DotA Forums - Blogs - IceFrog

Update on Reconnection Tool

IceFrog — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 04:39:56 GMT

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.

Small Update

IceFrog — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:59:48 GMT

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.

Next Q&A

IceFrog — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:44:13 GMT

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.

Bug fix patch

IceFrog — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:49:24 GMT

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.

Reconnecting to Dropped Games

IceFrog — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:26:16 GMT

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.

6.66 Released

IceFrog — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:22:42 GMT

The changelog is available at DotA Changelogs - 6.66

For the Chinese changelog, go here

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

Have fun

Happy New Year

IceFrog — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 08:05:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone that has spent their time and energy into growing and supporting our DotA community; it wouldn't be possible without you guys.

2010 will be a great year for DotA. You can expect lots of updates as well as exciting developments that will pave the way for a more improved game overall.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Mac Users Fix Online

IceFrog — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 01:56:01 GMT

If you have a Mac and were having problems earlier today, download the map again and you should be ok. PC users do not need to download the map again.

6.65 Release - Merry Christmas

IceFrog — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:36:29 GMT

The changelog is available at DotA Changelogs - 6.65

The maps are still being distributed to the mirrors, it will be available on getdota.com as soon as that is done.

Chinese changelog is available here

For those that missed it, there was a chance to some preview images on getdota.com last night and this morning.
Teaser 1
Teaser 2

Merry Christmas

Congrats to FTD (sGty)

IceFrog — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 10:33:57 GMT

Congratulations to FTD and all the chinese DotA fans for their SMM 2009 Grand Finals victory !

Nightcrawler

IceFrog — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:53:14 GMT

Click for HD Version

6.65 Development

IceFrog — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:29:55 GMT

Just a quick update to keep you guys in the loop. The 6.65 development cycle is underway and I'm hoping to make it an enjoyable update. It will have some fresh new content in addition to the usual improvements. I'll try to post more information about it later.

New Map Release

IceFrog — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:14:54 GMT

I am in the process of releasing 6.64 right now. It should be online within the hour.

Changelog here

Great News For DotA Fans

IceFrog — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:31:49 GMT

I have some really awesome news I'd like to share with you guys. I am now leading a team at Valve! I finally have all the resources needed to do some very exciting stuff that you guys will love. I look forward to revealing more specific details when the time is right.

My goal and top priority in the future is to solve the surrounding issues that affect the DotA experience in order to allow it to reach new heights. Addressing these issues will enable us to further enjoy aspects of DotA such as the gameplay, mechanics, and in-game feel that currently work well and ought to be maintained. As I've said many times in the past and especially after today's developments, I am very excited about DotA's future!

With regards to the 6.64 patch, the focus will be primarily on more balance improvements. It is moving along very smoothly and I expect to have it ready soon. Once those refinements are done, I'll be working on some fun new content such as heroes or remakes for the 6.65 version. If there are specific things, big or small, you want me to consider for patches that follow, let me know.

Q&A Session #3

IceFrog — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:30:53 GMT

Q: How much longer do you realistically look at DotA as something that you want to put your time into and update? (from Murazor)

A: I honestly can't see myself stopping anytime soon; It is the only game I really play so I get a lot of satisfaction out of working on it. I think there are a lot of areas to further improve and build upon. I hope for the game to reach new heights competitively and have a much bigger audience overall. I tend to go out of my way to make sure I don't put myself in situations where I can no longer develop with the freedom and quality needed to take it to that level.

Q: How do you decide what to change? Are you trying to make the game faster or more gank oriented? (from sgamer.com)

A: I don't think of things that way exactly. While that is usually true, it is not accurate to consider it as the root philosophy that drives everything. DotA's primary strength is in its depth and the moment to moment decisions it places in front of the player to make. There are also many non-obvious pitfalls that could seem like good ideas, but actually hurt the game's true depth. My primary goal is focused on improving the quality and depth of the game and not other superficial metrics of success. I want players to always feel there is a lot to improve upon and to encourage situations where a player is rewarded when he is able to make better decisions than his opponent, which is something I think even non-competitive players value. That is the core of what a competitive game should be after all, creating more opportunity for good decision making. There are, of course, many other factors that are considered for all changes, but this is usually the first priority.

Q: What do you think of Starcraft 2 Editor? (from tobby)

A: It looks great, I'm sure there will be lots of interesting games developed for it. By allowing more direct control over the camera and cursor, as well as the other features described, it will spawn new genres, like Warcraft 3 did before it.

Q: Have you decided if you are moving DotA to Starcraft 2 yet? (from Vodotz)

A: I've been actively exploring several options for some time now. Starcraft 2 might not necessarily have what DotA needs to become a better game. Moving to any new engine presents various challenges that need to be considered:

- Will we be able to reproduce the subtle, but very important, unit spell, attack and movement mechanics properly?
- Will the art style fit DotA? Will there be enough unique and identifiable character models for heroes to use?
- Will it encourage team sponsors or help improve the DotA competitive scene?
- Will it provide features that improve DotA, such as: accessibility, networking capabilities, visual readability, spectator features, interface design, etc.

