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Dota 2 Beta Thread 2: Real Talk Discouraged [Magnus, Teams, 6.75b, 150+ Shop Items]

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People who don't have the beta can install the game and spectate now. Also the international site got updated with more info. Teams/Prizes and looks like it will be a pure best of 5 final as well. Awesome!

Oh...well that's disappointing. I thought I finally got in the beta.
 
I typ go for max frost arrow 1 lvl of silence max phy dmg aura max agil aura than pump into stats (not in any order but typ silence first, aura twice, arrow, etc)

Now I get English is not your first language

But you need to get your priorities straight man, you can't be using that many acronyms and abbreviations in a row if people can't understand your previous sentences.
 
Best way to level Drow is frost arrows level 1. Keep it at level 1. This allows you to control your lane as frost arrows don't proc creep aggro. Then max aura / ult. I usually get only 1 level of silence and then stats all game.

Treads, Helm, Manta / Daedalus (order is up to you), Satanic, Butterfly, etc.

Not leveling frost arrows level 1 and gaining control of the lane early can hurt because Drow is especially easy to kill early.
 
Seeing Kirby make that ward and then proceed to somehow make the thread crazy for 2 pages has inspired me to make a ward as well. Currently just texturing this guy up, whatcha guys think?

htY5f.jpg
 
How does it fit Pugna, the Grandmaster of Oblivion?

Well I was going to try and address that with the texturing, but now that I actually stop for a second and look at what I've made you're entirely right. Well that was a waste of an hour, maybe I'll actually concept something on paper next time.
 
Got stuck in low priority I guess since I quit a game early where I was getting absolutely shut down as AM. Guess I'm not playing for 2 days, since I don't even want to try and see what I get in there.

There really needs to be a concede button.
 
Well I was going to try and address that with the texturing, but now that I actually stop for a second and look at what I've made you're entirely right. Well that was a waste of an hour, maybe I'll actually concept something on paper next time.

Could still be salvaged.

Turn the cross upside-down. Commonly believed to be a satanic symbol, which it isn't apparantly from what I'm reading, but still, I think alot of people would stick to that.
 
I randomly tried out Drow Ranger, I doing pretty good may move onto PvP..

Thing is I thought you could change the items in the cat @ shop (like core items etc etc)?

I would like to change a few things and I have a questions..

I get the upgraded boots, magic stick, the helm with +dmg catsyl thing and life steal helm..than thats about it.

I typ go for max frost arrow 1 lvl of silence max phy dmg aura max agil aura than pump into stats (not in any order but typ silence first, aura twice, arrow, etc)


But my main concern is items! What do I get after them catlst thingy

Drow is pretty flexible.

I like helm of dominator, allows for easy ancients and jungling. Dominate a wolf/cat thing whenever you see one, have it follow you around for the bonus damage aura. Once you are more familliar with the game, you can have it stack ancients for you.

For boots, its either phase or treads. Most of the time its treads, but if you're going for agressive early game ganking/max frost arrows, I could see phasers.

After helm, I recommend manta style. Its great on drow because of her ult's massive agility bonus.

After manta its pretty much depends on what you need. Need more survivability against disables? Black King Bar. Need more survivability in general? Satanic. More damage? Daedalus. Fighting another carry with dodge? Grab a Monkey King Bar.

The one item I'm unsure about is butterfly. It costs more than daedalus/mkb but doesn't give as much damage, in exchange you gain 35% dodge, which sounds better than it really is considering dodge isn't always in effect (polymorphs disables it), and its only against physical. Adding onto that, one of its components is 3300 gold which is pretty hard to work up unless the other team isn't harassing you for awhile.

I recommend reading the guides on the first post for more information, click on the hero's portrait to see them.


edit: As far as builds go, you can afford to put 2-3 points into stats early for drow. Her aura doesn't give you that much earlier on, and also helps the ranged creeps push your lane (which is a bad thing). Traxex's last hitting is pretty hard early on, so stats help a lot. Also keep in mind with lifesteal builds that you can't use frost arrows and life steal at the same time, so whenever you need a snare just manually cast it.
 
