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With a lot of new tweaks in place, including more neutral creep spots and a new voting mode, DotA Allstars v6.35 (not AI) has been released as a beta version.  You can download it here.  The AI version of DotA 6.35 should be released in the near future.  The changlog is as follows:

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* Added two new neutral creep spots
* New mode -vr (-voterandom, like -ar except you get to vote on which hero combinations are used)
* Game no longer immediately ends when you win, you have time to chat if you want to
* Hero Descriptions now have the movement speeds listed
* New icons for Pugna, Lion, God’s Strength and Omnislash (thx snork, alien_rebirth and gotham from forums)
* Lots of tweaks to the gold bonuses, levels, stats and abilities on neutral creeps.
* Changed the Arthas model with Frostmourne to the one without (forum 69498)
* Boots of Travel and Scroll of Town Portal now share cooldown
* Chaos Knight base damage a little less random
* You can now set the player slots to Computer to reduce the starting gold if you are playing in less than 5v5 (so you don’t have to start with 3500 if you don’t want to)
* Bonus gold is given to the allies of the tower killer (even if creeps kill it)
* Reworked Strygwyr’s Thirst
* New Rampage animation (70915)
* Increased the recipe cost on Hand of Midas as well as the Attack Speed.
* Reworked -lm to give a chance for Scourge to begin the pick process instead of always Sent
* Improved the core game recognition of what is and isn’t a spell (for stuff like essence and CotS)
* Fixed some compatibility issues between -ap and -lm
* Added a minor blood effect when hook hits a unit (63335)
* Increased base damage for Weaver
* New command -hidemsg/unhidemsg as a request from some players that don’t want to see the text spam when heroes die
* Fixed a bug where destroying all the trees around rooftrellen did not reveal him
* Wraith Band recipe cheaper
* Improved the AoE on static Field
* Minor improvement to the AoE on Diffusion Aura
* Repick in -ap or normal mode now lets you pick a new hero instead of randoming it. Cost reduced here since you would need to buy a hero. Repick is unchanged in -ar/-tr
* Restored the old armor bonus on Dragon’s Blood
* Buffed the HP and Mana that Scepter gives
* Reduced Desolator recipe cost
* Buffed Tinker’s movement speed
* Nightstalker strength improved
* Minor improvement to the trees behind to the top left scourge tower
* Reduced the lag on casting epicenter, freezing field and blackhole.
* Reduced mana cost on level 2 and 3 of blackhole to make it a little more worth leveling
* Fixed some minor targeting bugs with illuminate
* Wild Axes now move a bit faster
* Changed the color of Plague Wards
* Fixed many old typos
* Improved Troll Warlord base damage a little
* Slightly buffed Zeus’ str and int per level
* Fixed a bug with Freezing Field and Scepter (thx malle)
* Increased the speed on paralyzing casks a bit
* Improved Jakiro’s attack animation
* Fixed Silencer’s night vision range to that of regular heroes
* Slightly buffed higher levels of Sanity’s Eclipse
* Minor armor buff (usually 1) to most melee heroes
* Fixed being able to Berserker’s Call units out of Chronosphere
* Agility on Manta Style increased a bit
* Perseverance can now be broken up into its components by clicking on it
* Purification icon change (72474)
* Reduced Sunder manacost/cooldown at higher levels
* Increased base Intelligence on Tinker
* Fixed Last Will to not damage its allies if it was denied
* Stout Shield percentage typo (Nareg)
* Fixed various neutral creep minimap glitches
* Fixed an old bug with Venomancer’s Poison Sting that did minor attack speed reduction instead of minor movement speed reduction.
* Fixed Soul Keeper’s gamescore icon (78244)
* Fixed hotkey conflict between Spectral Dagger and Desolate
* Fixed being able to teleport to the invisible -ap vision units with Scroll of Town Portal
* Fixed many tooltips
* Fixed some issues with units not being paused in Chronosphere (like Leoric Reincarnate and Bearform)
* Fixed various neutral creep tooltips (MrX)
* Various other minor cosmetic improvements

Notes:
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After extensive playtesting on two new items, i decided that that it was better for the game to put them on hold rather then rush them in. I’m sorry to those who were waiting for it, but its for the best. Hopefully we will see them in the near future as well as other new content.

