IceFrog

The first version of Varlock's reconnection tool is almost ready for release. We've been testing it in real DotA games for the past few weeks and it has worked very well. We've had many players disconnect only to reconnect moments later, saving otherwise lost games.

The code for this tool (both client and server) will be open source so that anyone can build upon it and integrate it into their platforms and communities.

Hey guys, I just want to share some small information about the upcoming patch. It is too early for me to give a complete list of features or changes to expect, so I'll just be sharing a couple of small features as a sneak peak.

First, I've implemented a zoom mode for observers to allow spectators and shout casters to see a larger part of the battlefield rather than the current view.

The second is a Capture Point action style game mode. It is designed to be a short fun mode with lots of movement and action, as a break from the usual stuff. There will be many capture points (6+) spread around the map that, when captured, will provide various auras (Damage, Armor, Gold, Regen, Movement Speed, etc) for your team depending on which one is captured. The Capture Points all spawn after the first 10 minutes of the game. You gain control of a CP by standing on it for a certain amount of time (the more allies the faster). Capture Points can always be reclaimed by the enemy team after it is taken or it can also be interrupt during the capturing process itself. Keep in mind that all the mechanics and numbers are not final yet.

These are just two misc things in 6.67 that I wanted to share with you guys. There will of course be more work done on improving the current content with balancing and misc features. If there is something specific you want to see, don't hesitate to let me know.


Update: I got some confused responses. The above is a game mode only, an optional function like -dm.

I'm gonna do my 4th Q&A session in the near future. Respond to this post with the questions you'd like to see answered.

I've just uploaded a new bug fix patch. Download it here.

The Chinese changelog is also available.

The map is available in English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Spanish, German, Czech, Hungarian, Korean, Russian, French and Brazilian Portuguese

More map updates to come. Don't hesitate to give me your feedback.

Varlock, the developer of the popular Ghost hosting bot, has done a successful concept test on this functionality and will work on implementing it for public use in the future. The technology is portable for Garena (or anything else in theory, if someone wants to port it) as well.

He wanted me to try to help him gauge interest level for his project. It would basically require the host to be using the tool on bnet, garena or any other hosting platform the feature is ported to. Any player that wants to be able to reconnect would have the custom reconnect tool running, but players who are not using the tool could still play in the same games.

The exact time and schedule for its release is not defined yet. The main reason for this post is to help get him feedback so he can decide how much interest people have in it and consider his schedule accordingly. If you have any thoughts you want to share with him, you can respond here and I'll relay them to him or you can email him directly at hogantp@gmail.com

Thanks to Varlock for his continued efforts in the DotA hosting scene.