and reveals in and around the area

Cthulhuphant
- Mortifying Presence can now be toggled
- Fixed his Trample projectile so it gets killed properly if he isn't bound to it

:devo: Devourer
- Cadaver Armor Strength gain radius increased from 400 to 1150 units

:fayd: Fayde
- Reflection's Clearvision radius changed from 1200 to 800/1000/1200
- Burning Shadows stun duration from 1/1.5/2/2.5 to 1.6/1.9/2.2/2.5 seconds

:flin: Flint
- Flare Movespeed slow from 14/20/26/32% to 14/18/22/26%

:fors: Forsaken Archer
- Piercing Arrows now leaves behind an Illusion that channels for you
* Can still be interrupted by stunning the illusion
- Piercing Arrows Magic Damage per arrow reduced from 75/150/225 to 75/125/175

:geom: Geomancer
- Crystal Field Magic Damage from 250/350/450 to 300/450/600

:hamm: Hammerstorm
- Mighty Swing area from 175 to 175/200/225/250
- Mighty Swing splash from 12.5/25/37.5/50% to 15/30/45/60%

:hell: Hellbringer
- Death Boil*s first tick now starts at 5 damage instead of 10
* Final Magic Damage lowered from 150/210/280/360 to 125/180/245/320

:krak: Kraken
- Starting Armor reduced from 3.1 to 2.1
- Splash Physical Damage reduced from 30/50/70/90 to 20/40/60/80 on both inner and outer radius

:nigh: Night Hound
- Base Intelligence increased from 14 to 16

:noma: Nomad
- Fixed Mirage Strike not playing the sound for the enemy

:plag: Plague Rider
- Movespeed reduced from 320 to 315
- Cursed shield Armor lowered from 3/6/9/12 to 2/4/6/8
- Cursed Shield no longer applies a Movespeed Slow, just Attackspeed
- Cursed Shield now applies to all attacks, not just Melee

:poll: Pollywog
- Electric Jolt manacost changed from 95/105/135/160 to 100/120/140/160

:reve: Revenant
- When the duration ends on Defile it will now remove 1 charge instead of expiring
* Attacking removes the charge that has the least time left

:rhap: Rhapsody
- Effects for the Dance Floor now only play on Heroes
- Dance Floor now does half damage/heal to creeps

:sand: Sand Wraith
- Mirage duration from 5/6/7 to 4/4.5/5 seconds
- Mirage cooldown from 120 to 120/100/80 seconds
- Desert's Curse manacost from 130/140/150/160 to 120
- Desert's Curse Movespeed Slow/Speed from 5/9/14/18% to 8/12/16/20%

:scou: Scout
- Base Damage adjusted from 45-59 to 50-54
- Vanish cooldown from 24/18/12/6 to 15/12/9/6
- Electric Eyes no longer give experience to enemies who kill them
* They still give gold
- The Detonate ability on Electric Eyes moved from Q to E

:silh: Silhouette
- Can no longer grapple to a tree or swap to illusion while immobilized
- Relentless Salvo cooldown from 9/7/5/3 to 10/8/6/4 seconds
- Shadow cooldown changed from 120/105/90 to 120/110/100 seconds

:succ: Succubus
- Succubus' Hold now reveals and gives clearvision around the target (300 AoE) with 1 second linger after the channel ends

:swif: Swiftblade
- Finally allowed Swiftblade to use Portal Key while Swift Slashing!

:temp: Tempest
- Elemental manacost from 170 to 180
- Glacial Blasts manacost from 110/130/150/160 to 100/120/140/160

:tort: Torturer
- Chain Reaction AoE from 225 to 150/175/200/225

:trem: Tremble
- Terror Mounds no longer lose the bonus to Health Regen and Movespeed when an enemy Hero is inside one
* They still disable the invisibility when an enemy Hero is inside

:warb: Warbeast
- Warbeast now copies his existing Howl buff to the Wolves when they are summoned

:wild: Wild Soul
- Booboo can no longer use Return if he has taken damage from an enemy Hero in the last 3 seconds


