Dota 2 reborn pentagon memorial

Dota 2 is REBORN – Valve goes all out with sick new UI and engine

The DOTA 2 Reborn update was just announced, bringing with it big changes for Menus, Parties, Voice Chat, Cosmetic Screens, and Profiles, amongst many other great quality of life changes on the front end. While we don’t know the release date, we can hope Valve delivers it Soon (TM).

What strikes you immediately about the blog post is how sleek it is: this seems to be the look Valve is going for with this project, which they’ve named DOTA 2 Reborn. While it’ll launch in a Beta state, the elegant package includes a lot of features that people have been begging Valve to bundle together.

The two main features that Valve highlighted are the new ‘Play Dota’ button and the new Lobby system.

The ‘Play Dota’ button gives users a convenient way to search for a match no matter what part of the menu they’re browsing. It retains all the current matchmaking options to date.

The re-worked Lobby system allows players to share their lobbies, browse for open lobbies by game mode, and find games with friends in them.

Valve’s having a party, you’re all invited!

The second major focus in this update changes how players can party up with their friends. You’re now able to alert friends that you’re looking for a party and merge two pre-existing parties into one, streamlining the experience of queueing with groups. Once you’re all together, you’re treated to the new Party Voice Chat feature, cutting out the need to fumble with Teamspeak or Skype during games.

While you’re partied with your mates, you can check out every last detail of their play with new in-game stats. There’s even a new feature Valve calls ‘Hero MMR’, which tracks performance by hero in relation to a player’s overall MMR. Now you can check when your friend says “Trust me guys. My MMR is 2K, but I play Invoker like a 5k.”

Valve also gifted us with a neat little stats-pentagon. Reminiscent of the player hexagons from footballing-classic Pro Evo 6, we can see a player’s playstyle broken into 5 elements: Versatility, Farming, Supporting, Pushing and Farming. E-Penises can now be compared, as players can track a range of traditional stats like Average GPM, as well as more random ones like ‘Aegises Snatched’ and ‘Camps Stacked’.

Rounding out this section of additions are Mini-Profiles. These are viewable when you mouse over a friend’s name, showing their wins, date of first game played, and a couple of their best heroes, as well as an activity feed for their accomplishments.

Lots of chitter-chatter

With this update, Valve responds to community outcries for larger group support but continues to ignore very reasonable pleas to improve the non-functional Guild System, which remains untouched so far.

What they will change, however, is how chat rooms function. The size of one room has been increased to 5,000 members, and it’s now much easier to chat with Steam friends and Chat Channels at the same time with all chats integrated into the client.

What does a hero-picker truly need?

Following suit with the incredibly sleek look, the Hero Browsing screen will be revamped so that the existing filters applicable to heroes based on roles and other characteristics are much easier to navigate.

A ‘Hero Demo’ mode will also be added here, which gives players a chance to try out a hero’s last hitting animation as well as their spells. Of course, it wouldn’t be complete without Valve making it easier for us to buy some good old hats, which we can now preview and purchase right from the Loadout screen.

Eyes on the Prize

People have complained time and time again about the many limitations of DotaTV. Everyone from Casters to Viewers to Players have had their qualms with the system. Valve has decided to make use of their fairly new Steam Broadcasting system for the updated viewing experience. This is what that means for you as a viewer:

• Full 1080p Streaming @60FPS
• Graphs and Stats available in-client
• Third Party Stream available in-client
• Pause and Rewind Games as you so choose

This includes improvements to watching High-MMR pub games live, the ability to bookmark games to view later, and share any sort of replay. Valve also gave themselves another platform to promote tournaments by ‘Featuring’ a tournament in the client. It seems likely this will be heavily used in conjunction with the upcoming ‘Majors’.

Everyone has to start somewhere

With the incredibly fast expansion of Dota in recent years, it seems odd that Valve left the in-game tutorials as barren as they are. But the droves of new players will be lent a helping hand with this update.

Gu >’new players understand why Dota is awesome’, something Valve said in their blog post that was lacking in the past. Simple Mechanics Tutorials are also an addition, helping to explain the game’s very basics.

Coming Soon.

Valve announced that next week’s blog post will explain the new addition of Custom Games. While this feature has been around for some time, it has never been accessible or user-friendly to the general public.