I just got DC'd from a game for the first time in solo matchmaking, and for some reason reconnection wasn't working. I'd click reconnect, and I'd get an error telling me I had to be in a lobby. What the hell does that even mean? When I tried rebooting DotA, I was out of the game completely. Reconnecting didn't even appear as an option.

Does that mean that everyone in the game got kicked? Did I get hit by a weird bug? Did I do something wrong?

I'm just pissed because I can't even tell my teammates what happened on my end, and it was a pretty close match at the time so it's bullshit if they lose because of some shit on my end.
 
Drow is pretty flexible.

I like helm of dominator, allows for easy ancients and jungling. Dominate a wolf/cat thing whenever you see one, have it follow you around for the bonus damage aura. Once you are more familliar with the game, you can have it stack ancients for you.

For boots, its either phase or treads. Most of the time its treads, but if you're going for agressive early game ganking/max frost arrows, I could see phasers.

After helm, I recommend manta style. Its great on drow because of her ult's massive agility bonus.

After manta its pretty much depends on what you need. Need more survivability against disables? Black King Bar. Need more survivability in general? Satanic. More damage? Daedalus. Fighting another carry with dodge? Grab a Monkey King Bar.

The one item I'm unsure about is butterfly. It costs more than daedalus/mkb but doesn't give as much damage, in exchange you gain 35% dodge, which sounds better than it really is considering dodge isn't always in effect (polymorphs disables it), and its only against physical. Adding onto that, one of its components is 3300 gold which is pretty hard to work up unless the other team isn't harassing you for awhile.

I recommend reading the guides on the first post for more information, click on the hero's portrait to see them.


edit: As far as builds go, you can afford to put 2-3 points into stats early for drow. Her aura doesn't give you that much earlier on, and also helps the ranged creeps push your lane (which is a bad thing). Traxex's last hitting is pretty hard early on, so stats help a lot. Also keep in mind with lifesteal builds that you can't use frost arrows and life steal at the same time, so whenever you need a snare just manually cast it.

Can I add you on steam?
 
Is it a requirement to have played DOTA to get in the beta? In the sign-up survey there was no option to just say I haven't played it. And I also thought I finally got in the beta when I saw the Play Now button on the store page.
 
I just got DC'd from a game for the first time in solo matchmaking, and for some reason reconnection wasn't working. I'd click reconnect, and I'd get an error telling me I had to be in a lobby. What the hell does that even mean? When I tried rebooting DotA, I was out of the game completely. Reconnecting didn't even appear as an option.

Does that mean that everyone in the game got kicked? Did I get hit by a weird bug? Did I do something wrong?

I'm just pissed because I can't even tell my teammates what happened on my end, and it was a pretty close match at the time so it's bullshit if they lose because of some shit on my end.

I had that happen yesterday and apparently everyone in the game got kicked. Especially disappointing, since it was a close match too :/

Not sure if it was a bug or not, but the connection to the servers were pretty bad yesterday. Maybe because I'm in Australia?

And hey, which lobby/chat room are you guys usually in? Want to play a few games with you guys :)
 
Is it a requirement to have played DOTA to get in the beta? In the sign-up survey there was no option to just say I haven't played it. And I also thought I finally got in the beta when I saw the Play Now button on the store page.

Nope... I don't remember the survey but I remember indicating that I had never played DOTA before.. Also both my friends that play with me have 0 MOBA experience and they got into the beta faster than I did. They didn't lie about this either.
 
I remember making up random bs numbers in the survey when they asked about average gold earned and all that since I haven't played any of these dota type games, probably why it took so long to get an invite even though I signed up a couple of hours after the sign up went live.
 
I remember making up random bs numbers in the survey when they asked about average gold earned and all that since I haven't played any of these dota type games, probably why it took so long to get an invite even though I signed up a couple of hours after the sign up went live.

"Hm, yeah, I usually average about...1,800 gold per minute. Its usually pretty common for me to reach level 80"
 
- Drama! (but really, when you're attacking someone for contributing something to the thread that isn't derision, there's no way that's going to end well for you)
- Meeru? (Notmeeru?)
- Sayuri is once more the bad guy?

