DotA Allstars version 6.39 and 6.39b Released!
With a lot of new tweaks in place, including listed cooldown times for all the items and abilities, a couple more heroes, and some creep-blocking issues, DotA Allstars 6.39 (not AI) and DotA 6.39b (not AI) are available for download. You can download the beta version here. DotA 6.38b with AI version 1.93 is also now available for download here. The changelog is as follows:
6.39b Changelog
===============
* Fixed a very serious Mac bug
* Shallow Grave cooldown from 300/150/75 to 300/200/100
* Fixed Lycan’s icon on scoreboard
* Fixed a bug with the last nerf to shadow word (it wasn’t actually nerfedas i said it was in the code, thx malle)
* Changed Infernal HP from 900/1400/1900 to 900/1200/1500
* Allowed swaphero to be used after the -rd draft
* If you don’t pick a hero in -rd, one will be randomed for you (for the same gold cost)Please note: If you downloaded the 6.39b that was up for an hour the other day, please make sure to delete it.
Delete any 6.39b you may have, as duplicate copies may cause you issues. Download a fresh copy from getdota.com
6.39 Changelog
===============* Listed all the cooldowns for items and abilities
* Added -rd (-randomdraft, similar to the style of play in a few inhouse leagues)
* Added two new Scourge heroes
* Added new functionality to replay files for leagues to more easily calculate and process game data
* Added -showdeny/-hidedeny
* Added new host commands “-weather snow”, “-weather rain” and for everyone “-weather off” (if it is turned off, it can’t be turned on again, to prevent spam and abuses)
* -ma now shows hero level next to the name
* Improved first middle Scourge tower area
* Added a new endgame scoreboard to replace the inaccurate one that Warcraft 3 generates
* Improved death text presentation
* Added floating text to show you all the gold you get (including bonuses, not just the 100) from hero kills as well as tower kills. Please note that there has been no change to the gold you get, it is just being displayed as an added effect now.
* Improved some ward vision areas for the Scourge team (thx Wedge[p])
* Sentinel and Scourge hero kills now share the gold with the team instead of it being lost
* Rewrote a lot of internals coding to allow for cleaner AI version implementation (in near future, the bot capability will be part of the regular map, useable in the every release)
* Added Snowman after Roshan (just a temp for the season)
* Added hero icons to the multiboard
* Fixed the creep blocking issues on the left Sent side
* Added an observer scoreboard display for better information when watching live games
* Improved AI on the siege units. They spawn every 7 waves now instead of every 6* Reduced Overpower and Enrage cooldowns
* Reduced Time Lapse mana cost at higher levels
* Paralyzing Casks now does a little more damage to creeps
* Upgraded ghouls now have a bigger model like the treants do when upgraded
* Alchemist movement speed from 290 to 300
* Increased Spirit Bear’s Base Attack Time from 1.75/1.6/1.45/1.3 to 1.75/1.65/1.55/1.45
* Improved AOE on Aftershock by 30
* Chaos damage now does 40% damage to fortified (down from 50%)
* You now have more time to repick (120 from 60)
* Added -disablehelp support for sprout
* Unstable Concoction now deals damage
* Added Lucifer to Aghanim’s Scepter
* Increased Troll Warlord’s movement speed by 5
* Reduced mana cost and slightly increase AOE on Shadowraze
* Lowered Warlock’s movement speed by 10
* Gnoll Assassin creep is slightly stronger and give a little more bounty as well
* Improved Lightning Storm a bit
* Undid small part of the previous Dark Ritual nerf (was nerfed from 45 second cooldown to 60/55/50/45 before, and now to 55/50/45/40)
* Improved Kraken Shell leveling slightly
* Cannot use Aphotic Shield on Doomed hero anymore
* Nerfed Shadow Word casting range, increase cooldown and lowered damage per second
* Shukuchi deals more damage per level
* Geminate Attack level 4 cooldown down from 4 seconds to 3.5 seconds
* Fixed a graphical glitch with the spawn direction of Elune’s Arrow
* Reduced Strygwyr’s Thirst HP detection from 50% to 40%
* Improved the Liberated Souls with Ignis Fatuus Scepter Upgrade
* Increased Rain of Chaos cooldown
* Lowered Viper’s base damage a little
* Spin Web regeneration now improves with levels
* Lowered Neutral Taskmaster’s HP/Armor/Movespeed* Implemented hero descriptions by Deathknight6034(Bloodseeker,Ryali,DK), Aconite_Vyper(Sniper), KingReaper(Lancer), Volcove(Keeper of the Light), Bowstaff(Omniknight), SteveGarbage(Furion), theAlice(Panda,Vol’Jin), prawnstar(Antimage), skipperme(Chen), redrooster(Fletcher), Tikiboi(Raigor). Good job guys.