Update: DotA 6.35b has just been released, only a few days after DotA 6.35 was brought out.

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Footman Frenzy, for the unenlightened, is a chaotic WC3: Frozen Throne custom game where 4 teams of up to 3 people clash their steadily-reproductive forces in the center (usually) of the map. The center is neutral, but the four corners hold the four different teams, and it is only a matter of time before one team gains the upper hand and destroys another team. Gold is “mined” by killing enemy (or neutral, as the case is in the beginning of the game) units, and it is spent on upgrades for both the type of unit possible, and the armor/attack stats of whatever unit you currently are producing. To win, you must simply destroy the other teams’ barracks, which produce their units. The only initial advantages you can get early on in the game are by picking a good hero, or by killing the neutral creeps in the other corners of the map for some fast gold.

Nohunters advises thus:

The possibilities of Frenzy are endless. Should you put all your money into hero items and hope for the best? Upgrade your tier immediately and gain money for a late hero? Go pure Creeps? Pure towers? In your first game, you might want to stick with the basics — get a known hero and play conservatively. Upgrade your army through the tiers and spend money equally on Weapons, Armor, and a race-specific upgrade like Improved Range. If you’re an experienced player with a new ally, let him experiment and feed him any spare change you might have. It’s always more effective for the experienced one to support the new player, than vice versa.

The team that coordinates has a much greater chance of success than the team where everyone tries to be the winner. Because you can trade resources like a real game, it’s often useful to pool your money with other teammates so one teammate can get to Tier Four. Some players divide into offense and defense, with one in charge of towers and base defense, and the other two providing money for upgrades. Another common team strategy is having fewer heroes on a team, while the other teammates upgrade their army (the heroes level slightly faster). A very balanced way of playing is to have one player upgrade tiers immediately, one player get an Area of Effect hero like the Archmage, and one player get a hero killer like CattleBruiser.

Unlike DotA, the updates for FF are seperated by at least a month of time, and often longer. The latest patch (as of Feb. 6, 2006) is patch v.4.2, and the balance changes are as follows:

Balance Changes in 4.2

• All copies of Unholy Aura now have the same stats.
• Jaood and the Panda’s Drunken Haze has been weakened.
• Death Coil’s mana cost increases with each level.
• Paladin’s Devotion Aura improved.
• Edge’s Banish is now very similar to that of the Bloodmage.
• Level 6 Serpent Wards no longer do Normal damage. The number of wards summoned has been reduced at high levels.

• The spawn rates of several army units have been adjusted for balance. Grunts, Ghouls, Knights, and Taurens spawn slightly slower. Militia and abominations, slightly faster.
• The Orc Racial Upgrade has a smaller base amount and a smaller increment per level.
• Fiends attack faster.
• Grunts’ attack speed and damage slightly weakened.
• The collision size of the Abomination has been slightly reduced.
• Spellbreakers have an increased range.
• Wand of Negation’s area of effect decreased.

Bug Fixes in 4.2

• A variety of tooltips were fixed.
• Fixed a bug where the Strongest Man Ever would die before casting Call of the Gods.
• Fixed a bug where one level of the Priestess’ Mana Scout was weaker than a lower level.
• Addressed a few exploitable issues with the experience cap system.

You can download the current map HERE. As always, I’ll keep you posted on updates, tweaks, and patches.

