Gamers can easily create levels and new custom modes

Aug 18, 2014 06:15 GMT  ·  By

The development team at Valve working on DOTA 2 is determined to make player-created content one of the mainstays of the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena title going forward, and the company is now delivering a new update for the alpha version of the Workshop that players can use to make new maps and game modes.

The official announcement states:

- New entity "dota_custom_game_events" added - New entity "filter_dota" added - New entity "point_simple_obstruction" added - New mesh entity "trigger_dota" added - When placing an "npc_dota_base" entity in Hammer the unit type can now be selected and previewed - Creeps and neutrals have been grouped into prefabs for easy drag and drop placement - Added a new template addon "adventure_example" to demonstrate usage of the new entities - With the most recent Steam update, the Steam Beta Participation requirement has been removed - Fixed a number of connection issues when playing and connecting to custom games - Fixed crash when loading a map while viewing a showcased hero - Entity "point_worldtext" now respects the color field - Fixed issue where models placed in Hammer would sometimes appear in the wrong pose - Video settings are now saved (except texture quality) - Fixed bug with modelscale not working properly with custom units

A number of DOTA 2 Workshop crashes have also been eliminated, and Valve says that it plans to deliver more updates soon and that all of them will be based, in part, on the feedback coming from the player community.

When the new set of tools was launched, a number of those who were using them saw plenty of references to Source 2 and concluded that the studio had basically stealth-launched a full new game engine.

DOTA 2 is one of the most popular MOBA titles in the world at the moment.

The existence of Source 2 has been rumored for some time and the actual launch of the engine would mean, at least for the most dedicated members of the Valve fan base, that the company is ready to work on a new Half-Life and Left 4 Dead.