Hello Wizards

Oh hey, how’s it going? Today we want to highlight a couple of new UI features you will find in this week’s update, so let’s get this blog started:

First, we have the new Customize Layout option in the Hero Selector:

Not only can you now arrange the Grid View in what you think the correct way should be, but once you’ve finished your masterpiece you can also export and share it with the rest of the world.

We’ve also expanded Aghanim’s Scepter information on our Item and Ultimate tooltips. You can even preview what the Scepter will do while browsing the store and once purchased your Ultimate’s tooltip will be updated to reflect its new found power.

Also don’t forget! The Dreamhack Dota 2 Vengeance Cup starts this weekend and as always Gosugamers.net has all the info you need.

This week’s changelog can be found here.

Triple Kill!

Welcome back old friends! Gyrocopter, Phantom Assassin and Chaos Knight are the latest heroes to join the Dota 2 cast.

We would also like to welcome Tongfu and mTw to The International list of competing teams. If you missed any games from last week’s Wild Cards qualifiers you can find them all in the Recent Games section inside Dota 2.

Don’t forget! Tickets for The International will go on sale tomorrow via the Dota 2 store. A quick note to all you hoarders out there: Tickets that are not used by the time The International starts will evaporate from your inventory, so please only purchase a ticket if you’re attending.

The International Tickets

The first batch of tickets for the The International will go on sale Tuesday, June 12th starting at 9:00 AM PDT/17:00 GMT. There will be an additional batch sold each day at the same time concluding Saturday the 16th.

The tickets will be available via the Dota 2 store at a cost of $49.99 and we expect tickets to sell out quickly. Each ticket grants you access to all 3 days of The International. The ticket itself has no value unless you attend the event.

After purchase, the ticket will be located in your Dota 2 inventory and can be traded like any other Dota 2 item. Upon use the item will be consumed and your Steam account will be flagged as attending. Your confirmation and access pass required to enter the event will be emailed to you at a later date so make sure your Steam contact info is up to date.

There will also be a limited amount of seating for people with PAX Prime passes but those are first come first served.

Let’s go for a spin!

With the Wild Cards qualifiers set to start tonight, we wanted to give you guys an update to let you know how they will work.

All games for both qualifiers will be watchable through the Dota 2 client. You will have access to Directed view, Player Perspective, Free Camera and most importantly to the commentators audio. Everyone should feel free to re-stream the games.

You will find the games via this newly added dropdown to our Watch panels.

As for times, they will run every day this week from 10AM to 11PM CET with the Grand Finals on Sunday, so make sure you check your local time. For more details on brackets and specific times you can head over to Joindota and GosuGamers. If you miss the games don’t worry, the replays will be available from inside the Dota 2 client the moment each match ends.

For a list of teams you can head over to our tournament page.

Introducing the Dota Store

Today we’re announcing that Dota 2 will be free to play, and contain an in-game store where you’ll be able to buy fancy gear to customize your heroes. From the forum threads we’ve read over the months since The International, it’s pretty clear that this won’t come as much of a surprise to anyone out there. There are a variety of smaller details that we’ve decided to put together a FAQ to help with, but we wanted to address the two most common concerns right away:

• Dota 2 will not be a pay-to-win game. All the items in the store are cosmetic, and don’t affect gameplay.
• All of the heroes will be available free of charge. We believe restricting player access to heroes could be destructive to game design, so it’s something we plan to avoid.

We’re really excited about this. As we’ve explored cosmetic customization for heroes, we’ve been finding that we can use it to broaden our lore, and expand on the characters. We’ve received a lot of positive responses to the unique hero voices in the game, and the window they give you into each hero’s personality. We think this will be another avenue where we can expand in that direction. Here you can see some examples:

As mentioned above, we’ve put together a FAQ that covers concerns we’ve seen out in the community, and our plans for addressing them, and you can check that out here. As always, take a look and send us your thoughts. If we’ve missed anything, make sure to let us know.

Dota’s always been a game where the community has had an extremely active role in driving it forward, from the huge amount of feedback that Icefrog receives to the number of suggestions posted in the hero ideas forums. We wanted to make sure that Dota 2 expands on that community interaction even further, to the point where players can directly contribute to the game itself.

So today we’re also announcing that Dota 2 is now part of the Steam Workshop. If you’re not familiar with the Steam Workshop, it’s a place where fans can upload content they’ve created for a game, and other players can vote and comment on it. The development team then takes those uploads and releases them as official parts of the game itself, and the original fan creator gets a slice of the sales from the in-game store. In the first year alone over 3.5 million dollars was paid out to TF2 fans who’s creations are now a permanent part of the game.

If you’re a Dota 2 fan with some artistic skills, here’s your chance to get in on the ground floor of what’s sure to be a vibrant community for years to come, and be able to contribute directly to the game you’re already playing non-stop. If you’re still working on your art skills, you can still contribute massively by looking over the submissions as they arrive, and giving the thumbs up to ones that you’d like to see in your games.

PC Gamer US Podcast #318 – Triple A

Oh dear, E3 is next week. Guess we'd better talk about what games we're looking forward to most, and our Impossible Dream Vision for a PC-centric E3. Beyond that, there's news to talk: Cyberpunk, Dota 2, Diablo, Max Payne, and more. Logan shares his indulgent gaming plans for the weekend; Evan shares another thrilling tale from Day Z.

PC Gamer US Podcast 318: Triple A

Have a question, comment, complaint or observation? Leave a voicemail: 1-877-404-1337 ext 724 or email the mp3 to pcgamerpodcast@gmail.com.

Subscribe to the podcast RSS feed.

Follow us on Twitter:
@logandecker (Logan Decker)
@elahti (Evan Lahti)
@tyler_wilde (Tyler Wilde)
@Asatj (T.J. Hafer)
@belsaas (Erik Belsaas, podcast producer, friend of Wendigos)

Dota 2 Update - June 1, 2012

TINY UPDATE

- Fixed drag selection bug.
- In RD we now show a proper countdown until the entire pick process has been completed.
- In RD, fixed the pick button sometimes appearing greyed out when it becomes your turn to pick.