DotA Planet - Blog

DotA Last Stable Map V6.57 b

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 22:59:35 +0700

The latest DotA Stable Map is DotA Map v6.57 b

Download Here (just click the link)

it's free, bebas, gratis, man, z you
Here is the changelog for this map:

* Changed how -sd hero selection works. The three heroes are now added as icons to select from your circle of power
* Lots of fixes and improvements to the translation capacity of the map
* Fixed a few Warcraft 1.20e specific bugs for Chinese community
* Some performance improvements (more coming in the near future)
* Your Circle of Power now has 6 inventory slots. The items it has are now abilities instead. You cannot pickup items that you don't own with Circle of Power
* Items drop on top of your Circle of Power if a unit is not there instead of making a big pile in the center

* Improved Shallow Grave cooldown
* Increased the bounty on Power Cogs a little bit
* Decreased Clockwerk's Intelligence gain slightly
* Increased Hookshot manacost from 125 to 150
* Scaled the cooldown on Eclipse from 140 seconds for all levels to 160/150/140 seconds
* Eclipse no longer continues after death, Beam interval is increased from 0.5 to 0.6 seconds
* Improved Windrunner cooldown
* Lowered Admiral Proudmoore's base Intelligence and intelligence gain
* Decreased X Marks The Spot duration
* Added manacost to manual return ability of X Marks The Spot
* Increased Ghost Ship's manacost
* Lowered Omniknight's base movement speed by 5
* Increased Rhasta's base strength
* Improved AOE on Fervor
* Improved Dark Seer's cast animation point
* Increased length of Wall of Replica slightly
* Lowered bonus damage per second on early levels of Geostrike
* Tweaks to Shackleshot angle and area check mechanism
* Slightly improved Shackleshot duration and cd
* Improved Mass Serpent Wards' cooldown
* Reduced Haunt Illusions' damage from 50% to 40%
* Haunt now has a 1 second delay during which they fade in before the images start attacking the targets
* Improved Thunder Clap AOE
* Improve Primal Split's manacost and cooldown scaling per level
* Improved Life Break
* Improved Slardar's Cast Point
* Increased Command Aura's AOE
* Reworked Voodoo Restoration stats
* Minor improvements to Glyph of Fortification
* Courier now costs 200 gold
* Improved Eidolons damage type progression
* Lowered Lycan's Wolves Hitpoints
* Lowered base armor on Lycan and his wolves by 2
* Increased Empowering Haste's AOE
* Improved Aphotic Shield's life from 100/125/150/175 to 110/140/170/200
* Increased Kelen's Dagger cooldown from 15 to 18

* Circle of Power is now selected for each player at the start of the game
* Added disablehelp for X Marks the Spot
* Fixed some issues with the tree layout near the center scourge neutral camp
* Slight adjustment of top scourge tower position
* Your Circle of Power is more visible than your allies'
* Undid the previous minimap change due to concerns from different leagues
* Tweaked the bash values on Roshan
* Moved Glyph of Fortification from an item to an ability on your Circle of Power to prevent some abuses possible by the enemy
* Added Disablehelp for Keeper of the Light's Recall
* Added new hero sounds to -quote (Ogre Magi, Techies, Blademaster, Panda) and it now also tells you which number it played if you randomed with it
* Changed Windrunner's soundset

