Valve had finally announced their new game, DotA 2

[Fireworks]

here's the link: http://gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2010/10/13/dota-2-announced-details.aspx

personally I'm disappointed though, I expected much more from them

so far they don't offer that much compared to the original, just

- better graphics that can just make the system reqs be higher
(original dota's graphics are good enough as is, plus the "omg pretty graphics" gets old after 2 games;
also out of the new lina/trax/bloodseeker/morph concept art hero models, only the morph one looks good)
- built-in voice chat (not a huge deal for teams to get Skype / Ventrillo, and I don't want to hear random immature kids screaming in pubs)
- community features for people who have unlimited time (well I guess it might be interesting to see how the coaching system works out)
- matchmaking system, which is possibly the only thing that might be worth getting it for

based on what they have to offer for now, I think I'll stay with the the original dota

 

[Music Dragon]

Only thing that I don't like is the AI taking over when a player ragequits/disconnects; I don't really trust AIs. Other than that - sure, why not? Apparently it's the exact same game except prettier. You seem to think of this as a bad thing; I don't. DotA is a balanced game, but that balance could easily be disrupted even by seemingly innocuous changes.

What I'm looking forward to the most is this:

The game will also feature a ton of custom voice work. You'll get amusing lines from heroes as they deny the enemy team last hits on creeps, and champions who have backstory connections will trade quips when nearby.

Awesome. DotA may have a stupid excuse plot, but it'll still make more sense than the WC3 unit quotes.

 

[Fireworks]

It's not balance changes that I want. I just can't help but feel that this could have so much more potential than just making it prettier than the first one.

Also I agree about the AI thing; I think they will have a way worked out to let people reconnect after disconnecting though, but yeah, ragequitters are a huge problem.

-switch encourages more leaving in the original dota as well, rather than actually solving the problem of leavers. I'd rather they worked out some anti-leave system, or at least have stats like in Heroes Of Newerth, so people can see how many % of your stats are disconnecting/leaving.

The only thing I dislike about the original one is probably leavers as well; perhaps the matchmaking system might work around that a bit though, since at higher levels people are less likely to leave (assuming you can work your way up high enough on the ladder without losing too many games in the process due to leavers / noob teammates).

tbh I myself care only about having interesting games without leavers and interesting features, rather than about graphics, voice acting, etc.

 

[Music Dragon]

Define "interesting games" and "interesting features".

 

[Fireworks]

well, I can count only 5 games of dota this year that I've played that I had considered "interesting": that lasted long enough for a lot of ganks and clashes to happen, that were back-and-forth to have tension and weren't one-sided rapes in every clash, and no one left; at the end of which it didn't even matter if my team lost, because everyone considered it a real "gg". (like every game becomes 3v3 in 20 mins, then hosts are like "rmk"; this even happens in High Level Rooms on garena where people are reported and banned for leaving ...)

I consider a proper matchmaking system to be an interesting feature (ok maybe "interesting" isn't the proper term to be used for this), as playing against people of your own skill level can make the games infinitely more fun than going 30-0 against noobs or feeding 0-15 against people who have even more experience than you due to playing much more.

Other features that I'd like to see would be better ways to find people/clans to play together with/in close to your timezone and at your skill level (I'd prefer in-house over clanwars either way), automated tournaments, global ladder rankings, anti-leave system, better profiles (not asking for facebook integration though, no), obsing high level games, more games modes (such as 1 hero ban per person for pubs, especially since -cm was upped to 5 bans per team) and many others that might however be more difficult to add than these ones.

And more item variety in-game (honestly Diffusal no longer upgrading to Manta nerf in 6.60 made a lot of Diffusal mid-game to Manta late-game builds useless other than like for Lancer, Spectre and Mirana, but even they were better with old Manta, and later Heart and Bloodstone nerfs made them unusable on carries or on pretty much anything for that matter, while those items weren't that imba, just icefrog dislikes regen during combat as he said).

