Valve announces Dota 2 for PC and Mac, coming in 2011

[Emil]

Valve has finally taken the wraps off its much-anticipated sequel to the popular WarCraft 3 mod, Defense of the Ancients (DotA). Simply titled Dota 2, the standalone game is headed to the PC and Mac in 2011. Valve is promising to "take the unique blend of online RTS and RPG action that has made Dota popular with tens of millions of gamers and expand upon it in every way." GameInformer has more details on the game, including some very nice promotional art.

Valve has hired Icefrog, the gamer who currently maintains Allstars, easily the most popular original Dota mod. We can thus expect the core game mechanics to remain somewhat similar. The full roster of heroes from Allstars will be brought over, along with items, upgrade paths, and skills. The migration to the Source engine will however bring a few changes, including some graphical upgrades and added voice chat. The Dota 2 team is also reworking the visual style to accent important information, and more voice character lines will be introduced. Valve wants to keep the focus on multiplayer, but bots will fill in for disconnected players and for skirmishes.

Valve plans to add match-making, guides created and voted on by the community, and a new coaching system to help ease in new players. Veteran players will be able to log in and offer guidance to new players, and receive feedback for their good work.

I'm a huge fan of DotA so I'm particularly excited about this release. I just hope Valve won't butcher this great series. What are your thoughts and hopes for Dota 2?

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/40670-valve-announces-dota-2-for-pc-and-mac-coming-in-2011.html

 

[TomSEA]

Warcraft III? That game is 8 years old - and this is a mod for it now? Are they going to be using the same engine?

 

[captainawesome]

also wondering about the Engine and if they're revamping the graphics etc.

btw Emil, i reckon you doing a great job. Dig your reporting style.

 

[Emil]

TomSEA said:
Warcraft III? That game is 8 years old - and this is a mod for it now? Are they going to be using the same engine?

No. The mod has been around since Starcraft actually. It just got really popular on Warcraft III.

captainawesome said:
also wondering about the Engine and if they're revamping the graphics etc.

btw Emil, i reckon you doing a great job. Dig your reporting style.

Yes they said graphics will be improved, and thanks!

 

[myrmidonks]

Finally. DotA has needed another platform for some time now. WC3 Map Editor is just too constricting when it comes to the huge amount of programming needed for DotA. Thank you Valve!

 

[Emil]

myrmidonks said:
Finally. DotA has needed another platform for some time now. WC3 Map Editor is just too constricting when it comes to the huge amount of programming needed for DotA. Thank you Valve!

Well, there's Starcraft II...

 

[Guest]

According to the exclusive GameInformer release (they actually got to play it), DotA 2 will use the Source engine (which will see global lighting and improved cloth mechanics improvements).

There are also some nice pictures of Bloodseeker, Lina, and Drow (who looks nothing like the Dark Ranger in WC3).

 

[Guest]

This has already been done on a game called league of legends, which is free although you can pay for elements of it if you choose to. I doubt the graphics on that will measure up to Valves' plans though.

 

[Emil]

Guest said:
This has already been done on a game called league of legends, which is free although you can pay for elements of it if you choose to. I doubt the graphics on that will measure up to Valves' plans though.

League of Legends, as well as Heroes of Newerth.

 

[agissi]

Too bad its not on the Starcraft II engine. I wonder if the Source engine will look better.

 

[cyrusjumpjet]

But I just got hooked on League of Legends!

Hmm....

 

[St1ckM4n]

Oh yeah, what we need is 3 different new-DotA's..

 

[Kibaruk]

I've played DotA, HoN, and LoL. Leagues of legends is certainly the best of the 3, the matchmaking systems and the integration of runes and talents make it awesome to be able to play same champs over totally different strategies, with new content (Champions and new items to fit gameplays) comming in keeps it fresh. Also the part of investing money does not give an edge to a player, since all you can buy are champs, skins, or bonuses of exp and ips after wins does not unbalance the gameplay for people who dont want to invest in it...

No I'm not part of riot team, I just love the game xD

 

[Guest]

In the mean time i reccomend giving Heroes of Newerth a try, it works on all 3 major platforms (linux mac PC) and kicks major ***! However im a true icefrog fan and will me converting to Dota2 when it comes out.

 

[Relic]

Been hearing this for some time and still find it strange that Valve of all developers is attempting this /shurg. In any case Demigod is also a battle area game based off Dota which isn't too bad. Curious to see how well this will do among the alternatives already out there.

 

[AdrianYi]

The game will be developed under the Source engine so no worries on the graphic quality part. And also having a bot replace leavers would be an interesting feature, as long as the bots prove to be at least 50% skilled than a regular player. Until then, I'll prefer League of Legends.

 

[Guest]

This is great news to the Dota genre. Hope Dota 2 will have a Linux port as well.