* Adjusted neutral pullability area for the Scourge ancients a bit
* Fixed camera movement issues when multiple Meepos respawn with Aegis of Immortal
* Fixed scoreboard consumables count
* Fixed static field doing a small amount more than what the tooltip says
* Fixed BKB being droppable after use when it's duration is decreasing
* Fixed the text display in -sc
* Fixed a bug with Phase Boots and Puck's Phase
* Fixed Phase Boots triggering Last Word
* Fixed some issues with the creep pathing on the bottom Sentinel wave
* Fixed a bug in Death Match that allows you to rebuy the same hero again
* Fixed Observer Board not showing up from a reloaded game in -cm
* Fixed hero respawn issues in regular dm (not dmap or dmar)
* Fixed Dust of Appearance tooltip not showing cooldown
* Fixed an old issue with dropping items away from you while under Berserker's Call pull
* Prevented Flying Courier from using dust of appearance
* Fixed an issue with Dawn Tavern being disabled when repicking in normal mode
* Fixed the RD spot not being marked as unexplored for scourge players after the draft phase
* Fixed a rare bug with Psionic Trap count limit not being enforced
* Fixed a test game only bug that caused the tower deaths to not register properly in single player
* Fixed a bug with Aegis of Immortal not setting proper mana on Meepo clones
* Fixed some performance related bugs with Admiral Proudmoore
* Fixed a bug with Power Treads and Essence Aura
* Fixed some minor bugs with the manabase on Primal Split's level 1 and 2 Earth
* Fixed Sange sell cost
* Fixed some minor issues with Phase Boots
* Fixed Kelen's Dagger being undroppable for the same old cooldown values
* Fixed Windrunner not appearing in -sd or -ai
* Fixed a Drop Items bug with courier and Aegis of Immortal
* Fixed a bug in some game modes where Kelen's Dagger had a small chance to not register properly and get disabled on incoming damage
* Fixed some rare bugs with the combination of Dispersion and Starfall
* Fixed some group selection inconsistencies with Primal Split units
* Fixed Windrunner to not cancel your movement command
* Fixed Phase Boots from canceling Curse of the Silent
* Fixed a bug with X Marks The Spot and Primal Split
* Fixed some issues with super creeps (in -sc) getting stuck
* Fixed Shackleshot and Nature's Guise to work on Sprout trees
* Fixed a recent bug with the -courier command
* Fixed Torrent buff icon
* Added -cm to -gameinfo
* Fixed being able to buy from secret shop from the area above Roshan
* Fixed some group selection priority issues with Circle of Power and the shops

6.57b:
=======
* Fixed a few critical bugs that could cause some abilities to malfunction

Many DotA tournament alsouse this map now, so download it now

What is DotA

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:47:40 +0700

Defense of the Ancients (often referred to as DotA) is a custom scenario for Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, based on the “Aeon of Strife” map for StarCraft. The objective of the scenario is to destroy the opponents’ “Ancient”. The two teams’ ancients are heavily guarded structures at opposing corners of the map. Players use powerful units known as heroes, and are assisted by allied heroes and AI-controlled fighters called “creeps”. As in role-playing games, players level up their hero and use gold to buy equipment during the mission.
The scenario was developed with the “World Editor” of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and was updated upon the release of the Warcraft expansion The Frozen Throne. There have been many variations of the original concept; currently, the most popular is DotA Allstars, which has been maintained by several authors during development.

Since its release, Allstars has become a feature at several worldwide tournaments, including Blizzard Entertainment’s BlizzCon and the Asian World Cyber Games, as well as the Cyberathlete Amateur and CyberEvolution leagues; Gamasutra declared that DotA was perhaps the most popular “free, non-supported game mod in the world”. The map has gone on to influence other maps and games, including the upcoming strategy game Demigod.

Development

Warcraft III is the third title in the Warcraft series of real-time strategy games developed by Blizzard Entertainment. As with Warcraft II, Blizzard included a free “world editor” in the game that allows players to create custom scenarios or “maps” for the game, which can be played online with other players through Battle.net. These custom scenarios can be simple terrain changes, which play like normal Warcraft games, or they can be entirely new game scenarios with custom objectives, units, items, and events; Defense of the Ancients is one of the latter. Created by a mapmaker known as Eul, Defense of the Ancients is a custom scenario based on a previous StarCraft scenario known as “Aeon of Strife”, and is the best known of all the DotA variants. After the release of Warcraft’s expansion The Frozen Throne, which added new features to the World Editor, Eul did not update the scenario.
Numerous variants were created based on the original, but Allstars is the version that made Defense of the Ancients popular; this scenario was developed by an author under the alias Guinsoo. After version 6.x, another author by the name of IceFrog took over development of the scenario. With successive versions, IceFrog fixes bugs and adds or updates features. Each release is accompanied with a changelog.IceFrog is notoriously reclusive, refusing to give interviews; the only evidence of IceFrog’s authorship is the map maker’s email account on the official website and the name branded on the game’s loading screen.
Defense of the Ancients has strong community support, maintained via official forums. Users can post ideas for new heroes or items, some of which are added to the map. Players have contributed icons and hero descriptions and created the artwork displayed while the map loads, and suggestions for changes to existing heroes or items are taken seriously; IceFrog once changed a new hero less than two weeks after the new version of the map was released. Versions of the scenario where enemy heroes are controlled by artificial intelligences have also been released.