== Bugfixes ==


- Fixed entity typos in the following abilities. There should be no functional change other than tooltip or minor effects that were not showing up:
* Devourer's strength growth from kills
* Balphagore's Demonic Pathogen
* Balphagore's Regurgitate
* Fayde's Burning Shadows
* Revenant's Mortification
* Pebbles' Chuck
* Silhouette's Shadow
* Aluna's Emerald Red
* Bombardier's Boom Dust
* Maliken's Hellbourne Zeal
* Puppet Master's Whiplash
* Tundra Coeurl's Slow
* Kongor's growth
* Antlore Healer's Heal
* Transmutanstein and Zorgath's growth

:arma: Armadon
- Added charges as a visual indicator for how close Armordillo will be to proccing a Spine Burst
* The charges are representing a percentage, from 0 to 100

:balp: Balphagore
- Fixed his minions being deniable at 50% HP like other minions

:chip: Chipper
- Offset the Rocket Barrage projectile so it won't hit units behind him

:empa: Empath
- Fixed Illusory Veil not aggroing creeps properly

:gaun: Gauntlet
- Fixed Grapple exploit that was hilarious and teleported both Gauntlet and the hooked target back to the well

:mast: Master of Arms
- Swapped the blue/red weapon switch gun sounds so it makes more sense

:monk: Monkey King
- Fixed a small displacement issue where Vault displaced him even when invulnerable

:noma: Nomad
- Fixed an issue where Nomad was attacking at a closer range than 128 with his True Strike ability
- Fixed his ZING! sound so it plays if he uses True Strike at point-blank range
- Added buildingwalking to him when invisible so that Nomad & his illusion won't get stuck on buildings

:para: Parasite
- Fixed Parasite Leech giving him Movespeed even when it's disjointed
* If it is disjointed now, Parasite will not get any buff
- Made the Infest ability on the creep castable even when the creep is stunned or silenced
- Made Infest order disjoint the infested target when it lands
* This ensures that allies who are attacking a creep you infest will not continue to attack it

The intent of this post is to explain a bit about a new feature we will be turning on soon called Temporary Matchmaking Bans (TMB). The hope is that it will curb some of the abusive behavior we have observed in matchmaking, and ultimately decrease the percentage of matchmaking games that fail to start.

The vast majority of matchmaking games that are aborted are caused by one of following three scenarios:
1) Players are unable to connect to the game server once the match is announced. This is mainly due to a player’s computer never actually getting the connection message from the matchmaking server (normally caused by network/router/ISP restrictions).
2) Players are able to connect to the game server but take too long to load. This one is pretty straightforward - the player’s computer takes too long to load all the map data for the match. Sometimes this is due to a player having other memory/hard drive/CPU intensive programs running while in HoN or being Alt+Tabbed when their client receives the connect message.
3) A player leaves the match before all players have finished loading.

While each of the above three scenarios may happen to a player occasionally, none of the above should be happening to any player constantly. As a result of this, a while back we put in place an update that has been tracking every time a match aborts the reason it was aborted and which players were causing it to happen most often. After analyzing the data, we found that a large % of the problems are coming from a very small percentage of the players. With this in mind we have decided to move forward with TMB for the greater good of all players.

Once TMB is turned on what this means to the average player is simply that they can continue to use the matchmaking system and expect to see less aborted games. Occasionally with any kind of banning system there will be times when players will be banned, and feel they should not have been banned, or that it was not their fault or that was unfair. Taking this sentiment into account, every player will be given a 'buffer' of time before the bans ever take place. A player must cause a certain # of matches to fail within a certain time frame in order for the system to kick in. As long as they don't go over that threshold TMB shouldn't have any affect on them. We understand that it may be a bit frustrating, but keep in mind this system is for the good of all players, and the temporary ban shouldn't last for more than 5-10 minutes.

On a final note, for those players who are intentionally causing matches to abort permanent disciplinary action may be taken against your account, including being banned permanently from matchmaking or having your account suspended. Again, we expect the majority of players to never even see the message indicating that they have been banned from matchmaking but we just want to shed a little light on an upcoming change that should improve the game play experience for the majority our players. We plan to turn this feature on within the next few days and will update this thread once we do.


Update: TMB will be turned on around 10:45AM EST today (10/03/2011). We will continue to monitor the feedback in this thread and on the forums as we keep an eye on the effectiveness of the implementation.