14 DAY TRIAL // Publisher and developer Valve Software has officially confirmed that it has a team working on Dota 2, a game built upon the foundation of the Defense of the Ancients mod for Wwarcraft 3, with the launch date set for some point in 2011 for both the PC and the Mac.
IceFrog, the man behind the DotA Allstars version of the Warcraft 3 mod, has confirmed that he has been leading a team at Valve since 2009 but neither he nor the company confirmed that he was actually created a commercial products based on the very popular mod.
Game Informer is reporting that the Valve made Dota 2 will have the same 100 plus roster of heroes from the previous version, with some of their skills tweaked in order to accommodate the Source engine, but with upgrade paths remaining largely unchaged.
A selling point for the new game will be a “coach system”, which will allow veterans of the mod to log in and be teamed up with new players in order to learn the way Dota 2 is working.
Communication will be done via voice chat and coaches will be able to see the screens of their lesser companions.
It's not clear what will attract hardcore players to take on the coach role, apart from personal satisfaction or maybe prestige.
It seems that the new Dota 2 will be aimed at the mainstream audience, with an interactive guide and hits system showing all players how the game works and what details they should pay attention to when engaging in a match.
Valve is also set to use the Steamworks integration to make sure that the matchmaking system of Dota 2 is calibrated so that beginner players will not have to face veterans that can quickly take them down and slash their interest in the game.