These are the general issues I've been considering when thinking about what the right thing is for DotA's future.

Q: Why did you remove the combat regeneration from Heart of Tarrasque? (from Florian)

A: It was a very specific choice to completely remove combat regeneration from it rather than just reduce it. While it was a nerf, that wasn't the primary goal. The problem with trying to measure the value of regeneration on Heart is that it makes your success in a fight depend at least partially on how long the fight lasts. The core issue is more about what it promotes rather than it allowing you to survive. It encourages the wrong things and doesn't reward players who make better moment to moment decisions as much as it could. It removes some depth from the game and makes it a little less interesting over all. If the item needs a certain amount of tanking power, it is much more direct to add more hit point bonus to the item instead of doing it via a method that obscures the ability to measure the balance of the item.

This is more about the design philosophy the item should have, rather than its actual numbers or power, since I consider those as solvable problems if you have the right design to start with. In general, I prefer to lean towards creating a situation of long term solvability to issues. Some things might be knowingly imperfect but done in a manner that increases measurability to allow it to settle in a better place in the long run.

Q: How can I help improve the game itself? Are you going to add my suggestion if I send it? (from JoseC)

A: The best way is to give feedback; I always appreciate getting suggestions from players. While it isn't practical to expect a specific idea to be used (because of the large number of people with different perspectives), it doesn't mean that they don't get factored in. For me, it isn't always about the specific suggestions as much as what the player is thinking about and how they measure value. Most changes are usually a compilation of many different sets of data and requests over time. I tend to avoid listening to only one type of player. By "type of player" I do not mean competitive or casual at all, I mean the segment of player groups that use different mediums to express their views. There is a very large portion of users that would go unaccounted for if that was the case. Data comes from a variety of different sources, such as: emails, forums posts, replays, joining games with players from different cultures, direct dialog, etc. There are a lot of different types of players and they tend to value things very differently, so it is important for the concept of success or failure not be tunnel visioned to only one medium of opinions.

Q: What will happen with the -switch command? (from n!ght)

A: To be honest, I'm not sure yet. It is a tricky issue. On one hand, I want to remove it because in many cases, it causes more problems than it solves, and it creates an uncomfortable situation for players. On the other hand, a lot players find it very useful, and people have just slowly started to get a better understanding of when to use it and not to. I might implement something that freezes the leaver items and gold until the team decides if they want utilize -switch or take the resources, but of course that is only one aspect of the command. While it is an optional game mode now, I do recognize that it will eventually need to be addressed somehow.

Q: Why you are making new heroes with hard and interesting skills when there are many old heroes with trivial stuns and auras? (from prodota.ru)

A: There is a balance that needs to be maintained between adding new content and improving old. Some players (like me) prefer refreshing old heroes, but others grow attached to older heroes and prefer them to not be changed. The important thing to keep in mind when thinking about a remake is trying to make sure that the qualities players enjoyed in that character are maintained for the rehash. That isn't always possible, but it is something that needs to be considered. Furthermore, sometimes there is more value in simplicity, not everything basic always needs replacing. New skills might be interesting, but needless complexity should also be avoided whenever possible. I try to find a middle ground between remakes and new content so all players can be reasonably satisfied in the end.

Q: Which way to send ideas and bug reports is the most preferred and most likely to reach you? (from kiu)

A: I prefer email the most because I can sort and organize stuff better as well as being able to respond more easily.

Q: Have you considered the suggestion to make Invoker's orbs not interrupt movement? (from STT40)

A: I know a lot of people have requested this in the past. This feature was actually implemented in 6.63 before I had to remove it due unresolved technical issues. Warcraft 3 does not provide a straighforward way to do this, so I used a few tricks to achieve it, but it made command registrations unreliable so you would sometimes get incorrect orbs if you clicked too rapidly.

Q: Do you have a schedule for day/week/month, according to which you are working with DotA? (from gibigate)

A: Well it has been different over the years, between studying, programming and college research taking up different amounts of time. I generally try to make a new beta map every day to experiment with, so it's usually just a chunk of time each day rather than spaced out. It changes from month to month, though.

Q: Do you have any plans to restore custom "-terrain" commands (snow, etc.) in the near future? (from Xochaedo)

A: I could spend more time on it in the future if users want it that much, but I recommend trying out some tools that community members have written. They do more direct modding to Warcraft and can allow more changes than normally possible within a map to create a more coheesive theme.

Q: Will there be a new easter egg map soon? (from Zeyall)

A: What easter eggs? ;)

Thanks to everyone that emailed me their questions. If you didn't see yours listed here and would still like me to answer it next time, let me know.