Damned DNS-induced outages make me miss everything.

And gawd, did not realize I had the 3rd most posts in this here house of salt.
 
Damn DNS issues, I couldn't join in on the fun of 'countering' the crappy MSpaint concept art with my very real and very crappy concept art from my notebook, and now don't feel like taking the effort of pulling my scanner out of storage to do so.

Also, Valve broke the CS:GO Model viewer, so I had to set up the Source Film Maker Model viewer to get some good out of game shots of the hammer I am working on. It is getting close to done, but I think it needs some more texture work. The runes have to be redone, I was already iffy with them, but they looks super at a distance due how thin they are. Going to have to get some bolder symbols. I am personally happy with the wood texture, but I am debating if I want to keep the 4 blue stripes the very flat color they are, or try to do something else with them. They are supposed to just be simple paint.


3D Model: http://p3d.in/vCyxC


And my Pugna Ward has made it to the 'front page' of the workshop, being #14 on most popular this week (The defalut view). While it is getting a bunch of votes (100+ in the last 24 hours, when it has 235), no one seems to want to take the time to comment on it.



Also, love how Valve is putting out a spectator client now. Wonder how many people have taken the time to download it (And wonder if we can get a large topic on gaf going to try and get people who don't play to watch)
 
The handle is far too bare, and the white ends could use some more detail somewhere. It doesn't look nearly as plain in-game, however.

That is something people should understand as well. There are limitations to how many polys you can use on models for heroes. Texture work aside, it shouldn't shock anyone that a low-poly item seen upclose isn't as interesting to look at compared to how it would look in-game.
 
Looks OK in-game (take higher res pictures though if you can). The detailing definitely needs some work, specifically the white ends and the middle "runes".
 
Everything white should be redone on the hammer. The blue rings need to be reworked too. I know blue goes with the character but they are way to plain. Need something on the handle too.

Basically it is just boring.

I would replace the blue rings with gold that actually looks like metal. I would make the runes out of gold too and get rid of the white paint. Make the end caps metal too. It needs leather straps for the handle or at least some wear and tear. The top of the hammer needs to have the runes continuously going around the hammer, not stopping. Maybe put some burnt in runes on the wooden part.

edit:

Your normals pretty much add no detail to the model.
I would cut down on the number of sides on the barrel part of the model. Do you really need a 16 sided hammer top? Heck, 8 sides handle seems like overkill to me but I'm not looking at Valve's models. For the size of the character on the screen, you don't need many sides. If you made it 12 sides you would save like 100 polygons. This would allow you to put more detail into the model elsewhere.
 
The handle is far too bare, and the white ends could use some more detail somewhere. It doesn't look nearly as plain in-game, however.

That is something people should understand as well. There are limitations to how many polys you can use on models for heroes. Texture work aside, it shouldn't shock anyone that a low-poly item seen upclose isn't as interesting to look at compared to how it would look in-game.

Omnikngiht hammer has a limit of 400 (Really, only the LOD1 matter, you can't even see his hammer in his portrait). That uses 400 to the tee. I had to actually cheat a bit to cut the last 2 polygons. The handle is an octagon, but the very bottom piece is a slightly larger hexagon. Because it is a 1 sided object, you can't see it unless viewing the hammer from the bottom, and when viewing it at an angle you can see it, you don't really notice that it is larger the rest of the handle, since it obstructs the view of it.


Also, I think people forget how small the textures we have to work with are. I mean, I am not very good at texturing at all, but these are damn small.

Diffuse/Color Mask:
color.png



Normal (Used for details)
normal.png


Mask 1/Mask 2 (Used for shading, and I am just winging it, I have very little idea of really what I am doing here)
mask1.jpg

mask2.jpg



Also, the end caps are metal, it is much easier to tell in game since you can move it around and see how the lighting is, but they do still need work.
 
