Tone of Voice: Valve's Released Dota Plus News

Valve has just released a huge post on their official Dota 2 Blog, where they shared their future plans. Here's a brief summary.

Dota Plus Updates

New Treasure

Dota Plus subscribers will be able to purchase a new treasure with 12 community-created sets for Nyx Assassin, Leshrac, Medusa, Vengeful Spirit, Weaver, Clockwerk, Faceless Void, Doom, Sven, Axe, Crystal Maiden, and Tusk. The treasure will also contain Ethereal and Prismatic gems (they're back!) and a Phoenix courier. 

Here, Valve promises us to release a new chest every 3 months along with updating quests. 

New Quests

Dota Plus members can get up to 57,850 shards each season, which is, as understood, every 3 months.

Role Assistant

Subscribers will have access to the Role Assistant hero selection screen which will be automatically divided into roles, according to the number of picks at a particular rank. The data is automatically updated.

Battle Pass Features

• Chat Wheel is back! Subs can use the sounds for shards
• Pull timings by holding ALT
• The stat on gold and heal is attached to the old Dota Plus damage tab
• The MVP feature is now available to everyone, but Dota Plus subscribers can earn extra points from this reward for a seasonal quest
• The Blacklist has been increased from 16 to 25

Shards are for everyone, not just for subscribers

Valve wants all players to earn and spend shards. However, subscribers will have more opportunities to earn them.

Guild updates

Valve is pleased with the way players have embraced the guilds and are changing them to work after the Battle Pass ended. Now the guilds will not have levels. Instead, the guild rating will be updated every week depending on the points gained. And for places in this rating, awards will be given:

• Bronze Tier (bottom 24% of guilds): nothing
• Silver shooting range (25-49%): 250 shards per week, 3 emoji
• Golden Shooting Range (50-74%): 500 Shards, 3 Emojis, 3 Guild Sprays
• Platinum Tier (75% and up): 750 Shards, 3 Emojis, 3 Guild Sprays, 3 Commentator Lines

Dota Plus subscribers will have twice as many prize shards.

Every week the points will decrease, but not reset — Valve want to encourage stable guilds, not fly-by-night.

Guild contracts will bring both points and shards. All players will have 1 slot for contracts per day, Dota Plus subscribers will have two slots. Guild Challenges will still be worth points and can be completed in groups of three or more members.

Everyone can join guilds, but only Dota Plus subscribers can create them.

Ranked season

Valve was so slow to update the rating because they were worried about the fact that they force everyone to recalibrate at the same time. To solve this problem, recalibration was made optional. If you want, you can reset to zero, if you don't want, just continue playing at the same rating. Moreover, the MMR reset button will be added to everyone on different days from October 22 to November 22 (and you can activate it at any time until the end of the season).

New hero and future updates

Valve does not like to share intermediate info, because plans change frequently. But now they understand that the community is eager to be talked to, so they promise to become more open.

A new hero will come out around the end of October, and in 2021 there will be a few more (the first one already in the first quarter). The updates will now be extended throughout the year, and not concentrated around The International, as before. Hopefully, this will better involve the players.

Valve has slightly improved the engine's performance on multicore processors, after the final tests, it will be added to Dota, probably next week.

Player behavior and toxicity

The system for identifying smurfs has been improved, now they are much more likely to get into games against other smurfs (this also applies to a party where there is at least one smurf). They will also get the alternate behavior score of their other accounts. Boosters will be defined better. Over the past month, 14 thousand accounts were banned.

Valve is working on a system similar to Overwatch in CS:GO, where players rate complaints about other players. They promise to introduce it as soon as possible.

But the most important part is at the end of it.

COMMUNICATION

As we can see from Valve's letter, they are working towards the community and they want us, the players, the pros, the organizations, the viewers, the streamers, everyone, to be involved and happy with the game. They understand that to reach goals, we have to work together. One of the main rules of being a happy couple is to talk to each other, to communicate, and this is exactly what Valve will do. They listen to us, which is understandable and obvious when you read the words they use. Nevertheless, none shall fully believe their words and expect miracles to be made as soon as possible. Remember that the coronavirus pandemic is in the yard, the company's capacity, despite its financial stability, is not so strong, and time must be given. The fact that they are already reaching out to us and want to work with us on the community and the game speaks volumes. Valve released a large and heartbreaking letter to their friends, it's not a tyrant's order. This should be rejoicing. We have to believe and help Valve Make Dota 2 Great Again.