Because Warcraft III custom games have none of the features designed to improve game quality (matchmaking players based on connection speed, etc.), various programs are used to maintain Defense of the Ancients. External tools ping player’s locations, and games can be named to exclude geographic regions. Clans and committees such as Team DotA Allstars (TDA) maintain their own official list of rules and regulations, and players can be kicked from matches by being placed on “banlists”.

Gameplay

A game of DotA Allstars in progress

Defense of the Ancients pits two teams of players against each other: the Sentinel and the Scourge. Players on the Sentinel team are based at the southwest corner of the map, and those on the Scourge team are based at the northeast corner. Each base is defended by towers and waves of units which guard the main paths leading to their base. In the center of each base is the “Ancient”, a building that must be destroyed to win the game.
Each human player controls one Hero, a powerful unit with unique abilities. In Allstars, players on each side choose one of ninety-three heroes, each with different abilities and tactical advantages over other heroes. The scenario is highly team-oriented; it is difficult for one player to carry the team to victory alone. Nevertheless, some heroes, given enough time, can change the outcome single-handedly, while countering the opposing team’s heroes. Defense of the Ancients allows up to ten players in a five versus five format and an additional two slots for referees or observers, often with an equal number of players on each side.

Because the gameplay revolves around strengthening individual heroes, it does not require one to focus on resource management and base-building, as in most traditional real-time strategy games. Killing computer-controlled or neutral units earns the player experience points; when enough experience is accumulated, the player gains a level. Leveling up improves the hero’s toughness and the damage it can inflict, and allows players to upgrade their spells or skills. In addition to accumulating experience, players also manage a single resource: gold. The typical resource gathering of Warcraft III is replaced by a combat-oriented money system; in addition to a small periodic income, heroes earn gold by killing hostile units, base structures, and enemy heroes. Using gold, players buy items to strengthen their hero and gain abilities. Certain items can be combined with recipes to create more powerful items. Buying items that suit one’s hero is an important tactical element of the scenario.
Allstars offers a variety of game modes, selected by the game host at the beginning of the match. The game modes dictate the difficulty of the scenario, as well as whether people can choose their hero or are assigned one randomly. Many game modes can be combined (for example, an easy difficulty level and a random hero pick), allowing more flexible options.

Reception

The popularity of Defense of the Ancients has increased over time. The scenario was featured by Computer Gaming World in a review of new maps and mods in Warcraft III, and has been called “the ultimate RTS”. Allstars has become an important tournament scenario, starting with its prominence at the debut of Blizzard’s BlizzCon convention in 2005. Allstars was also featured in the Malaysia and Singapore World Cyber Games starting in 2005, and the World Cyber Games Asian Championships beginning with the 2006 season. Defense of the Ancients is now included in the game lineup for the internationally recognized Cyberathlete Amateur League and CyberEvolution leagues. Additionally, the scenario appeared in Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC) 2008; Oliver Paradis, ESWC’s competition manager, noted that the high level of community support behind the scenario, as well as its worldwide appeal, were among the reasons it was chosen. The scenario is popular in many parts of the world; in the Philippines and Thailand, it is played as much as the game Counter-Strike. It is also popular in Sweden and other Northern European countries, where the Defense of the Ancients-inspired song “Vi sitter i Ventrilo och spelar DotA” by Swedish musician Basshunter reached the European 2006 charts at #116 and cracked the top ten Singles Charts in Sweden, Norway, and Finland. LAN tournaments are a major part of worldwide play, including tournaments in Sweden and Russia; however, due to a lack of LAN tournaments and championships in North America, several teams have since disbanded. Blizzard points to DotA as an example of what dedicated mapmakers can create using developer’s tools.
In June 2008, Michael Walbridge, writing for Gamasutra, stated that DotA “is likely the most popular and most-discussed free, non-supported game mod in the world”. In pointing to the strong community built around the game, Walbridge stated that DotA shows it is much easier for a community game to be maintained by the community, and this is one of the maps’ greatest strengths. Defense of the Ancients has been credited as one of the influences for the upcoming Gas Powered Games title Demigod, with the video game publication GameSpy noting the game’s premise revolved around aspiring gods “[playing] DotA in real life”.