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The good folks over at dotaportal have released the newest version of DotA: version 6.34 (not AI). Of course, I guarantee that within 2 weeks there will be at least a DotA 6.34b. You can download the latest version (6.34) of DotA Allstars HERE. The changelog is as follows:

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* Spectre base damage reduced.
* Sanity’s Eclipse mana cost reduced from 300/500/700 to 200/250/300.
* Reduced duration of Spectral Dagger’s hero trail and initial cast trail durations.
* Buffed Macropyre from 75/100/125 to 75/125/175 damage per second.
* Broodmother now has vision directly underneath her webs.
* Fixed a probability error on multicast when using Scepter.
* Reduced the extremely large cast range on Aphotic Shield.
* Reworked Tango a bit.
* Fixed Spin Web from preventing Neutral Creep spawning.
* Added a few seconds to Aphotic Shield cooldown.
* Reworked the targeting system on Reality to a more natural one.
* Fixed a minor camera issue with Replicate.
* New icons for Witchcraft, Naix’s Poison Sting, Rhasta’s Forked Lightning, Razor’s Chain Lightning, Laser, Grow, Overpower, Shukuchi and Static Field (thx to snork, Grujah.Noob, alfredx_sotn, M3Th0dz and switch).
* Improved the detection area and reduced the freeze delay on IcePath.
* Troll Warlord now has increased movement speed while in Berserker Rage form.
* Hoof Stomp AOE improved from 275 to 315.
* Replaced Vengeance with a new ability (thx eva00r)
* Silencer’s movement speed reduced from 300 to 290.
* Waveform manacost increased from 120 to 140/155/160/165
* Primal Roar stun duration buffed a bit.
* Reworked the numbers, angles and some mechanics on the Bristleback ability.
* Chain Frost cast range reduced from 800 to 750. Scepter version increased from 800 to 850.
* Removed Stout Shield from Aegis recipe.
* Nerfed the AOE and damage on Quill Spray.
* Fixed a fatal error when using Fissure on map edges.
* Nether Ward now gives a gold when killed.
* Fixed a bug with Dispersion that caused it to reflect too much damage off Culling Blade.
* Fixed a bug with IcePath that would cause it to sometimes go shorter or longer.
* CK’s Blink Strike now works like the one PA and SA have.
* Fixed Blackhole to properly affect the Spirit Bear.
* Increased the maximum number of Watchers.

As usual, I’ll keep you guys posted on the latest DotA details: where, when, and what’s going on with your favorite WC3:FT custom map.

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In a ritualistic sort of continuation of the DotA custom map series, DotA Allstars 6.33b (not AI) has been created, and will feature many more minor tweaks than its predecessor.  You can get it here.  The changelog is as follows:

6.33b Changelog:
===========

* Reduced some lag with Haunt and Dagger
* Removed Dispersion from images
* Fixed a bug with repicking Morphling, causing the next hero to also morph colors.
* Fixed the bug that allowed VS and Pudge to buy dagger
* Host now gets same gold as rest when picking a hero in -sh
* Fixed some bugs with Glaives/Impetus/Arcane that do extra damage when combined with either Manta Style or -sh
* Fixed Timelapse to properly set the mana to the previous point instead of the previous point - 150
* Buffed Beastrage to reduce to half its level on target change, instead of reseting completely.
* Improved how Weaver’s Watchers interact with spells
* Fixed a bug with Morphling in -sh
* Reduced Euls recipe cost a little from the 6.33 cost
* Fixed an AI issue in 6.30+ where the towers would target Juggernaut’s Healing Ward first
* Fixed a bug with Static Field that would cause a minor static effect even without learning it
* Slight nerf to level 3 Haunt
* Fixed an old bug with Gravekeeper’s cloak that did the damage to a 400 aoe instead of the 600 listed in tooltip.
* Fixed a bug with Dagger and Gem that sometimes caused That Gem to be undroppable for another hero.
* Fixed a -swaphero issue that could allow one player to get 2 heroes and the other none
* Fixed various typos
* Restored the Brewmaster name
* Fixed a bug with the damage type of both Spectral Dagger and Death Coil, causing them to do more damage than the tooltip said

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After weeks of anticipation, DotA Allstars version 6.33 (not ai) has been released, a testiment to the committment of WC3:FT custom maps programmers to continuous tweaking and balancing of the game.  I’ve already downloaded it, and hope that it will be as good as its predecessors.  You can download DotA 6.33 HERE.  The changelog is as follows:

6.33 Changelog:
===============
* Added two new items
* Reworked/Improved Bristleback, Avernus and Mercurial
* Many code improvements
* New map preview picture by Artgerm
* Improved the game mode entering system. Modes are now entered on one line like “-apidsh” or “-dm -ar -sc”. You do not need to worry about the order you enter the modes in, the game will handle it or warn you (and give you another chance) if the mode is incorrect/incompatible.

