Dota2 Summer Update is out: New Player Behaviour System, Armory, Rendering Features, and much more!

As The International 2023 nears, Dota2 is getting new and improved features to help the players enjoy their games and get an overall satisfying experience. Valve started with The New Frontiers and stated similar updates to enhance the daily grinder's view of Dota2. To break away from the routine slump of updates and BattlePass, the developers at Valve have since been working to build a healthy community. We have received an immense Gameplay Update (7.34), a 10th Anniversary Cosmetics Update, and a Summer Client Update with a whole new load of features.

What Does the Dota2 Summer Update offer?

Indicating the end of summer and how Valve has improved the game for us, the Summer Update brings us three new features.

• Player Behaviour System
• Armory
• Rendering Features

New Player Behaviour System

Playing together as a team, good communication, and synergy is the best way to experience Dota2. However, this is only a dream for most players due to the in-game toxicity affecting other players' behavior. Keeping this in mind, they have made changes on how to reduce negativity from games.

Personalized Matchmaking

In the post-game, you could either Commend a player or Report them. Though reporting had an outcome, commending did not affect future games, but now, by commending a player, there is a chance they might show up in future matchmaking. We now also have a Dislike button, which when used, those players may not show up in your matchmaking.

New Reporting System

The limit for submitting reports has been removed. There are now different types of reporting.

• Toxic Chat
• Toxic Voice
• Smurfing
• Griefing
• Cheating
• Role Abuse

Each of these types has its conditions that need to be fulfilled. This data will help in being more precise and weed out false reports. Additionally, we will be notified when a good report we submitted has resulted in taking action, letting us know we have helped in the progress of a better community.

Real-Time Action

Hereafter, when a player is reported for Toxic Chat during a game, the chat will be analyzed in real-time. If the report is good the toxic player will be muted on both chat and voice for the rest of the game. Other modes of communication, such as pings and chat wheels will be on a 30-second cooldown.

Behavior and Communication scores

Our gameplay will reflect on two scoreboards. Behavior scores, like before affected our matchmaking, but now it will also affect item drops in post-game, pausing, and ranked matches. Also, a Communication score is added, which will affect pinging ally abilities, coaching, tipping, text, and voice chat. If we have a low Communication score our text and voice chat will be muted and other types of communication will have a 30-second cooldown.

This new reporting system will take some time to provide accurate results with the large amounts of data it is going to gather. The devs at Valve have asked us to be patient and trust the process.

New Armory Interface

The new Armory replaces the Store Tab and provides a more simplified version of items and cosmetics for us to search. We can choose whether or not we want to see specific items regardless of their availability. We can also mix and match each piece of cosmetic item for each hero and then get into a Demo to see the result. It is easy to find items to purchase for those who wish to do so. Whether it is a hero item, Global item, or Treasures, it is categorized accordingly inside the Armory.

New Rendering Features

Valve has gone a step further and increased the visual aesthetics of the game. They added cloud shadows, increased the detail in lighting and the effect it has on its surroundings, and upped the contrast for the overall map itself.

Though we will not be concentrating on these during team fights and escaping ganks, those who want to experience the visual appeal of their cosmetics will surely be satisfied.

Other Updates

Some of the bugs that came along with patch 7.34 have been fixed, along with some new add-ons.

• Bounty rune locations now show on the minimap before the horn using desaturated icons.
• Added an option to rebind the Alternative Cast Ability switch key under the Advanced Hotkeys Interface tab.
• Dota has been optimized to use a little less bandwidth all the time, and a lot less bandwidth sometimes during illusion-heavy gameplay.

Dota Plus Fall Update

The Fall update for Dota Plus will begin from September 1st. It brings Quests offering up to 115,200 shards throughout the season. Apart from this, there will be guild rewards such as chat wheels.

The International Update

With The International coming up, Dota2 will have a TI-themed update in late September to aid the TI Prize pool.

Collector's Cache

The update also introduces a few fan made skins for the price of $2.49.

 

Featured Image: Valve