If you've some poly budget to work with (you should, even if you have to take it from the blue rim and simplify your cylindrical shapes), tapered "bricks" running along the rim and pointed inward could pull everything together and add some much-needed heft. Comparatively to the approved hammers, the business end of the weapon is still too plain:

gzI4St1kpTcSdydqkGZHUzt-8vuZFKt3xrn0cHSAD_RKOQ-xhHjjJbKuO5S2BhvdI3mpvpQLq3PAsvNidYQe8Fs7EYGbcuElieg5lrZMCIM3Or66xgvgeca4-SFuykinSDFIuMN7piTn5mzL60xPnDdvs7jACLZ7ja3zdg==
d0MiJmhGH8qldPh7wPlnyM8P6JcsNhGKcborYSQfL2--SBXdMVpZ2AWt5IXmmTtG1wiz0iEpEY53sSxzJQgyZLhQFu0uXkbQBPGpibuEPAHET6iGI38MgyO6cDg9CGoy5hdchXQHT49XuuWMvtA4VZMZqMlmd1k=
JRGW0K-gO7cZ_oGjCHkq-p1dXGHr0DX3zTBSueyfYl3sGqEr9rx9pbknnV0uGXZ0hVoHJObPNfPLO1Wr7ZtzWf0YvxvzrGGlgmGfXy5TZSrGTElz5p4so55sCu7733MIuUGwJ7i7Pvjsa5wFcFQgPMdNHnPkm3uuhiRVvw==
RoXLrENdCN_BAwMqtZaKe_7JAR0HLQafFc3QMFFwwtyPjvxXGkFOzWHaH9ST9tb15s5aWAoyBpsTxtciUHTT2J6M4mcdUU7BdoBSicbogOP3iBcJCzccwRHL2zcdMNCAi9e6Dg8WDZhhw0vdn7jT5q7eEENNbE4=
0gxo13IudBQ0OK0KnTEn_GpAomY2XnpU4PZ-EHnXb1sbB18sKzIyBpThsfS7UXtyckf5IztBelDm_XkCeNN-XwoFQRw_JTUQkau36fgbeGAyDbIvORNhWuGmL0dllX4OGV0bITpnclfIrOGitEYjOmYGtC80XyVX4g==


CVuso.jpg


Crappy Paint-esque illustration (ie no sense of the depth if the bricks are raised, screwy perspective, bricks don't protrude out from the edge), but gives you an idea of the sort of configuration you might try.
 
I think I can do the rings on the handle without even changing the model, just making use of textures and normal maps. Though I will have to move around the UVs, right now the big part on the bottom is actually the wooden rings between the two blue parts on each side, instead of the handle. Though with the way my UVs are set up, I'll like do it likely the Dingus hammer, with the straight lines, rather then them being at an angle, since there is a lot of overlap.
 
While you could to some degree cheat the effect with a revised texture, having the ringed bricks modelled in would make them "pop" from the rim and greatly increase the perceived complexity and weight of the weapon. You have the budget to do it with, you just have to use your polygons economically. As it is right now, it looks like you lavished much too much for your cylindrical shapes. You can (and should) get by with a lot less. In addition, it's a good fundamental skill to learn when you're working with geometry. Makes sense to pick it up and refine it as early as you can.
 
You are under estimating just how much good normal maps can do. I just suck at them. Those items are also making use of normal maps for their handles.

Plus, each additional ring would take up 16 polygons each. I have a total of 0 polygons left to the budget.
 
Normal maps are great, but they won't look as convincing as physical bits that protrude from the rim in both angles.

And again, you've the polygons to work with, they're all just locked into cylindrical geometry that has no need of being modeled at that level of complexity. Simplify those shapes, let your smooth groups do more of the heavy lifting, and you'll be able to furnish more detail in other places with your now more economical use of the polygon budget.
 
Yeah, you are going to have to just think of it as a learning experience and remodel the hammer. I would also come up with a better theme for the hammer. Look at those other hammers then look at yours.
 
That sounds like an awful deal.

this.


the wep going for 5 keys you might be able to get one for 4 with a little work.

on topic of item...I have the worse drop luck ever....seems the only ones i get are the level drops, seems all my randoms (or damn near) are chests
 
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