Now that The International 2015 is out of the way, Valve have pushed their considerable resources into finishing up the Dota 2 Reborn client – and it’ll be taking the place of the main client in the not-too-distant future.
In case you’ve missed all of this, here’s how it works. Dota 2 runs in the Source 1 engine. The Reborn update will move the game into Source 2. Theoretically, this’ll mean better performance even on low-end computers, but it also means the addition of some much-requested features. Reborn offers custom game modes, a new menu system, some new… you know what? I had a look at it when Reborn first went live, so if you want the full skinny on how it impacts Dota 2, you should click here. Just bear in mind it’s been updated a lot since then.
According to the Dota 2 blog (from which I sucked out all of these news nutrients), moving away from Source 1 means Valve can move all of their efforts onto Source 2, making sure everything’s ready for the upcoming Majors. That said, even when Dota 2 gets its Reborn update, it’s not going to be perfect: the weeks after launch will be spent “ironing out issues, refining the dashboard and iterating based on your feedback”, after which the team will “begin shifting our attention toward the in-game UI, where we plan to redesign the HUD and work on a variety of other in-game features.” Probably including more alt-clicking.
Nonetheless, Valve reckons that today might be a good time for you to shift over. A 5.5GB update to the Reborn client has made a whole load of changes and improvements, and Valve promise that downloading now means you won’t have to download a huge update whenever Reborn properly launches, so it’s sort of like pre-loading. That launch is also the day when I’ll stop calling it “Dota 2 Reborn” and will just start calling it “Dota 2“, while making occasional references to “the old Dota 2 client.” Man, this is going to be confusing.
Anyway! Said update adds in full support for the 64-bit Dota 2 Reborn client and all outstanding Source 1 content (cosmetics, announcers, music packs, and whatnot), so your shinies are all now in Reborn. In addition to this, any new content added will only be for the Source 2 client. There are plenty of other fixes and additions too – the All Hero Challenge is now in the Reborn client, for instance – but those are the major ones for the general public. You can have a read of the full list over here, if you’re interested in the minutiae.
So there you have it. Dota 2 will be moving to Source 2 in the coming weeks, so get your downloads going now.
I’m not sure if there’ll be any other big surprises to come with this, but you never know. Halloween is coming up, which means Diretide, which might mean a thematic launch of Abyssal Underlord/Pit Lord along with the new client… or maybe Diretide will be cancelled this year, what with the focus on making everything work in Source 2. I mean, Valve did warn us there probably wouldn’t be any more big events until the new engine launched. Could go either way.