One more thing that I dislike about long-lenght team games in general is that due to games lasting for so long, people get really nervous (since they waste like 30-40 mins only for their ally to fuck up their game at that point), and then allies rage about even the smallest mistakes of each other (and/or just simply ragequit), which just hinders teamplay, makes everyone uncomfortable and people refuse to add each other to their friends list despite being of around the same skill level and playing well, due to working themselves up so much about everything, even if their team happens to win in the end. This issue exists not only in pubs, but also in in-house and in clanwars, where it's even worse when people you know / you want to stay with rage at you. Not sure how this can be remedied, though, especially since the longer games are the more interesting ones, and speeding them up with shit like -em (lol) just makes carries imba.

 

[Music Dragon]

Fair enough; I just assumed, based on "personally I'm disappointed though, I expected much more from them", "so far they don't offer that much compared to the original" and "based on what they have to offer for now, I think I'll stay with the the original dota" that you had more specific expectations.

Personally I don't see what I could possibly lose by making the transition, so hey.

 

[King Clam]

I'm anticipating this game a great deal, despite getting into the scene with Heroes of Newerth, a DOTA-clone from S2 Games.

Nobody who was paying attention was surprised that Valve announcement was DOTA 2, but I think quite a few people were surprised that the game itself was, in fact, a direct sequel to DOTA, practically a port of the original game. The reason being is that Valve has a history of radically streamlining games, such as Team Fortress Classic to Team Fortress 2, or the Left 4 Dead series.

To give an example, in one level of Left 4 Dead, the path the survivor players must take forces them to crouch down in order to crawl through a ventilation shaft. In playtesting, Valve found that having to use their crouch key to progress confused some players, and decided to redesign that portion of the level to automatically make the survivors crouch down to pass through.

Many people expected the conversion from DOTA to DOTA 2 to be as wide-spread and as game-changing as Team Fortress Classic to Team Fortress 2. But the case could be made that such a transition isn't required for the DOTA series. TFC had many deep-running design flaws that necessitated a complete rebuild of gameplay mechanics, from class balance to the overabundance of grenades. Many DOTA fans will argue that their game does not contain such deep-seated imbalances, although certainly everyone will have their own opinions on which heroes are overpowered.

DOTA may very well be as balanced as its legion of frothing fanatics claim, but it is an inarguable point that it is difficult for new players to pick up. The game actively punishes mistakes by weakening you and strengthening your enemies, which is not a conducive environment for new players, and leads to the development of a bitter, elitist community. A hot issue is the mechanic of denying allied creeps, with one part fiercely decrying denying and citing another DOTA-clone League of Legends removal of it entirely, while the other party makes their case based on the positive effects that denying can have for the game. I personally like denying and how I can use it to gain an advantage on my opponents, but it is inarguably an obtuse skill to learn for new players.

I feel Valve may be performing an experiment of sorts with DOTA 2. The experience of being a new player in the face of over a hundred heroes, each with multiple spells and mechanics, in addition to the base mechanics of the game, and a wide slew of items, can be quite humbling. Valve seems to be trying a different route this time around, by designing systems meant to guide and educate new players. The matchmaking which will hopefully allow newbies to square off against one another, the interactive guides which will provide the helpful hand no internet page can provide, and most impressively, the coaching system, allowing veteran players to assist and guide new players in direct communication with each other.

Another issue Valve seems ready to tackle is the elitist and unhelpful community DOTA and its clones have developed. The idea of providing in-game cosmetic rewards for being a decent human being to your fellow player might be just the incentive the DOTA community needs to be less of a living cesspool.

Valve has some interesting ideas planned for DOTA 2, even if the gameplay itself is largely unmodified. I'm eager to see how it turns out. Also, a game slated to release in 2011 will certainly have reconnecting, DOTA doesn't because it's on an ancient engine. The bots are only placeholders.

(I logged in just to post this!)