Dota 2 is REBORN – Valve goes all out with sick new UI and engine

The DOTA 2 Reborn update was just announced, bringing with it big changes for Menus, Parties, Voice Chat, Cosmetic Screens, and Profiles, amongst many other great quality of life changes on the front end. While we don’t know the release date, we can hope Valve delivers it Soon (TM).

What strikes you immediately about the blog post is how sleek it is: this seems to be the look Valve is going for with this project, which they’ve named DOTA 2 Reborn. While it’ll launch in a Beta state, the elegant package includes a lot of features that people have been begging Valve to bundle together.

The two main features that Valve highlighted are the new ‘Play Dota’ button and the new Lobby system.

The ‘Play Dota’ button gives users a convenient way to search for a match no matter what part of the menu they’re browsing. It retains all the current matchmaking options to date.

The re-worked Lobby system allows players to share their lobbies, browse for open lobbies by game mode, and find games with friends in them.

Valve’s having a party, you’re all invited!

The second major focus in this update changes how players can party up with their friends. You’re now able to alert friends that you’re looking for a party and merge two pre-existing parties into one, streamlining the experience of queueing with groups. Once you’re all together, you’re treated to the new Party Voice Chat feature, cutting out the need to fumble with Teamspeak or Skype during games.

While you’re partied with your mates, you can check out every last detail of their play with new in-game stats. There’s even a new feature Valve calls ‘Hero MMR’, which tracks performance by hero in relation to a player’s overall MMR. Now you can check when your friend says “Trust me guys. My MMR is 2K, but I play Invoker like a 5k.”

Valve also gifted us with a neat little stats-pentagon. Reminiscent of the player hexagons from footballing-classic Pro Evo 6, we can see a player’s playstyle broken into 5 elements: Versatility, Farming, Supporting, Pushing and Farming. E-Penises can now be compared, as players can track a range of traditional stats like Average GPM, as well as more random ones like ‘Aegises Snatched’ and ‘Camps Stacked’.

Rounding out this section of additions are Mini-Profiles. These are viewable when you mouse over a friend’s name, showing their wins, date of first game played, and a couple of their best heroes, as well as an activity feed for their accomplishments.

Lots of chitter-chatter

With this update, Valve responds to community outcries for larger group support but continues to ignore very reasonable pleas to improve the non-functional Guild System, which remains untouched so far.

What they will change, however, is how chat rooms function. The size of one room has been increased to 5,000 members, and it’s now much easier to chat with Steam friends and Chat Channels at the same time with all chats integrated into the client.

What does a hero-picker truly need?

Following suit with the incredibly sleek look, the Hero Browsing screen will be revamped so that the existing filters applicable to heroes based on roles and other characteristics are much easier to navigate.

A ‘Hero Demo’ mode will also be added here, which gives players a chance to try out a hero’s last hitting animation as well as their spells. Of course, it wouldn’t be complete without Valve making it easier for us to buy some good old hats, which we can now preview and purchase right from the Loadout screen.

Eyes on the Prize

People have complained time and time again about the many limitations of DotaTV. Everyone from Casters to Viewers to Players have had their qualms with the system. Valve has decided to make use of their fairly new Steam Broadcasting system for the updated viewing experience. This is what that means for you as a viewer:

• Full 1080p Streaming @60FPS
• Graphs and Stats available in-client
• Third Party Stream available in-client
• Pause and Rewind Games as you so choose

This includes improvements to watching High-MMR pub games live, the ability to bookmark games to view later, and share any sort of replay. Valve also gave themselves another platform to promote tournaments by ‘Featuring’ a tournament in the client. It seems likely this will be heavily used in conjunction with the upcoming ‘Majors’.

Everyone has to start somewhere

With the incredibly fast expansion of Dota in recent years, it seems odd that Valve left the in-game tutorials as barren as they are. But the droves of new players will be lent a helping hand with this update.

Gu >’new players understand why Dota is awesome’, something Valve said in their blog post that was lacking in the past. Simple Mechanics Tutorials are also an addition, helping to explain the game’s very basics.

Coming Soon.

Valve announced that next week’s blog post will explain the new addition of Custom Games. While this feature has been around for some time, it has never been accessible or user-friendly to the general public.