* Fixed Decrepify tooltip
* Reworked status buff placements on Shadow Word, Mjolnir and Fatal Bonds icon to display properly on Illusions
* Fixed a big exploit reported by UKI-TZAR
* Storm Seeker no longer draws Roshan out
* Fixed typo on Bristleback damage autospray (did not buff him, just a typo fix)
* Fixed Mjolnir tooltip
* New animation for Bottle (thx Ro-Coco)
* Fixed last 2 towers not giving gold to team
* Necromancer now properly grows in size
* Fixed the initial delay on Luna’s Eclipse
* Fixed Clinkz’s Windwalk buff tooltip
* Cannot repick if you don’t have full hp and mana (to prevent some abuses)
* Changed Elune’s Arrow animation
* Fixed a bug with spiderlings’ poison reducing attack speed instead of movement speed (thx ZerielDRK)
* Fixed a few bugs on level 4 abilities with Witchcraft
* Fixed POTM endgame icon
* Many other countless tooltip fixes and improvements
Big thanks to all the beta testers that stayed up late with me to get this out for New Years day
Mario: Back to the Start
Fed up with being bated into watching Flash videos, only to discover that it’s just a viral marketing ploy, or a means for the creator to express his vested interests? If not, then check out this flash video, which thankfully waits till the end to prattle off its pacifistic propaganda. Decent production and delivery through the Flash format, the only thing that upsets me is the blunt ultimate message. There’s no need to be so direct and frank; it really does sacrifice a lot of the artistic integrity. Allowing for many aesthetic and moral interpretations is much better than forcefully imploring one’s audience to a moral/political cause, in my humble opinion. I’m not saying that I disagree with the sentiments of the video, but rather I disagree with the way that they are finally imparted. With that single objection aside, I do rather like the Mario animation, and I think that, overall, it is a flash video well worth watching.
Phosphor: Free Game of the Week
Phosphor, a beautifully rendered, 3d multi-player browser-based first-person shooter, is not only an impressive game, but it’s also 100% free. The game, developed by Rasterwerks, is in beta so it’s not without its problems. Apparently the mouse locks up in Firefox when playing, but despite the minor issues, the game is a stunning feat. It’s well worth your time, so check it out!
Note: this bad-boy takes plenty of load-time AND you’ll need to have Shockwave 10.1 to run it (which should auto-prompt if you don’t have it).
Free Game-Of-The-Week: Plasma Pong
With no intrusive advertisements, no viruses, and a completely free download, Plasma Pong is the best free game of this week! It takes the old classic Pong and subjects it to an “environment driven by computational fluid dynamics”. Wow!
Beautiful colors, good physics engine, and free for download– get it!
Game of the Week: Defend Your Castle
So I got bored recently, and decided to take a stroll down memory lane, aka Flash Games Avenue. I rediscovered a classic: Defend Your Castle. The goal here is to defend your castle from barbarians, who are actually just stick figures. I find the first few stages the hardest because you have to do everything by hand. You have to click on each stick figure and fling him into the air, letting gravity chalk up another kill. As you accumulate points, you can upgrade your castle such that you can “convert” the barbarians and train them to man your castle as archers, wizards, kamikazees, or craftsmen.
Repair Damage: Fix damage incurred to your castle
Upgrade Walls: Increase your castle’s ability to withstand the onslaught
Temple: With this upgrade, you can drop enemy units (gently) into your castle to convert them to your side. These converts can be trained or deployed as kamikazee units.
Archery Range: Train archers to defend your castle automatically
Workshop: Train craftsmen to repair your castle automatically
Mana Pool: Train wizards to use powerful spells
Demolition Lab: Allows you to deploy kamikazee units by clicking the convert icons below your castle hitpoints. Click the unit to detonate.
My strategy is to buy a Temple, and then an Archery Range as soon as possible after that, training my converts into archers. Then I skip the Workshop and the Demolition Lab, and save up for the Mana Poll. It is crucial to get the Mana Pool because wizards have powerful spells such as instant kill, massive explosion, and instant conversion. Thus you can eventually begin to compound the number of converts you get, and the rate at which you get them, by investing in wizards. It gets extremely simple when you have a sufficient amount of converts there is literally nothing left to do!
Even though the stick figures have buffed-up, do more damage, and run extremely fast, they are of little challenge to take out because I have 1630 archers, 728 craftsmen, and 215 wizards. You should get over 200 wizards so that mana-regeneration doesn’t become a problem.
That’s right. I didn’t get bored until I got to the 59th stage of Defend Your Castle and had acquired over 13 million points. That’s how addicting it is. Two thumbs up for this flash game! You can play it here.