HoN Revival documentation
The goal of HoN Revival is to keep HoN playable after the official servers shut down in June 2022.
How to play after the servers shut down?
Installation
A custom installer is being built as part of the HoN-Revival project.
You can find information about it on GitHub at HoN Installer.
Server Setup
Background
Thanks to those that have come before us and the GitHub user honserver, there is now a way to host your own HoN games.
A fork of that repo can also be found in the HoN-Revival GitHub. However the goal is to just treat this as a mirror rather than a divergent fork.
Setup
At this time, the only known way to host a game server involves using modified .dll files that were patched to allow for hosting a game that other people are eligible to join.
NOTE: You can still use the same HoN client with the modified .dll files as your main client to connect to the server. But if you want to keep your primary install unmodified, then re-install HoN to a separate directory and and use that one as the ‘server’ directory and place the modified DLLs there. However for the sake of simplicity, I will use a typical C: drive install path in the examples below.
NOTE: The server uses UDP port 11235 by default. This port may need to be unblocked or port-forwarded to allow for external traffic. (At this time it is not clear how to change that.)
To run the server, simply use a terminal (or PowerShell) to pass the the -dedicated flag to your modified HoN directory’s .exe.
It is also recommended to run the process as ‘high priority’ to minimize skipped frames. On Windows, you can run this command as:
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c start /high "C:\Program Files\Heroes of Newerth x64\hon_x64.exe" -dedicated
Known Issues
Due to the hacky nature of this server hosting process, it is recommended to restart the server between games.
Known Issues:
- No disconnect timeout
- Reconnecting is very unreliable
How to connect to the server?
If you have someone to host a game already, then you can just use the vanilla install.
We will eventually use HoN Mods to make connecting to servers easier, but for now it’s primarily done with in-game commands.
To connect to a game, open the HoN command window by pressing ctrl + F8.
Then type connect <IP> where <IP> is the IP address of the hosted game server.
To start (i.e. host) the game lobby, issue one of the startgame commands. (NOTE: this only needs to be done by the first person hosting the lobby on that game server)
For example:
startgame local_automatic game_name map:caldavar
Then press ctrl + F8 again to close the command window. You should now be in the game lobby.
For other players that want to connect, they simply just need to use the connect <IP> command and they will automatically enter the lobby.
Connecting a client to custom servers
Master Server
The HoN master server can be specified as a argument to the HoN executable: -masterserver <ip>:<port>.
In resource files, this is referred to by !masterserver.
Web Server
The HoN web server (endpoints typically on heroesofnewerth.com) can be specified as an argument to the HoN executable: -webserver <ip>:<port>.
In resource files, this is referred to by !hon.
Messaging Server
The HoN messaging server (for system messages, such as gifted items from the store and holiday awards) can be specified to the HoN executable: -messageserver <ip>:<port>.