* Renamed shortmode to -easymode(-em)
* Added -samehero (-sh) mode
* Reduced Lycan’s wolves’ model size a bit
* Some -dmar hero respawn optimizations
* Reworked Mekansm a bit. It now has a larger aoe and buff duration but the heal only occurs if you have no previous Mekansm buff on you (so you can’t mass spam it on a team).
* Furion’s Teleportation now creates the same casting effect on the target location.
* Guinsoo’s Scythe of Vyse total cost is the same, but 800 of the 900 recipe cost is now in Eul’s Scepter of Divinity.
* Last Word will only work if Silencer is not silenced
* If blue isn’t playing, the next available color will be allowed to enter the game mode.
* Restored a more functional -du mode
* Improved Viper’s base damage a bit
* Enchant’s duration when converting creeps is now increased
* Buffed Weaver’s Watcher movespeed
* Fixed some neutral creeps and beastmaster’s summons that had collision size pathing issues.
* Fixed a Timelapse casting delay
* Many tooltip fixes from Henri Langenhoven’s reports
* Improved Witch Doctor’s base damage
* Reduced Primal Roar’s manacost and cooldown
* Improved timing on Macropyre
* Reduced Lich’s attack range from 600 to 500
* Updated TDA gaming rules
* Improved the way Beast Rage works
* -csboardon/off is now -cson/off
* Voljin’s movespeed from 295 to 305
* Buffed Enchantress’ strength gain and movespeed
* Stygian Desolator’s recipe reduced from 1500 to 1400
* Fixed some icons to their proper passive versions

* New Doppelwalk icon (from Blazzu/Spankler)
* Fixed megakill bounty bonus error
* Fixed animal courier buy hotkey conflict
* Fixed an -ap -lm bug that caused the last picker to sometimes not be able to pick from the other tavern
* Fixed a bug with -random and -mm at 59sec
* Toss no longer damages wards
* Butterfly damage from 20 to 25
* Fixed a rare Nightstalker -mm bug
* Chicken autodrops the previous undroppable Black King Bar now
* Fixed a bug with radiance and Spirit Bear
* Fixed Presence of the Dark Lord and Witchcraft icons to the proper passive versions.
* New Leviathan and Avernus hero description by Terrorblaze and TheMantis
* Fixed Charge of Darkness to properly stop the charge effect when the target is purged
* -ar/-tr now properly says “randomed” instead of “chosen”
* Fixed a very old bug with Morphling and illusions
* Fixed a minor issue with -ms after -recreate
* Fixed minor casting bugs with Timewalk, Dual Breath and Wild Axes
* Fixed various hero acquisition ranges
* Fixed a bug in -mm with Terrorblade and alternate forms

Notes:
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Map preview picture by http://artgerm.deviantart.com/

Credit to switch for his new Quill Spray idea, TheMantis for his global Haunt and eva00r for the new Warpath and Spectral Dagger ideas.

Thanks to the beta testers for their long beta tests on this, especially in the code improvements phase of the tests. Extra props to the more active and dedicated testers: arthur5863, ki-hunterkiller, switch, LordDready, heftig, Infrisios, Gorzerk, iNCQRiT, obey325, Boush-Tinker, HarbingeR-2.0-, bagofpoo, demon_kane, FatherGwar, lolimhonoob, B.Nexusx6, LegendsEnd, RRC-Encephelon, staticblender, War-Mage, King_Fear, Ro-Coco, ResetX, hlfazn, unHOLYdoNUTS, RRavenajoraX23K, Warsoft

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